I watched the skies diligently, waiting to any sign that could lead us to the exact location of Will and Epps. It felt like hours of stomach flipping, gut wrenching worry later that I finally saw the flare burning in the pale sky.
"There!" I cried to no one in particular, "You see that Jazz, there's the flare, we're almost there." I followed the smoke path back to the horizon and headed that way with a relieved sigh. We were driving right up on Bee's right side now, and I shared a quick celebratory honk of the horn with Sam before we raced ahead, the twins struggling to keep up as we raced each other. Jazz had just nudged his nose in front when we saw it. There was no time to dodge it completely and the missile hit right between us and Bee, sending Jazz flying off the ground to the right. He transformed as I let out a scream, flying through the air as more missiles impacted the ground with an earth shattering force. It was a fighter jet and I knew immediately this was the bastard from Mission City we had seen before. Jazz was sliding underneath me, hand outstretched to grab me as he tumbled down a small incline, holding me up out of harms way even though the vibrations through his metal frame were rattling my bones. When he finally transformed back into his alt mode I landed in the seat with a thud, panting for air while adrenaline spread through my body like a wildfire. We sat for a minute simply catching our breath, "Let's not do that again." I suggested breathlessly. Jazz revved the engine in response before taking off to catch up to the others, honking his horn to let Bee know we were alright.

We were racing around some sort of mining or drilling platform, most likely a drilling platform since Egypt had oil reserves. Actually the Middle East had 25% of the worlds' oil reserves underneath it, fun fact for you there. We were kicking up dust with our speed but my pounding heart kept up admirably. With Starscream firing missiles at us would we even make it to Will? Starscream's missiles rocked the earth but as he landed and fired his canon into piles of rubble and rock we were shrouded in a cape of dust that allowed us a blessed moment of relief, hiding in plain sight. Slinging the plasma rifle across my back I grabbed my gun and checked it was loaded, my ammo of sabot rounds sitting in the holster across my chest – I hoped it would be enough until we could regroup with Will and the boys and I could get my hands on more. We scrambled out to meet up, Sam still clutching his sock,
"Jazz, Bee can you play decoy and lead the decepticon's the opposite way?" he asked quickly. Jazz and Bee flashed their lights in response as Simmons piped up,
"I'll draw their fire." My heart froze slightly and I bit my lip. Simmons was volunteering for a pretty dangerous mission and as much as I hated him I didn't want the decepticon's getting their hands on him. Sam was urging me and Mikaela to follow him but I took a quick step towards Simmons and grasped his arm,
"Hey!" I snapped, "If anyone gets to kill you it's going to be me!" Simmons gave me a strange look before nodding and saluting me once,
"Dito Miss Witwicky." He agreed. I watched him and Leo run for the twins as I turned on my heel and sprinted forward to catch up with Sam and Mikaela. Splitting up was not my favourite idea and my heart twisted horribly, wondering if Leo was really up for this. I prayed I could ask him later. Mikaela was looking pretty well tanned already and we'd only been here for a few days, but she was already sweating in her white jeans and floral hoodie, quickly shucking it off into the sand as we ran.

We made slow progress in the sand, slipping up sand dunes and sliding in the loose particles, sweat sticking some to our skin. We managed to scrabble our way to the top of the tallest dune to get a better view and saw it then, two more flares in the city below us. Stone buildings in the same beige as the dessert were littered through the sand like discarded Lego.
"Alright, we've got a few miles." Sam panted. I was in a bit better shape due to training with Epps and Will but it was taking its toll on all of us. Sweat was running down my spine and I wiped my brow once more, frowning when sand fell from my hair.
"I'm going to be washing sand off of me for the next month at least." I whined. Sam shot me an incredulous look,
"That's what you're worried about?" he asked, "Ellie no amount of showers in the world right now could make you look attractive."
"I love you too." I retorted with a grin, giving him a push and watching him roll down the sand dune with a cry of surprise. I smirked at Mikaela and motioned for her to go next, "It's the quickest most fun way down?" I tried to sound confident but it came out as more of a question. Mikaela simply shook her head with a breathless smile and sat herself down before pushing off, skidding in a half crouch. I followed, copying her technique as Sam chucked his jacket at the bottom and brushed off his jeans with a scowl,
"I'm telling mom you pushed me down a sand dune." He grumbled.
"Before or after we save the world? Get moving little brother!" I urged, taking off in a jog again as the teens groaned behind me.

