The Resistance

‘I’ll take first watch’ Party Poison said while sitting himself down against a nearby desert willow tree. The temperature had dropped drastically when the night had fallen. It cooled our bodies and numbed our sunburned faces. There was a comfortable silence surrounding the four of us. It had been a long day.

I discarded the gear I was carrying and quickly checked the location. I pushed a strand of hair behind my ear when a small lukewarm breeze had moved it onto my face. The Mojave desert was as serene as ever.

Kobra Kid was unloading the trunk of our Trans-Am Firebird. The colours on the car were fading due to the scraping of sand, damaging the car paint. Even Jet Star wasn’t being his bubbly self. We were all desperately hoping to get some sleep.

‘I’ll take the second watch.’ I said while sitting myself down next to Party. He had been awfully quiet during the ride to zone 6. Thinking of it, we all were.

‘Another day on these outer zones and I will seriously strangle Dr. Death Defying with his own CB radio cord.’ Jet Star joked to Kobra, joining Party and me next to the willow tree.

‘Quit your whining, at least were out in the field.’ Party muttered, closing his eyes and setting his head against the tree trunk.

Seeing he had made a valid point, we all settled into a comfortable silence. With my last energy I took of my jacket, laid myself down and covered my eyes with it. The stars were too damn bright this time a year.

Sleep came fairly easy to me and I was soon woken by a cold night breeze. Taking this as my cue to take over Party’s watch, I stood up and waddled to his silhouette. The jacket was still hanging loosely around my shoulders.

‘Take-over.’ I said while searching for a cigarette. Even after a few hours of sleep, my eyes were heavy and my movement felt languid.

‘Can I bum one?’ Party said while holding out his lighter to me. I quickly took a second cigarette out of the package and sat myself down.

After lighting and silently dragging on the cancer-sticks, it seemed like he decided to join me for a little while further.

‘Jet is right, it’s time we move back to zone 2. There’s nothing out here but dust.’ Party said, keeping his eyes fixed on the horizon.

‘I’ll contact dr. DD as soon as sunrise hits.’ I said while his gaze shifted to my face.

‘Sometimes I think it’s hopeless what we’re doing out here. And then I remember we’re the only thing left to save California. It’s been 7 years after doomsday and we still have nothing to scratch our asses with. All the while Bl/ind industries controls the population, erasing people’s emotions through tablets and eliminates the special things, even art. What do we have? A dangerous desert, right outside Battery City where we fight elimination of individuality with a couple of rayguns.’

I chuckled at his sudden outburst, it hadn’t been the first time I heard those comments.

‘See what we did with a few rayguns, imagine what we’d do with more.’ Nodding his head in agreement, we fell back into a comfortable silence.

‘I used to have a cat named Mitch.’ he remarked. ‘I used to have dreadlocks that smelled like pot.’ I added.