Chapter 36 - The Farewell

Heero POV

The space below the wall of the Philadelphia QZ looked like one of the further circles of hell.

The constant fights and the nightmare of the monthly food struggle that thoroughly devastated the neighboring cities - Baltimore and New York - forced the surviving inhabitants of those cities into an escape and an attempt to get into the last operating Quarantine Zone on the East Coast. Refugees swirled in several uneven, tight queues, pushing towards the gate's bottleneck, almost trampling each other. They kept screaming, "Let us in!" "Help us!" or "Have mercy!". Everyone's wish was to get inside a rather safe zone behind a high wall, behind which there was no deadly virus and infected - even at the price of all the restrictions and poor standard of living there. The crowd's cries mixed with shouts of the guards that were trying to control the masses.

Managing to break free from New York, Heero arrived at the gates just like those refugees. Covering his face with a gray Afghan scarf and a hood pulled over his head, he approached the last waiting ones. He knew that these people had days of waiting in the cold before them. Some of them would starve without food and drink or freeze to death. The rest would be subjected to a detailed medical examination (which for those less fortunate would immediately end up giving a lethal injection), interrogation, and muddling through a bureaucratic meat grinder before they can set their feet in the zone.

He had other plans. Heero lowered his head and quietly passed the crowd, walking along the about twenty meters high concrete wall surrounding the Philadephia QZ.

It took him about an hour to reach the next entrance, which wasn't a usual border crossing, but only a guard's checkpoint. As he walked, cold, winter air thickened his hands, even though he kept them in his pockets all the time, the snow on the road penetrated inside his sneakers. Evading the guards' sight, Heero crept sideways, hiding behind a large pipe torn from the ground. There he crouched down, hidden, slipping his frozen hands under his armpits, curling up in himself, desperately trying to warm himself up.

When the evening finally came, Heero shook himself from the cold and looked out of his hiding place in the direction of the outpost. As the guards conducted a changing of the guard, Heero eventually noticed the person he came all this way for. Waiting another few minutes for the right moment, Heero eventually rose from his knees and walked briskly toward the wall.

A short, thin guard, dressed from head to toe in a black uniform and armed to the teeth, stood alone by the gate, his back turned to him. Right from under the black helmet, Heero noticed protruding red hair.

Heero allowed himself to be heard, and the guard turned around to face him. The redhead instinctively raised his weapon, but after an instant, he recognized Heero and froze.

"…did you got it?"

Heero narrowed his eyes and nodded his head in reply.

The redhead guard smirked in a very creepy way, distorting his face in a grimace and revealing his yellow, rotten teeth, then dashed in Heero's direction, holding his Kalashnikov. Heero didn't move from his spot, standing still as if he had been turned into a stone figure. Keeping his eyes locked at the gun held by the guard, he pursed his lips, swallowing hard. Instinct told him to run away. He felt cold sweat at his back and held his breath, knowing what's about to happen and that he can't move even a single step...

The first, sharp blow to his stomach made Heero fell onto his knees to the icy ground, and then, receiving another hit of the shotgun butt in his back, he collapsed onto his face. After each one punch came another - equally ruthless and accurate one. Heero cringed on the ground, barely refraining himself from defending or fighting against further blows and kicks that covered his whole body. In a short flash of consciousness, he looked up and noticed a disgusting, sadistic smile on the guard's face... the motherfucker was currently enjoying it… Soon, the pain made him unable to any logical thinking; he only wanted this to end...

He lost count how long these tortures lasted. When they stopped, he laid still and limp on the frozen ground, wheezing, on the verge of consciousness. Throughout the thunder of blood in his head, he heard the triumphant voice of the redhead guard; that he had found a smuggler trying to get out of the zone. After a moment, Heero felt someone grab him by his clothes and drag him along the ground like a sack of coal. Parting his eyes, all he could see was the black shadow of the thick concrete wall and the searchlights on the background of the night sky.

He sighed a shaking breath of relief. He was inside...

After another dozen or so meters, without any further warning, the guard released his jacket, and Heero collapsed limp down, hollowly hitting the ground. "Now, you better give me that."

It took him another few seconds to gather enough strength to slowly raise his body from the ground. Spitting blood from a cut lip, Heero looked around. He realized that this skinny guard dragged his actually really far - they were already behind the barbed wire at the very beginning of the residential area.

"Hurry the fuck up, I don't have time," the redhead guard nagged, pacing, looking around nervously.

