Chapter 20 – Escaped
For two weeks the base was filled with solemn air, no one dared to try to cheer each other up for it seemed hopeless. Ratchet was extra crankier than his usual self; Optimus would sometimes tell him to calm down or relax, but as the weeks grew longer Optimus almost gave up on checking up on his Autobots. Jack, Miko, and Raf were even worse for wear, Jack was becoming cranky like Ratchet, Raf's eyes were always red or swollen from old tears; Bee would try his best to at least distract him from Eli's absence. And then Miko was acting even more rebellious than normal which was causing Jack to become even more cranky.
The teens were sitting up in the mezzanine when the sound of the elevator opening alerted them. Who walked out was Agent Fowler followed by Leonie. Jack exchanged glances of surprise from Miko and Raf of the sight of Leonie entering the base. "Where is Prime?" Fowler asked looking up at Rachet and Bee.
Leonie stood silently beside Agent Fowler who looked absolutely miserable. She had deep dark bags under her eyes which was just as red and swollen as Raf's. She almost looked like a walking zombie ready to drop. She glanced over at the three teens while Fowler waited for Optimus to enter the room. Jack gave a sheepish wave, and she started to head over.
"Have any of you heard news of Eli?" Leonie asked desperately. The three teens exchanged solemn glances, without a word from them Leonie nodded in understanding as fresh tears rimmed her eyes.
"If Agent Fowler doesn't find Eli, the Autobots will." Miko said trying to offer comfort. And hopefully the Decepticons don't get involved is what Miko thought inside her head as Leonie nodded at her effort of comfort. Then there was an alert blaring across the room. On the monitor it showed a crypted distress signal; and the location was all the way back in Minnesota.
Leonie quickly hurried over to get a better look at the map. Ratchet had zoomed in closer to the distress signal causing Leonie to gasp. "Eagle Mountain." Ratchet looked down at Leonie in surprise.
"What's Eagle Mountain?" Agent Fowler asked approaching Leonie at her side.
"M-My dad s-said there was a secret base of operations there once. I overheard him say it a couple of times b-before…the accident." Leonie stammered. "Eli. Eli's got to be there." Agent Fowler grabbed Leonie firmly by the shoulder and stared at her seriously. The three teens hurried over too as they watched Leonie and Agent Fowler's interaction.
"I'm positive." Leonie said without a skip of a beat.
~ Days Earlier ~
It felt like months since I was dragged to this secret base doing Mech's business. There weren't exactly torturing me, more like depriving me of sleep and proper food. What I hadn't realized was that my dad had original worked for Mech, or more personally with Silas himself on some kind of supercomputer. But my dad had realized that Silas was planning on using it not for the good of humanity, but more for the complete opposite and personal gain. Which is why my parents ended up in that car accident that claimed their lives, and almost my own.
"Eliana how is it coming along today?" asked Sebastian as he waltzed into the almost barring room except for the huge computer sitting in the middle of the room. I sighed quietly in annoyance and frustration; things were coming along slowly today.
"Slow, I'm afraid. I need some more parts. And an energy drink." I said coming out from below the desk. I glanced down at my battered and torn fingertips burned and cut from the sharp wires. The bulky man took big strides up to my face and grabbed at my hair and pulled my face close to his. "What makes you think you deserve a reward for not finishing Silas's computer?"
"Let the girl go, Sebastian." Said a female voice coming from the only exit to the room. There stood a woman with a tight bun wearing a business suit. The suit made the woman look completely out of character, like she normally didn't wear suits of any kind. Sebastian let my hair go with a yank.
"Rachel, what a pleasant surprise." Sebastian said sarcastically. "Silas said you weren't coming for a couple of more days."
"Seeing as how you treat the only person who can finish that computer, I thought I might, stop by." Rachel said with a shrug of her shoulders and a grin causing Sebastian to grow a snarl across his face.
"Oh please, you and I both know that Silas specifically told you no harm was to come to Miss Mueller, but yet here we are. Pulling her hair, and from the state of her hands I'd say she's having a hard time finishing the computer." Rachel turned to one of the guards at the door and snapped her fingers. "I believe I overheard Miss Mueller request an energy drink." The guard nodded and hurried out of the room without a glance back.
"See, was that so hard?" Rachel taunted at Sebastian whose snarl only grew bigger. I took a step back hoping he wouldn't take his anger out on me now or anytime soon. Rachel walked up to me with a gentle smile making me nervous. I only saw Silas once and that was when I had arrived at this location, ever since it was Sebastian checking up on me only giving me scraps of food and measly hours of sleep.
