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Fun Ghoul—Frank
“Wakey-wakey, eggs-n-bakey!”
I bolt up and yell out, “I’m a vegetarian, remember?” Then I fall back and try to convince Michi I fell back asleep.
“Fine,” she says, probably with a big smile on her face, “Wakey-wakey, eggs-n-VEGGIE-bakey!” Michi chimes grabbing my wrists and pulling me up outta the booth I fell asleep in last night after the meeting.
I nearly trip and face plant at her feet, but I manage to stick out my foot and regain my balance. Then I pick Michi up over my shoulders and start carrying her to the counter while she tries to squirm outta my grip.
“Put me down you idiot, D says people are coming!” she screeches, pounding her fists on my back.
“Fine,” I say calmly, then I throw her in the air a bit and push her so she lands on the counter.
“Owwy! Now my bum hurts,” she grumbles rubbing her butt with a pouty face on.
“TMI Michi,” Mikey mumbles from his booth.
“Listen to him,” I say jerking my thumb behind me in what I think is the general direction of Mikey.
“Whatever, make yourself presentable boys ‘cause company’s comin’ in twenty minutes,” she says clapping her hands together and hopping off the counter.
“We finally got some replies?” Gee yawns sitting up and stretching.
“Yep, ‘bout time after three days. Cherri’s turning back and Dark should be here with Show in a few days,” Michi says pulling out some Power Pup from under the counter. “I need to remember to stock up soon if we’re gonna have five more people here,” she grumbles.
“Five? All you mentioned were Cherri, Dark and Show, that leaves two extra,” Ray says walking up to the counter.
“D says we got the Zone Brothers coming, he said we might get more, but the ZBs are coming today soon,” Michi says setting a can in front of me.
“I think even with those two it might just be enough, we don’t want to risk too many going in for this mission,” Gee sighs coming to sit at the counter.
“Who are the Zone Brothers?” I ask opening up my can of food.
“Dune Runner and Bull Rush, they’re brothers obviously, both very tough-as-nails go-getters that’ll do anything ya ask, they’re almost as famous as you guys,” she says opening up her own can o’ crap.
“I think I’ve heard of them before,” Mikey yawns. “Actually, I’ve met them before, one of ‘em got captured and was being held at a facility we raided, the other had snuck in as a Drac to break him out, I helped him snag a car, he was carrying the other ‘cause he was out cold, guessing from the treatment most likely.”
“Which one?” Michi asked.
“Uh, the one that snuck in was really tall, kinda skinny, black hair with a blue streak through it, really tan, looked Hispanic I think,” Mikey says scratching his head and scrunching up his face to remember.
“Dune Runner, he’s the cocky one,” Michi says plainly.
“Eh? What makes you say that?” I laugh.
“I’ve heard a few stories,” she whispers in a Russian accent.
“Don’t believe everything ya hear girly.”
I turn around when I hear the alien voice, and see two guys come bursting through the doorway. They’re both about 6 feet tall, one being rather thin and the other kinda heavy set, but both obviously familiar with the gym. The skinnier one is pretty much like Mikey a bit in build: tall and lanky with what I guess was a thin face under the bandana he wore as a mask, the other though was a bit more muscled and what I thought to be a rounded face under his bandana covering his face. Both had what looked to be really dark, almost black, brown hair, but the thin one had his short and spiked with a blue streak in it, and the other had a mohawk spiked and tipped in the same blue as his friend. Both had ripped jeans and T-shirts covered in dirt and grease, but Skinny wore a denim jacket while the other wore a black leather jacket with red stripes down the sleeves.
“I’m Bull Rush—ya’ll can call me Rush, one half of the Zone Brothers Duo,” the heavier one said, his eyes grinning and taking a bow. He straightens up and jerks his thumb to the thinner one, “This here’s my bro, Dune Runner, the ‘cocky one’” he puts emphasis on the last part, “But I call him DR for short, we’re here to join your city raid team.”
“I thought you said they wouldn’t be here for another twenty minutes!” I laugh at Michi.
“That’s what D told me!” she retorts, giving Rush the evil eye.
“Well now I don’t have time to comb my hair,” I huff, getting a giggle outta Michi who then breaks into hysterics when I jump at the sounds of the booming laughter coming from the ZBs. “Jesus Christ! What the hell was that!” I shout.
