Hell Would be in Mexico
By trucizna
Two: Demasiado Lejos del Cielo: August 17th, 196 AC
"Oi, Chang. That girl from the bakery is here to see you."
I opened my eyes as Jack's voice ricocheted in from the living room. I wasn't supposed to have gone to sleep at all. Damn. I pulled myself into a sitting position on the couch, disliking the way the movement yanked at the stitches Duo made in my arm the night before.
The Gundam pilot was sitting on the floor, back against the couch, his head bent over something.
"Good morning." He said brightly. Consuelo stopped in the doorway, sparing a startled double-take for Duo before rounding on me.
"Ooh, Señor Chang. Que lastima!" She wafted into the room and perched on the couch so disturbingly close to me that I had to back away.
"Speak to me in English, Consuelo, or not at all." It sounded more waspish than even I intended, but I didn't really care. I was expecting to be shot at any minute, so I didn't have time for such frivolity. And I wasn't hungry either, so she had nothing to offer me that I could think of.
"So sorry. I came to tell you that I heard Sheriff Blacker bragging about you to his friends this morning."
At this Duo halted whatever he was working on and stood up, turning to face us with his hands on his hips.
"What did he say?"
"He said that he knew you'd get out of jail, and that he planned for it. He also said that if you don't leave town he's going to kill you."
Not a surprising turns of events, that. Duo knelt down to Consuelo's eye level and spoke to her in his usual bright, carefree tone.
"Who did he say this to?"
"Señores Rodríguez, Jiménez, y Pompa."
"Did he say anything else?"
"Sí, he said that he was going to be sure to get away with it."
"Good." I muttered, "Blacker can kiss…"
Duo stood up quickly and cut me off.
"Thanks Consuelo. Don't let anyone see that you came up here, okay? They might come after you too."
She nodded, her eyes glittering so much that I was worried she'd start sobbing on me if I didn't get her out fast enough. As if I needed overly-emotional pretty girls to add to my troubles.
"Go." I added. She nodded again and stood, wringing her hands.
"Take care, Señor Chang," she turned with a sort of half-bow to Duo, "y el amigo de Señor Chang."
She left. Duo took the opportunity to sigh and fall backward onto the couch.
"Way to make friends, Wufei. By nightfall, all sorts of people will be clamoring at the doorstep to shake your hand."
I laughed; sort of. It sounded more like a weak scoff, but Duo grinned and leaned forward to stare in my face,
"So whatcha gonna do about it, 'Fei?"
So now I was 'Fei', huh? Luckily for Duo I was distracted, so I let the nickname slide. Of course, it was sort of his fault I was distracted in the first place.
See, I'd have just let them kill me if I was alone. I didn't care enough to have it any other way, and the more I thought about it the more I figured I deserved it, anyway. But Duo was the type to meddle, and I couldn't let them kill him, too. He was the last great innocent.
He wasn't innocent at all, but I was good at pretending.
"Duo, you should leave town."
"Me?" He laughed. The short, humorless kind of laugh that didn't suit him at all, "and what, pray tell, are you going to do when I split?"
I shrugged.
"Let me guess. You're going to ride out there into the sunset, the lone cowboy, pistols waving et cetera et cetera." He waved a hand in the air, bored, as if shooing away his own clichés.
"Maybe. But either way, it's not your business."
"It is now." When I didn't respond, he continued, "It made it my business when that lying hick asshole who calls himself a sheriff threatened my friend."
I refused to look at him. The prospect was somehow suddenly terrifying.
"I don't want you involved in this; it's not going to be pretty."
"Please." He rolled his eyes, "I'm just as likely to get hurt as you are. Look, I'm sure you could kick all of their asses with a blindfold on and one arm tied behind your back, but what's the harm in letting me stick around?"
I couldn't think of anything, so I kept my mouth shut. I was afraid he was on to me, somehow.
"It shouldn't even be any of your business. How could something like this have happened?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously, "How long have you been here?"
"Almost two weeks."
"Jesus Christ, 'Fei! Let's get the hell out of here, then!"
"No. I have to finish this."
"Why? You don't belong here. They want you out or they'll try to kill you. What's the point in staying?"
"There's nowhere else for me to go."
"That's no excuse. Where have you been since Christmas, then?"
I couldn't tell him that. I couldn't tell anyone that. I was still trying to convince myself the past eight months didn't happen at all.
"Nowhere I can go back to."
"Come with me, then. We can go anywhere, do anything. There are an infinite number of places better than this dump. We could go to Venice, Berlin, Moscow, L4, the mountains of Tibet, that new colony, whatever it's called… X18999. You name it, 'Fei, we can go there."
