Angels From the Neon 7
Part 6
Mikey doesn’t think he’s ever been hugged quite as hard as he’d being hugged now. Grace clutches the back of his jacket tightly as though she’s never planning on letting him go. Mikey doesn’t think she’s crying, not exactly, but she’s pretty close.
“Kobra.” she half-sobs into his ear, “It really is you.”
“Yeah, sweetheart, it’s really me. You ready to get out of here, yeah?”
She pulls back slightly. “Where’s Jet and Poison?”
“We gotta go find Poison first but Jet’s waiting for us all outside. It’s all gonna be okay.”
Grace nods at him. She looks incredibly serious.
“Are you alright?” Mikey asks, “Is there anyone else here we need to get out?”
She shakes her head. “There were others.” she looks away from him. “Kids. I heard them, but they’re all gone now.”
“Gone?”
“They - the Dracs - they gave us these little white pills, yeah? They tasted horrible, and the people in masks, they said they would make us all better but they didn’t make me feel any different even though all the others went all quiet and stuff so they took them away and left me here. They said they’d come back but now you’re here so I guess I’m okay now.”
Mikey shuts his eyes for a moment, thinking of the kids he’d heard about BL/ind taking and the drugs they’d used on them. He has to admit that escaping from the clinic will be easier with just him and Grace but he can’t help but think it means he’s failed. He tries to pull himself together. “Right. Okay. We gotta go get Poison and then we’re all out of here.
It takes them a while to find some stairs. There are Dracs back on patrol now, obviously whatever time Frank had managed to buy them had run out. They make their way to the treatment rooms, dodging the patrols and it’s Grace who spots Gerard first. An open door reveals a deserted office and a huge plate glass window.
“THERE!” she hisses, pointing through the door at a horribly familiar red-haired figure slumped down in an intimidating metal chair complete with thick straps at the wrists and ankles.
“Gerard…” Mikey mutters, hurrying towards the next door along. “Oh hell no… Please…”
Afterwards, Mikey won’t remember crossing the room to his brother. Gerard’s head is on one side, lolling on his shoulder. There’s blood under his ripped fingernails and he’s lost his jacket. With his shoulder bandaged and in just his jeans and t-shirt he looks worryingly vulnerable.
“Gee!” Mikey breathes, kneeling down beside him. “Fuck, Gee… Wake the hell up.”
Grace waits nervously by the door, shooting glances at both Mikey and Gerard and up and down the corridor. Mikey reaches out a rather shaky hand. Gerard’s hair and forehead are drenched in sweat and as Mikey pushes it back, he’s reminded of all the times he’s seen Frank do exactly the same thing.
It takes several agonising seconds for Gerard to react and he blinks groggily. “Mi… Mi’keh?” Gerard slurs.
Mikey allows himself three seconds. All the relief rushes through him in one long sigh, his fingers almost digging into Gerard’s arm. “Oh thank fucking God.” he murmurs, starting to tug at the straps.
“Wuz F’key?”
He’d known it’d been coming, so Mikey swallows deeply before ignoring the question totally. He yanks the strap around Gerard’s right wrist away and begins work on the left. “We gotta get you out of here.”
“Frankie.” Gerard repeats more forcefully.
“We have to GO.” Mikey hisses, starting on the ankle straps.
Gerard levers himself forward and grabs Mikey’s wrist in a startlingly strong grip. “TELL ME.” he says. “Tell me where the hell he is right the fuck now, Mikey.”
Mikey stares up at him. He knows that look. He’s only seen it a few times before but it means Gerard’s deadly serious.
“Gee… I…” the last strap comes undone and Mikey pushes himself upright, holding out a hand for Gerard. “We needed a distraction.” he finishes.
“And you LET HIM GO!?”
“Gerard, keep it down for fuck’s sake. I didn’t LET him do anything. Frank knew exactly what he was doing. He did it for us - for YOU, Gerard. We have to get out of here.”
Gerard pulls himself unsteadily out of the chair, ignoring Mikey’s hand. Once he’s fully upright, he puts his hands up to cover his face for a second. They’re shaking hard and sweat is still pouring off him.
“I’m not going.” Gerard says inevitably.
