Everyone sick of my teaser? I'm sorry. But you have to read it to see the notes. It was just to get people interested… I hope you will like this story. (It starts in 2015) I know that I like where it's headed. I hope you killjoys out there on the zones will like the story of Death Sparx and the ones she loves. Careful not to get ghosted and good luck on your missions. This is Death Sparx, signing off. ~~~~~

Every bone in my body ached. Sleeping on a comfy bed to sleeping in a car had gotten getting used to. Now; all we had was what we could carry. I looked over at my sister wondering if her face would ever look normal again. Being pretty to being scarred wasn't fun for her. It wasn't fun for me either.

I should probably introduce myself. My name is Neon Light; older brother of Death Sparx. We were forced to venture to California despite the heat. Our little Canadian town had got blown away and after living for two years on the scraps we found, we ran out. We took my- I mean our dad's -vehicle all the way to the outskirts of California before getting hoarded by a group of Dracs. There were too many for us to fight off so we found an abandoned building nearby. We almost got caught but they eventually left. They took the keys and since not able to hotwire a car, we were on foot. I think that we were now on our way to find the Fabulous Killjoys, but we were probably only in Zone one, on the opposite end of battery city.

We were almost out of water and there was no way I had enough money to get us any. Water was like gold out here. Only those who were really smart and had finished education could get our hands on a lot. I'm not saying Sparx wasn't smart; she is as a matter of fact extremely smart; for a thirteen year old. That's when the bombings hit. I wasn't done school either. Even though I am a fast thinker I had some trouble in High School and was just finishing up my last year. I was 17.

Now, I am twenty and loving it. The freedom, the rush, the color, the adventure; everything but watching my sixteen year old sister suffer through everything. Before the bombs hit my mom had looked after her well. She had also convinced me that girls have more trouble than guys with growing up, but can handle more.

I woke up Death Sparx and she groaned and blinked the sleep out of her eyes. I offered her the water and said "Let's get going." She grabbed a stale pop tart out of her bag and ate one, giving me the other and we ate them as we walked.

I have absolutely nothing against this lifestyle. It is Better Living my ASS Industry I held a grudge against. My life, my family, (exception of Neon) had all been destroyed; Ruined along with the rest of the world's lives. I love everything from the sun rising and setting, to the freedom. Sleeping on the ground wasn't a favorite of mine, but it worked.

We had been walking for about an hour in complete silence until something came into my mind. "Are we going to live like this forever, Ly?" I asked Neon. (Lysander is his real name.)

"I don't know Sparx, maybe. But we will survive, and I'm going to make sure the next time you close your eyes for over a day; it's going to be for a happy reason. I promise, Nick." He said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder loosely and squeezing.

"Sometimes I think I have the best brother in the entire world." I told him, looking up at him and grinned. Best brother in a crappy world. I thought to myself.

Walking for three straight hours in the scorching hot desert might seem like a bad idea; and it is. The worst idea anyone could ever come up with. At risk of acid rain, dust storms, and BL/ind attacks. We hadn't gotten any of those for at least a week, and I sensed trouble. I was right.

What we walked up to seemed at first like a paradise, until I realized it was living hell. We had reached Better Living Industries.

I was so close to panicking, you might have exploded with the thought. What are we going to do? What if we get separated? Captured? Killed? Awh fuck. I knew it we are all going to die. We should have stayed in Canada. We can't fight our way through Battery City. What are we going to do? We can't walk around, it's too far. Awh Johnny. We're going to die. We—my thoughts were cut off by Death Sparx' voice.

"You coming slow poke?" She said stopping in her tracks. "Do you have a plan?" I had no idea what the answer was to either of those questions. But I answered. I walked towards her, put my hand on my gun at the ready, and Sparx did too.

"We hide and fight. We can make it through. Trust me." I knew that I sounded like I was assuring myself, because that was exactly what I was doing. Sparx gave me a look, shook her head and started walking again.

When we got to an abandoned building we went inside making sure not to make it too obvious that we were there. We found some supplies and a couple bottles of warm water- but it was still water. We both had our guns at the ready to use at any sign of a threat. We put the water in our bags. We never kept too many things in there because too many things could be heavy. We each had a change of clothes, a small blanket and a couple food items. Our personal belongings had been left at home but Sparx insisted on bringing her sketch book, iPod, charger and a couple of photos of her friends and mom, dad and me. I had brought my iPod also, and some pictures. There was one photo of Sparx, Mom, Dad and I when I was ten and Sparx was six. There was also one of me and my girlfriend, Tanya, the summer before our town got blown. We were standing on the edge of a dock, my arms wrapped around her and looking off into the distance. Sparx had been a pretty good photographer.

