Hey do you think I should give the chapters names aside from number? It's just a small detail but I'd like to know what you all think. Thanks again.

Chapter 8

The group awoke startled as glass shattered and angry footsteps approached the door. Without thinking Kaiba and Duke grabbed their guns and aimed at the door. Joey and Yugi moved out of the way as the group heard the loud pierce of a gunshot shooting the lock off the door. The door swung open wide and Duke fired first with the better angle, and Kaiba soon following. The big, angry man collapsed.

"D's down!" The group sat silently, Duke and Kaiba aiming at the door.

"Over in that room! Someone's got a gun!"

"You idiot leave him behind he's dead! Just grab the stuff and leave!" The group heard footsteps outside running out of the building. They all sat there panting and sweating for a few minutes. Then Kaiba finally lowered his gun, followed by Duke.

"Ok, let's see the damage." Kaiba, Joey, and Duke slowly stood up and cautiously walked out the door, stepping over the body they had shot down. Upon leaving the room, they saw that the glass at the entrance to the shop was shattered and everywhere on the floor. The case was shattered and the duel disks, money, and water were gone. Joey went to the back of the shop.

"K, they didn't go into the back."

"Yeah and they didn't get all the water, some of it's still here."

"Well no sense standing out here. Let's get back in the room for the night." Duke started walking back toward the room. The other two turned around as well. They walked back into the small room and sat down on the ground. Joey looked around confused.

"Uh, hey guys… Where's Yugi?" The other two then realized that Yugi wasn't in the room. Kaiba stood up and walked back into the shop.

"Yugi?" He was answered by silence.

"Yugi!" He said it louder this time. Still no answer. He rushed to the front of the shop where the windows had been broken through.

"Joey, you check the back!" Joey was already on it. Kaiba climbed through the shattered window into the moonlight. He looked around the destroyed buildings for any sign of the spiky haired man, with no results. He ran further outside into the open.

The moon shined through the windows of broken buildings onto the CEO. The wind blew hard and it whipped Kaiba's face with his hair. The clouds moved swiftly in the sky, passing wispily in front of the full moon. Joey came jumping through the window and went sprinting into the opening to Kaiba's side.

"YUGI! WHERE ARE YOU YUGI?!" Joey's shouts were carried away in the wind. He ran to the mountain of rubble and scrambled to the top. Where he looked around and continued shouting. Kaiba stood for a moment then ran after Joey. He reached the top of the mountain of rubble and tackled Joey. He pinned him down and snarled at him.

"Shut up Wheeler! Yugi's not gonna answer. You'll attract more thugs with all that yelling."

"I don't care! Yugi's gonna answer. He has to! If I don't yell the thugs will get HIM!"

"Shut up! You'll get us all killed."

"Make me money bags. Sorry if I care enough about someone to risk my life for them!" Kaiba used his left hand to grab Joey by his shirt collar and proceeded to use his right to punch him across the face.

"You think I haven't risked my life for people I love!" Joey coughed to the side and slowly turned his head back toward the man above him.

"Fine. Sure you've risked your life for Mokuba. But that's not caring about people. You ONLY care about yourself and your brother. You don't actually care about anyone else. Just cause of Mokuba, you're still greedy and selfish!" Joey trembled with the words he shouted. Kaiba then punched Joey across the face again. He glared at Joey and spoke quietly and coldly through clenched teeth.

"Be. Quiet." He then started hissing through his teeth.

"If you don't shut up, we'll all die. And we'll never find Yugi, Tristan, Mokuba, or Serenity."

"Don't bring Serenity into this! You can't ma_" Kaiba punched Joey again. He started coughing to the side. Gasping for breath. He slowly turned his head back toward Kaiba, with blood dripping down his cheek from the corner of his mouth and red eyes.

"You can't make me choose between Yugi and Serenity!" Kaiba stood and gripped Joey's shirt collar as he lifted him off the ground.

