Chapter 16 - The Teeth

He had never shouted out anyone's name so loud in his life. His scream resounded all over his head. Never before, in any of the life-threatening situations he had encountered, he hadn't lost his control like that, and his body hadn't worked on such an autopilot. His knees found their support. His hand tightened swiftly around the knife that he couldn't locate seconds before. His wounds, pieces of glass sticking out of his arm, ceased to matter at all. His feet bounced off the ground, leading him forward, like a bullet.

In a few seconds, Heero grabbed the Runner by its dirty, blood-streaked black hair and pulled hard towards him, bending its spine back, nearly breaking it. The infected let out a furious, deafening roar, flinging its arms around. With one swift move, Heero led the knife deep and across the Runner's neck, almost cutting off its loathsome head.

When the bleeding body turned limp and started slipping from his hands, Heero's eyes fogged for a moment. He caught his breath, his blood pulse still deafening him so hard he realized with terror that he couldn't hear her screaming… or crying…

"Heero..."

His eyes followed the longed-for voice that eventually reached his conscience. Relena was lying on the ground, covered in the Runner's blood. Her beautiful oceanic eyes, glancing at him from behind the gas mask, were wide with terror.

But she was alive.

Heero pushed the Runner's corpse aside, then helped Relena get up and jump through the hole in the window.

"Run," he heard his voice as if those were someone else's words. He pulled the mask off Relena's face and pushed her forward, towards the runways, into the raging storm. He could hear another howls and shrieks from the inside of the terminal. "Don't stop running," he ordered, taking off his mask. "No matter what, don't stop running!"

x x x

Through the runway.

Over the fence.

Across the road.

Into the forest.

Forcing his body to the last effort, Heero didn't look around more than was necessary to be sure that they wouldn't run into another habitat of the infected. He felt a metallic taste of his blood in his mouth, the cold rain was soaking his clothes again. He kept brushing away blood that was still trickling from his forehead and shoulder. He felt no pain; he knew the pain was yet to come. Relena ran next to him, panting loudly, in silence.

Past the forest, they spotted a cottage settlement right on the bank of the Catawba River. They ran inside one of the smaller cabins. When Heero finally slammed the door shut behind them, Relena dropped on the wooden floor, breathing heavily, all wet.

Heero braced against the door with both hands, lowering his head loosely and catching his breath. A throbbing pain started to lurk in the back of his head and above his left temple. Blood from his forehead and hand, still with pieces of glass stuck in it, kept dripping on the dusty wooden floor, mixed with raindrops. The air was wheezing in his lungs, his throat got dry. He could hear the loud rumble of the storm on the roof. And Relena's breath, slowly evening out.

After a moment, he bounced his hands off the wall and walked over to the girl. She was still sitting on the ground, bent down, her arms wrapped around her shoulders.

"Are you all right?" Heero finally spoke out, hearing how hoarse his voice was.

Relena slowly opened her eyes, then tilted up her head at him. "I guess… so."

Blood was trickling down the side of her neck and from below her honey hair. Well, Heero thought, she had to hurt herself somewhere during the escape.

"You're wounded," he said, pointing to her neck. Relena made a startled look at this remark, then touched the spot he pointed. "It doesn't look serious, but you should take care of that." He turned his back on her, retiring slowly to his corner of the room. He raised a hand to his forehead, sensing the open wound behind the hairline beating with heat.

"Oh, God...!"

Relena's soft, almost breathless whisper sounded more frightening and ominous than any howl of an infected person Heero had heard in his entire life. Much more than a roar of a thousand of them at the same time. Although she said nothing more, Heero immediately understood that their worst scenario had just become real.

When he slowly turned to face her again, he couldn't understand how he hadn't noticed earlier those teeth marks on the pale skin of her delicate neck. The wound was small but dreadful. Relena kept repeatedly wiping the spot with the palm of her hand, only helplessly rubbing the trickling blood along her throat. As if she wanted to wipe the mark off her skin or couldn't believe what had happened to her. Or worse, what it meant for her. Her gaze was growing darker with horror with every passing second. Her breathing accelerated, as the realization of her fate struck her.

"No… No, no…" Relena whimpered, repeatedly, a distinguishable cry lurking at the back of her throat.

