Chapter 6: The first battle
Thank to Bumble Bee, Elista can return to her home safely. Following her mother 's instruction, she and Bumble Bee comeinside her family's warehouse and hide in a huge basement under it.
"Someone will come and help us very soon."
She comes outside and checks around the warehouse. From outside, it look quiet normal. The walls are built by aluminium and inside some old. When she comes in, there are some broken down computers laying in the corner. Looking at it, she can't image there is a huge basement lays deep under this. Moreover, when she goes down with Bee by an elevator, she notices that there are two more floors under it. So this is the reason why her mother usually forgets to do house chores on the weekends.
Suddenly, there is the sound of people overhead. Many people. She put one finger on her lips, indicating him to keep silent. But ridiculously, in this basement, there is no one who can make noise except her. Holding her breath, she listens carefully of what they are doing but there is nothing much. Are they the police? Or the one who want to kidnap her ?
"Wait.." She finds the more efficient way to eavesdrop. "Sorry for troubling you.."
Hesitating, she begins to climb on the roof of the car and put her ear towards the ceiling. It worked because she hears more clearly what they are saying to each other.
"Definitely in the basement! Shoot!"
As soon as they says it, she can hears rattle noise and some unkown sounds. It takes her seconds to think before hurriedly jumping down and shouting at him.
"BEE, get out of this place!"
A loud explosion knocks out the ceiling. Dust is covering all the surrounding. The pressure makes her flying towards the wall, debris from the concrete covers all her body. Still not recovering from the explosion, she catches a glimpse of a giant gun pointing at her. A Transformer? She is rooted to the spot with fear, breathing becomes more difficult.
From the rubble, Bumble Bee jumps up and punches the strange Transformer hard in the face. The battle becomes more and more intense, making everyone in the basement run for their life. Seizing the opportunity from the chaotic time, Bee hurriedly picks her up and runs away, not forgets to give the strange Transformer a shot to the chest.
" They have five cars like that. Are all of them Transformers?"She mumbles incoherently to herself.
Till have they run far from the warehouse that Elista can gathers enough courage to open her mouth. This is not the first time she was threatened by a Transformer. However, judging from their actions, she believes that they can kill her without hesitation to complete their mission. " Who is the one behind this horrified plan?" She try to find the answer to this question but comes out nothing. Moreover, she isn't a daughter of a parliamentarian or a chairman of a powerful company. So why they want to kidnap her so bad like that. Did they not think they just can get a small amount of money from her mother who is just a normal scientist? Or...
Their real target is Bumble Bee! But.. that's impossible! She shakes her head, denies that no one except her knows the awakening of Bumble Bee.
Leaving all the questions aside, she pulls out her phone and calls her mother.
"I just come back! Oh my God, what happened? Are you alright?" Her mother worriedly asks her daughter "Are you still with Bee?"
" You know?" She asks her mother, feels very confused. How can she know about him? This question suddenly appears in her head, making her worry and disturb. "How?" She can't stop herself from asking her that question. She hears her mother sigh tiredly through the phone "Honey, first i want you to know that I love you and what I have done is for your sake. And right now I can't answer to you this question but.." she hurriedly says before Elista can argue " I promise you that when the time comes I will answer all of your questions, okay?"
She bites her lip, doesn't want to yell at her mother how unfair it sounds. But she thinks about her actions few days ago and how she had lied to her mother, she takes a deep breath before answering her mother
"Okay mom.. and I'm sorry for keeping this secret from you."
"It's okay. And I should be sorry for keeping things from you too." Her mother tells her gently.
"I already called aunt Annie. She said she had booked a ticket to Washington for you. Tomorrow you ask him take you to the local airport, okay?"
"What about Bumble Bee?" She asks worriedly, takes a glance to the wheel automatically turning nearby. "I don't want to go alone."
"Of course he will go with you, silly." her mother giggles "Be careful! Call me when you arrive, ok?"