“You owe two dollars to the newly established swear jar Ghoul,” Gee says plainly.
“But she’s not in here!” I whine.
“Yes I am,” Jen says sweetly as she pops up from behind the counter.
“Where’d you come from?” I ask pointing at her with my spoon and fanning shock.
“The back,” she says, then she sees the two guys in the doorway doubled over with laughter. “Hi, I’m Dune Hunter,” she chirps waving at them.
DR manages to lift his head up enough for her to see his covered face. As he wipes away a tear from his laughing he manages to gasp out, “Hi, I’m Dune Runner.”
“Dune, just like me!” she smiles.
“Yeah I guess so,” he says, then he straightens up and pulls down to reveal a bright smile, “This is my younger brother, Bull Rush.”
“I’m only younger by two minutes ya knuckle head!” Rush shouts pulling down his own neon green bandana to show flushed chipmunk-like cheeks.
“You guys are twins?” Jen ask.
“Yep, we’re the Zone Brothers,” Rush says putting his arm around his brother’s shoulder, “We’re here to help out with the raid.”
“Raid?” Jen turns to Gee then, looking a little worried.
“It won’t be for a little while, we still have to wait for the others and then we need to train a bit before we actually go,” he says calmly, giving her a reassuring look.
Rush and DR exchange quick glances between each other and then DR walks over to me.
“Fun Ghoul right? Part of the Fabulous Killjoys and My Chemical Romance?” he asks
“Yep, that’s Jet Star with the fro, Kobra Kid in the red jacket, and Party Poison with the debatably-pink-red hair,” I say pointing them all out, “And then ya got my sis, Neon Venom and Dr. Death Defying ‘s still in the back.”
“Cool,” he says, then he leans in and whispers, “So is Party looking out for the Dune kid or something?”
“Ask him yourself,” I whisper back.
He smirks then and hops over the counter to go talk to Party. I watch as they exchange whispered words, DR’s grin slipping into an uneasy frown, then he looks over to Jen and then nods in understanding.
Rush steps in then, “So,” he says grinning and clapping his hands together, “Ya said we had others and some training to do, when does that start?”
“Today for you guys, I wanna see where you best fit for the team,” Gee says seriously. “But might as well have breakfast first though,” he smiles tossing Rush a can of food.
“Bust out another three, me and DR take two each,” Rush says peeling back the lid and putting it to his lips like a drink—for once I’m not the most disgusting eater.
“You guys actually like this stuff?” Michi says in horror.
“No,” DR says eating his first can in a similar fashion to his brother, “We just have big appetites,” he says around a mouthful of food.
“Say don’t spray it bud,” Michi says doing the whole talk to the hand head bob.
“I can see by the stain on your jeans that you’re not exactly the neatest of eaters either chica,” DR laughs.
“That was an accident, and I’m gonna be getting new clothes from Show Pony in a few days anyway,” Michi says taking a careful spoonful of food.
“How’s Show been doing?” Rush grins, “I haven’t seen that roller in ages.”
“I’m doing fine thank you very much.”
“Show? Dude you weren’t supposed to be here for another three days!” Michi says, bug-eyed and throwing her arms in the air, almost hitting DR in the face.
“I hitched a ride from this lovely lady,” Show says pulling Cherri through the door.
“Hey guys,” Cherri smiles.
“Cherri!” Jen squeals and goes running to give Cherri a hug.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to call, I had to turn right back around when I got the message from Dark,” Cherri says when she picks Jen up in a hug.
“How’d you get here so fast Show?” Jen says turning to him.
“I found him on my way back, I gave him a ride here,” Cherri says putting Jen back down.
“Didn’t even realize I was that close to you guys, I figured I was west in Zone 4,” Show says shrugging his shoulders. “Would’ve been here tomorrow but I got lucky when I ran into Cherri,” he says rolling over to the counter and placing his bag on top.
“Please tell me that’s my order you got packed away in there?” Michi says grinning and pointing at the bag.
Show opens up his bag and starts digging around in it, “One neon yellow tank-top,” he says pulling out exactly what he just said, “Black and red tie-dye skinny jeans, and a neon orange stud belt.”
“Excellent, you’ve done a remarkable job Smithers, now go release the hounds on those Zone Brothers,” Michi says taking the clothes and heading for the back.
