Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ The Night's End ❯ The Great Escape... ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer-thingy--Damn..it's taking me forever just to get this right. Okay, so Trigun, Vash, Meryl, Millie, etc. etc. don't belong to me. They belong to Yasuhiro Nightow...and YKO, and Madhouse...and anybody else who happens to actually have a stake in them. So don't go and sue me or whatever, because I'm broke, and all you'd get out of me are my cds and a deck of cards. Really.



Sand shimmered in the distance, a mirage of water ever tempting those who stayed in the sun too long. Staggering slightly, the man in red wiped his brow before opening the canteen at his side and taking a swig. Raising his hand to block out overhead light, he squinted and glanced around. 'Nope,' he decided at long last, 'I am still in the middle of nowhere.' It was hard to travel by foot everywhere you needed to go, but he didn't generally have any money, except for when he decided that situation called for him to take a job. Thankfully, that hadn't happened recently. Sighing heavily, he hoisted his bag and took off again. The ruts in the road ahead of him looked well-traveled, and he had visions of being picked up by someone. Someone...beautiful, long hair, big eyes...someone with a really nice ride...and--

"You left us behind again! Y-you stuck us with the bill for that hotel!!" His reverie was interrupted by the sounds of someone screaming at him from about three inches away. "And you didn't even take any water with you...are you trying to get yourself killed, is that it? Bounty hunters not good enough for you? No, the $$60,000,000,000 Man has to skip town and tempt fate through dehydration!!"

He tried to look at the offending voice, and found it too bright. He was looking straight at the blinding sun. This meant he was no longer standing. He was flat on his back, must've fallen...couldn't remember anything beyond walking in this heat for hours and hours and hours... Opening his mouth to give a snappy retort, he found it drier than the scenery, and only managed a weak, "Glad to know you care." Jeez, he must be in worse shape than he had previously thought. Not that you really could get much worse than he had thought.

Meryl Strife stopped what she had been about to say (no doubt something about his eternal lack of responsibility) and pursed her lips. "At least you're still alive. And you deserve everything you got when you skipped out on us." She waited, "Admit it, or we're not going to help you."

Her partner looked at her worriedly, "Um...senpai? Isn't that a little harsh? He did wait for us here after all."

Meryl looked at her disgustedly, "That's because he didn't really have any choice in the matter. If he would've filled up his waterbottle you can bet he wouldn't have waited." She glared at him, "You know something, it's amazing that you've survived as long as you have. You never think more than three minutes ahead at any one time. It is a really, really irratating habit."

Millie Thompson looked on with a hint of worry in her eyes. Normally inclined to an optimistic outlook towards life, she had a vague feeling that if this situation was left to its inevitable end, it would end up with the man on the ground in extreme pain and her partner storming off in frustration. "Um...senpai, maybe he had a reason to leave town without any water."

"Yeah," Vash finally managed to get out, "Maybe I didn't get any water because someone was guarding the pump all night. Besides, I figured I had enough water for a couple of hours."

Meryl underwent several interesting color changes, finally settling on an embarrassed pink, "Well, it was only because I didn't want you sneaking out on us again. If you keep it up, you'll get us both fired!"

They all stared at eachother for a couple of moments before he finally broke the silence with, "Can I have some water so that I can discuss this with you, and without the company of the little hallucinations I'm having right now?" His voice cracked pitifully at the end of the statement.

Millie went to get him some water from her Thomas while Meryl stared at him. He fancied that there might have been a softening of her features before she started her glare, but after a few moments of the glare, he couldn't imagine where there might have been room for one. With an elaborate sigh, she turned her back on the offending member of their group and snagged her Thomas' reins.

"So, can you get up, or are we going to be forced to tie you into the Thomas' saddle?"

"Um...I can get up." He pushed his palms against the sand, forcing a handhold that would support his weight. "I think I can, anyway." His knees were shaking badly, and his arms felt weak.

Meryl dropped the reins, "Stop, before you hurt yourself more." Grabbing an arm, she pulled him upright before forcing him to his feet. He wobbled, and so she supported him while Millie came back with the water.

"Here you go, Mr. Vash!" The water in the offered bottle was warm but clean, and anything was better than nothing. He finished it and handed it back to her with a grateful smile.

"Thanks. I really needed that." With a groan, he leaned against the Thomas.

"Oh, don't thank me, that was Senpai's water!" She flashed a bright grin, seemingly oblivious to Meryl's clenched fist.

"Well, thanks to you, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten any." He smirked at Meryl. Then he turned his attention to the Thomas and swung a leg over the saddle. After much maneuvering, aid from Millie, and a few half-hearted pushes from Meryl, he was finally in the saddle. Millie and Meryl climbed on the other Thomas, and they took off. It was a little past noon, and the sun was beating a hole through his head. Sighing wearily, he slumped a little in the saddle and watched dune by lonely dune disappear beneath the thomas' hooves. The Insurance Girls were both silent, the big one with a slight smile and a distant look...probably thinking about 'Mr. Priest.' He smiled slightly at the thought... The other one was looking at everything but him. He sighed slightly and leaned against the luggage secured behind him. Balancing himself and dropping the reins, he closed his eyes so that he could take a nap-

"ARRGH...that man's sleeping again!" Meryl crossed her arms in a huff before glancing back at Vash's unconscious form. "You'd think that he had a real job...but no- not the infamous Humanoid Typhoon-"

Millie turned to Meryl, "Well, he does work as a bodyguard sometimes, doesn't that count?"

"Not as much as one might think," Meryl growled, staring intently forward, as if by ignoring everything else, she could pretend she was anywhere but where she actually was. A flash of light in the distance caught her attention. That was odd, this area had been abandoned for several years now due to terrible sand storms. "Hey Millie..."

"Yeah?"

"Did you just see something? A light over there-" she pointed.

Millie shook her head, "No...do you think we should check it out?"

Meryl glanced over at Vash, gauging his condition, "No, I'll check it out, you take him on into town and get some rooms for us in a hotel. I'll meet up with you after I check out the light." Millie nodded, and climbed out of the saddle, handiing the reins to Meryl. Meryl started to say something, paused then restarted, "Just make sure that HE doesn't cause any trouble."

Nodding, Millie stopped the thomas and climbed on the other one, moving Vash forward so that there was room in the saddle. After getting hold of the reins, she waved cheerily at Meryl before giving her Thomas a kick and taking off in the general direction of town.

Meryl sighed. Inside her head a little warning bell was ringing nonstop, telling her to reconsider sending Millie into town alone...with Vash. It was an almost surefire recipe for disaster. But...she didn't want to think about that right now. Instead, focus on the present and the flashing light that she was investigating. After all, the last flashing light they'd spotted in the desert had turned out to be that priest and his motorcycle. Who knows what this one might turn out to be.

With a click, she turned her Thomas towards the direction it had come from and started towards it, all the time hoping that leaving Millie and Vash to themselves wouldn't prove to be as big a mistake as she was beginning to think it was.

Behind her, both suns began the descent to nightfall.