Danger Days: The Escape

Lady Killer and Party Poison moved to behind a dying bush. Even though it was safe at night, it was better to be out of sight.

“What kind of problem do we have, Poison?” Lady Killer asked, a little worried about what answer he would give her.

He looked at her regretfully. “We’re the only ones left.”

“No...” she gasped in disbelief. They couldn’t be the only ones left. She tried to form a sentence but no words came.

“When you were taken we went looking for you.” Lady Killer was about to yell at him. He hushed her and continued. “I know, I know, the rule was if one gets taken the others keep running, but it wasn’t that easy.”

She was once again lost for words. Party Poison continued.

“Fun Ghoul and Kobra Kid took the Trans-Am and went looking for you near BL/IND a few days after you were captured. Ghoul got caught by a couple of draculoids. I had radio contact with him up until a week or so ago; they must have found his radio. As for Kobra, Ghoul said that he got scared and ran away, took the car with him. He hasn’t contacted me at all. But it gets worse.”

“Worse?” Lady Killer questioned hysterically. “One of our friends has been captured and another is missing, how could things get any worse?”

“Jet Star joined BL/IND.” He paused, expecting a reaction. When she stayed silent he continued. “Me and him were looking for you around Batter City. Korse found us and Jet panicked. So he said he was bringing me to him, that he was ready to joined BL/IND. I managed to get away, but he stayed. So I’ve been hiding out here in Zone 6 by myself for weeks.”

Lady Killer couldn’t stand to look at Party Poison another minute after his confession. She stood and walked away silent into the night. He didn’t follow, knowing she needed time to take it all in.

She thought back to those awful months she spent at BL/IND. Her Killjoy outfit had been locked away along with her ray gun, and she was forced to wear a white contamination suit with an identification number on the breast. ‘Lady Killer’ didn’t exist behind the confines of those walls; there she was 06032, a simple number. She was restricted to a white room – no windows, no colour. The food was much the same as the room, white with no flavour. They were constantly conducting tests on the prisoners and forcing them in to take part in draculoid training, along with other forms of torture.

Now Fun Ghoul was trapped in that place. He would be treated harsher than what she was; women were always treated better. Maybe he had even been ghosted. She didn’t want to think about it, but she knew it was a possibility.

The more she thought about the issue, the more confused she became. How could they all break the first rule of being a Killjoy? There was a reason why they said to ‘keep running, never look back’, because if they didn’t do it people get captured, people die. The only reason they were in this situation was because of her.

Almost an hour passed before she returned back to Party Poison. He had set up a fire and laid out some supplies the group had collected over time. Without a word she slumped down next to him. He placed a comforting arm around her shoulders and pressed her tightly to his body. She wept silently in his arms over everything that she’d just learnt about her friends until she became overcome with exhaustion and tell in a deep slumber.

The bright desert sun woke Lady Killer early the following morning. As she stretched out the kinks in her back, her eyes wandered the surroundings in search of Party Poison. She located him standing by her mustang loading various things into the boot.

“What are you doing?” She asked as she approached him.

He threw her cosmetics bag at her. “Get ready, we’ve gotta get on the road.”

Not in the mood for an argument, she went around to the passenger seat of her car and got in, using the rear view mirror to her advantage. Just because she was fighting BL/IND didn’t mean she couldn’t look good doing it.

She applied her sparkling silver eye shadow delicately while she spoke to Party Poison. “What have you got planned?”

“Last night after you fell asleep I thought about Ghoul.” This came as no surprise to Lady Killer; she knew Poison had a thing for Ghoul, even though he’d never admit to it in their current situation. “You know what goes on inside BL/IND, we can go there and get him, convince Jet to come back with us, and then we can all go find Kobra.”

She looked at him in disbelief. “You want me to go back there? Are you insane? I’m never stepping back inside BL/IND again.”

He slammed the door of the boot down and walked around the driver’s side, getting in and turning to face her. There was a pleading look across his features. “Kill, listen to me here. To take down BL/IND we all need to be together. You know that.”

Lady Killer mulled his plan over in her head. She found a flaw in it immediately. “I’ve been gone two months, Ghoul nearly the same, and in all that time I’ve never seen him there. We don’t know where they’re keeping him, Poison.”

A minute passed before he replied. “Well, I know where Ghoul was when they got him, so we can drive there and see if it’s anywhere near where you escaped from. If it’s not then we know that there is likely to be another BL/IND compound around that area. We can find it and search there for him.”

“And what if he’s not there?”

“Then we’ll go to where they had you. They can only have so many compounds. We’ll find him, Kill, don’t worry.”

Once Lady Killer had her make up all finished, mask on and ray gun in the holder around her thigh, Party Poison switched on the engine and put pedal to the metal. They sped off in the direction of the last place Ghoul and Kobra were seen. Lady Killer watched the scenery intently as they race through the desert; none of it was familiar to her. That meant that Ghoul was either somewhere completely different to where she was, or, worst possible scenario, he had been ghosted.

They had been driving for close to half an hour when a thought crossed her mind. She voiced it to Party Poison.

“You said that you had radio contact with Ghoul up until about a week ago, right?” He nodded in response, cigarette hanging out of his mouth, aviators covering his eyes. “Our radios have solar powered batteries. If his confines are anything like mine, he will have limited access to sunlight; those rooms have no windows. So there’s a possibility that they haven’t got his radio, but instead the batteries have died.”

He threw the butt of the cigarette over the side of the car. “I didn’t even consider that. Kill, would there be any chance of him being able to recharge the battery?”

She recalled her time at BL/IND. “If we did what they asked of us in draculoid training each day we were given ten minutes free time outside. That’s how I managed to escape; I started obeying them in training and used the time outside to calculate how to get out until I finally put my plan into action. If Ghoul’s smart, he’ll be good in training so he can get outside and charge the battery.”

Party Poison thumped his head against the steering wheel as he shouted, “Why did the dumbest of use all have to be the one to get captured?”

Ignoring his complaints, Lady Killer groped around on the back seat for her friend’s bag. Finding it, she pulled it on to her lap and searched the contents for the radio. When she got hold of it she through his bag back over onto the back seat and held the radio up for him to see.

“If I’ve calculated this right, it should take about twenty minutes for these things to charge up enough to get a little bit of use out of them. If Ghoul’s worked out that he needs to get them in to sunlight then we may just be able to get hold of him.”

He turned to her. “Try it.”

She raised the radio to her mouth, silently praying that she would get an answer. “Fun Ghoul, it’s me, Lady Killer, please answer me.” Silence. “Fun Ghoul, it’s Lady Killer, please reply.”

“Kill – BL/IND –” Fun Ghoul’s voice through the radio suddenly burst through the silence. The transmission was followed by static. The radio was obviously low on battery.

Lady Killer spoke hurriedly into the radio again. “Ghoul, you need to keep the radio outside to charge it. I’m with Poison; we’re coming to find you. Just give us clue about where you are.”

“–City –”

“Repeat, Ghoul!” She shouted back urgently. Poison sat next her, obviously worried.

Silence.