“And a shirt for Kobra,” he says taking out a yellow shirt with a black tiger-stripe print.
“Nice,” Mikey smiles taking the tee. “Gonna wait ‘til Neon finishes up in there,” he says laying his shirt on the counter.
“And I got two bottles of orange and purple hair dye,” Show says taking out two glass bottles and setting them on the counter.
“My hair dye!” Jen says coming to stand next to Show. “Thank you Show,” she says giving him a hug.
“I don’t think you’ve ever hugged me before,” Show says curiously as he pats Jen on the shoulder.
“It’s been weeks Show! And I’m in a hugging mood so deal with it,” Jen says.
“Sass Masta!” Michi shouts from the back.
Just then D comes out from the back, “Well is there anyone else who’ll be using the back as a dressing room?” he says, “I need to start the radio up here soon.”
“I need to change my shirt is all,” Mikey says holding up the shirt for D to see.
“Can’t you just change out here?” D says.
“Well to be honest I don’t feel like stripping in front of company,” Mikey grins.
“Avert your eyes Rush!” DR says slapping his hand across his eyes.
Rush does the same as his brother and Jen carefully covers each eye with both hands and turns around. Mikey shakes his head as he shucks his jacket and peels off his old band tee, then he picks up the new shirt and slips it on.
Pulling it down he turns to us, “Well?” he asks raising one eyebrow.
“Good,” Show says plainly taking his bag off the counter.
“Forget about him, how do I look?” Michi says from behind us.
“Like you just got new clothes,” Rush smirks.
I take a big glob of food on my spoon then flick it at Rush.
“Hey!” he yells out and his face flushes red again as he wipes his face of food.
“Behave,” Gee and DR say at the same time.
“Now that was funny,” I say pointing at the both of them.
“No,” I turn when I hear Rush, only to get his hand full of food mashed into my face, “That’s funny!” he laughs.
“You do realize this means war?” I say calmly as I wipe the food off my face.
“There can be only one jokester duo in this safe-house!” Michi exclaims wide-eyed pointing one of her arms up at the roof.
“Your on!” DR smirks.
“Shake?” Michi asks sweetly.
DR walks over to Michi and sticks out his arm for her to shake his hand. The instant she grabs his hand, she pulls and flips him and he ends up landing on his ass. Me and Jen are in total hysterics as DR just lies there looking dumbstruck. I even hear Rush laughing behind us, even the rest of the gang are snickering as Michi props her foot up on DR’s chest.
“Don’t mess with The Venom,” she smirks.
“You so have to teach me that! I’ve always wanted to do that to him!” Rush laughs, holding onto his sides from all the laughing he’s doing.
“Well scoot a boot and get outside and I’ll start your training,” Michi says as she steps on DR’s stomach and steps over him.
“Oh god, you’re heavy for a lightweight,” DR groans as Michi steps off his stomach.
“Quit complaining and I show how to avoid getting your butt kicked from me again,” Michi smiles as she heads outside.
“I’m gonna go practice too,” Jen says following after Michi and Rush.
“You got any targets we can use for practice D?” Gee asks.
“Well there’re the cans ya just finished,” he says nodding towards our empty cans.
“How many are there hear anyway?” Gee says looking over the crowd of ‘em on the counter.
“All of us had one except the ZBs,” Ray says.
“Well we just got here, and have not yet eaten,” Show says rolling around the counter and pulling out two more for him and Cherri.
“That’ll make our four, the four from Rush and DR, Michi’s, D has yet to finish, and Jen’s…” Mikey counts off.
“Dang it she didn’t eat,” Gee grumbles.
“I’ll go get her,” Mikey says getting up.
“How much more ‘til she’s on a healthy weight?” Gee sighs rubbing his eyes tiredly.
“She’s got another ten pounds ‘til she’s minimum,” Ray says.
“Damn, them last pounds are always the hardest,” I laugh.
“Three dollars,” Gee says.
“Oh come on!”
