Chapter Nine
'This has got to be the worst week I've ever had, though for some reason I think of this day as the best of my life.' Duo commented, mostly to himself as he knew the others would have given up listening to him. Duo was just too happy with food in his stomach and wool on his body to complain about his foot or anything else for that matter. He strutted onwards, following the other guys.
Heero had taken on the task of guiding WuFei, who's eyesight had improved once again to allow him to see the blurry silhouettes of the people around him, but not the sneaky tree roots that had surfaced, trying to trip innocent hikers.
Duo fell silent, contemplating on which topic he would bring up next. He had talked about just about everything and that was not an exageration. He even went through the story of the birds and bees, he could have sworn seeing them trying to hide their flushed cheeks. The weather had been thoroughly discussed as was the nature surrounding them. He talked a good hour about how deathscythe is better than all the other Gundams, the first topic that brought on a response.. a non-agreeing one. He had already questioned the menaing of life and why they call things the way they call it. Like: why do we call a couch a couch? Yes, that had been a strange one sided discussion. Well he had whistled, then he sang, then he talked about whistling and singing, then he talked about the fact that he was a lousy singer. This too got a response out of the others... an agreeing one. So, running out of topics he attempted the impossible: 'Guys, I'm drawing a blank here, why don't you talk for a change?' That earned him some strange glances, even from Heero, though it didn't look any different than his glare he was certain the look was meant to be strange. It was probably just hard for him to scrunch his face up into unfamiliar expressions... like... all of them.
'Just a suggestion.' He retorted innocently. 'What time is it?' he nagged.
'Well, I didn't exactly bring a clock or anything.' Trowa spat back, obviously the irritation had grown over the last few discussed topics. Or maybe the birds and the bees were still bothering him.
'Well, can't you tell time by the sun or something stupid I was never taught.'
'Well, it's kinda hard to SEE the sun with all those trees in the way, don't you agree?'
Duo rolled his eyes 'Oh, don't you go funny on me now!' he made a few more attempts to get their attention but it was futile. Silence fell with an uncomfortable thickness that appeared to make each step a little heavier. So... singing perhaps? As soon as he hit the first note he was silenced.
'Duo, please, anything but that.' WuFei commented. 'You make me want to turn deaf.'
'Wow, aren't you guys in a piss mood.' He commented, a little angry that he wasn't able or allowed to do his job as the joker and the talker in the group.
Two days after ransacking the cabin passed, not quite in a blur. The occasional meal was satisfying but left them all feeling hungry by the end of the day, it was even worse because now they knew they had food with them but they weren't allowed to eat. Duo felt his eye twitching once in a while as he was assigned to carry the food supply permanently. The smell of the open can was literally driving him insane. He had the feeling like he was on the edge of the cliff and the can stood at the bottom, hundred feet beneath him and he had to hold himself from gladly jumping down to his dinner.
They no longer bothered climbing into the trees to sleep, not only did they not have the power, but the type of trees had changed over the past few days. There were no low branches, the lowest branches were at least a good ten feet up and were not even thick enough to hold their wait. An advantage was no longer having to duck to prevent from walking into a low branch, the downside was that as far as the eye could see, narrow treetrunks sticked out of the ground, while in the beginning Duo allowed himself to hope that each time the city would lie after the next sightobscuring tree. Always the next. But now... with no horizon and no sign of life hope began to sink even in the Americans shoes. He had lost count of the days, he knew he had worn the clothes for two days, but he couldn't remember how many days they had walked before that. It all was a vague blur because everyday was the same. The trees looked the same. The 'conversations' were the same, the weather was the same, sunny but chilly. Even the view of the others never changed. He formed the rear end of the pack, closest to him, walking a few feet up front was Trowa carrying Quatre, either he would be holding WuFei's hand or Heero would, who's was leading them, hopefully still going steady towards North... towards civilisation. Duo found it harder and harder to remember the things he had grown to love, like the smell and taste of fastfood, or the smell of cars smogging the air. God how he hated this forest...
