Thanks to Modified tam and Tina-Chan 0: Thank you so much for reviewing, it was sweet, I loved it, I hope I won't disappoint you with chapter Ten! Love, C.W.
The Forsaken
Chapter Ten
The fourteenth day. Yes, Duo was pretty sure it was the fourteenth day. He sat pondering on the ground as the four conscious ones of the Gundam Team all stared at the small fire that flickered before them, dancing in the cool night. They all had come close to warm themselves as the nights got colder and colder as their little 'camping spree' progressed. They had just finished the second can of food, beans again and were left with three more. Six more days of food... ten more days of walking, if not more. He could also look at it from the bright side and consider the distance may be less, but he wasn't it that kind of mood. In fact, he hadn't been in such a mood for a very long time, if ever. While the sufrace had been smiling, his soul was crying, listening to those screams. He could hear them again, not even bothering to put up a facade as the others had all witnissed his little breakdown two days earlier.
With his legs drawn up to his body for warmth he stared at the dancing flames that fought away the chill in a two meter radius around the fire. Fires were a bad idea when hunted, especially at night. Every soldier who had read the rulebook could tell you so, probably even name which rule it was... number one probably. But ask any soldier who had went through what they were going through and Duo was sure he would have answered that he couldn't care less about being caught after spending so many nights shivering violently, after walking for so long that his legs had permanently gone numb and even grateful for the numb that didn't allow him to feel the pain of the blisters that marred the sole of his feet. Yes, after a while, fires were very good. Even Heero had to agree. Well, he would never, but he also didn't object and even helped gathering wood.
Trowa had found a way to force some food down Quatre's throat, pushing it in so deep it made Duo almost vomit just looking at it. Quatre's onconscious body would protest, but one day he would thank them for it, if they ever got that far. Duo forced himself to think only minutes ahead. He didn't want to think about the days of tedious and tiring torture they still had ahead of them.
Heero had taken off his shoes to let them dry and was massaging his feet. Duo didn't dare to take off his own, afraid of what he might see. Heero's feet were in a pretty good state, considering. Well, there was a reason he was nicknamed The Perfect Soldier. All of their nicknames had been custimised for them. But Duo couldn't help but starting to hate his own. How much longer should he call himself the God of Death? How much longer did he want to be that person?
Wufei was lying on the raincoat that was spread out on the ground to keep the moist soil from reaching him. He kept turning, unable to find a comfortable position on the hard ground, that's why nowadays they always sat upright when they slept. That way their bodies absorbed less cold from the ground.
Trowa was just sitting and staring, much like Duo himself. He had been rubbing his arms till Heero said: 'Don't bother with your arms, rub your chest instead, the rest will warm up on it's own.' Without hostile glares he took the advise and was still rubbing his chest to this very moment. A good hour must have passed.
What time was it?
He didn't dare to ask and just kept staring. He wished G had taught him how to tell time judging by the sun or the moon and the stars. He lifted his hand and brought his wrist up to his face. He stared at the broken watch, only still wearing it for sentimental reasons... or maybe just because it would be a waste of energy to take it off.
Heero never sat still, unlike the rest of them. He was always moving. Now he had grabbed a medicine bottle and moistened a piece of bandaid with it. Using it as a cloth he cleaned the gash on his face, never even wincing, while Duo knew from first hand experience that stuff stung like the devil with a pitchfork.
Quatre was in his tent again, in the same state as ever... Duo wondered if he ever got used to only seeing the other three. He wondered if he ever got used to the fact that the Gundam Team only consisted out of four now... and if they didn't find help soon... there would be no team at all.
He shook his head, what was he thinking! He shouldn't forget that thusfar they were STILL Gundam Pilots. Fucking Gundam Pilots. Heero had selfdestructed and lived to tell the tale! Trowa tames lions! WuFei takes out four guys with a single swing of his sword! And Duo himself had a reputation of surviving to keep high himself. This wasn't the first time he was faced with starvation or death!
With a curt nod of his head he joined Wufei on the raincoat, leaning against each other to stay upright and promptly fell asleep.
He woke up that morning expecting a same day as the day before, or the day before that, but he was in for a surprise...
They packed their stuff, kicking the ramains of the fire that had died during the night without them noticing. Heero scattered the black wood around, hoping soldiers wouldn't recognise it as the scattered remains of a camp fire, once done cleaning what they, in the Gundam-pilot-running-for-his-life-once-again liked to call 'The crime Scene'. Okay, so only Duo liked to call it that way, what did it matter?
'It's a beautiful dayyyyyy... The sun is shining, I feel good-'
'Duo, what did we say about singing?'
'That you don't like it?' He said with a mocking smile.
'Exactly.'
Duo continued to sing.
'Duo!'