“Gerard. Please. You think you’re in any shape for a rescue mission? In that state? What the hell did they give you? Gerard, I’m sorry, but he’s probably dead by now, or they’ve, well…”
Gerard flinches as though Mikey’s just hit him, “I don’t care.” He says, staring straight at Mikey. “And he’s not dead.”
He takes a few wobbly steps towards the door. Grace stares at him as though she’s never seen him before.
“He gave me a message.”
Gerard stops suddenly, bumping into the wall with his shoulder. He hisses in pain and looks back at Mikey.
Mikey take a step closer to him, “He told me to tell you not to go after him. He said he’d changed his mind.”
Gerard shuts his eyes, one hand twitching into a fist.
“Don’t go, Gee.” Mikey whispers. “I don’t want to lose you too.”
“I have to try, Mikey.” Gerard croaks. He sounds even closer to tears than Grace had been. “I have to TRY. He’s… Fuck. Please, just take Grace and get out of here. Find Ray. Wait for me, okay? Give me time. If I’m not there within a day, just get the hell out of there. The car’s yours, yeah? Run safe, Mikey, run safe.”
Grace gets out of the way as Gerard hauls himself through the door. Mikey watches him go.
“Kobra?”
Mikey blinks back the tears that are threatening to fall. “Come on, Gracie. We gotta motor.”
***
Gerard weaves his way along corridors, bouncing from wall to wall like a pinball. He can hear pounding feet in the distance, Dracs looking for Frank or him. He doesn’t know which, but he’s pretty sure they won’t care if they catch him. His head is pounding and he feels like he’s both burning up and frozen cold at the same time. He doesn’t know what drugs Frank had been forced to give him or the ones they had injected him with later - the ones that he can’t quite remember because they make his head feel like it’s full of cotton wool.
He can almost hear something whispering. It’s a constant hum at the back of his mind and it sounds like his own brain whispering Frank’s name but that could just be wishful thinking on his part. Whatever it is, it’s probably the only thing keeping him going right now, the simple all-consuming urge - no, NEED - to find Frank.
Gerard doesn’t even know what he’s going to find when he gets wherever he’s going. He thinks that maybe he’d know if Frank was already dead, that no matter where he was, however far away it would be like a switch flipping in his head and his entire universe collapsing down around his ears. An utter annihilation of everything he believes in that no-one else would even notice.
But then of course if Frank’s not dead then that raises a whole lot of new issues that make Gerard’s gut turn over.
The footfalls are getting closer now and Gerard pushes his way through the nearest door into what seems like a tiny, pitch black storage closet. He fumbles for the lock, sliding it quietly into place and pressing himself up against the door, half to keep himself upright and half to try and listen.
“No.” a voice says from outside. Gerard recognises it but it takes a little while for his fogged brain to supply him with a face to match. When it does, it makes Gerard freeze, holding a breath until his chest burns in fear. The bald man. The one who’d given him the drugs and asked him so many questions about Mikey and the pills and the zones that he hadn’t known which way was up.
“No.” the bald man says again, slightly clearer now. He must be right outside Gerard’s cupboard. “I want them both alive. I don’t know what happened in that godforsaken desert but they found a way to… to corrupt it. I have to know how.” There’s a pause as though the man is listening to a reply from someone Gerard can’t hear. “And they should see what we can do… Yes. I’ve sent the corrupted one back for surgery. By now he won’t even remember who they are.”
Gerard heroically manages to wait until the footsteps recede into the distance before being thoroughly sick all over the floor of the closet.
He follows the signs. If he squints and concentrates he can just make out the words ‘operating theatre’ on the spartan grey signposts at the junctions of the corridors. It’s the last place in the world he wants to look for Frank but it’s also the best bet according to what he overheard. The alarms had started up again a little while ago and Gerard prays it’s a good thing - that it’s because Mikey and Grace have found a way to escape from the clinic rather than anything else. At least it means there aren’t any patrols around again. He guesses BL/ind think he’s gotten away with Mikey.
He finally comes face to face with a set of double doors marked ‘Theater’. He feels he might throw up again just from the sight of it but he forces a hand up to push them open. He’s shaking so hard by this point that his fingers drum a nervous tattoo on the metal of the door.
Beyond is another brightly lit room, totally deserted except for one figure on a table in the centre. The floor around the table is flecked with black and he realises with a twist of his gut that it’s the strands of Frank’s hair that BL/ind have shaved from his head for the operation. It’s just like them, he thinks, making sure they finished the operation before sending everyone out to search for him and Mikey.
