A World We All Live In

Chapter 21: Better Days

I woke up with a lump on my back and something across my legs, plus I wasn't in the position I'd went to sleep in. No, Jak was lying on his back and I was lying on top of him. I looked over my shoulder and saw Harley sleeping gently on my back and Violet doing the same on mine and Jak's legs. As I sighed I felt the arm around my waist tighten closely around me.

Looking back at Jak, I saw his sleepy eyes staring at me. I smiled a little at him, moving subconsciously and waking the two sleeping animals. They voiced their resistance to wake very loudly. I finally got them awake so Jak and I could get up.

"We'll let ya'll sleep now," I waved bye to them with one hand while the other was full of my effects "See ya'll later."

Jak and I left the room and went into the living room. I sat on the couch and put on all my effects, while Jak waited on me. He only had his pouch and morph-gun holster. Me I had a lot more. When I got to the holster that went around my back and chest I handed it to Jak for help.

Once done with that we left the safe house heading for Krew's bar. I still needed to give him the Ruby Key before he came looking for me. But we weren't quick enough. As we entered the Industrial Section we saw the fat man himself floating towards us.

"A special client as requested that key you found" he told me and I scratched the back of my neck while getting the Ruby Key out of my pouch.

"Sorry Krew I must have forgotten" As I handed Krew the key I heard him growl. He floated away without another word. I sighed as Jak's comm. began to buzz. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it then turned to me.

"Vin wants to see us" he said simply and I ran and got on a nearby one-person zoomer. He smirked at me then climbed on behind me. I switched hover zones and Jak put his hands on my hips. He rested his head on my shoulder and began to rub my lower back with his thumbs. I nearly crashed into another zoomer because of this and he stopped.

Looking over my shoulder, I smiled at him before turning back to driving. The cold wind wiped through my short hair making it fly around my head. Everything was calm… but that was just going to last for a little while. There was still a civil war going on in the city. That wasn't going to change until the baron was killed.

Everything, lately, seemed to shoot by quickly like the end was coming. But the end of what? Baron Praxis… the Underground… me. It was just so confusing. But know that I knew Heaven and Austin were safe I was much more relaxed.

Now what? Heavenly and Austin have been found. But even so… I didn't want to go home. This place was more of a home to me than any other place. Back in Seattle I didn't fit in because of my country accent and everyone other than my true friends saw me as some redneck. And back in Texas I was the out of place punk that everyone avoided.

That was me, the punk girl with a country accent. Odd combination, right? There was no good and bad, but which evil would you prefer; Evil A or Evil B. Seattle had to be the better of the two evils. There were actually people there that understood me. Austin, my cousin, had always lived there and he helped me get through the move. He's two years older than me so he protected me from other upper classmen.

Then I met Heavenly. She was in most of my classes and she helped me catch up with all my work. It wasn't long before we became good friends. She was an outcast too, being the weird, hyper kid that wore dark clothes. Everyone avoided us but we didn't care. We had each other.

Later the year we moved there was a family get together and my mom let me invite Heavenly. By the end of the day she and Austin were in the back making-out. I'd introduced them and we hung out for most of the day, until I had to go with my aunt to get more drinks and we got stuck in traffic. When I got back mom nor had anyone else seen them so I went looking for them and found them.

At the very same get together, I met Johnathon. His girlfriend, Megan, at the time was one of my distant cousins. Megan and I didn't like each other but Johnathon and I became friends. Then the day came that she decided it would be fun to mess with Heavenly.

She got what was coming to her and Johnathon had seen the whole thing. She called Heaven a few names then went on talking about her dad. That is what really pissed me off. Heaven's dad was awesome and he loved Heavenly… he was just never around. He came down every summer and took her with him to his family in Colorado. Her parents were spilt and her dad lived out of state so she didn't get to see him that often. Megan had been saying Heavenly being a disappointment was why her father didn't want her.

As soon as that girl said that I punched her right in the face, breaking her nose. It had been a full fledge cat fight. And not the sissy crap either. We both had cuts and bruises when Johnathon and some other boy separated us. Lets just say Johnathon was walking with me to the nurses office instead of Megan.

When I landed the zoomer, Jak and I climbed off and headed towards the Power Station. The door slid open and we saw a frantic Vin running around like an idiot, typing on machines and checking Eco levels.

"We still have problems at the Strip Mine," the man was breathing heavy as we neared him "I think the baron set me up… Actually I think everyone's out to kill me!!!"

"What are you talking about?!" Jak shouted, seemingly irritated. I had to laugh.

"The baron had us pump Eco at the Strip Mines," he paused looking at the screen "It seems he never intended to pump it into the Eco Grid. You know, open eco wells attract metalheads," he walked off and came back with a box of bombs "Take these bombs and drop one into each well."

Vin dumped the box into Jak's arms and he swayed from the weight. The bomb at the top rolled off and Daxter caught it.

