"We'll be fine as long as we hug the left wall."
"That right? Is that your expert opinion there, Scotty?"
"Of course. It makes perfect sense. Just think about it, as long as you hug the left wall - even if you're led to a dead end - you'll still find the exit due to the simple fact there can only be so much wall."
Anna, walking at Scott's shoulder, pointed her flashlight forward where it bounced off the cave's many puddles and slicker features of it misshaped walls. "Sure, that makes sense if we were in some sort of maze. A cave has too many 'Z' levels."
"A 'Z' level? What does that mean?"
Anna shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, really. It's something Kurt and Evan say a lot when they play old 3D games. I think it has something to do with vertical levels or whatever."
"Well, that's helpful. Glad you're bringing video game logic into the real world."
"God, whatever Scott. You're the one talking about maze tactics that would only ever be useful for a freaking county fair." Scott reached out his arm across her, blocking her mid-stride. "Fucking - excuse you!"
"You're light, shine it down." Anna followed the command and her light illuminated a slight decline in the path. "I don't like it. I should go first."
"Don't like what? So it's a little steep. Considering what we've been through already, I think it'll be fine."
While Anna spoke, Scott was already halfway through slipping off her backpack and dropping it on the ground. "That's what I thought earlier, then I dropped a few dozen feet and lost my pack." He got low to the ground and made a show of easing himself down the slick craggy ramp till he was at the bottom. "Alright!" He shouted a little too loudly up at her. "Like before, slide the pack down to me, then follow." She rolled her eyes, aimed her foot, then gave her backpack a glancing blow. The heavy thing skited slid, and gently came to a stop at Scott's feet. "Okay, now -"
Before he even had a chance to speak, Anna was already most of the way down the incline, walking on her own two legs. When she reached the bottom safely, she looked at the boy and crossed her arms.
"Well, that was needlessly reckless. Feel like you made some sort of point with that?"
"Will you just stop with the overprotective action hero - shtick? I'm not some sort of shrieking damsel and you're not Brucie Willis. So take a break and stop being so damn extra, would you?"
"Well, excuse me for trying to make sure we both get out of here alive." He bent over, clearly favoring his right leg. When he turned back around, she could see why.
"Damn it, Scott, your leg. It's bleeding!"
"I know. It's from the fall."
"Well… we need to do something about it! That could get infected - or you'll bleed out or something!"
"The cut clotted up. I'll be fine."
"No, it won't, mother fucker. Look!"
She watched as Scott looked down at his leg and the way his shoulders stiffened. "Oh."
The pant leg on his left calf was near torn to ribbons and caked with dirt and spots of blood. The real horror show was his calf which was exposed to the elements. His skin, black with soot and dirt, was starting to run red with fresh rivers of crimson. His face went white and his footing was suddenly a whole lot less stable.
She rushed to his side and grabbed him by the arm. "Sit." He did as ordered, placing his back, and by proxy the backpack, against the wall and slid down till he was on his rear. She pulled his arms free of the straps of the pack and undid the fastenings till she retrieved her canteen.
"Wait, what are you doing?"
"We have to wash it off."
"That's all the water we have."
"I'll be sparing then." Without waiting for further discussion, she poured a little water on his bare leg, and a dirt-blood slurry formed on the surface of his skin. She dug around in her pack again till she found her ruined sweater then pulled and tore at the fabric till she had created a lopsided rag. She padded at the muck, sparingly adding water every so often to help clear the debris. She eventually uncovered a raw angry-looking gash the size of her forearm. She started to wrap what remained of her sweater around Scott's leg when she felt an unexpected and painful shock.
She all of a sudden felt colder than she ever had in her life. It was fitting, she supposed, for being in the most dreary place she had ever been in her life. Fear. Anger. Frustration. She was so damn frustrated she could punch a hole through this mountain. If only. If only she could do that much at least she would be useful.
Next Anna knew she was laid out on the cave floor. Her heart beat hard enough that she felt it in her ears.
"Damn it, Anna!" She shot up in a panic and saw a man… no, saw Scott still sitting against the wall. He was clutching his forehead. "Your hands! Watch it!"
"My hands?" She rose her hands to her face and found her right glove was missing, but while she was looking, she felt like she could somehow… look harder. It was a strange, intense feeling behind her eyes where. She felt as if with the flick of a mental switch, she could gaze through walls - flesh and bone even. Then, as soon as the feeling materialized, it disappeared. "Wow."
