A strong gust of wind blows sand into his face. His hair, a tangled
mop of red which under normal circumstances covers the left half of
his face down to just below his eye, blows about in the wind. Fallen
to his knees he moves his hand beneath his large tattered brown cloak
to where the bullet went in. Warm blood runs between his fingers as he
tries to ascertain the amount of damage done to him, "Arrgh" couple
cracked ribs, maybe broken....bullet's still in there, he'd live. He
squints his eyes trying to keep the sand out but still watch the man
standing in front of him. The man, the one who shot him, stands over
him menacingly pointing the rifle at his head. Nothing remarkable
about him really, average height, looks like he works out alot he has
a nice build, wears a loose fitting black shirt & pants and a black
cowboy hat. Probably a rookie the man kneeling on the ground thinks,
no one with any experience would wear all black on a long trip into
the desert. If it weren't for the pain he would be tempted to laugh,
"Is it going to end this way? Taken down by one of the geese? And a
newbie at that." Geese is a nickname he gave to bounty hunters
although right now he can't remember why. As he looks into the barrel
of the gun resigning himself to accept his death the memories of his
past come flooding back to him despite his best attempts to keep them
buried.
The memories come back to him in an onslaught on his senses. He can
see the orphanage he grew up in as if he were looking right at it & he
can almost hear the sounds of the other children laughing and playing.
Those sounds he likes to remember, not the ones that would come later:
the screams of pain and death.... The orphanage itself, from a
distance looked as though it were a shack. Haphazardly put together
and made mostly of debris that was laying around, and there was plenty
of that, it looked as though a gust of wind would be all that was
required to send this building tumbling to the ground. In truth
however, the building was quite large, two stories high with well over
a dozen rooms. The orphanage stood on the outskirts of what was once
the city of July, that is to say it was the city of July until Vash
the Stampede turned it to ashes and earned for himself a sixty-billion
double dollar bounty. So you see, the orphange was built very quickly
to offer shelter to the children left alone as a result of July's
destruction.
A rescue party found him inside one of July's Plants in the inner most
chamber. He was only a small baby then appearing to be only a few
months old. Although there were no signs of the parents it was assumed
that they had been Plant engineers and brought the child there so he
would be safe from the destruction. Sadly, however he would find his
origins were alot less ordinary. The old woman that ran the orphanage,
whom he always called Reesie, named him Zion after the paradise she
read of in myths. Reesie was a short plump woman, probably no more
than four and half feet tall. She wore her hair, which was gray with
slight streaks of brown which had yet to give over to old age, in a
bun atop her head. She always wore a long flowered dress of one color
or another and an apron. Zion loved her very much, she was the closest
thing he had to a mother. Within a year Zion had grown to where he
appeared to be about ten years old, he had bright red hair with
streaks of orange,that would grow quite wildly if left alone, that
gave his hair the appearance of a flame, and he was smarter than most
adults. Zion devoured all Reesie's books as if he were possessed to
learn everything he could, and his instinctual knowledge of the lost
technology baffled Reesie.
Despite these strange things Reesie never once questioned him and
always acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. And the children
accepted him as only children could, with a sense of wonder that knew
no fear or hate. A truck carrying supplies would come every week, the
other adults had long since abandonned July leaving only the children
who utterly refused to leave the only home they ever knew and the only
connection to their parents they were likely to have. That was the
limit of their contact with the "outside world" so there was no one to
tell Zion he wasn't "normal". Over the following years Zion grew ever
more quickly to where he was a teenager when he was only three. Most
of the children, especially the older ones, regarded him as a guardian
angel since they knew he was different than they were, but they still
loved him unconditionally. So it was, he was the guardian angel with a
name that meant "heaven". Surely a poet or playwright couldn't have
planned it better.
By the time he was five he had truly come to the realization he was
very different from the other children at the orphanage. His aging had
apparently slowed greatly leaving him looking about seventeen or
eighteen. His reflexes were far above that of the other kids. In a
game of dodgeball he was a sight to behold, he could move incredibly
fast and the ball which the others could scarcely dodge at times to
him seemed as if it were moving through molasses. At times he could
even get feelings from the other children. When someone came to adopt
one of the younger children, Zion went to say good-bye to him and when
they hugged he could feel the child's sadness, fear, and hope as if
Zion were experiencing the emotions himself. The experience shocked
him so much it almost knocked him back off his feet. He went & asked
Reesie about these things, curious why he was different and what it
all meant. She looked out the window and up into the sky as if she
were searching for the strength to answer these question which she
always new would come and with a hint of sadness in her voice she
would take his hand and look into his eyes and say softly "It means
you are special.....you are an angel sent from the same place I named
you after."
Zion remembers how angry he had gotten when she said those things. It
was foolish, he knows that now, and he curses the fact that he could
have been angry with her for even a moment. He misses her so much
now.... "She doesn't know......she doesn't know why I'm this way," is
all he could think as he walked away from her looking down at the
ground. His feelings raged in his heart like a storm, feelings of
anger and sadness and of being totally alone. He stopped walking when
he came to the edge of what was once July. Reesie had always warned
them not to go in there, she said it was dangerous. No, he needed
answers some idea of where he came from, why he was different and he
knew this was the only place he might find them.
