The Soldier and the Wolf

Chapter 21

May 2015

"Do you have to repeat it every single time we go out?" Bucky and I were in the market place again. It was that time to go shopping for food and supplies once again. We went at least twice a month so that way we wouldn't have to rush going out too often and so they we wouldn't spend out money too quickly. After a year of hiding, we fortunately still had a lot of money left, but Bucky was still worried we were going to run out.

"I just like to make sure you haven't forgotten that we are on the run, that's all. Now give me half of the money. I'll get what I need, you get what you need, and meet back here." I sighed and rolled my head back.

"Why can't we just shop together? It's stressing having a time limit." He glared at me, and I raised my hands up in a surrendering motion. "Fine, we can continue doing what we've been doing forever. But I was just suggesting." I took a stack of money out of my pocket and handed it to Bucky. He put it in the pocket of his jean jacket and walked off to the fruit stand that was straight across from us. I watched him as he picked up the plums with his gloves metal hand and placed them back down in the baskets that were holding them. I sighed and looked around to see where I should go first. I know, I thought to myself. I'll go exactly where I go every single time we go out. I'll go to the corner store, then go to a few booths, then meet Bucky right back here.

And I did exactly that. I went to the corner store and bought the usual food items as well as soon other products. As I waited in line, I looked at the shelves and my gaze fell onto a random newspaper. At first I thought it was just some of the usual political shit, but then I saw the black and white picture. In the picture showed a suit that looked like the Ironman suit, but it was bulkier and larger. On the opposite side of the huge Ironman suit was the hulk. In the background of the picture were policemen and a bunch of rubbles from buildings and cars. What the hell? I thought as I examined the picture. Why was Ironman fighting the hulk. I took the newspaper out of its stand and observed it more closely. The writing was in Romanian, of course, and I was still a bit iffy with reading and understanding the language, but I was able to make out some words and names. I saw "Avengers", "Tony Stark", and "Hulk". Eventually I was able to almost translate the story associated with the picture. It went something like:

The Avengers' Ironman and The Hulk battle it out in Johannesburg, South Africa after The Hulk goes into a craze state of mind and violently terrorizes civilians. Though he was able to be contained, the Avengers are now the main talk throughout the entire world. We have no idea where the Avengers are now or what they plan to do next, but we know that they aren't the most popular in some countries. Will they be able to make up for what happened in Johannesburg, or are the Avengers becoming more and more dangerous?

When I looked at the issue date of newspaper, I saw that this happened almost a week ago. I should show Bucky this. Maybe this'll help him see that even good people aren't completely free from doing bad things. I rolled up the magazine and put it on the conveyor belt with the rest of my stuff. I wonder why they were in South Africa? Probably just there typical hero missions.

      I checked out, grabbed my bags, and left the store. However, when I stepped out, I noticed that at each of the booths at the flea market across the street, there were small crowds gathered around the stands. What the are they looking at? I started to slowly walk back to where I always Bucky after shopping, but at each booth I slowed down to see what they were looking at. When I couldn't see at one booth, I would speed ahead to the next one and see if I had any luck there. Eventually I made it all the way back to where I was supposed to meet Bucky and I still had no idea what everyone was looking at. I could I only see people holding newspapers in there hands at some stands. I also realized that Bucky wasn't in the spot we would meet at. I looked at my watch and saw that it was around the same time we usually met back. I looked around the marketplace, trying to look for him.