Chapter 6

I hate you.

That was her first waking thought, every day.

The slave quarters consisted of a grid of cage-like containers along one wall, in the eastern wing of Starscream's UK base. The day would begin when the decepticon Blackout would trail his fingers along the front of the wire mesh, creating an awful rattling sound which snatched the humans from their exhausted sleep. After a hazardous climb down, they helped themselves to the food which was kept in one of the bottom containers. It was a bizarre assortment- jars of pickles, cans with anything from pineapple, to beans, to preserved meat inside. Or there was stale biscuits, handfuls of raw rice... After the meager meal they would hurry through the vast corridors, until after about five minutes they would arrive in the vast hall Alexis had seen on that first day.
There they would trawl through heaps of debris to extract metal or materials that were of interest to the decepticons. They dismantled cars, appliances, broke up chunks of buildings and machinery. Things considered to be of no use were tossed aside- the heartbreaking pile included books and photo frames, crockery, toys- tiny pieces of people's lives. They worked all day, although the concept of night and day began to slip away from her, as she hadn't seen natural light since she had arrived.
Starscream hadn't spoken to her since the day he had captured her, when he had taunted her with the terrible power he now had- the power to locate anyone whose details were stored in her phone. Alexis' heart twisted whenever she recalled Sari's trembling small voice, when Starscream had pinpointed her exact location through one phonecall. Where was she now? Fleeing probably, uprooted and afraid. And it was her fault.

Forgive me, Sari.

She could sense him watching her though. She kept her head down day after day, working quickly and barely speaking, making herself as small and invisible as possible, so that he couldn't possibly find fault, find a reason to scroll through the list, find someone to hurt, to kill… On one occasion when she did look up, she caught him studying her. He wore a look of malicious triumph. He had won, and he knew it. She strove to keep her expression neutral. Fear and unhappiness, especially in her, nourished him, and she was determined not to stoke his satisfaction by showing her feelings.
The one thing Alexis could say for the work they were given, it was engaging. It was impossible not to be fascinated by the things they were given to sift through. Alexis spotted some of the others surreptitiously slipping objects into their clothing- small books, Christmas decorations, scraps of fabric, plastic toys… they would take them back to the quarters and just look at them. Then stow them carefully away in their bedding.

"I know it's sort of stealing," whispered a balding man named Hugo, one night to Alexis. He had been an electrician before the invasion. "Not from them," he jerked his head, indicating the decepticons. "From the people who used to own these things. It's just that… it's like we're keeping a bit of them alive. A bit of our culture."
Alexis understood. By day she bent over the piles, genuinely absorbed by the work, and the dread, and fear, and defeat she felt were, to an extent, kept at bay. By night she huddled into musty blankets and the tears came, hot over her cheeks, the sobs shaking her whole body, making her chest and limbs ache.

He must never see my pain. My very existence is an insult to him. So, I will continue to exist.

One day she and the others were preparing to wind down- it had been another long, hard day, and they glanced over repeatedly at Blackout, willing him to send them back to the quarters so they could eat and rest. Starcream had been out all day, and as a result the atmosphere was slightly less tense. The slaves talked quietly amongst themselves- Blackout tended to ignore them as long as they didn't raise their voices and kept busy.

"We're running out of food," murmured Hugo, as he dismantled a circuit board. "One of us has to tell them- and then they go out and bring in another random selection of stuff from somewhere." He grimaced. "Once they brought in a huge crate containing gherkins, and that was it. Nothing but gherkins, gherkins, gherkins…"
A snort of laughter escaped Alexis' lips. Hugo looked up in shock, and she collapsed into helpless giggles. After moment he joined in, nervously at first, then the two of them shook with laughter, still bent over the circuit board, the vision of Hugo standing morosely in front of a huge case of gherkins causing her to double up again and again.

At that moment, Starscream stalked into the hall, just as Alexis was wiping her eyes and sighing as the giggles subsided. At the sight of him she stopped abruptly and turned away. Hugo tensed and leaned over the board again.