Gerard crosses the room to Frank in four steps but they feel like they take a lifetime.
“Frankie?” he says. He’s not even expecting an answer now and he doesn’t bother to wipe away the tears that are streaming down his face. “Oh, Frankie…”
When he reaches the head of the table he realises that Frank’s eyes are open. They’re not focussed on anything but Gerard can see his pupils expanding slightly as he blocks out the harsh white light. He’s still alive and Gerard doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry harder. It’s like a scene from one of his nightmares - one of the very worst, but this is real life now and he made a promise and no matter how hard it’s going to hurt, Gerard is going to try and keep that promise even if Frank says he’s changed his mind.
Frank blinks once and Gerard finally wipes the tears from his eyes. He knows what he’s been asked to do but he needs to be one hundred percent sure.
“Frank.” He says, trying to keep his vice steady. “You know who I am?” All he wants is Frank to nod or smile or blink or reach for him or ANYTHING to let Gerard believe that he doesn’t have to do what he knows he has to.
Frank - no, Gerard can’t think of him like that now - the thing that’s wearing Frank’s body rather, just looks past him with his eyes still blank.
Gerard runs his hand down Frank’s side, pulling the gun out of the holster at his thigh. At least they hadn’t taken it off him.
He leans closer to Frank’s ear. They didn’t shave this side of his hair and Gerard winds his fingers through it briefly. Then, pushing back a sob, he cocks the gun, bringing it up.
Frank doesn’t even react, still absolutely no recognition in his eyes.
Gerard presses his mouth to his ear, the gun pointing directly at Frank’s head. “I love you…” he whispers, before leaning back and pulling the trigger.
***
They’re walking slowly down the featureless corridors, Grace holding his hand tightly and the gun gripped at the ready. The alarms haven’t started ringing again yet, which is probably a good sign, but Mikey doesn’t really know for sure. He knows it’s useless to worry about Gerard, even though he is, because there’s nothing he can do to help him when he’s trying to get Grace out of the clinic. All he can really do is get to Ray and wait - hope - that Gerard will be able to escape without him.
He tries not to think about Frank at all.
In fact, he’s trying so hard not to think about Frank that it takes Grace tugging on his arm to notice that there’s something wrong.
“I can hear something.” Grace hisses.
Mikey freezes, listening hard. He can hear something too, he realises. The steady thump of boots on the floor getting gradually closer and closer. There’s a T-junction not far ahead and absolutely nowhere to hide. He doesn’t want to open one of the doors along the corridor to duck into the room beyond - they’ve all got electronic keypads next to them and they really can’t risk getting themselves locked in when they’re so close to getting out.
“Get behind me.” He whispers to Grace, “Get down and keep your eyes shut, okay?”
Grace has lived in the zones for long enough to do exactly as she’s told without asking questions.
The sound of the feet comes closer, echoing down the halls of the clinic. Mikey hunkers down on one knee, braced against the wall and arms locked pointing the raygun at the junction. He’s not going to have much time to shoot, and if there’s more than two Dracs he doesn’t think he’s going to be able to take them all out before they return fire.
He breathes out slowly.
When the Dracs come into view Mikey doesn’t hesitate for a second. He squeezes the trigger of the raygun and feels like everything is happening in slow motion. He watches the path of the blast as it flies down the corridor and catches the closest Drac in the side just above its hip. The Drac spins round with the force of the blast and Mikey fires again, aiming for its chest. The other Drac is reaching for its own gun now; flipping open the holster even as its companion is thrown against the wall by the blast to its sternum and starts to slide down it.
Mikey fires again, just as the second Drac shoots. The two laser streams cross each other and Mikey flings out his other hand, pulling Grace down to the floor with him, even as he realises that if his shot has missed it won’t matter if they manage to duck out of the way of this one.
He hears the double fizz of the shots finding a target and then everything is silent again. He’s lying on the floor on his side, back to the junction and curled round Grace who still has her hands clamped over her ears. Neither of them seems to be hurt, so at least one of the shots missed. Mikey waits for a moment but there’s no sound behind him. Either the Drac is waiting for them to move or it’s dead. Slowly - very slowly - Mikey rolls over onto his back. He can feel the cold of the tiled floor seeping through the gap between the end of his jacket and the top of his jeans. It makes him shiver. He looks up and over at the junction.
