Chapter6
-Rhez-
"Why don't you stay at the hotel for the night, my compliments." Rhez shook his head and smiled. "No, I can't. But thank you very much for offering." The man held his hands together and bowed. "Oh please, if you're in too much of a hurry to rest, than at least let us cook you a good meal." The man was one of the ones that had been on the sand steamer, and was apparently pretty well off. "Really, I don't understand why you people are so grateful, I didn't do much." Rhez said. The man smiled and shook his head. "No, no, you don't understand. If you wouldn't have stopped those guys, who knows what would have happened? This kind of thing happens all the time, but no one can do anything about it! You saved the lives of all those people, if not because of physical danger, than because you gave them hope." Rhez thought about it. "You're thinking too much into this… although I am hungry." The man smiled and took Rhez by the arm. "That's the spirit! Right this way!" They went into a restaurant and everyone cheered when they walked in. Rhez thought to himself as the celebration went on around him. "These people get so excited over the simplest things…"
The meal wasn't bad, he ate it quietly as everyone around him drank and sang. It looked like these people were just waiting for an excuse to party, he thought. It seemed like he was in there for hours, eventually he got up and made his way towards the door. "Hey, where you goin?" A drunken voice asked him. "I have to get some air." He said with a smile and walked out.
"Kill them, kill them all." The voice was back in an instant. Rhez dropped to his knees as a stabbing pain in his head sliced in like a knife. He gritted his teeth and held his forehead as the pain washed over him. "No…. No, I won't do it!" He screamed as he forced himself to stand up. Rhez stumbled out into the street, holding his head and trying to fight off the pain. Suddenly it stopped, in a flash it was gone, and the voice said nothing. Rhez looked up and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"I have to get out of here… I have to get away from these people." He looked up and saw the figure of a man walking into town. But he looked like more than a man, he looked like some kind of demon. He was a black silhouette with glowing blue eyes, illuminated in red by the setting suns. Far off in the distance behind him a sandstorm was raging, almost as if it was an extension of his fury. Something inside of Rhez seemed to snap. His blood ran cold and he found it impossible to move. He mouthed the words, but no sound came out. "Vash…" He finally said. "Vash?! Vash the Stampede…"
"VASH THE STAMPEDE!!!!!!" Someone behind him overheard him and yelled. It was as if the floodgates had opened, and people started swarming out of the bar and screaming, scattering all over town as fear struck them from his mere name. Rhez nearly fell as someone ran into him and scurried past. "Vash…" He said again absently. He clenched his fists and his slowly started to move. He pulled the rifle from his back and cocked it. He lifted it to his shoulder and took aim. "Stop! Stop right there Vash the Stampede!" Vash kept walking, his hands at his sides and balled up into fists. "YOU! YOU'RE THE ONE!!!" Vash screamed as he got closer, there was no explaining it, he just knew. He started screaming and ran towards Rhez. Rhez fired his rifle, cocked, fired again. He shot again and again, pumping the gun rapidly as shells flew from it in a stream. Vash kept coming, running in a straight line, yet somehow dodged all of the bullets. Rhez started screaming and flipped the rifle around, holding it like a club. He swung it hard as Vash reached him. The rifle smashed into pieces over Vash's left arm as he blocked it and brought his right fist up in an uppercut. The blow hit Rhez under the chin like a sledgehammer and sent him flying backwards into the air. Vash grabbed his foot and swung him around, sending him flying through the air and crashing into a building. Rhez went smashing through the window and destroyed a table and some chairs on his way in. Vash ran towards the building, but Rhez came flying out of the window with his knife drawn. Vash caught the knife in his left hands and snapped the blade off. He swung his foot up in a brutal spin kick that sent Rhez bouncing off the ground like a rag doll and rolling down the street. Rhez rolled to the side as Vash blew a chunk of ground away with his hidden arm machine gun. Rhez pulled his new revolver from the back of his pants and fired at Vash. Vash hesitated for a split second as he saw the gun. The bullet grazed is shoulder and he fired his machine gun again as he took cover behind a nearby car. Rhez rolled out of the way and hide behind the corner of the nearby building. Vash popped up from behind the car and shot his handgun. Rhez ducked back, than leaned out and shot back. "Why, why did you do it?!" Vash screamed as he fired another shot. Rhez gritted his teeth and peaked out. Did he know? If they were looking for a girl, how did he know it had been him? Rhez dashed out from behind the corner and leapt over the car, firing his gun as he did. "Shit!" He yelled as he realized that no one was there. Rhez spun around, but the last thing he saw was the butt of Vash's gun smashing into his face before he blacked out.
-Stran-
"Where the hell am I." Stran says to himself while walking threw the desert looking for any sign of direction. Heading off into the direction of a near cliff. "O MY god I've never seen anything like it before. Stran says as he tops the cliff an unforgettable sight being revealed to him. Lush green grass, an enormous apple tree, and a few scattered bush's here and there all of which was lining the inside circumference of a gigantic crater.
Stran excitedly begins running down the cliff towards this paradise screaming, hooping, and hollering. Not two seconds later in true Vash the stampede style Stran trips over a rock while running full boar Stran begins roll vilantly down the cliff now screaming in terror and yet at the same time there also a hint of laughter. By the time he reach's the bottom he lands belly down on the tall green grass. "O my this grass it so soft and plush." Stran says as he scoots his face across the grass trying to hit every square inch until finally running his strait into the hard bark of the apple tree falling back down again on his ass he rubs his head "Aw what a lovely neighborhood." And just as he finish's his sentence four of five apples fall making a repeated thud thud thud thud "oooooOWwwwww that hurt this place is kinda dangers though no place to raise the kids and the little miss's and look there's no schools O my poor wife will have to home school the kids teach all day cook all evening and well at night OOoo ALL NiGhT LoNg aALL nIGhttt he he." Stran says as he looks side to side then arcs his elbows out and puts one fist on his waist and another in the giving the peace sign " IT SHALL BE DONE AS I COMMAND IT." "You sound just like him ya know." A tall blonde man steps out from be hind the tree. Scaring the shit out of Stran he leaps off his ass strait up four feet and throws one of the apples directly at the man. Catching the apple right before it hits his face. "Wo there budy thanx for the apple but next time try not to beem me with it."