August felt like she was in a trance.
She looked up at Sharon.
"When I signal, get on the ground."
Sharon frowned at her, but the glint in her eyes told August that she understood.
"I'm sorry? I'm really just here for your eval."
August stood up, holding her breath in her chest. She turned to face the door, breathing in and out deeply. Crouching down, she came eye-level with the code panel.
"Ms. Haze, you're not supposed to be at the door." Sharon's voice was completely flat and monotone, as if she was reading off of a script.
Awkwardly, August pressed her nose into the 0 key, followed twice by the 1, and finally by the 3. She stood up quickly, taking a deep breath and holding it in her lungs.
The door slid open. The guard began to turn.
Like a dragon from a fantasy novel, August blew a stream of white-hot fire directly in his face. The force of it knocked him backwards, slamming him into the far wall and knocking him out cold.
She waddled towards him as quickly as she could on her metal stubs, falling to her knees. She used her teeth to pull the key from his belt and began undoing her metal handcuffs. She heard footsteps coming her way, and knew that guards were coming for her.
"Hey! Get back-"
August freed her hands. She drew them from the metal cuffs, sending a whirlwind of air towards the new guards. It swept them up, slamming them up into the ceiling.
Ocean water began to gush in from the hole that she created.
She flicked her wrist, creating a solid barrier of fire in the doorways between her hall and two exits. She got to work on her legs, working as quickly as she could to undo each lock while guards hollered at each other from either side. The alarms started blaring as the room began to fill with water.
She finished undoing her cuffs and rose to her feet, wading through the water. She held her hands out like she was holding a basketball, a ball of air forming between them.
August situated it on her head. She looked over to the interview room, where Sharon was peeking out. August winked at her.
Jumping into the water, she strained against the pressure of the pounding liquid. She pushed off on her feet, reversing the direction of the water as she was blasted upwards into the open ocean, pulling up the concrete to fix the roof as she did so.
For a moment, pure terror gripped her. She realized that she had maybe, just maybe, rushed into this without really thinking about it. If not for the lights of the raft, she would be surrounded in complete darkness with no way of knowing which direction was upwards.
Her oxygen bubble shrank as she took a panicked breath. Her dark eyes went wide with horror.
Move. Move. Move. Do it. Move. Now.
She flexed her hands. The water began to pull her upwards at an alarming speed, and she felt algae and tiny rocks ripping at her skin as she went. Eventually, the raft was no longer in sight- it was just her and this terrible, awful darkness.
The water began to lighten. Her air bubble was getting dangerously small, becoming a tiny sheen on her face.
C'mon, she thought, trying not to panic. Just a little further.
August took a deep breath, filling her lungs as full as she could.
The air bubble popped.
The water slammed into her face, flooding her nose and stinging at her eyes. She flexed her wrists as hard as she could, squeezing her eyes shut as she rocketed towards the surface. She stretched her hands out, parting the sea as she went to allow her to move faster.
CITEȘTI
SURVIVE ➤ BUCKY BARNES
Fanfiction"i think of you-" "think of me?" August had never identified as a hero. She had never chosen to do what she did. Spending her entire life as a pawn in somebody else's wretched game. She was whatever they made her - a hero, a...
