The Only Hope for Me Is You

I watch Lauren as she suddenly stands up and walks out of the room, and I turn to Gerard, who was grinning slightly as he watched the movie, squeezing my hand in his.

“Where’s she going?” I asked quietly, and he shrugged.

“I don’t know, but she’ll be back,” he said, his gaze falling to me, and plated a kiss on my lips. I kissed him back for a minute or two before we heard a loud crash coming from outside, by the generator. I pulled away from Gerard in shock, my head snapping towards the door.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked, scared.

“I don’t know, but that didn’t sound good at all,” Ray said, standing up, grabbing his laser gun. Frank did the same, and the two of them cocked their guns, ready to fire. I slid off of Gerard’s lap, and looked down at my clothes, realizing I was still in Frank’s shirt and jeans, with no way of protection.

“Gerard, I can’t—“

“It’s fine, just hide yourself in my room with Revenge,” he said, standing up, pulling his mask down. “We’ll go check it out. Stay safe, Cy.” He leans down, and quickly pecks lips before following the others outside. Frowning, I walk into Revenge’s room and shake him awake.

“Hmm…what?” he groans, stretching.

“Revenge…something’s wrong outside, and we need to hide, okay?”

“Is everyone all right?” he asked, falling into my arms after I hold them out for him. I sigh, looking towards the window.

“I hope so…” I said, picking him up. “Come on, we need to hide.” I carry him into Gerard’s room, close the window and lock it, as well as Gerard’s door, and sit on the bed in silence, my legs tucked into my chest. Not two seconds later the window shattered from a laser beam being shot through it, making Revenge and I gasp in surprise; I shoved his head into my lap to protect him, hearing muffled sobs coming from him. I rubbed his head in reassurance, and stood up, slowly peaking my head out the broken window to see what was going on. My eyes widened once I figured out what was going on; Gerard, Mikey, Frank and Ray had been ambushed by a hoard of Dracs, and a massive battle had commenced, Lauren unconscious in the exact middle of the fight. Mikey wasn’t fighting; he was trying to get Lauren conscious again, leaning over her motionless body, lightly slapping the side of her face, but with no success. The other three were I jumped off of Gerard’s bed and bent down to the sobbing Revenge, and held his hands in mine.

“Revenge…stay here okay? You’re safe here. But I need to ask you to NOT move, okay?” He nodded, and I hugged him tightly before standing up, grabbing my gun from Gerard’s desk and strapping it around my waist before walking out of him room and slowly making my way into the living room, my gun raised near my head, my back to the wall as I walked. I turned the corner, stretching my gun arm out in front of me in case of a Draculoid breach in the shack, but the living room was empty and silent, the only sounds coming from the battle outside.

“JET STAR BEHIND YOU!” I heard Gerard yell, followed by more laser shots. I made my way to the window to see what was going on. Frank and Gerard were back to back, standing over Mikey and Lauren to protect them. Ray was a few feet from them, firing away at the Dracs that were farther away, sniping them down in one shot as they came over the hill.

“FRA-FUN GHOUL!” Mikey yelled, looking up. “I’M TAKING LAUREN INSIDE!”

“GET CY OUT HERE, WE NEED HER!” Frank responded as he looked down at him, nodding. Gerard patted Mikey on the back as he stood up, taking Lauren with him, and walked briskly through the door, nearly running into me.

“OH MY GOD, CY!” he yelled. “They need you out there, like now. There’s so many, I—“

“Mikey,” I cut him off, my hand on his shoulder. “Calm down…Lauren’s your top priority right now. We got it from here.” He nodded, and continued on into the living room to put Lauren on the couch, him sitting next to her.

“Be careful,” he said. “You have like no protection, Cy.”

“Mikey, I’ve seen death already and I’m not afraid,” I replied, winking as I walked out the door, a laser beam nearly missing my head.

“OH HELL NO!” I yelled, cocking my gun, firing at the Drac that shot at me. After he crumpled into a heap, I ran over to the others, Gerard greeting me with a quick peck on the lips.

