AN: Almost all my other work I am for above 1,600 words usually. Why must I love this story ;A; Also, I lied about Nick and Millie appearing. They will soon, I swear, I already have plans for them, but this wanted to be ahead of those in the story line
Miles hadn't planned on going on a scavenging trip everyday he was on base, but Will was paranoid. The teen hadn't even had to sign anywhere; he was already expected to go along with the Captain on another outing.
While it was only his second day on base, his kids were noticeably more upset about him leaving them again, and so was Bumblebee. It was just like his first full day on base, so it wasn't anything different. He got up earlier to go out with the soldiers before the sun came up, except this time the teen had just told the Scout to keep an eye on his kids for him, much to the Scout's pleasure, and then had gone to join the scavenging party, with Will himself in it this time.
It would have been amusing how many obvious signs the soldiers skipped over on the trail that indicated human over infected, but in truth it saddened the teen more than anything. He'd spent a lot of the past few months avoiding the both, and to make it worse, if he had to choose between going towards a human trail and an infected trail he almost always chose infected. The first two months had been different; however, anyone alive after three months were generally not the kind of people Miles could stand meeting. It had almost ended very badly quite a few times.
It was weird crossing his hometown with so much apprehension. Tranquility never could have been called an up and coming place, but had been a quaint, close knit community. It was almost impossible not to know who someone was unless it was at the high school were people were shipped in from neighboring cities; what had once been a lively place was now a ghost town. Miles almost regretted wanting to come back for Millie, he'd been able to keep his mental image of Tranquility in his head peaceful until then. Now every time they turned a corner and saw the signs of a battle or a dead body Miles' marked someone else off he knew so long ago.
At least he knew he couldn't find Sam or any of the other Witwicky's. Judy, Ron, and Mikaela had been cleared out a long time ago to honor their memory, and Tranquility itself was almost perfectly safe. Wandering dead managed to make their way in but otherwise the city itself had been cleared out a while ago, a relief to him so he couldn't actually find someone he knew, or at least he hoped. It wouldn't stop him from taking them down but it would give him pause and make him feel bad, he didn't need to worry about a conscience.
He'd expected to be able to relax a bit and sit occasionally with the twenty or so soldiers coming along on the trip, but the Captain was absolutely relentless. The man drilled him for hours at a time on anything that might signify a human coming through that area. Sure enough, Miles found a trail for the soldiers to follow, but the teen came along begrudgingly. At some point his tolerance and willingness to help them out had just been shot all to hell, and he could probably pinpoint that to the time when one of the soldiers had been stupid enough to not listen to him and had nearly been made into a snack. Not by infected, because Miles might have been willing to forgive that, but to a bear. A bear.
It was no wonder Miles had flipped off his mental switch, the one he'd been trying to push back on in Autobot City. If he had to deal with idiots then he was going to have to be smarter than all of them; smart enough to run if he had to, even with his bum foot. He certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to nearly get snacked on by a bear. And as far as he knew the bear hadn't even gone after the soldier until the idiot had been stupid enough to shoot it and miss the head at point blank range. Even Will had hesitated in helping the man. A pissed off bear was not an easy thing to tackle, even for a well groomed sniper.
Will made a gesture as Miles brought them to a stop at Tranquility High School, indicating to his team that most of they should listen up. The teen was deceptively good at a straight face, but as the hours had passed something had changed. Whatever Miles had started to come out in Autobot City had gone back in hiding; this was the same little shit he'd gotten into an argument with on the first night. The teen that was focused on two things only: survival and his kids, and since his kids weren't there the only thing for him now was surviving. This just led Will to follow in Miles' trail as the teen forged on ahead of the group.
"Alright, men. It's time to split up," Will had almost expected a chorus of arguments, but there were none. Either they had faith in his capabilities, or they just had an inordinate amount of faith in Miles, but either way he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. "You know the rules. Stick in pairs or trios, no more than four in a group if you must, and try not to get yourselves killed. Scavenge for anything that could be useful in any place, if you think it might be even remotely handy then snatch it up. Meet us back here by three o'clock on the dot."
