Parties, Poison and Sleeping In

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A smell of damp moss reached my nostrils as I sat below a tree canopy. A fine mist clung to the leaves, making the forest sound alive as little droplets of water fell to the dead leaves scattered on the floor.

I sat on a moss covered wooden bench at the edge of the forest, watching my prey closely. Any moment now my construction worker was going to let go of his coffee to continue working, and that would be when I would strike.

I stood up casually as I saw his hand move closer to the stationary wheels of a crane and ambled over to the place where he was working. I watched him carefully out of the corner of my eye, my heart beating slightly faster than usual. The moment I had been waiting for had come; he placed the paper cup down on the wheel and I dived, grabbing the cup, holding the lid down to prevent spillage and sprinted towards an old graffittied car parked a few meters away. My sweaty fingers kept slipping off the plastic lid, but I couldn't slow down.

Above the black spider painted on the bonnet of the Trans Am, I saw four pale faces, all scrunched up with laughter. The driver had his head on the steering wheel; his mass of cherry red hair quivering in sync with his howls of laughter. I was also fighting back the urge to laugh, but I knew if I did, I would probably fall over and be caught. Stealing a coffee is a punishable by death nowadays. Getting caught was not an option.

I pulled open the door and flopped down in the passenger seat, finally succumbing to my urges and letting out a long fit of giggles. The whole car was shaking with the five amused bodies rocking in howls of laughter.

"The...the..." A blonde man in the back could hardly get his words out, "that was pure skill!"

Maybe I should explain. We were killjoys - or outlaws - on our way through Washington. We didn't have much and we couldn't just walk into a store because we'd be arrested and brainwashed into the very things that were hunting us – Draculoids. It's a hazardous game to have control of your own mind these days.

Anyway, our driver had expressed a huge urge for coffee but, of course, we didn't have any. So I was dared by the blonde man in the back to steal one and I'm not one to say no to a dare. And that is why we were all sat in, doubled over with painful stomachs, howling into our knees.

When everything had calmed down, the driver started up the car and pulled out of his parking space, sipping his coffee happily. We drove past the very confused looking construction worker, but he didn't follow. His brain was too damaged to have any kind of angry emotions.

"The look on his face was priceless," our driver said, still smirking.

"Did he chase me?" I asked, suppressing even more giggles. He shook his head.

"You were really going for it," a man with frizzy ginger hair laughed, "stalking him and everything."

“Just doin' my job,” I grinned at him. "How's your coffee, Master Gerard."

He smiled, "superb, Miss Lilian."

I slapped him on the knee and pointed a finger at him, "don't you dare call me that again!"

So, we were killjoys. What were we doing? Chasing a man in a wheelchair and a ten year old girl across the Atlantic. How were we going to do that? No clue. But then, we were good at making last minute decisions - Gerard especially.

We were travelling from California and had decided to drive around the outskirts of the country (past my home state, which is where we are at the moment) to New York rather than just cut straight through. It would take us a lot longer, but it was safer on the edges, BLI's control wasn't as strict here, away from the main city. New York would be tricky, but we'd deal with that when the time came. We would have gone into Canada, but we probably wouldn't be able to get over the border.

Right now, we were just leaving Washington for Idaho. We wouldn't be here for long and then we would reach Montana, where we were hoping to stay for a few days. Rumour has it Montana is almost completely out of Korse's control; I guess we'll see when we get there.

Road trips were incredibly boring - Gerard was too busy driving to be any fun, Ray was asleep, snoring loudly and Frankie and Mikey were playing road kill (which wasn't going too well, considering hardly anyone drove these days). I resorted to fiddling with the radio, desperately searching for something to break the long silence. All I could find were snippets of conversation which fizzled out as we lost signal. I let out a frustrated sigh as I moved the needle up and down.

Another sliver of conversation came and went, but it was of interest to Frank. He sat up quickly and leaned forward, placing his chin on the back of my seat. "Wasn't that Doc?" He asked, reaching forward to tune the radio backwards.

"Don't be stupid," I began, "Doc's in -"

I stopped abruptly as I heard the familiar voice blaring out of the ancient speakers. "Hey hey! Doctor D here. I apologise for my long, unnecessary absence but -"

"What the fuck? He's meant to be in Europe!" I exclaimed. Gerard hissed at me to shut up so I punched him hard in the ribs.

"We've been on a long journey. Hell, we're still on a long journey! And killjoys seem to be peeling off us like we're sun burnt. Pretty soon it'll only be me left!"

We lost signal. Frank and I punched every button and twizzled every knob until we got it back.

"Well, I'm going to say goodbye for a while children, we're getting outta here. But keep fighting! Don't let those little piggies win!"

We sat in silence for a while, listening to the fizzing noise that was now filling our ears.

"He must have made it to New York!" Mikey said after a while, more happy than he had been in a while, "and if he's safe enough to stop and do a radio show, that must mean that New York's safe!"

"Not necessarily," Gerard pondered, "what's to say he's in New York?"

Mikey fell silent and I took my turn to speak. "So where is he?" I asked.

"I'd place my bet on Montana," he said. We all looked puzzled. Had he just plucked that conclusion out of thin air? When none of us agreed, he explained, “Montana's meant to be safe, right?” Everyone nodded. “And they can't be that far ahead of us – a day or two at the most, which would place them in Montana.”

I shook my head, “what if they didn't take the same route as us?”

He sighed irritably. “Do you really think he would have taken Grace through the heart of America and put her in even more danger?”

I couldn't argue with that. Grace was everyone's main priority; we couldn't lose another to the Dracs, especially someone so young. When Gerard was satisfied that he'd convinced us all, he clapped his hands together and said with a smile on his face, “well, we better get moving!”