Chapter 25 / 37
Written by Jessi Maxwell - send C&C to Megami_no_Remon@hotmail.com
The first thing Duo felt when he woke up was a distant, heavy feeling settling into his limbs. It was soothing in a strange way. He became a bit more conscious, however, when his eyes didn't want to open. He lifted his arm, intending to find out why. A tingling fire seemed to race down his limbs as he moved and his blood started to flow. Slowly he managed to crack his eyes open.
Alarm and near-panic abruptly replaced the quiet numbness. He struggled to his feet and looked around in unabashed shock. His limbs screamed in protest.
He had been lying in the middle of a snowdrift. The burning pain of feeling returning to his slowly freezing limbs was welcome. Hastily he brushed as much snow off of himself as he could. His teeth chattered and he hugged himself tightly. Duo slowly forced himself to look around.
He was standing in the middle of a seemingly endless plane of glittering snow. To his north, not too far off, was the ice-covered line of a huge stretch of rocky cliffs. The sun in the sky was the strangest thing he had ever seen - it was a glowing, silver ball shedding a silver-white light over everything. All around him were broken and torn pieces of Quatre's estate.
Duo jolted in alarm as his mind began to function more smoothly, shaking off the cold. "Quatre! Zechs!" he yelled in alarm and began searching frantically. He found a torn quilt and threw it over his shoulders, grateful for the added protection - the whipping sand and debris had really done a number on his clothing.
He found Zechs first. The big man was laying under half of a broken chair. Duo yanked it off him and hovered over Zechs in alarm, hesitantly checking his vitals and breathing a sigh of relief when they seemed to be fine. "Zechs...hey, you have to wake up...come on." Duo gave him a shake for good measure, brushing snow and ice crystals off the platinum blonde.
Zechs' eyes flickered open, looking vague and dazed for a moment. As he took stock of his surroundings, he jerked immediately upright. "Wh..."
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore..." Duo muttered. He plunked the quilt down around Zechs' shoulders before the bigger man could protest. "Come on, get up and move...and we have to find Quatre. Then we have to find some sort of shelter or we're all going to die from exposure."
Zechs stood up, rubbing his sore limbs. He nodded briskly, allowing his military training and discipline to take over for now - he would think about the dozens of mysteries surrounding them when he was more assured of his survival.
It took some doing, but they finally found Quatre. It was a bit harder to wake him up, and he'd suffered a bloody gash across his chest, although it didn't appear to run too deep. "H-hey, b-buddy, wake up...c'mon..." Duo pleaded, though he was beginning to wonder if they'd find any shelter at all before they froze to death. The cold was biting and none of them had warm clothes. None of the pieces of Quatre's shattered estate were really large enough to make any sort of shelter with, and none of them had anything to start a fire with.
Quatre was eventually roused and Zechs in turn gave up the lone quilt they were able to locate. Duo wandered around, digging bleakly through some of the wreckage to see if he could find anything else useful.
After the other two joined in the search, they ended up finding a handgun, sixteen bullets, a slightly bent butcher knife and another tattered blanket.
"I think heading towards the cliff wall would be our wisest choice of action." Zechs said, eyes scanning the horizon. "We may find a cave or a place in the rocks to at least get out of the wind so we don't freeze.
"Too l-late," Duo chattered, offering Zechs a shaky grin before heading in the direction of the rocks. Duo was beginning to grow worried - he was starting to lose feeling in his extremities again. // That'd be hilarious, right? Gundam pilot, survives war, gets frostbite and is taken out of the fight. Awesome. //
Zechs looked at his lover with sympathy before heading off resolutely towards the cliff wall looming in the distance.
It took longer to reach than it should have. The three of them were soon stumbling from numbness and exhaustion, floundering through the occasional deeper snowdrift. Duo was disconcertingly quiet, too cold to even think to joke and lighten the mood. Zechs refused to let himself be overcome by despair, refused to let himself think too much about the desperation of their situation or their situation itself.
Quatre was completely silent, clutching the quilt around him and his hand over his heart. The emotions surging between his companions were threatening to overwhelm him. NEVER had he felt things so very keenly before. Duo was an emotional train wreck - love, fear, terror, confusion, worry, pain - all of it warred within the other boy in a horrifyingly confusing jumble. Zechs' emotions were just as powerful, but much more simple. Quatre could clearly feel his carefully reined-in confusion. He also just as easily could feel a fierce love and protectiveness echoing through him, bound with determination to see them all safe.
