Until Forever Ends

There's no time to think as the Draculoid finishes with the car in front of me and walks up to my window. My hand is on the handle of the door, already pulled, and waiting to be pushed open. How could I have been so stupid not to think the flies were still somehow watching me? They must've had them on me for weeks, including this morning, to know I was planning an escape.

The Drac just barely realizes I'm the girl on the paper before I push into my door with all the force I can muster. It's enough, apparently, because he's pushed to the ground, the breath knocked out of him. I quickly get out of the car, punch him in the face for good measure, and steal the laser gun holstered at his hip. Then as quickly as I got out of the car, I'm back in it. I slam the door shut as more Draculoids run over, realizing what happened. I cut the wheel and floor the gas pedal, silently thanking my dad for giving me the lift kit and bigger tires for my Jeep years ago, as I mount the curb and take off down the street.

The barricade is simply two wooden street blockers. I cut back over in front of the stopped traffic and completely drive through one of them, smirking as Draculoids dive out of the way. They're firing their lazers at me, but they keep missing the car. Either they're very poorly trained or the situation is so chaotic they don't have the time to concentrate their aim. Regardless, I'm thankful for this as I round the nearest corner, burning my tires out.

Weaving in and out of traffic, I disregard people honking at me, even after nearly being t-boned at an intersection. I see the gates to the Zones come into view and my heart flutters in my chest. [i]I'm almost there![/i] Behind me, I can see swarms of white cars, all filled with Draculoids, trying to pass the traffic to get to me. They are, however, not making it out as easily as I did, because they're not trying to ride the pavement. In the distance in front of me, I see more cars trying to block the gates. I immediately grab the laser gun on my passenger seat and, rolling my window down and leaning out, take aim at a Drac.

Thank heavens I learned how to shoot a gun with bullets when I was younger, because I manage to get the Drac in the shoulder. Based on the offset of the first shot, I bring my aim up and to the left, successfully shooting him in the head. He falls to the ground, dead, and I continue to fire at the monsters standing around the gates. The closer I get, the more Draculoids fall. Finally, I'm up to the gate, and while there are still cars behind me, there are only three Dracs on foot in front of me. Now that I've got some sort of advantage in this situation, I do the only thing I can think of next:

Drive right through the gate into the Zones.

There wasn't much of a gate there anyway. It was nothing but an arm lift with an outpost, with chain link fencing surrounding the perimeter of the city. While on those brainwashing pills, nobody ever thought to leave the city, and whoever was stupid enough to come near it from the outsite was killed by the firing squad in the lookouts. Luckily, I manage to fire them down too, so out into the wilderness I go.

I swear to myself though when I see the arm put a pretty nice dent in the grill of my car. I'll have to see if I can fix that later. For now, I focus on the caravan of cars behind me. I put my knee up to sturdy the steering wheel as I lean out the window again, this time aiming behind me. One by one, I blow out the tires to the cars in pursuit; now if any Draculoids still want to follow me, they would have to do it by foot. Nevertheless, I turn back around and keep driving.

Once I can no longer see any sign of them, I pull up into a large dry desert bush, and put my Jeep into park. I take a few deep breaths to calm my heart that's about to jump right out of my chest, then slowly I start chuckling. That chuckling turns into giggling, and the giggling turns into ecstatic laughter. Finally, I throw my fists up into the air and scream.

"WOOOOHOOOO!!! Oh my god..." I mumble to myself, the laughter fading back down to a chuckle. "I can't believe I did it. I'm free... I'M FUCKING FREE!"

I run my fingers through my short brown hair and sit back in my seat. [i]Now what do I do?[/i] I think. Checking all around me one more time, I deduce the area is clear of enemies, then turn the car off and get out. I squeeze past the bush and squint into the blinding desert sun. There's nothing around me. At all. I guess it's because any rebels out there would have to be stupid to set up any kind of refuge in Zone 1.

Thankfully, this scraggly bush provides some privacy and shade. I open the car door and lean into the back seat to grab my duffelbag. I open the trunk hitch of the car, throw the bag in, and jump up to sit, my feet dangling. The heat is already starting to make me thirsty, but I try not to think about it as I unzip my bag and pull out my Killjoy clothes. Seeing as nobody's in the immediate vicinity of this wasteland, I'm not shy about taking my t-shirt off in the open. I pull on a lime green tank top with a cartoon owl on the front, then hop down from the trunk. I kick my shoes off and remove my black jeans. They're quickly replaced with a pair of split leg skinny jeans, one leg being hot pink, the other being white with black lightning bolts. Next I put on a pair of emerald green marble looking Dr. Marten boots. Since it's too hot, and will only get progressively worse, I leave my t-shirt and jacket in the bag. The only thing left to put on is my old paintball mask. It covers just below my eyes to my chin and looks like a skull. I put it on and pull my sweat dampened hair from under the strap, then zip my bag up, throw my clothes from this morning into a pile next to it, and close the trunk door.

