The sun rose, casting the desert in a warm, orange light. Flame opened her eyes slowly, yawning. She looked around at the surrounding hammocks. Two were empty. Ghoul's and Crimson's. She smiled to herself before swinging off her hammock. She woke Jet, Kobra and Disaster, and they all followed her out into the main room.
Crimson and Ghoul were sitting at the table, each with a can of beans in their hands.
"Hey, where were you guys last night?" Jet asked groggily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, "Last I saw, you guys both disappeared into the other bedroom, and …"
He stopped, blood rushing to his face as he realized exactly what he was implying. Flame chuckled softly as both Ghoul's and Crimson's faces turned a bright shade of red. They had in fact, done nothing of the sort though. After the 'incident' in the bathroom, Ghoul and Crimson had went into the bedroom, but just to lie on the bed and look up through the hole in the ceiling. They had not slept a wink, but just lay in each others arms, soaking in the light from the stars.
It was Kobra who broke the awkward silence that followed Jet's remark.
"Well," he said, still a bit awkwardly, "We should be heading out. There are two Drac camps ahead of us before we reach the next safe-house,"
The group ate one last can of beans each, depositing the metal remains in the trash, before gathering up what little belongings they possessed and exiting the safe-house into the now fully risen desert sunlight.
"God, it's hot," Disaster groaned, fanning herself with her hand,
The group looked at her curiously. They weren't hot at all, since they'd gotten used to the heat of the desert a long time ago, and the sun wasn't even fully up. It was going to get much hotter than it was now.
"Well, I mean," Disaster said quickly, "I had just gotten used to the coolness of the safe-house, that the heat kind of caught me by surprise,"
The rest of the group shrugged it off, but Crimson was not convinced. There was something was up with Beautiful Disaster, something not right. And she was going to find out what. But for now, she pushed the thought out of her head and clambered into the car after Ghoul, followed shortly after by Disaster.
The sun slowly rose in the sky as the killjoys crossed the miles of empty desert wasteland to the next Drac camp.
"Na na na na, na na na, na na na na na na," Crimson suddenly began to sing in her high pitched voice,
"Na na na na, na na na, na na na na na na," Ghoul continued, making Crimson grin.
Soon the whole group started adding in 'na's until they had a nice little chorus going.
"Drugs, gimme drugs, gimme drugs, I don't need them, but I'll sell what you got, take the cash and I'll keep it," Jet suddenly sang,
"Eight legs to the wall," Flame continued, grinning widely, "Hit the gas, kill them all,"
"And we crawl, and we crawl, and we crawl," Kobra sang, laughing out loud,
"I'll be your detonator!" Flame sang,
"Love, gimme love, gimme love, I don't need it," Ghoul sang, looking straight at Crimson, making her blush, "But I'll take what I want from your heart and I'll keep it,"
"In a bag!" Jet added,
"In a box!" Flame yelled
"Put an X on the floor!" Kobra sang
"Gimme more, gimme more, gimme more," Jet said,
"Shut up and sing it with me!" Crimson ended the verse, and started up the Na's again. Suddenly Crimson pointed at Flame.
"For mall security?" she blurted out, the rest of the group continuing the Na's. Crimson laughed, pointing at Kobra,
"To every enemy!" he sang. Crimson pointed at Jet,
"We're on your property!"
"Standing in V formation!" Ghoul sang, laughing.
"Let's blow an artery!" Jet continued,
"Eat plastic surgery!" Crimson stuck out her tongue and the whole group laughed.
"Keep your apology!"
"Give us more, detonation!" the whole group sang the last line together and then burst out laughing.
"More, gimme more, gimme more!" Flame and Jet sang together,
"Oh let me tell you 'bout the sad man," Kobra continued,
"Shut up and let me see your jazz hands!" Crimson sang, flashing her jazz hands.
"Remember when you were a mad man?" Jet said,
"Thought you was Batman!" Ghoul laughed,
"And hit the party with a gas can!"
