Jack stood outside a small brick house on the outskirts of Hope Springs. Only seconds earlier, he had watched the sheriff leave the house. His instincts told him to stay out of sight of this man, so he hid behind a large old tree until the lawman was gone. He then approached the house cautiously.

He heard voices inside, soft, sobbing voices, the kind one would expect to hear between family members reuniting after fate had so cruelly ripped them apart. He knew that the girl had probably spent the night in custody, and the sheriff had just brought her home.

Jack softly knocked on the front door. He heard no response from inside, so he knocked again, harder this time. He immediately heard movement within the building, and the door opened seconds later.

A man in his early forties stood in front of him. He was tall, with dark hair and eyes. He wore a mustache and a small beard.

Jack stepped back, asking, "Mister Keith?"

"Yes."

"I'm Jack McGregor," he said. He held up the newspaper in his hand and continued, "I'm here about your daughter."

Mr. Keith had a look of anger and disgust on his face. "Are you from the press or something? Which newspaper sent you? Cheyenne? Denver?"

Jack shook his head. "No, sir. I'm not with the press. I'm here to help. I think your daughter might be in danger."

Mr. Keith looked confused. He didn't know if the young man was telling the truth. He didn't know if he was really here to help, or to cause more pain. He sighed, and said softly, "Come in."

Jack followed the man inside, and they sat down in the living room. There were a few seconds of silence, in which time April and her mother, Penny, entered the room.

"Let me start off by saying that I'm sorry about what happened yesterday." He looked at April. "I know that accidents can happen when you can't fully control your mutation. But the people of the town might not see what happened as an accident. Some might think you were trying to kill your teacher."

April's face was red, full of anger and fear. "But I wasn't trying to kill him! I'd never try to hurt Mister Lewis. He's my favorite teacher."

"I understand that," Jack said, nodding. "But if even if they do understand that it was an accident, the people will still fear you. They'll see you as a threat because you can't control your power." He glanced around the room, looking each of the three family members in the eye. "And the truth is, you are a threat."

Anger was very apparent on Mr. Keith's face. He was about to yell something, when Jack stopped him.

Looking at April's father, Jack said, "She's a threat to herself. She needs guidance. Teaching on how to control her mutation."

Mrs. Keith, who had been staring off into space, chose this moment to speak up. "Who's going to do that, you?"

"I can help, but I'm really not qualified to properly instruct her on the use of her powers."

"I've been trying to contact someone," April said. "A guy named Xavier. I heard that he runs a school for mutants. But the school was raided last week by some government agency, and I haven't been able to get in touch with anyone there."

April's father looked at her sternly. "You mean you already knew that you were a mutant?"

April nodded, saying, "Yeah. I found out about my powers a couple years ago."

"How?" Mr. Keith was almost enraged that his daughter had been hiding the truth for so long.

"That isn't important right now. What is important is that she gets some help." He paused for a moment. "Xavier is probably the only one you can trust on this. There are other organizations that promise to train and educate young mutants, but I've heard a lot of negative things about them. Some are crime syndicates. Others are organizations looking for guinea pigs for experimentation."

"That's horrible," gasped Mrs. Keith.

Suddenly, chills ran down Jack's spine. His instincts were telling him that something was wrong. He looked at Mr. Keith and asked, "May I request something of you and your family?"

The middle-aged man nodded silently.

"Pack your bags. I feel that something bad is going to happen. At the first sign of trouble, I want you all to leave."


After leaving the Keiths' house, Jack returned to the inn, where he received a phone call from the mayor. He wanted to meet Jack, and the young man agreed. Jack spent much of the rest of the day talking with the leader of this little city, meeting town officials, and was even given a rather large sum of money from the townspeople.

He returned to his temporary home around dusk. As he entered the inn, the man at the desk stopped him.

"Mister McGregor?"

"Yes," Jack answered, turning to the old man.

"You got a call while you were out. Seems your truck is ready to go."

Jack smiled. "Great," he said, walking toward the door.

"Oh, you can't get it now, son."

"Why not?"

The old man smiled a wide toothless smile. "Because," he said, "the shop's closed. You'll have to get it in the morning."

"Oh," Jack said, somewhat disappointed. "Well, thanks for relaying the message."

"No problem, son."

Jack went up to his room, where he packed his things, and then stood at his window. He couldn't ignore is instincts, which were telling him that things were going to get ugly, fast. He just stood there, waiting. Waiting for whatever was going to happen to finally happen.

When that time came, it was worse than he'd imagined. At first he heard a soft hissing sound, almost like a faint battle cry. It slowly drew closer, and he saw a huge mass of people marching down the street.

He understood what was happening even before he knew he did. Most of them were armed. Some carried shovels or pitchforks. Others carried shotguns, rifles, and handguns.

