hello again readers! sorry i haven't updated in awhile, but i had exams. on top of that, my family went over our internet limit, but in that time, i wrote 2 new chapters for you! keep reviewing!
California 2019
Zone 7
Gerard blinked as the sun hit his eye. He rolled over in his bed and reached for Lynz. He found her and snuggled close to her. What a weird dream, he thought. He buried his face into Lynz's neck, into her long, dark hair, and she sighed. Gerard opened his eyes, and found himself looking into – Frank?
"WHAT THE FUCK?" Gerard screeched. Frank opened his eyes and found that he and Gerard were a mess of tangled limbs.
"What the...fuck, Gerard, why are you in my house?" Frank yelled.
"Your house? This is my house! And why are you cuddling me?" Gerard and Frank blushed and quickly untangled themselves to find Ray and Mikey watching them in hysterics.
"What the fuck are you laughing at?" Gerard growled at them. They continued to laugh.
"Y-you guys...you should-should've seen yo-your faces!" Ray spluttered. Mikey fell off the rock he had been perched on. Then Gerard realized – they were in the desert.
"How the fuck did we get out here?" Gerard slowly got to his feet and brushed his long black hair off his forehead, and shielded his eyes.
"Where is here?" Mikey asked. He had finally regained the ability to speak.
"Well, for one, it's a desert, dumbass." Frank replied smartly. Mikey glared at him. Ray spoke.
"Shut up, Frank. We're all tired, confused, and honestly, I'm a bit freaked out." The others silently agreed.
"You boys lost?" Came a woman's voice from behind a nearby rock. The woman stepped out, and the 4 men couldn't understand what was going on. The woman was dressed in black jeans, a neon pink shirt, a grey leather jacket that was more patches and buttons than leather, and she had her blonde hair streaked with pink and pulled in a ponytail.
"Who are you?" Frank asked her.
"Cherri Cola." She answered, and they all became more confused.
"What?" Gerard asked. "You're named after a drink?" She laughed.
"No, I'm a Killjoy. And so are you guys." She walked towards them, and they noticed she had a holster containing a bright pink gun of some sort.
"A what?" Mikey asked, confusion written across his features.
"Killjoy. God, do I have to spell it out for you?" She asked, and then laughed. "Come on, guys. The others are expecting you at the diner." She turned to leave, but they didn't move.
"Explain what's going on here. So far, all I know is that I went to bed last night beside my wife. Our daughter was in the other room. Today, I woke up in the middle of the freaking desert, with my brother and friends, and you expect me to just go with it? To just go wandering off with you – a girl I've known all of 5 minutes?" Gerard asked.
"Umm, yeah, that's pretty much it. If you want to survive, come with me. If you want to die – and let me tell you, that's not really an option for you guys – stay here." She turned and started walking. Mikey stood up and followed her.
"Mikey, what the hell are you doing?" Gerard asked. Mikey turned back and simply said,
"I'm going with her." He continued to follow Cherri Cola. Ray stood up, and began walking. Frank turned to Gerard.
"Well, what d'you think?" He asked, his hazel eyes glinting in the sun. Gerard stood up hastily, and helped Frank up.
"I think we should go." They began to follow the rest of the group.
They walked for hours, or what seemed like hours, until they saw a building in the distance. Ray turned to Cherri.
"Is that where we're going?" He asked her.
"Yup." She turned and yelled at Frank and Gerard, who were far behind her, Mikey, and Ray. "HEY, GUYS!" she shouted "MOVE YOUR ASSES!" They seemed to pick up the pace, but eventually they stopped trying. Frank was stumbling around, and had the appearance of an extremely drunk man. Cherri stopped, and she, Ray, and Mikey waited ten minutes for the other two to catch up.
"What the hell is taking you two so long?" she asked when they had caught up.
"I haven't had – my coffee yet – and I want a smoke." Gerard wheezed. Frank nodded.
"Me too. Can we get cigarettes anywhere?" He asked the blonde Killjoy hopefully.
"What do you think, Shorty? We're in the middle of the desert, and you think we're gonna find a corner store?" Frank scowled, and Cherri laughed.
"C'mon, guys, we're almost there." She said, and the group began walking, this time with Frank and Gerard keeping pace. About 20 minutes later, they reached an old diner.
"FOOD!" All four men yelled once they knew what the building was. Cherri laughed.
"You won't find anything good there, guys." They all froze. Cherri laughed again. "Hold up one minute, I'll go get Dr. D." Frank and Gerard flopped down on the sand, and Mikey and Ray walked 10 feet farther and sat on an old picnic table. Cherri came back out a moment later, and gathered up the exhausted men.
"C'mon, you need to meet someone." She said, and led them through the double doors of the diner. Inside, they saw a small girl with incredibly frizzy, curly hair, a young man who was incredibly skinny and who was wearing – was that a thong? They quickly looked at an older man in a motorized scooter, who had long brown hair and a short beard. The man rolled his scooter over.
"Hey boys, welcome to California 2019." He said. They looked at one another, and Gerard spoke.
"Umm, buddy, I think you're a bit confused. This is 2011, not 2019." He said. The man laughed.
"Well, Gerard, I hate to tell you that you're wrong." Gerard gasped.
"How – how do you know...?" He trailed off
"Your name? Easy. We've been keeping track of you guys, and we know it's time for you to be here. Don't you remember a red light outside your window last night? All of you?" He asked. Mikey started to nod.
"Yeah, Alicia was sleeping, but I got up to see what it was. Why?" He became suspicious.
"That was me. The light is a time transporter I created to bring you four here." Frank gulped.
"So this is real? Like, really serious?" He asked. The older man nodded. Frank teetered on his feet, and leaned on Gerard for support.
"So our families – where are they?" Ray asked quietly. It was the question that had been bothering all of them, but they didn't know if they wanted the answer. Cherri put a hand on Ray's shoulder, but spoke to all of them.
"You might want to sit down. There's a lot to go over." She said, her voice solemn.
A few hours later, life was drastically different for all four of them.
Ray sat in the diner, trying to figure out why everything had happened – the bombs, Battery City, why he and his band had been brought into the future to fix things. He had remained the calmest, and the most focused.
Mikey stood outside the diner. He looked out over the barren desert and thought of his old life. Alicia, the love of his life, his wife, was gone. And she... they had just found out she was pregnant the day before he was brought into this new world. He felt his eyes watering, and began to walk away from the diner. He needed to think, to hope that she was still alive, after all these years. And that their child was, too.
Frank woke up in a small bedroom, on a mattress on the floor. He looked around, and realized that he must have passed out. He sat up, and his head spun. Jamia, the woman he had promised to always take care of. And his girls, his babies, Cherry and Lily – they were gone. He had lost all hope. Frank leaned his head down and began to cry, sobs racking his entire body. He didn't even hear the door open.
Gerard opened the door to Frank's room. He saw his best friend crying, and didn't know what to do. He could do nothing. His family was gone, too. Lynz and Bandit – he couldn't remember what it felt like to hug them. He missed them so much. He knew how Frank felt, and knew that Frank had been so emotionally wrung out today. Gerard remembered how Frank had had to lean on him, and eventually Gerard had caught him when he passed out from hearing that his wife and girls hadn't been located, at least not in a Killjoy group.
"They're gone, Gee. My babies are gone. And Jamia –" Frank began to cry louder, and Gerard sat beside him and cradled him.
"Shh, Frankie. We need to be strong. We'll find our families or die trying." Frank looked up at him through a face full of tearstains, and nodded. The two hugged and cried over the loss of their families together, and eventually, they fell asleep.