Blood-stained Black Roses
Chapter One—Dead City
Kiki's pre-chapter notes: Okay, some of you may recognize this as a revamped chapter of my fic "Slayer City". Well, you'll be right. My friends Akkiko and Laura brought up SC a few weeks ago, saying that I should get back to writing it; well, I wasn't happy with the story at all (then again, I was still new at writing fanfiction when I started writing SC), so I decided to put it through a complete overhaul.
So now the characters aren't OOC, and the writing is much more solid (at least I think so). All that was left was to give it a new title that wasn't as cheesy as "Slayer City"
Thus comes the completely abstract title "Blood-stained Black Roses". Don't ask where it came from, I have absolutely no idea. (It just seemed to. . .fit, you know?)
So please enjoy, and if you have any questions/concerns/comments please leave them in a review.
Duo and Heero were driving down the road in a tank. They had just finished a mission, and were now going back to their camp. Quatre, Trowa and Wufei were in the tank behind them. Why they had left him with Duo, Heero didn't know. Luckily, he wasn't thinking suicidal thoughts. Or homicidal thoughts. Yet.
"Hey, Heero do you like cats?" Duo asked suddenly.
Heero stared. "Pardon?"
"Do you like cats?"
He rolled his eyes. ". . . No."
"Why not?"
"Duo—shut up."
"Heh, why are you always so socially challenged?" Duo played with the end of his braid.
"Because I had lousy childhood; now drop it." Heero tightened his hands on the steering wheel of the tank. Yes, his childhood had been lousy . . . but then, whose life hadn't in this time?
Duo fell silent, surprisingly. He was thinking about his own childhood. It had only been happy for a few months, but that had been enough . . . Duo blinked.
"Hey, Heero, what are you going to do after the war is over?" he asked.
Heero was surprised the question, too surprised to even be annoyed. "I . . . don't know," he answered. "I'll probably go back to school. And you?"
Duo suppressed a snort. Heero was actually being conversational? How strange . . . "I think . . . I think I'd like to settle down somewhere, get a job, and eventually get married."
Heero stared. "You?"
Duo nodded. "Yeah. I want to have a family. I want to give my kids a safe place to live, and I . . . I want to make it so their lives aren't anything like mine." Duo was looking out the window, unable to look at Heero, who was staring at his friend.
Heero shook his head. Duo was being serious? How strange.
Suddenly the radio in the tank crackled. "This is Quatre. Look out the left window."
Heero and Duo turned. "What the—"
There was a little town on the horizon. Apparently it was being bombed—judging from the plumes of smoke billowing on the wind, and the bubble-like explosions. But by who? They were supposed to be the only soldiers in the area . . . come to think of it, there wasn't even supposed to be a town nearby.
Heero clicked on their end of the radio. "This is Heero. Let's go and check out what's going on."
"Roger," came Trowa's voice.
The two tanks pulled off the road and started going cross-country. As they entered the city limits, they cut the speed of the tanks and Heero poked his head out. The city was decimated, all right, although many of the buildings were still standing; however, it was apparent from the grunge and broken windows that no one inhabited them anymore.
"Strange . . ." Heero said. "The bombs stopped as soon as we got here."
"Yeah," Duo said below him. "It's almost like someone was trying to lure us here." The two of them looked at each other uneasily.
Quatre had gotten out of his tank and was looking around at the destroyed buildings. "Who would go this far?" he asked, his eyes filling with despair and sadness. "Who knows how many people were killed with all those explosions."
"None," said a wheezy voice behind them. Heero pulled out a gun, as did Trowa.
There was an old man who must have crept out of a destroyed side alley after they had stopped. His clothes were filthy, and his face was smudged with ash. There was a bandage wrapped around his head, and that was grey with dirt and had some blood leaking through. "None were killed. They have all fled underground."
"What?" Duo asked. "What the hell are you talking about? And how can you still be calm when you have two guns faced at you?"
The man shrugged. "After the things I have seen, I couldn't be afraid of these things . . . I would welcome death, in fact."
Trowa shot a glance at Heero and lowered his gun. Heero hesitantly did the same. The man sighed.
Quatre took a step forward. "Why did you set those bombs off? Why would you do this to your own city?"
The old man shrugged. "This city is cursed. Blowing it up won't hurt it." He turned to Duo. "As for why the citizens are hiding underground, it is the only place that is safe anymore."
"Safe from what?" Trowa asked.
"The undead." The old man shuddered. "The city agreed to set off explosives while the adults and children hid underground. They sent the old to set off the bombs."
Quatre paled. "That's . . . inhuman!"
"As I said, laddie, after the thing's these old eyes have seen, death is welcome. Besides, only those who volunteered were sent."
"What do you mean, undead?" Heero asked.
