The Last Hope
Chapter 1
I laughed as Kobra shoved me off the motorcycle. I landed in the dust, still laughing, as he pulled his gun on me, pointing it at my head.
"Take it back" he growled.
"NEVER!" I replied "I stand by my original statement. You and Poison share a brotherly stink, you need to shower more often."
I had been teasing Kobra the whole drive to the abandoned petrol station, and he had finally snapped, just as we arrived. This was our first time out raiding by ourselves, now that I was finally seventeen.
"Take it back." He repeated, a grim look on his face as he tightened his grip on the gun. Sweet Jesus. Even when he was joking around, he really did never smile.
I laughed. "Fine! You don't stink, only Poison does. Tell him to shower."
Kobra actually cracked a hint of a smile, then shoved his gun back into its holster and extended a hand to help me up.
He leaned back against the rusted motorcycle we had stolen from Drac’s a few years back.
“Well off you go, raid it then.” He said, tipping his tinted sunglasses back over his eyes.
I sighed in frustration. Kobra could be a right dickhead when he wanted to.
I sighed again, pulled my bandana over my face, slipped my sunglasses down and grabbed my gun from where it was holstered at my hip.
“Let me demonstrate how the professionals do it.” I answered sarcastically, strolling into the abandoned petrol station.
It was completely abandoned, and there didn’t seem like much left worth stealing. A couple of magazines which could be interesting, a pile of batteries I decided to grab, just in case Ghoul had figured out a way to charge them yet. In a corner on one of the shelves I found some ‘feminine supplies’ I would need, along with a box of condoms. I slipped both into the duffle bag, and placed on top of them a couple of boxes of crackers I had surprisingly found. The crackers would make a nice change from our usual diet of dog food.
I looked around one more time before exiting the building.
“Any trouble?” Kobra asked from his position at the motorcycle. I noticed he had taken his gun out of his thigh holster and was casually tapping it against his thigh.
“Nope.” I replied. “What about out here, any trouble.”
“I thought I heard a car engine in the distance, a few minutes ago, but I haven’t seen or heard anything since then, did you find anything good?” He rapidly changed the direction of conversation.
“Some magazines… oooh! I found some crackers!” I named everything as I pulled it out of the bag and into the motorcycle compartment. “Some batteries for Ghoul, some stuff for me, some stuff for us…” I trailed off as I held up the condoms.
Kobra Kid grinned and grabbed me around the waist, swinging me around.
“Fun times for Emerald and Kobra when we get back to the diner!” he whooped loudly, continuing to spin me around him.
I laughed giddily. I had been in love with Kobra since I was about fourteen, things had really started to heat up between us in the last eight months or so, much to my excitement.
Kobra had just turned nineteen, I had been seventeen for a couple of months now, I didn’t know how long it would last, especially since we were so young, but I really hoped it did last.
Kobra finally put me down, I stored everything and then we climbed on. I wrapped my arms around Kobra’s waist as he started the bike.
I heard a noise, almost like an engine rumble, but half ignored it, thinking it was an aftereffect of Kobra starting up the bike, in retrospect, a bad idea on my part.
We zoomed off down the side road the petrol station was on, and turned on to Route Guano, heading towards the diner where we spent most of our time. Me, Kobra and the rest of the Fabulous Killjoys.
We were about five minutes down the Route when I realised my earlier mistake. The roar of another engine could faintly be heard over the sound of the motorcycles engine.
A car full of Dracs was tailing us.
“Shit.” I tapped Kobra on the shoulder three times quickly. Our signal for ‘danger’.
“Status,” was his only response.
I looked behind us. The white car looked to have four Dracs in it, a standard patrol.
“Standard, visual on four, I suggest we pull over and take them out.” I replied.
“Agreed, begin countdown in 10,”
It was almost comical how quickly we slipped into formal code when we were threatened.
After the 10 second countdown was up, Kobra executed a half turn spin with the motorcycle, while I stood and started shooting the Dracs.
That was when things started to go really downhill.
We were now facing three Drac cars, each with four Dracs apiece, as well as four Dracs on motorcycles.