"It's okay dear, now I also overheard you need more parts. Come with me." Rachel said as she gently grabbed my arm and led me out of the dark computer room. I was blinded by the sight of the sun coming in through the windows. Rachel quietly led me down to the spare parts room at the end of the hallway.
When we entered the room Rachel stood at the side of the door as I quickly grabbed a basket sitting on one of the shelves and went through each side of the room carefully to make sure I had the right pieces. I nervously would glance up at Rachel who didn't even say a word or rush me; Sebastian always rushed me when he dragged me into this room. I double checked to make sure I had everything I needed in my basket before heading back over to Rachel.
Instead of her looking into my basket she looked at me from head to toe and sighed. "Sebastian really needs to get you some food, and some new clothes." She said before exiting the room and holding the door open for me. I looked down at what I was wearing. When I had arrived, they made me change into a plain t-shirt and sweats; to my knowledge I'll never see those clothes of mine again. But with the scraps of food that Sebastian has been giving me the clothes barely fit me anymore.
Once we got back to the computer room Sebastian was still there simmering in his anger. But on the desk were two energy drinks waiting for me. "Sebastian, would you be a dear and get this girl some new clothes. They barely fit her anymore don't you think?" Sebastian grew yet another snarl before leaving the room without a word.
"I'm going to pay for that later." I murmured to myself not excepting Rachel to overhear me.
"Oh, don't worry my dear, I'll let Silas know everything." Rachel said with a small smile. I looked at her in disbelief. "Why are you being nice to me? Aren't I your prisoner?" I asked.
"You may be a prisoner here, but there is no point of working you to death. And I can't stand the sight of those clothes not fitting. If he ever gives you more problems, let the guard know." She said with a wink before leaving me alone in the computer room holding the basket of parts. I let out a sigh of defeat, "I'm gonna be here for forever." I whispered to myself before turning to the desk.
~ Present Time ~
There was one thing that Mech and Silas weren't accounting for in this computer. It had the possibility of doing literally anything. Which is probably why my parents paid the price of not finishing it when they had started it. But the computer could literally connect into anything, break any firewall in the universe. While the guard thought I was just running tests on the computer hoping it would start I was able to hack into the base's mainframe and trigger a self-destruct. It was a poor design flaw on Silas and Mech's side.
Before I set the building into a self-destruct, I sent out a crypted distress signal. It had to be crypted, heavily crypted or else Mech would have discovered it too easily. But hopefully the Autobots would receive it and understand it was me giving them my location. Once the signal was sent, I quickly pressed the self-destruct button and hurried over to the guard.
"What is it?" he asked gruffly.
"I need to use the bathroom. Really badly." I begged doing a fake bathroom dance. The guard sighed with an eye roll and quickly led me out of the room. Once out into the hall the whole base shook like an earthquake had gone off. I was thrown off my feet along with the guard. Then there was a big boom that shook the building again.
"What was that?!" The guard exclaimed. Then sirens started ringing throughout the base. The guard quickly scrambled up to his feet and hauling me up to my feet from the back of my shirt.
We ran down the end of the hallway and went through the door past the spare parts room and entered a hangar bay onto a catwalk hanging over the bay. The hangar bay was covered in smoke and flames; people were running towards the hangar bay doors to escape. The smoke was burning our eyes terribly. The guard quickly tried to guide us through the smoke and flames when another tremor went through the building knocking us back down to our knees. An explosion went off tearing apart the catwalk we were on, angling down towards the flames. The guard lost his footing and went straight down into the flames with a scream. I gripped onto the railing with fear and stared at horror at the guard's demise.
Tears streamed down my face from the fear, horror, and the smoke of the situation. I shook my head, I needed to get off this catwalk. Ratchet had to have seen my distress signal. I carefully pulled myself back up to the partial stable catwalk and saw a turn that would bring me down to the hangar bay that wasn't completely covered in flames yet. Quickly as I could before another explosion went off, I made my way towards a staircase that would take me down to the ground level.
Midway through the catwalk another explosion went off taking the rest of the catwalk with it down into the flames. It knocked me off my feet descending the destroyed catwalk down towards the flames. I screamed trying to grab at the railing only twisting my arm painfully in the process.
I tumbled off the edge of the destroyed catwalk straight down into the roaring flames. A scream escaped my lips as I plummeted only to land on something hard and metal and smacked my head on impact. I rolled over to my side once my head cleared up a bit and saw that I had landed on some cargo, I clambered off the cargo trying to navigate through the smoke and flames someone grabbed me by my shoulder turned me around so quickly, and all I saw was a fist colliding into my face causing dots to scatter across my vision. The surprise knocked me down to the ground as blood quickly ran down from my nose.
I looked up at who threw the punch to see Sebastian covered in soot and burns. As he towered over me his trademark snarl was even bigger and menacing than it usually was.