Over another small dune we went until we hit a stone building I guessed was the tourist part of this village. I was getting a little bored of stone if I was honest but there was really no other way to describe the buildings. We ran through the pillars, barely taking time to marvel at the hieroglyphs etched into them or the intricately carved statues of pharaohs in the main courtyard, feet slapping the path underfoot and creating a familiar echoing noise I had missed running over the sand.
"We've still got about a mile that way." Sam thought aloud, pulling Mikaela along as we puffed and panted our way through the Egyptian desert. Each thudding footstep drew us closer and closer to Will and I took comfort in the knowledge that soon we'd be together, whether he was still pissed or not I'd kiss him one last time because there was no guarantee we'd all get out of this alive. As we ran through the pillars the war began. I could feel the impact of the decepticon's projectiles vibrating through the earth, hear the whoosh overheard as they sailed above us. Risking a glance up I saw what looked like a meteor fly above our heads, thick black smoke trailing it as it crumbled anything standing in its path up ahead.
"The decepticon's must know you have it, they're trying to stop us getting to Will and the others." I realised, pushing myself to go faster. When we finally made it to the edge of the village everything had become eerily silent. Starscream was still rocketing about in the sky and Sam peeked around the edge of the stone house, cursing quietly under his breath.
"Sam, Ellie in here." Mikaela whispered, pushing open the wooden door so we could hide inside.

We took a moment to catch our breath as we waited in a tense silence for the danger to pass. The humming of Starscream's engines was muffled in here but we could still here the mechanical groans of a decepticon lumbering nearby. There was a beautiful star made of glass bottles imprinted on the wall, casting a blue and white glow on the opposite wall as the sunlight flooded in. There was barely anything here, simple wooden shelves holding a few worthless possessions. Clutching my gun tightly I crouched beside Mikaela and rubbed her arm gently, giving her an encouraging smile.
"Good thinking." I whispered to her. Sam came over and knelt in front of her, seeing her distress and taking it upon himself to comfort his girlfriend. I moved out of the way to give them as much privacy as I could.
"Once it's clear we run as fast as we can for Optimus okay?" he whispered.
"What if it doesn't work?" she asked the one thing that was plaguing my own mind and I swallowed thickly, shaking away the pessimism and clinging instead to the only hope I had left – if I let it go I'd shatter. Sam tugged her up and headed for the door when a loud bang rocked the small house we were hiding in. Mikaela gasped as we crouched back into the walls again. My heart was racing, palms sweating while I gripped my gun tightly. Dust fell from the ceiling as the decepticon outside (whether it was Starscream or not) plodded about. Mikaela's shaky breath seemed much louder with her hands over her mouth and Sam held her tightly against his chest, looking at me with fearful eyes. This adventure had become so much more dangerous than our last and I had to swallow back the fear of our imminent deaths in order to focus on the task at hand – AKA how do I get out of this house without anyone dying?

It seemed like forever that the decepticon lumbered about, the mechanical grinding of its joints making me gnash my teeth together. There was a hole in the wall beside me and I attempted to peer through it before realising it was sealed from the other side. Glancing around I spotted an old looking fire poker of sorts and jabbed it through carefully, peeking through the hole and struggling to contain my groan. A huge silver decepticon loped past and fired into the sand beyond, the noise making me jump as a much larger beastly thing peered over a building, seemingly straight at me. I could hear other decepticons down the street on the right, kicking at buildings and speaking to each other in those grunts and groans that I couldn't understand. A sleek metal animal came strolling by casually, it looked like a sort of graceful leopard but I guessed it was far more deadly. A little bug jumped up into the hole and I recoiled instinctually before spotting something that was definitely not natural. It looked like a tiny satellite sat on its back. Reaching in I grasped it tightly between my thumb and index finger, heart pounding and hands trembling slightly as I slowly pinched its head, its glowing red eyes glaring at me as it squeaked in panic before I pulled it apart. It powered down with a high pitched whine, like when you turn off a fan, and a decepticon let out a groan. My eyes slowly travelled upward and I swallowed thickly. Please tell me that wasn't the decepticon version of an eye in the sky I thought desperately. I aimed my gun at the ceiling anyway, knowing in my heart I'd done another stupid thing. The ceiling was ripped up with a horrific tearing sound and Mikaela screamed in shock.

