Chapter 2
Ellie grumbled hard on her travel bed as she tossed and turned over to her left side. After a minute in that position, she clicked her tongue in irritation and sat straight up from her bed.
Those two men... why can't I get them out of my head!? The image of the two men, Omaru and Morigan, kept playing through her mind and it pissed her off completely. She wanted to forget those strangers; however, her mind keeps showing the two. Their strange hair, their body actions and movements and most of all, their eyes. Their shiny eyes might've been the reason why she couldn't sleep. Those eyes were too inhuman for her.
"Fuck it. I might as well follow them."
With irritation, she stood up and walked out of her room.
"Stop for a moment, Lea," Ellie patted her brown colored horse (which she named Lea). The horse neighed softly as the human slid off and planted her feet on the forest floor. Starting from her home, she'd tracked the footprints of the two strangers and it had lead her to the deepest part of the forest that was situated beside the suburban town.
If I remember right, there's nothing here but a ravine, she recalled of the place while her face looked down to the ground searching for their footprints under the moonlight. She finally found some; however, her eyes paused and beamed in on the prints, startled.
"Whoa…what's this?" Ellie followed the pair of footprints only to see them disappear and be replaced by very large ones. The pair of human foot prints had turned into a pair of perfectly square shaped ones.
"What the hell?" she whispered in disbelief as her curiosity grew more. "Stay here, Lea." Ellie tied her horse to a nearby tree and fetched her handgun. The ground suddenly shook lightly, making her stop in her tracks. "Earthquake? No." The ground shook again. This time, she noticed a pattern to the movement. It was like a giant was walking and this thought had her sprinting closer as her curiosity skyrocketed.
The ground shook more and Ellie knew that she was already near the source of whatever was making it move. "There's a clearing here," she muttered as her eyes fell upon an exit to the forest, leading her to the clearing.
"Is this where the two go-" Ellie had reached the clearing but she suddenly careened to a stop and let out an audible gasp as her eyes widened in shock.
She had already discovered the owners of the large footprints.
There were two large giants standing in front of the side of the ravine; their backs were turned to her. The first giant was colored red and blue; she could see some smokestack-like structures on its back and a pair of antennae on its head. The other one was much larger and scary looking. It was colored in grey and violet; its shoulders were adorned with armored spikes that made it look like the creature had wings, while its right limb was seemed to be holding a canon weapon. Both of the creatures seemed to be made of metal; their colors glinted brightly as the moonlight shone above them.
"Wh-what the fu-!" Ellie quickly dove into a bush when she noticed one of them, the red and blue giant, glanced behind towards her. The motion revealed its face- and its blue eyes. "Those eyes…they were the same color as that man!" the girl observed with a frightened expression as she remembered the man's name, Omaru... his azure eyes were the same shade as the gigantic beast.
Impossible. Those two strangers couldn't be these two!
"Did you notice something?"
Ellie froze and stilled her breath; she heard the deep male voice of the larger metal creature which was followed by other one.
"No. Let's start mining. One of the ship's cargo boxes seems to have crash landed here."
"Indeed, so troublesome." The larger silver grey creature turned his back to the other and added: "I'll guard your back."
The red and blue giant opened a large metallic backpack and took out a sharp drilling tool. The machine whirled to life, breaking the silence of the forest. The giant then started drilling into the side of the ravine and Ellie watched them beneath the bush where she was hiding.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" What the hell is this? It's like in the alien comic books that I collected before! Ellie watched, her nervous eyes darting from the drilling red giant to the gray giant. She noticed that the gray giant's red eyes bore the same shade as that of the other man, Morigan. Her heart trembled in fear as it dawned on her that the two humans that she met earlier…were the same as two giants standing in front of her.
She gulped down nervously. "I must leave." The girl slowly back away. Or tried to. As her foot softly took a step back and she began to turn around...
A male runner greeted Ellie's green eyes and the girl gasped as the infected screech.