Quatre watched Duo with wide eyes; grateful the American was in front of him and wasn't noticing him. // Dear Allah...I've never felt anything like this...Duo...// He cringed as his heart did a painful flip-flop. Duo was in startling, frightening emotional turmoil and it threatened to consume Quatre in its angry, hungry fire. He had no idea how the - usually - outwardly cheery boy kept up any such front. He was startled out of his near-trance a moment later when Zechs spoke.
"There!" Zechs croaked, pointing ahead towards the cliff face. A dark, jagged blackness stuck out against the snow-rimed rocks. A cave!
Duo let out a low moan of relief and made a beeline for the hole. He had the presence of mine to stop outside the cave and search the snow for any sort of animal sign, but there was nothing to find.
The three of them stumbled into the cave, passing through a narrow twisted tunnel. The tunnel served to wholly block off the wind and snow from the outside.
Zechs blinked against the darkness. The cave was shockingly warm.
"This is n-nice..." Duo managed to chatter, rubbing his frigid limbs with renewed vigor.
All three of them jumped in alarm when another voice spoke up...a soft, hesitant voice laden with fear. Duo thought he must be losing his mind - he knew the words being spoken were in no language he had ever heard before, and yet he understood them all the same. It was curious, confusing.
"W...who are you?! What do you want?!"
Quatre felt a sudden powerful, keening fear and dread from within the pitch blackness of the cave's chamber. He winced a bit, rubbing at his chest. // Allah, this is going to kill me...what's going on? // "Who's there? We...we don't mean any harm; we just had to get out of the cold. We were freezing."
"Oh..." The hesitant voice replied. "Yes...you look...very cold."
"You can see us?" Zechs blinked. The interior of the cave was blacker than midnight - he couldn't see even the ghostliest image of his fingers in front of his face.
"Yes..." came the quiet reply. "H...hang on..." There was a rustling sound across the cave, and then a small shower of sparks erupted as flint and steel smashed together. The sparks caught on a small pile of tinder, and a slender pair of quivering hands used the smoldering little pile to light a small stick, and then a small clay lamp next to them.
As the light grew - surprisingly bright and pleasant for such a small lamp - it revealed the other occupant of the cave. It was a boy no older than Duo and Quatre. His hair fell just past his shoulders and was a shade of dark, honeyed blondish-brown. His eyes were shockingly blue. His skin was very pale.
Zechs frowned as he took careful stock of the boy. The boy was a delicate, fragile creature and it looked as though he could break the creature in half with a snap of his fingers. He was far too thin.
The boy shivered a bit as he eyed them all. He seemed to shrink into the pile of furs he was huddled into, propped up against the cave wall. "H...hello..."
Duo grinned and headed over. "Hey, thanks for letting us share your cave. What's your name?"
The boy eyed them warily for a moment. "I am Ayrchad...and you?"
"I'm Duo Maxwell! These fine gentlemen are Zechs Merquise and Quatre Winner. Can I call you Chad?"
"I suppose..." the boy said with a wary blink.
"Man, kid, you look like you could do with a few squares..."
"Squares?" Chad blinked, confused. There was a sweet innocence about his features.
"He means food." Quatre clarified, smiling slightly. // Not that Duo has much room to talk. //
"Oh..." Chad looked somewhat disheartened at that, eyes turning downward and misting over. Quatre was abruptly staggered with a horrible sense of dread and pain.
"You alright, Q?" Duo asked, noting his friend about to topple over. Quatre managed a nod and waved away his concern with a tight smile.
"When is the last time you ate?" Zechs asked with a suspicious frown. Ayrchad frowned.
"I...I don't know. I haven't since...perhaps a tenday."
Duo gawked. "You haven't eaten for ten days?! Why you still sitting in here then? There has to be SOMETHING out there to eat!"
Chad blinked, then blushed and ducked his head, appearing shamed. "I...can't go out there. I can't walk. And...my brother never came home the last time he went out hunting."
~ * ^ * ~
Wufei smiled, though there was no humor in it. The soldiers were scrambling to cope with the explosions he'd caused in the western wing of the base. // Good. That gives me some time. //
He hurried inside, ducking through hallways and making his way through the base. It took him a while, but eventually he found what he was seeking.
Treize looked up from his reading at the sound of steel being drawn and found himself staring down the point of Wufei's katana. A smile curved his lips. "Ah...we meet again."