Ava's eyes opened slowly with her eyelids shivering as it unveils her pupils. The blurriness eventually cleared off and she saw a man, the man, sitting beside her on the bed with a cup of water in his hands, no doubt to administer to her.
"Ahh, you're awake," he said with some joy in him. One that made Ava more confused.
She quickly sat up, with her eyes locked on him, "Where am I?"
"You're safe. This is my comfort zone. It's where I come when I want to be left alone." He stretched his hand to her, "I'm Alfred. Alfred Ragnar."
Though still puzzled, she stretched her hand to him in slow motion. But halfway through she discovered the new gown on her and withdrew her hand, wearing a gaze of bewilderment.
"Did you change my clothes?"
"Yes. Your old ones were dirty so I had to..."
Ava slapped him halfway through his explanation, "You s*x deprived bastard. How dare you strip a woman naked in her sleep?"
She jumped down the bed and walked out through his door while he just sat on a chair with a hand to his cheek and a wandering expression.
Outside, she finds herself in the middle of a desert with a railway which led to a village far away. Ava followed the railway.
Afar off a couple of men load guns in a crate, putting horse hay in it and loading them up in a wooden warehouse.
"Ahh, look at that," one of the men watched Ava through a binoculars as she strolled through the desert.
"Let me see," the man in front of him took it and gazed for a second. "She'd fetch a fine price."
He took the binoculars again from his partner and peeped through it, "Or we could keep her. This one would keep a man's bed warm for hours."
He chuckled and jumped on his horse, "I'd go fetch her. Hyah," he stroke the horse with the reins, propelling him to run.
Meanwhile Ava's boots has immediately grown dirty, with the dust eventually finding its way to the edges of her gown which hung at the height of her knee.
She trudged through the sand, with her hands stiffly stationed beside her as they grow tiresome of swinging.
Suddenly she heard loud galloping and turned around to see a rider approaching. "Are you headed to the city?"
"Yes," Ava mumbled.
"I'm heading there too. Hang on," he turned around to her and Ava climbed on.
The man turned the horse around and drove for their warehouse.
"The city is that way," Ava pointed out.
"What did mama tell you about strangers?" the man chuckled.
Without a second to waste Ava jumped down from the horse and landed hardly on her butt.
Upon seeing her stubbornness, the man jumped down from the horse and sighed, then pulled out a rope from his bag and charged towards her. "Now I'd have to tie you."
With her superhuman speed Ava slided behind him and knocked his foot of the ground. Then she pulled the rope from his grip and hanged his neck with it. Her two hands pulling each end of the rope towards her while her leg pushed his head away.
He choked to his death. Ava then stole his horse and rode off, following the tracks.
"Why is he taking so long," afar off his friend sighted the location with the binoculars again and discovered that the horse was going another way.
"Something's wrong," he walked to his horse and jumped on it. "Hyah!"
Some inches behind Ava the dust rose above the ground as multiple horses galloped through it, all in their cowboy hats and fierce facial expressions.
Ava noticed them and stroke the horse with the rein, "Hyah," propelling him to go faster.
However the gangsters were fast approaching, they knew horses better than she does and stressed them to their limits.
A minute passed and one of them was already on her tail. With no form of mercy for her natural gender, he pulled her down the horse by the hair, throwing her on the dust of the desert sands.
"You killed, Wesley," his friend jumped off the horse and approached her. "Well you shouldn't have. He was a good man."
One of the men lashed her with a horse whip, making Ava scream her guts out.
"Hold. We need her alive and healthy," he rebuked the man. "If she killed one of our men then she owes us a man." He then ducked down to her, "Me and the boys are gonna put our peckers in you tonight, and you better not be barren."
She jumped off the ground in a bid to escape with her powers when one of the men knocked her out with a shovel to the back of her head.
"Load her up," Wesley's friend ordered and got on his horse and rode away while the men followed him after tying her to a horse.
...
As the day faded and the night opened its sails in the sky, the men made a little camp fire in front of their warehouse and drank themselves merry, laughing and telling inappropriate jokes.
One of the men walked to Ava who's tied to a pole inside and threw a chicken's lap on the floor for her. "Eat up, you're gonna need the strength."
Without a word Ava glared at him while he chuckled then turned around to walked off after gesturing a kiss to her genital area.
As soon as he disappeared Ava noticed a quick movement and next thing she knew, her hands were cut loose.
She turned around to see Alfred who shushed her, "Follow me."
He sneaked her out of the warehouse, maintaining movement within the shadow of the building so not to be seen.
"Shhh! Shhh! Shhhh!" he shushed the horses, pampering them so he could get to steal one.
"I have superspeed, I can carry you, we could be out of here in a minute," Ava suggested.
He turned around disgusted, "I'm not letting a woman carry me in her arms. Go! I'm coming behind you."
