Disclaimer: *Sigh*
Chapter 5. Stampede
Note: Words with '--' around them are telepathic speech.
She knew the Plant had died.
She turned to face the large bulb, preparing herself for the shocking sight . . . but it didn't come. She stared up at it, the face flawless, no cracks . . . It just . . . stopped.
Meryl had forgotten about the wind, and about Kate, and the fabric being blown away . . . Her attention was focused now on the Plant. On the smooth surface, written either in blood or ink . . . were four letters. They glowed bright red, and even Meryl saw them clearly through the wind and sand . . . VASH.
It had already been two days since the gunfight just out of town, and Vash had been forced to go back into hiding, staying in the caves out by the old, weathered mountains. Rumors had flown fast through the large and over-populated city, spreading like wildfire from one townsperson to the next. Really, only a few people had witnessed the gunfight, excluding Meryl, Kate, and Milly. Some of the man's henchmen that had been after Vash had gone into town to get patched up and had explained what had happened. One man even caught his conversation.
"Who sent you here? Truly?" Vash had asked.
"Wouldn't matter. 'S not like yer gonna do nothin' 'bout him. You're too weak to kill 'im." Vash sighed, trying his best to keep patient.
"I'll ask you again. Who sent you?" The smirk faded from the man's face and replied,
"He's just a common man named Joseph, used ter live in Carcasses until his family got run out or killed or disappeared, or whatever. Moved tuh December and hired me as a hit man."
"If he's so common why were you interested?"
"None o' yer business." Deciding to give up, that the man would fess no more, Vash had left it at that.
Meryl looked out the window and out at the dusty town. People were rambling back and forth on the porch to the small saloon, and people were running in the streets, especially the younger boys. Milly and Kate were sitting across from her, and she had her back to the window, looking over her shoulder to peer through the dirty glass.
"Meryl, something wrong?" Milly asked. Kate watched the two silently, sipping on her drink every few moments. Kate had her own thoughts to tend to . . . "Meryl?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, Milly . . . I mean, no, nothing's wrong. I was just . . . thinking, that's all."
"Oh." Milly looked down at her drink and said no more. Kate looked at Meryl, then over her shoulder and out the window. She was trying to bury herself back into her thoughts again . . . 'He's so weak,' she though, absently sipping her drink. 'He . . . won't kill a soul . . . Knives was right about him. He's nothing but a coward."
"Are you thinking too, Kate?"
"Oh . . . yeah, sure am." Kate sent a faint smile to Milly and continued to look out the window . . . and think.
"Excuse me, I'd like to buy these bullets." Vash set a small carton of silver bullets on the glass counter and looked up (well, actually, down) at the old man behind it. The man inspected the bullets for a very long time before ringing them up at the register.
"That'll be all for ya."
"Sir?"
"You ain't gettin' nothin' else, now get out!" Vash looked at the man, who glared back with a vicious look carved into his frail features. Vash then smiled, set the money on the counter, took the bullets, and left. Outside, in the center of the town by the fountain, he sat on a bench, took out his gun, and began to load it.
"Can't get a break around here," he murmured to himself. He glanced up, over his orange glasses, and spotted a pair of eyes looking at him across the street. He smiled and gave a small wave, but the little girl ducked a little more behind the corner of the wall. Vash looked at her for a moment, disappointment flooding his façade, but then he continued to load his gun.
Vash didn't look up again until he heard a small scream. He stood and saw the little girl that had hidden herself around the wall across the street was running to him. She ran behind him, her small hands grasping handfuls of his coat tightly. He could hear her whimpering around his knees and feel her body shaking as she pressed herself against his calves.
But as Vash looked up, he saw nothing . . . nothing, except an adult body fall. The woman fell to his feet and he stared at her in horror. To his left, only a short distance away, he heard his name . . . "Vash . . .!" and a gasp. He looked over and there was Meryl, closely followed by Milly. They both stared in shock.
"It . . . It wasn't . . ." The townspeople were now gathering, horrified and frightened looks on their face.
