Keep Running (Killjoy)

13

D.A.'s POV:
The next morning was a lot more busy- all of our groups had to get an early start to the day and immediately do zone checks to make up for the ones we couldn't do the day prior. Apparently, not doing zone checks increases the amount of BL/Ind people out there and the number of killjoys we could potentially lose. This was pretty understandable for me since that's how Party found our group in one of the zones.

At least my Viper was fully checked into their system and returned to me so I could use it for the day's missions. Wyvern, Lithium, and Grenade were packed into my vehicle while Gerard, as I was now able to call him, loaded in everyone in his group. Well, other than his injured brother of course. My group had been assigned to drive through all of Zone 5 while Gerard would race to the northern part of Zone 6 while a few other killjoys would go into the southern part. Zone 6 was the biggest section which was why there were two parties assigned to it.

Gerard being apart from me was pretty unsettling to me because he was almost ghosted last time. Hopefully, he'd be okay by the end of the day. Actually, I was hoping that we'd all be alright by the end of the day. We could use all the killjoys to be out there as possible so any further losses would definitely be unfortunate for our side. Better Living was easily stronger than us on any day-to-day basis when only some of us traveled out to check out the zones in smaller groups. But we could probably beat them if it was all people of each side against each other. We have more determination, strength, fire in our hearts, lights of hope in our eyes, and all that garbage.

"We're at the first spot we need to briefly monitor." Wyvern notified between my swirling mental notes.

I stopped the car, letting one of the girls crawl out and watch over the dusty plain for a few minutes before declaring that the coast was completely clear.

"Well, guess the Dracs weren't planning to see us here today." Grenade said then hopped back into her seat.

"That'll make our lives easier." I muttered, shifting my car in gear and driving off to the next point.

It was also completely Drac-free and we moved on. The next stop point, however, had a few Dracs accompanied by a single S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W that we had to eliminate before they could do the same to us. Lithium anxiously aimed at them from the window and shot the entire clan down within a few minutes. The easygoing day was a little too good to be true for me since BL/Ind workers were usually on a higher guard rather than just dying out here the way they just had done.

"If this mission's gonna be this simple, we'll be back before lunchtime." Grenade pointed out.

"Yeah, but I don't like this. It's like they're trying to trick us into a false sense of security by making this so simple." I replied.

My thoughts were proven to be correct soon enough- the next stop was overflowing with BL/Ind siders that looked like they were prepared to fight three times what they were up against. To succeed in surviving, each of us would have to shoot with perfect precision each time we fired so they wouldn't ghost us right off the bat. I swallowed down any guilt I would feel for doing such things and aimed for one of the grayscale-colored people.

They began to move in towards us like zombies and I steered my beautiful Viper around them all in huge, long laps as the rest of the girls were shooting at them. The movement may have added difficulty towards aiming, but it let us strike more of them down at once rather than only shooting at the frontal lines. Soon the evil workers fell to the ground in large clumps and the remaining ones pointed their weapons at us.

"Ahh, fück!" Grenade hissed loudly as her knuckle was barely hit by the shot, though it was still painful.

Lithium pushed her down from the window to keep her safer from the flying rays and took over her position. Even I was attempting to ghost some Dracs with one hand steering the car to get this spot-check over with. Grenade needed to be taken back to the headquarter building since there were still some pretty serious health risks towards her hand bleeding as profusely as it was at that point.

I steered the car back towards HQ once all the Dracs on the field were ghosted to get Grenade to medical specialists. The guys were still on my mind as well. And the feeling of attachment to so many people returned to bite me in my butt. I felt so stupid for not following my own advice of releasing attachment to groups of people. The world would screw up our lives and give us a tiny chance of actually having all of us surviving together, ending with everyone getting hurt either physically or emotionally. But I couldn't help caring for the people that saved my life and the lives of my closest friends.

The car's motor made a slightly different tone- telling me that the gas level was getting lower. Luckily, we weren't too far away from the building and would be able to make it back. But what struck me was that none of the other killjoys were back yet. That meant that there was more danger out in the other regions to check over. My worry was greatly increasing by the second as I parked my Viper in its spot and searched through the garage while the others hurried Grenade off to the medical wing for her wounded hand.