Waking, Alexis found her head fuzzy and pounding, her mouth dry and neck stiff. Eyes opening, confusion came immediately. She expected it to be dark, the cell she had been thrown in was a vacuum of light. However, that was not where she was now. Wood was underneath her, grass sprouting along the edge and air surrounding her in its unadulterated and very pure state.

Alexis managed to sit up, legs drawn up to her chest as her gaze wandered. She was in the middle of a gazebo; an elaborate, yet now very untidy garden on every side of the small construct. Confusion grew, the strangeness of the desolate surroundings giving her a feeling of unease.

Trying to stand up, she bumped against something. Light jumped out of the darkness as a small device lit up. For a moment of time, she just stared at the thing, a lump forming in her throat that she was unable to swallow away. Tapping the apparatus, she finally picked it up.

It was some sort of data pad, an elaborate electronic device that as she peered at it flickered as its screen changed. A map of sorts appeared on the screen as it zoomed in, a path marked, a destination fixed. One that was exactly where she had been captured and so close to home.

Saving the analysis of the thing for another time, she used the illumination of the device as she swept it beneath her. Earlier, she felt something else near her body, something that had been startlingly cold against her arm.

Alexis froze when she found the thing, startled somewhat even as she stared. It was a gun. Yet unlike any she ever saw. There were markings along it, engravings as well. Picking it up she was astonished by how light it was. She nearly dropped it when the tablet started to blink, schematics coming up, followed by instructions on how to use the weapon.

That was when she felt the craziness of her entire situation. When the questions flooded through. Where was she? How did she get there? Who brought her there? Managing to stand up, finding her feet more balanced than she would have believed possible Alexis took a couple steps forward.

All it took was three steps before one of her questions was answered. Looking down she saw the ground before the gazebo was marred by sinkholes from what were very large footprints. It didn't take her brain even a second to identify who they belonged to for she had stared at the Seeker's intricately shaped feet long enough to match them up perfectly.

For a terrifying moment, she thought perhaps it was a game that Starscream wanted to play. Chills went up her back, heart rate pitching. No, he wouldn't have let her out of the cell, would have never let her off base or left her alone outside. Once she came to that conclusion, she forced herself to think of something else. The Seeker frightened her. What he tricked her into doing. What he wanted her to do. She would not think about that. Not when there were far worthier things to take precedence in her mind.

Like getting as far away from where she was to anywhere but there. Yes, that was a goal that was sure to make her feel somewhat more secure.

Ignoring the pangs in her head and the throbbing underneath her eyes, she walked out of the gazebo. Hand clutching to the side, something shifted deep within her stomach, her body pitching forward as she rapidly and with great distress emptied the contents of her stomach.

Yet considering she had barely eaten anything in the past couple days Alexis was surprised she had anything to purge at all.

The dizziness lifted and Alexis actually felt better. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, head rising, she saw a house which wasn't that far away. Walking forward, she didn't get far when she heard what sounded like a branch breaking to the left. Her imagination took off as she stilled. Turning around after a minute or so she hurried back to the gazebo, staring down at the weapon she purposefully left behind before coming to a decision she didn't really like. But paranoia at that moment reigned supreme. Picking up the gun, gripping it tightly, she continued once more toward the house.

A couple of days had gone by since she found herself free. And when she wasn't sleeping, Alexis was walking. She managed to find a backpack and some food and other essentials in the house she had been dropped off nearby, and even when her mind told her to get rid of all the obvious alien tech that she had been left with, for the moment, as she tried to acclimate herself to her new situation, she used the data pad to guide her journey. Alexis promised herself that once she found a real map, she would rid herself of the thing.

The world felt even more lonely than she ever recalled. At least when she had been with her brother, they had each other. Yet now on her own she was wary of every turn of the road and what it might bring, not to mention every unknown sound. She found herself increasingly paranoid and left with vast amounts of time to think.

She already came to the conclusion that it was Thundercracker, who freed her. Although why he had was a conundrum. After all he left her for weeks, left her as Starscream used her as some sort of toy. Alexis stopped those thoughts, finding that they had brought her steps to a halt as she internally froze. It didn't matter why he freed her. The point was that he had, and that she needed to get back to her own state. She needed to find her brother. Needed to...

Behind her, Alexis heard something. Whipping around she gazed at the road. She felt terrifyingly exposed on the empty highway, yet it was the only course she could take. What she saw astonished. A herd of horses was galloping freely along the concrete, whinnying and speeding along. Alexis watched them until they passed the distance that she was capable of seeing, the lively creatures eventually disappearing over a bend on the road.

If she had been in a movie, the screen would have gone black indicating the next scene was upon them, one that would open, slowly pulling back only to find her riding one of the magnificent creatures, Alexis somehow managing to not only capture one of the horses, but tame it as well. But her life wasn't a movie, far from it, and how could she a person who had never ridden a horse except at a ranch she went to one summer, ever expect to carry off such a feat. She wasn't even about to amuse herself with an attempt at trying.

She walked on.

Here and there, she would pass patches of abandoned cars. Occasionally, she would attempt to start one, but they never would. The Decepticons somehow disabled them all as if knowing someday they might want to be used again.

Yet while Alexis couldn't drive them, she still used them as she rested inside, taking shelter from the heat as she drank water in small sips. Then forced to sleep in one of them as she found the highway longer than she originally anticipated.

