Chosen

Chapter Twenty-Two

 "What's the word, nerd?" Tony walks into the room with the director following behind.

 "We'll have it all tomorrow morning," I respond as I spin around in my chair.

 "Were you able to keep the connection with the Black Order spacecraft?" Director Coulson questions.

 "I hope," I answer. The three men look at me with quizzical expressions as they thought my connection was permanently secured. "It's like a kite. The flash drive is the handle and the ship is like the actual kite. Anytime you walk somewhere with a kite, especially long distances, you run the risk of breaking the string and losing the kite. Now I'm going to find out if the string is broken or not."

 Phil and Alex nod slowly. "That may just be the best metaphor I'll hear this year," Tony comments with a flip of his hand.

 "Shut up," I stand up from the chair. Alex suggests trying an elementary trick to help speed up the downloading process. I step aside to let him take a seat.

 "Well, I came to tell you that everyone is turning in for the night. I figure you aren't staying up for this to download..." Tony rubs his chin as even after Alex's aid, the download will still be many hours.

 I tell him that I am not. Even with the quickened progression it will be many hours before the transfer will be complete. These past few days following the death of my grandparents I have not had my usual amount of energy. All of my energy has been spent containing my emotions and forcing myself to move past this. I have been drained of my last energy reserves by keeping everything to myself. I have not shed a tear since the day of my grandparents' funeral and I plan to keep it that way.

 I follow Director Coulson and my dad into another room I have not yet been in. I find myself in a large open room full of bunk beds. Metal beds with basic white sheets and blankets are laid out in a uniformed repetition. I see the Avengers scattered out in pairs or small cliques to claim their sleeping quarters in the vast room.

 "This bunker was designed to hold 'all,'" Director Coulson uses air quotations, "of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents during a time of fallout. Of course, this was when we were nothing but maybe one hundred employees here."

 "You should really expand it," Tony comments.

 "I know," Director Coulson smiles softly before leaving the room to go to his own private sleeping area.

 "Lights go out in twenty minutes. Locker rooms are back there," Tony points behind him, "Your mom already put your clothes in a locker for you.

 "Goodnight," Tony heads to one corner of the room.

 Alex and I both head to the locker rooms. I find myself alone in the area since the only other two females have already changed into their sleepwear. I take my time getting ready for bed. I leisurely wash my face and brush my teeth. I hear someone shout a five minute warning before the lights went out. I wander back out to where Alex and I have called in the farthest wall to right.

 "Do you want top or bottom?" Alex inquires.

 "Or you could sleep on the bottom on one of the fifty other beds by me?" I ask without emotion, "Top bunks suck."

 "I literally did not even think of that..." Alex shakes his head as he takes a seat on the bed next to mine."

 "Lights out!" An agent calls out just before a loud click resonances in the room followed by total darkness. I shuffle under the thin blanket as I settle in for the night.

 With no clocks visible I have not an inkling of what time it is. It is hard to fall asleep with almost twenty people trying to sleep at the same time. The mixture of snores, beds creaking, deep breathing, and whatever noises being underground has generated is enough to make sleep come slowly to you. Nevertheless, I eventually feel myself drifting off into a dreamy unconsciousness.

 I wake up to the climax of another nightmare and the sound of a bed squeaking loudly. I involuntarily groan softly as I feel the unwanted tremor pulse through my body. My nerves are on hyper-alert as the overpowering fear of death overcomes me.

 I think how if there was a fire down here there would be no escape. Even if our suits could make it to us quickly, there is no way two of us could get everyone out in time. We would all be trapped like in a burning furnace. Something is coming, something that will entrap us.

 I whimper as the feeling of dizziness and nausea sickens me. I am helpless as the anxiety attack overcomes me. My thoughts are a jumbled mess but one deep, raspy voice suppresses all. My mind is quieted at the sound of his command.

 "Kill everyone, no exceptions," He instructs me.

 Here we go again.

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Dedication to @Marvel_lover21 <3

x JLG