“Cy, what—“

“Gee, stop, I’m okay.” I said, turning around and firing at another two Dracs before turning to him again. “Trust me.” He nodded, and kissed me again, before turning to Frank, who was still very agile, even though his foot was still broken. He ran over to a the last Drac standing in the front of the shack, jumped, and kicked it in the chest with his good leg, making it fly backwards into an open gasoline tank, dumping its contents all over the Drac’s body, and shot it in the head, taking a long drag from his cigarette after killing it, the tip glowing bright orange.

“Frank, you and Ray keep it tight here, we’re gonna go check and see where the fuck they’re coming from.”

“Got it,” Frank nodded blowing the smoke out of his mouth in a long stream before flicking the butt of the cigarette onto the lifeless body of the Drac, making it catch fire. “Good luck,” he added, winking at Gerard, who smiled back before pulling my arm and running. We ran side by side, punching out Dracs and shooting them down as we ran, down the road to stop the hoard from continuing to appear out of nowhere.

“They keep coming!” I cried, shooting another one as we briskly walked down the road. Gerard shook his head and stopped, running a hand through his hair, as if thinking. I stopped as well, turning back around to look at him, confused.

“Why would they attack us so suddenly?” He asked himself as he sad down, cross legged, in the middle of the road. “Why?” I frowned, joining him on the ground, sitting across from him.

“Well we are kind of outlaws,” I chuckled.

“Awe, no shit?” He joked, leaning forward to punch my shoulder. “But no…this hasn’t happened before, not to this extent.”

“Hmmm….” I said, thinking. We were silent for a while, both lost in thought, staring into the purple and orange sunset of the desert, the mild winds blowing our hair into our faces. Gerard put his bandana over his mouth for protection from the dust, and I reached up to grab mine as well, but remembered I didn’t have one.

“Babe…you need some new clothes.” Gerard said. “Look at you. You’re still in Frank’s old clothes.”

“I know, but where am I going to find anything else,” I said. “It’s not like there’s boxes of clothes lying around here….wait.” I stood up, and turned around, looking back in the direction of the shack.

“What?” He asked, looking up at me, one eye closed.

“The boxes,” I replied, looking down at him. “The motherfucking boxes.”

“Ho-ly SHIT, you are such a genius!” Gerard said, standing up. “That’s why they ambushed us, they want them back.”

“But why?” I asked, facing him. “It’s not like they don’t know what’s in them. And we don’t even have all of them.”

“But they think that if we know what they do, we’ll use it against them,” Gerard replied, putting his hands on my shoulders, his eyes soft and loving as he looked into mine. “Cy, you really are a genius.”

“Gee, I’m not, really,” I said. “It’s just common sense…”

“Believe it or not, very few people have that these days,” he chuckled, and I chuckled as well. It was true; all those people that are being lied to by Better Living Industries…if they just stopped and THOUGHT about what was going on…who knows how different the world would be.

“Hey, that warehouse is around here somewhere,” Gerard said, letting me go and looking around, and pointed into the distance. “Pretty sure it’s thatta-way. We could get you some new clothes and maybe…well, find something else in there too.”

“Um, we don’t have the car and that’s really far, and it’s getting dark,” I replied, squinting into the distance, seeing a tiny silhouette of a barn.

“Aw, that’s half the fun!” He replied happily, patting me on the back. “Come on!”

“You didn’t used to be such a thrill seeker…” I said as he snaked his arm around my waist and laughing.

“Everybody changes,” he replied. “I just changed for the better.”

“And I love you for that,” I replied, and soon after he leaned down to kiss me as we walked, smiling after he pulled back. I grinned as well as we walked hand in hand to the warehouse in silence, slightly on edge of any ambushes that would take place; we both had our free hands over our holsters, in case we needed them in a flash. Luckily, we were completely safe as we got to the giant doors of the warehouse.

“Lucky us,” I said, looking up at the doors. Gerard nodded, and let my hand go, walking around the side of the barn.

“But there are doors right here…” I said, pointing.

