I have no idea how far I'm going to get in this chapter but fingers are crossed for five pages… (On word) I hope you killjoys out there on the zones are safe and sound in your hideouts tonight, and if you're not, I hope that you win the battle. Goodnight, wave heads, crash queens, motor babies, and last but certainly not least killjoys.

DEATH SPARX – NIKKI KELLER

Once we got out of that damned city, our main objective was to find a place to stay for the night. We hadn't slept for over thirty six hours and were both exhausted; both from crying and exhaustion.

I just couldn't get her out of my head. Her crumpled body, the way she had said my name when she died, was all my fault. I was the one who pulled the trigger, the one who pulled the chip out of the back of her neck. My alternative said otherwise. It was BL/ind's fault. You had nothing to do with it; if they only didn't get her in the first place… I shook that voice out of my head every single time it appeared. Her face had been tired, and there were deep circles under her eyes. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and blood dribbling down the side of her mouth from when she had coughed it up. I had let down her waist-length blond wavy hair from her ponytail and told her everything in under five minutes. When she had died, she had told me to tell Kobra Kid that she was sorry. I had no idea what she meant at the time.

After an hour of walking away from Battery City, we chose a spot not far off of Route Guano to camp. We were too tired to salvage for sticks for a fire, so we just huddled close to each other and shivered in the cold desert air. We didn't say a word to each other, and I could have cared less if some car picked us up. I was tired and dehydrated.

"Night Neon" I whispered as I felt his slow and steady breathing on the back of my neck. I rolled my eyes an drifted off to sleep

*TIME LAPSE*

I wasn't expecting anything to happen in the morning, and that's not what happened, at all.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of Neon Light's heavy breathing. This was odd, considering he was usually up before me ahead two or three hours. I went over to him; he was in a rough sleep. I woke him up. "Neon? Are you okay?" When his eyes flashed open and the heavy breathing didn't stop, I knew there was something wrong. It was in the heat of the day, and I had already begun to sweat. There wasn't a bead of sweat on Neon anywhere. Sings showed that he had been up previously. There was an empty water bottle by his open bag, where I found another bottle also drained. I also saw a partially wet spot in the sand near neon's head. It didn't seem to be just spit up, it looked like bile.

"Neon, tell me what to do? What's wrong?" his raspy breathing didn't stop. I pinched his skin and it only went part way down. "Fuck"

Neon taught me all the signs of dehydration in the car on our way here. All those thoughts were coming back to me now. I just didn't have the water to cure it. 'Keep the victim lying down' he had said, so he was doing that. Water in little doses, if throwing up, wait a bit and then try again. I didn't have the medical expertise. I didn't even pay attention to the teacher half the time. I just did the work assigned and the exams and tests. Who I needed right now was my friend, Cyrin.

I knew that she was still around because I had seen her on a newspaper in battery city times that's pretty much all that was in the paper now; Faces of the killjoys on the zones. It said that her killjoy name was "Killa Bomb" and she was now living somewhere close to the city. Now that I thought about it, neon and I would be on there soon too. I suddenly felt extremely stupid for trying and getting through the city instead of around it. Now everyone would know our faces. I slapped myself on the forehead and my hand lingered on the icy-cool scar. No way was I letting Neon go. He fought for me; I was going to fight for him.

I dug my water out of my bag and gave him some, taking some for myself so that I wouldn't fall into dehydration, too. Thankfully, it all stayed down. "Stupid, stupid Neon." I said, under my breath. He had probably tried to chug the bottle, hence the throw up. I tilted the bottle up and gave him another swig.

"You, stay here." I demanded as I stood up. "Don't move, I'll be right back. Save your breath bud!" my plan to keep the sun off of him was to find some sticks and dig them into the ground, draping blankets and extra clothes on top. I never got to it, though. Be it pure luck or just chance.

"Holy shit, is that actually you Nikki?!" said Cyrin, right after stopping her bike. Well, speak of the devil, I thought running up to give her a hug. In some way her red hair didn't clash with the worn purple jeans she wore. It reminded me of how she could pull off red and blue outfits in high school without looking like superwoman.

"Hey there, Cyrin, or Killa Bomb!" I mock-teased her.

"And what do they call you, eh, Curly-fry?" I punched her arm; hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to bruise.

"Don't give me that look, I'm not stupid." She raised her eyebrows and I rolled my eyes. "I'm here with Lysander, now known as Neon Light."

"So he made it out, where is he now?" she asked quizzically.

"What do you know about dehydration?" I asked pointing to the dot that was now my brother in the distance.

KILLA BOMB – CYRIN ROCKWELL

It was about that time of month that I found some more killjoys for a week or so before leaving to go off on my own again. This time, they came to me. I couldn't wait to catch up with Nikki and Ly, but that was hard to do when Lysander was practically dying in the heat of the desert.

"It's Death Sparx." Nikki suddenly said, "My killjoy name." I nodded. I was dragging the bike beside me.

"Hey, hop on." I said, jumping on the bike. It would get us there faster, even though it was only a ten minute walk. She hopped on the bike, back to back with me, holding on to the seat lightly.

I was surprized. The Nikki I knew in school was shy, timid and scared, this one was seemingly afraid of nothing. She wouldn't even drive my brothers' old car on the back roads regardless of being a good driver. Now her arm hung freely on the side of the motorbike, feet almost touching the round. We'd changed, both of us. Me, 'people-a phobic' as I was, longed for human company once in a while. I wondered if the scar on her face had anything to do with it.

I stopped the bike, both of us hopping off. Nikki ran over to Lysander's side putting some water into his mouth. He looked like he was about to ask why I was there, but I quickly used my version of explaining. "Shut up. Later." He wasn't surprized by my attitude, I had always had it. "Can you stay sitting for five minutes?" I asked him. He slowly got up and grunted getting on the bike behind me.