"It would be pointless to shut you up now. Anyone left alive in the city must have heard you by now mutt. You're useless." Kaiba was holding Joey up above the ground so his legs were dangling. He held him and threw him down into the rubble down the hill. He looked at him for a moment and turned around and started walking back down the hill of debris, leaving Joey laying on the ground coughing blood. Kaiba was at the bottom of the hill when Joey got up and ran to the peak. He clenched his fists and shouted back at Kaiba.

"You know Kaiba, when I saw you a few months ago, I thought you hadn't changed at all in the 17 years! Then when you agreed to look for our friends with us, I decided that you had changed for the BETTER! Now, I realize how wrong I was. You've changed for the WORSE! I don't think you even care about MOKUBA anymore! All you care about is yourself!" Kaiba had been standing at the bottom of the hill, just looking up at the sky. Now he started walking back toward the front of the shop, where Duke was standing silently, biting him lip. Kaiba had almost reached Duke when Joey continued screaming.

"I would never sacrifice Yugi. You can't make me choose between Yugi and Serenity. I would never abandon either of them!" Kaiba turned around swiftly with clenched fists.

"Yugi abandoned you, you idiot! He fell asleep during his shift then ran away so he wouldn't mess anything else up! But you know what? It was pointless because YOU'RE still here to mess everything up!" Joey stood still. His eyes widened and his fists unclenched. His mouth opened and his trembling grew stronger. Had Yugi really run away? Of course he had. He wanted to protect all of them. But he couldn't honestly think that they would just leave him out there. How could Yugi be so stupid.

Kaiba turned back around to Duke. "If he doesn't come to his senses are you going with me or him?" Duke continued biting his lip and he looked off into the distance. He looked back up at Joey on top of the hill, standing with his head bowed and his unruly blonde hair blowing to the side. Duke felt himself pitying him. He wasn't thinking straight. Kaiba walked back into the shop and grabbed some water. He handed Duke what he had and walked back inside to grab more. When he walked back out he heard Joey speak.

"You're right Kaiba. We need to get out of here and if Yugi chooses to stay behind…" He stood silent. Kaiba nodded and looked back to Duke.

"Come on, we have to get out of this place quickly." Duke didn't respond but Kaiba knew that Duke agreed and would follow. He started climbing back up the hill toward Joey, Duke following closely behind. They reached Joey and walked past. After a moment Joey started following as they descended down the slope.

"We need to get away from here so that no one who heard the shouting will happen upon us. Once we're far enough away we'll find a shelter to stay until sunrise. At dawn, we'll set back out. Wheeler, where would Tristan and Serenity have been?"

"Tristan would have been on his lunch break, he could have been anywhere within a few miles of his work."

"Where did he work?"

"He worked at that motorcycle shop across town." Kaiba thought of how far away that was. It would take a few days to trek there.

"What about Serenity?"

"She'd be at the elementary school. She worked as a second grade teacher there. It's closer than Tristan's place and it's on the way to your mansion if Mokuba was there."

"Yes, Mokuba was there at the time. So we'll go to the elementary school, then the mansion, then the motorcycle shop."

"Agreed."

"Agreed." Just then the saw some lights off in front of them moving toward them. A group of motorcycles stopped in an opening a way in front of them.

"Ah great."

"Quiet Wheeler." The group tiptoed off to the side to hide behind a destroyed car hoping the gang would leave soon.

"Kaiba, what are we supposed to do now."

"Shut up and wait." He pulled out his gun and leaned against the car, hardly breathing. Joey sat in between Kaiba and Duke, since he didn't have a gun. And Duke sat on the other side, his gun in his hands. The trio sat, listening.

"Well well well, what do we have here? Some punk walking around by himself at night in this trash of a city? Look at you you're not even tall or muscular. And no weapon? You got some things to learn!" They could hear that the man had just hit his victim.

"One hit and already on the ground? Pathetic." There were a few moments where no words were spoken, only the sound of shuffling and stuggling.

"You don't even have anything good on you. No water, or food. Where were you going at this time of night." Silence.

"Answer my question punk!" More silence. The group could hear that the man had just kicked his victim.

