Silence // Danger Days (Book 1)

22.

The Nest was dark. Each room was completely silent; there was not a single movement. The Girl slept peacefully on her personal cot, unaware of the madness that was transpiring.

Violent Vendetta, however, couldn't sleep.

He was going over memories in his head, weighing them. They mainly were interactions between him and Alien.

"How do you do this again?"
"Well, with most others, I'd have to bleach it first, which hurts like hell sometimes. But you're blond, so it should be okay."
"Have you ever done this before, Al?"
"Not to someone else, no."
"You're lucky I trust you. I don't want to look like an old man!"
"Trust me, it'll all be milkshakes."

"So you're gonna put the key into the ignition—"
"Seriously Ven, I think I can do it myself!"
"I'd usually trust you, but then we'd end up in a ditch and you'd yell at me for letting you do this on your own."
"Oh, fine then!"
"So now you're gonna put your foot on the gas—no, not that hard!"
"Sorry."
"Slowly press down..."
"Hey, we're moving! I'm actually driving!"
"I knew you could do it."

"Why the hell did you do that?"
"You mean 'spray-paint art onto our very bland-looking vehicle'?"
"You vandalized my—"
"Our. I own this too, you know. We have to do our part to make a mark out here, Ven!"
"You could have asked me first."
"What would you have said?"
"Um..."
"Yeah, that's why I didn't ask."
"Listen, Al. I'm sorry for yelling... and for preventing you from expressing your—"
"Our. Ourselves. You know you want to stand out too."
"Yeah... I guess I do."
"And I guess I'm sorry for doing this without telling you."
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
"I love you too."

They've had arguments before, but never to the point where one of them stops talking to the other, or even to where they couldn't find a solution within an hour.

The Four and Storm had been gone for around four hours now.

He couldn't imagine what Al must be feeling. She was always a bit unpredictable when it came to her emotions, but it had never escalated to this level before. He had never wanted to hurt her, but he had, and it killed him on the inside.

He was almost on the verge of tears when he finally decided to give up on sleep. He found his way to the studio, grabbed his silver chrome bass, and started plucking away at it. The vibrations always seemed to calm him down.

Eventually, however, the aimless melody transformed into the song Al had wrote, Zero Percent. He and Kobra Kid had played the lines together for that recording because Al loves the sound of bass guitars, and they knew it would be awesome if there was twice the amount. He played the line effortlessly, relying on muscle memory. He whispered the lyrics to himself as he played, though in his opinion, he couldn't sing for his life.

He loved her. That was the one thing he had been sure about since he had been in the Zones. He loved her more than anything else in existence.

". . . - - - . . ."

An SOS, Vendetta realized, frantically putting down his bass and grabbing his comm from his belt. He read the small screen and recognized Party Poison's personal code. He pressed a button and spoke into the receiver, "Poison! What's wrong?"

"Alien's not here."

"Wait, what?"

"She's been taken by BLI."

Vendetta shot up from his seat. "I'll be right there!" He hung up his bass and ran as fast as he could down the stairs.

He tapped the Girl's shoulder.
"Hey! Wake up!"

The child awoke slowly. "Ven? What's—"

The silver-haired Killjoy rapidly pulled on his varsity jacket. "We have to get to the city!"

She suddenly bolted up. "What happened?"

He slung his gun holster over his shoulder and slid his silver ray gun into it. "Al's gone, she was captured!"

She jumped up and scrambled to find her jacket. "Oh my gosh! E.T.! We have to get to the city!"

"That's what I just said!"

She ignored this, found her jacket, gun, and holster and put them all on. "Wait, how are we gonna get there? If she's gone on her own, she must've had the van—"

"There's no time, follow me!" He ran to the stairs, and she struggled to catch up.

They both made their way outside, andVendetta picked the Girl up and ran along the highway. They stopped after a few minutes next to a boulder similar to the one covering the Nest.

"How do you run that fast?" the Girl asked.

"Adrenaline! The love of my life could be dead for all I know!" Vendetta pushed his hands under the fake boulder and lifted it.

The Girl's eyes widened. Part of the ground beside the rock had begun to sink into the ground, forming a ramp. And underneath the boulder itself sat a shiny motorcycle.

"Where the heck—" she was shocked into silence.

"It used to be Cherri Cola's but he found another one and gave this one to us for emergencies," Vendetta explained as he hopped into the small garage to rev up the bike's engine. "Total deus ex machina, I know, but that's its entire purpose. Ghoul figured this whole storage thing for it since it couldn't be put into the Nest."

"What does that mean? Day oos ex—"

"It's something that comes out of the blue and saves people. Now you should probably get on!" he gestured for her to come over. He picked her up and put her on the seat, then sat in front of her. She clutched his jacket in anticipation.

And with that, he squeezed the gas handle. The two of them sped off into the sunrise.