Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ I. The Great Escape ❯ Life and the Hereafter ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Life and the Hereafter

“Brazil?” I asked, studying the bills in my hand a moment as I thought.

“Yeah,” Nassaiya agreed, studying me. “You didn’t know?”

“I knew it was South America,” I reassured her, running a hand through my hair.

“Is that your crap boat?” someone shouted at me in English.

“Yeah,” I returned warily, raising an eyebrow at him.

“You make it?”

“With help,” I agreed.

“Oh, your boy there?” he indicated Vasu.

Vasu beamed at him.

“You sellin’ it?”

“Might,” I returned, raising an eyebrow at him. “Might not.”

“I could use a sturdy little runner,” he noted, moving to join me and kick the side. “You have it out of the water long?”

“Ten minutes, give or take.”

“The natives,” he muttered, looking toward the flood-plain. “They make the best boats, but refuse to sell them…how much you want for it?”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I like to go fishing those tambaqui fish…but boats with engines scare them off well before you can get to’em…”

“The people use these boats to fish,” I noted. “That’s how they provide for their families.”

“You know any?”

“I lived with some for the last few months,” I agreed as Nassaiya moved to lean against my side and looking toward her son. “I’ve been living it.”

“Ah…that’s…wow,” the guy shook his head in astonishment. “I didn’t think they’d let outsiders into their tribes.”

“I’m lucky,” I noted wryly.

His eyes moved to Nassaiya and he nodded. “You jumpin’ ship, then?”

“It’s about time to get back to civilization,” I agreed, looking toward the city.

“Tell you what, I’ll give you…this,” he pulled out his wallet and grabbed out a stack of bills, “for your dingy.”

“I sweat blood and tears for that dingy,” I retorted. “It’s not as cheap as what you got in your wallet.”

He considered that a moment, then looked toward Vasu again. “Okay, fine. I’ll put you up in a moderately priced hotel. I can’t afford no long-distance calls, but I can get you a room to take a proper shower in, huh?”

A proper bed, too? That idea was highly appealing.

I popped my neck as I thought about it, then shrugged and nodded. “No returns,” I noted. “You buy it, it’s yours and I’m done with it.”

“If you’ve only had it out of the water a half hour and it’s still just about as dry as land…”

“We slept in it last night,” I noted, indicating the flood. “We hooked up to a tree and slept in it. It can get a bit wet from time to time, but it’s usually pretty dry.”

“Mm,” he passed the money into my hand with sparkling eyes. “Can you take it to my shack? My wife and I rented a place here in town for the flood season.”

“Sure,” I agreed, shrugging at that. “Which way?” I looked toward the city again.

“Downstream,” he returned, pointing. “Give me a ride and I’ll drive you to a sweet little motel…but mind, it’s a one night only deal. More’n that and you’ll have to pay,” he pointed at the cash in my hand. “Just be sure they know.”

I nodded, tucking the money away and turning to the two of them. “Load up, we’re gonna take it to his place and he’ll take us to a motel.”

“They don’t speak English?” he asked blankly.

“Nope, not more than a few words,” I agreed.

“Wow…” he watched Vasu resignedly climb back in before turning to help his mother. I followed and turned to offer my hand to steady my new benefactor. “Your wife looks sweet.”

“I told you, I’m a lucky man,” I noted with a grin. “You want me to show you how to row it?”

“Sure,” he agreed, resting his considerable bulk on the bench. “I’ll see if I got what it takes to make the dingy float.”

“If you managed to make it sink, I’d be worried,” I noted in amusement.

He grinned at me.

- -

Showering in an upright shower had never seemed like such a luxury. I let the water pour over my sore muscles, and felt the dirt and grime of the past few months flow slowly into the drain. It was hard to make myself turn off the water, but this sort of room wasn’t exactly in Nassaiya or Vasu’s repertoire of knowledge, and I knew I was starting to get extremely hungry.

As I’d expected, Vasu was paging through a Bible and Nassaiya was sitting at the edge of the bed, looking at things with curiosity, but not touching. The part I’d expected was the lack of television or exploration, not specifics…

“Want to shower?” I asked, running the towel over my hair and sighing happily before moving to sit next to her.