Zion stood there staring at the debris that was once one of the Seven
Cities. Most of the buildings had been turned to rubble in the
explosion that took place, only a few of the larger buildings remained
even partially intact. No one could really say with any certainty how
this was caused. Even those who studied the lost technology never
found anything that could come close to doing this level of
destruction. All that was known was that Vash the Stampede the one
they would call the Humanoid Typhoon came to this city and this was
all that was left as a result. After what seemed an eternity of
thinking about these things slowly he picked his foot up, it felt
heavier than normal as if would take all his strength to take another
step toward this place; this forbidden place which might hold the
answers he so needed. No he couldn't be scared now, "I have to do
this," he whispered to himself. With slow uneasy steps he made his way
over to the Plant where Reesie always told him he had been found. It
was as much a wreck as the rest of the city, most of the Plant had
caved in on itself.
Zion crawled through a large hole that led to interior. The air here
was stale and the only light came from the holes in the sides and on
the ceilings. Large spider webs covered everything, not that there was
really much to see. All of the machinery had been either crushed or
stripped of any useful components years ago. He could hear the wind
blowing outside throwing dirt against the walls. Soon he went so deep
into the Plant that he lost even that sound. The only thing he heard
now was his own breathes. The sweat poured down his face "Pretty damn
hot in here," he spoke to himself eager to fill silence with anything,
"and this place....feels like I'm walking around in a tomb."
He creeped on slowly making sure not to disturb anything so that he
didn't cause a cave in, the light had vanished sometime ago, but he
was amazed at how well he could see even in this low light. Finally he
reached a large openning, which he rightly guessed was the inner most
chamber where they had found him. He entered the room and stood up
straight wiping the sweat from his forhead with the back of his left
hand. He hadn't even realized he had been walking hunched over until
he stood and felt an ache in his lower back. He placed his free hand
on sore spot and arched his back trying to stretch and relieve some of
the discomfort. Zion moved slowly into the center of the room, looking
around in all directions. He couldn't see anything out of the
ordinary, it looked very much like the rest of the Plant only it was
in better shape. The force that destroyed the rest of the city
appeared to have skipped over this part of the Plant. Zion could see
where there had once been monitors mounted on the wall and a place for
some other devices which were gone now, but those were probably
removed by humans after the explosion. He walked around searching
everywhere for...for...well for what he wasn't sure.
After an hour of searching the room over and over again Zion had an
idea. He often got feelings from other people without really trying
although it confused him at first once he learned what was happenning
he got used to it and could block it out most of the time. "I wonder
if I could get a feeling off of a place, its possible right? Maybe I
could even feel my parents." he talked to himself excitedly. He closed
his eyes and concentrated, stretching out his 6th sense as far as he
could. He stood motionless for undetermined amount of time until he
finally openned his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Nothing....I didn't
feel anything." his voice echoed the sadness he felt in his heart.
"Ah, what did I think was going to happen? What did I think I was
going to find?" he scolded himself.
Zion looked around carefully trying to find a shorter path outside
than the one he used to get here. As he walked the perimeter of the
room again he heard the faint sound of the wind blowing. He followed
the sound until he came to a doorway opposite of where he entered.
"Hmmm.....looks safe enough and if I can hear the wind the exit can't
be that far off!" He barely took two steps into the hallway and ran
into a large spider's web. He screamed and jumped back frantically
pulling the spiderweb off of him. "I hate spiders!" no sooner had the
last word escaped his lips than he heard a voice. It sounded far away
yet it seemed to be whispering in his ear, "If you just keep saving
the butterflies the spiders will die...." The last word echoed and
slowly faded. Zion spun around in place, his heart about to beat
through his chest. He stood slightly hunched over, his arms tense at
his sides with his fists clenched, looking as if he were ready to
attack anything he might see. He squinted eyes trying to make out
anything in the darkness that could have made that noise. "Who's
there?" he shouted loudly, but only his echo answered him. After a few
minutes, he turned back toward the door "Great, now I'm hearing
voices." he joked trying to calm his nerves.
Zion crawled through the small crevice he used as an exit & fell onto
his back. He layed there staring up at the night sky panting trying
rest and fill his lungs with fresh air. "Its night already?" he said
resting the back of his hand on his forhead, "Man, I'm gonna get in so
much trouble. Reesie's probably worried sick...especially considering
the way I took off. I better hurry and get back." Taking in another
lungful air he lept to his feet & looked around trying to get his
bearings. As he slowly looked around he could make out the lights of
the orphange in the distance. "Well at least they left the lights on
for me." Zion had scarcely started walking when he heard a
noise...almost a whisper in his ear. He stopped dead in his tracks,
"The hell?!?!? Not that voice again!", he said attempting to mask his
fear. It came to him again, it was saying something....but he couldn't
quite make it out. "No," he whispered, "this isn't the same
voice.....its different." The voice, kind and soft.....yet so sad. "My
god, so sad!" he thought and could feel tears building up in his eyes.
"What is this? What happenned to this girl?" he whispered almost
choking on the words. Yes, it was girl's voice he could tell that now.
He followed the voice, trembling as he walked until he came to a large
crater. As he stared at the massive hole his body started shaking
more, he could no longer disguise his fear. "This.....this is where
the explosion occurred...." He wanted to hold back the sadness he
felt, keep it from invading his heart, but that voice, that girl's
voice.....a ghost from the past, a psychic echo, burnt into this place
by a horrible tragedy.
Zion uneasily moved into the center of the crater & fell to his knees.
