The first rays of morning sun were peeking over the horizon, to remind Marie she had forgotten to close the curtain before she went to bed last night. The sun came up a lot earlier down here than it did in Yukon, in the winter at least. She rolled over and buried her head under her pillow with a groan, followed by a yawn, but quickly realised she would not be going back to sleep. Stretching sleepily, she pulled herself out of bed and headed for the shower, a long, hot shower was just what she needed.
Heading down to the med lab for a few minutes to check on Logan was her first stop. It was dark when she stepped out of the elevator, all the lights were turned right down and no one else was down there but Logan. She checked the doctors’ chart briefly and saw she had noted his vital signs had all picked up around three am, a quick glance at the clock told her it was five-thirty now, he should be waking soon surely.
With that in mind she made her way back upstairs to get a coffee, she decided to take it outside in the crisp winter sunshine. Stepping out onto the patio a few minutes later, pulling her coat tighter around her and clutching the steaming mug in her un-gloved hands, she took a seat on the patio steps, right in a sunray. She sat for a few minutes, eyes closed, enjoying the peace and quiet of the early morning before taking her first sip of her drink.
Her brain decided to kick in and start thinking right about then. Yesterday she hadn't been pushed much for information, and she had largely been left to her own devices, she had a feeling that would change soon enough. She just hoped Logan woke up soon, she didn't want to feel ungrateful but she still couldn't bring herself to trust these people yet, and she didn’t like having to deal with them alone. It was just too convenient how they had just happened to turn up to save the day ‘just in time', and whisk them away from the hairy guy who had come out of nowhere, also without warning.
She was so deep in thought that she jumped in fright when the patio door latch clicked and the door swung open behind her. Spinning around she jumped to her feet, dropping her coffee mug as she sprinted across the patio to throw her arms around Logan as he walked towards her.
"Are you alright?" she asked hurriedly, running her fingers through his hair over where the large gory wound had been previously, as Logan stood uncertainly looking back toward the kitchen.
"Shh," he cut her off. "We’ve got to go, come on," he said after a brief pause. Grabbing her hand and pulling her off the patio, he began to lead her around the outside of the building, toward the driveway.
"What's going on?" Marie asked concerned.
"Quiet, I'll explain once we're out," Logan replied quietly, not slowing down.
When they got to the front of the building, he pulled her into the open underground garage which was full of vehicles of all shapes and sizes, more than two dozen in total. Logan moved to the first car, it was unlocked, and he hurriedly pushed her around the car and told her to get in. As her butt hit the seat the engine roared to life, the car was in gear and rolling out of the garage before she even had her door shut.
As they peeled out of the driveway Marie pulled on her seatbelt when she noted how fast they were travelling. She tried again to decipher the situation, "What's going on Logan?"
"I'm not sure," he replied, "But we need to get away from that place." He was frowning in concentration, and casting regular glances in the rear-view mirror, like he was afraid they were being followed.
"Where are we going though?" Marie asked, as they made another quick turn onto another street.
"The faster we get to the nearest highway the better," Logan replied, "We need distance, fast."
"Did you get the money?" Marie asked, she was starting to get a niggling feeling something wasn't right.
"What money?" Logan replied, sounding confused.
"I grabbed money at the cabin it was in our bags, we can't get gas without money," she stated, such a rash action wasn't like the Logan she had been living with for the last almost two months. She was used to Logan's back up plans having back up plans.
"We'll worry about that when we have to," Logan shrugged, turning his attention back to the road as he pulled out onto what appeared to be a main road. Again, making the turn without so much as a look in the opposite direction, almost as if he knew exactly where he was going.
"Logan?" Marie asked quietly, her hand moving to her seatbelt, silently releasing the catch but holding the belt in place.
"What?" he grunted.
"Logan?" she said again.
He scowled and repeated, irritably, "What!?"
"Logan?" she said again, noting he hadn't so much as looked in her direction.
"Either spill it or shut up," he snapped, still not paying her any attention.
"... What's my name?" she asked, allowing her suspicion to show clearly.
"Knock it off Anna," he replied, continuing to ignore her as he sped up now that the road had opened up.
'Shit, shit, shit!' Marie thought, she hadn't told Logan her full name, she had gone by her middle name since she was four so it hadn’t occurred to her. Whoever this person was it was not Logan but it seemed they knew exactly who she was. She quickly took stock of her surroundings and what she had to work with to get away, at the speed they were travelling there was no way she could jump. She would have to wait for them to stop before she could bolt, it wouldn't be the first time she'd had to run from a vehicle, though she wasn’t expecting it to be as easy to get away from this person as it was to get away from fat truckers.
Several minutes later they suddenly swerved off the highway and skidded to a stop in a gravel rest stop, there was one other vehicle in the lot. If she had to guess she would say her kidnapper was planning on switching cars. She didn't wait around to see if she was right. The door was open and she was out of the car in a split second, running as fast as she could for the treeline heading back up the highway the way they had just come. She was glad she had thrown her boots on when she got up that morning, instead of just socks.
She was in the trees before she heard something big start to give chase, she didn't stop to look back, just scanned the wood in front of her watching for hazards that would slow her down. She ducked and dodged around trees and over deadfall as she ran, her lungs were burning but she pushed the pain away as she willed her legs to move faster.
Turning almost imperceptibly in her trajectory she began heading back toward the highway. She could hear a truck coming, if she could get to the road, she might be able to flag down another car to get her out of there faster. She could see the road, so close, when something big and heavy slammed into her out of nowhere, throwing her into a nearby tree. She turned toward what hit her and came face to face with the huge, hairy guy who had been fighting Logan at the cabin.
She didn't hesitate, turning her skin on as she kicked out at him catching him in the shoulder when he jerked his head out of the way. Rolling quickly she tried to scramble to her feet to run again but he was too quick. His hand closed around her arm, followed by a brief stab of pain to her bicep, before everything went dark.
--
"You took your time," the blue scaled woman snapped, from the driver seat of the black SUV.
"She was quick," he shrugged, dumping the unconscious girl across the backseat. The tranquiliser he had given her should keep her out for at least two hours, plenty of time for them to get her to where they would be holding her.
"Bullshit Sabretooth, you were playing, knock it off, we don't have time for it," was the snippy response.
The man known as Sabretooth chuckled. "Aww ‘Stique, you sound jealous."
"Fuck you," Mystique replied, throwing the SUV in gear and pulling out of the layby, leaving the BMW she had taken from the school behind. The folks she had stolen it from would find it quickly when they realised the girl was missing, and they needed to get well away before then.
"Maybe later," Sabretooth replied, "I'm sure you can make it worth my while."
Mystique ignored his banter, instead commenting, "Be careful with this one, she's sharp, I don't know how she did it but she figured out I wasn't him before we were halfway here, that will make her hard to hold once the tranquiliser wears off."
"Maybe your bitchiness was showing," Sabretooth grunted.
"Changed my mind," Mystique sneered, "You can go fuck yourself." Sabretooth just chuckled in response as they continued to speed towards their destination.
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