Laura sat in her usual hiding spot in a tall tree right next to the glade she had first awoken in. She was watching the clearing for any signs of… anything. She didn't know why she expected the helicopter or her friends to return there. She hoped that they did, though. Even seeing the Reavers would at least confirm something. She would know that she still was hunted, that the shockwaves and the lightning could have been their doing. Maybe they would take her back, she'd like to think that she would resist in that situation. But at this point she didn't know. Maybe her friends had been captured by them, somehow. Maybe they wouldn't try to kill them. Maybe they would treat them better. That was a lot of maybes and not a whole lot of answers.
She wrapped the pelt she had skinned off the brown-furred animal around herself closer, the cold was worst in the morning and sitting still didn't help that. She didn't worry about surviving; she could to that even in the most hazardous temperatures. The problem was that she didn't want to be here any longer. She was always cold, food was a growing problem and her sensitive hearing and keen reflexes prevented her from sleeping as the smallest sound in the forest could cause her to sit straight up in a panic. But most of all, she couldn't stay here because of the memories. Yet she came back to the same clearing, day after day, waiting for something to happen and yet nothing did. She had counted six days alone, excluding the night when she had killed the animal. She had dragged it to a stream where she could get water, so she could prepare a shelter for herself without having to backtrack every time she got hungry. There was a lot of meat on the animal, and a warm fur that she easily had skinned from its body with the help of her claws. Unfortunately, the carcass had started to smell foul by now and she had decided that she probably shouldn't eat anymore from it to instead find another kill today. She probably still could eat the rest of the meat even though it tasted foul, but to eat that it would have to be an emergency. The smell alone almost made her throw up which kind of defeated the point of eating. She sighed and carefully climbed down the tree she had been perched in, she still didn't want to make a lot of noise and she didn't want to snag her only piece of clothing on a protruding branch.
She traced her own steps back to her new home, if you could call it that. She had gathered long sticks and put them against a tree to form a makeshift shelter for the wind and rain. The rotting carcass of the animal was nearby, though downwind and covered in leaves and branches to minimize the smell. There was a small stream of water nearby and the constant sound was soothing to her ears. Birds sang in the trees above her and the sun shined on her with a piercing yellow glow through the leaves. Laura barely noticed any of this. She tried hard not to think about anything else then the thing she was doing in the moment. She was going to drink from the stream, then she was going to go hunt, then she was going to carry her prey back, then she would eat and then… she didn't know, so she continued her mantra in her head. Drink from the stream, hunt for food, back with the prey, eat her food, and so on. She was so focused on this that when she got to the stream cupped her hands and took a long drink she didn't even hear the footsteps coming from her side until it was too hide.
Out of the bushes came a large, a little overweight man. He had a black-grey mustache and camouflage clothes on with a backpack and a rife in a sling over his shoulder. He hadn't seen Laura yet but now Laura noticed him. She froze. Behind the large man came a much younger one, with black hair and a gaunt face, clothed in the exact same way as the older man was, also with a rifle. He looked nervous.
Always take out the most dangerous target first, an uncertain person will be a worse shot and make irrational decisions. Kill the leader first, then his subordinates.
Laura had already subconsciously released her claws as her training took over, she didn't even have time to suppress it. Only now did the two men notice her and both of them jumped back in surprise with sharp inhales.
"What the hell!" The older man managed to say in surprise before Laura was on him.
She had jumped a distance that was only matched by professional athletes with her claws aimed straight for his chest. The mustached man managed to jump out of the way just in time, but in the reflexive movement he had fallen prone on the ground. No longer with a target to hit, Laura also fell towards the ground as the momentum of her leap took her way past where she thought she was going to land. She sheathed her claws and with her hands she pressed against the ground as she fell toward it and managed to flip back on her feet with a somersault. She turned around to her attackers, only to see the younger man removing the hunting rifle from his shoulder. He started to trail the gun towards her, but Laura's claws were already released again and the barrel was sliced in three pieces before her had the chance. He stumbled back from the ferocity of her strike, his foot stuck on a tree root and he fell down, arms flailing in an attempt of trying to both defend himself and keep his balance. Laura leaped on his chest to keep him down as she raised her claws to deliver a deadly strike to the throat.
