The Kids From Yesterday

“Python?” he repeated.

I couldn’t speak. Partly because of the fact I hadn’t had anything to drink in a week…but also because, well... it was him.

Zombie collapsed next to me, kissed my forehead, and hugged me tight.

“Holy shit we’ve been searching every work camp for you! This is our ninth one! No one wanted to give up on you though, because your you! Holy fuck I missed you!” he exclaimed squeezing me harder. I clung onto him for dear life and just sobbed. He pulled away and stared at me. I guess I looked really bad, because his eyes were fucking huge.

“What happened to you?” he asked.

“I tried breaking out last week… it didn’t work…” I rasped. Zombie brushed the hair away from my face and lightly touched the cuts on my face. I winced.

“Come on, we need to get you out of here… the others are waiting” Zombie said, pulling me up to my feet. I staggered and started falling. Zombie caught me and held me up. I leaned on him. He put his mask back on.

“Wait…” I started

“What?” Zombie asked

“We need to get someone out of here” I explained leading him the down the hallway.

We made our way down the hall, checking every slot in the cells. The third one I checked I found V. I quickly opened the door.

“Took you long enough.” V said as she strolled out the door of her cell.

“Wait up we need to look for Monster” I reminded her. V shook her head.

“No he’s dead. After everything calmed down they executed him in front of everyone… they left me alive because they were gonna turn me into a S.C.A.R.E.C.R.O.W. worker or something…” she explained. I couldn’t believe it.

“Python we need to go now” Zombie reminded. I nodded and we headed down to the end of the hall.

We reached the elevator and climbed in.

“So who’s here? ...And what’s with the getup?” I asked Zombie. I heard him chuckle from under the mask.

“This is a state of the art disguise!” he said in a fake defensive tone.

“You nabbed it from a dead drac didn’t you?” I asked he nodded and laughed.

“And as for whose here, well who do you think? R.J. Daydream and Freedom are keeping the dracs downstairs-”

“Whoa whoa whoa...you let Freedom come?” I asked surprised he let up on being the overly protective older cousin. Zombie nodded slowly.

“Yeah and I’ve been worried about her the whole time. They were the only three I could find after the raid. Everyone else is either dead or was forced to scatter…” he explained. I felt a pit in my stomach and my eyes watering up. I would’ve collapsed if Zombie wasn’t still holding me up.

“...Wha…What about Squirt and Phantom?” I asked quietly

“Shit I’m so sorry! They’re fine! Our plan worked! They’re waiting in our new hideout!” Zombie exclaimed. I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I punched him in the shoulder.

“You’re an asshole…” I growled. The elevator dinged and Zombie drew his gun. The doors opened on top of a huge stairwell. Below us we saw R.J., Daydream, and Freedom shooting at the dracs approaching them. They looked like they could do it all day.

“Ok when I say run. Run. And I mean it. Run to the top of the hill next to the building.” Zombie directed. V and I nodded and were about to hop out of the escalator.

“Oh and Python- here” Zombie said handing me my gun. It felt good having it in my hands again.

Zombie gave the signal and we all booked it down the stairway and out the door shooting at draculoids and S.C.A.R.E.C.R.O.W. workers. R.J., Daydream and Freedom saw us coming and ran. The five of us made it out the door and turned towards the hill. I didn’t get how I was able to run. I hadn’t eaten in six days. Adrenaline I guess.

The five of us actually made it successfully up and over the hill. R.J. had a burn mark on her left arm, but that was about it for injuries.

Dracs climbed up after us, but we had the advantage being higher up. We shot at them until they gave up and stopped coming after us. We couldn’t believe our luck. We made it out with no deaths, and only a minor injury.

“Holy shit Python we missed you!” Freedom cried as she ran over and squeezed me into a bear hug. I squeezed back just as hard.

“Yeah I had no one to practice my tattooing on” R.J. said

“And I had no one to yell at” Daydream laughed as she pulled me in for a hug

“And I had no one to keep me from doing stupid shit!” Zombie chuckled from under his mask. I stood on my tiptoes and yanked it off of him.

