Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Eyes Cold As Death ❯ Seventeen ( Chapter 17 )

Eyes Cold As Death

Chapter Seventeen -- Inferno

Duo scrambled to his feet in the smoky rubble-strewn lobby, the floor tilting in precarious ways as darkness threatened to overtake his senses. He coughed as he climbed over wreckage from the ruins of HQ. He strained his eyes into the gloom; an orange cast flickered hesitantly from where the elevators used to be. He slid down the pile of broken concrete and dashed for the stairs. He choked on the thick air, bending to run low so he could find less smoky air. The air was suddenly hot as he neared the stairs, but he pushed forward anyway, intent on getting down to the offices where he, Heero, Trowa, Zechs, Noin and Wufei worked. Heero. They were all at work except for Quatre and him. Zechs and Noin would have been at the hangers today, but Heero, Trowa and Wufei still would have been at work downstairs when the explosion occurred, after all, it was Heero and Wufei he was coming frantically to see.

About the bomb. The nuclear bomb. The bomb that he had found the plans to on accident. It was just after he had understood the connection between the Eagle Squadron and cryogenics. He had dashed out of the kitchen, skidding into the office, scattering papers everywhere. A small voice in the back of his mind had informed him that Heero would be miffed about the mess he was causing, but the rest of his mind had shouted unitedly at the lone part, telling it to shut the hell up. He had just finished spreading the second pile of hardcopy around the room when he found the page. He had gaped at the paper for an indiscernible amount of time before the information on the page began to seep into his mind, and he realized just what it was that he was staring at.

The end of everything as he knew it.

He was staring at plans for a nuclear weapon. A weapon that hadn't existed, for good reason, for almost two hundred years. A weapon that had been banished -- on all sides.

The explosion had frightened him more than he could guess, and the only thought that had crossed his mind as he was being flung backward was that the nuclear bomb had been set off. But he had blacked out for only a moment, and he didn't feel strange, just a little banged up. So, perhaps that hadn't been the nuclear bomb, but something else, some other type of bomb. Which meant that there was still time to prevent the creation of that weapon--that curse. But he needed Wufei, the weapons expert of all of the pilots, to analyze the plans and, hopefully, tell Duo that he was freaking out about nothing.

To fool one's self was the greatest gift of all. Or was it a curse?

Duo stepped gingerly on the top step of the downward flight of stairs that led to the offices. He could smell the fire burning on the lower level. The air was hot and drafty, currents flooding up from the basement. Everything had taken on an orange hue, and Duo knew the fire was close. He glanced back toward the front door where he had left Quatre in a crumpled heap, breathing, but unconscious. He couldn't see far for the smoke, but the shadow of the rubbish pile he had climbed over was too tall anyway. He turned back to the stairs, preparing himself to charge into the orange depths. He had to get to Heero; he needed to make sure Heero was all right. Most likely, Heero had been down there when the explosion occurred. He took a deep breath, and promptly began hacking and coughing, doubling over from the force of the dry coughs.

Once he had overcome the coughing spell, he trudged into the stairwell, sweat already soaking through his shirt. One step at a time, just be careful. He slowly lowered his weight onto each step, making sure it wouldn't cave in on him. He had no desire to be left twitching one flight down amongst burning wreckage. He trailed his fingers gingerly down the hot walls. The old paint was beginning to blister the closer to the end of the stairwell he got. The low roar of the flames filled his ears. He was almost to the bottom of the stairs, shirt sticking to him and hardly able to breathe the hot, dry, smoky air, when the stair he was stepping on gave a loud groan and shifted suddenly under his foot. He grabbed the wall with a short cry. The bubbling paint burned his hands as he splayed them for maximum purchase. He cried out again from his burning hands, pulling them back in reflex to cradle under his arms. The stair gave way, wood crumpling up like paper and he toppled forward, crashing down the remaining stairs. He fell heavily on the floor; a loud yelp escaping his lips as sharp pain sprinted up his arm. He rolled, flopping around until he crashed against the wall cracking his head sharply against the baseboard edge. He slumped into a heap, a low moan gravitating from his chest to fade into the thickening smoke. Darkness closed in on Duo's eyes before he succumbed to numb sleep.