Most of the people who were not armed carried signs that read things like, "No mutant is a good mutant," and, "We want Hope Springs to be mutant-free." One sign even said, "God hates mutants."

Jack was afraid. Were they after him? Or someone else?

"Oh, no," Jack whispered as he grabbed his suitcase. He ran downstairs and out of the building, where he saw the huge procession approaching. His heart was racing as he bolted down the street toward Floyd's shop.

It was hard to run with the large suitcase, but he couldn't leave it behind, due to what he was carrying inside it. It was something valuable, something that only he knew about. Something he needed.

He hoped the people hadn't seen him, and if they had, he hoped they didn't know why he was running. Thoughts of the mob overpowering him raced through his head, causing fear to consume him. His heart rate sped even more, and adrenaline rushed through his body.

He felt his most basic animal instinct, 'fight or flight,' kick in, and his pace increased. He was moving fast enough to put an Olympic runner to shame, reaching Floyd's shop, a distance of more than a half-mile, in only a few seconds.

All of the lights inside the shop were off, and all the doors were closed. He saw that his truck was inside the garage, a place he needed to be.

"When God closes a door," he said, running toward the shop's small wooden door. He crashed into the barrier, shattering it completely. "Make one of your own!"

Jack quickly found his keys, and moments later, rammed the vehicle through the garage door. Glass and pieces of aluminum showered the street as the truck roared down the road.

He reached the Keiths' house almost as quickly as his sprint from the inn to the shop. Jack jumped out of the truck and ran to the front door of the house, yelling loudly.

"Hurry! They're coming!"

Mister Keith opened the door and asked in an angry tone, "Just what in the name of Heaven are you yelling about?"

"You all have to get out of here! About a hundred people are headed this way with all sorts of weapons! They're coming for her!" Jack had never been so emotional; he felt an uncontrollable combination of fear and urgency.

"Penny! April! Come on," Mr. Keith yelled. "We have to leave!"

April and her mother came running, both carrying suitcases.

"Hurry, get in the car," Mr. Keith said, trying to calm himself. "I'll go get my things."

Jack looked at the girl and her mother. "No! April should go with me! I can protect her. Taking her with you would just put you two in jeopardy."

April's parents stared at Jack, uncertain of what to say or do.

"It's OK," April said to her parents, trying to act calm. "Just do as he says, I'll be better off with him, and you'll be better off without me." Tears were starting to fill her eyes.

Mr. Keith looked at Jack, unsure if it was the right thing to do, but only momentarily. He nodded, and then turned to his wife. "Come on."

Jack heard sirens approaching in the distance. He turned to the couple headed for their car and yelled, "The mob and the police are approaching from the east, so go west!"

Mr. Keith yelled back, "Where are you going to go?"

"We'll go east and distract the sheriffs. But don't worry. I won't let anything happen to her."

Then, everyone climbed aboard their vehicles, Jack and April in the truck, Mr. and Mrs. Keith in their car.

Jack sped down the street toward the oncoming police. "Buckle up," he yelled to April. She did so immediately.

A stone stare crossed Jack's face as the three black and white vehicles drew closer. He sped on, playing a high-stakes game of chicken, knowing who would lose. The cruisers came ever closer and his glare became more intense. They were only a few hundred feet apart now. They drew close enough that Jack could see the faces of the deputies inside the cruisers. Their expressions were completely different from his; one of them even looked as if he was staring death in the eyes.

Only feet from the Jack's truck, the lead deputy slammed on his brakes and turned wildly to avoid a collision. He did avoid hitting the oncoming truck, but did not avoid hitting a telephone poll, which snapped and fell onto his Jeep.

The second two vehicles, both Crown Victorias, split and Jack drove right in between them. They immediately turned around, one almost spinning out of control in the process.

Jack looked in his mirror to see the two vehicles giving chase not too far behind him. He pressed harder on the accelerator and the truck lurched forward. But the two smaller vehicles accelerated too quickly for Jack's aging vehicle to keep its lead very long.

The deputy in the lead car chucked as he gained on the black truck, cursed as he navigated around potholes in the old country road, and screamed as the vehicle ahead quickly decelerated. He swerved to avoid a collision, but clipped the truck's rear end, and the police cruiser spun off the wet road and into a ditch.

Jack's stone stare was still on his face as he accelerated, leaving the disabled police car in his wake. Now only one remained, and he had to think fast to find a way to get rid of it.

Before Jack found a solution, it presented itself before him. The last deputy piloted his vehicle beside Jack's, driving in the opposite lane. He motioned for Jack to stop, but the young man did not comply. He simply shook his head and turned sharply to pin the car against a guardrail. Sparks flew and metal screeched for what must have been fifteen seconds. But eventually the guardrail ended, and the cruiser was forced off the road.

Jack sighed loudly and his look of determination faded into one of gladness and relief. He looked over to April, only to find that she had passed out in all the excitement.