The Kids From Yesterday

Today was the day.

I sat in bed remembering the events from the night before.

Daydream had us all gather in the mess hall, because she wanted to make a big speech and gave us our group assignments.

“Alright killjoys listen up!” Daydream boomed. Zombie and Night Hawk were standing on either side of her. I turned to Crush and poked her.

“Why’s Zombie up there?” I asked her. Crush shrugged and continued to listen.

“Basically there are going to be three teams. And there is one leader for each team: Zombie, Night Hawk, and myself. Zombie and I are going to lead the two teams that are going to be on the offence. Night Hawk is manning the fort. You cannot switch whichever group you are on. I put you there for a reason. I expect all of you to get up at dawn tomorrow. The team lists are on the tables behind you.” Daydream instructed. We turned around toward the tables and then back at her.

“See you tomorrow everyone!” She chimed.

Crush and I headed over towards the lists. I immediately looked at Zombie’s list. I wasn’t on it.

“Fuck…” I groaned.

“Well I couldn’t let you and Zombie to be together on this thing, you’d goof off too much. This is a serious mission Python. I need you both on you’re A game! You’re with me on this thing.” Daydream explained. I nodded. At least I was going, but I was worried about Zombie having an episode tomorrow.

We all went to bed early. And that’s all I remember.

I was sitting there staring at the ceiling until R.J. started jumping on me.

“What. The. Fuck?” I growled.

“Look alive sunshine! Big day today!” she cheered. I threw a pillow at her causing her to tip over. She threw it back and pegged me in the head.

“Umff! Bitch…” I growled.

“Skank” she replied with a grin on her face. We laughed, got ready, and headed out. We were in the same group.

“I’ll catch you later R.J. ok? I just wanna check on something.” I said. R.J. nodded and skipped down the hallway. I wanted to check on two things. My first stop was down the hall to Mark and Audrey’s room.

“Hey hey hey!” I greeted. Mark looked up from where he was sitting with Squirt and grinned.

“Hey! I feel like I never see you anymore! What’s up?” he asked.

“Nothing much, just checking in on you guys…are you guys going today?” I asked. Mark shook his head.

“Not me, but Audrey is.” He replied. I looked around the room, but of course she was nowhere to be found.

“Where is she?” I asked. Mark shrugged.

“No idea…I didn’t want her to even go today, but she kept saying that she had to and that she was sorry… I don’t know what’s gotten into her lately…” Mark sighed.

“I don’t either…has she been helping at all with Squirt?” I asked. Mark shook his head.

“She doesn’t even look at her half the time. I can’t stand it.” Mark sighed. I looked down at tiny, happy, smiling Squirt, oblivious to everything wrong in our world. How could someone not want to be around her every second?

“I’m sorry Phantom…hey I have to go, I’ll check in before I leave for today ok?” I said as I headed out the door.

“Hey Python?” Mark called. I turned around.

“Yeah?” I asked

“Stay safe. Keep Audrey safe ok?” he said. I felt my mouth twitch into a sad smile.

“Sure thing Phantom. You keep Squirt safe or I’ll kill you!” I warned as I left. My next stop was Freedom and Zombie’s room.

I walked up to the door, but stopped. Zombie was trying to give Freedom tips about shooting, and finding cover. Freedom looked bored and rolled her eyes a lot. I knew Zombie was freaking out though. Freedom was his baby cousin and the only person he had in the world.

I knocked on the door and they both spun around. Freedom looked relieved that someone was going to save her from Zombie’s lecture.

“Hey” I greeted.

“Oh Python thank the great killjoy gods! I thought I was going to die of old age before Zombie let me go!” Freedom exclaimed while giving me a huge hug.

“Whoa there! It’s cool, go get some food, we’re heading out soon” I laughed. Freedom nodded and ran down the hall before Zombie could say anything.

“So Freedom’s with you right?” I asked. Zombie shook his head.

“Nope… Daydream wants her in her group. You guys are taking out communications remember?” he asked. I gave him a confused look. I didn’t pay attention to what each group was doing, I just wanted to know if I was going or not. After that I didn’t care.

