Peterson slid open a drawer in his desk and pulled out a large manila folder. The tab on it had a case number and the name ‘Doe, Jane’ stencilled in black.

“Take it.” He said with obvious disgust. “You want to be an animal like them then go ahead. I’d rather be rid of you then protect the privacy of a freak like her.” The doctor crossed his arms over his chest with finality. Strangely, his remaining buck-toothed body guard continued to count floor tiles like nothing had transpired in the office at all and he was waiting for a bus.

Lucas reached out a hand and snatched the file from the surface of the desk as the sounds of chaos erupted in the common room. He flipped it open to examine its contents. There were transcripts from patient/doctor interviews, police and federal reports, Medical examination results. He wished he had time to read it from cover to cover but the clock was ticking. Half way through the documents, he found what he was looking for. It was the photo they had taken together that night. Both of them smiled and the sign in front of them read ‘Lucas is my friend. I trust him.’ Noel had added in his last name in her own writing so she wouldn’t forget. Under that was the letter he had written to her so she wouldn’t be confused when she woke up the next morning. The map seemed to be gone as were the strange packages and the ankle pouch. The young man hoped this would be enough.

He turned to the window to witness the anarchy that had erupted. The patients were in full revolt, if that is what you could call it. The scene seemed like something out a deranged circus. Orderlies were being juggled, a boy swinging from the ceiling was flinging checkers like a monkey and a giant man was simply sitting in the corner and growing bigger. In the center ring, Noel was being chocked by the red headed orderly.

With file in hand, Lucas hurdled the newly opened window frame and ran full out at the pair struggling together on the floor. Noel was on top of the red head, held up at arm’s length, her eyes drooping sleepily as if she was about to take a nap while she was being strangled. The distance closed in a split second and the man focused his anger at the sneering woman on the ground. His foot connected soundly as he drove his heel into the side of her skull. The red head rolled with the force of the blow and her arms went limp, allowing Noel to drop like a sack of groceries. The orderly wasn’t dead, but she was going to have a hell of a headache when she got up.

Lucas’ first instinct was to bend down and pick up Noel’s unconscious body in his arms. She was breathing but he still wanted to comfort her. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time. Doctor Peterson had gotten up and was making his way to his office door to escape. Meanwhile, a dozen orderlies where preparing for an assault from outside the common room. They would open the door and rush in to crush the rebellion in a few seconds. Escape had to be now. There wouldn’t be another chance.

“You! Tiny!” Lucas yelled at the giant in the corner. “Pull the metal grating off the window if you can!”

If it was the man’s name or not was irrelevant. The orders seemed to fall on deaf ears. The newly nicknamed Tiny was staring at his giant hands and giggling childishly. He would be no help. A quick scan showed Lucas more of the same. If these mutants had their faculties, things might have worked differently but they were all drugged to their eyeballs. They weren’t really fighting for their freedom. They were just playing a new game that Lucas had introduced into their environment. Their subdual would be painful and it was all Lucas’ fault.

Frustration fuelled the primal yell that erupted from his lungs as he dropped the file at Noel’s side and charged towards the window. Arriving there, he wrapped his fingers through the mesh and placed his foot against the cement wall. Arching backwards, he forced every ounce of strength in his body into tearing the metal barrier free. He felt the muscles in his back strain painfully but he clenched his jaw and continued to put everything he had into freeing the exit. It didn’t budge until suddenly, a giant hand smashed into it and crumpled the metal grate like tin foil. Lucas barely got his fingers out in time and tumbled to the ground as his leverage disappeared so unexpectedly. Tiny smiled down at him with a stupid grin on his face.

“Tiny! Get as many out the window and down to street as you can....and do it safely. Do you understand?”

Lucas didn’t wait for a response. He didn’t even know if Tiny was up to the task. It didn’t matter. The reinforcements were coming in and he had to act. Rolling to his feet, Lucas barrelled through the common room and threw himself against the door with everything he had left. It slammed back closed with the impact but the effort only bought seconds. It was twelve-to-one and Lucas knew he couldn’t beat those odds and hold the door closed for long. An alarm bell started to ring and echoed throughout the building. Time was up. The rebellion was about to fail.

