The time quickly began to approach seven, and still no sign of any sort of shelter; Plasma Bomb wasn't having much luck trying to find information either. It was all starting to seem just the smallest bit hopeless, but then, far off in the distance, Cyanide Imploder noticed a tiny shack – when we began to get closer, it barely looked big enough to fit two people, let alone five. Still, it was the only option that we had, unless we fancied being slowly burned alive by the acid rain.

Upon entering, we were promptly greeted by trash, and lots of it – clearly the people staying here before us were in a hurry to leave. Getting to work so that it would become even remotely liveable (even if it was only for one night), I managed to find a gem hidden in amongst the piles of rubbish, namely a map of Battery City and the surrounding zones. "Good find," Emerald Hurricane complimented me, "we're definitely going to need one of those if we want any chance of actually succeeding with this mission." After more cleaning, Planetary Poison found some cans of Power Pup, so we all decided it would be a good idea to wind down for the evening, especially since we were going to have another long day ahead of us tomorrow.

While eating what was essentially human dog food, I worked on a brief plan of action for tomorrow, even though more likely than not the plans would be out of the window as soon as we stepped foot outside... "Okay," I addressed everyone, mouth still half-full, "so basically what we want to do tomorrow is cross the border into Zone 2 and travel as far as we can before dusk starts to hit. Now, Zone 2 is where the majority of Killjoys have their base, so if we bump into any of them, then do not mention what we are doing – even if they say they want to come and help, they might try and claim glory for themselves, at any cost. If asked, then just say we're trying to find Dr. D after a transmission we received from him."

"But isn't that what we're trying to do?" As always, Cyanide Imploder was the rational thinker of the group.

"That isn't our main objective, but yes, if we discover his whereabouts, then we'll go to him and try to find more information." After that, we ate in silence, so I assumed we were all on a mutual understanding.

Once everyone else had closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep, I got up, unable to turn off the thoughts that kept me awake just like every other night. Determining it safe enough, I stepped outside into the night air, which was only marginally cooler than it had been during the day, and I let everything wash over me, starting with the message that brought us here in the first place...

It had been yet another ordinary day in the life of a Killjoy living in the zones – killing Dracs, scavenging for food and other supplies, trying to stay off the radar of BL/ind – when a transmission had come through on the radio in the shack where the Killjoys had been living for the past week. But something was different about this transmission, because it wasn't from BL/ind or any other radio station that we had been aware of; instead, it was from an individual who would only identify themselves as Dr. D.

At the time, I was the only one around, with the others still out practicing with their brand new ray-gun (Emerald Hurricane) and trying to find more supplies (everyone else), but I had to pick up the transmission, especially since we hadn't had contact with any other Killjoys for a good few months. "This is Aqua Starlight, over," I spoke nervously into the mouthpiece when I saw the flashing red light on the radio set.

The voice on the other end was a booming one, and I jumped the first time they spoke. "Are you in the zones tumbleweed? Over."

"Um, Zone 3. Who are you anyway? Over." Why was this person concerned about where I was?

"My name is Dr. D, and I have something of critical importance to ask of you. Have you heard of The Fabulous Killjoys? Over."

"Of course I have. Over." I mean, who hadn't heard of The Fabulous Killjoys? They were only the most notorious group living in the zones, what with their high Drac kill rate and live fast, die hard attitude.

"Well I have some troubling news for you motor baby – they made a trip to the soul-stealing place known as Battery City three days ago to bring the Little Girl back to her rightful home, and there's been no sign of life from them since. Now, while BL/ind would never hurt her, I regrettably cannot say the same for those proud and honourable Killjoys, and this is why I'm providing you with the knowledge from across the zones. I would have been following in their footprints in a desert-day heartbeat, but I've gotta keep supplying all the other Killjoys out in the zones with the slaughtermatic sounds to keep them from getting ghosted, so it is my greatest honour, young crash queen, to ask you to round up others of our kind and go bring back the girl and the greatest Killjoys that this planet has ever known. Over." At first, I was almost, no, definitely sure that I had heard that wrong – who would even begin to think about asking me, Aqua Starlight, and my small, severely undertrained group of Killjoys, to go all the way to Battery City to save the best Killjoys in the world?

