Title: Searching For Friends
Rating: M, for Mature
Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.
Summary: Everyone is gone…
Notes: I have no idea how this story will pan out. If you think I should keep writing it, read and review, let me know what you think. In this chapter, Randy Orton gets reacquainted with Lita, but something is a little off.

-Prologue-

He awoke to the pitter-patter of cold, leaky pipes dripping driblets of water down to the cracked tiled floor. His eyes forced their way open, slowly but surely regaining their sight. What happened? Why did it feel like he'd been asleep for ages? Was it a drug that paralyzed him? He could feel his head pounding fiercely and a rhythmic ringing in his ears… Something was wrong… this wasn't normal.

"Where…am I?" he pondered to himself as he scanned the area. It was a hospital room. He could tell from the number of plastic cases filled with antiseptics and band aids spilled all over the floor. But, why the mess? This place looked like a tornado had gone through it.

The young man lifted himself up from the hospital bed he'd been lying on. What was he doing on it in the first place? Did he have some sort of accident? Was he even… alive? The lighting in the room was very dim, darkness filling almost every corner. He looked towards the open doorway. There was a hall leading right outside of it. He let his feet touch the ground, the feeling of the wet surface now beneath him. The place looked as if it were destroyed in a war. As he stepped outside into the hallway he noticed that parts of the walls had gigantic holes in them and that the ceiling lights kept flickering on and off. It all seemed like a bad dream. The overwhelming feeling of pandemonium and confusion started to take its toll, his eyes widened in terror and paranoia. Where was he going? Was there anyone else here?

Just when he began to think that all life on Earth had vanished except for himself, a human-like figure emitted from the shadowy end of the corridor. From where he stood he could only make out that it was a woman with rubescent colored hair and a rather loose-fitting sash hanging around her waist.

"Wait!" he called desperately as the woman turned away, disappearing around the corner. He tried his best to run after her, but his legs felt like they were being weighed down by cinder blocks—like he was running in quick sand or in slow motion. He kept following her trail, soon leading him to a small lobby waiting area. Everything was destroyed. The filing cabinets behind the help counter were tipped over, tons of papers nestled on the ground. What happened here? Was this building under attack? Were there any other survivors? Who was that woman?

He took a few steps forward, heading for the exit. He could see outside now, the air looking very thick and gray. It looked as if it had been raining for days and the clouds had descended to level with the ground. There were too many thoughts going through his mind at that moment—too many questions. Then suddenly, a voice.

"What are you doing here?"

The young man quickly turned around to see the woman he'd been pursuing down the hall. The faint lighting in the building and inside the room still covered most of the woman's features. She advanced gradually, the light from the outside uncovering more of her visage. The woman had brown-hazel eyes and a rosy colored mesh mask covering the lower part of her face, like a gypsy. He studied her carefully, the woman becoming vaguely familiar to him as she came closer to the exit doors.

"I don't… know. I just woke up… and I don't know what I'm doing here… I don't even know where here is…"

The woman tilted her head a bit, a confused look on her face. "Tell me your name," she said to him.

!!!

Randy… are you okay…?

!!!

She looked at him awkwardly. His face had stopped suddenly and his eyes had grown large like he'd seen a ghost.

"It's… Randy," he finally replied shakily, almost thinking he'd forgotten his own name. Everything felt like a huge blur, everything seemed out of focus. "Who are you…?" he asked curiously.

The woman stepped closer to him, now completely revealed by light coming from the outside. Randy's jaw dropped, now sure of who this woman had reminded him of—the long red hair, the hazel eyes…"You're… Lita!"