Broken Records

by Smashed Tapes

Chapter 1: Run Boy Run

The sounds of the train tracks, that's all Vinyl could focus on as it powered on through the night. Everyone else there had something else, Bon had Lyra to cling to, as if she was the only steady perch in a storm. Dixie had Haven to help calm her down, and Octavia, well, she clung onto her cello case for dear life, but all Vinyl had to distract her was the sounds of the train.

Haven looked up, finally able to stop Dixie’s crying, he looked around at the group in their lonely train car.

“Does everybody remember the plan?”

Lyra looked up from her clinging girlfriend.

“You...did kinda just shout it out as we were running.”

“Ah, very fair Lyra! Very well, I shall repeat!”

Vinyl couldn’t help raise an eyebrow, Haven was known for how calm he could be under pressure. The world itself could be about to explode and he would not only stay calm throughout the whole thing, he could probably even figure out how to solve it, Vinyl thought to herself.

“We need to get out of this town before news starts spreading, now, Lyra! I believe you have a truck at your place of living?”

Lyra nodded, still holding her girlfriend close.

“Yeah, just finished paying it off too, so hey, we can take angry truck salesmen off the list of things we’re running from!”

The joke wasn’t received well, Dixie going to sit right up to Haven in fear. Octavia coughed into her fist and shot a glare at the green haired girl, who could only look at the floor.

“Sorry…”

Bon glanced up from over her love’s shoulder, looking to move the conversation away from Lyra.

“What next?”

Haven, happy to take the reins again, replied.

“Well! As I tried to explain in our rush, we should split up into pairs, and grab what’s needed from our homes; clothes, devices. If you have a piggy bank, smash it, we’re going to need it. Bon, Octavia, you two help each other grab what you need, since you live on the same street. Dixie and myself live next door, so I’ll be going with her. Vinyl will be going with Lyra to help her and get the truck ready. Once you have grabbed what you need, we meet at Lyra’s and drive out of this town as fast as we can.”

Dixie wiped a tear from her eye and spoke up.

“W-What about Vinyl? Shouldn’t we also get her stuff-”

Vinyl cut in with a strong tone, not letting Dixie finish,

“I’ll be fine, I don’t got anything I would need to take with me, so I’ll just help Lyra.”

Dixie wanted to speak up again, but after looking at Vinyl’s stern face, she decided against it. Haven looked at the map printed above the train windows and squinted.

“Next stop will be ours, we all know what to do.”

Everyone eventually nodded, exchanging worried looks as the train started to slow down and pull into the station. Octavia spoke up.

“What do we do if we can’t make it?”

Lyra, standing up as the train halted, spoke.

“Text me, we’re not leaving anyone behind for the cops to scoop up.”

Everyone else began to stand. Lyra kissed Bon on the cheek, telling her that she won’t be long, Dixie stood close to Haven as she tried to control herself, Octavia placed her cello case on her back, and Vinyl, once again, only had the sound of train tracks to focus on as she stood from her seat. The door slid open, everyone exchanging one last look at each other, before running.

-----

Running all the way to Lyra’s proved to be a challenge for both women as they stopped at the property's gate to catch their breath.

“Lyra if you wheeze…. ever make me huff…. run that kind of distance again, I’m going to break a fucking window.”

Lyra just sighed as she unlocked and swung open the gate.

“Yeah, like the barn window?”

“H-Hey we both know I didn’t mean to do that!”

Lyra just rolled her eyes and motioned for Vinyl to follow her. Lyra’s house was on top of a small hill surrounded by farmland, and parked just in front of the shed was Lyra’s truck. Vinyl remembered when Lyra first got the deal for it, she was on cloud 9, it was big, had plenty of seats and could hold a lot of weight. Vinyl and Lyra had even given it their own special touches, which mostly meant defacing it and drawing all over it. The two women ran into the house, slamming the door behind them with Vinyl running to the kitchen as Lyra ran to grab her stuff.

“Damn it, Mama and Mum aren’t even meant to come back for a week….I’m sorry mums”

Lyra said to herself as she grabbed her bag and started filling it with clothes, each outfit should last a few days each it re-used. Then she had to get her phone charger and camera, after that was-

“Lyra!”

