They'll Never Take My Heart

Color. I remember that. It was like pure emotion that can be seen. Color, I remember my favorite one. I believe it was called red. It was the color of love, blood, it stood for courage. It was a nice color, but we don’t have those anymore. Colors, I mean. They went away when I was “specially chosen” as a BL/ind* test subject. I remember when they took me. The man had a shiny dome of a head. His shirt was white and ruffled. He looked downright stupid, but you don’t say that to someone who just got done killing your parents. I remember it, I was only eight. I lived in a small, secluded house. It never used to be secluded, we used to live in a fairly busy neighborhood. That is, until the fires came. They destroyed all the other houses and people. We were on vacation at the time. I don’t know why our house was only partly charred, while the rest were burnt to the ground. Perhaps I never will. Well, a small company named Better Living Industries was coming to power at the time. They were trying to control everything. My parents were one of the first to resist. They always had some bright shiny toys to play with. I later learned that those toys were ray guns, and could most likely kill someone if you had the right aim. Well as those scary, horrible men (draculoids, I later learned) were taking my screaming parents off, my mother tossed me one of those colorful killing machines and shouted

“SHOOT!” I complied, killing my first draculoid. They always say that the first one is never easy. They were wrong. I didn’t shoot fast enough, however. The other 4 got me. They took me to that awful building. It truly did suck.

They gave me a number, took away my name. I was just number 1370517 to them. I was not Jill. They made you take the medicine. That medicine they say “will make you happy forever.” I didn’t buy it, so I just didn’t take the medicine. They were quite stupid really. Every day after we were given our medication, I would just hide it under my tongue. Afterwords, I would just ask to go to the bathroom. They would just nod and let me go, and of course I would just flush those pills down the toilet. It was a genius plan, really. Fortunately, I was a decent actor. I would just fake a smile and all would be well. After about 6 years of all this, I was just kind of sick of it. Every day, the same thing. Eat, pill, bathroom, sleeping tube, repeat. So, I did the one thing I did best. I made a bad thing go boom.

It was one day, mid 2019 and I realized that my life was extremely, terribly, boring. I figured I would do something about this. I noticed a vent in the wall right over the toilet. It hadn’t been there before from what I could remember, but it was there none the less. I wondered why a place so... high-tech and “perfect” would need an air vent, but I stopped wondering and started doing. I climbed on top of the toilet and took the cover off the vent. I am almost positive someone could hear me doing this, but everyone was too heavily drugged to do something about it. The vent was wide enough for me to slip through. It took me a while, but I finally found the room I was looking for. The computer room. It was underused, but it was there. I used my knowledge of computer hacking to get the door to the weapons storage unit open. I was lucky there were no security cameras near there. They probably figured we were too busy being happily drugged to try anything. I simply walked over to the weapons and chose what I could use to blow a hole in the wall. They had time bombs that would do nicely. I could also use a few rayguns if I was going to escape. They would be useful for killing any draculoids or scarecrows. I set the time bombs to 30 seconds. it was all I needed to run far enough away, and it was too little time for anyone to find out before it was too late. I watched my vision come to life from fifty feet away. It was amazing really. Most of the Dracs just stared at the wall for a few seconds and walked away. Idiots. I saw a few others scramble to get some children into the buses. One tried to grab me but I shot him before he could. Man, am I glad I took the raygun. They would probably go to another facility with more drugs, more sleeping tubes, and no me. 3. 2. 1. Boom.

All the people were on the buses and en route to the other facility within 2 minuets after the blast. All except one. She was standing there, staring at her bleeding hand. she was probably realizing she was still alive. Good for her. Maybe I’ll meet her again some day. For now, I have to run while I can. So, my journey began. I think I’ll try to find some killjoys. They can help me. Maybe some of my parent’s old friends. I remember one of them, he had had me call him poison. He had bright red hair. It’s hard NOT to remember a thing like that. They were saying something about setting up a base in a Diner. The first one I see, I’ll go inside and check. But there is, of course, the possibility that they’re dead. In which case, I’ll find their bodies and give them a funeral. They deserve it.

A few hours have passed. I’ve been walking since 7:38 am today. I can’t be far from a killjoy base now, I see a sign that says “Keep out. BL/ind*” Killjoys are always where BL/ind* doesn’t want them. I must be approaching zone 3 by now. I see a diner. It might be them. I hope it is. Is that a 1979 Trans Am in front? I know that car. Poison is here. Maybe I’ll go inside and check. The door is unlocked, after all. Is that dog food I smell? Everything was going through my head at once. It was almost overwhelming. Almost. I walked through the door, dodging a raygun that was in a collision corse with my head.

“That’s not a very nice way to treat a guest.” I said to the man who threw it at me. He had hair, and lots of it.

“Huh?” he said, obviously confused as to how I had dodged his raygun.

“Is Poison here?” I asked. He looked even more confused now. I guess it did look kind of odd, a girl dressed in BL/ind* clothes and asking for a certain killjoy.

“Don’t move.” I heard a voice say from behind me. I felt a raygun pressed to the back of my head.

“POISON!” I heard him call. “We have a problem here!” I saw him come out, another girl dressed in BL/ind* clothes following him. The same girl who was staring at her bleeding hand when I exploded the lab.