Chapter 5 - The Buffer Zone

Relena POV

The second explosion caused the whole bridge to shake, and its external metal structure almost waved like pasta. Relena whipped her head back, seeing the bridge being torn apart by a fireball brighter than the sun, and realized that she won't see Duo Maxwell any more.

That half-stranger, a brown-haired struggler with murderous, icy-cold eyes, was continually running, trailing her behind him, not letting go of her wrist. He was running definitely faster than she was able to. When she kept losing ground under her feet, she was falling over, and then she always felt severe pain as he unceremoniously lifted her up and brought upright, gripping her arms. He was commanding her to keep running; he didn't say anything else. She lost count of how long they ran. The bridge seemed endless, but she could no longer hear the pursuit behind them.

She ran in silence, without complaining, mourning in her heart at the loss of a friend. She didn't care what will happen to her next; either they'll get caught or not. Either they'll be shot or hanged on that horrible bridge. Her body moved on autopilot, succumbing to superhuman effort thanks to the last adrenaline reservoirs in her veins. And she kept on crying, cold wind whipping her skin.

She didn't remember how or when did they got off the bridge and reached the ground again. She noticed Heero's run gradually slowing down until he stopped. He eventually let go of her wrist. It felt as if someone disconnected her from the electricity. Her legs refused to obey, and she fell on her already wounded knees and then further down, using her last strength to protect her head from the hit against the ground.

Then her mind went blank, and she lost consciousness.

x x x

When Relena woke up, she felt lost in time and space. The moon was hanging far up in the sky. She felt the chilly air stabbing her cheeks and a warm material wrapped around her shoulders and legs. She recognized it as her own jacket.

She sat up, propping herself on her hands, and looked around. In the light of the moon, she noticed the silhouette of Heero, only a few meters away from her. He didn't look at her; he knelt down, placing an empty glass bottle on the ground.

"Heero?" she asked, her voice hoarse. He tilted his head up for a moment in response but didn't say anything. Then he laid himself down, positioning his right shoulder blade precisely over the bottle so that the rest of his upper body rested on the ground and on the bottleneck. "What are you doing?"

"Relocating my shoulder," he replied, reaching across his torso with his left hand and positioning it on his upper arm, right under his right clavicle.

Before Relena could say anything, he pressed his left hand hard downwards, letting out a stiffed, wild grunt through the gritted teeth. The bottle under his shoulder worked like a lever and got stuck in the ground, miraculously without getting broken. A popping sound of relocating bones came from the inside of his body. Heero's spine arched upwards, and he inhaled air with a loud hiss, then eased back on the ground.

Relena watched the mysterious guy with widened eyes as he laid still for a minute after this act of apparently very painful self-aid, his eyes closed, heavy breathing, still gripping his shoulder. She imagined that the pain had to be enormous, yet he took it so quietly. She couldn't deny her respect for his endurance.

She looked around their surroundings. Behind her was a high wall, overgrown with ivy, finished with barbed wire at the top. The wall was covered with yellow-black boards with all kinds of "Warning" inscriptions. They were in an area that seemed to be a big car park, full of rusty, damaged cars. "Where are we?"

Heero eventually evened his breath, then opened his eyes. He gradually started to get up, immobilizing his shoulder with a firm grip. "Behind that wall, there's an abandoned buffer zone," he answered, his voice hoarse. "Right after the outbreak, the government formed these types of places to filter people; pick up those who are already infected and eliminate them before they could be granted access to the inside of the quarantine zone."

Relena realized that she had heard about this kind of place, but having spent her whole life in a zone, she didn't remember seeing any buffer zones before. Then she suddenly realized how cold the night is. Her muscles, shrunk from the inhuman effort they had been subjected to a few hours ago, finally relaxed, and her body was losing heat quickly.

"It's cold," she breathed, tightening her jacket on her chest and pulling her knees up to her neck. "Why can't we burn up a fire?"

"There's still a pursuit after us," Heero answered while he searched for something inside his backpack with his capable hand. His face was grimaced with pain. "We'd be perfectly visible."

Relena sighed with annoyance and then looked down to notice the fatal state of her injured legs.

"Here," she heard Heero's voice as he kicked a bottle in her direction. "You should disinfect these wounds, or you will get an infection."

