• anytime you want || Danger Days MCR •

look alive, sunshine

~ Look Alive, Sunshine ~
***

I had stumbled upon the pin this morning while I was in the attic looking for a spare light bulb. The light in my bedroom had blown and usually, BLI will come and replace it, but that was too risky. They can never find out I don't take the pills anymore. And my room and everything in it, is highly illegal. Who knows what they would do?

The pin was stuck to a black leather jacket that was presumably my Dad's. It was bright yellow and said in black letters "LOOK ALIVE SUNSHINE". Before now, I had never wanted to go through Dad's stuff because it was too painful, but I couldn't ignore the past forever.

The box now sits on my bedroom floor, still relatively untouched except for the now missing raygun on my desk. I pull the box over to the bed and I lean my back up against it, preparing myself. I take the jacket out and hold it up. The leather is well worn but still in decent condition and was your average Motor cross style jacket. I try it on and it's a little big but that was to be expected. It needs more colour, but I can fix that later.

I glance down at the yellow pin on my chest. After reading the letter all those years ago I decided I didn't want to go and meet Dr Death Defying. I didn't want to go meet the person that knew my Dad better than me. But now... there is nothing for me here. I need to progress. I need to start running.

I tap the pin twice and a blue holographic map appears in front of me. A red dot pulses in the middle and I recognised the streets around it to be my suburb in Battery City. I put two and two together and assumed that's me, or the pin. There is a green dot near the edge of the hologram. that would have to be the objective. The diner.

Suddenly there's knocking on the front door. My heart starts to race. I never have any visitors; I had no family or friends and the food delivery guy comes by on Mondays only. Today is Wednesday.

They knock again, impatiently.

This could only mean one thing, Better Living Industries. Shit. I rip the jacket off, chucking it in the box and shoving it under the bed. I throw the still wet raygun in the top drawer, realising that I now have to scrub the green paint off my hands. BLI could not see that, any colour was forbidden.

They knock again, harder this time.

I chuck on a plain grey hoodie over my paint-splattered shirt. What if they had found out and they're here to take me away.

In the kitchen, I turn on the tap and fiercely rub at my hand, desperate to get the paint off. After successfully getting most of it off I wipe my hands on a tea towel and run to answer the door.

I open the door to reveal a Better Living Industries worker in white overalls, accompanied by two Draculoids.

I do my best to look dazed and relaxed, holding a vacant expression. "Hello," I say in a dreamy tone.

The man in white gives me an unsettling grin. "Good morning, miss. It has come to our attention that a light globe requires replacing," he says.

Shit. How did the bastards know?

"Oh yes!" I say, "It's up in the bedroom."

He looks at me up and down waiting for me to get out of the way. "Shall we get to it?" he says through gritted teeth.

Shit. They can't see my room. Too much colour they'll know I don't take the pills; they'll think I'm a Killjoy. "Oh right, yes." I step out of the doorway to let them in. They step past me about to reach the hallway entrance when I call out, "Wait. Wouldn't you like some coffee?"

They turn to face me. "That would be lovely. However, we are in a bit of a hurry so while you brew it, I'll take care of the light." He smiles and walks away. Shit.

I put the coffee machine on and grab the bug spray from the kitchen cupboard. I hurry up behind them as they get to my bedroom door.

"Hey! How many sugars do you like?" The first Draculoid turns and I spray it in the face. It doesn't seem to work very well because of the mask I'm assuming, so I kick it in the groin. It goes down, clutching between his legs. The second Drac pulls out his gun but before he had time to shoot, I smack it out of his hands and hit him on the top of his head with my bug spray. I turn my weapon on the man and spray his eyes. He screams grabbing at his face. I pick up the discarded gun off the ground and ran to the kitchen before they could regather their bearings and grab me.

I had no idea what to do next. I made an extremely dumb decision getting their attention like that. If they were going to find out I didn't take my pills, they were going to find out my way, I guess.

Even though now I had a raygun in my hand, I've never shot one before. With my bug spray in one hand and the raygun in the other, I took up a defensive position behind the island bench.

Just as the three figures came out of the hallway rayguns at the ready, the front door burst open.