Okay, this chapter holds a little bit of gore again... but I figured that sadly this fic can;t do without. Cause I need to write about them being haunted in the forest and being cornered and stuff so I can't do without the gore.. sorry. But it really isn't that bad!

The Forsaken

Chapter 3

'Guys?' Duo whined.

'...'

'I'm hungry…' He pleadingly continued. They had been walking for two days straight. No sign of civilisation and no sign of hope for that matter. Trowa had just been threading onwards, sort of leaving the rest in his wake. WuFei had stayed surprisingly strong, even though his blindness showed no sign of improvement or disappearing. He feared for the outcome. He knew WuFei was strong and would not allow anyone to see what he truly felt, but he knew permanent blindness would break him.

Heero for that matter seemed determined to restore his pride and Trowa's faith in him. Resulting in him trying to advise Trowa which way to go. Which of course ended up in argument since Trowa did not intend on taking advise from anyone. Not even Quatre, whom he had been carrying for all those miles.

The bleeding had stopped, but only because an infection closed off the wound, it didn't look good. Quatre was pale and weak and sometimes his voice would falter or he would loose consciousness for several hours.

His ankle still hurt like hell, but he felt so selfish and like such a wussy, seeing how both Quatre and WuFei refused to give up.

'We will rest for an hour.'

Duo was grateful. An hour, Trowa must be in a good mood. Of course Heero had to ruin it.

'It be best if we continued walking up to those rocks.' He raised his arm slowly to point at the rocks about two hundred meter away from them. 'It's a good shelter and if we climb to the top we may be able to spot rivers or ponds.'

'We rest here. It is useless to go to those rocks! Look at the trees surrounding us! We'll never be able to look past them!'

'At least we'll be safe there.' Heero said, obviously restraining himself. He tensed and clenched his fists, trying not to raise his voice.

Duo didn't even care anymore, he just plopped down on the muddy ground letting out a long sigh. Closing his eyes he focused on the singing of the birds and slowly the angry voices of Trowa and Heero were blocked off. He blamed Hunger for their bad temper, but something told him that competitive guys like Heero and Trowa were more likely to just become feral in situations like these. Looking at them he smiled as they resembled two lions fighting for the right to lead the pack. The smile disappeared thinking of how those fights always got bloody and deadly.

'Guys, let's not fight, the situation is bad enough already.' An exhausted Quatre said. Trowa had set him against a tree. The pale blonde was panting and his eyes shifting.

Worry over their teammates broke them apart and Trowa rushed to Quatres side just before he blacked out again.

Heero went to sit down next to another tree, far from trowa, but, surprisingly, close to Duo. He sighed but the breath he released hitched and he winced. He lifted his shirt up, not noticing the curious look duo gave him and then his chest.

The right side was black and blue. Duo quickly averted his eyes, not wanting to be confronted with the facts. Facts that stated that they won't last for long out here.

WuFei just sat down on the exact same spot he had been standing, not knowing which way to turn anyway.

Too tired to keep his eyes open he closed them and before he knew it Duo drifted off, when he woke up, he found he was all alone.

Terrified he rose to his feet, wincing at the pain but then frantically looking around. The forest had darkened, it was night. The opening in the leave-roof that allowed sunlight in now created eerie spots on the ground and tree trunks as Moonlight floated through them. He looked at the place WuFei had been sitting, he wasn't there. He looked at the tree where Heero sat, no one, just the scary display of light that empathised that no one was there. The tree were Trowa and Quatre was were was abandoned as well.

He started to hyperventilate, never had he been this scared. How could they have left him here to his fate? Or... were they forced to leave! What if OZ found them and left him here as some form of sick amusement!

He placed his hand against the tree, seeking for support. He wasn't sure if it was the overwhelming feeling of loneliness and abandon or the long howl of a wolf that sounded so frightingly close but he just started running. Not giving his foot one single thought. He just ran through the forest in search of... he didn't know, because he knew that no matter how far he ran he will not find his comrades, nor other people for that matter.