'What! I never said I agreed with you.' He'd be damned to let that same silence that drove him crazy before take the upper hand once again. He sang all the songs he knew, even the ones he only partially knew, much to the chagrin of a certain Chinese.
'Take me home, country road, to the place where I BELONG!'
Duo was silenced and four heads whipped into the same direction with shifting wide eyes as they all heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot, not far from them.
Duo stood trembling on his legs as his singing, or whining like a cat as Wufei so lovingly put it, might have given away their location.
Agreeing on a decision without ever saying a word they turned into the exact optisite direction, which was thank god still north and broke into a sprint. Like cheetahs they ran with a burst of power caused by the adrenaline that ran through their bodies like a high performance drug. Their hole bodies ached and burned but they refused to stop to catch their breath as they kept running and running, not even realising that they were slowing down so much that after only a minute their sprint was a pace a mere notch faster than walking.
Looking back in fear he saw a man, nothing more than a dark and tall shadow in the morning mist chasing them. 'He's on our heels!' Duo screamed, trying to create the same energy burst as before, but it was gone and as he looked again, he could clearly see the man's face, though he didn't dare to look long or make eyecontact. Feeling faint he decided that there was no use running. It was like eating those beans, postponing the inevitable. Never one to fear death as much as other people would he gave up and didn't even bother to restore his balance as he felt himself tripping over his own feet and crashing to the ground with a surrendering groan. He rolled onto his back and the man chasing them kneeled down beside him, large hunting gun in his hand. Taking him in he noticed he wore no uniform, so it must be the psycho from the body pit. But he frowned seeing the expression on his face.
He frowned deeper when he heard Heero's hoarse voice call, strangely from very close: 'Stay away from him!'
The man stood and was barely able to avoid being hit by the branch Heeor had picked up from the ground and swung at him like an agressive prehistoric man.
'Wow, boy!' the man called, dropping his gun and raising his hand, trying to show his surrender but also wanting to calm the japanese boy that dangerously growled at him and took a step closer. He must have looked very intimidating to make a six foot tall, strong built guy back up for his mere 5"5 foot tall form.
Heero was standing close next to the still grounded Duo, fixing a deadly gaze on the man.
'Heero, Heero stop.' He tugged at the other's leg in vain.
'Listen boy,' the man joined in. 'I'm not gonna hurt ya,' he pointed at the gun lying disgarded on the ground, 'See?'
The others joined in with a glare equally as intense as Heero.
The man swallowed. He wore clothing that resembled Duo's outfit so Duo made a firm guess that the cabin was his. His face was surprised and innocent looking, of course, being a gundam pilot and this being a forest with it's own personal crater full of rotting corpses, you can't trust anyone, but maybe they should consider asking this man for help.
'I'm Frank Gump. My friends call me Forest Gump.' He laughed at his own joke but his laughter died apon seeing their cold stares. 'Uhm, I'm the forester here... I... I have a little forest house not far from here...' he pointed west, so he couldn't be talking about the cabin they had already been in. 'Who are you guys?' he smiled even though he received nothing more that deadly looks. 'You can atleast tell me your names, since you're wearing my clothes and all.'
Duo scrambled to his feet and though not appearing too friendly or weak, he said in a neatral tone: 'I'm Du..ane. I'm Duane.' He lied, it was the first fake name that came to mind. 'These are my friends; Trevor, Quin, Hailey and Wilson, but we always call him Willy.' He grinned as he looked back at Wufei, who was glaring more dangerously because of his name than because of Frank. And no, it was no coincidence that he chose a bit of a girly name for heero. He always wanted to do that and have a good excuse for it.
'Are you boys from Oz? Because I saw that crashed Oz plane a few days away from here.'
Duo nodded 'Yes, we're Oz soldiers, we were on a very important mission.'
'You're a bit young, but then again I could have expected that Oz poisons the mind of people at a very young age, no offense to you guys of course, I just think boys your age should be in school, not in the army... I saw that plane, you guys should be happy to be al-' He stopped himself as he looked at 'Quin'. 'Is he...?'
'No,' 'Trevor' answered 'But he is badly wounded.'
'Well, I wouldn't want to disturb your important mission but I have more medication at my house and a good bed and you boys must be hungry.'
Their eyes lightened at the promise of food and without further discussion they thanked Frank and followed him.
Being sure they were out of hearing range Heero whispered: 'This is very dangerous.'
'Heero, the guy has all we need, it's worth the risk, don't you think? I mean, he's the fucking forest ranger, you think the guy doesn't have a car or something? Maybe we can get him to drive us to the city. Besides, he doesn't like Oz, so he should be okay.'
'I don't trust him.'
'We don't have to trust him... we have to exploit him. Besides, we're gundam pilots, we can handle.'
