The world, frigid with ice, it hated me. In a world of white I felt nothing but a chill between my toes and a clattering in my teeth and a whirlwind of ice between my ears, too cold, too cold for me when thoughts grew jumbled and my fingers grew stiff. Words eluded me, dancing at the precipice of the mind as images of reality teased my imagination. I was not okay, I thought, knowing nothing.

I remember images, thoughts and smells. Sounds of a time to last a lifetime yet must have occurred but minutes ago. They were talking to me, about me, the people standing up. It was a cramped space, a warm space, a curled up into a ball space, but the people still wanted me to talk. At the time I remember a churning in my chest and a nausea to challenge the sun and no words met their own. They pinched me, pricked me, studying my every move. I saw a tail behind my legs and knew, then, that I was an alien.

I stopped thinking when we flipped, we slid, we smashed and thrashed our bodies against the walls and felt nothing but pain and misery and the cold, the cold that poured inside stealing our hearts and grabbed the people and took them away. Shapes and colors unlike anything I had ever seen, they left me in the cold. They pulled me into the white and left me amongst the bits and pieces of a time gone by. Alone. A light came between the haze in the sky and the light dared to warm my skin when all else wanted me dead. It felt nice.

Now, my thoughts, they were coming back to me. I think… I think I can remember now. It doesn't hurt to think and it doesn't hurt to move. I want to know, I want to know who I am. I want to know where I am. I want to know what this is, this cold feeling warm, this sensation in my fingers and toes where stiffness steals touch. I want to live, I thought to myself, yearning to stand yet knowing the colors in the distance will be back for me. I had to do more. I had to go. I had to, I had to fight the cold.

The colors became shapes and the shapes became things, standing became a chore and a chore became living. I wanted the world and found myself at the maw of an overturned van, bits and pieces of glass and metal strewn across the street bend I had risen from. Snow came from the sky in heaps of white. Figures in the distance, splotches of blue, green and red, they were lost to the void, between the white, over a hill and between the trees that surrounded me. The cold bit at my cheeks as I felt the strength ebb from my legs. I was hurt. I couldn't feel it. A sickly red fluid oozed from above my right knee and it made me feel nauseous just looking at it.

I slipped to my knees, the wind taking my breath as emotions swelled up between my eyes, sadness, pity, regret for nothing and everything all at the same time. This life had me sick. This life had me for dead. I was nothing beneath the snow, the sun, the unforgiving quilt of hate raining from on high.

And as I wondered if I would wake up again, feeling my thoughts drift from the imagination and my strength flee from my bones, as I wondered if I would live again, I saw figures rise from the trees. Heard voices shift through the snow. As I wondered if I would ever feel again, I felt my body rise from the earth.

"Stop moving."

I laid on my back, flat as pain flashed in my thigh.

"I know you're awake. Stop moving. You're only making this harder on yourself."

There was a shuffling below me as I opened my eyes, the sight of a room, a candle over my leg and a person sitting beside me, all of it filling my vision. This had to be some sort of building, I thought. The crackle of a fire and the light from its heart helped my racing heart cool to a controlled beat. I was safe. I was okay. I was okay. I was okay.

"Hey. G." A second voice, this one from the corner, came accompanied by heavy steps as they drew near, overlooking the other. She was a female, one wearing a winter coat and sounding soft yet worn down. They both looked to me as if I were some sort of animal. "She literally just woke up. Take it easy."

"I am taking it easy!" The one fidgeting with her leg, G, had a raspy voice, stern yet young - immature, she thought. "Look. The bleeding is controlled and the shrapnel is gone. You want to see it, Abby?"

"Fuck no, I don't want to see it." Abby crossed her arms, turning away once more. "Quit being dramatic and make this… person better, okay?"

I heard hesitation on her tongue and that's what worried me most.

"I don't even have to do anything." G snarked. "All the cuts are just… healing on their own, folding together like nobody's business. And that leg wound? I'm just picking out the pieces and like… it's fucking magic."

