She wasn’t kidding about the bodies in the hall. He barely got three feet out of the door before he stumbled over two black lumps. One of them without pants.
The poor bastards probably never even knew what hit Them. Their skin was marginally more disgusting that his. It was a purply grey and translucent so that Their blue veins underneath showed clearly through. He couldn’t tell if They were dead or not. Everything in that place smelled like death or decay, which was exactly why they had to get out of there.
Actually, he had never really *seen* the walls before. Just flashes of memory of them being dank, runny green. Now that he was conscious and/or not being experimented on he could tell they were covered in a thick coat of moss. Well that explained the smell and the dampness.
“Ah think ah came down this way.” The girl pointed down one of the many dark corridors, uncertainty very much in her eyes.
“You think?” He groaned, rubbing a hand back and forth over the top of his head. They weren’t going at a nearly fast enough pace. And he knew it was his fault. But her inane sense of direction wasn’t helping either.
“What? This whole damn place looks tha same. Like tellin’ tha difference between white lighten’ an’ moonshine,” she huffed. She starred down the two hall in front of her, narrowing her eyes and studying each.
He took the opportunity of her deliberation to lean against the wall and ease some of the painful pressure in his legs. The wall actually protested with a sickening ‘skwelch’ when his weight fell against it. To punish him it sent some kind of liquid crawling down his back. But seeing as how he already felt absolutely repugnant it did little to bother him.
“Oh!” She suddenly cheered, making him jump. “Its this way.”
He winced as he pushed off the wall. “You sure?”
“Yep.” She giggled. It was just as horrific and maniacal as he remembered, and he’d was actually ecstatic to hear it. “Ah can see Mr. Wallace down there.”
He walked back to her and peered down the hallway she pointed at. Sure enough another body was face-planted in the middle of the floor.
“What did I say? Breadcrumbs,” he grunted.
“Give me shit later, sugah, now we run.” She looked him over, half dressed and soaked and looking positively beat to hell. “Well, walk.” she corrected herself.
He pushed past her with a small growl. “Fast walk,” She called after him.
He kept walking ahead of her but she still wasn’t done.
“Power walk.” She declared with another giggle. “Help keep ‘em buns of steel lookin’ good.”
Coming to a sudden stop he rounded on her, narrowing his eyes. “You are aware this is *worse* than a life or death situation, right?”
She shrugged again and closed the distance between them. As she past him she gave him a light pat on the butt. “It wouldn’t be Tuesday if it wasn’t.”
Quietly he followed her, wanting the conversation to end before he got a headache to go along with the rest of the issues in his body. Her remark worried him slightly. It had been Thursday morning when he rammed his car into Theirs. But then again just because she said it was Tuesday didn’t really mean it was. A fact she probably didn’t see the significance of.
*************
“I just need a second.” His legs were screaming at him, nearly as loud as his stomach. They had been walking for what felt like miles and miles of dark corridor that only led or more dark corridors. He added whatever asshole who designed this place to his ‘claw to death’ list.
“One Mississippi. Okay, let’s go.” She grabbed his wrist and continued walking. He grumbled in his chest but let her drag him, like she could move him if he didn’t.
His legs weren’t the worse thing. The worst was the continuous dripping from water coming off the ceiling and adding to the shallow river around their feet. And the ‘slaush’ of their feet moving through the water, it was just as bad. Except if had the added bonus of making more resistance against the muscles in his legs, making them work all the harder. And they were both bare footed which was only slightly more unhygienic than wearing some other man’s pants.
The corridors forked again, something they did often. She must have been finally clear on her bearings because it was the first time she didn’t stop but immediately headed right.
“You sure?” He asked, like he did every time. They hadn’t passed anymore of her ‘breadcrumbs’ in a while.
“Not really. But ah figure, ya know, tha old sayin’– ‘go right for it is the side of God’.”
His hand shot out and grabbed her arm, stopping her from going any further down the hallway. “We’re not going right.”
Her eyes fell from his face to where he was touching her. A little too close to the edge of her shirt sleeve for her comfort. “We’re not?”
“No,” he answered in a breath and began walking back toward the other way, dragging her with him. “Come on, we need to move faster.”
“You can’t move faster,” she pointed out, her voice soft.
