24TTWI: Yeah I took forever. And this is only like half as long as usual. Sorry is all I can say.
As for an actual note, or part of one, I didn't put apostrophes on certain words because they're distracting to me.
I also kinda change points of view, which I know shouldn't be done in the middle of a chapter. Welp.
Chapter 8
Sam wasn't alone when she settled into her spot in the back.
No, Tessa seemed to have taken their conversation- the fact that they'd even had it- as invitation to plop right down beside the kind-of stranger.
Sam didn't let herself think for a moment that Tessa made the choice out of a want for conversation, even as she listened to the blonde babble quietly.
Sam got to thinking, however, that the constant stream of words kept her from having a lapse in attention. (Because Tessa also regularly made sure Sam was paying attention and not just sitting there, half asleep or something.) It grounded her.
So far, those lapses seemed to precede her moments of loss of control, as if something willed her body to act out of turn when Sam got really lost in thought.
And then Sam got to thinking that perhaps Tessa had decided to do what she was doing (being an annoying kid) for that exact reason, and then Sam wasn't so bothered by it.
So she made sure to pay attention to everything Tessa rambled about.
That didn't mean fear wasn't starting to crawl its way up her back.
Because what in the fuck, she thought, was going on inside her head?
She was still rather muddled concerning her dual personas and all that jazz, but no "version" of her had had any part in all this laser/hammer business. Whatever was trying to knock her ass out was foreign, and it was inside her, and ohgodshewantedtogag.
Not puke because, again, her organs were pretty much shot to shit.
Something suddenly latched on to her shoulder, and Sam quietly but harshly shoved it off in an instant. Anything warm and squishy was not friendly.
Nothing, really, was friendly anymore.
She blinked and focused her bleary vision on Tessa's mildly hurt expression. "Don't do that," Tessa told her quietly, and Sam wasn't entirely sure if she meant the hand-shove thing or the zoning-out thing.
"You don't do that," Sam returned, and it sounded childish, yes, but she meant it. She wouldn't hand-shove if Tessa didn't try to hold her in the first place, even if she meant well. Again, Sam wasn't very good at the whole gratitude thing.
Tessa leaned back and crossed her arms. Her head was facing away from Sam now, but she smiled a little. "God, you sound like a kid."
Sam didn't let herself react out of fear of proving Tessa right.
Parked many paces away from the edge of the cliff, and hopefully out of sight, Optimus was trying to get answers out of Sam without making her cut him off from herself. He had gotten the impression early on that Sam did not like questions. But he'd noticed the shaky tension between the two young women back at the station and he just needed to know what in the world had happened.
It'd been a whole day of him just driving while the humans drifted between being awake and asleep, and even though Sam never slept, she refused to begin any conversation with him at any point.
Optimus had heard Tessa's shriek, of course, what with his sensitive hearing, but he had somehow managed to keep to himself and not recklessly butt into whatever had happened. Tessa had sounded angry, not afraid, so he had honestly taken a gamble and hoped the risk was worth keeping himself on Sam's… not-as-bad side. He had known that demanding an explanation would have made Sam completely close herself off, perhaps even leave, and he was determined to keep Sam alive and in his sight this time.
His vision focused on Sam's small frame. He hadn't found a way to heal Sam from his end, and he refused to consider that maybe she simply couldn't be; that she'd be in her mangled, literal corpse-like state until the end of her days.
And because it was his fault, he wasn't looking forward to facing the team (if he could call their group that). Chiefly, Bumblebee. Though Optimus knew they both blamed themselves, he still wondered if Bumblebee held him responsible for what had happened to Sam. Seeing her like she was probably wouldn't garner Optimus any points in Bee's favor, surely.
"What?" a voice suddenly bit out, breaking the silence. Apart from Sam, everyone had headed out to the cliff's edge to test Cade's ATM idea.
Optimus, very eloquently, returned the sentiment, albeit softer and with mild confusion.
Sam coiled back into herself, visibly put off by Optimus' response. She looked to have been ready for a fight, but the balloon that was her anger deflated instead of popping. "What? Wait, no, look- uh, listen."
It would be amusing to see Sam scramble so much, but Optimus had an idea of why the girl couldn't keep her thoughts straight. So it wasn't.
"I can feel that you wanna say something," she finally managed. "It's- It's stifling as fuck, so just say it."
"You and Tessa have been talking on the way here," he promptly replied, not feeling like trying Sam's patience.
