ROMANOGERS: PAST TO PRESENT

Chapter Thirty Eight

Natasha's POV

My skin was on fire. At least that's what it felt like. Almost as if someone had injected acid into my veins and it was now pumping through my blood. My eyes snapped open as I remembered what had happened. Panic. Speeding. Crash. My senses were overwhelmed with data. It was hard to focus on what I needed to do, but grunting I managed to push myself into a sitting position. My stomach squirmed as I realized what the burning sensation was. My right leg was charred black. Raw bleeding flesh was exposed from burns and shrapnel was embedded in my skin. It was a gory mangled mess. Hesitantly I touched a piece of peeling flesh. It was sticky and hot, the blood from the wound burned my fingers. Carefully I assessed myself for other injuries. Something sharp and painful was embedded in my already injured shoulder, and a large cut on my forehead caused blood to flow eagerly down my face.

Carefully I moved just enough to observe the surrounding area. Steve, find Steve. I didn't see him anywhere in my line of sight. I knew I would have to turn around but moving terrified me. I knew what type of pain would accompany it, but I had to make sure he was okay. Setting my jaw I shifted my weight awkwardly to my left side. Immediately excruciating pain flared through me. My burned skin cracked and split, blood and puss searing the tender flesh. Eager to get it over with, I threw all of my weight to the side at once so that I was able to stabilize myself on all fours. I couldn't keep the loud scream that sounded from me. Tears spilled down my cheeks. My body shook in protest, lack of energy, pain, and pure exhaustion. Raising my head slightly I searched for Steve praying I didn't see a corpse. It took a moment before I spotted him. He was in a crumpled heap to my left.

From where I was I could see he wasn't in good condition. My heart pounded faster and I had the urge to run to him but knew I couldn't. Biting my lip I tried to crawl slowly but each movement ripped open old wounds. Collapsing onto my side I rolled onto my back gasping for air. The ceiling was high above and everything around me was a shiny metal. Huge chunks of bike shrapnel were littered everywhere, some smoking, others on fire. The ground was covered in soot and burned rubber. Come on. Get over there, think. My breath was heavy and ragged but I slowly began using my arms to drag myself backwards. It was awkward but efficient with little pain involved. We had to get out. There was a leak in the reactor core and I had no idea how long it would be before it exploded.

Steve was unconscious even when I got to him. The right side of his suit was torn open and in shreds,exposing his side that was similar to my leg, though it seemed I had gotten the worst of the burn. His pants had holes burned in them with large scratches decorating his legs. But the most heart breaking injury was the left side of his face. The left part of his neck was burned along with his ear, and the burn curved down the base of his jaw line.

"Oh, God." Was all I could muster to say. Placing a hand on his shoulder I tried to shake him awake. There was no response. I tried again only this time I did it harder, mentally kicking myself for the pain that it would cause him, but at the same time hoping the pain would wake him up. Again there was no response. Despite myself I couldn't help but panic. How did I wake up? He's not supposed to be the one who... I cut my train of thought off before it could escalate any more. Hastily I checked for a pulse and pressed my ear to his heart. It was still beating, he was okay, but it was strange to see him so fragile. I wanted his wounds to dissapeared, they were my fault, I was the reason he had gotten into this mess. I felt like crying at the mere sight of his charred flesh, his skin was damaged because of me. The only thing letting me know he was okay was that soft and comforting, thump thump, of his heart.

"You're wasting time agent." A voice cackled. I froze tensing up immediately. There was a wheezing cough and I couldn't help but wonder.

"Viper." I whispered. How and why was he still here? Another wheezing cough.