The next couple of days are pretty much hard core training and my debt to the swear jar getting bigger. Three days and already I was up to $30. The other day that friend of Cherri’s finally showed up, pulling in on a decked out BLI bike. Her name was Spontaneous Darkness, and she was pretty tan with black hair in a fro like Ray’s and Jen’s. Her clothes were pretty much a pink sweater she never took off under a purple leather jacket and some ripped up looking jeans topped off with a white bike helmet covered in multicolored paint splatters. She seemed nice enough, and was pretty good with Jen, so Gee was pretty much okay with her too.
During these days of training we found out that DR and Mikey would be part of the sharp shooter group with Gee, while Rush and Dark joined Michi on the hand-to-hand group. That left Ray on the one-man bomb squad, and me and Show on snipers once we dug another one up. Cherri and Gee were gonna be driving with Dark riding behind on her bike, she like Gee and Elena was pretty good at firing while driving.
All that was left now was to plan out how we were gonna get in and how we would find Lynzie and Elena and get them both outta there safely.
So almost a week after the ZBs showed up, we were all coming in from a long morning of practice and D had lunch waiting. As we all started to sit down for the meal, D spoke up.
“We’re officially out of food now, someone’s gotta go find us some more—today,” he said looking dead serious.
“I’ll go, I can be back in no time with more food,” Dark immediately pipes up—one thing I’d learned other than her combat skills was that she was always willing to help.
“You’d have to take a car to carry all the food,” D says raising an eyebrow.
“Dang it! I can only ride my bike,” Dark says, still keeping the always there smile, only time she didn’t have one was when she was really pissed—according to Cherri anyway, I’d yet to see that happen.
“You’ve been out here how long and you still haven’t learned how to drive an actual car?” Rush says staring at her in mock disbelief.
“Big girls ride two wheelers, unlike you little boys, still with the extra wheels,” she laughs.
“We can go,” DR says pointing to his brother.
“No,” Michi says putting her hands on her hips. “You two have yet to learn necessary hand-to-hand combat BASICS, you two are staying behind,” she says sternly, taking on her teacher mode she’d developed since training.
“Fine mother,” DR and Rush grumble together.
To my amusement that gets them both a slap upside the head from Michi, “Be glad I didn’t flip the both of you.”
“I’d run before you could get me!” DR sneers.
“Lemme rephrase that…I can flip the both of you—at the same time,” she says wickedly, making their faces turn bone white.
“Guess that means we’re going,” Gee sighs putting his food down. “I know where we can get some, but we need to leave now if we wanna make it there and back fast,” he says pulling out the Mousekat keys from under the counter.
“How long should you be gone?” D asks.
“Maybe three days if we’re fast enough,” Gee says.
“Well I still have a little left for emergencies, I think I can make it last,” D says.
“Good, ‘cause we’re going to the old hideout, there’s plenty of food stored there we can bring here,” Gee says heading for the door.
“What old hideout?” Jen asks running up to him.
“You can come if you like Dune,” he says smiling at her.
Her worry instantly goes away and her big smile comes on, “Really?”
“If your grandpa’s alright with it,” he says. Then he looks up at the rest of us, “Big ride, anyone coming? And that’s for those who can come,” he says pointing at the ZBs.
“You know I’m goin’,” Mikey says getting outta his stool and grabbing his latest contraption—some sorta glove thing with a bunch of wires all over it.
“I think we still have a nuke there, I can pick it up so we can use it for the raid,” Ray says going to join Gee and the others by the door.
“I wanna go and get my old guitar,” I say sliding my half empty can to Michi, “So Imma goin!”
“Be careful, I really don’t have any time now to be playing nurse for any of you guys now since I’m playing teacher right now for these two,” Michi says putting a hand on top of Rush and DR’s heads.
“Since when have I ever not been careful?” I say when I’m halfway out the door.
“Don’t you start,” Michi laughs.
I smile and walk back in and Michi meets me to give me a hug.
“Please try to stay safe for me bro,” she says quietly.
“I promise I’ll try to be safe,” I whisper so only she hears.
“Thanks, call if anything happens alright?” she says pulling away and giving me a smile.
“Promise,” I say heading back for the door.
“Keep Dune safe too!” D calls after us.
“Will do chief!” Gee says as he gets into the Trans.
“Where is your guys’ old hideout anyway?” Jen says when she takes the middle of the front seat between Gee and Mikey.
“If we pull all-nighters we should be there in no time,” Mikey says buckling up.
“It’s right past the border, not all that far if your going really fast,” Gee says starting up the car.
