Complicated Vows: This Is War

A Soldier's Trust

            If felt good to be functioning again; feeling the life exploding from his engine, the dirt flying out from underneath his hot tires and out behind him. Bumblebee had only dreamt of racing down back roads while he was injured. Sure, he’d been racing, literally, down the same roads when the Decepticons had viciously attacked the city, but that was different. He’d been racing away for his life.

            Now, he pushed himself as fast as the horrible dirt road would allow him to go. His thick tires kicked up a huge dust cloud behind him, which he knew would signal any nearby, and airborne, Decepticon that someone was on the move. But that didn’t matter. His mission had to be completed.

            Internal maps told him that he was only a few miles from his final destination.

            Lying on her couch, staring at ceiling, Danielle’s mind was blank. She traced the patterns on the popcorn ceiling with her eyes but that was about it. The trauma from last week had really taken a toll on her. Despite that fact that it had been a week, she still could not force her mind to wrap around any of the events that had transpired.

            A few days ago, she’d managed to carry herself to the burn site of the silver car, just to look at what was left. She’d clambered down the slope into the very bottom of the pit, only to find that the edge was just above her head. How could a CAR blow up and leave a crater like this? She reminded herself, for the umpteenth time, that it wasn’t just a car, but rather some giant humanoid machine, robot even, that had sat there looking like a car.

            Rooting around in the mixed debris, among burned sticks, leaves, and scrap metal, she’d found a little shield. It was very scratched and burned, but the emblem engraved on it was still recognizable. She made out the symbol to match that of the one on her truck’s grill.

            Heart hammering in her chest, threatening to burst, she pounded home to confirm her growing fear. Holding the shield up to the one on her truck, her breath caught in her throat and she backed away. Clutching the emblem from the Solstice in her fist, she ran inside her house and locked every door and window, pushing desks, tables and other furniture around to further barricade herself.

            That had been the day after the giant machines left. Ever since then, she hadn’t left the house once. She was running low on food but didn’t dare go out near her truck, much less drive it to town to get supplies.

            So now she sat around, conserving her energy to prevent herself from getting hungry. Eventually the pangs would get stronger though, and she would try to distract herself by sleeping or daydreaming, escaping to her memories of home when it was still home.

            That’s where she was right now, daydreaming of life back then. Her father taking her for rides in their (normal, non-living) truck. Picnics with him and mom out in the city park under trickling oak trees, leaves cascading down around them, sunlight glancing off their organic sheen.

            A soft purring outside pricked her senses and brought her back to reality. The sound grew, obviously nearing her. It was outside; sounded like a vehicle. Not just any vehicle however, at least not the kind that any of her neighbors had. As it grew louder she could tell by the purr that it was a high-performance engine, the kind made for racing.

            She tensed as the vehicle’s sound passed her house, the sound growing then beginning to ebb away again in the other direction. Then it stopped. The vehicle revved as it was thrown into reverse and spun around to come back. Danielle’s heartbeat quickened. She grabbed the F.N 5.7 as she crept low towards the front window. Peaking up over the ledge, she stopped breathing and gawked as the bright yellow Camaro swung into her driveway. It was perfectly repaired.