"No. I have to finish this."
"No, you don't. You're just looking for a fight."
See, he was on to me. I had to get him out of here. It wasn't fair. Everything about the war was easier. I had something to fight for, I knew what I was supposed to do, and if I wanted to off myself I could do it with the push of a button. Now I was pulling out every social weapon I had (and that isn't very many at all, mind you) just to get Duo out of the way so some faceless hicks could beat me to death. It was painful just thinking about it, but it was the best I could do with my vehement disapproval of suicide.
"Just go, Duo, please."
"Not without you."
"Why?!" I was starting to get pissed off and confused. What the fuck did he care, anyway? "Why are you here?"
He shrugged, "Maybe I don't have anywhere to go, either."
"What about that girl… the one who stole the Libra plans?"
"Hilde? What about her?"
"Why aren't you with her?"
He smirked, "If you tell me what you've been up to since Christmas, then I'll tell you about Hilde."
There was no way I was going to tell him that, and he knew it. If he was going to play dirty then I might as well jump in the proverbial mud puddle, too.
"Just leave, Duo. Just go."
"No."
"Leave. I never asked for your help. I never asked for you to come here. Go away."
"What is with you? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"It's none of your business."
"Fine." To my surprise and relief he got up, "you do what you want. I've given up on you. You're hopeless, Chang."
Yeah, good. It didn't feel good, though. In the few seconds I spent sitting collecting my wits on the couch Duo had grabbed his bag and stalked toward the door. I followed him into the kitchen but he didn't wait for me. The screen door shut with a bang as he left into the bright white of the morning sun.
It was what I wanted. Duo was out of the way, he couldn't be hurt. Now my plans were free and clear of any hindrances. I knew this, but what I didn't know was why watching him leave left a cold empty hole in my chest.
"That boy's got his heart in the right place." Jack's voice interrupted my thoughts. I didn't realize he was right behind me.
I scoffed and brushed past him only to feel his hand on my wrist. I pulled it away and turned to face him, my fists clenched beyond color at my sides.
"I don't need any of your so-called wisdom, old man." I snarled. Jack continued, ignoring me.
"As for the location of your heart, I have no idea. If you've ever had one you must have dropped it down a garbage disposal."
The nerve of some people. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe someone shoved it down there?"
"I did." He nodded solemnly, "but if that were the case then you would at least be able to recognize what love is."
I narrowed my eyes before turning and walking away. The last thing I needed right now was Jack's ostentatious bullshit. What I needed was to get this over with, but Blacker was slow in obliging. I guessed that he would come at sunset. Later, maybe, but not earlier.
Maybe Jack was right. I didn't even like my wife until she got herself killed. What did I know, really?
Nothing. But that was okay, because pretty soon it wouldn't make a difference. I stalked into the living room—if you could even call it that—angrier than I'd been in awhile. A whet stone and a hunting knife lay on the floor where Duo had left them. I kicked them under the couch and heard the satisfactory clunk of the objects hitting the wall violently.
The satisfaction didn't last very long at all, though.
From the kitchen I heard the wheelchair ramp to the front door creak.
"What do you want, Andrew?" The voice belonged to Jack, I could tell that raspy voice from anyone's, even if I were deaf.
"You know what I'm here for, Jack. You're harboring a convicted criminal."
"He's not convicted of shit, Andrew, and you know it."
"You know as well as I do that he killed the Nevarro boy. You have nothing to say about that?"
"What if I had shot him?" Jack snarled, his voice a low growl, and with a shock I realized he was speaking in English. Why would he be speaking to anyone in English, besides me? "If I weren't in this damn chair it could have just as easily been me who shot him."
"Then I'd bust your ass, too. You know it." I heard someone spit.
"You're a disgrace, Andrew."
"No, you're the disgrace. You're keeping some weirdo foreigner war criminal. Don't think I don't know who he is."
"It's none of your business. Go away." Gee, how familiar. My own words echoed harshly in my head.
"Just hand him over."
There was a pause, and for a moment I was sure Jack would let him in.
"What do you think she would say if she saw the way you're behaving now?" Jack's voice was so low I almost missed his words.
"Nothing. She's dead, you asshole."
"Get off my property. I have nothing more to say to you, sheriff." The title came off Jack's tongue like the worst of taboo insults.
"Just you wait, Jack. When the time comes, I suggest you stay out of the way. That boy is nothing but trouble. Get him out of town or stay the fuck out of the way tonight."
After a little while, Jack wheeled himself to the doorway to see me staring at him.
"You're on your own, Chang." He said firmly, and he wheeled himself right back out again. I heard the screen door slam behind him as he went to man his shop.