There was a chorus of "yes sir's" and a couple of nodded heads. All his men had a watch on their wrist, one that had a tracker in it installed by Wheeljack himself; even Miles had gotten one this time, although the teen had grumbled at putting it on his wrist. That left the Captain standing there with the scrawny teen as his men made their way uniformly out of the high school's parking lot, groups splitting off as soon as they'd left the area.
At some point, Will had realized what a terrible mistake he'd made in having Miles follow whatever trail he could pick up. To the teen, it was an obvious one, one that led straight to the high school, and it took the Captain longer than he'd like to admit to realize that the trail had been left on purpose. That whatever was in there was something someone wanted to be found. Whatever was going to be found Will knew he wouldn't like, his gut told him that, but it was too late to go back now.
The Captain entered through the broken glass of what used to be the high school's entrance. The doors had been locked to try and keep the infected out, but they had inevitably broken through. Like the rest of the highly populated buildings it had quickly turned into a blood bath, and the evidence of the struggle that had went on was still there even after the months had passed.
After he walked ten feet in he had to turn around, because the teen wasn't following him anymore. Miles had stopped outside the doors, just staring in. The Captain could see Miles' eyes focused on him, but he knew the kid wasn't really seeing anything at the moment. It was one thing to imagine a place being destroyed in his head, it was an entirely other thing to have that destruction become a fact. It was the first time he'd seen Miles do anything remotely like that—the look on his face said everything he was feeling. It was the first time the Captain didn't have to remind himself that this was just a teenager he was dealing with, no more than a kid who'd had to break all the rules he'd been taught to survive in a world without mommy and daddy.
"C'mon, kid." Will urged, and just like that the soldier could see the shift in the teen, the immediate difference as walls came back up and whatever Miles Lancaster that had existed before the spread of the infection went back inside.
"Alright, Princess, I'll lead the way." Miles replied, not missing a beat as he stepped through the broken door himself and moved around the soldier.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Will asked, trying not to grit his teeth. The old Lancaster was definitely gone now, and the soldier was leaning towards just referring to the one in front of him as 'the little shit'.
"Well," Miles paused as they entered the main hall. Here the building split in two directions, with a set of stairs leading up, and the teen looked down both halls carefully. "Optimus is the Queen, or the King, obviously, and you're the human version of him, basically, but you also answer to him, so that makes you the Princess."
"Or the Prince," Will pointed out.
Miles gave him a small smirk, "Princess until proven otherwise."
Will decided he wasn't going to dignify that with a response. The teen was baiting him there, and he'd go swim to the bottom of the ocean and kiss Megatron on the mouth before he'd bite at that one. He waited for the teen to choose their next path, but Miles was taking his time here, and the soldier decided the least he could do was try to beat him to it.
There was a loud static filled noise that ripped through the air suddenly, and Will grabbed at his radio hastily, trying to turn it down. The teen beside him gave him an accusing glare, and the Captain waved him off, moving away a few feet and answering it.
"Hello?" Will called into the small radio, knowing by now that the sound that had nearly given him a heart attack was an Autobot trying to make a direct connection to his specific channel.
"William," Optimus' voice rang out sharply, and the soldier closed his eyes. They'd barely been out and not only had the Prime found out already but he was angry about it, too. "I cannot believe you would do something this irresponsible! I will be telling your Guardian and spouse shortly. I'm sure Ironhide will want to come pick you up."
"Look, Miles is a fucking blood hound and he caught someone's scent. I decided to come help find whoever it was, alright? No biggie."
"This is a very big biggie," Optimus hissed, and Will scrubbed a hand over his face. The Prime had the art of guilt tripping down to a fucking tee, and the Captain knew he was in for a major yelling session when they got back. From more than one person and 'bot, too.
"Look, we'll be back soon. I promise," Will tried to say reassuringly, glancing at Miles to gauge the teen's reaction. "I mentioned being with Miles, right? This kid is something, let me tell you. Ain't nothing happening to me with him here, that's a mutual agreement among all of my men. I'll be back in just an hour or two; it's really not that bad. I'll even help you with those datapads you've been needing to translate to get them out of the way. There's no need to tell 'Hide, and I fully plan to tell Sarah myself later tonight."
Nothing else was said, but the short staticky burst filled the air once more. Will took that as a victory, although he'd signed himself up for a huge workload.
"You know," Miles pretended to say thoughtfully, "If you opened your mouth a little wider and bobbed your head I'm sure you'd get a lot farther on Prime's robocock."
