Chapter Text
The smog that billowed from the chimneys of the factories clouded the view of the sky. The sun would break through momentarily and shine an extra light on the people on Earth before it disappeared again, engulfing us in the foggy grayness that was our existence.
I had lived in Dallas, Texas, my entire life, along with my brother and his friends. David was a year older than me and had short brown hair that spiked up in the front and gauges that stretched out his ears. He was the leader of our group along with his friend Andrew.
Andrew was a second brother to me and Dave. His parents took us in after the night our parents died, and we'd lived with them ever since. Andrew's dad was actually the one that pierced David's ears for him, which Mrs. Velasquez didn't appreciate all that much. That disappointed me; I wanted to get my ears pierced like Dave.
The other guys in our group: Benn Suede, Brandon Hoover, Brent Taddie, and Hayden Tree were the newer additions to our group of friends. We had met them months ago after getting chased by the Ravens. Brandon showed us a shortcut to their base while Benn and Hayden caused a diversion. A few weeks later, when Benn, Hayden, and Brandon had become honorary members of our squad, we ran into Brett and the rest is history.
The final member of our squad was a girl named Lina Slivka, who in my eyes was the most beautiful girl this side of Dallas. She was Andrew's adopted sister, yet she never took their last name. She was the shortest out of all of us, including Andrew who was the honorary midget. Her platinum blonde hair was always pulled into a ponytail that scrunched up the hair on top of her head. She had a certain grunge look to her, which only made me love her more; flannel was definitely her thing.
"How much farther until we get there?" Lina complained, her quiet voice breaking the silence between us.
"Only a couple more miles, Lina-bear," Andrew replied, using the name he gave her when she was five years old. I watched as Lina lightly glared at him before fixing her gaze at her feet again. I turned my gaze to the back of my brother's head; Lina hated it when you stared at her for too long.
"Why didn't you bring the Jeep, Andy?" I asked him.
"It wasn't working this morning. Besides, it would be too risky to bring it out here. The engine is on its last leg, Johnny-boy," he replied. Andrew had weird nicknames for most of us. He called Brent Tadpole and Hayden Tree Trunks. The only person he didn't have a nickname for was Benn. He'd been trying for months to come up with a name for him, but to no avail.
We walked for what felt like a millennia when Andrew stopped abruptly and crouched down next to a chain-link fence. The rest of us crouched down next to him and I looked up. The fence was ten feet tall with barbed wire at the top. I didn't know what seemed so special about this place; we were in the industrial district, where a lot of factories had barbed wire fences surrounding the perimeter.
"What are we doing here, Andy?" Benn asked. I heard a hint of nervousness in his voice, and I couldn't really blame him. Something about this place didn't feel right.
"Peer over this wall and tell me what you see," Andrew instructed. Ever so carefully, the group of us peered over the side of this wall and looked for whatever Andrew was dragged us here for. I could feel Lina's breath in my ear and tried to breath normally.
"Is that what I think it is?" David asked, awe in his voice. I glanced over his shoulder and squinted my eyes at where he was looking. I stared in shock as I saw a faded and worn sign hanging above the doors. On the sign was a three-headed bird painted in black with the words: "Be intelligent like the crow, vicious like the raven, and loud like the grackle".
"Oh my God," I exclaimed. Andy turned and grinned at us.
"You just found the headquarters to the Blackbird Society, Andy!" Brent exclaimed. Excitement ensued until I turned to look at Lina, whose face was pale with fear and shook as if the earth beneath her was quaking.
"Lina? Are you okay?" I asked her. She shook her head and I saw tears pricking at her eyes. Lina's family was brutally murdered in front of her by the Blackbird Society, more specifically the Ravens, which specified in being the police and military force. She was a little girl then; barely old enough to talk. She told us that she didn't remember everything from that night, but what she did remember had definitely left its mark on her.
"We can talk about this later, guys," Andrew told us. He stood up and walked over to Lina, who was still crouching on the ground, paralyzed in fear. Andrew picked her up and started walking away with her. The rest of us followed.
~~~~
"I still can't believe Andy actually found the headquarters to the Blackbird Society," Brandon marveled. The five of us were sitting in Andrew's parents' kitchen and waited patiently for him to come back out and explain his plan to us.
"How do you think he found it?" I asked. "I mean, no one's been able to find their headquarters." Brandon shrugged.
"You know Andrew likes to explore places he shouldn't explore," Dave replied. "But still, you would think someone would see that sign sooner or later."
"Not really," Hayden denied. "You saw how faded those letters were. Who's to say nobody figured it was just another factory in the industrial district? It's practically identical to the rest of the buildings in that area."
"Even though the words were faded, that bird looked like it had a fresh coat of paint," Brandon inquired. "Someone would have noticed that bird sooner or later." I was about to explain to him that no one goes that deep into the industrial district when Andy and his parents walked into the room. Andy looked so much like his dad it was no wonder people confused them with each other. He had his mom's brown eyes though, and I noticed that Andy had a defeated look in them. I wondered what his parents told him; Mr. and Mrs. Velasquez didn't yell at us all that often, so when they did it hit us hard.