A grunt drew her attention back to her bloodied companion, who had just finished the rough cloth bandage she had started. Huddled over the wound now bound, he rolled his back and hugged his legs to his chest. From where she sat, she could see his teeth chattering.
"You need to change your clothes. You're soaking wet and freezing."
"Not sure if you've been listening, Anna." He mumbled. "I lost my backpack -"
"Yeah, and I still have mine. I wasn't sure about bandages or compass' or whatever, but I packed plenty of clothes."
He said nothing, only stared at the cave floor.
"What? You'd rather wear your boy clothes and freeze to death, or do you want to be so lucky and get to wear something of mine and live?"
He rolled his head forward. "Would it even fit?"
She looked him up and down. "You're taller than me. Other than that I think you might actually be too thin if anything, freaking pencil boy." She dug around in her bag and freed up two pairs of black leggings and a shirt, then threw them at his head. "Try those on."
He didn't bother trying to catch them. They instead knocked him softly on the chin and rolled down his legs to the floor. He sighed through his nose and snatched the clothes up in a single-handed steely grasp. "Mind turning around a minute?" She rolled her eyes, then sat with her back facing him. With her bag in her lap, she dug through the rest of her belongings. "Anything else we can use in there?"
"For what?"
"For getting the hell out of here? What else?"
"I didn't pack any C4 if that's what you're asking." She pushed through a couple of extra sets of leggings. "Some protein bars, chocolate chip flavored… Shampoo, soap… one of those little detergent stick things that get out grease stains."
"Do you have anything even remotely useful?"
"I packed this tent."
She heard the shuffling behind her stop. "You packed a whole tent in that thing?"
"Well, yeah. We were going camping for the night, right?"
"Yeah - but the tents were being provided… didn't you see one of the students pulling that big wheeled cart behind them?"
She tisked. "Yeah, like someone was going to share a tent with me."
"Why wouldn't they?"
"People don't often look at me and think 'Hey! I wanna be her friend!'" She paused. "Are you done messing around back there?" She looked behind her and found Scott dressed in her clothes. To be truthful, he didn't look half bad. Besides the leggings looking a little more like capris on him, he looked like the picture of a cozy goth kid dressed in her oversized Slayer band tee. "Look at you!"
"I feel like an idiot."
"For the first time in your life, you don't competently look like one. If only I had my liquid eyeliner from home, we could really do you up."
"Not for your life."
"Yeah, alright there 'cool guy.'" She watched him don his windbreaker, the single bit of clothing he had that didn't look completely saturated in water.
"I'll admit. It's a lot more comfortable than I thought it would be."
"Yeah. It's almost like there isn't any real difference between 'men's' clothes and 'women's' clothes. Just the branding."
"You're kidding, right? You skip anatomy class?"
Anna sighed long and hard through her nose. "Yes Scott, certain people are born with penis' and others with vaginas and boobs. Some clothes better accommodate that. Most of the time, it doesn't freaking matter. I wear 'boy' stuff all the time."
Scott curled his lip and then tucked his fists into his jacket pockets. "Okay, Anna. Whatever you say."
"You're such a jackass, Scott." She stood back up, her shoulder lacing spikes of pain into her collarbone as she used her arm to rise. It was enough for her to audibly wince.
"You okay?"
She threw her hand up. "Fine. I'll be better once I'm out of the damn cave and far away from you."
"Trust me, the feeling is mutual. Thing is, we need to work together if we're going to make it out of here alive, that means sucking it up and listening to me."
She turned and stared at him head-on. "Who died and made you leader?"
"Xavier, when he made me squad leader."
Anna held her arms to her sides. "Don't know if you noticed, Scott. There is no squad. There is no X-Men. It's just you and me."
"And whoever is here pulling the strings."
"Sure, that guy too. So far though, all I've seen you do is fall and bleed while I've been the one to mend the injury you were too stupid to fix. Then I had to give you new clothes to wear! Sounds to me like I'm the one that should be in charge!"
"If I remember right, you fell too, Anna. Busted that arm of yours because of it. You half-mended my leg and only provided me with clothes because you were lucky to keep your pack!" He pushed a thumb into his chest. "I'm your senior officer, I'm the squad leader, and I'm the one calling the shots here! Deal with it!"
"You know what?" She raised her hands, palms facing him. "Fucking fine. You want to play squad leader, you want to pretend to be a big shot, fucking fine. But next hole you fall in, you're on your goddamned own." She shouldered her pack on her one good arm, turned on the spot, and marched off into the darkness.