Control: An X-Men Adventure and Wolverine Romance

Back To The Woods

It felt like all those eyes on us in the bar could have bored holes into our skin. I wasn't sure if it was me or Logan who had aroused the most suspicion. Had they heard about the incidents with the cage fights in Louglin city?

"So, where you headed?" My companion asked after a couple of minutes more of frosty silence.

"I don't know. But if we'd stayed in that bar... There was sure to be trouble. I saw the way the people in there were looking at us.

"Us?"

"Yeah, like their eyes were gonna pop out of their sockets. Probably just 'cause we were outsiders, but you can never be too careful."

"Is that right?" he said flatly, as though he was just trying to go through the motions of small talk.

Suddenly becoming a little self-conscious, I swiftly changed the subject.

"So why'd you quit the cage fights? I thought you were their top money maker..."

There was the faintest flash of a smile at this but he didnt answer. The air in the cab seemed tense.

"Can I drop you off somewhere kid? Where you headed?"

"Kid?" I mused raising an eyebrow. I hadn't been ID'ed for a good while now, and was fairly certain I looked my age. Sure, I was mid twenties, but "kid" was pushing it.

He turned his face to look at me for a minute, frowning.

"Sorry, force of habit," he muttered.

There was a long drawn out silence as I watched the snow covered trees whizz by.

I was trying to come up with an answer as to where I could be hitching a ride to, conscious I hadn't answered his question.
I could tell that he kept looking over to me in the passenger seat, trying to figure me out. This made me nervous and I reached instinctively for my right pocket.

"Do you mind if I light up?" I asked.

"Sure," he reached into his own pocket and tossed a lighter in my direction.

"Those things will kill you, you know..." he muttered.

I scoffed a little, unable to stifle my laughter.

"What, you dont believe me?" He tested

"Its not that, its just..." I trailed off, before settling on "cigars are probably worse for you".

He huffed but saw he had no moral highground there.

"I guess you don't gotta worry about that though?" I added casually

His body language immediately stiffened at this. His knuckles whitened as they gripped the wheel and he shot another side glance in my direction.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, uh, I never saw you banged up from your fights. No black eyes, never a split lip. Sometimes you had 5 in one night. I figure if you can heal from that then smoking probably isn't a worry..."

This only made the tension worse and I realised from his reaction that he didn't know about me, what I was. I wanted badly to tell him "hey no worries bud, I'm a mutant too" but something stopped me. The words caught in my throat as I was reminded of the reason I was out in this unforgiving wilderness to begin with. Instead I opted for:

"Sorry I didn't mean to out you. I don't mean any harm... and you can drop me at the next junction".

He was silent again for a minute, probably trying to work out if I was going to cause some kind of trouble.

I stuffed my cigarettes back in to my pocket, suddenly no longer in the mood for one and deliberately avoided looking in his direction.

He pulled up at the next crossroads, like I had asked.

As I bailed out of his truck and turned to thank him he, called after me

"Hey kid... uh... lady, you sure you'll be alright out here? It's freezing and the nearest town is miles out."

I smiled faintly, little did he know i'd been trekking around out here wandering between the tiny pockets of civilisation on purpose. Staying far away from human contact was, aside from the occaisonal foray into a dive bar for a drink, my current M.O.

"Yeah don't worry about me. I'm tougher than I look", I smirked, throwing my duffle bag over my shoulder and jamming my hat further down over my ears. I tried to hand him back the lighter but he wouldn't take it.

"Eh, keep it. I got plenty and looks like you need it more than me".

"Well, thanks, I gotta head off now. See ya!" I was trying my best to sound jolly and carefree.

He looked pretty incredulous at the whole situation but not wanting any further questions I turned from the path and headed for the snow covered tree line.

I'm fairly sure he thought I'd just condemned myself to freeze to death in a few hours time but I didn't want anyone to follow. I shouldn't have made myself known to him again - he already had my name.

This wasn't part of the plan. Not every mutant could be trusted - the same as regular humans. The unfortunate truth was, even if you were united by your status, it didn't stop some of the group from throwing the others under the bus. To make matters worse, every one of us seemed to have wildly different abilities. Some mutants still looked the same as any other human, while others were visibly different. Some were stronger than others, in brute strength and in abilities granted by their mutations.

Some of us, had desirable traits - ripe for the exploitation of anyone who had an interest - be it governments, the army, or criminals. There were constant mumerings of mutant trafficking. My chest tightened at the thought of the people I was running from.

How long could I make it? Mutants who had the ability to heal were some of the most sought after, and didn't I know it. I'd had to leave the life i'd built for myself, the friends, the found family, my appartment, all of it. I almost didn't make it out when they first came for me. Whoever they were, it was serious. I knew that when the canister of tear gas rolled into the sitting room one otherwise unremarkable evening. Followed by 12 pairs of combat boots. They were armed to the teeth... but in a way, so was I.

For the briefest of moments I was stunned as the gas began to burn my eyes and airways, but no less than a second later my claws and canine teeth had extended. In times of stress it was impossible to control, and for once I was glad of that.

I plunged my hand into the wall, ripping through the electrics and used the confusion of being plunged into darkness to get out. I could see quite well in the dark without night vision, something they clearly had not accounted for. I leapt onto the back of the first soldier blocking my path and quickly had him in a rear naked chokehold. He didnt have time to alert the others before he lost consciousness. Then I ripped the gas and water pipes from the wall, water spraying everywhere, gas hissing into the room. There was only one man in between me and my best shot at escape now. I launched myself at him and knocked him hard into the kitchen counter. This stunned him and I wasted no time sliding up the sash and shimmying out of the window. I dropped three stories and broke my ankle. I was fairly sure it shattered. By some miracle, I was able to half hobble, half run for the tree line. It would be harder for them in there compared to open ground. I had no plan, I just knew my best bet was running north across the border if I could, and into as remote a place I could.

My mind snapped out of its foray into the recent past. I was relieved when the low drone of the truck engine grew more and more distant, though I felt sad to be losing the only company i'd had in a long while. Despite my own capabilities, I couldn't deny that it would've been nice to have some extra muscle around too, but I knew when to cut and run. I was hugely outnumbered. With a sigh I continued to trudge onwards into a narrow gorge. The trees around me were like silhouetted fingers reaching upwards for the pale moon. I could still see the shimmer of alkali lake in the valley some miles away.

Little did I know how much danger I was in.