“They’re booby trapped,” he said as he climbed up on a couple barrels, heading towards a broken window.

“How do you know?” I asked, following him. He chuckled, slapping his hand on his thigh before letting out a sigh.

“Well, because I put them there.”

“Oh.” I replied, nodding. “Well that makes sense, doesn’t it?” Gerard laughed, and rubbed his hand though my hair before jumping through the window, landing with a soft and nearly silent thud, a dust cloud forming around him. I followed, landing next to him, and he helped me to me feet, dusting me off as I looked around. There were boxes everywhere, in every shape, form, and size.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, my voice echoing.

“This is where I get most of out shit,” he replied. “There’s clothes, food, auto parts…you name it, it’s in here.” He walked over to one of the tables in the building and picked up a knife, unsheathing it and waving it around.

“SO into this thing,” he said, chuckling. “I used to have one of these as a kid…”

“Why am I not surprised?” I giggled, taking it from him. “This is awesome!”

“I KNOW!” he replied happily, looking up at the ceiling. “You name it, it’s in here,” he rubbed the back of his head. “You know, this is where I found the rings for Mikey and Lauren.” I put the sheath back on the sword, and stared at him, my mouth open.

“No.”

“Yep. And well…I found another set in here…so I sort of took them too…”

“Gerard, you aren’t—“

“No! I originally got them for you and Frank, because, well, you know…” he said sheepishly, staring at the ground. “I was just getting prepared for that.”

“Awe, Gee,” I said as I put the knife down on the table. “I know what you’re saying, and I have to say this…you caring so much for other people is one of the many things I love about you.” he lifted his head up, the corner of his mouth in a smile.

“Really?”

“YES, really!” I replied, stroking his arm with my hand. “There needs to be more people out there like you. So caring and kind hearted…”

“Cy, I love you, you know that?” he said, stopping my arm with his hand, causing me to look into his hazel eyes.

“Yes, I do,” I replied, completely serious. “And I love you, Gerard. And I mean it this time, not like last time when I was such a fuck up…”

“You were never a fuck up, you were just confused,” He replied, putting his thumb under my chin and lifting it up to kiss me. “You’re not now…are you?”

“Nope!” I replied, kissing him back.

“Good!”

“But just saying this now, one marriage is enough at this moment in time, okay?” I replied, stepping backwards a couple steps to see his face fall from a smile to a frown.

“Understandable, but can we still consider ourselves engaged?” he asked shyly, walking over to me, holding my hands in his. “Just between the two of us?”

“Oh, a secret engagement!” I replied, grinning. “This is like something out of Pride and Prejudice.”

“Cy, I’m serious.” He said, getting down on one knee, still holding my hands in his and looking up at me. “Will you marry me?” He looked up at me, expectantly, waiting for an answer. I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to say.

“So we get married, right here, just the two of us, right now.” I said, seeing his eyes shift to the sides.

“Well…yeah.”

“Then I am saying yes, Gerard.” I replied, and saw his face glow with happiness, a huge smile on his face. “A million times, YES!”

He stood up off his knee and gave me the most passionate, loving and deepest kiss I had ever gotten in my entire life, which seemed to last for hours, his hands on my waist as I put my hands behind his head, pushing it closer to mine as we kissed. After finally pulling away, he smiled widely at me, his eyes shining with tears of happiness, and I felt for sure mine were doing the same.

“Oh, right,” he said, digging into his pocket and taking out a small black box and opened it, revealing two gold rings, some red embedded into both of them. “Hold up your hand,” he added, and took my left hand in his, sliding the cold metal onto my ring finger, smiling the entire time.

“Gerard, it’s beautiful…” I said, holding my hand in front of me to examine it. The closer I looked, I realized that the red in the ring were actually tiny rubies, glistening in the moonlight coming from the warehouse window.

“I thought you’d love it,” he replied, taking his glove off his left hand to put his ring on, then put the glove back on. “They’re your colors, right?”

