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Finally it's posted…please review! I'm in review withdrawl!! --------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER ELEVEN: BELIEVE IN UFOs (cont1) Pacing in a circle about the abandoned campsite, Vash felt nauseous. The suns set and moons arrived to fill a night sky; still he paced. His boot treads left deep scrapes in the sand as his feet dragged anxiously along. Both his eyes and lower lip were quivering slightly to compliment steady rivers of tears. Face and back sticky in a cold sweat, he heaved sighs and useless whines into the void surrounding him. Suddenly, that familiar pang hit his mind like a bolt of icy light. "Knives!" he gasped, face snapped in the direction of May. He flailed his arm behind him, reaching for his bag. His fingers met the strings and whipped the cylindrical pack over his shoulder. Vash disappeared into the night, awkward stumbles occasionally sending dusts of sand into the stale air behind him. Hal's head fell to Suze's feet. Eyes widened in horror, she knelt down to cradle his lifeless body. "Hal…you're going to be okay…" she whispered desperately, mind shut off from the truth of his decapitated form. Hovering over her, Knives stood swaying. Broken handcuffs dangled from his right wrist; twisted slices of the other cuff lay fresh on the floor to his left. "I…am NOT his son…" he stammered, blinking glazed eyes. He couldn't feel the floor beneath him, as if gravity was nothing. Behind him was the soft visitor's chair he vaguely recalled being asleep in. That was before these meddling humans slapped cuffs on him and started their ridiculous accusations. He swung his head slowly around, trying to focus yet feeling dizzy where he stood. The Agency Investigators' guns and rifles were scattered about, lost in tiny blood splatters. Knives steadied himself against the wall and leaned towards the bed. It was all white. Where was Vanessa? A nurse halted in the doorway and began to scream for help. Someone else yelled something about Vash's kids going crazy. "I am not his child," Knives whispered, attempting to find Vanessa with his gaze. A random group of men with guns rushed into the room and took aim at Knives. "You bastard! How'd you do this!?" they shrieked, staring in horror at Hal's dissected corpse and Suze. Suze was in pure shock now, completely unaware of the bloody stump where her arm once resided. Knives looked up, and sent blades to carve these vermin into perfect slices. 'Medical personnal…I shouldn't kill them…' his mind told him. 'Vanessa needs them…Vanessa…where…' But havoc had already broken out, and people were flying into the street to recruit brave souls. "Vash's son's on the loose! Kill him now, we'll figure out a bounty later!" "Did you hear that, Meryl?" Millie asked, craning her neck towards the road. Meryl lifted her head. "…Uh, oh..." People began to leap into the station, rushing the ticket seller as if rabid. Everyone seemed to be shouting urgently, and Millie and Meryl tried to pick up on the details from their seats. Apparently, Vash's evil children, much in keeping with their father's legend, were on a rampage. The hospital was ground zero, and people were evacuating the other patients. However, it was said that nearly no one could leave the building. The place reeked of blood and with the exception of a few hundred strong arms in May, everyone was trying to get as far away from the city as possible. They assumed that an explosion in July style should be occurring at any moment. Conductors thrashed their arms, shouts lost in the hum. They indicated for all ticket holders to board immediately. Tickets were running out fast, and soon as they were gone the steamer would shove off. Meryl and Millie, desperate to help, moved to the entrances and helped the elderly and weakened aboard. Otherwise, there was danger of people being crushed in the rash surge of humans. The rush tapered off to a safer trickle, and Millie ran to Meryl. "What should we do?" she asked, scared, but feeling too helpless. Meryl frowned. "He told us to board the sand steamer. This is Knives, after all – we don't stand a chance against him…" "I'd hate to disobey Mr. Vash, too, ma'am, but…" Millie's eyes began to water. "Last call! All aboard!" a man yelled frantically. "Well…I know, Millie. I just don't think we have a choice." She grabbed her rolling suitcase handle and felt the tickets in her pocket. Slowly, they marched towards a sand steamer boarding ramp. As they moved past, they noticed the 'Sold Out' sign dangling crooked in the ticket booth window. People all around were arguing, yelling to find another way out of this Hell. A steamer worker tossed two ragged kids from the door. Their eyes were wide with distress, hugging at each other as they scrambled to their feet. "No ticket, no seat!" the man was yelling, turning back inside the steamer. Millie turned to gaze anxiously to Meryl. Reaching for the tickets, Meryl responded by handing Millie her own. "We'll each have to decide for ourselves this time. You do what you think is right, and I will, too." She gripped her ticket fiercely, the words of her promise to Vash ringing in her mind. 'Where is he?' Vanessa wondered, flattening herself from view along the alley wall. Dropping her cloak carefully at her feet, she reached to adjust the cloth about her head, making sure her ears and face were properly hidden. Satisfied, she bent to retrieve her cloak again, hugging it and its precious contents to her chest. Inside were several vials of the eye solution she would need most of all. She wore her purple dress, cleaned but still cut at the back. It was her hope that when the shouts about her indicated Vash's location in May, she could go there and let him recognize her by the purple dress. Otherwise, she was hardly herself. Vanessa held her breath and strained to hear the voices about her. Most of what she heard was too frantic to mean anything, and now the voices were far fewer. She guessed that panic was spawned by Vash; it was his typical fashion to evacuate a town through acting. A soft chuckle slipped past her lips, as she envisioned him waving that gun around, giving a speech about a daily massacre. But where was he performing? A man was walking towards the alley, close enough for Vanessa to address without tripping. "Excuse me, sir, where is Vash the Stampede? I need to know which direction to run from." It came out a little less frantic than she'd hoped, but at least she indicated some sort of fear. The man didn't reply at first. He was confused. "Vash? Sweetheart, no! It's not Vash." "Um…who is everyone afraid of, then?" she asked, throat suddenly feeling dry. "His kids! They're killing people in the hospital left and right! Those folks from the Agency told us they were dangerous, but…sheesh! Couldn't they have picked a better way to catch them? This is a disaster! But, sweetheart, you need to hurry away, before the explosion! Come with me, I'll make sure…" Vanessa shook her head. "I've got a ride already, thanks," she responded, wandering dizzy back through the alley. Knives was completely out of it when she'd snuck out. 'How could he have woken so soon?' she wondered. 'Agency people? Who? Could they have…? Oh, no; he's been provoked…and he's got to be reeling from the medication…' Deeply hidden in the alleyway, Vanessa slid down the wall, leaning back on her heels. Her wounds were throbbing worse than ever, and that migraine had resurfaced behind her eyeballs. She breathed deeply, hoping for her body to lend a bit more energy. 'God, please let him pass out soon,' she prayed. 'Please give me the strength to get back there, somehow…And to sedate him again, to keep him from killing anyone…else…' She rested her covered, bandaged face against her palm. 'What now? It's all my fault…How can I right this? What have I…done…' |
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