Samantha rolled her eyes, but Optimus hoped the annoyance wasn't completely directed at him. "That's how people communicate," she scoffed, "in case you didn't know." Her shoulders were tensed, but she slumped after a moment. "And I know you know that I wasn't doing much of the talking."
"I know," he offered, perhaps jokingly.
"I know," she shot back, but the smile making its way onto her face indicated that most of her fight had left her. She let her head gently land on the harsh metal her side was pressed against. Finally seeming to relax, she let her legs sprawl out beside her.
The silence was finally comfortable, and he felt he could almost forget all his troubles in those few precious minutes.
Of course, he couldn't actually. He also couldn't help but hope he could garner more answers out of Sam before the others came back and, no offense, killed the not-too-bad mood.
"She was doin' it to distract me," Sam eventually slurred out. It sounded like she had been slipping into a nap. He had noticed her failure to ever actually sleep, but he didn't dwell on it. Not when she was talking. "Or, actually, to distract me from getting distracted."
"...To focus?" Optimus chanced.
Sam huffed at that, and Optimus wondered if she could feel the walls getting warmer. "Yeah. That." Again, even through the sunglasses, Optimus could see how her eyes briefly opened to glance at the wall, then slid shut again. "Guess she didn't want me to..."
She paused, eyes unfocused. Her bony elbows dug into her sides as she tried not to lock up.
She was deliberating (what, exactly, was anyone's guess), so Optimus gave her time (time spent anxiously because would she tell him and if she does it better be before anyone gets back). He was almost embarrassed at how relieved he felt once Sam spoke again.
"Something's wrong." She sat up only to hunch over her now crossed legs. "I mean, that's obvious but I don't-"
Optimus couldn't see her face anymore, but her voice sounded strained.
"I don't-" she tried again, and when she didn't continue, she made a noise that sounded like it was being dragged out from deep in her throat. If frustration sounded like anything, it was that.
"You told me to remind you of the incident," Optimus said, if nothing, to keep the silence from settling. Sam nodded, though it was more a rocking of her whole body than a shake of her head. "It happened again," Optimus went on. Sam couldn't, and she seemed to want him to.
"I'm stupid," she said loudly, the words muffled by the sleeve-covered fist she held against her mouth. "I should know what- should be able to tell, but nothing comes up in the scans so- so I just gotta wait til it gets worse?"
Scans?
The wails of sirens suddenly pierced the air, not giving Optimus time to do much but try to roll nearer to the others. Sam huddled into herself tightly as the sirens grew louder and flinched when the others started pooling into the truck. Cade, Shane, and Tessa dumped several crates, the skeleton of a computer and keyboard, and other dilapidated contraptions into the back.
Shane was rather out of breath, and wiped the sweat from his brow as soon as his hands were free. "Shit, man, let's get the hell outta here. That was way too many cops, way too fast." Optimus noticed with chagrin that Shane's distress was alarming Sam further.
"I'm assuming it didn't go well," Optimus muttered dryly, driving slowly away and leaving the sirens behind.
"Dad's account was locked," Tessa informed them tiredly. She slumped where she sat and kicked away a knot of cables that were barely hanging onto their corresponding joysticks.
"No money," Cade reiterated as he let his head fall back on the driver seat.
"Nothing new there," Tessa said, glaring at the floor.
Cade sighed before craning his neck to give his daughter a scolding look, his head lolling from side to side as Optimus sped up. "Yeah, well, seems Lucky Charms meant the whole 'life savings' thing literally." Cade returned to his previous position and closed his eyes, completely dismissing Shane's glower. "Not a penny on his person." He smiled grimly for a second. "Tell me, how did you intend to support Tessa?"
Shane's eyes widened, and perhaps, Optimus thought, with good reason. Shane could try to come up with an excuse, or he could say that he hadn't planned to stick around. Either way, Shane was trapped.
"Dad!" Tessa admonished, more defensive than angry. She glared at the back of Cade's seat, but promptly looked away, head ducked. It didn't look like she wanted to hear what Shane had to say.
"You could've at least tried not to threaten the fuckin' government," Shane finally said, crossing his arms and looking out the window. It got Cade to crack an eye open, but he said nothing.
Sam, on the other hand, jolted. Her mouth opened a little, but she struggled with what to say. After a moment, she settled on letting out a low croak that vaguely resembled the word "what".