Jane fell forward onto cold tile and coughed. Funny, it only hurt when she breathed in. The woman now only partly underneath her had not passed out, but her hands were otherwise engaged cradling her red head. Yeah. Jane knew exactly what that felt like. A manilla folder slapped down next to her face. She looked up, but Lucas was gone.

Shakily she got to her hands and knees and then just to her knees. Lucas was zipping around like a mad man. First here, then there. Flinging himself at windows and doors. He seemed to be fast forwarding while Jane was stuck in slow motion. She settled for picking up the folder. Doe, Jane. A photo fell out.

It was a family photo. They all looked pretty happy. She stuffed it back into the folder and flipped it around so that nothing else would fall out on accident. Like that photo of herself and Lucas. She picked it up and examined it closer. There were markings on it that made her dizzy so it too went back into the folder.

The big man who had smashed his fist through the metal grate continued to grow larger by the moment. He had no problem picking up the red head next to Jane and stuffing her mostly limp body through the window. She might have imagined it, but Jane could have sworn she heard a thump. She glanced back through the window behind herself and looked down. Thankfully they were only on the second story, but she didn't see the red head moving around anymore.

Tiny reached for Jane and she scuttled back a few steps. He reached again and the brunette was suddenly hoisted by one leg up into the air and craned toward the window like a stuffed toy in a cending machine. Her manilla folder fell out of her hands and onto the ground again, just out of reach. "L-Lucas?" She clapped her hands over her ears when the alarm started. The sound of it made even her teeth ache, it was so loud.

Her elbows banged against the stone wall and twisted metal that curtained the open window and a two story drop. She had to let her ears go to grab onto the edge of the window. Tiny tried to pull her out further and when she seemed to get stuck decided to just let go. Jane held on for dear life, feeling sluggish, thick and breathless as her body collided with the outside of the building.

Tiny went back to grab someone else.

Leaning all his weight against the door, Lucas struggled to find purchase on the smooth tiles. On the other side, the nursing staff sent to quell the patient uprising slowly pushed the door open despite his efforts. There was nothing he could do to hold that portal closed and he knew it. If only he could stall them for half a minute more, some of the other mutants might escape. He risked a glance back over his shoulder to see how the rescue effort was moving along to witness Tiny grab Noel and slowly move her towards the window. Her hands were over her ears to drown out the alarm bell and she had dropped the folder he had just secured upon the floor nearby.

She called out to him for help. “L-Lucas?”

He was busy trying to hold back an army. There was no time to aid her. If they were all going to escape, he needed to hold the door and give the others a chance to….

Everything changed when Lucas saw Tiny toss Noel’s tiny form out of the window.

Lucas gave up the door immediately as the three heavy set shoulders pounded into it. He used the door’s slingshot momentum to reach full speed almost instantly. The orderlies tumbled over each other as the obstacle to entering the room had suddenly changed stance and given in completely to their onslaught. The decision was made in a heartbeat. Lucas was here for Noel; the rest were on their own now.

He hurtled across the room. Jane’s folder sat on the floor in direct line with his goal, enticing him to slow and snatch it up on his way by. It contained hints to who Noel really was. Not a full picture, but at least a starting point for her to rebuild her life. The information inside might help Noel to understand her past and where she came from? Maybe some clue was buried within that folder that could lead the woman to discover who she truly was and aid her in regaining what she had lost? It would only take a split second to pick it up…. but Noel might not have a split second. He could see small, slender fingers gripping the base of the window where she had caught hold. Noel’s safety was the only thing that mattered.

Launching off the ground, Lucas sailed through the air and landed in a crouch with his feet on the window sill. Reaching down with his tattooed hand, he grabbed Noel by her wrist and pulled her up from her precarious perch. The effort nearly unbalanced him but his right hand shot out and grabbed the side of the broken frame. Jagged shards of glass bit into his palm and fingers as he steadied himself. A fine trickle of red started to roll down the side of the window and Lucas’s arm as his grip held firm. Looking down, he saw the cement below. The bloody splatter of the red headed woman proved the risks inherent in the fall. Across the street, the fire escape of the apartments sat invitingly, mocking the man’s quest for freedom as it watched, just out of reach. He couldn’t jump across an entire street and seize the opportunity for escape and there was no time to lower the woman down safely.