The second Drac is slumped against the wall next to its companion. There’s a blast hole in the dead centre of its forehead.
Mikey relaxes, his head thumping back down on the floor. He reaches out blindly to Grace and manages to pat her on her upper back. Her shirt feels odd to his fingers and he wonders if it’s because it’s clean.
“S’okay.” He says, as calmly as he can manage. “They’re gone.”
Grace uncurls from the ball and sits up. Mikey thinks it’ll be a few more moments before he feels up to a similar task. He feels like he’s just run the entire length of Route Guano - all shaking legs and deep gasping breaths. “Just give me a couple of minutes.”
Grace beams at him. “Kobra.” She says happily, “You’re my FAVOURITE.”
***
Eventually they find a door. It doesn’t look like the main door, it’s more a fire escape set into a corridor’s blank wall, but an exit is an exit and a sign next to the door says it’s rigged with an alarm. Mikey considers this for a second. With any luck the noise will draw the Dracs away from Gerard.
He gives it a hard shove, leaning into it with all his weight. It opens after the third attempt and the ringing starts up again immediately.
“Come on.” He says, waving at Grace.
She stares at him. “We’re leaving Poison?” she asks nervously. “He’s all alone, and he looked really ill.”
Mikey’s holding the door open with one hand and he knows it’s all up to him to get her out of here and back to Ray. There’s no way she’ll be able to navigate the tunnels to the outskirts of the City on her own. He’s midway between anger and grief, but deep down he knows Gerard’s an adult and capable of making his own choices even if he doesn’t like them.
“Poison’s just got a job to do.” He says firmly. “We’re going to find Jet Star and we’ll wait for Poison to catch us up, okay?”
Grace doesn’t look like she believes him all that much, but she follows him through the open door and out into Battery City.
***
Ray feels like he’s been waiting for years. They’d agreed to meet in the same parking lot that Gerard had first found the Trans-Am, out in a ruined area of crumbling buildings on the outskirts of the City. Ray had found it easily from Gerard’s carefully detailed map and pulled the car up behind some rubble where it was impossible to see from outside.
He’s on edge, unable to sit still for any length of time but not really wanting to get out of the car and stretch his legs in case it drew attention to himself. Gerard had said that the Drac patrols rarely bothered with anywhere this close to Battery City, but he’d mentioned that there’s people living here - apparently they’re closer to ‘runners than not, but Ray doesn’t want to take any chances no matter how many of them are friendly with Gerard.
He drums his fingers on the steering wheel, trying not to think of how long it’s been since they left the diner and goes over the plan in his head again, wondering how much of it they’ve achieved and how much of it has all gone south.
He wants Grace to be okay. He wants Mikey and Gerard to be okay too, and he’s surprised at how unsurprised he is about wanting Frank to be okay. He never thought he’d even talk to a Drac and get an answer, let alone realise he’s actually riding a crew with one - one he calls his friend - but he guesses Frank has that sort of way about him.
“They’re gonna be fuckin’ milkshake.” He mutters to himself. Maybe he’ll believe it if he says it enough.
***
Mikey has only been in the tunnels beneath Battery City once before, on the night he and Gerard had got out, but he doesn’t think it’s the sort of thing he’s ever going to forget. They’d run from the clinic, the alarm still sounding behind them, keeping to the shadows and the back alleys. Mikey has no doubt that there are Dracs behind them, following them out through the city and he’s keeping his gun primed and ready in case they stumble into some of them but as long as they’re after him then his brother has a chance to get out.
He tries not to focus too much on anything past getting Grace back to Ray. For all that he’s pissed with Gerard ignoring Frank’s request to leave him behind, he knows that if it comes down to it, if they never show up at the meeting point, he’d go back to the clinic for them too.
When they hurry down the last alley, the one that Gerard had chosen because of the awkward dog-leg shielding the end from view from the street he all but throws himself to his knees. The grate is still there, a little rustier perhaps, and half-covered by a junked ‘bot, but it looks like it’ll still open at least. Grace helps him prise it open and then pulls a face at the smell.
“Ugh.” She says, wrinkling her nose. “Down there? I don’t like the dark.”
Mikey nods, leaning into the dark hole to find the catch that’ll release the ladder, “Down here.” He agrees. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. Poison used to do it all the time.”
