Bound Part 8
Dangerous Little Allies
The day she met the soldiers, Mary had been heading down to the bank of the Tennessee River to do some fishing. She had heard all of the commotion from the soldiers, and her mother warned her before going out not to mess with them or go out into the woods near the Arsenal, and her brother-who was in Omega Force for OZ-flat out told her if he heard she was messing with the troops he'd have Daddy give her a whuppin' she wouldn't soon forget.
She took Turnpike and he followed her down, as obedient as you could want. After a mile or two, though, she could tell something was wrong with him. He kept on looking around, ears perked, like he heard something he didn't like. He was as tense as barbed wire.
// It's just those ugly-mutt attack dogs from the base, // she thought, switching her heavy creel to the other arm. // Just the dogs that got him spooked. And the mobile suits. //
But Turnpike had never been bothered by mobile suits before, or the base's dogs. Hell, when Lonnie brought home his suit from the Arsenal for the weekend, Turnpike had jumped into the Leo's hatch and messed around until Lonnie took a newspaper to him and sent him flying under the porch.
// He's so damned uppity, // Mary thought, pushing her way through the sticker-bushes. // It's just a job. Just a job like- //
A rustling noise in front of her. Turnpike froze, not growling, but the dog's lip curled up into a silent snarl. Mary froze, too.
Not a deer, or a coy dog. The soldiers had already scared away all the wildlife from anywhere near the base. So it had to be a real predator. Something that wasn't afraid of them, and hadn't moved off yet.
She broke through the bushes, and saw what had made the noise. Two older boys. Turnpike moved forward in a flash, barking more like he was afraid than angry. "Who the hell are you?" She asked, starting to yell at them for hunting on her Daddy's land, just a couple of no-good poachers, but then she realized they weren't even in hunting gear. Their clothes were nothing but rags, and they were beat up all to hell. The dark-headed one had a terrified look on his face, and he was pressed back against the trunk of a tree. Something hurt inside her, to see anybody look like that. She knew someone had been kickin' at him. Beating on him, maybe. Or worse.
The other one looked as if someone had cut his hair with a letter-opener. It was all ragged and clumped and there was no telling what color it was really supposed to be. It was the eyes that caught her, though. He looked crazy, and mean to boot.
She dropped her stuff, tried to run, and tripped over her feet.
// He's gonna get me shoulda listened to Lonnie- //
She was still scrambling in the dead leaves, trying to get back to her feet and get away, when one of the boys grabbed her from behind. And she knew without looking exactly which one it was.
"Don't hurt me!" she screamed, her voice a hoarse whisper. "You're that...you're...you're the G-G-Gun..."
"Shhh! Shut up!! Shut up!" The boy shook her hard, making her teeth rattle, putting one hand over her mouth. He looked around; when she looked up into his face, he looked fierce, all right. But oh, so afraid.
"Don't hurt me..." she whispered again. "Don't kill me."
"I'm not gonna do anything to you, kid, if you'll just keep your mouth shut."
Mary looked up at him and saw that he wasn't lying. She read it in his face. He was just scared. Scared and snarling, just like Turnpike.
She looked over and saw the dog advancing towards the boy holding her, baring his teeth and letting out a growl as loud as a motorboat.
"Down, Pike," she whispered, and the dog obeyed instantly, though that growl still held out like a low generator hum.
"Look, kid, shut it up or I'll-"
"Pike!" she hissed. The dog quieted and slunk down, watching the pilots warily with his tail between his legs. She looked back at the boy holding her by the front of her T-shirt. "Don't kill me, please," she whispered again, looking up at him pleadingly. "I don't have anything."
The boy looked back into her face for a moment, eyes like hard and glittering amethysts, then his expression softened a little, like it hurt him somewhere to hear a little kid beg like that. He let her down, loosening his hand on her shirt and moving it to her shoulder to hold her firmly in place.
"Shit, kid, I'm not going to kill you. Just stay quiet. Don't scream. You have somewhere we can hide? Someplace quiet they won't look?"
