Ruin // Danger Days (Book 3)

05.

Sunset rode on the back of Val's bike towards the junkyard in Zone Two. 'Joys usually didn't go this close to the city, but they were still two hours away, so Val said they were safe. And he would protect her no matter what.

They pulled up to it, piles of scrap metal and garbage surrounding them.

"Okay," Sunset hopped off of Val's bike and pulled her helmet off. He'd given it to her a few weeks ago. "Split up?"

"Yup," Val said, knowing full well that he wasn't looking for batteries. If he saw some, he would grab them, of course, but he wasn't going to search for them.

Sunset was slightly annoyed that he always overused his gun, but they had agreed to disagree about that a while ago. He insisted that he needed practice, and she knew it was hopeless to argue, because he would bring all of the Vs to his side, and they always agreed with him, especially Vinyl.

She walked to the left, turning down a corridor formed by the scrap. As she walked, searching intently for the BLI logo on a gun battery, or even a gun itself, she hummed one of her own songs. She called it Gun. and it was stuck in her head because she was looking for a gun battery.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a flash of white. Something grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back. The plastic face of a Draculoid stared into her soul.

Oh shit.

☀️

Val walked in the other direction, on a mission. He walked for a while, observing everything. After a few minutes, he had an idea. Sunset had wanted a motorcycle of her own since they'd met, but she'd given each of the Vs one rather than taking one for herself.

Val was gonna get her one, if it was the last thing he did.

His heart swelled. He went with it, as he always did, but he was still curious as to what it was caused by.

He walked for a long time, not spotting anything. Then he saw a glint of bright red in the distance. He sped up, starting to get curious.

And when he got closer, he saw that the red was the body of a beautiful Harley-Davidson motorcycle buried under some scrap metal.

Val jumped in delight and dug into the pile, uncovering the bike. "Yes!" he shouted, and pulled it out of the pile and placing it on the path. The key was in the ignition, so he turned it on and revved the engine. "Oh, hell yeah."

Then, he heard a loud scream from far away. His heart started to race as he realized who it was.

"Sun!"

☀️

Sunset struggled in the Drac's arms as a Scarecrow looked down on her.

"How interesting," the 'Crow's deep voice said from under his mask. "I seem to have found a very rewarding prize. How did you end up here, Miss Castellan?"

"Fuck you," she spat at him. "I'm not a prize to be won, you BLI asshat."

"See, that's where you're wrong, sweetheart," he said, and Sunset could almost see the sick grin on his face. "I'll be promoted to Exterminator if I hand you in, and I'll rise to the top if I manage to find your brother, too. Tell me... where is he?"

Suddenly, Sunset heard the roar of an engine behind her. She turned her head and saw Val driving towards her on a bright red motorcycle.

The Drac that was holding her got distracted, and its arms went slack. Sunset took the chance. She reached across her body, grabbed her gun from its holster, and shot it in the stomach. Then when she was free from its grasp, she shot the Scarecrow right in his chest. "Take that! Ha!"

Val parked the bike next to Sunset and ran over to her. He pulled her into a tight hug. "You scared the shit out of me! I'm so glad you're safe."

"Thanks for distracting those guys for me," she replied, smiling. She stepped away from him and looked at the bike. "Where'd you find that?"

"A couple of rows over," he told her. "Actually, I was gonna surprise you with it for your birthday tomorrow, but obviously that didn't work, so... happy 18th!"

Her eyes widened. "Wait, seriously? You found this for me? I- Destroya, thank you so much!" she ran over to it and hopped on, revving the engine. "Hop on, let's go get yours."

They went back to where Val had been before. He got off of Sunset's bike and got onto his own, turning it on.

Then, Sunset saw something. It was a white box with a large black smiley-face, BLI's logo, on it. She walked over to it, and saw that the label read "Analog Batteries". She smiled. "Val, come here! I found you some batteries!"

"Awesome!" he came over and picked up the box, then put it into the storage bag hanging from his bike.

Sunset returned to her new vehicle. "Race you to the nest?"

Val grinned. "It's hardly a race if I know I'm gonna win."

The two of them rode off together laughing, as they always did. It seemed that life couldn't be better.