“Free Zone, my ass…” She heard Logan’s angry snarl, and echo of something being kicked. She turned to look. A piece of bent metal with cuffs attached to it. Logan was glaring at it as if it would magically turn alive and attack him.
They had eaten and gotten dressed. Either of them knew where they were, or what would they do next, so they had decided to return to the rubbles of their prison, to see if there were something they could use. What they found confused Marie. Logan… He was beyond furious.
Few things had escaped the destructive force Marie had unleashed. Among them were three tightly locked archiving cabinets. Logan had cut them open. What they had found inside…
“They were mutants! Mutants testing and breeding mutants!” While Logan paced, clenching and unclenching his fists, kicking small pieces of debris, Marie was skimming through the files they had found. Sickening records of earlier prisoners of the Free Zone, and what had happened to them. What had been made to them. At first desperate attempts to find a way to hide the X-gene, hide it so that Army could no longer tell who was a mutant. Program failing. New one starting. New program with new agenda. Creation of a perfect mutant. With exactly right kind of genes. A super race, able to wipe out humans from the face of the earth. Page after page testing and failing, until she got to the last folder, labeled simply as Adam & Eve.
“Logan…” He was still pacing and ranting. She had to call him again before he paused to listen.
“They almost did it. They already had Adam.”
“What are you talking about?” Logan asked, taking the folder from her.
“They had Adam. I was supposed to became Eve…” She felt sick.
**Subject Adam shows suitable levels of aggression and intelligence. Mutation is operational. Eve is quarantined. Necessary precautions have been taken. Birth control, vaccinations and hormonal injections have been given to her as planned. Hostile accompanying her during the quarantine shows…**
“Who, or what the fuck was this Adam?” Logan growled. It was quite apparent he was deemed as hostile, and not suitable genetic material for their purposes.
“I don’t know. Adam is the only reference to him, or it, and this is the only file he’s mentioned. Only that they had him. Nothing about his abilities, no pictures, nothing. This is creepy,” Marie said shivering and wrapping her arms around her sides. Logan was flipping through the folder, fingers itching to get hold of this Adam. He threw the folder to the ground and started rummaging through the gutted cabinet Marie had found it from, hoping to find more information.
“Are we going to spend night out here?” Marie asked. She had been walking around, picking up small knick-knacks and packages of dried rations she was sure would prove useful later. Logan had pulled a tattered, thick book from the steel cabinet, and had sat last hours reading it, lost to the world. Judging from the look on his face book was quite informative. Suddenly he stood up and stuffed it to the backpack.
“We’re leaving.”
“Wait!” She had to run to keep up with his long strides, makeshift backpack wobbling against her back. Logan didn’t stop, didn’t turn to look, but kept walking. To where, she had no idea. Forest was dark around them, yet he seemed to know exactly where he was going.
“Logan! Wait!” Finally he stopped, so abruptly that she collided against his broad back. There was a building in front of them. A log cabin. Simple, weathered but sturdy looking. Logan just stood motionless, staring at it.
“What? What is this place?” Marie asked.
“Doesn’t ring a bell?” Logan asked, turning to look at her. She shook her head, knowing Logan would see it even in darkness.
“It’s home. Your home. You were born in there.”
“I don’t want you to see this shit in here. It’s disgusting. But from what I found, your mom was one of the founders of the Free Zone. When it became apparent that they weren’t able to hide the X-gene, she literally took it upon herself to create a perfect mutant, a perfect mother for a new, invulnerable race. Some of her co-workers refused to go along with her plan. After you were born, the man you thought was your father took you with him and run. He was the head of security back then. He was supposed to kill you. Don’t know why he didn’t. Years passed, and general consensus turned in favor to your mother. They tried again, many times, but they were unable to duplicate you. According to this they were quite flustered, but happy when they realized whom you were. They intended to let you stay with me until everything was ready. Adam was already waiting, horny as hell. Your child… Your children would have become mother and father of their new alpha-race.” She stared at the book Logan was holding, nausea churning at the pit of her stomach.
“No. No. It wasn’t like that. That’s not what happened! My dad was a blacksmith. My mom died when I was just a baby. I… Dad never left the village. He said he had born there, and his parents were…” She was babbling and stuttering, backing away from the cabin, backing away from Logan and the book in his hands. The pouch she had gathered her belongings fell from her back when she stumbled backwards. She turned around and started running. Logan caught her easily, tackling her to the ground.
“I’m not some fucking experiment! I’m not!” She screamed. Logan turned her on her back, weight of his body pinning her to the ground.
“Yes, you are. You were part of their program, but it’s over now. You took care of it.”
“No!”
“Yes. And it doesn’t make you a bad person. It doesn’t make you different.”
“No! I’m not an experiment…” Hard slap on her cheek silenced her. Logan’s fingers dug painfully around her jaw, forcing her to look at him.
“They gave you life. You took it and made it yours. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You should be proud of yourself. You finished it. Made sure that nobody will suffer in their hands anymore.”
“But…”
“Shut up. I know it’s not much, but I love you. I won’t allow you to speak about yourself as if you were anything less than perfect,” Logan hissed, barely contained rage simmering in his eyes.
“We're both fucked up, but at least we have each other to rely on. You better accept it soon. If you don’t, it will eat you until you break, and after that it’s fucking hard to go on. Trust me. I speak from experience.”
She wanted to speak, to say something. At least answer to his little slip up, but it was impossible. Tears had been gathering, and all she could do was to grasp a firm hold from him when dam broke. Either of them noticed a feral pair of eyes, observing them from distance.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Short, but this is turning to a new direction. Next chappie might take some time, school starts tomorrow. Bear with me.