Captured
A commotion began to echo down the metal halls of the Oz space craft. Duo glanced up.
"Hey, do you guys hear that?" he asked.
"Sounds like gunfire." Wufei observed from his corner. Duo stood and peered through the bars of their cell door.
"What do you see?" Heero asked, standing up and coming to join him. Wufei, too, moved to the small opening. They stood and peered out. The racket grew louder and suddenly the end of the hall flickered with the light from gunfire.
Running down the hall and shooting over her shoulder was a girl. She fired again and glanced at her large weapon as she realized it was empty. She turned and threw it at the Oz troops. It took out two of them. More came to join the first squad and they closed in around her in front of the opening in the three young men? cell. As she turned about, her intense green eyes locked with Heero? for a moment, then her attention was taken away to assess her situation. Heero gasped.
"I've seen her somewhere before." he said. The other two glanced at him.
"Where?" asked Duo.
"I don't remember." Heero murmured.
The girl glanced back and forth at the swiftly coming soldiers, then let out a wild yell and dashed into their midst. They were too stunned to fire. She felled the first one with a punch to the throat, then caught the next one in the side of his jaw with her heavy boot. She jumped over a third, passed a fourth, and the fifth managed to catch her ankle. In an instant she doubled back and took his head in her hands. She wrenched it to the side till she heard a snap. She let his limp body fall and continued to dart among them, disabling with a punch or kick here, killing with a well placed hit there. She actually appeared to be winning, one against twenty or so. But they stopped attacking her one at a time and pressed in around her. She fought and flailed and almost escaped until one soldier behind her cracked the back of her head with the butt of his gun.
Though the hit didn't knock her unconscious, the impact drove her to her knees and she disappeared under the remaining soldiers as they swarmed around her like piranhas. They heard her grunt and moan as different hits landed brutally against her. The noise ceased but the soldiers continued to beat her until a commanding officer arrived and ordered them off her. Her now unconscious body was lifted up and the door to the three? cell was opened. They backed away quickly. She was tossed in none too gently, and the door was slammed and locked. The three didn't move. They could only stare at her for a moment.
The soldiers might have beaten her to death. She was not moving, and if she was breathing, they couldn't tell. Blood was beginning to pool around her body. Finally Heero knelt beside her. Her white halter top and jeans were stained red with blood.
"I don't believe it." he whispered.
"What?" Wufei asked, coming over and crouching beside him. Duo was peering out the door. Heero pointed to her side.
"She's been shot. The gunfire stopped after she threw her weapon at the Oz soldiers. That means she fought that whole time with a bullet wound."
"And she killed eleven guys out there." Duo added, moving away from the opening in the door and coming to study the girl. She was badly bruised. Most of them were already a dark purple and swelling, and in some places the flesh had been crushed so hard it tore open. Heero pulled up her shirt and her sides, too, were black and blue. He felt them gently.
"I think her ribs are broken." he said. He turned her face toward him. "I recognize her. I've seen her before. But where?" Suddenly she groaned. Her lips moved soundlessly. They moved closer. "Help her sit up." Heero said. Wufei came around and they propped her up against the wall so she was sitting.
"What did you say?" Heero pressed.
"They t-took it." she whispered panickedly. "They took it…they took it…
"What, what did they take?" Duo asked. She coughed blood.
"My Gun…dam…”