He suddenly stopped. Something, a feeling deep in his heart told him to turn around, at the same time it told him he wouldn't like what he would find. But he turned anyway and was even to shocked to scream at the sight before him.

Right before him, bound to the tree he had just passed, was Heero. The rough ropes held his arms above his handing head. His feet were bound to the trunk of the tree, not touching the ground. The ropes were cutting into his wrist. He was bare chested. The gross bruises on his right side clearly visible.

Looking at the other trees not from from where Heero was he saw Quatre, Trowa and WuFei in the same situation. WuFei was the only one of whom he could see the face. His eyes were closed but trail of blood led down his cheeks. As if he had cried crimson tears. It was obvious they were all dead.

Heero's voice echoed through his head. Continuously calling out his name. At first it was far away, but it came closer and closer.

He screamed and closed his eyes when two hands came to lie on his shoulder and shook him.

'Duo?'

Heero's voice, only not hollow this time, filtered through his consciousness. He opened his eyes. The first thing he registered was that it was light and he was sitting. His back against a tree. The second and most welcoming thing was that Heero was crouched right before him, his hands on his shoulders. Though his face betrayed nothing in his eyes swirled a hint of worry.

'Are you okay? You had a pretty bad nightmare.' He monotone voice stated, while he slowly rose to his feet.

'I'm fine.' Duo closed his eyes and took a deep breath before standing up. Looking to the side he could see Trowa looking at him, a sleeping Quatre in his arms. WuFei was also vaguely 'looking' in his direction with a calculating expression.

'Thank God it was just a nightmare.' He softly said. Not even feeling the hunger for the next few hours as he was content to follow Trowa's footsteps.

The rest of the day went on without major incident, even though Heero couldn't help but raise his head a little higher in a cocky manner when he dicided to climb the rocks despite Trowa's protest and spot a small pond not far from them.

Even though the water wasn't that clear and was probably filled with bacteria, they drank it gratefully nevertheless. The only one not to take a sip was Trowa, stubbornly muttering something about the water being a health hazard.

'Where do we go from now?' WuFei asked, being his reasonable and controlled self.

'We just keep heading in the same direction.' Trowa suggested.

'What if that only takes us deeper into the wilderness?'

'Do you have a better idea, Yuy?' Trowa snapped.

'He may not, but I have.'

All heads turned towards WuFei, waiting for him to continue.

'Find food. We'll have new energy and Duo'll stop whining.'

'Thank you very much...' Duo sarcastically replied. Folding his arms across his chest he pretended to be angry, trying to get a laugh out of the others. But that was too much to ask for.

'What do you plan on doing? Trying to catch a bird with your bare hands?' An angry, hungry, frustrated Trowa snapped.

'What do YOU plan on doing? Not eating for weeks?' WuFei retorted.

'Come on, not you two as well!' Duo came between them and pushed Trowa, who had already taken up a defensive stand, away. He didn't want this to end up into an unfair fight.

'We musn't think meat but... berries... uhm fruit... I saw in a show once that even the roots of some trees are quite tasty.' He said with a grin, looking around. Of course he didn't remember what tree that exactly was and he also didn't know which berries were poisonous and which ones weren't, but he was really hungry!

'Fine.'

After that was said they all just stood there, they didn't have a clue of what to do...

'So... Tell me Duo, where is the food?' Trowa stubbornly said, folding his arms across his chest and looking expectantly at him.

Duo growled and rolled his eyes. Oh god, he thought as he heard the bomb ticking inside him again, knowing that if they kept it up, he will explode just like he did with Heero. To lower the pressure building up inside his head he decide to let out a minor boom: 'What's your problem Trowa? All you ever do lately is whine and come up with stupid suggestions that will KILL us!' he threw his hands in the air.

'I'm just trying to get us out of here and you aren't up for the job!'

'Trowa, we need food, we've already eaten what little we took with us from the plane. If we don't eat and drink we're gonna drop downd ead one by one. Is that what you want?'

Trowa rolled his eyes 'Of course not, and I'm not stopping you, am I? Go fetch some berries, do what you see fit!' he pointed in a random direction, motioning him to, if he wanted food, he'd better go now and start searching.