Heero was sielnt for a while, considering that then he said half jokingly: 'You should have never chosen our names for us.'
'Sorry man, some opportunities are just too good to let them slide.'
'Yeah but... Hailey?'
'I happen to like that name.' Duo retorted with a smirk. 'Consider yourself lucky, you could have ended up like Willy over there.'
'Oh, I swear...' The chinese pilot threatened.
'I suppose you can't tell me zilch about that mission of yours?' frank asked, interested, he came to walk next to them instead of up front.
Fearing that he might have heard their conversation after all 'Duane' acted as casual as possible 'Nope, that's top secret.'
'Well, atleast you boys got yourself interesting carreers, huh?'
'Well, a forest isn't boring either, with that body pit.' He examined the man's face, trying to determine anything by his reaction. But either he was an honest man or a very good liar as he answered:
'What body pit?'
'Not far from our crashsite, there a crater with dumped bodies.' 'Hailey' pointed out.
The man seemed genuinely shocked at hearing this. A very good liar maybe? 'Oh my God...' He fell silent, not knowing what to say. 'Near your crashsite you said?'
'Hailey' nodded.
'Hm... that needs some investigating. That stupid war... the only thing they achieve is more bloodshed.' He appeared to be really angry.
After two hours of walking, Frank talking about his work and only once in a while questioning about them they reached a large cabin, supported on one meter high stilts, with a creaking stairway that led up to the frontdoor. Next to the house was a small cabin on ground floor, probably for storing supplies.
'Well, it ain't much but it's home. Come in.'
They climbed up the stairs and entered the house that resembled the simple cabin they had been in before. Dark wooden floor, a single, neatly made bed and the same closets, only this time a small, ugly green kitchen complete with dinner table for four was added to the one room home. They could see a door that must go the bathroom and there was a small livingroom area with one ugly dark green, leather couch, a wornout coffe table and a rocking chair. Surprisingly there were only few personal artifact considering the fact that the man lived there permanently. There were some old, yellow and brown pictures of the landscape and wild animals hanging on the wall, but other than that, besides the stuffed head of a deer, the walls were bare.
'It's not like we were expecting a Four Seasons.' Duo commented making Frank smile.
'Well, like i said, it isn't much, but it's better than sleeping outside.' He walked to his kitchen and the first thing he did was giving them all an apple.
Duo gratefully sank his teeth into the fruit. Heero at first looked looked at it suspiciously but his hunger overpowered his suspicion and he ate as well. As soon as the taste hit him he sped up his slow munching. Trowa first lay Quatre on the couch and sat down next to him, he ate his apple while staring at his friend in concern. WuFei found it hard to semi-blindly locate his mouth so on the first attempt he hit his cheek, but he quickly adjusted his aim.
'Thank you so much.' Duo said with a full mouth.
'You're welcome. You can lay him on the bed.' He spoke to Trowa, who immediately took the opportunity.
'We're very sorry about breaking into your cabin.'
'That old shack? That's just there for emergencies and I guess this was an emergency. You can all shower if you want, just make yourself at home, there is food in the fridge. I'd love to chat some more but I have to catch some sleep, I always patrole in the night, that's the time most hunters come to shoot the endeagered deers that live in this forest.'
They nodded in understanding and watched as Frank pulled a bed down that was folded up horizontally against the wall. He quickly made the bed and closed a curtain, again ugly and green, to create a private quarter, giving him some privacy. The same curtain surrounded the bed Quatre currently rested on. Soon they heard Franks loud snoring. It was a bit unnerving that he trusted them so much. It was all so sudden, they meet him, he invites them, he goes to sleep, leaving them alone... anyone, not just Gundam Pilots, would feel a certain degree of distrust.
'Do you mind if I go first?' Duo asked, eager to hit the showers, he couldn't wait to wash all the filth off his body and smell fresh again.
The others nodded, settling down on the couch or at the kitchen table.
Duo disappeared into the bathroom and scrunched up his face as he saw the familiar colour. This guy has no taste at all, he thought as he inspected the mint green tiles that lined the floor and the walls. He looked at himself in the mirror that hung above the sink. He groaned. 'God you look like shit...' he said to his reflection and kicked off his dirty boxer. He made a face, just realising how long he had been wearing the damn thing. Worries were soon forgotten though as he caught sight of the toilet seat. 'Oh... Heaven...' He said and used the opportunity to finely do his business in a sanitary environment. He looked around, noticing mold between the tiles. 'Okay... semi-sanitary... but after peeing in the bushes for so long i'd be the last to complain.' He flushed and then fiddled with the shower. He was used to an advanced thermostat, but here you had to manually open the cold and hot water faucet, trying to balance them out into the perfect temperature. Though the water was still a little on the cold side he decided that he couldn't take much longer and he jumped under, gasping and actually moaning in pleasure as he felt himself becoming clean once again. He was the type of guy that needed a daily shower, not just because of his hair, but because it felt like he wasn't just clensing his body, but his mind as well. Also, the hiss and the dripping of the water made the use for words to fill silent voids unnecessary. He used as little shampoo as possible and worked as quick as his could. Normally his showers, including the drying off could take about two hours, he didn't want the other to wait that long for their own refreshment.