“What is it anyway?” Jen asks.
“Buckle up,” Gee says putting the car in reverse.
With that I quickly put on my own belt then quickly grab a hold of something and Gee pulls outta the lot like a mad man.
Gee sure as hell wasn’t kidding about going fast and possibly pulling an all-nighter. What’s worse is that as you start to get closer to the hideout you get a lot of Dracs—good thing we all brought our masks and guns. Gee even let Jen help a bit but after about two minutes into the car chase, he had her duck down and he took out the only car by shooting under the hood.
Then an hour later we got into another fight, this time at a gas station we were taking a quick fill-up stop at. Gee had Jen behind something in an instant, then we all managed to take out the Dracs. That’s when I realized we were here—the stop point before we made it to the hideout.
“Hey guys, it’s The Station,” I say after we get the last Drac.
“C’mon Jen, we have to walk from here,” Gee says walking over to the pump Jen hid behind.
“Hey, look what I found,” Jen says jumping out from behind the pump holding a large superhero action figure.
“I remember that,” Mikey says, putting down his tools and contraption to come and see what Jen has in her hands. “This was your old toy Gee, grandma gave it to you, and you wanted to give it to Lynzie when we all found out she was…” he stops midsentence, then makes a worried glance towards Gee.
“I remember,” he smiles weakly.
“This was meant for Elena,” Jen smiles holding the doll at arms length and looking at it as if it really was her sister.
“For you now,” Gee smiles down on Jen as he goes to stand next to her.
“Really?” she asks all excited like.
“Only if you’re willing to drag it the quarter mile to the hideout,” I say jerking my thumb towards the rough direction I knew the place to be.
“Yes!” she says sassy-like with a big grin on her face.
“Off we go then,” I say pointing in the right direction and turning to start walking that way.
“Keep your masks on, I think there might still be some of those cameras out here,” Mikey says walking back over to the car to grab that weird glove thing again.
“What is that anyway Mikey?” Jen asks looking at the glove too.
“My latest idea—I think I’ll call it the Ghost Gauntlet,” he says pressing a button on it.
Suddenly there’s a fly a sparks that goes flying from his finger tips.
“It works!” he grins.
“What does it do?” Ray asks.
“Remember that idea I told Elena about, the one I got from when she told us she used her band as a taser?” he says pushing another button.
“Is that what it is?” Gee says looking at it curiously.
“Yes, which is why I named it the Ghost Gauntlet—figured I give Elena some credit since she sorta gave me the idea for it,” he mumbles.
“I like it, how does it work?” Jen says walking next to Mikey as they follow Gee into the open desert.
I pull my purple and green monster mask back down as we start walking, and I hear Gee up ahead tell Jen to keep her face hidden as best she can. After we crest a few dunes, Jen nearly stumbles into a face plant from her lack of energy. So Gee decides to give her a piggy back ride the rest of the way while Mikey carried her toy. We finally manage to reach the old hideout—an old garage that was abandoned after the Apocalypse.
When we walk in, I see a bunch of the old art we’d made to decorate this place. The old mannequins, the American flag I’d painted the Widow onto, a lot of Gee’s and Lynzie’s art all over the walls including some from me, Mikey and Ray. There was even a little patch in the corner that had an old lazy-boy in it. Lynzie used to sit there for hours, scratching a list of names that she wanted to name her baby onto the wall—back then she wasn’t 100% sure what she wanted to name it. But I’m guessing after she and Danny got taken, she knew exactly what she’d name her baby. The place was a total mess, but then again Lynzie was usually too tired to do anything, and the rest of us guys weren’t exactly good at keeping things clean, but none of us really minded back then, we all kinda liked the mess. In the back I found our old record player, along with the old transmitter that I had no clue if it worked or not—probably did, but most likely didn’t have the necessary block it needed to keep BLI off the signal.
“Everything is so bright,” Jen says as she goes to sit in the lazy-boy. “What’s this list of names here for?” she says pointing at the scrawling words of her mother.
“That was were your mom would sit like and try to come up with names for her at the time unborn baby,” I say pointing out some of the names I’d liked.
“I thought ‘Cherry’ or ‘Lilly’ would make a good name, but she said Cherri already had that one and that if I ever had my own kid I could name it whatever I wanted,” I say—cutting out the fact that Lynzie had yelled at me when she said it, one of her mood swings that were pretty normal back then.
