Chapter4
-Rhez-
The sand steamer slowly started to move as the last of its passengers got on board. In the bar the mob had searched the building quickly and thoroughly. "Oh my god… Lena!" Someone said as they searched her body. "I know… it's unfortunate that she was here at the time… but…"
"No!" the man who was searching her interrupted. "You don't understand! She's still alive!" Everyone in the bar swarmed over to her as he flipped her over onto her back. "She's cut up pretty bad, and unconscious… but feel here… she has a weak pulse!"
Rhez sat looking out the window of the sand steamer as the desert went by. He had a small room somewhere near the back of the steamer, one of the only ones that was available. "Can I ask you something?" He said to himself, there was no response. "That girl back there… Lena… the way she acted… it made me feel good. But killing them all… that didn't make me feel so good… why, if it was right, why did it give me this heavy feeling of dread?" He waited for a few minutes, but he didn't hear anything. There was a loud noise in the hall, and the sound of screaming. Rhez sat up and walked to the door. He cracked it slightly and peeked out.
"Everyone out of the rooms and into the hall! Drop your valuables into the bags and hit the floor!" The door was yanked open and Rhez was pulled into the hallway by his shirt. "You deaf boy?! Give up the goods and get on the floor!" The man who yanked him out was wearing a dirty black jumpsuit and a red bandana over his mouth. He held a brown cloth bag and a small revolver, as did the two men who were identical to him. Rhez looked at the man's gun, than down the hall at the other two men. Frightened people were filling the halls and dropping their valuables into the bags. Rhez started to reach for his knife, but the man held the gun to his neck. "Don't move kid, I'll take that knife now." The man pulled the knife away and stuck it in his belt behind his back. He pushed Rhez into the crowd of people and forced him to get down. A little girl was crying a few inches away from Rhez and trying to crawl to her mother and father who were a little ways down the hallway. "I said stop moving!" One of the men stomped on her back and she cried out in pain. Her father jumped up and screamed as he ran at the man. A gunshot rang out in the hallway and the father fell to the ground, dead. The girl started to panic, screaming hysterically and crying. Rhez looked up to see who had shot, there was a man standing at the end of the hall with a gun pointed up and smoke rolling from the barrel. It was a rifle, maybe about four feet long and was lever action. It had a clip sticking out of the right side of it and the wooden handle was partially taped up. The man was wearing a long red coat with no sleeves and had a mane of wild blonde hair. He had a poorly trimmed beard and bushy eyebrows that made him look older than he probably was. "Shudda kept down." He said as he cocked his gun again and an empty shell fell out. Rhez reached over and put a hand on the girl's arm. "Calm down, there is nothing you can do in this situation." She looked at him and stopped crying. Something in his voice was so steady that she felt safer. She nodded quietly and settled down. The man yelled at the others who seemed to be his henchmen. "Alright! Move 'em up to the main area, the others are already movin all the other passengers there!" The henchmen began pulling the passengers up and pushing them down the hall with their guns. Rhez got to his feet and started moving with the others. The little girl grabbed on to his arm as they walked. He looked down at her and cocked his head to the side. "What are you doing?" He said. One of the henchmen jabbed him in the back with his gun. "No talking!" They made their way onto the large open deck area with the rest of the passengers. There were eleven henchmen, Rhez had no idea why he counted them, but it seemed important. He heard someone whisper amongst the crowd. "Damn, I think that's Vash the Stampede! The Humanoid Typhoon!" "That's not Vash you dummy!" "Yeah it is, look, red coat, spiky blonde hair, that's Vash!" The name struck Rhez again. "Vash the stampede… That name…" He thought for a second, something was pushing him to do something… but he didn't know what. He looked down at the little girl and shook his arm. "Let go." She looked up at him with her big scared eyes. "If you let go I will stop this." He said calmly. She slowly let go and nodded. Rhez moved through the frightened crowd as best he