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The first thing Relena noticed when she came to was that she was hot. It was also difficult to breathe. It took some time for her to realize that she was also being squished. There was something heavy on top of her, and when she tried to sit up, she found she could not move. She opened her eyes, and immediately, they began stinging. Tears welled up in her eyes from the acrid atmosphere surrounding her. She began coughing. The position she was in was rapidly becoming uncomfortable, and the arm she was lying on began to protest with tingling and finally aching numbness. Her head throbbed dully with her accelerated heartbeat, which was also echoed in her chest and in her side. She tried to move her other arm, but found she could only shift it slightly. It hurt. She blinked away the protective tears and tried to focus on the world around her. Whatever was on top of here didn't seem to be over her head. She could see the ceiling, sort of. The smoke made details hazy and uncertain. The air was hot and humid, like a tropical day, only it didn't feel wet like the tropics did. She felt as though the water was being sucked from the air as fast as the dampness touched her. Her skin felt sunburned. She craned her neck, lifting up her head to see what was holding her down. A desk -- Duo's desk. The world spun, leaving her with the strong desire to throw up, but she didn't think she could turn her head. She relaxed; closing her eyes until the nausea subsided. Then she called for help.

"Heero? Une? Wufei? Anybody?" Her voice was raspy and weak. She coughed violently, the world darkening briefly as she hacked, trying to double over, but unable to. As a reflex, she tried to bring her hand up to her mouth, smothering her coughs, but she couldn't move her arms, and she ended up hurting herself even more. Her gasp of pain caused her to cough even harder. Tears strained out of her eyes, and she tried desperately to control her breathing so she could stop the cycle of coughing and pain. The nausea began to return with a vengeance, and she turned her head to the side.

Suddenly, the pressure was gone, the desk being hauled up by some invisible force and dropped somewhere that was not on her. She brought her hand up to her mouth and continued to cough. Someone lifted her gently into a sitting position and bile bubbled up incessantly. She leaned over and gagged, vomiting up bile and unrecognizable chunks from her lunch. After emptying her stomach, she leaned wearily against a warm body. Hands brushed her sweaty hair from her face.

"Are you okay, Relena?" Heero's voice came softly. She moaned in response, gathering up the energy to respond properly.

"I think I'll be fine." She whispered. Her stomach burned, her side throbbed, her throat felt as though she had swallowed sandpaper, her head pounded, her arm was asleep, her other arm ached and her lungs felt like there was water in them. She could only thank God that she could not feel her legs. Heero held her gently to his chest, and she sank into the comforting warmth as he began to inspect her wounds.

"Where does it hurt?" She rambled everything off to him absentmindedly. Her head was spinning again, but the nausea was, for the moment, staying away. The sharp, tangy, coppery smell of blood floated over the charred and burning smell of flames. She shifted her head slightly to look at Heero's face. He had a long gash across his temple that was oozing blood and plasm. She heard the sound of ripping cloth and suddenly he was bandaging her abdomen, muttering to himself about blood and infections. He drew back up to hold her head. She looked up at him expectantly.

"You have a broken leg, shattered in several spots from the look of it." She drew her eyebrows together, causing pain to flare across her forehead.

"My legs feel fine." He turned slowly to look at her. "You're bleeding." He reached up automatically to wipe some blood from his forehead.

"How can you not feel the broken bone?" He narrowed his eyes and began slipping an exploratory hand under her back. She could feel his hand sliding down her spine, resting in the small of her back. His hand moved a little lower and then it was gone.

"What did you find?" She asked. Heero's eyes narrowed more.

"Can you feel this?" Nothing.

"No. Your hand is gone."

"No, its still on your back."

"But I can't feel it."

"Relena, can you feel anything below that wound in your side?" She concentrated; the pain in her side blossomed as she focused her thoughts on it. She gritted her teeth and tried to move her thoughts lower. She could feel the wound in her side pulsating with her heartbeat, but there was blessed nothingness below that. There was no pain, but there was no feeling either. She poked at her leg. Nothing.

"No." Her voice was shaky as she began to realize what was happening. She opened her mouth to ask Heero what he was implying, but the words died in her throat because she understood quite well. She had no feeling in her legs. She could not feel Heero's hand on the curve of her hips. She tried to move her legs, watching them intently as though that would cause them to move. They remained still. She whimpered. Heero nodded slowly and bent over her, sliding an arm under her knees. She couldn't feel it.

"We need to get out of here." He picked her up and shuffled to the office door. "Wufei?" There was a brief pause before Wufei answered in a shaky voice.

"Trowa's dead."

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Jezebel dropped the remote and wiped her hands on her pants. She turned out of her temporary concealment and shelter and walked nonchalantly down the road. No one was around, so she didn't feel the need to gawk at the wreckage of Preventer HQ. She kept her eyes open for any civilians or emergency personnel. She could hear sirens wailing from the distance, but she would be long gone by the time they arrived.

Placing the bomb hadn't been as easy as she had originally thought. She had wanted to place the C-4 just outside the pilot's offices, but that had proved to be too difficult and time consuming. She couldn't risk getting caught this late in the game, and it was too important that she try to neutralize the pilots before the attack. Her marines could take the city more easily if the pilots were out of the picture. In the end, she had placed the bomb in the cafeteria where she had run into Duo a few times, once informing her that one of the vending machines was down. Placing the bomb there had been amazingly easy; however, it increased the possibility that one or more of the pilots would survive the inferno. She had placed a second, smaller bomb in her office to erase any evidence of her involvement. It had been triggered to go off once the original explosion occurred. She had distinctly heard the two separate explosions from her close vantage point, so she was confident that she no longer had any business with Preventer HQ.