"Take care of this loser, men. He's worthless to us." They heard the struggle as the gang viciously attacked their victim. For a few more minutes, the group sat, listening to the assault happening on the other side of the car. Joey bit down on his tongue as he resisted the urge to interfere. He realized how stupid it would be. But his guilt ate him from the inside as he let a man be beaten within earshot. And he just sat there comforting himself for allowing the man to go without help. Telling himself over and over that he wouldn't be able to help anyway.

Finally the noises subsided. And the lights shown past the rubble and the cycles turned away. The group sat still for a few more minutes; they had been doing that a lot recently. Then Duke stood slowly with his gun raised and started walking towards where the men had been. Kaiba and Joey followed. They approached the clearing and started walking through to the other side. Kaiba and Duke walked past the bleeding man on the ground. But Joey set down the water bottles on the ground and walked toward the man. Duke noticed and turned toward Joey.

"Joey, leave him." Joey didn't listen and he kneeled beside the puddle of blood coming from the man. He put his fingers on his neck to search for a pulse. He dropped his head and his long hair completely covered his face.

"He's dead."

"Joey, come on we have to keep moving."

"Duke." Joey almost whimpered. His voice was shaky and he looked small and week kneeling next to a pool of blood reflecting the moonlight. Duke listened quietly.

"This guy… He could have just as easily been Yugi. And we just sat there…" Joey's head bowed down further. His voice had just been a ghost, barely audible with the wind.

"Joey. There's nothing we could have done. If we had tried to interfere we'd just be there with him in our own pools of blood."

"If it were Yugi I'd rather die with him than let him die without doing a thing." Duke was nervous talking to Joey. He wasn't quite sure how to deal with it.

"Joey, look this is the way this city is now… If we want to survive we have to be strong and keep moving."

"But do I want to survive if I have to do it like this?" Duke didn't know what to say. He just stood there with his gun at his side and used his left hand to adjust his glasses. He couldn't speak.

"Is it really worth living like this? I may survive… I may live… But can I LIVE with myself? You know what Kaiba?" at this Joey lifted his head to face the two. He brushed his hair out of his face to reveal two large eyes on the verge of tears and a very pale face.

"Maybe… Maybe you're wrong. Maybe Yugi didn't leave because he didn't want to mess things up. Maybe… he left because… he couldn't live the way you two are living. I mean, you killed that guy. And you didn't even react afterwards. Maybe Yugi just couldn't become a murderer. He'd rather be on his own than kill."

"Joey, that man would have killed us. We have to stick together. And if a few bad guys have to die in order to save our friends, we're willing to do that. And if we hadn't killed him, he'd probably end up killing lots of innocent people after us. We're not the bad guys here Joey."

"But it's not just the killing, I mean, we just sat there cowering. We might as well have killed this man ourselves."

"Joey, there's nothing we could have done. He'd have died anyway. We've already been over this. Now come on, we have to keep moving if we want to save Tristan, Mokuba, and Serenity." Joey's pale face turned red and he clenched his teeth, his limp hands formed fists and fire entered his teary eyes.

"You think you can just make me forget everything just cause you mention Serenity? I KNOW she's in danger! You don't have to remind me." He choked on the last words and looked away as tears started flowing down his cheeks and sending off ripples in the blood. He began shaking with sobs. Duke couldn't speak again.

"Get up Wheeler, we have to leave." Kaiba's icy, unforgiving voice was shocking in comparison to Duke's more compassionate sternness. It caught Joey's attention and he looked back at Kaiba with a teary face with more streaming from his red eyes.

"I'm having a moment here money bags just give me a minute!"

"That's precisely the problem, mutt, is that you're having a moment. We don't have a minute. Now come on." Kaiba's voice could stab through any man and force him into submission, but Joey just continued sobbing and started screaming again.

"I CAN'T!" At that moment Kaiba knew he couldn't have Joey constantly screaming and stopping in clear openings. He couldn't have this. Joey's eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped as he saw Kaiba's normal cold face behind a barrel pointed directly at him.