*SCREE!*
"Fuck!" Ellie quickly pointed her hand gun and fired but she missed; the infected dove and pushed her out of the bush. The woman struggled on ground of the clearing as the infected man bit her left forearm, causing her to yelp sharply. "Motherfucker!" she shouted in pain and fired her gun. The infected man stopped his movement and lay dead on top of her.
Ellie grunted as she pushed the infected away and breathed hard the cold night air. However, she stopped her breathing as she realized something. She was laying on the ground of the clearing where the two giants were standing.
The realization came too late as her eyes looked up and came face to face with the silver giant's cannon, aimed straight down at her.
"You're the woman from earlier," the silver grey said in a deep terrifying voice. Ellie froze on the spot, her brown pants darkened as she wet herself in terror.
"You're bitten, do you know what that means? It means you'll turn like them." The giant towered even more as his cannon started to glow with a violet hue. "I promise you, I won't miss and it'll be painless."
Ellie was too shocked to respond. Her jaw was slack in horror.
"Wait," another voice spoke and it caused the silver giant to glance behind itself. The interruption came from the red and blue one. It had approached, casting its blue optics down at her.
"There's cordyceps all over her blood but none on her brain. I can also detect a cordyceps fungal lodged near her foramen magnum," it said with a gentle but deep voice.
"What does that mean?" the silver one asked.
"She could be immune—no, she is immune."
They know! Ellie was very much frightened, for they'd discovered her secret even without touching her; the two alien robots had scanned her, probably with their dead eyes or something.
"Little girl, don't worry, we're friendly. We'll take you home." The red giant's hand hovered above her and opened. It was the last straw as fear took over the woman's mind.
Ellie let out a loud, horrified scream as she jumped from the ground. She sprinted back to the depths of the forest, leaving the two giants behind where they were both looking startled.
"I…didn't really mean to frighten her," Optimus began to explain but Megatron snorted in irritation.
"Optimus, humans of this Earth don't know our existence yet. Of course they'll be frightened," Megatron said as he stared at the dark of the forest; he could faintly hear the girl's scream still echoing but faintly. He chuckled in delight.
"Now then let's leave her be, she's immune anyway. The cordyceps will be the least of her problems," the Decepticon spoke on and went back to monitoring their surroundings. Optimus Prime glanced to the forest before he walked back to his drilling. I just hope I didn't frighten her much, he thought with worry about the fate of the little woman.
(The Next Day)
Ellie woke up from the floor of her room. She groaned as she felt her eyes had gone heavy while her throat burned irritatingly. "Man…what happened?" she asked herself before sighing in exhaustion. She stood up and walked to the window and saw her tired face reflected by the glass. After feeling a pang of pain on her left forearm, she looked down to it and saw a freshly wrapped bandage. Then everything played instantly in her memory.
The forest, the two men, the cordyceps runner…the two giants! She gasped in shock and quickly opened her window. She darted around the place, looking for a familiar glint of the two large aliens.
"Shit, they're near. I must leave!" she cursed and quickly took her bag on the floor and walked out of her room.
She stumbled upon the living room and paused after she saw the guitar, still standing and collecting dust. Her chest tightened as several emotions swirled inside of her ,making her hesitate. "Fuck it!" she cursed again and took the guitar before quickly getting out of the back door.
The sun hasn't yet fully risen as Ellie rode on the back of her horse. The woman was riding along the empty road. She looked back with eyes sharpened in alertness, checking to see if someone was following her or if the two giants were back. There wasn't any sign of either and it made her sigh in relief.
"I must go. I wouldn't put my life in danger again." I wouldn't waste the life that Joel gave to me, she thought hard in solemnity before she tugged the rein making her horse move forward. Without knowing where to go or what would be her next destination, Ellie simply moved forward and rode on as the sun slowly rose above her.
Optimus Prime stopped his drill and grabbed the large ore of energon sticking from the ground. He put it in his survival pack and scanned the ground again. "That's the last of them."
