Look Alive Sunshine.

Party Poison seemed to be seeing everything in slow motion. The child was staring at the rapidly approaching vehicle, huge eyes set back into her skull. He could hear the other Killjoys yelling but their voices were distorted, the words unintelligible. The girl cringed but didn't move, like her feet were stuck to the hardtop with glue.

He wrenched the wheel to the right, tendons in his wrists cracking loudly. The Trans Am rocked dangerously back and forth as it went off the road onto the loose sand. Dirt flew up behind them and in the back of Party Poison's mind, he could hear Jet Star hacking loudly as it came through the open window. The wheels spun and he stomped on the brakes, begging the car to stop.

Finally it did, but not before covering their clothes in yet another layer of grime. Kobra Kid was bent in half, wheezing. Sand had flown into his lungs and he was coughing so hard that his eyes were watering.

"Kobra, you okay?" Party Poison asked, rubbing his younger brother's back. Kobra slapped it away and pushed open his door, stumbling out. He hated when he was pampered on. Sometimes, he couldn't exactly keep with the breakneck pace the Killjoys had but he didn't want to be treated differently because of it. Behind him, the other men were getting out of the convertible and he turned his gaze back to the road.

The child was still standing there and Fun Ghoul was approaching her, pulling his bandanna down from his mouth. She was wearing a shapeless dress that might have been white originally but was now streaked with dirt. Her brown hair was similar to Jet Star's but with tighter curls, spiralling in every direction. Her brown eyes were huge and the area directly around them was the only clean spot on her face.

"Hey darling," he said, kneeling down in front of her. Her eyes drifted from one to the other, taking in their ragged clothes and grease streaked hair. They didn't look like the other men, the ones in the white suits and the scary masks who had taken her parents away, but she still didn't trust them. The bald man had a lot of people working for him. They were everywhere, her parents had told her. But now she didn't have any parents. There was only her and the desert.

"Her feet are bleeding," Jet Star said and it was true. When she took a tentative step forward, the hardtop was faintly red in the shape of her footprints.

"What's your name?" Fun Ghoul asked, reaching out and laying a hand on her thin shoulder.

"Grace," she whispered, muscles tensed and ready to run if she needed to. She'd been running for days and she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten. Her throat was as dry as the desert that surrounded her. "Are you the bad men?"

"No," Party Poison said, stepping forward as well. "We want to get the bad men." She didn't entirely believe him but they didn't look like the bad men. They didn't have the scary masks and she couldn't see the bald man anywhere. They did have those scary guns but theirs were colourful; red, blue, yellow and green.

Fun Ghoul was just opening his mouth again when Party Poison shushed him, laying one finger across his mouth. Tilting his head towards the way they had come from, he listened. After a moment, they could all hear it, that sound that had followed them across the entire desert.

Motorcycles.

"Grab her," Party Poison said, turning and running back towards the Trans Am. Fun Ghoul immediately scooped Grace up and ran. She weighed no more than fifty pounds. He sat her in the back seat between him and Jet Star before climbing in, whipping out his laser gun. Kobra Kid had barely shut the door before Party Poison was slamming down the gas pedal, begging the car to get out of the sand. The tires spun madly but after enough coaxing, she moved, skidding back onto the hardtop and immediately accelerating. Behind them, the noise was getting louder and, looking back, they could all see the two motorcycles coming over the rise.

"Here they come," Fun Ghoul said grimly. Beside him, Grace was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest, hands over her ears.

"Is he with them?" Party Poison yelled back, steering around a large piece of metal that may have been part of a car at one point.

"Negative!" In the back seat, Fun Ghoul and Jet Star pulled themselves out their respective windows, setting where the glass had been previously. It had been knocked out with a sledgehammer to make it easier to shoot backwards. Kobra Kid was covering the right side in case one of the sneaky fuckers was hiding in the desert. It wouldn't have been surprising.