"You just saved my life, what kinda of person would I be if I go without you," she grabbed a horse for herself.
"Well your choice," he jumped on his.
"Hey, what're you doing over there?" One of the cowboys spotted them.
From his raw palm, Alfred threw a knife which stabbed the man in the chest.
Surprised Ava turned around to him. "You..."
"Yeah, I can make weapons with my hands. C'mon let's go!" Alfred spoke in a state of emergency and started his horse. Ava gets ahead of him.
In few seconds all the cowboys in that area, over 20 of them has found themselves on their horses chasing after their prisoner with the force of the wind.
"Hyah," Alfred propelled his horse to go faster and sighted a train coming just when they drew closer to the railway.
"Go faster, if we make it before the train passes, we might get some headstart from them," he yelled the plan to Ava.
But Ava was slowly getting behind as her lack of horse riding skills stupefied the horse.
"What're you doing?"
"It's not me it's him," she struggled with the reins, thudding him with her boot repeatedly. "I can't control him."
In that moment Alfred looked forward calculating the distance of the train to them and how much time they have left to cross before it passes. It's now or never, however Alfred risked it all and slowed his horse to hop on Ava's.
Then he took the reins, "Hyah," and rode forward, squinting his eyes to keep the wind away while bending his body forward to make the horse go faster.
A very few inches from the train Alfred impelled the horse to jump. All time and space froze in that moment as the horse gets in front of the train.
Luckily, one half of the horse has passed, Ava's half. And then Alfred's half crossed over but at what cost? The train smashed the tail of the horse, severely injuring it and throwing both of them off like empty water bottles.
Ava lands safely on the sand while Alfred was projected to the train, with the left side of his head getting bruised by the fast moving locomotive.
"We made it," Ava looked around with a smile. But then she spotted him, "Alfred, c'mon let's go, we don't have much time."
She stood up and walked to him, "Alfred?"
Then the horror greeted her. "Alfred," she ducked down in a state of alarm and held his head up. "No, no, no, no, no! I'd get you to a doctor. I promise I'd get you one."
She picked him up in her arms and parted the sands like a motor boat on water, speeding away.
A week later...
Alfred lay on a bed, eyes closed with a blanket on him. The injury on the side of his head has been stitched but he looked pale as a ghost.
For the first time in a long while he finally opens his eyes to see an old man with a face bath in grey hairs. He held a note, dressed in a brown coat, no doubt this is a doctor, his mind concluded.
"Where am I? What am I doing here?" He sat up confused.
"A woman dropped you off. I think she's your wife. She's pregnant. Black curly hair and vibrant blue eyes," the doctor described.
Without paying much attention to the doctor Alfred touched the left side of his head with shock lingering on his face, "What happened to me?"
"You hit your head really hard on something, you don't remember?"
Alfred gasped for a minute with wide open eyes, "I don't remember. I don't remember anything."
"The woman, your wife told me she was leaving you when a couple of cowboys kidnapped her and you showed up to save her. But then an accident happened which led you here. Still don't remember anything?" The doctor surveyed him.
He sailed through his thoughts for a minute and turned to the doctor, "I don't remember anything."
Poof! Ava entered the house with a gush of wind and stood by his bed. "Hey, you're awake. Thank goodness, I get to leave now."
Suddenly Alfred grabbed her hand tightly with anger building up in him, "You're not leaving me again, especially not after what you put me through."
She swung her hand from his grip, "Look, thank you for saving me. But I have to go now."
Alfred stood up and threw her on the bed, "You're not going anywhere with my child."
Sudden shock filled Ava, even evidently showing on her twisted facial expression. "What are you talking about?" She turned to the doctor in the same timeframe. "What is he talking about?"
"I told him you were pregnant," the doctor confessed.
"Alfred what're you doing?" She stood up from the bed baffled. "This is not your child."
He grabbed her and pressed her shoulders against the wall almost with the force of a car. Then his eyes grew sad, almost tearing up, "You're saying... You cheated on me?"
She turned to the doctor with eyes filled with confusion.
"I-I thought you were married," the doctor stuttered.
"We're not," Ava yelled at the doctor who puts on his glasses and read through his book mumbling inaudible words.
But then he looked up again, "This might be a case of retrograde amnesia. Funny this one flooded his mind with delusions."
"You heard the man, Alfred. You lost your memory, you're hallucinating," Ava spoke to him calmly like Jehovah Witness.
"I don't believe you..." He looked around. "I might not remember everything but something in me tells me I loved you with my life. But then you tried to run away with my child, but why?"
He contemplated for a second and then threw her on the bed. He walked to the door and built a large shield around it with his bear hands. Alfred took a second to marvel at his palms then turned around to her, "You're not leaving until I find out the truth."