A sleek car zoomed past her mere inches from her feet where she remained standing stock still on the clean sidewalk outside of the large beige building she had just exited. She stood waiting dressed in a fresh pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt. Her eyes dared to dart around realizing no one else was dressed as plainly but no one stared at her; instead, many people nodded and smiled as though it was the norm to find such plainly dressed people waiting outside of the beige building.
A train zoomed by extremely fast, the sound of its engine burning, the squeal of the brakes. She glanced sharply to her right expecting the train to appear out of the next street but no such thing occurred. Instead, she could see the train station three blocks over. Her ears hummed in annoyance and her nose scrunched up at the awful smells that wafted up from the streets.
They had said it would be sudden.
They.
Her eyes slammed shut as the recent moments flashed through her mind.
After she had been escorted from the unusual room filled with the doctors she was placed inside another large white room seated in a chair by a steel desk. An older woman in a brown sleek dress suit entered the room, her heels echoing in her mind with each step, noticing the way the woman’s right foot dragged almost unnoticeable causing her right foot steps to sound heavier, an old wound perhaps. She was followed by the blond haired doctor that she had awoken to and an older man who stood silently dressed in black beside the door, he had guard written all over him and she was unsure why she knew that so well.
“We are all glad to see that the re-animation was successful,” the woman beamed at her, reaching out a hand. She found herself ignoring it only keen on watching the woman’s eyes trying to place what was going on.
If she offended the woman she did not show it, merely she sat down across from her as though it was a usual occurrence. The two men remained standing.
“I’m sure you have many questions,” the woman smiled. “And we will be as accommodating as we can be, but due to a large fire some years back most of our resources and records were destroyed and we had to start from scratch, but I am getting ahead of myself. My name is Dr. Lane, but you may call me Joyce if you wish.”
“And I am Dr. Stone,” the young blond haired man spoke smiling once again. She could not sense anything fake in anything he did, that more than anything irked her as though such a thing was an uncommon experience to her.
“And who I’m I?” she spoke up.
The two of them shared a quick glance as though they hadn’t expected her to speak so soon.
“What do you remember?” Joyce asked bypassing her question.
“I remember it being cold and I remember it being dark and then I remember Dr. Stone’s face.”
The woman frowned. “Yes, I’m afraid amnesia has been a common symptom in many of our patients.”
“I am a previous patient of yours?”
“Not exactly.” She leaned forward folding her hands over a file.
“You know you are a mutant correct?”
She nodded, recalling Dr. Stone’s brief introduction and the unique sensations she had felt within her body when she awoke.
“You posses the power of skin absorption through touch, which you have control of,” she added as though it meant something. “As well as unique healing abilities and enhanced senses. You do not age, which has made the estimate of your real age quite difficult. You appear to be around 25-28 years old but we know that you are indeed older than you appear.”
“The amnesia you are experiencing so far in our other patients has not appeared to be long term. About three to four days after you leave here you will get flashes of your recent experiences, they may cause you some discomfort. As well your amnesia does not affect your motor skills, cognitive skills or your social skills; it more or less has just affected the memories pertaining to who you are.”
“Convenient,” she drawled.
The woman smiled. “Yes and from your light accent it is clear you are from one of the southern states.”
“America?”
“Yes, the United States of America.”
“Is that where I am?”
Joyce nodded. “Unfortunately, the amnesia affecting your personal memories could last anywhere from a month to years, the longest that has been recorded being five years.”
“What happened to me?”
Joyce sighed. “This is where it becomes difficult. Right now you may be experiencing a form of shock which is making you feel so detached from the situation right now. We believe the further shock of what you went through is what caused your loss of memories.”
“What?”
“About 30 years ago there was an almost full world-wide war against mutants and humans then. Here in the states, the so-called mutant threat had been contained and the country had been sectioned off into many different government factions, which really meant there was no one law maintaining order. Many mutants who were not killed were subjected to experiments in hopes that they could be used and abused by the humans in control and you unfortunately were one of these prisoners.”
“How do you know for sure?”