"Robocock?" Will sputtered, "You have got to be fucking kidding me."
Miles shrugged, "Not an elegant word, but hey, it tastes like vanilla pudding somehow."
The teen started up the stairs and Will stared after him. And then stared some more as he climbed up the stairs himself.
"I really can't tell if you're just being a little shit right now or if that's a true statement." The Captain admitted as he caught up to the teen, and the little shit had the balls to smirk again. "Seriously though… robocock?"
"How the fuck would I honestly know?" Miles questioned back, laughing.
"Like I know how close you and Bumblebee are," Will muttered, stopping at the top of the stairs beside the teen and looking down the adjacent halls. "At this point, I really don't think you two could surprise me anymore."
"I'll be sure to tell him that if he gets a boner for me."
Will snorted, and for the first time, he felt as if maybe he and Miles could manage a friendship. They'd probably fight like cats and dogs, and he could imagine a lot of mini-competitions, but his relationship with Bobby had been much the same, and while the teen was no soldier he was on the fast track to the higher ranks in Autobot City. The Captain knew without a doubt that, no matter what, he'd be dealing with the blonde a lot.
"Stay here and watch the stairs," Miles told him. "I'll check around and see what's what."
Miles left Will there at the top of the stairs, going down the left wing of the school first. Most of the classroom doors were closed; by the looks of things most of the students and faculty members had been shoved in the gymnasium in an effort to keep them all safe. Up here there was less to go on, the trail he'd been so successfully following had almost gone completely as soon as they'd entered the high school. The teen knew it was still there, of course, but the soldiers themselves had torn the place apart on scavenging trips several times over, and it was hard to tell what was covered in dust in the open quarters.
He was good, but he wasn't this good. So that left an element of guessing to it. And there might have been a bit of nostalgia, too, as Miles found himself trying quite a few doors where he'd had classes before. He was only able to get in one, his old physics teacher's room, Mr. Cavanaugh.
The man had arguably been one of his favorite teachers, and the teen went in very briefly to check out the room. Back behind the teacher's desk was a wall of photos; a year end picture of every single class. Miles grabbed his class's picture, with Sam in it, and headed back out of the room.
The teen glanced back down the hall and shook his head minutely at Will, who was staring down at him and waiting for his cue to come along. Miles thought briefly about explaining his exhibition into the room, but then decided against it. It was another picture for him and Bumblebee to share, and it really wasn't any of the Captain's business.
It took four more classrooms before Miles thought he had finally hit the jackpot, and he quickly exited out of that room and motioned for the soldier to come to him. Will did so slowly, Miles was happy to note, taking note of his surroundings even though the teen himself had already been through. That meant the man had at least learned something from all his time spent watching him on this trip, and that was a good thing.
"It's a who, Captain." Miles informed the soldier as he came closer, putting a hand on the man's shoulder as he started to open the door. "A gruesome one, too."
Will brushed him off and went into the room, and Miles followed after. The Captain then went absolutely still; the teen was doing his best to fixate all his attention on the soldier because he'd already seen what was in the room.
There, against the wall, was one of the infected. By now Miles was hardwired to react immediately if there was an immediate threat, but the thing against the wall had been chained there. It-he-had been tortured, and a sick feeling in his stomach told the teen that it had been before the man had been turned.
"Bobby." Will breathed out.
The infected man pulled at his bonds, but he posed absolutely no threat. He'd been a man of color once, but the infection had made his skin appear faded, a sickly tan compared to its once rich brown. His mouth gaped open, bottom jaw dislocated and showcasing a mouth devoid of all teeth and missing a tongue. The fingers on both hands were bent at odd positions, a middle finger and a pinkie missing entirely. One of the infected's eyes had been gouged out, and the other was blind to the world.
For the first time in a long time, Miles silently prayed to a God he no longer believed in. The teen hoped with every fiber of his being that this man had been dead before he had been mutilated, and he slowly raised his arms so he could aim his shotgun at the thing against the wall. He didn't fire, though. Miles had enough respect to wait for Will's go ahead, even if something inside of him was screaming to put the thing—to put Robert Epps—out of any misery it might be in.
