The Future Ain't So Bulletproof

Expanding my lungs as much as I could, I drew in a huge, shaky breath and expelled it all in my attempt to project my voice across the room. But that’s all it was – an attempt.

“Hey!” instead of the loud warning I had anticipated, the sound caught in my throat, coming out as nothing more that a strangled whisper.

The men continued to argue, throwing around phrases concerning me, comparing me to this other girl, blaming each other for the death of the aforementioned Bob. I cast my eyes desperately in the direction of the voices, barely seeing anything other than the hands holding the stout candles, the flames flickering with the exaggerated hand movements of the angry people.

All the while, I could hear the sound of roaring motorbike engines drawing closer.

In the blackness, I saw a short figure darting in front of me.

“Hey,” I repeated myself softly, trying to attract the attention of the child. The figure stood still, but showed no sign of acknowledgement.

Clawing my blood encrusted hair into a ponytail and letting it fall down my back, I took a cautious step forward. When the child didn’t react, I took another and another until we were close enough to touch. It was only then that I realised the child’s back was towards me. Thinking nothing of it, I knelt down and dropped my hand to a small shoulder, being met with a short, piercing scream. I winced at the sound as the child was ripped from underneath my hand. The male voices had stopped abruptly and the candles that still remained burning were quickly orientated in my direction.

Despite the anger and suspicion that filled the tense atmosphere, I took advantage of the silence to utter on word in a repeat of the incident in the burnt-out building.

“Dracs.”

The silence remained a second longer whilst the screeching of brakes above us filled the room. The high pitched noise kick-started the scramble. I could hear Party Poison voice over the shuffling of heavy boots; he was hurriedly dishing out orders – we had to stay together, the darkness could be used to our advantage, we mustn’t shoot too early (easy for me – I didn’t have a gun).

I was back in a standing position, my eyes detecting nothing as the last of the candles had been extinguished. Hands outstretched, I carefully made my way to the corner of the room where my palm met with a leather-clad chest.

“Thank you,” Party Poison’s increasingly familiar voice whispered in front of me. I was about to ask what he was thankful for, but one heavy footstep silenced us all.

The footsteps continued, moving further and further into the room. I felt a slight pressure on my upper arm as Party Poison wrapped his fingers around it and started pulling me along the wall in the direction of the door.

Rummaging sounds came from the figure in the centre of the basement as a flashlight was switched on, the beam of light falling on the couch in front of the Drac. Party Poison’s silent pace quickened as the torch was swept around the room.

I had no idea where the other men were, but instead of worrying I concentrated on being as silent and as ninja-like as the man in front of me.

I was suddenly tugged in a different direction as we met another corner of the room. The door was a few paces away and my pulse was quickening. We were almost out, but there would be more Dracs waiting for us on the street.

With my increasing heart rate, I was becoming more and more flustered, eager to remove myself from this sticky situation. My urgency made me take a step too quickly and my toes caught the heel of Party Poison’s boot. I stumbled, falling to the floor with a loud thud, a whispered curse slipping through my teeth before I could swallow it. The flashlight was immediately shone in our direction and there we froze, like deer in the headlights.

Party Poison reacted before I could. Even the Drac was surprised by the speed of his actions. His yellow gun was trained into the light of the torch, his lips pressed in a thin line whilst his cherry red hair cast a lion’s mane shadow on the concrete wall behind him. This was the first time I had been able to see his features properly, now that they were illuminated in the torch light.

I scrambled clumsily to my feet as the two men began firing at each other. I was dragged up to my full height by Party Poison’s free hand and forcefully pushed behind his back. He kept his arm outstretched behind himself, preventing me from moving in front of him. In this position, we hurriedly began sidestepping toward the door, Party Poison still shooting at the Drac who was dodging every one of his attacks.

The other outlaws had not intervened and were still nowhere to be seen. I figured there must have been an outstanding rule to save yourself.

As we reached the door, I was pushed backwards through it, almost falling to the floor again. Hands grabbed my shoulders, stabilising me. I looked up to see a tall, thin man wearing a motorcycle helmet. I was about to thank him when I was dragged up the stairs, again like a ragdoll, whilst someone finished off the pursuing Drac.

The top of the concrete steps were, as predicted, surrounded by white-clad enemies sitting lazily on their vehicles, clearly not expecting us. They all scrambled into action as soon as they noticed our presence, but we had already taken advantage of the head start.