"How's Lina?" Brent asked.
"She'll be fine," Mrs. Velasquez answered, her voice soft but stern.
"What were you kids doing in the industrial district?" Mr. Velasquez questioned. "Especially that far in; that's a dangerous place for a group of kids." Dave and I looked at each other; he was almost twenty years old, the age that most guys his age start getting jobs in the district. David, on the other hand, had other things in mind.
"Dad, I told you we were looking for Hayden's Frisbee," Andy lied. I'd never lied to his parents, but he had no problem doing just that.
"Why would Hayden's Frisbee be that far into the industrial district?" His mom questioned. Andy gave Hayden a look, pleading for him to help him out.
"Well, you see, Mrs. Velasquez," Hayden told her. "I had lost it a couple weeks ago when I was getting chased by the Ravens. I'd been bugging Andy about it for awhile, and he reluctantly agreed to help me find it. It's pretty special to me; my grandpa gave it to me when I was a little kid." I silently groaned at his lie; he put way too many details into that story. There was no way they wouldn't see through it.
"And where is your Frisbee, Hayden?" Mrs. Velasquez asked him.
"We couldn't find it. I guess they trashed it when they got back from chasing me away," Hayden answered. I could see that his eyes were dilated and he was clearly wringing his hands. We were so busted.
"Well, since you're so clearly lying, and since I assume Andrew told all of you to tell us that lie about the Frisbee, you're all grounded tonight. That means no books, no t.v., and absolutely no going out tonight. Am I absolutely clear?" Mr. Velasquez asked sternly. The six of us groaned in unison and they left us to ourselves.
"Way to go, Hayden," Andrew blamed him. "That story about the Frisbee was fantastic. Ten out of ten." Hayden's face grew red and his eyes narrowed.
"Well it's not like you gave me much to work with, Andrew," Hayden shot back. "Looking for a Frisbee? Who even plays Frisbee anymore?"
"Guys, let it go," Benn intervened. Andy and Hayden glared at each other once more and turned their attention to him.
"So now what do we do?" Dave asked, breaking the silence. We glanced at each other from around the table, clueless.
"I think we should go back to the headquarters and ambush the Blackbird Society," Andy quietly confessed. We stared at him in shock. "Ambush the Blackbird Society? The biggest military force in the state of Texas?" I thought.
"Andy, there's no way the six of us would be able to successfully invade that place," Dave reasoned. "They'd destroy us in less than ten minutes if we're lucky enough to last that long."
"It's worked so far for the Killjoys, why not us?" Brent argued. The Killjoys were a group of rebels like us. They lived on the outskirts of Battery City in Nevada, and worked to take down Better Living Industries.
"Gerard got lucky," Dave replied. "Keep in mind he had help from a couple of his friends and we don't have time for that luxury." That was true, too. The three groups: us, a group called the Wild Ones, and the Killjoys all kept in contact with each other in case of an emergency or one of us needed backup. The thing was, though, you had to alert one of the other groups at least a month in advance in order for the appropriate team to come in and learn the plan.
"And why does it have to be tonight anyway?" Benn questioned. I wondered that too. It wasn't like the Blackbird Society was going away anytime soon; at least it didn't feel like it.
"I've heard stories from people downtown," Andy answered. "This guy told me that there was this group of adults that claimed to have found the headquarters. Once word got around, the group and a few townsfolk followed them to where they supposedly found it. But once they got there and they broke in, there was nothing there. Not even the sign that was hung above the doors was there. That's why we have to go tonight; so we can catch them off guard and have a fighting chance."
"I've heard those stories before," Hayden added. "My uncle's best friend was one of those people. He told me about it whenever I asked him about where the Blackbird Society was, so maybe we should go tonight." There was a silence as we sat and stared at each other; pondering our options. I personally didn't know what to think. I wanted the Blackbird Society gone just as much as the next person, but I didn't want to potentially lose my life or the lives of my friends and family.
"We're not going," Dave rebelled. "No one is going to risk their lives tonight or ever." He was scared; I could hear it in his voice. But I knew my brother, and I knew that if it came down to it, he would follow Andrew to the ends of the earth.
"Let Johnny and Brandon decide what we do," Benn intervened. I stared at him helplessly as Brandon took a deep breath and made his decision.
"I say we go for it," he answered. I watched as Andrew and Hayden high-fived each other and Brandon. When they were done celebrating, all eyes were on me. My mind buzzed with excitement and fear as I thought of everything that could go wrong and everything that could go right.
"Johnny?"
I looked over at David; his brown eyes reflected my face and I knew that I had made my decision.
"Let's do it." I told them. Andrew smiled and Hayden clapped his hand on my back while David and Benn stared at each other, defeated looks on their faces.