New to the Fanfic? Or just wanna relive some of it? Then follow the link to the first part!
http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/zone-specter/danger-days-title-pos...
And fyi--that pic is supposed to be Jen's logo but with orange, and while i'm at it i might as well include Techman's and Dangerous Soul's (a.k.a. Lyn-z's)--(Special thanx to SunStealer for making these for me awhile ago)
Jet Star—Ray
“I’m gonna go outside,” Dune Hunter says setting aside her can of food.
“No, Gee and Mikey are probably talking things out, best to leave them alone,” I say as I pick up the other can I’d given her and peel back the lid. “Last one and then you’re done,” I say as I hand it back to her.
She frowns but takes it anyway and starts to take out little spoonfuls at a time. I grab the one she’d finished and take it to the back to where I was disposing all the empty cans of food. I walk into what we all assumed was the old room where employees would take their breaks. I head for the back corner towards a waste basket that had all the other empty cans in there and I toss it in there—I was gonna light ‘em all on fire to burn once Dune finished up so that no snooping Dracs would find out this was still a live stop location and rig it with traps.
After ditching the can, I went back out into the main part of the building, and noticed that Dune was missing.
“Frank, where’d Dune go?” I say turning to Frank who was occupied with a magazine he’d found in the Trans awhile ago, something to do with fixing cars.
He looks up at me confused and then takes in the fact that the kid who was sitting with him a few moments ago is gone, “She was right here a second ago,” he says like he’s trying to prove it to himself.
Then I glance out the large windows covering most of the walls up front, and I see Dune walking over towards Gee and Mikey. Both look pretty pissed, Gee mostly, which can only mean they’re probably talking about one thing.
“Shit, she went outside!” I say as I jump over the counter and run over to the door.
“Shit!” I hear Frank say as he comes over to join me.
Sadly it’s too late. Just as me and Frank come out the door, Gee and Mikey realize that Dune had been listening to them. Mikey jumps up first and tries to tell Dune but she’s too shocked to really listen. Then she turns to Gee and asks him the question we’d all been dreading to hear from her…
“What happened?” her voice is shaky and tells that she’s just on the brink of tears.
Gee gets up then and walks over slowly towards Dune, all the while me and Frank are just standing by, afraid of what will happen next.
“Dune—” Gee tries to start explaining but then Dune cuts him off.
“My name’s Jennet, Jen for short, but Elena and my mom would call me Jenny sometimes,” she says in a weak little voice—so Jen was her name.
“Jen, we were being attacked, we were all ready to go, but Mikey here went to get something and Elena went in after him—I followed after the both of them. Dracs had caught Mikey and I tried to get her to go back and leave it to me, but she wouldn’t go. So I took things into my own hands and tried to save him myself before Elena could do anything, but a man named Korse was there and he tried to shoot at me…that’s when your sister jumped out and saved me. I never wanted her to get hurt, I just wanted to keep her safe and get her back to you and your mother,” by the time Gee finishes up, he’s kneeling in front of Jen, holding her shoulders to steady her trembling little frame.
“E-E-Elena’s d-d-dead?” she chokes out.
Gee does no more than nod once, a sad look coming to his eyes as he confirms to this kid that she’ll never see her sister again. Then he looks down into his jacket and reaches in to pull out two photos—where they hell did he get those?! He hands them to Jen and she just takes one look at them and then all of a sudden breaks down into Gee’s arms. At first he looks a little surprised that she did, but then he slowly brings his arms up and pulls her to sit in his lap. He starts to rock her back and forth then, and I can hear the slight sounds of his humming, suddenly I’m reminded of the day back when we left the hospital with Elena. She had had a bad dream, then all of a sudden she looked like she was about ready to lose it and started running, Gee had caught up to her and managed to calm her down, doing the very same thing he was doing now to calm down Jen.
I start to wonder then how this will all turn out for these two now. Gee lacking a daughter to care for and Jen lacking a father to look up to—both in so much heartbreak from the death of a person they both loved so much. Maybe they could start to lean on each other for what they now lacked.
We all go into that silent mourning state again as we listen to Jen cry, and I even feel a few tears slip down my face. A glance over to Frank proves that he is too, but he quickly wipes them away when he catches me looking. I turn back to the others as I quietly wipe away my own, just as Jen speaks up.
