Revolution Radio (Operation No Control)

From my eyes the expansive desert seemed endless in front of me. I slithered on the ground, my scaly chin scraping against the hard packed asphalt of Route Guano, my snake body gliding with ease over the cracks and potholes in the black top. My tongue flickered in and out of my mouth, seemingly smelling the air for any traces of life. Besides myself, there wasn’t any, I soon learned. The heat as well, normally it would seem crushing, awful, and all around uncomfortable to live in. But here, it felt nice. It felt normal. Just the right temperature. A little humid, but that was alright. I could deal.

I slithered further against the hot asphalt of Route Guano, passing by the old rusty speed limit sign that read a measly 70 miles per hour in chipped lettering. Now, Route Guano held no police force prowling the highway, so we always seemed to go a good ten to thirty to even forty on occasions more. It was like the Killjoy lifestyle. Fast, rough, hard, but fun. Oh so much fun.
And then, vibrations rolled through my body as I heard footsteps coming up from behind me. Whirling my head around, I first saw the familiar black boots with wrinkled black skinny jeans hugging familiar crooked knees attached to an equally familiar figure. I looked upwards to see the figure clad in a red leather jacket with a bandanna covering his mouth, the material gleaming in the hot desert sun, reflecting off of the sunglasses half hidden by his defiant blond hair hanging in his eyes. Proudly shining a bright white were the letters “K O B R A” stitched on the left sleeve of his red jacket, the emblem of a snake hissing sewn onto the left side of his chest.

Yep, what was standing right before my very eyes, was the one and only Kobra Kid.

He kept on walking, his gait carrying it’s usual awkward step because of his crooked knees, but I didn’t give any attention to that because of the pure power his body seemed to resonate. I could see the red aura around him from the strength, and from something else it seemed. Something more… sinister. To say the least. Something that usually didn’t stick around with him, as he wasn’t the type of person. Too nice. Too calm. He wasn’t evil.

He kept on walking, me deciding to follow, until he stopped and raised his left hand. The power seemed to travel up into that hand, the red aura gathering in a ball around his hand, making the blue sky appear a dark, almost blood red behind it. I felt my snake body try to slither backwards, away from this scary being, but I failed in doing so. Badly. I flopped on the ground uselessly and tried to skirt away, but something was holding me back. I stared helplessly at the other end of the Zones, trying to scope out anything that would help me. Something told me to not turn around, whatever you do. Don’t turn around. Don’t look at him. He isn’t who you think he is.
But I felt my head turning around, but only to look at the little red ball of energy which radiated with anger. No, madness. No, pure rage. It was terrifying to even gaze upon. I narrowed my eyes and squinted at it, suddenly finding an interest in the ball of energy held within his gloved hand. It made me wonder, what exactly is that?

Did I really want to know?

I don’t know if I did.

It was then that he flung his arm out to his side, making the ball of energy flash a pure white and almost blind me as I could hear and feel the ground move and tear up under my body. I let out a yelp as I opened my eyes and saw what I was feeling, the ground ripping and tearing itself apart, dust and sand flying up in the air and covering Kobra’s body as his hand seemingly dealt the destruction.

And when the dust cleared around the Killjoy, I found myself staring into the eyes of Kobra. His glowing dark green eyes bored into my soul as he sported a smile I never wanted to see on anyone. One of darkness, one of rage, one of madness, one of insanity. Pure chaos. I backed up, still locked in the stare the man was giving me.

“They’re coming for ya’, Ghoul.” He suddenly spoke, and I could feel the shivers traveling up and down my spine in tingles. I felt so much fear in the presence of this guy now, it was almost overwhelming. “They’re coming for ya’. They’re coming for me. They’re coming for everyone. Run. Run. Run.” My fear, if it could, quickly doubled in intensity as he spoke about seemingly nonsense. I slithered backwards, my snake body trying to get out of this frozen state I was currently in.

“Ghoul!” Kobra suddenly yelled, his smile growing wider as his eyes traveled up to the sky. “They’ve got me! Ghoul!” Kobra was yelling, twitching with every syllable out of his crazed mouth. “Run, run, run. Frank, run. They’ve got me, don’t- Frank. Frank. Frank. Wake up. Frank- They’ve got me!” If this man could be laughing, he definitely would be at this moment in time. He was completely insane! “They’ve got me! Run! Run! Wake up! FrankFrankFrankFrank-” I saw darkness edge at my vision as I felt someone seemingly shaking me, Kobra still going mad and shouting random things.

