Bulletproof

About an hour later found us at a run-down, dingy little diner that apparently served as a base of operations for the four Killjoys and Dr. Death-Defying. I stepped out of the car and noticed (since I’d have to be blind to miss it) that the ‘N’ and ‘R’ in ‘DINER’ had fallen out, leaving only ‘DI E’. It made me smile. The sign in the window, which read “Wake up… TIME TO DINE” tugged my smile into more of a grin. I couldn’t say why, exactly, but it seemed to lighten my dark mood. Next to the door, there were posters advertising ‘The MAD GEAR and MISSILE KID’ live at somewhere or another. On the other side of the door, alongside the fliers for the band, were the Exterminate posters with each of the four guys’ faces on them. That was pretty fearless, I thought, since there was a BL/ind vending machine nearby.

“It’s not much,” Party Poison admitted, climbing out of the car to see me staring at the building.

“But it’s the best we’ve got,” Kobra Kid finished, standing next to the redheaded man. I looked between them, sizing them up.

“The place is nice, better than where I’ve been holding up. You two related?” They looked a little at a loss at my sudden change in topic.

“Er, yeah. Brothers,” Kobra nodded. He took off his sunglasses for the first time since we met sometime last night and gave me a look. “How’d you peg that?”

“You’ve got the same speech pattern, and there’re some distinct similarities in facial structure.”

Party Poison raised his eyebrows at his brother, shaking his head. “How old did you say you were?”

“I didn’t,” I replied simply, hedging the topic. The less anyone knew about me, the better. I had a sister in Battery City to think of. I didn’t think that the Killjoys, the Fabulous Killjoys of all people, would go blabbing and turning me in to the authorities, but I’d learned that I need to keep myself to myself. If anyone actually found out my real name, and that I had family under the watchful eye of BL/ind, I could be in a fair amount of trouble. He raised his eyebrows at me, but I didn’t elaborate. I chose to walk away when Kobra mirrored his brother’s expression. I followed Fun Ghoul and Jet Star inside, leaving the siblings standing under the hot desert sun. The place had been gutted, and then a collection of clutter and junk had moved in. I didn’t even know where one might find some of these things.

“Is that a blue cat head?” I asked, my curiosity getting the best of me. Ghoul turned, looking in the same direction as me, and grinned.

“Well, it’s a blue mascot head. We don’t really know what it’s supposed to be.” I nodded at his vague explanation, but didn’t question him further. He was standing nearby, about three feet to my left, and I noticed that I was a good two or three inches taller than him. I felt my brows furrow for a second- how’d I miss the fact that he’s tiny? I choked on a giggle in a futile attempt to smother it. He looked at me like I had sprouted a third leg out of my head. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” I lied quickly, toddling away from him in an effort to not make a comment about his height. I found that short people often don’t like to be referred to as such. If I was two or three inches taller than him, and I stood at 5’7”, that left him at roughly 5’4”. I bit back another giggle, though a little snort (definitely not delicate or ladylike) made its way to the surface. He seemed to decide not to let it go so easily, since it did kind of seem like I might be mocking him. Which I kind of was, I guess, but unintentionally. He fell into stride beside me easily, since I was still kind of limping around uselessly. I didn’t look at him and busied myself instead with looking at the mountains of stuff that they had laying around, but I could feel his eyes on the side of my head.

“What’re you laughing at?” he asked casually, as if he didn’t particularly care if he got an answer. I shook my head, but he didn’t seem to let it go. “Tell me!”

“No!”

“Tell me!”

“No!”

“Please?”

“Okay.”

“You’re not actually going to tell me, are you?”

“No,” I grinned at him cheekily. We went back and forth until Jet Star momentarily lost his cool.

“Would you two shut up? Do you even remember what you’re arguing about in the first place?”

My ‘no’ was drowned out by Ghoul’s ‘yes!’. I sighed. “Okay, fine. For real this time, even.”

“You’re going to tell me?” He looked skeptical. I didn’t blame him.

“If you really wanna know,” I started, but I started laughing again. He gave me an impatient look. “Okay, okay. I just… kinda noticed how small you are.”

His flat look screamed ‘unimpressed’. I shrugged at him. “You wanted to know.”

“Whatever, you’re just a freak.”

“You’re a midget!”

“Freak!”

“Midget!”

“Stop! For the love of God, stop!” Jet Star beseeched us, before shaking his head and walking out of the building. I gave Fun Ghoul an accusing stare.

“What?”

“You made him mad,” I whispered confidentially, and he looked incredulous.

“Did not!”

“Did s-”

“If the two of you don’t stop, I’m going to offer you up to Korse,” Party Poison told us flatly, walking in from outside. I pretended that I wasn’t the antagonist and looked around a little more before I found a little back room that seemed to have all sorts of broadcasting and radio equipment in it. I felt someone standing behind me, but I was too busy marveling. I’d been a big fan of Dr. Death-Defying since I’d made my way into the Zones. Kin and I had listened almost religiously in order to keep up with what was going down outside our little shack. Now, I found myself standing right in front of where he’d broadcasted his music and encouraging little messages which served as light smashing through the ever-growing darkness.