Her voice is cracked and trembling from all her crying when she speaks, “Where did it happen?”
Gee and Mikey are in no definite state to speak, so I do, “At a diner out in Zone 3, we met up with your grandpa there originally so that your sister could go back to Zone 5 with him and heal up a bit from some of her injuries.”
“But we made a change of plans, we would stay at that diner ‘til she and Gee here had recovered from a recent attack to try and take her, once they were good we would all go looking for you while Cherri took your grandpa back to Zone 5,” Frank jumps in then, voice surprisingly steady and light with some humor.
“Do you guys think we can stop there?” Jen asks as she uses the back of her hand to rub her eyes of tears.
We all don’t know what to make of this, we all just look at one another trying to figure out what the hell we’re gonna say to her.
“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Gee says all of a sudden, smiling down at Jen.
“Really?” she says, her voice giving a hint of thankfulness in it.
“Sure, you have a right to see…her grave I guess,” Gee says, a little strained though, so I knew he was trying to put on a happy face for the kid.
“Joe’s is a few days from here Gee, you sure you wanna take that time off?” Frank says kinda nervously.
“It’ll be a quick trip Frank,” Gee says as he stands up, helping Jen up as well, “You’ll still get to see your sister afterwards,” he laughs a little then—I guess it’s an improvement.
“But—” Frank looks really worried now, but I don’t know why.
“Please Frank, I think it’s something we all need, especially Jen,” he says sadly.
Frank just bites his lip, then nods quickly before moving for the car, “We better get going then,” he mumbles, not looking at anybody.
“I gotta go burn those empty cans,” Mikey says quietly, still a little unhinged from what just happened.
“I left my food in the gas station,” Jen says.
“I’ll go with you to get it,” Gee says as he gently pushes her forward towards the building, “Get the car started up Ray.”
I nod then head for the driver’s seat while the others go back in.
When I get to the window seat Frank’s taken in the back I give him my “I want the truth look”, ‘cause I know something’s up with him.
He looks at me outta the corner of his eye, then mumbles something I barely here. I raise my eyebrow to show that he needs to repeat a little louder.
He lets out an irritated breath and closes his eyes as he tells me, “Joe’s was burned to the ground after we left, I saw it in the rearview mirror after we left, and I saw…”
“You saw what Frank?” I say patiently, it’s the only way I’m gonna get it outta him is if I have decent patience with him.
“I saw,” he looks over to the building real quick, then whispers, “I saw Dracs carrying out what looked like a body bag.”
“They took her,” I say darkly, “Does Gee know?”
He just shakes his head, “I don’t even know why they would take her, normally they just build a bonfire and burn you,” he shudders at the fact then goes on, “Why would they take her body?”
I shrug my shoulders, “They’ve got Lynzie, I imagine they’re gonna use her for some sorta sick torture.”
“Those no good b—” Frank starts to yell what I thought he would say but then we hear it.
“What did I tell you about swearing?!” Gee shouts.
“I forgot!” Frank laughs, immediately averting another bad conversation.
“We gotta tell ‘em,” I whisper before climbing into the driver’s seat.
“Later,” Frank grumbles before the others come into hearing shot.
Over the next few days, Jen starts to regain some of her lost weight and health. She also starts talking to us a lot, trying to find someone to compensate for the lack of a sister to talk to I guess. Most of the times she wanted to talk to Mikey and Gee, but both were still a little to themselves—so she usually settled for pulling small pranks with Frank or babbling non-stop to me. She also like to talk to her grandpa a lot over the radio, she even talked to Cherri and Neon too. Cherri had missed her a lot too, and like the rest of us, was determined to keep her safe after what happened with Elena. As for Neon—I could tell those two would be good friends—which might possibly spell bad news for the rest of us.
“Hey Jet, how much further ‘til we reach it?”
I look back in the rearview mirror from my spot in the driver’s seat at Jen sitting in the back between Frank and Mikey. She’s giving me a big smile, but I can tell she feels a little sad.
“Few more hours kiddo, and remember, you can call us by our real names when it’s just us,” I say turning back to the road.
“Shouldn’t the paint shack be coming up soon?” Mikey asks quietly.
“What’s still left of it,” Gee mumbles, “Should be up ahead soon.”