“Save me! Frank! Wake up wake up wake up it’s just a dream Frank it’s all just a dream- They’ve got me Frank! Wake up! Get me the hell out of here! There’s someone in my hea- I can’t get them out- It hurts Frank! It hurts! Get it out! It’s just a dream! They’ve got you! They’ve got you! Frank! It’s just a dream! It’s all just a dream! WAKE UP!!”

And I did.

~~~
My eyes jerked open as I let out a yelp of surprise, my vision blinded by the sun coming through the windows and I soon felt myself falling to the floor with a thud. I let out a groan of pain as my eyes adjusted to the light, and I yelped once more as a figure appeared over me with a concerned expression and a worried tone of voice.

“Oh my! Are you okay?” Their voice was feminine, and what came into focus was a friendly-looking dirty blonde nurse with shining blue eyes and equal blue eyeshadow, wearing a stereotypical nurse's outfit. I gulped, finding myself to be in a cold sweat from what the fuck just happened. “Sh, Frank… that must’ve been some nightmare. You were thrashing around and everything…” She said, helping me to my barely stable feet. I wiped some sweat off of my brow and let out a shaky sigh, the image of the insane Kobra Kid still burned into my eyelids. “Would you like to talk about it?” She asked, cocking her head at me, and I found myself nodding. I don’t know why, I didn’t know this person. Why was I nodding?

“Alright, okay…” She eased me down on the couch, her sitting next to me as she rubbed my back, which I did find kind of strange for a near stranger, but this was Battery City so I couldn’t say it was just her. The pills she took daily probably warped her sense of personal space, no doubt about that. “Would you like to start from the beginning? What was it about? I’m known for my dream interpretations, sorry…” She said, giggling slightly to herself. “But first, I’m Ms. Lindemulder. And you are Frank, I’m thinking. I was just here to administer your pills but I get I’ll be here for longer.” She said, and I nodded a yes to her question. Ms. Lindemulder smiled sweetly at me, intertwining her fingers and setting her hands on her lap.

“Alright, tell me everything you remember.” She said, her tone becoming serious now as she stared at me with hardened blue eyes that were not letting me read her. Not letting anything through. But soon enough I found myself spilling almost everything, keeping the whole thing about Kobra Kid vague (doubted she would want to know that it was really Kobra Kid) but telling her that I was a snake and all the crazy things that the figure (Kobra) was saying to me. Revisiting those strange memories that seemed to be burned into my mind was rather weird for me, as I stated to develop a sweat as I remembered Kobra’s insane eyes boring into my very soul.

~~~

“His eyes were staring into my own, and he was yelling all these random things as I said... and then you woke me up.” I finished, wringing my hands nervously in my lap as I looked up at Ms. Lindemulder. She was listening in eagerly, drinking up every word as if she were a thirsty Zonerunner. And those people are almost always thirsty, being on a desert and all. Believe me, I was one. “It was so vivid and so real, it really did catch me off guard.”

“Huh. Well that is interesting.” She whispered, placing her pointer and middle fingers on her temples in thought. “Do you recognize this… figure?” She asked, taking her fingers off her temple and looking at me with her bright blue eyes. A part of me wanted to tell her that it was one of my friends, but another, more rational part of me said that if I did she would probably do something very drastic to me but probably in a subtle way. To be blunt, I was kind of freaking out. This was very strange, and I didn’t know what to do. She seemed to catch onto this, which I hoped she didn’t also catch onto the fact that I was using they/them and being as vague as I can around this because I actually knew this person and recognized them, because it seemed she did, as her next question was- “So, if it was on a desert… was it one of your friends?” Now, she didn’t spit out ‘friends’ like it was poison, like maybe Ms. Roosevelt or Dr. Norris would, she said it like it was any other word. That made my eyebrows furrow in confusion as I pretended to be in thought, before nodding slowly. She let out a gasp, but with a smile. “Oh! Was it?” I nodded once more. “Who?”

Should I tell her? “Ko-” I stopped myself. I was telling her everything, but for some reason I felt like I could trust her. She hadn’t done anything to me yet, so there was really no real reason other than fear that she would act upon her no doubt devotion to the BLI, making sure that my brain was wiped clean or something like that. I don’t know, the BLI were crazy like that. They were unpredictable and very dangerous, so who knows what they might do.

