Chapter 18 – Shadow Run
It was just another average day at base, well sort of. The Autobots were preoccupied over at Ratchet's workstation still fretting over with the recent events that ended with Megatron back alive and well. Whatever he was planning now was a bit unpredictable to the Autobot's liking. The teens were up in their usual spot in the mezzanine, Miko and Eli were doing their usual drawings while the boys were doing their own things.
As Bulkhead, Optimus, Bee, and Ratchet were about to head out to the recent location of where Megatron's rising of his undead army; Miko was acting a bit too suspicious of not wanting to go on the mission. Her only response being "Go get 'em Bulkhead. Bring the hurt!" without looking up from her drawing. Eli had rested down her sketch pad and looked ahead before turning to look at Miko with a scrutinized look.
Jack and Raf also were passing her suspicious looks. They couldn't believe she was acting so uninterested. "That's not like Miko to not want to go." Jack finally voiced his concern. Eli nodded in agreement as she set aside her sketch pad, she had a feeling that Miko was about to do something incredibly stupid. It was Eli's 6th sense if you would.
"She's definitely up to something." Raf whispered to Jack. As soon as Arcee pulled the lever to activate the ground bridge Miko quickly threw down her drawing and sprinted for the entrance of the active ground bridge.
"Making a break!" Jack exclaimed. Eli was quick to jump over the makeshift coffee table and sprint after Miko right on her heels as the boys were following behind her. Miko had an easy head start when Eli and Jack caught up with her inside the ground bridge trying to pull her back inside base, Arcee hadn't even noticed the four of them running into the tunnel. Eli grabbed Miko by the arm trying to drag her back in while Jack grabbed hold of Eli's other arm.
"Miko get back inside!" Eli yelled while Miko resisted.
"I am not gonna miss my first zombiecon throwdown!" Miko yelled back. She was officially even more crazy than Eli had let on. She then yanked her arm out of Eli's grasp and sprinted through the ground bridge while the three other's followed closely behind still trying in vain to pull her safely back into base. But in the process Miko had dropped her phone in her attempt of escaping through.
Once all four of them were through they saw Miko sneakily avoid the Autobots from behind and headed for a rocky formation where she climbed up and watched down below. Instead of Megatron it was Starscream, "That's not Megatron." Bulkhead said.
"Rise, Skyquake! Rise!" Starscream yelled like he was Dr. Frankenstein. There was a rockpile for a headstone with a purple hazy glow coming out of the pile. Jack, Raf, and Eli were quickly behind Miko, "Let's see some fight of the living dead, already!" she said with glee. Eli already had a scowl across her face when she caught up with Miko. She officially had pissed her off.
"Miko, what were you thinking?" Jack said quite annoyed.
"She wasn't." Raf and Eli said at the same time also very annoyed.
"Hey, I totally missed out last time. This could be my only chance to take some snaps." She said as pointed towards the area where the Cybertronians stood. "And because you didn't get any crazy adventures that justifies you coming on this one?!" Eli snapped while Miko fished inside her pockets for her phone only to find it missing.
"My cellphone!" she exclaimed at the discovery ignoring Eli while she looked around the area for her phone. "I must have dropped it back at the base." And that sparked an argument between the two girls. "This is your fault!" Miko said angrily pointing a finger at Eli's chest. Eli replied with a sharp glare.
"My fault?!" Eli retorted. "You've got to be kidding me. All of us were trying to keep you safe. Need I remind you I had Airachnid inches away from my face! Or the time I tried to warn you about the Wheeljack impostor." That just sent Miko over the edge.
"Ugh! I can't believe you guys made me lose my phone!" Miko shouted gaining the Autobot's attention.
"Uh, H-how is this our fault?" Jack said trying to intervene between to the two girls. Raf had noticed that the Autobots had discovered them and was trying to chime in letting the three arguing teens that they've been discovered. Then two ground bridges appeared at the same time alongside each other, one for Starscream and other one being for the teens. The four of them along with all the Cybertronians down below looked between the two activate bridges.
"You four! Into our ground bridge! Now!" Ratchet yelled angrily. Miko was still visibly upset when Jack grabbed her by the arm, "Come on." And pulled her into the ground bridge with Raf and Eli following through with no complaint. But at the same time the four of them went through Starscream ran through his which started to cause the teen's ground bridge to malfunction.
When the teens walked through their ground bridge an explosion went off thrown them back through into the same location of where the undead Cybertronians were except the whole place looked like it was shaded. Everything looked dark and grey. "Are you guys, okay?" Jack asked as they all picked themselves up from the ground.
"Y-yeah. I think so." Raf said adjusting his glasses.
"No." Eli murmured to herself as she looked around them. All four of them watched as Bulkhead was picking himself off the ground from the explosion from the ground bridges feeding off of each other. "oh," he groaned. "W-what just happened?" Bulkhead asked. The rest of the Autobots were picking themselves off of the ground as Ratchet got back up with a groan.
