"The Killjoys are still on the loose and spreading their chaos…" droned someone on the radio playing in the little roadside café we had stopped in for some food. We all bowed our heads slightly, looking down at the menu as we mumbled what we wanted to the bored looking, gum-chewing waitress. I self-consciously tucked a strand of my noticeable bright red hair under my hood as she gave us all funny looks. She finally left and I let out a sigh of relief. I looked around the small table with four of us crowded round it. Ray, Frank and my brother Mikey. And me, Gerard. Otherwise known as Jet-star, Fun Ghoul and Kobra Kid. I'm Party Poison. Collectively, we're the Killjoys. Just then, Jenny returned from the bathroom and sat down with us. She's nine, and I'm sort of like her dad now, I guess. Her parents died a little while ago, they were hunted down by Better Living Industries (or BL/ind.), and they were good friends of mine. Now I take care of her. A silence fell around the table - we were all exhausted. I laid my head down on the table and closed my eyes. I was ready to go to sleep until I heard a quiet cough from above me. I looked up to see the waitress had returned with our food, prompting me to sit up straight, pulling my hood further over my head, to again cover my hair. We ate quickly and I looked expectantly at Mikey as the waitress placed the bill on the table. He looked blankly back at me. "What?"
"You've got money, right?"
"Oh, um… I think so…" He reached into his jeans pocket and placed a handful of change on the table. We didn't quite have enough.
"It tasted like shit, so I don't think we need a tip… and they've probably charged us twice for something, these places always do, so we'll be okay." I shrugged. We made a quick departure and I jumped into the driver's seat of our car. We all tied bandanas around the lower halves of our faces, and put sunglasses on as I hit the on button on the radio and put on the Killjoy pirate radio as we drove off. "Uhm… Gee?" Jenny tugged at my jacket sleeve.
"Yeah?"
"Who's that?" she pointed into the distance, at three figures on the road ahead of us. I squinted at them. When we got a bit closer, I recognised them. The man in the middle was dressed all in white, the Better Living Industries logo clearly visible on his shirt. His name was Korse, and he was the owner of BL/ind. The two people beside him were wearing grotesque black and white masks, and were also wearing white. I stopped the car and attempted to reverse it, but the engine stalled. "Fuck." I looked up to see Korse running towards our car. The song on the radio was interrupted by the host, Dr Death-Defying. "This just in, Korse is out on a search to find you Killjoys! Run and hide!"
"You could have told us that earlier." I muttered. "RUN!" I yelled at the others, opening the door and sprinting into the distance. I didn't know where we were headed, as the area around was purely desert for miles, but we had to get away. I glanced behind me, to see Jenny a little way behind us, struggling to catch up. I picked her up and continued to run. She clung onto my neck, pressing her face into my shoulder. I could hear shouts behind me, and guessed Korse was close behind us. A bullet skimmed right over my shoulder. Looking behind me, I saw three guns being pointed directly at us. I drew my own gun from the inside of my jacket and aimed a few blind shots behind me, and the others did the same.
"KILLJOYS, IT'S TIME TO SURRENDER!" yelled Korse.
"YOU KNOW WHAT, KORSE, THERE'S FOUR WORDS THAT MAKE ME SICK: 'THE AFTERMATH IS SECONDARY'." I shouted back. The BL/ind slogan. We sped up our running and finally, one of my shots hit him in the leg. After a few more minutes running, we stopped. I put Jenny down on the ground and fell to my knees, my chest heaving from the getaway. We found a little shed-ish thing, where we stayed for a while.