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- 14. macey -

       "And how many beds would you like?"

       "One, please," I grabbed Ron's hand. We had made up over the past five days, it was our last day of driving before we made it back to NEST. We just agreed not to talk about the strange phone call from Will.

       The young man unenthusiastically handed me our room key saying, "here's your key and enjoy your stay here at the Starry Motel."

      I gave the boy a polite smile, thankfully he didn't think too much of it like Otto did all that time ago. Ron lightly tugged me forward to our room, he was carrying our bags.

       When I opened the door and walked in, I heard the sound of our bags falling to the floor. All of the sudden, my legs were up in the air and I was reaching for anything to hold on to. My object that I ended up grabbing was Ron's shoulders.

       Not even a second after I had a good grip on Ron, I was flying through the air towards the bed. I let out a little squeak as I went through the air and landed on the mattress.

      "You need to stop doing that, Ron," I was trying to hold a serious face, but failing miserably and started laughing.

       "Not if it can make you laugh like that, Stubbs," he came over to the bed and laid down next to me. I scooted myself closer to him and allowed my head to lay on his chest. I could feel his chest falling and rising along with the beat of his heart.

      "Hey Ron?" Instead of verbally answering me, he just grunted and placed a kiss on the top of my head, something he'd become very accustomed to doing, "what's going to happen to us? Ya know, when we get back to the base?"

       My words caused Ron to sit up, bringing me with him. He looked me dead in the eye said said seriously, "nothing is going to change, I promise. We're going to keep going as we have been for the past few days now. This," he motioned between us, "isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And I keep my promises, okay?" I just nodded, not fully satisfied with his answer.

       "How do you think Lennox is going to react when we tell him?" Ron looked up at the roof in the room, causing me to do the same.

       "He'll probably say he's going to kill you, chase you around for a few minutes, not talk to us for a few hours, and then be fine with us," I giggled throughout my whole answer just picturing that actually happening. Two grown men chasing each other around a secret military base yelling at each other.

        Once I calmed down from laughing, a yawn escaped my mouth. Ron noticed and settled us back down on the bed. He pulled a blanket over the two of us, "get some sleep, Stubbs. It's going to be a long day tomorrow back at base."

      His words hadn't really registered in my head, but I got the gist, "only if you get some sleep too. You've been driving all day and I don't need you falling asleep at the wheel."

       "I think that's highly unlikely that's going to happen."

•••

      "Ready to get going?" Ron was standing at the door leading to the hallway, ready to leave for our final drive back to base.

      "I'm just checking to see if we left anything- ah ha! Look who forgot his phone charger Mr. I-don't-ever-forget-anything," I just stuffed the charger into my backpack, he could get it later.

      "Yeah, yeah, we need to get going. Lennox called earlier and said he expected us by one or his exact words were 'I'm sending the whole base out to hunt your asses down if the two of you aren't back here by one'," Ron was trying to sound like Will, but failed miserably.

       "That sounds nothing like Mr. William," there was a look of mock-hurt on Ron's face.

      "Excuse you, Stubbs, but that was a spot on impression of Lennox."

       "Hmm yeah sure, we'll go with that."

•••

       We were about twenty miles from the base when my phone started ringing. Without looking at the caller I.D, I held the phone to my ear, "hello?"

       "It's about damn time one of you picked up your phones," it was none other than William Lennox, shocker. He was like a mother hen and we were his children.

       "You called his phone," Ron gave me a curious look and I just mouthed 'Will' his face showed he understood and turned back to the road, but he was still listening, "neither of us heard it."

      "I'm sure you didn't," was his sarcastic response before he continued, "where are you guys? It's almost one and you aren't back yet," like I said, mother hen.

       "We're like twentyish miles away. We'll be there in less than half an hour, don't get your panties in a twist, William," I could hear laughter in the background,  but I couldn't make out from who.

      Before I could reply, there was a large blast not even ten feet from the truck. I felt like the world had stopped. I couldn't move no matter how hard I tried to, I couldn't even force a scream out from my throat. Ron ripped the phone out of my hand and started yelling things into to it to Will, but I couldn't make them out, still in shock.

      All of the sudden not even five seconds after the blast, there was a creature that seemed to made entirely of metal that landed in front of us. It had these weird marking all over it, something I'd never seen before. It had human-like features including arms, legs, hands, and feet from what I could see. It also had these red, evil looking eyes. Those eyes made contact with mine and the creature made a sinister smile, never once breaking eye contact.

      Before I could continue starring at the creature, Ron shoved me out of the truck to the pavement.

      "What the hell was that for-" before I could finish my sentence, the Topkick started moving, standing up it seemed like. It was still the beautiful blank color I'd come to love. 

      The Topkick-creature looked more human than the one with red eyes. It had these huge weapons attached to both of its arms, and they started glowing, warming up possibly.

       I started panicking when I realized Ron was no where in sight. I was spinning in circles for him, screaming his name while the truck and red eyes were fighting. In the distance, I could hear many different powerful engines, and they were coming closer by the second.

     Before I was able to determine where the engine sounds were coming from, another blast came from red eyes and landed right in front of me, making me fly back. When I finally hit the ground, there was a second of light and gunshots heard in the background before it all went dark.