At first, Mary didn't know who the boy was talking about, but then she thought of the mobile suits. The soldiers.
"Yeah, I have a place. But you better not kill me. My big brother is in Omega Force for OZ and he'll kick the livin' daylights out of you if you do."
Duo snorted. "Figures. Alright, kid, I already told you, I'm not going to be doing any killing today. Especially little girls like you."
"I ain't no little girl!" she hissed indignantly.
The look on her face made Duo smile. "Alright. What's your name, kid?"
"I'm not a kid," she replied, scowling. "I'm Mary."
Behind the boy holding her, the dark-headed one's face worked and he turned away, like someone had slapped him in the face.
"What's wrong with him?" she whispered.
"I'm Duo, and he's Heero, and you just find us a place, alright?"
"Follow me," she whispered. "But be quiet. They'll catch us, and we'll all get it." She looked down at Turnpike. "Heel, boy."
The dog got up and followed. Duo looked back at Heero. The Wing pilot looked as pale as death. "I'm gonna carry you, okay buddy?"
"It's just a kid, Heero," Duo whispered, picking him up like he weighed nothing. Heero relaxed, eyes fluttering closed.
"But Duo... I already killed her."
Duo looked down sharply as he began to walk, but Heero had already passed out again. Duo held him close and careful as they went, the way he used to carry the younger boys at Haven, when they would fall asleep nowhere near close to a dirty mattress or a blanket.
~*~
When they got to a dilapidated barn on the outskirts of a large farm, the girl led them up a rickety ladder, into the rafters. Duo put Heero down gently and collapsed into the soft hay, sighing in exhaustion. "Jesus Heero, you're heavier than you look."
Heero grunted something that sounded vaguely threatening and went back to sleep, falling back into his fitful doze. Duo looked over at him, then closed his own eyes.
"It's about time we caught some kind of break," Duo said in Heero's direction, yawning. "I mean... I'd still rather have a... bed... fresh sheets, you know... maybe a..." He was asleep before he could finish the thought, jaw gaping.
Mary looked at the two hurt and weary pilots. She knew they were dangerous, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for them. They were wounded, and tired, and so far, despite their wicked reputations, had done nothing serious to harm her.
There was a mystery about them. There was something about them that touched her. These were not the evil terrorists she had heard about from her brother and his friends. They... they were just boys. Older than her, but still boys.
Her parents were OZ supporters. Her father was a farmer, but her brother was a soldier. A soldier working at the prison at Redstone. No one complained, because being a soldier in the army of Treize Khushrenada paid well, and with all the mobile suit battles, Papa's fields would not last forever. Better to live as a soldiering family than to starve as pacifists, that was Papa's motto.
They weren't here because they wanted to be. They were here because they had no choice. That much she could see on her own.
She couldn't give them over to the soldiers. No way. They'd be wormfood for sure. Especially since Zechs Marquise and General Treize himself were supposed to be at Redstone. His Excellency would probably shoot them himself, just to show them honor.
She groaned a little. Great. She had two choices; give them up to the soldiers to be killed, or keep them hidden up here and risk getting her ass whipped.
An obvious thing, but neither choice was very appealing.
She studied their sleeping faces. Could they be trusted? She didn't know. How could she tell? They were supposed to be bad, yeah, real bad...but they were so scared...
She only had one choice. She had to get Tobias. He'd know what to do.
~*~
"Hey, Missus Cale, is Tobias home?"
The plump, motherly brunette woman who answered the door at the Cale farm grabbed Mary and dragged her into the kitchen, eyes wide. She gazed out a crack in the door for a moment before shutting it behind her and deadbolting it.
"You didn't walk here, did you dear? My goodness, Mary, don't you know there's escaped convicts loose from Redstone? Does your mother and father know you're over here? Child, you could have been kidnapped and held hostage! You could have been killed!! Lord alive, I can't believe your mother would let you walk all that way here alone at a time like this!"
She glanced out the window nervously, as if rogue colonial terrorists could be lurking behind every bush. There was nobody out there but Turnpike, who had laid on the porch and was whining mournfully, because Mrs. Cale didn't let dogs in the house.
