Youngbloods of the World, Stand Up and Fight

Attack on the Bus

“What’s the plan? We can’t just sit around and do nothing while the cult is searching for us. And we can’t just run either.”

Patrick sighed, rubbing his forehead. Now that the girls had gone to sleep, considering the hour of the night, him and the rest of the band were trying to figure out what to do.

“But we can’t attack. Not yet, at least,” Andy put in, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms. “We’re not prepared or organized at all.”

“And can we observe how odd it was that we got away from the hospital with no problems at all?” Pete put in, a frown on his face.

“I know. That was really strange,” Joe agreed, nodding.

Suddenly, the pain that Patrick felt in the back of his leg when he escaped with Hope became present again. Wincing, he reached down to rub the pain away, but it only got worse.  What did those girls shoot at him?

“‘Trick?”

“Huh?” He looked up, snapping out of his daze. The rest of the band was staring at him weirdly, making him the slightest bit uncomfortable. “What?”

“Did something happen while you were rescuing Hope? Anything odd at all?”

“Um… no, not that I can think of,” he lied, casually adjusting the fedora on his head. “It was weird. No one was guarding Hope, no alarms went off. And no one came after me when I was trying to get her out of the hospital.”

“That is weird. Maybe-”

At that moment, a huge THUD sounded from outside, making all the boys jump out of their seats wide-eyed.

“What was that?” Joe said quietly, his eyes wide.

And just like that, a scream sounded from the back of the bus.

~~~

Aspen couldn’t sleep. It was like asking a five year old to go to bed after having a large cup of espresso. Right next to impossible. She sighed, staring at the ceiling, several million thoughts swirling through her mind. It almost felt like she was back in Ohio with Kayla. Working underground to keep their town safe from the cult. Secretly, she didn’t want to go through all this again. When her family had decided to risk practically everything and move to Oregon, she was ecstatic. No more cults, no more resistance. Just a normal teenage life, where she could read books, create art and listen to music. But here she was again, fighting a fight for a cause she believed in, but not enough to actually want to fight.

She just wanted to go home.

Was that cowardice? Maybe it was, but she was tired of running for her life.

So why did you come?

As Aspen pondered the question, she failed to notice the light footsteps echoing in the hallway outside the bunk. So she didn’t expect it when the curtain was thrown back, and a woman in all black reached forward and grabbed her by the arms.

That was when she let out an ear-piercing scream.

~~~

The second Rina heard the scream, she slid out of the bunk, and kicked at the first sight of a leg wearing black pants.

Not long after, Hope jumped down from her bunk with swift agility, landing on top of the woman, pinning her to the ground. “Get something to tie her up!”

As if in response, the curtain to Kayla’s bunk was thrown open and she tossed a rope out to Hope. Wasting no time, she quickly secured the pale cult member’s hands.

Just after she had finished, the door slammed open, and the guys rushed inside, looking frazzled and shocked.

“Are you guys al-” Joe started, but fell short when he saw that the girls had secured their imposter already.

“Looks like they are,” Andy said, crossing his arms.

“I’m going to grab the sedatives to keep her quiet,” Rina said, jumping up and running in the way back. From where she was, she could hear Carles sliding out of her bunk and Kayla telling everyone else to make sure that there weren’t any other cult members surrounding the bus. Doors opened and shut, and then suddenly, the sound of gunshots could be heard.

Jumping at the sudden sound, she quickly grabbed the syringe with the sedative and ran back into the bunks. To her absolute relief, Hope was still holding the woman down in the room.

“Alright, here goes,” she said, dropping to her knees. “Lights out.” And with that, she stuck the needle into the woman’s neck, and pushed down the plunger. Almost immediately she fell limp, and Hope let out a breath that she’d probably been holding for a while.

A door opened and slammed shut again, followed by the sound of Patrick yelling something. At that, Hope immediately jumped up and ran to see what was the matter. Momentarily forgetting about the unconscious woman, Rina joined her new friend out in the main room.

“... have to go back out there and save them!” Patrick was shouting, fighting against Hope and Pete who were both trying to hold him back.

“Pat, there’s nothing we can do! Kayla is starting the bus as we speak! We need to get out of here!” Hope yelled back, still gripping tight to his arm.

That’s when Rina noticed that people were missing.

Andy. Joe. Aspen. Carlee. Gone. All four of them. Taken by those monsters.

All Rina could do was stare at the door, horrified as Kayla started up the bus and began driving as fast as she could, away from the scene.

The second they had started driving away, Patrick stopped struggling. He fell to his knees, and buried his head in his hands. It was hard to tell if he was crying or not, but she couldn’t blame him if he was.

Pete was beside Patrick on the ground trying to comfort him, and Hope was just staring at the door like Rina. And she knew why. One of her best friends was among the four that got kidnapped.

“Guys…” Rina said quietly, breaking the silence and causing everyone to look at her. “We can’t stay put for long. We have one of them in the back. Let’s find out where they’re taking them and get them back.”

“But Rina, we aren't prepared-”

“Then we prepare!” she shouted, looking down at them. “We prepare, and then make them pay for what they’ve done. Because I, for one, am not going to sit around while my new friends suffer. And I know that Kayla’s going to agree with me.”

All was silent for a while, before Hope nodded. “I’m with Rina. We have to do something. And we might as well save our friends while we’re at it.”

The remaining half of Fall Out Boy exchanged looks, before nodding.

“You’re right. We’re in.”