Chapter 5: The turning point
To prevent her mother from freaking out why her daughter suddenly owned a car, she have to stops far from her home and walks on the remains way.
"Thank you." She says, tries not to be too grateful about that. "You can keep the Matrix or give it back to the government . It's up to you."
He doesn't replies, just turns back to the way he went earlier. Comes back to that fucking junkyard . She thinks furiously in her head. The sound of the wheels running on the road is the only sound she hears in this lonely and quiet desert.
Elista doesn't come inside the house right away and spends her time sitting on the swing outside her house. She looks back to the end of the road where the shape of BumbleBee becomes smaller and smaller. All of the things that happended till now she still feels like a dream, a realistic dream. From the day she found out BumbleBee to the day she stole the Matrix and fixed him. How can it be real?
She wishes it was just a dream so she can wakes up and everything will becomes the way it is. She doesn't have to worry how to fix this.
It just so fucking complicated. She buries her head in her hands… When the government knows the Matrix was stolen, they will try to find out who take it. Sooner or later they will knock her door. And if this really happened, not only her but also her mother and aunt Annie will be in big troubles. Not only she has to take the punishment from the school but also she will have to take the punishment from the government. And it not something to laugh at . At the moment she realizes that how serious her action is. Scared and frighten is filling inside her, making her so hard to breath. And worse that she still doesn't know the reason why she wants to wake him up.
"I'm so stupid." She mumbles , blames herself for her foolish action. "What should I do now?"
All the beautiful futures she draws to herself darken in front of her eyes. She feels so scared and helpless. It's all the fault of the old man who sold souvenir. She pulls out the necklace she bought days ago. If not for his sweet words about her future that makes her doing all this dangerous and foolish things . Look who is fooled now?
All her anger direct to the small thing in her hands. She angrily throws this away. Unfortunately, it is bounced back to its owner by the wood fence.
"Elista, why don't you come inside?" Her mother stands at the front door and looks at her concernedly. And unfortunately it's the way the necklace is flying at. It hits the wall near her mother 's head making a loud noise, startling her.
"What is this?" She asks worriedly and looks at the thing making that noise.
Calming herself down , Elista looks at her mother who starts to pick up the necklace. Her mother is a professor about robots and if she looks at the symbol on the necklace, she will know what it is. And Elista will be in a lot of troubles by her mother who will make everything more complicate.
"I'm hungry! Have you cooked our dinner yet?" Elista runs to her mother and pushes her inside. She quickly taking the necklace from her hand put in her pocket. "Aunt Annie had me give you something. Come inside and I will show you"
The sun has gone down, plunged the desert into peaceful darkness. The stars scatters on the sky with some remain red cloud of early evening. Around the house, except the lab, just sand and rocks, there's nothing else.
Inside the house, laugher's filling the kitchen. The mother and her daughter happily talking to each other about many things, forgetting all their worry at the moment.
[…]
Her punishment at the school should be last a month. But because her mother went to her school and talked with the principal and she agreed to let her go to school earlier.
Right now she thinks why do people need mother ? To interrupt their fun or to make them angrier?
"Promise me you will go to school today! I have a meeting in one hour so.." she hurriedly turn her car out of the garage, not forgetting to give her daughter who is pouting outside the car door a kiss on the cheek." Don't do anything stupid, ok?"
Before leaving, her mother also reminds her to keep her Ipod with her everytime.
Most of parents want to keep the electronics away from their children. But her mother doesn't belong to that group. She always makes Elista keep her Ipod by her side. She said that her health condition has been not good so she put a program in her Ipod to always check her in case something happened. Sometime , she wondered whether all her trouble with electronics happened around her because of that program or not?
But thank to this birth defect, she has learned so many thing about technology but mainly about fixing electronics after so many times accidently broke them.
Deep in thought, she forgets to take the bus. But after all, walking to school is much more comfortable than sitting with her bullied classmates on the school-bus. Thinking like that, she adjusts her bag and begins to walk. The music is playing loudly through her headphone, encouraging her to continues her way to school. Suddenly she remembers the junkyard where she found BumbleBee. She wonders where he is right now. Is he still there? Or did he leave to a quieter place? And if he really leave , the percentage of finding Matrix will become zero.