"Nothing new there," I muttered to the empty room.
"Wufei Chang. You are under arrest for the murder of Jesús Nevarro. Kneel on the ground with your hands on your head."
"Why incite the law if you aren't going to follow it?" I hissed.
"What did you say, cabrón?"
He heard me just fine, the creep. I looked around the field where I'd chosen to meet the people who wanted to do me in. I figured if I was going out there was no use in letting Jack's pitiful excuse for a shack get destroyed in the process. About ten burly Mexicans were spaced around me. A few had bats or brass knuckles or toothpicks. Hey, use whatever you've got. Me? I didn't have anything at all. Like Duo said, I could beat them all with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back. Hicks don't usually know how to fight when they're sober, I've found, and they can't even stand up properly when they're drunk. I had nothing to worry about if I wanted to escape.
But like I said before, I had nowhere to go.
"Get him" Andrew Blacker growled.
I cracked my knuckles, and the lackeys charged. I knocked one out with a foot to his face before I remembered my plan. It turns out it didn't matter much, since in that one moment of hesitation another man hit me in the back of the head with his bat and the fight was officially over.
Even in my semi-conscious state I didn't bother asking where I was. The first thing I noticed was that I was wearing those damn handcuffs again. Not surprising, really.
"You were easier to take than I expected, chico" A hand slid out from the fuzzy darkness and grabbed my chin forcefully. It disturbed me that I couldn't see clearly.
"A bit too easy for a Gundam pilot. What have you got up your sleeve?" He chuckled, "yeah, I know what you are. It's just another reason why you shouldn't be in El Rey. Say something, I know you're awake."
Yeah, barely. The world was dank and swirling like a dirty aquarium. It wasn't supposed to look like that. Despite my resolve a tinge of panic lurked in the base of my throbbing skull. The whole situation seemed somehow a thousand times worse since I couldn't see. The grip on my face tightened before the hand let go and moved to my hair, giving it a hard yank.
"You'll pay for what you did to Jesús, mocoso." He tossed my head forcefully aside and I tilted over, taking the chair I was cuffed to with me. I hit the cement floor with a crack and my vision flashed in blots of white and black. I gasped as a foot intersected with my stomach before it kicked my ribs, knocking me onto my back. My knuckles were pressed painfully into the ground by the chair, but I wasn't really paying attention to that. I was trying to focus on the face inches from mine.
"No noise?" Blacker scoffed, "I suppose this is nothing new for you, oh perfect soldier." His fingers closed around my throat and a few flecks of spittle sprayed onto my cheek from his next venomous words, "I want to make you squeal. I want to break you. I want to watch you sob at my feet for mercy."
Well, he wasn't going to get it. I may have lost my honor, my pride, and countless other things, but I hadn't sunk so low as to wail like a freshly-dumped schoolgirl for a brainless monkey like Blacker. He pulled me and the chair easily into an upright position by my neck.
"And I think I know just how to do it." By this point I was probably turning a glorious shade of blue, but he released my throat and moved one sandpaper hand to my face. I gasped for air—it's a reflex, you know—while his fingers moved slowly across my jaw.
"You're fairly pretty for an Asian, you know?" His smirk disturbed me, "although you look like you're about ten, but that's not really a problem. Nice muscles, pretty eyes." He pulled out my disheveled ponytail, "And when it's not in that asshole-ish tail you've got lovely girly hair."
He buried his fingers in it and in a sudden swoop I could do nothing to avoid he pressed his disgusting, whiskered lips to mine.
A moment later I was on my back again, what little precarious grip I'd regained on my vision gone, but my perfect hearing reveled in Blacker's screaming curses.
"Fuck! You little shit! He bit me!"
You're goddamn right I did, you asshole. Of course, I paid dearly for that, but I'd rather have a thousand broken ribs and a hemorrhaging liver than be kissed by an overweight, middle-aged desert prick.
"Goddamnit I'm bleeding, you little bastard!" He went on and on, screaming, his insults becoming more and more creative before he finally stopped, panting. He leaned over, seized my shirt and lifted me slightly off the ground to whisper a final promise in my ear.
"Voy a matarte, te prometo"
Of course, I had no idea what the fuck he was saying to me. He dropped me back onto the floor. Before he turned to leave I caught a flash of his luminescent watch.
It said 0001.
--end chapter two—
trucizna's miniature dictionary of enlightenment and multiculturalism, chapter two:
que lastima—what a pity
y el amigo de—and the friend of
cabrón—bastard
mocoso—brat
voy a matarte, te prometo—i'm going to kill you, I promise you.
----see? Educational. One should always learn how to say the important things in other languages. Yep.