"Magic? That's a first from you." Abby had walked back to her corner. There on the wall was a window, one with a curtain that she had been peeping under.

"I'm not kidding." G looked up from my leg and wagged a pair of tweezers at Abby. "Whatever the government is doing, it's got some Area 51 shit written all over it."

Area 51? Government? Magic?

I didn't quite know what to think, listening in on their conversation. It was easy to see how they were looking out for me, warming me up inside and removing… shrapnel from my leg. Everything was just so odd. Everything was just beyond me.

"It looks like you're about to say something." G perked up in his seat, reading my lips with some nefarious grin. "Save your strength. I'm Geoffery and that over there is Abby. She likes to look at the snow because she's never seen it before."

Abby rolled her eyes, taking a step towards the cot.

"Very funny, G." She sighed. Abby looked to me with some sort of curiosity in her eye. "You know, we never got your name. Do you even speak English?"

Instinct revealed an answer.

"I am… Grey Wolf."

"Grey Wolf? That code name for something?" Geoffery huffed.

"No…" Abby trailed off. "I think she's literally that. Look at her ears, her tail. Looks sorta like a wolf to me."

"So, you're telling me this schmuck off the street is the physical embodiment of the Grey Wolf?"

"I don't know." Abby looked completely exasperated. "She just looks the part and acts the part, I guess."

"I'm afraid you know as much as I do." I mused, hoping I wasn't too awkward. "And… thank you for treating me. For helping me out of the snow."

"Geez. We couldn't just let you freeze there." Abby pressed, walking over to the fireplace and kneeling down by the flame. "That would be like, horrible, honestly."

"You know," G started, pointing at my face with the tweezers. "You had frostbite on about every exposed part of your body. And look at you now… mint condition. Fucking magic, man."

"Is that not normal?" I hushed.

"What do you mean, is that not normal?" Geoffery threw his arms in the air. "Some wizard who lives under a rock, you are. And no, your ears and tail aren't normal either. So that means you're just as voodoo as the blobs that are killing everyone outside."

"Don't be dramatic. Seriously. You're scaring her!" Abby stood with a frown. "Grey Wolf, there's just been a lot going on lately and it's been hard to deal with. Don't let G get to you. He's kind of an asshole."

"I'm the asshole? Great. Okay."

"If it were up to you, we would have looted that van and left Grey there out for dead." Abby crossed her arms again, this time looking to Geoffery with content. "Don't lie to me."

G replied with nothing but a scowl. Abby was right.

"Let's just focus on getting back to town." Geoffrey grimaced. "Fuck this cabin, honestly."

"It's been what, two weeks and you're only now sick of it?"

"No. Stop putting words into my mouth. I just said I hate it out here."

"Whatever." Abby huffed, returning to her window. I wonder if anything changed outside.

"Don't mind her." Geoffrey gestured to Abby with a thumb. "She's stuck here with me and she's kind of an asshole."

Abby didn't react, watching the snow pile up beside the trees.

"You have been here for two weeks?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, more or less. We went on some… camping trip… when the storm was starting up. Didn't think it would be this bad. Didn't think fucking monsters would pile on out of nowhere."

"Didn't think it would be this bad, huh." Abby mocked.

"Oh shut up." G sighed. "Anyways, before power ran out on our phones, there was word going around about people like you."

He looked right at me.

"What do you mean?"

He smiled in that way he did when he wanted to seem self important or knew things that others didn't.

"Not much, just that alongside the fucking magic neon fucks outside, you exist. Your people. Government wants you. I don't know why. Well, after poking at your leg some more, I think I know why. I think there's more to you then you let on."

"If there is," I paused, looking to Abby then back to Geoffrey. "If there is I'd like to know as well."

"You hear that, Abby?" G teased. "I got a green light on the pseudo-human experimentation."

"Whatever." She spat.

What was he even talking about?

"Look. Guys." G stood up, stepping towards the fireplace to address both me and Abby. "It's already the end of the day, so tomorrow morning, when, or if, the weather clears up, we can head out to town. Should be an hour's walk if the snow is really bad."