As we sprinted towards the car, the two people in front of me took down three of the many surrounding Dracs. Once we reached our destination, the black cover was ripped off the vehicle and I was picked up and practically thrown into the passenger seat. My injuries should have been protesting, but I was too full of adrenaline to feel pain.

As soon as the last man had joined us, the car was thrown backwards, performing a perfectly executed J-turn and speeding away, the white motorbikes not far behind us. It was up to Party Poison’s driving and everyone else’s shooting to shake them off now.

And that is exactly what happened. All but one of the Dracs were killed and the last one, sensing his fate, pulled away. Now there was only one thing left to do – get out of the city.



Everyone was silent in the car as we crawled through the dark streets. My heart was in my mouth and my eyes were struggling against the darkness, searching for any sign of movement.

I held my breath as we approached a flickering light, but it turned out to be nothing more than a dysfunctional street lamp; dysfunctional due to the ruined car that had mounted the kinked pole slightly.

“That must’ve hurt,” Party Poison chuckled suddenly, his eyes focussed on the same wreck as my own. I glanced sideways at him sheepishly before sighing.

“That’s my car.”

He let out a genuine laugh, throwing his head back as he did so. From the back, I could hear a few muffled sniggers.

“Do you want me to stop so you can salvage a few things?” The chortles behind me turned into protests but, despite them, I nodded once.

The car slowed to a stop alongside the wreckage and I slipped out of my seat. The sound of a car door slamming caught my attention and I looked up to see Party Poison also stepping out. I didn’t understand him. From what I’d heard of the argument he’d had with his friends back at the basement, he should have been the most wary of me, yet here he was helping me, rescuing me from almost certain death.

Those thoughts ran through my head as I moved away from the sound of his grumbling friends. As I neared the car wreck, the sputtering street lamp finally gave in and we were plunged into darkness.

“Helpful,” Party Poison stated. Before the light had given out, I’d seen him dragging my tattered duffle bag from the back of the car. He’d had to climb over the seats because of the BLi van that had merged with the back of my own car, the twisted metal making it impossible to open the trunk. The bodies that had been sprawled out across the bonnet of the van had been moved.

“There’s a flashlight in that bag you’re holding,” I informed him timidly, standing still while I waited for him to find it. Once the light was switched on, he let out another laugh. I moved closer to see what he was looking at, but all I could see was the back seat and the food I had stolen earlier.

“You don’t do things by halves, do you?” My eyebrows knitted together for a moment before I realised he was talking about the stolen food. I shook my head, smiling a little.

We packed as much as we could carry and hauled it over to the other car. Party Poison went back to sweep the torch over the car once more, stopping as the light hit the steering wheel. I knew exactly what he was looking at and watched as he lowered the beam to the floor where, a few hours ago, there was a puddle that turned my stomach. I looked away and slid into the car. Party Poison joined us moments later, shining the torch directly into my face. I squinted against the brightness as someone in the back drew in a sharp breath.

“We’ll get that seen to when we get out of here, okay?” He promised. I just shrugged.



Light was peeking over the tall grey buildings of the city and shadows were beginning to appear on the cracked surface of the road. I recognised my surroundings and knew that we would soon be reaching the border. The car had fallen silent once again and I could feel the tension in the atmosphere growing as the buildings on either side of us began to thin.

My mind was buzzing with thoughts of escape. I had no idea what our driver had planned and he showed no sign of stopping to fill us in. I was clinging onto the hope that the lockdown had been lifted.

The final few buildings fell behind us, shrinking in the rear view mirror. My breath caught in my throat as we cleared the bridge and the barrier materialised out of the darkness. The Dracs were still there and they had seen the car. I gripped onto the edge of my seat, my fingers turning white with the pressure. The white figures ahead had stopped their pacing, awaiting our arrival.

We were a few meters from the barrier when they realised who we were. I was jolted forward as the car sped up, laser beams zooming past us in both directions. Looking to my right, I saw Party Poison wearing a huge grin as he pushed the car forward.

Another jolt forced my whole body to double up, my head narrowly missing the dashboard. As I straightened up, I saw we had collided with the road-block. The boys in the back were leaning as far out of their windows as possible, firing at the Dracs now swarming around the car. The barrier in front of us was being pushed along by the car, slowing us down. Party Poison made a sharp turn and the traffic barricade was left behind. Everyone moved their bodies back inside the car in time for Party Poison to speed up, and as I looked into the wing mirror, I saw the Dracs shrinking into the distance, being consumed by desert sand.