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Megatron wordlessly dug his drill into the hard surface of the mine walls in hopes to find energon. He needed to meet quota. He needed to survive. Sometimes he questioned the purpose of survival at this point but with terminus at his side after every grueling day he felt like he deserved to continue. Every miner did. He was lost in thought about what he and terminus could write and publish next when he felt a tap on the shoulder. Impactor.
“Megs. Did you hear that?”
They froze together to listen, halting their venting for a better analysis of whatever sound Impactor heard.
Screaming. It was horrified screaming, some cutting off or fading into a different sort of screaming. It was so violent, so aggressive. Unlike anything the pair had ever heard in all their entire period online in this hellhole of a place and the places they've been.
“That’s not a mining sound,”
Impactor was so good at stating the obvious. The screams of miners never sounded this…this horrific. It was normal to hear screams, what with all the abuse they took from the supervisors. But it had never been like this. Megatron felt weak admitting how terrifying it sounded. Impactor suddenly took off, immediately causing Megatron to chase after the reckless fool. As they approached the surface and adjusted to the different light levels they witnessed a massacre. Miners were attacking anything that had a spark. It reeked of energon and void liquid. The air was filled with screams. The attacking miners had off putting optics, bright pink and oozing a rusty but greenish liquid. They looked rabid and acted worse than they looked. As the corrupted attacked others, seeming to spread their madness by splashing fluid from one of their eyes or mouth. One of them rushed at Impactor but his drill servoed comrade was able to react fast enough, twisting, causing the rushing miner to slam into the pillar holding up the entrance with such force the entryway trembled. The impact didn’t stop them though as the miner quickly scrambled to their pedes and charged again.
“Run!”
Impactor howled as the pair turned tail and sprinted from the massacre. The shrieks and heavy vents of the miners were heard at their backs, growing louder and louder. As the pair leapt into the bunker region of the mines, Megatron practically fell onto the lever to slam the door to keep the mad miners out. The frazzled pair were now knelt on the filthy floor, having turned on their internal fans to cool down their overworked inner machinery. Megatron glanced at the shut door that was getting slammed into by the bodies of the corrupted, causing huge dents. It would break soon and there was only one other exit.
“We have to get moving,” Megatron murmured, his systems still staticky from the shock.
“Yeah. Try to find anything we can use to survive. Hidden ration stores, tools we can use for weapons. Anything,”
Megatron nodded and the two went in opposite ways to find anything they could. Megatron tucked away some energon he found in someone's cache and found a blade someone was making from their torn off plating. As the banging grew louder and the metal began to tear away, the pair regrouped. Impactor spoke quietly for once as if hoping the horde wouldn’t hear if they could understand.
“I found some energon, cords, and a pickaxe. You?”
“Energon too and a makeshift blade. We need to get going,”
The pair ran away from the door scouting for survivors as they went.
“Terminus,”
Megatron blurted as his spark lurched. Impactor froze.
“Megatron, we can’t-”
“But what if he can help-”
“Megs we can’t go back-”
“Impactor-”
The pair stopped spluttering back and forth and stared at each other. Megatron’s spark ached. He didn’t want to lose Terminus. He was his mentor, his guide in life. He owed him more than he knew.
“I hate you,” Impactor muttered as he veered off the path downward away from the exit towards the bottom bunk levels where the older, less cared for mechs were left for recharge. Megatron felt a surge of hope as he quickly followed downward. Megatron sprinted to Terminus’ chamber and was met with his fretful voice. Praying. Terminus never prayed to anyone for as long as Megatron knew.
“Terminus. We’re here. Were you hurt?”
Terminus sighed in relief as he turned to Megatron’s worried voice.
“I’m alright lads. What in the pit is going on out there?”
“We don’t know,” Impactor chimed in. “We heard a commotion and when we went to check, the others seemed to be going mad. They can spread their madness but we’re not sure how they do it yet,”
“I can only guess it’s through the liquid their facial orifices seem to be leaking,” Megatron piped up thoughtfully.
“May Primus help us all…” Terminus wheezed.
Megatron hoisted Terminus onto his back, the legless older mech wrapping his arms around Megatron’s shoulders and the now trio began to head back up towards the exit. Then, to their horror, the door had finally given out and the infected began pouring in.
“Go! Go! Go! Now!” Impactor screamed as they began sprinting to the exit. Megatron’s fans roared as he strained to run faster than the crazed miners and carry the mech on his back safely.
“I’m only slowing you down!”
“Hush, Terminus! We’re all getting out of here!”
“Megatron, listen to me! I’m only weighing you down! We’ll all die if you keep me!”
Impactor threw down some machinery pieces to act as a temporary blockade so they could keep going. They could hear the miners scrambling to get around the blockade.
“There! The ladder up to the surface!”
There was hope in Megatron’s spark. They were so close. Then another set of shrieks was coming from the tunnel ahead. Another section of the horde had found them.
“Megatron! Listen! I have no legs and need spark casing repairs. I can’t survive with you!”
“Terminus, don't say that! We’ll find a way!”
