• anytime you want || Danger Days MCR •

welcome to paradise

~ (a wasteland I like to call my home) Welcome to paradise ~
Welcome to paradise - Green Day
***

Three hours of more talking and singing later, a small grey dot appears in the distance. We had just passed another homemade, metal sign reading 'Zone 4'. It has to be the diner. We've been driving for over 3 hours.

My self-confidence has grown in the past hours and I no longer thought twice about wanting to speak. "Is that it?" I ask, pointing straight ahead at the grey blob.

"Sure is." Jet Star replies.

The sun was almost setting, turning the sky purple and orange. The world was so pretty. Beautiful. So many colours. In Battery City, the sunsets were yellow. It was simply just the golden sun ducking behind the horizon.

But this. This is amazing. The sun is a burning ball of orange, the light so intense it hurts to look. I needed Kobra's sunglasses. The sky closest to the horizon was a similar shade of orange that flowed into pink then the purple the higher in the sky you went. The flaming orange makes the once brown earth look violet.

Suddenly, 100 metres ahead, the diner pops up over the small hill. It looks old, like something out of a 1950s or 60s movie. The exterior is art deco themed and wears a faded shade of mint green. Some of the dirty windows were boarded up with scraps of wood and cardboard boxes. The letters on the roof, once probably spelling out the word 'DINER' now read 'DI E '. It's ironic and kind of intimidating.

Kobra pulls up next to a Better Living Industries battery dispenser that sits outside the door of the diner.

"Alright motherfuckers, we're home." Party announces, opening his door and getting out. Kobra does the same.

Party opens my door and does a bow. "M'lady."

I chuckle and climb out of the car. My legs are stiff from the 4 hours driving. We only stopped twice because Kobra and Ghoul needed to pee.

Ghoul chucks my black bag to me from the back of the car. It feels so heavy like a burden I carried all the way from Battery City. He pats me on the back and motions to go inside.

A bell jingles as Jet opens the door for us. A high-pitched squeal comes from a booth to my left and a person suddenly grabs me into a tight hug.

"Sunshine, stop. You're gonna crush her, she's only been here for 5 seconds." Party says.

The person attached to me, releases and steps back. Her hair is wild. Almost as bad as Jet's but hers is a dark afro with yellow tips, making it look like sun rays. She is a few inches shorter than me and has dark, mocha coloured skin and dark brown eyes. Her eyes. I've never seen anyone wear such bright makeup before. Her eyelids are golden and glittery with long black lashes.

She wears an orange crop top with a shiny gold Leatherman jacket, blue skinny jeans and white shoes that are now dirty brown.

"Hi!" She says, grinning so wide her gums were exposed. "I'm Killer Sunshine." She sticks her hand out.

I glance at Party, standing beside me he had hand over his face and Ghoul is beside him chuckling. I look back at the overly friendly girl in front of me and take her hand. Unexpectedly, she shook it lightly.

"It is gonna be so awesome having another girl around here!" she claps her hands together.

"Hey! What am I?" a small girl walks over with frizzy brown hair, wearing a blue vest with a Japanese patterned silk shirt underneath. She looked to be around 6.

She walks over the Ghoul and he turns around, bending down so she can jump on his back. With the little girls' arms around his neck, he says, "Don't worry, Missile. Sunshine just meant a girl her own age."

The girl, now piggybacking Ghoul, smiles at me then whispers something in his ear. He chuckles. "She says you're pretty and pretty people make good Killjoys."

My face heats up and all I can do is return the girl's smile. I can't imagine me being a Killjoy. What I experienced trying to get out of Battery City was enough for a lifetime.

"Well, I am starving. What's for dinner?" Party marches through the small crowd.

From behind the counter a person wearing a blue motorcycle helmet appears carrying a tray full of assorted cans. They place it on the counter sweeping their hands wide as if to say, 'dinner is served'.

Sunshine and the boys swarm over and grab a can each. Jet comes away with two and hands one to me. "I know it's not a good welcoming dinner but it's all we have at the moment." he gives me an apologetic look.

I mutter "it's ok" and take the can of spaghetti.

"Be grateful it's not dog food night." Sunshine says walking past me and pulling a disgusted face. Dog food. She walks over to a makeshift living room with numerous sofas around an old box TV from the 80s that sat onto of a cabinet that looked to be full of books, DVDs, VHSs, CDs, records and cassessetts. "C'mon over Little Rocket." She pats the spot next to her on an old blue fabric lounge. Little Rocket. Rocket was my dad's name, Ranger Rocket. I think she realises what she said and looks down at her can sheepishly.

I shake it off and go sit down next to her. Ghoul flops down on my other side and the girl runs over with her can and a handful of spoons, jumping in his lap. She passes a spoon to me then digs into her can of baked beans.

I looked at my own can of room temperature spaghetti. I liked spaghetti, so it couldn't be that bad. Sunshine nudges me, holding out her hand. I figure she wants my not-yet-opened can and I give it to her. She uses the rusty can-opener to open my spaghetti and she passes it back to me.

"I'm sorry... for calling you that, I mean. You look a lot like him and that's what he used to call you. I'm sorry it slipped out." She apologises, smiling shyly.

I didn't know what to say, so I tried my best to give her a smile that said, 'It's OK, don't worry about it.'

Party comes over and turns the small TV on. I hadn't seen a working TV since before the bombs.

Party must have noticed my surprised and confused face because he simply says "We found it in the old mall. It's been rewired to work off BLI batteries."

"Oh my god we haven't been to the mall in ages. We need to go" Sunshine exclaims beside me.

"Sunny, the mall has had the same stuff in it for 7 years. You aren't gonna find anything new." Jet says.

Sunshine rolls her eyes but smiles.

"So, what will it be tonight?" Party asks and crouches down in front the cabinet.

"Nightmare Before Christmas."

"The Thing."

"No, nothing scary. Missile needs to be able to sleep tonight." Party says, scanning the titles of the DVDs in the cabinet.

"Nightmare before Christmas isn't scary." the girl pouts folding her arms. Party pulls a DVD case out, triumphantly.

"Yes!" Sunshine exclaims.

"What is it?" I whisper to her.

"Only the best TV series ever!"

"It's called Friends. It's alright." Jet says sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Party gets it set up and sits down in a dusty Lazy Boy. The TV static disappears after a minute and the sound of studio laughter comes out of bad quality speakers.

"That's Chandler. God, he's hot." Sunshine whispers to me when a handsome man walks into a cafe on the screen.

We watched around 5 episodes before a sleepy Missile was put to bed by Jet. I enjoyed the show and the company of the new people around me. Party said I would meet Dr Death Defying tomorrow because he was busy, and I had had a long day. Sunshine and Ghoul brought some blankets and pillows up from the basement for me to sleep with on the couch. They promised I'd get a bed soon.

I'm not worried. I'm just happy not being alone anymore, even if this whole situation is unfamiliar and extreme. But then again, the apocalypse was unfamiliar and extreme, but I had gotten used to it.