Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Echo ❯ Chapter IV ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Four

Meryl sat there as she searched through her mail, listening to Milly chatter on about her day at work. She tried very hard to pay attention but her frustration was just accumulating with every letter she opened. Bill after bill, notice after notice...Every one just seemed to give her more and more thoughts of him, more and more worry as to where he could have been at that very moment. He did this to her the last time he was gone, Meryl getting this sinking feeling in her stomach that something bad had happened. Although she would never admit it to anyone, she felt like she could get up right then and go hunting for him. After all, that was their job, to keep and eye of Vash and keep him out of trouble, wasn't it?

Milly could see her distant gaze as she stared at the letters, looking like she was reading between the lines and not actually knowing what they said. She blinked with a moment of pause, Meryl gazing up in the silence to see her smiling face.

"What?" she asked as if she were being accused of something.

"You're thinking about him, aren't you?" Millie inquired, Meryl quickly turning up her nose.

"Of course not! What would give you that idea?" she said, shuffling her papers to get one stack all in order.

Milly frowned slightly, (if it were ever really possible for her to frown). "Well, aren't you worried about Mr. Vash just a little?"

"No, he's a grown man and he can take care of himself."

"But I never said he couldn't take care of himself, I just asked if you were worried," she corrected, Meryl knowing she had been caught in her act. She cleared her throat, though, and grabbed a few more letters to go through.

"Yes, well, now's not the time to be thinking about what he's doing. He's probably just at some tavern in some town telling the bartender to put his tab in the name of the Bernadelli company..." She trailed off in thought, papers beginning to crumple in her hands as she imagined the things Vash was getting himself into. Getting more places shot up and more bills sent home, chasing after pretty women only to make a fool of himself in front of everyone. Milly saw the burning fury in her eyes and began to whimper in fear, Meryl suddenly standing up and slamming her fist into the table. "That's IT! Milly, we're going after him!"

"But, Meryl!" she exclaimed, watching as Meryl left the unopened bills on the table and storm off into the other room. "What about all these unpaid bills?"

"They'll have to wait until we get back!" she yelled, going upstairs and turning into the first room. A few moments later she came back down with a small carrying bag, rushing back into the kitchen and grabbing a few foods that wouldn't spoil for awhile.

"But Meryl," Millie spoke as she watched her pack, "weren't they headed for July? What about those bandits we heard about?"

"We'll just have to keep an eye out, that's all," she turned around when she was finished, smiling. "Besides, we're not doing our jobs unless we're watching him, and we're not getting paid to just sit around!"

Milly nodded. "You're right, Meryl! It's about time we had another adventure!"

"Okay then! Let's get going, Milly!"

And just like that they were off in search of Vash, figuring that they should take the bus to the town nearest to July, (being that there were no bus routes to July anymore). It was strange to both of them that Meryl would do something so on a whim, but the deed was being carried out and there was no turning back.

It was a yellow bus they traveled in, with hard seats and crammed front to back with people, but somehow, as they wheels rolled through the desert, the bumps seemed to jog her memory. She remembered sitting there, in almost the same seat on a different bus, looking over and seeing them arguing far back in her mind. But now there sat a mother and a child, sleeping from the long journey they overcame and the long journey they would have yet to overcome. She smiled in seeing their peaceful faces, but sighed in sadness in comparing it and remembering how much it looked like his...

Meryl turned her gaze from where she stared out the window, seeing Milly's eyes fill with tears.

"Milly, what is it? What's wrong?" she asked, Milly quickly wiping her tears away and smiling.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just had something in my eyes," she fibbed, gazing back in front of her again. She felt so silly for doing the one thing he wouldn't want her to do, and that was to cry over him. He had always hated it when she was sad, always seeming so depressed. It might have been a coincidence, but she figured if she was sad he would be sad, and that was no way she wanted him to be. She would be strong and smile even if her heart was breaking a little, and that was the way she would remain. This is the way Mr. Wolfwood would have wanted it.

"Milly, are you sure you're alright?"

She hesitated to answer, but soon smiled widely and said, "Yes, of course I am! There's nothing like a beautiful day and a wonderful bus ride to get the spirits up!"

In the back of her eyes Meryl could see Milly was lying, but had no time to confront her with it as the bus came to a sudden halt, people standing in the aisle falling forward. The bus doors opened quickly and the bus driver held up his hands with a gun aimed at him by one man, another entering and searching the bus. He stepped on those who had fallen on the floor, people cowering as the approached with his gun and slightly sighing as he passed.

"Look, man, just find two! It's not that big a deal!" the man aiming his gun as the bus driver spoke, the other continuing to make his way to the back of the bus.

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled as he past Meryl and Milly, Meryl's eyes watching the man ahead while Milly looked over her shoulder to find that the man grabbed the mother's arm who sat almost directly across from her. "Get up, the both of you! Move!"

If it was one thing Milly couldn't take at this point it was to see the mother get smacked in the head as her little boy cried for her. In this she stood, shouting for the man to cut it out. Meryl stood as well, grabbing a handgun from her side and pointing it at the man, saying not to make another move. But the man was fact, taking Milly around the neck and aiming the gun to her head.

"So we got ourselves a couple of volunteers do we? Well, that is, if you don't want to see your friend's head bleed from the other side. Believe me, you walk now, we're under orders not to hurt our new workers, so just come quietly and we won't have to make a fuss out of this."

Meryl, in having no choice but to comply, lowered her weapon, Milly being knocked forward and the man taking her gun, pushing her along as well. At this point Meryl questioned herself as to why she had gone after Vash, why she had been so stupid to get them into trouble like this again. This was the very reason why Vash felt so badly and why he had to make the one and only decision that lead to that terrible outcome. She could only hope he would never have to make that kind of decision again because of this...