Desert Shadow

By: Sophie5 (Pai-Chan)

Chapter 5

"Warriors are Born"

Gohan swore under his breath as he raced to get to Pepper City. He hated leaving his mother behind so suddenly, but when he'd gotten the message on the radio he could not just stand by and do nothing! It didn't matter if he were several thousand miles from the city, but that he had to at least try and get there and possibly stop their reign of terror on the people.

He was a little over halfway there, realizing that it would take him too long to get there and that he would probably be too late to do anything when he got there.

"Dammit! I've gotta try! I can't let them win against the human race!" Gohan declared, speeding up in the process.

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Nina's eyes struggled to open, but the pain was too fierce against her nerves. For some unknown reason, it was difficult to breathe. She absent-mindedly wiped the back of her hand over her eyes, feeling her own blood on her flesh. Finally she opened her eyes and was surprised to see that it was still bright daylight, but the building she was in was dark. The only light was the sunlight flooding in through the opening Nina had crashed through.

Coughing from the dust, she moaned in irritation. "I feel dead." she whispered harshly to herself.

Forcing herself to rise up from off her back, Nina noticed that there was a huge rock lying on her stomach, making it nearly impossible to get up. This was also the cause of the lack of air coming into her lungs for it was crushing her lungs. If she didn't get the stone off soon, she'd suffocate to death.

During her struggle, Nina choked out blood and the sight of it splattering onto the boulder caused her to turn her head and vomit. The abrasive move caused one of her broken ribs to jab into the side of her lung and she coughed out more blood, followed by vomiting again. Afterwards, she took in a huge breath, sucking in the clean air through her nostrils. Nina's eyes widened in fear and she slapped a hand over her mouth immediately, fighting to push the rock off her body. Tears streamed down her face until she finally shoved the boulder off herself and threw up right in between her legs, sobbing soon afterward.

The smell of death overwhelmed her. There was so much of it in the air that it revolted her. "I feel dead." Nina whispered again, feeling the sweat slide down her neck and back.

Her knees were weak and the strength to stand seemed to allude her, but Nina summoned the will to force herself to rise. When the young girl gained her footing, she viewed her surroundings with a cautious eye. Nina's heart thumped heavily against her chest as her ribs ached with pain. She spat, blood flying to a nearby rock while cursing at her injuries.

I bet I look beautiful! rang Nina's sarcastic thoughts.

Her eyes caught sight of the hole she had smashed through when the killer Android had slapped her. Nina took note of the iron bars poking out through the eight-inch concrete walls and how all the rubble was scattered both inside the building and outside the hole as well. She could feel a lump well up in her throat as she tried to take in slow breaths of air, but the shock was too great.

I went through that and survived! That's just not humanly possible! I hit that wall with my head! I should be dead right now! Nina's hand touched her chest, as if automatically in response to her thoughts. Is it because of the alien blood in me?

As she walked toward the hole she'd created, a tiny squeak filled the quiet emptiness. Her eyes squeezed shut and her muscles stiffened as she prepared for an onslaught. But none came. Nina opened one eye warily, looking over her shoulder for some being to lash out from the shadows. Sighing with relief, her eyes fell to the floor and she soon figured out where the noise had come from. Lifting up her foot slowly, Nina saw that she'd stepped on plush, children's doll that was shaped into a dog that wore a bright orange shirt. Without really thinking, she picked it up and examined the blue doll further.

"I'm..."

Despite the pain, she craned her neck to look over her shoulder back into the store.

"in a toy store?" Nina finished.

She was about to leave, immediately resuming her search for her grandfather and Kasumi, praying that her grandmother had found them. But another part of her forced her to stay and see if there were any other survivors. Veering away from the damage she'd caused, she turned around and viewed the destruction brought about by the Androids. Nina's eyes fell onto the overturned shelves of toys and debris cast across the checkout counter. She looked up and saw that the ceiling had collapsed, which explained the broken slabs of rock scattered everywhere in the store. As she brought her eyes back down to look around once more, Nina gave a shrill gasp of horror.

Under the huge pile of ceiling rocks were the arms of the innocent citizens of Pepper City. The upper parts of their arms were sticking out of the rubble, flesh stripped away on some parts, revealing the bone. The hand's fingernails were torn away, as though the person were clawing madly at the sky, trying to free themselves from their prison of rubble. The rocks were sprinkled inside the open flesh and Nina's acute sight could define every line of tissue and vein inside their arms. She slowly averted her eyes to another area and was even more disturbed when she saw a woman's hand and a man's hand, cut and scraped, gripping onto the tiny hands of a toddler's.

Nina felt her knees give in as she collapsed onto the ground, trembling in fear. Her tears descended endlessly down her face as she wailed in agony, shielding her ears and shaking her head as though to shake the image away. She heard someone kick a rock outside somewhere, but she no longer cared.

"N-no." she sobbed.

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

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Trunks looked around the ravaged ruins of what once stood the grand metropolis known as Pepper City. Now it looked no different than where the Android's had first struck, nine miles southwest of South City. It was a complete ghost town now; buildings still continuing to crumble as it admitted its miserable defeat to the mechanical demons of that era.

He slowly walked up the streets, viewing the mass obliteration. He halted in front of what he assumed to have once been a toy store. Trunks looked around and saw the bodies of all the people of Pepper City, some residents and some not. The number of dead people seemed myriad and the sight of it caused the demi-Saiyan to quaver with anger.