“What the…” Kobra echoed my statement of surprise.
"Take it back" he growled.
"NEVER!" I replied "I stand by my original statement. You and Poison share a brotherly stink, you need to shower more often."
I had been teasing Kobra the whole drive to the abandoned petrol station, and he had finally snapped, just as we arrived. This was our first time out raiding by ourselves, now that I was finally seventeen.
"Take it back." He repeated, a grim look on his face as he tightened his grip on the gun. Sweet Jesus. Even when he was joking around, he really did never smile.
I laughed. "Fine! You don't stink, only Poison does. Tell him to shower."
Kobra actually cracked a hint of a smile, then shoved his gun back into its holster and extended a hand to help me up.
He leaned back against the rusted motorcycle we had stolen from Drac’s a few years back.
“Well off you go, raid it then.” He said, tipping his tinted sunglasses back over his eyes.
I sighed in frustration. Kobra could be a right dickhead when he wanted to.
I sighed again, pulled my bandana over my face, slipped my sunglasses down and grabbed my gun from where it was holstered at my hip.
“Let me demonstrate how the professionals do it.” I answered sarcastically, strolling into the abandoned petrol station.
It was completely abandoned, and there didn’t seem like much left worth stealing. A couple of magazines which could be interesting, a pile of batteries I decided to grab, just in case Ghoul had figured out a way to charge them yet. In a corner on one of the shelves I found some ‘feminine supplies’ I would need, along with a box of condoms. I slipped both into the duffle bag, and placed on top of them a couple of boxes of crackers I had surprisingly found. The crackers would make a nice change from our usual diet of dog food.
I looked around one more time before exiting the building.
“Any trouble?” Kobra asked from his position at the motorcycle. I noticed he had taken his gun out of his thigh holster and was casually tapping it against his thigh.
“Nope.” I replied. “What about out here, any trouble.”
“I thought I heard a car engine in the distance, a few minutes ago, but I haven’t seen or heard anything since then, did you find anything good?” He rapidly changed the direction of conversation.
“Some magazines… oooh! I found some crackers!” I named everything as I pulled it out of the bag and into the motorcycle compartment. “Some batteries for Ghoul, some stuff for me, some stuff for us…” I trailed off as I held up the condoms.
Kobra Kid grinned and grabbed me around the waist, swinging me around.
“Fun times for Emerald and Kobra when we get back to the diner!” he whooped loudly, continuing to spin me around him.
I laughed giddily. I had been in love with Kobra since I was about fourteen, things had really started to heat up between us in the last eight months or so, much to my excitement.
Kobra had just turned nineteen, I had been seventeen for a couple of months now, I didn’t know how long it would last, especially since we were so young, but I really hoped it did last.
Kobra finally put me down, I stored everything and then we climbed on. I wrapped my arms around Kobra’s waist as he started the bike.
I heard a noise, almost like an engine rumble, but half ignored it, thinking it was an aftereffect of Kobra starting up the bike, in retrospect, a bad idea on my part.
We zoomed off down the side road the petrol station was on, and turned on to Route Guano, heading towards the diner where we spent most of our time. Me, Kobra and the rest of the Fabulous Killjoys.
We were about five minutes down the Route when I realised my earlier mistake. The roar of another engine could faintly be heard over the sound of the motorcycles engine.
A car full of Dracs was tailing us.
“Shit.” I tapped Kobra on the shoulder three times quickly. Our signal for ‘danger’.
“Status,” was his only response.
I looked behind us. The white car looked to have four Dracs in it, a standard patrol.
“Standard, visual on four, I suggest we pull over and take them out.” I replied.
“Agreed, begin countdown in 10,”
It was almost comical how quickly we slipped into formal code when we were threatened.
After the 10 second countdown was up, Kobra executed a half turn spin with the motorcycle, while I stood and started shooting the Dracs.
That was when things started to go really downhill.
We were now facing three Drac cars, each with four Dracs apiece, as well as four Dracs on motorcycles.
“What the…” Kobra echoed my statement of surprise.
