Story: Virus...

Chapter 5 - Survivors

(NOTE: No relation to 'Black and white Autobot family)

All pure FICTION!

'Blah' normal talk

blah thoughts aloud

'blah' talking through comlink

Energon exploded everywhere! Everyone ducked, or as Prowl would've done, he just stood there, as energon from when Strife just shot himself, splatted him from the waist upwards.

Luscious was still crying, holding her dead bondmate in her arms. She looked up at Prowl. 'Why? Why did you have him die like this? Surely killing the virus didn't mean kill your own! What has that scientist done to you?'

'That's enough of that!' Rodimus told her.

Prowl stood, mouth open, as if shocked. After cleaning himself from the energon spill, he hung his head, and went out the room.

'Now you done it.' Rodimus shook his head. He nods slightly at Bluestreak, who chases after his brother.

Jazz and Proton noticed the change in Prowl, and head after him aswell.

They found him standing on the 6th floor balcony, looking down below at the infected limping, crawling around the streets.

'You ok bro?' Bluestreak approaches him.

Prowl shook his head. 'This wasn't the revival I wanted.'

Bluestreak turned to Proton for his advice.

'We know it isn't easy son. Einsteel forced his way to build an ultimate creation to save Cybertron. If I'd known he would've used you for this project, I wouldn't agree. This wasn't the 'R.I.P' you asked for.'

'Sir, with all due respect, it was Einsteel's choice in subject for his project. I have to face it, the femme was right. I'm just killing everyone with the virus. I don't want that. I wish I could be my normal self, sorting datapads, as the Military Strategist I was. Einsteel created the exact OPPOSITE of my old self, and I don't like it one bit. My memory bank was telling me to shoot, but my spark said not to shoot him! And what do I listen to? And what will Luna think of me now?'

By now, a few others had gathered round, listening to what he was saying. Luscious was still crying, and listening to what Prowl was saying, she felt sorrow, and was sorry for what she had said to him.

'Sorry for what I said.' she called out to Prowl. 'It was rude of me, but now I know what you've been through. Now I know. Forgive me, please!'

'I do. I wouldn't never forgive anyone.' Prowl responded. He turned back towards the view of the infected. 'But they won't kill themselves. What if I am the only hope for Cybertron?'

Einsteel, was at the monitors at the time, heard every word of what Prowl said.

Anilt and Caskel who were beside him, turned towards their boss, waiting for his response.

'Sir,' Anilt broke the silence. 'He's right. We did build a fighting machine. At least he should enjoy life as he has, as you put it, brought back to life. When others die risking their lives, they don't get a second chance in life. Prowl is lucky.'

'He matched out statistics Anilt!' Einsteel argued. 'But we were giving a mission to find a way to save our citizens from the virus.'

'And if the citizens become infected, he surely isn't saving them then. If loved ones are killed by Prowl because they are infected, the family of that bot won't forgive him, blame him. Surely he should be given a soft side to all this madness.'

'I know. But he's got his memories back, and has his brother and father at his side. Shame about his mother though...'

Anilt and Caskel gasped. 'Sir! His mother protected her twins from the disaster that shocked Cybertron.'

'I meant that he doesn't remember his own mother! Didn't you hear what he said? "What would Luna think of me?" Why not just say mum?'

'With all due respect sir, he never saw her from birth, and then when she was shown from a memory in his memory bank, surely if he remembered her. Pictures, family photos, something that made him remember. And that happened BEFORE the experiment sir? How does he remember her? If he did already know his mother, even though he never met her in person, then before the experiment began to retrieve memories of his work and family, then it means he already remembered everything before the experiment took place!'

Einsteel remained speechless. He looked back from his two 'friends' and sighed. 'Thanks to me, we have created a brilliant creation, a powerful bot who we brought back from the dead, with our little spices added, and now we can save Cybertron. This is the start of saving the future!'

'How is this saving the future? Our Prototype is goin around killing all the infected. There's moore than 7 times the number of infected bots as there is to those not infected. He'll kill nearly the whole population of Cybertron! All the remaining Autobots, no femmes at all, there's no way we can restore order to Cybertron with no femmes, so no future generations!' Caskel responded with a resonable arguement.

