Chapter One

Dawn came much more quickly than I wanted it to, and I found it hard to even manage to tell Logan to let me sleep in.

"What? You think I won't bust down this door?" I heard his muffled voice come from outside my door. "You're the one who set up this whole thing. Now get up before I make you, kid."

"I told you to stop calling me kid!" I said with a defeated sigh, rolling over slowly and putting my feet to the floor. "Call me Marie or Rogue, just not kid. I'm in my twenties. I hardly qualify anymore."

I heard him give a grunt of acknowledgment, probably hearing me get up from the bed and stretch. His voice coming through the door again, much less irritably, he said, "Meet us in the garage in twenty."

"Right," I said, grabbing my already packed things and running into the bathroom down the hall to freshen up.

Twenty-five minutes later, I strolled into the garage with my uniform on. I could hear voices way down at the end of the garage so I followed them until Logan and Bobby came into view, both standing next to a massive black Lincoln Navigator. Logan was already looking in my direction, having probably heard me before I stepped through the door.

Both of the men were suited up, both adjusting gear that was in the back of the Navigator. Bobby seemed to finally notice my appearance and immediately smiled, approaching me.

"Ready for this, Marie?" he asked, making me cringe slightly on the inside. I hadn't exactly asked him to stop calling me by my actual name, but it seemed like he was still trying to be much closer to me than I wanted him to be.

"I don't have a choice," I said, shifting my bag uncomfortably on my shoulder. "This needs to done."

Bobby reached forward in a gesture to take my bag, but I shrugged him off and approached Logan standing next to the vehicle. He was puffing on his usual cigar and barely suppressing a glare I could sense he was directing at Bobby. I smiled lightly at him as I came near, but as soon as I was within reach of him, he took my bag without even asking and tossed it into the back of the S.U.V. I noticed his sideways glance at Bobby, and that's when I realized Logan's feral side must have been establishing his dominance as the Alpha of the group.

"Hey, be careful with that!" I snapped, reaching in and adjusting my bag amongst the multitude of supplies we were given. Once I had it placed right, I leaned back up and noticed both Bobby and Logan had their eyes on me. Frowning, I said, "Will y'all quit just starin' and get in? Where are the keys?"

I heard a faint snort come from Logan, so I looked at him questioningly. It was so hard to overlook his tall, strong physique, which was quite apparent when he had his uniform on so he was quite a sight to look at anyway. "If you think you're driving, you're wrong. I do the driving."

Trying to keep my temper in check, I narrowed my eyes and said through clenched teeth, "You gotta sleep sometime."

Bobby came closer to the vehicle, standing between me and Logan. Looking at Logan, he said, "Come on, man. Let her drive. This was her idea."
As much as I appreciated Bobby trying to back me up, I didn't want his help.

Tossing his cigar to the ground and smashing it out with his boot, Logan looked at Bobby with a slight fire in his eyes. "I have better reflexes than the both of you combined. I'm driving. I can sleep when we set up at night."

"Alright, fine," I said in defeat, raising my hands in surrender. Suddenly thinking on what he said, I said, "Wait, we're setting up at night? I thought we'd just take shifts sleeping and driving while killin' them things."

"That's way too dangerous. We have to settle at night. It'll be safer that way," Logan said with finality, opening the driver's door and getting in without any further fanfare.

"How?" Bobby questioned as I rolled my eyes at his attempt to be on my side.

I heard a low rumble come from deep within Logan, the Wolverine in him not liking being challenged. "Because," Logan said through gritted teeth, standing from the vehicle and straightening himself to full height. He towered over Bobby. "When we're on the road we need all eyes on the lookout. We can easily fortify any place to rest."

"Do we really need to fortify, though?" I asked, straightening my uniform out. "We're more than capable to take on anything that creeps up on us."

"It's necessary if we want any rest," Logan said. Something in his eyes implied much more meaning to his words than I could catch on to.

Not bothering to try and lock horns with (literally) the most hard-headed person in the world, I relented. "Fine. Shotgun."

Bobby and Logan both seemed to almost trip over themselves as I sashayed away and around the Navigator, hopping into the passenger seat as the two looked on. I'm sure they were both confused by my complacency.

Logan seemed to come to himself first and snapped at Bobby. "Get in!" he barked before taking his seat in the driver's spot once more while shooting me a sideways glance.

With Logan's undeniable road rage and need for speed, we were already approaching our first decimated town that had those things stumbling around within thirty minutes. Once we had come to a stop a safe distance away, I reached for the door handle just as Logan grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Hold on," he said gruffly. I could see the slight change of his face that said he was sniffing around the area and listening for every single noise. "Rogue, stay with me and make sure my back is covered. Bobby, I want you on top of that building – " He pointed to a still-intact building ten yards away. " – and calling out positions. Freeze as many as you can and Rogue can finish the job on the ground."

In the backseat, Bobby looked sullen but didn't say a word. He had already been beaten down once by Logan's Alpha mentality. He didn't want to go against him again.

