Title: Survivors

Author: Karina

Rating: PG

Pairing: WuFei

Notes:  Challenge 234.  Baby Series 4  #157.  Takes place a few minutes following Frustration.

Spoilers: None

Warnings:

Many thanks to ShenLong Deb for her work betaing this set of fics

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.

Title:  Survivors

                It was not the most comfortable of places to be, but at least they were alive.  Out there, in the storm, no one would survive.  At this point in time the difference between life and death lay in strong walls and the ability to generate heat.

                Wu Fei moved quietly amongst the people, a soft word of encouragement spoken here, the light touch of his hand to a sobbing child’s head, a subtle nod to the Elder as he passed… He was required to be the steady rock in this chaotic noise laden world.

                Strong walls were their protection and this place could make that boast, but quiet… no, there it fell short.  It was far from quiet.  Their shelter rang like a bell, but suffering the noise was preferable to the unthinkable alternative.  Everyone knew what lay beyond the walls and chose to huddle close together for warmth and comfort.

                He kept a careful eye on the energy levels of their equipment.  They needed to keep warm but there was the aftermath of the storm to consider, when they would need every asset they could get.  Was he being too stingy?  Could they, perhaps, spare one more heating unit?

                He needed to stop second guessing himself.  It was better to be conservative.

                No one was freezing, their combined body heat had to be factored into the equation and he ensured that they constantly rotated.  Adults always on the outer edges of the mass huddle of humanity had their turn within the shelter of the huddle.  He had watched a documentary on strange birds that survived the harshest continent: Antarctica.  By huddling together and rotating endlessly so that every bird in the flock had a turn in the core of the group, they survived the harshest winter blizzards.  Thousands of them in a huddle in the blasting Antarctic winds.

                At least this human huddle had the grace of walls and the use of heating units.

                Was it his imagination, or was the noise level slowly decreasing?  Were they coming through the worst of it?  He clenched his gloved fists within the shelter of his deep pockets, trying to warm the tips of his fingers which, despite the warm gloves, never quite seemed to be warm.

                Life or death.  It was a never ending struggle, the condition of every living creature.  Each day a struggle to survive.  Birth and death the beginning and the end of the cycle of life… the alpha and the omega.  Why was he waxing philosophical?  Still, it was better than huddling in on himself and letting the ceaseless noise of the assault on their shelter drive him insane.

                One day at a time, just as he moved with one foot before the other, one following endlessly on.  To move was to live and he was far from ready to die.  They all were survivors, those who waited in silence, shuffling around the core of the group where they kept the children and the elderly warm. 

End

Karina Robertson  2014