Of course, not as long as her overall journey. She was so many states away from her own of Wisconsin, that the thought of walking the entire way there would sometimes overcome Alexis. But she forced herself to continue, unwilling to give up.

A couple more days passed, and still she hadn't come across any other humans. Luckily though, she finally came across a residential area. Taking a whole day she stocked up on food, wandering through the empty shops as she found a couple of books to keep her company during her resting hours, and a larger even more comfortable backpack, so she could carry more items.

She almost didn't want to leave the small town, and yet she couldn't leave the utter emptiness of it fast enough. Following the directions on her data pad, she saw it was leading her to yet another highway. Again, she felt like she was supposed to dump the thing. For all she knew it had some sort of tracking device on it. But she still didn't believe that made sense when she thought of it, and for now, she needed the tablet to guide her journey.

It was five hours later that Alexis believed she was seeing things. But no, slowing down she identified that it was indeed a body on the side of the road. For a moment, she thought of turning around, of running, of getting away and not looking back.

Instead, she walked forward extremely cautious and on alert, afraid that she was about to see a dead body up close and personal again. The instinct for flight nearly overtook her once more. Despite that she found herself going forward. Leaning down, checking for a pulse, she found one.

Relieved at that she looked the person over. It was a young man who wasn't that far from her age by the look of it things. His head was banged up, a bruise evident on the top of his forehead that was halfway concealed by his hair, dried blood stuck above his left brow.

But how did he get there? In the middle of nowhere?

His clothes were torn, but far from tattered. Whatever he got into before he had obviously been looking out for himself and surviving moderately well. He was slim but not small and even supine she could make out subtle signs of a defined musculature. His skin was sunburned in areas; other patches tanned lightly. She leaned forward trying to get an even better view.

Alexis nearly tripped backwards when a hand suddenly gripped her elbow. The man's eyes opened as she found herself analyzed. She shook herself out of his grip, backing up, she grabbed her backpack quickly, ready to flee.

"Wait!" the person said. Sitting up he raised his hand toward her pleading.

She took a step back toward him, compassion there as she watched him rub his head. He sat up slowly, a groan escaping from his lips. He closed his eyes tightly before reopening them. And before she knew exactly what she was doing Alexis leaned before him, a canister of water opened as she gave him a couple of sips.

"Are... are you okay?" Alexis asked. At least ten other inquires raced through her brain. She was starting to get angry at all the questions she was filled with, angry because the answers did not seem forthcoming.

Gray eyes latched onto her. She found herself staring into them, realizing she missed human company, missed interacting, even missed talking to another. However, she knew she had to be careful. Trust was even harder to earn than ever and while she wasn't about to treat everyone like her enemy, she knew that her being totally alone meant her caution was not only required but definitely pragmatic.

"I'm... alive." He eyed her, his gaze wandering over Alexis slowly. If she wasn't still in a slight shock of coming across another human being, she would have surely blushed bright. "What are you doing here? Where did you come from?" Her lack of an answer had him continuing, "I see. You want me to answer first, am I right? Don't blame you. Strange human in the middle of nowhere..." He frowned, eyebrows lifting. "I was on one of the Decepticon slave transports. Fortunately, I prepared for the eventuality and managed to escape."

"You're hurt," Alexis said, she pointed at his brow.

He grimaced, fingers hovering over the wound on his forehead. She realized then that despite the bruising on his face, he was pleasant enough to look at. Repeatedly, she found herself drawn back to his strangely exotic gray eyes. "Yeah, escaping might have been easy, but I managed to bang myself up pretty bad when I exited the transport. Guess I didn't account for the speed. Nor for the fact that I was a long way from civilization, water and food... Do you know what day it is?"

Alexis shook her head. The truth was she didn't even know what month it was. Although she knew at least five or six months had passed since she had been taken as a Decepticon slave. What a blur time had become, what a forsaken concept that had somehow lost its value as the weight of the world crushed it down into an unreachable chasm of lost perception.

"No matter. Guess those things aren't really important nowadays... Wow. My cranium aches." He gently poked his fingers through his brown hair before sliding them back forward. Two fingers remained on his brow where he rubbed gently.

"I have some aspirin," Alexis said, after eying him for a rather long moment. Listening to her instincts, Alexis decided that she didn't feel threatened by the guy, and convinced herself that if he tried anything, she could handle it.

Putting her backpack on the ground, she quickly located some pills in the front pocket. Throwing the bottle at him, he caught it deftly and then took a couple aspirin out, which he swallowed.

"So, where are you headed?" he questioned.

For a moment, she nearly told him exactly where. Biting down on her tongue, she started again as she answered, "Home."

"And where is home?"

Alexis' view shifted, taking in the road on either side. The wind picked up, pushing lightly against her cheeks, a light touch that seemed to bring with it many a memory of her house and family.

"Far from this place," she answered, her guard up.

Again, he was looking at her. There was an intensity in his gaze. His eyes rising and shifting, they landed on her own. "Want company?" he asked, at least having the decency to sound hesitant.

It was her turn to interrogate.

"Are you a Decepticon spy?"

"No."

"A collaborator?"

"No."

She narrowed her eyes. "Leading me into some elaborate trap?"

"No." He shook his head at that, actually amused by her questions. "Listen, after all that I have been through I just could really use some... normal company."

Alexis almost smiled, feeling oddly at ease. "Fine. But I lead the way, and if you try anything funny you will find yourself alone... very quickly."

"Deal."