The Kids From Yesterday

It was dark and I was running. I was running and getting shot at.

“Come on Sparrow!” I yelled. I turned and saw Audrey struggling behind me. Audrey nodded and ran faster. Then Zombie appeared.

“What’d I miss?” he asked with a grin.

“Audrey’s hurt, and we’ve almost died twice. Your plan sucks dude!” I snapped, filling him in.

“No, it’s working perfectly! See that gap?” he asked. I nodded “I’ve got people on both sides who are ready to bring it down when we pass through” he continued. I nodded again and we continued to run.
We were just about to run through when Audrey stopped.

“Sparrow come on!” I yelled. Audrey shook her head and reached into her pocket. She pulled a remote out of her pocket, shrugged, and pressed a button. Zombie’s face went pail. We heard the gap start rumbling. Boulders started falling towards us. Zombie shoved me down and covered me. We were instantly covered in rubble and dust. It stopped after five minutes.

“Zombie, can you get up now?” I asked while pushing him off of me. there was no response. “Zombie?” I asked again. There was blood everywhere. I shook him and begged him to wake up. He was breathing, but barely. I looked up for anyone to help me. Audrey was standing on the biggest rock staring at us.

“Audrey help us!” I begged.

“He’s still alive” she told me.

“Then help me!” I yelled. She shook her head and walked towards us.

“You didn’t help me” she reminded. She took out her gun and shot him. She raised the gun towards me.

“Audrey no!” I screamed.

I woke up still screaming. I sat up and gasped.

“Ughh… again Python? It’s like five in the morning.” R.J. growled from her bed

“I know I’m sorry R.J. …” I sighed. R.J. nodded, rolled over, and fell back to sleep.

I kept having this dream every night since I stopped trying to save Audrey.

Even though Daydream didn’t give me clearance to take a team into Battery City, it didn’t mean I didn’t try. I tried that day even. After I hobbled out of the room, Zombie ran after me, told me how ridiculous and that I’d never even make it to Battery City alive in my condition. Then I remember I collapsed, he laughed, and carried me back to my room where I tried to escape about an hour later.
The second time I tried, I had just gotten my bandages off. My stomach had a big white splotch of a scar on it. Same with my leg and arm. As soon as I got them off, I hobbled outside to the cars then both Zombie and R.J. had to drag me out of it kicking and screaming.

The third time was about a month ago. I feel awful about this to this day, but I convinced Freedom to help me because I knew I couldn’t do it alone. But Zombie got wind of it, and yelled at me for risking a thirteen year olds life. He didn’t talk to me for almost a week. I hated it. I felt awful too, because I was so desperate to save Audrey, that I was willing to risk one of my closest friends to do it. When I tried apologizing to Zombie, he told me he didn’t want to talk about it, and to act how we did before it happened.

I don’t remember how I failed the other times, but I did. They were either with run-ins with dracs, being brought back by Zombie, or running out of gas.

It was now January, so it was colder, but no snow. I gave up on trying to save Audrey. If I was meant to be successful at it, it would’ve happened. And with her being in there over five months, I wasn’t sure if she was even alive. The whole thing just made me depressed.

These days, if I got out of bed, I spent time with days with R.J., Zombie, or Mark and Squirt. Mark seemed happy-ish. He still kept track of the days. He let me know when Freddie’s birthday was, and when my birthday was. It’s only been over a year since I ran away and everything’s changed.

I didn’t fall back asleep, so I walked around in the desert for a couple hours. I saw one of BLI’s cameras, a couple miles out and shot it. When I got bored of walking, I walked around the warehouse. I walked around there for a couple hours, then went back to my room. I kicked R.J.’s bed on my way in.

“It’s almost two, get up lazy ass.” I taunted. R.J. groaned some sort of gibberish. I kicked her mattress again, this time she grabbed my leg and yanked it hard. I fell flat on my ass with a thud.

“The fuck was that for?!” I yelped from the floor while massaging my newly bruised elbow.

“That, my friend is called karma bitch! Now let me sleep! You woke me up last night, and it took me a whole ten minutes to fall back asleep!” R.J. growled.

“Fuck you and your karma! I’m going to go watch Squirt. Find me if you need something.” I grumbled as I left.