Glowing red eyes stared in at us with an almost satisfactory gleam as Sam and Mikaela ran to get behind me. Its hand shot in, hitting the wall just above our heads in its effort to grab us and sending up dust and rubble. Sam and Mikaela fell through the wall but I remained standing, urging them to go as I took aim and fired on the decepticon. He fell back with a grunt as I got him square in the face, following after Sam and Mikaela as they burst outside and sprinted up a set of stairs winding around the buildings. Thank god this village was such a rat run, easy to get lost in…unless you were running from robots bigger than the buildings with a perfect birds eye view.
"Ellie!" Sam yelled panickedly. My head turned and at the last second I managed to stop myself as a giant yellow crane claw came crashing through the stairs. I was nearly knocked off balance, arms flailing wildly as I struggled to remain on my feet before I leapt over the gap and scrabbled up the steps to meet them, turning to fire on the yellow decepticon who had fired the claw and watching the sabot round punch into his shoulder.
"Go! Go!" I bellowed.

Sam kept a tight hold of Mikaela's hand as they leapt across the gap between two houses, me alongside them. The high pitched whine of a canon firing made me and Mikaela scream as dust and rubble blew up in our faces. I felt a small sting on my cheek and closed my eyes tightly, coughing on rubble as we hit the next roof hard and rolled straight through a thatch porch cover to hit the sandy ground. Winded and aching I forced my body up, blood roaring in my ears and adrenaline racing around my body I yanked up Sam and Mikaela by their hands before dragging them around behind the building out of the way. There was a gap in a crumbling stone wall that we stopped behind for cover, seeing thick black smoke rolling up into the sky as canon fire kicked up bursts of sand and bullets were fired back at the distorted figures of the decepticons. Swallowing thickly I glanced behind us to make sure we weren't about to be ambushed.
"Looks like we've still got about a half mile that way." Sam sounded disheartened and I nodded firmly,
"We can do it." I assured him, panting slightly, "I'll cover you if we get stuck but no matter what you get to Optimus." Sam frowned and shook his head,
"And leave you? No way Ellie we're not-"
"We don't have time to argue!" I snapped, cutting him off, "You and I both see how this is going to go if we don't get to Optimus soon Sam, he's our only hope, so if it comes to it you leave me behind and you get to him." Sam looked horrified by the very thought and my own heart clenched. I was so not ready to die but what better way to go was there than battling aliens to save the world? That was a pretty awesome death, one I wasn't really ready for but would be happy with if it came down to it.

Then we were running again, sprinting through buildings and archways and sand in an effort to get to Optimus. We're coming Will, just hold on I thought. You know you're out of breath when even your inner voice is panting. My feet were aching, my palms so sweaty my gun was slipping slightly but I didn't relinquish it. The sounds of the battle were drowned out over the beating of my own heart. We got one shot at this, one shot only. God Mission City seemed simple compared to this. We crested another white sandy dune and I spotted two figures in the sand being tormented by a huge red bulldozer. My eyes widened slightly as we got closer, my heart thudding to a stop in my chest.
"Sam! Ellie! Sam!" the voices that had called my name so often in the years I'd lived, the voices that had sung me to sleep and taught me how to read, the voices that had told me one bad joke after another to make me laugh as a child. Our parents ran towards us and we stopped at nothing to reach them, our momentary shock not paralysing us for too long but just long enough. The bulldozer had transformed and flipped over the nearest building, firing on the building and bringing down stones and dust tumbling over me and Mikaela. Coughing and sputtering over the dust we watched mom and dad cower on the floor, hands raised as a sign of surrender to the canon pointed at them as I aimed my gun at the decepticon's face. Sam pushed it down with a frantic shake of his head as oil dripped from the monsters lips,
"They'll shoot them don't!" he pleaded, "Just stop, stop stop!"
"Sam! Sam! I want you to listen to me, run! Run! Get out of here, run!" dad yelled, motioning for us to go as Sam tried to get him to shut up. A large spiky tail crashed into the ground between us and mom screamed. They had dirt smudged on their cheeks and their clothes were dirty but they looked no worse for wear, something that relieved me greatly.
"Mom, dad, shut up and let us handle this!" I yelled over their shouting.

