Part 7: Alabama

I blinked my eyes open to the sun splaying across my face from a window in the upper half of the grocery store. I rolled over slowly to see Disco facing me, sleeping soundly, his long, black hair falling around his face. He must’ve run out of mattresses and climbed in with me after his watch. I tucked some of his long black hair behind his ear, watching him sleep for just a moment. His hard times were pretty much over, considering he found his mom, who was also a freaking Killjoy. If anyone deserved it, though, he did.

I untangled myself gently from the covers we were sharing and stood, putting on my new black high tops. As much as I would’ve loved to have stayed in bed with Disco just to see the steam come out of Solar’s ears, I had to relieve whoever was up of the watch so they could get some shuteye. It turned out to be the Hispanic kid from earlier.

“So I can fight, huh?” I smirked at him, running a hand through my newly-cleaned hair.

“You know that already, you don’t need me to tell you, gringa.” He stood and winked at me.

“Then you better watch who you’re winking at, or I’ll give you a nose job like I gave Solar, comprende?” I gave him a solid stare to show him I meant business.

“Yeah, um, okay, of course.” He stuttered, holding his hands up defensively.

“Go get some sleep.”

“Okay.” He walked past me quickly.

“Hey kid.” I called over my shoulder, hearing him stop and turn around. “What’s your name?”

“Plasma Noise.” He responded.

“Stop staring at my ass, Plasma, and go get some sleep.”

“Sorry.” I heard him turn around and head over to his own mattress. I rolled my eyes, chuckling to myself before doing a quick sweep around the entire store, returning to take up the watch position. Disco was there when I got back.

“Hey.” I said, cautiously sitting down next to him.

“Hey.” He responded casually.

“Are you still pissed at me?”

“Yes, Alabama.” He snapped. “You don’t always have to do that, y’know? One day, you’re gonna take on someone bigger, and tougher, and a better fighter than you and get your face pounded in, if not killed. And then what would we all do with you, huh?” He looked at me, not so much mad as concerned. “You have the worst temper this side of Battery City, and if you don’t keep it in check, you’re gonna get yourself killed one day, you get me?”

“I-I’m sorry, Disco, I just couldn’t let her say stuff like that and get away with it.” I bit my lip, knowing just how upsetting this was for him.

Disco sighed heavily, pausing for a moment. “You’re my best friend, Alabama. Exasperating, obnoxious and sometimes deadly, yes, but still my best friend. My mom’s crew of Killjoys, they’re not used to you just yet. Sometimes, you need to back off and make someone like Solar Crash make a fool out of herself, instead of you.”

I thought on this for a moment, taking in what he said. Things were changing, and I guess I had to change a little too. “Okay. I’ll try and chill out a bit.”

“Thank you.” He nodded gratefully. “I just want this to work.”

“I know you do, I mean, it’s your mom.”

“Yeah.” We sat in silence, finishing the rest of the watch before others started getting up. Zebra was up first. He took off quickly to get food, coming back with these ancient blue cardboard food boxes which contained rectangles a bit larger than my hand that tasted like gooey strawberries and frosting.

“They’re called Pop Tarts.” Zebra said, handing me a package of two in crinkly metallic paper.

“I remember these, I had them for breakfast constantly.” Disco chowed down. Soon enough, everyone was up, smelling the Pop Tarts Zebra had left on the embers of the dying fire to warm them. As we began eating, Zebra started outlining a plan of attack.

“There’s a lot of stuff here, which means we load the most valuable stuff first once Wasp gets here. That means soap of any kind, mattresses, blankets, pillows, that stuff.” Zebra said through a mouthful of food. “We’ve got a ton of boxes we found in the back that we can pack up. We need to get moving soon, so eat quickly and get going. Wasp said she’d be back at about noon Battery City time.”

“It’s 9 am now.” I nodded, standing to brush the crumbs off my new clothes. I discarded the hoodie I was wearing on a nearby shelf. “Let’s do this.”

The next few hours were a flurry of activity. Disco and I were on soap, packing box after box of bottles and boxes containing trillions of different kinds of soap. I doubted anyone could ever get so dirty to need all of this.

“Hundreds of Killjoys pass through our stop for supplies and other stuff. We feed ‘em, clothe ‘em and send them back into the Zones, so we need a lot of stuff.” He walked past me carrying a box of household cleaners. I shrugged and continued working.

Rage, Lightning and Plasma were hauling mattresses towards the hole, leaning them against the wall to be taken out easily. To avoid a potentially explosive situation, Solar was on the roof, keeping watch.

“Guys, Dracs, headed right for us!” She called down the stairwell hurriedly. We all dropped what we were doing and headed towards the stairwell. “There’s too many for us to take. We need a diversion.” Solar stood at the top of the stairs.

“Do  you have your backpack?” Zebra called up to her.

“Are you kidding?” She scoffed.

“Well then go for it, but hurry back and don’t get spotted. There’s a bike out back.” Zebra nodded quickly. Flashing him a grin, Solar darted down the stairs and towards the hole.

“Plasma, you’re on roof duty.” Zebra delegated. Plasma nodded and climbed the stairway as we heard an engine rev and then speed away.

“What’s she gonna do?” I said cautiously, eyeing Zebra.

“You’ll see. Well, hear, more like.” Zebra grinned. “Just get back to work.” I looked at Disco and shrugged, walking briskly back to our station. Once we’d finished all the soap, we moved on to bedding, packing sheets, pillows, anything and everything. I had no idea where Zebra had found all these boxes, but I used them regardless, filling one after the other. We were about one-quarter done with bedding when an something exploded in the distance, the shockwave knocking me off my feet.

“She did it!” Plasma called down the ladder. We rushed up onto the roof to see a fiery mushroom cloud spitting fire and debris out in the desert, about 10 or 12 miles from here. The Dracs, which Solar had spotted earlier, had all changed direction, heading for the explosion instead of us.

“That’s what you were talking about?” I stared at Zebra, who was chuckling at my expression. “She’s a freaking maniac! There’s no way she survived.”

“Did ya see it?” I heard a voice from below. I poked my head out to see Solar looking up, a grin on her face, her zombie mask pushed up on her head.

“Did you plan on anyone in all the Zones missing it?” Disco stared at her, wide-eyed.

“Come on, we’ve still got a ton of packing to do.” She winked at him and climbed the ladder, taking up her watch spot as the rest of us headed down to continue working.