"What happenned here?" Reaching out, he placed his hand on the ground
and the flood gates were openned. Thoughts....other people's thoughts
raced through his head. "Vash, take care of Knives. Good-bye Vash"
"Its the girl! But...these aren't her memories!", he thought as these
feelings rushed into his mind. "Yes, Rem. I will...take care of
him!".....hatred...."Now everything that brought you and Rem together
is dead"......sadness......."Its time to take this trash & get rid of
it FOREVER!!!".....fear.........
Zion jumped to his feet as tears streamed down his face. Unable to
form any words he started to back up while staring at the spot where
he had been kneeling. The tears poured from his eyes uncontrollably as
he shook all over. Finally he turned and ran toward the orphanage as
fast as he could. He had to get away from here, away from these
feelings.....away from this thing he could barely understand. Had he
stayed however he might have heard another voice, not a ghost from the
past like the girl's, but a voice from the present the voice of a
devil dressed as a man. The voice laughed to itself, "Hmmmm......maybe
its time for your lesson.....little brother."
Zion lay on his back hiding his face in his arms. His eyes half
closed, he could see the sunlight shining through the windows between
the gaps in his arms. He had locked himself inside his room as he had
gotten back to the orphanage two days and hadn't left since, not even
to get food, he never even changed his clothes which were torn and
stuck to his body from of all the dirt. "Who's memories were those?
Vash? Could it be Vash the Stampede? It has to be." Zion had never
thought about him much. Even though most of the children there hated
him for what he had done to their home, Zion found it impossible not
to feel sorry for this man who had apparently suffered every bit as
much as the city he destroyed. "And that girl....she must be 'Rem'.
Thats the name he said.....but who is Knives? What does he have to do
with what happenned in July? Why does this person, Vash or whoever it
might be, hate him so?......Who is Knives?"
"Zion, are you ok?" he heard Reesie ask from the other side of the
door. ..... No response. What could he say? How could she understand
what had happenned to him? "If you need anything, I'm here for you."
Tears formed in his eyes as he heard her walk away. He hated shutting
her out this way, but he needed to be alone and think. "Who in the
hell is Knives?"
"Best be careful, some questions might be best left unanswered." the
voice whispered to him softly. Zion sat up quickly in his bed eyes
wide open and froze. "Heh heh. Scared? Hmph.....this will be fun." the
voice said growing in its intensity yet still speaking calmly almost
soothingly. "I'm not scared." Zion hissed. "Oh really?" the voice
mocked him, "So you want answers? You want to learn? Alright then,
we'll see if you can learn the lesson he never could. Your classroom
is the large crater in July." Zion didn't answer, he just stared at
the ground as a scowl came over his face. He didn't want to go back
there, not there, not after what happenned. "What's wrong? I thought
you said you weren't scared. Heh guess you don't want to know
that...." "Shut up!" Zion shouted cutting him off, "I'll go there..."
"Alright then, class is in session." with that the voice faded away.
"Zion?" Ressie shouted from the other side of the door, "Zion are you
ok? Who are you yelling at? Zion!" "Its unlocked," he called back,
"you can come in." Ressie rushed into the room, "What going on? You've
been locked up in here for days. And who were you yelling at just now?
And...." she paused as she looked at Zion, "....where are you going?"
Zion sat on the bed pulling on his leather gloves which had holes cut
out for the fingers. "I'm just....going out for a little while. I
won't be long." He stood up and she was able to take in his
appearance. Leather hiking boots, blue jeans which were at least one
size to big for him, and a long sleeved light brown shirt. "Zion,
please stay. I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen,"
she pleaded with him. "Hey, don't worry. I'll be right back, I
promise," he smiled and kissed her gently on the forehead. As he
walked past her he pulled on a large brown cloak that hid most of his
body, totally covering his arms and his legs down to the knee.
Zion walked through July, his body tense & eyes darting around looking
for anything unusual. He didn't know what to expect and he didn't want
to be caught by surprise should anyone try to attack him. He stopped
at the edge of the crater and could see a small white object laying in
the center. Before going forward he examined the surroundings once
more. "I don't feel anybody. Looks like I'm alone." As he got closer
he could tell that it was something wrapped in a white clothe bound by
small leather straps. His heart raced as he slowly bent down to pick
it up & removed the straps. "What the...?" he said as the cloth fell
to the ground revealing a large copper colored 45 caliber pistol with
the words "Auto Ejecting Double Action" engraved just above the
trigger & the tension he felt melted away into confusion "A gun....?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," the voice spoke with a coldness that terrified Zion.
"Did I say the classroom was here? This is merely where you pick up
your books. Your classroom is your former home.....your orphanage."
the voice laughed evily as it faded once again. Zion's eyes widened as
he heard screams in the distance, "Reesie!!!" he shouted as he
sprinted out of the crater and toward the orphange.
Zion pushed himself harder than he ever had before. But even though
the buildings went by him in a blur and he cleared mounds of wreckage
in amazing leaps it seemed to him as if he were moving at a snail's
pace. The beat of his heart thundered in his ears even as thoughts
raced through his head. What was going on? What did he mean by "former
home"? Was everyone alright? They had to be...they had to. He'd kill
the person who did this if even one of them was......no, they were
ok.....they had to be.
