“C’mon time to get up,” Grandpa D says tapping my foot. I blink to focus my eyes to the early morning light. Three days ago, we finally arrived at Grandpa D’s radio station, and we had quite a tearful reunion where Jen and I had to break it to him that mom had to stay behind so that we could get away, he was really sad about that, but he wasn’t alone on that.
We managed to hold off telling him about my band ‘til the end, that’s when it decided to go off. Grandpa was patting me on the back when I told him how I brought down the Drac car by shooting at the engine from the opening between the tire and car frame. When I felt it coming on, I quickly got away from him and Jen, and fell to my knees from the shock. I didn’t say anything, I just squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to open my mouth, because I knew I’d scream.
“Oh my God, what just happened?!” Grandpa yells. Then I hear Show’s skates as he comes out through the opening entry, looking down at me on the ground.
“The BLI’s going to far is what’s happening,” Jen says coming to kneel next to me.
“Aftershocks,” I gasp out as I feel them course through me. Jen doesn’t touch me, knowing that the current might carry on.
“She has a band, ever since they lowered the limit to nine-years-old, and she turned nine the year they did that,” Jen says bitterly as she watches me get hammered with aftershocks. “Our mom did something to make sure it wouldn’t shock her while we escaped, but now it goes off at random, and we can’t cut it off or else it’ll hurt her, bad.”
That’s when Cherri pipes up, “You think we could call out to him? He’s the only one I can think of who could help her.”
Grandpa just looks at me helplessly as Jen helps me get up after the shocks have stopped, “We’ll have to, I can only hope that he’ll be able to get here soon.”
So Grandpa made the announcement, over both the radio and the communication signals. Now we’re just hoping that this guy everyone says is the biggest tech-med guy they have, will hear it and come. They tell me that he’s really good at removing the really defective bands that can’t be cut off without seriously hurting the wearer.
Today though, we’ve got a “permanent” home, or a permanent guardian I guess, we get to stay here and help out Grandpa D. Show went back to his job, and Cherri left for her hideout too this morning.
Since he’s immobile due to a bad accident on a rescue mission, he’s always in need of assistance, like reaching CDs on high shelves or fixing the equipment, he’s even letting us talk on the radio when he needs a break. He’s the only radio host around who’ll actually stay here and keep up on regular shows, so he has to take breaks and just play music straight on, without taking in requests, which he gets a lot of. So now that Jen and I are here to live with him, we can have our own talk times, Jen goes first because she wanted to, so I let her, and I take the later time. The schedule is basically grandpa, Jen, me, then grandpa again before we go to sleep for the night.
When grandpa finishes and Jen’s doing her segment, he takes me outside to demonstrate my shooting skills. Apparently the front door only looks like it’s boarded up to keep people, (Draculoids), out, but grandpa uses it to get in and out of the diner.
After a couple of shots, he says I have a real talent, and that I should enter in his next contest.
“You could give Party Poison a run for his money,” he said after I shot down an empty can of dog food from a hundred yards away.
“Have you ever really met Party Poison or any of the other MCR guys?” I ask, remembering that Show said something about them using his studio to record their CD.
“No, I was away actually when they came by my station and recorded those songs,” he says. “They left behind all these copies for me to hand out, and a note saying thanks for the sessions,” he says moving his wheelchair across the old parking lot onto the bumpy dirt to get the can and set it back up, I follow close behind. “I listened to their CD, and I liked it, so I though I’d send your mother a copy,” he’s goes on as we walk slowly. “How’d she take it by the way?” he asks looking over at me.
“I don’t know, she let me listen to it, then asked me how I took it, I said I liked it, then she asked me which was my favorite and why,” I say kicking a rock as we go along.
“Which one was it?” he asks.
“‘The Only Hope for Me is You’, I told her if I ever made it outta there, she and Dune just had to listen to it, then they’d know I left BLI and not them,” I say looking out over the rock formations, stopping, grandpa stops with me. “She seemed a little bummed about me wanting to leave, but she knew my reasons, and understood,” I say looking down. “I guess that and knowing that we’d be safer was the only way she could let us go,” I finish looking up at him.
He smiles as he says, “Able, but not easy, I know, I felt the same way when I let her go with Techman to keep him alive.”
I smile and walk over and give him a hug, “I miss her.”
“I do to kiddo,” he says back to me.
The next day, we get an unexpected visitor.