The soldier didn't notice right away, though. Like the infected man against the wall, he wasn't seeing anything either, briefly. Miles wasn't surprised, if this really was Epps than the man had just found a longtime friend and confident dead. There was a difference between imagining someone dead and realizing it was true; no matter what there was always hope if there was no proof. Now that had been ripped away, though, and after a minute Miles called the Captain's name.
"No," Will breathed out, barely audible, but then the soldier swallowed and forced himself to be louder. "No. I'll do it."
Miles respectfully lowered his weapon, letting the Captain take the few steps forward towards his friend. The creature surged against its' bonds as the soldier drew closer; it had picked up his scent. Will didn't hesitate, though. He kept walking closer and closer until he was barely two feet away from his old friend.
The Captain extended his arm slowly; putting the barrel of his Glock against the infected's head. And then the man turned his head and body to the side, closing his eyes and bracing himself to pull the trigger. He pulled the trigger then, and Miles watched carefully as Robert's body slumped against the wall.
And then Will was backing up, dropping his Glock on the ground and already dry heaving. The soldier made a desperate dash for the door, jerking it open.
Briefly, Miles saw what was beyond the soldier's frame, out into the hall where a man stood. A man who was holding another infected on what seemed to be a leash. And then, suddenly, Will was blocking his view entirely, the soldier gagging into his hand and running right into the two.
"Will!" Miles cried, suddenly desperate even though it was already too late. "Will, no!"
The soldier gave a strangled yell, falling back into the room. Miles could see that the infected person had latched on to Will's arm, just below the back of his wrist, and as the Captain was knocked to the ground the creature pulled back, ripping the flesh. Miles took aim instantly, shooting what once would have been a girl in the head with his shotgun as the soldier lay on the floor.
The teen jumped over the down man, bursting out into the hall where the man who had ruined everything had been mere seconds ago. And he was still there, racing down the hall towards the stairs. Miles shot at him, but only managed to graze his soldier, the man practically throwing himself down the stairs as soon as he reached them.
The teen stared after the man briefly in a panic, mind whirling with questions. Why did he do this? Were the more of him coming, his friends that wanted to kill them? Would they be unleashing any more infected? Where had they come from and how had Miles not noticed them sooner?
Miles' world narrowed down to seconds as he entered the room with Will once more; the soldier pulled himself up to a standing position, staring without seeing at the bite mark on his arm. The teen knew now that it had been a trap, something that should have been disgustingly obvious right from the beginning, and that if the soldier died it would be his fault.
The teen turned the stopwatch on his watch on. In five seconds he made it over to Will's side, the man in shock. By the eighth second Miles brought the shotgun he had been carrying up, slamming the barrel of it down on the Captain's head before the tenth could pass. Will crumpled, and Miles just barely caught him. The teen took off the soldier's belt quickly, tying it around his upper arm, a bit above the elbow, and pulling it tight so it would slow his blood circulation.
Miles laid the older man out on the floor carefully before checking his watch: a minute and thirty eight seconds had passed since he had started his stop watch, which meant it had been a minute or two before that where Will had been bitten. By the two minute mark he was back out in the hall, racing down towards the end and darting in Mr. Cavanaugh's room. The man had always kept a fire axe in his room, claiming it helped him teach physics; every year he used it on a block of wood and then helped his class to calculate the math behind it. It took him another minute to find what he wanted, but he eventually got the fire axe, and by three minutes and forty seconds he was back in the room with Will.
Miles gave himself until the five minute mark to do what needed to be done. He extended Will's right arm to the side, the one that had been bit, and paused just long enough to pull out the pills Ratchet had given him for his foot. He took three out and opened the soldier's mouth carefully, dropping them in, then closing it quickly again and holding the man's nose until he swallowed. He then pulled Will's t-shirt up, opening his mouth once more just to shove the t-shirt inside.
The teen sat on Will's legs then, hefting the fire axe in his arms. As he raised them he checked the time on his watch, noting that it had been almost four minutes and thirty four seconds since the soldier had been bit. Then he braced himself and brought the axe down as fast and hard as he could.
Will woke, screaming around the shirt in his mouth as he surged upwards.
Miles did his best to ride the sudden movements out, not having to wait long because the soldier just fell to the ground again, the scream dying out as suddenly as it had started. The teen knew he'd probably blacked out from the pain. He also knew that, if there was a chance that Will was going to survive everything and come out on the end of it with only a missing arm, he'd have to cauterize the wound to stop it from bleeding.