"It's Vash the Stampede!" one of the men finally shouted. The girl hanging on to Vash let go and got on her knees beside the woman. Vash watched the small girl, not moving, waiting . . . "Get the sheriff!" another man yelled. He waited for the sheriff to come a get him.
"Vash, don't worry, we'll figure something out!" Meryl said as Vash was being taken away. Everyone watched as he walked calmly with the sheriff. Unfortunately, only two people other that Vash knew the truth behind this . . . the small child and the culprit.
Kate, Meryl, and Milly had their hands clamped tightly around the bars. They were looking inside the cell at Vash, who was sitting with his eyes averted to the ground.
"We'll figure something out, Vash."
"Yeah, Mister Vash, sir, we'll have you out of here in no time!"
Kate remained silent.
'Vash is getting injusticely pinned again, isn't he?'
'What? You can . . . you can . . . ?!'
'Duh.' The voice inside his head giggled. 'Never could figure it out . . . Why you always let this happen to yourself, I mean. You even refused to kill Them. Dominique the Cyclops, Monev . . . the rest of the Gung-Ho Guns . . . Of course, Legato was an exception, wasn't he?'
'How? How did you find out?'
Kate giggled openly. 'I have my connections not only to Meryl but to people . . . Heh heh heh . . . much more powerful than even you, Vash. Catch my drift?'
'No . . .'
'You're right . . . But, you didn't hear that from me.' Kate began to walk away, from the cell block and eventually out of the entire building. Meryl watched her go before turning back to Vash.
"They wouldn't even look at the situation logically when Milly and I tried to explain it to them!" she said, obviously furious. "That woman was shot from behind, no way you could have killed her! They can't hold you for-"
"Yes, they can," he said, not looking up. "I'm still a wanted outlaw, and I'm still worth sixty billion double dollars. He can keep me here."
"B- bu . . . but . . ." Meryl couldn't seem to find a way out of this one. "Vash I'm sorry. We really are trying to get you outta here, though!"
"Honestly, Mister Vash the Stampede," Milly said, trying to comfort him as well.
"Thanks, guys . . . But I'm kinda tired, so if you don't mind . . ." Vash was laying on his back with his eyes closed for quite awhile before Meryl finally left. Milly had gone when she was told, but Meryl had stayed behind and kind of watched him for a few minutes longer.
Kate's POV
It was much cooler tonight than it had been in a very long time. In Augusta, at least. There was a slightly heavier wind out, which made it harder for me. Of course, I was wearing a heavy dark cloak. It irritated me, actually, whipping around my body as I headed straight from the ice cream shop to the west end of town . . . where the Plant had been rebuilt.
When I got to it, I looked around to make sure the coast was clear and I silently but swiftly opened the door and walked through. I looked around the large room. Everything seeming so foreign to me. I hadn't, after all, disabled a Plant in quite some time.
I scanned the central control panel for a few minutes before I began my work. Old Technology wasn't really that hard to understand. Of course, to humans it was like putting together a puzzle in the dark, which was basically what it was (metaphorically speaking) but to Plants like myself, and Vash, and Joseph, and Knives, it was a piece of cake.
When the bright lights inside the control box were extinguished, I knew my work had been a success. I ran from the Plant and went straight to the jail house. I knew Meryl and Milly had fallen asleep inside, sitting together on a bench just inside the cell block. I knew I shouldn't do this, because Vash was technically my enemy, but I had to get him and the others out of town before he had a chance to turn the Plant back on. He wasn't supposed to be in jail until the second murder was staged in Fondreake anyway.
I reached under my cloak and withdrew what I was to use to blow this stone building apart. A gun. But not just any gun. I gave a small laugh and pointed it at the front wall of the building. Knives had given it to me with special orders, and as soon as my angel arm is activated, there won't be such thing as a town called Augusta.
The short teen slung himself around the corner just as a pair of headlights came rolling his way. He pressed himself against the wall and peered around the corner. The truck had stopped and turned its headlights off, but he knew the men were still there. They knew he was there . . .
