The Only Hope for Me Is You

I hid behind the barricade, standing up only to fire my ray gun at the hoard of draculoids that we got ambushed by. It was about fifty against two, and we had absolutely no chance of getting out of here alive. I sat back down, took off my mask and put my head in my hands, my gun in one of them, hearing the firing of multiple ray guns, explosions, and every other war sound in history. I remembered how I became the killjoy that I am today.

I was always one that rebelled against what society told me to do. Before BL/IND took over, I was a normal college kid in the state of California, wishing that I could do something more with my life than sitting in classrooms all day, learning nothing at all, wasting my life. I wanted to put myself out there, in the world, artistically, and not like anyone else wanted me to do. It was that unfortunate day in history that BL/IND took over literally everything, and I was left to fend for myself. It was a couple months later when shit hit the fan. Everything became run-down, rugged, and unclean where I lived, outsize of the zones. I was all alone, out for a walk, clearing my head and listening to my music, when all of a sudden two unfamiliar figures jumped out at me, wearing all white, with dracula masks, "Draculoids" as they are called now, and started taking me away to the inner zones, where the core of BL/IND was.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" I struggled, but their grip was too tight on me; I couldn't get away. They were just about throw me in the car when all of a sudden, the sound of two shots from a ray gun came from behind us, and the draculoids fell to the ground. I put my hands up in the air.

"Shit!" I said, eyes wide, looking down at the exterminated draculoids. Then I looked up at my savior, and I smiled. He was wearing a black shirt with yellow long sleeves with black stripes, rolled up to his elbows, with a green vest over it, with the Japanese Sun on the back. His left shoulder had a Bee logo on it, but I was too far away to read out what it said. He had a round necklace, a red, white and blue wristband on his wrists and prayer beads on his left, and tattoos all over his arms as well. His hair was black and long, down to his chin. He had perfect eyebrows, which I could hardly see from behind his brown aviators. His American flag stars bandana covered his face, and I could really only see his nose. He took the bandana off his face, letting out a breath, and holstered his gun.

"Wait...You're Fun Ghoul, aren't you?" I asked, putting my hands back down. He nodded, smiling.

"You bet your ass, baby," he said. "You all right?"

"Y--Yeah," I said, stupefied. Here I was, talking to one of the four most notorious killjoys known in the Zones. And he was acting like nothing was wrong. It was fucking hotter than hell, with the sun shining constantly nowadays, but I felt a shiver go down my spine.

"You sure you're all right?" He walked over to me and hugged me, and I immediately felt more safe as he did so. I smiled.

"I'm much better now," I said, and he let me go, smiling and rubbing my long, dyed-black hair.

"Good. Now that you're better," He said, touching my shoulder. "Choose your weapon." I was confused by this.

"Bah! Just follow me," He said, and I walked with him , far down the road, just watching him, until we got to a kick-ass looking car. It was old, and rugged, but it had a black spider on the hood layered on top of the American flag, with a small lightning bolt in the body of it. I walked around the car, noticing the words "BULLETPROOF" on the dash on driver's the inside, and the words "LOOK ALIVE SUNSHINE" on the back. I looked at him, smiling.

"This is your car. Yours, Kobra Kid's, Jet Star's, and Party Poison's." He nodded.

"I've seen this all over the news..." I said, trailing off. "Where are the others?" I asked, realizing they weren't here.Fun Ghoul rubbed his head.

"They're with Dr. D, hun." he said.

"You mean...THE Doctor D?" he nodded again. Dr. Death Defying was the one that ran the underground radio station for us living against BL/IND. He was my only hope for survival, because of his constant updates on the Zone's conditions. No one had ever seen him before.

"Yeah, I was just out on patrol, and saw you get ambushed, thought I'd help."

"Well, thanks for that..." I said, squinting at him through the blinding sunlight.

"No prob, babe," he said. "What's your name, if I may ask." I began to say my real name, but he stopped me.

"NO! Not that one...they're everywhere." He said, looking around. I quickly thought up a cover name.

"Cyanide Suicide, at your service!" I said, saluting, and he smiled.

"Welcome to the Army." He said, opening the door of the car for me. I got in, and he got in the passengers seat and we drove down the road, to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, until he pulled up to an old shack.

"THIS. Dr. Death Defying's hideout?!" I said, jumping in my seat.

"Mhm!" he replied, winking. We got out of the car, and were greeted by the other three Killjoys: Kobra Kid, Jet Star, and Party Poison.

Kobra Kid was tall, skinny, and had blonde hair, and the sides being sightly more brown. He wore a yellow sleeveless t-shirt, with black stripe-like designs, and a red racing jacket, completely unzipped, with a "03" on the right sleeve, and a Cobra logo on the left breast. He large hipster-like shades, and black pants, and almost knee-high combat boots. He had prayer beads on his left wrist, wore racing gloves and he was holding a motorcycle helmet, yellow, with red, white, and blue designs on it, the words "GOOD LUCK" on the visor. His face was stone, and I couldn't tell what he was looking at behind those shades.