Vinyl shouted from across the house.

“Don’t forget to get that money out of your stash! We’ll need all the fucking cash we can get!”

Lyra sighed deeply and removed a band poster from her closet, revealing a small hole in the wall which stored a wad of cash.

“Awwww, but this is meant to be our weed money!”

“We got more important things than that to worry about!”

“Fuuuuuuuuck.”

Lyra groaned loudly before grabbing the cash and stuffing it into her pocket. She zipped her bag up and was ready to help Vinyl in the kitchen when she stopped. On her wall, the picture Lyra and Bon took on their first date, both of them smiling as Bon tried to wipe the spilt ice cream from her mouth as Lyra tried to not burst out laughing. She grabbed it off the wall and folded it into her pocket, there was no way she was leaving without that.
Lyra ran to the kitchen, only to see Vinyl trying to pack away a large carton of...

“Fucking Cola!? Really, Vinyl!?”

Vinyl, looking up from her struggling attempt at shoving the whole box into a shopping bag, threw her hands up.

“What? It’s not like we’ll be shopping on the road! Now hurry up and help me.”

“I swear you’re fucking addicted to that shit.”

“Maybe so, but at least it’s not beer.”

“That’s not a high bar to pass.”

Vinyl sighed and made one last push into the bag, the side now had a tear thanks to the carton, but hey, it was in at least. Lyra just rolled her eyes and started placing food into the bag, whatever they could eat on the road, which meant mostly canned food…..and a lot of junk food.

“It’s not like we’ll need these for our sesh.”

Lyra commented as she placed yet another bag of chips into her bag.

“Hey Lyra… do... do you have salsa?”

Lyra stopped what she was doing and just stared at Vinyl with annoyance, Vinyl returning the glance by giving the biggest puppy dog eyes she could. Lyra sighed and motioned to behind her.

“Top shelf in the fridge.”

“Fuck yeah!”

After they were done, the two women threw their stuff into the truck, mostly in the back, Lyra fished into her jacket for her keys as Vinyl stood aside the vehicle.

“Where the fuck is everyone?”

Lyra grabbed her keys and placed them into the ignition, turning them and causing the truck to hum and purr as it came to life.

“Relax, we had to run for a fair bit to even get here, we just need to give them a bit more time.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes and took her seat in the front seat of the truck. Lyra sat there at the wheel, ready to go at a moment’s notice. She smirked at Vinyl, which confused the blue haired girl.

“..What?”

“You know, we might be like, on the run, but there’s some positives to it.”

“Oh really? Like what exactly?”

“No school, for starters”

“I guess that’s fair, we had a science test on friday didn’t we?”

“Yeeeeep.”

“Nevermind, we should have committed crimes years ago! Think of all the tests we could have gotten out of.”

“Well there’s that, but we also get to spend time together. Me and Bon Bon-”

“I still can’t believe you call that a pet name.”

“Dixie and Haven…”

Lyra turned to look at Vinyl, a huge grin across her face with her eyebrows raised.

“You and Octavia~”

A small blush covered Vinyl’s cheeks as she stumbled over her words.

“T-The fuck is that supposed to mean!?”

“Oh come on Vinyl, you can’t tell me that you don’t like the thought of spending a lot of time with Octavia.”

“I-I mean yeah, she’s a friend!”

“Oh really? Just a friend? That’s not what drunk Vinyl told me, as she laid across my floor constantly going on about how much she just wanted to grab Octavia’s face and kiss her.”

Vinyl punched Lyra in the arm as her cheeks grew to a deep red.

“I-I don’t speak for drunk Vinyl! No one does, she lies about shit all the time.”

Lyra laughed off the punch and smiled.

“Yeah, suuuuure. Should I bring up the time when you saw her at our beach meet up and you fell off the diving board cause you were eyeing her up something fierce?”

“I-I was not.”

“Or the other time where you tried to write a classical piece for her and it sounded fuckin’ awful?”

“IN MY DEFENSE! thaT WAS FOR A SCHOOL PROJECT!”