Cradling Noel against his chest with his left arm now, Lucas wrapped the fingers of his right hand around a large piece of glass and tore it from the ravaged frame, holding it like a dagger. Looking back, he saw the staff as they poured into the room. They were merciless as they subdued the patients and cries for help or mercy went unanswered by their victims. A few feet away, Noel’s folder sat on the floor, promising salvation for the woman that Lucas held but it too was lost as four angry orderlies charged the pair’s position, stomping over its manila cover on their way.

Lucas had failed. He had wanted to save them all but wasn’t strong or quick enough. His mutation allowed him to heal others. Instead of taking away pain he had inflicted all this misery and he couldn’t see a way to stop it. By crossing that line in the office, he had brought this to these innocent mutants and there was no one to blame but himself. He had thought he could face the consequences of his actions but hadn’t considered that it might not be him that ended up paying the price. There was still a chance for the pair to get free but it meant he needed to cause even more agony to someone who had tried to help him. Another selfish act of sacrifice so he could save the woman in his arms. At what point was the cost to high? Guilt was to be the price of freedom… and Lucas made the choice to pay in full.

The glass dagger punctured Tiny’s flesh as Lucas stabbed the giant under his ribs. The Colossus cried out like a wounded animal at the sudden unexpected injury. Releasing the glass shard, Lucas wrapped his other arm around Noel and held her as tightly as he could while turning his back to shield her body from what was coming next. Tiny’s massive couch sized arm flailed outwards instinctively to try and protect himself from the unseen attack, connecting solidly with the man that had just jabbed him and sending the couple hurtling over the street towards the fire escape.

Jane's feet scrabbled at the side of the wall. There just wasn't enough texture to help her pull herself up. Her heart chugged and she ached in a dull and remote way. More than anything she just wanted to go to sleep. Looking down at the red haired woman, now in a puddle of redder red than her hair, somehow that just didn't seem like a good idea right now.

Something rattled the window pane she was gripping and she made a sound of protest before hands caught her arms and wrenched her upward. She was all too glad to have someone to hold on to. Back inside the mental hospital, she saw the hoard of battle-ready doctors flowing through the doors.

This had to be a bad dream.

She buried her head against the solidity of a muscular chest. If she closed her eyes, it could go away. That happened sometimes. She would open her eyes up and when she opened them again she would be somewhere else, a different time or place than she thought that she should have been. Jane closed her eyes tight.

And whipped them open again when over large fingers gripped her again. Oh no.

They went out the window, but it wasn't a smooth shot. People just do not make good projectiles. The duo's legs clipped the window pane and that stole some of their precious momentum. Jane scrabbled panicking at Lucas and practically crawled up his body to wrap her arms around his head and keep him as close to her as possible.

He held her tight and secure despite her wiggling. She was scared out of her head and yet one little soap bubble of a thought floated toward the top of her mind. This felt familiar.

Luckily, buildings in New York cram in close and tight. They didn't land on the fire escape so much as slam against it. Tiny hadn't been aiming to save them. He had been throwing them in anger. The metal sounded like a gong and her grip on Lucas faltered when her left shoulder hit. Quickly followed by her left side and hip, Jane's left side took the brunt of the force and momentum of their throw. Her head whipped to the side in the air just above metal railing. For what was far too many times in one day, she felt like she couldn't breathe.

She was facing the wrong way to catch hold of anything to stop them from falling more. The pair of them clunked down toward the landing below.