Wufei rolled his eyes. "He means ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night."
The old man glared. "I mean Vampires and Zombies and other Evil Spirits of the Damned. They have plagued this town for ages since the war started." He started to sway, and then collapsed. Duo ran forward and caught him.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked. The old man reminded him, slightly, of the old priest that had taken care of him when he was only eight years old.
"I . . . am very tired. Find . . . the Slayer . . . tell her . . . that help has arrived . . ."
"Help? From who?"
"I think he means us, Duo," Heero said quietly.
The other pilots stared. "Us?"
The old man shuddered; his eyes closed, and then he lay still. Duo lay him down gently. This wasn't the first time someone had died right beside him, and it probably wasn't going to be the last time.
"That poor fool," Wufei commented. "He died believing in fairy tales." He turned to go back to the tank.
"Wait, Wufei," Heero said. "We should look around for survivors. Or, if he was telling the truth, we should look for the underground hideaways."
Quatre nodded. "It's the only right thing to do."
Wufei sighed. "All right. So, are we splitting up?"
"Not exactly." Heero opened a panel on the side of the tank to reveal a compartment. It was filled with an assortment of weapons. "If there's anything around that wants to kill us, we should be watching each other's backs."
The boys each chose their guns, and continued on foot to what had once been the city's Central Square. From there they parted. Quatre and Trowa went one way, and Duo and Wufei went another. Heero, unsurprisingly, started off alone
"I thought you said we should watch each other's backs!" Duo protested.
Heero shrugged. "I can take care of myself." And off he went.
Duo was now glowering beside Wufei. "Take care of himself. Yeah right! That stupid baka-mono's going to get himself killed!"
Wufei chuckled. "Relax, Duo. Heero is no spring chicken to this."
"Yeah, but what if that old guy was right? What if there are vampires and zombies out here?"
Wufei punched his shoulder none-too-lightly. "Don't tell me you're starting to believe in ghost stories."
Duo shuddered. "Why do I have a feeling we just stepped into one?"
Quatre made his way through the smouldering buildings that were lying collapsed in the street. He was thinking again.
'What could be so horrible that it would make people go underground and destroy their homes?' he thought as he pushed aside a half-burned door of a house. He walked into one room and screamed.
Trowa came running right away, buster rifle raised. "What happened?" he called as soon as he saw Quatre.
Quatre was being violently sick just outside the room. He wiped his mouth. "D-don't go in there," he said, and stumbled out of the house.
Trowa watched him, concerned, and went over to the room. Pushing the door aside with a creak, he paled as his stomach turned. There was a little girl sprawled out on the floor, her eyes open and glassy. She looked unmarked, except for the fact that her throat had been torn out and was now lying all over the room.
Heero felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Someone was watching him. To his shame, he felt himself shudder. There was something seriously wrong with this town. The tension in the air bogged everything down, so that even Heero felt himself moving slower, and even more cautiously than usual.
The sky remained an overcast granite, the sun failing to poke through. The air crackled with electricity. 'It's going to rain later,' Heero thought dully, kicking at a bit of fallen statue. He was in what had once been a park, but the grass was brown, and the small playground was rusted. No one had played here for a very long time.
Heero recalled the old man's words. 'This city's cursed . . . everyone is hiding underground . . .' How long could they have been hiding from this so-called curse? What could have happened here?
Heero sighed; so many unanswered questions. It annoyed him.
Something cracked behind him. He spun to look at a nightmare. He started to scream.
Duo heard someone scream from a long way off; somehow he knew it had to be Heero, though they were at least eleven blocks apart. He turned to Wufei. "Let's go!"
Wufei nodded, and the two started running. Wufei sprinted ahead, and Duo stopped for a moment, hair rising on the back of his neck.
'Something's watching us,' he thought.
Before he could turn, something grabbed at his back, raking sharp claws across his flesh. Duo yelled and turned, to come face-to-face with what once could have been a human.
In its day, it would have been a girl, a pretty one even. But now the face was grotesque, like wax held above fire, all melted and wrinkled and greyish-brown. Its hair was stringy and a green-yellow, barely covering the scalp. Its eyes were red and glowing, and when it opened its mouth, it showed long, sharp teeth, stained with red.
Duo raised his gun, stepping back as the thing raised its clawed hands at him once more. He fired, but between one eye-blink and the next, it disappeared, only to grab him from behind. Duo lost his grip on the gun, and the thing pounced on it, tossing it away. Duo was forced on one knee as the thing, once again, moving with inhuman speed, grabbed his neck and leaned down, opening its mouth wide to bite him.
He tried to scream, but couldn't. Suddenly the thing shrieked with mirror-shattering pitch, and let go of Duo. He stumbled away, to stare in horror as something long, wooden and pointed protruded from where the thing's heart was. It shrieked again, then turned to ashes and blew away.