She caught the rolling bottle with one hand. It was a bottle of alcohol, half of the life-saving liquid already gone. In this world, nobody thought of alcohol as a drug anymore. "Thanks," she muttered, then opened it and quickly rinsed across her knees. Thankfully, it didn't hurt her much.

When she closed the bottle, she gazed in the distance. The lights of the burning Grand Point Bridge were still perfectly visible, as there was no fire brigade to stamp the fire out. It marked the spot where Duo exploded himself. Or where he saved them. Looking at it, Relena felt a pressure in her throat and closed her eyes, picturing Duo's grinning face before her.

"We've got to talk."

Heero's serious voice suddenly came into her conscience. He wasn't looking at her, his gaze fixed somewhere on the ground in front of him. "If I am to go with you anywhere further," he muttered, his left hand still wrapped tightly around his right shoulder, "you have to tell me why exactly you need to get to Houston."

Relena stiffened, straightening herself up. Can I trust him? He was a complete stranger. Although Duo accepted Heero from the beginning, she didn't feel comfortable in his presence. Heero waited patiently, now frowning at her with his penetrating Prussian blue eyes.

"I know about the laboratories," he added, observing her. Relena's eyes wondered somewhere behind him, where she noticed Duo's backpack lying on the ground. She crawled to reach it, then opened it with trembling hands, almost ignoring Heero's words. "Is it because of these laboratories that you want to get to Houston?" she heard Heero's voice from behind her back as she rifled through the backpack. "' Cause I don't intend to risk my life if you want to make yourself a trip throughout the States only because of some personal motives-"

"It's not personal at all. I don't need you to go with me," Relena broke in. She picked one of Duo's guns in her hand and checked the clip of the gun. "I will be all right on my own."

She could hear Heero's irritated grunt. "Wish I heard that before the last entrance to the city was blown off by your hippie friend."

Relena gritted her teeth. "Shut up," she muttered in a low voice. She took a look at the magazine, letting out a breath. "I owe him my life. Besides, what are you so interested in? When you smuggle something, you ask your clients why they need something to be smuggled?"

"When I get paid, I don't ask questions. You're smart enough to notice that I already discovered your bluff about money."

Feeling her irritation reaching its zenith, Relena clicked the magazine back into the gun with maybe too much force. "Then why won't you just leave me alone-" she asked him, a slight panic in her voice, as she abruptly turned around.

"Enough of this fucking bullshit."

She didn't hear when Heero got his gun out, but he was already aiming at her. Although he held the gun in his left hand, his aim was motionless and rigid. There was no doubt that his bullet would find its target.

"Stop acting like a bratty teenager at least for a minute," he commanded, his steely blue eyes now fixed on her with a predatory, murderous gaze. She felt as if she had grown into the ground, unable to move under that look. "I can leave you here, and you won't survive the night. If you want it, go ahead." Relena swallowed, trying hard to not show her fear. Something in this man's wild look told her that he was wondering why he hadn't left her already. "If you want me to get you to Houston, let me settle three things clear. First, let go of this gun."

Relena swallowed, desperately trying to mask a defeat in her eyes by returning the same angry look. But she discarded the weapon on the ground.

"Second," Heero continued. He didn't lower his own gun off her even for an inch. "I don't give a shit if you like me or not. But if you will treat me as your enemy, I will regard you as my enemy."

She didn't interrupt him, trying to understand the unexpected feeling of her body relaxing for the first time that night, though that brown-haired boy still aimed at her. Hearing his words, she felt an inexplicable relief, despite being on the line of his shot. He doesn't think of me as an enemy. She maintained eye contact, holding his powerful stare.

"Third. If you want to reach Houston alive, then starting off today, you follow me and do what I say." He allowed his words to sink at the moment. "All clear?"

Relena nodded slightly in reply. Heero eventually lowered his gun off her and slumped against a wall with a slight groan, gripping his shoulder again. At that moment, in the faint light of the moon, Relena noticed the trickle of sweat on his temple.

"Are you ok…?" she breathed, with an unexpected level of anxiety in her voice. "Do you need help?"

Heero shook his head, furrowing his eyebrows. He still gripped his shoulder, his right hand lying motionlessly on the floor. "I'm fine."

