Nine

Months passed. The Killjoys got back into the swing of things. They ran around recruiting new members, destroying BLI stuff, and fighting Dracs. So, pretty much business as usual.

Poison and Midnight grew closer, as did Jet and Purity. Really, all the Killjoys grew closer. Even Blaze. Midnight had talked to him one night when she finally found him alone.

"Hey," she said, coming up behind him.

He turned around. "Oh, hey."

"Look, Blaze—" she had started.

"Don't worry about it Midnight. You love him. I get it. There's nothing I can say. I've done all I can."

"Sorry," she said, turning away. She hesitated, then turned back. "For what it's worth, I think you're a really nice guy."

Then she walked away, so she didn't hear him mutter, "Apparently nice wasn't good enough for you."

But other than that, no one would have thought he was upset at all. He continued to be a part of the group, although he didn't exactly go out of his way to be around Poison or Midnight.

It was just like any other day. The Killjoys woke up, got dressed, and shuffled into the diner to eat breakfast.

Poison, Ghoul, and Kobra were piling the food on their plates. Everyone was laughing at them, but Midnight frowned. "You'd better watch how much you eat, or we'll be eating dog food by 2019," she warned.

Kobra and Poison grimaced, like they were actually considering it, but Ghoul's only response was to stick out his tongue. "I'm a growing boy, I need my food!" he stated.

Purity snorted in the background. He glared. Everyone else laughed.

They had just finished eating and were all lounging around, until Dr. Death Defying's radio started making a strange noise. The Killjoys frowned and looked around, they had never heard that sound before.

Cola noticed Midnight and Purity. They had gone pale in the back. Before he could say anything, the two of them rushed, along with Dr. D into the radio room. Dr. D pulled out the transmitter and Midnight started messing around with the dials.

"What's going on?" Cola asked, coming up behind Purity.

"Something's triggered our alarm. Dr. D should have the cameras up soon."

"Cameras? Alarms?" Poison said, stepping forward. "What is this?"

Cola shook his head. "I don't know."

"We set this up at the very beginning, before we had denounced BLI. It was just the three of us then," Purity explained. "We were afraid that BLI was going to come after us before we could say what we wanted, so Dr. D and Midnight came up with this security system with a bunch of hidden cameras that are triggered by motion sensors. We still use them, but they haven't ever gone off before. This place is too well hidden."

"What does that—" Ghoul began.

"Shh!" Midnight and Dr. D turned back from the screen.

The Killjoys crowded around it. A fuzzy picture came on the screen. It wasn't the HD TV they had gotten used to from before the bombs, but it would do.

Dr. D and Midnight switched between screens for a few minutes, but they couldn't find anything.

"Maybe it's a false alarm?" Pony said.

"Yeah, an animal or something could've triggered it," Purity said.

But Midnight and Dr. D didn't look so sure. "I don't know," Dr D said, "why wouldn't it have gone off before."

"There!" Kobra exclaimed. "I saw something!" Everyone was a little shocked, not only because there was clearly a figure crouching down somewhere, but also because Kobra had said four more words than they were used to hearing.

"Can you zoom in?" Midnight asked her dad. He nodded and pressed a few buttons on a keyboard. The Doc's old crappy transmitter equipment was all of the sudden looking pretty good. It was a miracle he had been able to keep it a secret.

The screen enlarged, and the Killjoys took in a collective breath. It was a Draculoid. Then another walked in front of the camera, filling the screen. Dr. D zoomed out. The frame was full of Dracs.

"Oh fuck," Cola breathed.

"My sentiments exactly," Ghoul mumbled.

"They found us? How?" Midnight raged. "How the fuck did they figure out where we were?"

"Woah, take a chill pill," Poison said, coming over and putting a hand on her shoulder. One thing he had learned from fighting, and living, with Midnight was that she could get a little hotheaded, especially when it came to fighting.