Shifting his weight onto his knees, Heero pulled a small package wrapped in black foil out of his pocket and threw it to the guard. The guard grabbed the bag and immediately unpacked it. As soon as he checked the content, a broad smile appeared on his face. He took a little white powder onto his dirty fingers, rubbing it against his gums, munching with satisfaction. Heero glared at the drug-addict with undistinguished revulsion and disgust.

"This is good," he barked at Heero, walking up a step closer. "Now get the fuck out of here before-"

He couldn't finish his sentence when Heero lunged toward him, hitting his face with his fist so hard that he almost knocked all the man's rotten teeth out. Right after that, Heero took another swing to pack another punch, but froze, feeling a barrel of the guard's rifle biting into his breastbone.

"What the fuck you're doing?!" the redhead hissed. "Are you out of your mind? I fucking saved you!"

Heero sent him a death glare from behind his unruly bangs, dropping his arms and slowly backing away from the rifle.

"Fuck!" the redhead cursed, keeping Heero at gunpoint and massaging his cheek. He checked the inside of his hand for blood. "They were right about you! You're a fucking lunatic! How else could I get you inside the zone, huh? You should be thankful to me!"

Heero clenched his fists, glaring at his torturer with hatred that flooded his body like hot lava. "Now we're even," he hissed. "Find yourself another supplier. Stay the fuck away from me. If you touch me again, I swear I'll kill you."

The redhead guard made-up a scared face, then lifted his shotgun and shot two times into the air. The sound of shots echoed around the zone.

"Bang, bang! It's you who's dead, punk," he laughed out loud. "Get the hell out of here. Use well the chance you've been given, fucker." Then the guard turned away, leaving Heero in a dark alley.

Battered all over his body, Heero spat blood again and limped a few meters back. He leaned for his backpack and threw it over his shoulders, letting out a hiss of pain, then looked around. To the guards, he was dead; he had no documents, food, weapon, ration cards, or shelter. But finally, after all this time, he was in the Philadephia QZ, the only safe haven on this side of the country. Now he will manage somehow. People here certainly needed smugglers, too.

It started snowing, and white snowflakes illuminated the darkness of the night. Rubbing his aching arms and ribs, Heero pulled a hood over his head again and hobbled toward the dark, narrow alleys.

x x x

A few days later

Sleep slowly abandoned his body. Streams of cold, damp, fresh air flowed through the open window, then above the floor, into his narrow bed. Heero clenched both fists, rolling over onto his back. He stared at the ceiling, at his piece of the roof that felt strangely familiar to his after a few weeks, just like his Spartan bed. He wasn't longing a bit for his small flat back in Philadelphia QZ. Actually, he didn't feel the longing for anything. Did that mean he had everything he wanted? Shrugging this thought off, Heero slowly got up and dressed up. Realizing that the other men were still sleeping, he silently walked out of the barrack.

The sky was divided into two colors - the gray-navy and the one glowing in pink and orange on the horizon. The light slowly poured in the narrow streets of Evergreen, and the thick fog was rising through the wall from the surrounding meadows. The moist chill stung Heero with a million thin needles in exposed parts of his body. The sun was still gathering the courage to emerge from beyond the horizon.

At this magical moment, just before dawn, Evergreen was disturbingly quiet. Even the birds haven't sung yet. There was a crippling silence. Heero had never "heard" such silence; the silence that was so quiet that one could paradoxically hear it. It grew so overwhelming because nothing interrupted it. Although Heero always associated silence with death and destruction, here, in Evergreen, it was like a gentle breath before the sound of furrowing, buzzing, wheezing, shuffling, forging, laughing, crying, stomping, knocking, screaming, singing...

Heero breathed the chilly air into his lungs and slowly walked the misty streets of the village. He moved noiselessly, his sneakers kept dipping in the sand still wet from the morning dew. In a few minutes, he reached the right building, located almost in the middle of the village, next to the power plant building and the room with turbines, hearing the sound of an even noise flowing right next to the river turbines.

The warehouse door was closed, of course, but it only took him a couple more minutes to open it with a few wires. Then Heero slipped inside, closing the door behind him.

The interior was filled with the musty smell of oil and gunpowder as well as pine wood. The Evergreen armory was full of various types of ammunition and contained several dozen different caliber weapons. Heero walked quickly through the room, approaching the ammo crates at the far end of the room, just below the small window. The cartridges that Evergreen residents learned to make themselves from fired scales were wrapped in canvas packages. Next to them laid a few wooden boxes with brand-new ammunition found in nearby villages or cities abandoned before the outbreak of the epidemic.