“Yeah Vinyl, it was, to write a piece of any kind of music, and you chose-”

Vinyl started repeatedly punching Lyra in the arm as Lyra couldn’t contain her laughter. The gate was heard swinging open as Lyra looked up at her windshield, seeing Bon and Octavia with their bags running to the truck. Vinyl just glared at Lyra.

“Yeah yeah V, not a word from me.”

The two other women ran up and dumped their bags into the back of the truck, then taking a moment to breathe, Octavia looking like she was about to pass out from lack of oxygen.

“My goodness…..I knew I wasn’t a runner but that was certainly a big reminder.”

She remarked as she adjusted her cello. Vinyl looked out of the window in disbelief.

“You’re taking your cello with us?”

“Why of course I am, I’d rather hand myself over to the police than leave this behind.”

Vinyl just had to shrug, she should have expected that kind of reaction from her.

“That’s fair.”

Bon walked up to Lyra and gave her a peck on the cheek.

“You got everything you needed, sweety?”

“Of course Bon Bon, you?”

“We’re actually pretty quick to do so, we actually spent more time running here.”

“Yeah…..maybe having everyone meet up here wasn’t the greatest plan, but it's the only one we got. Now we’re just missing-”

Lyra’s phone buzzed in her pocket, fishing it out, she saw the picture of the caller in question. Haven in a one piece black and white striped swimsuit, floaties, some goggles and a swim cap, confidently walking towards the shore. She swiped the phone and answered, putting it on the loudspeaker.

“Haven? Where are you?”

“Oh thank goodness you picked up! Look we got mine’s and Dixie’s things together, it's just-”

“Just what?”

“We’re…hearing sirens, and they’re getting closer.”

“...Fuck.”

Lyra looked to the others, each sharing the same look of worry.

“Okay…think Lyra…fuck, what do we do?”

“Hang on a moment… myself and Dixie’s whereabouts are near the highway…. Lyra! Start driving there! Me and Dixie will have to jump in on the side as it’s driving.”

Vinyl leaned in closer to the phone.

“So you want us to drive closer to where all the police are?”

Haven sighed, before the sounds of shuffling can be heard.

“It’s not the best idea I’ve had, I’ll admit, but right now it's the only one we got.”

The sound of Dixie’s voice soon shot up from the phone.

“Please hurry! Me and Haven will start making our way there now!”
“Lyra, start driving, now!”

The call ended there, leaving everyone speechless, except for a certain loudmouthed, blue haired girl.

“YOU HEARD THE MAN, GET IN THE FUCKING TRUCK AND LETS GO!”

-----

The rubber of the tires burned against the road as Lyra swerved onto the next lane. Everyone grabbing onto their seats as tight as they could as the truck bounced and swung its passengers around.

“Lyra, hun! Think you could not drive like a madwoman?!”

Lyra slammed the brakes and turned onto the highway.

“Sorry babe! But we’re kind of in a hurry!”

Vinyl stuck her head out of the window and squinted.

“Where the fuck are they!? We’re coming up to the backs of their houses soon!”

Her question was soon answered as they spotted two figures with large bags running across the raised hillside next to the highway, blue and red lights flashing close to them.

“Holy shit! You guys have to get down here! Should we stop!?”

Haven just frantically waved to the flashing lights near him, panicked.

“I DON’T THINK THAT WOULD BE THE BEST IDEA!”

Bon leaned out of the window and looked to Dixie and Haven, as the sirens and lights got closer.

“THEN YOU TWO WILL HAVE TO JUMP DOWN TO US!”

“ARE YOU INSANE!?”

“JUST DO IT!”

Haven looked back at Dixie, even with her blonde hair flailing about, he could still see that she was scared too.

“I’ll jump first! Then I’ll catch you!”

“You don’t even know if you can do that!”

“Correct! But it’s that or nothing!”

Haven looked down at the truck as it slowed to match their running speed. He gulped, and turned back again to Dixie.

“I will catch you! Just believe in me!”

Haven stepped to the side and leaped down off the hill, Lyra driving the truck as close to the edge of the road as possible. Haven yelled out as he fell down towards, and eventually into the back of, the truck, landing with a loud thud which was followed by several pained groans. Bon gasped in shock as Vinyl couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Holy FUCK dude! That sounded painful as shit, you okay?”