He began to shake it while speaking, "Plasmite, cool. How does it work?"

Suddenly the bomb opened up and glowed red. Daxter's eyes got wide and Jak sighed.

The little rodent tossed the bomb to Vin, "I believe this is yours!"

"It's not my problem," Vin tossed the bomb back to Dax "Besides you're the hero!"

"I'm not the hero," Daxter turned to Jak and threw the bomb into the pile "Jak and Jenny are the heroes!"

The whole box of bombs started to glow red and beep. I held shook my head while Jak glared at Dax.

"Great! Now you've set off the whole lot," Jak, Dax, and I moved until Vin spoke "Don't move… On second thought…MOVE!!! Far away! Go through the warp gate and destroy the wells," Jak and Dax were just to the warp gate when Vin called to them again "You only have 2 minutes."

I sighed a plopped down on the floor. Vin returned to his work and I just watched him curiously. There were so many beeping machines and flashing lights I'd have gone crazy in this place… well that would explain Vin. I thought a lot sitting there on the floor.

It was 2 days till Christmas now. No one seemed to notice this so I asked Vin.

"Hey Vin do ya'll celebrate Christmas?" it was a simple question really but Vin took awhile to answer.

"We used to, until Praxis took over," he paused looking over his shoulder at me "Back when we did celebrate were better days. Why do you ask?"

I shrugged my shoulders and looked up at the old man, "Just curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat" Vin said then turned back to his work.

It wasn't long when the door opened and Kor walked in with the Kid. I smiled at the little guy and he ran over to me. I hugged him tightly then sat him in my lap. Vin and Kor looked down at us then turned to each other.

"Can you still take the Kid to Samos and Torn at the Hip Hog?" Kor asked Vin and I immediately jumped up.

"I'll take him," I offered and both men nodded, knowing I had baby-sat the Kid before "Just tell Jak where I've gone."

I pulled the Kid onto my still sore shoulders as Vin walked towards the exit. I followed him out then we went out separate ways.

As I bounced the Kid up and down on my shoulders I spoke, "You ready to go squirt?"

He made a face like he was laughing and nodded. I smiled and looked forward. KG were everywhere but none of them stopped me. I tried to keep a low profile with them and tried to avoid as many as possible. I really didn't want to get in anymore trouble. It's not that I'm afraid of them. No, I'm afraid of what Torn would do if I got in anymore trouble.

But when I was thinking I ran right into a KG much like I did years ago when I was captured. I fell back onto my butt and the Kid flipped over into my lap. I stared up in horror as the KG stood over us. He took a step closer and I swallowed the lump in my throat, ready to shoot and run at any second. But then…

…he held out his hand to help me up. I was shocked for a moment then took his hand, still holding on tightly to the Kid, and was jerked up gently.

"Sorry 'bout that miss," he said as he took off his helmet and shook out his dark hair "I wasn't watching where I was going. Are you alright?"

"Yes I'm fine" I said as I pulled the Kid back onto my shoulders. Suddenly the man's comm. flew out of his pouch.

"Where are you?" it was Torn.

"In the Industrial Section 'bout to enter the port" he spoke quietly into the comm.

"Any news?"

"No sir"

"Meet me at the Hip Hog, Vin was suppose to be on his way with the Kid but now Jenny Cooper is bringing him if you see her and the Kid watch there back."

I got behind the man and looked over his shoulder at the screen. It was Torn on the comm. So this was one of his secret agents. No wonder he wasn't a jerk!

Torn disconnected and the man turned back to me. He stared at me for a minute before I spoke.

"So you work for the Underground?" I asked.

He thought on it for a second then nodded, "Yes."

"Awesome I'm," I paused wondering if I should use my real name or fake one "Jenny but the KG now me as Autumn."

He nodded and smiled, "So you're Jenny. Torn's always complaining about how much trouble you get into."

"Yup that's me" I laughed as the Kid nearly fell off my shoulders when I began to walk and the man followed. He yanked on my short hair then pulled himself back.

"I'm Jeremy Williams by the way" he said continuing to walk with me and the Kid into the port.

"Nice to meet you" I looked up at him and into his blue eyes. He smiled then tickled the Kid in the stomach.

"So you're on baby-sitting duties," asked Jeremy and I nodded "well you do a better job than most people."

I nodded as we came around the corner and headed for the Hip Hog. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the bar. No one looked at us weird, which was good. As we passed safe house #2 I saw no movement in the house. Austin was probably with Heavenly at the stadium. All was calm for now but I had a feeling it was just the huge calm before the storm that was sure to come any day now.

Me: Well what you readers think? Well anyways I'd like to thank one of my best friends, Sterling, for all her help. She's a great support and is always reading my story so give her around of applause!!! I now dedicate this story to her and two other readers, AlmostMedival and notfromearth7 these three people are awesome!!! Well till next time!!! And I did a drawing of Jenny the link shall be on my profile because I can't get it to work on here.