She cocked her head at me with an inquiring glint in her mysterious eye, looking at with a slightly concerned face as she spoke. “Who? You can tell me. I don’t mind if it’s one of your friends.”
“If you tell anyone I will not hesitate to dust you.” Using Zone slang here was kind of risky, but I used an affirmative and serious tone to tell her that bitch, I meant business. But really, I could care less about her life. As I had stated earlier, she was likely just another drone crafted by the BLI. I could ghost her right now and I would have no regrets.

But her eyes just widened, her eyebrows raising at my use of Zone slang but she didn’t really do anything. “That means kill, right?” She’s educated. Okay. I nodded. “Then alright, I won’t. I swear on the memory of D-” She stopped herself right in her tracks. Although she let out a laugh and quickly covered it up, but I could tell she was uncomfortable from that moment.

“Okay…” I said, still feeling as though I could trust her. I let out a heavy sigh before speaking next. “Please promise me you won’t tell anyone, or judge me, I can’t lucid dream or any of that shit so… um…” I said, and I flinched as she set a hand on my shoulder.
“No, it’s fine. Your secret is safe with me.”

I let out another heavy sigh.

“It was Kobra Ki- I mean… Mikey...? Was that his name?” I said, feeling like a bad comrade in arms for not remembering his real name. I could hear Ms. Lindemulder gasp slightly, but to my surprise a smile came over her face. But it was soon replaced with a worried frown with furrowed eyebrows to match.

“Michael.” She said with a concerned tone, avoiding my eyes as she slid her hand off of my back. “Michael James Way…” Ms. Lindemulder whispered, eyes latched onto the hardwood white floor of my little living space. “Born on September 10th of your guess is as good as mine…” She whispered seemingly to herself, mulling over facts about my friend for what reason I couldn’t see. “Brother of Gerard Arthur Way otherwise known as ‘Party Poison’…” She tapped her head with her finger, seemingly digging for something inside of her mind.

She suddenly sat up straight, eyes flitting over to stare deep into my own. “Has this Kobra had any chaotic tendencies? Or, does he seem like the guy who would go on a murdering spree?” She asked, her voice worryingly serious and putting me on edge. Of course not! Kobra would never!

“No…?” I said in pure bewilderment, my voice laced with the same confusion littering my facial expression. Why on Earth would she ask such a thing? Kobra was as far from a serial killer as someone could be. Sure, he has a short temper, but other than that he’s a nice guy. And she had also referred to Kobra as Kobra and not used his real name, which was strange coming from someone no doubt devoted to the BLI. “Why?”

“Because if you said yes, that might have been why he was crazy… or maybe something else. Because that red sky you told me about commonly means looming danger, and really the colour red symbolizes anger and such other emotions as that, so… I don’t know what to make your dream there mister.” Ms. Lindemulder said, shaking her head as she relaxed herself and looked at me. “Certainly a strange, one, and I guess we’ll have to see what the future makes of it. Keep that in your head.” She said, smiling at me with a closed-lip smile. I nodded slowly, making mental note to at least write this dream down somewhere. “But anyways, finally getting back on track before I get yelled at by the higher-ups, your pills.”

It was that moment, when those words exited out of her glossy lips, that I froze solid.
She seemed to notice this, as she gave me a rather strange look and said, “What’s the matter?” As she pulled a black and white pill bottle from one of the pockets in her uniform. I felt my head shake slowly, staring with wide eyes at the pills she was holding in her hands. I did not want to take them. I wasn’t going to take them. I couldn’t take them. They couldn’t force me to. No. Never.

“Frank?” She said, furrowing her eyebrows in worry. “What is it?” Wasn’t it obvious?
“No.” Was all I could find myself to say in that moment then as I stared at the pills with fear and a deep burning hatred all at the same time. Ms. Lindemulder stared back at me, shaking her head softly and pursing her lips together.

“Frank, I know what you rebels have been taught, and I’m here to tell you that it’s all fake. It’s all lies.” I could hear a growl resonating through my throat as she spoke those words. She didn’t know what went on behind closed doors here, unlike I did. “These pills help and cure you. The BLI can fix you. You have left your old life on the Zones and now can live a life of luxury here in Battery City, always happy with your life. You don’t have to feel depression, you don’t have to feel sadness, you can’t feel lonely, it’s paradise here.” She spoke with an overly happy tone of voice that I absolutely despised.

