They'll Never Take My Heart

“You. Get your ass over here and drop your weapons.” I said to him. He complied walking over to where I was and leaving his raygun on the sandy ground. Poison walked over to where the raygun was sitting and picked it up.

“BLI, standard issue. Are you some sort of spy, kid?”

“N-no. I-I just escaped. I left Battery City a few days ago... I just got fed up with those stupid pills and all of the white. I wanted color.”

“Okay, then why did you try to Adrenaline-nap her?” I said, pointing to Adrenaline.

“I-I thought you would give me money to get her back... you need money to survive out here, don’t you?”

“Kid, no one has used money around here since 2013.” Poison said.

“T-then how do you survive?” The poor kid was almost crying now. I almost felt bad for him... but then again, he tried to take Adrenaline away. NO ONE takes my friends away and survives. No one. The guy couldn't have been older than 18.

“We’re all a huge family out here. You have to be if you want to survive.”

“Are you a name or a number?” I asked. I hadn’t seen him around the testing lab when I was there.

“I used to be a number. Before I was a number, I was a name. Now, I’m no one.” He answered.

“Number?” I asked.

“Number 1579283.” No wonder. He was probably one of the replacements. Whenever someone escaped the lab or reacted badly to the drug, they were replaced immediately by a resident of Battery City.

“Name?”

“Alex. Alex Evans.”

“Good. Someone, pat him down, make sure he’s not wearing a camera or microphone anywhere on him. If he’s not, he can stay here for a while. If he is, we kill him.” I walked away, he was staring at me as Poison and Kobra checked him for cameras and microphones.

“All clear.” Poison said.

“Good. Choose a room, but someone else has to be there with him at all times. I don’t trust him yet.” I said. Why was I the one telling THEM what to do? Poison dragged Alex into is room. I went to bed. I’ll deal with him in the morning.

Dreamless sleep. Nothing unusual. I walked outside and turned, starting to walk towards the lobby area that was now our living room/dining room. I stopped as I noticed something black in the sand. It was a microphone. Right next to it, a fly landed. I stepped on it with my converse, but when I picked my foot up, there wasn’t any fly blood. There were circuits, microchips, and wires everywhere. It was a camera fly. I picked up the microphone, running to the lobby. I had my gun out within a second after I saw Alex sitting there, eating breakfast with Poison, Jet, Kobra, Fun, and Adrenaline. It was aimed at his head in an instant. I held up the microphone, his eyes growing wide at the sight.

“What the hell is going on?!” Said Poison, standing up.

“He lied.” I answered.

“I found a microphone lying on the ground. It was a few feet from where he tried to steal our Adrenaline.”

“I-I can explain.” Alex said.

“Well go on. Try.” said Jet, who’s raygun had now joined mine.

“Okay.” Alex sighed.

“A few days ago, when I left Battery City, I made a deal with the Asian woman. She said ‘either you come back with what we need, or you die out there when they find out about you. It’s your choice.’ Then she smiled this really creepy smile. I didn’t want to, I swear. I just wanted to get out of that horrible city. B-but the only way to get out is to do what they say...”

“I don’t believe you. If that’s what you wanted, why did you come all the way here with the microphone?” He looked down.

“I-I don’t know... I guess it just never occurred to me that I should take it off. I’m sorry.” I whispered to Fun to take the microphone over to the corner of the room. I had a plan.

“Okay Alex. Do you have a way to PROVE that you’re not a double crossing idiot?” Poison said. Alex thought for a moment.

“I’ll destroy the microphone. Would anyone working for BLI ever destroy government property?” I nodded. It sounded like a plan.

“Okay.” I signaled to Fun to bring the microphone back over to us. I handed Alex my raygun and placed the microphone on the floor. Kobra pressed his raygun to the back of Alex’s neck, just to make sure. He aimed at the mic, and fired a shot. By the looks of it, his first ever. There was a smoking hole left in the ground, the microphone was gone, completely incinerated from the blast.

“Congratulations. You’re a killjoy.” Jet said. I still didn’t trust him completely, but he did destroy BLI property. He can’t be all bad.

“Dr. D!” Adrenaline called.

“Dr. Death Defying! Adrenaline needs you!” We were bringing Alex up to him to get a killjoy name.

“Dr. D!” I said, looking into the ‘research room’ as I called it. We were nearly there with the anti-drug. Just a few more days...

“What? I’m working! ... Oh, who are you?” He said, noticing Alex.

“This is Alex.” Adrenaline said. “He needs a name.”

“Okay, how about...” He paused to think for a second. “Static Neon.”