The Kids From Yesterday

As soon as they drove away, Mark and Audrey decided it’d be best for us to go straight to my house since theirs were probably already swarmed with dracs. We ran the three blocks back home and stormed in the door at about four in the morning. As soon as I stepped one foot in my living room, we were greeted by a very angry Freddie.

“Ok where the hell have you been Jen?! I heard gunshots! I thought you were dead! Did anyone hurt you?!” Freddie asked while shaking me by my shoulders. I shrugged him off.

“No, just you…and there was a raid…and I think they might have scanned us…” I said quietly looking down at the barcode on my wrist where the rag had fallen off. Freddie’s eyes grew wide.

“Ok…do what you have to do…” Freddie muttered looking down at his feet

“We need to get out of here Freds…that means you too…they’re going to be here soon and they’ll kill you on the spot…” I interrupted grabbing him and hurrying up the stairs. “Audrey, Mark you too!” I added. I pushed Mark and Freddie towards Freddie’s room.

“Pack what you can and do it quick. Freddie, lend Mark some things, Audrey come with me” I instructed while pulling my friend towards my room. I grabbed three duffle bags out of my closet and started throwing all of my clothes in one. Audrey quietly sat on my bed folding blankets and putting them in the second bag.

“…I’m so sorry Jen…this is all my fault…” Audrey whispered. I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug.

“No its not…why the hell would you say that?” I asked.

“Because I’m the one who pushed you guys to go…” She whimpered trying to hold back her tears.

“Audrey we would’ve been in the exact same position sooner or later… its better we found out now so we can help fight it…” I sighed while rubbing her back. Audrey nodded her head, pulled away, wiped her eyes and continued packing.

Almost five minutes later we were packed and ready to go. Frankie and Mark were set and we took all the food in the house. We walked out to the garage to grab some tools. We managed to pick up an old axe, some rope, a lighter that thankfully was solar powered, and the tarp that covered our dad’s old car.

“We could take this car if your folks don’t mind…” Mark offered. It seemed like a good idea, so Freddie ran in and grabbed the keys from the kitchen.

We all loaded up the car and piled in. It was about 5 in the morning when we left. The car was loud…it wasn’t like the family issued car that had a tracker in it. Those were dead silent. We had almost made it to the dessert before the stupid piece of shit ran out of gas.

“Fuck!” Freddie yelled as he started slamming on the wheel.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to walk from here.” Mark said with a shrug as he hoped out and grabbed two of the bags. We all groaned but did the same.

That’s when they came. Two BLI cars arrived out of nowhere. Six draculoids popped out of the cars and walked towards us.

“Run! Fucking run!” Mark yelled. And we did. We had made some pretty good distance between us when a drac came up behind my brother.

“Freddie behind you!” I shrieked. Freddie turned and swung his duffle bag and nailed the drac in the face knocking him out. Freddie stopped and took it’s gun.

He then started shooting at the others. He managed to take two other dracs down. Mark and I realize that we could take the other guns so we ran towards the dead dracs while swearing and dodging lasers. Once I have gotten hold of mine, I stopped and shot at the dracs. But I was a shitty shot because the best shot I landed was getting one in the foot and causing him to trip.

“Let me try…” Audrey offered quietly. I handed her my gun reluctantly and stood ready to run. Audrey immediately took down three of the remaining four dracs. Mark took down the last one. Audrey fixed her hair and gave me the gun back. I was a little pissed off… I thought I was going to be the badass of the group. The one who could shoot a drac between the eyes from 30 feet away. I never thought it’d be girly Audrey…

“Maybe you should let Audrey hold onto that…” Freddie offered. I rolled my eyes, thrusted it in her direction and kept walking with my bag.

After we had been walking for what I guessed was twenty miles and had arrived in Zone 1. We decided to try and find a place to crash because it was getting so cold. We wandered around looking for a somewhat sheltered place, but that’s pretty hard to come by in the desert. We finally found a place with enough shrubs to cover us if we’re sitting down. We put on more layers and started going through some of the food while sitting in silence.

“Well we should probably come up with new names…like that guy told us this morning…” Mark said breaking the silence.

“What guy?” Freddie asked me.

“No one Freds, we don’t even know who he is. He and this other kid just helped us that’s all” I explained. Freddie relaxed.

“But what would we call ourselves? I mean did he mean like me going around calling myself Mary or Jane?” Audrey asked.

“No like a killjoy name…it’s like a super hero name? I don’t know how to explain it… all I know is that I want to be Phantom Kid!” Mark said enthusiastically.

“I think I’ll be Sparrow Sniper…” Audrey said quietly.

“Um…Nightmare Knight? I don’t know I’m not feeling creative right now…” Freddie chuckled.

“That sounds great Freds” I reassured him.

“Well Jen, what about you?” Mark asked with his big goofy grin. I looked down at my snake shaped ring.

“Python Princess.”