Chapter 4: The Joy and the Despair

Author's Note: Did everybody like the cliffhanger in the previous chapter? Anyway, this is the revised version of chapter 4.

The wind ceased to blow and the sand fell. Actually fell sparing them, when it had only been a few meters behind them. Silence fell over the group until, Duo started to scream, "It's MIRACLE!" Everybody sighed in disbelief; that had rather close.

"I knew everything would be ok," Treize asserted, but no one paid him any heed.

Duo kept jumping around in circles shouting out in pure ecstasy. His pleasure ended, though when his foot caught on a rock like Quatre's had and he fell (poor Duo, he doesn't deserve that) face forward. Except, instead of having sand break his fall, he landed on something much harder. The thud sounded rather painful and Duo suppressed a cry of agony. The notorious object that broke his fall was a gray slab of concrete the seemed to extend for miles with white bands painted in the middle.

"Well, looks like we found a road," Zechs smiled; luck was finally playing the right cards for them. He crossed his arms and thought, "About time."

"You mean *I* found a road," Duo answered rubbing his head and getting back on his feet. He was the one who had to suffer miserably in order to discover its existence; he thought he should at least receive credit for it.

"It's a bit shabby to be a road, but then again, who knows where we are," Trowa commented. The quiet observer; sometimes stating the obvious in a manner deeper than most could grasp.

"Hey! Look! There's a sign!" Duo pointed excitingly jumping up and down with his braid flying through the air. It was a rather beaten up sign with rust crawling across the edges, but still it was a sign. The sign was green and in bold white letters that had begun to fade it read: 25 miles to Las Vegas.

"Zechs, don't we have an OZ base in Las Vegas?" Treize asked hopefully recalling a location from the back of his mind. "If we get to the base," he thought, "the truce would most likely be off and we'll finally be able to rid ourselves of those irksome pilots. He smoothed back light brown hair and waited for Zechs's answer to his question.

"We WILL," Zechs mumbled sullenly while pulling the sleeves of his shirt up his muscular arms. He would just have to risk the sunburns or die of the heat. Heero glared at Zechs; perhaps it was time to tell everyone the intensity of the situation.

"What does 'we will' mean?" Treize replied confused with uneasiness filling his gut, "I'm pretty sure OZ has a base right now at Las Vegas in the Nevada territory." He finally recalled the blueprints of the base; "Zechs's memory must be slipping," Treize tried to reassure himself.

"He says that because OZ doesn't exist right now," Heero answered. Everyone looked at Heero in a "what the heck are you talking about" manner.

"Could things get any worst?" Treize thought worriedly, "worse than being in the middle of no where…with enemies…"

Heero went on trying to phrase the words in a manner that would not totally devastate them, "Obviously, not only were we sent to a different place when my weapon short circuited, we were also sent to a different time. We are in the year 2001." Heero waited for the reaction. Silence followed.

"But that's ancient," Quatre stated piercing the quiet with his obvious statement. The situation seemed so surreal that he didn't really know what to say.

"They're taking it better than I thought," Zechs thought, "perhaps they are not really the children as many label them to be."

"Ok! That's IT!" Duo started shouting again, "We're DOOMED! Doomed to die here! Oh woe is me, I would of rather had a brilliant death as shinigami in battle but noooooo…… fate has different plans! We're all going to die of either lack of food, lack of water, or the savage locals will come kill us and use our heads for drums!" He didn't know how else to react to the situation.

Zechs smirked, "Now Duo, Let's not be *too* optimistic now." "Perhaps I was wrong," Zechs thought, "but then again, how else would you expect them to react?" Quatre began to calm Duo down as the others shuffled about wondering what the next course of action would be.

"I say we follow the road to Lis Vegas," Treize stated; he still thought it to be a lie. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"First of all, it's LAS VEGAS; I thought you said you had an OZ base there so get it right," Duo stated rather sarcastically, "Second of all, you have to remember, none of us are taking orders from you." There was not power on this playing field, and Duo wanted Treize to remember that.

"Why don't we start following the road since we have no other choice?" Quatre suggested. He knew Duo would listen to him.

"Ok, everyone, let's do what Quatre says," Duo answered starting to lead the way on the heat beaten road. Being on solid ground assuaged the pain of their feet a little, but the sun still baked them from above.

"I'm sooo thirsty," Quatre sighed as they walked along.

"It's ok, Quatre, we'll reach a city soon," Trowa tried to comfort the pilots who were obviously exhausted. Zechs quietly took off his mask; it was getting rather hot. (Ok, note from the author: Is it just me or has anyone else wondered, if that guy spends too much time in the sun and then takes off his mask, wouldn't half his face be lighter than the other half? Ok, enough of my babbling, I'll just ignore that fact.) It was obvious that they were in a whole other ballgame so it didn't matter anymore. There was no war here. There was no revenge to be taken. There was no reason to hide his face with an impediment to his survival.

"Look on the bright side," Duo said, "if we live and go back home, we'll have a heck of a story to tell, not only that we'll all have suntans!" Everyone groaned at the reminder of the sun beating at their backs. "And then we'll have all the attention of every girl we see!" Duo stated triumphantly. Such fantasies were the only thing keeping him alive right now.



"How many miles do you think we have walked?" Zechs asked. Everyone stared at him noticing his actual face for the first time.

"Hey! You took off your mask," Quatre asserted.

"Is there a law that says I have to wear it 24/7?" Zechs answered pale bangs blowing gently. He could have been a supermodel. (Author: giggles wildly and goes chibi.) After his forceful answer, everyone decided to leave him alone about the whole mask issue.

"It feels like we've walked a thousand miles," Duo groaned rubbing his aching legs. His black outfit might have been comfortable enough in battle, but it sure bothered him here in the desert.

"I don't think that would be possible," Trowa answered. Duo was too exhausted to say anything back.

The road kept on stretching for what seemed to be eternity waving in the distance due to the heat. They walked until dusk fell upon them, and then they sat down to rest for a little while.

"We should keep going," the perfect soldier said, "we can't stop now." (Yeah, if they sleep on the road, they might end up as road kill and that would be BAD.) They all nodded without argument.

So walk they did, and walked and walked and walked until their muscles begged for mercy and then…..

Author's Note: So ends the revision of chapter four! I hope you enjoyed! Give me an email sometime at ladydemosthenes9@yahoo.com