“Red and yellow, yes,” I looked up at him. “Gee, you remembered…”

“Of course I did!” he replied, bringing me into another tight embrace. Whispering into my ear he added jokingly, “I had to get married before my kid brother, or else I would be kicking myself forever.”

“Oh shut up!” I laughed as I pushed him away from me, his unique laugh echoing. I just stood there, crossing my arms over my chest, pretending to pout.

“Kidding! Cy, you know I’m kidding, come on,” he said. “I would never mean anything like that.” I changed my pout into a smile, which made him grin back.

“I know, Gee, it still hurt a bit though…jerk.”

“Aw, Cy, come on, this isn’t a good way to start a marriage!”

“Gah, I’m MARRIED.” I exclaimed, tilting my head back to look up at the ceiling. “I can’t believe it…”

“You better believe it,” Gerard said, grabbing my hand in his. “Now come on, we actually had a reason to come here.”

“Oh, so you didn’t drag me here to propose?”

“Well, that,” He said, taking out a piece of paper and reading it. “and we need to get Mikey and Lauren a cake, champagne, a dress, tux, and flowers and other wedding shit like ribbons and a garter belt, even though that garter belt is quite useless, ha ha.”

“True, true,” I replied as he walked me over to the section of the warehouse that was full of nothing but wedding supplies, and started digging through boxes. “Personally, I love a good shotgun wedding like ours, but if they insist…thank god money isn’t an issue because we are running low.”

“Did the others know you’d propose tonight?” I asked him, opening up a box full of champagne glasses. He stopped rummaging through the box he was going through for a couple seconds, then started again, shaking his head.

“Why’d you think Frank said good luck, babe?” he asked. “I never keep anything from him, never.”

“You sly motherfucker!” I cried, throwing dirt at the back of his head. He laughed, and turned around, shaking the dirt out of his hair.

“You know, it’s funny, I just told him right before the ambush started. We were all checking on Lauren and I was like ‘oh, hey guys, I’ve been meaning to tell you that I am proposing to Cy—SHIT! DRACS! RUN!’ and then the battle commenced.” He waved his hands in the air for dramatic effect, chuckling. I just bit my lip, blinking at him.

“So they all knew…” I said slowly. “So much for a secret engagement…”

“It’s still secret to Lauren,” he replied, continuing to go through the box, taking out massive amounts of ribbon that matched the colors that Lauren wanted and putting them aside with the champagne glasses.

“Yeah but she’s unconscious, that doesn’t count…” I said, walking over to another box and opening it, a gigantic wedding dress popping out of it as soon as I got it open. Picking it up, I added. “Did you ever find out what happened to her?”

“I think she got whacked in the head or something, but I couldn’t really tell,” he answered, throwing an empty box aside and sliding another one near him. “I think Mikey’ll know by the time we get back.”

“I hope she’s okay…” I said, holding the dress out in front of me. “You think she’d like this?”

“Uh, hell no that is so not Lauren.” He said. “Are you serious?”

“Well, I don’t know! I hate weddings!”

“Go for something a lot less like Cinderella, and more like Belle.”

“Awe, Disney references now!”

“Shut it.” He said, pointing at me, his face scrunched up as if he was about to sneeze. I laughed at this, and walked around the other side of the boxes, and stopped, my mouth wide open.

“Gerard!” I called. “You gotta see this!” I heard him get up and run around to join me, and stopped next to me.

“What?” he asked, and I just pointed up towards the tux and wedding dress in front of me, which were on mannequins, the plastic over them leaving them untouched by dust or age. Gerard walked over to the mannequins, and took off the plastic, tossing it aside before stroking the fabric, his eyes wide and mouth open.

“Cy…this tux is pure velvet.” He said, looking over to me. “I think we struck gold, babe.”

“That dress is just perfect for Lauren too…” I said, walking over to it. “Just look at the coloring and the shape…it’s totally her.”

“To a tee,” Gerard said, wrapping his arm around my waist. We reveled in the beauty of the two wedding garments in silence, before Gerard spoke again.

“You know…I would’ve loved to see you in a wedding dress,” he said, leaning his head on my shoulder.

