A/N: Story edited 10-26-07

Dead Ground

1

The Cabin

As the power came on in the cabin, there was a shout of triumph from the basement, the sound of someone running up stairs, then the door to the basement crashing open, spewing forth one Duo Maxwell.

"Oh Yeah!" shouted Duo, smiling broadly. He shook his head and said triumphantly to Wufei, "Where would you be with out me?"

"At peace," the Chinese youth said simply. Duo answered that by sticking his tongue out. Wufei's face contorted into a slight look of disgust before saying, "Idiot."

"Hey, a little gratitude would be nice!" Duo said, waving his hand to where he'd just come out of the basement.

"Here's your gratitude," said Wufei irritably, and shoving a broom at the braided boy.

Taking the broom from Wufei, he held it at arms length and asked the broom in a jovial tone if it would like to dance, then proceeded to spin around the living room of the cabin with the broom. Wufei shook his head and tried to remember how he'd gotten stuck here in the first place.

They'd been on the run after learning that OZ had found many of their previous hide-outs and safe-houses. They'd also learned there were OZ spies mingled in with their allies, and leaks in their information network. After spending five days on the run, Heero told the other four pilots that he thought he found, according to the data he had drudged up from his laptop, a good place to lay low. A place where, according to his findings, OZ's forces never went. That was this cabin, or more specifically this forest. The cabin was a surprise; even Heero hadn't known of it.

The old truck they'd stolen broke down at what seemed to be the edge of the property of the cabin. The cabin was located in the center of a circle of rocky, hard-packed dirt. No plants of any sort grew within this circle. None. No trees, no grass, not even weeds were growing within the circle. After determining that the circle was probably about a half mile radius, the boys gathered their supplies, left the truck, and started out for the cabin.

The cabin was old, but would be fine after some minor repairs and a bit of cleaning. Once they'd gotten there, they'd discovered that the cabin had four bedrooms—two upstairs and two down—a living area, kitchen, and one bathroom downstairs. There was also an attic—which they hadn't really explored, due to the fact that the hatch wouldn't open—and a small basement that had enough room for the water heater—which didn't work—the central wiring and the fuse box.

After the initial exploring of the building, Heero demanded he get one of the upstairs bedrooms. After much negotiating, Duo took the remaining upstairs bedroom, and Quatre and Wufei took the two downstairs ones. Trowa graciously said that he would take the couch in the living room.

"Duo, you moron, stop that and start helping!" insisted Wufei.

As Duo whirled around with the broom one last time, he smacked into Heero, who had just walked into the room from the kitchen, where he had replaced the last burnt out light bulb in the cabin. With a glare, Heero grabbed the broom from the American boy and whacked him on the head with it.

"Hey!" whined Duo. "What was that for?"

"Stop playing around," said Heero, not answering Duo's question. With that, the boy with the cobalt-blue eyes let go of the broom and let it fall to the ground.

Before Duo could voice the insult that came to his mind, the front door opened and Trowa walked in with some of the boxes of food they had brought with them, but had to leave in the truck, for lack of ability to carry it all at once.

"Quatre is coming with the last of it," said Trowa looking around the room. "It doesn't look too bad in here, and you got the power going. Good," he noted, looking up at the light fixture with its three light bulbs.

"Finally, some recognition."

Wufei rolled his eyes. "That's the only thing you've done so far."

"Whatever, Wufei. You're just jealous of my amazing abilities..." Duo began with a grin on his face.

"Get over yourself. The only thing that's amazing, is that you have the ability to be so annoying."

Turning towards the window, Duo said, "Whaaaateeever, you just don't know how to ha...v...e ..." his sentence faded as he looked out the window. Kneeling on the ground with two large boxes in front of him was Quatre.

Not kneeling... crouching... cowering...

Duo walked swiftly out the door and called Quatre's name. No response. The other three followed him out. When Quatre didn't respond they all ran out to him.

When they reached the blond boy, Trowa reached out and laid a hand on Quatre's shoulder. He could feel Quatre's body trembling beneath his fingers. "Quatre?"

The Arabian boy spoke quietly, not looking up. "Aish?"(1)

Not understanding Arabic, Trowa tried again. "Quatre, I don't understand... are you okay?"

"Aiwa ... la ... yimken ...(2)" After a pause, he looked up at the four worried boys and said, "I ... I'm just not feeling well. I think... I... I... I'm... going to, uh, go lay down. Ismahlee(3) ..." And with that he got up and stumbled away from the four pilots and into the cabin.

After a moment of silent confusion, Heero stood up and walked back to the cabin. "We have things to do."

After exchanging worried looks, the others followed.

Laying on the dusty old mattress, Quatre Raberba Winner was trembling ... shaking. He wrapped his arms around himself to try to stop it. When he had first set foot on this plot of land, he had felt strange... uncertain. Walking into the cabin the first time, he had felt... spooked... uneasy. He had quickly volunteered to help Trowa get the rest of the food. He had thought that maybe his imagination was playing tricks on him and maybe he just needed to get used to their new creepy surroundings. He had felt better going back to the truck, but as he started walking back to the cabin with the boxes, the unease returned. This time with another emotion.

Fear.

Why aren't there any plants in this area? We're in the middle of a forest... He had thought, looking around at the barren ground surrounding the old building. He had never felt anything like this, not even when piloting Sandrock. Piloting the Gundam was different. He always felt sad about having to fight with other people… killing them. Sometimes he felt fear before a battle, but that feeling of fear was nothing like this.

The sounds of the forest were fading behind him—leaving only the sound of his steps on the hard rocky ground to echo loudly in the growing silence that surrounded him.

This was...

creepy...

With every step he took towards the cabin, the feeling grew more and more... ominous. Then, he had stopped. He felt... Dropping the boxes, he started looking around.

Nothing.

He saw nothing.

No one.

But, he felt ... There was someone there. Something there. There was some...

He fell to his knees. The world seemed to sway. He could feel something...

Even now, in the small room he was occupying, he felt the... strangeness. The feeling of not being alone...

There was a knock on his door, then "Quatre?"

Duo...

"Hey buddy, you... you okay in there?"

Tears began to leak from his eyes. He couldn't tell them. They would think he was crazy. They'd laugh. They wouldn't believe him.

No.

He would keep this to himself. He didn't want to lose the only friends his own age that he had. It will probably go away ... I'm sure it's just my mind playing tricks on me... he thought, trying to convince himself.
:clears throat: Yeah, I totally don't know Arabic, so I hope these are right… If anyone does know Arabic and wants to correct or affirm what I have, that would be great.

1- Aish – what

2- Aiwa – yes, La – no, Yimken – maybe

3 -Ismahlee – excuse me