The Only Hope for Me Is You

I woke up from the sunlight shining through the window and flashing onto my eyes. I moaned slightly, stretching my naked body, and looked at the old clock on the wall, realizing what time it was.

It was one in the afternoon, and by the looks of things, the others were still not back. They had been gone for almost twenty four hours, and this worried me deeply. I turned to Frank, who was lying on his stomach, face planted deep into his pillow, arms under his head. I shook his shoulder lightly, and heard him let out a muffled groan.

“Frankie, babe, wake up…” I said softly, and he just lied there, unmoving.

“Babe, I know you’re awake…the others…they aren’t back yet, and I’m scared, Frank…” He said something, but I couldn’t make it out.

“What?” he said it again. “Frank, seriously, get the fuck up.” I slapped his broken foot with a pillow, and he let out a cry of pain.

“GAH! OW! Okay, okay, I’m up!” He turned onto his back, looking at me.

“We have to get the others, Frank…” I said, looking out the window. He yawned as he spoke.

“Oh, they’re fine,” He said, and stopped yawning. “Trust me. Now come here…” He grabbed my waist, pulling me onto his chest, and pecked my lips lightly. “We still have the place to ourselves.”

“But babe—“

“Hun, my foot’s broken. I can’t walk to my fucking dresser, let alone BL/ind HQ.” He kissed me again, and moved my hair out of my face. “Just RELAX, Cy, everything will be fine…” I didn’t believe that one bit. I squirmed, getting myself out of his grasp and crawled off the bed and got dressed quickly, and Frank watched me the whole time.

“Where are you going?” He asked as I put on my bandana.

“I am going to go find them,” I said, putting my boots on. “With or without you.”

“Babe, you can’t go walking out into the Zones all by yourself—“

“I’m not walking,” I said, smirking. “I’m taking Mikey’s bike.” Frank leaned up on his elbows, eyebrows raised.

“Wait, so you’re saying that you know how to ride a motorcycle.” He said, stunned. I nodded, and grinned.

“Yeah, been riding since I was fifteen,” I said. “Illegally, of course.” Frank laughed, and wiped his face with his hands, then looked at me again.

“What else do I need to know about you?” He said, smiling.

“We’ll deal with that later,” I said, dreading the day we found my box of information. “For now, let’s get you up and dressed, we gotta go…” I walked over, and helped him out of bed, got him dressed, with no help from him at all, and helped him walk to the living room, where I made a makeshift leg brace for him out of wood, plastic, and lots of nails and duct tape.

“Cy, that’s a worthless piece of shit,” He said, looking at it, eyebrows raised.

“Fuck you,” I said. “You want to get better or don’t you?” He was silent after that, and I put it on his leg. He stood up, moving his weight on both legs, and shrugged.

“Fuck me, this actually worked.” He said, amazed. I wrapped my arm behind his head and brought him in for a quick yet aggressive kiss.

“Worthless…” I said after I leaned back from the kiss. “Ha!” I smiled, kissed him again. “You need to toughen up, babe. Seriously…” I walked away from him, hearing him struggle to come back with a witty comeback, but all that came out was this:

“Well…GAH FUCK IT.” I laughed, turning around as he gingerly walked over to me. We walked together out back to Mikey’s motorcycle, which was pretty kick ass.

It was silver, and was slightly dusted over from lack of use, but still shining in the sunlight. From what I saw before, it was tall enough to go up to Mikey’s waist, which made it go all the way up to my stomach. I took the keys from the shelf by the door and had to have Frank help me get on the bike, and I pulled Frank up onto the bike behind me. We helped each other put up our bandanas, and he put on his aviators as well, and I saw myself smile in the reflective lenses.

“I think we’ve reversed roles on this…” He said, wrapping his arms around my waist, chuckling. I laughed, realizing he was absolutely correct, and kicked the ignition, twisted the acceleration bar a few times to her the motor roar, and zoomed off into the vast desert, bee-lining it to BL/ind HQ.

I drove along, still in a straight line, turning only to avoid giant ditches and potholes. Frank rested his chin on my shoulder after a while, and I felt his breath on my neck, along with the wind in my hair as I continued on. Frank stayed like this the whole way there, arms wrapped tightly around my waist; to be honest, I loved the intimacy of riding with someone on a motorcycle.