As Impactor clambered up the ladder he looked down for a moment. He and Terminus exchanged a glance. Impactor grabbed Megatron’s servos, wrenching them from the hold around Terminus’ own. Terminus pushed himself off Megatron’s shoulders as Megatron was hoisted up the ladder. Megatron screamed unlike any scream heard today, a wail of pure despair as Terminus fell back onto the oncoming horde. Megatron’s audials filled with a ringing as he tried to fight back so he could go down and get his mentor but Impactor pulled stronger as he used his denta and elbow to clamber up the ladder. Megatron screamed out his former mentor's name so hard his voice box burst in a cloud of sparks and smoke. Once they were on the surface floor, Impactor slammed the door shut onto it to keep the crazed horde from following. Impactor knew Megatron would probably hate him once the shock wore off but he did it for their survival. Impactor looked around at the devastation. Machines were in pieces and there was energon everywhere. They needed to find a safe shelter and hopefully some survivors. Impactor looked at Megatron again. His optics were wide and his fans were sputtering as they tried to help calm him. Impactor hoisted his friend to his pedes, their servos still intwined.
“I’m sorry, Megatron. You can hate me later. We need to find shelter now. Let’s go,”
Impactors voice was uncharacteristically gentle. It was the least he could do for his grieving friend. He found a discarded whip and gun from the supervisors and gave Megatron the gun, watching as he carefully adjusted his hold and shifted the blade to his waist as a quick secondary weapon. Impactor jerked his helm to say ‘let’s go’ and Megatron mutely followed, slowly returning to his senses yet all he could think of was ‘I’m sorry’. This was the first time Impactor had seen tears on his friends' cheeks.
The pair wandered through the outskirts of cybertron, hoping the deserted areas would be less likely to have any infected. But after several groons of emptiness and barely any resources they risked going to town. They went to a smaller little section of some city - not a place they could name at this moment as they never were given maps of cybertron, below the surface. They slowly approached what looked like a market before it was destroyed by what appeared to be gunfire on top of the visible damage from physical attacks. The inside of the market seemed safe as they silently wandered among aisles and abandoned stalls. There was still some energon and other edible items left, which the two mechs gathered and tucked them away in their hidden storage compartments. They stored as much as they could before they continued down the street. Any weapons they found, Impactor took as a precaution. It grew dark but darkness mattered not to a miner, however today had been much more wearing than any other day of their lives. Impactor led Megatron into a relatively stable looking building. They scoped out the building, making sure it was empty. It wasn’t. At the sound of a gun being aimed at them Megatron reacted just as face, resulting in a face off between two bots. Impactor was glad to see Megatron had the shock worn off at the very least.
“Don’t shoot!”
The new mech cried as Megatron clenched his teeth silently. Impactor put his servo on Megatron’s shoulder.
“Uninfected,”
The word was enough for Megatron to slowly lower the gun and the other Mech copied his motion.
“Who are you?” The strange new mech murmured as he put his gun back to his hip.
“I’m Impactor. This is Megatron, his voice box got blown,” Impactor cringed and looked away as Megatron’s optics flared with pain. He turned back to the blue mech. “Who are you?”
“I’m Soundwave,” the new mech did a hand motion which suddenly caused some minibots to appear. Megatron seemed to recognize some. A pair of similar minibots pointed at him while the other two laid back at Soundwaves shoulder and pede.
“You!” the blue and purple one cried.
Megatron simply pointed back with wide optics.
“You know each other?” Soundwave asked, seeming to relax a bit, letting the pair come further into the building.
Megatron nodded, trying to speak but his voice box seemed to be permanently damaged, or at least too damaged for it to recalibrate on its own. Soundwave noticed.
“Mind if I take a look?”
Megatron stepped closer and let Soundwave examine the fried cabling and even more friend voice box. He puffed out some air.
“Mm. Damage too severe to repair without some tools. But fixable at least,”
Megatron nodded and gave a soft wave to say ‘don’t worry about it’. The group then decided to set up for the night to recharge.
“The minibots and I have set up a system where we recharge with one awake as a guard and we swap out every hour. To avoid being caught off guard and to warn the sleeping ones of dangers. Megatron nodded and Impactor agreed.
“I’ll be on the first watch,” Impactor volunteered. It’s the least he could do at this moment. Soundwave led Megatron to a safer hidden area behind some rubble where they slept. The minibots transformed into cassettes and took place in soundwaves chassis to take up less space while they rested. He watched as Megatron and Soundwave laid close to each other. Impactor watched Megatron offline his optics. He needed the rest badly. Impactor watched out into the silent, empty streets. He thought about the days events. What happened to cause this destruction? Where would they go from here? Was anyone alive? Or did everyone succumb to whatever was plaguing his fellow cybertronians? He sighed and tried to stay focused on night watch. Tomorrow they’d need to plan from here. He wondered what was in store for them. Where would they go? What would they do? He exvented quietly. Enough overthinking. That was Megatron’s job. The mental joke wasn’t as funny as it used to be. Nothing would be as funny anymore.