Chapter 23 - The Escape

Heero POV

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"They're here!" Dorothy laughed sinisterly and triumphantly, hiding from the rain of bullets under the windowsill. "I knew it! They've found me! My Fireflies!"

"Relena, hide!" Heero shouted, crawling under the window, looking up just enough to make sure Relena escaped behind the nearest pillar.

Meanwhile, Dorothy began to run away, still dissolving into her devilish laughter. Noticing that, Heero immediately leaned against the floor and gave a few shots towards her. The bullets hit the wall inches above Dorothy's head, she covered her head with her hands but didn't stop running. Her wicked laughter soon died down, disappearing in the cannonade, and she vanished from his sight.

"Fuck," Heero drawled, crawling back under the windowsill.

He lifted his hand to cover his eyes as the bullets stirred up clouds of dust around him that almost blinded him. It felt like the night air got hot from the number of bullets that flew around. In this chaos, Heero felt his pulse quickening as he realized he couldn't see or hear Relena.

"Relena!" he called for her, but his voice got utterly lost in the thunder. He cursed; he had to hurry.

Heero laid down on the floor and crawled from under the windowsill to the opposite wall, and there he finally noticed her. Relena was sitting huddled behind the pillar, covering her head with her hands, her eyes squeezed shut. The plaster pillar was now the only barrier covering her from the incessant rain of bullets. She was too far away for Heero to crawl safely to her. Heero looked around abruptly, quickly realizing that though there were several ways to run from the ruined outpost, due to the strength of the attack, they practically had only one chance to escape.

"Relena!" he called her again, then breathed a sigh of relief when she heard his voice through the cannonade and looked up at him. "At my sign, run straight ahead!"

He motioned her the direction in front of her with his hand when another series of bullets got stuck in the walls and on the floor around them, splashing clouds of white dust from the plaster. The Fireflies' group they encountered had to be enormously well-armed, as they were shooting nearly incessantly. Now this cloud of dust created by this assault could be their only chance. Looking around one last time, Heero calculated their odds and felt his mouth go dry; he frowned at Relena, realizing by the look in her eyes how terrified she was.

"You're ready?"

Relena nodded, then kneeled, readying herself for a quick run. Her lips whispered something that resembled the words "I am," but Heero didn't hear them anymore. He also kneeled, keeping his head as low as he could from the bullets, propping himself with his hand against the floor.

"At my sign," his eyes met Relena's again. Their breaths evened. Gazing into her horrified oceanic eyes, Heero's conscience was suddenly overwhelmed by the spontaneous but confident reflection, that he won't let her get hurt… even if this fearful look of hers happens to be the last he would see in her life.

Then the cannonade suddenly went down. It was their chance.

"…NOW!"

The silence that fell during the interval between the shootings was interrupted by a clump of their feet on the rubble. Heero and Relena sprinted away at once in the dense cloud of dust, toward the second exit from the police station, at its back. Heero started running just a little bit later than Relena. Just behind her.

Fractions of a second then, the shooting resumed, and Heero felt two hard impacts on the upper-right side of his back.

The power of shots surprised him; it made him stagger and lose his balance, it was almost enough for him to fall over. His brain began to work at slow speed, gradually processing his current situation, processing the fact that he was actually hit.

A second later, his mind was eventually hit by the first wave of striking pain and he felt hot blood running down his side. His knees got weak, he felt as if he was losing his breath.

He thought that maybe it would be better to give up at this point: fall over, stop fighting, give himself to the Fireflies... or just stand and expose himself to more shots… so that she could escape...

You're near. And that's enough for me …

Heero shot his eyes open when a familiar, beautiful voice ringed out in his brain.

He looked up. Relena thankfully didn't notice what happened to him, as she was continuing running a few steps ahead. Heero gazed at her, as she was running further away and realized that he wasn't allowed to die yet. He didn't want to. Not yet. Then the whistling of bullets over Heero's head made him aware of the seriousness of his situation; if he doesn't keep running, he will get more shots.

Catching his balance, with his eyes locked at Relena's drifting silhouette, Heero felt the hotness of adrenaline rising in his chest. He clenched his teeth and forced himself to keep running forward as fast as he possibly could. He heard the screams of their pursuers as they passed from mouth to mouth news about their escape. He ran, keeping his eyes on Relena, who was still bravely running forward, focused, sending him only a few quick glances.

They somehow managed to escape from the shot line, and the shouts of the Fireflies got more and more silent, but never died out. Looking around, Heero understood that they wouldn't run away in an open field; they needed to hide somewhere. Just behind the parking outside the post, they ran into the adjacent park, where Heero caught up with Relena and pulled her deep into the thick, high bushes. The place was nearly completely isolated, even the moonlight didn't reach it.

