Chapter 40 - The Space City

WARNING: Violent scenes ahead, until the end of the story.

Three more weeks later

Heero POV

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His eyes shot open, and he held his breath. That sound again… He sharpened his hearing, silenced his heartbeat, and listened to the silence interrupted only by the even and calm Relena's breathing.

After a moment of silence, Heero lifted his head only slightly from the bed, looking around carefully, then sat straight. He felt the difference in temperature as a warm blanket under which they slept slipped off his shoulders and gazed down at deeply sleeping Relena. As usual, she slept with back to him, in his arms. His movement caused her to murmur quietly, but she didn't wake up.

The room he had chosen for their hideout was certainly empty, still plunged in darkness. Refreshing night air burst in through the ajar balcony door, gently but silently swinging the old curtains. The building where it was located seemed safe, too: a locked-up building (probably an old hotel with almost all the rooms locked before the pandemic), with no sign of the infected in the single staircase.

He was sure he hadn't misheard. Restlessly, Heero looked around the room once more, listening carefully, then slipped out from under the thin blanket and gingerly got out of the bed, which creaked softly with his every move. With a soft moan, Relena huddled up, wrapping the blanket tightly around herself. He looked at her fondly; she was tired of the road, she deserved a rest. He leaned over to adjust the blanket around her and planted a gentle kiss on the top of her shoulder, then stood up and strolled toward the balcony door.

He grasped his revolver from his backpack and got through the delicate curtains, carefully moving on bent knees. The balcony was small, and its balustrade was covered with a wooden plate. It blocked the view, but also made him invisible from the outside. The place was dirty with all kinds of rubbish and still smelled with urine - it used to be a sniper station, but the tracks proved that no one had been here for many months.

It was the middle of the night, the whole world was plunged in pleasant silence, Heero couldn't even hear the squeaking of mice or bats. As he stepped onto the balcony, dry leaves blown by the wind and fine debris crunched under his feet. He walked over to the railing and listened for a moment longer before peeking out above the wooden cover. Their building was located in the northwest of the city, next to the Police Department Memorial, and from there, they could see the beautiful panorama of downtown Houston skyscrapers - once called The Space City. When they had found this place yesterday, Relena gazed speechlessly at the sight of those slender, almost undamaged and untouched by time skyscrapers, whose glass surfaces beautifully reflected the rays of the setting sun. From here, the majestic city definitely showed its most magnificent side.

Crouching by the balustrade, Heero listened, clutching his gun in his hand and looking a little over the balcony railing. In the east, the sky was still dark, but glass skyscrapers gleamed, reflecting the pale light of the new moon hidden behind gray clouds. A gentle breeze rustled through the treetops of the surrounding trees, carrying the fresh scent of the river and Trinity Bay. At the side of their building, hidden behind a tarpaulin, stood Treaty and Zero, resting quietly. The street in front of the building was empty; at one point, only a stray dog ran through it, barely stopping.

Heero looked away again towards the skyscrapers. They'd been in town for an over a week now, scouring district by district in search of labs. The fact that they still couldn't find them could mean only two things: one good and one bad. The good news could be that the Fireflies hadn't been able to get here before them and occupy the labs, which allowed them to feel rather safe after the Atlanta events. But the bad news was that maybe there was no sign of the laboratories only because they simply never existed here…

After a moment, Heero stiffened as he heard that sound again... an offbeat, dull clatter, followed by a short, broken rustle…

He peered over the railing again, looking around when he suddenly noticed something in the distance that he hadn't seen before: a twinkling pale light reflected from among the gleaming skyscrapers. Heero strained his eyes and realized that there were several lights, and they were moving.

Heero watched the lights for a long moment; those were the first traces of life they had ever encountered in Houston. He counted no more than ten individual lights, moving quite briskly, perhaps on horseback or on some vehicles; the horses were more likely because he couldn't hear any engine whirring in the distance. The group moved diagonally to the west of their hideout.