"Rath, we know you're there! Don't make us shoot!"
"I'd rather die!" the boy yelled back.
"Rath, come on, don't do this," came a female voice. His guardian. Or, at least, who had claimed to be his guardian.
"Get away from me!" he screamed. "Why can't you people leave me alone?!"
"Rath, it's not safe-" The boy walked calmly from the shelter of the wall and stood twenty feet in front of the truck. He laughed.
"Not safe? NOT SAFE?!" He doubled over with hollow laughter. "Zazzie was not safe. I can be trusted." He turned and began to walk down the street, still laughing. Now some people had been to peek out their windows and doors. Some of the men had even come to stand on the porches of their saloons. And then it went off.
The gunshot echoed around the sheltered part of the city, reverberating off the stone. Rath stopped laughing and stood still. He turned slowly, glaring, a furious look on his face.
"You shot at me," he said in mock surprise. "I figured you idiots would have learned by now." He narrowed his eyes, watching, listening, as the people he had once called his family screamed and writhed in their pain. He began a low laugh again and continued walking, their cries of pain following him.
Kate looked down at her right arm in anger and disgust. Brain-waves from her partner had distracted her and she had totally missed her target, going straight up in the air, hitting nothing . . . not even the moon. Nothing had been accomplished. And to had insult to injury, the electricity had come back on, meaning the Plant had been fixed, and judging by how little time it took, it had to be a Plant.
With her arm hanging limp by her side, Kate walked to the fountain and sat on the bench. She leaned her head back to talk.
'Rath, damn it, what'd you do?"
'They followed me, Kate, what was I supposed to do?!'
'You sent out a huge brain wave signal, you totally screwed me over! Now Knives will be furious, and it's all your fault! You even fixed the Plant!'
'I didn't do that! I haven't been anywhere near that thing. Don't go making conclusions. It could have been Joseph.'
'Joseph isn't in Augusta! He's in Fondreake!'
'Well, then . . .?'
'It wasn't a human, so don't suggest it. And it wasn't Vash, he's in jail.'
'Can you think of anything else?' Kate's brain waves were silent. 'Didn't think so. When you come up with a better explanation, you can call me. 'Til then, I got a job to do.'
Kate's thoughts fell silent as Rath tuned out. Vash was in jail, Joseph was in Fondreake, Rath couldn't have done it . . . Then . . . who?
Meryl pushed her way through the crowd, Milly following behind her. Meryl stopped, watching the sheriff and two other men checking out the scene. A small, green truck, sloped on one side due to two flat tires, had been reported to be standing idle and blocking the flow of supplies from Little Jersey from getting into the main part of the city. near its tires was an elaborately dressed woman, dead, and a dumpy little man, who was also dead. Slumped over the back seat of the truck was another man, a younger man, who was still hanging on for life.
The sheriff was trying to get him to speak, but he could only utter one word . . . "Wrath . . ." before coming to his demise. Meryl approached the sheriff, against the deputy's wishes.
"Sir, what's going on here?"
"Mayor and his wife," he said gruffly. "And their nephew. Ain't no sign o' their son, whatever 'is name was."
"So then it's a homicide and a kidnapping?"
"Uh huh."
"Nothing stolen? Missing?"
"Don't appear to be, but I don't really know."
"And you're disappointed because you know it couldn't have been Vash the Stampede?"
"Yeah- huh?" Meryl sighed and turned away. Giving the report to Milly.
"And Mister. Vash didn't do it!" Milly said above the crowd, yelling it at the sheriff. "Mister Vash the Stampede is innocent ad has been ever since he blew up July!"
"Milly, calm down!" Meryl said quietly, bringing Milly's fist down from where she had been shaking it in the air. People stared as they edged their way back through the crowd to go back to the jail house to speak to Vash. They approached his cell and he began to whisper, frightened.
"I felt it . . ." he said, his voice barely audible. His voice shook, beads of sweat dropping to his palm as he stared down at his hands. "I could feel it . . . I CAN feel it . . . There's more of Them here . . ."