Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back

“How’s it look?”

Gerard is standing in the doorway of the smaller bedroom. He’s shirtless, his gray jeans zipped but unbuttoned, his newly dyed hair still dripping cold water onto his shoulders. Anette looks up from her book and tilts her head to the side.

“It’s very… red.”

“I hope so,” he chuckles, ruffling his hair and glancing at it in the mirror. It’s a very vivid red now, so much so that it could be mistaken for some shade of pink in the right lighting. “I mean, that was the point. Mikey is bleaching his right now.” Anette marks her place in the book and sets it on the bedside table before standing up. “I guess my real question is do you like it?”

“I… yeah.”

Gerard snorts. “That didn’t sound very convincing.”

“No, I like it,” Anette says hastily. She’s standing in front of him now, her eyes inspecting his hair. “Why does it matter anyways? It’s your hair.”

“Because your opinion matters to me,” Gerard answers, raising his eyebrows.

“It’s just…” Anette reaches out and plays with a lock of his hair. “I mean, it looks good. It really does. But…”

“But what?”

“It’s really bright. Don’t you think it’ll draw a lot of attention to yourself?” she asks hesitantly, withdrawing her hand.

“Well, at the very least, it’s a different color. It’ll throw them off long enough for me to shoot them,” Gerard says with a smile. “Jokes aside though, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

He leans towards Anette and kisses her. She responds by wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him towards her until their chests are touching. “I just… I worry about everyone,” she says quietly when the kiss is broken. “I don’t want to lose any of you.”

“We all feel that way. And we’ll be fine. We just gotta be careful and not do anything stupid.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Shh.” Gerard silences her with another kiss. “Don’t think about it. Just think about now and how you and I are in this room together and the door locks from the inside.”

A shiver runs down Anette’s spine. “Does it?”

Gerard reaches back, shuts the door, and locks it. “Just you and me.”

Anette starts walking backwards back towards the bed they’ve been sharing and Gerard is pulled along for the ride. “But Mikey’s still up here,” Anette points out when they stopped, her legs touching the edge of the bed.

“Eh, it’s not like I haven’t heard him and Frank fucking before,” Gerard shrugs. “And besides, I have to find that third sensitive spot, right?” He kisses her neck where he knows she’ll just melt, and she does, moaning his name. “And the second one is… here.” His hand slips up her tank top and traces along her spine, making her arch into him. “But there’s a third, right?”

“Mm, maybe,” she responds, breathless. She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him. “Good luck.”

He smirks and continues running his fingers up and down her spine, making her shiver. “Thanks. Let’s get to it, shall we?”

-

“No. Absolutely not.”

“This is total bullshit, Bob. Why can’t I come with you?”

“Because.”

“Because why? That’s such a stupid answer.”

“Because you’re my little sister, and I’m not letting anything bad happen to you!” His voice is actually raising, something that doesn’t happen very often. “Okay? I promised mom and dad that I would look after you.”

“They’re dead, Bob!”

“So I’m the only one left—”

“I can take care of myself—”

“No is no, Anette. You’re staying here.” Bob yanks his racing jacket on with force, turning his back on her. “Please just stay here.”

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Anette huffs, throwing herself down in the old armchair, causing a sizable cloud of dust to rise around her.

“Anette, if you got hurt, I could never forgive myself.”

“I’m not a kid anymore.”

“I know.”

With that, he pockets the lazar gun and walks outside and into the burning sunlight.

-

Lying in wait is one of the hardest things for Korse to do.

He wants action. He wants to jump out, guns blazing, and take these kids out. He wants to do his job and get out.

Patience. Patience is the key. He must wait until precisely the right moment to strike, otherwise this hunt will have been pointless.

There they are. At the grocery store, like complete idiots. Just because they had cut their hair and found some shitty old clothes to wear didn’t make them invisible. Korse’s hand twitched by his side, aching to pull his gun.

Patience.

“On my go,” Korse mumbles into the walkie talkie in his other hand, keeping it close to his body so he might muffle some of the static.