“I hate that thing…” I grumbled as I dropped it on the ground.

“Yeah well it was necessary to get you out of there” Zombie said with a smirk as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Oh so you guys are that kind of friends” V observed. I glared at her while she just sat there giggling.

“Well we should try and head back. It’s going to get dark soon.” Freedom said while looking at the sky. We all nodded in agreement and started to head out.

Right as we turned to leave, we heard a shot fired. I spun around to see Freedom collapse to her knees. A red ring started forming on her chest.

“No!” Zombie boomed as he ran over to her. I ran after him.

Zombie collected Freedom in his arms. I sat next to him and took Freedom’s hand. Tears were collecting in his eyes. Blood was oozing out of Freedom’s chest as she lay there gasping for air.

“It’s ok. We’re going to get you help. We’ll get you out of here and fixed up in no time. Just hold on Freedom! Kylie!” Zombie wailed. Freedom smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder.

“L-love you Z-zombie” she wheezed. She squeezed my hand real tight. Then her hand went limp.

She was gone.

We heard a weak hiss of laughter. Behind her there was a half dead drac on the ground with a gun in his hand.

Zombie passed Freedom’s body over to me and slowly stood up. He ran up to the drac and stomped on its face repeatedly.

“You mother fucking lowlife son of a bitch! She was fucking thirteen! THIRTEEN!” He screamed as he continued to stomp on its face. You could see the blood drip out from under the mask.

“Zombie…” I whimpered. I’d never seen him like this. He continued to stomp. “ZOMBIE! STOP IT! Look at yourself!” I shrieked. He stopped and backed away from the drac’s corpse. R.J. swooped in and took Freedom as I stood up and went to Zombie.

He collapsed to his knees and sat there with his head in his hands. I wrapped my arms around him trying to comfort him.

“It’s my fault… I shouldn’t have let her come. She should’ve stayed behind with Phantom…” Zombie muttered as he shrugged me off, rose up, walked back to Freedom’s body, and took her from R.J.

“We should go home now. It’s getting late…” he grumbled walking towards the desert. Daydream helped me walk the next couple of miles on the way back to her car.
When we finally got to the hideout, Phantom was waiting for us in the doorway of a dinky little shack.

“Did you find her?” he asked. I stumbled out of the car, ran up to him and hugged him. I started sobbing again.

Zombie slammed the car door closed and walked towards us carrying Freedom. Mark’s face fell.

“Is she ok?” he asked. Zombie shook his head and walked around behind the building. We all followed him and helped him dig a hole six feet deep.

Once it was finished, Daydream and Mark helped Zombie wrap Freedom in a sheet and lower her into the ground. We all gathered around her grave, said a few words, and shot our guns in the air. Zombie took her gun.

Burying her was the hardest part for him. He said nothing the entire service. R.J. had spray painted her name and her birth and death dates on a rock and placed it at the head of the grave. It was almost exactly like Freddie’s funeral.

After it was over, we all went inside. I finally saw Squirt. She had gotten so big in just the month I was gone.

“Moo!” she exclaimed I scooped her up and squeezed her

“I finally taught her that I’m Dada and everyone else is Moo” Mark explained. I didn’t let that kid go.
Daydream realized how weak V and I were and got us some food. We inhaled it. V claimed a bed in a backroom and fell asleep. Everyone else slowly made it to their beds, except for me and Zombie. He was sitting at the kitchen table. I walked over and took the seat across from him.

“You ok?” I asked. He didn’t respond “You know it’s not your fault right, it could’ve been any of us that had gotten killed” I said trying to comfort him. It wasn’t working. He just sat there with a blank look on his face.

I stood up and walked over to the broken pullout couch R.J. set up and collapsed on the bed and shut my eyes.

I heard the screech of the chair scraping the floor and felt Zombie climb in next to me and slip his arms around me. I squeezed his hand tight and fell asleep.