“No.” I continued to say, and Ms. Lindemulder let out a loud sigh and shook the bottle of pills slightly in her hands.

“But why not?” She asked. “The BLI have everything you could possibly need in a one stop shop right here under your very fingertips in Battery City, even an afterlife plan!” All colour drained out of my face when she said those words, I knew it. An afterlife plan?! That’s fucking crazy!
It took me a moment to recover from learning that knowledge. “Have you ever stopped to think exactly why there are rebels out on the Zones?” I asked, gulping loudly as I tried to drive out the thoughts of the BLI controlling people’s afterlife as well. That was insane. How could they do such a thing? But I continued onwards with what I had to say. “Have you ever stopped to think the rebels will not go near the pills? Will not surrender willingly? That’s because there is a lot more to the Better Living Industries you know and love than what meets the eye.” I said, willing to show her the truth about this ruthless company.

But Ms. Lindemulder just laughed at what I had said and shook her head. “No, no, my dear, the BLI are here to help everyone.”

“All the ones except for those who know what the hell they are doing to people.” I shot back, giving her a long and hard glare. She raised her eyebrows at my behavior, apparently surprised that I was acting this way. How could she be? It was pretty obvious she knew that I was a Zonerunner, a Fabulous Killjoy at that, and one hell of a rebel.

Ms. Lindemulder sighed as her smile disappeared completely. “Frank, I am just imploring you to at least try them. I know your background, I know what you’ve been doing for the last seven years, I know your cause. And I really don’t want to have to do this, but if you put up a little fight of yours I can call in the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W unit.” Ms. Lindemulder said, and at that word my blood ran icy cold and I’m sure my face went a ghostly pale. “And they can deal with you. It might seem like overkill, but we know how to deal with people like you and in that we take absolutely no chances.” She stated firmly, smirking at my fear as she twisted the cap off of the pill bottle and shook it gently, her smirk growing into a smile as two pills came rolling out of the bottle.

“Now take it.” Ms. Lindemulder said, her tone suddenly becoming menacing and her eyes turning to match. And then I felt like I had to take them. Just reach over and be done with it. It also felt like to an extent she was controlling me… I didn’t know what was going on right now but most of my mind was just saying to take the damn pills so you didn’t have to see the Dracs again. Honestly, my mind was all over the place and so much so that I didn’t notice my hand scoop up the pills and knock them back into my mouth until it was far too late.

Honestly, as I felt those pills slide down my throat, I realized something was very wrong with Ms Lindemulder as she smiled sweetly at me, watching as my eyes widened in surprise as the pills almost instantly took effect.

The poison slithered through my insides like a cancer, infecting everything it simply touched with the synthetic happiness that sickened me to my very core. I tried to fight it off, but I knew that those attempts were to no avail. I was forced to succumb to these awful drugs, being forced to be happy in a time where I needed my senses to be alert and mind to be sharp. In a time where I needed to think clearly, where happiness was just an obstruction in the path.

But maybe this wasn’t so bad. I thought, but even though I knew that that thought was because of the drugs, I had trouble countering it in my mind. So it just went on as the pills dominated more and more of my body, a smile slowly widened across my face even though I wasn’t doing anything. Happiness warmed my body, and I continued to think that this wasn’t as bad as I had thought.

Maybe I should have never gone into the Zones.

Maybe I should have just gone in here.

Maybe I should have surrendered.

And for once, the little voice telling me to fight it off and not succumb to these thoughts had been drowned out completely.

I looked towards Ms. Lindemulder in my almost drugged haze, seeing her smiling as well. All was good, all as well, I didn’t even think of the consequences.

“Nice to see that you’re finally well.” Ms. Lindemulder said, patting my back with a firm hand and smirked with victory as she grabbed my hand. “Now, let’s walk out of here. Ms. Roosevelt would love to show you around town.” She spoke with a sickly sweet voice that dripped with sugar, but for some reason I processed that as a normal, happy tone that I should adopt as well. I did as I was told, stood up on mildly shaky legs and gripped onto Ms. Lindemulder’s hand with all my force not because I wanted to, but because I needed the support for proper stability.
We slowly walked towards the door, me feeling as happy as I’ve ever been, Ms. Lindemulder smiling in victory even though at the time I didn’t see it. My footsteps were slow and shaky, but I made my way over to the door and was about to grip the handle to open it until-

A wave of sickening nausea overcame me.

