Second Chances

Chapter 3: Duck, Duck, ....Moose?

Talia's PoV: The next day I was rudely woken by my pager going crazy. Fury wanted us in the conference room. When we had all gathered around the table ten minutes later, I hoped Fury would give us some time to collect ourselves. The team wasn't half awake and the only person that looked relatively normal was August- which wasn't saying much. The guys' hair stuck up in odd places and JJ's pj shirt showed under his jacket. Isobel was yawning and still in flannel pants. Sean had pulled his shirt on backwards, and Erik was wearing slippers. Even I had barely thought to change my pjs to something more decent, but I was sure my hair was a mess. What a well-trained bunch of assassins and geniuses. Ha.

"Today is when I need you all to start getting serious again. There's rumors of a dirty bomb in Montana, somewhere near the western border. Our scouts spotted agents in helicopters marked with Hydra's insignia flying away from the general area. You're going to take out the bomb. Be ready to go in fifteen minutes," Fury commanded.

"Sir, why don't we just follow the helicopters and take out wherever they're headed? The helicarrier must have enough firepower to blast a base," Evan said. Each time he blinked, his eyelids drooped, and his head nodded forward. He shifted his weight as though his socks were made of lead, and his normally military-straight posture was strangely slumped, his right shoulder angled downward and his weight kept off his bad ankle.

"Because I already have a team following them. For now, you're acting as my bomb squad and taking care of this bomb. Isn't that heroic enough for you, Carter?"

Evan made a sleepy, somewhat disgusted snort. "Whatever."

We split up and I jogged to the bunk room to get ready. No time for showers, so we each found clothes suitable for missions. I filled my cargo pants pockets with the essentials and ran out of the bunk toward the conference room again. When everyone had gathered, Fury began to issue orders: "The seven of you will be shuttled to the ground where a SHIELD vehicle is waiting. Rhodes and Dawson, I want the two of you to be looking for radiation signatures and anything abnormal. Carter and Barton- keep the way clear, and if worse comes to worse, you'll be the last line of defense. Vanek, eyes and ears. Stark-"

Fury tossed Sean a set of keys which he caught and twirled on his finger with a grin. I was surprised. "What? He's driving?"

"He's the only one with a real license," Fury retorted.

"But JJ and I have federal immunity!"

"You really think it'd be a good idea to have Barton driving?"

Imagining the mental damage caused by stress and high blood pressure, I quipped, "Good point."

"Hey!" JJ protested.

It wasn't long before the team and our gear was on a small jet flown by an agent. He landed on the road since everywhere else was either unlevel ground or occupied by evergreen trees. When we clambered out, he didn't stick around, and soon the Quinjet was disappearing in a glint of sunlight. The team and I jogged to a jeep with an enlarged, covered back end, and Sean took his seat as the driver, his mouth curled into an unfaltering smirk. Beside him, I buckled into the shotgun seat. In the back, Isobel sat across from Erik and Evan stood beside her, clutching one of the frame supports above his head for balance.

"Are you sure you know how to drive?" I checked with Sean, watching him hesitate finding the controls.

"What? Yeah, I've got this handled. My dad's let me drive his old Audi now and then. A Jeep can't be hard compared to a sports car right? Piece of cake."

Yet he managed to turn on the windshield wipers and seat heaters before he found the headlights. "Got it." The engine rumbled as we lurched forward onto the road. Urged by Sean's lead foot, we quickly began zipping around corners and down hills. At a stream, he applied the brakes so we could cross a narrow bridge, but he ended up stopping too hard and causing us to be jolted against our seat belts. "Hey, good news," he laughed, "the brakes work."

Sean's PoV: I pulled onto the main road and looked around for the nearest speed limit sign; seeing none, I just kept it at fifty until I passed a sign that read forty. Close enough. Soon after was a marker reading: "Welcome to Moose Valley, Montana!"

"Moose valley?" Talia muttered.

"Guess so," I mumbled in reply, checking the GPS coordinates to make sure we were headed west. We'd passed in and out of the town within minutes, so now where we went was up to Erik, meticulously watching three trackers, a GPS, a radiation radar he'd invented over the summer, and the view out the windshield. I sped along, trying to avoid potholes and the deteriorating shoulder. Everywhere I looked was green as the road twisted through a pine forest. In the distance to the right rose misty purple mountains that speared the clouds and disappeared into a pale blue sky.

"Erik, you have to tell me where we're going," I called to him.

"Um...I'm not sure," he answered. "Is there a split ahead?"

"Yeah. Left or straight?"

"Go left." A glimpse in my rearview mirror showed him frantically typing on two different keyboards, and looking at a screen not attached to either. "Wait, go straight. No. Left. No, no, straight!"

"Which is it?" At our current speed, I needed an answer now or we would all wind up in the grass.

"Straight," he confirmed.

I kept the Jeep going straight as we passed into a thinner section of the forest. Here, the pavement ended and became packed earth. We began passing parts of the road with streets branching off every ten or so minutes that I read aloud to him. "Muscovy Circle, Pekin Street, Mallard Road, Blanc d'Allier, Saxony Street..."

"What?" Looking back, I was shocked Isobel had spoken. It was the first time I'd heard her speak on the mission. "Those are all breeds of duck."

"Duck?" I repeated.

"Yeah," she said, leaning forward to read the street signs.

"I thought this was supposed to be Moose Valley?" I remarked.

"Guys," Erik spoke up from the back. "The radiation reading is getting stronger. The levels aren't dangerous yet, but they could be. Especially if this is a bomb. And especially if it goes off. Just keep going west and take a right in three miles."

"What's the road called?" I asked.

"Um, I think it's a duck breed," he replied.

"Dude, everything around here is a duck," I retorted. I began watching the street signs again with intermittent glances at the mileage. "Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck..." I muttered as we passed different streets, our speed increasing.

As we rounded a bend, Talia suddenly shouted, "Moose!"

"No, it's duck duck goose," I told her, glancing at her dead-serious expression. "Now let me concentrate."

"No! Moose!" She shouted again, pointing at something through the windshield.

Just in time, I spotted what I hadn't seen twenty seconds earlier: a fully grown bull moose crossing the road in front of us.