Chapter Text
Fun Ghoul’s radio crackled to life, causing him to drop his wrench with a loud clang. Ghoul swore, missing most of the transmission as he scrambled to find the radio among piles of wiring.
“-out past zone four. Think you can lend a hand? Over.”
“Uhhh, 10-9?” Ghoul asked, confusion evident in his tone.
“Keep your ears on, boy.” The voice became recognizable as Dr. Death-Defying, which only increased Ghoul’s bewilderment, “I said, there’s reports of a couple waveheads with no supplies out past zone four. Pony’s still on a run so I need you to drop off some supplies for them.”
“Why me? Don’tcha have anyone else that can do it?” Ghoul complained.
“Think of it as a favour to me. I haven’t asked for anything in a while and I think you owe me one after everything with your crew.” Dr. D replied dryly.
“Ha ha. Y’know Poison still doesn’t trust me not to run? They’ll never agree to it.”
“Bring one of them along. Come by tonight to pick up the gear. Signing off.”
Ghoul tried to protest, but Dr. D had already disconnected his radio. He rolled his eyes, got to his feet, abandoning the old generator he’d been trying to fix, and stomped his way back into the diner.
“Doc needs me to make a run tonight.” Ghoul announced.
The Kobra Kid startled awake from he had been dozing over a magazine at one of the tables.
“No.” Party Poison snapped, sticking his head out from the kitchen, “‘E can get someone else t’ do it.”
“I’d like t’ agree but he did call for me specifically,” Ghoul drawled, enjoying the way Poison twitched at being so blatantly disobeyed, “and ‘pparently I owe him a favour for findin’ me a crew or something like tha’. At least I’m givin’ you a warning this time.”
“If I didn’ think that you’d take th’ Am and run-” Poison snarled, but they were cut off by Jet Star lifting them out of the way.
“Sounds fun, Ghoulie!” Jet said brightly, “I’ll come with.”
They dumped Poison onto the bench next to Kobra and slid into the booth across from the siblings.
Poison glared at Jet, about to argue with them, no doubt, but froze when Kobra lifted a hand.
“How long? Where? Can you bring back Triple Axle’s latest zine?”
“A coupl’a hours, at most. Edge of four. If Doc has it then yeah.”
“Cool,” Kobra turned back to his magazine, ignoring the glare that Party leveled at him.
“Am I th’ only one who thinks our resident flight risk shouldn’ be allowed to wander off t’ th’ far edge o’ th’ zones jus’ like that?”
“Yep,” Jet grinned, reaching over to muss Poison’s hair, “dye your hair or something. Kobra can keep you company. It’s for Doc, we can’t exactly say no.”
“Great. We’re leaving at sunset, Jet.” Ghoul turned to head back to the garage, not waiting for a reply.
At sunset, Fun Ghoul collected the keys for the Trans Am, woke Jet up from their nap, and kicked open the door to the diner, flipping off Poison as they scowled at his back. The Kobra Kid was leaning on the hood of the Trans Am, soaking up the last rays of the sun as he watched Jet and Ghoul approach.
“Remember my zine.” Kobra said as Ghoul unlocked the driver’s side door.
Jet nodded.
“No, yeah, of course, Kid,” they shot Ghoul a quick glance. “Do you want me to drive first, Ghoulie?”
“You d’know where we’re going.”
“Just to Docs first, right?”
“You just don’t like th’ way I drive,” Ghoul teased.
“I just think-” Jet began.
“‘S my run. I’m driving.”
With that settled, Fun Ghoul sat down into the driver’s seat, barely waiting for Kobra to stand up off the hood before starting the engine. Jet did their seatbelt up hurriedly, Ghoul didn’t, reversing away from the diner so fast he sent up a cloud of dust in his wake.
Dr. Death-Defying sat outside of his station, slowly sipping a can of Jump Juice as he watched the lights of the Trans Am grow closer. The car skidded to a stop a few feet away from Dr. D’s chair and the doors opened.
“I was gonna ask if you had Drac’s on your tail, to be drivin’ that fast, but I see someone made the mistake of letting Fun Ghoul drive. Draw the short straw there, Jet?”
Ghoul snickered a bit as he ran towards Dr. D, ruffling his hair and pulling the DJ into a hug. “Told ‘em it was my run so I got t’ drive and someone’s just too polite t’ argue.”
“We’ll be back at the diner that much faster.” Jet smiled, giving Dr. D a handshake.
“You’re right about one thing there. Come on in, I’ll show you what needs taking.”
Dr. D wheeled himself through the door of the station, Jet and Ghoul following closely. Several crates were on the floor near his broadcasting equipment, only one of them didn’t contain piles of records and cassette tapes.
“Just this, and there’s some water out back too,” Dr. D indicated the crate which, upon closer inspection held dried cactus pads, aloe plants, and batteries.
Jet nodded, “I’ll get the water loaded up if you get this, okay Ghoulie?”
Fun Ghoul grunted an affirmative.
“‘Ghoulie’?” Dr D laughed as soon as Jet had left the station. “That’s a new one.”
