Look on Marie’s face when she saw Sam was nearly enough for Logan to let go of his anger towards the boy. Nearly. He stayed at the field with camels rather than followed Marie and their son back home. He needed to think. Needed to calm down and figure a way out of this. And sun wasn’t going to take a day-off no matter what, crop needed the water.
Sam clearly hadn’t thought through anything. He had just taken off when going got too rough. Something Marie had told him to do when he was younger. But why the hell had the boy chosen this place to hide? It wasn’t like there weren’t enough ransacked villages and settlements to choose. Had it been just a strange fluke, or should he prepare to welcome even more visitors?
Camels jumped nervously when the sound of metal against metal echoed over the field. He raised his fist, letting the sun shimmer on the gleaming surface of his claws. It would have been so fucking easy. Just cut the brat to small enough pieces and bury him behind the stable. There would have been nobody asking questions.
“Should have done that two fucking years ago…” He grunted and sheathed his claws, swallowing bitter saliva that had risen to his mouth. He should have taken care of Sam when he first saw him at the arena. Marie would have hated him for that, but at least he could have claimed that he hadn’t known the boy.
Should have. But what was done was done. It was easy to get smart and logical over something that had happened long ago. It was harder to stay sharp and clearheaded now. If Sam was enlisted as an ordinary field unit, Army wasn’t looking for him that keenly, but if they knew about his mutation, if they had his DNA mapped, they wouldn’t stop before they found him.
Yeah, officially mutants were equal with men. Officially. But Logan wasn’t naïve. From tidbits of truth he had heard from the radio during these years he had gathered that War wasn’t going according to their plans. Their. Men and women in high positions. They had underestimated the threat. Race that was attacking was far more developed than what everybody had first thought. For the stroke of luck they weren’t able to move around very quickly in Earth’s atmosphere, but that was probably the only thing keeping them for taking over. That, and countless mutants with different powers thrown on to battlefield. Some volunteered, but most of them were forced to enlist.
Officially such things as Breeding Centers and Laboratories were nightmarish mistakes in the past, but Logan had seen their greatest successes, and he doubted that the Army would turn their back to something so powerful.
“It’s not like that anymore…” He mimicked Sam’s panicked squeal from earlier and let his head droop against his chest.
“You have no idea how much I want that to be true…”
She did her best not to ask too many questions at once. She was happy. She was curious, and she was worried upon seeing Sam’s condition, but the boy looked tired and hungry. Food and rest first. They would have time for stories and catching up later.
“Hungry?” She asked, plunking a plate filled with rice and meat in front of Sam, as well as pitcher of water. Sam dug in hungrily, and she sat opposite him, her eyes resting on his every move and feature.
So much like Logan. Same, stubborn and powerful air surrounded Sam as his father. Strange people would have probably mistaken him as Logan’s younger brother. Well, maybe not younger. Sam had gotten older. He looked about the same age as Logan. Scars added years to his demeanor.
“You don’t loose fingers and ears driving a truck,” she couldn’t help noticing. Sam chewed for a while and swallowed.
“No. No, you don’t,” he grunted a short answer before shoveling another spoonful of rice and meat in to his mouth.
“Logan did leave you with a caravan?” She asked. Sam nodded.
“Wasn’t what I was looking for. Found something else.”
“And that something else wasn’t what you were looking for, either?”
“No. At first it was, but then… Something happened and I started to see the whole thing in a new light. Wasn’t for me anymore.”
“I see. Are you planning to stay?” She asked. She wanted to ask him to stay, but it really wasn’t her place. Sam was a grown man now; he should do as he pleased instead of clinging to the strings of her apron.
“If dad lets me. I could stay for a while. Long enough to get back on my feet.”
“I’ll go and make you a bed in to the stable. And I’ll have a word with your father,” Marie promised, standing up. Sam reached over the table, grabbing her wrist before she left.
“Thanks. Thanks, mom. I… I missed you.” She smiled and gave Sam a brief hug, ruffling his hair like she had done several times when he was just a kid. When she tried to respond to him, words got stuck in her throat.
She hadn’t missed him. Worried over him and often thought about him, but there hadn’t been a genuine moment of which she could say she had hoped that Sam would have been with her.
“I’ll go and make that bed for you. There’s water in the well if you want to freshen up, and I’m sure you can find clean clothes for you from Logan’s closet, you’re about the same size as him,” she whispered and left quickly.
She practically fled from him, run away from her son, over the yard and in to the barn before she allowed herself to slide to the ground on her hands and knees. There were no tears on her cheeks. No scream in her throat. Just a sickening, black hatred towards the boy who was a living, breathing reminder of everything that had gotten wrong in her life.
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