BOOYA GUYS! I have then last chapter up at last... Please excuse my extremely slow writing ability and short attention span...
2016.
I'm nineteen years old.
One.
I count the bombs as I run through the streets, listening as they blast away the last of all that's living from this God forsaken town. All we have left are ruins and wreckages.
Two.
Dust dances across the sidewalk as I dash through the desolated town, dodging past, not people as it once would have been, but corpses—the forgotten shells that house the souls of the unlucky ones—the people, like us, who didn't just quite hide well enough.
Three.
It's only now as I zoom past my surroundings that I realise how much this place has transformed since I was young. In ten years so much can change in society, but one thing always stayed the same—we were always hiding.
Four.
I can't help but feel guilty. This town has been shattered because people like me—the rebels, the outcasts, the Killjoys—refused to give in to the BL/ind. We refused to take their medicines. We refused to swallow the Pill.
Five.
We knew from the outset that they were liars. They promised their control—their drugs—would be the solution to the Fires, and in their safe arms—the security of Battery City—we would no longer have to fear. Citizens flew to them like moths to lamp light. A select few, however, myself, my lover, my younger brother, and best friend included, did not want to follow like sheep.
Six.
So, they burned the world down. Anywhere that wasn't a sheltered BL/ind residential area—Battery City being the largest and most substantial of these dwellings—was completely destroyed. They sent in troupes—Dracs—to hunt us down, and once they thought they had every last morsel of life drained from the towns, they bombed them just to make sure.
Seven.
And that's what was happening to our home town now; it was in the final stage of eradication. But I was tired now and wasn't sure if I could keep playing this game of hide and seek, for it was harder to hide from a bomb than a cop.
Eight.
But at this very moment in time, I was playing the seeking role. Frank, my boyfriend, was missing and had been since getting caught in a gunfight with some Dracs in the early hours of the morning. After searching the town top to bottom since then, there was only one place I knew he could be.
Nine.
Always running, I entered the only part of the town that had a vague similarity to my childhood memory of it: the alley way. It still smelled like grime, gore, and grunge, and that was something that I was grateful for—something that I welcomed with open arms.
Ten.
"I knew you'd be here, baby."
Shuffling my way behind the trashcan, I catch the sight of Frank, knees pressed up against his chest, his clothes smeared in grit, and his eyes bloodshot and swollen, sitting on the ground. Although in the last ten years he may have grown and matured, he is still nothing more than a child at heart.
"You came to look for me…"
His eyes twinkle as they catch mine, so delicate and youthful, like puppy dog eyes. Simply grasping a glimpse of them transported me to the day I first saw him, in this exact spot.
"Could I ever let myself lose you?" is the only thing I can mutter before he reaches up, wrapping his fingers into my hair, pulling me down so my lips stumble into his in a lazy, yet honest, kiss. Everything is real—we decided long ago that adding fake passion to our relationship just to "impress" was pointless. If we wanted to last, we had to act on our true emotions instead of playing a game.
After a couple of seconds, I break away, observing the grin embedding his face, as he pulls me down to his level by a short tug on a strand of my hair, so my knees are pressed against the pavement, my face close to his.
"You really need to dye your hair again," he sniggers, a lock of sunshine yellow hair still lacing its way between Frank's middle and index finger, twisting like a snake. I laugh at the statement.
"Is this really the best of times to bring that up?" I smirk, ruffling my hands through the mop of gold on my head, "Y'know, when we're basically sitting on our death beds, waiting for the world to blow up… It's a bit of a silly thing to say…"
His only response is a sigh, accompanied with a slight shake of the head. Placing my hand on his shoulder, I encourage him to go on.
"But isn't everything a bit silly these days, Gee? I mean, the whole world is crumbling around us, and all we do is hide… Damn it, Gerard, we aren't any stronger than the people who went into the City. Just because we didn't start taking the Pill suddenly means we're so much better than them? It's bullshit! Everything's bullshit!"
Taken aback, I retreat from his face a little, and I'm sure he can tell I'm hurt—no—shocked by his sudden outburst. Apologising, he corrects himself.
"What I mean is… D'you still remember when we first met here, ten years ago?" I nod, "Well, remember how I was hiding from those bullies, and you told me that I shouldn't hide, and I should stand up and face them?"
I think I know where he's going.
"Well, I've been thinking, what if this is the same? What if by hiding, we're doing nothing? We need to get out of this town, Gee, and fast. I mean, hiding here, no matter what we do, they're going to find us eventually, but if we get up and fight… Well, yes, there is a good chance they'll get us. There is a good chance they'll kill us, but there is that slightest, ever so tiny shimmer of hope, that we might make it—that we might get out of this alive.
"And I don't know about you, but I like the idea of living, so, I'm going to do whatever it takes to have a chance of that.
"So, I'm leaving, Gerard. I'm leaving before nightfall, before the bombs get any worse, and I'm going to run off to the desert. I want you to come with me—no, I need you to come with me, but if you don't want to, I'm still going. And that's final."
Before I can tell myself to do otherwise, my lips smash into his, as I grab onto the back of his neck, pulling him in closer. After a few seconds of adjusting, he begins to kiss back, content with being dominated, but willing to fight back. Our lips battle as senses collide.
Yes, real passion.
Breaking free and gasping for breath, my eyes meet his.
"I want to fight with you. I'm not letting you do this alone."
As he smiles, that childish juvenile smile that tugs his whole face into the most beautiful silhouette of happiness, he clutches onto my hand.
"We should go find the guys, then."
And he pulls me up and walks me out of the alley way.
We're ready to move on to a new game.