“Well now you know…take care of her…” Zombie mumbled.

“I’ll never let her out of my sight.” I reassured him. Zombie nodded.

“We should probably go...” Zombie grumbled. I nodded and we headed outside.

I was riding with Daydream, R.J., Crush, and Freedom. Audrey was with Zombie. Before we got in the car though, Daydream let us say our goodbyes to everyone because we didn’t know who was coming back. Freedom and I walked over to Zombie and Audrey. I squeezed Audrey tight. Partly to hurt her for ignoring her daughter, but also because I was scared to lose her. Audrey pulled away and faced me. Her gold eyes were starting to fill with tears.

“I’m sorry about everything Python…” Audrey mumbled. I nodded and hugged her again. Audrey pulled away and climbed into Zombie’s car. I walked over to Zombie and hugged him.

“Stay focused… Freedom and I aren’t going to be there… you need to stay focused….” I whispered. Zombie nodded. I pulled away from him and stared at him. “If you don’t come back, I’ll kill you” I warned. Zombie grinned.

“That goes for you too” He chuckled. I smirked and was about to say something else, but Daydream called us over. Freedom and I said goodbye and we hopped into Daydream’s car.

“Bitches ready to kill some dracs?!” R.J. cheered. We all laughed. I felt a pit in my stomach as I looked around the car. I had no idea who was and wasn’t coming home.

“Alright girls, we’re going to be behind Zombie’s team. Be ready to shoot. The dracs won’t hold back and neither should you.” Daydream instructed. We all nodded our heads.

There were about twenty cars going in all. I was guessing if we were lucky, a little more than half of us were going to make it.

I saw Zombie and the cars in his group drive ahead of us. What if Zombie didn’t focus hard enough? What if he had a seizure? A drac would take him and kill him for sure. And Freedom and I wouldn’t be anywhere near him.

I looked at Freedom. It was like she was reading my mind. She shared the same look of terror.

“Stay with Daydream no matter what I do” I whispered barely audible to her. Freedom nodded and looked a little more relieved. I sat back in my seat and waited out the rest of the ride.

When we finally got there, it was chaos.

Laser beams were flying around everywhere. And there was a lot of blood.

“Heads up!” Daydream yelled over her shoulder as she drove towards the main building. Freedom, Crush, R.J. and I whipped out our guns and started shooting at the dracs that attempted to surround us. I took down two easily. Freedom however took down almost ten.

I looked over to where Zombie and Audrey’s group was. They were in trouble. I nodded to Freedom and jumped out of the still moving car. I hit the ground hard and scraped up my side.

“Python what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Daydream screamed

“HELPING THEM! Keep going” I yelled waving her off. Daydream nodded and continued driving. As soon as she drove away, I was surrounded by dracs.

“…Shit…” I growled as I pulled out my gun. There were too many, so I shot three and ran through them.

I never ran so fast in my life. I ran, and ducked, and shot in random directions. I didn’t even pay attention to where I was running. I guess I was running in the right direction though, because a couple minutes later I slammed right into Zombie.

“Python?! What the fuck are you doing here?!” he boomed.

“Saving your ass!” I snapped. There were so many dead killjoys. I looked around to see if I could find Audrey, but I couldn’t.

“Where’s Sparrow?!” I asked panicking.

“She’s fine, she told me she was going to find some higher ground so we could try and get an advantage on them” Zombie yelled back over the gunshots. I nodded and continued to shoot.
When there were finally none left, Zombie signaled Audrey to come down. We ran toward their vans and started slashing the dracs tires so any remaining dracs wouldn’t be able to get back to head quarters and tell others that we attacked them.

“I bet your going to be psyched to see Squirt after this huh Sparrow?” I asked Audrey while I was turning away from the van. We had maybe five vans to go.

Three dracs had their guns pointed to her head. I pulled out my gun and aimed at them. Zombie placed his hand on top of it and pushed it down. The dracs didn’t say anything; they just slowly walked to the vans and got in. They pulled Audrey in behind them.

“I’m so sorry Python…” Audrey whimpered. The doors closed and they drove away