“Wow,” I breathed, breaking the tentative silence that had fallen around the six of us in the room. They probably thought I was a freak for just standing there gawping at an empty room. “Where’s Dr. Death-Defying?” I asked eventually, pulling myself out of my amazed stupor.

“He’s probably napping or something. He’s around here somewhere, unless Show Pony took him out somewhere,” Kobra answered, glancing around as if the man might magically appear because we were talking about him. He didn’t.

“Show Pony?” I questioned, and I knew my eyes would be glittering with excitement. Kin and I had spotted him zooming around once or twice while doing a little job here or there. You know that game people used to play, where they’d punch people when they saw a Slug Bug? We did that every time we saw him out there. Mostly it was an excuse to beat on one another, but it was partly about winning too. Kin and I had an odd relationship, to say the least. I found myself missing her a lot.

“Dr. D’s messenger,” Jet Star supplied, breaking me out of my thoughts. I nodded, but didn’t tell him I already knew that. “Hey, Moony, I think it’s about time you started taking it easy. It looks like that wound on your leg might’ve reopened, and we need to take a look at the others that you’ve got. Burns get infected easily.”

I made a face, but nodded. I didn’t want something festering and getting all gross and smelly, so I really had no choice but to let them take a look. “Do any of you actually know anything about taking care of injuries?”

“Poison and Ghoul can. They’ve got experience,” Kobra supplied, and I cocked a questioning eyebrow.

“We’re not talking about that right now,” Party Poison shot down my hopes of getting a better answer quickly. I noticed the way he rubbed the fingers of his right hand against the ring finger of his left, but I didn’t really think that hard about it. “Come on, we’ll go to the office and take a look at you. The first aid kit’s in there.” I followed the two men dutifully, wincing when I noticed that Jet Star was right; the wound on my thigh was bleeding again. In the office, there were four makeshift beds, not much different than the one I’d had back in my home- just piles of ruined blankets and torn pillows. There was also a sizeable chest, where I assumed they kept things that they didn’t want to lose in the piles of junk.

“So, not to be terribly awkward or anything, but a good deal of the injuries I got are on my torso. The bad one’s on my thigh. I can take care of them myself-”

“What, you think we’re going to be creeps and take advantage of the situation?” Fun Ghoul scoffed, and it was a little reassuring. It wasn’t so much that I was worried about them being creeps as I was about the fact that I needed to take off a good deal of my clothing in front of strangers. Hell, it’d probably be less awkward for me than it would be for them.

“No, I don’t think you’re creeps,” I conceded, shaking my head for emphasis. “I just thought it might be a little weird, that’s all.” They looked like they didn’t care a bit, and I realized that they’d probably all seen each other mostly naked on quite a few different occasions. The Zones are dangerous, and people get hurt all the time. If these two were the medical staff around this place, they’d probably bandaged up wounds in all imaginable places on the human body. Then again, it was a little different when they all knew each other and they were all of the same gender. Before you start to judge me too harshly for being some sort of overly sensitive prude, though, think about it. I’m sure you’re just as weirded out at the thought of having strangers poking at you when you’re mostly naked, too.

Back to it, though. They were both looking at me expectantly, and I sighed. “Turn around,” I whined at them, and they did, but not before I saw them exchange eye rolls. They thought I was being silly. I pouted childishly at their backs, but I took off my ruined jeans and set them aside. I pulled my cropped t-shirt up over my head, leaving me in my boy shorts and black tank top. I pulled up the later just past my navel, since there weren’t any wounds above that that needed tending. The burns on my stomach were minimal, they barely ached, but there was a bruise from where Korse had kicked me that hurt quite a bit. It was on the upper part of my stomach, a little to the right near the bottom of my ribs. I winced at its purple-black color. My leg looked terrible, too; blood oozed lazily from the wound, and it was a little deeper than I had originally anticipated. There were a lot of small, unimportant burns and scrapes on my arms, but those didn’t need tending. I announced to them that I was ready to accept their help, and they turned back around.

Ghoul winced. “Jesus, how’re you still standing?”

“You shouldn’t be standing,” Poison chastised, and I sat on the chest behind me. He leaned over my knee to look at my thigh more closely, and I noticed something come swinging out of where it’d been tucked into his shirt on a discreet leather cord. A ring? He must’ve noticed me looking because he tucked it back quickly, a strange expression on his face.

“You’re married?” I asked. I don’t know why I found it so shocking- maybe because he was a Killjoy and the married life doesn’t really seem like the kind of thing he’d be going for. I saw Ghoul tense a little in my peripherals, but I brushed that off. I thought back to earlier, when Kobra Kid had mentioned experience with medical stuff. Poison had touched his left ring finger.

“Was,” he corrected shortly, and I winced. Oops. I opened my mouth to ask another question, but he cut me off. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“I wasn’t going to ask about your wife,” I replied, frowning. “I was going to ask if you had kids. Kobra Kid said that you had experience with first aid things, so I thought maybe that you had a kid that you looked after and bandaged up from time to time.”