Korse frowns as he watches them. The female isn’t there. SCARECROW wasn’t going to be too happy about that.

Swoosh-fiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzz.

Korse jumps at the bolt fired from the lazar gun. That’s it. Their cover is blown.

They’ve started to run back to their car, shouldering two small bags of food. The tallest one pulls out his own lazar gun and Korse quickly takes cover again as two of his men fall around him. The others have hesitated.

“Get them!” Korse screams, his voice raw and harsh. He jumps up again and starts firing as he runs after them, throwing his body into high gear. There are bolts from lazar guns flying all round him, but he disregards them. He takes aim as he run, trying to keep his arm as steady as possible—

The first and second bolts miss, but the third hits it’s target. The blonde one goes down, but two of the others grab him by the armpits and drag him the remainder of the journey to their car. Korse is forced to take cover again when the tall one fires again, purposefully trying to kill him.

By the time Korse rolls out from behind the wall, the tires are squealing and he hears a thud as they run over one of his Draculoids on the way out. Korse throws down his gun into the dirt, screaming so loud it drowns out all other sounds around him.

He will find him.

And he will burn them.

-

Anette has been standing watch at the front door for the past half hour.

The sun has started to set. It’s a much better sight here than in the city. The sky is painted burnt orange and deep purple, gold and scarlet. In the navy above her head, Anette can see the stars beginning to shine and twinkle. A breeze catches and blows through her hair, soothing her skin from the blistering sun. The sand is shadowed, and it’s hard to see shapes in the distance.

They still aren’t back.

They should have been back two hours ago.

At first, Anette was accepting their lateness as getting lost. That was totally acceptable, as she had no idea where she was. But then she remembered that they had gone into town earlier in the week and this was now inexcusable. Since then, she paced the kitchen and stared out the door, eyes on the hunt for any sign of a dust cloud—

A dust cloud like that one in the distance.

Anette’s heart leaps into her throat. She grips the rough wooden doorframe tightly, coarseness threatening to slice into her soft hands. She’s shaking all over, but her eyes never leave the growing cloud approaching her. She wonders for a split second if it’s not them, if it’s someone else. But that’s ridiculous. No one else knows this is out here.

And it’s alright, because she can finally see that it’s the white front of the van, though it’s really sort of brown right now because of all the dust and sand and whatever else has clung to the surface.

It doesn’t take Anette all that long to figure out something’s wrong.

One of the headlights is out. That’s the first clue. It’s been shot at and shattered, the right one has. There are scorch marks all along the van. They’re driving much, much faster than normal, even for the past two weeks. As they pull in, Anette can see that Gerard is driving, with Mikey in the passenger seat. They both look frantic.

Anette is running out the door, not caring if she’s barefoot and the rocks are jabbing her painfully. The van screeches to a halt and the door is flung open and Anette is practically screaming, “What happened?”

“Get him inside!” Mikey yells from the other side of the van, running around to where Anette is. Ray has jumped out and is blocking her view, but what he pulls from the van completely stops the world for her.

Ray is holding up Bob by the armpits, Frank at his knees, and he’s got a great burn in his side. They run past Anette, and Mikey leaps ahead of them, yanking the door open. Gerard shuts up the van and takes Anette’s hand, but she isn’t moving. She’s completely rooted to the spot, eyes fixed on the now empty doorway.

“Anette, come on. We need to help out.”

She follows him only when he tugs on her hand, eyes empty and her heart pounding and her mind screaming.

They’ve set Bob on the couch and pulled his shirt off, exposing the burning hole. Blackened skin is flaking off and raw flesh is beginning to cook, making for a putrid smell. Anette’s lips and hands are shaking as she kneels down next to him, running a hand over his forehead and brushing blonde hair out of his face.

“Gerard, what…?” is all she can manage to say before she feels tears leaking out of her eyes and tracing down her face.

“We… we were just getting some supplies in the town. And we were leaving, when their cars just… just surrounded us. Korse, he… we thought we had gotten away, and he blasted a hole through the van.”