Taking a step more into the open, I look around once again. I figure that I turned right to get into the bush, which would make Battery City to my left, since I'm standing with my back to the car. I would have to back out of here, cut the wheel to the right, and drive straight from there. Judging by the angle in the sky the sun is at, I'll be heading east. Sounds good enough for me, so I jump back into the car, back out of the bush, and drive.

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Based on the clock in my car, I've been driving for roughly around four hours. It's currently 12:47 pm, and this heat would be unbearable if I didn't have air conditioning in my car. I don't know how people manage to survive out here without some kind of shade to protect themselves from the sun. Here in the desert, and I know this from growing up in Nevada then moving to California before the Helium Wars, having the smallest bit of shade makes the biggest difference. Desert air is dry, so you don't sweat too much, and the shade is always at least five degrees cooler than the heat in the sun. That five degrees could mean life or death to someone that's stranded.

Suddenly, my car goes dead. The normal growl of my engine stops, and the car begins to slow down.

"Shit! [i]Shit![/i] What's going on?!" I yell.

I look down at the dashboard and my jaw drops. [i]I ran out of gas.[/i] Fuck! Fuck Battery City and it's stupid fucking electric cars! The only people who don't have electric cars are the Draculoids, and they have their own private gasoline resivoirs in the headquarters. Before my car can stop rolling, I put it in neutral and jump out. I can see a bush about thirty yards ahead, so I use what little momentum is left in the vehicle and push it straight into the dried foliage. Then I open the door, put the car in park, and turn the battery off. I guess I'll have to leave it here, and hopefully I'll be able to come back later with a tank of gas. A tear comes to my eye at the thought of leaving my baby behind. Praying there's a gas station nearby, I grab the gun from the passenger seat, lock the doors, turn to my left, and walk.

Within minutes, I can feel my tongue getting dry. My stomach is growling too, considering this is the time I would be finishing up with lunch. I hate the stupid internal alarm clock that BL/ind has me on. The sun is so bright, I regret not bringing my jacket for the sole purpose of shielding my pale skin from the harmful rays. If I don't get sun poisoning, I'll at least end up looking like a cooked lobster.

I walk for what seems like forever, but in reality is only maybe a little over two hours. The sun is at its highest point in the sky now, and I'm so dizzy and dehydrated from the heat that my knees finally give in as I'm climbing a small rock formation. I fall to the ground and twist my ankle, a small dried out cry of pain coming from my throat. Not bothering to get up, a lay my head back on a rock and close my eyes. Battery City might have been a metaphorical hell, but this heat and nothingness make hell so very real. In that moment is when I realize I'm going to die here. I feel my eyelids becoming as heavy as these rocks I'm on, and I feel what little energy I have left leaving my body. Just when I feel like I'm going to pass out from the pain in my ankle and the severe dehydration, I hear a voice.

"Lilianna..."

My eyes shoot open and I look around me. Nothing. But I know I heard a--

"Lily baby."

I look up and to my left, where there's a small ledge on the rocks. There's a figure standing in front of the sun, and I can't make out who this person is.

"W-who are you?" I croak, straining my voice to get the question out. The figure simply walks down the rocks, as if it's merely a set of stairs, and she stands in front of me. I must be imaging this. There's no way she can be here right now. "[i]Mom?[/i]" I ask, completely overwhelmed with disbelief. This is impossible. I blink a couple of times and rub my eyes to make sure I'm really seeing this.

My mother smiles, the crow's feet around her eyes showing prominently. Even at her age, she was always so beautiful. I got my brown hair from my dad, but I was lucky to get my mother's beautiful green eyes. Hers sparkle in the sunlight as she reaches out to caress my jaw.

"Lilianna, don't give up baby." she says. "You can do this. I know this is what you really want, and I know when you want something enough, you'll get it."

I look into my mother's eyes, still strongly disbelieving she's actually here in front of me. "Mom, how are you..?"

"I've always been with you, honey." she replies. Suddenly she looks over her shoulder, and when she turns back to me, her expression has changed from loving to fearful. "Run Lily!"

"What?" I ask.

"Baby, run! Now! They're coming! You have to push! Get to the other side of these rocks and run to the right! And keep going! Hurry!" Her tone has raised, frantically trying to rush me.

Now I see what my mom is talking about. About forty yards to my right is a white car. I take a second to wonder if this is real too, but then I realize that if it is, that second of hesitation could be my death. Because in the front seats are two Draculoids on lookout, and in the back seat, wearing his typical gray vintage suit is...

"Go, Lily! Go!" my mother yells, cutting off my train of thought and nudging me to get up. Eyes wide with fear, I momentarily forget about my twisted ankle and hoist myself up. I get to the top of the rocks, and turn to look at my mother.

