Lost

7

August 17th -8:15pm

After figuring out the route our friends were planning to take I had worked myself up so much with dread that I had fallen into a panic attack, crying, screaming, insisting we go after them and try to head them off before they reached the city. Deep down I knew they would be too far ahead for us to ever catch up and Kobra and Jet simply took turns holding me, restraining me until I have in and passed out from exhaustion. 

The sun was beginning to set when Kobra shook me awake. He gave me half a leftover can of barely-edible mush we called Power Pup and a gentle smile and left me to eat, informing me that I had fifteen minutes to sort myself out before we left and not a moment longer. I shovelled the food down as quickly as I could, wanting to taste as little of the vile mess as possible, and then stepped out back to relieve myself and change into some "fresh" clothes, shoving the old ones into my pack. I couldn't even recall the last time we or our clothes had had anything close to a proper wash.

I slung my pack over my shoulder and headed around the side of the small building to meet the others at the front door.

"How are you feeling, buddy?" asked Jet Star when he spotted me, giving me a sympathetic smile. I sighed. I didn't need or want their pity and I made sure to make that point quite clear.

"Fine, thanks." I answered shortly, then looked to Kobra Kid for the plan. He checked his wristwatch and then the blueprint.

"Well it's getting late so it looks like we'll only be waking for an hour or so." he sad clearly, his voice confident. "If we make good time we can probably manage a couple of miles before setting up camp."

It turned out we made excellent time. After about an hour and a half Lucid was barely able to hold herself up since she was so tired, but we had managed much more than a couple of miles and were therefore ahead of schedule, so much so that we would even be able to sleep late in the morning. After another map check Jet announced that we were a ten minute walk from an old collection of houses that had once been a small village, so Kobra carried Lucid on his back until we reached it. 

"What Zone are we in?" Lucid asked as Kobra set her down on the ground. She rested her head on his shoulder tiredly and he held her waist to keep her on her feet as we all stepped inside one of the only sturdy looking buildings there and it turned out the inside was still pretty comfortable. The flooring had rotted away entirely, the paint was peeling and the staircase looked as though it would collapse under the weight of a sparrow, never mind a person, but we were all tall enough that we could simply climb onto the upper floor. There was even a large double bed, completely moth eaten, but still a bed. Best of all, there were two crates with at least ten bottles of water each and a few bags of potato chips. They were old and most likely stale, but it was better than nothing.

"Ten." Jet said suddenly, answering Lucid's previous question and slipping all but two of the chip bags into his back as he spoke. "Not the safest of Zones, by any means. We had better take turns keeping watch."

"I'll go first." I offered without even thinking about it. I had already turned to head back outside when I continued. "I slept all day. I'll take first watch and wake one of you a couple of hours before we leave tomorrow."

I tossed my bag onto the sand right outside the door and sat beside it, undoing the stubborn, sticky zip fastening and pulling out the blanket Fun Ghoul had packed for me. I wrapped it around my shoulders to shield from the cold and lifted the corner of it to my face, inhaling Ghoul's comforting scent that was masked somewhere beneath the musty stench.

I sat for an hour or two in total silence, aside from the chirping of crickets and my own uneven breathing, my laser gun clutched tightly in one had in case of a sudden attack. Jet had crashed on the floor in the lounge while Kobra and Lucid each took an end of the bed each. I was pleased I'd decided to take first watch, I wouldn't have been able to sleep even if I was tired.

I heard footsteps behind me crunching in the sand and I spun round in an alarm, gripping my gun tighter until there was a dull ache in my fingers. I relaxed as Lucid's small frame appeared out of the darkness. She had a small radio in her hand which she placed on the floor between us before she sat down.

"I couldn't sleep." she told me, resting her hand on my knee gently. "I was worried. The guys wouldn't tell me why you freaked out earlier."

"It was nothing." I lied. I couldn't tell her that her sister was at risk, it would send her off the rails. Having lost both her parents already, I couldn't present the possibility of her losing the only other person she had left. "I was just being overdramatic."

She glared at me as if to tell me she wasn't a fucking idiot, but I shook my head stubbornly and she didn't press the subject any further. She reached across herself to adjust the tuning and volume on the radio. "Dr. Death Defying is on. I thought it might give you some comfort."

I smiled gratefully and rested my arms on my knees, absorbing the sounds coming from the transmitter. Lucid was bobbing her head to the last few seconds of an old Mad Gear and Missle Kid jam, then there was a loud blast of static, making us jump. As it faded, Dr. D's deep and professional voice chimed in. 

"Bad news, motor babies. This just in, a number of disappearances have been reported this evening. It is unknown whether those missing are dead or alive, but it is presumed our friend Korse is responsible for most if not all of the disappearances. The names of the missing Killjoys are as follows: Auntie Matter, AK Poison, Agent Aftermath, Cyanide Sorrow, Fun Ghoul and Neon Destroya." 

I snapped my head up the second I heard his name. My heart faltered inside my chest and I could feel the blood hammering through my veins as the rate of my heart increased. My breathing hitched in my throat. I prayed with everything I had that I'd heard wrong but as Dr. D repeated the list of names, Jet and Kobra appeared in the doorway - I could feel them - and Lucid's arm was around me, confirming my worst nightmare. This is Dr. Death Defying, bringing you the news as it breaks."

"No..." I whispered as the weight of the situation hit me, my voice stifled by the lump in my throat. I fell against Lucid, suddenly zapped of all my strength. Art Breaker and Venom Noise weren't missing even though they were weaker than him. We all knew why he had been taken and not them. I knew. I choked on the last bit of oxygen I could muster and then the tears broke out. The others tried to console me, to tell me it wasn't as bad as it seemed. I blocked them out, though, I wasn't stupid. "He's gone."