Laura's ears started to ring as a gunshot boomed in the quiet forest. She felt a sharp pain of a bullet as it went through her arm and into her ribcage, flinging her of the young man with the mere force. She screamed in pain as she saw the older man with a look of pure fury had gotten up and was trailing his gun at her. She screamed at him as the man shot her a second time in the chest. Laura was pushed again by the force of the shot, and she could feel a rock under her head as it was whiplashed towards the ground. She let out a pained cough, blood sprouting from her mouth, the last bullet had probably hit her lung. The man shot her again, and again, and again. Screaming incoherently at her. Her arm was already healed and she felt as the first bullet in her ribcage started to be pushed out of her body. She gasped for breath as the rest bullets slowly wiggled it's way out of her body. After a small while she forced herself to look at the two strangers. The older man was now turned against her, helping the younger one up from the ground. Laura looked at the older man inspecting the younger, looking for injuries and asking fast worried questions that Laura barely could hear over the thumping of her own heartbeat in her head. With gritted teeth she pushed herself up with her now fully healed arm as both bullets that once was in her body was dropped to the ground. The older man didn't see her, as he was busy tending to the younger. The younger man, however, saw over the others shoulder and his eyes widened.
"Look out!" He cried out in alarm and as the older man turned to see what was behind him his left shoulder was impaled by two long adamantium coated claws.
Laura had leaped through the air again and as the older man stumbled backwards she stabbed him again in his side. He didn't look like he was in pain for a moment. He looked at his wound in complete confusion before his breathing slowed and he fell to the ground. He was going into shock. He was no longer a threat. Laura turned to the younger man who had been completely still during the attack. He looked at the older man, now covered in blood, in complete surprise. Laura didn't hesitate, she prepared herself for another attack while her next target was confused.
"Dad?" the young man asked in a choked voice, barely a whisper.
Laura froze. The fury in her body suddenly was replaced with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She stared at the bloody man beneath her feet like it was the first time seeing him. She looked at the younger man who had turned his gaze towards her, he also seemed like frozen in place. Laura could now see that there were similarities between them. They had the same broad nose, the same black hair and the same brown eyes. Laura stepped away from the person beneath her looking at her trembling bloody hands. She was breathing fast now. Her heart was beating so fast. She wanted to run, to escape. The man was bleeding out fast, he tried to stop the bleeding with his hands but the liquid just continued running between his fingers. Laura made her decision. She unsheathed her claws with a 'snikt' and looked at the younger man.
"Bandage?" she asked him. Her voice was raspy from days of not using it. The young man who had started to cry took one step back. He made a questioning noise, not being able to get words out of his mouth.
"Bandage?" she asked again, this time stretching out her hand towards him. The younger man took another step back, still looking terrified at Laura. He glanced at his father who was losing consciousness now. Laura slapped the older man to make him stay awake. She stretched out her hand again towards his seemed to make a decision as well, he took off his large backpack and started rummaging through the pack, throwing out everything he didn't need all around him. He took up a small red box and threw it hesitantly at Laura. She snatched it out of the air and released the claws on her left hand.
"Don't!" A panic yell came from the younger man. Laura ignored him and cut open the green camouflage vest the older man had so that she could see the wound. The older man was barely holding on. He attempted to focus his eyes on the young girl who took out a bottle of alcohol from the box. She poured some of it on the wounds and the older man screamed in pain as his body reflexively twitched. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he now laid unconscious. Laura knew she had to move fast. She applied pressure with the help of a cotton wad and her foot as she started to tie the bandage around the body of the man. She did the same for the other wound next to it and for the two punctures on the shoulder. Luckily, those were not as serious. When she was done, she turned to the younger man and her eyes widened as she saw him trailing his gun towards him.
"Step away from him!" he said with tears in his eyes.
He was untrained with the rifle. Laura could see that much. His gangly arms had a too lose grip on the end of it and he had closed one eye to aim better, or so he thought. With his father so close it was as likely the son would hit him instead of her. So Laura complied, she didn't let down her guard, though. She was ready to spring at any moment.
"He needs a hospital," she said motioning with her head towards the father without letting go of her gaze of the son.
"No shit!" the younger man snapped back, he pointed to the bag of equipment on the ground.
"There's a radio in there, t-throw it here," he stuttered at Laura, trying to sound in charge of the situation.
Laura nodded and slowly went to the bag. She searched for a little while but couldn't find it in the bag. She looked through the equipment she had thrown out of it when she had looked for the first aid kit. She found after a few moments a green coloured camouflage radio. She held it up and gently threw it towards the younger man. He tried to snatch it out of the air but fumbled, and it dropped to the ground. He picked it up and started to press the buttons on it as the air was filled with the sound of static noise. After a few seconds of frustrated mashing, the man threw the radio to the ground.
"Shit, shit, shit!" he said as tore his hair with one hand, the weight of the rifle made it point towards the ground as he did.
"No signal, gonna need to get out of here," he said to himself. He looked at Laura and then at his father. He started to say something but stopped. Laura let him think, because if she was honest she didn't know what to do either. She didn't want to be exposed to the reavers.
"Are you from Canada?" she asked carefully. The younger man looked at her in confusion, eyes still shifting from her to his father to the rifle in his hands. He nodded hesitantly, and a rush of excitement filled her.
"You know the way back?" she asked a little too quickly. The younger man glanced behind him for a moment.