“And you a tux,” I replied. The silence struck once again, until I heard the sound of a car motor pull up from outside, the headlights beaming through the cracks in the walls.

“We should get back…” he said, taking the clothes off of the mannequins and hanging them from his forearm.

“How are we going to carry all of this shit back to the shack?” I asked as I followed him around to the other side of the boxes.

“That’s where I come in,” I heard from behind me. I turned around and jumped, seeing Frank materialize out of no where, leaning on a wall of crates and smirking, hands in his pants pockets. “Lemme see the ring, babe,” he added, nodding at me. I smiled, and walked over to him, letting him take my arm by the wrist, examining the ring on my finger.

“Frank, I hope you’re okay with this…” I said quietly, turning my head to see if Gerard was listening; he was too busy trying to figure out how to balance multiple boxes of wedding supplies, so he probably didn’t hear us.

“Babe, I told you, if you’re happy, I’m happy,” he replied, putting my hand down, and smiling at me, his brown eyes connecting with mine. “The question is, though, are you happy?” I thought about it, and nodded, grinning happily, feeling myself blush.

“I am happy, Frank.”

“Good.” He said, smiling, as he walked past me, patting my shoulder as he walked by to help Gerard. “Buddy, come on, what are you doing? Those are glass—LET ME HELP DAMN IT!”

I giggled, watching the two of them yell at each other about what should go in which box, and eventually walked over and threw it all in one box, the glass clinking against each other, getting tied up in the ribbon and resting on top of the tux.

“Problem solved,” I said, clapping my hands together, staring at both of their frowning faces. “Now go take that outside to the car, I’m gonna find us a cake!” They both nodded, and I kissed Gerard on the lips quickly and hugged Frank before turning on my heel to go find a cake. Not two minutes later, I found a cake in a refrigerated box next to where the tux and dress were, and I walked back to the car, a white, square cake in hand, grinning at the both of them, Gerard sitting on the hood of the car, Frank leaning on the side of it, smoking and looking into the distance.

“Ta-Da!” I said as I presented the cake to them. “Perfect, no?” Frank took it from me, cigarette in his mouth, and put it in the trunk, slamming it down with a loud bang.

“That finished up the list, I think,” Gerard said, taking out the paper again. “We have…a dress, tux, cake, champagne and glasses, ribbon…I think that’s good, no?” he folded up the paper and stuffed it back in his pocket as Frank spoke.

“And all this for free too,” he said. “God, I remember weddings used to be tens of thousands of dollars back in the day.” He shook his head, sighing. “Crazy.”

“Oh, how times have changed,” I said, pointing at Gerard. “we aren’t even HAVING a wedding!”

“You party pooping, fun sucker, killjoy motherfucker,” Frank said, punching Gerard extremely hard on the shoulder, causing him to fall on his side and roll down the hood of the car, falling onto the ground.

“Hey!” Gerard replied, giggling, but stopped when we all heard an unfamiliar motor in the distance. Gerard scrambled to his feet, putting his bandana over his face.

“We need to go.” He said sternly.

“But I didn’t get any clothes—“

“We have some at the shack, Cy, but we really need to go, okay?” Frank said, taking me by the shoulders and walking me into the back seat of the car. “BL/ind patrol car. Multiple Scarecrow units. Bad news for us.” I nodded, and watched him jump into the passenger’s seat, Gerard at the wheel.

“Hold on,” Gerard said, starting the car and immediately gunning it, drifting around a corner to turn ourselves around, a dust cloud forming all around us, the tires screeching and grinding on the dirt. We were off in a flash, going about eighty in a straight line towards the shack, Frank leaning out the window with binoculars, trying to spot any other patrol cars that we may have missed.

“Shit,” he said, coming back into the car and sitting down. “There’s a line of like six of them straight ahead.”

“Okay, I got a plan, but you have to trust me,” Gerard said, looking into the rearview mirror to see me nod.

“I trust you completely,” I said, and he nodded, accelerating faster, his face full of concentration.

