The midday sun was bearing down on all of us, and it made being outside nearly unbearable, but we knew that we had to carry on, to try and find what had happened to the four Killjoys that were meant to be looking after the Little Girl. If we didn't, then we all knew it wouldn't be long until the Draculoids caught up and exterminated us – the girl was the only thing keeping them at a safe distance from us, and now that we didn't have her anymore, we were completely vulnerable to their merciless attacks. Originally, there had been about seventeen people in our group, but some had gotten lost, or thought that they could do a better job on their own, or suspected the rest of us were conspiring against them... it didn't matter how it happened, they all deviated away from the group, and we never heard from them again. It didn't take a genius to work out that they had been exterminated. Now our numbers were down to a mere five, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were even less of us by the time we had completed our mission.

I paused walking for a moment, surveying the vast area that surrounded us; the barren desert that was more commonly known as Zone 3 could barely support any form of life, with any person daring to try and survive here having to risk a trip into Battery City every couple of days to obtain the most basic of supplies, and every Killjoy knew there was a good chance that they would never return from Battery City, what with BL/ind desperately trying to remove every last citizen who did not want to be a part of their 'perfect' society and conform by taking their mind-control pills. It was hard trying to remember how everything became to this, why everyday was a fight for survival. Even though I was only nineteen, the only life I had properly known was one of being constantly on the run, never being able to stay somewhere long enough to be able to call it a 'home'.

Noticing that I had stopped, Planetary Poison followed suit and halted the others as well. "What's wrong Aqua Starlight?" she asked me, clearly worried in case I had thought I'd caught a glimpse of any Dracs nearby.

"I was just thinking," I told her, the anxiety leaving her as quickly as it had entered in the first place. "It's just..." Glancing at her face through my acid rain-proof sunglasses, I could see that she was hanging onto my every word, desperately hoping that I knew something that would be the key to destroying the society we had spent so many years rebelling against. "Y'know what kid? It doesn't matter. It's not worth dwelling on the past." The look of disappointment was only in Planetary Poison's eyes for a second, but that was all it took for an emotion to have a devastating effect on you. Well, that's all it took my mother...

"Are you two done?" Plasma Bomb enquired. "We need to cover as much ground as possible today, seeing as I've picked up a transmission five minutes ago saying that temps are only gonna reach a low of 107 degrees today, plus there's a slight risk of an acid rain storm developing in parts of Zone 3B and 3D at about half seven tonight." This was not good news at all – even though these storms were usually short-lived, they could drain your energy and destroy your protective clothing within a matter of mere seconds, and seeing as we had started out from the outer limits of Zone 3 only four hours ago, we needed to move. And fast.

Quickly, I devised a plan of action in my head. Planetary Poison, Cyanide Imploder, Plasma Bomb, and Emerald Hurricane all stood around silently whilst I explained to them what we were going to do. "Okay, so we've got about seven hours to try and find some sort of shelter for the night. Plasma, you keep scanning the frequencies, see if there's any pirate stations that can give us any information." Briefly nodding, he began to fiddle with a small pocket radio that he had managed to steal after a trip to Battery City – an item which was worth its weight in gold out here in the desert. "Cyanide, I want you to keep a lookout for any flies – remember, the government flies have only been put out recently, so hopefully they shouldn't be too advanced, but we can't be too careful these days." She nodded dutifully; I asked her because she had far superior eyesight to the rest of us, for reasons that we had never managed to figure out. "And obviously, everybody keep your eyes open for Dracs. We picked up on a transmission a couple of days ago that said BL/ind were widening their search for 'our kind', so we have to assume their surveillance is now further out than just Zone 1." These were certainly tough times for us Killjoys, but all it did was give us further motivation to bring down our corrupt government, to let people live in safety like the times before. "Is everyone clear on what we have to do?" They all nodded, and so we set off, Plasma Bomb desperately searching through the frequencies as he tried to find something, anything at all, that could help us on this more-likely-than-not suicide mission. Looking up to the sky for some sort of reassurance, I knew we had to do it to save the ones without a voice, the vulnerable – to save ourselves and Killjoys the world over.