When Zion reached the orphange he was spent sweat poured down his
face, his vision blurred as he panted trying to catch his breath after
having cleared a 45 minute walk in just under 6 minutes. As his vision
cleared what came into sight was something that would forever break
his heart. The bodies of the children lay scattered across the ground,
their blood staining the dirt red. The only sound to be heard was the
crackling of the inferno that engulfed the orphanage. Zion could only
stand there shaking as he tried to deny the truth of what he saw. "Oh
god....no, please....not this. Please...". Trembling Zion, walked over
to the body of one of the children & fell to his knees. Zion reached
out his hand gently touching the side of the child's face, this poor
child who had once laughed and played, who had once been alive, "I was
supposed to protect you. I.....I was supposed to be your guardian
angel," he whispered to the lifeless child. He swallowed his tears &
kept talking, "I should've been here....Reesie tried to tell me....I
never should have left. This is my fault.....I didn't protect
you....this is my.....I'm so sorry...". Zion buried his face into the
child's body and wept for the family he lost.
The sound of footsteps behind him brought Zion to his senses as he
swiftly turned & stood he looked as if were ready to face down the
devil himself. Thinking about it now though it was he who must have
seemed like a devil, standing his back to an inferno, small children
scattered around his feet, the blood of one of the children on his
hands & smeared across his cloak that blew in breeze. His eyes
narrowed as he saw two men w/rifles approaching him. "If these men
killed them....if they killed...." he could feel the overwhelming
sadness trying to overtake the anger he felt as his eyes softened; a
tear escaped turning red as it rolled down his bloodstained cheek.
Zion growled at himself & he returned his cold gaze on the two men who
were barely ten feet from him now.
It was then he could see these men wore calvary uniforms. Zion could
feel his body relax as he realized this, "Oh thank god!" he said to
himself. "Thank god you're here!" he said as he started to run to the
men confident that he was safe now, that he could curl up and cry now
that the nightmare was over. As he heard them cock their guns,
however, he realized the nightmare had just begun. "Don't move!" the
man on the right yelled at him. Confusion stopped Zion in his tracks,
"Wha...?!?" he said in little more than a whisper. "Put your gun
down!" yelled the man on the left. "Gun?" he looked down and saw the
copper colored revolver with blood smeared across the barrel held
tightly in his right hand. He had forgotten about the gun until that
moment. Why did it seem so natural for him to be holding it? "Put the
gun down!" the man on the left repeated tearing Zion away from his
thoughts.. "I didn't do this." Zion pleaded to them. "Put it down
now!!!" the man on the right was getting nervous Zion could see the
barrel of his gun quivering. "Listen to me!! I didn't do this." he
went to motion with right hand toward the orphanage forgetting the gun
he held in that hand and instantly realized his mistake.
The man on the right squeezed the trigger almost before he realized he
had done it, Zion on the other hand anticipated it and watched the
angle of the gun's barrel to estimate the trajectory of the bullet.
"Just like dodgeball," he thought to himself as he stepped out of the
way in a blur, but just as he did he heard footsteps behind him and
his eyes widened in fear. He knew who was behind him, Zion recognized
the love for him & the joy they felt that he was still alive, he knew
who was behind him directly in the bullet's path. Zion turned and
could only watch as the bullet hit Reesie and she fell lifeless to the
ground. And, being an empath, Zion was struck with feelings no one
should ever experience. He could feel the pain of her gunshot as if it
had hit him, he could feel her life draining from her, the light in
her slowly being extinguished. Through all of this he felt her love
for him and then, suddenly, she was gone.....her light had gone out.
Zion heard thunder roaring in the distance but soon realized it was
the sound his screams. His eyes narrowed to mere slits as they gave
off an eerie blue irradescent glow and in one unbelievably swift
motion turned toward the man who shot her, raised his gun, and pulled
the trigger. The bullet hit the man in the chest and his body crumpled
& fell to the ground. Just as quickly Zion turned his gun on the other
man but stopped short of pulling the trigger. The glow faded from his
eyes as he realized what he had just done. "What have I done? I didn't
mean to....I didn't want to kill anyone..." Zion's hand started
shaking as he stared at the other man who was almost totally in shock
at how fast it all happenned. Soon he regained his senses and began to
pul the trigger of his rifle. "No...." Zion whispered to himself,
closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger. The bullet went into the
man's shoulder knocking him down, & causing him to lose consciousness.
"HA HA HA HA HA" the voice's laughter echoed around Zion almost
deapheningly loud. "Well done! Well done. You see the worthlessness of
this trash. Go ahead....kill the other one. Show me how well you
learned your lesson!" "No." Zion said quietly at first but then yelled
"NO!! I won't kill anyone!!!" The voice chuckled "My dear
brother....you already have." And the voice faded away laughing.
Zion ran from that place and soon learned they had put a
thirty-million double dollar bounty on his head as "Zion the Wyldfire"
charged with the crime of burning an orphanage to the ground and
killing the children who lived there along with a calvarymen who
attempted to bring him to justice.