"I can't be certain. But if two ground bridges sent to the same coordinates crossed streams, the feedback could have triggered a system overload."
"Could?" Miko exclaimed. "Hello, more like totally did."
"Something doesn't seem quite right." Eli said as she continued to look around them. She quickly realized that the Autobots hadn't even heard Miko. "The kids made it through, right?" Bulkhead asked. That right there confirmed Eli's assumption. The Autobots couldn't see or hear them.
"Huh?" Raf said in confusion. Miko stomped over not liking how the Autobots couldn't hear or see them. "Uh, Miko." Eli said trying to get her attention, but she ignored her as she continued to walk over. "What's he talking about?" Jack exclaimed.
"Bulkhead, we're right here!" Miko yelled trying to get his attention.
"Arcee, did the children make it safely back to base?" Optimus asked comlinking back to base.
"No sign." Ratchet replied back to Arcee as the four teens watched in astonishment.
"What? 'no sign'?!" Miko exclaimed getting closer up to Bulkhead. "Okay, seriously, Bulk –" she was cut off with a scream as Bulkhead took a step forward going completely right through her like she never existed.
"He went right through you." Jack said grabbing Miko by her shoulders.
"I tried to tell you guys something wasn't right." Eli said.
"We're not alive." Jack said trying to figure out what's going on.
"If we were dead, wouldn't the Autobots see our bodies?" Eli gulped.
"I don't want to be a ghost!" Raf said as he gripped onto Eli's arm. Then Jack thought if all of them were supposedly dead how could they touch each other. And not go through each other like when Bulkhead had gone through Miko like air.
"How can we still touch each other?" Jack asked. Then the four teens watched as the Autobots started to walk away, they continued to follow them and hear what they were thinking.
"Ratchet, could the children have been transported onto the Nemesis instead?" Optimus asked old medic.
"Not likely. If Starscream didn't arrive at our base, the most likely explanation is a dislocation. The children may simply have been bridged to an unintended destination." Ratchet theorized.
"Another place but in the same place?" Raf said out loud.
"Y-You don't think we're in another dimension?" Eli asked Raf worriedly. He gave a small nod confirming her fears.
"W-wh – What do you two mean?" Jack asked looking between Eli and Raf for definite answer on their predicament.
"We're probably in a different dimension, some kind of alternate reality, a shadow zone." Raf said.
"More like we are totally in a shadow zone. I mean look at the shady hue. Everything looked like it had a grey color to it. Even our clothes." Eli added indicating to the surrounding area and their clothing.
"Nerds alert." Miko scoffed earning a nasty glare from Eli. She just about had it with Miko today. Then there was a sound of huge heavy footsteps. Eli quickly looked over to the Autobots thinking it was one of them but then a huge hand grabbed hold of one of the rock mounds in front of them. It definitely didn't belong to the Autobots. Out came zombie Skyquake, and he was making his way towards the Autobots with their backs turned to him.
Miko gasped, the four of them started to run towards the Autobots trying to see if they could warn them of the huge Zombie behind them. "Zombie!" Miko screamed.
"Guys, look out!" Jack shouted.
"Bulkhead!" Miko screamed.
"Hey!" Eli added.
"It's right behind you!" Raf yelled all four of them trying to get the Autobot's attention to no avail. Skyquake was right behind Bulkhead when he tried to take a swipe at him only for his hand to go right through him.
Eli screeched to a halt in terror, "Oh no." If the zombie couldn't touch the Autobots and they themselves couldn't. That could only mean one thing. The three teens were a few feet ahead of Eli watching the zombie effortlessly trying to swipe at the Autobots.
"Awesome. It can't touch them, either." Miko said with relief.
"Guys…we got a problem." Eli said shakily. This was the third time she was caught in this danger. Oh, Ratchet and Optimus were gonna be mad with her if they ever got out of this alive. Skyquake then turned around and spotted the four of them and glared. If zombies could glare; he sure did.
"Guys time to run!" Eli screamed. Jack and the others were glued to their spot. "If that thing can't touch the bots…"
"Just like we can't…" Miko finished for him.
"Then we're trapped in the shadow zone with a Decepticon zombie!" Raf finished off for them. Eli took the opportunity to grab Raf and Jack on the shoulder and pull them away and pushed them to start running. Then she nudged Miko and all four of them took off running away from the zombie.
"If we aren't ghosts now, we will be soon." Miko said they were running away as the zombie roared behind them. Raf was slowly falling behind the rest of them, and tripped with his glasses falling off. Jack and Eli both ran back out towards Raf, Jack scooped him up off the ground as he tried reaching for his glasses, Eli quickly snatched them up and dashed back over where Miko was taking cover.
