The Last Hope

“We’re packing some weapons here aren’t we Kobra.” Korse tutted as he looked over the weapons gathered on his desk.

“Take them to medical,” he instructed the Dracs as they re-cuffed us and dragged us out of the room again.

“Medical? Where are you taking us?” I started to panic again, thrashing against the Dracs holding me.

“Master Korse has instructed that you have full medical examinations completed.” A Drac answered in a robotic tone. “Do not resist or we will be forced to drug you.”
I finally stopped struggling enough for them to drag us to the elevator.

Several more corridors and one elevator later we were dragged into a room filled with people in lab coats. Panic filled me again as were strapped to tables side by side, secured by ankle and wrist restraints.

“What are you doing to us!? This is ridiculous!” I shrieked, trying to get free. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Kobra struggling against his restraints too.
A doctor in a crisp white coat loomed over me suddenly.

“Master Korse is very interested in the effect the desert has on people with prolonged exposure. Also, we want to see how your malnutrition has affected your bodily functions, and if you have contracted any diseases or infections from your… way of life.” He explained, while jabbing a needle into my arm and taking a blood sample. On my right another doctor was taking blood from Kobra.

I reached my hand out to Kobra, he reached his out as well, but we were too far away. It was like one of those stupid romantic movies.

The doctor took the tube of blood away, and another one came over to me, jabbing in needles and sticking electrodes to me, hooking me up to machines.
The rest of the group of people in the room were standing around making notes on clipboards.

“Is this some fucking training class or something?” I yelled angrily.

“We need you to calm down or we will be forced to drug you.” One of the Dracs spoke in monotone.
What’s up with all the drug threats around here? For god’s sake, it’s ridiculous.

I harrumphed angrily but settled down. I didn’t want their corrupted drugs in my system, god knows what it would do.

Surprisingly, Kobra wasn’t really resisting the medical examination that much. I looked over at him and realised he had his concentration face on. He was making a plan, probably to escape.

The rest of the Killjoys back at the diner probably hadn’t even realised we were missing yet. We hadn’t been gone for very long, they probably assumed we had gotten distracted or were off in some secret spot having wild sex, which would definitely be preferable to being poked and prodded in a medical lab right now.

The Killjoys wouldn’t realise anything was wrong for another twelve hours at least, and then they would organise search parties to look for us. They would find our motorcycle at the gas station, along with the bodies of the Dracs we had killed, the Dracs never bothered to clean up their dead, and would know BL ind had taken us, and hopefully organise a rescue.

If not, it was up to Kobra and I to escape on our own, our only weapon was a tiny switchblade hidden in my bra. Great.

“You will remain here overnight for observation.” A Drac monotoned at us before leaving the room, taking the doctors with him and leaving me and Kobra strapped to our tables, alone.

“Well this is a piece of bullshit,” Kobra said from beside me, “How the fuck did Korse know we would be raiding that station?”

“God knows, this is fucking ridiculous, I feel like a lab rat.”

“Yeah, you look a bit like one too,” Kobra teased, “just a bit though, I still love you.”

“Aww, I love you too, even if you look a bit like a fish.”

This was how Kobra and I functioned in bad situations. Teasing and jokes always made the atmosphere a bit lighter, it helped us both relax a bit, and not get too stressed.

We were silent for a few minutes. I was staring blankly up at the ceiling. They hadn’t dimmed the lights when they left, so I didn’t think there would be much sleeping tonight.

“Hey Kobra, I sort of need to tell you something really important.” I looked over at him as I spoke, glad they hadn’t strapped our heads down.

“Mmhmm.”

“I’m sort of, well, I kind of, um, you see I’m… we’re going, um, I’m um, well I’m actually…” I trailed off, stuttering and stumbling over the words. I had thought about this moment a lot in the past week or two, but now the time had come I couldn’t get out what I wanted to say.

“Emerald, sweetie you ain’t making much sense.”

I took a deep breath and blurted out, in true Emerald style,

“Kobra, I’m pregnant. We’re gonna have a fucking baby.”

Kobra made a weird spluttering sound.

“Wait… what?” he managed to choke out.

“Well, we’re going to be parents?” It sounded almost like a question

The room was silent for a few minutes, neither of us speaking.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Kobra whispered.