Finding a piece of dry cloth, Heero made a makeshift package out of it and packed two handfuls from each set into it, making sure they fit his own weapon. He also took four grenades from the high shelves above the shotguns. Then he knelt on the ground, tying the package tightly…

"So you're really leaving."

He stiffened at the sound just behind his back. Instinct didn't prompt him to defend himself... and he recognized the voice immediately.

"Quatre," Heero muttered under his breath, rising from his knees and turning around. Quatre stood right behind him, the gray of morning light that came into the warehouse through small windows illuminated its delicate, aristocratic features. The blonde man wore his usual worried expression.

"Why all this stealing, Heero?" Quatre continued, with apparent regret, even sadness in his eyes. "Did you really think that I would let you and Relena go without anything?"

Heero narrowed his eyes at him, then tilted his head slightly down, without saying anything. He kept his gaze fixed at the package at his feet. Then he heard Quatre making a loud sigh.

"I should be furious," the blonde man muttered. "Despite our efforts, you still treat us as your enemies. Have you ever trusted anyone at all, Heero?"

"I'm not doing this for myself," Heero barked. "It's not about me."

Quatre's eyes glazed in the dim light, then seemed to sharpen dangerously. He started toward Heero.

"Are you sure what you are doing is right?"

Heero glowered. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, you do know exactly," Quatre muttered angrily, for the first time since they met. "Are you sure you're doing the right thing, taking Relena to Houston?"

Heero stared at Quatre, his expression growing darker, his fists tightly clenched.

"Do you have any authentic idea, what's exactly in there? All you know are rumors," Quatre said, stopping for a moment when Heero sent him a dismissive glare, then he continued. "I've heard about laboratories too, Heero. Somebody is operating in Houston, that's for sure. But do you know who it is? Military? Fireflies…?"

"It may be a Peacecraft," Heero muttered.

Quatre sighed helplessly. "I know, Relena believes that but you can't be sure of that," he said. "You don't know their intentions…"

"That is what she wants," Heero stated with a tone that left no room for discussion. "And I won't let her go alone."

Quatre was silent for a moment, then his eyes filled with angst. "I have a bad feeling about this, Heero. I can't chase away the impression... that if indeed a Peacecraft stood behind the matter of these laboratories, there would be no such secrecy around it. People talk about these laboratories, but nobody seems to know any details..."

Heero lifted his eyes at Quatre, discovering with impatience that the blonde man had just unveiled his own doubts that had been troubling him for some time. "Yeah," he muttered. Quatre was right. It was bizarre. Should the only chance to bring the world back to normality be shrouded in such a secret?

Quatre gazed at Heero, then turned around and walked over to the window. "Relena's immunity is the hope for the world, but not everyone would want to use it to save the whole world," the blonde man whispered, looking out the window. "Many years have passed, hatred and lack of compassion have grown into human hearts, multiplying, and spreading like cancer. Many men, having the key to save humanity in their hands, wouldn't hesitate to use her to satisfy their particular interests… to play God… I have a feeling that it's not infected, but people who you should protect her from."

Heero tilted his head, listening to Quatre and looking out the window. He let the pregnant silence fall, which only made his interlocutor understand that despite everything they talked about... the decision had already been made.

Behind the window, the first rays of the rising sun appeared behind the clouds.

"I need to go," Heero said, bowing his head and walking towards the doors, passing Quatre by.

"Wait."

Heero stopped and turned around just before he opened the door. Quatre walked to the spot where Heero had been standing, then bent down and took the makeshift package in his hands.

"You forgot this," he said, passing him a package, but didn't let go of it yet, sending Heero a glance. "I want you to know that I support you with all my heart. If you ever need help... you can count on me."

x

Relena POV

Tossing just eaten food, Relena eagerly and desperately gasped air in her lungs, standing half-bent just behind the girls' dormitory building. The morning nausea was getting more and more draining for her; what's more, now she wasn't even feeling comfortable, as a packed backpack weighed on her shoulders. She leaned her hand against the wall, slowly straightening herself up, with her other hand wrapped around her belly.

"Oh God…" she gasped silently in between the breaths. Her heart was beating a crazy pace. "Easy…"

Relena looked sideways to make sure nobody could see her. Eventually, having calmed her breathing, she came out of hiding and quickly walked towards the well for water. She dipped her hands in the icy liquid and washed her face and mouth, then looked down, finding her reflection in the water in the bucket.