could, slowly making his way towards the edge of the deck. He spotted the henchman with his knife and got closer to him. There where close to seventy people on the deck, and only twelve total gunmen. The passengers were too scared to do anything, even though they heavily outnumbered the criminals. The henchmen's attention was spread out over a lot of people, and didn't notice one kid moving into position. Rhez was quick about it, in a flash he snatched the knife away and slit the henchman's throat. The man tried to gurgle something out, but Rhez pushed him over the side. In the commotion of the robbery none of the henchmen notice. Rhez hide the knife at his side and started to move towards another henchman. Someone in the crowd caught his eye. He looked to see a man staring at him, he had seen the attack. A look gleamed in the man's eyes and he nodded. Rhez looked on as the man whispered to someone beside him, than that person whispered to another and so on. Within minutes the crowd had begun to buzz. The first man looked back at Rhez as the man in the red coat yelled over the crowd. "Shut up! Shut up or we start shooting!" Rhez nodded and the man screamed. "Let's do it now!" He yelled and the crowd began to surge. Henchmen panicked and opened fire, but none of them got very far as they were pushed overboard. Rhez raced through the crowd towards the man with the red coat. "Shit! Get back inside! Back inside!" The leader yelled to what was left of his men. He and two others were the only two that were close enough to the doors to make it inside and lock them tight. The crowd began to cheer as they finished off the rest of their captors and surged towards the doors, trying to bash them in. The steamer started to speed up and turned for a cliff. "Oh shit, they're going to drive it off a cliff!" Someone yelled and panic quickly recaptured them. Rhez gritted his teeth and put the knife away, this was going to be more work than he wanted to do.
-Stran-
"Come on now Stran you know that was cheap." "Hey it's not my fault your such a big softy you'd think after all these years you would have learned." "Yeah yeah I've heard it all my life." Vash replies with a smirk then a soft laugh as he scratch's the back of his head.
Stran and Vash exit the musty old vessel so rightfully named the seed. "Hey look the foot prints lead off into the sand headed towards (---)." "Isn't that were that girl Lena lives." "Hey yeah your right" Vash replies excitedly. "Hey Vash" "Yeah"
He turns around and looks at Stran. "TAG your it." Stran punches Vash in the shoulder knocking him off balance then takes off running as fast as he can laughing all the while. Yelling back at Vash Stran say's "By the way your suppose to go where ever the stick doesn't ya… dumb ass hehehe."
"You wait till I catch you Stran." Vash screams at the top of his lungs as he start's to run after him. "Man this body suit's a lot easier to run in compared that heavy old red trench coat I used to where although I do miss it some times." Vash thinks to him self. "Hahaaaa I'm gonna catch you Stran you wait you can't keep that pace up the entire time."
Several hours later Vash and Stran come up over a sand dune both men dirty and exhausted barley abele to stand. Repeatedly elbowing each other trying to knock the other one down. "So thirsty." Stran barley mutters the words out of his mouth. "Vash look the city" "Yippy we've found the city mumua all this walking threw the desert I'm so thirsty and hungry I could eat an entire cow, oo…ooo or some donuts, hhmm. Vash gets that glimmer back in his eye and his spirits rise. "Get out of my way Stran there mine all mine." Vash goes to push Stran out of the way and miss's falling on his face. "AW so close mumua." Vash flutters his arms and legs in there air while he lays on his belly. "Aw damn it now I have to drag the bastard into town the rest of the way. Come on." Stran grabs Vash by the collar and start's pulling the tall blonde man behind himself.
Once in town Stran sees that every body's gathered around the local bar crying and yelling at each other. "Hey what's going on around here." Vash pops up and begins looking around. "HEY I thought you were passed out from dehydration." Stran looks at Vash "Ut..o um oooaaaooo." Vash puts his hand to his head goes lip and falls to the ground "Omen where am I what happened." "Get the hell up Vash." Stran says slightly annoyed but still with a hint of laughter behind it.
"Hey every one look its Eriks…Eriks is back
"Lena…LENA IS THAT LENA" screams Vash!