☑ THE SHADOW | Peter Maximoff

t h i r t y - t w o

~ 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 ~

There wasn't a radio in sight. If Peter had to guess, they made it through half the town, and the most advanced piece of technology he could see was the clock tower, which now read 12:32.

Every step was getting harder to take. Peter had moved to observing the people instead of trying to speak to them. He glanced down at Amara to see that her frown was permanent on her lips; he felt the same.

This was a poor town. It was strange to see a place with no cars or lit signs, but instead horses pulling heavy carts and stands with families trying to make a living so they can survive until tomorrow. Peter was struggling to live like this for a month; he couldn't imagine having to do it his entire life, like these people had.

Amara must have felt the same, since he noticed she moved in a little closer to him.

Because of the big load of nothing they found so far, the only plan they could come up with was to wait for Peter's mutation to come back. Unfortunately, there were many flaws to that plan. How long would that take? Would they be able to survive until then? Would he have enough energy to get them home when he did get it back? Would he even know where to go?

But it was the only plan they had.

When a panicked horse ran through the street, Peter grabbed Amara's hand and pulled her off to the side to get her out of the way. Luckily, it was enough of a commotion to send most of the Remedy guards to follow it so they could slip through a checkpoint and continue moving.

Peter and Amara kept their heads down, but their eyes continuously scanned the area. They made it almost all the way around the loop of the town by dodging the people around them, only coming up short and resulting with more questions than answers.

After a few more minutes of avoiding people through the streets, the sound of a commotion ahead made them look up. A crowd of people were beginning to form in the distance, each of them trying to get a look at something while the Remedy guards blew their whistles and tried to get through.

Amara and Peter frowned at each other, but they slowly walked forward to see what was going on. The townspeople moved a little faster towards the gathering, their shouting growing louder and more aggressive. Their fists were waving in the air as they cheered something and yelled with purpose, convincingly making Peter more and more confused.

His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to look around the crowd, changing his angles and squinting his eyes until he could see her, just barely through all the people: a little girl with blue scales around her eyes screaming and crying and backing into a wall.

Peter gasped. "It's a mutant!"

His instincts took over. He sprinted forward despite the "Wait, Peter!" he heard from Amara, his heart pumping quickly in his chest. As soon as he got to the crowd, he immediately began slithering through the people, trying to get through the crowd as swiftly as possible. He got a few too many elbows in the ribs and the screaming from the people was loud in his ears, but he didn't let it stop him.

Once he broke through the crowd, he stood up and looked around quickly, trying to make sense of the situation. The people formed a small ring around one wall to his left where the girl was, tomatoes and eggs being thrown around her as she continued to scream.

One of the Remedy guards was walking up to her with a look of murder painted on his face, and Peter's feet moved instantly, all the way up to the guard. He grabbed the guy's collar and swung straight for his jaw, then let the guard fall back in the mud. He ducked from the swing of another guard and tackled him to the ground, but just as he stood up to fight another, he was suddenly looking down the barrel of a gun.