Duo looked past where it had been to a figure in a long black coat. The hood of the coat was up, so that he couldn't see his or her face. The figure was holding a gun with a long barrel, perfect for holding something long and sharp. Duo reached down and picked his gun up, pointing it at the figure. "Who are you?" he asked, trying to keep the hysterics out of his voice. "And what the hell was that thing?"
The person lowered the gun. When she spoke, the voice was low, but unmistakeably feminine.
"We are not safe here," she said. Duo heard screams in the distance, screams that couldn't be human. "They know when one of their own kind is killed. They'll attack this place and kill those who remain." She turned, only to find a sword at her throat.
"Don't move, kisamaa," Wufei said. "Duo, what happened?"
Duo put his gun away. "Relax, Wufei. I think we can trust her." He walked over to where the two were standing. "And I don't really want to be around if more of those things are showing up, so can we please leave?"
"What do you mean, 'more of those things'?" Wufei asked. Duo shook his head.
"Later, man."
Wufei put his katana away with great reluctance, eyeing the woman with suspicion. She made no comment on his aggression, simply brushed past him and started walking briskly. Duo and Wufei followed.
"Wait—one of our friends may be in trouble," Duo said.
"Yes, I heard his scream. He was foolish to travel alone."
"I see you are," Wufei snapped.
"I always travel alone."
"So does Heero."
"Fine. I don't have time to debate with you. We need to get underground. It is almost sunset."
"But what about our friends?"
The girl stopped. "How many of you are there?"
"Three. One may already be dead . . ." Duo's stomach shrunk as he thought of Heero being gone. "The other two are probably on the other side of the city."
The girl reached into her coat and drew out a walkie-talkie. Walking a few paces away, she spoke into it.
"Ash, this is Slayer. Have you seen hide or hair of two soldiers—about sixteen years old?"
The radio crackled as someone spoke into it. "Yep, they're on Snake-Elm Drive. Honestly—could they be any louder? I've already killed two zombies that were tracking them, and I think there are more."
"Bring them in, okay?"
"You want me to approach? I don't know . . . their guns are loaded."
"Use caution. Slayer out." The girl replaced her walkie-talkie and turned back to Wufei and Duo. They were staring.
"Did she call you . . . 'slayer'?" Wufei asked, an eyebrow raised.
The girl nodded. "Why?"
"We have a message for you." Duo said.
Trowa turned, rifle raised as he heard a commotion from an alleyway. Quatre put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't shoot yet. It may be a citizen."
Trowa relaxed . . . slightly. They waited as the commotion got louder, and only raised their weapons again when a shadowy figure emerged from the depths. Quatre almost dropped his gun when the image became clearer.
It was a woman. Not that seeing a woman in a war-torn city was something strange in this time, but this woman was unlike any he had ever seen. She was tall, taller than Trowa, and also holding a buster rifle, pointed away from them. She had a black tank top on, and camouflage pants atop army boots. Around her head was a filthy rag, more to hold back her wild brown hair than anything. Around her left bicep was another rag, and that was bloody. As he studied her longer, Quatre saw that her clothing had tears in it. Pieces of cloth had been ripped away by what seemed to be claws. Big, long, sharp claws.
He thought of the little girl and swallowed. Trowa recovered from her entrance first.
"Who are you, friend or foe?" he asked in that quiet way of his.
The girl brushed her hair back, dark eyes glittering. "My name is Ashna Nightfall; call me Ash if you want. I'm your friend only if you don't fire at me first." She spoke in a cool tone and her face betrayed no emotion. Quatre shivered; 'A female Trowa,' he thought.
Trowa nodded. "Good answer," he said. "Why were you following us?"
"I was making sure you didn't get killed. There were two zombies tracking you; I took care of them."
"How?" Quatre found his voice again, his brain sticking on the word 'zombies'. "We didn't hear any shots fired."
Ashna reached behind herself and drew out some bolas. "I got one around the neck, and the other I staked." Replacing the bolas on her belt she brought out a gun that's barrel was very long. "This baby holds whole stakes, and can kill vampires and zombies in two seconds flat." Popping out the back part, she slid a wooden stake out and held it up for the boys to see.
Both boys felt shivers run down their spine. Ashna was speaking in such a voice that made it seem she was teaching a lesson in a classroom. She was totally expressionless.
Ashna replaced the stake and looked up, all business. "It's not safe to walk the streets right now. The day's almost over, and the zombies will be out looking for victims. Come with me."
She started to turn away, but stopped as Quatre called, "But where are we going?"
Ashna shrugged. "Underground," she said. "The Slayer has invited you."
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I claim copyright only to the plot, Ashna Nightfall and "the Slayer", who is to be named next chapter.
