The Kids From Yesterday

Things were getting weird, Audrey was being more and more distant, she was even pulling away from Mark. Skizzy was fun to have around though and was really sweet, but she acted like she didn’t want to get close to anyone which was a shame. We’d been at the strip mall for a while now, and it was starting to feel like home. We hardly ever had any run-ins with dracs. I still missed Freddie like crazy, so I had my good days and my bad days. On my bad days I would be too depressed to even move. But on my good days, you wouldn’t have even thought he was dead. I talked to him from time to time. It helped me cope. Today was a bad day.

“Wish you were here Freds…” I sighed as I sat in a booth at the sandwich shop. Nobody went in there because all the food was bad and it made the place smell.

“Python what the hell are you doing in here?” Mark asked as he entered the shop. I wiped the tears from my eyes and shrugged. Mark slid into the booth next to me and put his arm around me.

“I miss him too, but we can’t just sit here and cry about him. He’d want you to get on with your life” He said.

“Your right...as always…” I grumbled.

“Damn Skippy I am! And hey this is a little off topic, but have you noticed anything weird about Audrey lately? She barely eats now, and she hardly talks to me…” Mark sighed. I swallowed hard and twiddled my thumbs.

“Really? That’s weird… Maybe she’s just home sick?” I offered as I scooted away from him. Mark eyed me suspiciously.

“Python what do you know?” He asked. I shrugged my shoulders defensively. I felt like a little kid who got caught stealing a cookie.

“Python your wiggling your nose you little liar! What do you know?!” Mark exclaimed as he started poking me in the side. Mark and I had been best friends since we were little kids and we told each other everything.

“Ok… um well… shit Mark! Do I have to tell you?” I whined. Mark started nodding his head like he was having a fit.

“Ok knock it off Bobble head Bob!” I snapped while hitting his shoulder. “…ok…Audrey had a pregnancy scare…” I started. Mark’s face went pail and his eyes grew huge.

“Don’t panic! She’s not!” I exclaimed while trying to calm him down.

“How do you know??” Mark asked.

“Audrey said so! She took a test a couple months ago and said it was negative! It’s fine!” I said trying to reassure him. But he just shook his head.

“I can’t believe she didn’t tell me…did you see the test?” He asked.

“Yeah it had this little line thingy on it and she said it was negative!” I repeated.

“But did you see the box? Like what it meant?” He pressed. I shook my head.

“No…but she said it meant negative…Mark what are you thinking?” I asked standing up from the booth.

“Honestly, I think she’s lying…I think she’s pregnant Jen…” Mark said. I just shook my head.

“No...No she wouldn’t lie to me like that… I’m her best friend…” I said.

“Yeah and I’m her boyfriend, so one would assume she’d tell me. But apparently not!” He yelled. And with that, Mark got up and ran out the door of the sandwich shop. I ran after him.

When I had finally caught up to him, he had already slammed into the record store.

“Are you pregnant?!” He demanded. Audrey jumped up from the place she was napping. Skizzy popped her head up from behind the counter like a meercat.

“What makes you say that?” Audrey asked with a forced laugh. She turned towards me and shot me a death glare. I shrugged defensively.

“Just answer the fucking question!” Mark boomed. We all jumped. Mark never gets mad. Or raises his voice.

Audrey’s eyes started watering as she nodded her head. Mark sighed and held her close. Audrey started sobbing hysterically.

“I’m so…sorry” Audrey gasped between sobs.

“Shh…it’s ok…we’ll figure something out…” Mark whispered trying to comfort her. Audrey nodded her head. Skizzy came out from behind the counter.

“So there is defiantly going to be a screaming pooping infant running around?” she asked.

“Yeah basically” I said with a nod. Skizzy grinned from ear to ear.

“Cool someone I can do that kind of shit with now!” she cheered. We all looked at her like she had three heads.

“…I’m kidding…” She started. We all let out a big ‘Ohh’. It was weird, one minute we were all freaking out, and then the next we were joking around like nothing was wrong.

About an hour later Skizzy and I went out on patrol.

