Chapter 20 - The Childhood

It was the silence that woke him from his sleep. The deathly silence, that was louder than chaos.

The day outside was miserable and cloudy; hardly any sunlight reached Earth through the dome of black smoke of the burning city. He peered through the windows of the car, slowly opened the door on the driver's side, then crawled out of the vehicle.

At first, he was worried that he had lost the ability to see colors. Everything around him was black and white. He wondered if he would ever get over it.

He recognized the area with difficulty. The buildings around him, in which his kindergarten friends lived, were still smoking, abandoned cars on the nearby street were still burning. There was a park with swings nearby, but it was a black, scorched surface now. People were lying on the streets, unmoving. He was in a ghost city. All alone. Even that strange man that locked him in that car wasn't anywhere around...

He felt fear taking his breath away at the memory of a night that had just ended. He had to find her. She might need his help, and he escaped. He promised that he would protect her. He clenched his eyes and small fists, swallowed his tears.

"How are you holdin' up, kid?"

Heero froze at those words. He recognized that voice, followed by a sound of heavy footsteps approaching him from the back. "I told you that I will be back for you. Did any of them bite you?"

Heero didn't turn to face the man. The memory of terrible, gaping jaws that had bit into his mother's neck came back with its full resemblance in his mind. He shut his eyes, trying to chase it away, but it wouldn't disappear. He shook his head in response.

"Then you're still alive," the sound of footsteps encircled him, and then his savior crouched in front of him. "Now, you have a choice. You can use that chance given to you and live a little bit longer. Or you can give up and die very soon."

Heero looked up. The man's face was a bit unshaved, and he frowned at him with accipitral, emotionless green eyes, partly veiled by a curtain of dark brown hair. Those confident, disturbing eyes pierced him. Heero felt fear and respect for this man at the same time, but he didn't show it. That wasn't what he was taught. He clenched his fists.

"I don't care what happens to me," he replied as confidently as he could, holding his gaze, "my mom was attacked... I have to find her."

The man's eyes darkened.

"Your mother is dead, kid. She's gone. You can mourn her by dying or continue living. I thought you didn't deserve to die, so I saved you. Thinking of it now, I could have been wrong. A quick death would spare you the suffering that this miserable life of ours will be full from now on." He rose up from his knees. "You can come with me or stay here, looking for what's left of your mother. If there is any left. It's your choice."

The man passed him, moving away in the direction he came from. His steps were silencing, getting further and further away.

Soon they were accompanied by the quieter rustle of the second pair of feet.

x x x

June, one and a half week later

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Cold metal parts of his gun fitted Heero's fingers as if he had made them himself. He glanced up at the horizon. He had half an hour before the sun would disappear, and darkness would fall. Either way, he could easily clean the weapon and reassemble it even in the dark. Having done it countless times before, just like he taught him, he learned to do this by heart.

The evening breeze soothed his body after a hot, steamy day. The march was much more difficult in such weather, although he was accustomed to many inconveniences. Heero let his eyes close for a moment and drew a deep breath, recognizing the smells of the surrounding fields.

When he opened his eyes again, the sun was just coming down in between two skyscrapers still standing in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The globe was golden-colored, making the buildings look dark and ominous, an omen of another sweltering summer day to come after the night. Heero remembered seeing a similar view when he was a child. The only difference was that before the outbreak life was residing in cities; there were lights in the buildings, noises of the traffic, even the smog over the streets. Now Atlanta looked like an empty shell.

His eyes drifted downcast again, resting on disassembled metal parts scattered on a material of a spare T-shirt sprawled on his lap. He realized that he neglected his gun recently; it really could use a thorough cleaning. He couldn't afford not being able to rely on this weapon. He had to be prepared. In every moment. Especially now.

He shifted slightly, propping his back comfortably against the tire of the abandoned camper and continued to polish the barrel. When he moved his legs, several grasshoppers jumped in the air from the high grass around him. Fireflies started to float lazily from the nearest bushes. Nature around him was silencing in this magical moment of dusk.

"Heero!"

He glanced up at the sound of a cheerful, gentle voice calling his name. Relena descended the stairs from inside the camper and jumped onto the grass. Her gracious movements scared away another group of grasshoppers that jumped in different directions. She was barefoot and wore a loose checkered shirt. "Look what I found."

She walked over to him and installed herself comfortably on the grass right next to him. Heero took a quick peek at the object she held in her hand, and shrugged, never stopping the cleaning of his gun. "A book?"

Relena snorted disapprovingly. "Don't tell me this doesn't ring you a bell!" She flipped it through, and then Heero noticed it was a comic book. One about the giant space robots, the same as those on the posters hanging in one of the rooms of Relena's former home. Heero shrugged, his gaze concentrating again on his gun as he pushed the barrel inside the slide. Relena threw him an incredulous glare.

"Heero, even I remember this comic, and I am a girl!"

"I didn't say that I don't remember," he muttered, assembling the rest of the gun with a few quick, loud clicks.

Relena smiled widely. "Did you ever dream that you were such a warrior in a robot suit?"

Heero lifted the gun at the line of his eyes, aiming somewhere in the distance. "I was never a fan of those things," he muttered, pulling the trigger. The gun clicked, and he quickly reloaded it and repeatedly shot with an empty barrel. Having checked the mechanics, he put off the empty weapon and started filling the magazine with the ammo.