Putting her phone back to the bag, she suddenly feels very embarrassed. Don't want to go alone?What was she thinking when she said that. He has his own life and things to do. Maybe he is already tired of her and want to get rid of this troublesome girl who happens to be she were him, she would leave as soon as possible and never come back.
Sensing her discomfort, he doesn't ask her anything after that. The night passes through the window, pulling everything into its darkness. The quiet atmosphere just makes her sadness grows more and more.
[I know the times are getting rough
But it's alright
I know it's hard to see the light
But it's alright
Just know that help is on the way
No matter what comes your way
Hold on ]
A song from the radio breaks through the silent surrounding the car. An old song, maybe it was a popular song from his times. The slow melody helps her relax a little, the fear from the attack slowly disappears. She takes off her jacket, folds it neatly to become a pillow. The attack has taken all her strength, physically and mentally. The only thing helping right now is a good sleep for her to recover. She hopes tomorrow everything will be all right and she can meet aunt Annie without any problem. The car is illuminated with strings of colour lights from a nearby billboard. A town appears clearer and clearer, more crowded and noisier than the surrounding desert. He decreases his speed, running slowly on the street of the town.
How much time has passed since the last time he was in such a busy place like that? He thinks about Optimus, about his fellowship who are still trying to protect the Earth. In the end, the one who destroy this beautiful planet is humans, the one they trying to protect.
After the final war, all the threat from the outer space were all eliminated. Considering on hard work, humans and Autobot all sacrified equally so they can be called allies, can live in peace with each other in this planet. But things don't go easily like that. Who knows how many times, just because of some small problems, the Autobots are the one who have to sacrifice first.
Stopping at a small local shop, he slips in the middle row of the car park, turns off the engine and waits for her to wake up. Who is this girl? Why did she want to steal the Matrix to help him that led to be hunted so vigorously? He tries to find answers for this question but he can't find anything.
"We here?"
Her voice startles him from his thought. She wakes up, dazedly looks out of the window. A giant biilboard captures her attention with all of its colour lights. A shop!
"You wait here! I will go buy somethings."
She puts on her jacket. But like remembering something she hurriedly takes her bag with her and comes out, blends into the crowd on the pavement.
The sight of her suddenly reminds him of Sam, in the same scene,laughing and waving at him. The day Sam died, he was in an important mission that he could not returned in time. Although he always knows that the death can not avoid, but he still can't acept it. It taked him a year to decide to visit his best friend 's grave. At that day, on the green grass, the gray tombstone lied lonely under the heavy rain. Beause the graveyard didn't allow cars to come in so all he could do is standing outside and mourning. The depression he felt that day still stucked his heart everty times he remembered it.
After the war, people began to rebuild everything. And just like he predicts, humans started to reject the existence of Autobots. Arguments, negotiations, embargoes began to form to forbid activities of them. Furthermore, they send all the Autobots in one place far from the citizen. Optimus reluctantly agreed, but he couldn't accept something so unfair like that and left the base.
[…]
"Maybe you should come in the restroom to fix your hair…"
A young female shopkeeper suggests her kindly when Elista waits at the checkout. At this time, she finally realises that the others are glance at her warily.
"I will put your things here with its bill. You can come back and pay it whenever you want."
"Thank you." She says, embarrassed.
Coming in the restroom, she yelps in shock at her face in the mirror. Her hair is messed up, covered with white concrete dust, tattered clothes, some mino grazes. But she didn't feel any pain from them leave alone sleeping soudly until now.
"It's unbelievable…" she mumbles to herself, too shock by her dirty appearance.
Combing her hair, she suddenly realises that she forgot to bring new clothes to change. When not knowing what to do, the familiar face of the young shopkepper appears at the door with some new clothes.
"I bring these just in case you want to change your old clothes. You can pay for it later." she winks at her and leaves. Saying a quick thank to the shopkepper, she hurriedly changes to a simple shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Some people in the room help her with her injuries and ask her a lot of questions like " Where did you go and be injured like that?" or " You are being chased! That's terrible!" and so on.
