Not So Different

Chapter 2

I froze when one of the men pulled a gun on me.  My heart raced with fear and my legs turned to jelly, but I was determined not to show it. I would not give these men the satisfaction of seeing how scared I was. 

For a moment I stood there, a gun aimed at my head, waiting for demands of money, but the gunman said nothing, just stood there, as if waiting for something.  Then, from the end of the alley, somone took a running jump and landed square on the back of the man with his gun drawn, flattening him to the concrete.  A look of surprise crossed the face of the thug that had been standing beside the gunman, but did not last long.  Quickly, he drew his gun from its holster, and I heard the two men behind me do the same.  Then the person who tackled the gunman spun on the ground and kicked out the legs of the man beside him with impossible agility.  Chaos insued. 

One of the gunmen behind me rushed the tackler as the other one grabbed me from behind.  I struggled,  desperately trying to free myself.  I heard shots being fired but I didn't stop writhing againt my captor's grasp.  In a moment of clarity, I remembered the self defence classes my dad had sent me to.  Pulling my leg up, I stomped down hard on my captor's toes, then threw my head back, smashing his nose.  His gripped on me loosened with the unexpected pain and I used that moment of weakness to free myself.  Quickly, before he had a chance to grab me again, I delivered a swift kick to my captor's groin and he dropped like a rock, his gun skittering across the ground. Not pausing, I dove down and grabbed it. 

When I looked back up I saw that the tackler, to my surprise, was a boy about my age with shaggy black hair in a grey hoodie.  Two gunmen lay on the ground beside him, while the last gunman punched the boy straight in his right eye and  pointed their gun at him.  The boy staggered back but stayed on his feet. I noticed he  was holding his side while the hoodie around it turned red.  Without thinking I pointed my gun at the last gunman and shouted, "Freeze."

The gunman spun around in surprise, and the boy, taking the opportunity, kicked the gunman in the back of the head, so fast I barely saw it, knocking him unconscious.  Then he fell to his knees, clutching his side, the crimson spot blossoming.  I rushed over to help him. 

"Are you alright?" I asked, then felt immensely stupid.  They had just been shot.  Of cource he wasn't okay. 

I began to stoop down to get a better look at his side when he looked up at me and I froze.  His left eye looked like a normal human eye with a green iris.  His right eye, the eye he'd been punched in, however, did not.  The iris was a startling yellow green with a slit pupil, like a cat's. 

I drew back in horror; horror of the creature in front of me.  A look of confusion crossed it's features.  Then it blinked it's eyes several times, and a look of terrified realization set in on it's face.  It knew that I knew what it was.  It knew that I knew it was a mutant; the thing I'd been taught to fear and hate since birth, the epitome of evil.  But how could it be evil if it had just saved my life.  Surely no evil creature would face down four armed men simply to save the life of a girl they didm't know.   

I stared at the mutant on the ground in front of me, while he clutched his bleeding side, seaching his face, but I could find no sign evil on his face.  Only fear and pian painted his features.  Then the sound of a siren started in the distance.

The mutant looked up at the noise in panic.  "I can't let them get me," the mutant said, struggling to stand, "They'll kill me."

"Who will?" I asked but I knew the answer. The government's mission was to eradicate all mutants.

Even though it went against everything I'd been taught, I decided then that I could not let this boy who had saved me die, mutant or not.  So, as the rational side of my brain screamed at me to stop, I stepped up to the boy and looped his free arm around my shoulder, taking some of his weight.