I just wanted to dedicate this chapter to the author itsmadyagain (Mady Jones). I've been reading all of her Danger Days fics and THEY ARE SO GOOD. Please go read them immediately.

- C

The next day it rained. That matters a lot nowadays. We spent these days collecting rainwater in buckets and using them to wash anything and everything. I didn't sleep a wink. I decided that around 7 AM that I was wasting too much time by laying around, drowning in my sorrows. I threw on a pair of baggy ripped jeans, an army green t-shirt, and my dusty boots. I pulled my hair back into a tight knot behind my head before heading into the dining room to view the crime scene from last night.

It was almost as if nothing had happened. There was barely a stain on the floor and the walls had been wiped clean. Ghoul was in the next room still lying on the couch. I was a little bit concerned about him when I saw that there was a pillow over his face. But he was snoring away. Jet smiled at me when I walked into the living room.

"He pulled that pillow over his face in his sleep." Jet informed me. "Don't worry, we didn't try to kill him in his sleep."

I chuckled softly and lifted up the pillow to peer at him. He groaned at me and pulled the pillow from my hands and back onto his face.

Jet yawned. "He's been in a coma-like sleep for awhile, and snoring like an old dog."

I opened the door to outside and peered my head out. It was pouring and the ground couldn't absorb all of the water, so it turned into large puddles in the ditches. I grabbed our rain buckets from the side of the door and put them out in the rain. I hoped they wouldn't wash away and closed the door. I turned each lock and secured the door. I was still scared that they would come back and break in. Our locks might not stop them, but I could still use them to calm my anxiety.

I spent the day sitting in our room cleaning. The cleaning made it impossible for me to think about the events of the night before. I could sit in peace with the door locked. Rocket had come several times to check on me, but I reassured her that I was okay. I could tell she was particularly worried about my mental health. With all of the things that had happened lately, I was allowed to show weakness. But I didn't want to. I was sick of people worrying about me and babying me. I was the weakest one in our group. Even Rocket was stronger than me (besides her stomach). I had to grow up and face the world. Things weren't going to get any better and I had to learn how to become accustomed to it. Staying alive and living are two different things. Recently, I had only been good at one of them...and it was stealing away the period of time that was supposed to be the best years of my life.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but Ghoul had this great habit of leaving his clothes on the floor instead of in the laundry basket that I had found lying around for free at a "yard sale". The worst part was that he left them in a neat mountain by the closet. Why couldn't he leave them in a neat mountain in the basket? I had a philosophy that a clean room meant a clean mind. It left room for thoughts and had a peacefulness about it. Apparently, Ghoul thought otherwise.

He had crumpled up pieces of paper around his desk. Didn't we used to have a trash bin too? I groaned and collected all of the papers. He had been working on a sketch of a bike he wanted to build. Ghoul hadn't had the time or the funds to start it, but he had an old shell of a bike hidden in the garage. I wasn't sure if he still needed the sketches so I set the crumpled papers neatly on his desk. I realized then that he had taped a picture of us on the wall above his desk. It made me blush to know he still did things like that. We hadn't been very close lately because of the fight we recently had and the tension between the Killjoys and Better Living Industries. There wasn't much time to bond. I wanted to trust him again.

We worked as a group again to take care of Ghoul. He was acting like himself again, cracking jokes and laughing. He wanted to get up and walk but we made him stick to laying down for about a week. There was no sign of infection and I considered that a miracle.

There was still tension between Poison and Ghoul but the storm had begun to settle down. We hadn't heard anything from any of the other groups or the people who tried to take him away, but we always had our radio on to listen to Dr. Death Defying spill the details on the Drac count and the rebuilding on the edges of the city.

"Killjoys, it's me, Dr. D. The dust has settled and the sun continues to shine on. Is it eerily quiet or is that just me? The bats are in their hidey holes and the Fabulous Four are dormant. But a few sunsets ago, they truly did prove themselves Fabulous. Saving lives and our home survives; a war between Gods and Monsters. But folks: who are the Gods, and who are the Monsters? A little food for the thought. Dr. D, signing off until the skies grow dark."

An old punk song blasted through the speakers as our radio host stopped speaking.

"I miss that old man." Kobra spoke as he put an arm around Rocket and pulled her close.

"Me too." Rocket replied quietly.

Poison sighed loudly. "We need to get out and do something. All we do is sit here and cry for what we've lost. We need to go back to our roots. What happened to treating each day as if it were our last? What about Cola?"

Hearing Cola's name caused an ache in my heart and tears came to my eyes. I hadn't thought about him in a long time. I hadn't even had time to think about much besides staying alive. An old wound had been opened inside of my chest. I didn't want to cry now in front of them, but it was too late. Hot tears ran down my cheeks and I quickly wiped them away.

Poison continued. "Is this what Cola would want? Would he want to see us stuck here day after day, afraid of the outside world? God damn it, who wants to go for a road trip?"

He was right. It was time to stop mourning the dead. I didn't run from the city to shut myself inside a room all day. I came to the desert for freedom. Why was I letting fear control me? With fear, our enemies could contain us. The anxiousness was driving us apart. We couldn't let them hurt us anymore, whether it was BL/ind or other Killjoys in our wasteland.

"I wouldn't mind going for a road trip." I spoke up.

All heads in the room turned to me.

I threw my hands in the air. "What? What's so bad about that? Ghoul can walk. We could camp out or something. We need a break and fresh air."

I looked at Ghoul with pleading eyes. Thankfully, he agreed with me.

He nodded. "Let's do it. Let's camp at the edge of the city."

Kobra nearly jumped out of his skin. "The city? Are you crazy?"