“HOW ARE YOU DOING?” I yelled, turning my head to look at Frank’s. He unwrapped his arm to give me an OKAY sign with his hand, and then wrapped his arms tightly around me once again. We didn’t speak the rest of the way there until we reached the bridge, to see the car, abandoned. I pulled up along side it and killed the motor and took the keys out of the ignition, putting them in my pocket. I pulled my bandana down, and took a deep breath, surveying the area.

“No one’s here…” I said. “This is so STRANGE, Frank…” I turned around, to find he had gotten himself off the bike somehow, and was limping over to help me down. I jumped off into his arms, and he set me down gently. I could tell he was smiling under his bandana, because his aviators lifted slightly; I pulled the bandana down to see if I was right, and I was. I smiled back, and proceeded to kiss him tenderly on the lips, then grabbed his arm and dragged him into the building, his wooden cast thunking on the hard floors.

I stopped after a while, seeing that there had been a battle in here not too long ago. I looked around, seeing laser holes in the walls, tables toppled over, and LCD screens blinking and shorting out, shooting sparks everywhere from being shot. I looked closer, and saw two familiar objects lying on the ground. Noticing what they were, I let go of Frank and ran over to them, picking up the yellow and red ray guns.

“Frank…” I said, looking at them. “These are Gerard’s and Mikey’s…” I looked up at Frank, who looked concerned. He walked over to me and wrapped an arm around me, comforting me. I blinked tears out of my eyes, then shrugged him off, putting the two guns between my belt and my jeans on my waist.

“We have to find them,” I said. “We have to.” He nodded, and followed me down the hall. I looked down, and saw a trail of blood, leading us to the prison cells.

“Oh, god, please, NO!” I said, and started running, leaving Frank behind.

“Cy!” I heard him yell, but I didn’t stop running until I was ambushed by Dracs on all sides. There was nowhere to run, no escape.

“FRANK!” I cried, and took out Mikey’s and Gerard’s guns from my belt, and started firing with them both, shooting in two directions at the same time, doing double damage to the hoard of Dracs. I made myself shoot their heads every single time, to make the job easier, but if I missed, I ended up either kicking, punching, or headbutting them to get off of me, then shooting them in the head soon after.

I saw Frank come hobbling around the corner, shooting as he “ran,” and cleared a path to come to my aid.

“Cy, what the fuck were you thinking…” He asked as he fired away, his head turned to talk to me. I didn’t answer; I was so focused on the idea of revenge, I had no words. I ran from Frank, and scissor kicked a Drac, knocking him off his feet, and shot it in the chest before moving to another Drac and giving it a right hook, followed by a roundhouse kick, then a shot in the leg. I knelt down on its chest, grabbed it by the collar of its white jumpsuit, and growled.

“Where the fuck did you take them.” The Drac laughed, and I made my grasp even tighter.

“TELL ME!” I yelled into its masked face.

“I’ll…never…tell…” It said, still laughing, and I growled again, and slammed its head into the floor.

“YOU BETTER TELL ME, AND NOW!” I screamed, tears of anger falling.

“NEVER!” The Drac yelled back, and I wailed, and brought Gerard’s gun to its head and pulled the trigger, making a perfect hole in the side of its head. I stood up, dropping the Drac with a THUD, and kept firing until every last Drac was exterminated. I turned around, to see Frank on his stomach on the ground, his elbows on the floor, holding his gun in firing position with both of his hands.

“Jesus…” Frank said, looking at me, scared. “Cy, what happened to you…”

“Old Cy is gone,” I said. “For now. Come on.”

“I ain’t even mad,” He said, standing up. “Bring new Cy into the bedroom and you’ve got a deal.” He winked, and I just shook my head.

“Frank, babe, stop…please…I’m not in the mood…” I said, putting Gerard’s and Mikey’s guns back in my belt, and kept following the blood trail until it turned into a prison cell. I looked in the window, and gasped.

There were Gerard and Mikey, bound and gagged up to chairs, unconscious, their heads falling forward.

“Frank, there they are!” I cried, pointing at the door. “God damn it, HOLD ON!” I cried, slamming on the door. It wouldn’t budge.

“Want me to kick it?” Frank asked.

“Oh, because that worked so well last time,” I said, pointing at his cast. He frowned, and crossed one arm around his chest, his other elbow on his forearm, and wiped his mouth with his hand, thinking.