She grabbed the bucket with both hands, steadying it, and frowning at the outline of her face covered with water and sweat. Relena realized that her eyes were full of fear. She was carrying a child of a man whom she loved more than anything in the world... but nevertheless, she was thoroughly scared: of further travel, of pregnancy, and of her own lie that started to weigh on her unbearably... Never in her life had she looked so miserable.

"Relena!"

Catherine's approaching voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Shit…" Relena hissed, quickly and nervously wiping water off her face. It definitely wasn't time for self-pity. She grabbed the bucket and spilled the dirty water on the ground a second before Catherine appeared from around the corner.

"There you are," Catherine walked up to her, frowning suspiciously at the puddles on the ground. "Heero's been looking for you. You are leaving soon..."

"Yeah… I'm coming," Relena muttered, her eyes downcast. She brushed drops of water off her cheek, still unable to look at her friend.

"Everything's all right?" Catherine asked, apparently concerned. "Relena…"

"I'm all right," Relena cut Catherine off and walked briskly, trying to pass her by. "Just got a little dizzy."

Catherine stopped Relena halfway through. "Why are you fooling me? I'm not blind, Relena. Do you think I didn't see that you have been getting up early in the morning for more than a week already, each time running away around the building?"

Relena felt her pulse speed up at those words. She looked up, giving her friend a stern look. "I'm glad you care about me, but..."

"Relena, spare me this bullshit! Give this journey a second thought until it's not too late! I beg you," Catherine insisted. "You risk a lot, not only you but for the baby as-"

"Stop it!" Relena snapped at Catherine, cutting her short. Maybe a bit too harshly. She looked up at her friend's shocked face, then felt her eyes burn with tears. That moment she noticed a flash of compassion in her friend's look as if she understood... Relena felt emotionally broken, suffocating again because of the lie in which she was living. "Catherine, I know you're worried… but I've already made my decision."

"Does he know?"

Relena shook her head violently. "He mustn't know…!"

Hearing Relena's harsh words, Catherine's eyes reddened and swelled with tears, she took a deep breath, covering her mouth with her hand. "Jesus, Relena..."

"I'll be okay," Relena wiped tears from the corners of her eyes, took a deep breath and finally got herself together, then smiled reassuringly at her friend. Catherine was clearly worried, perhaps even more terrified than Relena herself. Relena neared her and stroked her cheek. "Catherine, I will never forget our friendship. I loved you like a sister, and it won't change for the rest of my life. If you love me too... you need to let me go now."

A flash of pain appeared in Catherine's eyes, but she sobbed and hugged Relena tightly. "I want you to come back here, do you understand?" she whispered. "Otherwise, I will follow you anywhere to personally punch you."

Relena chuckled in her shoulder. She could already feel how badly she would miss her friend.

It took them a short while to calm themselves down and wipe away each other's tears, then they held their hands and moved in the direction of the main square. Walking the streets of Evergreen one last time, Relena had an opportunity to meet people she wanted to say goodbye to. Among them was handsome Jared, whose arm had already healed, and a little boy named Joe, already in good health; Joe barely allowed Relena to hug him goodbye, as he wanted so eagerly to go back to play with other children. Then they met Sylvia, who, still resentful and keeping her distance, solemnly wished Relena good luck. That was actually more than anything Relena would expect of her, and she sent her a smile. Passing by the hospital where Relena worked for the previous month, they met the woman named Evelyn with her almost one-month-old newborn Sam, which Relena helped to bring into the world. They also met Sally, who kept her word but provided Relena with all the help, giving her advice on her pregnancy in secret over the last days. Relena was very grateful to Catherine, who held her hand all the time and led her quite efficiently through those meetings. Otherwise, she would have cried tears of emotion continuously during the conversation with every single person.

She really loved this place. She genuinely wanted to come back here someday.

Finally, right at the foot of the high Evergreen gates, Trowa, Quatre, and Heero were standing, waiting for them. Next to them, two saddled horses stood - Heero's faithful, bay-colored stallion Zero and the other stallion, wth gray coloring, which Relena immediately recognized. She learned to ride him more than once during her stay in Evergreen.

When Relena entered the square, Heero clipped his shotgun to the saddle and turned around, his watchful and wary eyes focusing on her. She knew it was time to go.

Letting go of Catherine's hand, Relena hugged her goodbye one last time. Catherine shed another tear, then let Relena go and walked to Trowa, who gave her a protective, reassuring embrace. Relena shook Trowa's hand, then walked up to Quatre.

"It just seems like yesterday you came to Evergreen," Quatre sighed to Relena with a sad voice as she stood in front of him. "It's gonna be empty here without you, Relena..."