What he should have done was run the minute she had him uncaged. But he let weakness take hold of him and now they both would suffer the consequence. The over ridden smell of gunpowder cut through the mildew.
“The hell I can’t.”
He took off and she grunted from the jerk on her arm. Once it came apparent he was serious she pick up the speed, not wanting to put any more stress on him by making him drag her. She couldn’t see how this would last long, he was practically a slug before and running through the muck was probably asking his legs for more than they could do.
She followed him as he winded through the corridors, not stopping for anything. Hopefully, he had some clue where he was taking them and they weren’t just running in circles around the base.
Without warning he came to a stop and she got as far as opening her mouth to ask if he was okay before he shoved her into the wall. It really didn’t help her overly sensitive head and she was going to tell him as much when his body flatten itself over hers, knocking all the air out of her.
Gunshots rang out in the corridor, the only evidence of them was the initial pop and the whistling of the bullets going past then nothing as they disappeared into the darkness. After the gunshots came yelling. Then the slaushing of feet that wasn’t theirs.
“Move it, darlin’,” He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her in front of him. The gun shots continued behind them and he couldn’t help but wonder if it was the girl. Visibility was poor, true, but They couldn’t really be that bad of a shot. All the time. In fact, now that he thought about it the only time They had made contact with him lately was when he was walking away from her.
At that point each time halls led to more halls she just randomly picked one. The goal wasn’t so much get out, but just not to get shot. First things first and all that.
When he shoved her first it was to block her body from bullets she would most definitely heal from. But it was quickly becoming apparent that it was not the reason why she still was leading him. The distance separating him from her was getting was getting greater and greater while the distance between him and Them shrank. She tried to keep and eye on him without being caught off guard by anything that might pop up in front of them. That was until she couldn’t hear his disturbance of the water behind her.
“Logan!” She whipped around, panic in her voice. Thankfully he was still there, just a few feet back. He was doubled over, his whole body rocking as he panted forcing more air into his lungs
“I’m okay. I just need a second.” He said between gasps as she ran back to him.
“Logan, we can’t stop.”
“Don’t you think I know that?! Fuck–!” He roared as a bullet ripped through his forearm. Okay, maybe she wasn’t a bullet-free force field.
“God damnit! STOP SHOOTIN’ AT US!” She screamed down the corridor, her face now bright red from exhaustion, anger, frustration, and a myriad of other emotions that added to the pounding in her head.
“I don’t think that’s gonna work, darlin’.” He pushed her forward again, making her run. He didn’t know he was going to do it but he was going to have to keep up better. Because otherwise she was going to slow down to him. And getting her out was the most important thing.
************
The keeping up plan was going as well as he’d hope. In fact, all he wanted to do was lop his legs off and be done with them. They weren’t helping him much anyway, especially since the water was getting deeper. The arm could go with them as far as he was concerned. The bullet wound was not healing. Well, it probably was, since he wasn’t bleeding as hard anymore, but it was still an open, burning hole in his arm. He could just imagine his healing factor cussing him out. It might as well, Wolverine was. The beast did not like the running, although not because of the pain. It wanted Stryker’s head. At the end of his claws.
Rogue looked like she wasn’t having so much fun either. Which was a shame because from what he could tell this was sort of her thing. She was running pretty good. Still had to look back and check on him. When he saw worried green eyes he knew it was time to pick up speed again. But every now and then she would slow down on her own slightly and press the heel of her palm to her forehead. Her poor head. She must have been going through hell. He counted seven bodies himself and there was no telling how many more there were in the corridors they didn’t go down. He wondered if her damn concussion ever even got a chance to heal.
Wherever she was leading she must have been using information from Them because they were actually able to loose Them. The gunshots stopped and the only noise in the widening corridors was their own feet in the water and his grunting, labored breathing.
The change in scenery was actually helped a little bit. The ceiling was getting higher and higher until it had to be fifteen feet high. Which diffused the smell of sewage so at least his nose wasn’t suffering as much as the rest of him was. He was sure that if he wasn’t lagging behind so bad he could even pick up her scent. But as it was it was still sewage, iron, antiseptic, formic acid, and salt. It was just— less sewage.
“Ya okay?” She called over her shoulder, slowing down again to let him catch up.