"You fucking idiot. We'll be dead by the time we hit the road. You know that blue one has been watching the cabin for a while now." Abby barked.

"Yeah, well, there's the shotgun." G retorted, hands drifting to his hips.

"And that's got like, five shots left."

"What's a shotgun?" I asked, drawing all eyes on me.

"Boom stick." Geoffrey interjected, quick to get back on track. "Leave the technical stuff to us."

"I could show her the gun, G."

"No. Just… look. We can make it. I know we can." He continued.

"That's not exactly a plan and that's not exactly reassuring."

"I think," he smirked towards me. "I think our new friend here is enough protection if it comes down to it."

"Protection? What, you think she knows Kung fu or something? Is she some sort of object now?"

"Stop asking so many questions." Geoffrey waved her off. "And no. Not an object. Grey Wolf is our friend. Right?"

"A friend…" I let the word trail off my tongue for a second. "You mean you say we're friends?"

"Oh, just drop it." G sighed. "Look. Convince yourself that the physical embodiment of the Grey Wolf isn't able to rip and tear like nobody's business."

"Grey Wolf is a person, G. Not some animal, not something you throw at the blobs like a pokemon. This isn't a video game."

"Who said it was? This is our reality." Geoffrey leaned in, hands on his knees. "And I'm tired of burning books. Tomorrow we go."

Abby looked down for a moment, lost in thought. Then she looked at me. Both of them were putting hopes on me to do something I didn't know I could do. Instinct told me that there was more possible, more to be done then I thought could be done. But at the same time, I knew nothing. My memories trailed back to earlier and what a weird world it was so far.

"Alright." Abby resigned. "We'll go through with this stupid idea. But I get the shotgun."

"See?" G grinned, stretching his back. "That's the spirit. If we die, we die."

"You said that about the corona virus." She huffed. "And you know what happened there, don't you?"

"Oh, shut up. You know I hate you."

Abby smiled.

"Corona virus?" I piqued.

At my words, the both of them looked to each other, knowing something I didn't. It was as if they were holding a silent conversation with just their eyes.

"Alright." G grinned knowingly as he sat down beside me. Abby watched on in horror as he continued. "So, there's a lot of stuff you have to learn, friend. For starters, we live on a spinning disk of a planet called Earth…"

The snow beneath my feet was hard, hard enough not to crunch as soon as you stepped on it but if you were to throw all your weight on it, the icy surface would crack. Luckily it wasn't too icy on the top, as a powdery snowfall continued to drift between the trees in this early morning.

The sun poked through a thin layer of clouds that tickled my ears as we met the road. I could remember the bend in the street and the sight of the overturned van sent a shiver down my spine.

That day I had felt so cold, so lost, so alone… but now I donned a heart of fire. Abby wondered if I was cold, her winter jacket seeming barely enough to keep her from freezing. Noticing my skirt and leggings, I wondered if I should be feeling worse for wear, too.

We passed the van, but not before Geoffrey looked through the vehicle one last time. He hadn't had time to loot it the day I was found but it seemed that now, much of what was inside was gone. Nothing left. That was a disappointment to my human companions who had hoped for supplies, but we didn't have time to loiter and drown in self pity. The monsters had been here before and would certainly be back in time.

The road wasn't in bad condition, which surprised Abby, who talked about how bad the things have been since the storm. Street signs lined the rim and the few abandoned cars, however ominous, weren't old, run down or anything. This was a current apocalypse, Geoffrey said.

I wondered what we would find in their civilization. Overnight I dreamt of seeing faces and hearing names of people with expressions, happy and sad, windows into the soul of people who had triumphed over a new and insidious foe.

This whole world seemed so open, so fresh, so alive with the whispering winds and sounds of tomorrow that so tantalizingly tickled my drive to know. I wondered if I had a place in this world of humans, as Geoffrey said it was, a place amongst people.

