Zone Specter:
The last thing I hear before I pass out for several hours is the sound of Party’s voice…his voice telling someone to be quiet so that I could sleep peacefully—fat chance of that happening.
I may have been asleep the whole time we were driving, but it was the worst kind of sleep you can experience. A kind of sleep where you drift between dream and some kind of half conscious-half unconscious state of mind—the kind that seems so like reality, but yet, so different. The dreams are more like nightmares though, nightmares of all the bad things I’ve seen, and the bad things I hope never happen, and that conscious-unconscious state, well lets just say you feel every bump on the road like it’s a massive explosion and catch bits and pieces of what people in the car are saying about you.
Eventually I wake up in the back of the car, bright light streaming in my face and someone’s jacket draped over me like a blanket. I try getting up, but my eyes are still adjusting to the light, so I don’t see that someone was watching me and pushes against my forehead to get me lying down again. I blink a few times and see that Jet’s sitting in the front seat, reading a magazine, keeping an eye on me as I sleep.
He turns the page and says in a flat tone, “I wouldn’t do much moving if I were you kid.”
I take in a deep breath and slowly bring my hand up to rub my eyes while I manage to grumble out, “Where are we?”
He laughs at my tone but answers anyway, “You sound just like Party when he wakes up from a long night, but we’re in Zone 3, somewhere west of the city,” he says turning back to his magazine.
“Where’s everyone else then?” I mumble as I stretch myself out a bit.
“Stretching counts as moving,” he says smacking me on the head with his magazine. He unrolls it then finds his page and returns to reading, “The others are in the gas station looking for some food and water so you can start getting some real energy.”
That’s when I remember the little sting I felt in my arm before I feel asleep, Jet must have given me something to help me get through after I spent myself trying to keep Party from falling out of the car into the fire.
“What did you give me anyway?” I say faintly, I look up to try and see if I can spot a building or something.
“Nutrition shot,” he’s not looking up from his mag.
“That’s what they gave me in the joint,” I say, giving up on finding the gas station from this point.
“Figured,” Jet sighs, “Party said they had you dangling from the ceiling, not much you can do dangling like that.”
“Yeah, they gave me shots to my spine,” I say moving my hand to rub my back.
Jet grimaces before he says, “Worst kinda shot.”
“So how long is that shot suppose to last me?” I say looking over to him.
“Twelve hours, but you’ve been asleep for about ten, so another two hours,” he says putting down his magazine and looking out the driver side window. “Here comes the gang,” he mutters.
I look up at the window again to see Kobra stick his head in, looking down on me smiling brightly, but a hint of relief behind that.
“Nice to see you’re up Sleeping Beauty,” he says enthusiastically.
I frown and mutter back, “Oh yeah, I’m a real natural beauty with grime all over my face and bed-head.”
He laughs and ruffles my hair, tangling it up worse than it already is, “C’mon, we got ya some real food, none of that nutrition crap you’ve been goin’ on for the past couple days.”
“Is it safe for me to get up on my own?” I say looking back at Jet, who shakes his head at me. “I take that as a yes,” I say tossing the jacket off me and pulling myself into a sitting position. I get a closer look at the jacket and realize it’s Party’s…he must have given it to me while I was asleep. I put aside the thoughts that come rushing to my head when I see Ghoul coming up with several cans of Power Pup, and he’s followed closely by Party, who’s carrying two canteens.
“Nice to see you’re up,” Ghoul says, tossing me a can of food. When I catch it I see Party look at me relieved, then glance away when I catch his eye.
I frown, not happy that he’s still avoiding me in a way, but I try to put that aside when I feel my stomach grumble. Ghoul looks over at me and starts laughing his head off, Kobra’s trying not to, but he’s still got that grin on his face that means he’s close to laughing, Jet’s just shaking his head at the both of them, and Party’s grinning a bit to himself.
“What!” I snap, trying to seem annoyed but on the brink of laughing too. “You try going several days without food, and see how quiet your stomach is,” I say pointing at Ghoul warningly, but losing the affect as a smile begins to creep over my own face.
“I’ll let ya know, for now though, get yours to shut up,” Ghoul says, getting the last of his laughter out of him. “Wait, here’s your spoon,” he says handing me a spoon.
I peel back the lid with the opener built into it, and get a whiff of the strong smell of dog food, something you never get used to. I cough a bit from the overpowering smell, but when it passes, I dig my spoon into the slimy contents of the can. I scoop up a decent spoonful, and hold my breath as I stick the spoon in my mouth. It’s cold like always, with that weird taste of chicken, meat, and various vegetables, but it slides down easy enough. The rest of the guys have already started to devour their own cans, scooping up large globs of food and shoving them in their mouths. I get a little nauseous, it’s not the food, but the table manners these guys have that does it. I almost stop eating, but remember that I’ve been passed out due to lack of proper nutrition, so I manage to pull through the sick feeling and eat the rest of my food. When we’ve all finished, Party hands a canteen to Ghoul, then opens the other and hands it to me.
“Here, you need water too,” he mumbles, passing the canteen through the window to me.
“Thanks,” I say as I take it from him. I put the canteen to my lips and take a swig of the cool water. A rush of relief floods through me as the fluid passes along my dry throat and through the rest of me, after that, I feel way better than I did when I woke up. I hand the canteen back to Party, who takes drink for himself then hands it to Kobra.