“If you’re doing what I think you’re doing…” Frank said slowly, cocking his gun and leaning back out the window.

“What? What is he doing? What is Gerard doing?” I asked, panicked. Gerard just shook his head, mouth thin.

“Trust me.” He said, still accelerating faster. I sat still in the back, hanging on for dear life as he suddenly jerked the wheel to the left, causing us to spin, Frank shooting at the car’s wheels from the window, making them explode with a loud BOOM every time. After he shot them all down, he came back inside of the car again, and Gerard straightened the car out once again, and drove a beeline right towards the cars, going about 120 miles per hour, face still stone.

“Hold on!” He yelled, and drove the car right through the tight space between two of the patrol cars, clipping the side of our car on theirs, the sound of metal on metal deafening to my ears before crashing through. We had broken through their defenses, and since they had no wheels to drive on, we were home free, still doing about 100 miles an hour towards the shack. Gerard gradually slowed down once we were a few miles away, and eventually made it back in one piece, without anyone from BL/ind trailing behind us. I looked out the window to see Ray run out of the shack, looking concerned.

“Holy shit, you guys okay?” he asked as we piled out of the car. “Dr. D said BL/ind is quadrupling their forces and…shit…”

“Ray, we’re fine, buddy,” Frank said, clapping him on the back. “We’re alive, that’s all that matters.”

“Thank fuck,” Ray replied.

“How’s Lauren?” I asked him, and saw him frown.

“She’s…still unconscious. Mikey says it’s a really bad concussion…she hasn’t woken up yet.”

“FUCK!” I said, punching the side of the car. “I am going to KILL whoever did this to my sister! GOD DAMN IT!” Angry, I started running out into the desert screaming profanities, not caring about anything else but Lauren and my taste for revenge.

“GOD DAMN MOTHERFUCKING COCK SUCKING ASSHOLES ARE GOING TO PAY!” I yelled.

“Cy!” I heard Gerard exclaim as he ran over to clasp his arms around me, holding me close to him to calm me down. “Shhh….Cy, stop…we can’t do anything right now, okay? I promise, you can get back at whoever did this, but for now, you have to STAY CALM, alright?”

“She’s our SISTER!” I sobbed. “How can they? Why? What did she ever do to deserve this? What did WE do to deserve this? NOTHING! I’ll kill them!”

“Cy, please, CALM THE FUCK DOWN AND LISTEN!” Gerard said, shaking me by the shoulders. “You can not do anything to help right now. Nothing, absolutely nothing. All you can do is hope, okay? If I know Lauren, I know she’ll wake up in the next hour or so…I promise babe. Then you can tell her about us, and laugh, and hug and everything will be okay. I promise.” He kissed me on the forehead tenderly, and held me away from him until I calmed down. I looked up at him through tear-ridden eyes, and shook my head.

“Nothing will ever be okay,” I said, shrugging him off of me. “Not until BL/ind is shut down for fucking good.” I started walking back to the shack, ignoring Gerard and the others as I passed them, staring at my feet as I walked. I made my way into the living room to see Mikey sitting next to Lauren on the couch.

“How is she?” I asked him. He jumped at my sudden appearance, and squeezed the space between his eyes, shaking my head.

“She’s…alive,” he said, looking at me, his rarely seen hazel eyes tainted red. “Breathing, but that’s about it.” I knelt down on the floor in front of the couch, and kissed Lauren’s forehead, putting her hair behind her ear.

“Like Gerard said…all we can do is hope.” I reached over and shook Mikey’s arm by the wrist as the others walked in, forming a half circle around us. I sat up slightly to rest my head on Lauren’s side, sobbing, and felt someone pulling me from behind.

“Come on, Cy, let her rest,” Gerard said, literally pulling me off of my sister, much to my protest.

“Please tell me she’s going to be all right,” I said to him, still crying. He nodded, and stroked my cheek, wiping the tears off my face.

“She’s going to be fine, Cy,” he whispered into my ear. “Trust me. Have hope.”

That was really all I could do.