"Kiss me you animal!" Crimson sang to Ghoul, and he did, causing the group to erupt in wolf-whistles. Both Ghoul and Crimson stuck up the middle finger, but that only made them laugh harder.
They continued on like that, singing random lyrics that sounded good together, and having a good time. The only one who didn't join in with the group's fun was Disaster. She just sat looking out the window as the landscape passed by, not making a sound. No one noticed it but Crimson, who, amidst the laughter and the pandemonium, managed to look at Disaster and realize how different she looked from the others. Her hair was straight and well kept, not at all like her own short, tangled hair. Her clothes were clean and in neutral colours, so unlike Flame's dusty orange shirt and pink beads. Crimson didn't understand why, but she knew there was something up with Disaster, and she wanted to find out.
"We're here!" Jet called, bringing her out of her thoughts. Sure enough, on the horizon, the killjoys could see a shining white building, glistening in the afternoon sun.
Jet continued to drive until they were about a five minute walk away from the Drac camp, where he parked the spider car. The group got out of the dusty vehicle and stared at the building, shading their eyes from the glare.
"You ready for this?" Kobra asked the group. Without looking at each other, Ghoul and Crimson joined hands and nodded once.
They released their grip on each other after a moment, taking out their ray guns instead.
Flame was calm, ready for the fight that was bound to occur. She was ready to die, if necessary.
The killjoy walked forward in silence, their boots hitting the dusty ground hard. Kobra breathed deeply, readying himself for the fight ahead. Jet was calm and collected as usual, although deep down, he felt nervous. Ghoul was feeling very anxious, but not for himself. He knew that if Crimson didn't make it out … no, he told himself firmly, She would make it out.
As they neared the building, the anxiety inside Jet began to grow. Why was no one attacking? Why had no one set off some sort of alarm? Surely the Drac's could see them, so why weren't they attacking?
They were so close to the building that if they reached out with their arms, their fingers would brush against the blisteringly hot metal. The group walked along the side of the building until they reached the door. Silently, they all raised their ray guns, and Kobra and Flame positioned themselves in front of the door. Flame held up three fingers, putting one down at a time. When she put her index finger down, she plunged her fist down as well.
As soon as she punched her fist down, Kobra kicked the door. Hard. The metal door that was too hot to touch swung on its hinges, smashing against the inside wall of the hideout. Then the attack began.
The Drac's swarmed, and the killjoys fired ray after ray as they ran into the camp. Flame had already taken down five Drac's before she'd even crossed the threshold. Kobra was like a ninja, kicking and punching as well as firing rays. Jet was more subtle, conserving his rays. He was more focused on searching the building for Korse and Poison.
Ghoul was a tyrant, showing no mercy. The look on his face was pure loathing as he took down Drac after Drac.
Crimson was becoming overwhelmed. Although she was an exceptional fighter, she was facing over fifteen Drac's single handedly. But just as things were starting to get difficult, Flame swooped in. They stood back to back, firing at any moving object that wasn't colourful.
"Thanks sis," Crimson said over the roar of the rays. Flame smiled,
"Never a problem," she winked,
Jet ran into the other room of the safe-house. There were certainly signs that Korse had been here. A glass tank that was big enough for a person to stand in was placed in the left hand corner of the room. Jet steered himself over to it and began to press buttons. It was Korse's regenerating room, the thing that charged up his robot body, and kept his human mind working. Jet punched in a serial code, and digits flashed up on a small screen. Korse had been in this safe-house not fifteen hours before them. Jet yelled in agitation, running back to the main room.
"He's gone!" Jet shouted, "He left here about fifteen hours ago,"
The group ran through the Drac's, avoiding the rays, to the front door. They escaped out the still open door and into the blazing sunshine. They fired their ray guns over their shoulders as they fled to the spider car.
Jumping into the car, Jet slammed down on the accelerator before letting out a sigh.
"They knew we were coming," he said, "There's no way they would have waited for us to come in before they attacked. Something's not right,"
Crimson looked over at Disaster. Jet was right. Something was not right at all …