“I see ‘Grace’!” Jen squeals, “That’s my middle name!”
“Jennet Grace?” I say, thinking it through.
“Yes,” she says proudly.
“Wasn’t that the name of Danny’s mom?” I ask.
“Yep,” Gee smiles, “Nice little fact to know eh Jen?” he says as he walks to the back.
“My mom wanted to name Elena ‘Emily’?” Grace says curiously.
“Or ‘Lola’, or ‘Katina’ or ‘Marilyn’, ‘Paula’, ‘Holly’, ‘Anya’, or possibly ‘Aralette’,” I say pointing out all the names as I call them off.
“I like ‘Anya’,” Jen says pointing back to the name.
“She actually got on our transmitter, and made a mass call out for all sorts of girl names for ideas,” Mikey says tinkering with his Ghost Gauntlet still. “That’s how every Killjoy got involved with the naming of what could’ve been the first child born into the Killjoys,” he says testing it again, sending another shower of sparks out.
“Mikey you just lit something up!” Ray yells grabbing an old rag and beating at the little flames that started on something I can’t see.
“I’m trying to get it to get it not to do that,” Mikey hisses as he grabs another rag and starts helping me and Ray get the fire out.
“Gauntlet later, fire now!” I say beating at the flames with my own rag.
“There, I think it’s out now,” Ray says outta breath like the rest of us.
“What the heck is this thing anyway?” I ask looking at the burnt…whatever it is.
“Hey, it looks just like the Mousekat keys!” Jen says coming over from her place in the corner and carefully picking up what I now realize is something like a mascot head. “It is the Mousekat,” she grins as she puts the ruined head on the table in front of her.
“What’s going on in here?” Gee says as he rushes in from the back carrying a bag with him now.
We all turn around and me and Ray give Mikey questioning looks before Jen pipes up.
“We just found a Mousekat head,” she smiles, picking up the head and showing it to him.
“I remember this thing,” Gee says taking it from her hands. Then he turns a stern confused look on us, “I don’t remember it being this crappy looking though.”
“He did it,” I say jerking my thumb towards Mikey.
“Thanks Frank,” he mutters.
“I think I might bring this back with us,” Gee says looking over the head.
“But it’s burnt,” Jen says confusedly.
“Makes it all the more unique,” Gee laughs as he put is on his head, “Well? How do I look he says?” he says putting his fists on his hips, “And no smart-mouth answers,” he says pointing at me warningly.
“Like a sassy cat for starters,” I say heading for the back, “Did you see my guitar back there?”
“No,” he says waving me off and leaning forward to pull the head off. “Uh-oh,” he says.
“What?” Jen says peeking up through the mesh covered view for him to see through the head.
“I think it’s stuck,” he says pulling on the head.
“Lemme try,” Jen says grabbing the sides of the head.
She scrunches up her face as she gives the head a quick tug. It doesn’t move a bit, then she gets a better grip on the head and braces her feet against Gee’s. She pulls as hard as she can on the head and Gee takes a stumbling step forward, making Jen lose her balance and she falls backwards.
“It’s stuck bad,” she says rubbing her back where she fell.
“You alright Jen?” Gee says holding out his hand to help her up.
“I’m fine,” she says pulling on his hand. “How are you gonna get that head off though?” she says looking worried.
“Either I find some soap to slip it off—which would be a miracle itself to find the soap out here,” Gee says, sounding muffled though the head.
“Or there’s always the ban saw in the back,” I say.
“That thing broke a long time ago,” Gee says sounding irritated.
“No I actually fixed it,” Mikey says.
“We are NOT using it,” Gee says turning to me warningly.
“Can I finish,” Mikey says sounding annoyed, “I lost it five years ago on a raid.”
“What the hell were you using a ban saw for on a raid?” I say as I enter the back. Then I stop dead, “I take that back! I meant, ‘What the heck’!”
“You owe another dollar Frankie!” Jen giggled from up front.
“I’m already thirty in the hole,” I say as I start digging around the junk in the back.
“Correction, you are now $31 in the hole,” Ray says walking in. “See my Les Paul anywhere?” he says looking around.