“I was going to tell you today when we got back to the diner, but then, well, this happened. I figured they would probably find out from my medical exam, and I thought I should be the one to tell you, not some crappy Drac doctor.”

“How long have you know.”

“About a week.”

The room fell into silence again.

“Well I suppose we need to plan an escape, or hope for a rescue.”

“I still have one knife,” I told him, “the one I keep hidden in my bra, they didn’t find it.”

“Well one knife and two Killjoys against about ten thousand Dracs. No biggy, we can do it.”

We were silent and then both burst out laughing. We were in such a predicament, the only thing we could do is laugh.

-

We talked constantly throughout the night. Neither of us could sleep with the lights on, plus the numerous needles shoved into our bodies made everything a bit uncomfortable.
Finally, after hours of lying on the cold table staring at the ceiling, the door opened.

Korse walked in accompanied by numerous Dracs and doctors.

“Well well, we’ve been a bit naughty haven’t we you two?”

Neither of us responded. The best method was always to ignore Korse.

“Unprotected sex can be a dangerous thing Killjoys, and we wouldn’t want to raise a child in this environment, no? So I think the best thing will be to get our doctors to take care of the little problem before it turns into a big problem.”

“NO!” We both shouted at the same time

“Please don’t.” I pleaded. Unfortunately we were playing right into Korse’s hands, but we didn’t have a choice.

“Well in that case, I suppose we have to keep you alive. We can’t kill an innocent child can we? And I suppose if the unborn’s mother and father are needed for questioning, well, I would hope they would cooperate fully.”

“We will never tell you Killjoy secrets.” Kobra spat, “we’re not traitors.”

Korse snapped his fingers and instantly there was a knife pressed against Kobra’s throat by a Drac.

“I don’t think you’re listening to me Kobra Kid. And anyway, a child doesn’t need a father that much. It’s the mother we need. You are disposable.”

“We’ll cooperate,” I said desperately, “just leave Kobra alone.”
Korse snapped his fingers again, and the Drac holding the knife retreated.

“Congratulations on making the right decision for once Emerald Blood. Let us start with dearest Kobra Kid, hmmm?”
And with that, four Dracs dragged Kobra off the table and out of the room, easily overpowering him despite his struggles.
I screamed and pulled against my restraints as they dragged Kobra away and slammed the door, leaving me alone in the darkness, apparently Korse had decided I would be better off without the lights on.
-
I was completely unsure of time in the darkness, but I knew hours had passed as I fell in and out of sleep, wondering when they were going to bring Kobra back to me.
I had thought through many ideas of escape, but, while I had figured out a plan to get out of this room, I had no idea how we were going to get out of this facility, out of the city and back into the zones.
Surely by now the rest of the Killjoys had found the bike and realised we were missing? Hopefully they were forming a search party or a rescue mission, which would be our only hope of leaving if we couldn’t escape ourselves.
And there was also the baby to think about. Frankly, I was terrified. I was only seventeen years old, there was no way I was ready to have a baby, but I had about seven or eight months left to get accustomed to the idea, and I knew I would have to be ready when the time came. Giving birth in the zones is incredibly dangerous, risk of infection and complications were high, the Killjoys weren’t exactly well known for their cleanliness. Jet is a trained medic though….. hmmm, I should probably wait to cross that bridge until we come to it, it’s a long way away at the moment.
The door opened suddenly, and Kobra was thrown into the room. The door slammed shut, and I heard the lock click, along with what sounded like several bolts being locked on the other side.
“Kobra!” I pulled against my restraints, sitting up slightly to try and see him.
I could see blood smeared over the floor. I took in his bloody and bruised face when he turned his head to look at me.
“I’m alright,” he coughed, spitting up some blood on the floor, “I’m fine, it’s nothing.”
“Do you think you can get over here and untie me?”
“Just give me a minute to stand up.”
He struggled to his feet, wincing as he did so. His shirt was darkened with blood.
“Fucking hell Kobra, what did they do to you?
“They had these little knives, that they kept making cuts with when I wouldn’t answer their questions, but don’t worry, I gave them false information, which means we need to get out of here before they find out it was false.” He spoke as he worked on my restraints, freeing my arms and then my legs.
I jumped down off the table, stretching and rolling my shoulders, then reaching out to embrace Kobra tightly.
“You alright?” he murmured against the top of my head.
“Fine, now let’s get the hell out of here.”

Notes

hah, 4 months oops