The Only Hope for Me Is You

Frank and I followed Mikey down the narrow, rugged pathway into the heart of the deserted town, fliers and ragged papers billowing in the acid winds. Frank put my bandana on my face for me, smiling.

“Don’t want to breathe in all this shit,” he said cautiously. “Who knows what they put in the air here.” I nodded.

“MIKEY!” he yelled ahead of us, and Mikey turned around and ran back to us awkwardly jogging, bringing up dust with every footfall.

“What?” he asked.

“Bandanas up,” he said. “Who knows what’s in the air…” Mikey nodded, putting on his yellow one, and Frank put his American flag one, and we walked in unison down the path, until we came into the dead center of the town, and saw that the ground was recently disturbed.

Frank let go of my hand and kneeled down, investigating the ground. Mikey was going in and out of every building, calling out Lauren’s killjoy name, and I stood where I was, just looking around, hand on the edge of my gun, looking out for anyone that would sneak attack us. I had just turned my head to look into a window when Frank called me over to him.

“CY! Get over here!” he yelled, and I snapped my head over to look at him. He was waving at me to walk over to him, and I obeyed.

“Watch your step,” he said. “Look at these footprints.” He pointed, and I kneeled down next to him, narrowing my eyes at the ground until I could see various sizes of footprints all over the ground.

“There was a scuffle here,” I said, standing back up. “There are about five sets, two being Dracs, one being a small child, it seems…” I kneeled down on the ground again. “And these are definitely Lauren’s.” I concluded, remembering the unique pattern from her boots. “That must mean the last set…”

“Are Korse’s.” Mikey finished for me, appearing behind me. He walked past me, following the footprints, and accidentally kicked a rock, and stopped walking right after that.

“Guys, she left another clue.” He said, and Frank and I exchanged intrigued glances with each other before getting up and walking over to where Mikey was standing. He bent down, and picked up the paper, smiling.

“Gungan again,” he said, unfolding it. He read it out loud, translating it.

“’Follow Korse boot prints, you’ll find me’” he said, then looked at the single trail of footprints leading down to a small house on the edge of town.

“Mikey, how do you even know Gungan?” I asked. He looked at me in all seriousness.

“What? You havent seen Star Wars a million times like me and Gerard?” I shook my head.

“Not THAT much, Mikey.”

“…………okay.” He replied, hanging his head, his arms dropping down to the side.

“Mikey…” Frank said, trying to cheer him up. “Cheer up, man. We all know who REALLY shot first.” He clapped Mikey’s back and walked in front of us, following Korse’s heavy footprints. I laughed, looking at Mikey.

“Greedo or Han Solo?” I ask him.

“Oh, I think you know the answer to that,” He said slyly, and I nodded.

“Good man, Mikey, good man.” I replied, winking, and walked in stride with him, catching up to Frank at the door to the tiny house. The closer I was to it, it looked more like a hut; like Yoda’s little hovel on planet Dagobah.

“Mikey, we found Yoda’s hideout,” I joked, nudging him. He laughed.

“Yeah, but where’s the sunken starship?” He asked. I pointed at a destroyed old BL/ind car in a ditch in the distance.

“Close enough?” I asked, and he nodded.

“It’ll do…” I heard Frank giggle.

“Okay, guys, your inner nerds are showing.” He joked, grinning. “But we have a mission, remember? Lauren’s in trouble.”

“Right.” Mikey said, his face stone faced once again, like he hadn’t been laughing his goofy laugh a minute ago. I saw Frank try to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He rammed his shoulder into it with force, but it didn’t move an inch. He shook his head, took a few steps back, and ran into it, full force, and jump kicked, falling on his side, hard, and groaning as he made contact with the ground. Mikey and I stood still, watching him destroy himself.

“Any luck?” he moaned, face in the dirt, his voice muffled.

“Nope.” Mikey said. “You didn’t use enough ‘Force’ to open the door, dude.” He emphasized “force,” and I noticed. I laughed, and high fived him, smiling.