Sam held up his hands and pulled the sock from his pocket, coaxing the decepticon into watching him and him alone as he got him to turn his back on me and Mikaela.
"Sam they'll kill us all anyway!" Dad snapped, but Sam ignored him. Glancing up I saw the bright yellow form of Bee on the roof. Sam was distracting it! Lifting my gun I gave Bee a small nod, a promise I'd have his back when he attacked and Bee gave me a thumbs up.
"Bumblebee!" Sam screeched in panic as the red decepticon reached towards him. Bee did a backflip with his leg catching the monster in the head as he landed, mask flipping down onto his face as he went into battle mode, fists and legs flying with more agility than a ballet dancer. Eyes narrowing on my target I was careful to not hit Bee as I fired, pushing the decepticon down to his knees with Bee as its large body and tail thrashed about and sent sand and debris everywhere. An old car got smashed up as my parents screamed at me to get back and stay out of the way. Bee was up in the air suddenly, ripping part of its face off and landing hard on top of it where he proceeded to dismantle the beast. Out of nowhere that metal leopard was back, sharp claws digging into Bee as he thrashed and struggled to throw it off, whirring his complaints as I tried to get a clear shot,
"Bee stay still!" I shouted, frantically ducking to the left as the metal tail of the red decepticon came at me. Bee paused for just long enough for me to shoot it off like it was some sort of pesky bug. The thunks of metal on metal continued in my ears as I focused on the leopard like decepticon, firing and reloading rapidly as I moved forward and backward with it as though we were dancing.

Ignoring the protests of my family I continued my fight, heart racing as I reloaded the last of my sabot rounds into my gun and lined up the shot, waiting for it to pounce before taking the shot. It went straight through its chest and as I stumbled backwards as it collapsed in front of me, no longer moving as the red glow faded from its eyes. Sighing in relief I sank to my knees as the dust settled and Bee straightened, his mask flipping up so we could share a long look.
"Bee?" Sam said his name like a question and Bee gave him a nod. I scoffed breathlessly,
"Oh don't mind your sister!" Sam just shot me a grin in reply and I smiled tiredly back at him, breathing slowly returning to normal. God was I tired after all this running but we had to press on. Sam lead us through the alleyway between two buildings and we were back on our way to Optimus, Bee watching over us now and running with his, his footfalls shaking the ground. More missiles and canon blasts hit the ground around us and we stopped still to get some cover, dad falling against a rusted car exhaustedly with mom beside him. Sam caught Bee's attention, looking back at our parents,
"Bee get them somewhere safe." He ordered. Dad was already protesting heartily, informing Sam that we were a family and we were going together. "No, no dad let me go, let me go!" Sam bellowed over him. Dad seemed to see him as I did then, realised his boy had become a man and could make his own choices.
"Ron." Mom whispered, "Ron, let him go…let him go." She looked how I felt, terrified.
"You come back!" Dad snapped angrily, pushing Sam back roughly, "You both come back!" he had never shown more emotion than he did right then, red in the face and tears building in his eyes.
"Keep each other safe." Mom pleaded, pulling me into a tight hug. Dropping my gun I held her back tightly. I hadn't thought once about them in all of this, I'd given no thought to how us being on the run would affect them. They were supposed to be on holiday in Paris after all, I guess I just thought they wouldn't know until we came home and told them.