'Are we there yet?' He joked halfheartedly, but he couldn't help but laughing loudly at his own joke, nearly falling and rolling on the floor. The light at the end of the tunnel had become so vague and dull it was almost funny to think of it. He heard a disturbing similarity between his own laugh and Heero's I-just-blew-up-another-MobileSuit-laughter. Scary indeed, so that made him laugh more.
It took him a awhile to notice the others had stopped to look at him. He could almost hear them thinking: By god, so he is the first to go insane... He laughed harder but flinched as someone touched his shoulder, almost too gentle to be any of his 'friends'. How he ever thought of them as friends, they did nothing normal friends would do, the only things they knew of each other were their names and the degree of their stubborness. Which made it even stranger why their death would concern him so much.
'Duo, are you okay?'
He looked into Heero's semi-compasisonate eyes and couldn't stop himself from holding his stomach and leaning over, laughing so hard tears were in his eyes. He could feel their startled stares apon him.
'Duo, what the fuck are you doing you crazy ass American?'
He laughed more and he couldn't keep himself standing up so he fell back onto his ass and threw his head back, still laughing, though it was slowly but surely dying.
'Duo...' He wasn't even sure who said that, it was hard to listen with so many voices screaming in his ears, though they sounded nothing like the voices of the other pilots. He heard women and children and among the unknown ones there was also a vaguely familiar voice from the past, screaming louder than all the others... Screams of people who had died, people who he had failed to save. That was funny right? That was funny stuff for the God of Death...
'Come on guys! Don't you think it's funny!'
The others exchanged worried looks.
'We're stuck in this fucking deserted forest...' it was hard to speak within bubbling laughs that made his chest shake almost painfully. 'We still have two more weeks to go and we only have food for eight days! And we all hate ecah other and want to strangle the others to the point of kannibalism!' His laughter faded and his tears were no more ones of happiness. He pointed at Quatre 'He's dying.' He pointed at Heero 'He's dying. And you and you and me! And in one hundred years an archeologist will dig up our rotting corpses and go like: what the hell were these goobers doing here in the middle of nowhere! Guess none of us has any BRAIN CAPACITY! HUH! We're ALL STUPID! IDIOTIC! CRAZY! We'd do everyone a favor if we just kill ourself right now and stop pretending that we'll EVER make it to safety, those beans only postpone the inevitable! No one ASKED for us! No one WANTS us! No one-' he was silenced by a loud smack resounding through the thick air. It took him a moment to realise the smack was caused by Heero's hand connecting harshly with his cheek. He touched the damaged cheek, he could feel it going red, the smack burned on his skin and as he touched it it felt like laying his hand in a hot pan, it was that hot. He blinked his eyes and slowly felt himself coming back from wheerever crazy place he had been. He blinked again and was almost surprised to see the others standing around him, looking down in concern, everyone but Heero, who looked irritated.
'I'm sorry guys..' He mumbled and rose to his feet, dusting off his clothes with both cheeks red from embarassment.
The others started walking again, but heero stayed behind a little longer, long enough to harshly whisper to him: 'Remember your part of the team.' Then he turned on his heels and took the lead again.
With a suffering sigh Duo picked up the green canvas containing the cans and he followed them with uncertain steps. He didn't know what just happened, he thought he had his fears and concerns under control, like he always had. It was the silence. He wasn't just talking for the others... maybe he was mostly talking for his own wellbeing. Maybe HE was the only one that could not stand the defeaning silence. Because silence allowed him to hear everything. Everything he didn't want to hear. Before the lost souls that wandered in his head could start screaming again he started talking... about the alphabet and why it was in the order it was in.
I'm gonna take a break here, staring intently at those letters is giving me a headache. The sacrifices Jessy makes...
There'll be more tomorrow if not sooner!
C.W.