They spun head over heels as they flew over the street and impacted against the outside of the fire escape railing with a loud clang. Lucas felt a sharp crack in his right side when they hit and the air exploded from his lungs for the second time that day. The couple bounced backwards into nothingness and Lucas sensed Noel’s grip loosen and release as they fell away. Letting her go as well for a moment, he tried to spin himself and then whipped both of his arms out wide. His left hand caught hold of the woman’s arm again while his right wrapped around the floor grate of the landing’s edge. Gravity continued to force them apart before Lucas’ arms went taut and held. White hot agony stabbed into his ribs and the man cried out in shock and pain.

Noel’s momentum caused her to swing down and over the landing, only a couple of feet above. He tried to force his mind to maintain both grips but before he could stop her swinging and put her down, his torn hand gave way from above and they both fell the rest of the distance. The world tumbled backwards until Lucas colided with the cold hard stone, starting with his knee. Another shot of pain shot through him as his leg folded awkwardly underneath his body and he tumbled across the porch’s surface until banging into the door.

“Ow” he tried to say but the sound came out as a slight and distant wheeze.

Rolling onto his left side, he looked across the street at the window they had both just vacated. A muscular man in a white shirt stared at them in disbelief while Tiny manhandled his compatriots in the background. Lucas could hear Noel beside him as she fought for air as well.

Even though they had left the hospital, they were far from safe. It would be easy for someone to step out the door and take the woman back. Lucas was no longer in any condition to stop them so moving was the only option. He pulled himself up on his leg and tested it to see how it felt. It would support his weight but he wouldn’t be running anywhere for a while. They needed another means of escape. He turned to Noel to help her to her feet soi they could continue to flee.

Impact. Fall. Catch. Streeetch. Slip. Impact. Impact. She wasn't even sure where all the blows came from anymore. One moment she thought she lost Lucas in the tumble and the next they were both on the ground and he had her arm.

Her hand went to her heart as she wheezed her way to her feet. She burned inside and felt cold outside. Her heart and lungs burned worst of all, but they didn't have time to assess damage. They had to run. Or hobble. Any sort of moving seemed to satisfy Lucas.

Jane was on her feet and both of them were down the street before the brunette even stopped to wonder what the heck she was even doing. She had no idea what was out here. Her safe, white walls were long gone. The only proof she had that she didn't dream it up was a medical bracelet and her light blue scrubs and shoes. All of this: the loudness, the people, the buildings. This was new. Even the park she had tried so hard to get to was long gone.

"Where?" She wheezed when taskmaster Lucas finally let them stop for a moment. Her hands shook and every muscle felt tight, if distant. Actually, stopping seemed like a bad idea. Momentum might have been the only thing keeping the both of them going forward.

His breath never returned as Lucas limped through the urban jungle of New York, dragging Noel behind him. They had only gone about five blocks but he had to stop and take a rest. Leaning his back against a wall to steady himself, he tried in vain to suck in air, receiving a stinging pain from deep inside for his efforts. He had assumed he had cracked a rib or two when they were thrown out of the building but it seemed now that it was worse.

“Where?” Noel wheezed from beside him. She was growing tired and they needed to get off the street soon but they were so far from where Lucas wanted to be. He needed to get her back to Brooklyn and to Noel’s old stomping ground. Maybe something there would trigger her memories but the main thing was to find someone who knew her. He knew of only one other person she had met and from what Lucas remembered, there was little chance he had gone out for the day. They had to get there quickly because anyone with half a brain and her map would know where they were headed now that one of them was injured.

Like an angel sent from heaven, a cab came around the corner as they waited for their breath to return. On willpower alone, Lucas pushed himself from the wall and stepped out towards the street, waving his bloody hand to catch the driver’s attention. It pulled over to wait for the new fair to enter.

Opening the door, Lucas pulled Noel around in front to help her get into the back seat first before entering the cab himself. Once inside, he pulled the door shut and flopped back into the plastic covered seat. A Middle Eastern gentleman with a receding hairline stared back at him from the rear view mirror.

“Where to buddy?” He asked in heavily accented English.

“Brooklyn” Lucas gasped. He leaned forward and to the side a little and pulled back Noel’s sleeve to read the man the address. After sharing the information, he changed his mind. “Make it two blocks north of the address. I don’t feel like walking today.”

