Silence // Danger Days (Book 1)

10.

"Draculoids!" Sunset screamed.

Storm quickly spun around to look out the back window, and sure enough, there were a group of six Draculoids on motorcycles following them. They were being led by a Scarecrow.

"Shit!" Alien cursed. "Ven, open the roof up!"

Vendetta pressed a button, and the roof of the van opened. Alien pulled her gun out of its holster, stood on her chair, and leaned out of the hole in the ceiling.

"Do you need any help?" the medic shouted to his girlfriend.

"I think I can take 'em!" she assured him, her gun emitting blasts rapid-fire.

Storm looked at his sister. Her face was stricken with terror. He grabbed her hand, and she squeezed back.

"They're firing back," Alien yelled, ducking inside the vehicle again.

Storm looked out of the back window again and saw that the enemies were indeed defending themselves, though they had terrible aim. A blue laser from Alien's gun hit one of the bikes' tires and caused it to barrel into the Drac behind it. Both of them went down.

"Good shot, babe!" Vendetta congratulated. He was still managing to keep the van on the road, thankfully.

Alien continued to shoot the Dracs down until there was only the Scarecrow left. 'Crows were way higher up than Dracs and had a much better aim.

Storm watched eagerly as the general reloaded her gun to take the enemy out. He still had adrenaline coursing through him, and faith in his friend.

But the minute she leaned out of the van again, she let out a cry of pain and fell back into her seat.

"Al!" Vendetta cried, and desperately tried to keep from swerving and tipping the van.

"I'm okay," she panted, "but it got my shooting arm."

We don't have any defenses, Storm realized, and instinct took over him.

"Give me your gun," he said to the general.

"What are you doing?" Sunset yelled in surprise. "Luca! Stop!"

But he was already taking the purple gun and leaning out of the roof.

The 'crow's mask stared back at him. It raised its arm and fired at him, but missed, barely grazing his shoulder.

The rational part of his brain was saying, what the hell are you doing? Get down! But he ignored it. He took the gun and slipped his finger onto the trigger. He raised the gun to the level of his eyes, closed one, and looked down the barrel. He squeezed the trigger.

And hit the Scarecrow square in the chest.

It fell off of its bike, and the bike tipped over and went down as well.

Storm stood in tandem for a moment, processing what had just happened.

I just killed a Scarecrow. I helped my friends, I'm in the fight now!

He let out a laugh. "Yes! I just did that! Whoo!"

He crouched back down into the van. "Did you see that? First try!" He let his "annoying teenage boy" side reveal itself.

"Dude," Alien said, clearly still in pain but grinning from ear to ear. "That was awesome!"

Storm climbed back into his seat, still smiling.

Sunset took his hand. "You're a real Killjoy now!" she told him, laughing.

"Yeah, I guess I am!" He felt better than he had in years. He knew then that they had made the right choice.

We're going to set the world right again.

🌩

Soon, a building came into view in the distance. As they got closer, Storm could see that it was some sort of motel.

"This has been said so many times that I'm not sure if it matters..." Alien sang along to the song that was playing. "Oh look, there it is!" she pointed at the building.

When they got close enough, Vendetta pressed the brake and the van skidded to a stop.

"You have reached your destination," the silver-haired Killjoy said in a monotone voice, and his girlfriend punched him in the shoulder. "Hey, don't do that! You need to rest!" he scolded her.

"I used my left arm, dumbass!" she snapped back, still smiling.

Vendetta ignored this, pulled a bag out of the console, got out of the car, and walked over to Alien's side to tend to her injury.

Sunset eagerly jumped out to see what was happening, and Storm followed.

Her jacket sleeve had a large hole in it, revealing a bloody burn. The medic pulled Alien's jacket off of her right arm, causing her to gasp. Her face contorted. "Jeez man, could you at least warn me first?"

"You're so stubborn," he told her. He pushed up the sleeve of her t-shirt to get better access to the burn. He grabbed a bottle from his bag, poured some blue gel from it into his hand, and applied it to her arm.

The general hissed in pain. "You'd think I would get used to this," she complained.

Vendetta pulled a roll of bandages out of his bag and began wrapping it around her arm. "There," he said when he finished. "You should be good."

"Thanks, Ven." She pulled her jacket back on and aimed to give him a kiss on the cheek, but he purposefully turned his head so that her lips landed on his.

They stayed there for a while, until Sunset said, "Get a room."

Alien broke the kiss to laugh. "Alrighty then, kids," she said happily. "Let's do this!" She set off toward the motel, and the others followed.