knock on wood | howlett

x. now

come as you are ; nirvana

she opened her eyes and shielded her face from the sun.

the sun?

the sun.

she stood and looked around. there was rubble everywhere and the smell of dried blood rested in her nostrils. she looked at herself to see she is naked. she saw scars and furrowed her brow, causing pain to lace around her skull like a constrictor.

she found a tattered hospital gown in the rubble and began to remember:

doctor... operations... scars... nurses... ice.

but how did she get her?

she looked around once more and saw ashes.

ashes?

ashes.

a fire; it must have been what melted the ice she was in. that means...

she looked at her arms and legs. more burn injuries in addition to her neck.

she cursed under her breath and didn't bother to worry about infection from the dirty rubble. she looked and saw a nearby city. fortunately, the hell she had been living in was close to a city.

how convenient.

she walked all the way into the city, barefoot of course, because grabbing a pair of shoes hadn't possibly crossed her mind...

she stopped and looked around.

all of the cars are different. the clothes people wore were different. buildings were built differently.

"are you okay?" someone asked. the person began to pull out a thin brick. a light flashed on the back and she ran out of fear. the person had taken her picture.

she didn't know where she's going, but she ran.

she headed down an alley, finding it to be a dead end. she looked around frantically and then looked back towards the street.

a car - if she could call it that - started driving towards her. she closed her eyes, searching for a memory of the driver's when a voice and hand reached her.

she opened her eyes and threw a fist towards the man, a stranger.

it is a man in a suit. he wore sunglasses. he caught her fist and she remembered professor xavier and the doctor.

"who are you?" her voice faltered. afraid that her new circumstance might be worse than her old one.

"my name is scott summers," he said softly. his hands clenched her wrists. "i work with the x-men. i've been informed you are a mutant who was being tested on at the factory."

"what are the x-men? how did you know this about me?"

"let me take you back to the mansion and i'll explain everything."

she looked him up and down and looked at his hands around her wrists. he let go and backed up.

"fine," she stated. he opened the door for her and she climbed into the futuristic car, well futuristic for her.