189
As we ran, we tried to avoid being shot at and the terrorized citizens trying to get out of the way, as well. It seemed the more the Autobots fought, the more artificial Transformers showed up and tried to shoot them down.
"Bee, twelve o'clock!" Hound exclaimed. Hound and Bee were trying to find some cover and shoot at the man made Transformers. Bee, with his mask down and a cannon out, looked over a partially fallen building he was taking cover behind, looked over and saw a group of man made Transformers. He shot missiles at a group that tried overpowering Hound, causing us to come to a skidding halt. It seemed like those man made prototypes were everywhere.
Finding the first building, that wasn't destroyed, we could take temporary refuge in, we all huddled in. It looked like some kind of tea shop. It was mostly made of glass, but it was the closest one we could think of hiding in for the time being.
Cade and Joyce put the Seed down for a minute before Joyce took a quick look around, almost scrutinizing the place we'd chosen. A few terrified civilians were trying to run out of the building.
"Oh, this is the perfect place to hide," Joyce exclaimed, "a big glass box! No one'll ever find us here!" His temper tantrum was annoying, childish. In a moment like this, throwing a fit because the place we chose to hide in was mostly made of glass wasn't at all necessary. I was about a second away from slapping him. Yes, it wasn't the best building to hide in, but it was the only one in the area that hadn't been blown to bits. Plus, we needed to figure out a way to get the Seed away from Galvatron and his drones.
It felt like we stayed in the shop a lot longer than we should have. The fighting outside kept going. We all watched Hound and Bee fight the prototypes endlessly, but it was obvious they were getting tired. And Hound was running out of weapons.
The screams of the civilians still filled the air. We were unsure on what to do; Cade still had his alien gun, but looked hesitant in trying to interfere in the battle.
"We got boxed in," Hound exclaimed. "We got 'em everywhere! C'mon, Cade! Shoot!"
As the fighting commenced, and Hound was calling the prototypes all kinds of names, one of them shot a little too close to where we were holed up. Any remaining glass on the windows exploded from the impact, some of the wall came down, the debris raining down on us as we tried to not get hurt.
"I can't believe I'm putting my life in your hands!" Joyce snapped, hiding underneath a nearby table.
Cade walked over to where the man was hiding. "Be my guest, take the gun," Cade offered. Joyce shook his head, refusing to take the weapon. "Go ahead. Take it." The more Cade offered, the quicker Joshua would be in his refusal to take it. "Then stay under there and shut up," Cade snapped.
"All right," Joshua concluded.
Cade ran to an opening, the gun ready.
"Runnin' out of guns and ammo!" Hound announced. He used one of his guns to shoot down some prototypes who tried approaching him. He had a car in his other hand, using it as a shield from any shots that came his way. Throwing his only protection at an artificial, one shot at him, the impact of it causing him to stumble into a bridge behind him. It didn't look good. Hound was down to using handguns, his usual big weapons useless; all of his ammo seemed to have vanished.
I gave Saoirse and Eden to Tessa, asking her to keep a very, very close eye on them. I rushed over to Cade, who was trying to shoot at the enemies. I put as much All Spark energy into my hands and shot at any of the prototypes that came too close to our building. They might have been rebuilt by humans, but they were still made of Cybertronian metal. The metal instantly disintegrated once the energy came in contact. The prototypes didn't show any kind of emotion, but there was a bit of struggle as their metal was being eaten away.
Cade landed the final blows on them. A shot in the head. Hound gave praise to Cade and I, looking like he truly appreciated the help we were giving.
Once Hound truly ran out of guns of any kind, he went to using knives. He'd stab any prototypes he came in contact with. Cade and I tried to find the right opportunity to shoot some of the prototypes Hound and Bee were fighting with, but any time it looked like we found an opening, Hound would throw himself in and take them down.
As the heavy-looking, weapon-loving Autobot took down his latest target, a large grenade was thrown into our building. Nothing had been pulled, so it wasn't active. But that didn't stop us from looking at it in horror.
"Pull the pin!" Hound ordered. "I'm dyin' out here!"
Joshua and Cade worked together to get the pin off of the grenade. With the pin being pulled, the grenade became active. Joyce freaked out and gave it to Cade, who had no idea what to do with it. After a moment of quick thinking, Cade gave the grenade to Hound, who tossed it to wherever his targets were. The grenades didn't look like it helped one bit. More of the prototypes showed up, Bee and Hound struggled to fight them back.
"Got some bad news, Cade," Hound said gravely. "I'm out of ammo. Out of ideas."
The shooting kept getting more intense, the two Autobots' attempts at keeping them back became less and less. Hound had already run out of ideas. Bee was pretty much being overpowered. It was hard for Cade and I to try and help; the prototypes seemed to surround them.