“They think that th’ nickname’ll make it harder for me t’ leave. Some kind of attachment theory they read up on.”
“Is it working?”
Ghoul was silent for a minute, “Haven’t ran yet, have I?”
“No,” Dr. D paused. “I suppose not. They’re a good fit then? The crew? I know it’s a big change. You seemed-”
Ghoul thought back to how he’d been before meeting the rest of the Fab Four. “I was fine , I’ve always been fine. ”
“Runnin’ alone’s no way to run. I was gonna say you seemed like there was some tension when I called today.”
“Oh,” Ghoul took a breath, “That’s no big deal. Sorry. They help, it’s just different.”
Dr. D nodded.
“Anyway, how’s Cherri? He out on a run, too?”
“Oh, kid...” Dr. D hesitated, “He ran off a few weeks back.”
“But ‘is truck’s out front-?”
“Pony found it, he was nowhere to be seen.”
“What the fuck! How did you not tell me?”
Dr. D raised his hands, “I didn’t want to stress you out while you were still getting used to the crew!”
“‘A few weeks’? ‘WEEKS’? He could be dusted, dried out on th’ side of Route G somewhere! Did you even send anyone t’ look for him? Or did ya just find th’ truck and think at least it wasn’t a total loss?”
“What’s...?” Jet trailed off, taking in the scene in the station. “I heard yelling,” They added sheepishly.
Ghoul and Dr. D stared at him, Ghoul’s chest rising and falling unsteadily.
“I’ll just wait outside,” Jet turned, smacking into the doorframe in their haste to leave.
Ghoul turned back to the DJ.
“This’s th’ last ‘favour’ you get, D. Lose my frequency,” he picked up the crate of supplies and stepped out towards the parked Trans Am.
“Everything okay?” Jet asked quietly once Ghoul had gotten settled back in the driver’s seat.
Ghoul didn’t answer, his knuckles white where they were clenched around the cracked steering wheel. He started to drive.
After a few minutes, Jet tried again, “Did Doc tell you where we’re going? I can look it up on the map if you want.”
“I know th’ place.”
Jet nodded, ignoring the tears in Ghoul’s eyes, they reached over to grip Ghoul’s shoulder quickly before settling in for the drive in silence.
The shack was surrounded by bodies when Jet and Ghoul pulled up in the Trans Am. A few of them stirred at the lights and noise from the Trans Am, but went still again once Ghoul cut off the engine.
Jet got out first, popping open the trunk to retrieve the cases of water they had stashed there earlier. With a case under each arm, Jet had to wait for Ghoul to catch up so he could open the door to the shack.
“Y’can put those on th’ floor. Grab th’ empties on your way back?” Ghoul turned and left without waiting for an answer. He walked back to the Am, carefully stepping around dead-to-the-world waveheads as they lay in the sand between the shack and the car. Suddenly, Ghoul stopped in his tracks, eyes fixed on a body near the outskirts of the arranged waveheads.
“Jet?” Ghoul raised his voice, just enough so it would carry to Jet where they stood at the Trans Am.
“Yeah?”
“Toss me a bottle o’ water.”
Jet did so, and Ghoul gripped the bottle nearly tight enough to crack the plastic as he made his way toward the body.
When he got close, Ghoul opened the bottle and upended it over the wavehead. Cherri Cola snapped awake, clawing at Ghoul’s ankle and pulling with enough force to bring the ‘joy down.
“Get. Up. You. Fucker,” Ghoul grunted, kicking himself free of Cherri’s grasp.
“Ghoul?” Cherri blinked, eyes staring, unfocused, at the dark sky.
“Yes you fuckin’ idiot. What th’ hell is your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem,” Cherri laughed to himself. “I have solutions. Salutations. Slapstick sunshine bright enough to make the darkest night blinding. Spirals. Do you see them?” He raised his hand weakly. “Golden orange and blue and symphony startling. A cacophony of-”
Ghoul upturned the bottle once more, cutting off Cherri’s ramblings.
“We get it. D said you vanished weeks ago, he didn’t say you came here.”
By now, Jet had noticed the commotion and come over to get a closer look, “Ghoulie?”
Ghoul turned. At his feet, Cherri made a move to sit up, but didn’t get far off the ground before collapsing.
“I finished unloading the supplies and I left a note, I wasn’t sure if any of them can read but I thought it would be nice... Anyway, we should probably go soon, before it gets too cold...”
“Yeah,” Ghoul spared another glance for Cherri, lying at his feet. “Okay.”
Ghoul opened the driver’s door of the Trans Am again, but crawled all the way through to the passenger’s seat. Jet followed him in, concern written across their features.
“Hope you know th’ way home,” Ghoul’s voice shook.
“Hey,” Jet said softly. “I don’t- I don’t know what that was about but if you want to talk, I’m here. That’s what a crew’s for.”
Ghoul huffed out a laugh, “’m pretty tired. Migh’ just sleep on th’ way back.”
With that, Ghoul turned his back to Jet and curled up in the passenger seat.
As Jet drove, Ghoul pretended not to see them glance over at him every now and then, resolutely staring out the dark window.