He was walking down the road, heavy torrent of rain pelting his head and shoulders. His clothes were soaked through. Somewhere high up on the sky full moon loomed behind thick and heavy clouds, making them appear as solid objects. He wiped off trickle of water from his forehead, taking a better look of his surroundings. He could see the front gate of Xavier’s boarding school little further down the road. For the umpteenth time he cursed the pile of trash of a truck that had broken down and left him walking. Xavier could have used the information he carried several days ago.
“Well, better late than never... Fuck.” Late had never before been a part of his vocabulary. Never and now were more up to his alley. He hunched his shoulders and pushed through the last steps, then stopped in front of the gate, now puzzled.
They had removed the simple padlock that had held the gate closed. It was now replaced with an electric locking mechanism. There was a doorbell, as well. And above it a black rectangular that looked like a some sort of receiver.
“Finally. I wonder what made the prof to change his mind...” He briefly wondered, then rang the doorbell. The receiver crackled briefly.
“This is Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. How may I help you?”
“You could start by letting me in, before I fucking drown or rust!” He grumbled, knowingly refusing to use the codename which the Professor Xavier had reserved for him.
“Wolverine? We have been waiting for you.”
“Open this goddamned gate before I tear it open, Cyclops...”
“Professor Xavier is waiting in his office. You do remember your way there?”
“I do. You in hurry or something?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, it’s well past midnight, Logan. Not all of us enjoy being up and awake at this time of the day. Welcome back.”
The gate clicked open. For a brief moment he hesitated. Sudden bout of panic and nausea gripped his innards. He shook his head.
“You’re getting senile, bub...”
He knew that the front door of the mansion would be locked. It really didn’t matter to him. He never used it anyway. He felt more at ease when entering through a small door at the back of the enormous building. It lead to a small kitchenette. It was mainly reserved for the teachers, at this time of night it should have been deserted, but as he opened the door a dim light greeted him. A girl sat there, cradling a ceramic mug in her hands. He could smell peppermint, and something artificial, cough drops perhaps?
The girl raised her gaze from the tea she was nursing. For a moment she looked as if she were going to say something.
“What’s this? I thought you brats were supposed to be sleeping at this time of day,” he grunted, more out of confusion than the actual need to have any kind of conversation with her.
“I have flu. Miss Grey told me to get my food and drinks from here to avoid infecting other students,” the girl said.
“And it’s night already,” she then added as an afterthought.
“What ever...” He growled and continued his trek through the kitchenette. Professor Xavier’s office was just around the corner.
It wasn’t often when he saw it fit to approach any of the inhabitants of the mansion, let alone one of the students. On those rare occasions they usually didn’t talk back in such bitchy manner. The girl with long, brown hair and a tea cup probably had a good excuse though; nose and throat clogged up with snot couldn’t be a pleasant state of existence. It wasn’t her attitude that made him annoyed. It was the distinct feeling that he knew the kid from somewhere.
“Logan. It’s good to see you,” Professor Xavier greeted him.
“Not so good to see you, Wheels...”
“It’s that bad?”
“Worse. It’s started.”
“I see. Where?”
“Everywhere. People arrive to a hospital. Symptoms match with a common flu. Headache, sore throat, runny nose... The whole shebang. Once the fever sets in there’s nothing that can be done. After a day or so they just die.”
“And this is happening everywhere?”
“All around the world. But there’s a bright side to this.”
“And what might that be?”
“This little bug they developed... It doesn’t discriminate. It takes down mutants, but humans as well.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“They botched up the design. Perhaps they made another mistake as well. Perhaps this little bugger isn’t 100 percent lethal? Or maybe there are people immune to it?”
“Perhaps you’re right. That remains to be seen. In the meantime we can do nothing but wait.”
“Go ahead. I’m not going to stick around. I’ll be at the city for few more days if you need anything. After that... I’ll come and check up on you later. If there is such thing as later.”
He had been standing up during their whole conversation. Now he turned to leave.
“There might be no need to come back later, Logan. Approximately 50 percent of our students have reported to school nurse today. Apparently they’re having flu.”
He didn’t know what to say. Suddenly the whole thing felt so stupid and pointless. For the last couple of years he had been collecting information from various sources. For the last six months he had been working non-stop with Professor Xavier, trying to thwart the inevitable, trying to stop the world from ending. And now this? The whole fucking mansion was as good as dead. Professor, Scott, Jean, Ororo, that girl from the kitchen, even the fucking rats at Jean’s lab, all dead as a doornail.
“Oh, and Logan... I found some new information. I don’t know if you’re immune to Legacy or not, but just in case... Just in case that you are, you should be aware that there’s another threat out there as well...” He turned to take the folder that the professor was offering. It was thin. Inside of it was a single sheet of paper. He folded it hastily and stuffed it to his breast pocket, then walked briskly out, closing the door behind him.
Dead. They were all dead. He was probably as good as dead. Legacy was designed to target primarily the X-gene.
For a moment he entertained a thought of staying here. But what good it would do? Waiting for death to come wasn’t his cup of tea, and that’s all there was left to do here.
“Fuck...” He took a deep breath. There probably was a bottle of beer in the fridge. There usually was when he came around. Professor Xavier’s way of saying welcome. He’d take it and drink it before leaving.
The girl was still in the kitchenette, her whole attention turned in to a thick book. He resisted the urge to leave. He was going to drink his last beer here. He wasn’t going to let some kind stop him from doing that.
Out of principle he sat to where he always sat. His back turned towards sturdy stone wall, giving him clear view over the kitchenette. For a while they both sat in silence, then it suddenly became too much for him to bear.
“What’s the book about?” He asked. He already felt like he was encased in to a tomb. Perhaps hearing her voice would shake off that nasty feeling.
“History. We have a quiz tomorrow,” the girl answered. He bit his tongue. It would have been rude to point out that there most likely was no tomorrow for her.
“History? That’s... That’s nice,” he blurted out instead, earning a puzzled gaze from her before she turned her attention back to the book.
“Would call it boring instead. Why the hell it’s so important to know what happened before? I’m more interested about the future...” She muttered, reaching for the cup of tea.
He finished his beer in record time and stood up to leave. When he reached the doorknob the girl called him.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about agent Egypt and burial rites?” She asked. He didn’t turn to look, just shook his head.
“I don’t think that I’m that old, kid...” He said, then walked out.
He suddenly faced a new dilemma, standing outside of the massive gate of Xavier’s school. He really had no way of leaving the city. Aside from stealing a car that was. He had done that before, but right now it looked less than appealing solution. Of course he could have asked Xavier to release one SUV from his fleet, but that didn’t sound such a great idea either. After all, he was the big wuss who was about to flee from the final battle. He was stuck in N.Y. for the duration.
He snorted, then nearly choked to sudden fit of giggles. Sooner than it was absolutely necessary he felt like laughing no more. Small trickles of water flowing over his face tasted salt and stung his eyes. No matter what, he’d be the last of them. He’d see the end. He’d see them all die. He’d see the whole fucking world to die and all he could do while it happened was to wait his own inevitable death.
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