She lay on the bed, whole body still tingling, muscles lax, and watched Logan getting dressed. He had pulled out fresh pair of jeans and a black T-shirt from the backpack, and was strapping on his guns.
“I’ll go and find us a new set of wheels. You can wait here. Keep the door locked,” He said, diving once more in to the battered bag and pulling out a black bundle of leather. A jacket. It hid the holsters strapped to his arms and sides. It also carried a selection of different kind of electronic gadgets she could see before Logan zipped it up.
“I should be back within two hours. Wait here,” he said, walking to her and leaning to kiss her before walking out.
Two hours. It was a long time to wait. Anything could happen. She curled on her side, under quilt and pressed her face against the pillow where Logan had slept just an hour ago. She knew he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Yet she couldn’t stop the barrage of images that bombarded her mind when she closed her eyes. Logan dead. Logan dying. Logan captured. Logan tortured. Logan running. Logan lying on the pool of blood. Logan standing up and raising his gaze, yellow indifferent eyes staring through her like she was nothing but thin air…
He would have much rather stayed with Marie, wrapped up to her scent and warm embrace, but he had a bad feeling that they had already wasted too much time. He descended the stairs to the ground level, passing the clerk who sat behind his counter reading a magazine. Reading. Times were really changing when they could afford to keep that talented individual in that kind of job.
Logan shrugged off the last vestiges of sleep and stepped outside, pausing briefly and stepped back in. Street outside was crowded, crawling with the usual, ragged crowd. Yet something felt off. Something was wrong. Very wrong. He straightened his shoulders and stepped back out again, pushing through the crowd, parting it with his mere presence.
He didn’t know what had made him choose the cocky attitude instead of more careful one, but obviously it had been a good choice. Instead of Hunters and Guards he could detect a gang of sneaky looking teenagers, armed to the tooth with dangerous looking, self-made weapons, slinking back to shadowed alleys from the sight of him. Snorting for his paranoia he scanned through the maze of adverts and road signs until he found what he was looking for.
Rickety warehouse was filled with cars, motorcycles and trucks. Old and battered, new and shiny, and part of them something between those two. He scanned the rows of vehicles briefly, his eyes landing to the right one almost instantly.
“This one.” Owner of the place approached him, rubbing his palms together.
“Good choice. Good choice. Very durable and low maintenance and…”
“Shut your trap. How much?” Logan grunted, smoothing his palm over slightly rusted coating of his purchase. Merchant eyed him from head to toe, assessing him.
“Free for you. But get the hell out of here before the evening. They’re going to close down this whole settlement,” old, gnarled man said, handing him the keys to the hummer, flashing a forked tongue briefly between his thin lips. A mutant. Logan nodded.
“Thanks for the advice. You need anything?” He asked. There was not much he could, or even would do, but after all, it was only polite to offer to repay the favor. Old man shook his head.
“No need to worry over me… I’m too old for their purposes. And only car dealer in this hellhole. You think these kind people would let them take me?”
Transportation taken care of Logan set off to find food, water and clothes for them. All three he found easily enough from the marketplace. When he was returning from the garage back to the Inn, the group of teenagers he had seen earlier approached him.
“You should leave. Now. We don’t want any troubles,” biggest of the group, burly looking boy whose head barely reached Logan’s shoulder spoke.
“I’m not planning to stay any longer than it’s necessary,” Logan said, wondering silently if everybody around here was a mutant. Boy nodded, group retreated and let him pass.
Scent of Marie’s fear hit him squarely to face when he walked in to the Inn. Yet he found no signs of unusual activity or disturbances. He took the stairs two steps at time and was pounding on their door just as her shrill scream pierced the air.
“Marie!” Foot encased to a heavy boot made short work of the locks on the door.
She bolted up from the sound of door breaking open and kept screaming long after it had registered that it was Logan. Logan who crossed the floor with few strides and pulled her against him, smoothing her tousled hair, murmuring quiet whispers until she calmed down.
“It was you… But it wasn’t you… You didn’t even know me! You just stood there and stared right trough me!” She was crying now instead of screaming, sharp and bitter sobs, and small fists pounding against his back while he held her.
“Hush. It was just a dream. Just a dream, Marie. I’m here now.” She pulled away from his embrace, seeking his eyes.
“Do you see me? Do you know who I am?” She asked with a trembling voice.
“Of course I do.”
“Good. Because yesterday you didn’t.”
“Okay. Hold that thought. Put these on. We have to leave, but we’ll talk about yesterday later,” Logan said, shoving a bundle of clothes to her. Jeans, T-shirt and a jacket, much similar attire as his. But where his jacket was leather, hers was made from more rigid and heavier material.
“It’s coated with Kevlar, and there’s an adamantium mesh sewn inside of the lining. Should stop anything they can throw at us. I doubt that the merchant even knew what she was selling. Wonder where she got this…” Logan murmured when she pulled the jacket on, flexing her hands and twisting her waist to see if she could still move wearing it.
“Messengers wear these on the field.”
“This is our new car?” She asked, tilting her head. Rusted rectangular heap on six wheels didn’t exactly scream speed and safety.
“Hop in. This will do just fine,” Logan said, walking to the back of the car, checking it once more before returning to the driver’s side of it. Marie opened the door carefully, expecting to hear agonized creak and door to fell off from its hinges. Instead it opened smoothly, without making a sound. Surprisingly comfortable seat engulfed her when she sat in; molding against her back like it was designed for her. Dashboard in front of her was filled with meters, small blinking lights and switches.
“Is this a car or an airplane?” She asked when Logan sat in, pushing the key to the ignition.
“Bit of both, I guess. And a tank. Just what we need. Doesn’t come with a bathroom, but there’s a small cot in the back if you want to take a nap, and storage lockers. And what’s best about this, this hasn’t belonged to Army. They don’t use this model.”
“Now… about what you said earlier…” Logan said when they were driving out of the settlement.
“About me not knowing you. What was that all about?” For a moment she pondered what to say. She didn’t want him to bolt, retreat from her. Not now when things were finally starting to look better.
“It was nothing. Just a stupid dream,” she said, trying to pretend that the scenery outside was interesting.
“Don’t fucking lie to me,” Logan growled.
“I have to know. I have a gap in my memory. Can’t remember a thing that happened after I got us in to that room.”
“It was nothing. You were really tired. I helped you to get cleaned up. You were little out of it, like you didn’t know me, or something. And your eyes…” She stopped talking, afraid that she had already said too much when Logan cringed.
“My eyes. What about my eyes?”
“They were different.”
“Different? Bigger? Smaller? They were yellow, weren’t they?” Logan asked. She nodded.
“Shit. Oh, fucking shit. What did I do? Did I say something? Did I do something?”
“You just stood and stared. Like you really didn’t even see me. You did everything I asked you to do, but it was like… Like you didn’t even know I was there. No. That’s not right. You knew I was there, but it didn’t matter. Like I was part of furnishing. An object. Nothing interesting. Certainly not worth of interest.” They sat in silence for a while. To Marie it felt like eternity. Logan was stealing glances from her from the corner of his eye, biting his lower lip, obviously trying to decide what to say.
“If you see me like that ever again, walk away. Walk away from me. Slowly. Don’t even try to get my attention. Okay?” He finally said with a hollow voice.
“I won’t probably attack. You’re too small to pose a threat. I probably thought you were a Mechanic…”
“What are you talking about?” Won’t probably attack? Was she supposed to start to be afraid of him, too?
“You met Wolverine. The Destroyer.”
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