The Experimental Avenger

Chapter Two

Chapter Two- Lost Has Many Meanings

"Kimberly!" I heard my name being called, but I couldn't find where it was coming from. "Kimberly where are you?" The screams of my name were becoming more desperate.

"I'm here!" I tried to yell over and over again to each new voice that seemed to be searching for my presence. I tried, but my voice seemed to get lost. I struggled to get lose from whatever was holding me down, desperately clawing at the arms that pulled me back. Then I was falling...

I opened my eyes as I hit the hard forest floor. I groaned in pain and was surprised that I hadn't broken a bone, as far as I could tell. It was a different story for my skin though. Jagged lines of blood ran down my arms and dripped onto my freshly torn jeans and there were large areas of pink skin that had clearly been attacked by insects. I didn't even want to think about how my face looked.

Even though I was now awake, I could still hear my name being called. That was when I realized that the people of my neighborhood were looking for me. Were they scared of me, or was I a hero? Did they want me behind bars, or up in lights with a cape?

Either way I didn't want to be found. I wanted to stay missing or 'lost' as you might call it.

I was too tired to climb back up the tree, so I found a decent sized piece of wood and located the branch that supported my backpack. I threw the wood and it hit my bag, having it sway over and fall a bit, only to get caught again on a slightly lower branch. This happened over and over, till the pack finally landed with a thud at my feet.

I took all my school supplies out and piled it neatly on the path that was through the woods. They would definitely look here and they would find it. It's not like you can miss a pile of neon and sequin covered binders. I would have liked darker ones with superhero emblems on them, but they served their purpose.

I took the wrappers off the remnants of my lunch from my lunchbox and formed the plastic coverings into a tiny trail leading towards a path I occasionally walked Honey on. My parents would know of the path and look for me there, of that I was fairly certain. I kept my lunchbox with some food, and a water bottle. I rubbed the already camouflage bag in the dirt a bit, changing it from a showy green and chocolate brown, to a more realistic camo for the region I was in.

I wrapped my jacket tightly around me and felt a lump in the right pocket. It was my IPhone. I dared not turn my phone on and risk my parents locating me. With that on my mind, I went back to where I had left my binders and set it on top of them. Even if it got stolen, that would almost be better; they would track the thief and not me.

So I set out. I had no idea where I was going, but I was glad for the twenty dollar bill that always stayed in the back of my phone case as emergency money. It now stayed in my jacket pocket, as well as all the spare change I had collected from school and kept in the outer pocket of my lunchbox.

You could almost always find me in the school hallways by the jingling of my lunch bag. The quarters and dimes that were spat out by the vending machines and left by their rightful owners became mine. My friends always gave me their spare change too, they never wanted it. Now they would have to be responsible for their own nickels and pennies.

My small amount of cash was nothing compared to the stash I had hidden in a duct tape wallet at home, but it would have to do. I didn't know where I would get any other money, but hey, I was still little enough to be considered cute by old people and beg for money right? But I would only ask. I wasn't going to do anything for that money that I was uncomfortable with, like stealing. Much...

As that thought struck me, I decided to stay in the safer part of town. The batman shirt that covered my torso didn't make this shattered teenage runaway a real superhero. If only I was a superhero, they don't seem to have real problems. I knew the Avengers didn't. All the news stories on them made it clear that the only problems they had was the paparazzi. Bruce Banner, I had heard, now worked in another country as a doctor on the streets, helping anyone who needed him. Steve Rogers was helping out around New York I guessed. Tony Stark was the same old Tony Stark, on the news if he even so much as went out to get the mail. I could never learn much about the other people who helped bring an end to the attack on New York though.

There were three of them that remained a mystery. I had heard that two were secret agents, but I didn't know that actual secret agents existed. I thought they were just movies and books, except for the secret service and FBI.

Then there was the last person or I guess being. I had heard that apparently a god had helped save New York. A god? It all sounded like a joke to me, but I never would have thought that aliens had attacked the United States either. Apparently the Viking myth of a god of thunder had been true. Thor, descending from some far off place to help us mere mortals.

Even if it was true, it didn't make sense to me. From the videos all over the internet, Thor had looked pretty human; some people even said we looked alike. How could the alien army lure him to come to Earth? Were they his army that had started a rebellion?

There were so many unanswered questions left by the news and internet, and it seemed as though someone was always trying to cover it all up. Probably Tony and his digital butler JARVIS that I had read about. Apparently JARVIS stood for 'Just Another Rather Very Intelligent System'.

These thoughts skipped through my mind as I cautiously crept through the forest. It was getting a little dark, signaling that I must've had a long nap from my fifth period get away. I knew that there were dangerous animals in the forest, so I found a tree with minimum fire ants visible, and from what I could see it looked pretty sturdy. I hoisted myself up, and found a semi secure area. I tangled my arms in the branches and hoped that a flash light wouldn't spy me if anyone was still searching for me.

If they were, I realized just how difficult it would be to find me. There are different levels to the word lost or lose. You can lose your temper or your wallet. You lost a pencil, or you lost your dog. I wasn't sure how deep into the forest I was, but all I could see was the fiery sea of leaves before me, and the speckled brown of the trees as the sun set in the backdrop. As I watched the yellow star that holds our planet in orbit sink behind the orange coated branches, small black silhouettes of animals started to dance through the tall rows of trees.

I usually fell asleep to a fan, but the sound of the crickets and gentle wind was just as good. I was too cautious to sleep soundly and risk an ambush by people or an animal, so I drifted into a light, dreamless sleep. My last thought being that I was truly and completely lost.