Blind Photographs

In the outside world you need to think every second of the day or else you’d go crazy. In the city it was all done for you. Just constant contentment brought on by the slightest things.

“Oh, you planted new geraniums? That’s wonderful! They match your house so well!”

It was a utopia that we were fighting against. And I wasn’t so sure I wanted to fight it anymore. It was then that I decided what I needed to do.

I ran as fast as I could down the tunnel towards a light I thought might’ve been a hallucination until it grew. I flung my backpack across the stone ground and grabbed the rolling can of white spray paint.

I’LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU I scrawled, signing it Photo.

If she came down the tunnels looking for me, she’d have to see it eventually. I ran back a ways, drawing a white life monitor line from my message as far as I could go without missing the light and wrote in letters as high as I could make them:

BOOM BOX.

It would make it easier on everyone.

Then I went back and grabbed my things, exiting the tunnel through the manhole. It really was just like 21.
I’d come up right where I expected. The Tower.

Now what? Radio Heat asked.

“We’re going back in.”

WHAT? Are you crazy? We spent so long running from that place and now you’re just going back?

“And having you removed. This isn’t where I belong. This isn’t what’s right. I was never supposed to leave the city the first time, let alone the second.”

What if they kill you?

“So be it. If I turn myself they might just leave me alone.”

You’re absolutely nuts. I’m taking over here.

In most instances, I would've blacked out and woken up somewhere completely different, wherever Radio Heat thought would be better for us. But this time, I was in control.

Shadows darted from around the Tower. I ran towards it. This was my chance. I could not let myself turn back now.
Someone grabbed me by the arm.

“Oh god, Bat?” I cringed. “What are you doing out here? Me and Harley were worried about you- why’d you just take off like that?”

“I’m turning myself in to the city.”

“You can’t do that! You belong out here!”

“No, Joker, I really don’t. Look, if you turn me in, you’ll get a reward. You can live out here and be happy. But I need to go back in.”

“Harley would kill me if I brought you in.”

“I’m not a kid anymore. I can make my own decisions. If you don’t turn me in I’m going to go and do it myself.”

“Are you sure this is what you want?” He asked, letting go of my arm and standing so I was looking directly at him.

“It’s what I need to do.”

“Fine. Where were you, though?”

“Shouldn’t matter. I’m going to forget it all soon anyway,” I mumbled as I shut the door of the white car behind me.

When we got to the city gates, I started feeling doubtful. I liked being able to roam around the desert. I liked dying my hair and singing songs about mass destruction.

Going back would ruin all of that. But at the same time, it was my only option. The car rolled through the gates slowly and quietly.

A S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W with a shiny gun was waiting for us.