Then he heard the mysterious noise again... this time much closer, somewhere downstairs... Heero leaned over the balcony but could see nothing except for the unevenly parked cars in the driveway of the building and their horses. He cursed softly under his breath, unable to figure out what the hell was making that sinister, haunting sound, then looked far in front of him again.

The distant lights disappeared. Heero felt a lump growing in his chest and alarming prickles running down his spine.

Something was definitely wrong. Until he found out what was going on here, they weren't safe here.

Heero returned to the room and walked over to the bed, intending to wake Relena up, but hesitated as he stopped at their bed. Relena snuggled into the thin quilt, her legs tucked to her chest, her honey-blond hair spilled over the pillow. She slept so soundly that he had no heart to wake her up. He reached and gently stroked her shoulder with his fingers, then carefully moved away, and, reaching for his backpack, he walked silently out of the room.

When he thought back to that moment later that day, he cursed himself a hundred times for not having thought of locking the goddamn door behind him.

Could he have predicted what would happen?

Perhaps he could have.

Small decisions sometimes happen to affect our lives much more than we would expect from their superficial importance.

Once outside their room, Heero didn't want to use his flashlight, wishing to stay in the shadow. The corridor was narrow and littered with all kinds of rubbish. He patiently waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness that prevailed here. The way up the stairs was blocked entirely, the only way was down the stairs. Under his feet, three black mice raced past him, disappearing around the corner of the hall. Finally, noticing the outline of the staircase, Heero tucked his revolver behind his belt and pulled the shotgun from his backpack. Holding it in front of him, he approached the stairs, listening.

Annoyingly, the sound didn't return this time. Heero slowly walked down the stairs, keeping close to the wall and holding the shotgun in front of him. The second floor was also bathed in Egyptian darkness, broken glass from overturned vending machines was crunching under Heero's feet. Down the corridor, the wind rumbled through leaky or damaged windows; somewhere, water was steadily dripping from some hole. Still looking around carefully, Heero inspected the floor, but finding nothing suspicious, descended even lower, all the way down to the entrance hall.

Though he moved carefully and slowly, his footsteps echoed hollowly in the empty reception hall. The throbbing, loud thunder of his own blood pumped far too fast through his heart almost deafened him. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled of the unstoppable, subliminal impression that he wasn't alone in this room.

He reloaded the shotgun, and it made a loud, way too loud crack. It sounded like a thunder in the dark and empty hall. Heero studied the interior intently, examining every piece of furniture, every shadow, trying to see around every corner. The puddles on the floor beneath his feet, brought by yesterday's rain, made a soft splash as he stepped forward, still looking around...

Then he heard the sound he was looking for again… coming from the direction he feared most: from behind his back.

He spun on his heel at the speed of light, aiming at the staircase he had just descended from. The darkness pouring down the stairs was, however, impenetrable; he couldn't see any shape in it.

After a moment, he heard the noise again, this time from the side of the elevators—an uneven, interrupted clatter. Heero stared into the darkness, cold shiver crossing his body. No animal made such an irregular sound. None of the infected were creeping. Only predators crept - and those other than the infected, still walking on this earth, were only humans.

"Come out," Heero called ominously into the darkness.

Nobody answered him, and a second later, he heard a rustle behind him.

"Fuck," he cursed silently.

There were more of them.

He took a step back toward the stairs, still looking around, and eventually found what he was looking for. In the moonlight reflected in the pieces of a shattered mirror on the wall, he noticed a slender shadow flitting from behind the overturned furniture.

He strained his eyes, held his breath, staring at where the sound was coming from, and as soon as the owner of the shadow accidentally leaned out a bit behind the barricade, he aimed and fired. The night's silence was abruptly broken by the roar of the gunshot and the painful moan of a human hit by the bullet.

In an instant, Heero ran towards the intruder and grabbed the half-bent, wounded man by the neck. Positioning himself so that he had only the wall behind his back, Heero pulled the man against him, clenching his arm under his throat so tightly that the man let the air out of his lungs.

