Milly coughed, feeling the dust and dirt in her mouth, nose and eyes. She blinked, trying to find her way, but the cave was completely dark now. Her head hurt too, a rock had hit it during the second explosion but she ignored it, fear seeping into her bones in the darkness. The electric lights snapped off with a loss of power. She felt two children clinging to her pants and she managed to put her fingers around the collars of their shirts to keep them next to her. But where was Vash? Where were the others? There was at least one more child in this cave and what was going on anyway? Why was anyone blasting in the cave? Coughing, she tried to clear her throat and settle the growing panic from the absolute darkness that surrounded her. "Vash? Are you there?"
The children were starting to panic, one of them was crying, the other clutching so tightly at her leg she felt his fingers digging into her skin. But the pain wasn't a match for the fear that came from getting no response from the gunman. "Vash!"
"I'm here," came a response slowly. Milly sighed with relief, holding the children tightly to her. "Are you okay, Milly? Are the children okay?"
"Yes, I think so… I think I bumped my head… The children seem to be all right. I only have two of them though, there was a third somewhere."
"I have him," Vash said, his voice was closer now, and Milly could hear his footsteps as well. There was a sound of crunching pebbles, it came up to her side, and a hand touched her shoulder. She didn't have time to wonder how Vash managed to find her in the complete darkness, but she was so very glad he did. "Here, I need you to take him, I think he got hit with a falling stone." Milly moved her hands off of the children clinging to her and awkwardly retrieved the little one from Vash's arms.
Satisfied she had all of the children, Milly said, "What are we going to do?"
There was a click and a little light sputtered to life on her left. Vash's face came into view. He held his little lighter up between them. It cast such a small amount of light, it was almost worse than being in the darkness, like the black would overtake them at any moment. "We're going to get out of here," he said slowly. Vash squatted down beside one of the children clinging to Milly's legs, "I need you two to form a chain between me and Milly, can you do that?"
Nodding slowly, the little boy detached a hand and clung to Vash instead, his hand extended to the little girl who kept a hand on Milly. Now they were connected. "Don't let go of anyone," Vash said sternly. He stood up straight again and flicked the lighter closed. The little girl whimpered, but Milly felt her little hand still clutching tightly to her pant leg. "We're going to move in a straight line, follow me, I'll go slow so if anyone feels someone trip or let loose just stop and I'll turn on the light again. But I want to save it in case we may need it later."
A tug at Milly's leg told her they were moving already and she walked forward, step by slow agonizing step. The darkness was incredible. She had gone into caves before and her brothers had turned off their lights to frighten her, but it was only for a few seconds. Never before had she realized how much humans relied on light. Milly wondered how the little blind fish managed, or how people who lost their sight lived without being afraid they'd make a wrong step somewhere.
Vash glanced back, the others seemed to be doing fine, they were walking forward steadily now as he walked through his memory of the cave. Some would think he could see in the dark, but that wasn't necessarily true, he could form a picture memory, coupled with the sounds of breathing, footsteps and the scents of those around him, he knew where everything was in the cave. It would take a long time to travel like this, but it was the safest way. He was worried however, why was anyone using explosives when the caves were closed off? What overzealous miner had come in when there were obviously children within the cave? The second explosion was a cave in, he already knew that their way might be blocked off, but he made no mention of it to the others. No need to worry them.
"Everyone okay back there?" He said as he found the narrow opening to the miner's shaft. "We're going to be going through the skinny tunnel now." The children murmured that they were okay and Milly breathed a sigh as they scooted forward like a little parade through the narrow passageway.
The walk in was much faster than the walk out, and Milly realized that it wasn't unlike being blindfolded. She even closed her eyes, trying to imagine Vash leading her on like he had before. After awhile they managed a nice clip until suddenly Milly's knee bumped the little girl, knocking her over and she fell to her knees with the little one in her arms. "Ouch!"
Vash turned, "You okay Milly?"
"Yeah… I scraped my knee but… Why did you stop?"
"I hear voices."
Milly held her breath, listening, but all she could hear were the fast breaths of the little ones and the scuffling of their feet. She managed to pull herself up and Vash said, "Grab onto Milly again, I'll be right back." There was another hand that clutched Milly's pant leg and footsteps retreating down the small passageway. Milly bit her lip, unable to see anything, trying to comfort herself as much as the little ones, she wasn't quite sure she was doing a good job. And now Vash was gone and they were completely alone.
"Where did Mr. Vash go?" The little girl asked.
"I'm not quite sure, but everything will be fine. Maybe your parents have come looking for you and they'll have lights…" She trailed off as a gunshot echoed off the cave walls. She fell to her knees again, laying the unconscious child in her lap and moving her hands around the two others. "It'll be all right…" They were whimpering and she was trying her darndest not to as well. If only she had thought to bring her stun gun! She shivered, or even her coat… The damp darkness was starting to eat through her pants into her knees.
Footsteps again and a light flickered to life in front of them. "We've got a problem," Vash said. He was followed by two men with flashlights, they held rifles in front of them. Vash slowly turned, his hands up in front of him.
"Well lookee here, we've got company, Zan."
"Seems we do, Yast." The two men cackled between each other. "I don't think they've got any bounties on them though."