Squirt was huge. She was seven months old, and the fattest thing alive. She could say ‘Dada’, ‘No’ and, ‘Moo’ but, she called everyone but Mark ‘Dada’ and instead called him ‘Moo’. She was hilarious. Her hair was getting long, was constantly moving around. She was a handful to keep up with.

As soon as I walked in the door I heard her shrieking

“No Moo! No!” Squirt squealed in protest.

“But Squirt you need to put your shoes on! Please for Dada?” he pleaded pointing to himself.

“No!” she exclaimed.

“Need some help?” I asked knocking on the door.

“Dada!” Squirt cheered reaching towards me to pick her up. I scooped her up.

“No Squirt. That’s your dada” I said pointing at Mark. “Not only am I a girl, but my name is Py-thon” I continued sounding out my name for her. She just grinned at me.

“She won’t put her jacket on. Every time I put it on her, she rips it off and throws it at me.” Mark explained.

“I got her. You nap.” I told him as I adjusted Squirt on my hip. He shook his head.

“Nah its cool, you took her yesterday. Besides, I have a weird feeling about today. I have no idea why, but I just don’t want to let Squirt out of my sight today.” He told me.

“But I’m bored! R.J. won’t be fully awake for another two hours and I have no idea what else to do!” I complained.

“Go hang out with your boyfriend!” Mark mocked. If I wasn’t holding Squirt, I would’ve punched him in the face.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I growled. I felt my cheeks growing hotter.

“HA! You’re blushing! I win!” Mark cheered as he took Squirt from me. I flipped him off and stormed out of the room.

I stomped around for what seemed like an hour, but was probably a little over five minutes. I found myself on the roof. I walked over to the edge and took out a cigarette. As I smoked, I looked around at the view. I saw killjoys scrambling everywhere, fixing cars, shooting things, and hanging out. I sat at the edge and let my feet dangle.

Seeing them made me want to jump. They all looked so hungry and tired. The food we acquired only lasted a few months. It made me wonder about the point of all of this. Why were we rebelling against the system if we were just going to sit around all day and sulk like a kicked dog. I came up here to calm down, but seeing them made me feel this overwhelming sadness.

“Don’t fall” someone warned me.

“Don’t tell me what to do” I replied. Zombie plopped down next to me.

“Angry today are we?” He responded.

“Not angry, just confused” I sighed.

“Still having those dreams?” he asked. I nodded, stared ahead at the view, and kept smoking. Zombie knew I had dreams of Audrey killing me, but he didn’t know he died in them too. I swayed my legs back and forth over the ledge.

“Why do we put up with all of this?” I asked him while looking the killjoys below us.

“Put up with what?” he asked.

“This!” I started while rising to my feet and motioning towards the killjoys “All of this pain, and suffering, this hunger, and filth, and this...this torture! Why do we put up with it? What’s the point? I know it’s to not end up being some mindless drugged up zombie, but why do we hide? Why do we just sit around and wait for THEM to make the next move? Why don’t we go back to save our own?! They probably go through a lot worse than we do! But we don’t care because we don’t want to die!” I yelled feeling the tears rush into my eyes. I inched closer to the edge.

“It’s all so pointless…” I whispered.

“Python. Don’t” Zombie warned. I turned to face him.

“Why the fuck not Zombie? Please! Tell me why?” I asked.

“Jen, we will get her back. You and me, I promise.” Zombie offered quietly.

“No we won’t! Don’t you get it?! She’s probably dead!” I shrieked.

“Python just don’t” he pleaded

I just stared at him. Zombie quickly grabbed me and pulled me away from the edge. I tried pulling away but he wouldn’t let go, he just pulled me back farther and farther away from the edge.

“Let me go Zombie!” I sobbed. Zombie just stood there with his face completely blank. I kept trying to break free. As soon as I did, Zombie spun me around kissed me. My eyes grew huge.

“What the fuck was that?!” I asked punching him in the arm. My face felt bright red. Zombie started grinning one of his full face grins.

“Abuse! Abuse!!” he laughed. I narrowed my eyes at him. that was him. he could urn a completely change a serious situation into a joke.

“Well now you know why I can’t let you jump.” he explained throwing his hands in the air. I felt myself blush even more. I’m not sure if I actually wanted to jump or not it might’ve been a spur of the moment thing…

Zombie leaned in to kiss me again when we heard the first shot fired.