"One move, and you'll be scrubbing your brain from the ceiling," Heero growled, pressing the barrel of his revolver under the intruder's jaw.

The man tightened in his grip, then cursed and went limp. Heero pressed him even tighter to him, feeling the wetness of the man's blood from his wound permeate through his clothes. "Talk. How many more of you are here?"

"…Go to hell," the man grunted.

Heero narrowed his eyes, tightening his grip around the man's neck. "Bad answer."

And then chaos broke out.

The room shook with the bang of several gunshots, and bullets whizzed right next to Heero's head. Heero spun around, his arm tightening in an iron grip around the captured man's neck, exposing his body to the fire. Hiding behind this human shield, Heero carefully examined the surroundings, peering over the hostage's shoulder, backing towards the wall.

"The hell you're doing?!" the man shrieked in panic.

"Shut the fuck up."

Then suddenly, figures emerged from the darkness, their drawn rifles glittering ominously in the dim light of the moon plunging through the open front door. Heero felt his pulse speed up as he counted eight men, and more seemed to be still coming out of the dark corners of the room, pointing the barrels of their weapons at him. Plus, he wasn't sure if this group was the one whose lights he saw against the city skyline... or if that group was yet to arrive. Everyone in the group turned on their flashlights, shining a harsh white light in his direction.

"Well, well, well…"

Heero held his breath as he heard a familiar female voice.

The figure of the woman, still pointing the pistol at him, stood up straight, and stepped forward. As she pulled back the hood of her gray sweatshirt, her long platinum hair spilled over her shoulders.

He recognized Dorothy immediately. Silver pendant in the shape of fireflies still hung around her neck.

"I was beginning to worry you would never come to Houston," the woman chuckled. "You made me wait for so long, Heero... I thought I wouldn't see you again. That you stayed in this little shithole in Alabama."

Heero said nothing, still pressing the wounded man to him with an iron hug. His hostage was starting to tear himself away, but Heero held him tight and didn't lose sight of the blonde woman even for a moment.

"You will die, motherf-," the hostage muttered with a grim chuckle, but Heero tightened his arm around the man's neck, preventing him from finishing the sentence.

"One more step, and I will kill him," he warned towards the overwhelmingly advantageous group that was ringing him.

The murderous flash he saw in Dorothy's eyes left him breathless.

"Ah, yes," Dorothy sighed ever so casually. "That piece of shit actually bothers me too. He blocks me the view of your handsome face."

Then she lifted up her gun and, without any hesitation, fired a shot.

The hostage made a throaty sound like a groan of surprise and terror just before the bullet hit him, then grunted, choking on his own blood as the bullet pierced his brain, slamming into the wall just next to Heero's shoulder. Heero soon felt the man go limp in his hands and released him from his grip. The body dropped to the floor, and Heero stood facing Dorothy, his revolver clutched in his hand, staring sinisterly at the barrels of the dozen shotguns aimed at him and ready to shoot.

"Now… That's much better," Dorothy sighed, holding Heero at gunpoint.

Heero stared at everyone from behind his bangs, feeling the flashlights blind him. He looked down at the dead body at his feet, sinking in a growing pool of blood. "He was one of you."

"And what do you know about us?" Dorothy asked with an ominous voice. "Don't make it harder for you or us. Just throw away that gun that you have in your hands."

"What do you want?" Heero growled, ignoring Dorothy's order. He narrowed his eyes as he aggressively measured all the Fireflies around him. He knew he was in a hopeless situation. "More of you out there? I'd have killed you all without any trouble if you didn't blind me with those goddamn flashlights."

He was speaking loud, far too loud than needed, to be sure that his voice would resound throughout the stairwell and reach her... He had to play for time... to give Relena a chance to escape.

"You're a mouthy man. I like that," Dorothy chuckled malevolently. She was still aiming at him, and Heero realized that he should no longer tempt fate. He threw the gun aside; it bounced off the ground with a loud thud. "Get him," Dorothy ordered her men.