A part of me wished I could write this down. My thoughts, my time here, this adventure, as it was, seemed so ripe, so raw, danger behind every tree, the dream of tomorrow so close yet so unknown the apprehension itself was an element worth sharing.

I wanted to be known, I thought. I wanted to see myself in a world of people and stand out not because of who I was, but because of what I could create. How good things could be. That would be wonderful.

But my thought process was shattered by the wave of Abby's hand tearing me back to reality.

"This is it." She huffed. At the front of our line she caressed a metal stick in her arms, holding it at the ready. Five shots, she said yesterday. Five shots to keep them safe.

"You know," Geoffrey started as he waded through the snow to Abby's side. "I was expecting us to die on the way here. Not gonna lie."

"Oh, fuck off, G."

Geoffrey laughed to himself as he turned to me, pointing down the road.

"You see those buildings? We're here. Funny, it's so quiet now. This place was never so silent before."

"Rural towns are always quiet. They have no money and everyone just moves to the cities." Abby took the first step into town.

"You didn't grow up here like I did." Geoffrey replied. "There's an ice cream shop downtown that everyone hung out at. Fucking wild parties in the park by the church, frisbees, soccer balls, all until the police had to show up because someone always broke a window by the end of the week. Happened like four times."

"Okay, sure. A lively place." Abby led us through the middle of the street, left down a T and beneath unlit traffic lights. "Doesn't explain how eerie this place is now."

"That's what I'm saying." G stressed. "No one's here. All fucking dead."

"They're not all dead." Abby shot. "Don't joke about dumb stuff like that."

"Okay, well-"

Geoffrey was cut off when a bright blue, ball-like object barreled out through a storefront window, smashing through glass right into the middle of the street.

It rolled around for a bit, lazy as its lone eye swirled around to acquire a target. I froze in place, as did everyone else as it began to shift around in mid air, defying gravity.

"Oh fuck." Geoffrey muttered, voice raising into a roar. "Oh fuck! Shoot it, Abby, fucking shoot it!"

Abby pressed the shotgun to her shoulder as she pointed the tip of the weapon at the creature before them. She fumbled with the stick, sweat and fear melting down her face as she struggled to take aim.

The creature made no noises as it began to approach Abby. My legs, paralyzed in fear, locked me in place as I watched the world collapse around me.

"Abby! What are you waiting for!"

"It's… it's… it's not shooting!" She screamed, dropping the weapon and slipping into the snow. "Fuck, oh, oh fuck!"

This wasn't the time for hesitation. This wasn't the time to be locked up. That creature was just… seconds from Abby. I had to do something, I had to act, I couldn't let them down, I had to, I couldn't, I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything, I…

"Hunk of garbage, blue piece of shit!"

Geoffrey ran at the behemoth wielding what looked to be the piece of shrapnel that had been wedged in my leg.

The monster didn't react as he struggled to swipe at it with both hands around the metal. G swung once, twice, three times, hitting it like one would the pavement. Absolutely nothing happened.

Abby teared up on the ground, crying and screaming and wailing in a manner I never wanted to see, unable to move as the monster loomed right above her body. It looked to Geoffrey with a cold, dead stare. And attacked.

It was just a push, a sharp punt, a body slam from a titan - and Geoffrey was sent flying into the snow. Thrown back he laid limp on the ground sprawled undignified and unmoving. I couldn't tell if he was breathing at this angle.

Abby wouldn't stop screaming as the monster turned its attention to her again. The shotgun was at her feet but she couldn't move. She couldn't think. I couldn't move. I couldn't think.

No, this wouldn't do. These were not the expressions I wanted to see today. This is not what I wanted to anyone to experience, ever. This emotion was pain incarnate and it was wrong. This was wrong.

I moved. I had to move. I ran forwards and I jumped up, above the streetlights and above the roofs of the tallest building, aiming downwards for the ball with a fury I didn't know I possessed. This creature had to die. It was wrong.

Using my body as a weapon my heel impacted the creature's top with a force that sent it into the ground. Snow that should have been solidified to the ground was churned and tossed into the air where it rained down on us from above.