My hand flew to cover my mouth as I felt bile rise dangerously high in my throat, my eyes going wide as Ms. Lindemulder stopped to cock her head at me, wondering what was wrong.
And suddenly, as if a tsunami had hit me from the inside, the bile overflowed and spewed out of my mouth as vomit with an awful retching noise. The green - turned white from the pills - sloshed over the ground with a gut-wrenching splashing sound, Ms. Lindemulder letting out a shriek of surprise at this action. It was surprisingly a lot for someone who hasn’t properly eaten in a year, but I couldn’t focus on that because right about now I was puking my guts out.
My body seemed to just keep going, pain rocketing through me every single time, the retching noises echoing through the small apartment I had been given, until the white had no longer tainted the greens and browns. It was then that I let out a final pitiful amount of bile, before collapsing almost into the puddle of my own sick, breathing hard as the pain ceased.

“Frank! Oh my goodness! Are you alright?!” No. I wasn’t alright. Clearly I am not alright. My eyes were wet, my breathing heavy, sweat pouring off of my brow, and most of all I felt exhausted. Through my teary eyelashes I saw Ms. Lindemulder talking frantically into what seemed to be a walkie-talkie, saying things like “he threw it all up!”. I let out a groan of exhaustion, struggling to get back up but I felt a hand upon my chest. “You’re lucky we are right next to a hospital, my dear, that sounded so painful! You could’ve died!” Hardly.

I tried getting back up, and as I did so I had noticed that the drugged haze I had been in had almost completely left me. The synthetic happiness? Gone. And I couldn’t even feel it start to come back, as if the suspicion about the effects of the pills were supressed by the sudden sickness did not come true. If that made sense.

Ms Lindemulder offered me a hand, still talking frantically into the walkie talkie. “We need cleanup fast!” She said before a pause. “No Susan, you’d know if it had happened to any of the other Killjoys.” She spat out with a surprising growl of annoyance. I just kept listening in. “Just get cleanup here, I’ll help Gh- Frank up and get him out of here.” A few more moments of near-silence. “God Susan, yes, I’ll have him in the day room, and I’m pretty sure the others aren‘t there right now. You know Michael is… yes… he’s the dangerous one… yes I know they are all dangerous. But that one… damn near ripped my throat out.” And that’s when I saw them.

The pinkish bandages covering her neck, near the collarbones.

They flowed so smoothly and camouflaged themselves in the white of the rest of her nurse’s uniform so well without knowing that she had sustained an injury to her throat I would have never guessed. But what really got me… was Michael. Kobra. Did he do this? Michael was a pretty common name… so it could be referring to someone else, but why would it be? I was confused, and I as I struggled to get up she kept talking, holding out a hand for support. I shortly took it.

“Right… got his hand now… while cleanup are here yes I’ll take him to the day room.” Pause. “Susan, you are the f- nevermind. I am telling you you should know these things beforehand. No, he did not hurt me badly. Otherwise I’d be in the hospital!” She exclaimed, giving me a worried look as we both sidestepped the sick and exited out of the little apartment I was gifted.
Clinging onto Ms. Lindemulder, she kept speaking into the walkie talkie-thing.
“Alright, taking him now… stop asking me about it. You can go and see him yourself.” For someone who lived in Battery City, she was surprisingly angry. Or more like annoyed I guess. “Oh? They won’t let you go down below? Well don’t ask me about it! There’s obviously someone else more qualified to answer your questions Susan-” A pause. “You’re the receptionist for them! Ask someone! Jesus…” Ms. Lindemulder said, shooting me another worried look as we kept on walking down the hall, rather slowly I might add. “Alright, Susan dear, I gotta go. Just get cleanup up here, apartment 21B… okay? Okay. Bye.” And with a click from the other side, Ms. Lindemulder hung up as well.

“Whew, sorry about that dear. Susan’s difficult sometimes.” Ms. Lindemulder said with an awkward laugh as we slowly walked down the halls. My muscles weren’t used to moving quite yet, so my movements with my legs were slow and precise to make sure I didn’t go too fast and potentially hurt myself. I only nodded at what she had said. “I’m gonna take you to a lounge-like area called the day room, you can sit down watch TV, do whatever… it is a lounge actually.” She said, laughing at her own words and what she had said. I nodded once again, clinging on harder as two people passed by the both of us. They looked creepy, with their huge smiles as one of them walked with a cast on their leg… they shouldn’t be so happy here...

