Author's Notes: it has been a very long time since I authored anything. Between marriage and kids I don't seem to have alot of time to myself. I will do my best to update this fic along with my other main story, but I make no guarantee.

Chapter 1: Flee

It was damned cold out and the junker beetle that she had stolen wasn't doing much too warm against the cold. Sure hot air was blowing out but there were so many small holes in the beetle that the heater was losing the battle.

Ever since that hot summer day in Louisiana when her mutation manifested she had been on the run. Her father called her the devil's child, a monstrosity and her mother wouldn't even look at her. No, they hadn't gotten rid of her in that moment, but she knew it was bound to happen, she could tell by the look in her father's eyes and the shame written all over her mother's face. So, she took and packed her father's old army duffel with what she could including gloves and her green trench, then waited till they went to bed. She snuck into the kitchen and took all the money her mother had hidden in the ice tray at the back of the freezer. There was no way she was going to give them the satisfaction of tossing her out or worse yet sell her to one of those labs for mutants everyone had been whispering about.

So she ran into the night never looking back. Her plan was to get to Alaska and make a new life for herself. At least there no one would as why she was always all covered up.

At first things were working out, she had hitched several different rides and most of the people who had picked her up were pretty decent. But then a greasy trucker decided that he needed a little payment for the ride. At first she offered him the last of her cash and he took it, but then decided that it wasn't enough and reached over grabbing her by the hair. As he held her still by her hair he reached his other hand up to touch her face.

Fury and anguish filled her mind, then came the darker, more intense thoughts of what he wanted to do to her. She flung him off of her and watched in horror as it all happened again. The same as Cody the first boy she had ever kissed. The convulsing and twisted face, the lack of air. His voice inside of her head tormenting her, screaming at her as she mentally built the walls to shut him out, just like she had done with Cody. She somehow managed to pull herself together enough to take back her cash and take what he had in his wallet. Then she ran again without looking back.

She avoided hitching after that and walked instead. When she had reached the border to Canada she had run out of money and options. Standing outside of a rundown motel she decided that it was time to find her own ride. Parked in the far side of the parking lot was a beat up old Volkswagen beetle. 'Perfect.' She thought as she strolled over to the beetle, like it was her vehicle.

Casually she tried the door. Luck seemed to be on her side, the door opened. Quickly she slipped inside, tossing the duffel into the back. After a moment's hesitation she began to work on the steering column to jimmy loose the starter. Her entire neighborhood may have thought that Cody was the golden boy, but it turns out he had a thrill for stealing cars. She used his memories of how to jump start the beetle and took off.

And now here she was cold off her ass, despite the heater going full blast. Past the U.S. border, and traveling on a winding back road in Canada on her way to Alaska. She had hoped that by taking this route she would avoid the police and be able to use the beetle till she at least hit the next town or ran out of gas. Either way she was going to get there but when the she hit a patch of ice she thought, 'Well fuck, isn't this just my luck.'

The beetle began to spin out of control then flipped once before hitting the guard rail and flipping over again and then over the edge of the road. When the beetle finally came to a halt after slamming into a pine tree, she was barely hanging onto consciousness. In the dimness of her mind all she could recall was, 'I am going to die out here and no one will care.'