“So have any other killjoys found you?” I asked as we walked around about a mile away from the strip mall.

“Yeah a couple of people, but I usually scare them off… schizophrenia kinda does that haha..” Skizzy replied with a quiet laugh.

“It must get lonely...” I sighed. Skizzy shrugged

“Not really, at least I’m keeping them safe…” She said.

“What do you mean safe?” I asked.

“What’s that up there?” Skizzy asked ignoring my question. I looked to where she was pointing. I saw a glossy black car drive in our direction.

“Shit we gotta go!” I yelled as I ran tugging her behind me. We ran as fast as we could back to the strip mall. A couple minutes later Skizzy and I burst through the door of the record store.

“Dracs! Coming this way! Let’s move!” I screamed. Audrey and Mark jumped up and headed for the door. But they were already there.

“Oh shit fuck! Fuckity fuck!” I screamed as I dodged laser beams. I spun around and shot at anything that had a mask. There were six of them. We can handle this.

“Skizzy take Sparrow and run! Python and I’ve got this!” Mark barked at Skizzy. Skizzy nodded and led Audrey out of the firefight.

Mark and I were back to back shooting at draculoids watching them collapse one after another. I felt something flaming hot slam into my left shoulder and caused me to stumble. I looked down and saw medium size burn with blood pouring out of it.

“Ooh shit...” I said under my breath. But I shook it off and kept shooting. There were two left standing when they finally gave up and ran away.

“Shit that was close…”Mark sighed. I nodded in agreement. “Shit dude look at your arm!” Mark exclaimed. I looked at it again and it looked worse. There was blood oozing and dirt in it and it was starting to kill. “Ow fucking fuckity fuck ow!” I started screaming while holding my arm. Audrey and Skizzy walked back from their hiding place.

“Shit Python are you ok?” Audrey started. She looked behind me and pointed. “Is that one still alive?” A drac on the ground started groaning in pain.

“Apparently…” Skizzy said poking it with her foot. She kicked its gun away from it. She pulled off the mask. Under it was a boy who didn’t look much older than Freddy.

“What are we going to do with him?” Mark asked.

“Well we can’t just kill him... “I muttered staring at the drac.

“Then what are we supposed to do with him Python?! Baby sit him? Feed him food we can’t spare? He tried to kill us!” Mark yelled.

“I know that!” I spat. Mark rolled his eyes. “But we could get information out of him...” I explained. Mark nodded in agreement.

“Your right… Help me tie him up. Audrey you take care of his wounds.” Mark commanded.

“I can’t… My arm” I said trying to shrug my busted shoulder.

“Oh right..Audrey help Python first Skizzy, give me a hand?”

“Mr. Bossy…” Audrey growled as she helped us tie the drac up.

I got my shoulder bandaged while Mark and Skizzy tied him up to a post in the record shop and dragged the other bodies out back and buried them.

“They don’t deserve to be buried…” Skizzy muttered shaking her head as I walked up behind her.

“I know…but we can’t burn them otherwise more would come…” I said. Skizzy nodded her head in agreement.

Audrey was guarding the drac. He was actually quite attractive… for a drac. So far they found out that he didn’t have a name, instead he had a number, 103941. We figured that the head honchos over at BLI wiped their employee’s memory and issued them a number, making them think that we were the bad guys and that they were saving Battery City.

Skizzy and I walked back to the record store. When we got there, the ropes were cut, Audrey was on the ground holding her face.

“Holy shit Audrey what happened?!” I yelled as I helped her up. Audrey shook her head

“He got away… I was going to check on his wounds and then he hit me and he got away…I’m so sorry…” Audrey whimpered. I moved her hand from her face, sure enough there was a big red splotchy first shaped mark on the side of her face.

“How long ago did this happen?” Skizzy asked.

“Just before you came in…” Audrey answered.

“But we would’ve seen him…Shit! Battery City is a little less than a week away by foot but by car-” I started when we heard the screech of a motor and the glossy black BLI car drive out of view.

“Shit we’ve got to go…”