“Think we can stop there real quick Ray?” Mikey says.
“What for?” Frank jumps in.
“I want to paint something on the nuke, I’m hoping to scrounge up some paint at the shack if I can,” he replies quickly.
“Purple?” Frank says kindly—already reading Mikey like a book.
“Maybe,” he chuckles.
“Seems like a good idea, I wanna show you something when we get there Jen,” Gee says coming back in with some warmth in his voice.
“What?” Jen asks excitedly.
“It’s a surprise,” Gee smiles.
“Jet—”
I cut Jen off, “Ray,” I correct.
“Ray, can you please hurry up? I wanna see the surprise!” she squeals.
One things for sure, this kid was more trusting and more open than her sister—but that could be a bad thing at times.
“If you want speed then you’d want Gee or Frank driving,” I laugh, but then I duck as Gee tries to take a swing at me. “Hey!” I yell out, but half joking, “No distracting the driver!”
Jen and Frank are both giggling like made from the back and knowing Mikey, he’s probably shaking his head with an amused grin on his face. I pick up the speed though and after about half an hour we see a crumbled heap of wood and metal sheets off the side of the road.
“That’s it,” Gee sighed, probably remembering one of the few yet still good memories of Elena.
“Where, I don’t see anything?” Jen says.
“That heap of scrap off to the side right there,” Frank says, “Another attack, tell you about it later,” he adds quickly.
I pull over in the same spot we did when we first came here with Elena, back when Gee helper her decorate a new gun for her. Back when she made her logo and made her first mark on the world as Zone Specter. Her first and last mark on this world as a true Killjoy.
“Alright, scatter and find what you’re looking for—and be careful ‘cause some of this stuff’s sharp,” Gee yells out after the others who are running for the junk heap.
“So what is it you plan on showing Jen?” I ask as me and him walk together towards the pile as well.
“The piece of wall I’m hoping still has her logo intact on it,” he says faintly.
“Maybe you could show her Lynzie’s too, maybe help her come up with her own if she wants,” I say as we get closer to the rest of the gang.
Frank’s helping Mikey look for the paint he needs, and Jen’s just standing in the middle of the pile looking down at something. I carefully step over the debris and when I get a look at her face, she’s really pale.
“You alright there kiddo?” I say patting her on the back.
“What’s that?” she says shakily, pointing down at the spot on the ground she’s starring at.
I look too and see that there’s a bunch of dried blood pooled around where we’re standing, “Gerard!”
He comes over and sees it too, “She must’ve feel when she came back to look for me,” he mumbles sadly.
“Elena?” Jen says quietly.
“BLI tried to take her when we stopped here, I got trapped in the falling building and the guys took away your sister so they wouldn’t take her. They got her but she managed to get away and she came back and rescued me,” Gee tells her briefly but still sounding like it hurts to talk about anything relating to her and her painful life.
“So this is her blood?” Jen says.
“C’mon lets go find that surprise I was talking about,” Gee says quickly, pulling Jen over to the far side of the wreckage.
“I’ll catch up,” I mutter when Gee looks over to me.
He nods, then he and Jen pick their way over to what once was the wall with all the logo graffiti. I carefully crouch down so as to avoid cutting myself on the jagged metal and take a closer look at the pool of Elena’s dried blood.
It’s different. Normally when a person’s blood dried in pools, it was a deep maroon color…Elena’s was still a brilliant shade of red, almost as if it were still wet. I remembered then after a raid—Gee had gotten a gash on his head during the fighting somehow and by the time I was able to look at it, the blood had already dried. It had been the same shade as his hair, the same shade Elena’s blood was now—this wasn’t normal.
“Oh my gosh!”
I whip my head around at the sounds of Jen’s excited squeals. She and Gerard had moved a lot of the debris away and were able to look at the fallen wall that was covered in the many logos of Killjoys. I shake away the dark thoughts that had come pouring in and jog over to get a look at it too. Mikey and Frank come over too, Mikey caring a paint brush and a little bottle of what my ultimate guess was purple paint.
“What’cha find?” Frank says grinning.
“A graffiti wall! And Elena’s and my mom’s symbols are on it!” Jen giggles, “They look alike.”
“She wanted it to have a little of both me and your mom in it, but with her own personal touch,” Gee says from behind her.