Sam and Mikaela were ready to go apparently and I let go of mom with a nod, promising I'd look after them like I always did. They hurried off, climbing into Bee and watching us as they left. Grabbing my gun I narrowed my eyes, giving them a firm nod and glancing around at the destruction we'd caused,
"Come on." I urged, "We need to get going and meet up with Will and the boys, we have to get to Optimus." Sam took hold of Mikaela's hand while I swallowed thickly, following the sounds of gunfire as we picked up speed again. My dad had never shown us how much he cared like that before, hell the most we usually got was a nod and a wave of his hand as he dismissed us from the room when we said goodnight, but he'd nearly cried! If he was worried did that mean I should be? Shaking the thought away I focused on keeping my breathing even as I ran, each footstep pushing the thoughts further and further away from my mind until I was back to clinging onto the hope that Optimus was waiting for us. It was a slim chance but it was all we had.
"There! There look!" Sam cried, pointing at the pillars where the main battle was going on. I could see the autobots hunkered down by a large force of men but was too far away to distinguish faces. My heart raced knowing Will was among them waiting for us.
"Yeah and look there!" I tugged him back as we came to a halt, panting and watching the decepticons swarm the pillars. Biting my lip I glanced around to survey the playground and made an impulsive decision, pointing out the small strip of sand between the pillars, "Okay give me your other sock, Sam now!" I commanded, holding out my hand. Sam bewilderedly did as I asked and I filled it as fast as I could with sand while talking through the rest of my crazy plan, "I'm going to take this and I'm going to run that way and scream for all I'm worth…I'll draw as much of their fire as I can while you and Mikaela run that way between those pillars to give you some cover. Don't stop for anything you hear? Not even me."

Sam shook his head frantically, both of them protesting against my plan as I pushed them away towards the pillars.
"Ellie no way!" Sam snapped.
"Sam we have no time! We need Optimus and we need him now or we both know how this goes down!" I argued, "You have to get there Sam! You're the only one who can do this." He threw himself at me in a fierce hug and suddenly I was pinned between two teens who were squeezing what little air I had out of me. "I love you Sam, but you have to go." I insisted, pushing him back with a weak smile, "I'll be okay."
"You better be." Sam asserted sternly, "Come back to me."
"Be careful Ellie." Mikaela said softly, squeezing my arm. Taking a deep breath I took a look at scorched sand, the hunks of metal smoking in the burning shrubs and the buildings collapsing around us. This was a suicide mission. Swallowing thickly I forced a smile,
"I've got this." I tried to sound confident and before I could bottle it, I turned on shaky legs and bolted out into the middle of the battle, ducking and running in half a crouch while waving my arms frantically and firing off a few rounds. "Hey! Hey you want your matrix! I've got it right here!" I yelled, holding up my sock full of sand and sprinting for all I was worth, dropping my gun to move faster as the lumbering footsteps of decepticons came after me. Shrieking slightly I ducked as a high pitched canon blast sailed by my head. The soldiers had stopped firing for fear of hitting me but the tanks continued to shoot shells at further back decepticons on my tail. They were catching up way, way too fast and even with the adrenaline rush I wasn't quick enough to out run them. Suddenly, I was swept up by a large metal hand and I screamed until the familiar and welcome voice boomed in my ears,
"What the hell is wrong with you sugar!"
"Jazz!" I cried in relief, sagging against his finger as he dodged the canons and bullets fired his way.

We were so close to the soldiers now and I clasped his thumb tightly as he stumbled, a canon blast chipping away his shoulder until he twirled the sword I'd made him for christmas and blocked the shots, holding me out of harms way. The plasma rifle prototype suddenly felt heavy on my back and I yanked it out of the holster as Jazz batted another shot away with his sword. "Jazz! Jazz drop the sword!" I screamed, heart racing in my chest as I pulled it up and took aim. The minute Jazz's sword dropped I made the final adjustments to the angle of my shot and pulled the trigger. A pulsating ball of purple erupted from the end of the rifle but I never got to see what happened next. It was only a prototype and the recoil was way too strong. Jazz couldn't catch me as I hurtled backwards through the air, flipping backwards repeatedly and gamboling over and over until I landed hard on my back, all the wind rushing out of me as my head knocked onto stone and blackness engulfed my vision.