Jet Star, on the other hand, was smiling. He had long curly brown hair, and wore mirrored aviator sunglasses. His jacket was black, and the back had the American flag on it, with the same spider from the car layered on it, the Ace of Spades on the right sleeve. Red rope was circled on his right shoulder. His blue ray gun was holstered, but he had his hand leaning on it.

But, the most noticeable one was non other than that of Party Poison. With his vivid red hair, he was easy to spot in a crowd. It was long, the bangs reaching down to his chin, his yellow masquerade mask around his neck. His eyes were squinting in the sunlight, his mouth partially open. He wore a blue racing jacket, with red and white striped on the shoulders, and white lining the ribbed breast part of the jacket. The "Dead Pegasus" logo could be seen on the left breast, and on the back was a sideways BL/IND pill, red, with an X under it. His jacket was zipped down slightly from the neck, and his black tank top could be seen under the jacket. His pants were dirty white, having been living in the desert for so long, that was expected. He, too was wearing racing gloves, various prayer beads, and black combat boots. His gun was holstered in the holster wrapped around his right thigh, and a yellow bandana was wrapped around his left shin, up by his knee. He kept squinting as he spoke, his hair billowing in the wind.

"Frank, buddy, where'd she come from?"

"She got ambushed by a few Dracs, Gerard." he replied, and I shrugged, waving at them. Party Poison walked over to me, and bend down to look into my eyes. His were hazel, and there were slight wrinkles by them, but he smiled at me, and I smiled back.

"You okay?" He asked me. I nodded.

"Yeah, just shaken up a little."

"Understandable..." He said, standing straight again, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"It's Danae." He nodded.

"Killjoy name?"

"Cyanide Suicide."

"Awesome," he pointed at the others as he spoke.

"That's Mikey, my brother, AKA Kobra Kid, and that's Ray, AKA Jet Star." He looked down at me.

"Dude, I know you guys already..." He looked at me, confused.

"I listen to Dr. D. And watch the news when i'm in the Zones." He nodded, understanding.

"Well then, all I can say is, welcome to the gang!" he said, smirking, hugging me with his arm before letting me go, and he, Ray, Mikey walked back into the hut. I looked at Fun Ghoul.

"Well I know THEIR names, why don't I know yours?" I put my hands on my hips, cocking my head. He laughed.

"It's Frank. Let's get inside, yeah?" I nodded, and he grabbed my arm as he walked by, and we walked inside, and to my amazement, I WAS IN DR. D's HIDEOUT. There were art pieces EVERYWHERE, along with all of the killjoy slogans I kept close to my heart written all over the walls. Ray and Mikey were looking through magazines, and Frank leaned against the table, crossing his arms.

"You're gonna need protection," Gerard said, tossing me a ray gun. It was orange, with black and yellow stripes on it.

"Cyanide Sunshine...I like that," He grinned. "I think that gun suits you...nicked it from a BL/IND dispenser a few days ago with the Vend-A-Hack."

I looked at the gun. It had "DELUXE" written on it, like Kobra Kids, but it also had the Japanese sun on the body of it too, like the back of Frank's jacket. I put it up, and feigned firing it.

"Pew pew!" I said, and blew on the tip of it, as if it was smoking. Frank and Gerard laughed.

"Let's get you outta those clothes too..." Gerard said, sifting through a chest of random articles of clothing.

"WHOA, PARTY POISON, we just met!" I joked, and he threw a pair of ripped up red skinny jeans at me, shaking his head, along with a yellow and white stripped tank top, a green vest, gun holster, and combat boots.

"Put that on, then come back." he said. I nodded, and went into the other room, slapped everything on, and came back out. Frank and Gerard smiled, and the other two looked up from their magazines and nodded.

"Shit's badass now!" Frank said. I posed, turning in a circle.

"You think?!" I asked.

"For sure!" Gerard said. He threw a forest green bandana at me, and I wrapped it around my neck. he walked over to me, and put both hands on my shoulders, and looked me right in the eyes again. I swallowed.

"Keep your boots tight, and your gun close," he said, in all seriousness. "And dye with your mask on, if you have to." He reached behind him, and picked up a mask similar to his, but instead of yellow, it was red. I put that around my neck as well, feeling like I had finally found some place to belong.

"CYANIDE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Electronic Joker yelled at me, and I snapped out of my thoughts, slid my mask back onto my eyes, took a deep breath, and stood up again, and kept firing at the Dracs, praying to God that today wasn't the day I had to die with my mask on.