Collared and shackled. He wanted to scream. He wanted to run. He wanted to puke. To curl up and die. All too familiar sensation of nausea settled to the pit of his stomach when collar shut down his mutation. It would take several days from Logan to adjust to the feeling of aging again. For a moment he toyed with the idea of jumping out from the moving truck. If he was lucky, he would snap his neck when he fell, and everything would be over. Then Logan got a good look from his passenger’s face. Girl was scared out of her wits, yanking and tugging her chains, trying to get her hands to the collar around her neck. Logan knew what would happen if she didn’t stop soon.
“Stop it. Stay put and don’t let out a peep,” he hissed hastily when one of the Guards escorting the Hunters turned to look at her. She stilled. Logan took in his surroundings before scooting stealthily next to her, leaning his head against her shoulder.
“Stay still. Keep your mouth shut. Move and talk only when you are told to. And don’t try to resist. What ever they decide to do, act along,” he whispered, begging silently that nobody saw him speaking to her. They would be both punished for that.
“They are going to take us to the outpost. I’m already modified, and I’m guessing you don’t even need modifications with that mutation of yours. Most likely they will beat up us both, sooner or later. They are going to do it as many times as it takes to break us. What ever they want you to do, do it. You can’t take that kind of beating…”
“What about you?” Marie whispered. Little too loudly. Quick glance told Logan nobody heard it. They had lucked out.
“I’ll be just fine. I know the drill. Now just shut up and stay out of trouble. Don’t draw attention to you…” He hissed before standing up and charging towards the group of Hunters and Guards that sat at the far end of the lorry.
It had been a stupid thing to do. Guards had stopped the truck, pushed him down from the lorry and beaten him to pulp. Yet Logan grinned from ear to ear when they threw him back up and truck started again. Marie didn’t utter a word, but the look on her face spoke volumes. Scared, disgusted, panicked. Logan winked with his still functioning eye.
“They have to take my collar off eventually… Can’t let me die… Too expensive modifications…” He gurgled, spitting out blood and couple of chipped tooth.
“Hush… They’re coming…” Truck had stopped again.
Just as Marie thought things wouldn’t get any weirder, Logan started to sing. Off-key, with some strange language, and very loud. Guards hopped on the lorry, eyeing him disgusted.
“Cut that out.” When that didn’t shut Logan’s mouth, they tried another tactic. One of them took a firm hold from Marie’s hair and pointed a gun to her head.
“Shut up or the bitch bites it.” Logan’s voice got only louder. Guard sighed and shoved her away.
“Face it, Higgins… You can’t trick me… Either shut me up for good, or listen while…” Marie screamed when a gun went off.
“Can’t you do anything right!” Guard that Logan had called Higgins shouted, snagging a smoking rifle from the hands of another, much younger Guard.
“Are you willing to pay from your salary if he dies?” Higgins grunted, then reached for his belt.
Logan lay on a pool of blood that was rapidly spreading. His stomach was a torn mess of lacerated flesh and innards. Explosive ammunition, and it had struck him at close range, nozzle of the rifle nearly touching his stomach. Marie could see his eyes moving rapidly under his closed lids. At least he was still alive. She heard a small click, and Logan’s whole body shuddered. Wounds and bruises on him started to heal immediately. Guard had turned off his collar. And suddenly Logan spoke.
“Stay down, kid.”
“What happened?” They were running. Marie could hear Logan panting behind her, feel his hands on her back, nudging her almost gently to the direction he wanted her to go. She had closed her eyes when Logan had told her to stay down. For a moment screams and nearly deafening gunfire had filled the air, then complete silence fell. Logan had scooped her up and dropped her to the ground, following her and they had started running.
“What happened?” Marie asked again. And again she felt Logan’s hands on her back. She couldn’t keep running anymore, but it soon became apparent she didn’t have to. Logan’s hands grasped her shoulders and they both fell, Logan on top of her, knocking the air out from her lungs momentarily.
Something wet and sticky was spreading to her back. Logan had her efficiently trapped, both sets of claws out, embedded firmly to the dry ground to both sides of her head. He was heavy. He wasn’t moving. And that sticky, wet and warm feeling on her back was growing. Coppery stench was filling her nostrils.
“Oh… Shit…” Marie heard him grunt.
“Logan?”
“Yeah… Wait a sec…” She could feel his muscles tensing. Logan gasped, and claws slid back in. Wounds that they left started to bleed.
“Logan?”
“Yeah, yeah… Just give me a minute… I know I’m heavy…” He muttered. Marie could feel him shifting.
“Logan!”
“What! …Shit…” He finally managed to crawl off from her. She rose on her hands and knees and turned to look at him.