Relena smiled sadly, then wrapped her arms around Quatre, holding him tightly. She felt her heart tremble with gratitude. Words couldn't express her joy and the thankfulness she felt for her childhood friend. "Thank you for everything, Quatre. I'll never forget your kindness."

"Please, take care of yourself. Remember, there's a place for you here," Quatre whispered in her ear, returning the hug and rubbing her back gently.

Her heart trembled painfully for the hundredth time that day. Not sure how many emotions she would still be able to handle without bursting into tears, Relena released Quatre from her hug and, holding back tears with the last remaining strength, she walked briskly toward her horse.

She noticed that Heero stood still in his spot, measuring both Quatre and Trowa with his attentive but somehow unexceptionally emotional and gentle look, that she wouldn't expect of him. Then he courtly bowed his head at Quatre and Trowa.

"Thank you. For everything," he said.

Relena fixed her eyes at Heero, incredulously discovering that Heero had actually thanked someone for the first time since she had met him… But very soon, his eyes shaded again into his usual armor of impenetrability, and he turned on his heel away. "Take care."

"Yeah, you too," Trowa said.

"Please, watch yourself," Quatre added, sending a shy smile to Heero, then waved to the people on the wall, ordering them to open the gates. In the warming up morning air came up the noise of the bustle, accompanying the opening of the high metal gates.

Relena walked over to her horse, stroking his nostrils. The horse looked at her with big black eyes, letting out a soft neigh, as if he recognized her too.

"Treaty," she called the horse by his name, and the animal immediately focused its spiky ears at her.

"I heard you learned to ride a horse while I was away," she heard Heero's low voice from behind as he neared her. "They have prepped you this horse, but if you would rather go on one with me, that's all right."

She turned to face him, giving him a defiant smile and approached Treaty from sideways. "I'm already a big girl, I can ride by myself."

Heero gave her a stern look. "Be careful."

"I'm always careful," she replied, then resting her foot in the stirrup she deftly mounted the horse in one neat, trained leap. Looking down at Heero, she noticed in his eyes a flash of anxiety but also admiration, to which she responded with a triumphant smile. "So? You're going?"

Heero smiled knowingly back at her, then walked to Zero and mounted him, immediately turning the horse around on the haunches, facing the already open gates. Zero whinnied loudly and impatiently, stamping his hooves on the sand. Pulling the right rein, Relena turned Treaty around too and then looked over her shoulder for the last time at Quatre, Trowa, and Catherine… at Evergreen.

"See you later," Relena said with a broken voice, waving her hand at her friends. "Stay safe."

"Godspeed," Quatre replied.

"Good luck, you two!" Catherine cried, remaining in Trowa's arms.

Turning toward the unknown, dangerous world that was lurking behind the ever-closed Evergreen gates, Relena bit her lip, sitting firmly in the saddle. Treaty waved his ears nervously, apparently worried about going outside the safe Evergreen, but slowly got encouraged by the dynamic and impetuous Zero, who stamped his hooves nervously, confidently stopped by Heero from galloping toward the meadows.

Relena looked at Heero and his calm, but confident blue eyes gave her all the courage she needed to go into the wild. "Ready?" she heard him asking, as he collected his reins and halted Zero. She smiled back at him.

"Anytime you are."

Zero started running first, Treaty right behind him, immediately catching up. The summer wind stirred their thick manes, and both horses seemed as if they were surging up into the air. Heero and Relena left Evergreen shoulder to shoulder, churning up dust clouds, carried along with the late-summer wind towards the vast fields that flickered in gold and silver.

Never in her life had Relena Peacecraft felt so free.

.

TBC

Hello everyone!

Thank you for all your messages and reviews, especially a massive 'thank you' to my dearest and most faithful readers: Mistaken-Miracles, Hellocat42, sushidango, and those of you, who are guests on FF!

Welcome back on the trail throughout the post-apocalyptic world. The home straight to Houston is ahead of us, but is it the simplest? It remains to be seen… The chapter began with another flashback from Heero's life - that's how he got into the zone in Philadelphia, where he lived until he met Relena and Duo. His path to her was difficult, painful and bumpy... was this suffering worth it? I think you subconsciously sense the answer...

BTW, of course, horse-riding isn't advisable for pregnant women, I know it perfectly. But embarking on deadly-dangerous expeditions isn't too. With what awaits them, horse riding seems like a child's play for Relena.

See you in the next chapter!

P.S. On June 19th, 'The Last of Us Part 2' on PS4 is out. If I didn't finish the next chapter before that, it would mean that I'm very busy playing…

~enelle