Einsteel sighed.

A radio sound (to describe, the sound radios make when changing station), sounded.

The Autobots who were crowded around the balcony, head back into the main room where their radio was.

'Incomming transmition!" Kup said.

'Let's bring it in,' Rodimus said.

Kup nods and types frantically on the keyboard, but on the screen, he pulled up different files, and reports, etc from the news about the infected. 'I'm too old for this!' he said.

Proton steps forward and takes over, and brings up the transmition. 'Getting old are we?'

'Hey, so are you, you know that right!' Kup responds, with a little laugh on the end.

'Hello. Is anyone there?' a female voice asked.

Rodimus inserted the microphone lead into the control pad, and presses the button. 'This is Rodimus Prime of the Autobots. Do you copy?'

Pause... 'Can anyone hear me? Is there anyone alive who is receiving this SOS?'

'SOS. They're in trouble.' Rodimus said. 'Unless we get the microphone working...'

-In the lab. Einsteel looks at the monitor, as Prowl was also seeing it (remember the lab can see what Prowl sees, thinks, and does). He types up something.-

Prowl grabs the microphone, and taking the case off, fiddles with it, attached the case, and plugs it back it, and pats the top of the microphone.

'Who's that thumping? Are you there? Copy?'

Rodimus' optics widened, as did everyone else's as they looked at Prowl, who just shrugged.

'This is Rodimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Do you copy?'

'We do... Please, Autobots.. There's sparklings here, barely any energon for ourselves... We need help.'

'Who is this we speak to? And where are you?'

'We don't know where we are. We're not near a city... Sorry no Idea! Oh... Manaline'

Rodimus nodded to Proton, who opens up the software to trace the comlink, typing frantically on the keyboard. 'We'll trace this comlink Manaline. We'll be able to locate you.'

CRASH!

Prowl immediately performed a black flip, pulling out his weapon.

'What was that?' Bluestreak asked, frightened.

Prowl runs towards the balcony, and looks over. He gasps, and runs back inside. 'The infected have blown the doors down. They're coming up! Fast!'

'Manaline. We'll trace this comlink, and we'll leave ASAP to find you all!' Rodimus said.

'Please hurry...'

Proton continued typing quickly, before he finally located the signal. 'Just outside the city, near the secret under base..'

'Hold put Manaline. We're coming!'

He ended the comlink. Rodimus turned to see Prowl just run into the room.

'They're on the 3rd floor already! We gotta go!' Prowl said.

An infected bot runs towards them. Prowl reloads his gun, and blasts the bot in the head, as it fell to the ground.

'Weak point is their head?' Bluestreak asked his bro while everyone else fled towards the staircase.

'I'll explain on the way. Come on!' Prowl said.

The team all turned and ran towards the staircase, as the infected all run after them.

They all managed to reach the roof of the council building. Sunstreaker looked down.

'Whoa. Wouldn't want to be down there now.'

Prowl slaps him on the shoulder. 'Don't jump down then.'

'Now what?' Bluestreak asked.

Proton points to the over side of the city. 'There. That's the nearest entrance into the city from where the comlink was traced.'

'Any thoughts in going down?' Rodimus said. 'To land on the rooftops of the houses. We gotta get over there, and walking on the ground with those infected surely won't be a good idea.'

Prowl was looking in the other direction towards, the landing pad. 'Still got your ship dad? The Halo Comet?'

Proton nodded. 'If those infected bot aren't among the landing pad, or have damaged the ship, it's flyable! Enough to get us all there, and enough to fit even an army spare!'

'Then let's go!' Rodimus ordered.

'You expect us to jump down there?' Sideswipe looked down at the rooftops.

Prowl groaned, as if to say 'Oh Primus, whimp!' and he jumps of the roof.

The others watched as he lands successfully on his feet on the roof of the house next door to the council building, with a strong rooftop, and luckily it was the highest building near the council building.

The others all jumped off the side of the building. Some landed on their feet, some on their back or front. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe landed, but lost their footing, sliding down the roof towards the ground below, and the infected bots.