Letting go of Noel’s arm, Lucas reached his left hand up over his back and tried to pull his hooded sweater off over his head. It caught under his right armpit and he almost passed out from the sudden wave of agony. He gave up instantly and turned to Noel for assistance.

“I need your help to get my sweater off.” He said in a raspy whisper. “You have to wear it until we can get you some different clothes.”

The man in front looked like he might ask them about... well, there were a lot of things he could have asked, but he didn't. He just turned around and they all started moving. Jane took her arm back from Lucas and rubbed at the markings there. Her shoulder and elbows protested the movement, but it was second nature to her whenever someone looked at it. She wanted it off of her. It never came off.

And then she noticed the buildings that slid past the window behind Lucas. Her head ached, but the buildings were amazing. They radiated history. How many years had these structures stood? How many memories did they hold? The world was so big and Jane was so tired.

"Don't do it if it hurts." She tried to sound kind, but it came out mostly slurred. Her left eye was swelling shut. She would have a proper black eye before the night was over thanks to the red headed orderly's fist. Jane moved her hands under his sweat jacket and moved slowly in her quest to remove the article of clothing, partly because it hurt him and she didn't want to hurt him. Partly because it hurt her.

She pulled his coat on with equal slowness. It didn't feel warm. It didn't feel cold. She just wasn't feeling much at all besides hurt. But... It did smell nice. Jane pulled the edge of the jacket up to her nose and let her eyes droop. The movement was soothing. But she couldn't sleep. Not yet. She could sleep when they got there. Wherever there was. "Where are we going?"

The cab stopped in front of an old brick building that made her head ache even worse. Her forehead wrinkled so much that it pulled at her puffy eye. "There's no elevator." She might have remembered that... or maybe it just looked that old.

The cabby turned around and leaned on the back of his seat. “Fourty three dollars.” He mentioned casually, not even bothering to address the many strange things he undoubtedly saw in the couple’s appearance. That was one good thing about cabbies in New York. Most had seen it all and were happy to just do their job and go home without getting involved.

Pulling out his wallet, Lucas took two twenties and a five and handed them to the driver. He had about eighty dollars left now. Hopefully, that would be enough for the man upstairs.

“There’s no elevator” Noel said as she looked up at the building beside them.

“That’s right. We are going to get some exercise.” Lucas answered as he popped open his door and got out of the cab carefully.

Lucas had only been here once before. If not for the little shop at the end of the block he would have been unable to pick the place out from dozens of other identical apartments on the street. Everything in this neighborhood looked the same. It was part of Brooklyn’s charm but also made it difficult to get around sometimes.

Limping around the other side of the cab, Lucas opened Noel’s door and helped the woman out with his good hand. He noticed her face as she exited. Her eye had begun to swell and looked tender. She had suffered a solid blow at some point during their escape and now her left eye was beginning to close up. It was already looking ugly and it was only going to get worse over the next couple of hours. If the guy upstairs didn’t help them, Lucas was going to look pretty rough for a week or two after he healed her.

Reaching the door, Lucas scanned the address list on the wall. The name ‘J Smith’ jumped out at him. Not as much from familiarity but because of the bold red letters saying ‘No Soliciting’ scribbled beside it. It seemed the kind of thing a shut-in hermit would write beside his buzzer. He pushed the dated plastic button and heard the speaker crackle to life as it mimicked the sound of the phone on the other end.

The ringing stopped after a few seconds and a voice came down through the ancient speaker. “What?” It asked annoyed.

“Hey, How you doing? Can we come up?” Lucas answered as cheerfully as he could between gasps for breath.

Silence was the only response for a moment before the man spoke again, sounding even more perturbed. “What do you want?”

“My friend brought me by a month ago and you helped me with my shoulder. We really need to talk to you again.” Lucas said.

“Go away. I don’t know you. Forget this address and never come back.” The answer was short and curt but there was no click or dial tone to signify the man had hung up on the other end.

Lucas had figured the hermit might be a bit paranoid when he had met him before and didn’t want to play on his fears but there wasn’t many other options open to him.