He remembered one time when they were out on a supply run. There had been an unexpected run in with some human BLI supporters and some Dracs. Some of the humans had left their ray guns when they fled after the Killjoys had killed the Dracs. Except, one of them had errantly shot and burned a hole in the bottom of Midnight's vest. She had been pissed.

Then there was the time where her new purple ray gun had gotten destroyed. She stole some Drac's and blasted everything in sight. After the battle Poison's had run out of ammo, and they didn't make the kind his gun took anymore, so he needed a new one. He found a sleek black one, and was going to keep it, but Midnight walked over, decided she liked his better, took it, and gave him the bright yellow one she had found.

His brother's voice brought Poison back to reality.

"We have to make a plan."

"I agree," Dr. D said. He was the leader, but not the one who was very good at drawing up battle plans. "I'll turn it over to our battle expert."

"Alright," Midnight said. "We have to assume these are the new, smarter Dracs. We can also assume that they are planning on a surprise attack. And it doesn't look like they know that we've got these cameras and have seen them. So, here's what we're going to do."

Dr. D wasn't happy about his assignment, but he knew it was necessary.

He had sent out an SOS to any nearby Killjoys, Midnight had still ordered him to stay inside and away from the action with Purity, who obviously couldn't fight, because the baby was due any week now. And someone had to stay in case the front line failed.

He sighed. That's what he got for making his eighteen-year-old daughter battle commander.

Plus, Dr. D knew, even though Midnight didn't go out and say it, that the other reason he was the one staying was because they didn't know why the Dracs were there. He knew his daughter well. She would suspect that they were there for him—and so would want to keep him as far from the battle as possible.

"I hate this!" Purity said, kicking a chair. "I mean, not the baby. I love my baby. I hate not being able to fight. I hate waiting in here while the people I love are out there fighting, and risking being killed!"

Dr. D walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. "I know," he said softly. "But it'll be okay. Everything will be fine—you'll see."

Purity sighed. Steve—Dr. D—had been like a father to her. She was glad she was with him and Midnight in this new world.

"She's a genius, right?" Ghoul asked.

"Huh?"

"Your girlfriend. She's a genius?"

Poison shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"That's not very reassuring. Because I sure don't like just running out here against all of these Dracs."

"They'll have us covered."

"I really hope so," Ghoul grumbled.

Midnight's plan was simple really, but one that BLI probably wouldn't be expecting. Ghoul and Poison would go out as decoys, because they were the quickest and best at dodging. Then Cola, Blaze, and Pony would run out from the side, surprising the Dracs. When the Dracs were caught off guard, Midnight and Kobra would start sniping them from different spots on top of the diner. Midnight was hoping that they would be able to stay out of sight and the Dracs wouldn't be able to tell where they were. That would cause the most commotion. Jet would be waiting in the wings. If they needed him to fight, he would, but otherwise he would just be waiting if they needed him as a medic.

"Here we go," Poison mumbled. "Now!"

He and Ghoul charged the Draculoids lurking around the diner. They dodged and shot a few before the other Killjoys charged from the side. The Dracs were looking around, confused, just like Midnight had predicted. It was all going to plan. Poison smiled to himself.

But what were the chances that would last?

"Now?" Kobra asked.

"God, Mikey, for the umpteenth time NO! We have to wait. Everything is planned out to the last second."

Pony, Blaze, and Cola charged the Dracs.

"Now?"

Midnight sighed, but she was smiling. "Yeah, now!"

Ghoul was face to face with a Drac. They were really creepy up close, he decided. He shot it with his ray gun, but saw another out of the corner of his eye. He didn't have time to turn around before he saw it point its ray gun at him. Then it fell over, dead. He heard the familiar whoop of Kobra and knew Poison had been right. The snipers were now in the game.

Ghoul watched with pleasure as the Dracs started frantically scampering around and looking to the air. But they could never find Midnight and Kobra, who changed positions after almost every shot. It was almost comical to watch.

And that was when everything started to fall apart.