Chapter 12 - The Last Citizen

"Wufei," Heero addressed the Chinese that was still aiming at him. "Long time, no see."

"How perceptive," Wufei kept him and Relena on the line of fire. "But I guess you didn't come here because you missed me?"

Heero grabbed Relena by the arm and firmly pushed her behind him, positioning himself on the line between her and Wufei's gun barrel. "Fuck you."

The Chinese man's face grimaced. "Polite as usual. Don't tempt me to shoot you like a dog, cause I don't need much encouragement to do it. And what the hell is this woman doing here?"

Heero felt Relena's hand clasping on his shoulder. "She's with me, that's all you need to know," he growled.

"Mistake, Yuy. Before I even consider beginning any normal conversation with you, I need to know a bit more. I don't care about your relationship status. I'm interested in precisely two things: whether you're infected and what do I owe this visit of yours."

"We're not infected, you can check it, you lunatic," Heero replied with an icy voice. "And I'm not going to say anything more until you let us in."

Chinese man smirked gloomily again. "Second mistake. Make it three. You're making this way too easy for me."

"This is how you're always repaying for saving your life, Wufei?" Heero asked, giving him a death stare.

Wufei was silent for an uncomfortably long moment. "I wouldn't call it that," he eventually hissed. "What the fuck do you want, Yuy?"

"Let us in," Heero repeated insistently, emphasizing each word. He stared at Wufei's dark eyes just over the barrel of his shotgun with his steely ones, without a blink. With each passing second, Relena was clinging tighter to his back. He, however, with each passing second, was more and more confident that his Chinese friend won't shoot at them.

And he was right. Eventually, Wufei lowered his shotgun and pointed at the doors that Relena tried to open a while ago. "Go through there. Keep near the right wall. I will meet you inside," he said shortly, then sprinted up the stairs.

Heero finally exhaled air from his lungs and looked over his shoulder at Relena. Her cerulean orbs met his, and she stood clear of his back, clasping her hands on her lap. "I'm sorry," she muttered. "For a moment, I was sure he will…"

She didn't finish the sentence. Heero looked down, noticing that she held a gun in her hands. He wondered if this time, Relena had it loaded. But he didn't ask. Instead, he rose on his feet and walked with her towards the entrance.

x x x

Passing through the corridors of former security, technical service, and secret services' passages, they finally reached the representative part of the Capitol. There they witnessed a horrible mess that ultimately didn't correlate with the sublimity of the building and its intended use. During the existence of the zone, it was used as the center of the limited administration and the seat of a military unit that guarded law and order. The once marble and elegant interiors now resembled more old barracks than the cradle of democracy. Democracy, which ceased to exist, and was replaced by tyranny and the law of the jungle.

Wufei stood in the middle of a half-round, high hall surrounded by all sides by dark gray columns. In the olden days between the columns statues of the Founding Fathers had to stand, now almost all of them were on the ground, overturned and broken to the point it was difficult to distinguish them. There was also a large chandelier on the ground, detached from the ceiling.

"Thanks," Heero mumbled his courtesy as he and Relena stood within a safe distance from Wufei.

Wufei didn't respond, casting a malevolent look at Relena. Heero didn't take his eyes off his old friend. He didn't like the way Wufei was looking at Relena. He involuntarily made sure she was standing behind him. Wufei still held his hand on a shotgun that was slung over his shoulder, pointed at the ground. "You get in my house, turn on traps, violate my peace of mind. Will you finally tell me what the fuck do you want from me?"

Heero kept his gaze still. "I'll be brief. We have a long way to go. We need a car or a motorcycle, anything with the engine. I know you can help us with that."

Wufei stared at them for a moment in silence and then burst out with loud, ominous laughter that echoed in the hall. Heero was surprised to see his old friend laughing for the first time since he knew him. "Your insolence knows no bounds, Yuy. The world is falling apart, and you do what? You come to me like to some fucking convenience store and ask for a car?!"

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough," Heero ground out, approaching the Chinese by a few steps. "I don't come to you like to store. I come to you to give you a chance to pay off the debt."

"Watch it, Yuy. I don't owe you anything."

"Cut this nonsense. We both know the truth, Wufei," Heero continued. A scene from five years ago lightened up in his memory at those words. "I don't want the gratitude I never expected from you. I've come to settle bills-"

"Shut up!" Wufei suddenly screamed, suddenly holding a shotgun, but he didn't aim it at them. Relena gasped silently behind Heero's back. At this outburst, Heero involuntarily, but slowly reached for his gun without taking it out of his pocket. "Shut the fuck up! How dare you calling what you did 'saving my life'?! I died that day, Yuy!"

The Chinese man breathed heavily, half-hunched, holding the shotgun in his hand and measuring him with deadly eyes. Heero held this look calmly, slowly moving his hand away from his gun.

"No. You're still alive, Wufei," he said calmly.

"Define 'alive.' I live like a rat in a cage, feeding on leftovers and waste, in a world where even the air I breathe kills me. I'd rather be dead already."

"But you're still alive. And that's what she wanted," Heero said silently.

The scorched out memory had triggered the least expected effect. Wufei drew his shotgun toward them, reloading it. Heero didn't remain passive at this and also drew out his gun, then froze, holding the target.

"Don't you dare mention her to me, punk!" Wufei shouted. "Don't you even dare!"

"Stop it, you two!"

Heero felt his voice stuck in his throat out of surprise as Relena ran out from behind him and stood between him and Wufei.

