From Yesterday

“So there I was, on the frontlines of battle and it was like time was frozen in place. That was when I realized it wasn’t just a war; it was the end of the world as we knew it. We’d already lost billions of people, whole countries dropping off into the sea. I thought I was so cool when I first signed up to fight, with my mirrored combat boots and shiny new ray gun, I didn’t realize what it would be like. In training they taught us how to fight, I still think of the bombs they built. Then came the time to go to battle. I remember in the old days, they used to talk about a war on our own soil like it was never going to happen. Back then the battle was in what used to be the Middle East, no one ever thought that would happen to us. We weren’t prepared for the destruction, and neither was the rest of the world. You know, I don’t even remember how that war started. It was like suddenly we weren’t people; we were hate-machines blasting each other straight to hell. The human race, ain’t it grand?” Dr. Death Defying shook his head as he told his story.

The Killjoys and Dr. Death had found an abandoned warehouse where they could stay the night and they all listened intently as Dr. Death told them about the Helium wars. They had been too young to remember what it was like, only thirteen or fourteen years old.

Meanwhile, Party Poison and Kobra Kid had both gotten up and gone down some hallway. Danny was curious as to where they went so she got up and went the same way they had gone. The ridged metal walls were close together; she could reach out and touch both sides. The warehouse, the Helium wars, bombs; those were things that were all too familiar to Danny. Familiar but at the same time far away, locked away in a place in the back of her mind. She had locked them away a long time ago.

A girl sat in the corner of the safe house, she shivered. She was all alone. She could still hear the sound of bombs ringing in her ears; she could still hear the screaming.

“Excuse me?” she looked up to find a middle-aged woman looking at her with concern.

“Y-yes?” the girl stuttered.

“Where are your parents?” The woman asked.

“I don’t know…” she said and looked down.

“Why don’t you come with me? I’ve got two boys about your age,” the woman said and held out her hand.

“Ok,” she said and followed the woman.

Danny came back to reality and her head was spinning. She could barely remember what the woman had looked like, only her voice. During the wars she had gotten separated from her parents, she was fourteen. By the time the war stopped she still hadn’t found her parents, so the woman took her in as her own. That’s how she ended up in Surveillance, one of the only cities that had yet to be destroyed. She had very little memories of her time with the strange woman and her boys. She had very little memories of her past at all. It wasn’t something she liked to talk about, she was almost glad for stress knocking those years out. All she could remember was that she eventually found out her father had begun working for the rebellion and that by the time she found him it was too late. Every once and a while she would get a small piece back.

It was a bright sunny afternoon, just a normal day in Surveillance city. A teenage girl was lounging in a chair on the front lawn of her temporary home. She held a small water gun in her hand, occasionally squirting lime green Kool Aid into her mouth. She was bored out of her mind. That’s when a shadow started moving over her, a giant shadow. At first she thought it was nothing but a cloud blocking out the sun, but then she saw the black underbelly of a Better Living zeppelin. A silent alarm went off in her head Better Living always meant trouble.

She ran inside the house, she could barely breathe by the time she reached the kitchen.

“It’s them… They, They’re coming…” she mumbled out all at once. But there was no need for explanation, the woman understood.

The memories, they were too much. Danny didn't want to see them; she just wanted them to go back where they belonged. She continued walking down the hall looking for someone who would help stop the memories. As she neared the next turn, she heard hushed voices having an argument. She walked right up to the edge so she could hear, but they wouldn’t see her.

“You can’t tell her,” she heard Party Poison whisper, “You know she doesn’t remember,”

“I have too,” she heard Kobra Kid reply and Party Poison sighed.

“Look, I know how much she means to you, but this is not the time. We’re about to go to war against Better Living, you don’t need to get distracted,” Party Poison said in a less-harsh tone.

“We can’t just keep her in the dark,” Kobra Kid said.

“We’ve done it for the past three years,” Party Poison said and that was all Danny could take. She turned and ran back down the hall, she found an emergency exit and pushed it open quickly. She leaned her back against the wall of the building, sliding down until she was on the ground. She tugged at her hair as tears streamed down her face and her breathing became ragged. She remembered everything.

The city burned around them, everything was on fire. They had to get out before they all got blown to smithereens. The girl peeked out through the curtain, she could see the bombs falling. There were bodies scattered in the street and she couldn’t help but think, haven’t I been through this before? There was ash falling from the sky and glass from broken windows everywhere. She could see the Draculoids bashing down doors, no doubt to cut out people’s brains and make them mindless just like them.

“Mom, we have to go,” she turned around and saw a skinny boy with glasses and brown hair that covered his eyes attempting to reason with a hysterical woman.

“The car’s ready to go,” Another boy entered the room, this one was chubbier with shoulder length black hair.

“I can’t leave,” the woman said, “I can’t just leave my home behind,”

“You have too,” the skinny boy pleaded, on the verge of tears. The girl moved from the window to his side.

“They’re next door,” she said.

“I’m not leaving,” the woman said, clutching the counter.

“You have to!” The skinny boy shouted, “Gee, tell her,” he looked to the other boy.

“Mikes… we should go,” he said.

“But mom,” he pleaded once more just as they heard the Draculoids bashing at the door.

“We need to go,” the older boy said.

“We can’t just leave her!” the skinny boy shouted. The heard the door get blasted open and footsteps getting closer.

“Just go…” the woman said, wrapping her arms around him, “I’ll be all right baby,”

“Mom…” he trailed off.

“Go,” she insisted. That’s when the older boy grabbed his arm and started to pull him along. The girl followed, just wishing she could do something, anything. She knew what it was like to lose a mother, but all she could do was follow them to the car. Just as they started the car the Draculoids came out the back door and spotted them. As they drove off they just stared with their blank mask faces, memorizing each and every detail of the escapees.

Danny was sobbing into her knees at this point and she just couldn’t believe it. The girl had been her all along, and the boys… the boys.

“Oh, Mikey!” she sobbed out.

“Danny?” she heard a soft voice from beside her. She looked up to find a pair hazel eyes looking at her. She hadn’t even noticed him sitting there with his arm around her. She turned toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck as she cried even more.

“How… how could I forget?” Danny asked out loud.

“You were so scared…” he said.

“So were you,” she countered.

“We needed new identities, they saw us,” he continued.

“But why didn’t you take me with you?” she asked.

“It was too dangerous, we took you to the safest place we could think of,”

“Headquarters,” she said and he nodded.

“We thought that you’d find your dad and be safe, we didn’t know what happened there,” he said as he stroked her hair. She nodded to signal that she understood and continued to cling to him.

She sighed, “Do you remember what I told you? Before you dropped me off,”

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Can I be the only hope for you?” she started.

“Because you’re the only hope for me,” he finished.