The World Is Ugly

Look Alive Sunshine

"Gee, we'd better get going. The radio dropped to static. Dracs might be on their way."

Silence.

"Gerard!"

Gerard shot Frank an irritated look. "You gotta stop calling me Gerard, man. My name is Party Poison."

"No, it's not, and you can tell people that all you want, but I'm going to call you by your actual name."

Gee rolled his eyes. "Everyone knows me as Party Poison. No one can know who I was before."

"But I know, Gerard. And I still love you. The people you hate are the ones who you need to keep this from."

"Yeah, but what if someone hears?"

Frank's face suggested that this was an entirely too ridiculous conversation to be wasting air on.

"Mikey calls you Gerard."

"He's known me all his life as Gerard."

"Dude, I've known you since I was in fourth grade! We grew up together just like you and Mikes. I'm calling you Gerard, end of story."

"Ugh. I hate you."

"No, you don't. Let's go."

-

Mikey winced as he popped the top off of his can.

"I hate that noise," he muttered. "And I hate this shitty food."

Gerard spoke up. "Everyone does, Mikes. We all deal with it."

"Shut it, Gee."

"Okay, kiddo."

A frustrated grunt came from Mikey's direction. "I'm not a baby, you guys."

Ray laughed and punched his friend's arm affectionately. "Yeah, but you're the little kid brother, so by law we have to treat you that way."

"Hey, by who's law? And guys, really. Frank's younger than me."

"Frank is younger than you. Frank is also shorter than you. Frank is a lot of things that would make him the baby, except he can open a bean can without whining."

And to that, Mikey could just shoot his friends unamused looks and shake his head. "Whatever, guys. Tune up D. I'm hittin' it."
Gerard twisted the tuning knob on their colorful radio until the voice of the rebellion could be heard loud and clear as the Killjoys settled down for huge night.

"Look alive, Sunshine."

Frank sighed as he laid down next to Mikey and Gerard and closed his eyes.
"109 in the sky, but the pigs won't quit. You're here with me, Dr. Death Defying."

Gerard yawned and let his eyes flutter to a close.

"I'll be your surgeon, your proctor, your helicopter- pumpin' out those slaughtermatic sounds to keep you alive."

Ray settled in across from Frank, ripping his bandana off, only after dragging it through his matted curly hair, and shut his eyes.

"A system failure for the masses, antimatter for the master plan. Louder than God's revolver and twice as shiny."

Mikey wiped off his angry face and moved closer to his brother. His eyes closed themselves, and he smiled knowing that tonight, they would all be allowed to sleep.

"This one's for all you rock'n'rollers, all you crash queens and motor babies. Listen up!"

The fire died down. The desert went quiet. Tonight they would sleep without the interruption of enemies.

"The future is bulletproof! The aftermath is secondary."

No static would swallow the voice of the desert tonight. He would tell the rebellion all what they needed to hear, uninterrupted.

"It's time to do it now, and do it loud..."