Tessa was the fastest to react. "Whoa, he just kinda made the drone hold a sign, don't freak out."
"THEY'RE the ones who are gonna freak out!" Sam pulled her legs under her to sit on her knees, shoulders rigid. "THEY are possessive. Their shit is theirs, a-and they don't want anyone knowing about it, m-m-much less, messing with it! Damn it!"
Optimus made his best effort to not brake immediately, but he suspected the humans sensed his anger nonetheless. He wasn't proud when they hunched in on themselves, but he didn't exactly feel guilty either.
"Samantha."
The girl's frantic flailing paused, and only her heavy breaths filled the silence. She sat again, legs sprawled out and looking like snapped twigs. "You think they'd see?" she asked, though Optimus guessed Sam already knew the answer. But, almost childishly, Sam refused to see sense.
The ride was spent in silence.
Route 191 was beautiful. The part they were on, was, at least. From what he could see, this had to be one of the prettier places on Earth. It could have been the buttes in the distance that looked like the ruins of an ancient city, or the multitude of oranges and reds in the nearby mesas that did it, but Optimus realized it was probably the lack of urbanization.
Samantha had finally relaxed (as well as could be expected). She wasn't constantly craning her neck to look into the side mirrors anymore, so. That was good.
Yet, after how frantic she had become earlier, at Hole 'N the Rock, Optimus really could have thought his next actions through a little better.
He was close to regrouping with his teammates. If they were to plan and launch into action the very next morning, as Optimus intended, he would need to be sturdier than a rickety old truck.
When he saw a large truck coming their way, Optimus believed that it was a stroke of luck. No other vehicles had passed them in a while, so Optimus had taken the opportunity. He'd taken on different forms before without issue.
He hadn't stopped to think when he'd last done so with anyone inside his current form, though.
One second, the humans (and whatever Sam turned out to be) were biding their time, having settled into the hours of uninterrupted quiet. But the second he took in the data for the new design, everything went to hell.
Like a fool, he seemed to have gone and electrocuted Samantha.
Her screams snapped everyone awake, and Optimus didn't even brake before transforming. The humans leapt out the doors before he stood up, and once he did, he looked down at the convulsing body in his hands. Chunks of his old exterior were still flaking off him, leaving his face and entire form a mess of shiny and rusted chaos.
Optimus couldn't detect any more electricity flowing through Samantha, but the girl was still shaking violently, screaming herself hoarse. She kept kicking and flailing and trying to squirm out of his grasp, cursing at him and nearly tearing out her hair.
God.
"Sam-"
"NO! Lemme go! Lemme go! Let me go!" She was trying to punch the metal of his hands, but naturally, the blood that began to stain him wasn't his own.
"Samantha."
He was trying not to be too loud, but the girl was carving into her arms, wriggling and gaping more than a fish out of water. Optimus managed to use his fingers to hold her arms away from herself. Still she kicked and kicked until her foot bent at the wrong angle, and even then she wouldn't still. Optimus used his thumb to press down below her knees.
"Samantha."
"Stop. Don't. PLEASE." She wasn't loud anymore. Her throat had quickly given out, but the rough and absolutely wrecked tone of what remained of her voice definitely made Optimus consider leaving the planet purely out of guilt.
"Sam." He closed his eyes for a moment. His voice shouldn't break, if only due to the nature of it. But still it wavered.
He heard a single whispered "fuck you," before his head was knocked back by a blast of something, forcing him to briefly stumble. His hands were pushed apart, and when he could finally see straight, he realized Samantha was gone.
TTWI: Yeah. This was bad. I took too long because when I first wrote this out it got deleted and my lazy ass didn't want to rewrite it. Also because it feels gross.
If it wasn't clear, I have no upload schedule and these come when I push myself to write something. Usually when I get a random comment five months or something after I last posted. I got several of those, actually, so thanks to those people. My dumb ass still didn't finish immediately though, so again, sorry. A lot. Not many people read this, but I don't like that I left y'all hanging. Still did it though. Yeah I'm a shit person. I hope to improve myself someday.
Thank you for reading, though. If I'm being honest, I don't write because I think the story is pretty shit, but I don't want to just leave it. So thanks for getting through it.
Late replies to the guests from 9/5 and 9/16: I'm glad to hear y'all like it. I'm working on chapter nine, but, uh, it's being difficult. (anyone have any ideas?)