Anyway she always can blame all the sins on him. After all the government just want to take back their thing, and luckily they will be happier if they also accidently find out him.
Unfortunately, the person she just thought about suddenly appear before her eyes, right to the place they separated yesterday! He parks near the roadside, in front her.
" You don't need to follow me around you know." She pats the hood. " Just help me return the Matrix. That's all I ask from you!"
"I saw your school bus run past here without you so I think you had missed it."
He turns back, blowing the dust in the air. Coughing, she opens the door and comes inside. Although she doesn't want to have any relationship with him, but if he continues doing this, she afraid he will become a part of her life.
"You don't need to worry about the Matrix, I will contact Optimus and give it to him."
'What about the others?" She takes off her headphone " I mean why don't you live with other Autobots?"
"It's a long story.." He sighs and says in a low voice " And my presence was not necessary anymore."
Going to school by car is much faster than by the old school bus, and more comfortable. It just takes 10 minutes to go to school. She happily comes out of the car, not forget to give a small smile to him. "Can you share your story to me? Because I'm very curious about it ."Without waiting for him reply, she turns her back to him and comes to her class.
[…]
All the time in the class, her thought just comes back to BumbleBee. Maybe he's not bad after all. And the problem with the Matrix has been solved smoothly.
"Elista, you don't like my lecture about math, do you?"
The Math teacher slams the book on her desk, making a loud noise. She's startled by that and quickly looks at her teacher who is glaring at her. Her classmates all looks at her, giggles with each other.
" Do a question on the board to me or you will have a detention after class!"
The question last all the board, includes many new formulas that she hasn't learned before. Normally, she will accept defeat and turn back to her seat. But in the afternoon she has an important appointment with BumbleBee she doesn't want to miss, detention is unacceptable! Because of embarrassment, she forgets about her Ipod which is in her bag.
A headache begins to form in her head. All letters of the question start to leave the board, she means really leaves the board! She can see letters and numbers fly to her and become a perfect answer to the question.
"What the heck is this?" she mumbles to herself, too shock to do anything, just staring at the numbers floating before her.
"So you just keep staring at it until the end of the class or something?" The teacher stands next to her says, his smug face makes her blood boiling. Her classmates grow bored and begin talking with each other , mainly about the school ceremony which will be held in next week.
With no other choice, she takes a breath to calm herself and go to the board. Nobody except her see this flying numbers because everyone is just so calm. She begins writing all the thing she sees floating before her eyes.
And as soon as she finishes the first line, everyone start to pay intention to what she is doing. Even her teacher who is so surprise that he has to stand up and watch. It takes her five minutes to finish the question. The board is full of numbers and letters, making it so hard to see the result.
"Teacher, I'm done."
She places the chalk on the teacher's desk and returns to her seat. Suddenly , her eyes are caught by a stack of papers on the teacher's desk with a big line on the top "International Mathematics Competition"
"Right, I'm a freak now.." She feels even more miserable.
The bell signals the end of the class. Everyone gather their things and begin leaving. Not wanting to be humiliated by others, she quickly leaves the classroom. But her luck is not with her today, her teacher is already waiting for her at the door.
"Are you interested in joining the Math team?"
[…]
"Sorry I'm late"
She puts her bag beside and closes the car door, using her hand to clean away the sweat on her forehead. Just before coming out of the school, she encountered the girl who she had pushed. She has a dislocated tendon and some scratch . Just like that she will nearly be in the heat argument. But the cold and lonely feeling she had been endured at that night taught her not to let her anger control her like that. She mumbled an apology to that girl and quickly left.
"It's ok". The car starts to run past her school bus, she can see the jealous faces of her classmates in the bus. She smirks, feeling satisfied. But come to think about it, her classmates will make a fuss about her having her own car. And it can cause her some problems.
"Next time can you park far from school? I don't want people in my school see me driving a car."
"Ok." He begins to run faster. " So where do you want to go now?"
"I think I will go to that place.." she points to the left "You will like it."
The place she wants to go is a small canyon. At first, he doesn't know why she wants to go to a quiet and boring place like this. But when she comes out and tells him to transfer back he understands.
"Don't worry, nobody will see you in here!" she says excitedly.