Then her eyes met his. Heero wasn't sure when or how it happened to her, but hell, it just happened. Relena was looking at him helplessly, every inch of her body and soul begging for help. But there was no help he could offer her.

"That's it," he heard himself muttering, though the truth didn't reach his brain just yet. "This is the end."

He slowly lifted his gun.

"No…!" Relena gasped, reaching out her hand to him as if she wanted to stop him. "Heero, don't do this-"

Her voice got muffed by her tears. She abruptly rose from her knees and made a step closer to him, reaching her hands out to him, tears trickling down her horrified pale face. She kept calling him by his name over and over again. Heero knew this voice would haunt him forever.

"Stay away from me," he ordered, unable to hide a slight tremble in his voice.

What stopped her from making another step in his direction was the sound of the reloaded gun, aimed right at the center of her forehead. There she stood, like a deer, held at his gunpoint, her eyes widened with horror that awaited her. A horror that was now floating through every vein of her flesh, reaching every cell of her body, slowly robbing her of her self. Turning her into a bloodthirsty monster.

"One more step..." he gritted his teeth, "and I will kill you."

The look Relena gave him caused Heero to disgust himself for these words, but he didn't lower his gun, and he didn't take her eyes off her. She stood still, frowning at him in silence with terrified, incredulous eyes as if she couldn't believe what he intended to do to her. Although none of them said a word for a few long moments, the silence between them, full of their shallow breaths and wild heartbeat, rang louder than a thunderstorm that was still raging on the sky, high above their shelter.

Though his words sounded like a goodbye, eventually something in Relena's face suddenly calmed down, as if life resided in her eyes again. She took a deep breath and slowly pulled out her own gun from her jacket, placing it on the ground, then hammered it in Heero's direction. Next, she wordlessly took off her backpack and also surrendered it at Heero's feet.

"What the fuck you're doing?" Heero asked, watching her every move.

Relena spread her arms from side to side in the gesture of surrender.

"I can't hurt you," she declared. "In a few hours, I will lose my consciousness. Kill me then, Heero. Don't hesitate. But…" She made a pause, taking in another deep breath, trying to calm her trembling voice, staring at him over the barrel of his gun. "But… don't take these few hours away from me now. While I can still feel. Listen. Speak. As long as I'm still human... I want to live."

Heero gritted his teeth, not letting any muscle on his face betray his hesitation. She surprised him. Not the first, but probably the last time.

"You're only holding up what's imminent, Relena," he stated coldly, slowly curling his finger on the trigger of his gun, clutching to the voice of reason that ordered him to mercifully end her suffering as soon as possible.

"That's exactly what I'm doing," Relena lifted her chin a little, exposing her fatal wound. "I know that you'd be better off if I were dead. But all I'm asking you is just a few more hours of life. Can you give them to me?"

For the second time in his life, as if he was hallucinated, Heero couldn't look away. Her eyes didn't reflect despair anymore. Her look was gentle, sincere, calm. And eventually, she did something entirely unexpected: she smiled at him. With the humblest, saddest smile Heero had ever seen in his life and which he swore in his soul that he would never see again.

"Stay with me, Heero."

The lightning showed up in the window behind her, illuminating the room for a mere second, followed by a rumble of deafening thunder. Relena made a few steps back, leaning against the wall and slid down to the floor. Blood was still trickling down her neck, and she left a thin trace of it on the surface of the wall.

"And when the time comes… I want you to end this for me."

Heero felt a painful squeeze in his chest. This stubbornness, with which she clung to the fragile life that escaped through the wound on her slender neck with every passing second, was something that infuriated and relieved him simultaneously. He kept his finger on the trigger, just like he kept his gaze still on this innocent soul. Another convict wrongfully sentenced, who was now waiting on death row for the sentence to be executed.

And he was the executioner to execute this unjust judgment.

.

TBC

With this scene, the story reached the moment with which it started. But it doesn't end here.

I want to thank you for all your reviews so far, especially Lumpylumpia, Mistaken-Miracles, and Hellocat42! I read every one of your reviews carefully, and I'm glad that this story draws you in. I hope that the fate that awaits Heero and Relena will keep you in such high suspense, as so far. Thanks again for every word of support :)