Thank you for sticking around! I'm eager to keep the story going. Enjoy the third chapter.

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The van slowly stalled to a halt.

"Hey! What the hell, man?" Ox yelled, sticking his whole body out the window. Lowen, still groggy after dozing, sat up straighter to look at what was happening. Pippin too has craned his neck out the window and was muttering to himself. Before Lowen or anybody else knew what was happening, Ox has ripped open the passenger side door and jumped out with every curse word he knew spewing out of his mouth.

"Ox! Knock it off! Get back here!" Pippin demanded. Lowen rubbed her eyes and raised herself up to look out the windshield. A large truck was blocking their path. Not only that, but the truck was stacked with wood. Trees, to be more specific, large trees, and Ox didn't look too happy about it.

Uh oh, she thought, scrambling over her napping cohorts to reach the door. She slid it open just as Pippin opened his own door and stepped out of the drivers seat.

"I'm serious, bro, get back here," the normally relaxed hippie warned his friend. Just as he said this, a tall man came lumbering out from behind the large vehicle. He wore only blue jeans and a white wifebeater that was stained with sweat from the heavy heat. His dark hair was spiked up all crazy-like in patches and he looked like he needed a shave from the looks of those mutton-chops. When he saw Ox lumbering towards him, she could see his clench his teeth over the cigar set on the edge of his lips. Lowen stopped. A logger. She also knew that things could get real ugly between a hippie and a logger real fast.

"'The hell do you want?" the man growled. The hairs on Lowen's arms pricked up and she shivered, even though it was blazing outside, as she stumbled out and towards the two now facing off.

"Last warning, Ox! Back down!" Pippin was now following his companion.

"What the fuck you, doing man?" Ox fumed. The man only shrugged and shifted the cigar in his mouth.

"My job," he said simply, eying the fuming hippie up and down.

"What the hell are you doing to the trees, man?" he yelled, thrusting his arm towards the fallen wooden beasts setting defeated on the back of the rig. The logger gave him a look that was between amusement and annoyance.

"Well, I sure ain't takin' 'em out on a date," he said coolly. Surprisingly, she reached Ox before Pippin did.

"Wait! Stop! It's okay! You're only doing your job! I know that! We all know that!" She shot Ox a look. "We're leaving! It's cool!" she said, taking a hold of Ox's arm and tried to guide him away, but Ox jerked himself out of her grasp.

"No, it's NOT cool!" he raged, getting more and more furious by the second. "This monster is cutting down our forests! Mother nature gave this to us to care for, and this guy is ripping it down!"

"Look kid," the man stepped forward with a growl. Lowen felt panic rising up in her.

"We're leaving! We're leaving now!" she all but shrieked. Then she stopped short. I was actually lookin' for a lumberjack fella'... Crossfire's words echoed through her head. ...A mutant, apparently...

"Are you a mutant?" she blurted suddenly. The two seething males stopped suddenly in their tracks.

"What's it to ya', girly?" he asked suspiciously. Lowen shifted her weight nervously. She could almost hear Spooky furiously screaming "What the hell are you doing?" in her ear, and she sure as hell knew that if she turned around, that's what the look on his face would be saying.

"Well, uh...I'm a mutant, too!" The man gave her a hard stare. "My name is, uh, Lowen," she offered with a nervous grin. She could see his stance relax a bit as he lowered his fists and felt his emotions calm slightly.

"Yeah, I am," he grunted, looking her directly in the eye. "The name's Logan."

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Very short, but I felt that I needed to update to communicate to people that I'm not dead...yet.

Thank you for reading! Please leave a review, mates.

I just discovered the "Traffic Stats" button yesterday and had a "NO-WAY-isn't-the-internet-just-so-magical?"-dork moment (technology still amazes me for some weird reason). I have to say, I'm flattering and want to gush praise at all who added or favorite`d the story. It's nice to know it's actually getting read. Thank you all very very much. I hope you keep coming back for more.