"Well, Milliardo was absolutely crazy about this comic," Relena sighed, leaning her back against the tire and crossing her bent legs, one of her bare feet brushing his knee. She opened the comic book again, resting it on her thighs and frowned at the drawings. "He also dreamed that he would become a cosmonaut and would build the first space colony, like in this story, when there would be too many people to live on Earth," her voice stopped for a moment. "Who would have thought back then that in such a short time, mankind would be almost wiped off the face of the earth. Partly at its own request..."

Heero listened to her quietly, but didn't say anything, then clicked the magazine back into the gun.

"What did you want to be when you were a kid, Heero?"

He glanced at her surreptitiously. His childhood was so short, broken so unexpectedly, and irrevocably that he couldn't instantly brush up on that particular memory. But this time, he didn't feel annoyance like before when Duo asked him this type of question. Or like she did it earlier. To his surprise, it wasn't unpleasant. He sighed silently then let his eyes wander somewhere up on the skyline. "A pilot, I guess."

Relena nodded her head in understanding. "That somehow suits you," she said, leaning her chin on her bent knees and gazing at him. "Have you ever flown by plane?"

"Once. When I flew with my mother from Japan to the States. About half a year before the outbreak."

"I see," Relena raised her eyebrows in surprise, then sent him a broad smile. "Did you like it? The flight?"

Heero slipped his gun behind his belt, then wiped his hands in his T-shirt. He was actually surprised how well he remembered that long, over 12-hour flight. Even after all these years.

"The Earth was so different when seen from the air. Just like people, buildings, continents, seas were small and distant, so these small human matters suddenly ceased to have such significance. I had this idea that if I became a pilot, I could fly to any place on Earth. That I could go anywhere, whenever I wanted." He paused for a second, recalling the memory of a view he saw through the window of a plane: a rising sun appearing slowly from behind the curve of the surface of the planet and enveloping the sky with golden rays. "I liked the idea."

He heard Relena hum approvingly. "I like it, too. That's how I imagine freedom."

Then she moved closer to Heero and rested her head on his shoulder. She let her legs slightly lean on the side of his right tigh. Her cheek felt warm on his skin. When she was this close to him, he could feel the tantalizing smell of her skin and hair.

"So we're halfway there. Am I right?" Relena asked lazily, pointing at the skyscrapers in the distance. "It's a halfway to Houston from Philadelphia, right?"

"Yeah."

She hummed. "I never thought I would go this far. I thought that until the end of my days, I would remain in the zone, leading a monotonous, pathetic life in the dirt and under tyranny. I wouldn't have been able to go this far without your help." Saying these words, she rubbed her cheek tenderly against his shoulder. "It might sound stupid, but I'm so thankful to Duo that he rescued you from that hole… remember?"

Heero said nothing locking his gaze onto the horizon. He was a little thankful too.

"Heero," he heard Relena's soft voice again and hummed at her knowingly. She clenched fingers of her one hand on the comic book, rolling it. "You still didn't answer my question. Why you didn't kill me that night after I was bitten?"

Heero let a breath out, silently, bowing his head a little. That small creature at his side shot again into the very middle of his weak spot. He already knew what happened to him that night. But speaking the truth out was something beyond his ability. Just yet.

Thankfully, Relena didn't pursue him anymore on this question. She cuddled to his side, wrapping a hand around his arm. She made a deep sigh. "You know, Heero… I like it here. I wouldn't mind staying here forever. On this hill, maybe even in this camper, looking at this beautiful view."

"That's a dangerous idea," Heero noted.

"I know. And maybe a bit unreasonable too," Relena chuckled, then made another sigh, sliding her hand over his arm. "You're near. And that's enough for me…"

The sun already set, beaming the sky to an orange-pink hue, which started to darken in dark blue color from above. Seconds of silence between them lengthened in minutes, and the world around seemed to imitate them by getting quieter. The beetles died down, and fireflies, resembling tiny spots glowing with bright green light, began to float above the blades of grass, flying closer to them. At one point, Heero sensed Relena's breathing turn calm and even.

"Relena…?" he whispered, looking down at her, but she was already asleep.

Bowing over her, he slipped one arm behind her back and the other under her bare knees. As he lifted her off the ground, several fireflies flew in panic into the air around them. She seemed as light as a feather, slim and delicate. Her limp head rested on his collarbone, the comic fell out of her hands on the grass. Heero kicked it aside and headed for the camper's stairs, carrying her in his arms.

The interior of the old camper creaked slightly as he stepped inside and walked over to the large bed at the back. There he gently put Relena on the mattress. As soon as his hands slipped out from under her legs and back, Relena rolled over in her sleep to her side, half-consciously grabbing him by his forearm. He froze, frowning on her as she whispered his name in sleep. One lost firefly flew lazily inside their camper and landed on the window above her head, casting its faint light around them.

Feeling unable to leave her side just yet, Heero gently pulled her hand away from his arm and took it in his hands, kneeling at her bed. She slept so peacefully, her lips slightly opened, a hand that gripped his arm a second ago now relaxed between his palms. He frowned at her, then reached and brushed her golden hair off her face and her slender neck, holding an urging desire to lie next to her, hold her. His hand stopped for a second over the spot on her neck where she was bitten. The place was covered by plaster to keep it invisible, but he knew that a few tiny, red teeth marks were the only still visible traces of that horrifying night. The night that changed everything.

When he was kneeling next to her, quietly gazing at her, he felt to be at peace. He could collect those memories from the moments spent with her. Cherish them, keep them… Gather as many of them as possible.

Heero bowed his head and kissed her knuckles, solemnly, tenderly. He will protect her with his life - it was his response to all her questions.

And his silent promise.

.

TBC

The next chapters will bring us some action and you will meet a 'new' hero. Stay tuned!