There's a Certain Loneliness in Your Company

For the second time today, Glitch found herself waking up from what she was hoping was a horrible dream; she soon realized that this was all too real. She gasped and attempted to sit up when the pain that scorched across her head made her lay back down for a moment. Her eyes scrunched up tight as she waited for the pain to subside. While she lay there, the moments before passing out came back to her. The Drac’s had been firing at her and Skyla so they took off. She hit her head off the ground, and it was pretty much a blur after that. She thought she remembered being picked up by someone. She was sure it wasn’t the Draculoids.

She took a deep breath before sitting up slower this time, her head still aching. She reached up and gingerly touched her forehead and found a makeshift bandage. She was sure she wasn’t with the Drac’s now if being alive wasn’t a big enough hint. Glitch examined the room around her. Besides the ratty old bed she was laying on and an equally ratty looking chair in the corner, there was nothing else. The walls were grey and dull and everything seemed to have a layer of dirt on it, including herself. Days out in the desert could be brutal whether you were inside or outside. She grimaced as her clothes clung to her sticky, dirty skin. A moment later she realized she could hear voices coming from another room not far from her. They were too faint to tell whether they were familiar or not. She stood up from the bed slowly, minding her head as it bobbed around in pain. She crept over to the door and pushed it open silently. The voices grew slightly louder. She could hear three, maybe four distinct voices.

Glitch kept her breathing even as she reached for her gun. Her eyes widened and she glanced down at the gun holster strapped to her leg. It was gone. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she planned her next move. She had to get out of here and find Skyla. She closed her eyes and took one more deep breath before venturing out from behind the door. She only made it a few stealthy, silent steps out into the hall before she heard shuffling around a few rooms away. Her eyes darted down the hall looking for a way out, but her only escape seemed to come from the direction of the voices. Suddenly a figure stepped out into the hallway and made eye contact with Glitch. She stood up straight and reached behind her back, hoping she could fool them into thinking she had a gun.

“Stay where you are.” Toxic’s voice was steady despite her racing heartbeat.

“Easy, doll. No one’s gonna hurt you. I was coming to check on you.” He smirked at her and began walking toward her casually.

“Don’t fucking move!” She barked at him. Instead of looking concerned or scared, the man just seemed annoyed. He rolled his eyes before lifting his hands in the air to show he had nothing on him.

“Skyla, will you come tell her she can trust me?” He called over his shoulder. Glitch cocked her head to the side, squinting her eyes at this mysterious man. A moment later, she saw Skyla poke her head out from around the corner the guy just came from.

“Finally. You’re awake!” She grinned before pushing past the stranger in the hall and walked over to Glitch, taking her in an embrace. Glitch stood frozen, waiting for some sort of explanation. Skyla, being the observant person she is pulled back to take a look at Toxic’s face. “You probably want to know what’s going on.”

“That’d be nice.” Glitch replied unamused still eyeing the guy behind her suspiciously. Without another word, Skyla grabbed Glitch by her hand and led her to the room where the other voices emitted from. Glitch got one more look at the unnamed man as he moved aside for them to walk past him. He had shaggy, dark hair and seemed just as dirty and sticky as she was. He had this air about him that seemed to naturally grab your attention. She did her best to ignore his piercing eyes as he looked at her with a slight grin on his face; like he knew she was examining him and what she saw wasn’t half bad. She already hated that about him. She glanced at the ground to break their gaze, though she could still feel his eyes burning into her back.

Skyla led her to a room with a large table sitting in the middle with several chairs around it. Three other guys were occupying some of the seats. Glitch looked between the three of them, studying them; trying to figure them out before anything was said.

“Tox, these are some of the Killjoys from this zone. They’re like us. Honest. That’s Kobra Kid, Jet Star, Party Poison, and that’s Fun Ghoul.” She motioned to the guy from the hall. Glitch turned around to see that he was now leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. They all stared at her not saying anything; they seemed to be studying her and waiting for her reaction. Glitch just nodded, trying to keep a level head.

“Where are we? What happened to the Drac’s?”

