Chapter 6

'Walker!'

Heero felt the gun get wrestled out of his hand and watched as it dropped to the ground by his feet. His left arm was then levered backward and twisted behind his back.

Walker's putrid breathing tickled Heero's ear as he continued. "I see you've killed all my men, Heero." Heero could tell he was smiling. "You're not going any further. I will break your delicate little neck right here."

Heero felt his airway constricting even more. He started to choke. 'No…' he thought. 'He's wrong. I'm going to suffocate before my neck breaks.'

By then Heero couldn't breathe at all.

'What can I do?' his mind raced desperately. He only had about six seconds left before he would completely go unconscious. The little spots began to form at a fast rate. His world began to dull. He could hear a muffled voice laughing.

'That's it!'

Quickly as to catch the soldier off-guard, Heero opened his mouth and bit the guy as hard as he could on the arm, sinking his teeth as far as they would go into the drunk's flesh.

An almost beast-like scream erupted from the captain's throat as he immediately jerked his arm away from the boy, staggering backward and clutching his bleeding arm securely to his chest.

Coughing with one hand tenderly around his throat, Heero dropped to the ground on his hands and knees, gasping for air. It never felt so fantastic to heave in the wonderful air again. Sure, biting the drunkard was somewhat of an extreme idea, but it was all he could do.

Wiping his mouth of the blood that spurted out of Walker's arm, Heero looked at the ground and couldn't help but smile.

The gun was lying right beside him.

As he snatched it up and spit on the ground one last time to rid himself of the bloody aftertaste, Heero vowed right there that that guy would die.

Quickly turning around and seeing Walker fumbling with his bad arm for his gun, Heero wasted no time in shooting the soldier twice in the stomach. A fatal wound, yes, but would it kill him immediately?

No. Heero wanted to have a few words with this captain.

Smirking at Walker's current situation, Heero walked over to where the captain lay. Brutally stepping on the soldier's hand to kick his gun out of reach, Heero knelt down, picked up the drunk by his hair, and looked at the utter fool who attempted to kill him.

"How does it feel, now?" Heero laughed pitilessly as the man cursed. "How does it feel to have the tables turned on you so quickly? HUH?!" Heero punched the drunk in the face with his other hand. "You thought you had me, didn't you? You thought you could finish me off with a meager choke. I'm disappointed." Heero punched him again. "Your lackey did a better job at almost killing me than you did. Don't worry, though. You'll be joining him now."

As Heero was about to pull the trigger, Walker's laughing stopped him.

Heero glared at him. "What's so funny?" 'Is he just trying to stall his death?'

"Oh, nothing," Walker replied through his uneven chuckling. "Go ahead an' shoot. You'll be dead before daybreak."

"What do you mean?" Heero demanded, holding his gun so that it was pressed against the guy's forehead. "Tell me!"

"You'll see soon..." It was almost said in a sing-song voice as the man drunkenly laughed again.

Heero heard enough. Shooting the drunk in the head and letting him fall, he sighed while leaning against the dumpster.

'Finally.'

Heero did lie to that man, however. Nothing about this situation was meager. He was exhausted. He was bleeding. And blast it, he had a throbbing headache.

Still wondering about what Walker meant, Heero looked up as he heard odd sounds.

was that barking?

No, he was probably hearing things. It must be the fatigue taking its toll.

But what Heero saw next astonished him and made him almost give up in surrender.

Because there, standing at the alley's opening about two meters away from where Heero sat, was the backup in all its glory, complete with hunting dogs, all looking for one person.

Him.

'So that's what Walker was talking about,' Heero wearily sighed to himself. This was just too much. His body already pushed to its limit, Heero knew he couldn't fight much longer. Should he just admit defeat and end his mission here? Before it even officially began?

Heero despairingly struggled to his feet and opened his gun's canister. Just to make matters worse, he was out of bullets, too. He gripped the weapon in his hand and defiantly faced his new enemies.

"That's what we're looking for?" One soldier snorted in amusement. In his opinion, all he could see was a scrawny, sick little boy trying to play 'Soldier' who urgently needed a bath. "Backup was called…for that? He killed Walker's troop? You've gotta be kidding me."

"Heh, heh, heh!" another soldier giggled, kneeling down as he stroked his extremely ugly dog. "I say we have some fun with him."

"Yeah," a third agreed. "We didn't come all this way to simply kill a kid who's already half-dead."

"This is a waste of time," a fourth growled. "I could have been watching Treize's speech on television."

All the soldiers save that one groaned in unison.

"Pardon my insubordination, Sir, but Treize is on all the time! It's not like you're missing anything!" the bubbly one cackled.

The evident leader glared at him. "What was that, Jeske?"

"Nothing," the animated one blinked.

"Treize Khushrenada is our head leader, you idiot!" he cried, smacking him on the back of the head like a mother would her child. "How dare you make light of his supreme influence?!"

Using this time to his advantage, Heero evaluated his new dilemma. There were seven new soldiers, and three had dogs. Two of the three dogs appeared to be badly treated rottweilers, yet both were powerfully muscular canines of gross stature with menacing, self-assured expressions. Their coats were dense, yet unkempt, of medium length with black and white markings. There appeared to be thrash marks, as if they were very badly beaten.

Heero knew those two dogs were not to be taken lightly. He looked at the third dog which the energetic soldier was petting, and in spite of his situation he nearly smirked. The hideous dog looked like it just came out of a children's cartoon with its white, almost sheep-like fur and speckled black splotches.

He shook his head to clear his mind. Enough time was wasted already; he had a mission to complete.

Wiping his face one last time with his jacket sleeve to stop the blood from dripping into his eye, Heero took this new opportunity that the chattering OZ soldiers offered him and ran for it. Who said he had to wait for them to formally address him?

"HEY! HE'S GETTING AWAY!" the leader exclaimed, erratically pointing at the disappearing figure of their target.

"…huh?" the soldier Jeske slowly looked up from his kneeling position with a blank stare. "…oh, right. Well, me and Jacko here, we'll catch up. Right, Jacko?"

Jacko yipped in response with all three decaying teeth.

"SHUT UP AND GET HIM!" the leader shrieked, rushing after Heero. The other soldiers took the hint and followed.

As he ran, Heero now understood that there was only one chance left for his survival: getting to the city. There was no other place in this little town left (save for the civilian houses) where safety would be included. Jade seemed to be the one location where there would be a possibility of him not only getting rid of these soldiers, but also finalizing his mission.

His adrenaline coursing throughout his body, Heero haphazardly pushed his sweaty bangs out of his eyes as he sprinted down one dark alley after another, waiting to find a safe opening to where he could make a break for Jade itself. He already researched the way to get there by foot, and that would be across a long and somewhat narrow bridge made just for pedestrians above a lake which separated the two towns. It wasn't going to be hard to find at all, seeing that the town was so small and he was almost at the end of it anyway.

There was the break!

Heero dashed from the alley and exited the town. He at first wondered why the soldiers weren't using their guns, but then remembered they were only toying with him, wanting 'to get their money's worth' so to speak. As much as that annoyed him, Heero wasn't complaining.

He was now on an unpaved road, surrounded by trees and fields. The wide dirt path was quite muddy, and it slowed him down to some extent. He could hear the dogs barking behind him over the wind and rain.

He strained his eyes for any sign of that bridge. It now became a symbol – it was his lifeline – the only thing keeping him from a certain and painful death in the hands of OZ.

He could feel himself tiring even more; the only thing keeping him from collapsing now was his arduous training which he endured since he was quite young.

Suddenly, something loomed out of the rainy shadowy curtain.

There it was – the bridge!

And he had to get to it!