"Indeed," Megatron said and glanced up to the sky. "It's already afternoon. We should go now. We might encounter some cordyceps if we stay here long."
Optimus nodded and then glanced back at the forest. A thoughtful expression had formed on his face and former Decepticon knew what he was thinking.
"The girl might lose her mind if we visit her again."
And yet I can't shake off the feeling that we must show and explain ourselves to her, Optimus thought hard and before smiling kindly. "We'll just show her that we're friendly and that we mean no harm. Not to mention…she looked lonely," the Autobot said with pitying tone.
Megatron groaned heavily; however, he couldn't deny what Optimus said because he'd also felt the same thing.
"Fine, but only you though. My looks are very frightening."
Optimus smiled gladly at his friend for giving him a chance to see that girl again.
"Ok then, let's go."
Optimus and Megatron arrived at the girl's house. "Alright, she must be around here." The Autobot scanned the house but found no one.
Strange. He quickly scanned the next house beside it and got the same result. "She's gone." The Autobot thought aloud with a little disappointment. Megatron noticed and one brow arched up in a questioning manner.
"Hoh, you seem to like her, Optimus."
"What? No, of course not…it's just that…" the face of the Autobot blushed in a shade of blue, making Megatron chuckle darkly.
"She left a couple of hours ago," the former Tyrant said as he knelt to the ground and scanned a horse dropping on the road. "If my hunches are right, these droppings came from her horse and if we follow it, we might still catch up to her."
The idea seemed to brighten Optimus. "Recorded, let's roll."
Megatron burst out in laughter as he said: "I fly, Optimus."
The Autobot blushed again at his mistake as the Decepticon transformed into his alt-mode and flew forward. Oh, Orion, you like her, don't you? The thought of the Autobot liking a human girl was very laughable to him; however, another feeling also swirled in his spark chamber. This feeling was very familiar, for he had also recently gained it.
Frag, looks like I like her too, he thought gleefully while his engine roared through the sky.
-Unknown Highway-
Ellie struggled through the ropes that bound both of her hands and her feet. Her stomach was flat on the ground right beside a highway. Above her, tailing like a pack of hyenas, were a group of five men. They all looked down on her like she was their food... which she probably was.
Fuck, first the aliens and now I'm captured! Ellie cursed her rotten luck. She had been riding her horse on the road as the sun set; however, these men had ambushed her. They must have be waiting on the side of the road, preying on unsuspecting poor souls who accidentally ventured on that road. Her horse was killed, her back pack was being ransacked now, and they'd tied her up.
She now struggled once more through her bonds but she yelped as she received a kick from the man standing on her right.
"Stop struggling bitch!"
"Looks like we caught a lively one eh, boys?" the second man, standing on her left said. A shower of degrading laughter followed and the woman gritted her teeth in dread and fright.
"We need her now, boss!" the third man said and Ellie heard him unbuckle his belt. The realization dawned on her on what the man was planning to do to her.
"No, no, goddamn you!" the woman struggled again with all her might but to no avail. One of the men, the fourth one, stepped on her back, pinning her more as the fifth man took out a knife and started ripping off her pants.
Her lower clothes fell very easily, revealing her bare lower body to the group. Not like this, not like this! Ellie knew that she would die someday and she was ready to face her death but not like this, at the hands of strangers who was going to defile her body and humanity. She struggled more and more until she let out a desperate cry for help.
"Help me, Joel!"
"As you wish, kiddo," a deep and very familiar voice answered her back.
Ellie was confused but before she could react, she heard a sound of a blade cutting through flesh. Then she heard one of the men shouted in horror but then was silenced buy the same sound. The rest of the men tried to attack but one by one they joined the rest, letting out agonizing groans and making loud thuds as they dropped to the ground.
"Please no-!"
"Strange, the woman was pleading same thing and what did you do?" the deep voice asked in a whimsical manner before the man screamed and was silenced by the blade.