Because staying too long in the other form he has to take while to completely transform back to his original form. All signal detectors of the government were dismantled after the Autobots had taken the responsibility of protecting the world from alien invasions. So if he doesn't send signals to the base, no one can't discover where he is.
"I guess you will feel more comfortable in this form." A giant hand suddenly appears before her sight. She hesitates a bit before climbing in his hand. He carefully jumps down to a valley below and puts her on the giant stone.
In this perspective, she remembers the first time she sees him in this form, the only things different is now he is not angry. Just like aunt Annie said, he is kind and gentle, the most pleasant robot of the Autobots. Furthermore , he also a brave and loyal warrior. But she doesn't understand why he leaves the other and stay in that junkyard.
"Ok.. so.." she pull out her homework today and calls him " Tell me about your story!"
[…]
In the late afternoon, there are just few people who still in the school. Some students in the library start to go home. The old guard begins to close the entrance door when from afar appears a convoy of black cars.
"What happened?"
The principal comes out of her office, astonishingly stares at the people who come out of the car.
"May I ask who are you and what is your business here?" The guard asks politely.
"We want to meet your principal." One of the men orders in scornful tone.
"Excuse me!?"The old guard feels really be insulted. He glares at them ." I want you to leave here immediately before I call the police!"
The man ignores the threat, calmly pulls out his phone and answers. The other men follow his waving hand and run in the school. The guard looks around helplessly when they ransack the school.
"I .. I will call the police, seriously!"
A woman pats the man shoulder when he still in the argument with the one in the phone. To think the superior is furious with him is not wrong because we can hear the person angry voice through the phone without putting the phone near our ear. She pats a bit forceful on his shoulder.
"We are the police!" He turns back and puts the badge in front of her face. "Can you please call me the principal, we are in hurry !"
"I am the Principal ! What is your business that need to destroy my school !" She grimaces, pushes his hand away from her face and looks at the others who are running around her school.
"We need the information about one student of yours .." He indicates the other men to stop " When we have what we need, we will leave immediately."
[…]
The sun lazily comes down behind mountains, bring with it the last light to let the surrounding falls in the darkness.
"It's time to go home.."
Elista gathers her things and turns to BumbleBee who is still deep in thought. He told all the stories to her but she thinks he still stuck in the flashback. She really wants to comfort him but doesn't know what to say in this situation. She doesn't know losing some one important feel like. Her life, she just goes to school and comes back home, boring and lonely. She will have a lot of friends if not for her mother who has to moving around from place to place or her troubles at the old schools. Now there's just her and her mother.
"I will bring back the Matrix and give it to Optimus tomorrow.." He says, his voice is drowned out by strong winds " They have been in a important mission outer space but they will come back in three or four days.
"Will you come back?" She asks worriedly. It's strange that she just needs some hours to talk to him and she really misses him.
"If they let me…"
On the way to her home, they don't talk to each other. The silent surround the car is making her feel very uncomfortable. Until the sound from the phone startles her, she quickly checks the message.
Mom doesn't come home tonight.She sighs sadly.
She peaks at the seat near her. The steering wheel still slowly turns. He's still deep in the pain about the death of his friend. She suddenly has the feeling of envy toward his friend. If she has a wonderful friend like that, it's still worth it even if confronting with much difficulty .
But she thinks about tomorrow, when she might not see him again in her life. Have the things end like that?
"You.. "she hesitates, doesn't know how to say next.
A car runs past her sight. She is lowering the glass door, looking at it inquiringly because after five o'clock no one travels through here. And this kind of car usually just appears in the big city, not in the small and deserted place like this. Although she doesn't know much about car but she did saw her mother had a car like this when she worked for the government central laboratory.
What does a government car do in the place like this? Mom is still at her workplace, hasn't she?
She pulls out her phone to call her mother but more cars like the first one run past her and BumbleBee.
"That's strange…"She peeks out of the car to see more clearly. " Do they come to arrest someone ?"
Suddenly, the first car slams on its brake, turns back to her way. The other cars also stop to wait command.
On the street, there is no one except her and them. But by intuitive, she knows the person they are looking for is her.
"You are 's daughter?"
Behind the car door, a huge man comes out of the car and asks her. Reluctantly, she has to cut off the call to her mother and answers him through the car door.
