Viral (Gurren Lagann)

Chapter 1

'Just... Keep... Moving!... No... Time!... Must... Go... Faster!'

The words are on a loop in my head. Over and over. It's all I can do to keep my mind on the task at hand, to keep myself from falling to my knees on the hot, dusty ground, to block out the pain.

'Faster!... Must... Go... Faster!'

My breaths come out in desperate rasps at irregular intervals. The Gunman is much faster than I am, and I know it. I push my leg muscles to the absolute limit and ignore the pain from my injuries.

'Faster!... Harder!... Must... Get... Away!'

I know that I can't, but I have to try. I have to find a place to hide, but that's easier said than done in this barren wasteland. I shake my head to get the sweat out of my eyes. I can't keep this up for much longer. I'm lossing blood. I force myself to look ahead to the horizon. If I'm going to die, I want the last thing I see to be the Surface's main attraction: the sun. My head begins to droop, but I force it up once more. I'm slowing down; my legs are going to give out soon. I can feel it. My blood is warm on my skin.

'So this is it. And it was all for what? A dusty, deserted wasteland with a fireball in the sky. That's what.' A small smile forms in response to my bittersweet thought. 'Still, I can't say it wasn't worth it.'

My legs are useless now. Everything is in slow motion as I fall to the ground. So sharp, so clear. If someone were to ask me in that moment, I probably could have counted the particles of dust that rose from the ground to meet me. My body barely responds as it makes contact with the ground. It's in sensory overload and it refuses to take in any more. That's fine by me. I'm too tired to care. The Gunman is closing in on me now, no more than a hundred feet away. I close my eyes in submission. There's nothing else I can do now except concentrate on the muscle spasms raging through my legs. I count them as the Gunman draws nearer.

'One... Two... Three...'

I can feel the harsh tremors run through the ground in response to the Gunman's footsteps.

'Four... Five... Six...'

The tremors begin to decline in intensity. I'm too tired to question it. A pool of blood from my lower back and thigh is forming around me.

'Seven... Eight... Nine... Ten...'

The tremors stop altogether. Maybe it's going to play with me before it kills me. That's just as well, because darkness is creeping in the edges of my awareness. I'm going to pass out soon.

'Eleven... Twelve...'

The Gunman hasn't moved yet. I force myself to crack open one eye. The effort is tremendous. I see the Gunman just standing there, his weapons at the ready. Before I can wonder why, the smallest of tremors pass under my body once more, from the opposite direction this time. The tremors grow in intensity with increasing speed. Something is coming, something big enough to put this behemoth of a Gunman on it's guard. Another Gunman perhaps? All of a sudden, The Gunman in front of me takes action, jumping high above me. I barely have the strength to follow it's path through the air with my eyes. 

When it is directly above me, it begins to descend at a rapid pace. No more than thirty feet above me, the Gunman is intercepted by a grey and white blur, pushing it back from whence it came. I recognize the grey and white blur as another Gunman, clearly of a higher quality than the first. The two Gunmen land roughly fifty feet from where I rest. A large piece of metal that had fallen from the collision lands with a loud crash a mere arm's length away from me. I'm too weak to be frightened or interested.

The two Gunmen begin a full on battle right before my eyes. The newcomer continues to push the first Gunman further away. It is being torn to pieces by the other. It's hardly even a fight. Metal litters the area around the fray.

I keep slipping in and out of consciousness. Each time, I force myself back to awareness. While they are distracted, I try and will my body to move, to flee. I cannot. My body has gone to it's limit and beyond, yet I continue to do my best to survive. The third time I come to, The battle is over and the second Gunman is walking toward me. 

'I hope... It won't... Hurt...'

I had barely finished the thought when the Gunman stopped in front of me. I assumed that it would proceed to give me the final blow. It wouldn't take much. 

Instead, it's mouth opens to reveal the Beastman that pilots it. A male. Blond. Wearing red. Or was that my blood clouding my vision? I wouldn't know. He hopped out of the hatch and walked toward me. I don't have the energy to speak, so I just look at him with drooping eyelids. I see him kneel down beside me. I lay on my side, but he carefully flips me on my stomach. My senses are dull. All I can feel is cold. A bitter chill that runs through my very being. But, being the cold, I can feel the slightest of warmths on my lower back where I had been hit.

'Is that... His... Hand?'

Darkness closes over everything. I am quickly loosing consciousness. But it is different this time. I don't feel scared. I don't think that I am dying now. Somehow, I know that I will wake up. To what, I have no idea, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I let the darkness carry me away on it's cold tide.