Starscream's optics narrowed and he prowled into the room. He was filthy, dented and wet- it must be raining hard outside, she thought. She knew he hated the rain, and suddenly had a rush of affection for English weather- Come on UK- do what you do best, and piss it down all over him. His minicons moved forward with energon cubes. Alexis was fascinated by them. They didn't appear to be able to speak, but beeped and clicked softly to one another. Their faces were by and large, expressionless, but their eyes didn't have Starscream's malevolent glow. They clustered around their master as he walked, skillfully keeping pace but avoiding getting stepped on. As he stopped, they began to minister to his frame, one of them climbing up until it was perched on his torso. He reached down and another swung nimbly onto his hand, it climbed up and began working on his shoulder, perched there like a bird.

Starscream was in a foul mood. He had been out in battle for hours. It turned out the autobots- whose defeat Megatron had crowed about incessantly- weren't so defeated. The rain incensed him and made his mood darker-the endless moisture on this planet! And when he had arrived back at the base, he had found the girl laughing- laughing!Just what did she have to laugh about?

It enraged him- that as soon as he thought he had her, broken and defeated, under his control, a small glimpse of that vibrant spirit that irked him so much still found a way to shine through- like a tiny sunbeam from behind a storm cloud. How it nagged at him. She seemed shatterproof.

We'll soon see about that.

"Alexis. Come here."

The other slaves froze. Alexis slowly lay down her tools.

As she made her way towards the towering decepticon, she composed her features as rigidly as possible. No one could miss the angry vibes radiating from him tonight- he was pissed off. And clearly her brief display of merriment had been the last straw.

When she reached him, he motioned at her to climb up onto the surface beside him. She did so, and he slammed a forearm onto the table, missing her by inches.

"Get to work."

There was some damage, not too much, but first she had to tackle the huge clods of mud attached to him- he must have really been thrown about in the fight. She reached forward and began to wrestle the hunks of earth off of his frame, the pieces that came away were slippery and boulder-sized. Within seconds she was filthy and soaked- her forearms, front and face covered in mud. She couldn't work as quickly as the minicons, and Alexis understood. This was about degrading her more than her actual input.

He watched in satisfaction as she started to shiver in her wet clothes, and struggle to wipe the slime off of his null ray.

"Are you enjoying yourself here, Alexis? Comfortable? Cosy?"

Fuck you.

She paused for breath, wiping her forearm over her face to clear some of the muck. Then she raised her head and looked into his optics.

"Yeah, it's brilliant here. I love it. Living the dream."

Over on the floor, Hugo shook his head in disbelief. Alexis' heart was pounding. The red optics narrowed to slits. "Well, we'll have to do something about that."

She had returned to clearing the mud from his arm. Without looking up, she spoke quietly.

"What more can you possibly take from me, Starscream?"

"Is that a challenge?"

She shook her head hurriedly and looked up, panicked. "No…"

He raised his free arm and Alexis saw the iphone emerge from his hand. She had grown to hate the sight of it as much as she hated him.

He scrolled leisurely through her phone book. "What a lot of friends you have, Alexis…"

She hurled a clod of earth to the floor, it spattered her legs. "You know that day I found you, in the barn, Starscream?"

The question took him by surprise, the evil smirk vanished.

"I…. I was so…. amazed by you. I knew you weren't a normal plane. I fixed you as best I could, and... I studied…. I learnt so much…" her eyes brimmed with tears and she wiped them away angrily. "I think a part of me must have known you were alive, that you could hear me as I talked to you.
'Then the night I saw you transform for the very first time, you know something? I wasn't afraid, at first anyway. I was… filled with… wonder." She hung her head, ashamed of the admission.

He was silent. She waited for the derisive laughter, but it didn't come. She raised her head, not bothering to wipe away the tears this time.

"Why do you hate me…us… so much?" she whispered. "What did we do?"

He said nothing. His expression was closed, unfathomable. She held his gaze, waiting.

Just then Blackout stomped over, and the spell was broken.

"One of the fleshbags is whining about food," he growled.

Starscream didn't move. Finally, without taking his gaze from Alexis, he said:

"Send Long Haul out with Frenzy to Station 12."

