Bulletproof

Shit, am I dead?

My head swam, and my entire body ached like I hadn’t stopped moving in years. Partly true, but that wasn’t the point. I couldn’t hear anything. I panicked for a moment, wondering whether or not I’d hit my head on something. I realized, however, that I didn’t hear anything because there was nothing to be heard. An oppressive silence filled the area. I felt fingers pressing gently against my left wrist, under my thumb. Someone was checking my pulse, so I was apparently still alive. That, or the afterlife had such a long line that I’d died again from boredom.

“How is she?” The voice was hushed, but definitely male. I tried to remember the last time I’d been around a guy- usually it was just me and Kindred.

“Pulse is as good as you can expect it to be, given everything. She’s kinda twitching, too, so at least she’s moving.” Twitching? I didn’t think I was, but after a second, I realized the second man was right. My left leg was moving slightly, as it usually did when I felt I’d been sitting still too long. I was starting to feel things besides the pain again; I could feel the slight shift in gravity every once in a while, so I deduced I was in a car, with at least two men. After a quick check to see what the rest of my body was feeling, I felt that I was laying across two people-- I could feel the warmth of their legs through my shirt. My feet knocked into the door of the car occasionally, when we would take a turn or go over a slight bump. The question is, who is we?

“Is she gonna be okay?” A small, piping voice asked. Well, that didn’t fit. That voice certainly didn’t belong to a man. I frowned mentally, trying to piece together what I’d evidently forgotten after passing out.

“She’s still alive,” a voice closer to my head answered evasively, easing around the question. What a terrible answer. I’d hit him if I was that kid. He didn’t even answer the question.

“You didn’t answer my question.” The smaller voice was accusing and sullen at the same time. Told you.

“Grace, we just need to let her rest until we can get somewhere safe, alright? Guys, did you do something to stop the bleeding?” Grace? I recognized the name, for some reason. Grace… Grace…

Grace!

All at once, I remembered. The shootout, Korse, Kindred, the van, Grace. The four men- the four Killjoys. I forced my eyes open, though my lids felt heavy and sluggish. The first rays of sunshine were peeking over the horizon, painting fingers of baby pink across the sky that I saw through the window. No one seemed to notice me until Grace turned around and the two of us locked eyes.

“Moony!”

Three other pairs of eyes turned to look at me, until everyone besides the redhead driving was staring. Awkward. I lifted a shaky hand, which Grace took.
“Hey, kiddo. You alright?” I croaked, suddenly aware of how bone-dry my throat felt. I swallowed and grimaced. Everything ached.

“I’m okay,” the little girl responded, showing a smile. It fell quickly as she looked me over. “Are you?”

I gave her hand a little squeeze, though it sent a bolt of pain straight up to my shoulder. “Never better.” I became intensely aware of the bodies I was laying on in that moment. Sheepishly, I turned to look at the man that was supporting my upper body. I couldn’t see much of his face behind his sunglasses. He was very slim with bleached-blond hair that was swept back. “Oh,” I muttered sheepishly, “…hi. Who’re your new friends, Grace?”

The man cracked a tired smile for a second before he looked away and out the window. Grace smiled widely. “That’s Kobra Kid,” she pointed to the blond, “that’s Fun Ghoul,” she pointed to the man with long dark hair supporting my legs, “this is Jet Star,” she indicated the man on which she herself sat, “and that’s Party Poison.” The redhead driving gave me a look through the rearview mirror, though I couldn’t quite read the emotion behind it. “They’re the Killjoys that saved us!”

“So… yeah, thanks for that,” I commented eventually as an awkward smile tugged at my lips. “I’m really glad to be, you know… not dead.” A silence filled the car for the next couple of seconds, before Fun Ghoul started to snicker. When his snickering became more like giggles, I found myself starting to giggle along with him. Grace followed both of us, covering her mouth with both hands. The three of us continued to giggle at one another until my breath caught in my throat and I squeezed my eyes shut. I shifted a little, a hand moving to my left side just below the bottom of my ribcage. When it got there, though, I pulled my fingers away as if I’d been shocked. Well, that’s… bad. Pretty sure I would’ve noticed if my ribs felt like that before all this shit.

“What’s up?” Kobra Kid asked, his voice closer than I remembered it being. I shook my head for a second, holding my breath and waiting for the pain to pass.

“I’m okay,” I announced after a tense second. I took an experimentally deep breath, seeing how much leeway I had. I opened my eyes then, a small smile fixed on my mouth. “Seriously guys, I’m fine. Or, doing pretty damn well considering how many times I got shot.”

“You got shot? During the fight?” Jet Star asked, his brow crinkling in confusion. He looked like he was trying to remember me getting caught in the crossfire. I shook my head.

“Nah, earlier. We had a tangle with… well, with Korse, before you guys found him.” I admitted, a frown resting on my lips.