“No,” he coughed out. There was no point lying to her. How the hell was he suppose to be okay?
At his response she completely stopped and waited for him to come to her. Which pissed him off.
“Logan, ah can try–“
“No,” he interrupted her. He knew exactly where that sentence was going to go. The same place it went in the staircase in Wisconsin, except for he hated the idea even more now than he did then.
“But ya–“ she tried again but again he stopped her.
“I’m busted up and tore to shit and completely falling apart. Well aware of that, kid. I’m also not letting you go anywhere without me. The choices here is we both get out or just you get out.”
She giggled, his last words made their first meeting play out in her head. “There are several possible outcomes.”
He stood right in front of her, looking from the gloves on her hand to her haunted eyes. “Nope. Just the two. But I’d prefer we both get out of here.” He quoted her, obviously reminiscing the same thing. “We just have to keep in front, keep running.”
Her eyes lost some of their shine at his words. They both probably knew that ‘keep running’ was something he couldn’t do, not for much longer. But he was going to figure out a way to make them. He could cut them off after they got out if he had to.
They continued running again. Slower this time. She let him led, adjusting her speed to whatever kept him in front of her. The sounds of Them in the distance blackness behind them started up again, but it was faint. It served more as a motivation, as if their chests could take any more abuse from their hearts.
The opening of the hallways were becoming increasing larger, however. It gave him hope. That had to mean they were getting closer to something. Maybe a hanger entrance. He was sure any kind of fresh air would do wonders for his mutation. He always did heal faster outside then indoors. Maybe once they got out he could pick up the speed and stop keeping them both behind.
“I think we’re getting close, kid.” He declared, but she said nothing back and he wasn’t sure his body could turn around to look at her and run at the same time. Her slaushing was still behind him, though, so he didn’t worry too much about it. She was probably just having issues with her head again or something.
“Logan,” her voice called out from behind him and he stopped and turned around.
She was a few feet away, staring at the arch way over the. Slowly she stepped closer until she could run her hand along the trim of it. Her eyes locked onto the dripping red button at the side of it. “What’s this?”
He groaned. Standing on his legs almost hurt as much as running on them. They were so close, he could practically smell the trees now. And she wanted to stop and waste time because she was curious?
“It’s a flood gate. Locks the base down water tight.” He explained, although made no attempt to hide the annoyance in his voice.
“Huh.” Was all she said. So nonchalant and effortless. Right before her hand slammed down on the button setting off the alarm and sending a massive steal door barreling down from the ceiling between them, cutting him off from her.
“Rogue–!” He screamed and ran forward, but the flood gate moved too fast and it collided hard with the floor, spraying water all over him.
“No! God damnit, Rogue!” He pounded on it with his fists but it remained immovable. There was no controls on his side of it. Nothing. The claws came out next and he slashed at the blockade with everything he had. He didn’t know how long he tried it, he just slashed until his arms were too weak to lift the adamantium again. The damage done however was only leaving shallow cuts in the metal.
“No!!” He roared again, slamming his shoulder into it. How could she fucking do it to him again?! What part of him *not wanting* her help did she not understand?! He had to get in there. There had to be a way around the lock down. He had to. This was not an option. He didn’t know what guardian angel handbook she was reading but he was almost sure it didn’t say guardian angels were supposed to take your spot in hell.
“ROGUE!”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
For those of you that are allergic to cliffhangers I’ll go ahead and give you a summary for the next chapter:
'Logan can only watch on the sidelines as his angel battles his demon over his soul in an epic showdown.'
Well, except for she really is that ‘good’. Nor is it ‘epic’ per say. And ‘showdown’ might be a bit o-k corral and its not very o-k corral. And it isn’t really ‘over his soul’ or anything like that because its just crazy people against crazy people. So... Okay, now I’ve just forgotten what’s in the chapter all together...
'Logan can only watch on the sidelines as his angel battles his demon over his soul in an epic showdown.'
Well, except for she really is that ‘good’. Nor is it ‘epic’ per say. And ‘showdown’ might be a bit o-k corral and its not very o-k corral. And it isn’t really ‘over his soul’ or anything like that because its just crazy people against crazy people. So... Okay, now I’ve just forgotten what’s in the chapter all together...