Just as he was about to walk the rest of the way up the street, his foot touched something. Trunks looked down and saw that it was a plush brown rabbit wearing a red jumper dress. His heart seemed to sink and thus, he kneeled down and gently scooped up the doll in his palm. Tears brimmed his eyes as he saw where it had come from and who the bunny belonged to. Not too far away from where he'd found the doll he saw its owner.

Part of her anyway.

It was a little girl's hand that had probably been blown away from an unknown energy blast.

The demi-Saiyan felt his shoulders shake uncontrollably, crying profusely at the massacre that lay before him. He fell completely to his knees, slamming his fist onto the ground as he continued to cry in sorrow.

"How! How can they enjoy killing all of these innocent people!"

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Nine curled her lips into an angry sneer as she took in what Android Seventeen and his sister had done. The full effect seemed to wash over her in one fail swoop of anguish. The body count was too great and even though her programmed calculator could approximately give the number of deaths, she placed that function on lockdown for the time being because the number was not important.

The ferocity of it was enough to turn her iron stomach.

"Seventeen's gone too far this time." she snarled, making her way towards the middle of the city. "How dare he eliminate an entire population just to get my attention!"

Her acute hearing caught the sound of a boy whimpering to her right about fifty feet away. Making her way to the sound, she scowled at the utter ruin Seventeen and his sister had left in their wake. As she went around a large slab of rubble, she saw a young boy, about 14, kneeling down on the ground. His tears fell incessantly as he clutched a plush doll in his hands. Focusing her eyes, she could make out the shape of a rabbit wearing a red jumper dress. Nine walked towards him, not bothering to silence her footsteps. The boy suddenly stopped sobbing, his breathing now hushed. His eyes gazed over at her, a pale blue like her own, while his lavender hair clung to the bridge of his nose.

As she got closer, she noticed that he had not moved from his kneeling position at all. He was there; frozen in time as he watched her come closer to him. Once beside him, Nine took the time to make sure that her cloak was securely covering the Red Ribbon Army insignia stitched into her pants. The boy looked up at her, his tear-stained face glistening in the sunlight. Nine slowly removed her hood to show that she meant no harm. His shoulders relaxed just slightly and she responded by giving him a small smile. She leaned forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, nodding to him in empathy.

The boy's mouth opened slightly, as if he were going to say something to her. But no words came out. Nine straightened up again, replacing the hood over her head, and walked straight out of the city. She balled her hands into tight fists, enraged at the pain these Androids were causing to innocent people.

Stopping just outside the city, she looked up into the sky. I won't let them get away with this! They've gone too far and so I'll make sure that they die...slowly.

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Trunks didn't know how to react to the kind stranger who'd comforted him in his moment of anguish. At first he thought it was one of the Androids coming back to make sure the job finished and if there were any survivors. He was prepared to fight them until his last breath. But when the young woman removed her hood to reveal that there was no need for hostility, he calmed his nerves. Perhaps the woman was searching for her loved ones in this pile of refuse the Androids had created.

Trunks couldn't forget the look in her eyes when she held his shoulder. It was almost like she was telling me that everything was going to be okay and that she understood my agony.

He lifted the plush bunny up to his tear-stained face, inhaling the bittersweet aroma of daisies from the little girl and ash from the energy blasts.

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Nina slowly drug her duffel bag down the stairs, flinging a container of kerosene in every direction. The putrid smelling liquid sprayed onto the walls, floor, and ceiling of the house. Rocky barked frightfully, baffled by his master's actions and somewhat inquisitive as to why she'd returned home alone.

Nina's heart felt so heavy that it was amazing how she was able to walk at all. The blood was still caked onto her skin and Nina hadn't bothered to shower and change her clothes. It just didn't matter at that moment. She reached the bottom of the stairwell and paused, taking in the surroundings of her country home. Everyone was dead now. She had no remnant of the past to hold on to.

Nina walked toward a cabinet where the family portrait was encased. It was a small photo of her grandparents, her parents, and Kasumi. Throwing the remaining bit of kerosene out into the kitchen, she removed the picture from the cabinet and smashed the glass covering of the frame. She took the picture out of the frame and placed it inside of her duffel bag, Rocky's incessant barking echoing in her mind. As Nina made her way toward the porch screen door, she took one last look in the house and sighed. She let Rocky out and he chased his tail for a few moments out in the front yard, Nina locking the door behind her.

After she rubbed Rocky behind the ears, Nina searched her pockets and pulled out a lighter and ignited it. She hurled the lighter behind her and heard it smash through a window, the house exploding into flames as she attempted to quell her dog's fears. They walked side by side away from the burning house, her thoughts suddenly replaying everything that had happened that day. But what she couldn't get out of her head the most was the young boy cradling Kasumi's birthday gift.

Her eyes narrowed. He even shed tears for her, as though it was his own little sister that had been murdered. I won't forget his kindness for as long as I live.

The dark-haired man's face and cruel smile flashed through her mind for only a second. She shifted the weight of her duffel bag onto her other shoulder, gripping onto the strap until her knuckles burned white. I...will never forget that guy's face. Nina thought, a small tear falling down her cheek.

I won't stop living until they're dead. They will die by my hands!