Chapter 8
A sharp, quick jolt through his body sent his thoughts scattering.
He stopped falling.
'What the—?!'
He was hanging suspended in-between the bridge and the lake! His jacket, caught on something sharp punctured out from the bridge itself, saved him from quite the fall. Heero blinked from the shock, and looked above himself, then below. The bridge had many of these 'barbs' sticking out of the stones. What they were there for or why, Heero neither knew nor cared.
To keep himself from swinging, Heero held onto his jacket's open lapel with one hand, and tried to brace himself up against the bridge's stone wall with the other. His tender left hand felt awkward and stiff, and it wouldn't move correctly ('My wrist is broken,' was the first thing that came to Heero's mind). The wound in his side screamed as the jacket pressed against it tightly. And whatever was holding him onto the wall was beginning to dig unbearably into his back. Heero wouldn't complain, however. This was a perfect spot to hide from OZ. Who would think to look here, in-between?
"Did you hear that splash?"
Heero dared not move, let alone breathe. The OZ Specials were right above him.
"Yeah, the rott probably shoved him in the lake. See?" There was a brief pause. "Here's the gun he dropped. He must've had quite a dance with the dog to get pushed down there."
Heero gasped as a strong flashlight flared on and began to go over the whole of the lake, stopping here and there, searching for his supposed dead body. He was just thankful they weren't ordered to bring him in to their headquarters. Heero wondered if these new soldiers in the rush to have him captured were even given the information that he was from the Rebel Alliance.
An encouraging thought crossed his mind. He might actually survive to complete his mission.
"He, he, he! Good work, Jacko! You helped kill him! Don't worry about your teeth falling out; there's gotta be doggy dentures somewhere out there."
"Shut up, Jeske. But yeah, our work here is done. Let's go. Forget about the rott; we've got plenty others and I don't feel like going down there. It's cold, almost three in the morning, and I wanna watch Treize on the tube in my house. An' look at those rocks; the kid's definitely a goner, too. No little kid could survive a fall like that."
"But Sir, shouldn't we get concrete evidence that the boy in essence died?" one of the more quiet soldiers meekly piped up.
"We're withdrawing, and that's an order!" the captain exclaimed, rubbing the side of his his face wearily with his hand. "I'm exhausted from two twenty-four hour shifts, this outlandish pursuit, and your piercing vocal chords! Question my authority again, Smithe, and I'll have you court-martialed."
"Y-yes, Sir!" There was another pause as the frightened soldier Smithe snapped to a salute.
Heero let out a relieved sigh as he heard the soldiers walking away. It was almost unbelievable he was let off so easily. Now all he had left to do was get to Jade City and complete his mission.
…but first…
How to get off this bridge?
Heero looked down. The lake seemed to be so far below, now. He squinted far into the distance and could see the little dots of light from the windows of Jade's high skyscrapers. This huge expanse of water actually trailed inside that city itself, bringing natural beauty to the large metropolis.
But there was no way he was going to willingly drop into that lake filled with sharp rocks and whatever else lived in there.
He looked up and tried to reach for the bridge's edge with his good hand.
Riiip…
Heero gasped and felt the hold cutting deeper into his back. That only meant one thing:
His coat was ripping.
His eyes wide, Heero knew he had to be careful. Careful and yet rapid. He cautiously reached up, arm straining as far as it could go, trying to grasp the side with his fingers.
When he tried to reach the edging again, his jacket only ripped more. It was now only a matter of time before he'd go plummeting down to the watery depths of the lake.
Heero looked up once more, gritting his teeth in exasperation. He was so close.
So close.
He smiled resentfully. So he made it this far, escaping all those OZ troops, only to wind up dead in a lake with only that rottweiler for company.
Heero took a deep breath as his jacket suddenly rent completely, the hold tearing through his back, sending him plunging into the water.
Hey. At least he knew how to swim.
And even that failed him.
As his body made contact with the water, Heero closed his eyes and let the darkness of unconsciousness overtake him.