Suddenly, everyone are thrown to the ground when the ground is shaking violently. People hurriedly run outside, not forgeting take her with them. The shop looks like a storm just went by. Every things are flung to the ground, people run around in fright. The loud noise and the panic atmosphere in the shop make her frightened.
She looks wildly outside to search for Bee. But instead the familiar shape of the yellow car, she catchs a dark shape in the distance. Slowly, it becomes clearer and she can see men with gun in their hands is heading towards her .
"What the hell is going on here?" A guard of the shop furiously dials the police. " Do they think this is the film scene or something?!"
"These are the ones who want to kidnap you?" The woman whom she recognises as the one with her in the restroom. "Hurry up and hide!"
"Kidnap a little girl? What are they thinking?!" An old man standing near her hears that. He angrily grabs a baseball bat and goes straight to the front door. "Go! I will handle here!"
Although she really want to stay and the kidnappers with them but she remembers Bumble Bee is still outside, she reluctantly leaves them and runs to find him. Just running a few steps, she is held back by a soldier. " Do you go with anyone?" He leads her to the exit door. " I just call my army unit but I'm not really sure about the enemy abilities."
"I go with an Autobot! He is outside and facing the danger!" She hurriedly runs outside. " They have four or five Transformers, you have to be careful!"
"What?!" He can't hide the surprise that appears on his face. Shakily, he dials his commander "Sir, we have an E situation. Please send in reinforcements! Repeat, we have an Autobot and some unknown Transformers here!"
Cutting the line, he takes her hand and pulls her towards a jeep with some soldier waiting nearby.
"Wait!" She tries to pull herself free. " I can't leave Bee here."
"Bee?" He asks, looks at her questioningly.
"My Autobot."
"Your Autobot?!" He says disbelievingly, his eyesbrows lifts in surprise.
"Yes and I don't want to leave him alone here, okay!" She says stubbornly, looks straight at him in the eyes.
"The reinforcements will come right away. You are no match for them!" He tries to take her from here but she refuses to listen to him. She runs back towards the shop, where a fierce fight is occurring.
Bee has trasformed back to the robot. Being cornered by four unkown Transformers, he can do nothing except throwing cars at them to prevent them from coming near him. Everyone nearby have run away, even the men going with Transformers wisely stay far away from the fight. Despite that, Elista, without weapons, is still running towards it ignoring all warnings.
Two or three power poles fall down, blocking the road. Fire erupts near the fight. Creeping through cars thrown carelessly by giant robots in front of her, she tries to find a way to get near the fight as close as possible, hoping while doing it she can thinks something to help Bee. But in this condition, she can't anything but watch helplessly.
A giant foot falls down her place, nearly crushing her with its weight. One of Transformers is knocked down by Bumble Bee. He angrily punches the ground and returns to the fight. During this time, Elista is thrown back and collides her head pretty hard on a car behind. Strangely enough, when opening her eyes, she can see everything more clearly than before, just like looking through a night camera. The enemies remain only two. She can see all the giant shapes of them from the place she is standing.
"Where is Bee?" She whispers worriedly, looking around frantically. Her instinct is screaming for her to run away from there, away from the dangers that are happening around. But with the thoungt that she can't leave Bee behind, she runs straight to the dangers in front of her.
When running silently through the ruins, she is grabed by a hand pulling her back. At that moment, a giant bullet passes through the place she just stood, making a large hole on the ground.
"I told you it's dangerous."
With eyes that can see through the night, she recognises him the soldier in the shop with her. He is sitting hunched behind a red car, indicates her to stop.
"I can't find Bee.." She puts head on her hands The panic rising in her throat threatens to choke her. " I don't know what is happening to him?"
" I saw him." He is leaning forwards, pointing behind her. " He is injured but he still can fight."
"Oh my God."
