killjoys never die - Keep Running

Chapter five.

They had been driving for a while now and had made it just halfway through zone three. The drive back seemed to take much longer than the journey there, but they were no longer feulled by urgency. They had been keeping themselves amused by chatting away and making jokes.

She was warming so much to them all, they made her feel included and welcome and like she had always been one of them. It was nice not to feel alone.

'Um guys.....we need fuel ASAP' ghoul interrupted their chatter. ' there's a pump in an old garage close by, we will head there'

The rest of the boys groaned everyone was wanting to get back to the diner as soon as they could. The sun was starting to set and travelling in the dark would have many issues. Not to mention scarecrow.

It only took a few more minutes to reach the gas pump. It was outside of a derelict garage, they were all derelict now. No killjoys actively needed to do up these places and it deterred anyone travelling past to stop for long as they looked empty.

They all piled out of the trans am once again assessing their surroundings for danger. You could never be too careful in zone 3. She rubbed her bad arm absent mindedly, it was starting to throb again and the temperature had dropped dramatically with the setting sun.

The sky burnt bright orange, almost merging with the desert sand. A stunningly beautiful sight but always a warming sign for time to get inside. Hide your body when the sunlight dies rang through her brain once again.

'Ghoul, you refuel. Everyone else keep your wits about you, it's starting to get dark this is a dangerous hour to be stopping.' Party instructed them, his leadership showing again.

Ghoul nodded and got to quick work refueling the car.

'Fuck,' Kobra whispered making everyone turn to him 'I think we should get going now, get in the car. We need to leave quietly'

'Its not full yet Kobra what on earth's spooked you' ghoul said still filling the tank.

'Now!' Kobra said firmly pointing towards a window of the garage. On one window the glass was covered by a poster, it was white with a black smiley face on it. Written underneath it said have you smiled today? A better living industries poster.

If anything could strike fear into killjoys it was that. The only time you saw the posters outside of battery city was when scarecrow and dracs had a hideout amongst the zones. So they were upto something. This explained how so many dracs appeared from no where that day, how many hideouts did they have?

They needed to run.
Now.

A face appeared in the window, a white ill fitting mask with a shock of black hair, a blank expression and fangs. It was a drac mask. Fuck.

She exchanged a worried look with Party. She didn't want this to end the same way as last time. She couldn't lose anymore people.

'Everyone in the car now!' He yelled 'we don't know how many are in there let's go!'

They all rushed inside the trans am, Ghoul struggled to get the car started. He kept stalling the engine in his panic. Finally the engine spluttered to life and they were speeding back off across the desert as dracs piled out of the garage followed by Korse himself. What was he doing so far out in the zones she wondered he's normally firmly inside battery city. He doesn't risk being taken out by killjoys without a purpose.

She watched in horror as Korse raised some sort of grenade launcher onto his shoulder with a smile, not able to tear her eyes away to see if the guys had seen too.

A brilliant flash of light erupted and her ears started ringing with a high pitched noise. The trans ams electrics shorted causing the car to go skidding sideways and onto a rock bringing it to a stop. They had no time to brace themselves as their heads crashed against the inside of the car.

Her head was so fuzzy again from the impact her head made against the front seat. Looking around at the boys she noticed they were all out cold. Ghoul was slumped over the steering wheel, Jets head was against the dashboard and both Kobra and party poison had smashed their heads on the side windows.

Glass was everywhere and Party had blood running down the side of his face like his red hair was extending downwards. It was hard to tell where his hair stopped and the blood started.

She couldnt move, she wanted to check on them but her shoulder injury was like a fire raging through her body and her head felt like a thousands knives were inside.

In slow motion she saw Kobra being yanked from the car, she tried to grab hold of him, grasping weakly at his jacket but they were too strong pulling him out the door. Her fingers slipped off his arm and he was gone. She was screaming but no sound was coming out.

Next thing she saw was Korse looking down at her laughing and she growled at him.
'Give him back now or I'll kill you myself'

Korse just laughed again menacingly.
'Keep running' was the last words she heard from him as the butt of a gun knocked her unconscious.