As the tall Firefly of an appearance of a thug stepped towards him, Heero felt like an animal in a cage, chased into a dead end. His heart rate sped up painfully in his chest as the thug turned him around in one move and pushed him against the wall like a sack of potatoes. Heero hit the wall with his head, almost losing his balance.

"Bind him," Dorothy said.

Heero tasted a metallic liquid from the split lip in his mouth and let out a low grunt of pain as the man bent his arms back so hard that he almost tore them from his joints. When he pressed his face harder against the wall, Heero felt as if his skull had cracked.

"Search the building."

He shot his eyes open at that Dorothy's order. The only opened doors in the corridor on the second floor… Relena…!

Behind his back, Dorothy was giving orders, regrouping her people that were inside the building. Heero didn't hear any other, larger group approaching them. He had to do something.

Standing firmly on his legs, he arched his spine backward, hitting the thug on the nose with the back of his head so hard that he felt bones breaking under the power of his blow.

As the thug stepped back, dazed and groaning in pain, Heero reached into his coat and, grasping the man's pistol, aimed and shot a few shots at the Fireflies that were climbing the stairs to the upper floor.

All shots hit their targets, as usual: the three Fireflies fell to the ground before they could even turn around to face him, and Heero pivoted under the wall… when a sharp, ever so familiar, pain in his left upper-body immobilized him in place. The adrenaline rush almost dimmed his vision for a moment, and before he realized what happened, his leg was pierced by the same, blinding pain.

Wounded by two shots, he fell to the ground with a dull thud, releasing the stolen gun from his hand.

"It was so foolish of you," he heard Dorothy's harsh voice above him.

His clothes soaked with his warm blood, shrinking around his body. His breathing was fast, he tried to control it, but he let it all out as he suffered a hard, painful kick in his ribs. Pain radiated throughout his body, and he involuntarily huddled on the floor.

"You want to die so badly? I can't let you…" Dorothy said, then addressed her group. "Nail him down."

Two more Fireflies ran up to him and, with only a few movements, forced him to stand on his feet.

"Get your hands off me!" Heero barked.

He struggled with all his might like a wild animal, but they had an advantage over him; his injured leg and arm refused to obey him.

Without almost any effort, the Fireflies pinned him abruptly against the surface of the wall, blocking his arms. Then, one of them pulled out a long, thick boat nail and unceremoniously dug it in Heero's torso, just below the left collarbone, into the open, fresh gunshot wound.

Heero felt a blinding, piercing pain as the nail first pierced through his flesh. He resisted with all his might, but in vain. After a second, the Fireflies started pounding the nail down with hard blows of a hammer, crushing through his bones and nailing Heero's body to the wall…

x

Relena POV

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The first shot snapped her out of her sleep.

Her heart pounded in her chest so fast that she was afraid it would pop out. Breathing nervously, she touched the mattress next to her. Her fingers tightened on the cold sheet.

"Heero?" Relena whispered, feeling the anxiety take her breath away. Finally, she began to see the contours of the furniture in the darkened room and then heard the sounds of fighting from below. She felt a slight pain in her lower abdomen; she touched her stomach and slowly rolled off the bed. She had a bad... horrible feeling. "Heero…?"

Still, there was no reply. When Relena reached for her backpack, the whole building shook from the cannonade of gunfire several floors below her. She heard someone scream, and she wasn't sure it was Heero… She felt her palms sweating from the stress as she slung the backpack over her shoulders and walked out of the room.

As she stood in the doorway to the stairwell, she paused, listening, and wondering what she should do. From below, she could hear the fading voices of a few people, but she couldn't make individual words out. She clenched her fists, realizing that her hands were still trembling, then began to silently descend the stairs to the lower floor. She had to find Heero immediately...

As soon as she got down onto the first floor, Relena suddenly heard Heero's voice:

"More of you out there? I'd have killed you all without any trouble if you didn't blind me with those goddamn flashlights."