“Maybe a hidden button? Like before?” He asked. I thought about it, and started randomly pounding the wall, every inch of it, until I heard a beep, then the door slowly slid open. I didn’t even wait for it to open all the way; I slid myself through the thin space and ran over to the brothers, and unbound and ungagged them before looking at the side table near them, which had Gerard’s mask, Mikey’s sunglasses, and a shit load of pills and syringes.

“FUCK, they tested on them…” I said, slapping Gerard hard across the face. His head reacted to the force of my slap, but he didn’t respond. I kept slapping him, but the result was the same.

“Resuscitation?” Frank offered, watching me try to wake them up. I shrugged, then aggressively pressed my lips to Gerard’s, blowing air into his lungs. I did this a few times, then slapped him hard once again, until he jolted awake, coughing and sputtering.

“BWAH! What?! CY!” He cried. “I thought we were done, Cy…”

“You idiot,” I said. “They overdose you, kill you, and all you have to say is that?!” I wrapped my arms around him tightly, glad he was alive.

“Well, Cy, I’d hug you but I can’t seem to move at all…” he said, still coughing. I nodded, then looked at Frank.

“They’re alive, Frank,” I said. He pointed at Mikey.

“You have to do that to Mikey too…” I frowned.

“Frank, please…?”

“Uh, hell no,” he said, shaking his head. I groaned, and turned and knelt down to face Mikey.

“Oh fuck.” I say, sighing. “I’m so sorry Lauren…forgive me…” And I do the same to Mikey as I did to Gerard, a little shocked by the feel of unfamiliar lips on mine, and Mikey came back to life just as his brother had, shocked. He looked around in panic, eyes darting from left to right.

“What—who—Cy, what is—what—“

“MIKEY CALM THE FUCK DOWN.” I say, smiling and holding his shoulders. “You were dead. They overdosed you guys on purpose. You two were dead. Gone. Unresponsive. No life whatsoever…”

“What happened…?” Gerard asked, still trying to move. His fingers were twitching but that was all I could see was reacting.

“You guys must have gotten ambushed,” Frank said. “And they got you two, and brought you in here, tested on you, and eventually killed you.”

“Yeah, and before we got in here to get you guys, we were ambushed, and I was like WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA! And I killed so many fucking Dracs…” I said. Gerard laughed at my story, and tried to stand up, but since his body was still rigid and unresponsive, he just fell forward onto his face.

“Shit.” Gerard said into the floor. I helped him back up into the chair, and he just sat there, unmoving.

“Thanks…” He said, embarrassed.

“Where’s Lauren?” Mikey asked, frightened.

“I don’t know, Mikey…” I said slowly, wondering the same thing. If they had split up, where were Ray and Lauren?

“Well, someone needs to go find them,” Frank said, and I nodded.

“Right. Frank, you take care of them, I’m going to find Ray and Lauren.”

“But—“

“Frank, look at you. You can barely walk. You’d be better off taking care of these guys,” I said, and walked out of the cell. “Radio me when they can move again, yeah?” Frank nodded.

“Cy, be careful…” He said, and I walked back into the room, quickly, and gave him a passionate, aggressive, yet loving kiss that lasted a minute or two.

“I will, Frank.” I said as I pulled away finally. I looked at Gerard and Mikey.

“Feel better, yeah?” I asked, and saluted.

“We’ll try,” Gerard said.

“Please find Lauren…and quick…” Mikey said softly. I walked over to him and whispered in his ear.

“Remember what I said earlier, Mikes,” I said softly. “She can handle her own.” I patted his shoulder, and left the three of them, kissing Frank once more, and backtracked until I got to the stairs leading to the lower level, and noticed Ray’s and Lauren’s footsteps in the dirt. I followed them, until I made my way to a room, which was already occupied.

“Lauren!” I yelled, but she didn’t say anything to me.

“Exploder, don’t think I won’t kill you,” she said, and I stopped running towards her, noticing a little boy’s bloody body on the ground next to Lauren, and Exploder smirking at his sister. Lauren had been grazed by a laser apparently, because her shirt was ragged and torn at her stomach, and her knees were stained with the little boy’s blood.

“Lauren, is that…is he…?” I asked, walking over to the body, staring at Exploder as I did so.

“Leave Exploder to me,” Lauren said. “And yes, that’s Revenge. I don’t know if he is dead.” Her gun was fixed on Exploder as she spoke, and I leaned over Revenge’s body, leaving Lauren to deal with her brother alone.