"What did you do little brat?!" he spat seething in rage.
"I will not let Mech have that computer. I'm finishing what my parents could not." I retorted as I wiped the blood from my nose with the back of my hand. He stormed closer, seething, "You're gonna die like them." I scrambled up to my feet and saw some small debris. I grabbed it and flung it at his face.
The ash and burning material hitting him square in the face made him roar in pain and anger. It didn't slow him down as I wanted it to; it only made him angrier. He lunged for me, and I didn't have enough time to react as he grabbed me by the front of my shirt and threw a furry of punches at my face. Each punch brought stars to my eyes mixed with tears from the pain and smoke. Despite the beating he was giving me I went to stop one of his punches and quickly sank my teeth into his fist.
He threw me to the ground trying to remove his hand from my mouth, that's when another explosion went off sending down bigger debris from above. The flames grew hotter and higher when a big piece of metal dropped from the ceiling nearly crushing us. I rolled out of the way when another piece fell and with no warning it dropped right on top of my left leg crushing it.
I cried out from the weight of the pressure digging into my leg. I looked over the debris trapping me in to see Sebastian fleeing the hangar bay as the fire around us got hotter and the flames higher with even more debris raining from above. I looked around frantically, but all I could see was the flames getting closer and the smoke burning my eyes. But then the weight crushing my leg was instantly lifted and through he smoke and flames appeared Bee, coming to my rescue.
I sobbed in relief and pain from my leg. I looked down at the damaged done to my leg; it was horrible. The debris had cut deep into my leg and was hot from the explosions leaving burn marks across the semi exposed skin.
My attention was brought back to Bee's chirping, "Are you alright?" He asked as he went to scoop me up into his hand. I carefully maneuvered into his palm not to jostle my wounded leg too much. "I'll be alright, Bee. We need to get out of here." He nodded and carried me out of the hangar bay as more vigorous explosions went off behind us. Once we were through the smoke and flames I saw the woods, we were in the middle of nowhere.
Bee reached to initiate connection back to base, but to no avail. "Something is blocking the signal. Hold on a bit longer Eli, we'll get you help soon." He said worriedly still cradling me in his palm as I just lay there trying to hold back the tears from the pain and smoke inhalation. I tentatively looked down at my leg again. My leg needed to get some serious treatment asap. I was losing blood, and the smoke inhalation wasn't helping my case, but at least I was safe with Bumblebee now. I looked up at him as my eyelids got heavy, wiped out from exhaustion and blood loss.
There was hum and constant beeping of machines echoing in the darkness. They were almost as annoying as Miko, but maybe the sound of her voice would bring me relief. Everything felt heavy, sluggish. And my memory was foggy, I just couldn't put my finger on where I last was. I managed to crack open my eyes and see that I was in a dark room and the only thing illuminating the room was a lamp in the corner. There was an armchair beside it and Leonie was fast asleep in the chair.
Tears came to my eyes at the sight of seeing my sister. Seeing Leonie sitting there with dark bags under her eyes brought all my memories back to my time with Mech. I couldn't move; everything felt heavy and there was a dull ache to my left leg.
The door to my room opened and Jack's mom walked in dressed up in her nurse's uniform. "Oh my goodness. It's so good to see you awake Eli." She whispered quietly taking a quick glance at Leonie. "She needs the sleep, she's had a long two weeks." June added.
"I-I was gone f-for that l-long?" I said with a raspy voice. June quickly opened a small jar and grabbed a paper cup to scoop some ice chips into the cup. She grabbed a spoon from the table and gently fed me some of the ice chips that I greedily took.
"W-Where am I?" I said after munching down on scoops of ice chips.
"Agent Fowler brought you here to a secure base. Us too, he figured you'd want to see familiar faces once you woke up." June explained and I nodded in understanding. I kept glancing down at my left leg. June took the hint and her face grew solemn.
"Eli, your leg was severely wounded…uh, he told me, Raf explained how he found you. Your leg was broken in one spot and fractured in two. You are going to be recovering for some time. You had some minor smoke inhalation; we gave you oxygen to help."
My lower lip started to wobble at the thought of my leg. I looked at June with fear and despair, "W-Will I…be a-able to p-play?" I choked out in a tiny sob. June rubbed my right leg in sympathy and comfort; she knew that I played soccer for the town's high school team. "Only time will tell. Right now, all you can do is get some rest. You are safe now." June quietly got up and left the room. As soon as the door closed, I quietly cried myself back to sleep.
I know it's been a while since I've updated. But as promised another chapter. Not gonna lie, I struggled a lot with planning this chapter out. But there is more to come, enjoy.