“When the revolution happened seven years later, and Europe came over seas to set up order as they had reached a peaceful agreement one year earlier; they had always been more mutant tolerant. Anyways, when they came it was one large mess trying to find every lab, which are now universally illegal. It has taken the country years to unearth them all and when the horrors of what had gone on reached the public, society was even more open to living in a joint world. There were still a few radicals who didn’t believe the war was over but they were the minority and unfortunately they succeeded in further leaving their stain on this country when they started infiltrating the labs and setting fire to them and burning all the records. We know that you were around during the start of the war because you were placed in a comatose frozen sleep and all the pods were dated. Only a selected few of you were frozen and locked away and we still aren’t exactly sure why. We belong to a separate faction of the health system that deals with finding the labs and helping any remaining mutants and especially the ones we find like you and help you re-emerge into society.”
“We both know this is a lot to take in,” Dr. Stone spoke up.
She nodded slowly.
“There are no records on you only a code etched into your pod WX43275.”
“Was that what they called me then, is that my name?”
“No, you are a person, you are not a number.”
“So what happens to me now, are you going to keep me here?”
“Well, we have created a new identity for you,” Joyce spoke moving the file across the table. “This contains all of the information you need, cards, ids and so on. Your new name is Sam Spence. If later on you remember your actual name or wish to change it you are allowed to. In a few hours after we make sure your body is dealing well with the shock you will be picked up and taken to a community housing used specifically for you “new mutants” there you will be accustomed to life and be given your settlement…”
“Settlement?”
“Yes, all mutants who were alive during the war and were captured receive government supplements for what they suffered.”
“I believe yours is quite large,” Dr. Stone winked at her. “You could already retire.”
“I see.”
“And from there we have set up a means of transportation to take you across the border into Canada.”
“Why?”
“We believe with your specific mutation the large cities will cause you severe discomfort if you attempt to set up a life here and the border is only an hour away. I think you will enjoy the little town of Oak Line.”
“So I have to go along with this?”
“No,” Joyce objected right away as though she had finally truly offended her. “You are not being forced to do anything, we have merely tried to take everything into consideration and if you do not like your living arrangements you have up to a year to contact us and wish for relocation, however, after that time your life is truly yours to do with.”
“You a mutant doc?” she asked curiously.
“No,” she gave a small smile. “But I have two adopted children, one boy and one girl and they are both mutants.”
“This really is a different world,” Dr. Stone added leaning over.
“Forgive me for keeping my shades on,” she murmured sarcastically.
The guard by the door gave a small laugh. “No need for them out there unless the sun is a shinning. Nothing to hide, don’t matter if you’re furry, orange, blue, green, have lizard eyes, you’re a free woman in a free world, darlin’.”
Her head tilted as she gazed at the tall man, something he said dug at her, a small tick that was growing at the back of her head but it faded. A free world? Something told her that wherever she came from she didn’t believe in a free world. Cynicism seemed to be vastly becoming her best friend, along with sarcasm; she could tell she was already going to be a people person.
She was jolted out of the memory as a car honked right beside her. Opening her eyes to find a perky young blonde woman smiling at her already grabbing the bag the doctors had given her full of what contained her new life. She placed it inside the car and held the door open for her.
“Sorry I’m late,” she smiled. “The name is Meg by the way and you are?”
Meg held her hand out and she still found that she was not so eager to touch, but Meg didn’t seem to mind, she had a feeling the perky driver was used to zoned out mutants staring at her in confusion. What a day job.
“I’m…,” she paused finding that the name they had given her just didn’t feel right, but she wondered if any name would at a time like this. “Sam…Sam Spence.”
“Nice to meet you. The drive is only about fifteen minutes and then I will show you around when we get there.”
Meg smiled and walked back around the car before she could even answer. Her smile wasn’t as innocent as Dr. Stone’s. She could tell it was in Meg’s job description to be polite but she could also tell the compliant driver truly didn’t seem to mind that she had just walked out of a Mutant Friendly facility.
She gave a small laugh as she moved to get into the car. Dr. Lane had said she would still have her social skills, but she was getting the feeling that maybe she never had any to begin with, society and her, she could tell were going to be a rough relationship, no matter how friendly it seemed.