She was out of breath as she realized what he meant. They were attacked by some group. Heero has been cornered. She pushed herself against the wall, looking down the stairwell, from where the flickering, wavering light of the flashlights was coming.

"You're a mouthy man. I like that. Get him."

She knew that voice... distinctive, high-pitched, melodious... now it sounded more sinister than ever before.

"Bind him. Search the building."

"Oh God," Relena gasped silently, grabbing the railing of the stairs as she heard footsteps approaching the staircase. She could see flashlight beams hitting the stairs a few meters below her, but she was unable to move, unable to run. Where the hell could have run to? She watched helplessly as the silhouette of the first Firefly appeared on the stairs...

... at that moment, she heard a struggle down below, a series of shots, and then the Fireflies' blood spilled onto the stairs. When the fire stopped, Relena heard another two gunshots… and a groan of pain...

Heero…!

She was already setting her foot on the stairs when Dorothy spoke again.

"It was so foolish of you. Do you want to die so badly? I can't let you… Nail him down."

What are they going to do to him...?

The ground shifted from under her feet, she almost stiffened in terror when she heard his voice...

"Get your hands off me!"

And then... a roar of pain.

His scream was so loud... or maybe it was just her imagination because she had never heard him scream like that before... It was interrupted by a loud thud as if someone was... hammering nails. As she realized this, Relena felt cold of terror... she had to help him...

Relena took a step down the stairs, and at that moment, a pair of strong, male hands gripped her from behind, tightly covering her mouth. The grip was so firm and sudden that she almost lost her balance. She jerked violently, but she couldn't free herself - the arms that gripped her held her tight, like iron hoops.

"Hush now..." she heard a low, very masculine baritone right next to her ear. "You'll ruin our entrance. Now… Here we go…"

Heero's night-splitting scream of pain, coupled with the sounds of subsequent hammer blows, split her brain in two, as she walked slowly down the stairs, guided by a Firefly.

x

Heero POV

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Every movement, even the faintest, brought him agonizing, excruciating pain.

The nails hammered into his body, and nailing him to the wall, were a genuine instrument of torture. Although he stood still, he couldn't control or stop the involuntary spasms of his adrenaline-pumped and exhausted muscles. Taking a deep breath enlarged his chest, tearing the wound under his collarbone wider, so he kept taking small, hurried breaths, feeling his vision darken from the hypoxia. With one of his legs nailed to the wall just above his knee by another long, boat nail, he kept his weight on only one leg.

"Much better. You finally stopped kicking and screaming."

Through the thunder of the throbbing blood in his ears, he heard Dorothy's shrill voice, but he didn't look up, hiding his gaze behind the bangs falling over his eyes, controlling his breathing. Dorothy stopped only a few centimeters in front of him and tilted his chin up, forcing him to look at her.

"Ah, how I missed the sight of those bold eyes of yours," she muttered, lustfully licking her lips and brushing her thumb over his chin. His jaw was trembling, he was clenching his teeth, but didn't utter a word, nor groaned of pain, though the torment almost made him lose his consciousness. "It's a real pity you didn't want to join us then, in Atlanta... you would have saved us some trouble. Not to mention all those nights when I was missing you."

She let go of his chin, and he ducked his head down. Cold sweat ran down his hot temples; he felt feverish as if he was on the verge of shock. Trying not to think about the pain, he inhaled several times through clenched teeth as he looked around nervously. The rest of the Fireflies were still busy treating the wounds of those he had shot when he grabbed the gun for a moment. Neither of them went to check the rest of the building...

He was sure Relena had heard the shooting. If necessary, he intended to keep them on this floor as long as possible to give Relena the best chance of escaping the building…

"These nails took away some of your sexiness," Dorothy started again, "though I still wouldn't despise you."

"…Go fuck yourself," Heero groaned through clenched teeth.

"Oh, trust me, I did. Too many times, thinking about you," Dorothy answered with a dirty smirk, plunging her hand in his thick hair in a sick, heartwarming gesture. "Now to the business... Since you are here, your gnawed-up doll must also be here somewhere…"

"She's not… here," Heero grunted, catching his breath.