Ellie breathed hard on the ground. Before she could think to move, she felt herself being pulled up.
"Are you ok, kiddo?"
Ellie's eyes adjusted to her surroundings and then her heart skipped a beat. The face of her rescuer bore the face of Joel. "Joel…Joel!" The girl lunged her face to the man's chest and cried hard. It was him, her old man, the man who had given meaning to her sad life. He was alive and now he was back. The girl continued her crying until she could no longer. The fatigue from the attack had worn her out completely and she succumbed to the darkness.
"Oi, kiddo." Megatron, in his human avatar, froze on the ground and couldn't move. He'd just rescued the girl and now she fell unconscious on his chest. "I swear to Primus," he grumbled in annoyance and confusion; he didn't know how to react.
"Megatron?" Optimus, in his original body, walked and looked down at the scene. "I'm fine Prime, but this woman, she fell unconscious!" the former Decepticon explained. The Autobot looked down in pity at the girl before he transformed into his alt form.
"Get her inside me, Megs. She'll be alright."
"Yeah, but I must tend to her injuries first." Megatron looked down and saw the woman's left leg, all bloody from a small bullet hole.
*SCREE-!*
The familiar screeching of the cordyceps cut through the night. Megatron looked behind him and his eyes caught sight of a horde of runners coming towards them. They must've heard my jet's engines, he thought before carrying the unconscious girl as he jumped inside Optimus's alt form.
"Drive, Optimus,"
"Thought you'd never say that." Optimus roared his engine and shoot off down the road. The horde came in too late and stopped dead in their tracks. Their dead eyes watch the receding back of the red truck with nothing but hunger for the flesh.
Megatron had studied the human body before. Although he knows that all human can easily be squished, he had to find out how their brain worked, for they'd defeated his forces many times. But that was during the war. This time it was different.
Roll the bandage and then you're done. Megatron read the instructional first aid manual, displayed on the windshield of Optimus's alt-form.
"I think I'm done," he said as he looked down on the girl's left legm which was wrapped around in a clean bandage.
"How's she?" the Autobot asked in a worried manner as Megatron grinned.
"Based on her injury, she'll be fine. She just needs to rest for a couple of weeks."
"That's good. But Megs, I didn't know you knew so much about the human body."
Megatron smiled sheepishly as he looked out the window and watched his own alt form flying above them. "Well Optimus, you had human friends back on the other Earth. Back then, I was thinking of how to torture them so that I would know your weakness," he explained in a normal manner only to receive a stale and deadpanned 'Oh' from the Autobot.
"W-well, it was during the war, Optimus! But now I'm different."
Optimus absorbed his words and let out a resigned sigh. "So, what now?"
Ah the real question, what now? Megatron glanced at the girl's face. It was peaceful. However, he could see the strain on her skin; she had been very much frightened from the attack. He felt her fear and it made him pity her.
"We can't leave her alone; we'll bring her with us."
"To the Grand Canyon. The last scan from the spy comm showed us that there was a small deposit of energon somewhere there," Optimus said as Megatron glanced again back at the girl. He could really see the helplessness of the woman and he felt an urge to stay with her.
"You can stay with her you know, in your human avatar."
"No. I don't want to waste more energon," Megatron said and quickly brushed aside his emotions on the girl. He quickly dematerialized his human holo-form and left the girl all alone inside Optimus's alt form.
Woo- Hoo! New Chapter has arrived.
Special thanks to dropout-ninja, for beta-reading!
Guys, as you can see, the chapter was labeled as Crescendo, I'm planning to name each chapter as musical terms, because this would be a slice of life-type fanfic! And please, I warn you by the way, that there's attempted rape scene in here. So please, if you don't like the scene, better stay away.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Transformers Prime and Last of us.
By the way, does who love Abby, hates Joel and Ellie. And the people who loves Abby are the people who are willing to kill a father right in front of his child, they are willing to traumatized children. Revenge is bad, not unless you're Abby.