"I'll be back in a second, Sparx." She nodded and went to pack up their things.

"See you in ten." She said, nodding happily to herself. The worry for her brother was still there, but she was happy to see me.

Lysander was holding onto the seat tightly, but not backwards. I felt extremely sweaty, more than usual. Was it because of the heat or the other people's bodies around me? Was it the tension?

My mind suddenly drifted to the last time the entire gang had gotten together. I had planned to go to Gaspésie with just my brothers that year, but soon I had invited Nikki, then Zara and next thing you know there were 9 people total. We had risen up all the money we could to get one cabin up there. That made 6 bed-spots; three people had to sleep elsewhere. We planned to stay for a month, but that soon turned into a week after our parents freaked out about the bombings.

We did have fun. Swimming, running around, being nuisances. But it was the night before we headed back home, and we all argued. I was apparently too laid back, Nikki was a suck up, Emmet was too reckless… we went on and on pointing out every flaw about one another. Eventually the ruckus got us kicked out of the area, so we headed home in silence.

We never talked after that. All through August and the first week of school, to Labor Day weekend. We had supposed to be going to the fair together, but we were too strung up with the fight to carry it out. Since we all had other possible people to go with, we were fine. I haven't seen anyone since the night we dropped everyone off until now.

The bomb hit Labour Day weekend, otherwise known as D-day to us. It was right after Nikki's father played on stage. Saturday night; the biggest night. She obviously made it out with Ly sander. I was the girl who didn't want to go that night; just didn't want to. My entire family had been there, Nikki's had been there… both of us just had good timing.

I hadn't seen anyone for three years. Now I ran into my best friend.

I pulled up to my little cabin and rolled the bike in. Cabin was being polite; this was more of a shed. It only had three walls, and the ceiling leaked the one or two times a year it rained. The cot was in the far corner. I told Lysander to lie down.

"Ouch!" he complained when I pinched him.

"Take your shirt off." His face looked horror-struck. "Oh, well. If you rather I'd do it for you…" he sat up like a lightning bolt. I reached under the bed to my water stash. I grabbed a rag and soaked it, laying it over his chest. I then tipped some water over his head.

"What the fuck was that for!?" he sputtered. I gave what remained in the bottle to him.

"Drink it slowly. I'll be right back." He rolled his eyes as I hopped on the bike, pulling on my helmet.

I slowly drove, at least for a motorbike. I reached into my jacket pocket pulling out the necklace Nikki gave me for a summer-gift. The chain held the 'partners in crime' broken heart. My fist clenched around it and slid it back in my pocket.

I had tried to throw it at her after we dropped them off. She tried to apologize. I didn't listen. I just happened to have a crappy throw, and after the profanities I picked it up and headed back to the car. That had been my last memory of her. Last thing said between us was 'fine, be a bitch' as Nikki had slammed the door behind her, tears in her eyes.

As I pulled up beside where she was standing, I took in her profile. She was much taller than when I had last seen her, and skinnier, too. Probably due to running around 24/7 and being on rations. I could tell the same went for me. Her face was the same, (exception of the scar) but something was different. Something in her eyes. She'll tell me later. I thought as I strapped on the two bags to the side of the bike. Something terrifying had happened to her that much was apparent.

"Is he okay?" she asked sliding onto the bike behind me.

"He'll be fine. Just some normal-ish killjoy stuff." She raised her eyebrows as I revved up the bike going much faster than before. She happy-screamed, putting her arm over her head. I smiled.

When we stopped Nikki's jaw looked like it might hit the sand. "this is where you live 365 days a year?" she asked, taking her bag of the bike while I grabbed Lysander's.

"Give or take a few" shock over, she ran to her brother's side, asking if he was okay. His reply was 'fine' –with a shrug for added effect.

"You sick mother-trucker you almost killed me! I was sick with worry and you're FINE!" she slapped him, with only sisterly love. I laughed as I rolled the bike into the lean-to on the side. I noticed that Nikki had on the 'partners in crime' necklace on, the only one dangling from her neck.

"So why ARE you here?" asked Lysander, propping himself up on his elbows. I leaned against the bike and told them my story. From the fair to now. They told me theirs, and when I heard what happened to Nikki, I couldn't stop cursing the bastard.

After the stories (which took about an hour each) I needed to talk to Nikki alone.

"I see that you kept it." I said, pointing to the necklace.

"Yup. I needed something to keep me grounded." I nodded to this.

"I'm sorry" we both said at the same time, and then we kept on interrupting each other in our apologies. This ended in a laugh, and then I showed her the necklace. She took hers off and we put them next to each other in the sand.

"I though you threw it at me that… that last time." She inquired.

"I did. What can I say? I was a shitty throw" laughter.

"It sort of brings you back, ya know? To the year of high school?"

"The only year?" this was more of a statement, but whatever.

"yeah." A long pause. "You know that I thought you were the biggest freak ever? And I thought that I had nothing in common with you until that stupid speech?"

"And I thought you were the biggest Cracken ever? But then I Cyrin-I-fied you." We laughed again.

"I'm glad that I met you, Cyrin… this is awkward isn't it?"

"A little." I stood up, brushed myself off and helped her up. We walked back in the direction of the 'shack' when I thought of something. "We should stop calling each other by our real names."

"Okay. Killa." Smirk.

"Sparx" giggle.

"NEON!" full out laugh. "What the hell are you doing!" he was walking around outside the shack. "get back in there, stupid!" he rolled his eyes and went back inside.

"So… you're staying for a while?" I asked.

"As long as you want us."

Yeah! I made it to five pages. Sorry it's been so long… I was on vacation in Prince Edward Island with no computer… I wrote it there though! Hope you enjoyed and will stick with me! …reviews always help!