There were bright lights above him. Cold steel under his back. Scent of fresh blood and antiseptics filled his nostrils. He bolted on his feet and nearly sprung his claws before remembering exactly how bad idea it would be under the current circumstances.
“Finally. You got us quite worried. Luckily your new friend isn’t much of a driver,” Xavier smiled from the corner of the room he had parked his wheelchair. Logan managed to relax a bit.
“What do you mean? What happened?” He asked. Xavier rolled from the shadows.
“She decided to try and drive us out from the town. She lost the control of the truck and crashed straight in to a garage. Luckily that garage happened to belong to the sole survivor of the carnage our lunatic unleashed. And even more luckily that survivor happened to be a veterinarian. He cleaned up your wound, and seeing as this is rather unusual situation for all of us, we took a leap of faith and pumped you full of antibiotics. Your fever broke down few hours ago,” Xavier explained. Logan managed a weak chuckle.
“Loony chick… Remind me to thank her properly when this shit is over. Where is she?” He asked.
“In the kitchen with Tom. They’re preparing us a breakfast. It’s probably safe to assume that you’re hungry?” Xavier asked.
“Starving. For blood, but I guess some eggs and bacon won’t hurt before I’ll go hunting the guy who slaughtered these people,” he tried to sound convincing, but sudden buckling of his knees and resulting, rather embarrassing crash against the examination table ruined the image. He could see the fear flickering briefly over Xavier’s features before the professor managed to rein his feelings.
“Yes. Yes… Perhaps a good breakfast would… Would do some good for all of us,” the telepath noted dryly, then tossed him a bundle of fresh clothes.
“There’s a shower through that door, if you feel like freshening up…” He pointed towards the back wall of the room before rolling out.
He dropped the clothes to the examination table and waited until the bout of weakness left him before taking a step towards the shower. World tilted again alarmingly, but now he was ready for it. He slammed his palm against the wall and steadied himself, snickering. He was getting the hang of this ‘being sick’ –business.
Water felt heavenly cascading down over him and peeling off the sticky layer of sweat and blood. It stung a bit when it sloshed over the wound, but he could tell he was healing already. Not the usual pace, but faster than an average Joe. His mutation seemed to share the stubborn streak with his nature. Or Tom, the vet, was truly a wizard in medicine. Either way, it was good news. And equally bad. As long as he was out of the commission the mutant controlling the animals would keep his distance. As soon as he’d show signs of recovery it would strike again. Strike and wipe him out. He was nowhere near good enough shape to fight off an enraged kitten, let alone fully-grown man with all kinds of critters backing him up.
They were already seated when he limped in to the kitchen. Professor at the end of the table, Marie with her back turned towards the doorway, and an older man with white hair and foul stench of booze wafting around him like a heavy cloud opposite her on the other side of the table.
“You must be the guy who patched me up. Thanks for the job well done,” he grunted, sitting next to Marie. There was a plate filled with eggs and bacon waiting for him. Tom the vet nodded and eyed him thoughtfully with red-rimmed eyes.
“You’re already looking much better. Good. Maybe we really do have a chance…”
“Wouldn’t count on that. Nearly toppled over in that shower of yours. But thanks… Thanks for all this…” Logan spoke loudly, yet trying to sound convincingly weak.
“There’s no reason to shout, Logan. Our friend has many ears, every one of them tuned to hear us,” professor Xavier said with conversational tone, nodding towards a cat that sat perched atop on a counter, seemingly grooming itself, undoubtedly keeping an eye on them.
“Yes. Ever since… Ever since Collie went rampant through this town that cat has been my constant companion,” Tom said, throwing a scrap of bacon to the cat that accepted it graciously, polishing the tiny bit of meat from the counter with its pink tongue.
“Collie?” Logan asked.
“Collie Entragian. Police officer for well over twelve years, enraged murderer for twenty three hours,” professor Xavier said.