Ghoul laughed. "No, no. Not that city. The old city I showed you before."

Everyone agreed to it. Kobra and Rocket were debating on whether to walk around some of the old buildings. Rocket reminded Kobra how dangerous the buildings actually were from a fire and exposure to the elements. Kobra just wanted to spook Rocket, a girl who he knew was easily spooked. While Kobra teased her, I went through a mental list of the things we needed and got Jet to help me pack the Trans Am and truck. Ghoul checked the cars to make sure they had enough gas to last us the ride there and back. Poison radioed in to Dr. D to make sure he and Show Pony knew that we were leaving on a trip and would be back in a day. They were technically our housesitters.

I drove with Ghoul in the truck while Poison, Kobra, Rocket, and Jet drove in the Trans Am. The Trans Am followed closely behind us. I peeked back at Rocket to make faces at her through the back of the truck. She stuck her tongue out at me and I giggled. I was so grateful to see her happy again. I also hoped the others would loosen up as well and forgive each other soon.

Ghoul decided to take us to the actual edge of the city like he promised. He drove away from the edge of the cliff where he and I had camped before. Instead he took us to an area under a cliff. The area under the cliff almost made a cave for us to settle in. We began unpacking our things as the sun began to set and started a nice fire to sit by. Jet and I had found Jiffy Pop and hoped for the best as we tried to pop it over the fire.

"Stop holding it so close over the fire!" Kobra scolded Jet. "You're gonna set it on fire."

Jet laughed. "It's not that close."

To our delight, the first kernel popped. It set off an explosion of other kernels. Rocket rubbed her hands together excitedly. I looked over at Ghoul, and he flashed me the brightest smile before putting his arm around me.

He put his lips close to my ear and whispered, "I love you."

I turned to him, blushing, and returned the phrase back in his ear.

"Are you guys telling secrets over there?" Kobra asked.

I laughed and shook my head. Jet was still concentrating hard on the Jiffy Pop, his tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth. Watching him hold it over the fire to get the last kernel popped gave me anxiety. Finally, he removed it from the fire and left it to cool for a moment. We were all getting antsy to try the popcorn, no matter how bad it tasted. Ghoul had brought some materials to make food over the fire such as scrambled eggs and bacon. I honestly wished him the best of luck with cooking over a fire.

Things had become like old times again. We hadn't had fun in a long time, and this was helping us bond again as a group. Ghoul and I finished our food first before helping everyone set up their blankets. It was starting to get cold as the sun left the Earth in darkness. I slipped on a big sweatshirt and huddled near the fire. I was still cold, so I wrapped a warm blanket around my shoulders. Ghoul began winding up a rechargeable lantern, and grabbed my shoulder.

"Let's go for a walk." He said with a smirk on his face.

I laughed and glanced over at the other 'joys who were joking and laughing with each other on the other side of the fire. "Where would we go?"

He motioned towards the dark world beyond our safe camp. "Out there."

I shook my head. "How are we going to get back?"

He shrugged. "I guess I have a plan."

I raised an eyebrow. "Is it a good and practical plan?"

Ghoul's eyes darted off into the distance. "Uh, well, I have a plan."

"You better not get us lost." I got to my feet and intertwined my fingers with his.
After announcing our departure and picking up a map that Ghoul swore would help us get back, we walked off into the darkness with our lantern. I was nervous at first because of how dark it was, but the lantern really lit up our path. I wasn't interested in finding large spiders in the dark or a venomous snake.

The buildings began to come into view, towering over us. They felt like steel monsters.

"What city is this?" I asked.

Ghoul shrugged. "Beats me. But it's pretty creepy at night."

I still had the blanket from before wrapped around my shoulders like a cape. I huddled close to Ghoul, since he seemed to radiate heat from his skin. It made me realize that no matter how dark it got in life, as long as I could feel him beside me I would be okay.

In the light of the lantern I could see the aftermath of the wars. Burned storefronts and broken windows greeted us. We stepped over shards of glass littering the main streets. Old cars had been scavenged through, their doors ripped off and parts stolen. Ghoul helped me weave through the mess. He glanced down at the map every so often. He probably did have a plan after all.

"Here it is." He mumbled and pulled me into a dark alley.

He yanked open the first door on our left and ushered me in.

"Where are we?" I whispered as he shut the door.

"It's a place I used to spend time when I couldn't deal with the world." He guided me through the dark and to a door labeled STAIRS.

We climbed several sets of stairs. I saw that Ghoul was having trouble climbing them. He hid the fact that his injury hurt him, but I knew he was in pain.

"How far do we have left?" I asked him.

He didn't answer. We had hit a landing for the third floor. I wasn't sure about the stability of the building but I trusted him to make the right decisions. Ghoul pulled open the door and we ended up in a long open room full of office cubicles. We walked through the rows of the cubicles until we hit a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. It was hard to see anything outside of the windows in the darkness, but I could only imagine how beautiful it was when the sun set or rose. Ghoul took a seat on the floor and I joined him.

In the silence I could tell he was still trying to catch his breath.

"Ghoul?" I whispered.

He didn't respond.

I scooted closer to him and sat in his lap, my legs on either side of him. I took his face in my hands. His eyes were closed and he was concentrating on his breath.

"Frank."

He finally looked at me. "You shouldn't call me that. You don't know who is listening."

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter to me right now. I don't want you to pretend that you're okay. You're hurting."

"The pain goes away after a few minutes." He replied.

"No, that's not what I mean." I pressed my hand against his heart and spread my fingers across his chest. "I know something hurts in here. I want to know everything."

"Everything?"

"Yes, everything."