Staring into in the barrel of the gun all Zion could think was "I
deserve this. I killed them. Its my fault they died.", but then he
caught a glimpse of somthing red glistening from beneath the bounty
hunter's coat that snapped him to full attention. In an instant Zion
rose to his feet as he grabbed the barrel of the man's rifle pulling
it from him pitching the man off balance and straight into Zion's
fist.. When the bounty hunter hit the ground a large copper colored
revolver fell from his coat.
mop of red which under normal circumstances covers the left half of
his face down to just below his eye, blows about in the wind. Fallen
to his knees he moves his hand beneath his large tattered brown cloak
to where the bullet went in. Warm blood runs between his fingers as he
tries to ascertain the amount of damage done to him, "Arrgh" couple
cracked ribs, maybe broken....bullet's still in there, he'd live. He
squints his eyes trying to keep the sand out but still watch the man
standing in front of him. The man, the one who shot him, stands over
him menacingly pointing the rifle at his head. Nothing remarkable
about him really, average height, looks like he works out alot he has
a nice build, wears a loose fitting black shirt & pants and a black
cowboy hat. Probably a rookie the man kneeling on the ground thinks,
no one with any experience would wear all black on a long trip into
the desert. If it weren't for the pain he would be tempted to laugh,
"Is it going to end this way? Taken down by one of the geese? And a
newbie at that." Geese is a nickname he gave to bounty hunters
although right now he can't remember why. As he looks into the barrel
of the gun resigning himself to accept his death the memories of his
past come flooding back to him despite his best attempts to keep them
buried.
The memories come back to him in an onslaught on his senses. He can
see the orphanage he grew up in as if he were looking right at it & he
can almost hear the sounds of the other children laughing and playing.
Those sounds he likes to remember, not the ones that would come later:
the screams of pain and death.... The orphanage itself, from a
distance looked as though it were a shack. Haphazardly put together
and made mostly of debris that was laying around, and there was plenty
of that, it looked as though a gust of wind would be all that was
required to send this building tumbling to the ground. In truth
however, the building was quite large, two stories high with well over
a dozen rooms. The orphanage stood on the outskirts of what was once
the city of July, that is to say it was the city of July until Vash
the Stampede turned it to ashes and earned for himself a sixty-billion
double dollar bounty. So you see, the orphange was built very quickly
to offer shelter to the children left alone as a result of July's
destruction.
A rescue party found him inside one of July's Plants in the inner most
chamber. He was only a small baby then appearing to be only a few
months old. Although there were no signs of the parents it was assumed
that they had been Plant engineers and brought the child there so he
would be safe from the destruction. Sadly, however he would find his
origins were alot less ordinary. The old woman that ran the orphanage,
whom he always called Reesie, named him Zion after the paradise she
read of in myths. Reesie was a short plump woman, probably no more
than four and half feet tall. She wore her hair, which was gray with
slight streaks of brown which had yet to give over to old age, in a
bun atop her head. She always wore a long flowered dress of one color
or another and an apron. Zion loved her very much, she was the closest
thing he had to a mother. Within a year Zion had grown to where he
appeared to be about ten years old, he had bright red hair with
streaks of orange,that would grow quite wildly if left alone, that
gave his hair the appearance of a flame, and he was smarter than most
adults. Zion devoured all Reesie's books as if he were possessed to
learn everything he could, and his instinctual knowledge of the lost
technology baffled Reesie.
Despite these strange things Reesie never once questioned him and
always acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. And the children
accepted him as only children could, with a sense of wonder that knew
no fear or hate. A truck carrying supplies would come every week, the
other adults had long since abandonned July leaving only the children
who utterly refused to leave the only home they ever knew and the only
connection to their parents they were likely to have. That was the
limit of their contact with the "outside world" so there was no one to
tell Zion he wasn't "normal". Over the following years Zion grew ever
more quickly to where he was a teenager when he was only three. Most
of the children, especially the older ones, regarded him as a guardian
angel since they knew he was different than they were, but they still
loved him unconditionally. So it was, he was the guardian angel with a
name that meant "heaven". Surely a poet or playwright couldn't have
planned it better.
By the time he was five he had truly come to the realization he was
very different from the other children at the orphanage. His aging had
apparently slowed greatly leaving him looking about seventeen or
eighteen. His reflexes were far above that of the other kids. In a
game of dodgeball he was a sight to behold, he could move incredibly
fast and the ball which the others could scarcely dodge at times to
him seemed as if it were moving through molasses. At times he could
even get feelings from the other children. When someone came to adopt
one of the younger children, Zion went to say good-bye to him and when
they hugged he could feel the child's sadness, fear, and hope as if
Zion were experiencing the emotions himself. The experience shocked
him so much it almost knocked him back off his feet. He went & asked
Reesie about these things, curious why he was different and what it
all meant. She looked out the window and up into the sky as if she
were searching for the strength to answer these question which she
always new would come and with a hint of sadness in her voice she
would take his hand and look into his eyes and say softly "It means
you are special.....you are an angel sent from the same place I named
you after."
Zion remembers how angry he had gotten when she said those things. It
was foolish, he knows that now, and he curses the fact that he could
have been angry with her for even a moment. He misses her so much
now.... "She doesn't know......she doesn't know why I'm this way," is
all he could think as he walked away from her looking down at the
ground. His feelings raged in his heart like a storm, feelings of
anger and sadness and of being totally alone. He stopped walking when
he came to the edge of what was once July. Reesie had always warned
them not to go in there, she said it was dangerous. No, he needed
answers some idea of where he came from, why he was different and he
knew this was the only place he might find them.