“We still don’t know what happened. What made officer Entragian go berserk, so to speak. But according to Tom it happened yesterday morning. Or more likely on the previous night. Tom said he woke up to the sound of a shotgun little past six. At first he thought nothing of it. It really isn’t an unusual occurrence around here. Then, little later when he sat on his front porch, he saw Entragian drive past. Our good officer ran over Tom’s neighbor, Mrs. Abercombie. Then as if it wasn’t enough, he backed over the lady to finish the job, and kept backing until he stopped in front of this house, and just sat there a while, staring at Tom, almost as if he were challenging our vet to say or to do something. Tom said he was too scared to do anything else than just sit there. After Entragian left he went hiding in his basement,” Xavier explained. Logan was sitting with him in the living room. Marie had stayed with Tom in the kitchen, helping the old man cleaning up after the breakfast.
“That doesn’t explain why Collie left the old geezer alive…” Logan said frowning.
“You’re right. But if we leave every child and elder citizen that Entragian has killed out of the equation, it leaves one plausible excuse. Tom isn’t posing any kind of threat, and he’s not challenging enough of a victim.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right. And it’s not like it matters. But I need to hear more from this Eantragian. What is he like? How good he is? I need to know what I’m up against.”
“For starters we can rule out my earlier assessment of him. Entragian isn’t a mutant. His power over the animals and over our mutations comes from some outer source, it has nothing to do with Entragian’s own capabilities.”
“He’s possessed,” Tom’s voice came from the doorway. Both Logan and Xavier turned to look at him.
“They have been working in the old mine for quite some time now. The day before yesterday they hit something big down there. Something really big. They called some big shots from the head office to take a look at it. Closed the whole mine for that. Collie went down there with them. Told everybody how he was a part of the committee. He probably was, but let me tell you… He had no other reason than plain curiosity behind him when he tagged along with those monkeys in expensive suits. Collie wasn’t the type to sit around with bunch of people talking bullshit…” Tom started his tale; taking a sip from something Logan’s nose identified as rather nasty excuse of cheap whiskey.
“Down they went. All the way down to the China Men’s path. And brought up something that should have stayed down there…” Tom paused and lubricated his throat with another dose of booze. Logan leaned closer and snatched the bottle from his fingers.
“No offence, but I’d rather hear the whole story before you pass out…” Tom shot him an icy glare.
“None taken… Now, where was I before I got so rudely interrupted?” He asked.
“You were telling how they brought something up from the mine,” Marie helped him. Tom nodded.
“Yes. I don’t know what it was. Some kind of spirit? A ghost? A God of some sort? Who knows? But I do know that it took Collie. Possessed him. And is using him even as we speak.” Logan snorted.
“A God? A ghost? Professor? Is this guy for real?” He asked. Xavier sighed.
“I wouldn’t close my mind from the possibilities. Not when we don’t know what we’re up against. Might be a ghost. Might be a god. Or might be a person that has gone through some great trauma for all we know.”
“Might be? Excuse me; I’m just a small town vet. I don’t have fancy diplomas, like you, mister professor Charles Xavier from New York undoubtedly have. But I do have something. I have a working pair of eyes. And I have brain enough to believe what I see. That thing, driving around killing people may look like Collie, but it sure as hell isn’t him. Collie was an easy-going guy. Knew everybody in this town. Everybody knew Collie. And everybody liked him. He wouldn’t hurt a fly if there were a way to avoid it. And if you need some solid proof, you only have to look at him. He’s bigger than he was on the day I saw him going down to that cursed mine.”
“Bigger?” Logan asked. Tom nodded.
“Taller. And getting fatter. More flesh on his bones every single time I have seen him during this day. He’s growing.”
“Bullshit.” Word left Logan’s mouth. At the same time Tom stood up, reaching for a picture frame standing on a chest of drawers. He handed the frame to Logan.
There were three men standing on the picture, side by side, hands thrown over each other’s shoulders, every one of them smiling widely for the camera. He recognized Tom. He was standing next to a man approximately same height as him. Third man in the picture was dressed in to uniform. Officer Entragian. Not much taller than the two other men in the picture. Logan handed the photo to professor Xavier who stared at it in silence for a moment.
“How is this possible? When Entragian threw me in to that cell, he was at least a head taller than he is in this picture…” Professor muttered bewildered. Tom grinned crookedly.
“Possessed. I told you so.”
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