“You took on Korse on your own?” Fun Ghoul asked, incredulous.

“No, I-”

“You said ‘we’,” Party Poison noted from the driver’s seat. “Who else was there? Where are they now?”

“A good friend of mine, Sister Kindred. They had an attack set up for us really early this morning, or maybe really late last night. It was at least two hours before you guys found us.”

“You left out where she is now,” he pointed out, glancing back at me through the mirror again. I gave him a long look, considering my answer. Screw off? I don’t remember?

Guess I better tell the truth…

“Well, to be honest, I don’t really know,” I concluded after a second longer of thought. “I told her to go, and that I’d hold them off.”

“So you did take Korse on by yourself!” Ghoul crowed, and I shook my head again.

“No. After Kindred got out, I ended getting shot a couple of times. Then Korse grabbed me and I ended up in the back of that van. Where, by the way, I was also shot.” Grace nodded, pointing a small hand to the blood-stained section of my jeans.

“The Drac shot her,” she relayed quietly. She looked sad. Party Poison looked like he still had some questions for me, but I ignored him in order to comfort Gracie. He could wait.

“Don’t let it get you down, Gracie,” I told her brightly, smiling despite the fact that there was really nothing to smile about. “I’m just glad it wasn’t you.” Grace gave me a flat look, very cynical for a child as young as her, but it didn’t move my smile. “Don’t be like that, Grace! Look, I’m fine!” I waved an arm around a little to illustrate my point, biting back the grimace that wanted to be known on my mouth.

“Sit still,” Kobra Kid complained eventually, and I looked back at him with wide-eyed innocence. “You’re so… wiggly.”

“Oh, right. Sorry,” I apologized sheepishly before attempting to hoist myself into a seated position. Everything hurt, but I was determined. I let out a long string of unbroken curse words that was both impressive and embarrassing (and also made Gracie’s mouth fall open in shock) as I went about my task. I felt Kobra shift to help me. “Don’t help,” I commanded without looking at him. “I can do it.”

“You’re going to hurt yourself further,” he argued, putting a hand on my shoulder to help push me up. “Just shut up and let me help. Stop being so stubborn!”

“Seriously, I’m fine. Don‘t touch me! I‘ll do it myself!” I argued back and clawed my way up the seat. I was sitting up eventually, but I did note that I didn’t do it on my own. I looked back at him with a deflated expression on my face. “I could’ve done it on my own, you know.”

“Yeah, you were doing so well without my help,” he rolled his eyes. Instead of replying, I decided to ignore him and looked out the window instead. A few minutes of silence passed, though it wasn’t uncomfortable. Just quiet. I considered falling asleep again, but I spied something smoking a little off to the right of the car. Leaning forward slightly, I squinted to try and make out what it was. It looked like a smoking heap of… metal, maybe. Like someone had crashed a motorcycle. I didn’t think anything of it, since loads of Killjoys and other people had bikes out in the zones, until I saw the bright orange logo on the side. A circle that held only two letters. It was simple and fairly plain, but I’d know it anywhere. I felt my throat go dry again.

“Stop the car!” Although I wasn’t fond of the way my voice was climbing in panic, but it wasn’t the time to make up an excuse for why I sounded stupid.

“What? Why? Dracs?” I wasn’t sure which of Poison’s questions to answer first, so I just didn’t answer. Fun Ghoul put a hand on my shoulder, pulling me back a little from where I was trying to wiggle over him and to his door.

“Moony, what’s wrong?” he asked, his eyes wide and his brows lowered in confusion. They didn’t get that I didn’t really have the brain power at that moment in time to form actual thoughts, much less explain to them the reason behind my sudden panic. I pushed him off me, and the adrenaline pumping through my system was enough to make me forget all the aches and burns in my body.

“Stop the damn car already!” I finally choked out. We’d slowed the first time I’d yelled, but hadn’t stopped. We were a little ways past the crashed bike now, and I pressed my face against the back window in an attempt to keep it in my sight.

“Tell me why,” Poison sounded serious. I turned and gave him a desperate look, but he kept his cool. In the back of my mind, I got that he didn’t want to stop because there could be danger. I also got that he didn’t really trust me, and I didn’t really blame him for that, either. I just shook my head at him.

“I… I’ll explain later,” I started, but I couldn’t handle it anymore and continued hastily, “but you either stop this car or I’m jumping the hell out.”

He scoffed at me. He didn’t believe me. I sure as hell wasn’t lying, though. With a burst of energy I didn’t know I had in me, I hauled myself over Ghoul’s lap again, hand on the door. It took them a few seconds to realize I was serious, mostly when I actually got the door open and one leg out. Ghoul grabbed me around the middle and I felt Kobra take hold of my shoulders. Growling in frustration, I fought hard against them. I never thought I’d try so damn hard to throw myself out of a moving car.