"No, you're clearly not. We need to immobilize your shoulder." Saying that she rifled through Duo's backpack once more, finding some clean clothes. She tore them apart in long stripes, then approached Heero. He looked up at her, suspiciously, like a wild animal, as she kneeled by his side.

"It's all right," she comforted him. "I will wrap a bandage around your shoulder and torso," she explained, reaching her hand to him. "During the night and when it's safe, you should also carry your arm in a sling. I'll help you."

She noticed a slight surprise in his eyes as she placed her hand on his left one and slowly, gradually released his arm from his grip. She helped him to get off his jacket, leaving his shirt on as it was too difficult to get it off without moving his shoulder too much. His shoulder wasn't only dislocated; in the spot where his body hit the ground, his skin was worn and slightly bleeding. She cleared his wound; he didn't even stir. He didn't say anything either, although she could sense his gaze on her. This awareness sent disturbing, small shivers down her neck.

"You don't have to do this," she heard him saying when she touched the skin of his collarbone while wrapping the cloth tightly over his torso.

"I know," she answered shortly.

The two of them were now on their own. Relena realized that. He was her only chance to get to Houston alive. She had to trust him. She remembered the short chat she had with Duo last night when they stayed in that warehouse in the Navy Port. "Don't be afraid of him," Duo said to her as he sat by the fire that night. "He won't do us any harm. But he's the lonely wolf. We shouldn't expect great support from him either."

"I need to get to Houston…" she started unexpectedly, quietly, continuing on wrapping the cloth around his chest, her hands trembling slightly, "…because of the vaccine."

"There's no vaccine," Heero corrected her with a calm, but confident voice, as if he was telling her that the earth was flat. Relena looked up at him, trying to read his thoughts, but his eyes were cold and unreadable. She could see no hostility in them either. He just gazed at her, expectantly, waiting for her to agree with him.

"There is," she whispered after a moment of silence. "…and I have it with me. I need to get it to Houston."

The silence that fell between them after these words seemed louder than the explosion they had survived earlier that day. Her heart was beating so fast and loud that she was sure Heero could hear it. She did it: she revealed her secret. He could eliminate her now, take the vaccine, and end her mission before it began. Heero looked at her absently, his eyes glistening in the moonlight with a restless, strange glow. He sat completely still, only his even breathing reminded her that he was still with her. The look in his eyes didn't frighten her or disturb her. She couldn't guess the thoughts lurking behind those eyes, but surprisingly she wasn't afraid of him. She bowed her head, folding her fingers in her lap.

"My whole family is supposed to be dead by now," she started again. "But our ideal was alive for years after the outbreak. My father was trying everything to find a cure for this virus. In hiding. Not everybody wished for the cure. The people… the world isn't the same anymore…"

She looked up at him again. He had to understand what she meant. A world after the outbreak, in which only jungle law ruled, was a world in which those who wanted to change this law were considered prey.

"When I heard about these laboratories, I understood that it had to be someone from the Peacecraft's family behind all that. I'm not… entirely sure who it is, but I need to get there and pass them the prototype of the vaccine my father invented. I had to keep it secret for years because I couldn't multiplicate it… But maybe now, thanks to that prototype and the laboratory, we can create the cure for masses…"

She understood she didn't have anything to tell him more. "This is it," she concluded. "Now, you know everything."

Heero finally looked away from her, gazing into space in front of him. After a moment, he clenched his fist and put his jacket on his shoulders with a quiet grunt.

"Heero?" Relena whispered with a pleading in her voice when he suddenly stood up and walked away from her a few steps. She felt panic ripple through her chest, she pulled back. He didn't believe her? Would he hurt her now?

He stood there for a mere moment, his arm immobilized, looking at the moon. "Then go to sleep," he eventually said. "It's a long way to Houston. We're leaving tomorrow at dawn."

Relena gasped quietly with relief as she felt hope sprouting in her chest. He didn't ask her anything. He just agreed to go with her. Suddenly, Heero turned to face her, the look on his face a mixture of reproach and long-standing grief. There was a story behind these eyes, but she couldn't read it just yet.

TBC

The whole story is divided into two POVs - Heero's and Relena's. Now I introduced Relena's POV, but in the future chapter we're coming back to Heero's.

Hope you like this chapter. If you do, leave feedback!