As quickly as I could manage, I weaved my way through the many vehicles parked outside the pub. I could just about manage to see a speck of black hair in the distance. It was a struggle to walk fast enough to catch up with the speck. Due to my current condition, the speck started turning into a mere dot. I quickly debated what to do; if I ran, I would probably collapse, but if I didn't run, I would be stuck at this dirty pub. So I decided to jog.
I could hear my-self starting to wheeze slightly, and my breathing was becoming heavier. Even my bones were quickly starting to ache, and with every movement, the bruises and scars on my abused body gave out a huge wave of pain. Ignoring my body's feeble protest, I advanced my pace, causing the mere dot to become a speck, which then started to become a blob, then a figure and into a man. I had reached my destination.
As silently as a predator hunting its prey, I crept up onto the back of the truck, crawling into a comfortable position. I sighed, granting permission for my body to relax. The cool wind brushed softly against my face, whipping at my hair, innocently calling me to sleep.
However, just as my head started to loll and my eyes became droopy, the truck suddenly stopped, causing me to be banged back and forth slightly.
I groaned softly, then looked around and frowned. The vehicle had stopped in the middle of nowhere. There were trees swaying in the wind, and snow sitting peacefully on mountain tops, but there were no buildings around, or any other signs of life. Then, a car door slammed, and I could hear heavy footsteps approaching. My heart starting pounding loudly and painfully in my chest. The rhythm of the footsteps matched the loud beating.
Then, as suddenly as the footsteps started, they stopped. I didn't know what to do, I felt like someone had stupefied me. There was nowhere to go, or to move, without making a sound. And even if I did escape, where would I go? I was in the middle of nowhere!
During the time that I sat questioning my chances of survival, I failed to notice a face staring at me. Eventually I came to terms that somebody was watching me and standing at least half a metre away from me. I looked up to see an angry face looking down at me.
"What the hell you doing?" he asked roughly, taking his cigar out this mouth, which he was previously smoking. I could see that he recognized me from the pub.
"I'm sorry. I…I needed a ride, and I thought you might help me." I said nervously.
"Well you were wrong. Get out," he replied, jerking his thumb backwards.
"But…I mean, where am I supposed to go?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"You don't know, or you don't care?" I challenged him.
"Pick one," he retorted back. I climbed out of the back of the truck and jumped down onto the ground beneath me.
"You…you can't leave me here!" I pleaded desperately.
"Watch me."
So I watched. I watched him get back into his truck and drive away. I sighed, all hope drained from me. However, just as I turned away, my ears picked up a sound; an engine stopping. I glanced back and saw the truck standing there in the middle of the road. I grinned.
"You don't have anything to eat, do you?" I asked, as my stomach rumbled for the umpteenth time that day.
He put his cigar in his mouth, then reached over to one of the compartments in the car, and pulled out a bar of something brown.
"What's this?" I interrogated, looking at the brown stuff curiously. The man didn't answer; but instead stared at me in disbelief.
"You mean you don't know what chocolate is?" he inquired.
"Choc-o-late", I said, experimenting with the new word. It sounded strange, almost like a foreign language. I looked at the bar of brown stuff again, and then brought it to my mouth, nibbling it.
"Hmmm, I like it," I grinned. The man just kept looking at me, with immense incredulity.
"What?" I asked him.
"You haven't heard of chocolate? Man, I thought all kids have heard of chocolate!" He said.
"Well…" I tried to think of something to say in reply. "I haven't had much of a chance to be a kid," I said finally. The man looked at me once more, but didn't say anything.
After a few moments of silence, I piped up again. "I'm Hestia by the way," I said, trying to get onto friendly terms with him.
"Wolverine," he said in reply.
"Wol-ve-rine," I repeated. "Hmmm, what kind of a name is that….I mean, I like it, but…," I rectified after seeing the look on his face.
After a moment or two, he replied, "My name's Logan."
I looked at him, before saying, "Oh. Well, I prefer Wolverine. You know, it means 'Coacuatchoo.' Wolverine was the moon's lover," I told him, remembering the story that somebody had once told me a long time ago.
"Really?" he asked. For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of recognition, but when I looked at him again, it was gone.
"Yeah," I replied.
There was another moment of silence, before I spoke again - I was never the one for a quiet atmosphere. "You know, you really should wear your seat belt," I lectured him.
"Look kid, I don't need advice on all –" SMASH! The glass on the windscreen smashed, and sprayed everywhere. I yelped in surprise and automatically raised my arms in front of my face to protect my-self. Suddenly, Logan went flying out of his seat and through the windscreen, landing several metres away from the truck, into the snow. My mind was too busy wondering if he was OK, to even think of saying "What did I tell you."