Zion stood there staring at the debris that was once one of the Seven
Cities. Most of the buildings had been turned to rubble in the
explosion that took place, only a few of the larger buildings remained
even partially intact. No one could really say with any certainty how
this was caused. Even those who studied the lost technology never
found anything that could come close to doing this level of
destruction. All that was known was that Vash the Stampede the one
they would call the Humanoid Typhoon came to this city and this was
all that was left as a result. After what seemed an eternity of
thinking about these things slowly he picked his foot up, it felt
heavier than normal as if would take all his strength to take another
step toward this place; this forbidden place which might hold the
answers he so needed. No he couldn't be scared now, "I have to do
this," he whispered to himself. With slow uneasy steps he made his way
over to the Plant where Reesie always told him he had been found. It
was as much a wreck as the rest of the city, most of the Plant had
caved in on itself.
Zion crawled through a large hole that led to interior. The air here
was stale and the only light came from the holes in the sides and on
the ceilings. Large spider webs covered everything, not that there was
really much to see. All of the machinery had been either crushed or
stripped of any useful components years ago. He could hear the wind
blowing outside throwing dirt against the walls. Soon he went so deep
into the Plant that he lost even that sound. The only thing he heard
now was his own breathes. The sweat poured down his face "Pretty damn
hot in here," he spoke to himself eager to fill silence with anything,
"and this place....feels like I'm walking around in a tomb."
He creeped on slowly making sure not to disturb anything so that he
didn't cause a cave in, the light had vanished sometime ago, but he
was amazed at how well he could see even in this low light. Finally he
reached a large openning, which he rightly guessed was the inner most
chamber where they had found him. He entered the room and stood up
straight wiping the sweat from his forhead with the back of his left
hand. He hadn't even realized he had been walking hunched over until
he stood and felt an ache in his lower back. He placed his free hand
on sore spot and arched his back trying to stretch and relieve some of
the discomfort. Zion moved slowly into the center of the room, looking
around in all directions. He couldn't see anything out of the
ordinary, it looked very much like the rest of the Plant only it was
in better shape. The force that destroyed the rest of the city
appeared to have skipped over this part of the Plant. Zion could see
where there had once been monitors mounted on the wall and a place for
some other devices which were gone now, but those were probably
removed by humans after the explosion. He walked around searching
everywhere for...for...well for what he wasn't sure.
After an hour of searching the room over and over again Zion had an
idea. He often got feelings from other people without really trying
although it confused him at first once he learned what was happenning
he got used to it and could block it out most of the time. "I wonder
if I could get a feeling off of a place, its possible right? Maybe I
could even feel my parents." he talked to himself excitedly. He closed
his eyes and concentrated, stretching out his 6th sense as far as he
could. He stood motionless for undetermined amount of time until he
finally openned his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Nothing....I didn't
feel anything." his voice echoed the sadness he felt in his heart.
"Ah, what did I think was going to happen? What did I think I was
going to find?" he scolded himself.
Zion looked around carefully trying to find a shorter path outside
than the one he used to get here. As he walked the perimeter of the
room again he heard the faint sound of the wind blowing. He followed
the sound until he came to a doorway opposite of where he entered.
"Hmmm.....looks safe enough and if I can hear the wind the exit can't
be that far off!" He barely took two steps into the hallway and ran
into a large spider's web. He screamed and jumped back frantically
pulling the spiderweb off of him. "I hate spiders!" no sooner had the
last word escaped his lips than he heard a voice. It sounded far away
yet it seemed to be whispering in his ear, "If you just keep saving
the butterflies the spiders will die...." The last word echoed and
slowly faded. Zion spun around in place, his heart about to beat
through his chest. He stood slightly hunched over, his arms tense at
his sides with his fists clenched, looking as if he were ready to
attack anything he might see. He squinted eyes trying to make out
anything in the darkness that could have made that noise. "Who's
there?" he shouted loudly, but only his echo answered him. After a few
minutes, he turned back toward the door "Great, now I'm hearing
voices." he joked trying to calm his nerves.
Zion crawled through the small crevice he used as an exit & fell onto
his back. He layed there staring up at the night sky panting trying
rest and fill his lungs with fresh air. "Its night already?" he said
resting the back of his hand on his forhead, "Man, I'm gonna get in so
much trouble. Reesie's probably worried sick...especially considering
the way I took off. I better hurry and get back." Taking in another
lungful air he lept to his feet & looked around trying to get his
bearings. As he slowly looked around he could make out the lights of
the orphange in the distance. "Well at least they left the lights on
for me." Zion had scarcely started walking when he heard a
noise...almost a whisper in his ear. He stopped dead in his tracks,
"The hell?!?!? Not that voice again!", he said attempting to mask his
fear. It came to him again, it was saying something....but he couldn't
quite make it out. "No," he whispered, "this isn't the same
voice.....its different." The voice, kind and soft.....yet so sad. "My
god, so sad!" he thought and could feel tears building up in his eyes.
"What is this? What happenned to this girl?" he whispered almost
choking on the words. Yes, it was girl's voice he could tell that now.
He followed the voice, trembling as he walked until he came to a large
crater. As he stared at the massive hole his body started shaking
more, he could no longer disguise his fear. "This.....this is where
the explosion occurred...." He wanted to hold back the sadness he
felt, keep it from invading his heart, but that voice, that girl's
voice.....a ghost from the past, a psychic echo, burnt into this place
by a horrible tragedy.
Zion uneasily moved into the center of the crater & fell to his knees.
