Chapter Twenty Six

22nd December

1830hrs

"…and the collateral damage?"

Chip reached into the slot and grabbed the stale looking muesli bar… well… chocolate bar with nuts and raisins… his ears perked up as he heard Magnus' gruff voice.

"Well, thankfully no fatalities, but there was quite a number of broken limbs, some internal bleeding, lots of scratches and bruises and something called a "heart attack", what a heart is and why it would attack a human is beyond my comprehension but the local law authority is less then impressed. There's a number of human groups who are not our biggest fans and this event plays right into their hands".

Kup explained.

Chip remained still, which was difficult, given his recent experience. He pretended to be engrossed in the objects in the vending machine so they wouldn't think he was eaves dropping. However, it wouldn't take much for trained optics, or any optics or eyes, to notice he was twitching, his hair unkempt as it had dried without being combed first.

After the "event" in the forest he'd been dropped off outside one of the entrance gates into the alien facility, the "ghost hunters" had, for lack of a better term, "chickened out", Ainsley was a mess, Wade was shaking and sobbing intermittently and both were going to take a very messy Ethan to the hospital – he was still unconscious. Chip had wheeled himself along quiet service lanes and made it into the labs and repair bay facility where thankfully he hadn't run into First Aide, he could just imagine the bullocking he'd get from that guy, he was no Ratchet, but could rail when provoked significantly. Perceptor was in there somewhere but was too engrossed in his work, as per usual, to notice the mess and stench that wheeled through.

Chip made it to his office, complete with his own toilet and shower facilities, which both he used liberally. Half way through his fourth soaping he started to weep, it was a strange kind of emotional outlet. He'd cried before, plenty of times, he wasn't ashamed to admit to that, at funerals for friends, family members, when he was in pain, when he was a young child and the diagnosis was made that he'd NEVER walk, but the tears that flowed down his face that mingled with the soap and the shower water, they were different. He couldn't pick a word to give as a description. Maybe he could argue they were tears of fear, could someone cry if they got scared enough, well, children could, but could an adult? He wasn't an expert on the finer points of human emotional expression but under such circumstances who the heck was?

So he had sat in the shower, on his little shower chair, the water having long ago washed away the sludge and foul stench of death, but he still felt dirty. Still felt polluted and violated and unable to get clean of anything. And he was still confused and now very much frightened as to what would happen now. He didn't know if he should tell Perceptor, but he did plan on hunting down Rodimus and asking him about the mass grave. He'd probably not know maybe, Magnus definitely would, but he couldn't quite see the City Commander letting go of that secret. Kup might drop a few hints in amongst some story from his well painted youth. He had passed the shampoo through his hair again and felt the pang of hunger.

"…Those two are becoming a hindrance. I'd like to order full use of force to apprehend them, but I'm sure that won't go down as a moral boaster with the troops, so, instead, I will suggest it".

Magnus stated, his voice cold.

Chip's memories had taken him away from sections of the conversation, but he found he could still follow along quite well. His clean fingers struggled to get the wrapped off. Thankfully it didn't make all that much noise –of course what he considered quiet was easily picked up by an Autobot with well tuned audio sensors.

"Lad, to be honest, those two maniacs could have killed innocent humans, there's a certain behaviour that has to be adhered to, they know the rules, and despite what's wrong with them, it doesn't give them an excuse to do go roughshod around the place. If some poor innocent human had been killed, well, that would have been a PR disaster. I would think "order" would be a completely appropriate response".

Chip felt a chill run down his spine, were those two really having a discussion about offlining the twins? Sure, what they had done sounded rather serious and could have resulted in a fatality… but if they were experiencing anything even remotely similar to what Chip had just witnessed, he didn't blame them. He paused. Could that be what was wrong with the Twins? They were haunted? Chip had to stop himself for a moment, unable to recall if he had had this conversation with someone, or anyone. He didn't like his mind to not be clear and well structured, following a logically determined and planned flow. It was a frightening situation to be in.

The two bots walked off, discussing matters which may or may not have been related to the Twins, they had left the range of Chip's human hearing. He took the opportunity to go hunt down Rodimus now.

2014 hrs

After waiting for an hour to be allowed to see Rodimus he was given motion by the Prime's "secretary". He expected a longer wait.

"Chip, what can I do for you my man?"

The brightly painted Autobot commander asked. Chip hadn't known him very well when he was Hot Rod, Spike had reported that he and Daniel were good friends so Spike was able to relay a few interesting titbits about the young mech's behaviour. According to Spike, Rodimus was changed in that he was more burdened with leadership and it took a great deal of his time, but he still kept his easy going, fun loving demeanour and did still have contact with Danny. But all in all, Chip didn't consider himself Rodimus' "man".

"Thanks for seeing me on such short notice and at such an insane time, Prime".

The human began.

"No problem".

Rodimus sat back against the window sil. It was a large window and during the day would have provided a great view of the centre court of the city and the vast and refreshingly green forest and natural outlay of the mountains and hills that surrounded the Autobots' city. Of course, at night, the shapes of the trees could only be seen by a keenly tuned optic as the brightness of the city would cause the natural world to disappear in the ink.

