Chapter Nineteen
AN: Sorry to intrude, but I am aware of the time paradox in this chapter – in case any of you were confused… On with the show!
"Liushu?"
"Huh?" I groggily opened my eyes at the sound of my middle name. Nobody knew that name but a few of my close friends on the L2 colony. Before all this started. My eyes flicked first one way and then the other, frantic, looking for a source of light. Light that didn't exist.
I was roughly reminded of what was going on as a sob shot straight through me. I brought my eyes to the ceiling. "God!"
"What?"
I frowned disapprovingly at Duo. "You think I appreciate you seeing me like this?"
He moved so he was sitting beside me. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, nothing's wrong." I sniffed loudly.
He raised an eyebrow at me. "Really? That doesn't sound too healthy to me."
"I'm fine."
"That's a load of…!" He steadied his voice before continuing. "What's wrong?"
I sighed. "Maybe it has something to do with my being claustrophobic."
Duo took one quick look about him and saw instantly what the problem was. Even now the walls seemed closer than they had when I'd fallen asleep, like they were trying to inch towards me unseen.
"But I'm on top of it," I added hastily. Maybe a little too hastily. "I know what I'm doing.
"If you say so."
"Yeah, I think so."
"You know," said Duo thoughtfully after a few seconds, "I've only ever seen you cry once before."
"Yeah? When?"
"When we were still in school together. We were playing tag with some of the bigger kids and you fell and scraped your knee. You screamed and wailed for at least half an hour. You remember that?"
I searched my mind and fragments were floating to the surface. "Sort of. You remember exactly who we were playing with?"
He held up his hands and counted off his fingers. "There was Bob, Celia, Irene, Richard, some thick, chunky kid…"
"Bruce?"
"Yeah, Bruce. Danielle and Greg. You remember it?"
I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I do. I think. Bruce was 'it' wasn't he? He was chasing me?"
"Yeah."
It felt like we'd managed to fend off the dark. But it was threatening to creep in again. I needed to occupy myself or I was going to go insane.
Duo frowned at me for a moment, teetering on telling me something.
"What're you thinking?"
"We're going to escape."
I looked at him, fear and uncertainty momentarily replaced by pure amazement. "What?!"
"You heard me," came the voice, its source continuing to stare straight ahead of him. "You don't look like you can take much more of this."
I let my eyes scan the floor warily for a second. Last time I'd heard someone say that word – escape – one of my closest friends had paid the price. Nikki had died that day, and that is something I refuse to take lightly. I turned my gaze on Duo. "How exactly? What? Do you have a bomb secretly concealed in your mass of unruly hair?"
Duo seemed to smile at some private joke. "Not this time, no."
"What?"
He shook his head in mock sadness, a small smile betraying his apparent sincerity. "Never mind. It's a long story."
He moved clumsily to his feet and looked down at me expectantly. "Come on, on your feet."
I obeyed the command cautiously. "Duo?" I stumbled suddenly on thin air.
"I have a plan, although I'm not too sure whether it's gonna work or not. Just follow my lead."
"Follow your lead?" I was suddenly beginning to have my doubts.
"That's what I said." He approached the door and scrutinised it carefully before bringing back both arms, almost violently, and slamming the cuffs against it with a loud clang. The resounding ring almost smothered Duo's next words. "Just be ready to run – real fast."
We stood back from the door as the ringing died away. I was beginning to see the plan. We were waiting for someone to open the door and then we were going to bolt. Not a plan I wanted to go with right then, but anything was better than me staying here and turning into a total head-case.
Two childhood friends, side by side, both wanting to avert inevitable peril and doom. Sounds like a science fiction flick, huh? It would've been strange to watch, I guess.
The lock beeped happily as someone fed it a swipe card. This was it…
I glanced at Duo in time to see his shoulders tense and his features arrange themselves into a determined frown, ruining the usually cheerful expression in his eyes. I noticed only then that Duo had the most expressive eyes of anyone I have ever been graced to know. Not that that mattered to me in the position I was in…
"Don't move."
For a second I was frozen between panic and confusion. Duo hadn't moved. But instead was looking toward the door in pure amazement and surprise. I followed his example as first Heero and Trowa stepped into the room.
"Don't move," repeated Heero, making eye contact with each of us in turn. "They don't know who we are yet."
"And trust you guys to wait until we were desperate." Duo shot me a pained look, begging me to pity him for knowing these people. I allowed myself a small smile, as I granted him exactly that.
"We're not out of here yet," said Trowa quietly, catching my smile.
"But you do have a plan, right?"
Trowa directed his visible eye in Duo's direction. "We have one that's better than your one word plan. Namely: Run."
"It was better than sitting around here waiting for you guys."
"But you're not waiting anymore, are you."
Duo blinked at Heero's statement, trying to dredge up a reply. Eventually he admitted the defeat. "Fine. So you're right. What next?"
