Anna looked into her mother's eyes and saw, nothing. The vacant, glassy stare held no warmth, no comfort, just cold nothingness. Anna called to her, begging her to move, asking for her help, but aside from the occasional muscle spasms, Marie was eerily still.

Anna had never seen death. She'd never owned a pet, and never known anyone who passed away. Sure, people got hurt all the time. Dad got hurt more times than she could count, but he always healed. Even in her inexperience, she sensed that this injury was permanent. Even though her mother's body was still in the Jeep with her, the part that made her Mom was gone.

She hung from her seat in shocked horror, stunned at what she had done. It was her fault. If she hadn't said something about the seatbelt, if she hadn't distracted Mom at a critical moment, everything would be ok. She'd killed her mother, but not only that, she'd been so snotty when Mom was just trying to be helpful.

A strange man kneeled down beside the Jeep, distracting her from her thoughts and taking her gaze away from the body below her. He talked to her, trying to comfort her until help arrived. His name was David, and he was really nice. In an effort to be soothing, he grasped her hand, but she yelped as shockwaves of pain spread from her shoulder through her entire body.

Her shoulder was just one of the many places she hurt. The seatbelt dug painfully into her stomach as she hung from it, and she could feel an odd pressure starting to build. Soon, the pressure turned into pain, and by the time the paramedics arrived, she was clutching it in agony.

"She's in a lot of pain," she could hear David say, talking to people she couldn't see. "Mostly she says her stomach hurts, but she screamed when I touched her right arm."

"What's her name?" a woman asked.

"Anna."

"Anyone else in there with her?"

"The mother. She's dead."

"Ok, step aside, sir," a man commanded.

"Anna," David called. "These people are going to help you. You're gonna be ok."

"Ok," she answered weakly.

"Hi, Anna. I'm Natalie. David says your tummy hurts."

"Yeah," she whimpered

"Ok, I'm going to put this collar on your neck and then me and Doug here are going to pull you outta there. Sound good?"

"What... what about Mom?"

"Um, some other people'll take care of her. They'll look after her real good. I promise, honey."

Anna couldn't help crying as she was pulled from the Jeep, the pain of her injuries almost overwhelming. Finally, she was out and strapped down to a backboard. She could hear Natalie and Doug talking about her, but they didn't understand most of what they were saying.

"Distended abdomen, could be the spleen. Must've been slouched in her seat or wearing the belt higher on her stomach."

"Shoulder looks bad too."

"Broken clavicle. Could require surgery."

Anna let their voices drift away as she finally succumbed to comforting, pain-free sleep.

"What's the hold up?" Jean asked from the back of the van. Her patient was stable for now, but they were making lousy time back to the mansion.

"Gotta be an accident. I'll check the radio," Logan replied, adjusting the stations until he heard a broadcaster announce, "Traffic and weather: together on the nines."

It was 4:57 p.m., so he waited two minutes until the broadcast started. Sure enough, the reporter told of a three-car pile-up involving injuries on Foothill Boulevard backing up all the way to Center Street. Even as he heard the announcement, he saw an ambulance speeding past his van, heading back in the direction of the hospital he and Jeanie had just left.

Shelley lay across the row of seats in the back, resting until Jean could get her to the med lab and properly treated. She'd been in a minor car accident with her parents, but both of whom had been killed when they were splattered with blood from a cut on her arm. The doctors at Mercy Hospital refused to treat her, for fear of being killed themselves, allowing her to slowly bleed to death. Huh, some mercy.

After thirty minutes, they'd finally crept up to the scene of the accident. Tow trucks were picking up the damaged vehicles and clearing the road. Logan slammed on his brakes when he saw the familiar Jeep.

Throwing the van into park, he leapt from his seat and ran across the lanes of traffic towards the empty vehicle. Leaning inside, he smelled blood. Marie and Anna's blood. No, God, please, no! There wasn't just the smell of blood, though. He could detect the viscous smell of death on the interior. Marie? Anna? Both? NO!!!

Grabbing the tow truck operator and lifting him by his shirt collar he growled. "Where are they?"

The man shook in his grasp, visibly terrified. "They... Mercy Hospital."

Logan dropped the man, ran back to the van, and screeched a U-turn, heading back the way he had come, towards a hospital that treated mutants worse than animals.