The Kids From Yesterday

It was over a year later and we got better.

A lot better actually. Zombie and I weren't as dependent on drugs and alcohol as we were. We weren’t completely sober though. That life wasn't really for us.

Zombie seemed like his old self; cocky, jokester, making people smile. He was still sad about Freedom, but he didn’t let it get to him. He’d have his moments, just like I did, but we got through them together.

We had to move again, because we got raided. We should’ve known we wouldn’t have been able to stay there long. Everyone made it out safely, but one drac almost took Squirt. Phantom went ape shit. When he saw a drac touch his daughter, he shot every single one of them. Squirt was fine…and surprisingly giggling… She also turned two in June.

After the raid we hopped from place to place. It made me feel uneasy because of how exposed we were. We would jump from shed to shed. From house to house. We spent a night in a storage unit once. It reminded me of when we first ran away.

We had been driving around all day. Daydream, R.J., Zombie, and myself in one car, and Phantom, Squirt, V and all of our supplies in another. We found a house the night before, but couldn’t stay in it because of how much blood there was. You’d think we were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, but no, it’s just some poor innocent bystanders that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the wake of BLI’s takeover.

“Why hasn’t any of the other countries tried to help?” I asked from the back seat. I never really took the time to question why the corporation was so strong. I was just focused on taking it down
.

“Well you know Mexico got taken over a few years back right?” Daydream asked from the driver’s seat. I nodded, “Well they tried to help too. I heard on the radio Canada went down over half a year ago. And Japan and Korea supply BLI and helped with the takeover, so no one wants to get mixed up in their shit… The UK tried to help…you know what happened to the planes they sent over.” Daydream reminded. I nodded again.

The UK tried to send soldiers to help us killjoys, because someone managed to get a broadcast out there. The planes the UK sent over were shot down immediately and we haven’t heard from anyone since.

“Who sent out that broadcast?” I asked. I felt like an idiot for asking, but I didn’t care.

“My good friend Doctor D!” Zombie announced next to me. R.J. turned around.

“He’s what keeps us all in contact with each other. He reports what goes on in the Zones, who’s dead, who’s joined, who’s betrayed us. He tells us if people need help and where dracs have been spotted” she explained. I remembered hearing R.J. listen to the broadcast in our old warehouse.

“So you guys have met him?” I asked. Daydream shook her head.

“Nah only Zombie’s met him, he helped out Zombie and Freedom when the first ditched the city” She replied. I turned to Zombie

“Lucky I guess!” he said with his cocky grin. I rolled my eyes.

“Do you keep in touch with him?” I asked. Zombie nodded.

“Oh yeah. He helped me and these other guys get on our feet when this whole thing first happened. Me and those guys stuck together for a while, but we decided to go separate ways. We all stay in touch though” He explained.

“You make it sound like you broke up with them” R.J. taunted. Zombie kicked her seat.

“This is him” Daydream said over her shoulder as she turned up the radio.

“Look alive Sunshine! Doctor Death Defy here with another broadcast. Today in the Zones a huge herd of dracs were spotted heading near Zone 3, so keep an eye out! Also Dark Venom, Neon Rocket, and Chemical Rabbit had a clap with some S.C.A.R.E.C.R.O.W workers and got themselves ghosted. Keep your guns close and die with your mask on. Until next time, here are some tunes to keep you busy. I’m out!”

“So everyone always radios in who dies?” I asked Daydream nodded. “Well does he know about Skizzy and Freedom?” I continued.

“I called in both of those…” Zombie said quietly. I squeezed his shoulder and everyone got quiet. Daydream turned up the static-y radio. I recognized the song, it was a Pixies song.

“With your feet in the air and your head on the ground” I sang/screamed.

“Try this trick and spin it…YEAH!” R.J. chimed in.

“Your head will collapse but there’s nothing in it and you’ll ask yourself!” We screamed together.

“WHERE IS MY MIND?!” Everyone sang. We sang the song until the end and cracked up.

“I haven’t heard that song in years…” I sighed, remembering how it played at the end of one of Freddie’s favorite movie.

V who was driving another car next to us, suddenly slammed on the brakes. Her car went out of control. Daydream spun her car around in the opposite direction to avoid it. When V’s car stopped, Daydream parked next to hers.

“V what the hell was that?” Daydream barked as she jumped out of the car. V got out and slammed her door behind her.

“I’m out of gas. We’ve been running on fumes for a while now” she announced as she walked towards us. Daydream threw her arms in the air in frustration.

“Great! We are stuck on the border of Zone fucking 3 of all Zones! And we have one fucking car” she grumbled.

“Then we need to find somewhere now. It’s getting late” Phantom observed. We all nodded our heads in agreement.

“What we need is a BLI car… those things are solar powered…” I muttered.

“Yeah but they have tracking devices in the engine. Without it, the car won’t go “Zombie added

“So? We can try and mash Daydream’s and a BLI car together” I replied. Zombie’s eyes lit up. I could see the gears in his head churning, trying to figure out how this would work.

“Awe not my baby…” Daydream sighed as she stroked the hood of her red convertible.

“You’d never need to scrounge for gas again” I offered, trying to convince her. Daydream sighed and nodded.

“Let’s get the supplies out of V’s car… we’ll squeeze in mine. It’s going to be a really tight fit though…”she said as she waved her hand toward her car.

We gathered all of our supplies and piled into the one car. We had to sit on top of one another to make room for the tent, blankets, and food.

We drove for another hour, trying to find some kind of shelter. We weren’t that lucky. We ended up roughing it by getting as far away from Zone 3 and making a small camp. We sat around a small campfire, eating cans of food in silence.

“You know, I hear the East Coast is drac free…” R.J. said quietly.

