‹ Prequel: Blind Photographs
Status: Updates every other day
Destination Detonation
Take one Down, Pass it Around, Seventeen Bottles with Bells in the air
“Put your bandana on.”
“But my eyesight is fine now,” I argued.
“I honestly don’t care. It’s completely possible you’ll go blind again and then what use are you? You want to let that get in the way of getting Boom Box home?”
“…No,” I mumbled, pulling the bandana up from around my neck to over my eyes.
“Good. Right, well, Water doesn’t really work here, so I’m going to give you one of the Kobra Kid’s old guns, it barely holds a charge anymore so we don’t bring it with us.”
The gun was pressed into my hands. Its weight and warmth was unsettling at first, but soon it began to feel natural.
“What do you expect me to shoot at?” I asked, unused to being blind after the months I spent in the city.
“People out here try to make their own booze and when we found an old bar, we took some of the bottles. I’m going to throw these and I want you to try and hit them.”
“How am I supposed to find them?”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
Oops.
“We made some improv jingle bells to try and set an alarm if anyone came into the diner but they didn’t work out. Show Pony helped me put them on the bottles so you can hear them going past.”
Sweetness. He moved in closer to me.
“Alright, get ready, I’m going to throw the first one.”
I could hear it, but that didn’t mean much of anything. I shot blindly into the desert and hoped that maybe it would hit something.
“Did I make it? I asked, trying to lift up the blindfold, but he smacked my hand away.
“Let’s try this again.”
So I did.
“Are you even trying?”
He threw another bottle and I pulled the trigger. That went on for a while and he wouldn’t tell me if I hit or missed.
“Aren’t you going to throw any more?”
“All out. You can look now.”
Four. I’d missed four out of seventeen that he’d tossed. He put an arm around my shoulder and gave me a sort of side hug.
“Not bad for your first day. We’ll keep it up and then we just need to find a way to make sure you don’t accidentally hit one of us when the time finally comes.”
So we kept it up, just like with my other training. Party Poison set the date that we’d finally go into the city to get Grace. No matter how many bottles Fun seemed to toss, I’d always miss four.
“Is this like some kind of OCD?” He finally asked me as we finished for the day.
“It’s you, and Party, and Jet and Kobra. Four bottles. They sound different than the rest.”
“It’s the same four every time?”
“I can prove it, throw all of them.” I said, pulling back on the blindfold and flexing my fingers.
He started tossing them into the air, and I shot each one as carefully as I could. He never threw the four I’d deemed killjoys.
“Why didn’t you throw them?” I asked
“But my eyesight is fine now,” I argued.
“I honestly don’t care. It’s completely possible you’ll go blind again and then what use are you? You want to let that get in the way of getting Boom Box home?”
“…No,” I mumbled, pulling the bandana up from around my neck to over my eyes.
“Good. Right, well, Water doesn’t really work here, so I’m going to give you one of the Kobra Kid’s old guns, it barely holds a charge anymore so we don’t bring it with us.”
The gun was pressed into my hands. Its weight and warmth was unsettling at first, but soon it began to feel natural.
“What do you expect me to shoot at?” I asked, unused to being blind after the months I spent in the city.
“People out here try to make their own booze and when we found an old bar, we took some of the bottles. I’m going to throw these and I want you to try and hit them.”
“How am I supposed to find them?”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
Oops.
“We made some improv jingle bells to try and set an alarm if anyone came into the diner but they didn’t work out. Show Pony helped me put them on the bottles so you can hear them going past.”
Sweetness. He moved in closer to me.
“Alright, get ready, I’m going to throw the first one.”
I could hear it, but that didn’t mean much of anything. I shot blindly into the desert and hoped that maybe it would hit something.
“Did I make it? I asked, trying to lift up the blindfold, but he smacked my hand away.
“Let’s try this again.”
So I did.
“Are you even trying?”
He threw another bottle and I pulled the trigger. That went on for a while and he wouldn’t tell me if I hit or missed.
“Aren’t you going to throw any more?”
“All out. You can look now.”
Four. I’d missed four out of seventeen that he’d tossed. He put an arm around my shoulder and gave me a sort of side hug.
“Not bad for your first day. We’ll keep it up and then we just need to find a way to make sure you don’t accidentally hit one of us when the time finally comes.”
So we kept it up, just like with my other training. Party Poison set the date that we’d finally go into the city to get Grace. No matter how many bottles Fun seemed to toss, I’d always miss four.
“Is this like some kind of OCD?” He finally asked me as we finished for the day.
“It’s you, and Party, and Jet and Kobra. Four bottles. They sound different than the rest.”
“It’s the same four every time?”
“I can prove it, throw all of them.” I said, pulling back on the blindfold and flexing my fingers.
He started tossing them into the air, and I shot each one as carefully as I could. He never threw the four I’d deemed killjoys.
“Why didn’t you throw them?” I asked