'Fine!' With his hands on his hips he walked off, telling the other to stay where they were while he was gonna 'order' dinner, as if he was walking towards the macdonalds. With a hastened pace he distanced himself from them. He was almost startled to death when a hand came down to his shoulder. Whippings his head around, his face resembling that of a deer caught in a headlight he looked at the person that had sneaked up on him. His face softened, but he was no less surprised as he saw it was Heero who had come after him. Looking back he could already no longer see the other whom they had left at the pond.

'Hey.' He said dumbly.

'Hey, I thought you could use some help. I know a lot about plants.'

Duo rolled his eyes but gave a weak smile no less and continued walking, Heero followed him. 'Heero, you know a lot about everything!' He said, looking around keeping his eyes open for something that even looked remotely edible... god he was hungry. His stomach growled as it agreed.

'Let's not wander off to far.' Heero commented after a few minutes of walking in astraight line, searching for food. He grabbed Duo's elbow to stop him and make him look at him. 'We might get lost.' He explained.

'Of course not!' Duo called out, but he did realise that if they just keot it up like this they wouldn't find anything and then there would be no living with Trowa from then on. 'You know what? We should split up. To double our chances of finding anything.'

'we could get lost.' Heero reapeated.

Duo rolled his eyes, he then grabbed a stone with a sharp edge and marked a tree with a cross. He looked surprised as Heero's hands came to hold him, to stop him from making another mark on another tree. 'What? Don't tell me you gonna start ranting about that trees have feeling too.'

Heero shook his head. 'It's not wise to leave marks that lead back to the path we followed. Remember, we are being followed, by Oz, or maybe even someone worse...'

Duo looked eaningful at his mark and then back at Heero. 'You got a better idea?'

He shook his head.

'Then we'll mark the trees, only so that we can find our way back to the others. C'mon, we won't be gone long!'

Heero sighed, he looked at the mark and then at Duo's pleading face. He gave up. 'Fine.' He grabbed a stone himself and walked off in a different direction. 'Don't eat anything poisonous!' He called back over his shoulder and soon he disappeared in the bushes.

Duo frowned, how the fuck was he supposed to know what was poisonous or not? He just shrugged, he really didn't have all that much faith in finding something anyway. He walked a few yards, looking back once in a while, as soon as his previous mark was almost out of sight, he made a new one. Instead of crosses he now made arrows, pointing in the direction in which he came from. He did inf act realise that heero was right, leaving marks when being hunted was not the best idea... but getting lost on your own wasn't so good either. Besides, he'd be gone for no more then fifteen minutes! What could happen?

His eyes grew wide as he stopped a large plant a few yards away from him, from this point he could see small pink flowers and black berries, fairly large. Grinning he looked back, maybe Heero was in sight, but of course he wasn't so he sprinted up to the plant on his own. He took in the berries, he did remember a saying of berries, which to eat and which not are just fine: white: never; red: sometimes: blue and purple: usually, and black: almost always. So, since these were black, with a little purple shine to them, they should be alright. He grinned victoriously as he picked the berries. And they dared to call him dumb! He lifted the hem of his shirt to create a sort of basket and he ripped off entire branches with the berries and pinkish flowers and gathered them in his make-shift cradle till it was full.

'That should be enough for a snack!' He called out happily, hungry, seriously dying for food he took a handful of the berries and stuffed them into his mouth. They tasted quite bitter, not very nice, but the mere thought of it being food made it seem delicious! He hadn't even realised just how hungry he was till his legs started to wobble. Not wanting to eat more then his share, but also not wanting to pass out he took three more berries and, this time they didn't taste all that bad, since the taste didn't caught him by surprise this time. Strangely, he only felt his head growing lighter and lighter and he even felt the urge to rest, so he did, supporting himself against a tree trunk. He closed his eyes and saw stars dancing before him. He sagged down, with his back still against the trunk till he was sitting on the leaf covered ground. He let go of the hem of his shirt and most of the berries rolled out of his lap. He lay a hand on his stomach as it started to ache. He started to hyperventilate as it got worse and worse till the point where he was so sick it felt like he was on the edge of vomiting, but nothing came out. He coughed and he very well realised that it were the berries that did this. He was sure he got it memorised right! Black was almost always good to eat! He was sure of it! He groaned, realising that this must be the reason why they had said: almost always. Key word: almost. He leaned forwards as he felt sicker and sicker, time seemed to go really fast he couldn't detremine whether it had been ten minutes since Heero left of an hour. He opened his eyes but he was not pleased to notice that he couldn't focus on anything! All was a blur! He suddenly could sympathyse better with WuFei, who still couldn't see a thing after the crash.