"Thank you, Eli. I can't see without my glasses" Raf huffed as she handed him his glasses back.
"What are you, 90?" Miko said.
"That's not very nice." Eli said with a small glare. Jack glared between the two girls, but they peered around their hiding spot and noticed Skyquake was right in front of them.
"Run!" Jack screamed as they all started running again. Eli made sure to stick next to Raf in case he couldn't keep up with them or his glasses fell off again.
"Maybe we could set a trap, try to crush it." Miko said as they all were trying to create distance from Skyquake.
"With what?" Raf asked.
"There is nothing here, but mounds of rocks." Eli added. "Nothing around here is solid except us and the ground." Raf continued on.
"We can't run forever but maybe we can hide." Miko continued trying to come up with a plan. There really wasn't a place to hide, they were trapped in a circle of rock mounds and a zombie. And this zombie seemed smarter than the zombies found in video games and movies. "Well, whatever we can do to keep us alive I'm all for it." Eli said earning an approving look from Miko despite their heated conversations throughout the ordeal. Once they couldn't hear the heavy footsteps of Skyquake they stopped for a breather.
They were all panting resting their hands on their knees. "The best thing about zombies – they're slow-moving." Miko said trying to make a bright side of the situation as she imitated a zombie when Jack's cell started to ring. Everyone perked up at the sound of the ringtone.
"Is that your –?" Raf asked in disbelief.
"Phone!" All four of them exclaimed. Jack quickly fished out his phone and answered it only to get a bunch of static. Jack then defeatedly hung up.
"There goes our hope." Eli huffed.
"Gee, imagine that. The fourth dimension has lousy cellphone reception." Miko said sarcastically.
"Wait, guys, guys, guys. The phone rang," Jack said putting the pieces together. "We're getting a signal."
"Maybe the Autobots can't see or hear us because we're moving at hyper speed or something." Raf said.
"Or maybe we could be moving slower. Either way we have signal. If Arcee was able to call us. We can text." Eli added onto Raf's knowledge.
"You're thinking that they could read us?" Jack asked between the two nerds. Then Miko gasped as she got an idea.
"Text me!" she exclaimed. "If my phone's back at the base, maybe they'll see it." Jack nodded and immediately started to text Miko's phone. While they gathered around Eli faintly noticed the footsteps of Skyquake getting closer. Before she got a word in Raf looked up at the towering zombie looming over them.
"Uh…Can you type and run?" He asked nervously. Jack and Miko looked up in horror as Skyquake had them cornered. He let out a huge roar that made Eli whimper in fear. She was still quite traumatized from her encounter with Airachnid. The four of them quickly sprinted between the zombies legs as he made a slow swipe for them completely missing them.
"I am so done with these dangerous adventures. I need a vacation." Eli huffed to herself as she and the others continued sprinting.
"Déjà vu!" Miko said to Jack running alongside him.
"What?" He asked confusingly.
"This doesn't look familiar to you?" Miko asked.
"Not really." Jack admitted still quite confused.
"Dude, we just ran one big circle!" Miko exclaimed as they all looked behind them before they ran directly into Starscream's arm knocking themselves to the ground.
"If we've been running in one big circle. Why haven't we seen this before until now?" Eli asked with a groan as she picked herself off the ground lending a hand to Raf helping him up.
"Sweet." Miko said with glee.
"Whoa." Jack exclaimed.
"It must have gotten trapped in here during the explosion, too." Raf said as he got a closer look at the detached appendage. The heavy footsteps and the growls of Skyquake were getting closer and closer. The growls were sending an endless shiver down their spines. Jack looked behind them and then back to the arm in front of them that they could now touch.
"Well, if it's solid, we can use it." Jack said.
"Our only weapon and hope." Eli added earning a nod from the three others. The four of them then quickly started to turn the arm facing where the zombie was coming ready to fire the one shot, they had.
"Anyone know how to fire this thing?" Miko groaned from moving the heavy arm looking around the arm on how to fire it. "I don't see a trigger."
"Starscream did something with his fingers." Raf said, the growls of Skyquake were getting closer, all four of them huddled behind Starscream's fingers getting ready to pull the trigger. They had to make this one-shot count.
"We have one shot," Jack said over his shoulder. "We need to make it count."
"Or we're screwed." Eli said nervously. Once Skyquake got close enough Jack pulled Starscream's index finger which launched the rocket hitting the zombie square in the chest leaving a cloud of smoke cascading over the zombie's form.
"How do you like us now?" Miko said with a clenched fist. The rocket didn't do anything it only made Skyquake more angry. He let out a loud angry growl. Except one of Skyquake's arms fell off with a shower of sparks. It lay motionless on the ground everyone staring at it when it's fingers twitched. The four teens took a few steps back in fear as the fingers twitched a few more times before the detached arm was alive and was moving incredibly fast towards them.