"Long Haul won't like being sent on another courier trip…"

"Won't he?" Starscream turned to Blackout. "Tell Long Haul he can choose between fetching and carrying, or target practise."

"Understood." Blackout grinned with pleasure at the chance to taunt Long Haul, and set off.

"Can I go with them?"

Starscream turned his head back to Alexis. "Can you what?" he snarled.

"Can I go with them?" Alexis was docile again, as if their previous talk had never happened, chipping muck and shrapnel off the plating near his wrist.

"Why would I let you do that?"

"Because, your mechs are bringing back a whole load of crap. They don't really know what they're doing," she said, as she prised off a hunk of turf, complete with a tiny marigold still growing in it. "If I go, I can ensure that nothing useless is picked up, thereby not wasting your time, and maybe making sure your slaves don't have to eat only pickles for a week." A smile crept across her face.

"You see Alexis, you carry the assumption that I care about my slaves." The nasty smile was back. "Which I don't. The clue is in the name: slave. Why should I care whether or not you have proper nutrition or comfort? There are plenty more humans out there I can use, and when they expire, there are more, and yet more." He spread out his free arm to indicate the limitless fodder at his disposal.

She sighed. "Please, Starscream."

After regarding her sardonically, he snorted. "Fine. Whatever, as you humans say. It makes no difference to me. After all," he sneered. "I do believe I could put energon on the fact that you, Alexis, won't be trying anything funny."

When she didn't reply, he snapped his fingers in front of her face, making her jump. "Will you?"

"No!" she jerked her face away irritably as he laughed.

The next morning, they set off, Alexis sitting in the Long Haul's cab as he roared out of the base in truck mode. Frenzy was in the back. As they shot over the threshold out of the huge doors, the sun hit them for the first time in days, and an ecstatic smile spread across her face. She tentatively reached to wind down the window. Long Haul didn't appear to notice, so she leaned out and let the wind blow through her hair. Never had she felt such pleasure… for a few seconds, she felt free again.

Station 12 turned out to be a huge Tesco store, located next to a deserted parkway. They pulled into the empty car park, and Alexis saw two large robots guarding the doors. She felt a stab of pity for the unfortunate humans no doubt lurking nearby, desperate for the food they knew to be inside, and unable to approach…

Frenzy was sent inside with her, whilst Long Haul waited outside with the guards, whom he seemed to know. "Hurry up," he growled. And to Frenzy- "Don't let her mess around in there."

They entered the large supermarket. The only light came from the skylights, and Alexis peered through the gloom. This place didn't appear to have been looted- the decepticons must have seized it pretty early on, she deduced. The fruit and vegetable stands contained dark sunken lumps- all that remained of the rotted produce. It was so old it didn't even smell anymore. The girl and the robot trotted through the tall aisles and Alexis began to gather items.

Frenzy was fascinated. "What's that?" he chirped, as she tossed a tin opener into the trolley.

"It's a tin opener. It cuts open those metal containers that have food inside."

"Oooohhhh…"

Silence. And then-

"What's that?"

Alexis sighed.

"Toothbrushes. For cleaning teeth."

"Cool, cool. What's…"

"Shut up!"

A couple of hours later, and the three of them sped back into the great hall. Alexis leapt lightly down from Long Haul's cab and patted his side.

"Thanks, LH!

Long Haul grunted. Alexis and Frenzy began unloading, and the humans trotted over cautiously to see.

"Wow…" breathed Hugo. "You got soap, toothpaste…" his eyes widened as he saw the bags of clothes.

"No way!"

"Chocolate!" squealed a woman. "Underwear… Oh thank god, socks…"

Familiar footsteps made the ground tremble, and the humans retreated, scurrying back to their work. Alexis and Frenzy were thrown into shadow.

"And all this is necessary for your basic survival, is it?" Starscream sneered.

"Yes." Alexis finished unloading the bags containing food. As she set down the last few bags, they chinked. Starscream leaned down, reached out a digit and prodded. Nestled in the plastic were glass bottles, some containing red liquid, others white. There were also smaller bottles made of brown glass.

"And what's that?" he glared at her suspiciously.

Alexis raised her head, innocence written over her every feature.

"Medicine," she said.