Bleached Out Eyes

Chapter 2 - Cactus Juice

"Please!"

The redhead was holding the blonds body tightly, the man in question stirring only slightly, his eyes seeming heavy and his breathing worryingly slow for someone who'd just battled against the storm outside.

"What's wrong with him?" Jet asked, making sure the door was secure before crouching down and looking over the blond man with hurried concern.

"We ran out of water. I don't... He got real bad real fast," the redhead sounded as though they were crying, but with their goggles still on it was hard to tell, "The storm got inside our container, we couldn't stay so I biked us over-"

"Biked?"Ghoul asked, astounded. He knew some Killjoys favoured motorbikes or quad bikes over cars on the coarse sand of the Zones, but the idea that anyone would bike through a storm like that was ludicrous.

"It was the only way to get here! I'm sorry, this was the first place I thought of and I didn't know what else to do! We didn't know the storm was coming!"

"Okay, okay," Jet tried to sooth the redhead, who was now rocking themselves and the blond man in their arms back and forth, "I'm Jet Star, this is Fun Ghoul."

"I'm... I'm Party, this is Kobra," the redhead was definitely crying, finally pulling the goggles from their face and wiping their eyes, still hiding their face from Jet and Ghoul, "Please, just help him."

"Alright, come on," Ghoul reholstered his gun, looking to Jet, "Let's move him to the back, see if we can't get some fluids in him."

Jet, being the stronger of the two, lifted Kobra's torso, while Ghoul took his ankles. Kobra was helpfully quite light and slim, making moving him into the back and onto one of the beat-up booth seats easy. Party followed after them, breaths still shaky as they watched, tightly clutching to the strap of the satchel that was slung across their chest, while Ghoul and Jet gathered together what they thought they would need to help this poor guy.

Jet fetched a glass and a sponge, while Ghoul got two bottles of water and a bottle of cactus juice. Bringing them back to where Party was crouched at Kobra's side, Ghoul handed one bottle of water to the redhead, and gave the other two bottles to Jet, who mixed them half and half in the glass.

"Here," Ghoul smiled at Party, who looked hesitantly at the water bottle, "You must be thirsty, too."

At first, Party just looked at the bottle, but slowly looked up at the dark haired man and took the water, still seeming unsure.

"Thanks," he smiled, taking just a small sip before closing the bottle again, "Sorry, I-I'm just more worried about Kobra."

"That's alright, but don't neglect yourself."

Ghoul sat himself down on a nearby seat, looking at Party sat on the floor, who was in turn watching as Jet dabbed at Kobra's lip, letting some of the water-juice mix trickle into his mouth. The fact that Kobra was still semi-conscious made the task easier, as he still gently swallowed the droplets rather than choking on them.

"There," Jet looked at Party, trying to show the redhead what he was doing, "Just gently squeeze a bit of this into his mouth, a little bit at a time, until he can sit up and drink for himself."

Party nodded and took the sponge, taking over Jet's actions.

Ghoul watched the scene, still somewhat unsure about who Party was, other than just 'Party'. He hadn't even gotten a good look at their face yet, their features hidden behind the unruly crimson tendrils that hung from their head.

"So, uh, Party?" Ghoul started, earning a raised eyebrow from Jet, which the older man quickly hid from the visitor.

"Yeah?" Party replied, not looking away from Kobra's semi-unconscious from.

"You and Kobra, you must have second names? I mean, unless you're part of a known clan, you have your own second names... Right?"

"Yeah, uh, he's Kobra Kid. I'm Party Poison."

"Kid and Poison, eh?" Jet mused, looking at the two newcomers, "So, are you two just zone buddies, or partners, or do you have a crew or faction?"

Party shook their head, "None of those," they paused their dabbing of Kobra's lip for a moment, but resumed in the blink of an eye, "We're brothers, and it's just us. We were staying in a shipping container camp with some other Killjoys for the past few days but they all left without warning. I guess they heard word of the storm."

Ghoul thought for a moment, accidentally musing aloud, "Brothers..." but quickly continued with, "So they just left you?"
"I can only assume so."
"That's not on," Jet shook his head, his hair moving a fraction of a second behind the rest of his movements, "They shouldn't have just left you to the mercy of a storm like that."

Party paused again.

"I'm sure they had their reasons," he dipped the sponge into the glass again and replaced it on his brother's lip, "But in any case, we made it here, more or less in one piece."

"How long have you been out in the zones, the two of you?"

Party turned his head a little in their direction, but didn't look up at the two of them.

"A couple of months now. Actually, it's been nine weeks since we left Battery City."

"So how'd you get here? How have you been surviving?"

"I drove by motorbike, Kobra was in the sidecar, but... It's out in the sandstorm now, so the engine's probably ruined already. And I've already said," his head tilted to one side, still looking at Kobra, "We've spent the last three days at the camp with a small group of others, but before there we slept under a tarp attached to the bike, like a makeshift tent."

"You were sleeping under a tarp? In the zones? Out in the open?" Ghoul exclaimed, genuinely stunned, "How the fuck did you make it this far?"

Party let out a noise that sounded like a laugh, "I really have no idea. We got very lucky."

"If you can call dehydration 'lucky', then sure," Jet said derisively, standing back up and walking towards the front of the diner again, "I'm gonna grab the radio, see if we can get some signal in here."

Ghoul stayed silent as he watched Jet leave the room, and moved closer to Party, standing on the other side of the booth seat that Kobra was laying on, leaning on the back of it and smiling down at the redhead.

"Sorry, he doesn't mean to be so harsh. He's been in the Zones a while, longer than I have. He just... Gets a bit pissy about wannabe Killjoys who come out of the city and aren't prepared for what it's like out here."

"It's okay. Everyone makes mistakes, Kobra and I just left in a bit of a hurry, that's all," Party tilted his head up a little, Ghoul finally seeing some of his face, his thin lips curling into a small smile, the light seeming to catch his eye for the split second he looked up into Ghoul's face, "Not everyone comes out here for rebellion's sake. Some of us have things we're running from."