“I got them all… Except that fucking driver… Higgins managed to turn the collar back on before I…” Logan’s body was riddled with bullet holes. Some had gone straight through, leaving behind small, clean and round holes. Not all bullets had done that. There were three deep crater-like holes on his torso. Two on his stomach, one near his collarbone, each big enough to stuff a good-sized fist in it.
“Driver’s probably called back-up… Go. Keep running to that direction… I’ll make sure they have something else to do than chase you,” Logan hissed, trying to sit up. His eyes rolled back to his head and he fell back to the ground, unconscious.
“I’ll run, alright. But not in to that direction…” Marie muttered, glancing briefly towards the open desert Logan had pointed her. Then stood up and started to run towards the truck she could see glimmering in the distance.
Setting sun cast reddish hue over the scenery. She was tired and her throat was parched when she reached the truck. Driver stepped out from the cabin, aiming at her with his rifle. Man was pale as a ghost and trembled out of fear.
“Stay away from me!” He shouted. Marie lifted her hands above her head.
“I didn’t come for you,” she assured.
“Just keep the fuck away from me!” Man nearly screamed when she took a step towards the truck. He was practically foaming from the mouth. He was in a full-blown panic.
“I just want to help my friend. I came to get something…” Marie started and took another cautious step towards the truck. Man let out an agonized wail and with a sudden movement turned the rifle another way around, taking the nozzle to his mouth. She squeezed her eyes shut when his finger curled around the trigger.
Sight that greeted Marie when she climbed to the lorry made her gag. Logan had torn through Guards and Hunters like a whirlwind. Severed heads and limbs. Sticky strands of organs and intestines. Pools of blood. And flies. She tried to locate the Guard Logan had called Higgins. Relatively easy task if corpses had been intact, but it took her a while to find the right torso. Finally she found him. Resisting the urge to retch she grabbed the belt that still hung around the remains of the Guard, turning the corpse over on a slippery surface until she found the gadget she had come to look for.
It wasn’t until she had gathered enough food and water to a backpack she found before it hit her. At the time she would get back to Logan, he would most likely be dead. He probably was dead already. Dead, with flies buzzing in and out of his wounds, glassy eyes staring unseeing to the sky.
“Fuck it. I kill him if he’s dead. After all I did… He wouldn’t dare to die on me, right?” Marie tried to brace herself. Lump in her throat was about the size of the truck’s tire and tears stung in her eyes. She adjusted the backpack and started to run again.
She stumbled over something. Sun had set, and she hadn’t have sense enough to find a flashlight. Marie rubbed her knee and cursed softly.
“Kid?” Weak whisper came from the lump she had stumbled upon. Logan. And he was still alive!
“I found the switch. Hang on. You’ll get better soon,” Marie stammered and rummaged through the backpack, trying to find the device she had taken from Higgins.
“The fuck are you doing… I told you to get lost…” Logan hissed. Marie could feel his hand clamping around her ankle.
“Driver was too scared to sound the alarm. He shot himself when I got there. I found this…” She said pressing the button from the small box she had taken from Higgins.
“And some food and water.” Logan’s grip on her ankle tightened suddenly and she could hear him draw shuddering breath.
“I was wondering what took them so long…” Marie heard him grunt and he sat up. She could see faint outlines of his hunched figure in the darkness.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
“I will be… Ow!”
She had scrambled on his lap, nearly smothering him to her embrace. Logan tried feebly to untangle her hands around him, but it was too much of an effort. So instead he sat still, bringing his arms around her and trying to catch his bearings.
“I have to breathe,” He reminded her, chuckling softly. Logan couldn’t remember anybody being so glad over him being alive ever. She was practically tearing his clothes in her frantic need to see and feel the proof that he really was all right. Small delicate hands ran over newly healed skin, making him squirm.
“That tickles,” Logan said, taking a hold of her wrists.
“You really are alright,” Marie sighed, hiding her face to the crook of his neck. There was something wet and warm on her cheeks. Tears. She was crying.
“Why didn’t you run like I told you to?” Logan asked after she had calmed down and they were walking slowly towards the truck. He had reasoned that if all the Guards were dead, there was no reason for them to start walking. He could clear the truck from the bodies and they could start driving again.
“Would you have done it?” Marie asked. Logan cleared his throat and pulled her against his side, squeezing her shoulder.
“I wanted to. At first I was going to dive off from that lorry. Just to get away from them.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Couldn’t leave you there. Couldn’t let them fuck you up. But next time, when I tell you to run, you run. Is that clear?” When she didn’t answer Logan stopped walking and crouched in front of her.
“Is that clear? If anything happens, you fucking run. Or I could just skewer you right now, spare me the trouble of feeding you…” He grumbled, claws inching their way out from his knuckles.
“Alright! I promise to run!” Marie shouted. Logan’s brows knit together and he inhaled deeply through his nose.
“Liar,” he whispered, brushed a brief kiss to her forehead and stood up.
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