The creature had been dealt a mighty blow and, after I had leapt to the ground beside Abby, returned to it's hovering position once more.

I didn't know what I was doing. Abby was too afraid to look and I wanted no further harm to come to anyone who called me a friend. Instinct took my by the hand and told me to strike, told me to fight.

I swept forwards with an outstretched hand and struck, watching as an energy overtook the end of my grasp with a white, innate power that scared me as I watched the creature get blown back, blown away, blown into dozens of square chunks, dissolving in seconds into thin air.

I took a breath in silence. The wind returned and Abby refused to cry. The snow fell and I wondered who I was, what I was.

"Oh… oh my god…" Abby sniffled, rubbing her eyes with a sleeve. "Oh my god…"

It took a moment for her to stand, to meander to Geoffrey, fall to her knees, to hold him up and watch his face go blue.

"He's okay, right? Grey Wolf…" she started, trailing off at the end. Words escaped her as she held him up, holding up his head.

"We can… find help…" I didn't know the right words to say, kneeling down by her. "We're in town now."

Abby said nothing as she withheld tears. She wanted to be strong. I could see it in her face, beneath her eyes, between her lips and her cheek.

"I don't know what to do. I don't. I don't know what to do…" she whispered, cracking up between the lines.

I didn't know what to say. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do.

There was a vehicle in the back, behind us both. I looked up when Abby could not. It was a wide tan car, short but rugged, and it was approaching slowly but steadily over the snow.

"You know, Grey Wolf." She half laughed, stress prevalent between the quivers in her voice. "We came out here to escape home. We were running away. Took my dad's gun and booked it."

She looked to Geoffrey's face as she laid a hand on his forehead.

"I loved him. I did. He loved me, but... never wanted to show it." I saw tears as the car grew closer. "We never should have come here. I never should have gone. I should've known he'd do something so stupid."

It pulled up close, engine rumbling to a halt atop the shotgun.

I had been wary of cars since the crash but for some reason I didn't feel scared anymore. Not right now. Not in the heat of the moment when two humans stepped out from the doors that slammed shut to break the silence.

They held rifles in their arms and looked cold, despite wearing lots of extra things on their body that I couldn't recognize.

"Lipton, check on the casualty," the one on the driver's side pointed to Geoffrey before looking at me with suspicion. "Hey."

The one named Lipton agreed with an affirmation before kneeling down beside Abby, rifle locked in the crux of his legs and hands assessing Geoffrey.

"You." The driver pointed to me with a free hand, grip tight on his weapon.

"Me?" I murmured in reply, too overwhelmed to think clearly.

"You've… you have ears. And…"

"Yes, I do, and I also have teeth and claws." I frowned, crossing my arms. Whoever this person was… I didn't like any of this one bit.

"I've never seen one of you in person before. Only heard the stories. But with more people like you… we stand a chance."

"Sareen, he's not breathing." The one who wasps the ground looked up. "He hasn't been breathing for a while."

"Gee, what tickled you off to that?" Sareen grimaced, turning from me and moving low to Geoffrey. "Get everyone inside the humvee. It's not safe here. I'll handle this."

Lipton nodded, immediately moving to usher Abby inside the vehicle.

She didn't want to stand up at first. She didn't want to move at all. I could see it in her face, I could see it in everything she did. When Sareen started to push a tube down Geoffrey's nose, Abby looked away, standing and stifling tears.

"Thank you." She whispered to me as she passed me by, entering the rear of the car.

I said nothing as Lipton looked to me, gesturing to the backseat with a nod of his head.

The snow still fell upon the ground in the street and on the roofs and on the leaves and over the ice. Gently swaying traffic lights, long since dead, drifted to the beat of a dying Earth - That's what Geoffrey called this planet, this world that seemed to hate me so very much.

A deep breath brought cool, crisp winter air into my lungs. I wondered if Geoffrey would ever get to do the same again as I crept into the vehicle that would take me away.

Take me away.

Take us away.