"What happenned here?" Reaching out, he placed his hand on the ground
and the flood gates were openned. Thoughts....other people's thoughts
raced through his head. "Vash, take care of Knives. Good-bye Vash"
"Its the girl! But...these aren't her memories!", he thought as these
feelings rushed into his mind. "Yes, Rem. I will...take care of
him!".....hatred...."Now everything that brought you and Rem together
is dead"......sadness......."Its time to take this trash & get rid of
it FOREVER!!!".....fear.........
Zion jumped to his feet as tears streamed down his face. Unable to
form any words he started to back up while staring at the spot where
he had been kneeling. The tears poured from his eyes uncontrollably as
he shook all over. Finally he turned and ran toward the orphanage as
fast as he could. He had to get away from here, away from these
feelings.....away from this thing he could barely understand. Had he
stayed however he might have heard another voice, not a ghost from the
past like the girl's, but a voice from the present the voice of a
devil dressed as a man. The voice laughed to itself, "Hmmmm......maybe
its time for your lesson.....little brother."
Zion lay on his back hiding his face in his arms. His eyes half
closed, he could see the sunlight shining through the windows between
the gaps in his arms. He had locked himself inside his room as he had
gotten back to the orphanage two days and hadn't left since, not even
to get food, he never even changed his clothes which were torn and
stuck to his body from of all the dirt. "Who's memories were those?
Vash? Could it be Vash the Stampede? It has to be." Zion had never
thought about him much. Even though most of the children there hated
him for what he had done to their home, Zion found it impossible not
to feel sorry for this man who had apparently suffered every bit as
much as the city he destroyed. "And that girl....she must be 'Rem'.
Thats the name he said.....but who is Knives? What does he have to do
with what happenned in July? Why does this person, Vash or whoever it
might be, hate him so?......Who is Knives?"
"Zion, are you ok?" he heard Reesie ask from the other side of the
door. ..... No response. What could he say? How could she understand
what had happenned to him? "If you need anything, I'm here for you."
Tears formed in his eyes as he heard her walk away. He hated shutting
her out this way, but he needed to be alone and think. "Who in the
hell is Knives?"
"Best be careful, some questions might be best left unanswered." the
voice whispered to him softly. Zion sat up quickly in his bed eyes
wide open and froze. "Heh heh. Scared? Hmph.....this will be fun." the
voice said growing in its intensity yet still speaking calmly almost
soothingly. "I'm not scared." Zion hissed. "Oh really?" the voice
mocked him, "So you want answers? You want to learn? Alright then,
we'll see if you can learn the lesson he never could. Your classroom
is the large crater in July." Zion didn't answer, he just stared at
the ground as a scowl came over his face. He didn't want to go back
there, not there, not after what happenned. "What's wrong? I thought
you said you weren't scared. Heh guess you don't want to know
that...." "Shut up!" Zion shouted cutting him off, "I'll go there..."
"Alright then, class is in session." with that the voice faded away.
"Zion?" Ressie shouted from the other side of the door, "Zion are you
ok? Who are you yelling at? Zion!" "Its unlocked," he called back,
"you can come in." Ressie rushed into the room, "What going on? You've
been locked up in here for days. And who were you yelling at just now?
And...." she paused as she looked at Zion, "....where are you going?"
Zion sat on the bed pulling on his leather gloves which had holes cut
out for the fingers. "I'm just....going out for a little while. I
won't be long." He stood up and she was able to take in his
appearance. Leather hiking boots, blue jeans which were at least one
size to big for him, and a long sleeved light brown shirt. "Zion,
please stay. I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen,"
she pleaded with him. "Hey, don't worry. I'll be right back, I
promise," he smiled and kissed her gently on the forehead. As he
walked past her he pulled on a large brown cloak that hid most of his
body, totally covering his arms and his legs down to the knee.
Zion walked through July, his body tense & eyes darting around looking
for anything unusual. He didn't know what to expect and he didn't want
to be caught by surprise should anyone try to attack him. He stopped
at the edge of the crater and could see a small white object laying in
the center. Before going forward he examined the surroundings once
more. "I don't feel anybody. Looks like I'm alone." As he got closer
he could tell that it was something wrapped in a white clothe bound by
small leather straps. His heart raced as he slowly bent down to pick
it up & removed the straps. "What the...?" he said as the cloth fell
to the ground revealing a large copper colored 45 caliber pistol with
the words "Auto Ejecting Double Action" engraved just above the
trigger & the tension he felt melted away into confusion "A gun....?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," the voice spoke with a coldness that terrified Zion.
"Did I say the classroom was here? This is merely where you pick up
your books. Your classroom is your former home.....your orphanage."
the voice laughed evily as it faded once again. Zion's eyes widened as
he heard screams in the distance, "Reesie!!!" he shouted as he
sprinted out of the crater and toward the orphange.
Zion pushed himself harder than he ever had before. But even though
the buildings went by him in a blur and he cleared mounds of wreckage
in amazing leaps it seemed to him as if he were moving at a snail's
pace. The beat of his heart thundered in his ears even as thoughts
raced through his head. What was going on? What did he mean by "former
home"? Was everyone alright? They had to be...they had to. He'd kill
the person who did this if even one of them was......no, they were
ok.....they had to be.