“I’ve never used a shower like that,” she muttered, studying me nervously.

“Never?” I protested, then grinned and rose again, pulling her after me toward the bathroom. “Come on, I’ll show you…”

She started laughing and trying to fight me as we moved into the bathroom, and when I finally got her in there, she giggled a bit as I tossed my towel toward the hamper.

“It’s easy,” I noted, tugging at her shirt. “It starts with stripping.”

“You might have told that nice man I’m your wife, but that doesn’t mean you get to undress me.”

I laughed at that, almost blushing as I gave her a look. I indicated the faucet. “The one by the wall is hot, the other is cold. You pull the lever, and the water will come from here…and you just soap up and rinse off.”

She grinned, pulling the shirt off.

My embarrassment didn’t stop me from looking at her chest before I could help it, and that also made me realize that her bra was falling apart. I frowned, moving forward to turn her in a circle and study the shreds coming off of it before meeting her eyes.

“The newest piece of clothing I own is a skirt bought for me by a man who doesn’t realize what his actions imply.”

I stared at her, blinking as I realized it was the skirt she was wearing. “Uhh…we’ll go buy you both new things before we leave, huh? Go out tonight and get us some clothing and find tickets out of here.”

“Where will we go?”

I considered that a moment as she dropped her skirt, turning away from her politely. “I have to get to an embassy…either military or American.”

“You’re American?” she asked blankly.

I nodded, glancing back to see that she was starting to take off her bra. “Um…I’ll go look that up and refresh myself on Brazil…you shower. You have Vasu’s birth certificate, right?”

“What, Dad?” Vasu called from the other room.

Nassaiya nodded. “The doctor filled it out for me…and I have my own.”

“All right,” I noted, moving from the room and closing the door as the shower started#151;she made a very cute startled noise, and I grinned a bit as her son met my eyes curiously. “I need to get us passports,” I explained, moving to boot up the computer.

“What are you doing?” he asked, moving to join me as I sat down.

“I need to see how much this money is worth,” I explained, indicating my handful. “Sometimes lots of bills like that doesn’t get you much, and sometimes is a big fortune.” I pulled him onto my lap. “I want to get your mom some new clothes, so I’m hoping it’s worth a whole lot.”

He nodded, looking at the screen.

I was happy to see that the computer was already set up in English. It hadn’t occurred to me until Mr. Kimeckerson had taken us through the city to get us to this hotel that the machines might run in the local language.

I could barely speak the language, reading it would have been a heroic act.

“What’s it say?”

“Can’t read English, huh?” I teased.

“I don’t know how to read yet,” he returned, meeting my eyes. “Mom doesn’t know much.”

I nodded as if this were normal, and it probably was here, but in this day and age…kids didn’t know how to read? Maybe it was just because he was a native boy. Granted, my own background was fuzzy at the point when I was six or seven anyway. I doubted I’d been able to read at all. Well, I’d probably lived on the streets and scrounged for food.

“So what is it?”

“I’m looking for a map,” I explained, clicking a link offered me. “I need to find out where I can go from here to get what I need done.”

“How do you know how to do it?”

Because I fought in a war and was as a scrounging guerilla warrior? Somehow that didn’t seem like the thing to say. “I just…do,” I returned. “I had teachers who showed me all sorts of things.”

“In a school?”

“No,” I returned, meeting his eyes. “I never went to school.”

“Oh,” he considered that, then looked back to the screen when I clicked a second link.

“Hey, get me that book,” I muttered, pointing at a phone-book on the nightstand.

Vasu darted to do my bidding, bringing back as he studied the front with interest.

“You’re a good kid,” I noted, ruffling his hair. “I’ll teach you how to read as soon as we get where I feel safe.”

“Are there bad men after you?”

“Yeah,” I agreed, studying the outside cover until I could make out the separate words…

Manaus.

Wow, I’d just rowed through the Amazon River.

