X-Men Fan Fiction ❯ The Camping Trip ❯ Ch 6 ( Chapter 6 )

See disclaimers in ch 1

Words between ~ ~ are thoughts or mental speak

CH 6

Remy had long since lost any sensations of the soldiers' feelings and knew they had traveled far.  After wiping his eyes to remove residue, he placed his hand above his brow to shield his eyes as he attempted to look around.  He patted the pockets of his coat and found his sunshades, thanking Lady Luck that they hadn't been lost in the river.  Donning the protective covers, he glanced up towards the sky.  Remy speculated on the amount of time that had past.  When all the madness started, it had been early morning.  But, based on the position of the sun in the western sky, he figured it was now late afternoon with sunset not too far away.  It's not so much that he knew which direction were east and west.  No.  It was more that he knew that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and it sure wasn't morning anymore.   

Gambit knew that he had to get them off the bank and into the cover of the forest.  He was acutely aware that they needed some type of shelter so that he might light a fire and dry their clothes.  The night air in this part of the country at this time of year could certainly chill the bone.  And he did not want to battle hypothermia.  Remy cursed the pain in his back, and the fatigue in his muscles as he lifted himself to his feet.  Making his way over to Logan, he leaned down and took the opportunity to more closely examine his love.  There were no obvious injuries, but Logan's eyes were closed.  Remy pried one eyelid open and saw that the pupil was dilated so completely that there was only a slender ring of blue visible.

"Logan, cher.  Can you hear me?"  Remy asked, but he didn't really expect a response.  He had no clue what those bastards had pumped into Logan, but it was obviously some kind of paralytic agent.  He couldn't feel anything anymore from the feral, which indicated either unconsciousness, or something worse.  "Non, won't t'ink 'bout dat."

Remy inhaled deeply and made a decision.  He clutched Logan's underarms and began the strenuous task of dragging his lover.  There was no way that Gambit would be able to lift and carry the older man.  He was strong, but not that strong.  Remy managed to get them a reasonable distance into the woods, away from the river, before he finally had to stop to take a breather.  Leaning heavily against a tree, he panted for air. 

"Dis be slow going, mon ami." He muttered grimly.

Gambit kneeled next to Logan.  "Cher, Remy gonna hafta find us a place to hold up.  Need to do dis before de sun go down.  Mais, de sun be close to setting."  He closed his eyes and sighed, placing his hand on Logan's forehead to brush hair out of his face.  "Remy don' wanna do dis, but I gotta leave you here for a little while.  Gotta find us some shelter.  Please forgive me, mon amour." 

He removed his coat and placed it over Logan as a blanket.  Normally one to be loaded down with weaponry, Remy had only brought two packs of cards with him on this trip.  He had erroneously reasoned that they were on vacation, and who would need to come prepared to wage war on a mini-excursion to the woods?  Inwardly, he cursed himself for that lapse in judgment.  Grabbing the packs of cards, he quickly kissed Logan on the cheek before heading out. 

If there was one thing Remy knew about himself, it was that he was no woodsman.  Still, he was not without resourcefulness.  As he moved along, he periodically stuck a card in the bark of a tree, leaving breadcrumbs back to his beloved.  The ground was steadily climbing as he moved deeper in the woods, eventually sloping up sharply. 

He had been moving for a period, using almost half of one deck when he spotted it, his eyes widening in surprise and wonder - a cave, on a slight rise above him.  The opening wasn't large, but it was passable.  A grin slowly spread across his face.  Maybe providence was smiling down on them this day.  Quickly, he moved towards the entrance to make sure the cave was empty, having seen enough documentaries to know that bears or mountain lions might call them home.  Not wanting to waste his precious cards, he grabbed a long stick and used his power to lightly charge it with a time delay blast, throwing it into the opening.  It lit the inside long enough for him to see the cave was vacant before the stick popped.  Great!  Now all he had to do was get Logan back here before he lost all his light, a task that was easier said than done.

Using his card crumbs as a guide, he sprinted back to his lover's side.  "Logan, cher, found a cave.  We go now, yeh?" 

Remy lifted him up and started pulling his body towards the cave.  As he passed the first card, he stopped to pull it from the bark of the tree and pocket it, doing the same with the second card further away.  By the time he reached the third card marker, Remy couldn't go any further.  Logan was heavy and the strain on Remy's back and shoulders as he pulled was too much to continue the rest of the distance.  He decided he needed a better way to move the old man. 

Remy stretched his coat out beside Logan's body at a slight distance.  He then removed Logan's belt and put it underneath the coat, with the belt stretching out on both sides.  Bodily rolling Logan on top of the coat, Remy brought the belt up around his chest just below the armpits.  The belt didn't quite reach, though.  He removed his own belt and fastened it to Logan's, using both to clasp tightly around the feral man's chest and effectively strapping the coat to him.  The sleeves of Remy's trench coat were above Logan's head.  With a strangled groan, Gambit heaved the coat up by the sleeves and tied it tightly around his waist, the pressure of it digging into his stomach and pulling down by the weight of Logan's body.  It wasn't the most ideal way to transport a body through the woods, but it was better than nothing. 

"Give new meaning to de phrase dragging your ass, non?" Remy sarcastically remarked to the older man, trying to keep from spiraling into self pity.

The traveling was slow.  As they passed a card, Remy collected it and trudged forward.  Finally, after an eternity, and with the sun nearly gone, he could just make out the rise leading to the cave.  It was times like these that he was grateful to have eyes that favored the dark.  Using both his arms and legs, he clawed his way towards the entrance, towing his heavy partner behind him.  He was near collapsing when they finally reached the cave.  Only a few more feet and they would be completely inside.

"Maybe you should…..uungggh…..t'ink 'bout…..mmmpppffhhh……laying off……. eeeehhhhhhh…….dat fried chicken…..(pant, gasp)….mon ami." 

With one last tug, they were immersed in the darkness of the cave.  Remy fell to his knees, wheezing and coughing.  With great effort and a contorted expression on his face, he unfastened the tortured coat from around his bruised waist.  He took a few minutes to gather himself, trying to force relaxation into his quivering muscles.  Remy knew he couldn't stop yet.  He had to get them out of their damp clothes and light a fire to warm them before the chill of the night air and the cave took them.

Breathing heavily, he moved around to Logan's body and struggled to remove the man's clothes, rolling him off the trench coat so that it may be used as a cover.  The coat was showing signs of severe stress but still held together, with the exception of the gash in the back where Remy had struck the stone in the river.  After covering Logan's naked form, Remy stumbled back out to get some kindling and wood.  He returned a short time later and set it up safely, surrounding it with rocks.  Remy had camped enough with Logan to know how to arrange a campfire.  Logan was nothing if not enthusiastic about teaching nature survival skills to Remy, not that Remy always paid attention.  But, in this, he had.  Then again, Logan always made Remy set them up, by giving the boy the choice to stay warm or freeze.

Using one of his precious few cards, he tossed it in and lit the fire, placing enough wood on top so that it wouldn't burn down for quite a while.  Once the blaze was burning well, Remy stripped his own clothes, laying both his and Logan's flat all around the warmth of the fire.  He moved over to Logan and crumpled beside his lover in pure exhaustion.  Remy was so mentally and physically spent, that he couldn't even pretend to maintain any semblance of a shield.  But it mattered not.  He couldn't sense any other emotions, not even from his unconscious lover.   Besides, he figured it would be like an early warning signal for him to detect anyone approaching the cave.  Remy made one last check for a pulse and breath, both still there, before moving one arm and leg to embrace the older man under the coat, keeping them both warm as he drifted off to sleep. 

***************