“Where’d you hear that?” Phantom asked. R.J. shrugged.

“These guys in a killjoy camp… Daydream sent me and V out there to nab some supplies about a week ago… I heard these two guys talking and-” R.J. started

“Hold up... Mexico and Canada are taken over, but the East Coast is miraculously safe?” V interrupted.

“It makes sense, I mean Japan and Korea are right next to the West Coast, so I can see how they took California, and California touches both Mexico and Canada. It is possible” R.J. replied.

“Then that’s where I’m going” Phantom said quietly while looking down at Squirt. We all stared at him in disbelief.

“Are you serious?! What if it’s a death trap?!” I asked. Phantom shrugged his shoulders

“If there’s the smallest chance that there is a safe place away from all of this, I’m in. I want to get Squirt as far away from this as possible. A drac almost took her. They don’t care that it’s a little kid, they want to kill her as much as they want to kill us” Phantom said quietly. I realized he was right. The Zones were no place for a baby. Even when we were living in the warehouse it was risky having her.

“If you’re going, then I am too.” I said with a nod of my head, “you’ll get yourself killed without me”
Phantom looked at the rest of the group.

“I would love nothing better than to get as far away from here as possible, but I need to take this system. The sooner we take it down; the sooner everywhere will be like the East Coast.” Daydream replied.

“As much as I’d like to go home…I have to agree with Daydream… it’s our job to take this place down…” R.J. said quietly.

“And it’s my job to keep my daughter safe.” Phantom stated. I turned to Zombie

“It my job to keep this knuckle-head safe. You can stay if you want” I told him. Zombie sighed.

“I’m not letting you get yourself killed on your way there… so count me in…” he fake grumbled. I felt a smile grow on his face. We all looked at V.

“As fine and dandy as all of you are, I need to try and find my old team… I was taken over a year ago so they probably think I’m dead. It’ll be fun to surprise them” she said with a grin.

“We’ll give you guys half of the supplies and find you a car to fix in the morning” Daydream decided. Phantom thanked her.

After the group talk, everyone started falling asleep. V took first watch. I couldn’t fall asleep. So I went for a walk to try and clear my head. It was dark, but the sun was starting to rise. It was quiet too, which made me feel a bit uneasy, but I had my guns I felt safer.

I had been walking for what seemed like hours, but were probably only minutes when I heard something crack. I jumped and whipped out my gun.

“Easy tiger” Zombie chuckled. Relief washed over me.

“You are such an asshole!” I growled as I hit him in the chest. He grinned and leaned down and kissed me.

“So why are you out here?” Zombie asked.

“Couldn’t sleep I guess” I said with a shrug.

“So naturally, you go off by yourself in a drac infested desert” Zombie said while raising his eyebrows.

“Well I didn’t think that anyone would be too thrilled with the idea of me waking them up to go for a walk” I said defensively.

Zombie took my hand in his and we began walking around. The sun was slowly rising higher.

“So… East Coast…” I started

“Yeah… Pretty big change of scenery. It’s going to be a lot colder” Zombie noted. I nodded

“You know you don’t have to come” I told him. Zombie stopped walking and looked at me

“Do you not want me to?” he asked. I felt my eyes grow wide

“No I want you to come! It’s just I wasn’t sure if you really wanted to stay here or not. I mean all your friends are here and who knows if we’ll see them again. I mean... this place is your home” I said replied.

“Ah” Zombie noted with a nod of his head as he started walking again. Now I regretted saying anything. I did want him to go. I was thrilled when he told me he was going.

“You know I want you to go. I was just double checking to make sure you wanted to go” I said quickly

“Well I do want to go.” Zombie said

“Good because I fucking love you” I said facing him. Zombie turned to me.

“Do you?” he asked.

“Of course I do” I answered.

“Then prove it” he said with a smirk. I was so confused.

“What? How?” I asked. A mischievous grin grew on Zombie’s face.

“Well you know…you could always marry me” he started.

“That doesn’t exist out here” I reminded him

“So?” he asked. He began digging around inside his pocket and pulled out a pile of scrap cogs and gears he kept in there. He picked through them until he found one he liked and held it up to show me. It was a thin shiny bronze looking cog. He reached for my hand.

“We can say we are for now. And when we get to the East, we’ll get married for real” Zombie offered. I couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re crazy... we’re eighteen and twenty” I laughed.

“So is that a yes?” he asked with a grin. I sighed and nodded. Zombie cheered, put the cog on my finger, then pulled me towards him and kissed me.

“I do love you you know” told him. Zombie nodded with a big grin on his face.

“I knew the whole time…I’ve just been trying to ask you for weeks and it seemed like the perfect time” he chuckled. I punched him in the arm.

“You had me panicking! I thought you were breaking up with me!” I fake growled. I tried to sound scary, but I was too happy.

“And don’t tell anyone just yet…” I warned. Zombie nodded and made and ‘x’ on his chest with his finger. He put his arm around me as we headed back to camp.

We got on the road an hour later, looking for dracs with cars. We were blasting the radio. Partly to hear what was going on; but mostly because we wanted to attract some dracs.

“Look alive Sunshine! You’re here with me, Doctor Death Defy with your daily news for all you Crash Queens in the Zones. That herd of dracs in Zone 3? Still there, so you better avoid at all costs. Also in other news, my good friend, Zombie has informed me that he and his little lady tied the knot! So a big congratulations to them!”

Everyone in the car was staring at us. I felt my face get hot.

“Also in other news, no deaths have been reported yet today. And our beloved Fab Four are on their way to Zone 3 as we speak to do a little house keeping for us. Keep your boots tight and your guns close everybody, I’m out!”

“Everyone, meet the Misses!” Zombie announced. I slammed my face in my hands.