It was getting late and the outskirts of battery city seemed to have been abandoned like the rest of the world. We had walked about five buildings in; careful in every one. When I decided that we should hit the sack, and found a space in the highest floor of one of the old apartments, we settled down; until we heard the noises outside.

"Sparx, wake up, now." I said gathering our stuff and looking out the window. "crap." I swore under my breath as Sparx got up pulling on her boots.

"What is it now?" she asked slurring her words because she had just gotten to sleep. She stood up and walked toward the window, eyes going wide when she saw what I saw. Five Dracs were going inside a building, and then came out five minutes later going into another.

"We gotta get out of here." I said pulling on my jacket and packing up. I took a swig of water and so did Sparx, pulling out our ray guns. We made our way down to the stairs to the bottom floor. We got out of the building and almost made it out of the area without any Dracs spotting us. Until we heard the gun fire I thought we were home free.

We both turned around now firing our guns. Sparx was an amazing shot, and got down about three of five Dracs, and then more showed up. "SHIT SHIT SHIT." Sparx shouted not putting down her gun. They obviously didn't think we were that dangerous because after ten minutes of fighting they grabbed us and tried to pull us back. Well they were wrong, about Death Sparx at least.

She struggled, and finally bit the Drac who was holding her. She picked up her gun from the ground and shot him, and then the Drac that was holding me. "COME ON NEON FRICKING LIGHT!" she shouted, running and firing at the same time. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck…." Death Sparx rambled after we got away.

We ducked down behind a building to catch our breath. "You see them?" I panted, asking Death Sparx who was closest to the corner. She held up her finger and waited five minutes. I almost went crazy wondering why she did that, but she crept out eventually. "Battle strategies, Neon. Jeez. I swear you didn't learn anything." I rolled my eyes at that and followed her deeper into the city.

Occasionally we saw a couple of Dracs, but were unnoticed for the most part. It took us the rest of the night to get to the other side of Battery City. We only stopped for washroom breaks and when there was a threat. The part where I could see us both breathing deeply despite the cool night air was when we saw the BL/ind headquarters.

Better Living industries was a huge building with lots of windows and all white. In the center of the building (exterior) there was the company logo with BL on the bottom. There was a long bridge going over to it obviously to keep people out. We weren't stupid enough to go on the bridge, but hopefully we would be part of an attack here someday. We were both ready for Better Living to go down, the rest of the killjoys we had met were all out for it, too.

We walked and hid for the next two hours, slinking around in alley ways and the few older abandoned buildings that were left. We found some things out about Dracs in that time. First thing was that stun didn't do anything to Dracs, and when not shot in the chest or the head they stayed dead for only about ten minutes. Next thing we learned was that they used to be people. I found that out the hard way; I found Tanya. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I lifted my head calling Sparx. She went around to the back of her head and took a chip out of the outfit. A change was felt right away. She breathed and her eyes fluttered open.

"You're not going to like this, Neon." Sparx said, wrapping a hand over my eyes and pulled me into an awkward hug.

"Lysander?" I heard Tanya mutter and then I heard the coughing and when I looked down my converse shoe was splattered with blood. My breath caught in my throat and I heard Death Sparx shuffling around.

"Open your eyes, Ly." Sparx said, letting go of my hand and looking up at me. She had pulled the mask completely off of Tanya's face that had dirt and dust all over it. I could see that her eyes were drugged but the drugs were wearing off. "You don't have much time, Neon."

"Ly? Where-wh-where am I?" she looked pained like she didn't know what she was doing here. "I-I-I remember the bombs, and then those scary masks, and someone taking me and injecting me with…" Her voice was faltering.

"Stay with me, Tanya. Stay, please." It was then that I noticed that Nikki had tear stained eyes too. "Please, please, please."

"I want to die happy, Lysander. I'm going soon. So please, let me die happy." Tears now streaked her face and her eyes were pleading.

"How—"I was cut off by Sparx.

"Just be there for her you oaf." She was trying to make me laugh despite the tears. It didn't work. I nodded my head and grabbed Tanya's hand finally understanding for the first time.

"Tanya, I love you, more than anything else in this world." Sparx was fumbling around in my backpack.

"I love you too." She said, stumbling through the tears and the pain.

"Remember that day, Tan?" I showed her the picture of me and her on the beach. "do you remember feeling alive, feeling happy?" She nodded her head. "I want you to go back to that day. Feel the warm breeze in your hair, feel the sand between your toes and my arms wrapped around you. Now close your eyes, and go there." My voice was faltering.

"I-I can see it. I-I can feel it." And just like that, she was gone.

It was the next night when we finally reached the tunnel out of that damned place.