"Stop…" Heero muttered as he pushed Relena to lie flat down in the high grass and thicket around them. He wrapped his injured right arm around her, pressing her down to the ground. His shoulder felt unexceptionally painful at every, even the slightest movement. With every beat of his heart, with every flow of blood in his veins, Heero felt that excruciating, pulsating pain over and over again. They were both breathing heavily, lying on the ground, one next to another. "Be quiet."

Relena turned her head to face Heero. Her oceanic eyes searched his face, but then they widened in panic. He knew she had to notice what happened; he couldn't hide the enlarging red stain on his clothes from her.

"Heero…!" Relena gasped, leaning closer to him, trying to prop herself on her elbow to look at him closely from above. Realizing what she wanted to do, with one last effort, forcing his tremendously painful arm to move accordingly to his wish, Heero held Relena by her shoulder and abruptly pulled groundward, next to him, under cover of high, thick grass. She hit the ground, making a low gasp, and looked at him with worried eyes. "Heero… you're hurt…"

He hushed her, realizing his breath was already trembling of pain. He could hear blood thudding in his ears, dangerously fast, as if he was about to experience shock. He was breathing heavily, fixing his eyes on Relena. Relena's eyes glazed over, she moved closer to him in the tall grass and opened her mouth as if she wanted to speak. Heero lifted his hand and placed it on her lips, then shook his head slightly.

Then the screams and patter of their pursuers' feet suddenly increased, the rustle of dry branches indicated that they had just run into the park. Eventually, their voices died down, commands were given.

Seek them out. They couldn't go far. Shoot without an order.

Heero and Relena froze, lying hidden in deep thickets. They could only wait in silence, hoping for a miracle; that the Fireflies will pass them by. Heero clenched his eyelids, calming his breath, holding back the slightest groan. He could feel the sharp blades of grass under his cheek and the smell of summer-dried earth that was soaking in blood from his wounds. His hearing sharpened, and he knew that a dozen or so meters from them, the bushes swayed, betraying the Firefly that was creeping behind them. There was an alarming sound of the weapon being charged.

Feeling another wave of pain incoming, Heero clenched a strand of Relena's hair in his fist when he felt her delicate fingers tighten on the material of his shirt. He opened his eyes and looked up at her; Relena was gazing at him, a single tear escaping the ocean of her eyes. In the very dim moonlight, her lips formed in soundless words, but he could read it.

I'm sorry.

He could hear and feel the subtle tremor of the earth under his cheek, and the sound of grasses moved by the approaching Fireflies. The steps were getting closer and closer, their hideout could be spotted anytime soon. He didn't want her to cry, not now. With a trembling hand of his injured arm, he wiped a tear off her cheek, leaving a pink streak of his own blood on it.

He wondered anxiously if her skin was too warm or if his body was actually getting colder.

Then, unexpectedly, the steps and shouts began to draw away. The rustling of the grass became distant like the flickering of stars in the sky above them. The night silence fell again in the grove; it became deafening, almost overwhelming, though it meant that they had miraculously escaped death. Heero and Relena held their breaths, listening to the softest noise, but the groove resounded only with the sounds of nocturnal animals.

"Are they gone?" Relena asked silently.

Heero rose himself slightly on his unharmed arm and looked around alertly. Realizing they were alone and safe. At least for now.

"You need to… move on," Heero murmured through clenched teeth, gripping his wounds and trying to rise from his knees. He felt Relena's hands on him, but he shook them off. "Leave it, run!"

"I'm not going anywhere without you," Relena declared, silently, relentlessly.

Under the pressure of pain, Heero felt he was very quickly running out of power needed to fight her. He looked up at her narrowly, breathing heavily. "Run away!" he almost begged.

"Then I'm taking you with me," Relena caught him under his unharmed arm and helped him get up. Heero leaned on her, steadying himself, letting a silent grunt. Although he tried to stand up and walk on his own, he realized how weak he felt and that a big part of his weight had to rest on Relena's arms. But the more he wanted to move away from her to relieve her of his burden, the tighter she hugged him to her, never letting him go.

"Now, you lean on me, Heero Yuy."

x x x

Heero figured that what happened to them that night had to be a real blessing in disguise. Their provisory hideout in the grass efficiently deceived the pursuit that went in the entirely opposite direction, while Heero and Relena, tripping up and staying in the shadows, were progressively leaving the city. And when the light of dawn appeared in the sky, they found another hideout, where they intended to stay hidden during the day and continue the escape when the night falls. It was the garage of one of the houses in the suburbs, in a large garden. Its owner apparently liked to DIY because its interior was full of all sorts of tools. There was also a car parked inside. In the corner of the garage, behind cardboard boxes full of various shuffles, Relena finally let Heero lie on the floor.

Once on the ground, Heero let out a heavy breath, holding back a groan of pain and looked at Relena. She sat at his side, drenched out, bracing her hands on the ground. Her clothes were soaked with his blood and her sweat, she closed her eyes, trying to steady her breathing. Heero stopped squeezing wounds on his shoulder blade for a moment and glanced at the palm of his hand, all dripping with ominously dark, red blood.

