It was a little difficult to stay focused. She was running pretty fast now for the first time since the escape, seeing as how Wolverine was no longer with her wanting to take his dear sweet time. He probably wouldn’t appreciate it but she was scared to death for him. And this stupid hallway looked exactly the same as the others, except this one had to have some kind of open exit attached to it. She just needed to try and not run past it in her hurry.
And then she saw it. She guessed there was no point to all her worrying, there was no way she was going to miss that. It was another hallway, little wonder, a green blinking light coming from the far end of it. A much smaller corridor, though. So much so that she wasn’t sure Wolverine’s massive shoulders would even have fit. She moved further in. Another wall of bars firmly blocking the exit. She approached it slowly, now that she was no longer running and her adrenaline began to wan the weight of all the weapons she was toting around was extremely heavy.
Fingertips hesitantly touched one cold bar. She studied the partisan from floor to ceiling, looking for any kind of latch or hinge. It had to open somehow somewhere. With a frown she pulled the security card out from the top of her suit. It tapped repeatedly against the bars as she gnawed on her bottom lip.
“Gotcha,” she smirked. Against the wall on the other side of the bars was a keypad with a slid channel attached to it.
In the thin hall it took her three whole steps to get to the wall. She stuck her arm through and reached toward the keypad. Then she groaned and leaned her head against the rough wall. Her arm wasn’t long enough.
“Son ova--.” She readjusted, trying to get another inch or two. With her whole shoulder through and her chest pushing against the bars she was close. The edge of the white card knocked against the channel of the keypad but no luck in actually getting the thing in. Her foot stomped in frustration. Her whole life she wanted to be several inches taller never more than right that minute.
She narrowed her eyes at the keypad, maybe if she looked threatening enough it would stop running away from her. It would have worked for Wolverine, she was sure of it. Again she reached and tried to get the card in the impossible slot. She quickly withdrew when her frantic inaccuracy just about knocked the damn thing out of her hand.
“Come here,” she commanded. It didn’t respond but she was use to one-sided conversations, as long as it stayed still this time she didn’t really care. A deep, steadying breath and a firm grip on the card she made another attempt. This time she lurched with her entire body, trying to get as much of her through as possible. The card made the distance but her aim was no where near the thin channel.
On her forth attempt she finally managed to get it in the slot. She breathed a sigh of relief as she held it in place with her middle finger. All she had to do now was let it slid down through the channel and not fall out. It was so simple. She hoped.
Carefully she rested her ring finger on the bottom corner of the card and eased the pressure of her middle finger. She let the card move slowly down through the slot, ignoring the metal bar imbedded in her chest and cheek as well as her need to bring in air to her lungs. Each downward millimeter was closely watched. Then something dinged and her whole body flinched in surprise.
“No!” She tried to catch the card as it tumbled but her grasping hand was nowhere close. Her eyes began to slowly drift closed in regret when she felt the hard metal slide against her body. She jumped back quickly, jerking her arm into the safety of her chest as she watch the bar wall slowly move up. Much slower than when the other came down, she noted annoyed.
She moved quick, ducking under the bars as soon as they were high enough. The card was left where it lay as she went straight to the door. It was nothing like the door Wolverine disappeared through. It was smaller, white—well, off white, and had a straight pull down handle instead of the push bar. It also had a small window in it that she had to stand on her tip toes to look out.
A plane. Or a jet probably was the correct term, not that she cared. A ceiling that went forever it seemed. It was either the same hanger Wolverine talked about or maybe a different one, although, as she turned her head to see further to the right it looked pretty large. Her depth perception wasn’t the best but it looked to her that it might keep going as far as she ran.
Her hand moved to rest on the handle when she jumped back, screaming. A face slammed into the small window, wide eyes, gaping mouth. She swallowed as it slid down, skin smearing on the glass. It just meant Wolverine was okay, she tried to tell herself. Don’t think about it as bodies, think about Wolverine being okay. She shook her head, steadying herself. She really didn’t want to go out there.
The door immediately opened for her. The body attached to the face fell forward, nearly onto her feet but she quickly jumped over it. She stopped and let her jaw drop for a minute. The place was huge. It went on as far as she could see in both directions. Planes, trucks, crates, tanks, countless two-ton objects were lying around everywhere, each one of them looking dwarfed. It had been a while since she got to look at the sky but she couldn’t imagine it being any higher than that roof.
Arms grabbing around her middle jerked her out of her amazement. She screamed in surprised but immediately began fighting against the hold. Her feet came off the ground and despite how much she kicked them she wasn’t making any contact with the person behind her.
“Colonel! I’ve got the mutie female!” He screamed into her ear. She winced at the damaged it did to her eardrum but it did give her an idea. She turned her head, her cheek flatten against his.
They both collapsed to the ground as her skin drained him. Quickly she untangled herself from him; it was difficult with her trembling. More soldiers were running towards her. Grabbing the tranquilizer guns she stole from the two lightweights she began firing into the group blinding, preferring to concentrate on running instead. She was sure she maybe might have hit a few of them, but she couldn’t hear anything besides her own blood pressure pounding in her ears to verify.
She ducked behind a truck but didn’t stop running. This was the stupidest idea she ever had. The worst. What the hell was she thinking? She was going to save Wolverine? All she was going to do was get her ass killed unless she had a heart attack first.
“Stop right there.”
She skitted to a stop. The soldier had popped out of nowhere, aiming his gun at her. She couldn’t tell if it fired tranqs or bullets and she really didn’t want to find out.
“Okay,” she said, hating how her voice shook. Either the pounded in her head was getting worse or more soldiers were running up behind her. She risked a quick look then shook her head and swore. She was surrounded.
“All the guns. Now.” The soldier in front of her said, not lowering his firearm. “Toss them over here.”
First the two tranquilizer guns, they couldn’t have had that many more darts left in them anyway. The she pulled the other gun from over her head. She just held it for a minute before she heard several clicks behind her. She didn’t turn to look.
“Don’t even think about it,” a voice behind her said.
She tossed it over to the man in front of her, on top of the other ones. As soon as it landed with a clank she was all but tackled from behind. She grunted as hard bodies knocked into her. Gloved hands grabbed at her, pulling her back and jerking her arms behind her back. They pulled backwards, half dragging and half carrying her. She fought and bucked against them as they moved through the hanger. The grip on her tightened, pulling her arms further back. Her tender shoulder screamed nearly as loud as she did.
The stopped struggling when she saw Sie.
“Firefly.” He greeted but moved no closer to her.
“Bastard,” she answered back though she couldn’t manage to work up a sarcastic smile.
He did not smile either; he even turned away from her. “Shoot her. She’s done nothing but make this whole base go to hell. All I want is Wolverine, is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Before the words had a chance to sink in she was thrown to the ground. She didn’t even notice she landed on her bad shoulder.
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