Wake me up before you go go.
A Daria fanfiction by Wouter Jaegers


The room looked as it always had done, the familiarity of the thing was almost frightingly cozy.  The couch on which many hours of sleep and many hours of drinking were done was still there, the posters of the bands they admired still hung upon the wall and almost a thousand dollars worth of empty beer bottles spared up for their deposit money made a green and brown wall of glass against the inner wall of the basement, there wasn't much of a chance that they would ever be brought in for the money, which was meant to buy a new PA system, such a shame really.

On the cracked concrete floor underneath Max's drum kit lay a mat used to keep the drum kit at one place, Max could get carried away to a certain degree and his drums would end up all over the place if the mat wasn't there. Nick's Rickenbacker bass guitar was leaning against his amplifier with the cable still firmly in the "Rick-o-sound" output, ready to be played. And like the rest of the band's instruments Jesse's Robin guitar looked ready for action.

As he picked up his Dean ML Trent felt like shaking the hand of an old friend, the shape of the neck profile of his main guitar had over the years adjusted itself to his hand, or the other way around, whatever. With a firm click the strap locks secured the strap to the guitar as Trent slung it around and stationed it in front of his crotch, he liked it when the guitar was hanging low, it just made him look so damn cool, playing high up did hurt his wrist but then again, no pain no gain.

As he turned up his the Volume of his amplifier and heard the humming of nearing feedback coming from the speakers, Trent couldn't help but to think back at all those gigs he played using that gear. Jane's birthday, the day before the two of them along with Jesse and Daria went to alternapalooza. Those were the days. The strings of the guitar felt rusty, they obviously needed replacing.

Perhaps even more ironic was the first song that came to mind when Trent began to strum the chords, it was one of those crappy eighties Happy-go-lucky songs but the message just fitted the situation so perfectly.


Trent was the last to know about the biohazard that had broke out in Lawndale. Apparently some of the safety measures from Lawndale high, a kind of sedative gas had been used in greater numbers than needed resulting into the explosion of the entire facility spreading the asbestos used in the insulation over the entire city. An acute evacuation of the entire city was conducted, people were literary pulled from their homes and taken away to safer places until further notice.

Everyone was gone, everyone except for Trent. He had been in the crawl room under the floor to install the wires of a new electric socket he was planning to install in his room. It was strange for him to find that the Rock wool insulation mats were feeling really cozy and warm, in such a degree that within a short time after the wires were installed Trent drifted off into a blissful sleep.

Exactly how long he slept was a mystery but it must have been over twelve hours, when Trent made his way out from underneath the floorboards. He found the place vacant. Which wasn't really THAT unusual. But the truth would soon dawn on him. Trent remembered stepping into his car to get himself something to eat, Pizza would have done just nicely. The streets were empty too, not a car in sight, nobody to be seen for miles except this very fine powdery dust that hung in the air covering the entire town. Trent remembered that he began to feel as if he had been placed in some kind of ghost town but this wasn't the case.

When Trent came home he had to put two and two together to find out what the heck had happened. Having absolutely no clue, Trent decided to check the local news broadcasts. And was very surprised to see Janie on there. She spoke of not having found her brother yet and having been told that everybody from Lawndale had been evacuated from the town successfully and that her brother should be among the others. The reporter then showed an update on the situation after the blast occurred. Trent remembered being in shock, he had slept through the entire thing in a place where nobody would have searched for him. And on top of that he had been exposed to the poisonous asbestos for hours, it was without a doubt that he would be dying soon.

Trent's last memory involved walking towards the basement to the one spot where he would find serenity in this moment of despair. An empty town, never had he felt so alone in his whole life. And there he stood, guitar in his hands ready to sing the opening lines to the most ironic song he could think of singing.

"Wake me up before you go-go…"


"…Don't leave me hangin' round like a Yo-yo. Wake me up before you go-go I don't wanna miss it when you hear that I…"

With a loud groan Trent clicked off his radio alarm clock which was belting out that crappy song. Trent suddenly bolted up, was this another cruel twist of fate?

"Good morning to you too Trent" Came Jane's voice as her aggravated older brother came storming into the kitchen. "What got your socks into a knot, some kind of nightmare?"

"Ooh yeah…" Trent smiled relieved while surprising his sister with a hug. "Come to think of it, maybe you should make a painting of it, you'd love the subject of that dream Janie."

The end.