"Alright, let's do it," I said, opening my door enthusiastically and striding quickly to nearest monster. It barely even had time to hiss at me before my blades left its head rolling against the dirty asphalt. I could feel Logan come up beside me as I watched Bobby in my peripherals as he scaled the building, using his ice to get him to the top quickly.

"Remember, stay on my back," Logan said to me in a low tone, not taking his eyes away from the nearest undead thing that was coming closer to us. I saw another one about twenty feet away, but I didn't even have time to process it before it was suddenly frozen solid. Looking up, I noticed that Bobby had already begun spotting and freezing the things.

"Rogue, on your eight!" I heard Logan rumble from behind me. Quickly turning to the left, I caught the disgusting thing right before it got within reach of me. As I slashed out my blades, the creature stumbled, accidentally but effectively ducking my strike. Thinking quickly, I brought my knee up and smashed the thing in its face, causing it to stumble backwards and onto its ass. I jumped on top of it quickly, putting one boot on its chest as I used my weapons to remove its head.

The crowd of undead was becoming thicker as others in the distance heard the commotion and came shambling after us. Logan was effectively slicing and dicing anything that came from behind me, and I continued to fight with everything I had, making sure none got past me. Bobby would occasionally call out something we couldn't see, but he was doing his job by freezing at least every other wraith that came near.

It seemed to take several hours of the same thing over and over. Bodies were piling up, but there wasn't anything we could do about it at the time. Around three in the afternoon, Logan seemed to have finished off the last one that was within hearing range. There were still several dozen, if not hundreds, that were frozen solid. Wiping the blood from his claws, Logan nodded towards them, looking at me with his always-so-serious face.

I took that as my cue and tapped my dual blades together. Suddenly, three foot long batons slid from the base of my blades as I stepped towards the first frozen creature. Using the baton side, I smashed the head of the frozen thing and completely shattered its head. Taking a deep breath, I began going through the paces quickly, swinging my batons around and smashing each frigid monstrosity in the head, which effectively kept them from coming back once they melted.

My job only took about an hour, and Logan helped a bit as Bobby kept a lookout. Since Logan's last kill, nothing else had emerged. Bobby seemed to think it was a good thing, but God-only-knew what was hiding in the trees nearby. We made sure to make as much noise as possible, hoping to attract as many as we could.

Every one we managed to kill was another one the world didn't have to deal with.

Once the streets were completely undead-free, we moved on to checking each building. I suggested we split up to cover more ground, but Logan only growled at the idea before barking at Bobby to start searching at the other end of town. When I asked where I was supposed to go, he mumbled something about not out of his range of sight.

I wanted to bristle at that. How dare he think he need to protect me at all times when this was my mission? What right did he have to take charge?

"Logan, I can't be effective at helpin' if I'm by you the whole time," I said exasperatedly, using my flashlight to check the pantry of the kitchen we were in. When he gave me a questioning look, I said, "You literally leave me no kinda job cause you just take care of everything. I'm just standin' here watchin' you."

Logan gave me a hard stare. I didn't care if he felt some instinctual urge to protect me all the time. I was a grown damn woman and I was more than well-trained.

Finally giving up on reasoning with him, I opted to just piss him off and get it over with. "I'm going to check the next house. I'll mark an X on the door if it's been cleared."

"You can't go off on your own, Marie!" Logan said suddenly. I turned, my hand on the door handle.

"Yes I can and I am. This is my mission. If I need help I'll call for it but don't think for one second that just because you and Bobby are here that I don't need to be in the action. We'll be done scouting this town by nightfall if we split, so we're splitting." The obvious look of anger shrouded his face, to which I responded, "If Xavier didn't think I was capable of doing this, he wouldn't have let me do this."

Finally just ignoring him, I turned and walked out the kitchen door with him growling, "Marie, get back here!"

Ignoring him, I went on to the next house and timidly opened the door. Whistling loudly, I waited to see if I heard any movement in the house. Something far off sounded like it fell, but I couldn't tell what direction it came from.

Retracting the batons on my blades, I readied the both of them at my side as I crept through the house. It was only a one-story house, so there wasn't much to search. I checked the living room, the kitchen and bedrooms before I finally found where I believed the sound was coming from. There was a half-door below the A/C unit that had a sliding lock on the front. Putting my ear to the door, I could faintly hear the gurgling moans that were on the other side.

Sliding the lock carefully out of place, I pulled the door open to reveal a set of stairs that you had crawl down the first few. Listening, I could definitely hear an undead creature in the darkness as it groaned and made slow, shuffling sounds. Putting my hand on the inside of the door, I rapped on the inside wall to get its attention. I could hear its immediate acknowledgment of the sound and suddenly the shuffling and snarling sound got closer. I heard a thump, which made me think he had began his ascent of the stairs. Standing and backing away from the door, I readied myself as I heard it come closer. It only took a couple of minutes before it finally made its appearance, popping its gruesome head from the hole beneath the A/C unit. I took that opportunity to go ahead and take the swing, removing its head from its shoulders.

I stopped and listened for another moment, seeing if there was anything else down the hole besides the one I had just killed. When I heard nothing, I moved on, exiting the house and marking a large X over the door with one of my knives.

