Nightmares and Monsters

Part 10

Previously in Chapter 9:

"I hear ya Cali, just keep those kids and the Cube safe, we'll catch a beer together after all this is over." he added and walked over to the Vehicle he was going to ride in whilst yelling over to the SecDef, "Mr. Secretary! Get our birds in the air. When we get to the city, we're gonna find a radio, and I'll have Epps vector them in, Okay?" The SecDef looked at Lennox and replied with a firm, "Affirmative!"

And Now....

Chapter 10

Lennox started calling out instructions to the others that were going to follow the Camaro and it's passengers to Mission City.

"Set a perimeter around the yellow vehicle!"

Driving as fast as they dared the small convoy drove away from the Hoover Dam, the assault vehicles following Bumblebee. Inside the Camaro was a slightly different scene to the one outside.

"The Cube's okay?" came Sam's question as he turned around form the driver's seat to look into the back where Cali was sat with Anubis and the Cube. "Yeah the Cube's fine, Sam. Just worry about getting us to where we need to be." came her response as she held onto both the Cube and Anubis (who was sat on top of the Cube looking at her and tilting his head to one side and then the other as if trying to figure something out.)

Cali unconsciously stroked Anubis' head and jumped slightly as he chirruped in happiness, Mikaela laughing slightly at Cali's slight jump of surprise at the noise from the cell phone bot. Cali glared lightly at Mikaela before shrugging and going back to mulling over everything that had happened to her since she got caught up in this situation, all the while hugging the alien Cube and Anubis close, once again causing Anubis to make a funny purring sound in contentment thus making Cali snigger slightly at his response - she could see Anubis and her cat getting on well if all they did was snuggle and purr like that and smiled as he folded down into his phone mode to sleep.

Outside of the Camaro with the rest of Caliene's Squad and a few others in the assault vehicles, Lennox noted that at the speeds they were traveling down the road at that they were currently 10 miles from the Hoover Dam and halfway towards Mission City. He watched as the Camaro in front of his continued to move at a fast pace, enough so that the assault vehicles were starting to have a few issues with the speed - since the assault vehicles were older and in worse shape mechanically. He was just about to ponder on what was going through Sarah's mind right now whilst she was caring for Annabelle, when the sound of a large Semi's air horn blaring made him jump and stare as the Semi - covered in painted flames, along with blue and red paint, a GMC Topkick, a H2 Hummer Search and Rescue vehicle and a sleek Pontiac Solstice all did sharp 180's and followed the convoy of Military vehicles.

Inside the Camaro, Sam was so pleased to hear the air horn that belonged to Optimus Prime that he just had to let the others in the car know. "There's Optimus." he said and pointed out the large flame painted Semi. Cali looked at the Semi as it passed them and turning around slightly she managed to watch as the Semi hit his breaks and managed a complete 180 degree turn in one smooth move, along with three other vehicles, what caught her eyes though was the sleek sports car that was quickly gaining on the Camaro and was then driving right alongside them as they hit the main Freeway towards Mission City.

She breathed out a steady breath when she realized that it was one of the new Pontiac Solstice's that had been advertised in the media the past few months, she shook her head, whilst it was a nice sporty vehicle and from what she could make out from this distance, that it was a two seater, she knew that she would never be able to afford one even at her Military Pay Grade. She sighed and relaxed back into the rear seat of the Camaro known as Bumblebee.

All was going well until the passengers in the Camaro heard police sirens behind them, Cali assumed that they were getting additional escort from the local police, at least that's what she thought until Sam looked out the rear window and started panicking. "No, no, no, no, no!" he cried out causing Mikaela to ask the question, "What?"

Sam all but cursed under his breath as he once again saw the police cruiser gaining on them, and said, "It's the same cop!" Cali could make out another vehicle with it and identified it as a Buffalo Mine Sweeper, used by the Military.

Cali, Sam and Mikaela watched as the Hummer, black Pick-up and the flamed Semi closed off the road to the two vehicles trying to get to them, Cali shook her head as she heard Sam saying, "Block them, block them, block them." What happened next shocked Cali slightly, she then decided that it was one thing seeing Bumblebee go from robot to car, but to see a large Semi go from vehicle to robot was a completely different thing altogether.

She watched as the Semi hit his breaks, and went into try and block the police car and Minesweeper that were starting to cause problems to the drivers in other lanes on the freeway. She watched as the Minesweeper then transformed into some kind of skating robot that started causing more destruction as it headed towards the now completely changed Semi. She closed her eyes in a prayer to whatever deity was listening to help those who were either dead, dying or injured after seeing the Minesweeper robot slam through a bus full of passengers sending it up into a ball of flame. She fully agreed with Mikaela when she heard the teen gasp out, "Oh, my god!"

After seeing the Semi robot attack the Minesweeper robot they moved out of visual range and headed towards Mission City without any further mishaps, with the Hummer, Pick-up and Solstice, along with Lennox and the assault vehicles in tow. Cali knew she would never forget the scene of the bus exploding in a fireball, for as long as she lived.

After they made it into Mission City she watched as Lennox got the assault vehicles to stop outside of a cheesy porn shop and about 3 minutes later she watched as he exited with an arm full of old Military radios, he first stopped beside the Camaro and handed her one through the window and asked if she would be alright with it, Cali responding that she was just fine with the old style Military radio, since her brothers used to mess around with them at their grandparents growing up, and therefore taught her how to use them.

She watched as Lennox nodded and headed back towards the rest of the Military convoy to hand out the rest of the radios. "Come on, let's go! Mount up!" Smiling as she tuned her radio into the correct communications frequency for the convoy she listened to one of the soldiers - possibly SAW Gunner Burke from the sound of the voice, yelling at the others. "Move out! Move out! Go! Go!"

She was really laughing hard once she heard via the radios what was going on with Lennox and Epps after Lennox handed Epps the radio, and apparently Epps had his hand right over the transmit button as he was talking to Lennox. The resulting conversation made her, Sam and Mikaela laugh for a bit as they listened in.

Lennox: "Here, I got shortwave radios."

Epps: "Wait. What am I supposed to do with these?"

Lennox: "Well, use them! It's all we got!"

Epps: "This is like RadioShack dinosaur radios or something, man. I'm only gonna get 20 or 30 miles out of these things. Are there any aircraft orbiting the city?"

Lennox: F-22 at 12:00. All right, I want planes for air cover and get Black Hawks on station to extract that Cube. You got it?"

Caliene watched through the rear window as they stopped and listened in as Lennox continued, "Air Force has arrived! Pop smoke!"

She cautiously climbed out of Bumblebee's Alt. Mode and stood beside Lennox, and looked towards the skyline to see what kind of air cover they were likely to get. She let her eyes scan the area for any human type interference to this mission and as she did so she heard Epps talk into his radio.

"Raptor, Raptor, do you copy? We have you visual. Green smoke is the mark. Provide air cover and vector Black Hawks for extraction."

What none were expecting was what happened next; the black Pick-up started to transform behind them and yelled, "It's Starscream!" Caliene was now worried, who or what was 'Starscream' and apparently Epps was of the same mind as he asked into the radio, "Please tell me you copy."

End Part 10