Hurricane // Danger Days (Book 2)

21.

Alien, Revolution, and Rampage all sat at one of the tables in the mess hall. They were surrounded by other Killjoys, all talking and laughing with their friends.

"So Rampage," Revolution asked, "what's your story? Do you have one?"

Rampage was still dealing with his insane hangover, so he struggled to try and alleviate the pain in his head. "Nope. You know the basics: I woke up out here with no memory and a motorcycle, found the Riot, didn't wanna get with them, found the bar. This was all, I dunno, a year ago?"

"Wait, the Riot were around a year ago?" Alien cut in.

Rampage gestured vaguely. "They were like, really small; it was just the two kids and a few others. They were like a normal gang, ya know?"

"Geez," Alien muttered.

"And the first thing you did when you got to the bar was get addicted to alcohol?" Revolution asked.

"Yup." He moved to grab his beer bottle, then he remembered that he didn't have one. Both of the other Killjoys had objected profusely to letting him drink. And both of them laughed at that.

"I've made a decision," Alien said. "I'm gonna help you quit."

Rampage chuckled. "Quit drinking? I dunno if I can do that."

"I don't drink," she responded. "If I can do it, you can do it."

Revolution laughed. "Al, you don't drink because you took one sip of beer and hated it." Rampage laughed at that too.

"Hey, guys, at least I'm actually sober! I am at less risk of liver cancer than both of you!"

That just made them laugh more.

"Fine then! Whatever!" Alien said, but she was starting to smile a bit. "We need to get you a cot downstairs."

They led Rampage downstairs to the living quarters. He seemed fascinated that he wouldn't have to sleep on the ground. He found an empty cot against the wall pretty quickly, and introduced himself to his neighbors. Revolution talked with them too, and they all seemed to get along pretty well.

Alien wasn't really involved there, so she decided to head back upstairs to her office. Before she entered her office, she scanned her CD collection and grabbed every Linkin Park record she owned. She'd decided to listen to the entire discography to keep herself entertained. She hated being bored, and at the moment, she didn't have anyone to talk to.

As she put Hybrid Theory into her CD player, it occurred to her to call Storm. Then she realized that he was probably handling Riot business. I could call someone else... Cola? No, it'd be weird to hang out with him. He's strictly work-related. Sandman? Maybe Benzedrine? No, I think they're playing a show tonight. How about MARS? I'll call Cap.

She entered Capricorn's code on her communicator and called him, but he didn't pick up.

Huh. Okay.

Do I have any books to read?

She got up and took a look at her relatively small bookshelf. She couldn't find anything that she was in the mood to read, and she didn't have any of the books that she thought would be great to read at the moment.

Well shit.

She sat down at her desk and sighed. She began mouthing the lyrics to One Step Closer when she couldn't think of anything else, and was soon singing along. She began to drift into her subconscious, the singing being more muscle memory than anything else. She just zoned out of this world, and into her own.