Haven slowly got up, placing his bags to the side.

“I’m fine! I’ll just count the bruises later”

He balanced himself against the truck’s motion as he stood up, holding his arms up to Dixie.

“Dixie! You have to jump!”

Dixie looked down in panic, the siren and speaker now audible.

“Stop running and place your hands in the air! If you do not stop we may need to use force to arrest you.”

Everyone exchanged a look, before Vinyl motioned for Dixie to jump.

“We don’t have time for this! The fucking cops are getting close to you!”

“Dixie! You’ll be okay! I’ll catch you!”

Dixie looked down, it was either jump down off a large hill and onto a speeding truck, or be caught by the police, neither sounded good, but only one of those options allowed her to stay with her friends. She gulped, focused on the truck, and leaped for her life. The wind whipped against her clothes and hair as she reached out for her friend, whom she promptly crash landed into, more than caught.

“...Owie..”

She remarked, rubbing her head as she got up to her knees.

“Yep, definitely more bruises now.”

Haven winced in pain as he sat up.

“Who knows, maybe something broken too, if I’m lucky.”

Ocativa looked into the back before leaning into the front of the truck.

“They’re both in, we can go!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!”

Lyra slammed the gas, speeding along past several cars and up to the speed limit, everyone getting a chance to finally breathe. Vinyl sat back into her seat, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Ha! They’ll get around the corner and be like ‘Where did they go??’. Serves them fucking pigs right.”

Octavia looked up at everyone, with a worried look across her face.

“I hate to burst this good mood, but what exactly do we do now?”

Lyra just shrugged.

“Keep drivin’?”

“That’s not a plan.”

“We’ll think of a plan later, right now, focus on the fact that we just got out of that mess.”

Lyra just looked ahead and focused on the night covered road ahead of her. Haven suddenly sprang up, then after a string of pained sounds, knocked on the back window to get everyone’s attention.

“I was thinking about that while getting Dixie’s things! It just so happens that my uncle is a lawyer!”

“No fucking way.”

Vinyl remarked, looking back at him.

“Way! He lives up north!”

“How far up north?”

“He lives about…I’d say it’ll possibly take about a week to get there if we were on the road for most of it.”

“You fuckin’ serious?”

Bon looked back at Haven, having concerns as well.

“You sure he’ll be able to get us out of this?”

Haven scoffed and beamed with confidence

“Why of course! After all we’re on the right side, the… event being an accident and all. Trust me, once I’ve talked to him, he’ll gladly help us.”

Lyra shot a glance at everyone, raising an eyebrow.

“So, Haven’s uncle, but it's a week away if we drove the whole time. Anyone else with any other ideas?”

“What about Octavia’s parents? Don’t they live up north too?”

Dixie commented, having finally shrugged off the pain. Everyone looked at Octavia, who quickly had a rebuttal.

“NO! No no…my parents are…. away on holiday in Spain for the next month, so that would be a no go.”

“Haven’s uncle it is then, get comfortable everyone, this is going to be a long drive.”

Lyra added before going back to focusing on the road ahead, and everyone did just what she asked, trying to get comfortable under the circumstances they’re in. Vinyl just slumped down and sunk into her chair, all it took was one accident for everything to get as it was, she sighed. Everything. Her future plans, events she wanted to go to, tests she would skip, they’re all out of the window now because of just one mistake, one slip up, and the worst part was that it pulled all of her friends into it too.

“Fucking damn it.”

Author's Note:

Hello! Long time reader, first time writer! (on this site anyways lol), I hope y'all enjoy the start to this (looking to be long) story! Lemme know any and all feedback you guys have! <3

Comments

[Fable Caster]

I rather like the cast of characters you've chosen as the wayward protagonists. I might be biased on that, though, since the group contains four particular favorites of mine.

From a technical standpoint this was some pretty solid writing for the most part, with the repetition of certain words in a couple of spots being the worst "offenders."

Lyra kissed Bon the cheek

I think there's a word missing here.

Looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds!

[Smashed Tapes]

10518531
Thank you for the feedback! Hoping to improve myself as the chapters go on!

Lyra Kissed Bon the cheek

....
FU-
(jk thanks for pointing that out)