Eli and Raf screamed in fear. "Come on, come on!" Jack coaxed them to continue running as the arm was creeping up on them faster and faster.
"How can the zombie arm move faster than the actual zombie?" Miko asked as they kept trying to create distance. Eli snuck a peek behind them and saw that the arm was jumping and climbing along the rocky walls.
"Miko if we make it out alive, you're so gonna get it!" Eli screamed angrily.
"Get in line." Jack muttered to himself, but Eli heard him. They continued running until they ended back up with Starscream's arm.
"Oh, come on," Miko groaned. "This place is like one big merry-go-round!" Starscream's voice come booming over them startling them. "Skyquake, your master summons you!" his voice rang out looking for the huge zombie only it wasn't going to find him. Right in front of them was Starscream walking towards them.
"How'd that freak get into our dimension?" Miko asked.
"He didn't. He can't see us." Jack confirmed.
"He would have saw us by now. And his arm." Eli said indicating that they could still touch it.
"Forget Starscream. We got to run…some more." Miko said as she heard the sounds of Skyquake's arm crawling towards them. As they took off running towards Starscream a ground bridge portal opened up in front of them. The four of them skidded to a halt afraid of who's ground bridge it was. It could have easily been a Decepticon portal.
"A ground bridge portal?" Raf said in disbelief.
"That has to be our way out of here." Jack said.
"The Autobots saw our text." Miko said happily.
"If we got through, we run smack into Starscream. If we don't…" Raf added.
"We're zombie chow." Jack finished for Raf.
"I'll take Starscream over a zombie please." Eli said and Miko nodded in agreement as they looked behind them as the arm got closer and closer.
"Option there - we keep running in circles," Miko said, "But I like Eli's option better. Starscream over zombie."
"Follow my lead," Jack said as he faced the portal. Eli nodded and stood beside Jack getting ready to jump through the portal. Miko kept an eye on behind them and was getting nervous as the arm right upon them. "Now!" Jack yelled and all four of them quickly dashed through the portal as the arm was right behind them. They through themselves flying through the portal and ran between Starscream's legs surprising him.
"Humans?" Starscream said in surprise with his back to the portal. "Where did you vermin-" he was cut off as Skyquake's arm jumped through the portal grabbed onto his face. Another portal opened up and the four of them ran to it as Optimus, Arcee, and Bulkhead came out to greet them.
"Jack, Miko, Rafael, Eliana." Optimus said. Once again Eli shrunk back as he used her full name. She really hated it when they did that. Miko noticed that immediately, and for once she felt bad; even Raf shrunk back too. Once they all were back inside the base Eli and Raf were in the back trying to not feel the gaze of disappoint directed on them.
"Look, if you're gonna blame anybody, blame me." Miko said trying to take accountability for her actions.
"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that a couple dozen times?" Jack said with a scrutinized tone.
"Miko, what you endured has been lesson enough. We are just glad you are all safe." Optimus said. Then Bulkhead dropped down to their level, "Guess it was a good thing you dropped this," He said giving her the cellphone back. "Too bad you didn't get any pictures, though."
"Nah, that's okay. I think after today, I pretty much have zombie close-ups seared into my brain." Miko said as she looked back at the three others. Eli still had a disapproving scowl written across her face. She took that moment to walk back up to the mezzanine without a word, Jack and Raf watched and exchanged glances before following.
When they all got back up to their spots Eli swiped her sketch pad quite aggressively. "Hey Eli, everything alright?" Jack asked timidly afraid she was going to blow up which she did for the most part.
"I-I'm just tired of being caught up in so many close calls. I-I still get nightmares." She didn't bother looking up from her sketch pad, she was using it to shield her face trying to prevent the fear of tears escape. There was a small bout of silence before Jack broke it.
"I still get them too ya know…nightmares of Airachnid, of her hurting Arcee…and you." Jack sheepishly admitted. Eli slowly put down her sketch pad and looked at the two boys sitting across from her. A few tears had escaped and cascaded down her face dropping onto her work.
"I was afraid I lost you that day. I was strapped to that tree and all I can hear is your screams when she jumped on you." Jack continued.
Raf looked between the two admitting their fears and released a sigh he didn't realize he was holding in. "Eli you are our friend. I'm the youngest in our entire school and you accepted me without judging me. If you have any concerns, we want you to voice them." He took that as his time to leave and headed towards Bee, he felt that Jack and Eli had to have a private conversation and Miko owed Eli an apology.
A/N: I really was looking forward to creating this chapter, so I jumped on it as soon as possible. I know my work isn't perfect, but I try to get better with each chapter. I've been trying to figure out how to enter Eli in each chapter and I felt creating this chapter really fitted her in better than I've been doing with the past chapters.