“Smith, you really have to let us in. It isn’t safe out here on the street. Anyone with a listening device could be hearing this conversation from a dozen different positions. We need to talk to you. It’s really important.”

Still silence from the other end. Lucas needed to reach the man on a level he understood to get his point home. ‘J. Smith’ had to think that Lucas was an ally who understood the dangers of the world as much as he did. There needed to be some connection that they shared so he would trust him. The young man decided to go for broke.

“And make us a couple of those foil helmets for when we get up there. This has to stay between just us.”

The sound of the buzzer sounded to signifying the door had been unlocked.

"Hell no."

He had taken one look at the pair of them, through his chain barred door and instantly tried to slam it.

Jane's hand rested in the frame keeping any actual slamming from happening. Of course, that meant her hand was getting crushed every time he stubbornly shoved the door toward its frame. She didn't cry out, but she did squeeze both her eyes shut and cringe in on herself. The ex-agent remembered enough to know that he would try to keep them out at first and had hoped her hand in the way would stop him from doing exactly this. Next time… the shoe. She would definitely use her shoe.

"Do. You. Know. How. Much. I. Lost. Be. Cause. Of. You!" Each word was punctuated with a shove or slam against the door. She wanted to take her hand back, but the speed and force of his slams kept it in place.

"John, so help me God, I will call the FBI!"

The door stopped slamming. Jane looked just as surprised as he did.

"You wouldn't."

The brunette took her hand out of the way and cradled it to her chest. With the chain in place he didn't have enough momentum to break anything. It just hurt like nobody's business. "They would come running." She felt like she was reading lines out of a script. They were her words, but pre-planned and from another time. Apparently bullying John Smith was second nature.

He frowned and then frowned more. "You." He pointed at Lucas. "Come in. I have plenty of foil. And you." He pointed at Noel. "Stay the f*ck out of my life."

The door slammed and this time there was no hand in the way. The chain rattled and Jane sank down until she plopped hard on her butt. She could sleep in the hall. Lucas could do whatever.

Lucas reached his hand down to Noel and touched it against the side of her cheek. He waited for the door to open as he wanted John to see what happened next. It would help him to share a secret of his own before asking John to do the same. The door popped open and the shut-in’s tinfoil covered head peaked out to assess the condition of the hallway.

Letting his focus fall inward, Lucas searched out the center of the woman’s being and took hold so he could draw her injuries away. There was a slight tingle before her pain came flooding through. A dozen new cuts and bruises blossomed over his body almost instantly. His left shoulder, ribs and hip began to ache. The fingers of his hand burned with the feeling of being recently slammed inside a door. His left eye became swollen and started to shut, a heart beat thumping deep inside the tissue.

“Don’t go anywhere.” He ordered Noel. “If somebody comes, knock on the door but sit here until I get back.” With the entry open now, Lucas limped straight into the living room, past John, to his kitchen. He opened up a few cupboards until he found the tinfoil and began to make himself a hat.

“I need to make a deal with you John.” Lucas said to the man as the door was closed and locked.

“I need you to tell me everything you know about the woman in the hall. Where you met, how you know her…anything you can think of and leave nothing out. If you could heal me in the process it would be appreciated but it is secondary to the information.”

Satisfied with his shiny new apparel, Lucas lifted it up and placed it on his head with great difficulty.

“In exchange, I’ll give you my word I or Noel will never bother you again. If you heal me, I’ll give you all the money I have in my wallet. Not much, about eighty bucks, but it is the best I can do on short notice. If that doesn’t cover it, just the ribs would be nice. The rest will go away on its own.”

John turned around while he listened to what Lucas had to say. The look on his face showed he didn’t think it was a fair trade. Lucas needed to sweeten the deal or get kicked out.

“When our deal is concluded and we are both satisfied with the results, I’ll tell you what the FBI learned from Noel when they locked her away in an asylum.” Lucas added. “Do we have a deal?”

At his order, Jane began to sulk. She had planned on staying here anyway. Where else would she go? For some reason being ordered to behave rankled her. A sentiment quickly forgotten when he touched her face. She gasped and opened both eyes. She could run a mile or jump hurdles now if she wanted to. Lucas hobbled away like Quasimodo.