'Oh god...' he groaned, pulling his knees up to his chest. WuFei had been right, he did lack the amount of brain. He was stupid, how did he ever made it to being a gundam pilot? On of the five supposedly saviours of the world? Trowa was so smart, he could solve any riddle. Heero was so strong, he would flinch under no circumstances. WuFei was so determined, he won't stop no matter what. Quatre was so loving, he'd keep them together through the worse. What was his part? What good did he do? He made jokes, but no one laughed, he tried to help but no one excepted. He was a burden once again. First with his ankle... now this.

'Shit!' He called and he stomped his foot on the ground with the last bit of power he had in him. He now felt even worse than when he had after he had awoken from his nightmare! This was not his lucky day...

He groaned as he heard footsteps quickly nearing them and harsh panting, wheezing even as a person neared him. Great, the berries could at least have had the dignity to finish him off BEFORE Oz came! He let out a sick, mad man laugh, keeping his eyes closed, his hands still on his stomach. The figure fell down next to him and he could FEEL the person, panting almost painfully seemingly, leaning over him to look at the berries. Then the figure directed it's attention to him.

He opened his eyes half way as he felt two hands strongly gripping his shoulders and shaking him.

'Duo!' He suddenly heard a frim voice from close by yell.

How did Oz no his name?

'Duo! Oh god Duo!'

He could vaguely see the outline of a person, sitting on his knees in front of him. All he saw was a blurry spot of skin colour, some brown, some green and two distuinqtive spots of blue. 'Heero?' He winced as his mouth felt sore...

'Oh god Duo!' The blurry figure reached out a hand and then came back up and held one of the berries in front of his face. 'Did you eat these? Duo! Tell me damnit! Did. You. Eat. These?'

He found the strngth to nod his head once.

'Damnit Duo, I told you to be careful.'

Heero's hand held his face and forced him to look at him. Duo just smiled dumbly, he could no longer think straight...

'Throw up Duo.' Came Heero's commanding voice.

Duo shook his head. He couldn't, for some reason he couldn't.

'Put your fingers in your mouth!' heero ordered impatiently.

Duo chuckled, no wonder Heero was so thin, maybe he threw up after every meal? How else can he make those damned spandex shorts look good? He protested as he felt the figure, for some reason he could no longer remember who it was... it was on the tip of his tongue though. In either case the figure was forcefully prying his mouth open. He tried to bite down on the invading fingers but his mouth was held open in a strong grip. He gagged as two fingers probed deep inside his mouth, deeper, deeper, deeper. He finally coughed and then threw up. The finger quickly retreated and directed his face to the side so that he wouldn't throw up all over himself. He wished he could remember who was sitting with him as the person rubbed his back in soothing circles and whispering comforting words to him as he vomited, gagged and coughed for the next ten minutes.

'It's okay... shhh... it's okay...'

He felt his head getting lighter even, the sickening pit in his stomach, the source of all his pain, growing a little as he suddenly felt as if he was flying. Hovering above the ground. He was not conscious enough to notice it was Heero, carrying him like a groom would carry his bride and hurried to take him back to the pond where the rest was waiting.

He opened his eyes, of which he had initially not even noticed they were closed. He smiled as he recognised the blur as his comrade, but he frowned later on. 'Heero? ... ah... no Heero... no! I'm okay! It's Quatre! It's Quatre who's the worst!... nnn... help... him...' He tried to understand with his pea sized brain why Heero was carrying him and not Quatre, he was the one with the open stomach after all! The sound of shooting was all around them and he could hear explosions near by.