Things seemed to go that way for the rest of the evening. It was getting dark right as I approached the last building I needed to check. It was a small boutique, so I knew it wouldn't take long and then I could regroup with Bobby and Logan. Noting the locked glass door to the building, I extended a baton and smashed the glass.

What I hadn't been expecting was the very loud, shrill sound of an alarm. It surprised me so much that I fell back flat on my ass. Taking only a moment to recover, I hopped up and ran through the door, desperate to find whatever operated the alarm to disable it before every zombie in a fifty mile radius came looking for me. Finding an office in the back, I noticed the wires from the alarm running to a box beside the breaker switch, which must have been some type of battery. Slicing through the wires quickly, I felt my heart finally start to slow as silence once again permeated the area.

After calming my nerves after such a shock, I crept back out of the office and waited, crouching low from a corner that had a good view of the entire store. I knew that alarm had to have attracted some of them, so I had to wait. I probably crouched in that same position for fifteen minutes before I heard the first low moan. Breathing out a puff of air, I readied my scythes and kept my eyes glued to the door. I finally saw movement within moments, to which I waited out. I needed it to come inside the store before I left my safe spot. I heard the crunching of glass as the thing stumbled through the door, growling wetly and clearly in search of me. Once it was a few feet inside the door, I jumped from my spot and went in for the kill. The poor (I use that term lightly) thing didn't even have time to see me before its head was rolling.

Satisfied with myself, I slung some of the blood from my weapons before walking out of the building. Crunching through the glass, I walked through the broken door and almost screamed at the sight that met me. There were at least a couple dozen, if not more, of those creatures, and all of them had their decrepit eyes locked on me as they shambled forward.

"Shit!" I yelled, jumping backwards and back into the store. Taking off at a full sprint, I ran to the back of the store and into the office, slamming the door shut behind me. Looking around frantically, I saw a vent up above that was reachable if I climbed the desk. I could hear those things right outside the door, slamming their hands and fists repeatedly against the flimsy door. Shoving the computer and printer and all of the other unnecessary stuff from the desk, I climbed up and wrenched the vent from the ceiling. I heard a loud crack and looked around to see that the obsessed monsters had already made a hole in the door and was trying to make it big enough to go through. Readying myself, I jumped up in an attempt to grab the ledge, but I was just a hair short and fell back. My foot slipped from the edge of the desk, causing me to tumble to the floor, hitting my head on the corner of the computer tower. It took a moment to get my vision back but when I did, I saw the creatures were almost completely through the door. Wiping away the blood that ran from my head injury, I climbed the desk and readied myself once more. Putting more power into my leap, I finally grabbed the ledge on the vent, using my core muscle strength to lift me up and over the edge, settling in the cramped metal space.

Knowing the creatures didn't have the motor skills to climb up to where I was, I took a moment to sigh in relief and wipe my brow again. Blood was trickling down the side of my face, but it wasn't enough to worry me. I watched as the snarling creatures plowed through the door finally and crawled onto the desk, trying to reach me. We could easily see each other, but their reach was just a little too far off.

Since I wasn't sure where the air vents would take me, I settled for staying in place and picking them off one by one as they came within my scythes' reach. Every time one would stand up on the desk, I'd swipe down, making contact with their necks or temples, effectively killing them. I stayed where I was for probably around twenty minutes, having only taken out seven or eight of the things before I heard my rescue.

"Marie!" Logan's tone reverberated through the room and the vent shaft.

"I'm here!" I yelled out, taking another swipe at a nearby zombie. Without hesitation, the entire room was flooded with ice, freezing everything that was below me. After that I could hear crashes, like the breaking of ice. It only took a moment to see Logan below me, looking up. He was slathered in blood, but I was pretty sure none of it was his own. He gave a quick swipe of his claws at the last frozen corpse, shattering it to bits.

"It's safe," he huffed out, reaching out.

Taking that as the signal to jump down, I slid easily from the vent and landed lightly in Logan's arms, taking care to not let my skin touch him. He didn't put me down like I thought he would, but instead carried me out of the frozen room and out into the main area of the store, which was iced over and covered with blood as well. I could see Bobby standing at the broken front door, looking like he was scouting for more of those monsters.

"I got her," Logan said gruffly, getting Bobby's attention. He looked up and saw me for only a second before he immediately approached the two of us.

"Are you okay?" Bobby asked, almost momentarily forgetting about my skin and trying to touch my forehead where I was bleeding from. Logan snapped me away from him quickly, a low warning growl rumbling in his chest as he almost raised his hackles.

"Don't touch her, idiot!" he barked, sweeping past Bobby and walking through the broken doorway. It was dark outside so I couldn't see much, especially with my vision starting to blur again. I'd hit my head pretty hard on that computer, and it was beginning to throb like it. However, if there was a threat, Logan would know, so I trusted him to take me wherever we were going.

I heard Bobby following up behind us. He and Logan were talking back and forth in rapid succession so it was impossible for me to understand what they were saying. Or maybe I was just...

Yep, I was just blacking out.