Jet turns to face me then, “You should probably walk around a bit, get your blood pumping and some of that food in your system.”
I nod, it’s probably a good idea for me to move around now after all that dangling for several days and resting for so long. I scoot over towards the left side and open up the door, Kobra moves out of the way as I climb out of the car. Aches suddenly appear everywhere along with some pretty bad stiffness, but I start walking around, knowing that it’ll help get rid of it. I see the gas station across the road from us, and decide to take a quick walk over to it, as I start to head over to it, Party calls out to me.
“If your headin’ over there might as well fill the canteens back up,” he says, tossing me the canteens when I turn back around.
I catch them and turn back for the gas station, “Back in a bit,” I call back.
I walk across the road, carrying a canteen in each hand and feeling a rush coarse through me as my blood starts pumping, my body getting used to the idea of moving about. When I come to the building I look and see that the door is slightly askew, as if it was bashed in to gain entry, probably was, whether it was from the guys or from someone else I don’t know. I head up to the door, and push on it’s surface, it creaks open and I step into the dark room. I look around the room, it’s aisles tipped over and bare, a counter off to the side with a dusty looking register, and in the back, some kind of small deli. I walk over to the deli, figuring there’s a sink somewhere back there. I walk around the empty glass display counter and find an open door leading to the back behind it. I go over to the doorway and peak into the next room, and find a small kitchen back there. Off to the side in a corner, is one of those big kitchen sinks, which must be where the guys got the water. Ducking through, I walk over to the sink and look inside it—wet, so it was defiantly used recently. I open up one of the canteens and turn the faucet, I make sure the water’s clear before I stick the canteen under the running water, when it’s full, I fill up the other one too. When I’m done, I cap the canteens, and head back over to the doorway, but I slip on a piece of old wrapping paper and fall flat on my back.
I hit my head, but I don’t really notice too much, I just grumble a bit and make sure I didn’t drop the canteens. They’re fine, but when I fell, something flew out of my jacket pocket, I pick it up, and see that there’s two pictures in my hands.
I remember now, I’d left this in my pocket long ago when I showed it to grandpa to prove to him who me and Jen were, the picture of all of us together in the underground cavern. The others a picture grandpa took of me and Jen recently with an old Polaroid he had, she and I are sitting at a booth, smiling at grandpa, and I’ve got my arm wrapped around Jen. I look them over, taking in the smiling people and the laughs they shared at those times, people that found a happy moment to remember in a world they had nothing to see as happy.
I close my eyes to hold back the hot, angry tears, the ones brought from what I’ve done. I made promises, but always broke them, and I had broken the most important one of all—I let Jen get taken away. But I wasn’t about to give up that easily. I was gonna find Jen, no matter how hard it got, I wouldn’t give up ‘til I found her again.
I stuff the photos back inside my jacket, grab the canteens and get myself back up. As I’m whipping the dust off my back, I hear the front door creak open. I look through the doorway and see Ghoul, looking around then spotting me behind the counter.
“What’s taking so long?” he says a little annoyed.
“I slipped on something and fell,” I say back defensively.
“Well unless you had some kinda concussion, I suggest you get moving, Party wants to get you back to Zone 5 so we can get back to work,” Ghoul says tiredly, turning back for the door.
“I’m not going back to Zone 5,” I say quickly stepping out from behind the counter.
“Yes you are, we can’t be dragging you around with us,” Ghoul says over his shoulder to me.
“I need to find my sister,” I say back curtly.
Ghoul turns back to face me, looking confused when he asks, “Who?”
“My little sister, the other kid that was at Dr. D’s,” I say getting edgy, wanting to get started on finding her.
“Oh, that small kid,” Ghoul says nodding remembering, “She wasn’t at the facility with you?”
“No, Mrs. Grim said she had her taken to a different facility,” I say walking over to the door and around Ghoul.
He grabs the back of my jacket and pulls me back in front of him, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go alone.”
“Why not?” I say sourly, “It’s not like Party’s gonna wanna go chasing after another kid, and I need my car back, so I’ll stick around ‘til you guys get another car, then I’ll be off,” I say trying to pull my jacket out of his grip.
But he just pulls me back, “First off,” he says pointing at me like he’s giving me a lecture, “You don’t know the first thing about tracking someone, secondly, you’re just one kid, going on solo missions is suicide, that’s why we didn’t let your dad go off on his own with his search for Lynzie, and thirdly….” He makes sure I’m listening for what he’s about to say next, “Party doesn’t want you getting hurt.”
I stare at him, thinking he’s joking, then I say something pretty stupid, “Why would he care about me, I’m the annoying kid that gets on his nerves.”
Ghoul shakes his head at me, like I’m not getting something, “He does, you and your mom were the only things he had, then he lost the both of you, now he has one of you back and he knows he’s screwed it up, he wants to make it better though.”
I can’t believe it, he actually cares, but that doesn’t mean a lot considering I barely know him, that I need to find the only people that I care about.
“I have to find Jen, then I’m going for my mom,” I mutter, looking up at Ghoul.
“You know where she is?” he says a little surprised.
“They know that I know about her past with them, so there’s really only one place they’d take her,” I mutter, knowing also that they’ll expect me and Party to go after her.
“Where would that be then?” Ghoul says crossing his arms and looking at me like I should tell him.
I swallow hard before answering, “The city.”
Part 53: http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/zone-specter/danger-days-part-53