I’m busy doing my talk show part of my session, where I let Killjoys call in and tell me their issues against the BLI. And trust me, there are a lot of Killjoys who have a bone to pick with the BLI.
“So, who’s calling in on Specter?” I say in my radio voice, which is a cross between sarcastic and confident.
“Road Runner,” says a husky male voice through my communication speaker.
“Alright Road Runner, what do you have against the system?” I say into the microphone, which transmits onto the radio and the communicator.
“I actually have a question for you Specter,” Road says.
“Um, okay, spit it out man,” I say feeling a little weird, no one’s asked me a question over the radio before…yet.
“Why do you call yourself Zone Specter? We all have reasons and meanings behind our names, and we Killjoys wanna know yours,” Road says really fast, like he won’t be able to get it in before I can cut him off.
“Well, I’ve got some issues with the BLI myself,” I say. “And I’ve seen some pretty close people to me go down by their hand, so I stand for all the Killjoys that have been ghosted by the BLI and the Draculoids, forever roaming these Zones for their justice!” I say getting worked up as I explain myself to a bunch of strangers who are probably worse off than me.
“Awesome,” Road says back to me, still on the line.
“Alright thanks for calling in Road Runner, keeping your boots tight, keep your gun close, and die with your mask on if you got to,” I say laughing at myself for probably making a fool of myself.
“Nice, simple but well put.”
I whirl around to see a tall guy in a dusty black outfit and what looks like a spaceman helmet with the shade piece down, covering his whole face.
I look at him for a bit in pure shock, then I realize I still have the Zones waiting to hear some music.
“Alright folks, here’s Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’,” I say as calmly as I can into the mic. After I put the song on, I take off the headphones and face the guy who’s still standing in where he came in from the back entryway. “Who are you?” I say suspiciously.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he says smoothly.
“I asked you first,” I retort just as quick.
“Good point,” he says pointing a finger at me.
“T, you’re here!” It’s grandpa, he and Jen have just walked in from her firing practice. “Thank you so much for coming to help me,” he says as he moves over to shake the guy’s hand.
The guy, T, shakes grandpa’s hand, but still doesn’t take off his helmet, “So, I heard someone out in Zone 6 say you were looking for my help, that true?”
“Yes I’m afraid so,” grandpa says moving to stand next to me and Jen. “My little friend here needs some serious help,” he says placing his hand on my shoulder. I look down, not wanting to meet the stranger’s stare.
“How’d this one come about?” T says crossing his arms
“This is Zone Specter, BLI was gonna use her as bait to capture another Killjoy, so her mother had her and her sister here run,” he says looking over at me. “And this is Dune Hunter,” he finishes, rubbing his hand through Jen’s hair.
“So why does the Specter kid need my help?” T says nodding towards me. “She looks too young to be wearing bands or anything of the sort for that matter,” he says quizzically.
“The age limit was lowered, she became eligible shortly after that law was passed,” Jen cuts in with her strong voice.
“So how long have you had that then?” he says turning towards me.
I raise my eyes to glower at him, “Since I turned nine five years ago.”
He gives a low whistle before answering, “Those things usually work longer than that before they start shorting out, why’s your’s picking now?”
“This is my second one, my mom had to short it out so I could get out without it going off,” I say holding up my wrist.
“And now it goes off at random, and at some pretty high frequencies too,” grandpa says looking at me sadly. “We can’t cut it off without her being on the brink of blacking out entirely,” he finishes sighing—we told him about what happened the first time.
“Well, if your done with your little radio show,” he says looking at me, “We can start now, but it’s gonna take awhile.”
I look to grandpa for help, and answers, “I’ll take over for you,” he says smiling at me warmly. I nod and stand up and look over to T, see what he wants me to do.
“Well?” I say raising my eyebrow.
“Go wait in the diner, I gotta go get my stuff,” he says turning back to the hall and slipping through the opening. I turn away, and stalk off to the diner, irritated that I’m having to rely on someone who doesn’t seem to care to help me. Grandpa notices my rough mood though, just like mom always did.
“He’s a friend of your father’s you know,” grandpa calls out to me as I’m about to go through the door into the other room. “And he’s just ornery and thinks I’m trying to get him and the others back with the main group,” he tells me this, but I don’t really pay attention. I just stare at him and try to make sense of the first part. This guy knows my father, maybe he could tell me who he is!
Pary 34: http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/zone-specter/danger-days-part-34