Vash grimaced. More bounty hunters. Would the line of them never end? If only he could prove to the government that he hadn't caused Lost July… Or the death of Revenant Vasquez… No luck there and here were two overzealous hunters seeing double dollars… "Let them go and I won't fight."
Yast and Zan looked at one another. Zan turned, shrugged, "Sounds good, only one problem, cave's collapsed. There's a tiny hole out… That's it… Unless we blast again," he grinned, holding a stick of dynamite. Vash didn't lower his hands although if the children and Milly hadn't been there he would have easily tackled both men to the ground and gotten them out of there within a matter of minutes. The only problem was, they were just too unstable and in the darkness he didn't want to risk the lives of the innocents.
"If it's a small hole," Milly said slowly, "Then maybe the kids can get out?" She was hopeful and the two bounty hunters looked at each other again, Yast scratched his head with his flashlight and then they nodded.
"Okay, sounds fair," Zan waved his flashlight, "Girl, you and the kids in front. Yast, you behind them, the Stampede in the middle and I'll follow up to make sure you don't do anything funny." Milly got to her feet and with the girl and boy still clutching to her legs, she started forward, glad for the little light from the flashlights. The walk seemed almost longer though; knowing one of the rifles was only inches from her back.
Vash saw Milly tense as Yast's gun touched her, pushing her to walk faster. He wanted to slug him for worrying her… And as soon as she and the children were safe he decided he would. It didn't take them very long to see, however, that the bounty hunters were right, the hole was tiny. Only one little shaft of light marked the entrance to the cave. They stopped at the incline and could hear people on the other side, already digging to open up the hole. "All right," Zan said, coming around the group and dragging the little girl from Milly. "Get up there."
The little girl squirmed, broke free and dashed up the little hill, struggled at the hole and after a moment there were people on the other side shouting, sounds of shovels, and suddenly she disappeared. The boy was next, he ran up and managed to get out faster, "Hey! Is everyone all right in there!"
"We're okay!" Milly shouted back, looking down at the little one in her arms, "Only this one bumped his head!" She turned and looked at the bounty hunters to make sure she could walk up the little hill to put the last child through and they didn't make a move to hurt her. Milly managed to hand the last one through. There were voices on the other side, saying they would open up the hole very shortly, and to wait just a little while longer. No one asked for any other children, and Milly was glad, she was almost worried there had been more in the cave missing…
"Come back here," Yast said suddenly, he yanked Milly back down the hill and she fell on her face in the dirt. "We need you for leverage so he doesn't clobber us the moment you're out of the way…"
Vash would have sworn out loud, but he kept his hands up in front of him and plastered an innocent look on his face. These guys had brains after all. Yast's gun was pointed at Milly as they waited patiently for the hole to open and faces of adults started appearing. The first man who aimed a flashlight into the cave swore and backed away, "They've got guns in there!"
"That's right!" Zan yelled. "Don't do anything funny, I'm coming out with our hostages!" Taking a hold of Milly's hair, he yanked her forward. Zan backed out of the hole with his rifle in front of him, her hair in one hand, that barrel just too close for comfort. She swallowed… If only Vash would do something! But maybe everything would be okay, right? Milly had seen Vash get out of worse situations and even though she had never been a part of it, she had faith he'd keep her safe too… And where was Meryl? She hoped her senpai would be there somewhere, it would make her feel so much better.
Out into the sunshine, Zan grabbed Milly around the waist, the rifle to her head. "Don't anyone do anything funny! All right Yast, bring him out!" Milly could only listen as more scrambling was heard as she assumed Vash was coming out of the hole followed by the other bounty hunter. Her eyes scanned the crowd watching, and her heart leapt with joy, there was Meryl! Thank goodness! Meryl was fuming and the target for that anger seemed to be Mr. Priest who was standing near her, smoking a cigarette and watching curiously.
"Okay Zan, I got 'em!" Yast pushed Vash up into Milly's view now and she glanced over to him. He was silent, hands up in the air again, following obediently. Yast was looking around, "Where's big brother and cousin Moe?"
The sheriff stepped out of the crowd, "We've got them. Don't do anything stupid, fellas. Let the lady go."
Milly felt the gun barrel press harder into her temple. She swallowed. Zan shook his head, "Not until we get our bounty for Vash the Stampede."
"A wanted man can't turn in a wanted man, Zan," the deputy murmured, looking up from his notepad. "Let her go now and we'll reduce the sentence you're going to get for destroying private property, trespassing and taking two people hostage."
"But this is Vash the Stampede!" Yast screeched, suddenly realizing that their plan was going down the tubes very quickly. "He's a wanted man, a criminal even bigger than we are!" He cocked the trigger on his rifle, "Dead or alive!"
Milly swallowed and three things happened very suddenly. Vash was a blur as he raised his hand sending the rifle flying, Zan let her go, and Mr. Wolfwood dashed into the fray. Vash bent backwards as the priest sent his cross flying into a semi circle that knocked out Yast, came flying toward Zan, and Milly fell to her knees to avoid being clobbered by the heavy gun as well. Both bounty hunters were out like lights in a matter of seconds and Vash put one hand backwards in his arch and pushed himself back straight. Milly just sat on her knees blinking as Meryl ran up to her to see how she was. "Your head is covered in blood!" Her friend said, but Milly hardly heard it.
Her mouth dropped open as Meryl hugged her and then she smiled faintly, "I need a nap…" she said as she gracelessly passed out.