Anette’s hand grips the arm of the couch. “I should have been there. I could have saved him, I… he wouldn’t let me go. And now he’s dying, Gerard, he’s—” She chokes up, and Gerard pulls her up into his arms before she can cry onto Bob’s sweating, deteriorating form.

-

Frank and Mikey finally retire at about eleven. Ray, Gerard, and Anette are in the living room. Anette has taken over Ray’s job of kneeling by Bob, trying to slow and stop the burning wound with a damp cloth that gets dunked in a bucket of ice every now and then. Ray collapsed in the armchair, watching Bob through half-open eyes. And Gerard sits on the floor by the broken coffee table, his sketchbook in his lap but unable to draw anything.

When Ray finally dozes off, Gerard stands up and puts a hand on Anette’s shoulder. “You should go to bed. I’ll take over.”

She just shrugs his hand off without looking at him. “No. You get rest. I’m fine.”

There’s literally no point in arguing with her anymore. “Alright. If you need anything, wake us up.”

“Uh-huh.”

Gerard lets his hand linger near her shoulder for another moment before walking towards the stairs and another probably sleepless night.

-

Time either passes very slowly or very quickly. It doesn’t matter either way for Anette. She’s still by her brother’s side, hoping he’ll wake up, thinking that maybe they’ll get lucky and the cold water will be enough, that the burn will go out, and she can save him.

She has to save him.

It’s around three in the morning when Bob’s eyes slowly flutter open, and Anette nearly drops the rag in surprise. His eyes focus, and when he sees her, he manages a weak smile.

“Bob, Bob, I’m sorry,” Anette says, her voice scratchy from crying and disuse.

“For what?” he croaks out, wincing in pain.

“I should have been there, I could have—”

“Shh,” he says, and she quiets. “No. It’s alright, Anette. There’s nothing you can do.”

She sits back a little, grabbing the rag again. “But Bob, if I just—”

“No, Anette.” He pushes her hand away weakly. “Anette, just let go. Let me die.”

The words hit her in the heart like an arrow at close range, going straight through her and pulling her heart out on the way.

“But—”

“No. I’ve saved you, and now you have to keep the rest of these idiots safe.” He tries to laugh, but it just ends in him panting and straining in pain. “I’m dying, Anette. You have to accept it.”

“You can’t die, Bob.” Anette is crying again and her voice is breaking and hands are shaking and she sounds like the scared little girl who lost her parents so many years ago once again. “You-You’re all I have left. I don’t know what to do without you!”

Bob laughs again, despite the pain. “That’s silly. You’ll do fine. You—” He strains again, the burn growing considerably. “You’ll be great. And you can get them back for me, yeah?”

He grabs her hand, and she squeezes it. “Oh-okay.”

“Good. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

When the light leaves his eyes, she buries her head in his chest and her sobs wake up Ray. He hugs her and cries too, and they stay that way until the first beams of the morning peak through the windows.

-

They bury Bob on a hill out on the north end of town. The only thing marking the grave is an old telephone pole, where Mikey has carved B.N.B. into it, and the small bundle of flowers that Anette has set there.

She’s there now, leaning against the pole and looking off into the sunset, thinking about all the events the day had brought her.

There had been a general consensus to take on new identities. As a group, they decided on an old name they used to call Bob – Killjoy.

So now Desert Harmony leans against an aging wooden pole, and Party Poison approaches her, a purple and turquoise racing jacket in his hand.

“It was Bob’s,” he says, as he settles the jacket around her shoulders. “You should have it.”

“Thanks.”

He kisses her temple, and she allows him to wrap his arms around her waist.

“What’s next?” she asks, glancing up at his face. She can’t tell much from it, as it’s covered by a yellow carnival mask, and his thin lips are betraying nothing.

“We get those bastards. SCARECROW, Korse, the Draculoids… they’re going to pay.”

Desert Harmony just nods stiffly. She couldn’t agree more.

They watch the sun for a few more moments before Party Poison says, “Come on, let’s go inside.

“Tomorrow, we fight.”

END