"How can you aim at yourself?" her words echoed off the walls. "I don't know what happened between you two, but you were once friends... It would be a tragedy for both of you if, after everything that you've been through and after you had survived for this long, you would have died from the hands of a friend!"

Heero froze, feeling his heart beating faster for the first time since the beginning of the whole scuffle with Wufei. He was looking and aiming at the Chinese from behind Relena's back, ready to react at any change of situation. He felt the blood in his veins circular faster when she was standing before him, her arms spread out protectively.

"Please," Relena lowered her voice, addressing to Wufei. That second, Heero could hear her voice tremble slightly.

Wufei frowned and eventually lowered his weapon. Heero did the same, a second after him.

"Who the hell is this woman, Yuy?"

Heero felt hotness rising in his chest at the disparaging tone with which Wufei pronounced the word 'woman' repeatedly.

"My name is Relena," Relena answered him by herself as if she didn't notice that the Chinese man was obviously treating her like an object rather than a person. Heero considered it reasonable to not mention her surname to Wufei. "I need to get to Houston, and Heero agreed to help me. Now we need your help. Will you help us?"

Wufei stayed quiet for a moment, studying Relena with cautious eyes as if she was a creature from the other world. "You have a nerve, woman, don't you?" He frowned at Relena and Heero for a while. "Houston, huh? Might as well be Houston. Maybe I'll be able to help you." He finally turned his back to them. "But when I do, you're getting the fuck outta here, on whatever transportation I'll give you," he said and walked out of the hall, leaving them alone.

With Wufei gone, Heero walked over to Relena. "What you just did was incredibly stupid," he jawed her silently. "You have no idea how fucked up he is. He would have killed you in a blink of an eye."

Relena froze at his words, her eyes widened. "Well, you're welcome, I guess," she said sarcastically and tried to bypass him. Heero reached his hand and grabbed her wrist.

"I mean it," he hissed angrily, stopping her and pulling her closer to him.

"Heero…!" she gasped, but he continued.

"You can't risk your life like that. That wasn't something we agreed on. Don't you ever do that again."

"It hurts," she whispered quietly, her cerulean, fearless eyes fixed on him, and Heero realized how tightly he was gripping her wrist. He let go of it immediately, unexpectedly feeling inadequate and guilty. Relena stood calmly in front of him, in silence, her eyes now downcast.

"Stay here," he ordered, letting his eyes tilt down, and then he walked past her.

x x x

"Watch out!" Heero screamed, but it was too late. The burning scaffolding fell down, crushing what was left of the already broken bridge. It was his last chance, and it wasn't the best moment for altruism. He took the run and made a long jump. His body hit against the cement edge of the ruined floor of the building, he felt rubble painfully digging into his forearms. Gravity dragged his body down mercilessly, but he managed to hold and climb onto the shelf.

Everything was burning with fire, even the air burned him in his throat, his lungs. The sound of the slowly collapsing skyscraper resembled the roar of an animal dying in pain. A dozen or so floors below them, the subway corridors began, glowing in the nucleus of the fire. It started to consume higher and higher levels. The fire destroyed everything - both people and the infected. Everything it met on its way.

Heero turned his head back at the familiar scream. Wufei and Meilan were still running through the hell he just got out of. He slid over the shelf.

"Wufei!" he screamed, but his voice was drowned out.

The Chinese stopped firing to the approaching infected, noticed him, and grabbed the woman by the arm to begin a run towards the abyss. Suddenly Meilan stumbled. "Wufei!" she screamed desperately for him.

Wufei turned, directing his shots blindly towards the Runner that attacked Meilan's legs. The monster quickly fell dead. Wufei grabbed Meilan's shoulders and set her to his feet. Heero could see that he was talking to her, but he couldn't hear his words. Seconds passed, the fire was getting closer. He held out his hand even further. "Wufei!"

Wufei turned and took a run to jump towards Heero. Their hands connected in a firm grip. Having climbed onto the shelf, Wufei turned and protruding himself far beyond the edge of the rack, reached out his hand to his wife. "Meilan!" he shouted.

The woman, however, stood still where he had left her. Heero approached the edge uncertainly. "Meilan, jump!" he shouted.

"Stop fooling around!" Wufei was screaming, his voice trembling. "I'll grab you, just jump!"

Meilan looked up, her eyes full of tears. Heero held his breath, noticing that she was lifting the material of her loose pants just over her ankle. Even in the hot, wavy air, a bleeding wound could be seen. An injury in the shape of the teeth trace.

Wufei's body froze in terror, his eyes widened. "No..." he gasped, his voice hoarse, "Meilan, just jump, goddamn it! Let me see it!"

But the woman shook her head sadly, then put her hands around her mouth. "Wufei, I stay here."

"…No!" Wufei screamed and threw one of his legs off the edge of the shelf. Heero grabbed the Chinese by his shoulders, stopping him, but he began to struggle like an animal caught in a snare. "Let me go, you fucker! Meilan! Meilan!"

"I'm sorry," Meilan's voice rang out. "Let Heero take you away from this place. You must survive. Please, live."

"MEILAN!"

"Till we meet again, my dear husband."

Saying those words, she made one last step over the abyss, and her body began to fall freely, loosely into the burning fire. And Heero focused every cell of his body on keeping in this world the man who desperately tried to jump after his wife.

TBC

I want to thank all my readers so far :)