Ruby - Transformers: Dark of the Moon fanfic

A Small Twinkle of Hope

With each puff of breath, single words of focus pulsed in Ruby's mind: spin, deflect, duck, deflect, deflect, shoot. Her momentum pulled her along faster and faster as she raced through the streets, making her spins more dizzyingly powerful, ultimately resulting in stronger deflects. However, Ruby was tiring, her accuracy was wavering, and the Decepticons were winning the world.

****

Sam and the others reached the city at sunrise.

"Oh, dear god," breathed Tyrese. He brought the car to a stop, unable to drive it any further through all of the wreckage.

The small team of ex-NEST soldiers and Sam got out. They stared, enthralled at the scene laid out before them. The remains of burnt cars littered the broken roads like gum wrappers; rubble continued to fall from collapsing buildings, threatening to crush what was left of the city population, and the stench of exposed flesh, fumes and smoke filled the air. People sat on the ground, struck down by grief, while lost children ran through the streets, screaming.

Tyrese gripped his machine gun tighter as an alien ship roared dangerously low overhead. To their right, a fleet of six fighter jets broke formation and attempted to dart around the ship, but it shot them all down concurrently before doing a tight U-turn and zooming off again, out of view.

"This is madness," said Eddie, an extremely beefy man with little hair, "Ain't no way I'm going in there,"

Tyrese shook his head, "No, nobody's going in there,"

Sam slung his rucksack onto his back, "I am," he said.

"What!? No, you'll get yourself killed!" Tyrese grabbed onto Sam's rucksack, holding him back.

"I have to," he replied, "She's in there because of me, what am I supposed to do?"

Tyrese took a deep breath, "Look, I'm sorry, but it's over. We couldn't get to Carly, even if she is still alive. I'm sorry."

"I have to find her," said Sam simply.

He turned away from Tyrese. He lifted his foot to take a step forward, when the oddest sound rang out.

"What was that?" said Eddie, his voice high.

Tyrese held up a hand to silence him. For a second the small group stood totally still, straining their ears through the distant screams and bangs. Then the sounds came again, loud and clearer, within a rhythm.

Clip-clop, clip-clop,

"That sounds like..." mumbled Sam,

"Hooves," finished Tyrese.

Clip-clop, clip-clop,

"It's getting closer," said Eddie, cocking his gun.

The team tensed up, ready to spring.

Then the sound exploded; iron-shod hooves clattered over the concrete less than a block away.

"Steady men," Tyrese murmured, "Steady,"

They all stood frozen, their eyes glued to the corner of the street.

A black, rider-less horse came veering round it, galloping at the speed of a bullet. It shot straight down the middle of the road, dispersing the group. They turned and watched it go, the stirrups of its saddle swinging wildly and banging relentlessly into the poor beast's sides.

The men momentarily relaxed.

"Well that was strange," said Sam, breaking the eerie silence, "I'm going to-"