“Jet Star and Fun Ghoul were hiding out in that building we hopped in; apparently the Draculoids are pretty predictable around here and they were doing a round, looking for looters. They were waiting for the Drac’s to pass when we jumped in. Well, you fell in. They brought us back to their safe house after you passed out. We’re still in Zone 3, but we missed our pickup.” Skyla looked disgruntled about missing the deal on Zaps. Toxic’s face flushed red at the mention of her falling again. She wasn’t as athletic as Skyla, considering she spent most of her time strung out on her couch. She didn’t want to be reminded that she was the weakest link. She shook her head of the embarrassing thought but was quickly reminded of a more stressful matter at hand.

“What time is it?” Toxic asked a little too forcefully. Skyla raised an eyebrow at her before checking her watch.

“15:00. Why?”

“Same day?”

“Yeah. You were only out for an hour or two. Why?”

“Nothing.” Glitch cleared her throat and glanced down at her boots, focusing pretty hard on the scuffed, steal toes. She had eight hours before ONE was supposed to come back to her apartment. What would happen if she wasn’t there? Would he come find her? She hadn’t even decided if she was going to join or not. Did she even have a choice? She suppose she did, one option was just a little less appealing. The awkward stares finally left her and she glanced back up again. Everyone began discussing whatever it was they were talking about before she had entered the room. Skyla sat and listened intently to what they had to say. She was probably happy to finally be around someone who gets her and has the same interests as her.

“How’s your head?”

Glitch jumped at the sound of a voice behind her. She spun around to see Fun Ghoul standing closer to her looking genuinely concerned. She instinctively reached up again brushing the wound once more.

“It’s fine I suppose. A massive headache, but I’ll be fine.”

“I did what I could with what we had. You hit pretty hard …” He reached up, inspecting the bandages on her forehead. She winced as he applied too much pressure to the tender area. His touch quickly lightened and he let his fingers trace along her hair line before dropping his hand back to his side. She felt awkward that he was so casually close to her. She knew that if she and Skyla had been there for a few hours, then these guys must be on our side. Skyla wouldn’t have stayed if they weren’t. Glitch still didn’t know who they were, though, and she wasn’t as comfortable around them just yet. She looked over at Skyla one more time and watched how easily she interacted with them. Glitch seemed to be the only one out of place. When she brought her gaze back, she realized Fun Ghoul had just been watching her with that smirk on his face again. She felt her cheeks lighten up and she cleared her throat some.

“Where’s my gun?” Her voice was much softer than she had intended.

“Your gun? It’s back here.” He turned and walked back toward the hallway. After a moment of hesitation, Glitch decided to follow him. There was a small door close to the room she was occupying earlier. When he pulled it open, she saw few guns hanging on designated hooks before her eyes fell on her own hanging among them. He retrieved it for her and turned around to hand it over. She reached up to take it from him, but he stopped her short. He inspected the gun over once more before slowly handing it to her.

“New gun?”

“No. Why?” Glitch almost sounded offended as she tucked it back in its holster.

“I just … it doesn’t look like you use it much.”

“I don’t. Is that a problem?”

“Depends” He shrugged his shoulders causally in a way that frustrated her. She scoffed at his cockiness and turned to walk away from him when she felt his hand grip her arm to stop her from trudging off. She turned around to face him once more. He didn’t say anything for a moment and she suddenly felt vulnerable. That second of hesitation from him let her look him over once more and she had to compose herself. He wasn’t a bad looking guy and, despite how arrogant he seemed, she couldn’t help but find something appealing in his gaze, his forwardness, and his natural demand for attention. She finally broke his intense gaze and shook his hand off.

“I don’t need to use it.” She added coolly.

“Sure you do. What happened today, that’s not going away, dear. There’s always a reason to use it.” There was that cockiness again.

“Thanks for the advice, ‘dear’, but save it.” She rolled her eyes and began walking back toward the main room with everyone else.

“I can show you.” He called after her. She stopped before turning the corner. She looked over her shoulder at him and eyed him up and down. He seemed unfazed as he ran his hands through his hair, making her stomach twist in an unusually way. “I’m not trying to be a dick. I just know I’m not always going to be around to save you.” He looked up at her through his lashes and smirked.

“I don’t need saving, sweetheart.” She quickly turned away from him and headed into the main room so he couldn’t see the grin threatening to spread across her face.