xp_logs | Artie and Annalee, Friday afternoon (Reply)

Artie and Annalee visit again.

Artie sat down quietly on a piece of scavenged cardboard and gave Annalee a little half wave as he handed her a box of Indian food and a coffee. As far as he was concerned, not even Morlocks had to eat bin food if they could avoid it. And this was still better than showing up to his other school, where he was supposed to be on a Friday afternoon. "Hey..."

"Hello, dear," she said, face lighting up at his arrival. She patted his hand as he handed her the food. "Thank you, Artie. Looking after your old mother like this, you're such a good boy."

He shrugged. "You're my mother..." and frowned slightly. "The police were clearing people out of the tunnels near the subways when I came in. You might want to lie low for a for few hours. It's kind of raining outside."

"We could go deeper into the tunnels?" she suggested. "It's dry and safe there. Just like old times." Her face fell. "Of course, it's not exactly the same. There's so few of us left now."

He gave a one-sided shrug as Annalee patted his arm. "That might be... safer or something. I don't know."

"Safer than the surface, at least," Annalee agreed. ""Too many of us have fallen prey to the upworlders. If it's not the humans trying to kill us off, it's our own kind preying on us. We're not strong enough to survive up there - in the tunnels, we have a chance."

He nodded, remembering Stryker's men kicking down his bedroom door when he was tiny. They hadn't even let him change his pants after he'd wet them. "You know, I've got off lightly, compared to most of the kids in the mansion. They've all been like, kidnapped and experimented on and things." Well, except for Matt but he was still pretty new.

"So far." She looked down at the coffee she had cupped in her hand. "I wish... no, I can't ask that of you."

"What?"

"You could come back. To the tunnels." Annalee looked up at him with an almost pathetic hope in her eyes. "You're almost eighteen, you could live wherever you wanted. Like with me, just like the old days."

"You know bits of the tunnels suck, though?" But the thought of living with his mother again, instead of just cutting school on the days he was in the city and on the weekends and going off to the tunnels, that was nice.

"But we know better, now. How to hide and where to avoid," Annalee told him eagerly. "Some of us are already moving back to the tunnels, in the safe areas."

"And you know which sections are actually safe?" It seemed like a good idea. And hell, he could always make sure that they had enough money to keep things comfortable. He was doing that already for the corner of the tunnel Annalee'd claimed. And it would mean that he'd be able to force her to actually get that cough looked at eventually and pay the doctor's bills for that. "Okay. I'll come."

"Oh, Artie! Thank you!" She set her coffee down to give him a hug, pressing her dry lips to his cheek. "We'll rebuild the Morlocks again, better and safer this time. We'll keep quiet, look after each other, be a community again." She patted his cheek. "And maybe your friends could come visit and see how much better things are."

"Yeah, that... that sounds like a good idea. I'll have to sort things out. Might be a couple of days, since I've got to... You know, things. They'll get worried if I don't go to the New Mutants thing on the weekend." This was going to work. He was going to go live with his mother again. "Maybe you could meet everyone there?"

"That sounds like a very good idea," Annalee replied eagerly. "I would love to meet your friends."