A flash of cold ran through her and the euphoria wore off. He did that. And he did it before. She remembered perhaps the first time she saw him, outside this very building. Lucas had been holding yellow flowers. Like the yellow car they rode here in. Jane could easily imagine them both near a crumpled yellow car… And his toes. The color might be gone now, but she she was starting to remember Lucas. And Lucas was always surrounded by yellow. He was her yellow man. He had to be, after all, he came for her.

The ex-agent smoothed stay strands of hair from her face and scrubbed at her eyes. She still felt weird. Not bad, just weird. The hood tugged up over her head before she slouched against the wall opposite John Smith's door and let her eyes droop.

---

"I'll do the ribs. And the eye. Jeez, I don't even want to know what you kids keep getting into, but you've got to learn to live with consequences." He continued to mutter about consequences and how very charitable he was as he steered Lucas to the gurney.

John had done his research, on Lucas as well as Noel. He knew that Lucas was relatively new in town, fresh from Florida. He knew that Lucas boxed. He knew that Noel brought in people to heal every now and again, mostly males and most claiming to be her partner at the bureau. Most had seemed less than reputable, some had seemed downright confused. More than anything, John knew that Noel was dangerous. That her powers were mental and out of control. "And you don't want your brains scrambled."

He got so carried away warning Lucas off from Noel that he forgot to stop healing after the eye. He stopped when he'd realized that he'd gone too far but before everything was fixed.

Lucas listened to what John had to say and took it all in. There wasn’t a huge amount of useful information about Noel’s past but a pattern was there. She seemed to take in strays and he had been one of them. When it came to Lucas, John had a surprising amount of knowledge considering he had lived on the street. He wanted to ask how the strange man came about his information but decided against it. He was already getting more help than he expected.

When John told Lucas he was finished, there was a quick exchange of money and the pair walked towards the door. John opened it for him and waited. There was no reason to drag it out.

“Not sure if you will care or not but when the Feds took Noel into custody, she carried a map with her. She had put a bunch of notations on it to help her remember. I saw it once and you were on that map. Not your name but and address under the heading ‘healer’. When I got a hold of her file at the hospital, the map was already gone. Thought you should know.”

Lucas extended his arm to shake John’s hand. “Thank you for your help. You’re a good guy and I wish we could have met under different circumstances. If you ever need anything, I’m guessing you’ll know where to find me after that little chat.”

Lucas didn’t expect to see the man again.

-----

The door closed behind him and Lucas pulled the tinfoil hat from his head and stuffed it in his pocket. Slumped down against the wall in front of him, Noel slept peacefully. She had pulled the hood of Lucas’ sweater up over her head and looked like a little gnome. Sure, John had warned him she was dangerous but how dangerous could such a cute little creature really be.

As gently as he could, Lucas reached an arm behind her back and another under her knees. They couldn’t sleep here and he didn’t have the heart to wake her. His place was a bit of a walk and she was pretty light. There was a good chance he could make it. They could come back and investigate her apartment tomorrow after she slept off the effects of whatever medication the doctors had given her.

His leg nearly buckled as he stood up with the woman in his arms and he limped down the stairs as carefully as he could so as not to wake her. It was slow going but thanks to John’s attention, his body was only a bit sore for the most part. Lucas’s nose caught a scent of Noel’s hair as he cradled her and it helped his memories return to that night when they had curled up together. Holding this woman felt good and despite everything that had happened, he was happy to have found her again. Reaching the landing, the young man hobbled across the tiled floor towards the door. The glass of the front entry allowed him to see the rusted white bus as it drove past. The bold blue lettering on the side was unmistakeable. “Greenwich House Mental Care Facility”.

He was going to have to wake the poor woman up after all.

John froze in the doorway. He had been outed. He cursed something awful including a strange sprinkling of words like 'vapid,' 'gray matter' and 'brain sponge.' His door slammed and for once, he didn't bother to lock it. He was flying around the room to pick up his escape pack and stop by the window so that he could curse again and with more feeling.

