Rising sun woke up birds. They didn’t continue chirping too long. Something scared them away. Marie prayed silently that Kate would stay quiet and tried to push deeper under the fir. If there were a way, she would have crawled inside of its thick trunk. Nobody would see them, but if that somebody rustling through the forest all too close were Logan, he would still be able to catch their scent. She didn’t have that luxury. Fir stayed firm, scraping her back with the coarse bark.
Footsteps were approaching. There was definitely somebody or something. Sniffling, breathing heavily. Stumbling. A bear? One of the X-Men, Beast, maybe? Logan wasn’t clumsy. He didn’t get out of breath. She tensed when sounds became closer and closer.
She let out a relieved huff. What ever, or who ever it had been, was retreating, moving past her hiding place. It hadn’t sounded very Loganish, and thick branches of the fir blocked her view. Though she was lost, she wasn’t going to give up and leave her perfect hideaway before she was absolutely sure it was safe out there. Then the unthinkable happened. Kate that had fallen asleep earlier opened her eyes and let out an annoyed scream. Suddenly world became very bright when branches disappeared from above her and the baby. Dark figure stood in front of them, outlined by the sun.
“It’s safe to come out now.” She recognized Logan’s voice and jumped up, beaming from joy, and rushing to him with Kate. Logan raised his trembling hands and backed away.
“Don’t come too close… I’m… I don’t want to mess up your clothes…” He was covered to soot and dirt from head to toe.
“I don’t care! I was so afraid!” Marie smiled and leaned against him. Again he backed away.
“I was worried, too… Oh, fuck…” He tucked his hands under his arms and leaned forward, his face twisted to a pained grimace.
“Are you alright? I saw Cyclops shot you, but you heal, right?” Marie asked worried.
“Storm was there, too. Gave me some nice shock therapy… I’ll be alright soon enough… Just don’t come too close, okay? I… It still hurts a bit, with all these cramps and… Shit…”
“Where are they now?” Marie asked.
“We had a little chat… They left.”
“A ‘chat’?”
“You don’t need to know. But they won’t be coming after us anytime soon…” Logan hissed, then he suddenly froze.
“Don't look..."
She screamed and run. It was a logical thing to do when a nice mutant you knew suddenly sprouted knives from his hands. Six lethal looking metal appendages, looking long and sharp enough to gut an elephant.
Lady luck was on her side this time. She could see the gas station and the grocery store from between trees. She hesitated only a moment. Logan had said that X-Men were gone. Nobody could probably connect her to what happened at the gas station earlier.
Clerk didn’t even look at her twice when she hurried through the small shop, gathering baby food and diapers, as well as few necessities for herself and paid for them. She changed Kate’s diaper and fed her in record time at the gas station’s rest room.
“Excuse me? Could you tell me where’s the nearest buss station?” She asked from a man standing behind the cash register. Man scratched his head.
“Buss station?”
“Yes. Greyhound? Public transportation?” She knew she was being rude, but she didn’t have time to waste. She would have to get out of here soon, before Logan came out of his stupor and tracked them down.
“We don’t have a buss station. But once a week Greyhound goes by, just few kilometers out of town is the buss stop…”
“Fuck!”
She was trapped in a dingy little backwater town, and she would have to find someplace to hide from Logan who had turned to a some sort of monstrosity.
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