I blinked at that a long moment, setting the thing on the desk beside me before scanning the list of entries on the U.S. embassy web-page thing. The closest city to us was Fortaleza. That would be the first place the A.P.B. he sent out would hit, then it’d travel through all the coastal cities. He’d come here to figure out what way I’d gone before deciding if I headed to the United States or not, and considering that I didn’t even know for sure yet, it was a mildly disturbing thought. He would figure it out…

I shook that off, reminding myself not to give into fear. If I panicked, I’d be playing into his hands.

Salvador or Belo Horizonte were my actual choices here. I didn’t have enough time to hit anywhere else…hell, I might not even make it to Salvador before it all ended. It really depended on how long Natalie managed to keep her silence before giving in to her loyalty.

“You find it?” he asked as I typed in a different set of search parameters.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Now I’m looking for price ranges. Once I can get an average of normal things I can understand how much it’s worth,” I tapped the money again.

“We don’t use a lot of money,” he noted seriously, sliding off my lap. “We eat fish.”

“Not tonight we don’t,” I noted, grinning at him. “Tonight we get something store-made.” I was thinking savory spicing would be lovely, but the likelihood of either of them having that sort of thing on a regular basis was almost nil, so they wouldn’t be able to stomach it.

“Find anything?” Nassaiya muttered, moving from the bathroom and toweling at her hair.

“We’re in Manaus, we’re heading to Salvador tomorrow, and I get the serious impression that I’m mildly rich right now.”

She giggled, moving up to us curiously.

“Dad’s gonna teach me how to read,” Vasu informed her proudly.

She hesitated.

“We can all work on it,” I suggested, looking up to her. “Give us a…family…project to work on.”

Her cheeks flushed very slightly as she moved to sit on the bed.

“Let’s start,” I suggested, gathering up the money and rising to my feet, “by getting something to eat…and getting clothes that will keep us from looking like natives.”

She nodded.

- -

“We need three tickets to Salvador,” I muttered to the woman behind the counter.

“For when?”

“Tomorrow, as early as you can make it.”

The woman typed for a while before nodding slightly and making a note on a piece of paper. “The earliest flight is at six A.M…will that do?”

“Wonderfully,” I agreed with a smile.

“Name?”

I decided to bite the bullet. “Duo Maxwell.”

She typed that in without flinching. “And the other passengers?”

“Nassaiya Maxwell,” she offered easily, spelling her first name out.

It gave me pause.

“And this boy is traveling, too?” she asked, looking to him.

He nodded. “My name is Vasu Maxwell!”

“All righty, Mr. Maxwell,” she muttered, clicking a button. “That’ll be five hundred. Credit or check?”

“Cash, actually,” I noted. My search at the motel had led me to looking up monetary notations, which indicated that I had about seven hundred dollars. I’d sold my boat for three hundred, and the rest was stuff from Wufei.

It didn’t matter. I was going to change my accounts and put them on watch myself. The bank I had only allowed one tap at a time, and if he hadn’t already done it, I’d be fine. If not, I’d hack it into a different watched account, and take all but the barest minimum from it.

“Wonderful,” she muttered as the tickets printed, passing me the boarding passes. “You’ll need these and photo I.D…you’ll be in advanced boarding because of the child. Check in is a half hour before the flight. You’re allowed one piece of luggage, one carry on item, and one personal item to be stored at your feet. There are no knives, weapons, alcohol, drugs, or chemicals allowed on at any time. If you need to change your flight, you have twenty-four hours prior to do so, and your flight is now set in stone, sir.”

I grinned at that and nodded.

“Have a wonderful day and thank you for choosing Fly Brazil.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, leading the pair away.

“I don’t have Photo I.D.,” Nassaiya muttered with a frown. “I’m on record at home, but…”

I studied her a long moment and smiled slightly. “And what would my wife do if I didn’t have an address?”

“I don’t know,” she retorted, “I haven’t met her yet.”

I leaned in to be eye to eye with her. “For all intents and purposes, you’re now my bride.”

She stared at me.