"My group are nowhere near able enough to take on a mission as deadly – and important – as that. What makes you think we'll have any chance of success? Over."

There was a short pause of silence from the machine. "You may doubt your own ability, motor baby, but as a Killjoy, you possess everything that you need to take on the ones that control the master plan. And I know that you're not a quitter, so lemme tell you something – the ones that don't quit, they don't die, because they don't surrender their shadow to wander these lonely, lonely zones if someone tried to ghost them. That's how I know you're gonna win. Over."

I thought about it for a second, but a second was all that it took. "Okay, we accept. I won't let you down Dr. D. Over."

"That's good to hear, tumbleweed." I could practically hear the smile in his voice. "Now you know what you gotta do, so I'll leave you now and tell all the other rock and rollers that are surfing the transmissions the good news. This is Dr. D, over and out." Once he had gone from the airwaves, I was left to wonder, still holding onto the mouthpiece, why it had been us chosen to do this; maybe there had been someone up there looking down on us, knowing that in us, we had the right stuff to take this mission and turn it into the stuff of legends. Standing up slowly, I went to wait outside, to inform the other Killjoys of what lay ahead of us, what could turn us into heroes.

All these days later, I still couldn't understand why it had been us chosen, but I wasn't going to argue with it anymore, and just learn to accept that this was what fate had decided was going to happen to us. Fate... it felt slightly weird that in these times when everything was a fight for survival, I still had the strength to believe in fate and destiny and all those other your-life-is-already-planned-out things. Then again, when you were living in the zones, you needed to find something that meant you kept your sanity when living alone from the majority of society.

Staring blankly out into the desert night, I almost didn't notice Plasma Bomb sitting on the dusty, sand-covered ground until I nearly tripped straight over him. "Sorry..." I started to apologise, but he turned to face me and tapped at the thing in his ear. Carefully pulling it out, I spoke once more, knowing that this time, he could actually hear me. "I said sorry for nearly tripping over you." Nodding towards me as if to say 'it's okay', I sat down next to him, watching as he kept flicking through the frequencies, each one seeming to bring him more disappointment than the last. "You know you need to get some sleep. You're not going to be good to anybody if you're dead on your feet."

"Same could be said for you," he snorted as he stopped fiddling with the radio and took the other earphone out. "You're not going to be doing anybody any favours if we're surrounded by Dracs and you have no sort of plan for us because you can't think straight."

"Maybe," I said, trying to find a loophole around his near-flawless logic, "but I hardly ever sleep these days, so I'm used to it. You, on the other hand..."

"Okay, okay, I see your point," he waved my comment away, even though he clearly knew that I was right. "But I need to keep scanning, it's the only way we're gonna find any sort of information. Hell, I might even be able to find this guy that messaged us in the first place." I had to admit, if he could do that, then we would have our best chance of working out what happened to The Fabulous Killjoys.

"What have you found so far then?" I asked after a few brief moments of silence.

"Nothing." Plasma Bomb spat on the ground, so I knew that this was really pissing him off. "Everything out there's BL/ind, except for one thing that was just playing The Mad Gear and Missile Kid. Aqua," he stared me straight in the eyes, "how the hell are we meant to do this? We've had nowhere near enough training to be able to take on a handful of Dracs, let alone a whole army of them, and we don't even know where exactly we're meant to be going. Why are we doing this? Don't you know that we're probably going to die?"

I didn't have an answer for him, seeing as I had thought that way too, but Dr. D's words came back to me, just when I needed them the most. "The ones that don't quit, don't die." Confusion swept across Plasma's face, so I knew it would take a little more explanation for him to get it. "We just have to give it everything that we've got, and more. That way, we know that we did the best that we could."

This seemed to satisfy him for a minute, until the confusion crept back onto his face. "But... what if our best isn't good enough?"

I didn't have an answer for that.