Frank was waiting outside, just like he said he would be. Mikey and Ray followed shortly until the whole group stood outside.
"Alright, so let's go through the facts," Mikey said as the four men began to walk down the empty, immaculate street, "First off, what the hell was the 'Inferno' anyway?"
"My guess is," Ray cut in, "It was probably some sort of bomb or something, maybe sun rays? Like, the ozone just…disappeared, and we were all wiped out?"
"But then why would there be so many people dead?" Frank questioned, "I mean, I could understand if we all slowly dwindled away, but for some reason, I think that this thing was pretty quick, which makes me think it probably wasn't anything to do with the sun,"
"Alright, we'll come back to that," Gerard said, thinking, "What about the whole memory wipe?"
"It does seem awfully convenient…" Ray interjected, "Like, what is the likelihood of that serum wiping out memories? And how did Better Living Industries make it? Why wasn't this kind of technology produced to the world before?"
"I agree with Ray," Mikey said, "It almost sounds as though," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "It almost sounds like Better Living was expecting the Inferno…"
"Guys, shut up!" Gerard said suddenly, listening intently. He could hear a low rumbling sound, and then, as though out of nowhere, a large tank-like vehicle rounded the corner onto the street. On top of its flat surface stood two masked men. One of them wore the BL/ind smiling-face mask, but the other wore what looked like an opened mouthed vampire mask with black hair on top. It was then that Gerard noticed that the vampire masked man held a black gun.
Quickly, Gerard nudged Mikey, nodding towards the tank. Mikey nodded once, his mouth set in a firm, straight line.
As it rolled closer, the noise emitting from the tank became so loud, Gerard almost had to bring his hands up to his ears to shield them.
As he looked around, Gerard noticed that other people were coming out of their homesteads, probably to see what the noise was about. Gerard could see people of all shapes and sizes, with oddly coloured hair and tattoos all over faces. Whatever the radiation was from, it changed people a lot.
Finally, the tank rolled to a stop in the middle of the road, just a few feet away from Gerard, Mikey, Frank and Ray. No one made a sound as everyone was waiting with bated breath to see what all the commotion was about.
Slowly, the BL/ind smiling-face masked man brought a megaphone up to where his lips would have been under the mask.
"There is no need to be alarmed," he said, as though he was reading everyone's minds, "We are just here to make sure you have taken your daily dose of the Pill,"
Gerard quickly turned to Frank, who was staring at him, a slightly afraid look on his face. Suddenly, the little bottle that was in his pocket seemed very, very heavy due to the fact that it had never been opened.
The masked man began to call names out in alphabetical order, ushering them forward, asking them to present their bottle of Pills.
Slowly, Gerard reached into his pocket and, feeling his hand grasp around the bottle, took it out, holding it in his palm. He uncapped the bottle and took one orange capsule between his fingers. He brought it to his lips, but didn't put it in his mouth. Instead, he feigned swallowing, and quickly dropped the Pill to the ground, shuffling it over so it lay in the artificial grass, out of sight.
His friends followed suit, until there were four Pills sitting unnoticed in the grass.
"Iero?" Frank stepped forward nervously, walking towards the masked men. He couldn't help bet glance at the large black gun and gulp.
He handed the masked man his bottle. The masked man placed it in some sort of scanner, which gleamed white as soon as the bottle touched its surface. After a moment, it gave a small beep, and the masked man took the bottle from the scanner and gave it back to Frank, who couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief as he walked back to join his friends.
One by one, they all walked up to the masked man, and one by one they were given back their bottle of Pills. That was, until, the masked man called up someone by the name of 'Zabroski'.
"Zabroski?" the masked man called, and a man of about twenty with a tattoo of a lightning bolt on his neck walked up to the tank and gave the man his bottle of Pills. The masked man put the bottle on the scanner, but instead of the usual low, short beep, a high, shrill drilling noise exited the scanner. The masked man turned to Zabroski.
"It seems you have not taken your dose of the Pill," the masked man said in his robotic voice. Zabroski nodded.
"I know that," he said, his voice not showing any emotion, "Something's up with Better Living Industries, and I'm not taking those Pills until you explain what it is,"
Gerard turned to Mikey, Frank and Ray to see they had the same looks on their faces as he did. Utter shock. This kid had some guts.
"That information is classified," the masked man said, "If you continue to refuse the Pill, you will have to be chastised. Draculoid #236?"
The man wearing the vampire mask, who Gerard presumed was the 'Draculoid' stepped forward, gun in hand, and pointed it at Zabroski.
"I refuse the Pill," Zabroski said firmly, showing no fear.
"Then we have no choice," the Draculoid stepped forward and positioned the gun so that it pointed straight towards Zabroski's heart. Still, he didn't show any emotion. The Draculoid poked and prodded him until he walked forward, towards the tank, headed for a door on the side that Gerard had not noticed before. Just before he entered the tank, Zabroski turned around to look at the crowd.
"Something's not right here," he said loudly, "And if I were you, I'd be afraid. I don't think Better Living is what you all think it is,"
Then the Draculoid thwacked him with the butt of his gun, and he fell, unconscious, to the ground before being dragged into the darkness of the tank.
Instantly, the crowd erupted into nervous whispering. Gerard just stared at the spot where Zabroski had disappeared, although he could hear his friends talking beside him.
"The kid had guts-"
"Or he's stupid…"
"-not right…"
Gerard couldn't focus on any particular word. His mind seemed to be slightly clogged, as though someone had put a stopper into it, stopping anything from registering.
"Gee?" Gerard whipped his head round to see his friends staring at him worriedly. He guessed that that wasn't the first time they'd called his name. Frank nodded up towards the tank where the masked man was speaking again.
"-what happens when you are disobedient," he was saying, "Consequences will occur. Better Living Industries is here to help you, not hurt you. We only want what will make you better,"
With that, he lowered the megaphone, and the slow rumbling began again as the tanks slowly rolled away around the corner and out of sight.
The crowd didn't feel the need to hide their whispers anymore. They all exploded in loud worried voices, the ones that could remember their friends talking frantically, and the ones who couldn't looked around, afraid.
Gerard turned to his friends and knew that they were all thinking the same thing. Better Living was not really better at all.