Pirate Radio

Highway to Hell - AC/DC

 It was 4:00 in the morning when Clerk woke both, George and Ezra up. George, so he could bring him to shore and Ezra so he could start his shift.

"Could you do me a favour?" George asked no one in particular. "Make sure Heth is okay, yeah?"

"I'm sure Nina and Clavin have that covered." Clerk smiled at him reassuringly but Ezra only groaned and turned away.

"You'll have to excuse him." Clerk said while they where seated in the dingy. "He's just fussing because he cares about you."

"Yeah." Even if it didn't always look it to outsiders, Ezra was just as passionate about his friends as he was about the rest of the world, and to everyone surprise George now counted as a friend. Not that the thought did anything to calm his nerves, which at that point he needed more then Ezra's worry. If he was going to ride into the lions den the least he could do was not cary around a neon sign that read 'sheep'.

The second George had been old enough to do his drivers test he passed it. He'd been practicing with his - older - girlfriend and it was her who helped him buy his first ever bike, which granted was a piece of trash, but it was his piece of trash. It was something his parent's couldn't take away from him and his riding it pissed them of, which was a major bonus. Still he couldn't be bothered to get himself a new one when his mum finally found a way to trash the thing so badly that there was no more fixing it. Not that he could have afforded one if he wanted to.

In the three years before the bike was 'accidentally' hit by a Lorry it had been his dream to drive his bike of of the White Cliffs of Dover, preferably at the age of 27 - that's when all the cool kids die - and make it real Quadrophenia-esq, changing the bit where Jimmy didn't actually go down with his stolen Vespa. George would have gone over the edge with his shitty Honda, or he would have stolen a Vespa and then driven that off the cliffs. Hadn't Jimmy used a stolen scooter?

For a moment or two George allowed himself to believe that he could still make that dream a reality. He wasn't quite 27 yet and, assuming that he survived the police until then, it wouldn't be too difficult to return to England, steal a Vespa and allow it the honours of reenacting an amazing final scene form a golden piece of his childhood.

He'd actually put the dream to bed a long time ago when he realised that it wasn't all that original a way to die since there where, save Quadrophenia, two movies that came to his mind which ended with the protagonist driving cool vehicles of cliffs. Of course there was also the fact that George had actual friends now, people that he cared about and people who cared about him - people who might actually cry at his funeral. He could almost see them, all of the Knights, standing at the cliffside, tears streaming down their faces as they looked down at the remains of the smashed Vespa. Ezra would, most likely, be the only one who's eyes remained dry, not because he didn't care but because he didn't care enough. He would be sad, of course he would but he'd probably find a way to let George's mangled body fuel him in attempts to overthrow the government.

Ezra was actually the least heartbreaking to think about. It was much worse when the image of Heth and Calvin clinging to each other while they sobbed, popped into his mind. Nina would stand beside them, solum, a hand resting on Calvin's shoulder. She'd be the one to give a talk because Heth would be crying to much to get a word out. Then Dante would speak, then Marta.

The cold bite of the early morning air, as he sped down country roads, did little to distract George from his mind. He used to have thoughts about his death all the time, it was basically a constant state of being between his 15th and 21rd year but it had gotten better when he started going to the 'New Knights of Camelot' meetings and left completely once they sailed away.

The truth of the matter was that George was no longer a sad, lonely teen who's grandfather had just died and who's girlfriends cheated on him. He had friends, friends he loved more then anything in the world and it wasn't as easy to imagine death when there where people you didn't want to leave behind.