Grace looks at him, impressed. “You used to come into the City?” she asks, “Shiny! Not even Jet’s been here before.”
Mikey springs the catch and hears the ladder extend with a creak to the bottom of the hole. “We were born here.” He says, not knowing if it’ll make things better or worse. “And this is how we left.”
Grace joins him in peering into the tunnels and then looks at him, eyes wide. Mikey can’t work out if she’s scared or amazed. “Does Jet know?” she asks finally.
Mikey nods. “He knows.” He says, “But we’ve really gotta go.”
***
Ray wishes he had a hobby. There usually wasn’t any time in the zones for anything much beyond scavenging deserted buildings and trying not to get shot at by the fuck-you patrols, but right now he could really do with something to keep his mind off the wait. He used to enjoy running the still out of the back of the bar, but he’s been so bored that he’s done an inventory of the contents of Gerard’s car and not even he can make anything even passably drinkable from fourteen batteries in various states of decay, three empty tin cans, a stained notebook with most of the pages missing and a kazoo that doesn’t make a sound no matter how hard he tries blowing into it.
He shoves all of the things back into the glove compartment of the car. This is probably one of the hardest things he’s had to do. He’s never been good at waiting, and since the Dracs took Rocket and the others, his brain has always been too good at thinking up ways things could all go to shit.
Ray spends a little time trying to tune the radio into the frequency of the DJ Mikey can always seem to find, rolling the dial up and down the airwaves and trying to make sense of the crackle of white noise. He thinks he catches a few bars of what sounds like a wailing guitar, but his fingers slip and when he tries to find it again it’s gone. Either the DJ’s not broadcasting or he’s too far from the signal to pick it up clean.
He’s seriously contemplating trying to get some noise out of the kazoo again when he sees something moving out of the corner of his eye.
He barely has enough time to slide the gun out of its holster - stupid, stupid for not keeping it out on the dash - before the passenger side door opens and someone climbs into the car.
***
Mikey flails around in the dark at the foot of the ladder. There should be motion-sensitive emergency lights, or at least there were last time he’d made this trip. He hopes they’re still working because trying to remember his way back to the parking lot in the pitch black where he’s unable to see the arrows Gerard painted on the walls during his explorations of the tunnels is going to be frankly impossible.
Grace remains still next to him. He can’t even see her until the red lights flicker on. She looks up at him again. “You and Poison were really brave.” She says approvingly.
“Huh?” asks Mikey, peering around at the walls of the tunnel.
“Escaping from the City.” She says, like Mikey’s a little slow on the uptake. “Did you have to shoot your way out then too?” she cocks her fingers like a gun and shoots an imaginary Drac. “Pew, pew.”
The lines of the black markered arrow have faded slightly, but it’s still there along with a quick little sketch of a car. “This way.” Mikey says, pointing down the tunnel. The red lights are flickering off and on making everything look eerie. “And no, we didn’t shoot our way out. We just ran.”
Grace looks a little disappointed by this, but then perks up. “But you had to climb through tunnels.” She says. “That’s kinda shiny.”
Mikey thinks about dragging two heavy bags and his even heavier brother through an old system of sewer tunnels while Gerard had been in the middle of coming down off his meds but even more determined than ever before to get Mikey out of Battery City before he turned eighteen. “Kinda.” He murmurs.
***
The guy sitting in the passenger seat is pretty small, probably about the same size as Frank, but he’s wearing a bandana over the bottom half of his face so all Ray can see are dark eyes and dark hair. He’s certainly not a Drac and if the clashing colours of his clothes are any indication, he’s not anything to do with BL/ind either. Ray keeps his gun pointed at the guy’s head though, just in case. The guy doesn’t seem to notice.
“Dr D said you’re running with Party Poison now.” The guy says, like they’re old friends picking up a conversation after an interruption.
Ray’s not sure what to say, so he keeps quiet.
The guy shakes his head, pulling down the bandana to reveal a wide horsey grin, “Don’t worry.” He says, his eyes slipping sideways to look at Ray. “We already know all about you, Jet Star. You and Grace, ‘running the zones with Party Poison and the Kobra Kid. Word on the airwaves says you got a new motorbaby in your crew as well. Kinda looking forward to meeting him, he sounds pretty fuckin’ special.”