Prowl grabbed their arms before they fell. Bluestreak rushed forward, and helped his twin lift the 'troublesome twins' to safety.

'Watch your landing,' Prowl gave them a tip before walking along the rooftop.

'Lets go.' Rodimus said. 'Lead the way Prowl, incase of those bots below try anything.'

Prowl nodded. 'Yes sir.'

As the team make their way away from the rooftops of the houses, many of the infected bots below turned to see the 'fresh' bunch, and all reached up trying to grab them.

'When they're infected, they turn incredibly dumb!' Sideswipe joked, receiving a 'high-five' from his twin.

At the lab...

'Sir.' Anilt climbs up the stairs to the pod with all the monitors for Prototype Prowl.

'Something wrong Anilt?' Einsteel said.

'Yes sir. You know your theory of the infected not remembering anything of the lives they had, how the black cloud that crowded their memory bank? Its untrue! With Test Subject 7 or as we know as our own Mary-Bot, her memory bank slowly filled with the black cloud, but when tested, it shows traces of haemicing to the system, and the femme suffered a haemorrhage to the memory bank. She also suffered a fit as the virus spread. Once the cloud crowded the memory bank, the body shuts down, and she died.'

'Roughly how long till the virus has taken over their body?' Caskel asked.

'Least time was an hour, the longest, a day.' Anilt replied. 'Once the bot has been bitten, nothing can be done to stop them becoming... one of them. The virus doesn't attack their spark, it travels towards their memory bank. When they die, it will take roughly a minute, to 10 minutes for the infected bot to come back to life. The virus reboots their system, but changes their personality, and their life, a lot! But the memories aren't wiped out completely. Mary-Bot got up and she didn't attack us. The X-Ray showed she still had the virus powering her body. The source of the virus, lies in their memory bank. That's why their weakness is to shoot the memory bank. Because then the virus is killed off, and because the virus effecting their memory bank, was what was bringing them back to life, the infected bot dies.'

'That's excellent research Anilt,' Einsteel said. 'So even when infected, they still remember family and friends.'

'Precisely sir.' Anilt replied.

'Right,' Caskel still sounded unsure. 'But all this research you've just said, what if Prototype Prowl does get bitten?'

'That's a good question there,' Einsteel turned to Anilt. 'We did create this protoform to withstand the virus. But if some infected bot happens to get pass his defenses, then it's castastrophy. But with the Prototype's defenses, and it's weaponry, I doubt there's a chance he'll be bitten!'

'With all the tests ran on the protoform, and when we successfully merged Prowl with it, there's like a 13% chance he can get infected, but it's still a chance he will be. We can update the prototype to withstand the virus 100%, but he's out there now, in the wild with those flesh eaters. While he's online, we can't do that update. I am currently working on the update as I speak'

'Perfect. Let's continue following on Prototype Prowl's moments for the time being,' Einsteel said, turning back to the monitor showing what Prowl was seeing.

Prowl kept watching his footing as he and the team made their way along the rooftops towards the landing pad ahead.

The infected bots below raised their hands ready to catch them if they fell; some of they were smarter and following them.

'Some are following us! Do you think they know?' Bluestreak asked.

'They might. I don't see how they are capable of knowing?' Rodimus replied.

'They do.' Prowl added. 'The virus might have taken over their thoughts and personality, but they sometimes remember their work, place they lived, etc... They will know.'

Prowl stopped in his tracks, as did everyone else.

'Oh no...' everyone realized.

The houses stopped ahead, and there was no high place to go, with the airport just meters away.

'How do we get there?' Bluestreak asked.

Proton turned to the large wall that stood nearby. 'Get this to block the gap between these houses. It's long enough, and tall enough so those flesh eaters won't get over.'

Rodimus nodded. 'It is large enough. Let's move.'

The two mechs, and the others who help managed to lift the large brick wall section over to the gap between the houses up ahead, carefully dropping the wall so it didn't break, it rested in the gap.

'The wall being large enough, we gotta make sure they don't see us.' Rodimus said. 'Keep low.'

Everyone nodded. They all slid down the side of the building, and walked past the brick wall, and towards the next lot of houses. Sideswipe peaked over the wall.