"Heero," he heard Relena's scared voice, "what do you want me to do? Tell me."

He took another couple of breaths, squeezing the wounds back and propping his head against the floor, looking up at the ceiling. He already knew what he needed to do.

"Go to the house. Look for anything you could use… to pull out the bullet."

Relena gazed at him with terrified, worried eyes, then looked around nervously. She seemed to be fighting with herself.

"Go," Heero muttered silently, gazing at her reassuringly. "Just be careful…"

Relena's eyes glazed, a look in her eyes a mixture of horror and determination, but then she nodded and pressed her lips together. She took out her gun and reloaded it.

"Please wait here for me," she whispered and bowed down to feather a kiss on the top of Heero's head. She gave a short squeeze to his hand and then rose on her feet. Heero tilted his head and accompanied her with his gaze until she ran outside, brandishing her gun, vanishing from his view in the light of the morning that started outside.

Feeling another strike of pain coursing through his mind and chest, Heero rolled on to his unwounded side. When he was finally alone, he breathed out a silent groan of pain and opened his eyes, staring idly at the dirty garage floor. On the surface of the dust covering the floor, he could notice traces of Relena's shoes as she ran from here seconds before.

Then his vision started getting blurry. The world seemed suddenly turning upside down. With every tiniest cell of his body and mind, he concentrated all his remaining strength on the unequal battle against unconsciousness.

x x x

Relena POV

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Relena was searching through the interiors of subsequent kitchen lockers in the house. Her hands were shaking with nervousness, but she tried hard to not make any significant noise as she wasn't entirely sure if there were any infected or people in the house. She found a lot of random shuffles in the cupboards; rats and all kinds of vermin ran between the cracks. She couldn't find anything useful for a long moment.

"Shit, shit, shit…!" she repeatedly hissed her swearings as if it could help anyhow. She opened all the drawers, and finally, in the last row of drawers, she found meat tongs. They were smaller than those she remembered from her family barbecue parties. They could have come in handy. Still, she needed something to treat the wound.

Relena ran out of the kitchen and, holding the gun in her hands, went to search the rest of the house. She stopped in the corridor, listening, trying to imitate Heero when he explored every new place of their stay. Thank God, the house was completely empty. It turned out that the interior wasn't thoroughly plundered. After searching both bedrooms, Relena entered the bathroom and opened the locker that was still standing under the window. Suddenly, a green lizard ran out from the inside. Startled, Relena jumped away with a squeal, propping herself against the tiled floor of the bathroom.

When the lizard escaped away, Relena rose from the dusty floor back to a kneeling position, then lifted her hands, intending to dust them off. Yet, when she looked down at them, she felt the chill of terror freeze her heart. Because of the adrenaline, she hadn't noticed this before. Her hands were all covered in blood.

Heero's blood.

You're irrational. I have even less than any intention of letting us get into another city, probably full of infected.

The memory of yesterday's words that he had said to her hit her conscience with such an impact that Relena almost stopped breathing.

He protested. But eventually, he did what she wanted him to do. Just because she asked him to. Suddenly she came to a frustrating, horrifying realization that it was all her fault. It was her fault they got into the city. It was her fault they were lured by Dorothy into a trap. It was her fault Heero got shot.

It will be entirely her fault if he dies.

"Oh God," she gasped, still looking at her hands, turning them from both sides. His blood had already caked on the folds of her skin and under her fingernails, forming dark scabs. Just a few hours ago, this life-giving fluid was circulating in Heero's veins; it was turning his body so pleasantly warm to the touch, it was allowing him to run, talk to her, touch her... And now, his blood was leaking onto his clothes, soaking into the ground beneath his body, on her hands... Relena had crown evidence of his slow death right before her eyes. "Heero…"

Her vision started to blurry, but she quickly swallowed her tears. It wasn't the right time to cry. He can't die because of her. She had to save him. She won't let him die without telling him just how much she loved him...

Relena hurriedly brushed off her hands and dived under the locker. Just under the sink's elbow, she found what she was looking for: a small plastic box with red cross written on it. She couldn't believe her luck; that was probably one of the last first aid kits in the whole state. Clutching the finding in her hands and pressing it to her heart like a treasure or a trophy, she got up from her knees and ran out of the bathroom.

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TBC

This is a good time to once again thank all my loyal reviewers, especially Lumpylumpia, Mistaken-Miracles, and Hellocat42! I cherish all your reviews, it's an honor to have such readers as you!

I encourage others to express their opinion on the adventures of Heero and Relena so far - I know that many of you read this story. I am very interested in what do you think!

Plus… I was wondering if I should write it, but I will write it: the next chapter is probably the one everyone of you is waiting for the most.

Dot.