There were only two Draculoids, which was unusual; if the Doctor wasn’t with them, they traveled in packs of three or four. Both of them were wearing completely white, from their loose pants to their blazers. Despite the heat, they were wearing the masks that had given them their names; latex with black hair attached and fake blood dripping from the pooched lips.

They were ugly fuckers.

As they got closer, one of them pulled a white laser gun from his hip and shot. His accuracy was crap however and it only scorched some of the paint from the side of the Trans Am. It had been through much worse. Waiting until his hand was steady, Jet Star fired at the Draculoid closest to them, shattering the glass on his view screen. His bike wobbled slightly but he continued, accelerating. Fun Ghoul fired at the other one, landing a direct hit on his front tire. The bike slowed and then fell over, spilling the Draculoid into the road. The other one continued to come, paying no heed to his injured partner.

Party Poison swerved back and forth, hoping to evade the Draculoid from hitting a vital spot on their car. This unfortunately made it harder for Jet Star and Fun Ghoul to shoot as well and their shots went wide, bouncing off of the concrete.

“Can you please go straight?” Fun Ghoul screamed, ducking as a shot whizzed above his head. Grace had by now laid down on the seat and covered her head with Jet Star’s helmet.

“If he hits anything, it’s your fault!” Party Poison reluctantly straightened out his path and almost immediately, Fun Ghoul's aim went true. His shot went through the left eye of the Draculoid, who screamed and let go of the handles. His bike continued to go straight for a few meters before it tipped over, sending him to the ground as well. With them both out of commission, Party Poison sped up again, tipping the needle of the speedometer over one hundred kilometres. Safe for the moment, Jet Star and Party Poison wriggled back through the windows, sliding their guns back into their holsters. Grace pulled her head out of the helmet, cautiously looking around.

“It’s okay little one,” Kobra Kid said, looking back at her. “We’re gonna head home now.”

“Fucking right we are,” Party Poison said, slowing down so that he could turn off the road. There was no road but he knew where he was going. The ride was bumpy and small pebbles flew through the window, striking them. One bump was so bad that they hit their heads off of the low roof, groaning in pain. After ten minutes of this, they finally skidded to a rough stop.

In front of them was the Killjoys temporary hide-out. It was an abandoned diner, off of the main highway. The faint outline of a dirt road still remained but they didn’t dare use it; it was safer to go off roading. The Doctor had cameras everywhere. The sign on top had been smashed long ago and each window had been boarded up. They didn’t mind this though; it made it look like no one had entered in a long time, which was the point.

Party Poison slowly drove around to the rear, shielding the Trans Am under a tarp that had been left behind. When it was completely covered, they slipped out, pulling aside a board in the back that let them in. When it was dropped back, it didn’t look loose at all.

The inside of the diner was dark and dusty, but bearable. Enough light came in from the outside to see by, which was all they needed. Each Killjoy had their separate sleeping area, made up of a sleeping bag each and a few personal effects. But that was it. Other than the car, their weapons and each other, they really didn’t have anything. Every time they changed locations, they had to leave behind much of their materials.

But what would they do with the girl? Fun Ghoul was carrying her, letting her look at the new surroundings. They couldn’t remember ever encountering a female, let alone a child. Then again, most of the remaining ’citizens’ lived in the zones near Los Angeles and they didn’t go there if they could avoid it; too many of the Doctor’s spies roamed around.

“Before we think of anything,” Party Poison said, “we need to wrap her feet.” When Fun Ghoul sat her down on the counter that had once upon a time served customers, it was evident that she had deep cuts on both of her heels that had only just begun to scab over. They had a small amount of medical supplies and they sacrificed one of their tensor bandages, cutting it in half so that they could wrap Grace's feet. She cried out a little when Jet Star pulled a little too tightly but otherwise, she was quiet.

“Are you sure you’re not the bad guys?” she asked after Jet Star lifted her back onto the ground. Kobra Kid couldn’t help but chuckle, peeling his jacket off and tossing it in the general direction of his sleeping bag. His arms were covered in little droplets of sweat.

“Trust me,” he said. “Compared to the bad guys, we're angels."