She abandons her hiding place, staggeringly runs to the end of the parking. This is her fault, if she didn't wake him up, he would still be safe in the junkyard. Now, he can be killed any time.
Everything shouldn't happen like that…
"Listen!" The soldier catchs up with her. He shakes her forcefully. "You can't help him if you just runs traight to the danger like that. We will do something, but we have to think carefully first!"
The two strange Transformers are still hunting. So they can't find Bee without the men going with them. It makes her relax a bit. She begins thinking furiously a plan to distract them. The cars around her are all broken down so the chance that she can uses them is nearly zero. Moreover, the distance the two of them are, the more damage they can cause to the people around here. They are just progammed to kill. They don't know the meaning of the word "work in team".
"Helicopters will come in few minutes. You see people inside the shop?" He indicates his head to the way of the shop. " If the Transformers shoot helicopters down. They can't stand a chance to survive."
"I have an idea but I need Bee's help…" She hesitates but still call out for him. "Bee, do you hear me? When I signal, you shoot them, ok?"
There is no respond, although she doesn't hope him to reply. Running to a small truck nearby, Elista pulls out a cable reel from it and throw him one of the end of the cable.
"Can you put this hook on its leg?" She climbs in the driver's seat, not forgeting to show him what to do. " On the joint of its left leg, 40 centimetres above the ground. It's its weak point. If we breaks it, we can knock him down."
"What the.." He points his flashlight behind him but all he can see in this darkness is a giant foot crushing the cars.
"It's just my feeling." She pushs him forward. " Try not be crushed by it!"
He nods his head, hurriedly takes the hook and runs. However, when just running a few steps, he suddenly stops like forgeting something and asks her loudly.
"If I can come back, will you give me your name?"
She giggles, feels it so funny. He is so childish.
"My name is Elista. You didn't give me your name neither."
He looks at her embarrasingly and turns back,continues his mission. Looking at him running around the battle field, she feels a bit sympathetic and concern.
The truck is a bit old, but it still need a password to open it. Luckily, breaking security systems is her advantage. Dusting a keyboard with her powder and based on the density of fingerprints appearing on it, she chooses some of them that maybe a right answer. After the second try, the truck is activated. She puts her hand on a magnetic roller, waits a signal from the soldier.
The Transformers, after two hours seeking, begin to neglect. They look around, sometimes kick a car near their feet making it explode.
Inside the shop, the men chasing her are also seem like giving up. They stand near the front door but do not come out. Maybe they are scared of soldiers who are standing outside.
"So they can detect Bee's signal."
While thinking, she is startled by a firework from the middle of the parking. It seems like he finished his mission. She suddenly remembers his dirty face and starts giggling. The firework has attracted everyone around it. The men take advantage of it and begin to run to the Transformers. To prevent them cause anymore danger to Bumble Bee and the solider , she drives the car forwards.
"It's her!"
The boss of the enemies shout at his people but it's too late. The cable after the car is pulled forwards making the Transformer who is put the hook on fall back, crushing the other Transformer standing nearby.
"Bee, shoot!" she shouts loudly.
Behind an old wall, Bumble Bee suddenly jumps out. His hand transforms to a giant gun and shoots traight to each of the Transformers's heads. Although being injured on the left shoulder, he still tries to protect her from the bad men.
The army helicopters comes near the end of the fight. They lands on the ground near the shop. Just like the movies she usually watchs, the government always appears at the end to collect the remains of the fight. The speed of them is so fast that all the bad guys have the time to disappear.
"Private Matthew!"
The soldier who is saving her suddenly appears from the ruins and his hand to his forehead. The two of them talk to each other in private. Sometimes she can see that the man glances at he disbelievingly. After a while, he comes at her with Matthew behind him, smiling and waving at her.
"You are Elista?" He shakes her hand politely. After that, he turns his head and looks at Bee who is in his car form. "And this is…"
"Bumble Bee! He is an Autobot." She says shyly, not felling comfortable in front of a stranger. "It's not like he disrespects you or something. He is just very tired after the fight so.."