The thought alone made Miles' stomach turn, but he knew it had to be done for many different reasons. It took Miles a much longer time to get around to cauterizing the wound than it had to actually cutting Will's arm off, though. By the time everything was done it had passed the fifteen minute mark; the teen had searched for three minutes along to find a relatively big enough, clean object in one of the rooms that he could heat up, and then he'd spent the rest of the time in Mr. Cavanaugh's room heating it up, fighting with the Bunsen burner like he always had.
It had woken the soldier up briefly, too, which showed he was still there somewhere. Miles had heard of shock before, and knew that he should probably be worried about it, but he'd never actually learned what it was or how to take care of it. He wasn't even sure where he'd learned about the cauterizing; if it wasn't something that actually happened then he doubted it'd do too much harm.
The real threat, of course, was that even with this the soldier was still infected. It was all just a huge gamble that Miles was taking, banking on being faster than the infection because of how the soldier had been bit. If he'd been bitten through an artery then the teen probably would never have bothered, but as it was all he could see when he watched the soldier standing there in shock for those few seconds was Sarah, holding their little girl in her arms and waiting for her husband to return.
And Will was a crucial piece of Autobot City, too. Miles hadn't quite gotten caught up on the exact chain of command, but he knew the Captain was the de facto human leader, and that half of the Cybertronians naturally deferred to him on most matters. The base couldn't afford to lose the Captain, so the teen had done what little he could to try and stop that from happening.
Now it was just a waiting game. It'd be a few hours yet before any of the soldiers that had come with them attempted to find them, and by then the teen knew he'd know whether or not Will was infected.
By the time Fig found his Captain and the teen in the high school, it was three thirty.
They'd waited for ten minutes outside as a bunch before understanding that something had gone horribly wrong, and just like that the whole lot of them had swarmed into the high school as one, any danger be damned. They'd split into two groups: Donovan led the downstairs one and Fig took his group upstairs, and barely any time had passed before he'd called on Donovan's group to guard their backs.
The smell of burning flesh permeated the hallways on the second level, and it was like a beacon to what they were looking for. Fig led the way, determined to respond to the two first in case they needed medical aid—and by the smell one of them was in trouble. He followed it to the end of the hall, and split his men into groups to check the surrounding rooms as he entered the one the smell was coming from.
Opposite the door, against the wall underneath the window, his Captain lay on the ground. Instantly Fig could see where the smell was coming from; Will's right arm had been cut off and the stump had been burned to cauterize it. He glanced to the left and his eyes focused on a mangled body, one he almost instantly recognized as Robert Epps even though it had been mutilated. About two feet away from the body Miles sat, his back against the wall and eyes locked on Will.
"We found him in here," Miles explained, gesturing to Epps. "Will shot him, but then he went to throw up out in the hall. Some bastard must've been watching us the whole fucking time… Almost as soon as Will opened the door to puke he got bit. Some asshole was standing there waiting for one of us to leave, to make sure we got bit. I'm guessing it was meant for Will, a trap. I shot the bastard in the shoulder but he got away."
"A trap," Fig whispered, horrified. "Dios mio, pobre Will…"
"He's not infected!" Miles declared heatedly, the teen standing. "He got bit at eleven, and yeah it's only three, but I've hardly seen anyone make it more than a couple of hours and…"
The teen's voice wavered, but Fig knew beyond a doubt that Miles wouldn't cry. Later on, alone or with Bumblebee, he might bemoan life and how it sucked, but right now his eyes wouldn't even water. There was too much to think about, too much to take in and worry over. The boy was a lot like his Captain in that regard, and the Spanish soldier knew that was probably what really made them fight.
But they wouldn't be fighting anymore if the infection really did take Will.
"I'll call Ironhide," Fig decided. "He can transport Will back to the base. If he does turn then he'll be inside his mech, if he doesn't then only Ratchet and First Aid will deal with him."
The teen nodded slowly, seeming to accept that answer. The safety of everyone on base came first, Fig believed that down to his core even if it meant just letting his Captain die, but if there was a way to get him there safely then he'd go to any length to do that. And Miles could just help him along the way.