The Kids From Yesterday

“Bitch get your fucking ass dressed we are going out!” my best friend Audrey announced as she entered my room. I immediately jumped up from my bed where I had been drawing and smirked at her attempt to use as much profanity as she could in one sentance. I was still in my all white school uniform.

“Mark’s waiting outside isn’t he?” I asked as I nodded my head towards the window. Audrey rolled her eyes and nodded. Mark was our other best friend. Audrey had had a thing for him for a while now, and that was strange since she usually gets bored with guys.

“Will you hurry up and get dressed? Or do I have to pick your outfit out for you?” Audrey sighed impatiently as she walked over to my closet.

“No I got it…” I started as I scurried after her. “What are you wearing?” I asked. She took off her oversize sweat shirt and shorts to reveal a rather tight looking pale dress. I looked down at her feet.

“You’re wearing those with that?” I asked motioning towards her grungy looking sneakers. Personally I would’ve worn them but I knew it wasn’t her style.

“Oh hell no! I was just wearing these over so my mom didn’t start asking questions!” she started as she pulled a pair of high black heels out of her bag and put them on. “Your parents are asleep right?” She asked as she scurried over to the mirror to do her hair and makeup.

“Yeah, but Freddie will cover for us. He doesn’t want to but he owes me” I explained as I threw on a pair of dark fringed shorts and a loose black sparkly tank top. I threw on my studded sneakers, and my tiny silver snake shaped ring that I always wear. I walked over to the mirror to do my makeup.

“Eh…not my first choice…but it’ll do…” Audrey sighed as she looked at what I chose then continued to straighten her long dark curls.

“It’s a club and it’s going to get hot at some point!” I snapped defensively while smearing dark eye shadow around my bright green eyes.

“Do you always have to dress so depressing?” Audrey chuckled. I playfully punched her in the shoulder.

“Screw you I’m telling Mark to come in” I said with a smirk. Audrey went back to doing her hair. And I quickly teased my mousey brown hair. I opened the window and looked around for Scarecrow Workers.

“Mark!” I hissed when it was clear. Mark stepped out of the shadows with his huge grin he always had plastered on his face.

“You guys ready?” he whispered back.

“Almost, just get your ass inside before someone sees you!” I whispered as quietly as possible. It was about an hour and a half past curfew and dracs would be coming around any minute to check the streets. Mark hurried inside my house. I heard him greet my older brother then hurry up the stairs.

“Ladies” Mark greeted in his best cheesy fake pick up line voice.

“Mark shut up and let us finish before we tie you down and cover you in makeup. Let’s see you try and pick up girls then!” Audrey growled as she walked towards him with a tube of lipstick. Mark ran back downstairs to hang with Freddie.

I smirked and collapsed down on my bed and waited for Audrey to finish doing her hair. Once she was done we went downstairs, grabbed my jacket, grabbed Mark, checked the windows for dracs, and turned to say goodbye to my brother.

“Took your pills?” He asked

“Nope!” I automatically answered

“Damn it Jen... At least be home by 2… I really don’t like having you out later than that with all those weirdoes running around...”He started. He was talking about the rebels that are against the Industry.

“But you will let me anyways because you’re the best big brother ever and you owe me” I said cutting him off. I quickly pecked him on the cheek then ran out the door into the dark quiet streets of Battery City.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About a half hour later, we were growing tired of trying to find the place and had almost run into about 4 dracs.

“So Audrey, where is this fantastic club you spoke of to us?” I asked as I lit a cigarette.

“If I remember correctly…it should be right down…Here!” Audrey said excitedly as she pointed to a manhole cover with a faint yellow light creeping through the cracks. You’d only be able to notice it if you knew where to look.

We walked up and removed the lid and slowly slid down. We can hear music booming from farther down the tunnel. A security guard immediately greeted us as soon as our feet touched the floor.

“Aren’t you kids a little young to be hanging around here?” He grunted. Audrey stepped forwards.

“Uh yeah but you wouldn’t really turn us away and leave us to defend ourselves against the brutal Scarecrow Workers who will most likely torture us until we told them the exact location of this place where you probably keep a lot of illegal things?” she asked innocently batting her long eyelashes. Mark and I can’t help but laugh at this. The security guard smirks at us and lets us in.