Usually showering went accompanied with one consistent thing on his mind and by God if one could not guess what they haven't been paying attention to the subtle and less subtle signs he had been emitting from the day he was first faced with the person that would ever since occupy his mind.
Heero Yuy
An enigma, wrapped in a puzzle, hidden in a maze of darkness and words with an unknown deeper meaning.
But like mentioned before, things were different now and all he could think of was just how wonderful this felt. You never know what you have till you lost it. Well, let's just say that if he hadn't appreciated his showers before, he would now.
He came out of the shower, pushing the curtain aside, with a reborn strength, the water had washed off all his worries and took them down into the draining pipe. It gurgled as it swallowed everything that had been rinsed off. Mud, dried sweat, leaves, twigs, sand, everything.
He towelled off and stepped out of the bathroom in record time. The others were in the same position he had left them in, not surprisingly. He held the bathroom door open invitingly after stepping out. 'Anyone?' he offered.
WuFei nodded and on his found found his way to Duo.
He tried to explain the Chinese pilot that the faucets were difficult to figure out and he offered to help, but WuFei just swatted his helping hands away and pushed him back out, quickly locking the door.
'Okay, I get it, I get it!' He shook his head and sat down at the dinner table, right across from Heero.Only now he noticed how bad the others smelled, how bad he had smelled. He held his hand before his mouth and breathed against it and then sniffing the air he had exhaled. It was awful, he grimaced.
He listened to Franks snores 'Weird man don't you think Hee-chan?'
'Duo!' He hissed 'My names 'Hailey', remember?'
Duo snickered 'I know, just wanted to hear you say it.'
'Idiot. And yes, he is a strange guy, too strange, too kind.'
'Is the Perfect-Soldier-Spots-Danger-Alarm going off?'
Heero shot him a sharp, dagger like look and then fixed his gaze on the curtain Frank lay behind. 'Yes. But it also went off when I met you, so this alarm can't be trusted.'
Duo snickered 'The alarm goes of at the alarm!'
Heero pierced him again with a look as cold as steel on a wintermorning.
Okay, someone was not amused. 'Sorry... Hailey.'
'Apology accepted, Duane. Is there any reason why you chose the name of a wanna-be drug dealer from Italy?' Heero whispered, so softly that even IF Frank was awake, he couldn't hear it if his ears were as large as satelites.
'Are you trying to make me laugh?'
'Guys.' WuFei cut in, coming out of the bathroom.
Duo looked at the clock on the wall, he had been in there for fifteen minutes. For a moment he doubted he had actually showered but his black wet hair denied that.
Seeing as Trowa was still too busy fussing over Quatre Heero decided to take his turn. Seconds later the water could be heard running again.
'What time is it?' WuFei asked, sitting down at the table with some difficulty.
Duo had to restrain himself from not coming to his aid. He looked at the clock again, even though he looked just seconds ago. It was an impuls triggered by the question. 'Four O'clock. You want anything to eat?'
WuFei shook his head, strangely. 'Let's wait for Heero and Trowa to finish, have proper dinner.'
Duo nodded even though he was not attached to traditions such as dining together.
They all settled down at the dinner table at six O'clock, it had taken a little longer before Trowa took the effort of also washing Quatre's battered body.
Before he dug into his meal, a few slices of bread with cheese, peanutbutter and jelly he laced his fingers together and said a silent prayer. He wanted to do it inwardly but unconsciously the words of grace slipped out of his mouth in soft whispers. After throroughly thanking God for them still being alive and begging him to get them to safety in time he made a cross and then looked up, surprised to find the others had copied his position, even though he knew they didn't practise Catholism.
He smiled at them, feeling his heart warm at the sight of his friends, yes they were his friends, even though it was hard to realise that after his little breakdown. He felt like crying, but he didn't. Instead he broadened his smile to show them how thankful he was. It touched him to see for the first time that they respected him, even though they pretended to think of him only as an anoying brat who couldn't be shut up by anyone other than God's will.
They smiled back and with a curt nod from everyone they started eating.
To be really honest, I hate betaing, it's boring, but at the same time I feel proud for accomplishing more than throwing some chatter onto a paper and then waiting for someone else to make it right. Please tell me if I'm doing a good job (spelling/plot) and be honest! No seriously, I mean it, be honest!
I shall see you when I see you and I hope to see you soon!
Crimson Waterfall, at your service.