Desert Children (Killjoys)

Leave A Dream Where the Fallout Lies

Ghoul told me to keep the gun from the Drac I had killed. He said it would come in handy in the long run. I felt a little bit safer with it by my side, even though I knew it would eventually run out of battery and it would be rendered useless.

Even when we got back to the inn I was still shaken up and not prepared for the greeting we got from Poison.

"I thought she was leaving." Poison said and crossed his arms.

"Yeah, tomorrow." Ghoul responded. 

Poison narrowed his eyes. "I heard you too ran into some Dracs and she doesn't even know how to shoot a gun. How can she stay here if she isn't of any use to us?" 

"I can train her! You know that you were like this too when you first came into the desert! Please just give her a god damn chance! She ghosted a Drac out there. She has some knowledge." Ghoul fought against Poison.

"She'll be okay, then." Poison came at me and dragged me outside like a dog. He wasn't very forceful but he didn't need to be. I was so weak.

I yelled out and struggled, but I was nothing against him. I tried to push him away from me. My shirt practically strangled me. I tried to get in a good kick but I found that my legs were hitting rock. He wasn't affected by my poor attempts at fighting back. Poison put me in a headlock. My nails dug into his skin.

I could see Ghoul racing towards the door trying to stop Poison. Before I could even yell out to him, I fell hard on the ground. Poison had let go of me and I couldn't even keep myself standing with my dumb, weak legs. My head hit something hard on the ground. My vision faded into red and black before I slipped under the waves of unconsciousness.

I woke up later in the dirt with the sound of lonely, desert wind around me. My head felt as if someone had taken a pick ax to it and the pieces of my skull were scattered about me. I pressed a hand to my head, and it came back dirty and sticky. I figured I had bled a little when I had fell. I  struggled to lift myself up off of the ground. Much to my surprise, my stolen gun was still with me. I picked it up with shaking hands and sat up in the dirt. I was in a different place now and I didn't see the inn around me. Poison was such a dramatic bitch and I was mad, but also felt defeated.

As I tried to think of what I was going to do now, a spider the size of a man creeped slowly across Route Guano, feeling the hot asphalt with his feet or whatever they were. I cringed. It was the most horrifying, disgusting, morbid, and frightening creature I had ever seen. I slowly scooted away from the monstrous arachnid and pulled myself onto my feet to walk in the opposite direction. Later I would learn the thing I had seen was a camel spider. They were native to the desert and were only seen in Zones 4+. They were ferocious creatures and were not to be angered.

I remembered Ghoul's words, you have to stay alive and took a deep breath. I followed the road for three hours, my throat aching. I was hoping they would at least leave me with some sort of water, but unfortunately I was left with just the clothes on my back and my gun. My gear was still at the inn. I had left everything behind.

Just as I spotted a small shack to take cover in, I heard the sound of a car approaching. I spun around to see a BLI car stop a few feet away from me. The doors opened and three Dracs stepped out.  This was it. This was the end of me. Ghoul's words still rang in my head but it didn't matter now. I closed my eyes and waited. I thought about everything I hadn't done in life and all of the tears I had shed over stupid things. I felt like a coward standing there as I waited for death. 

My hand tightened around the raygun I was holding. I opened my eyes and looked down at it. My heart pounded in my chest. I fixated my gaze on the figures approaching me. Their guns weren't raised. A lamb surrounded by wolves. I raised my gun and aimed towards the closest Drac. It was an embarrassing attempt at defending myself. The bullet grazed the Drac's leg and didn't even make him flinch. They came towards me like zombies. They knew I wasn't a threat due to my lack of skill and didn't even need their weapons.