I shivered, causing Ms. Lindemulder to look down at me with a confused expression on her face. “What’s wrong?” She had asked, but I just shook my head and brushed it off, non-verbally saying it was nothing. Believing this some, Ms. Lindemulder shook her head as well and looked away from me, and we continued to walk down the hall towards this so called “day room”. Honestly I was scared. What if there were SC/A/R/E/C/R/O/W units in there? I hoped not, but there was one way to find out, so I just swallowed my fear and continued to cling onto the nurse as we kept on walking down the corridor.

~~~

“Right, okay, here we are.” Ms. Lindemulder said as we can across a door further down the hall, the jingling of metal on metal being heard as she pulled out a jingling mass of keys, searching through them for a second before landing on one as white as the walls around it. Smiling to herself, she put the key into the lock of the door and unlocked it with a click. “Alright, this is the day room.” She said, the buzz of talk and laughter coming from the open doorframe as she opened the door, and I peeked inside.

It was like a lounge, actually. Comfy-looking white chairs lined the white walls, most of the occupied by hospital residents, a TV with the daily news on in the background as chatter filled the air. Food also tainted the talk-filled atmosphere, and it was clear that there was some kitchen here serving some kind of food. Or maybe a microwave or something.

It was actually, much to my surprise, a pretty damn big room. It was like a small house size to be exact, and I figured it was to hold and accommodate for all of the citizens who frequent this facility. All of the citizens were smiling and happy, even though they had casts, IV drips on movable poles, tubes and wires coming out most of their pores, crutches, and whatever else. I was like the unusual person here, the odd one out I guess. I only had a hospital gown on (and some pants of course) and I didn’t have a smile on my face and I didn’t look fantastic like all of the others here. I didn’t look happy, and that was sure bringing some attention.

Feeling stares on me, I realized that it wasn’t just the non existent smile on my face that was attracting rather unwanted attention, it was because I was Fun Ghoul. It wasn’t because of the void that was created by the lack of happiness, it was because I was one of the most famous rebels in existence. Right here. Smack dab in the middle of a BLI hospital. That had to be surprising. I could see patrons staring with wide eyes at the marks of a Zonerunner, the tattoos that graced my the visible parts of my arms with bright and colourful ink. I knew that I was almost instantly recognizable by some, especially by BLI employees, and that was really why everyone was now staring at me with widened eyes and the smiles, to my surprise, completely gone from their faces. Now the previously happy and joyful smiles stretched over their features was replaced with expressions of pure fear as they started to back away from me.

“Now, now, everyone, this is Frank. He’s friendly and just here for a few because of bad planning. Please be nice to him.” I hated this. I hated how Ms. Lindemulder could easily talk to these people with a loud, authoritative voice. I hated how much these people were staring at me with pure fear in their eyes, only disappearing when she had started to speak. I hated how she was talking to these people like they were little kids. I hated everything. This was awful.
The citizens seemed to ease up a bit as Ms. Lindemulder finished her sentence, drugged up smiles appearing on their faces as even some waved a hello at me. I waved shyly back, my hands speaking one thing, but my face and expression saying many other things. Like, I will slit your throat if you even go near me, let alone talk to me. Basically, I had an almost murderous facial expression on right now, because I hated this with all of my being. This was awful. I’d much rather be ghosted than have to deal with this shit.

I (slowly) made my way over to some of the chairs in the farther back, using the nearby furniture for supports. I needed to use my legs more, just to get them flexible and I would no longer take so long to walk anywhere. And I wouldn’t take no shaky and unstable footsteps anymore. I made a mental note to check out the gym room in this housing unit later. That’s got to be a treat.

Eventually, with the awkward “help” of some of the citizens milling around (they didn’t really help me, more like awkwardly gave me their cane or crutch to stabilize myself, but that was usually accompanied by a judging stare) I got sat down in the one of the far chairs in the back, mostly alone actually. Ms. Lindemulder watched me all of the way from her position in the doorframe, smiling as I sat down. She waved to me, mouthing a quick goodbye before disappearing into the abyss of the corridors, leaving me here.