She slung her briefcase over one shoulder, hefting the weight easily. She had packed everything she needed from her office before placing the bombs. Most of her things were now at her house, packed neatly in preparation for her withdrawal today. She walked sedately toward her home. She never noticed that she picked up a shadow.

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Quatre's eyes slitted open, tearing up at the thick smoke hanging in the air. He breathed shallowly, careful not to irritate his lungs or throat. He was slumped against what used to be the front door, so he was close to the ground, and close to fresh air. He looked around. Duo was gone. Quatre climbed to his hands and knees, clearing his throat in an attempt to not cough. He crawled through the shattered glass doors, trying not to cut himself on the sharp shards that littered the ground.

"Duo?" He croaked. There was no answer. He continued to crawl outside, into fresh air. Once free of the veil of smoke, he sucked in a large breath, allowing himself to cough out the assailing smoke. He crawled to the curb before turning around and falling back to sit on the hard cement. He looked up at the squat building that had served as Preventer HQ for over four years.

Smoke billowed out of the few windows, as well as a few cracks that had developed from the explosion. The smoke was thick and black, swirling into the sky like a drugged tornado. He could see flames licking against the side of the building, breaking windows in some areas. He looked around for Duo. He found no one. Duo couldn't have been stupid enough to go deeper in the burning building, could he? Quatre couldn't be sure. He knew that everyone was supposed to work today, and Duo had been so sure that Heero and Wufei were here, that it only made sense to assume that everyone had been caught in that explosion. His heart tightened as realization sank into his muddled mind. Trowa and Heero were in there. Trowa and Wufei. And now, probably Duo as well. He started to get up to make his own insane way into the building when a sound off to the right caught his attention. It was a sharp sound, like something hard being dropped.

He carefully crawled past the gaping doors so he could see around the corner of the building. A tall female sauntered down the road away from him. He had come around the corner in time to see her materialize from the shadows of a sunken door. He had seen her face. "I also hope that you weren't counting on 02 returning to save you. He's running amuck at the Node base the two of you found." His eyes narrowed as her voice echoed from the past in his head. "Hello, my pet." The other voice echoed through time. He felt himself growl low in his throat. He watched Jezebel's dark hair swing back and forth as she walked away from HQ, hefting a large satchel on her shoulder.

Quatre painfully struggled to his feet to follow her. He gripped the gun he constantly carried with him for cold comfort. She would be brought to answer for her crimes. Even if it was to a one-person court. She would pay.

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Sally had decided to go in to work late due to her early morning meeting with Duo. Uncontrolled thoughts circled through her head until she was no longer able to make sense of anything. She barely remembered Wufei kissing her good morning before he left for work.

She drove in silence, passing away her drive by thinking solely of medicine. She refused to let her mind wander to the Eagle Squadron or any of the events they had caused. Penicillin, now there was a cool drug. However, enough people were allergic to it that other antibiotics had to be created. Tetracycline was her next favorite. She liked it because--

She stopped the car. The ground had shaken, was it an earthquake? She waited for another tremor to pass through the ground when a flash in the near distance caught her attention. She watched in horror as flames reached for the sky before slowly fading away. Did the earthquake break a gas main? She wondered, waiting still for another tremor. When one didn't come, she carefully continued the few blocks to HQ.

She turned the corner onto the street that HQ was located on and slammed on her breaks in shock. There had been some kind of explosion, that much was obvious. Smoke billowed from the building. She heard sirens, and instinctively looked for an approaching firetruck. She could see two barreling down the road toward her from the opposite side of HQ. She parked her car and jumped out, running to the ruined building. It suddenly occurred to her that Wufei was inside the building, that he had gone to work normally today, and he would still be there. She couldn't resist the dire howl that ripped itself from her throat as she sprinted to what was left of Preventer HQ.

The firetrucks pulled up as she reached the building. Rough shouting began as the firemen instructed each other and began assigning sections of responsibility. She was pulled back from entering the building. With her abortive entrance, she turned to the firemen.

"I'm a doctor!" One man, a lieutenant by the markings on his protective gear stopped, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"The ambulance will be here shortly, you can help them." She nodded numbly as he turned to follow his associates into HQ. She turned, detachedly watching as water mains were tapped, hose being attached and water flooding through the tough canvas. One of the trucks was a tower engine, and the ladder was raising to reach the roof. She wrapped her arms around herself, attempting to keep away the pain and the shock as she waited for the ambulance to arrive.