On Metal Wings

I staggered my way through the vents as I headed back to my wheel chair. My body intensely ached from the pain of climbing through the vents, but finding Neko's room was well worth it.
I eventually made my way back to the bathroom. I tried as carefully as I could to exit the vents as gently as I could. Which was a fail because as soon as my weight met the wheel chair, it backed away from me and I fell onto the ground. Surprisingly enough my stitches still haven't torn. I wasn't entirely sure what kind of tecnique Neo used when she put my stitches in, but she certaintly knew what she was doing. I Dragged my heavy body twoard my wheel chair, and grabbed one of the wheels securely so that it wouldn't roll away again as I proceeded to climb into it.
"What are you doing?" a voice asked as I turned to the door to see Sonja standing there. "What do you mean?" I asked her, feeling every muscle in my body start to tense up. "Why are you on the floor?" she asked. I paused for a while as I thought of the words to say. "I fell..." I said squeesing the sheel tighter in my hand. "I'd say so..." she said as she came over and helped me into the chair. "Dinner is waiting, and you're playing around on the floor." she teased. "Thank you." I said sitting upright in the chair. "DOn't sweat it." she said smiling at me. "Niko sent a search party after me? I guess he's very protective of his crew." I said. "He hist be..." she said as the joy in her expression seemed to die away. I knew I had said something wrong. Her eyes darted up at be and her smile grew again before I could say anything else. "Well, let's get going." she said as she pushed me to the dining hall.

The table was full with the crew talking and joking around it as usual save for two empty seats for Sonja and me." "It's about time you showed up." Airi said. "We were about to dig in without you." Akio huffed as he crossed his arms. "She's here now, let's just eat." someone said as a cheer expressed agreement. Sonja pulled me into the empty seat next to Niko, and took the seat next to me. Neo sat across from us with Izo next to her. He grinned and giggled lowly to himself. "She doesn't know.." He mumbled as his giggles grew in volume. "Shut up, will you..." Neo said jabbing her elbow into his side. He nodded his head, as he looked down at his plate, still giggling. Something about his laugh was off. It's not unusual for Izo to be laughing at the wrong things at akward times, but every time he looked at me, he would start giggling like a maniac again. "dead man walking, dead man walking..." he sang to hinmelf. "Shut up!" Neo said jabbing her elbow into his side again, this time harder. The atmosphere in the air was alot colder than usual. Whenever I'm with the crew like this, we joke around, and laugh togeather, but it's as if everything's changed. Niko looked ate his food normaly, but he seemed to have this distant and unreachable feel about him. Sonja just picked around at her food more than she ate it. Akio and Airi were talking at the other end of the table, but they would fade out of it and look over at me every so often before coming back to life, and Iwao never really took his eyes off of Niko or me. It's almost like Izo was right. I really have become a dead man walking.

Neo pushed me through the ship on our way back to the emergency room. I searched my head for something to say to start a conversation, but I couldn't think of anything. I felt that anything I said would turn in a bad direction, so I decided it would be best to sustain the scilence. Neo was the first to break it. "were you able to use the restroom alright by yourself?" she asked. "Um.. yeah." I said "That's good to hear. I thought you would have trouble what with the narrow space and all." she said. "I'm feeling pretty good. THe medicin is working well." I said faking a smile. "That's good to hear." she said helping be into the bed. She handed me two pills and a cup of water. "This will help you sleep." she said turning her attention to the moniters. I put the pills in my mouth, and under my tounge as I drank the water. If what Izo was saying about me being in danger was true, there's no way I wanted to let my guard down. After all the stress I've put myself through, I could go for a few bottels of whatever pain killers they've been giving me. Neo took the cup back, and left the room, turning the tight out as she left.
I lay in bed for a while, watching the clock tick the time away. It was nearing midnight, and no one's come to check up on me, save for Neo peeking in to check if I was asleep, and that was ages ago. I carefully sat myself up, as I moved from the bed to the door. I cracked the door some, to see if the coast was clear, and proceeded to head to the deck. The night air hit me, as we sailed through the cool night air. I walked carefully across the creaking floor boards closing the space between me and the little scout ships. I basically stumbled into the ship trying carefully to balance my weight due to my condition. I ran my hand across the controls not entirely sure how to fly this thing. Once started, the engine hummed to life. I checked one last time to see if the coast was clear, and firmly grasped the wheel, and departed from the ship, sailing east from it.
I advanced slowly through the air, accompanied only by the sound of the propeller rotatign vigorously to keep me in the air. I searched the ship for a map of some sort. I assumed that thry would have kept a map and a compass stashed on these ships, and if not, i'd be screwed. After a while of searching, a map Was found in a compartment under the seat. I unfolded it, and looked it over. The last place we had ported at was at South Port when we went to that party. There's no telling where I was now. I decided that the next thign to do would be to find a compass, which too was in the compartment under the seat. Smoothing over the map, and looking at the compass, I decided that it woul dbe best to tuen around, and head to the nearest city behind me. I smoothly turned the controls, as the ship drifted into a u-turn. half way through the turn, I saw a bright light heading in my direction. I assumed it was a star, but stars don't smoke, and they certainly don't fly twoards people. Fear pierced through me, as I harshly dove down through the air with the misssile started to zoom down after me. was it targetting me? I frantically yanked the parachute , and jumped out of the craft, freefalling into the air. My ears popped from the sound of the explosion as fiery fragments flew past me. I looekd back to see the smoke and blaze as the tiny ship faded into oblivion. THere were no sighns or clues as to who shot the missle, just the firey mess above me. I released a shakey sigh as I continued to fall into the seemingly endless darkness.