"Toby! Come downstairs! You have company!!"
"Don't call me that!!" A male voice called down the stairs. "You know I don't like it when you call me that, Ma! It's sissy!!!"
Mr. Cale was reading a newspaper at the kitchen table. The gruff man cleared his throat, greeting the little girl in an absent-minded, distracted tone, without looking up from his paper. "Hullo, Mary. How are you doing, dear?"
"Fine, thanks," Mary answered as politely as she could, her mind whirling. Could they keep the pilots in the barn? It was summer, it would probably be okay... but what if there was a hard rain? Papa would have to bring the horses into the barn... how was she going to feed them? What about their wounds?
"Heya Mary-B! Whatcha doing here?" Tobias appeared at the foot of the stairs with a STARSHIELD piloting magazine in his hand. Tobias wanted to be a pilot; he was only twelve and already knew how to pilot an old rusty Leo the Cales used to spray their crops.
Mary secretly thought that it was stupid to want to join the military, but she would never, ever tell him that. He loved mobile suits too much to ever be dissuaded by a girl like her.
"Tobias Everend Cale! Really! Where are your manners?!" Mrs. Cale squawked indignantly.
"Do you want to come over to my house for awhile, Tobias? We can go hang out at the creek." Mary looked at him hard, trying to convey a sense of urgency.
"Sure!" He scowled a little. "What's at the creek?"
Mary thought she could strangle him. Boys could be so dense. She spoke to him through clenched teeth. "You know, that thing down at the creek. That thing I've been meaning to show you?"
Slowly, realization dawned in Tobias' green eyes. "Yeah, sure!" He looked at his mother. "Can I go, Ma, please?"
"No, Toby, absolutely not." Mrs. Cale's voice was firm and immovable. She turned to Mary. "Why don't you go up to Tobias' room with him, dear? It's just not safe to be roving around outside right now, sweetheart. You can eat over here, and I'll drive you home after I get back from the general store." With that, Mrs. Cale scurried from the front porch to the pickup truck, locking all the truck's doors behind her. Both kids watched her drive off.
Tobias looked at his father. "Heya Dad, can I go to Mary's house?"
"Hm? Sure, have a good time," Mr. Cale muttered, turning the page of the newspaper without ever looking up.
Tobias winked at Mary, and they set out.
~*~
As soon as they got out of earshot of the Cale farmhouse, Tobias turned to her. "Now, Mary, what in the blue hell is going on? What are you whispering- up about? Ain't you got no sense? Why were you talkin' like that in front of my Ma? Now she'll know for sure somethin's up."
"Wait, we can't leave yet. You got a blanket?"
Tobias furrowed his brow in that confused, deep-thought way he had. "A-? Well, I guess so. We got one in the garage. Just don't make too much racket." Tobias didn't ask what it was for. Good ol' Tobias, Mary thought. Knew exactly when to keep his mouth shut.
Tobias got a blanket out of the garage, a big thick one.
// That'll be good for keeping 'em wrapped up in, anyway, // Mary thought.
"What's all this about, Mare?"
Mary crossed her arms and looked at him seriously. "You listen to me, Tobias Everend," she said, and whenever she said his name like that, "Tobias Everend", like it was one name, she knew Tobias knew she was serious.
"Something happened out in the woods today, Tobias. Something that's a secret. I'm gonna show you, but if you ever tell anybody else about it, even your ma and pa or my ma and pa, may Jesus make you blind."
Tobias looked at her, a little awe-struck. "What is it?"
"You know the prison up at Redstone? You know Zechs Marquise and General Khushrenada?"
"You met His Excellency!?!"
"Dammit, Tobias, let me tell the story!"
"Okay, go on."
Mary shook her head. "No... maybe I just better let you see. But you have to promise never, ever to tell anybody about it. Or I'll never pal with you again."
Tobias looked at her seriously for a moment, trying to figure out what she was getting at, then shrugged. "I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Okay. Come out to the barn with me. But you gotta remember your promise."
TBC...
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