Resurrection

“How are they?”
“Physically not too bad although both will hit withdrawal pretty soon. We could get a medic here to help with that.”
Ghoul nodded slowly, leaning against the door frame as his eyes roamed over the two men peacefully sleeping in front of him. Now it felt real, Kobra back beside him, the glasses abandoned for contacts and the yellow stripy shirt and jeans back on the lean figure. His friends looked so young, Gerard in particular had the frailty back that Ghoul remembered from before the war. He wondered if it would be polite to stare forever.
“A medic would be good. How are you Kobra, really?”
Kobra turned to look at his friend and shrugged, his usual poker face somehow reassuring.
“Better now. Been trying to find a way to get to them and you for months.”
“I thought you were dead. All of you.”
There was a moment of silence, both men united in the memories of dying that were best not dwelt on for too long. Instead they hugged and Ghoul smiled, his grin widening as he glanced at where Ray had begun to snore. Another reassuring sign that some things just never changed.
“Mind you, if Rainbow and Crimson hadn’t been trying to kill each other it may have happened sooner.”
Kobra stared, the shocked look on his face reducing Ghoul to tears of laughter as he filled his friend in on what he knew of the events from rumours and Dr D. Kobra had the same reaction as Frank, the pair of them needed spanking and then kissing hard for managing to survive at all. It would have been easy to have let the killjoys die with them but somehow Rainbow had kept it together while Crim had just gone on the most violent rampage in modern history.
“I fucking knew we should have locked that one in the trunk of the car.”
Frank shrugged with a grin and prodded Kobra’s arm. Gerard had sat up and was now looking around the underground room before looking up at both of them. There was fear there but something else that approached curiosity. He glanced across and then back at the two men in the doorway.
“Where am I?”
Kobra came into the room, Ghoul remaining at the door as he sat next to Gerard.
“Zone 6. Crim’s bunker. How do you feel?”
“Ok I guess. My head aches.”
Ghoul nodded, he would have to send Toxic back to fetch a doctor. No doubt the comedown from all the crap BLI had filled his friends with would be bad, his mind going back to when Kobra had forced Party to sober up by dumping him in the desert for a week and a half. Couldn’t really do that again.
“You were kept on a cocktail of drugs, the next few weeks could be uncomfortable but we have a medic we are going to bring out here.”
Gerard nodded, a vague memory of detox came into his head although the word made little sense. His brother looked even more familiar now and he was getting flashes of something concerning the other man. He looked closer at him and tried to smile.
“You’re…..Frank.”
Ghoul’s face lit up and he nodded eagerly, Gerard’s smile growing at the sheer joy in the shorter man’s expression. Kobra was smiling too and Gerard remembered the little boy again before another thought hit him and the smile fell away.
“I’m not him….I’m not the other one.”
“Party?”
Gerard shook his head violently and shivered, flinching as Kobra tucked a blanket around his shoulders. Clearly the conditioning was going to be hard to break and Ghoul fought to keep his voice calm. Crimson had been right, they couldn’t take Gee anywhere near the other killjoys until he recovered.
“Don’t worry about that now. All that matters is that you are safe.”
Gerard closed his eyes, not wanting to face up to the demon images of his former self that now reverberated around his brain. It fought with the other side that said yes, you are safe and you are home. Next to him on the other bed Ray started to stir.
“You kidnapped us.”
“Hi Ray, yeah I guess we did.”
The tall man stared at the two killjoys, unsure how to take the cheerful remark from the shorter one. He had a nagging feeling that he knew them and the man on the other bed who looked to be in shock was on the television a lot in Battery City. A kids entertainer of some sort.
“You can’t just do that.”
Kobra shrugged, he knew that Rainbow was behind him, her hand on his ass as the other snaked around Ghoul’s waist. Gerard tried to place her and failed although he thought she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen despite the interesting scar that snaked across her features. She winked at him and waved at a bemused Ray.
“Hi guys. There is hot food and coffee upstairs if you feel up to it.”
Gerard’s head came up at the word coffee and Ray realised he was hungry. He was trying to work out if eating with your kidnappers was wise but it was unlikely they would be kidnapped and then poisoned. He carefully got to his feet and all the men followed Rainbow down the corridor. Ghoul spotted Toxic in another doorway and told him about the doctor, the young man quickly headed back to try and raise Dr D as the others climbed up two flights of stairs.
“This place is huge.”
“Crim has been here a while I think. You had better ask her about it but I think there are about eight levels.”
Rainbow watched the uncertainty cross Gerard’s face and then chuckled as the sound of Crimson singing rather badly along with the radio floated down the hallway. They found her sitting on the counter in a large kitchen with a huge mug of coffee reading the latest issue of Shiny. The picture of a naked man on the cover made Gerard wince.
“Tuck in, its all hot.”
Crim tried not to look at Gerard too much, it simultaneously hurt and pulled at her that he didn’t remember her and she wanted to let him have time. Ghoul kissed her cheek and pulled Rainbow onto his lap as she passed around plates piled high with eggs and dog meat fritters. She decided not to tell Ray and Gerard that bit, they may have got used to actual food in the city. Kobra didn’t miss a beat, grabbing a plate and Crimson’s ear at the same time. She squeaked in pain as he sat down.
“What’s this I hear about you killing everything that moves?”
“You were dead, I got bored.”
Ray giggled at the disarming smirk from the dark haired girl as Kobra let go of her and she took the last chair. Feeling that introductions were in order the redhead introduced herself and Crimson to Ray and then asked them both how they were feeling. There was a little small talk, the atmosphere around the table a little strained as the two newcomers tried to get used to their captors.
“Crim, I got Toxic raising us a doc, do we need anything else?”
Crimson shook her head, the bunker held everything they would need for at least a month and she wanted as few people to know where it was as possible. Ghoul could see that she was trying not to look at Gee as much as he was trying not to look at her. He hugged Rainbow a little closer, trying to ignore the voice in his head that said they would have each other and a double bed for the foreseeable future.
“What do you want from us?”
Ray’s question hung in the air, the faint hum of the generators the only sound as Kobra tried to think of a good way to word it. He didn’t want them to panic or see their friends as enemies but at the same time he couldn’t lie about it either.
“We died. BLI resurrected us and implanted conditioning in the hope that they could use us to destroy the killjoys and free thought in the zones forever. When word got out that Gerard was now rehabilitated it gave the girls the first hint that we were alive. They rescued Ghoul and then came for us.”
“No. We were saved from you.”
Crimson stirred her coffee, a note of steel in her voice.
“It feels like that to you now but you know they were going to shoot you in that room right?”
Even Ray couldn’t argue with that and Gerard had forced himself to face up to it. BLI wanted him dead, these people wanted him to be a killer again and he seemed to be stuck in the middle. All Ray knew was that they had forced to flee to the very criminals that BLI had promised to save them from.
“So now what?”
Kobra sat back in his chair and stared at Gerard.
“We help you remember.”

Notes