I sighed heavily, ignoring everyone staring at me and instead focusing my eyes in on the slightly ugly tile that was the flooring here. As I said, I hated this. I hated this more than I’ve ever hated anything before, cleanup going to my room because I puked up the pills that were supposed to ‘help’ me… yeah that was indeed embarrassing and I almost felt bad about that.

Keyword ‘almost’, because truly I didn’t. Saved me from the hell those damn drugs would unleash on my insides. No doubt I would get addicted to it, wanting more and more of the poison dribbling throughout my insides and infecting them like a cancer. I knew it was awful. And I didn’t want that to happen to me, not. One. Bit. No way in hell.

I crossed my arms in defiance as I felt more stares bore into my skin, mainly my sort of bare arms, but I didn’t give a fucking shit. I was just going to sit here and be a rebel. Not smile, not be happy, not gonna talk, not going to do anything. Fuck all of that.

But suddenly, yelling interrupted my short train of thought, and I looked up in surprise to see - Poison? Gerard? - shouting a couple of - oh no.

S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W.

I felt my body freeze completely and utterly solid and my eyes widen the size of saucer as they lay upon these guys, both pure fear and hatred flowing through my veins as I let out a loud gasp, attracting the attention of some of the other people around me, who were watching the confrontation with easy, unafraid faces. I hated their faces. I hated those Drac masks. They’ve caused so many of our fellow rebels to fall into enemy hands.

We were just lucky not to be one of them.

“Let me see my brother!” Poison yelled, his teeth as his hands curled up into tight fists. He wanted to hit these guys, he wanted to kill these guys, I knew it for sure. “Why won’t you let me see Mikey?!” He shouted, one of the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W shaking their head as they pushed Poison inside the day room.

“Let me see my motherfucking, goddamn, sons of bitchin’, fuck, fuck, fucking BROTHER!” It was clear that Poison was angry. Very, very angry. Something must’ve happened to cause this sort of an outburst from a person like him. This was not normal.

But the door was just slammed in his face, the sound echoing throughout the entire day room as silence soon followed. An appalled silence. I took a quick look around, letting out a breath I didn’t know I was holding, seeing everyone with the expression to match the feeling in the air. Appalled. Shocked. Surprise. I doubted they’ve even heard these words before! Maybe they’ve heard them, I’m not sure, but maybe they’ve been told it is a sin or something to utter them out loud. I don’t fucking know! My guess is as good as yours.

Poison then proceeded to let out an angry scream, his fingers gripping at his already messy brown hair wildly as his eyes narrowed with rage. I was actually worried. What the hell had happened? Poison was never this angry! In the history of ever, actually! I was confused at this.
“Hey, um, are you okay?” I heard a faint voice say as I saw a smaller boy walk up on crutches to Poison and tug a little bit on his sleeve to get Poison’s attention. To which it did.

“No! I’m not o-fucking-kay!” Poison screamed in rage at the little kid, making the poor guy stumble backwards on his crutches in pure fear of the man - no, almost monster - in front of him. “They’re scumbags… all of them… I’m going to kill them all… every last one… for that they’re doing…” Poison whispered something else under his breath that was barely audible, fingers still intertwined messily in his brown hair. The boy stumbled backwards further, his crutches scrabbling against the tile of the ground, seemingly trying to get away from Poison.
And suddenly, Poison lifted head and his eyes flickered over to me.

And his features, well, they softened.

“Hey Ghoul.” His voice was slightly hoarse, probably from the screaming I figured. I just nodded slowly at him, keeping eye contact with my friend. He then made his way over to me, the groups of people surrounding him parting as he walked easily through them. His step a little shaky, his arms flat by his sides, but I didn’t pay any attention that right about now.

He plopped down besides me, letting out a hiss at everyone who was staring at him and imploring them to go back to their regular business, to which they indeed did.

“Hey, uh, Poison, you alright?” I asked in a small voice, and Poison just set his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes with his fingers, letting out another heavy sigh.