Why oh why had he sold his machine gun away? From his emergency stash, he pulled out a military grade sniper rifle complete with suppressor and scope instead. He was prepared to flee rather than defend his apartment from zombie apocalypse or government invasion. Machine guns were so better in this sort of situation.

She dreamed of sunshine and the beach. Each of Lucas' rocking steps registered as a crashing ocean wave and when they stopped it wasn't right. She wiggled when he pulled her closer to protect her from the things outside. "Put me down." She said the words and that had to count for something even if she said them all slurry and made no move to ready herself for standing. She didn't even open her eyes. This waking up business was hard. Her forehead wrinkled.

When Lucas tipped her down and her feet touched down to the ground she had to open her eyes. It was like peeling open velcro, they were meant to stay together. She ended up scrubbing them.

The van outside, the late afternoon heat and sunlight, the bicycle messenger coasting past... nothing registered as particularly disconcerting.

KRSCH!

Now, she was awake. The windshield glass of the van shattered from a high caliber weapon at close range. Another sound like a champagne cork followed close behind, PFFFFFZ!, the front tire deflated.

Jane had no words for this. Instead she grabbed Lucas' arm and pulled him toward the back. There had to be a back way, right? Firemen insisted on these kinds of things. They ended up going through the laundry room to a skinny alley that would let them go out onto the street where someone had opened fire or into an unmarked door.

She choose unmarked door number 1 and was greeted by a rush of steam and a stream of what was no doubt obscenities only in some kind of asian language. Jane ducked past a man who was shaking a soup ladle at them and pushed her way out into the dining room just as two men dressed in orderly white stumbled in through the front door obviously panicked and more worried about what was outside rather than inside.

Jane stopped dead.

Barrelling into the dining room, Lucas and Noel came up behind two men in white scrubs. One had a dark goatee and a shaved head to hide his balding pallet. The other wore his hair in a long blonde ponytail. They had been fleeing the sniper outside and looked to the street nervously. Noticing something nearby, the bald one quickly opened the door while the blond man leaned out and waved towards another person to encourage them to hurry. Coming into view was the tall lanky guard from Peterson’s office. His thick rimmed glasses and buck teeth stuck out awkwardly as he calmly walked into the restaurant at his own leisurely pace.

“Jeez Lloyd.” Goatee said to the new arrival. “Are you crazy? You could have been killed.”

Lloyd didn’t bother to respond to the man who held the door for him. He cocked his head to the side and his nose crinkled as he sniffed at the air for a moment. Catching the scent, his eyes focused on Noel almost instantly. His voice seemed bored as he raised his finger and pointed at the woman.

“There she is.”

The other two men turned and followed Lloyd’s direction and saw the pair in the middle of the restaurant. If this was a western, a tumbleweed would have blown through the establishment at that point. Instead, people looked up at the strange scene as it played out in front of them while they slurped down noodles or munched on egg rolls. The room went deathly silent.

Lloyd kept his arm extended and a long worm like tentacle began to extend out his sleeve. It was the color of dead flesh and was covered in sticky opaque mucus that dripped from its tip. The goo splashed upon the floor and formed small puddles that hardened into a crystallized resin almost instantly. Another similar appendage fell from the sleeve of the arm at his other side. He was a mutant too.

Grabbing Noel’s hand tighter, Lucas turned to escape back through the kitchen and both of the orderlies took off trying to catch them like excited dogs. Lloyd watched them go as his tentacles retracted back up his sleeves. There was no rush. He would catch them at his leisure. The more they ran, the more they would sweat. Following there scent was that much easier this way. He reached down into the bowl of a man sitting beside him and plucked a chicken dumpling from his soup. Tossing it up and into the air, he caught it between his teeth and savoured the feeling of the juice running down his chin as he bit into its fleshy texture. Peterson had told him he could feast on them when he caught them. But for now, the hunt was just beginning.

Lloyd began to meander back towards the kitchen exit to follow along behind his prey as they tried to flee the inevitable.