'Duo, what are you talking about?'

He shook his head, was Heero blind or something! Why weren't they hiding! They could get shot! Where were the other guys! He struggled in Heero's grip but not for long, for some unknown reason he had no strength, did he lose a lot of blood? He looked down at his own body, his clothing was ripped and a little bloody, but it didn't seem to bad.

'Where are Trowa... WuFei and Quatre?' he softly, but worriedly asked. He vaguely saw Heero's eyebrows knit together in a frown.

'They are all back at the pond, we're almost there. Hold on Duo.'

Pond? What pond! They were in the middle of an Oz base! He closed his eyes in frustration and confusion and took deep breath. God, he was feeling so sick, was he drugged?

'Heero! What happened?'

He frowned at hearing Trowa's surprised voice calling out at them. He opened his eyes and frowned as he saw they were ina forest. How the fuck did they get here? Did he fell asleep in heero's arms? How long had he slept?

He was carefully laid down on the damp forest floor. He saw Heero came to sit beside him and supported his head as he surprisingly started to give him water, letting himd rink out of his cupped hand. Each time the water on his hand was gone Heero would shift and a few second later he would bring a water filled hand back to his face again. He did that many, many times.

'He ate these.'

His vision improved a little and he saw Heero handing Trowa something small and black.

'What is it?'

'It's a Pokeberry.'(1)

'Is it dangerous?' Duo frowned at hearing Quatres weak and worried voice.

'Yes.' Heero stated while he made Duod rink more and more.

Duo wanted to tell heero that this water wasn't helping, it only made made him feel even worse, even sicker. He had a burning feeling in his stomach and he felt like he could vomit at any given moment now. He leaned to the side just to be sure, he'd be so embarressed if he puked all over Heero. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down, wishing himself not to vomit. That was such a turn off...

Heero adjusted his hold on him, to keep him from tumbling overt but allowing him to lean to side, in case he needed to throw up. He even brought up a hand and started to stroke his undoubtedly dirty and rough hair after not being able to wash it for days now.

Duo breathed loudly, so loud he couldn't even hear Heero's wheezing breath any more. His tomach felt swollen and it was painful, he felt vomit rising up threw his body and winced and groaned as it sank down again just before he could throw up. Gross, he thought, even more so as he now realised there was something on his face and he dared to bet it was vomit. What was wrong with him? Why was he so weak that he couldn't even move his body? He looked up and his eyes widened as he saw the four tree trunks, it was darker, dusk, the lightening was blue. And there were the four trunks, with the bloody bodies of his friends tied to them, WuFei's face with the crimson red tears... Heero's beaten up chest, the ribs visibly cracked... the giant black hole in Quatre's stomach... and Trowa's body covered with small but bloody cuts...

He screamed.

Yes, I know, another 'scary' chapter, but believe me, all this will lead to some fluffiness in the next chapter. – hints silently at Heero still holding Duo in his arms- Vomit or not, I can see love blossom!

(1) Yes, Duo ate Pokeberries, not too smart of him, but hey, I can't tell one berry from another either. Just to let you know, i do NOT know what happens after someone has eaten a Pokeberry, all I know is that it is extremely dangerous to mammals, only birds can eat it without any harm. Anyways, in my story it must be puked out as soon as possible, as you might have noticed, then lots of water, as you might have noticed as well and then waiting and hoping for it to go away.

The effects of the berry (by the way): light headded, nausea, forgetfulness and halucinations. Why? Because those are my favorites! I just LOVE torturing Duo to the fullest and I do it at any given moment!

I am grateful that I've been finally able to update this story.

You are willing to comment on the story but please... do me a favor, do NOT mention my spelling. I had an offer of someone to beta, but I think I scared her off... So I'm still on my own...

But don't you find it comforting to at least know that I'm trying to find help? -.

Crimson Waterfall at your service!