CYPHER

Blow and Roll

Dean had beckoned for Jade and the others to also come closer and they had all taken turns to peek through the convertible at the Steel display beyond the stack of cars .

Tara , the last person had finally finished looking through the convertible at what was waiting for them .

" Okay , this is a little more intense than we anticipated ".

Dean looked over to Trevor and smiled cynically , his teeth on display for too long .

" No s**t , Sherlock ".

Trevor only frowned at the deliberate aggressive answers and turned to talk to his people while Dean beckoned on his teammates so that they could do the same too .

Blade was running his fingers through his gold locks , his eyes deep in thought and Jade was calculating something that Dean could not quite catch .

" What do you guys think we can do about the blocked path ? "

None of them responded or reacted in any way. If May had been here she would have been smacking their heads down already .

Jade turned to him with a confused look .

" So , our first problem is removing or getting past the barricade ? "

Dean only stared at Jade , speechless , he would not have been surprised if the question had come from Blade but it was coming from Jade so he was quite unimpressed , maybe they should have left Jade behind so he could soothe May when she woke up .

But then again , May would have eaten him alive because he would have told her the whole truth and nothing but the truth .

Dean just rolled his eyes and massaged his temple .

" There is no point in trying to sneak past the barricade ".

Blade nodded in agreement .

" Yes , trying to sneak past the barricade is almost impossible and even if we do manage to sneak past , we would be in plain view of the Steels , there is too much of them for us to depend on a miracle like super invisibility ".

Dean and Jade nodded at Blade's assessment , he was right .

There was too much of the damned steels waiting beyond the barricade for their arrival and it did not help that they were so sensitive to sound .

" How about this ? "

They turned to Jade to listen to what he had to say .

" How about alerting the Steels to the fact that we are here by making a ruckus of some kind ? "

Jade looked between Dean and Blade like he had expected them to immediately understand his plan .

Dean ignored his gaze and focused on what he had meant by creating a ruckus .

" Creating a ruckus here would draw their attention here ? "

Jade nodded wildly .

" Yes , when they come here , it would be easier for a couple of people to slip past them and into the mall while they are distracted by the noise ".

Blade looked to be in utter confusion this time but then he raised a valid question .

" And what happens when we slip in during the ruckus and there is no longer any noise coming from behind the barricade ? If it is really people controlling the steels , it would not take them that long to realize that we already got in somehow ".

Dean understood what Blade was saying so he turned to Jade and from his weird expression he seemed to have already thought about it , Dean realized what would be the answer to that .

" We are not all going in, Are we ? We need to leave people outside to continue humouring the f*****g steels ".

Jade nodded solemnly . It was a risky plan but Dean had been thinking of something similar, there was simply no safer plan or route for them to take .

Trevor and his teammates seemed to have finished their meeting since they turned around and headed for them .

Dean briefly wondered if they had come up with a plan , hopefully it would be better than theirs .

" What did you guys decide to do ? "

Trevor smiled foolishly like Dean had asked him to point at his crush .

" We thought long and hard , you know. And we finally came to a conclusion ".

Dean nodded , waiting to hear what conclusion they had come to .

Trevor smiled wildly , holding out his hands .

" We decided that we would follow your guidance and do what you wanted us to do ".

They were all smiling foolishly now , Trevor and his teammates .

Dean shook his head and thought of how to split who went in and who stayed out while Jade briefed the others on the plan .

At the end of it all , staying in or going out was a big risk since the Steels could break the barricade down at anytime and kill the ones that were supposed to be creating a ruckus or there would be more of them waiting inside the mall .

Besides , if they managed to sneak in , would they also be lucky enough to sneak out ?

There was just too many variables .

" Okay , I will stay out ".

They all turned to Blade and he laughed lowly , shrugging like he had just chosen between peanut butter and cheese .

" I mean it is an easy job , all I have to do is wait out here and create a distraction , easy peasy ".

He was right , he would work the best out here and Dean would be rest assured that the people outside were being protected right if he knew that Blade was with them .

" I will go in then ".

This time they all turned around to Dean who did not have any calming phrases or laughs to throw out , he only glared at them till Jade spoke and they all shifted their attention to Jade .

" I' will go in too , I don't have I will be of much help outside ".

They all turned to Jade who took it as his cue to finally smile foolishly .

They turned to Trevor's team, they seemed to be having a hard time deciding who to go .

Finally , Nelly , the leggy blonde stepped forward , she shrugged .

" I will go too , got nothing else to f*****g do out here anyway ".

Dean nodded even though he was mildly surprised , he had expected Trevor to come along with them .

At least , now there was three of them .

" I will go too ".

They all turned to Tara , surprised , waiting for her to explain why she also wanted to go in like everyone had been doing .

" Since it is basically shoplifting , we need people to do the actual shoplifting and people on the look out , it would be better if more people went in ".

No one argued because her logic made total sense .

Dean turned back around to Blade .

" So , how do we get in ? "

Blade grinned .

" I am going to take care of that , so you four just put yourself in that pretty convertible we saw earlier and trust me ...trust us ".

Dean had an aversion to statements or declarations that had trust me attached to them.

Dean did not like the sound of this but he really did not feel like he had a choice .

Blade escorted them to the convertible and watched as they pushed their way in .

" When you hear my signal , then it is safe to run for the mall ".

They needed a signal too ?

" How do we know what your signal is ? "

Dean's question seemed to have been lost in translation because Blade never answered .

They headed to the convertible in a single file led by Dean and gently made their way into the cramped car that was in plain sight of the Autobots if only they turned back .

Dean kept an eye on the autobots and tried to keep an eye on what was happening behind them but that was hard as he could no longer see Blade or Trevor .

They all waited in the convertible , silent , so they could hear whatever Blade's signal was .

Suddenly , an explosion shook the barricade of vehicles, turning Dean and the others around .

The place was immediately filled with the sickening droning that came from the steels as they ran forward in different directions .

" There is your f*****g signal !!!! ".

Dean groaned loudly while they all fought to regain their balance , this was what happened when you let Blade assume control .

Dean hurriedly made his way to the driver's side of the convertible and peeked out , the place was crowded with Steels like they had seen earlier, except now the steels were clinging to the barricade and hitting it and Dean's head was currently between one of the steels opened legs .

Dean exhaled slowly and pushed himself out , he helped Tara and Jade out while Nelly kicked her way out .

They immediately began to run under the legs of the steels , headed towards the malls main doors that were so close and yet so far .

Another grenade came swinging behind the barricade just a little behind them .

Shit!

Had Blade even thought that they might have still been there ?

But , the grenade served its purpose because the Steels focused all of their attention on the barricade again while they ran into the mall .

As soon as they were through the mall doors , Dean closed his eyes and only opened them a moment later , sighing in relief , he had hoped the doors did not have some kind of security alarm system .

" Over here ! ".

Nelly stood next to a direction board that was saying where everything was located in the mall . Dean briefly glanced at it before speaking .

" Nelly , you have the general store , get water and any other thing that is useful and portable . Tara , you have the drug store , get anything for colds and something to stop bleeding . Jade , you have food , Get anything that can sustain us , I will get ammunition ".

Dean had sent the girls to lower floors do they would be closer to the doors and the exit , he saw Nelly's eyes light up with realization but she also knew how dangerous it all was so she averted her eyes from him , They all nodded in understanding .

" Okay , let's roll ".