“No. I’m clearly not okay.” Poison said, looking at the ground with sadness in his eyes. “I can hear it. Even though it’s floors and floors below me, below us, below ours, I can hear the thuds on the wall, the gunshots, the screaming… oh dear Lord the screaming… and what’s weird is I was promised to have a visit with my brother, because come on, he’s my fucking brother, the only family I have left in this forsaken world, but now I’m not allowed to. Whenever I ask I’m rejected, quite rudely, if I may add.” Poison let out a growl as he said that. I shivered. Not being allowed to see his brother? When he was promised? I know that the BLI could really care less about promises to rebels and wouldn’t give a damn if they broke them, but I knew how close that Poison and Kobra are and that’s… slightly barbaric, if you really think about it.

“I don’t know what they're doing and I can’t help but think, are those thuds on the wall my brother being tossed like a ragdoll against it? Are those gunshots aimed towards him? Are those screams Kobra’s?” Poison gulped loudly, and I felt my hand crawl upwards to rest on his back. “I know it’s unlikely, but I really can’t help but think it…”

“Look, we all just came out of a coma, maybe he’s having some complications. He never was the healthiest dude.” I suggested, and Poison let out a shaky sigh. “Maybe they’ve just decided that you two meeting, who I know you have some like telepathy shit going on there, is pretty dangerous.” I said, and Poison nodded.

“But why would they have let us meet?” Poison said, and I nodded.

“About that.” Both our heads shot up at the sound of a feminine voice, and to see it was Ms. Roosevelt, a guilty looking Ms. Lindemulder and a slightly annoyed looking Dr. Norris behind the former.

“Frank, you’re coming with me. Back to your room. It’s clean.” Ms. Roosevelt ordered, Ms. Lindemulder taking me by the hand and helping me up and off of the seat. I just sent glares at all of them, shooting a slightly confused look at Poison. He just shrugged, looking equally confused. “Don’t let this happen again, Janine.” Ms. Roosevelt spat at Ms. Lindemulder, who looked even more guilty as she began to slowly lead me out of the room.

“Bye, Poison.” I whispered, waving an awkward goodbye to my friend before being quickly ushered out of the day room, Dr. Norris whispering things to the passerby with a smile on his face as we did so.

It was then, when the day room door got shut behind us all, I heard frantic whispering coming from the other adults moving me around.

“That was extremely dangerous Janine! This better not happen again!” Ms. Roosevelt whispered to Ms. Lindemulder, to only have her to nod.

“I didn’t know that he was going to be there!” Ms. Lindemulder whispered back, Dr. Norris letting out a huff.

“Will you two shut up? I tested his hearing. He can probably hear this.” He said in a whisper I could barely pick out over the footsteps that seemed like a roar in comparison. And with that they all did as they were told, shutting up as we neared my room.

I was soon thrust into a completely clean room, being told that they’d be right back and there was food and whatever in a hushed, rushed, and agitated tone. I didn’t know what was going on with them, but I guessed it had something to do with me being in close proximity to Poison. I don’t fucking know, these people were so damn crazy that really anything goes in this almost mental asylum of a place.

I sighed, feeling my way across the walls and slowly sitting down on the couch again. My limbs, I had noticed, were loosening up, which I did smile at slightly. Meant I could move around faster, which was always good.

Seeing what had looked to be a television on the table in front of me, I grabbed what seemed to be a remote and turned it on, making sure to turn the volume down in case my eardrums were to be blasted.

The first thing that came on was the news.

“Everything is great today! Higher temperatures in the north sector, south sector is going to get some lower temperatures, and east and west expect some all around good-feeling temperatures today!” Repetitive and annoying. That’s my first thoughts about this presenter on the tele. He had too big of a smile on. Ugh.

I turned the TV off and lay down on the couch, letting out a yawn and throwing the remote onto the other side of the couch, away from me.

Today was going to be a hard day, with what was going on. Jesus, they couldn’t even wait a day, could they? I wake up from my fucking coma, and then I’m thrust into a world where Poison’s screaming his fucking head off, BLI is trying to force some pills down my throat, and I have no idea where the fuck Kobra and Jet Star are.

This was tiring, that was for sure.

Notes

Just plain ass, normal, everyday, no question about it, no NFL, no year, not named after a player, not named after a coach, not named after the referee's pet goldfish, no quarterback, diamondback, Nickelback, it's simple, ordinary, unembellished, unmistakable, crystal clear, as frank as Frankenstein, as blunt as an atom BOMB

one compound word,

it's motherfucking,

goddamn,

sons of bitchin,

fuck

fuck

fucking

FOOTBALL!

to whoever gets that ily

it's rushed, it's stupid, it's inconsistent, it has a bad ending, but hey at least I updated