“You have my name, your son calls me dad, and we’re leaving Brazil entirely. If anyone asks we fell in love, huh? When we were taking care of each other.”

She smiled slightly at that, grabbing Vasu’s hand before moving to walk with me and hesitantly grabbing mine. I squeezed hers slightly in return, going over my mental list. I had such a volatile life that things like impulsive weddings were completely legal to me. All I had to tell the military staff was that someone from the village had blessed our union in some way or another and they’d leave the rest to chance. She had her and her son’s birth certificates, and that meant she had their registered I.D.s the doctor would have given them when Vasu was born…if she hadn’t already gotten hers before that.

I had two hundred dollars, an I.D. to buy, and an account to empty and manipulate before five-thirty A.M.

It was five A.M.

It all depended on Natalie.

- -

Quatre backed away from Heero with wide eyes, a sort of excitement visible in him that made Wufei wonder when the guy would finally snap to the point that he could get him into an asylum.

That’s all it was…the waiting game. Heero and Quatre together were a power-house that no one dared stand up to, and Trowa didn’t give a damn left or right unless he was irritated...or bored.

Wufei looked back to the screen on the computer as Quatre started egging the Japanese male on again, trying to coax the explosion out of him. Before Duo had ran, Heero would have just gone to their apartment and shut Quatre out, but the place was empty, and for some reason Heero couldn’t stomach that.

Maybe he needed a pet…a little annoying yappy dog that’d follow along at his feet and get stepped on all the time…

“Quatre!” Heero snarled at the blond, who hadn’t stopped talking, actually.

“Make me,” Quatre muttered, leaning into his face. “Make me, break me, force me, stop me…” his eyes moved off around the room. “Blue walls,” he noted. “They don’t make me.”

Great, he was going to have one of his…episodes.

Wufei lit a cigarette as he studied the flagged link to Duo’s bank account. He’d been watching it week by week since he’d found Duo, and now was more waiting, since he knew that little bitch who sang all the time would give up the ghost any time now.

Actually, it’d been a night since she’d returned from the little village she lived at. Heero was all over worried about her because she wasn’t singing, and she wasn’t smiling…and she was pretty when she smiled so she needed to smile more…and sing. Her singing made things nice.

He was such a…

Wufei inhaled a long drag as Quatre explained to Heero how the walls made him do it. Wufei wasn’t quite sure what the walls made him do, but they made him do something.

“What are you doing?” Trowa asked from where he was sitting on the couch across the room. He’d gotten bored by the insanity, then. “You’re always on that damn lap-top. What are you doing?”

Wufei focused on Duo’s balance with a feeling of triumph. There wasn’t much money left in it, and his account would have grown at the beginning of a new month, not decreased by all but a paycheck.

“What are you doing!” Trowa snapped, rising to his feet in a way that made Quatre cry out and dart away…to hide behind Heero.

Yeah, that was safe.

Wufei clicked on a porn link he’d inserted readily for such an occasion, raising an eyebrow at the other as he leaned down to look. The Chinese man exhaled.

Trowa started coughing, backing away in disgust. “Damn it, Wufei!”

“I’m busy,” Wufei retorted dryly, watching the man levelly. “Leave me alone.”

“Go look at that nasty crap in your own room,” Trowa grumbled, giving him a look.

“What is it?” Heero asked, blinking.

“My business,” Wufei retorted, taking another drag. “You gonna ride up in my business now, too?”

“Like you’d let me,” Heero grumbled.

Damn straight.

“Excuse me, Mr. Yuy?”

Wufei looked to the song-bird as she moved properly into the room, flicking back to the bank site, impressed she'd made it until six p.m. the day after getting back in.

“Yes, Nat?” Heero asked, focusing on her.

“I…there’s something I need to tell you,” she muttered, clasping her hands over her abdomen and fiddling with her own fingers.

“Tell me?” Heero asked, moving nearer to her.

She nodded.

Wufei transferred money from one of his other accounts into Duo’s account, glad that Heero didn’t have the piece of mind to even look at his accounts anymore.

The girl looked to her feet. “About…about Maxwell.”