Part 23: Alabama

“Get the fuck away from her!” I bolted awake to someone screaming. I sat up and found myself in the middle of a standoff between my new-found friends and Rage, Lightning and Disco. All had weapons drawn, staring intently on the other. Captain had been leaning over me, about to wake me up.

“Okay, let’s all calm down here.” Captain said soothingly.

“Shut up!” Disco cut him off, waving his raygun.

“They took me in, moron, all of you put those things down!” I shouted angrily from my makeshift bed. The room went silent as Disco stared at me.

“But... the Ritalin Rat...” He stared at me confused.

“That’s a bit of a touchy subject...” I glanced nervously at Carrot Top, who had acquired a white-knuckle grip on her brand new rifle “I’ll explain later, just put your weapons down.”

After a few seconds of standoff, all parties involved lowered their respective weapons. I scrambled to my feet, forgetting to grab a blanket and realizing, after a few moments, that I was standing there in nothing but my bra and underwear.

“Don’t even say it.” I glared at Rage and Lightning, who glanced at each other, eyebrows raised. I snatched a blanket off the floor quickly before turning to my boys.

“Guys, this is Carrot Top Queen, TNT Termination and Captain A-Bomb.” I pointed to all of them. “Captain, Carrot Top, this is Disco Destroya, Raging Radiohead and Lightning Laserstrike.” Each group sized the other up, waving or nodding to acknowledge them.

“It’s nice to meet you all.” Disco nodded coolly. “Alabama, can I talk to you for a second, maybe after you put some clothes on?”

“Of course.” I glared at Disco, dressing quickly in my now-dry clothes and following him out into the hallway. He shut the doors carefully before turning and glaring at me with a fury unlike anything I’d ever seen.

“Do you have any idea how freaked out we’ve been for the past two days?” He said quietly, the fury apparent in his voice.

“Don’t give me that, Disco, I had to get out of there and got lost, I wasn’t thinking straight-”

“You NEVER think straight, that’s the problem!” Disco yelled, running a hand through his hair. “You get upset, and suddenly everyone else has to pay for it. Rage punched that asshole for you! Wasp has most of the Basket scouring the desert in an acid storm for you and Arizona!” I’d started backing away as Disco moved closer, smashing into the wall behind me.

“Wait, Arizona?” I furrowed my eyebrows, looking at Disco.

“Yeah, he ran off looking for you after getting in a fight with Rage.” Disco ran a hand through his hair, cooling down a bit. “We haven’t heard from him since.”

“Oh.” I nodded, feeling slightly guilty, even though Arizona had hurt me so terribly. “I really fucked up this time, huh?”

“Yeah, you did.” He nodded, rubbing his hands over his face before looking up at me. “I know you didn’t mean it, you just got upset.”

“But still I... I need to work on control.” I looked down, suddenly shamed.

“It’s all right, come here.” Disco pulled me into a hug. I breathed in the familiar scent of him, feeling better already.

“Hey guys, you might wanna come in here!” We heard Rage call nervously from inside. We threw open the door to find them all staring at the barricaded door as someone pounded against it.

“Dracs.” Disco nodded as we heard the clawing and yelling from outside.

“Time to go.” Captain and Carrot Top snatched a large box with handles drilled into it from nearby, filling it with all the stuff they could manage to take with them, packing up most of the site in a matter of minutes. The Dracs had started up a chainsaw or something, starting to cut through the door as we stamped out the everlasting fire.

“This way.” Captain led the way down the stairs, Carrot Top holding one handle, him the other.

“Come on, T.” Carrot Top tried to coax her brother down the stairs. The Dracs were getting closer as she spoke more hurriedly, trying to juggle the box as well.

“Here, let us. Rage took one handle of the box, Lightning the other, freeing up Carrot Top to get her brother moving. Captain led the way down the stairs quickly, back through the room we’d come through and out the door. It was still pouring rain, as luck would have it, probably karma for running out without an explanation. Great.

“They must’ve come in the other way, luckily enough.” Captain said seriously. “Where’s your ride?”

“There.” Disco pointed to a van we’d recovered a month ago from the Dracs, only now it was painted black and grafitied with neon spray paint.

“Typical.” Captain shook his head, grinning. “You Killjoys are all the same.”

“How about you make fun of us in the van?” Disco said quickly, hopping in the front. “Alabama’s the best shot, she sits shotgun. Everybody else in the back.”

“I gotta grab the bike, hold on.” I turned around and sprinted to the bush I’d left it under, pulled it out and jogging it back to the van. Lightning and Rage pulled the bike in from the back quickly while Carrot Top grabbed my forearm, hauling me in as well. The rear doors slammed shut as I stumbled to the front seat quickly, climbing over the median and plopping into the passenger seat next to Disco.

“Here.” Disco dumped my two rayguns, which I’d splatter painted sometime in the last month, into my lap. “Hold them off if you hear shots.”

As he said those words, the pew of laser fire rang out, rocking the van.

“Speak of the devil.” I shook my head and tossed one of my guns on the dashboard, rolling down my window, regardless of the rain, and pulling my upper body out the window to sit on the door. I turned backwards and began shooting, taking down two losers on bikes and a bunch in a car I’d disabled before I had to duck back in.

“From what I could see, there’s four cars and three bikes, so about 15 targets.” I shook the water from my hair. “It’s raining enough to give them cover, but that works both ways, so swerve, but tell me first.” I was about to go back out the window when a noise and a scream from the back caught my attention. I whipped around to see the rear door fly open thanks to a Drac, who was hanging onto the van. Rage quickly pulled his gun and shot it dead, watching the body fall and roll backwards on the concrete.

“There’s four cars, three bikes!” Rage yelled up to the front, aiming and shooting again. “Make that two bikes!” He ducked back into the van, the doors flapping open. Lightning had pulled his gun as well, shooting along with Captain from the sides. Carrot Top was lying on the floor of the van, shooting with her rifle.

“Shit. Swerving!” Disco yelled as he turned sharply, mowing down another bike.

“I’m back at it then.” I climbed back out the window to find one car left.

“Go for the tires!” I yelled quickly. A barrage of lasers came flooding out of the back of the van, and suddenly the car slowed to a crawl before stopping, its tires flat. I cheered along with everyone else as I slid back into my seat, soaked but victorious. In the back, they were high-fiving each other, Lightning questioning Carrot Top about her gun. I smiled to myself, hopeful for my quiet brother.

“All right, we should be back at Wasp’s by tonight.” Disco grinned. “Let’s just hope Zebra, Ado and Plasma had as much luck.”

Turns out, Disco’s “luck” for everybody had pretty much run out. Zebra, Ado and Plasma had come up empty, as we found out when we’d shown up to the Basket. I was greeted with hugs and worried scoldings all around, all telling me that while Arizona was a jackass, my running off helped no one. Mighty Mouse was a wreck when I returned, just adding to my guilt. Disco was still cool, which made it even worse. I’d fucked up, but I was sticking around to clean this up, one way or another. Everyone was exhausted from the worry and fighting, including me, so we all went to sleep, Wasp leaving Adolescent Suicide in charge of the diner. I stumbled off to my mattress, Disco on one side, Mighty Mouse and Babydoll on the other, and fell into a dark, and, for the first time, dreamless sleep.