"Now, ah, this is a tricky question, but it is one that is of utmost importance to something Perceptor and I are working on, so I really would appreciate your honestly".

"Um… okay".

Rodimus wasn't sure what the question was going to be, but had the distinct feeling it wouldn't be one he'd really want to answer.

"Are there any mass graves of human remains near here?"

He asked.

"Any mass graves that you guys know about but didn't tell the human authorities?"

The Prime was quiet for a moment and looked down at the floor.

"Please, Prime, I need to know. I'm not interested in going public I just need to know".

Rodimus remained silent and stared intently at the floor. A few minutes passed, during which time Chip didn't take his eyes from the mech, and Rodimus didn't move a bolt.

"Truth is, Chip, we were quite shocked by what we found when we started digging through the rubble".

He kept looking down.

"We had already released an "official" human death toll and the authorities were happy with that. It was a nice small number, one they could deal with and not get their panties in a collective bunch. A number that wouldn't anger the public so much that they'd start up those anti-Autobot rallies again, like what we saw in the 80s".

"So it's a conspiracy?"

Chip wasn't even sure if he should ask, but he was more stunned then accusatory.

"Yeah, if you wanna call it that. On paper, the human death toll is 1,024 people. In reality that's the number of people we can put a name too, but the real toll is about 4,359 – and that's full bodies, we had huge amounts of body parts we couldn't ID correctly, in the vicinity of 1,784 body parts".

"Holy God! Prime! How the hell does the general public not know that many are gone? Surely people out there must be missing friends, family?"

"Yeah, well, that's what I thought, and that's what I said quite a number of times, but because a lot of the little human settlements nearby were decimated, we think that entire family groups and social networks were taken out, so there really isn't anyone left to remember or notice someone is missing. But I honestly don't think that everyone believes it all. There are people out there who will know that friends and family are missing and that they died here, but they have no remains, no grave, so they're just getting on with their lives, or perhaps they haven't realised it yet. It hasn't been that long".

Rodimus continued to look down, he seemed ashamed, or at the most that he wasn't comfortable with discussing this, perhaps he wasn't happy with how the situation had evolved. Perhaps he was against the methods employed by others in the Brass to keep the real number down.

"Rodimus, people need a physical form to grieve over, its not good for emotional health to try and move on without a body, a grave, even a piece of skin. People need closure. Even after 9/11 fingers and tiny little bits of people were returned to families and that was usually all they needed to move on… well… you know what I mean… to have something tangible to grieve".

Prime sighed and looked up from the floor and over at the human.

"How many graves are there around the place, Rodimus? And where?"

Chip asked.

"Honestly, I'm not sure, but I think there's three really big ones, the biggest is up north-east up by look out mountain. One on the Western side, it contains all those limbs and parts we couldn't give to any corpse in particular. There's one about 10Ks south it has a good chunk of full corpses so badly damaged that they couldn't be IDed".

Chip felt his blood chill as Prime mentioned the Western grave.

"Why are you interested in this anyway?"

Rodimus asked.

"You'd think I was crazy if I told you, but Perceptor and I are working on something".

"Has it got anything to do with all the strange… happenings about the place?"

Rodimus inquired.

"What do you mean?"

Chip asked, sure that he did know what the Autobot meant.

"I've heard rumours, whispers in the rec room and spoken in hushed vocals in the backrooms of the Brass. I may be completely out of my league with this leadership thing, but I'm not that dense that I don't' notice when my staff are talking about ghosts".

The use of the word "G" word caused a wad of spit to get caught in the human's throat as he attempted to swallow his nervousness. He gave a slight cough and dislodged it easily.

"Is that what you and Percy are wasting time on? Ghosts?"

Rodimus said it with a hint of amusement, as if knowing the greatest and most logical mind on Cybertron, working on the concept of dead people walking about scaring the living was some kind of cosmic joke.

Chip wasn't quite sure how to respond to that.

"You know, just between you me, and probably Perceptor cos I reckon you'll tell him, those crazy twins were reporting that they were seeing ghosts, or at least that's what they were implying when they sat in their padded cells screaming like a Qyn'Rox".

Chip didn't know what a Qyn'Rox was but figured it must be something like a banshee or something that screamed nasty.

"Chip, I'd be the last person on this planet or anywhere to tell you that ghosts are real, but what I do know is there's a vast universe out there so it stands to reason there are going to be friends no one knows about or can understand. I'm not going to be arrogant enough to say they don't exist. Whatever you and Percy need to research this or get to the bottom of these shenanigans, well, you got it".

"Thanks Prime".

Chip looked up at the leader, who seemed to have the expression on his face that he had something else he wanted to say. Chip was certain of that but was uncertain how to ask and so didn't. Rodimus expressed that he was busy and now he had to get back to work, Chip agreed and smiled politely and then headed back to the lab to have an uncomfortable discussion with Perceptor.