"I don't know… maybe." he said. He wasn't exactly the picture of confidence. Laura pondered for a moment, she could probably smell the way they came but that would be pretty slow. Still better than nothing.
"Help me with him. Take his legs" she said as she grabbed the older mans arms and started to pull on him. The younger man hesitated, then looked at his father and grabbed his legs. They both almost dropped him as the heavy man's weight and the height difference between the two carriers made it hard for Laura to keep her balance.
"Wait." she said as she was about to drop the man to the ground again.
They lowered him to the ground, and Laura ran back to the shelter she had used as a home for a few days. She took the rest of the animals pelt she had skinned a few days ago and tied two long sticks to each end of it. She ran back with her creation and put it on the ground next to the wounded hunter. She motioned to the son and together they lifted him up on the makeshift stretcher and they started to move along the path the men had stumbled upon her.
They moved with agonizing slowness. Laura's forehead dripped with sweat as they moved the heavy man through the forest. Her muscles ached as they were damaged by the stress and rebuilt in a matter of seconds. The young man only spoke in short words, mostly directions and practical instructions.
"Left here", "Right here", "Take your end around that tree so we can go between them."
She would also hear him swear under his breath once in a while as he struggled to carry the big man. Laura didn't speak because she had no idea what to say. She was in the back and was therefore forced to look at the wounded man. She often tried to look at something else but that wasn't really possible for any long periods of time and everytime she saw the father she had almost killed a feeling of nausea would come over her. They continued on the path that the young man pointed out. Laura always tried to confirm the paths they were taking by trying to find the older scent of the two men. That was harder that she had thought it was as the new, stronger scent mixed with the old and the smell of blood and iron coming from the older man was almost overpowering The young man seemed to be going the right way though, something Laura hadn't expected. He had looked so unsure when she had asked him that Laura thought that she was going to have to search for the path herself. Luckily it hadn't come to that. It would have taken a much longer time and the old man didn't seem like he had much left in him. After a long while of hurried and arduous walking Laura saw an opening to a small clearing where a big green car stood on the gravily ground.
"This is it" The young man said as a new burst of energy seemed to surge throughout his body.
They walked in a faster pace to the car, still carrying the stretcher. They had to put the old man down so his son could take out the car keys from his pocket. Then they lifted him up into the backseat of the car. The young man took out his phone with shaking hands and dialed a number before holding it to his ear.
"Hey, My dad has been stabbed and is bleeding out… I'm not sure, I think so" He looked at Laura with a strange expression"We're to the west of Highway 9, at the hunting spot near the border…"
Laura decided to check on the father as the young man talked to the person on the phone. She looked at their hands. The blisters that had formed were already subsiding and after a few moments of rest she started to feel fit again. She could barely remember the last time she had been physically tired of a long time. After she had gone through her change, she could sprint for as long as 14 hours without collapsing from the effort. That had been one of the tests they had put her though at the facility. That had been a few years ago now, though, and she thought that she could probably go longer now but she wasn't that eager to try. The old man looked even paler now. She released her claws, and she could feel the young man looking at her as she cut the fur off the makeshift stretcher and put it over the old man. The young man continued to quietly speak with the person on the other side. He went to the car, still holding the phone to his ear. He stood in front of Laura, still looking unsure and scared.
"Can you move?" He asked her with so many different emotions in his voice that Laura didn't know how to keep track of them. She let him pass, her head hanging in guilt.
They continued to wait. The young man continued to get instructions over the phone on how to treat his father and that left Laura wondering on what to do next. She realized something she hadn't before now. She was safe. Safe from the Reavers, safe from the facility, safe from any beast that they would conjure up next. She was in Canada, the safe haven. And she had no one to share it with. She looked at the father and son. The first thing she had done was hurt someone. She hadn't even known if they were bad people before she had done it, it had come like a reflex. She felt a knot in her stomach, and she sat down on the gravel with her hands around her knees, trying to ignore the welling of tears in her eyes, the waves of memories and just focus on her racing heartbeat. Neither could be ignored and Laura hugged herself harder and dug her blood covered nails into her skin. After a little while she could hear sirens coming down the narrow road that seemed to leave the area. Laura glanced at the road as the young man started to move towards the sound in anticipation, he was still on the phone. An ambulance and a police car barreled down the road at such a speed that the gravel on the road flew behind them at such a velocity that they bounced off the trees and left small impact marks behind. The young man waved at them and the two cars stopped in front of him. A woman with blonde hair and a burly man with a came out of the police car in uniform and went up to the worried looking teenager.
"You're Ricky White?" the woman asked while glancing over her shoulder and motioning at someone in the ambulance. Ricky nodded and pointed at the car.
"Dad's in there…" he paused for a moment and pointed at Laura, "and she's over there."