"Yes, I am. And what is your business with my mother?"
" Kimston has us pick you up to Washington." He friendly says and pulls out his badge "Don't worry we all are the police."
"Aunt Annie?" She happily comes out of the car "Has my mother been called back to headquarter to work?"
"Yes, you know.." He shrugs and looks around " This place is not suitable for a woman like your mother to work. already arranged a new house for you and your mother to live near Alpha mall !"
"Are you serious?!" She smiles broadly " I will call my mother to tell her about this and come back home to gather my things."
"We'll call her later!"
He places his hand on her phone, stopping her from calling her mother. Although he still smiling, she feels a bit uncomfortable and distrust. The transfer is the job of Institute of Technology, why they have a bunch of police do this for them now. Is this kind of thing attracts too much attention? Moreover, all of them have their weapon with them even if they hide it very well , she still feels its presence. And if it is like this, they will force her to go with them even if they have to use violence.
"So.. I will take my bag.." She calmly returns in her car "It is no problem, isn't it?"
Pretending to pull out the bag, she quickly mumbles to BumbleBee who understood the danger of this situation. Suddenly, she recognizes a strange thing in her conversation with them. They didn't say they will bring her car which is BumbleBee in car form back to her house.
"It can't be…" She tries not to peek outside.
The sound of ringtone breaks the quiet atmosphere. He quickly pulls out his phone. It might be someone important. Taking the chance, she hurriedly comes inside the car and locks the door. The car turns back and runs to the opposite way in the surprise of other people.
"Shit, she isn't stupid like we thought!" The leader says in angry voice. He furiously orders to his followers "Come inside the cars and bring her back! With her Autobot!
[…]
"Mom, someone pretends aunt Annie 's men and wants to kidnap me! What should I do now!"
Just on the break between shifts, she doesn't have time to put her white blouse on the rack before her daughter calls her. She sounds shaken, taking a deep breaths in between her words "I'm scared mom". Hearing her voice, she understands somehow the things happened to her precious daughter. Instead of be surprised and asks a lot questions, she tells her quickly returns home and hides in the basement till she calls the real police to come.
"Your Ipod, never forget it, ok? Always bring it with you!" Before ending the call, she reminds Elista one more time in case she will forget.
Forgetting her dinner, she quickly turns on her laptop, runs a program and carefully checks every command to be sure there is no fault forgotten.
"Did someone try to find her?" she says to herself worriedly. "I have been very careful about it."
But like remembering something, she quickly runs to a big screen in the room. Everyone have left the room except her with many computers.
The keyboard is covered by a thick layer of dust, indicates it's rarely used. When waiting it to run the program, she prays quietly to herself. This is one of many situations she has been predicted, a situation Elista hasn't been told about.
The map of this area appears on the screen with many green lines on the black background. The signal indicator takes more three minutes to finishes its job.
A small blue dot is moving parallel with the 75 street. Next to it, a small dialog box appears includes the robotic voice confirming it.
" Found out the object has Matrix power. This object is identified…."
Unfortunately, she doesn't have time to hear all of it before everyone comes back. She hurriedly turns off the computer to keeps it a secret.
"Rachael, the army informed us that all the Autobots has left the Earth to a long mission, didn't they?" She asks one of her colleagues who is drinking a cup of coffee nearby.
"That's right, all of them have gone." The woman with a brown hair nods, eyes not leaving the report she holds in her hand. " Except BumbleBee…"
"Why he didn't come with them?" She pulls her hand, nearly pours the coffee on the desk. "And where is he now?"
"I don't know. But last time we can't find his signal, maybe because he shut down his power himself."
"Didn't the army go and find him?"
"No, they say if something happened, he will come back."
Through the call with her daughter, Elista doesn't say that she is running. It's too late to take a school bus and if she luckily in it, the organization can't attack a bus with many children like that. So the highest ability is she has already found a Autobot and be with him.
Are they want to take her or they just want to threaten the Autobot?
Anyway, she still feels a lot better to know that her daughter is in the protection of a Autobot. Opening the mail, quickly writes a letter to her colleague in Washington, who Elista usually calls aunt , tells her all the information and asks for help. She trust only her who is the only one except her know the secret about Elista.