He looked a little surprised, but he continued to examine my leg. “A daughter,” he answered finally. Sensing the subject was touchy, I let it drop. In the back of my mind, though, I wondered if Ghoul had had a wife and kids, too, since he was also supposed to be well-versed in the ways of first aid. During the time I’d been learning more about Party Poison, Fun Ghoul had managed to slop some sort of salve over my burns and wrap my torso in a long bandage. It was a little harder to breathe, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I pulled my shirt back down and saw him looking at my arms.

“They’re fine,” I excused easily. They really were, too. They looked a little weird with all the little injuries, but they didn’t hurt. He gave me a long look before nodding. Poison let out a long breath, looking a little annoyed. Both Ghoul and I looked back at him as he stood straight.

“It looks like she might need a few stitches if this is going to heal correctly,” he murmured, and then excused himself from the room quickly. I sent a thoughtful frown at his back before looking at Ghoul.

“Is he alright?”

“He doesn’t do needles,” Ghoul explained, and I nodded. That made sense. “Do you trust me enough to put one through your leg?”

“Do I have a choice?” I countered, and he gave a small smile.

“I don’t have anything to numb you with,” he told me apologetically, but I waved him off and pointed to my face, where my nose and lip had pieces of metal through them.

“These weren’t numbed when I got them either. I’ll be okay.” He nodded and fished a lighter from a pocket of his jeans. He flicked it and I watched the flame dance out of it with fascination. He held the needle (which he’d taken out of a paper packet in the first aid kit) over the flame, doing his best to sanitize it with the little resources he had to work with. Once the needle was threaded, he looked at me.

“I don’t care how fine you think you’ll be, you can’t watch. Look at the ceiling or something.”

“Fine,” I grumbled, and rested the top of my head against the wall behind me to look at the ceiling. I heard him tell me to take a deep breath, which I did. Instead of sticking me when I’d let the breath out, he plunged the needle carefully into my skin when I’d gotten a full breath of air. I choked a little in surprise, but it was okay so far. “How many am I going to need?”

“Only a couple,” he replied vaguely, which made me frown at the ceiling. As he worked silently, I tried to focus on anything but the stabbing pain in my leg. I tried to count the imperfections in the ceiling, but I lost track with every new poke. A few tears leaked from the corners of my eyes, but it was more of an automatic reaction than anything. It hurt, a lot, but not enough to cry over. I wiped them away and decided to play with my lip ring to keep my mind off the current situation. A few minutes later, I felt something cold and gel-like being put on my leg, then a bandage. I peeked down to see Ghoul standing back up, tossing the needle into a small garbage can. “All done. How’re you doing?”

“I’m alright,” I replied, checking discreetly to make sure that my eyes weren’t still watering. “Thanks. That wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.”

“’Course,” he replied, returning my smile as he helped me to stand up. He picked up my jeans and handed them to me, but his face quickly turned a little bit disgusted. “Erm, they’re a little..” he trailed off. I took them and quickly understood his reaction. The blood had dried and they had stiffened considerably. With a sigh, I tossed them into the trash can where the needle had gone. There really was no saving them between the blood and the numerous holes.

“Oh well,” I muttered, and hobbled towards the door.

“Uh, what? You’re just going to go around with no pants?”

“What choice do I have? That’s my only pair and they’re far beyond help. I’ll find something eventually.” He shrugged and followed me, getting ahead of me to open the door. I thanked him quietly and made my way back into the main room, where the other guys and Grace had all found seats on the floor. They looked up when they heard us coming in, and I found myself leaning a little against Ghoul’s shoulder to keep myself upright. It hadn’t been all that bad during, but it ached a hell of a lot more now. I gave a small wave as they gave me questioning looks.

“Where are your pants?” Jet Star asked after a minute, and I looked down.

“Elsewhere. They’re wrecked.”

“So you’re just going to walk around in your underwear?” Kobra Kid asked, and I nodded the affirmative. “You don’t have different pants?”

“No.”

“Couldn’t you borrow some?”

“Does it look like I could fit into any of your pants? You’re all skinny and aren’t exactly built like women,” I pointed out. It’s not like I was huge or anything, but I wasn’t tiny and I had hips. “I’m built like a girl and there’s no chance that I’d even consider trying to fit into your pants. Besides, maybe I like the breeze.”

He shook his head at me, looking a little cowed that I’d come back with something like that. I continued past them (with Ghoul’s help) to the corner of the room, where I sat down slowly. I swore a lot, too, because it gave me something to do other than think about my sore body. When I was firmly planted on the ground, I slid down and curled up as best I could, sighing contentedly. Who cares if it was just a hard, cold floor? Sleep seemed like a really good idea regardless of how uncomfortable I might be.

“What’re you doing?” Grace asked eventually.

“Sleepin’,” I responded slowly. It felt like my mouth was full of cotton.

“On the floor?”

“Yep.”

“You know that we could make you up a bed, right?” Poison asked. He sounded amused.

“Good night, boys and Grace. I’m going to sleep. Right here, right now.”