“You might not get the chance.” Ray growls, not sure if he’s threatening the guy or worrying about the plan going wrong again. It feels like a little of both. “Who the fuck are you anyway?”
The guy’s eyes crinkle at the corners as he smiles impossibly wider. “Don’t worry about that.” He replies as though it really ISN’T something that Ray should be worrying about. “Me and my crew are tight with the Doc. You’ve just gone and got yourselves noticed is all. Now, Dr D wanted me to tell you all that he might be askin’ a few favours soon - there’s gonna be a shitstorm blowing into the zones and you’ll all want to be on our good side - especially since we’ve got someone who can do a little…” he wiggles his fingers in what he obviously thinks is a mysterious way, “Biomechanical engineering for your latest acquisition.”
Ray scoffs, but his finger loosens on the trigger of his gun. Whoever this idiot is, he’s definitely nothing to do with BL/ind. He’s spoken to enough ‘runners to know he’s one of them. “Okay.” He says, thinking tightly about the box on the side of Frank’s head, “But I’ve gotta warn you, you might be too late if you’re signing up all of us…”
Whoever-he-is reaches for the door handle, “I think you’re underestimating your new partners, they’re pretty milkshake…” He says kindly, pushing the door open. “I’m sure someone’ll be in touch with you. You’re out in that diner, yeah?”
Ray nods before he can stop himself.
“Shiny.” The guy replies. “Now, I’m gonna motor. See you soon, Jet.” He climbs out of the car and sticks his hands in his pockets. “You don’t have long to wait.”
Ray’s still pointing the gun at mid-air when Mikey and Grace turn the corner a few moments later.
Grace breaks into a wide grin the moment she sees him, and stumbles into a run. Ray drops the gun on the passenger seat and all but leaps out of the car. He barely looks at Mikey as he gathers Grace up in his arms, going to one knee on the floor, not even caring about the lumps of concrete digging into his leg. Grace hugs him tightly, her arms around his neck are almost threatening to choke him but he doesn’t really care about that. After a whole minute of hugging, she starts talking and Ray realises he’d started crying a little way back.
“It’s okay, Jet. I’m okay. They didn’t hurt me at all and I wasn’t scared, not really. They gave me all these yucky pills to take but they didn’t work or anything and then Kobra came and found me and Party Poison was there too, but he didn’t look very well and he had to stay there but we escaped and Kobra took me through these tunnels and he says that’s how they escaped from Battery City before because Poison had drawn on the walls like a map and then we were here and it’s gonna be okay now, isn’t it?” She takes a deep breath. Ray can’t believe he’d forgotten how much she can talk.
“That’s great, Gracie.” Ray mumbles into her hair. “I’m so proud of you.” He distantly hears the muted click of the car doors opening and runs his hands over Grace’s hair one last time before pushing himself back to his feet, reaching out to hold her hand.
Mikey’s opened the rear door of the car and is lying on his back across the seats with his legs hanging out, feet flat on the floor. Ray can’t really see his face properly thanks to his arm flung up over his eyes. Ray leans over, peering into the car.
“Where’s Gerard and Frank?” he asks quietly.
“Who’s that?” Grace hisses next to him.
Mikey doesn’t move his arm, or anything at all. “Gerard’s Poison’s real name.” he explains. “And Frank’s our new friend. And they’re both still back in the clinic.”
Ray blinks at Mikey’s still unmoving form. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”
“I know.” Mikey replies, his voice muffled slightly by his sleeve. “The plan went Costa Rica. Gee’s fuckin’ improvising.”
“What happened?”
Mikey sort of twitches slightly like he wants to shrug, but doesn’t have the energy. “BL/ind somehow figured out Frank wasn’t with them any longer or something. He got me out and then ran off to distract the Dracs while I got Grace and Gerard out…”
Ray sighs, “And Gee wouldn’t run without going back for Frank.” He finishes.
“Exactly.”
“Poison’ll be okay, won’t he though?” asks Grace, squeezing Ray’s hand a little tighter. “He’ll be able to get out okay and come through the tunnel like us?”
Mikey doesn’t reply and Ray feels as though the weeks ‘running with him and his brother have given him special powers. The trick with Mikey and Gerard is to listen to the things they’re not saying, and Mikey might as well have just screamed his worry from the rooftops.