“I’ve yet to find mine,” I laugh, “What makes you think I’ve found yours?”
“Well, I found yours,” he says behind me. When I whirl around I see him holding my old guitar, he grins then, “Find mine and you get Pansy back.”
When he leaves I start tearing through the entire back looking for the stupid Les Paul that’ll get me my Pansy back. I finally moved a bag of extra food that Gee had told be to get while I was back here and I found the guitar case sitter there under it. I quickly jump up and run to the front and toss the bag at Gee—Mousekat head still on—when he turns to look at me. He staggers back at the sudden missile and I run back in and grab the case.
“Alright, guitar found, now hand over mine,” I say breathlessly as I run back in with the case.
“Not yet speed demon,” Ray says handing my guitar over to Jen. “It actually has to be in the case in order for you to get yours back.”
“Then open the d—” I stop before I finish the sentence and turn grinning at Jen, “Open the darn case.”
“Still $31,” she smiles back.
“Well Frank ya did good, guitar’s in here, you get Pansy back,” he says shutting the lid on the case.
“You named your guitar?” Jen says handing it over to me.
“Yes, and I have no shame in it,” I say taking Pansy from her and putting the strap over my shoulder.
“Why Pansy?” she asks.
“Well,” I then realize, that I really don’t remember why I named it Pansy. “I can’t remember,” I say shrugging my shoulders.
“C’mon guys, we got the food, lets go now,” Gee says shouldering the bag of food. “Mikey can you get the other bag?” he says turning to face Mikey.
“Sure, whatever you say Mouskat,” he grins.
“Very funny,” he says sarcastically, “Hopefully D’s got something I can use to get this thing off.”
“At least you still have a mask on,” Jen says grabbing her toy from the corner. “Hey, look it this,” she says crouching down to pick something up.
“What’cha got there Jen?” Ray says walking over.
“Masks,” Jen smiles turning to us with two masks in her hands.
One was a grubby looking Phantom of the Opera mask and the other was a black cat eye mask with pink diamonds in the corners…it looked familiar actually.
“I think that black one is Lynzie’s,” Mikey says walking over and taking it from Jen to look at. “Well I’ll be darned, it is Lynzie’s,” he smiles showing it to Gee.
“We should take it back, have it ready for when we bring her back,” he says tilting his head up to get a better look.
“Can we take the other one too? I wanna paint it,” Jen says looking at the other mask.
“Sure, but you’re carrying it though,” Gee says taking Lynzie’s mask from Mikey and putting it in his jacket pocket.
“‘Kay,” she says, “Hey, there’s holes on the side, I think I’ll put some string on it to keep it tied on.
“C’mon we gotta go,” Gee says, “Gotta get outta here before Dracs show up, they’re more common here than Zone 3.”
“Maybe we should take the back way to the car,” Mikey says glimpsing out the front window.
“Sounds like a good idea, don’t wanna go risking anything right now,” Ray mutters looking out the window darkly.
“Wait, what is that out there?” Mikey whispers, pointing at something out the window as Ray looks over his shoulder.
“The white dot?” he mumbles.
“Yep,” he grumbles.
“Masks on—now,” Gee mutters grabbing Jen and leading her towards the back.
“Well this is turning into quite the interesting day,” I mumble as I pull down my purple and green monster mask.
“Gun ready Ghoul,” Ray says pulling his helmet on as Mikey follows doing the same.
“Good luck Kobra,” I laugh.
“Uh-huh, very funny Ghoul,” he grumbles walking past me.
I make sure my guitar’s secure to my back and then I pull out my gun and switch off the safety. As we pass through the back, I see Jen look towards the old umbrella stand and dash over to it quick before pulling something out. I see as she runs back over to Gee that it’s one of Iris’ old guns, her orange one, the one that had an old style microphone on the handle. Smart move on her part taking it, never know how many of those psychotic lab rats would appear.
“Keep it low guys,” Gee whispers back to us.
We creep out the back door, and keep a careful eye out for any of those Dracs. Even Jen is on edge, making a 180 and keeping her new found gun at the ready. As we walk on, heading straight, I keep an eye out for the right point that indicates us to start out in our arc that’ll take us back around to the gas station we left the car at. Suddenly I hear someone up ahead stop, I look ahead and see Gee has come to a stand still.