“Moony, what the hell!” Kobra yelled at the back of my head, and I heard him groan a little when my elbow hit him solidly on the sternum in my attempts to get free. “Settle down!”

The car had stopped, but mostly because I had managed to get both legs almost touching the ground outside of the car despite Fun Ghoul and Kobra Kid trying to stop me. I relaxed in their holds, allowing them to haul me back into the car carefully. They were minding my injuries even if I wasn’t, and I made a mental note to thank them later. I’d sort of oozed through their arms and wiggled down so that I was mostly on Ghoul’s lap with my head by his hip. Kobra had to lean across the seat to keep his hold, and his head was near mine. Ghoul was hunched over in an effort not to let me get loose. They both looked incredibly annoyed, but I just flashed them a tense smile. I could almost feel the annoyance flaring off them.

“Are you fucking psychotic?!” Ghoul demanded in the sudden calm, and I shook my head at him. Words were still a little hard, since my brain kind of crashed back behind us with the bike.

“No. I just… I need to go see that wreck?” I didn’t realize that I’d more asked a question than made a statement. Grace, Jet Star, and Party Poison were all staring on from the front of the car.

“Why?” Party Poison voiced, asking the obvious question. I was surprised that he managed to keep his cool when some mentally distressed girl had just tried (and nearly succeeded in) jumping out of his car.

“Honestly, thinking’s a little hard at the moment,” I commented absently, twisting and climbing up Ghoul’s torso to look out the back window again. He looked a little nervous. “Let me check it, and I’ll tell you once I know what the hell’s going on.”

“Let her go,” Jet Star said from the front. You’re my new favorite, I told him mentally.

“What? She just had some sort of episode and you think it’s a good idea to let her go stumbling off on an injured leg in the hot desert sun?” Kobra snapped. Well, when you put it that way it just sounds stupid.

“We’ll go with her. Look at her, something’s obviously up if she went from just fine to a desperate and nervous wreck in no time flat,” he retorted bluntly. I ignored the jab at my mental stability and looked to Poison. Despite not being told, I’d worked out for myself that he was more or less the leader.

“Fine, she can go, but we’re going with her,” Poison decided shortly, taking off his seat belt and stepping out of the car. Ghoul and Kobra exchanged wary glances, but they let me go. I sprang out of the car and started running back to the smoking heap as soon as I got the chance. Grace was by my side in a second, and Poison flanked me on the other side quickly. The three other men ran along behind us, keeping a lookout for danger. My running turned into more of an ungainly limp along the way, but I ignored it and slapped away Party Poison’s arm when he offered it to help me along.

When I got there, I nearly had another fit. The bike was totaled beyond hope of repair and there was no driver to be seen anywhere. The orange logo had the simple contents of “S&D” on it in big black letters, and I felt my heart sink. “Shit,” I hissed under my breath, casting another lost look around the desert landscape. The four men and Grace stood behind me quietly, letting me take my time to look the scene over. I felt a hand in mine and looked to the side to see Grace holding my hand and watching my face closely. I felt the color drain from my face as I prepared myself to tell them what I’d just confirmed.

“This is my bike.”

“It’s… what?” Jet Star asked after a moment, looking from me to the bike a few times.

“My bike…” I murmured almost silently. “And… shit. Where the hell are you, Kin?” I knew I was talking to myself, and I knew that I had started to cry. I could feel the warm, wet tears falling silently, one by one, down my cheeks. Grace squeezed my hand, but I didn’t look at her. I just continued on bravely. “This is the bike that Sister Kindred and I used to get around. That’s our logo-” I pointed to it with a shaking hand, “-and we used to leave it as a trademark when we’d make a hit against BL/ind. Seek and Destroy.”

I could feel the curious stares on my back, so I turned to meet four pairs of inquisitive and careful eyes with my own sad ones. “You… you were part of Seek and Destroy?” Party Poison asked after a second, voice lost between skeptical and impressed. I nodded. “So, two kids were the ones that caused almost as much trouble for BL/ind as us?”

I ignored his incredulity and nodded again. I offered my left wrist over to them, so they could see the words inked in. “Seek your prize…?” Kobra read, and I could see an eyebrow raise just slightly over his sunglasses.

“Destroy what you find,” I finished quietly, and I felt a few more tears slip down my face. It had been the little saying Kin and I had come up with to refer to us hunting down the Dracs and blowing them to high hell. Ghoul stepped forward, his eyebrows knitted together in a curious look. I turned and watched him as he stooped next to the bike, pulling something out from under it carefully. It looked like a piece of folded paper.

“HRG?” he questioned after a second, and I felt my eyes widen. I snatched it from him with numb fingers. “What’s HRG?”

“That’s me,” I answered absently, opening the note. Between my trembling hands and the tears obscuring my vision, it was a little hard to see, much less read, anything. Lucky for me there were only two words written in quick chicken scratch.

Keep running.