I Believe We're the Enemy

3. Children of the Gun

Frank's POV:

He was a human, just like us. He wasn't a drac, he wasn't a shell of a person bound by pills and masks to a meaningless life in Battery City. He was just a human. Granted, he saw the world from a much different perspective than me, but that didn't make him less human. It's not that I felt bad for him, just that I had this silver of hope, a fantasy that maybe he could change. The hope that maybe he could be redeemed.

That fantasy was blown out of the water completely when he tried to kill one of our own. Even after we had given him so many chances at a better life, a chance at freedom. But some people are just evil to the core, you can't save everyone. That's where I drew the line. Whether he was human or not, his goal was the same as theirs; kill anyone who doesn't conform. It was stupid, really, why should anyone be made to conform to the ideals of some woman in a white coat with a cryptic nickname. Utterly stupid.

Anyways, back to when we first found him. He didn't have a name yet, not one that we knew of. I didn't care to be honest, I think the other guys wanted him dead as much as he wanted us dead, but for some reason I thought maybe, just maybe he could be saved. It was my idea to pull the ambush, we had run into another group of people a few days prior and had just the right amount of bodies to take down a unit of dracs and their Scarecrow. They considered their job to be somewhat janitorial, they were "cleaning up" the world. Forcing conformity on anyone and everyone they encountered.

We must have caught them off guard because they didn't shoot at us in the beginning. We made it to phase two of the ambush before any shots were fired. Then a warning shot was fired, it skidded across the sand finding its way into the ground a few feet in front of me. I wasn't one of those lame leaders who just came up with a plan and then hid while everyone else did the work (Like the Director), I lead us into battle. You could have called it a battle, this whole life seemed to be a constant war between Killjoys and Scarecrows, Dracs and people, freedom and conformity. I stood my ground, we weren't afraid of them; actually, that's a lie. I was absolutely terrified. I was terrified that the group I had promised temporary safety would be harmed at my hands. Terrified that we wouldn't make it out of here, or worse, we'd be turned into the dreaded shells known as dracs. Fear was coursing through my veins, but so was passion, courage, and mostly adrenaline.

The Scarecrow looked at us with a smug grin plastered across his face. I hated his face. It was clean and smooth, his skin seemed to be unaffected by the intense heat and the sun constantly beating down on us. His milky white skin was a huge contrast to my own rough, sunburnt skin that somehow managed to develop scabs in the most odd places adding even more texture to it caused by the desert and its harsh conditions.

I nodded at Jet Star on my right and he signaled for the rest of the group to open fire. We were not letting them win this. Jet Star shot and a drac fell to the floor with a thud. Then it was a true battlefield. Bullets were shot and bodies dropped to the floor. The Scarecrow ran, hiding behind some piece of a broken car, a coward. I wasn't surprised, it couldn't take much to lead a bunch of killing machines into the desert and then hide while they did the work. He was just like everyone else at Better Living Industries, just like The Director.

No one else knew about my plan to take the Scarecrow hostage. They thought this was merely a tactic to keep this zone safe for a while. Sure, that was definitely on my list of things to do, but my main mission was to capture a Scarecrow for interrogation. I needed answers, I needed to make him feel the pain I felt every day. He deserved worse than death. Worse than Draculization. Think of the most terrible thing you can, then multiply it by twenty. That's what he deserved.

Kobra Kid lead the rest of the group as they took down the small army of dracs. I ran across the battlefield, ducking and dodging bullets as I went along. I made it to the other side and crouched next to the Scarecrow. He didn't know I was here. I took a moment to catch my breath, a decision I regretted immediately because it gave him time to take a shot at Kobra. I swung a metal pole that had been lying on the floor behind him and bam, he fell to the ground with a thud. Not dead, but unconscious.