“Jet, 7-o-clock, behind the rock fifty yards away,” he mutters frantically, not looking back as he pulls Jen so that he blocks any fire that could possibly hit her from there.
Ray whips around and fires right at the rock, driving the Drac out in from behind it and it start shooting at us. of course it’s too stupid to actually try and aim at us so me, Mikey and Ray have it out before it can hit any of us. Just as we start to run I see Gee and Jen take out another ahead of us, Jen shooting at its knee while Gee takes a head shot.
“Move!” he shouts, “High-tail it to the motel!”
Gee picks up Jen and starts running with her for the motel, just beyond the arc checkpoint. All the while me and the others are keeping an eye out for any more threats as we race along the desert for Killjoy inn, one of the very few motels still left out here in the desert. Jen is hanging on tight to Gee, looking over his shoulder for any sight of a Drac, then I see her lift her gun and close one eye in aim. I turn around just as she takes her shot, and see her shoot a Drac in the shoulder, I raise my own gun and get it in the head, finishing it off.
“Hurry up!” Gee shouts up ahead.
We keep it up as long as we can, not really stopping for the next quarter mile ‘til we spot Hotel de la Killjoy. We then run up to management to find the Killjoy in charge and warn him of the possible oncoming threat.
“You need to warn any other residents that there’s Dracs nearby and they need to be ready for any possible attack,” Ray says right away when we come crashing into the little room.
The Killjoy on the other side of check in just looks at us like we’re crazy for a sec, then she picks up a transmitter behind her.
“Hello all guests of Hotel de la Killjoy, get your masks on and switch off them safeties, some Killjoys just came in and they’ve warned me of some possible Dracs,” she says calmly into the mic, like she’s announcing a game or something. She turns off her transmitter and then turns back to us, a little annoyed, “Name’s Cyanide Revenge, I prefer Rev, so keep it that way if you want protection.”
“But we need protection,” Gee says walking up behind Ray, “We’ve got a kid.”
The Rev chic just looks at Jen shocked before she pulls out her own gun from under the counter and points us to follow her.
“How far are these Dracs?” she says leading us out a back door into a plaza.
“We left about a quarter mile back,” Ray says looking around at the graffiti walls.
“You drive here?” Rev asks pulling out a key ring and looking over the keys.
“Partly, left our car back at a station, had to run from those Dracs,” Ray says looking back at her.
“How far’s your car?” Rev says stopping in front of a room door.
“About half a mile from here maybe,” Ray answers.
“Think one of you can take my bike and go get it?” she says opening up the door. “I’m trying to run a safe house here, that can’t happen if I’ve got the Fabulous Killjoys and some random kid leading Dracs up to my place,” she says turning back to us.
“How’d you know?” Ray asks.
“I’ve seen your posters, and it doesn’t take a genius to see that that kid you’ve got must be Dr. Death Defying’s grandkid he’s been talking about on the radio,” she says nodding towards Jen. She turns back to us and scans her pale eyes over us, “Well, are any of you gonna go and get your car?”
“I’ll go,” Gee says setting Jen down.
“No,” she whines hugging Gee tightly.
“I’ll go, you stay and keep an eye on Dune,” Ray says quietly.
“Alright, following hot-shot, bike’s in the garage out back,” Rev says walking to an archway on the other side of the yard.
“Stay safe Jet,” Gee says giving Ray a pat on the shoulder.
“Will do, shouldn’t be to long,” Ray says, then he turns to follow after Rev.
“We’re gonna have to ride together, I don’t want you leaving my bike behind,” she mutters.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Ray says.
“If it means having to leave my hotel behind, it is,” she says walking around a corner with Ray.
“Alright, file in, stay away from the windows and keep calm,” Gee says herding Jen into the room.
“You guys stay, I’ll keep an eye out up front,” I say heading back the way we came.
“Be careful then Ghoul,” Gee says after me.
“I’ve already promised Neon, do I have to promise to you too?” I say jokingly.
“Just don’t do anything stupid for your family’s sake,” Gee calls out.
(Author's Note: This may take me longer to finish than perviously thought :S oh well, more for you guys :D! Oh, and I think from here on out i might just do the whole Third-Person POV to make things a little easier in writing)
Part 87: http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/zone-specter/danger-days-part-87