Those rare moments Cade and I found the right moment to shoot, we did. But it was getting harder to find those moments. If we didn't plan our shots right, we'd hit one of the Autobots, and they were looking pretty beat up already. I took a quick look back in the building. Tess and Shane were protecting Saoirse and Eden the best they could. I could see the tears running down Tessa's face; the tears running down Saoirse and Eden's faces; Shane trying to look strong for the sake of his girlfriend and my children. I felt more determination surge through me. I had to protect them. Cade and his family gave up everything for my family and I. They didn't deserve to be in the middle of the fighting.
The fighting seemed to last forever, and it looked like we were getting nowhere. Hound and Bee were pretty much being overpowered by the prototypes, Cade and I seemed pretty useless in trying to keep the prototypes away from the Autobots. Optimus and the others hadn't come to help, so it seemed like we were going to be defeated.
When Hound finished his last target, after being knocked down and almost killed, we all rushed out. The heavy Autobot didn't get up.
"Get up, Hound," I exclaimed.
"I can't go on," he murmured.
"You gotta keep fighting," Cade cried.
Hound looked at us solemnly. "Tank's empty, bro," he said.
"There's more of them coming," I said. "If you don't get up, you're going to die. Let's go."
That seemed to put some motivation in the Autobot. Cade and I stood at a distance, trying to find the right moment to shoot at the enemy. A prototype that was punching Bee was hit with a burst of flame, which caused us watch in mild surprise.
"Optimus is here!" Hound hollered. When Hound said that, a flicker of relief lit up in me. But what I wasn't expecting was to see Optimus...riding a robotic T-Rex. Strangely enough, the robotic dinosaur and Optimus worked well together. Prime ordered Bee to jump, and he was grabbed by a Pteranodon robot. The flying robotic dinosaur that took Bee had two heads on two long necks, but one of the prototypes took that moment to grab Bee's feet as he was being lifted off by the dinosaur robot.
I saw Drift fighting ruthlessly in the distance, taking down the prototypes as if they were nothing. Optimus and his T-Rex were doing their share of fighting. Fire spewing from the T-Rex's mouth, Optimus holding a sword in one of his hands. It wasn't his Energon sword, probably one he took from the spaceship.
With the help of the new company, Optimus, and the rest, things seemed to have gotten a bit easier.
The last of the prototypes had been taken down, and Optimus came in on his T-Rex. We hesitantly gathered around.
"You." Optimus pointed his sword at Joshua. Cade put his half of the Seed down, shoving Joyce forward. "Step forward," Optimus ordered. "Your science will be responsible for humanity's extinction."
"All right," Joyce started. "I know that you're sensitive to this whole...bio-ethical dilemma..."
"Maybe all he wants to hear you say is some things should never be invented," Cade interrupted.
The face of the T-Rex lowered to Joyce's level, giving off a metallic roar. The roar caused Joyce to cower back.
"We'll lead you out of the city," Optimus said. "Get that Seed safely to the hills."
Optimus and his T-Rex went off. We turned around and went through a safe route Drift had for us.
As we were going, Joyce complained about the T-Rex getting close to him. Saying it almost 'ate' him, and all that crap. Cade put his half of the Seed down and jumped into a van that still looked in good shape.
The sound of the engine rumbling to life was the nicest sound to hear. We all piled in, the Seed safely placed with Joyce.
Cade had jumped into the driver's seat, but Shane was able to convince him otherwise.
We were all able to find Optimus, who had gotten off of his T-Rex and transformed back into a truck. The other Autobots weren't too far behind. The dinosaurs ran beside us, almost protectively surrounding us.
The Seed, placed securely on Joyce's lap, suddenly expanded, causing its casing to come apart. We all jumped in surprise.
"What did you do?" Cade asked suspiciously.
"I don't know," Joyce said defeatedly, holding his hands up. "I-I don't...It's an issue."
"Did you press something?" I asked.
"Is it going to blow up?" the British woman, Darcy she said was her name, asked, looking frightened.
"I don't know," Joyce said.
"The thing's beeping now," Cade exclaimed, "it's probably going to do something!"
"Is it going to blow up?" Darcy asked again.
"I don't know!" Joyce shouted.
"If it starts beeping that might signal a problem," Cade said.
"I'm just saying, that it's a steady blinking light, which could be a timer of some kind." Joshua looked at it closely. "Unless it's signaling a location."
"To who?" I asked.
The further we drove, the more anxious we became. The steady beeping of the Seed was putting everyone on edge. I held Saoirse and Eden closer to me, trying to calm down my nerves.
We had all witnessed Lockdown's ship approaching, and knew he'd be coming for Optimus. The closer we got to the bridge, the more spread out the robo-dinosaurs became. They trailed behind us, looking around cautiously.