“Sure thing, Gracie.” He says squeezing her hand back. “Hey, why don’t you try and get some sleep? There’s a blanket in the trunk.”
***
Grace has replaced Mikey stretched out in the back seat of the car, and he’s sitting on the hood next to Ray. They haven’t said anything for a while. Mikey tries to tell himself that it’s because Grace was trying to get to sleep, but he knows she can sleep through a bar full of drunken zonerunners and really it’s because he doesn’t really know what to say.
Neither of them are looking at each other, just staring out at the rubble, so it almost surprises Mikey when Ray clears his throat with a cough and says “There was a guy…” in a low voice. “Just before you rolled in. He told me the DJ was watching us.”
“He watches everyone.” Mikey says, because he has a sneaking suspicion it’s true. He’s heard broadcasts about things he has no idea how anyone would know about. “You could spend eight cycles under a fuckin’ rock and that guy would still know when you scratched your balls.”
Ray snorts a little with laughter at that. “He said they’d be in touch.”
“I believe him.” Mikey nods. “I just don’t know how many of us he’ll find.”
Ray scratches at his shoulder where the Drac’s blast had caught him back when they had first met Frank. “He also said that they had someone who could… take that thing out of Frank’s head. The box, the one they were using to control him. He knew about it. About Frank.”
Mikey makes a surprised sound, “Oh.” He says quietly. “Wow, I guess he really does know everything about us.”
Ray sighs. “You… You really don’t think they’re coming back?” he asks quietly.
Mikey keeps his arms folded across his chest. “I don’t think Frank’s coming back.” He replies. “Frank didn’t think he would, at least. And Gerard…”
“You don’t think Gerard’s gonna be leaving without him.” Ray finishes for him.
“He told me to wait for him.” Mikey says, but he knows he’s really just trying to convince himself. “Just him… but then he told me the car was mine, so I don’t really know what to think.”
From out of the corner of his eye he watches Ray run a gloved hand through his hair. “What happened in there?” He asks. “What really happened?”
“Pretty much exactly what we thought would happen.” Mikey grinds out. “They were more interested in Gee and dragged him off to have junk pumped into his system and threw me in a cell. Then Frank let me out to look for Grace, but he went and got himself fucking caught or ghosted or some shit and Gee wouldn’t leave without him even though Frank told him to motor…” without wanting to, Mikey flashes back to the conversation he’d half-overheard back in the diner and crosses his arms even tighter. “I think he’d asked Gerard to kill him though.” He admits.
“What?” Ray sounds incredulous.
“I overheard them talking. Frank was saying Gee’d gotta do something because he didn’t want to live like that again. What else could it’ve been?”
“I… uh…” Ray’s obviously trying to come up with a plausible explanation but finally settles on “Shit, Mikey…”
“Yeah.” There isn’t really anything else he can say.
“Well then,” Ray says, blowing out a breath, “I guess we should wait and see.”
***
It’s dark when something finally happens. Mikey can barely see past the end of the car. He’d love to switch the headlights on, but they really don’t need to draw any attention to themselves. Mikey’s met some of the people who live in the outskirts and they’re pretty solid, but if the Dracs are still searching for them then the best plan is to stay under the radar until… Well, until they can leave.
The first hint they have that something is going on is a scrabbling noise, like unsure feet climbing over the lumps of rubble in a pitch-black parking lot. Grace doesn’t wake up from the back seat, but Ray and Mikey are both on high alert the second they hear the noise. Ray swings his gun around to point unwaveringly in the direction of the sound, waving his free hand at Mikey to usher him around the side of the car.
Mikey steadies his hand on the roof of the Trans-Am, gun trained on the gap in the rubble that’s the only way into the area they’re hiding in. Ray’s crouched down behind the hood and Mikey glances at him quickly. He can feel a tremble start in his wrist and grips it with his other hand to keep his aim true. While he desperately hopes that what he can hear is Gerard coming back to them, he knows it’s just as likely to be an outskirts wave-head scavving for junk or a Drac patrol BL/ind have sent to track them down. It’s better to be safe than sorry
Another clatter of concrete, closer this time, has Mikey exhaling slowly. Any second now.
There’s a crunch of gravel and the clickwhirr of Ray’s gun being powered up. Mikey’s breath hitches. Then there’s a flash of two people in white uniforms and masks and he squeezes the trigger before he really knows what’s happening.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Part 8