'There's so many of them.' He whispered to Sunstreaker. 'They could all be taken out if there was loads of weapons.'

One of the infected bots walked past, and turned his head towards them. The twins ducked, as the mech limped towards the wall.

'Infected bot at 12 o'clock!' Sideswipe whispers to everyone else.

'Get down and keep quiet!' Rodimus orders.

Everyone did as told as the infected bot peaks over the wall, and looks around. Seeing no 'fresh' bots or any breathing, he limps away towards the pack of others infected.

Prowl hits Sideswipe on the head. 'Don't!' as he walks off.

'You got hit!' Sunstreaker laughed, before being giving a glaring from Sideswipe and hit in the face!

The others all followed Prowl towards the landing pad.

The Autobots all leaned against the wall, and ducked.

'I'm going to look and see if the coast is clear,' Prowl said, and runs off round the corner. He returned less than a minute later. 'Quite a few, but they're all spread out across the landing zone. I saw your ship alongside the ARK only meters away. But quite a few of those infected are near the ships.'

'The force of taking off in my ship surely sends them flying.' Proton said.

'None of them are near us. I say we run to the ship. The ramp isn't open and neither is the door, so no one could've got into your ship.' Prowl added.

'Let's go then,' Rodimus said.

Prowl leads them round the corner towards the emergency exit from the landing zone. He shows everyone all the infected bots around the whole area.

'Quite a few?' Sideswipe argued. 'I say quite a few hundred!'

'Scaredy cat.' Prowl said. He watched those infected limping around and waited for the right moment. 'Now!'

They all charged through the door, and ran as fast as they could towards the ships and shuttles.

The infected bots turned around and saw the 'fresh' mechs, and began limping towards them, some of them began running.

Those Autobots who had their weapons on them, fired at those who got too close. Sideswipe shot 3 times as one of them. Prowl noticed, and shot the head, watching the infected bot fall offline. Sideswipe looked at him, giving him the 'Show-off' look! Prowl only smiled. 'You're suppose to shoot the head!', before they quickly picked up the chase towards the ship.

Proton used the ship's special activation key, and the ship door opens.

'Inside!' he said, as the Autobots all scrambled into the ship.

When everyone was in, Proton slammed the door shut into one of the infected mechs' face and locked it. He climbed into the pilot seat in the control pad. Pressing frantically on the control pad at so many different buttons, he got the engines started.

'Strap yourselves in.' he orders.

Everyone sat in the passenger seats, as the ship slowly lifts off, and take to the sky.

'Phew... that was close.. Everyone all in one piece!' Sideswipe said.

The team all clapped knowing they had gotten away from all the infected bots.

'I've got the GPS locater to locate the location of the comlink message from earlier, Rodimus,' Proton said. 'Typing in the co-ordinates now.'

On the transparent glass infront of them, the over head projector shines on it, the 3-D map of Cybertron.

'That's cool.' Rodimus said.

On the map, a circle of an area shows up, and then a small red points beeps.

'There. Just a few miles from the landing zone actually. Just outside town, near Autobots' undergroud base. Full speed ahead, so hang on.' Proton tells him. 'Oh and I'm to show a little trip I kept in stock.'

He presses one of the small green buttons.

A sort of wave covers the screen and goes away a few seconds after.

'What was that dad?' Bluestreak asked.

'It's the invisibility cloaking of the ship, isn't it?' Prowl said to Proton. 'Covers the ship so it's invisible to those below, and stops the ship being found by GPS trackers, or the Decepticons.'

'Right. We don't want those infected bots below to see a ship. They would know someone must be inside stearing. A live bot controls the ship, more flesh for them.'

'Don't make me sick!' Sideswipe moaned.

'Then let's not go too fast. Stick to a steady pace not to draw attention.' Rodimus said.

'Will do sir.' Proton said.

Nearby, Prowl stood by the window, and looked down at the infected bots around the street. There was so many of them. 'Am I really to bring an end to all this?' he asked himself. 'How?'

Another great chapter. I'm getting more excited to get to the end of the story.

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Thanks for reading the new chapter. More chapters along the way.