Before we could make it any further, a bunch of buses and boats and other large objects dropped, having levitated in the air for a moment. Some of the buses and whatnot dropped into the ocean, causing the water to splash onto the car. Shane tried backing up, but more ships - much larger ships and vehicles - dropped. Bee and Optimus had to transform to avoid getting crushed. Shane tried speeding up, still going in reverse, but more and more things were falling and a lot of the stuff that fell into the ocean caused loads of water to wash on us.
The farther Shane went in reverse, the more people there were. They were blocking our way.
More mechanical things were being taken up, then dropped around us.
"It's like a big magnet," Joyce exclaimed.
"It's sucking up metal and dropping it," Cade concluded.
The Seed's beeping became faster, causing us to become more frightened. Shane tried going faster, but more things were being dropped on us and Lockdown's ship was almost overhead.
More and more ships, large metal devices from buildings, other vehicles and appliances were being sucked up by Lockdown's ship and dropped around us. Shane tried making turns to avoid getting hit, but there was no way we'd be able to avoid the giant ship that was crashing down. But, somehow, Shane avoided it and all the wreckage it created. By driving into an abandoned building.
An abandoned building that must've been some sort of restaurant.
In that moment we took to catch ourselves, the car started floating. We all struggled to get out of the car, falling onto the hard ground painfully. I made sure to land on my back, not wanting Saoirse or Eden to get hurt.
Cade ran over to help Joyce get the bomb out, but since it was made of metal and Joyce was buckled into the levitating car, Cade and Joyce were getting taken by the magnetic force coming from Lockdown's ship.
"I'm going up! I'm going up!" Joyce looked around helplessly, Cade dangling from the casing of the Seed, trying to use his weight to hold it down. Darcy grabbed one of Cade's legs, trying to add additional weight. Joyce wasn't the only one who was still trapped into the flying car. Shane hadn't unbuckled himself from the vehicle either.
Tessa, the girls, and I watched helplessly as Darcy, Cade and Joshua floated up with the car, through the ceiling of the building. Through some sort of miracle, Cade, Darcy, and Joyce made it out safely with the Seed. Shane must've found his way out, landing on the roof, possibly.
We all scrambled out of the way once the vehicles and whatnot crashed down.
After finding Shane safely on the roof, we were able to get everyone together. We tried to find the Autobots.
We found Bumblebee riding the flying dino-robot. He waved at us, making the flying dinosaur robot stop, hovering above us.
"We'll find someplace safe," Joyce said, as we all ran to the destination Optimus had given us.
The Autobots still fought attack ships that came from Lockdown. We tried making it to the safe location in one piece.
Approaching Optimus, we slowed.
"Autobots, get that bomb over the bridge and out of the city," Optimus ordered. Lockdown's ship came closer to us. The magnetic force coming from Lockdown's ship sucked Optimus and one of his dinosaur robots up. I felt panic surge in me, the girls screamed at seeing their father being sucked up. Optimus tried grabbing something to hold onto, but kept going up.
Though I wanted to help, I had to keep going with Cade and the others, we had to get the Seed out of the city.
I wasn't sure what happened, but there was an explosion and suddenly everything - and every Autobot and robotic dinosaur - that had been sucked up by Lockdown's magnet dropped.
Bee and Crosshairs were waiting in vehicle form for us. Abby and everyone else weren't with them. I'd imagine they were safely waiting where the spaceship had crash landed.
"I've got it!" Joyce exclaimed. "I'm getting this bomb out of here."
Joyce climbed in with Crosshairs, the Seed trailing behind him as the rest of us climbed in with Bumblebee. Shane, who was holding Cade's gun for him, gave it back to the older man.
"Look, Optimus is out there all alone," Cade said, holding the gun close to him.
"Wait, what?" Tessa, who was already safely inside of Bee, tried climbing out. Shane held her back. "You can't help him."
"I have to, Tessa, he came back for us."
"Dad, don't leave please," Tessa begged.
"I'll find you, I'll get through this," Cade promised.
"Dad, no, you'll die!"
"You gotta stay with Shane and..."
"I'm going with you," I said.
Cade didn't argue with me. He grabbed Shane by the collar, making him promise to watch over Tessa.
"Watch my girls," I murmured to Shane, looking at him desperately. "Please. I want you to watch them. Both of you." Shane nodded. I leaned closer to him. "If I don't come back, I want you guys to watch over them, OK? I trust you guys." Shane looked mortified at what I'd said. "I mean it," I said firmly. "Promise, Shane."
He gave a single, reluctant nod.
Cade told them to get in the car. He looked like he was on the verge of tears. When they did, Shane holding Saoirse and Eden like his life depended on it, I gave the Irishman a look. I was hoping he'd keep his promise.
Cade and I shared a look before we took off. It was a look of understanding. We both knew we'd probably get killed trying to help Optimus. We both knew there was a possibility we wouldn't see our children ever again.
And that was a sacrifice we were willing to take.