When Zion reached the orphange he was spent sweat poured down his
face, his vision blurred as he panted trying to catch his breath after
having cleared a 45 minute walk in just under 6 minutes. As his vision
cleared what came into sight was something that would forever break
his heart. The bodies of the children lay scattered across the ground,
their blood staining the dirt red. The only sound to be heard was the
crackling of the inferno that engulfed the orphanage. Zion could only
stand there shaking as he tried to deny the truth of what he saw. "Oh
god....no, please....not this. Please...". Trembling Zion, walked over
to the body of one of the children & fell to his knees. Zion reached
out his hand gently touching the side of the child's face, this poor
child who had once laughed and played, who had once been alive, "I was
supposed to protect you. I.....I was supposed to be your guardian
angel," he whispered to the lifeless child. He swallowed his tears &
kept talking, "I should've been here....Reesie tried to tell me....I
never should have left. This is my fault.....I didn't protect
you....this is my.....I'm so sorry...". Zion buried his face into the
child's body and wept for the family he lost.
The sound of footsteps behind him brought Zion to his senses as he
swiftly turned & stood he looked as if were ready to face down the
devil himself. Thinking about it now though it was he who must have
seemed like a devil, standing his back to an inferno, small children
scattered around his feet, the blood of one of the children on his
hands & smeared across his cloak that blew in breeze. His eyes
narrowed as he saw two men w/rifles approaching him. "If these men
killed them....if they killed...." he could feel the overwhelming
sadness trying to overtake the anger he felt as his eyes softened; a
tear escaped turning red as it rolled down his bloodstained cheek.
Zion growled at himself & he returned his cold gaze on the two men who
were barely ten feet from him now.
It was then he could see these men wore calvary uniforms. Zion could
feel his body relax as he realized this, "Oh thank god!" he said to
himself. "Thank god you're here!" he said as he started to run to the
men confident that he was safe now, that he could curl up and cry now
that the nightmare was over. As he heard them cock their guns,
however, he realized the nightmare had just begun. "Don't move!" the
man on the right yelled at him. Confusion stopped Zion in his tracks,
"Wha...?!?" he said in little more than a whisper. "Put your gun
down!" yelled the man on the left. "Gun?" he looked down and saw the
copper colored revolver with blood smeared across the barrel held
tightly in his right hand. He had forgotten about the gun until that
moment. Why did it seem so natural for him to be holding it? "Put the
gun down!" the man on the left repeated tearing Zion away from his
thoughts.. "I didn't do this." Zion pleaded to them. "Put it down
now!!!" the man on the right was getting nervous Zion could see the
barrel of his gun quivering. "Listen to me!! I didn't do this." he
went to motion with right hand toward the orphanage forgetting the gun
he held in that hand and instantly realized his mistake.
The man on the right squeezed the trigger almost before he realized he
had done it, Zion on the other hand anticipated it and watched the
angle of the gun's barrel to estimate the trajectory of the bullet.
"Just like dodgeball," he thought to himself as he stepped out of the
way in a blur, but just as he did he heard footsteps behind him and
his eyes widened in fear. He knew who was behind him, Zion recognized
the love for him & the joy they felt that he was still alive, he knew
who was behind him directly in the bullet's path. Zion turned and
could only watch as the bullet hit Reesie and she fell lifeless to the
ground. And, being an empath, Zion was struck with feelings no one
should ever experience. He could feel the pain of her gunshot as if it
had hit him, he could feel her life draining from her, the light in
her slowly being extinguished. Through all of this he felt her love
for him and then, suddenly, she was gone.....her light had gone out.
Zion heard thunder roaring in the distance but soon realized it was
the sound his screams. His eyes narrowed to mere slits as they gave
off an eerie blue irradescent glow and in one unbelievably swift
motion turned toward the man who shot her, raised his gun, and pulled
the trigger. The bullet hit the man in the chest and his body crumpled
& fell to the ground. Just as quickly Zion turned his gun on the other
man but stopped short of pulling the trigger. The glow faded from his
eyes as he realized what he had just done. "What have I done? I didn't
mean to....I didn't want to kill anyone..." Zion's hand started
shaking as he stared at the other man who was almost totally in shock
at how fast it all happenned. Soon he regained his senses and began to
pul the trigger of his rifle. "No...." Zion whispered to himself,
closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger. The bullet went into the
man's shoulder knocking him down, & causing him to lose consciousness.
"HA HA HA HA HA" the voice's laughter echoed around Zion almost
deapheningly loud. "Well done! Well done. You see the worthlessness of
this trash. Go ahead....kill the other one. Show me how well you
learned your lesson!" "No." Zion said quietly at first but then yelled
"NO!! I won't kill anyone!!!" The voice chuckled "My dear
brother....you already have." And the voice faded away laughing.
Zion ran from that place and soon learned they had put a
thirty-million double dollar bounty on his head as "Zion the Wyldfire"
charged with the crime of burning an orphanage to the ground and
killing the children who lived there along with a calvarymen who
attempted to bring him to justice.
Staring into in the barrel of the gun all Zion could think was "I
deserve this. I killed them. Its my fault they died.", but then he
caught a glimpse of somthing red glistening from beneath the bounty
hunter's coat that snapped him to full attention. In an instant Zion
rose to his feet as he grabbed the barrel of the man's rifle pulling
it from him pitching the man off balance and straight into Zion's
fist.. When the bounty hunter hit the ground a large copper colored
revolver fell from his coat.