"I know. It's okay." He smiles knowingly at her. " It's just I'm a bit surprise to meet him here. We have tried to find him ever.."
[Step by step, heart to heart, left right left
We all fall down like toy soldiers
Bit by bit, torn apart, we never win
But the battle wages on for toy soldiers]
A song from the radio cuts her speed. Bee still remains silent, like the music from him is not his doing. She turns down the volume, looks at the man apologetically.
"I think we should come back to the base, Bumble Bee needs somebody to fix him."
Matthew says to him, breaking the silent atmosphere.
"Colonel Lannard, it's a pleasure to meet you." He says goodbye to her and turns back to the helicopter, commands the others. "Bringing them back to the base is our priority."
Some soldiers call Matthew, indicate something that she doesn't understand. He waves back and runs, not forget to take her with him.
"I will find a helicopter for you and Bumble Bee!"
Glancing at a helicopter neaeby, she can be sure that Bee can't fit in any of it. Still Matthew pulls her in a helicopter with the enthusiasm that she can't deny. Bee stops at the helicopter tail and waits. The meeting with the colonel makes him angry.
Two soldier bring out a large explanation, she can easily understands what they are doing.
"There is no way I will go in it!" Bee drives back to where Elista stands.
"He is right." She refuses gently. "He is injured and can't bear traveling like that."
They looks a bit awkward.
"How far is it to the base from here? I can go with Bee to it."
"It will be ok?" They asks reluctantly.
"Don't worry. I and my friends also come back by our car so we can make sure that she is alright." Matthew suddenly appears and solves everything perfectly.
However, he is a bit too ethusiatic. This makes Bee a little discomfort.
"Do you mind if I go with you?" He stands near Bee.
Not having time to say next, the car door collides straight to his stomach. Elista covers her mouth with her hands, tries not to laugh aloud.
"I think Bee doesn't agree with this idea.." She shrugs her shoulders. " Maybe you can go ahead and show us the way."
[…]
Their base lies far from the town, behind five checkpoints and three solid concrete walls.
Just coming out the car, she have to face the colonel with maintenance staffs.
"The men chasing me can detect the signal of Bumble Bee so I afraid it will be dangerous if we stay here long."
"Don't worry, there is no signal detector that can intrude in this place."
He looks at the maintenance staff working furiously and says to her.
"You must be tired. I have arrange a room for you.
Patting her shoulder gently, he takes off his hat and leaves the place. The maintenance staffs nearly finish their work. They spend their time to clean all the dust on Bee and talk with him. Maybe he was really used to be a famous hero. Although she is very grateful with the colonel, but she doesn't think that he choose a best maintenance team. Don't they know that they shouln't be too intimate with their customers.
Bringing an unkown discomfort with her, she comes outisde the base to calm herself. The wind flows through the jacket that has too many scratchs in it. She fixes her hair and finds a place to sit.
In the distance , behind a grating , the effective flame spread along the airport to the horizon . She leans back , head on the aluminum walls of the warehouse, eyes closes and enjoys a rare quiet during the day. Two continuous attacks , feeling unable to return home , all this gradually led her to become confused , unable to think of a suitable reason .
Ipod battery was less than 40 % . She wears a headphone , flip through playlists and select a random list.
I'm at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I spent on you
Where have the times gone
Baby it's all wrong, where are the plans we made for two?
Yeah, I, I know it's hard to remember
The people we used to be
It's even harder to picture
That you're not here next to me
You say it's too late to make it
But is it too late to try?
Music rang out from the technical area , and coincidently it's the song she is hearing . Thinking that the maintenance team open the party through the night , she turns and saw the door was ajar area , just inside the dim light casts .
How does he know which song I will play? -She laughs at herself.
The air has smelled dew mixed with weeds and rocks . The music kept humming forever in her mind , along with the radio .
I'm at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I spent on you
Where have the times gone
Baby it's all wrong, where are the plans we made for two?