“Nice one, Mikey! Subtle!”

“I try,” He said.

“A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE NICE.” Frank yelled, still lying on his stomach on the ground. I looked down, not smiling anymore, because I saw he was in pain. Lots and lots of pain. He was trying to move his leg, but it wasn’t responding.

“Frank!” I cried, getting on my knees. “What did you do?”

“I think I broke my ankle trying to kick the door open,” he said, finally rolling onto his side. He tried moving his foot around, and winced. He started taking his boot off, but I slapped his hand away.

“Frank, stop, you’ll make it worse!” I said, helping him onto his feet, Mikey grabbing his other arm. “If you take your boot off it will swell up like a balloon.” Frank chuckled.

“I am such a fucking idiot.” He said flatly, shaking his head. “I hurt myself every day, ha ha…”

“Frank, you’re an idiot, that’s true,” I said as me and Mikey walked him over to a barrel by the side of the house, sitting him on it. “But you are such a lovable idiot, I forgive you for your self inflicted injuries.” I bent down and kissed his forehead, and he smiled.

“Ah, thanks babe,” he said. I smiled back.

“Now you stay here, keep a lookout,” I ordered.

“But—“

“NO! You can’t walk you idiot.” I said. “Mikey and I will go take a look inside, and you yell out if someone comes. And if its too many for you, remember, channel 25 is what Gerard set aside for us.” I took my radio out of my pocket and tossed it to him. He caught it, and nodded.

“Good luck,” he said, and I nodded. I tapped Mikey on the shoulder, who had drifted off into his own little world in his head, looking at the blown up car in the ditch, and jumped.

“You ready?” I asked him. He nodded.

“She’d better be in here…” he said, looking up. “Hey, look, the window’s broken up there, and look at this pipe…” He walked over and shook the pipe. “It’s sturdy…maybe she climbed up and in?” I shrugged.

“Worth a shot,” I said. “Give me a boost,” I said, and Mikey nodded, getting on his knees and lacing his fingers together to give me a step, and lifted me up until I got a good grip on the pipe, and shimmied up the pipe, and fell forward through the open window, slamming my face on the wood floor.

“Ow, damn it!” I cried, rubbing my head from where it made contact with the hardwood floor.

“CY! OH THANK GOD!” I heard from behind me. I turned around, to see Lauren bound to a chair with her own bandana.

“Lauren!” I cried, quickly getting to my feet and running over to her, untying her hands. She stretched her arms and stood up, and I gave her her bandana back, and she nodded, tying it around her neck again.

“Oh my god, thank you,” she said, hugging me tight. “I’ve been here for HOURS, I thought I was going to die! There were spiders, and rats, and bugs—“

“You kill Dracs and Scarecrows and threaten Korse, but you’re afraid of those,” I joked, winking.

“Shut up.” She said. “You get my notes?” I nodded.

“Yep!” I laughed. “But Gungan…REALLY, Lauren, REALLY?”

“I figured Mikey would know it was me that way…” she said, looking at the ground. She snapped her head up. “MIKEY!”

“He’s fine, Lauren, he’s outside.” She didn’t think twice, she ran over to the window, and stuck her head out.

“MIKEY!” she yelled, waving.

“LAUREN, THANK GOD!” I heard Mikey yell back. Then what I saw was insane. Lauren climbed up onto the windowsill, and took a deep breath.

“LAUREN, NO—“ I yelled, but it was too late. Lauren had thrown herself out of the window, and fell two floors down.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I heard Frank exclaim, and I ran over to the window and leaned out, to see that Mikey had caught her in his arms, and they were exchanging an aggressive yet passionate kiss, ignoring everything else in the world. I smiled, and climbed back down the pipe, and walked over to Frank and sat next to him. I nudged him with my shoulder.

“Hey…that’s what was going on last night with them.” I said, and he nodded.

“Mikey, you dog…” Frank said, and we watched the two of them share their moment, me head leaning on Frank’s shoulder glad that Lauren was still alive.