“Good to see you Audrey have a nice time.” He laughs.

“You too Norman!” Audrey replies with a grin and strolls in with Mark and me scuttling behind her.

“Norman the Doorman…” I hear Mark chuckle quietly.

“I heard that!” Norman yelled after us causing us all to laugh as we continue walking along.

We follow Audrey down a dark brick tunnel. The farther we go the louder the music gets. When we turn another corner, I finally get a good look at the place. It wasn’t like the other places I’ve been. And I’ve been to a lot. This one was crazy. There were people in brightly colored clothing and hair and masks and with weird designs on them dancing wildly. Most of them even had ray guns on them, only they didn’t look like the standard snow white draculoid ray gun. These ones were as bright and colorful as the people who owned them. I then realized these were the kind of people Freddie warned me about. But they didn’t seem like the cold hearted killers like the Industry had us believe. They seemed just like me and my friends… Just looking for a good time and hating the system.

“Let’s dance!” Audrey decided as she grabbed Marks hand and dragged him into the crowd. I smirked and walked over to what I guessed was the bar. It was basically a makeshift counter with various bottles behind it. Most likely it was all made by the people who live here since the Industry made alcohol illegal.

I shoved my way to the front of the mob crowding the tiny bar and asked for anything.

“Aren’t you a little young to be drinking?” the bartender asked giving me a look as he placed the drink in front of me.

“Isn’t selling alcohol punishable by death?” I asked as I took a sip of my drink. The bartender smirked and I set my money on the counter and walked away.

I head over to an old brick wall on the edge of the crowd looking for any signs of my friends. Sure enough I saw Audrey and Mark in the middle of the dance floor. Audrey looks up at me and grins a grin I only see when she is genuinely happy. I smile back and lean against the wall as I scan the crowd to see what other kinds of people are here. They all look so different and yet they look the same. Like one big gang.

I see only one other person who doesn’t have a crazy hairdo or outfit that that looked like a rainbow threw up on them. He was standing against the opposite wall looking around the crowd like he lost someone. He had brown hair, a simple red jacket and looked about 18 or 20. There must be other people dressed normally because he doesn’t look like the kind of person who would wander down here alone. I walked back to the bar and was about to order another drink when Norman came running through the passage.

“Dracs! It’s a raid! Run-” He started yelling but was cut off when a draculoid caught up to him and shot him in the back. A massive group of dracs ran into the room armed with guns and scanners to identify us. There’s immediate chaos. Not people running and screaming. But people fighting back and defending each other. I take a rag from the bar and tie it around the barcode tattooed on my right wrist so they won’t be able to scan my arm from a distance. I look around and see Audrey and Mark running towards me. We all grab a hold of each other as we try and find a way out.

“Hey you guys! This way!” someone yells at us. I whip my head around to see the guy with the red jacket standing at a doorway waving for us to follow him. As we duck behind him he draws a ray gun from his jacket and shoots at a group of dracs who managed to make their way towards us.

“Go through that tunnel and keep going strait! When you reach the end go up! When the coast is clear run! Got it?” he yelled. We all nodded yes stupidly and thanked him. He gave us a quick nod then went back to the fight.

We wasted no time as we ran down the dark tunnel. My vision was getting more and more fuzzy so I was stumbling a lot. We finally reached the end, checked to see if anyone was following us then checked above us. There were about 4 BLI vans, but it seemed empty because the dracs were most likely all down in the sewer. We all slowly crawled out and started running down the streets.

About 3 blocks away from my house a group of Scarecrow Workers saw us and started shooting at us on the spot. We ran in the opposite direction and hid in an alley. As they walked by, Audrey accidentally let out a tiny scream before Mark clamped his hand over her mouth. But it was too late.

The Scarecrow Workers came running after us again. We ran out the back of the alley into the middle of the streets. A strangely painted car screeched to a halt in front of us causing us to fall to the ground. The kid with the jacket and some other guy with black hair shoot down the workers. The boy with the black hair looks down at us.

“Pack what you can and run to the desert. Get a gun and learn how to shoot. They know who you are now; they’ll look for you so pick a new name and forget your old one.” He tells us.

“What kind of name?” Mark asks. The black haired boy smiles at him.

“A Killjoy name” he answers. And with that he drives off with the red jacket boy towards the desert.