"I love you mom." I say, tears threatening to spill from my eyes.

"I love you too baby." she says. I wipe the tears from my eyes, and when I look back down, she's gone. Just like that. The car rumbling closer reminds me of the immediate danger that I'm in. I quickly duck down behind the rocks and peek over the edge. Thankfully the car drives by, apparently not seeing me having hallucinations by the rocks. As soon as they're out of immediate range, I turn and run.

The immense fear this danger has instilled into me is currently more important than the searing pain my ankle is in, and I keep running. I run until I can't breathe anymore, so I stop and crouch over, my hands on my knees. [i]In through your nose, and out through your mouth, Lily.[/i] I think. When I catch my breath, I stand to look around, and I'm not entirely surprised when I see nothing. But mom said to go past the rocks and keep going. Surely she must've known... No. She wasn't real. There's no way. My mother was just a mirage in the desert. I heard about it happening all the time when I lived at home and watched the news. People get lost in the desert without food or drink or shade, and they die because they ate rocks they thought were apples. They ate sand and thought they were drinking water. Mom did know about the car with [i]him[/i] in it though. Shrugging it off and chalking one up to my crazy imagination, I turn to limp back in the direction I came. Maybe I can pick a new direction and go from there. Then I see something as I turn.

I squint into the sun that has now begun to set. It's too far away for me to decipher what exactly it is, but it sure as hell looks like a building to me. A building could mean any number of things!

"God dammit mom, you were right!!" I say out loud. "You were right! Thank you so much!" Pushing myself toward the building, I think about how I have no idea how I keep getting these extra adrenaline boosts, but I don't care at this point. There's hope in the distance! Or danger, but I'm praying for the former over the latter. Before I know it, I'm taking off running towards the building.

My run slows to a jog and I eventually stop at the miracle in front of me. A Dead Pegasus gas station and convenience store. I can't help but smile, excitement bubbling inside of me. Granted, this particular station seems like it's been closed for at least a decade, but that's okay! I'm sure there's something in here that hasn't gone rotten. Barely able to contain my happiness, I all but skip over to the door. Picking up a rock from the ground, I take a step back from the glass door, and throw the rock into it as hard as I can. The glass shatters and falls, but no alarm goes off. I guess that had been disconnected a long time ago.

Stepping through the broken door and looking around, I see a whole plethora of foodstuffs and liquids. At the end of one of the aisles, I spot cases of water. I immediately run to the water, pull my mask off, and ferociously tear the plastic open. Grabbing one of the bottles, I rip the cap off and chug the entire thing. And a second, and a third. Within minutes, I don't feel well, and I throw up all over the floor. But all that comes up is water mixed with yellow stomach bile. I missed what normally would have been both lunch and dinner, and my breakfast has long been digested, so it's typical nothing would come up. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I take a few deep breaths and a sip of water, then spit it on the floor.

I stand and walk up and down the aisles, looking over the possible items I could take with me. Behind the check out counter I see a radio. I head over to it and turn it on, changing the stations until I hear a voice that's very famous out here in the Zones.

"What's happenin' all you zone rats?" Dr. Death Defying's voice erupts from the static. "I've got a four and double ones for ya. There's a lovely little motorbaby roaming the Zones." This catches my attention. Is he talking about me? "I ain't givin' any names, but be on the lookout for a teeny little doll fresh out of Battery City. I know you cool cats don't trust a man as far as you can throw 'em, but this little lady is just like all of you. She wants to be free. So if you happen to get this gem in your grasp, don't squeeze too--"

Dr. Death's broadcast is suddenly interrupted, and what I hear in return sends a cold shiver down to the very core of me.

"Sorry to cut you off... Doctor. But I've got a message for a certain someone, and I know she's listening. Undoubtedly, you know who I am. I'll bet you think you outsmarted us with your.. Ahem. Secret planning. I'll bet you think you're so tough after your ever so reckless escape. But I'll tell you this, sweetheart. Keep thinking you're an almighty being. If those barbarians don't kill you, you'll die from starvation... If I don't find you first. You can run, but we'll find you."

And the voice is gone. I'd know that voice anywhere. It's the voice of the highest Scarecrow operative in Better Living Industries.

[i]Korse.[/i]

Notes

I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope everyone enjoys reading it just as much as I did writing it. Also, [url=http://s239.beta.photobucket.com/user/C4Cyanide/media/Until%20Forever%20Ends/LilisClothes.jpg.html]here[/url] is a compiled picture of Lilianna's Killjoy clothes!

Title:
You Can Run, But We'll Find You by Matchbook Romance
Obviously this was explained in the end of the chapter; Korse doesn't quite know who Lilianna is, but he knows she's out there. And he's confident that she can run all she wants, but he will find her.