“She was always really good at drawing,” Jen whispers, going down to her knees and gently running her small hand over the images. “Your guys’ symbols are here too, Elena told me about them—she always saw them in the wanted vids at here school…where’s yours?” she says, turning to Gee with a little confused look at the end.
“I was painting your sister’s gun when they did this, then the attack happened,” he mumbles.
“Can I make one?” she asks.
“What do you want?” he asks kindly.
“I want orange!” she smiles, turning back to the logos.
“I think I saw some over here,” Frank says, stepping away and digging through the debris before pulling up a can of spray paint.
“Toss it,” Gee says holding up his hands.
He catches it easily and then hands it down to Jen, “Art is the weapon against life as a symptom—so defend yourself,” he says with a grin, using the same phrase her own mother coined for us.
“Cool!” she takes the can and shakes it up real quick.
I turn back over to Frank and give him a questioning look, he frowns at me and shakes his head. I sigh and look back over to the others, only to see Mikey jogging back over to the car—probably to work on his personal project. Jen’s slowly tracing the flow of paint along the wall with the help of Gee, giving her a few pointers on how to keep her hand steady. I walk over to see how it’s going but Jen stops her work and turns me away.
“Not ‘til I’m done Ray!” she says.
I laugh and turn away, to go talk to Frank for real this time.
“We gotta tell him—not in front of Jen though, but he still needs to know this,” I say in a hushed voice.
“Not now, look at him, he’s happy and I don’t wanna ruin that right now!” Frank yells in whispered tones.
“Fine, but soon, something about all this just doesn’t seem right to me,” I say more to myself though.
“What do you mean? Are you talking about that rumor thing Show mentioned?” Frank asks worriedly.
“I don’t know—but taking her body, her reflexes, the healing, and the blood—”
“What blood?” Frank cuts me off.
“Follow me,” I say guiding him over to the spot. “Look at that—Gee says that this is Elena’s blood from her slipping most likely when she was looking for him that day—that’s not a normal color Frank!”
“Could they really have done something to Lynzie to make Elena…different?” Frank says awkwardly.
“I’m not 100% sure, but it’s clear that Elena wasn’t just some ordinary teenage girl,” I mutter, but thankfully something brings me away from this again.
“I’m done!” Jen chirps happily.
Me and Frank exchange a quick look before putting on fake smiles and walking over to see what Jen drew.
“It kinda has to do with all the moving I’ve been doing out here, but I’m gonna think of it like I was searching for the right thing—what do you think?” her words come out in a bubble fountain of pride and happiness.
We move so that we’re able to get an upright look at her logo. It’s simple—but it kinda does suit her in a way. She has two circles, one inside the other and the inner being thicker than the outer—inside the thicker circle is a bunch of lines crossing as spokes, and cutting through them is a lightning bolt.
“It’s a wheel?” Frank laughs.
“Yep,” Jen grins.
Well now that makes more sense.
“We need to get going though if we wanna reach Joe’s before dark,” I say, giving Frank a look—he in turn giving me the finger before Jen or Gee can see.
“Let me grab a few things real quick,” Gee says heading back into the wreck.
“What’re doing?” I say confusedly.
“I wanna do something when we get to Joe’s,” Gee calls back.
“C’mon kid, let’s go see what Mikey’s up to,” Frank says helping Jen back up to her feet.
“‘Kay,” she says, taking Frank’s hand and skipping to keep up with Frank’s larger steps.
I look back over to Gee and see he’s carrying a long piece of wood in his hands, looking it over and wiping away left over dirt.
“What’s that for?” I ask, scrunching up my brow.
“I’m gonna leave a marker at Joe’s with her logo on it,” he says faintly.
“Gee listen—” I start to tell him but he starts moving before I can finish.
“Later Ray, I wanna get to Joe’s fast—mind if I drive?” he says like I just didn’t say anything.
I let out an irritated breath, then speak up, “Sure, go ahead.”
“Thanks,” he calls back.
“Yeah, whatever,” I groan.
“Something bugging you?” Gee says, stopping me all of a sudden.
“Nothing you’d wanna here,” I say quickly before stepping around him and walking over to the car.
Part 81: http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/zone-specter/danger-days-part-81