Something caught my sense of smell's attention. I looked around, and saw a familiar image. The back of the inside of the truck had caught fire. I coughed, and reached down to undo my seat belt, only to find that it was stuck. "Logan!" I desperately cried, hoping against hope that he wasn't dead. I just started to take a liking to him.
Slowly, Logan got up, making me sigh with relief, only to stop mid-way when a hiss caught my attention. The fire seemed to be growing bigger. Logan looked up, his face smeared with wet blood, due to a nasty cut that had developed. Before he could say anything, I stopped moving. And stared. And stared. And kept on staring, and staring. Logan meanwhile was looking at me with confusion. I was staring at his cut. It seemed to be healing rapidly on its own. After what felt like hours, but was actually only a couple of seconds, the healing stopped, and Logan's face was cut-free.
"You alright?" he asked me. "Hey, kid, are you alright?" he repeated, speaking louder, making me snap out of my daydream.
"I'm stuck!" I shouted at him. He strode over, ready to help me, but then stopped. I groaned. What happened now? Then, I noticed something, that if anyone else were with me, they probably wouldn't have noticed. They wouldn't have seen the way that Logan's ears pricked up, and the way that his nose wrinkled, as if he was sensing something nearby. I stopped struggling and glanced around, worried. Was someone or something out there?
Logan's eyes started to narrow, as he turned around on the spot, trying to locate whatever he was searching for. Suddenly, he stopped, and slowly, the metal claws that penetrated his skin, came out. Any sane person who probably recoil, but then again, I'm not exactly…sane.
The heat of the fire started to increase, making tiny beads of sweat form on my forehead. I could feel my body started to burn up, but instead of the smoke choking me, something else happened. I started to engulf the smoke, like it was oxygen. My body seemed to like the poisonous gas. I was about to shout Logan's name again, when something big and hairy jumped out of the bushes and onto Logan. It came so suddenly, that I had no time to scream "Look out!" to Logan. I peered at the animal, realizing that the creature was in fact another human being, but was just somewhat too hairy. The creature roared, and launched it-self at Logan again. This time the latter was prepared, and moved out of the way. The hairy beast growled, and grabbed Logan as if he was a rag doll. He hurled Logan through the sky, making his destination point on the bumper of the car. I gasped, looking at the unconscious form of Logan, whose metal claws had somehow retreated into his hands. The beast laughed deeply, then stomped its way over to where I was sitting. But just as he was standing at the front of the car, he stopped walking, and sniffed the air. I frowned, wondering what he was sniffing about. As if he was trying to answer to my wonderings, the hairy creature looked up at the sky.
I followed his gaze, noticing only then how dark the sky had become, almost dark enough for a storm to brew. The creature snarled, and looked around. I leaned over, and saw two figures standing in the exact same spot that Logan had been laying. The shorter of the two figures had dark skin, and looked quite young, despite the fact, she had long white hair. Almost the colour of the clouds. The taller of the two was a male. He too looked quite young, with short, wavy brown hair, high cheekbones, and weirdly enough…some sort of a red and grey band across his eyes, the sort of band you see on battle visors – expect, battle visors do not normally glow red. I could somehow feel a lot of energy vibrating off him, although I was not exactly sure how I could.
What was the most peculiar thing about the two of them was the woman's eyes. Instead of having pupils like anyone else, her eyes were completely white, and they were focused upwards, like...like, she was controlling the weather. I shivered, even though the fire had grown bigger and the heat would be for any other person, unbearable. I say 'would be' because it was actually rather comfortable for me. I couldn't stop shivering – who were these people? I mean, I had quickly accepted that Logan was different, but now I think about it, they were all the same. They were all strange…different. Like they all possessed some sort of a weird talent. Logan's being that he had metal claws…and the ability to heal quickly. This woman's being that she could control the weather. But what about the other man? I could feel many energy waves coming from him, and he was wearing some sort of a protection. Maybe the band of red is like….laser. Maybe this person could shot out laser beams?
Throughout the entire time I was working out what these people could do, I didn't see Mr. Hairy Guy be thrown into the bushes by the optic energy beam that Mr. Laser Guy shot at him. Nor did I notice the short women and the tall man walk over to the truck, and stop outside my door. What I did notice, however, was the truck door being opened, and Mr. Laser free me from my seat.
The strange women reached out to take my hand, and looked at me, saying, "Come with us. You are safe now." I guess I was too exhausted to think about arguing, as I took her hand. Mr. Laser grabbed hold of Logan, and the three of us (Logan was unconscious, so he couldn't exactly run) ran away from the truck, just as it exploded.
I'm afraid I can't tell you what happened after that. I had slipped into unconsciousness.