The police woman looked at her with a puzzled expression. Laura tensed up. This was it, either she ran into the woods again and vanished or she went with the police and maybe they would help her. A man in a blue uniform, pretty similar to the uniforms of the police got out of the ambulance as two more people, one woman and one man got out the back with a stretcher. They went to the car that had Ricky's father in it and lifted him up.
"Hello there," a deep voice said calmingly beside Laura. She turned from the scene and saw that the burly police officer squatting beside her. He put his hand on his chest "My name is Liam, I'm a police officer. Are you hurt anywhere?"
Laura shook her head carefully, Liam nodded solemnly and looked at the pelt she still had wrapped around her.
"That looks pretty warm, where are the rest of your clothes?" he asked, still in the same calming deep voice. Laura looked a little uncomfortable at him and shrugged once. He tilted his head slightly and looked at her with a thoughtful expression.
"Okay, do you have anyone we can call? A parent or guardian?" Laura didn't react. Liam persisted.
"What's your name? Can you tell me that?" he asked, glancing at the teenager who was now looking at Laura with a tense expression, ready to spring at a moments notice if she did anything. Laura looked at Ricky and lowered her eyes almost immediately, she turned to Liam.
"Laura," she said quickly and quietly. Liam nodded at her again.
"Thank you, Laura. Do you have a last name?" he asked carefully. Laura's eyes darted around the ground, not wanting to meet anyone's eyes. Laura was the only name she had ever gotten. Well there was one other name, but Gabriella had told her that 'that' name wasn't her real name. So Laura simply shrugged again.
"Okay Laura. We have some more questions for you but first you need to go to the hospital to get a checkup and get some proper clothes, alright?" Liam said in a still calming but he made sure that there was no question that she was going with them.
"She's not going in the same car as us!" an angry voice said to the side of Laura. Laura looked up and saw Ricky standing to the side of them, his confidence seemed to have returned after he had been joined by some more people. "She nearly killed us!"
Laura snapped her head up and gave Ricky a snarl. She had to go with them! This was her choice. She had even helped him get his father out of the forest. She had to go with them. Ricky stumbled back at her violent response and began to reach for his rifle over his shoulder. Laura got ready to spring up on her feet again.
Aim for the throat, the lack of blood flow to the brain will quickly impair his vision, making it almost impossible to aim.
A large hand was put on her shoulder as she was beginning to tense the muscles that made her claws release.
"That will be enough out of you" Liam firmly said to Ricky as the police officer slowly started to rise. Laura hadn't noticed before, but the man must have been over two meters. He seemed to be perfectly calm facing down the armed teenagers, though Laura could see his hands shaking a small bit as the large man rose. "I have a thing against people pulling guns on children."
Ricky seemed to stop in his tracks as the police officer towered him. He glanced behind him only to find the female police officer standing behind him with her hand on her gun holster.
"You can go in the ambulance with your father. Laura will ride with us. Isn't that right?" Liam looked at Laura expectantly. She hesitated and then nodded once. Ricky stared angrily at both of the Police officers, then at Laura. He adjusted the rifle on his shoulder and stormed off towards the ambulance.
"That could have gone better" The police woman said to Liam who sighed and stretched out a hand towards Laura.
"Come, Laura. Let's get you somewhere warm," he said with a concerned expression. Laura didn't accept his hand as she rose and started to slowly walk towards the police car, and possibly her new life.
Author's notes
Alright! This took longer than I expected. I had written almost an entire chapter before I realized that I had made Laura a very passive character, something that I really wanted to avoid when writing this as she now is the main character. So I deleted 2000 words and started basically from scratch. The first draft of this chapter had more humor because I wanted to emulate the tone and dialogue of the MCU with Shawn and Ricky. Unfortunately, they never really got the chance to speak in this version.
I also did a fair amount of research into the behavior of traumatised children when writing this chapter and that made the chapter take longer to write. Though I think that helped a lot when writing about a character with a complex problem.
As you may have noticed the series is starting off pretty slow when it comes to meeting other characters from the MCU but I wanted to focus only on setting up Laura before diving into the all of the other characters. Hopefully, a little more MCU-stuff will happen in the next chapter.
Also, I think Google maps are liars because when I researched the previous chapter I looked for where the X-23 children possibly could have gone to and found a forest that passed the border from the US to Canada but it seemed to have vanished. The in lore explanation for this is that the defeat of Thanos also brought back some trees from the dead and now Canada magickly has a forest near the border to North Dakota and always had a forest there.
Papers I used when researching the subject of trauma and behavior:
Treatment for Abused and Neglected Children: Infancy to Age 18 by Anthony J. Urquiza and Cynthia Winn,
Literature review – a trauma-sensitive approach for children aged 0-8years: Women's Health Goulburn North East,