"Somehow, I don't trust you," Dorothy said with a devilish chuckle, nearing him and whispering to his ear. "And I really hate… when the man is bullshitting me."

She swung and gave him a painful punch in the gut. Heero's entire body shifted from the impact, rubbing painfully at the iron nails, and he barely choked back a scream... His legs buckled under him, and for a short but unimaginably painful moment, he was left hanging with his whole weight on nails that were boring into his flesh and bones...

Gasping for air, Heero rested his hands against the wall behind his back and threw his head back, pushing himself upwards with only the strength of his hands, trying to reduce the pressure on the nails again. For a moment, he really felt himself losing consciousness - the thought of it was comforting, he wouldn't feel pain anymore, but he knew he couldn't let himself for it…

"So, where is she?"

He opened his eyes to the tall blonde girl standing above him, hands on her hips. He tossed his hair back over his eyes with a sloppy wave of his head and spat blood onto the floor.

"I told you… You're deaf or just dumb…?"

Another blow knocked his head aside so hard that his temple bumped against the wall. The force of the blow made his head spin, but at least his body didn't move against the nails.

"You make me lose any good opinion I still had about you. I'll ask you one last time, Heero," Dorothy continued, pulling out a gun and holding it to Heero's head. "Where is she..."

"Enough, Dorothy."

Heero lifted up his head at the sound of this voice. His eyes widened with terror as he realized what he was seeing.

Relena was standing on the stairs to the hall, her face pale, staring at him with her terrified ocean eyes. He couldn't see her hands or arms, she had them clasped behind her back... A tall, slim man stood right behind her. He had long, waist-length platinum hair, even lighter than Dorothy's. Long, unruly bangs framed his slender, very masculine and handsome face, behind which bright blue eyes were reflecting the moonlight. His appearance was accompanied by a strange aura as if he was a man of divine esteem among the Fireflies.

"You're too hot-tempered, you'll kill him yet," the man said calmly to Dorothy as if announcing a weather forecast. "And I want to have a brief conversation with this young man, too."

Dorothy stepped away from Heero, while he didn't take his eyes off Relena. She was helplessly looking back at him, her terrified eyes roaming over his mutilated body... Heero could feel fury rising in him for letting them fall into the hands of the Fireflies... And how badly he wanted to do anything to allow her from the building…

"Heero…" Relena gasped appalled, as the tall man dragged her closer. Then Dorothy intercepted Relena and tied her hands behind her back. Relena whined as the blonde jerked her shoulders violently. Heero bit his lip.

"Motherfuckers...!," he growled. His heart was beating like crazy, pulsating rage and hatred in his veins. Clenching his fists, he jerked his body forward by the force of his will, but he felt the unimaginably painful resistance of the broad tips of the nails, effectively holding his body in place. "Leave her alone...!"

"Spare us your sobbing," the long-haired man approached the prisoner, stopping right in front of him, then grasped Heero's sweat-stained hair violently jolting his head up so that he could look him in the eye. "It's amazing how people's fates keep intertwining. I told you that I would find you... Although saying this, I never thought that I would be forced to chase you through the whole country. And that in the end... I will kill two birds with one stone."

Heero was looking at the tall man, feeling the darkness that enveloped his pain-stunned mind slowly part. He recognized that voice…

"It's you...!" he drawled.

The pale-blue-eyed man smirked darkly.

"So we meet again, smuggler."

.

TBC

I think you already know who is the mysterious man who rules the Fireflies. But more importantly, why does Heero know him? What the Fireflies plan to do with Heero and Relena?

With the next chapter, I'm taking you on a journey a few months back… and then into the depths of hell. Did I mention, that's a survival horror?

Stay safe. We're heading towards the end. The whole story is already written, I only need to make minor adjustments. It's hard for me to keep my nerves in check, knowing how it will all end...

~enelle