Silence // Danger Days (Book 1)

06.

After about a two-minute drive between abandoned buildings (peppered with sharp, speeding turns) the group arrived at a hole in the wall—literally. There was a spot behind a building that looked like someone had carved it out of Battery City's surrounding wall by hand. Thankfully, it was just big enough for their van to fit through it.

Storm tried to look into the gateway to see what was outside of it, but he found that the glare of the sun was preventing him from doing that. Even if he could look at the gate, he wouldn't be able to see anything outside of it.

Killer King put the van in park and jumped out. Alien did the same but told the others to stay.

They conversed for a minute, then Alien hopped into the driver's seat and grinned back at the rest of the group. "Apparently, Killer was doing something else near the exit of the tunnel and when he heard my call he decided to steal the van to pick us up. He's an asshole," she added.

Vendetta pulled a pair of dark-lens sunglasses out of his duffel and handed them to Storm. "You're gonna need these."

He took them graciously and slid them over his eyes. Instantly, most of the things inside the car were made much darker, but he could actually see what was outside the tunnel.

Alien pulled a ring with a key on it out of her pocket, threw it in the air, caught it, put it into the ignition, and started the car. Instantly the radio blared a metallic-sounding rock song at top volume. Storm covered his ears with his hands, and Sunset plugged hers with her fingers.

"Oh, D's playing MARS's songs again!" Alien shouted to Vendetta over the noise. Then she seemed to remember that the new Killjoys were in the car, so she turned down the volume. "Sorry, I forgot to turn this off before we got out. We usually play something from this" she waved a CD case in the air, "to re-introduce the newbies, but we didn't intend to pick anyone up today. The song's called Fallen, by the way. It's by the guys we just met," the Killjoy leader told them, to their surprise. "Jay and Shann. And Myth, of course." The constant sparkle in her eyes flickered for a moment. "They were called MARS."

Vendetta took her hand. "Did you ever—"

"No," she knew what he was asking. "They never told me."

The silver-haired Killjoy had been about to say Did you ever find out his real name, but it seemed better to him that he hadn't said it out loud. "Good."

Alien put the van into drive, gave Killer the bird in her side mirror (which he reciprocated), and floored the gas pedal. The van shot through the gap in the wall and into the Zones.

Storm was instantly hit with a wall of light, of a brightness he'd never experienced before. He shielded his eyes with his arm despite his sunglasses and the van's tinted windows. From what he could see, there was a straight path of sand in front of them that made a makeshift road, and all around them were sand dunes, with the occasional dead bush, cactus, or Joshua tree perched on top.

"Alright delta-dogs," a voice on the radio said when the song ended. "That was the song Fallen by my good friends, MARS. Make sure to send your love to Modern Myth, who's runnin' with the Witch. Anyways, my eyes in the sky tell me there's some Drac traffic in east 2, so make sure to hit the red line if you're in proximity."

"Shit," Alien cursed, "Welp, we're gonna have to make a detour."

"Also, today is our stellar general and my good friend Atomic Alien's birthday!"

Vendetta whooped and gave his girlfriend's shoulder a gentle shove. "I told you he wouldn't forget!"

"Happy birthday," Storm and Sunset said in unison, then looked at each other and laughed.

"Thanks, guys," Alien turned back to say. "It isn't really a big deal, though."

"Be sure to give her some sugar today, and make sure she's reelected when the time comes around again! And Allie—"

"DESTROYA, D!" she shouted. "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS—" she cut herself off in frustration.

"—if you're listening, we at the station are sending you our airwaves. Here's a present for you, straight from the studio of the Fabulous Four."

A synthesized beat began to shoot through the speakers, accompanied by some hollow drums. Then the same melody switched to grinding guitars.

"Wait, what is this?" Alien's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "I don't know this, is it new?"

"You'll see," Vendetta smirked, squeezing her hand.

The general continued to look perplexed, but she did seem to enjoy the sound. Then the lyrics began, and her face lit up with ecstatic surprise. "Wait, is this—did you—"

"It is," Vendetta grinned. "Happy birthday." He kissed her cheek.

The siblings looked at each other. Sunset shrugged, then went back to moving along with the song.

The song wasn't really Storm's type of music, but he did think it was good. The lyrics were a little messy when it came to the arrangement, but the meaning was understandable and empowering. It had been three years since he had heard any music at all, so he savored it.

Alien continued to stare straight ahead of her, in awe at what her friends had created for her.

Vendetta turned to the siblings to explain. "She wrote the lyrics," he told them. "She gave it to them for Christmas, and this past couple of months the Four and I have been turning it into an actual song for her. It's called Zero Percent."

"Why'd you guys come to the city on her birthday?" the ginger Killjoy asked.

"She wanted to avoid a party," he chuckled. "She hates being forced to talk to people, so we came to a place where no one knows her personally except Jared and Shannon, who we were planning to hang out with anyway. We got to spend most of the day alone together."

Sunset awwed, and Storm couldn't help but smile. They were so cute!

Once the song ended, the two veteran Killjoys launched into telling the recruits about music. Alien preferred a more metallic, harder sound, but Vendetta liked older, classic rock.

Then an argument ensued between the two as to whether the Fabulous Four or the Suitehearts were better (not that Storm and Sunset knew who they were) and continued for a while, until they seemed to get tired and stopped.

The van continued to speed through the desert, on a journey that its passengers knew they could never look back from.