Captain Alpha

Chapter 14

You woke up several hours later with your stomach cramping and growling. It took you a moment to get your bearings but once you fully woke up all the memories came flooding back at you fought back a fresh wave of tears as you crawled through the window and set off looking for berry bushes or at least a stream that you could catch fish in.

You'd wandered for about an hour when you stumbled upon not only berry bushes but a thicket of berry bushes that were mere steps from a waist deep stream. Almost staggered by your good luck you started hunting for a large thick limb that would be suitable enough to use for spearing fish with as you plopped down beside a berry bush and began picking berries off and popping them into your mouth intermittently.

You finally found a decent stick and took out your knife from your right boot and began whittling away at the wood as the cramps and growls in your stomach lessened considerably once you'd had your fill of the blackberries and you stood up and took off your boots and socks and waded into the stream until you were standing in water that came a few inches above your knees. Standing stock still you waited, and waited, and waited and was almost about to give up when your eye caught a flash of something underwater and you jabbed the spear at it lightening fast and brought it above water to find the biggest fish you think you'd ever seen on the end of the stick and you smiled quite happy that you were able to half way fend for yourself.

You kept the fish on the end of the stick as you made your way back to your new abode after picking up your boots with your socks stuffed in them and, once there, began looking for dry, dead leaves and larger limbs to start a fire in the fireplace with so you could cook your meal. You managed to find about an armful of decent tinder and then you realized you couldn't get through the window with your arms full. You stood facing the small stone building chewing your bottom lip as you faced this dilemma.

On the one hand you could just kick in the door but then that would leave you vulnerable to anyone that happened across the small building and as you'd told the Avengers you didn't want to risk accidentally contaminating someone with this serum or virus or whatever it was that currently had you still seeing in shades of gray and red. But on the other hand, you were fairly certain that if you were going to be caught then it would've been hours ago and as far as you could tell you were the only one besides the Avengers now that knew about this place and you were absolutely positive that they weren't allowing Schmidt any contact with anyone.

Finally coming to a conclusion with your internal battle as the sun sank lower in the western sky you simply kicked in the front door and went marching in, setting the fish on a stick down on the table in front of the fireplace and the wood and leaves in the box beside it as you went to work. First you drug the table further from the fireplace taking special care to not break any of the legs, then you began stoking the fireplace first with the dead leaves then with the smaller twigs then more leaves then the bigger branches. You scoffed and shook your head as you pulled out a Zippo lighter from your utility belt remembering all the arguments you'd had with your teammates about when there would ever be a time you would actually need a lighter on a mission.

You made a mental note to tell them that when you need to start a fire for food and warmth in the middle of the snowy forests of Belarus, that's exactly when you need a lighter. You flicked the lighter once, twice and was about to start panicking because you knew it was filled with fluid and the flint was good in it, you took special care to make sure that the fluid was refilled and you had a good flint inside of the lighter before every mission, but about the time you felt your heart start to race you flicked the lighter once more and a golden flame shot out and immediately caught hold of the dry tinder. You blew gently on the small spark and before too long the small spark was a warm, crackling fire and you smiled brightly as you set to work descaling the fish and gutting it.

The descaling part wasn't so bad really, all you had to do was run the edge of your knife backwards up the sides of the fish and every once in a while run you fingers over the fish to make sure you'd gotten all the scales off the part you were working on and then flip it over and work on the other side for a while. After half an hour of descaling you figured that the fish should be clean enough of the outside and you should get to work on gutting it. You'd already cut off the head and all the fins but still you felt queasy as you slid your knife straight down the belly of the fish and dug two fingers in and began pulling guts out. You realized at this point that you should probably rinse the fish but you didn't bring any water with you until you looked out one of the other windows and saw a barrel full of rain water out there and you took a small pan you'd found big enough to fry several pieces of the fish and collected some water to rinse the fish with.

At this point you were starting to get a little bit suspicious because no one's luck could be this good especially this close to a HYDRA facility. You'd just turned around when your hip bumped into the corner of the table and you gasped as a sharp pain shot through it and you looked down and screamed almost dropping the pan and the fish. You dropped the pan on the table and spun in circles as your heart threatened to beat out of your chest as you knelt down with trembling fingers to pick up the small, thin, round metal object that had just been ripped out of your leg. It was almost the same exact shape as the small metal discs that carried an electrical current that Natasha used in so many battles.

Only this didn't carry an electrical current, this somehow screwed with the serum inside you. Grabbing your phone out of your utility belt you dialed the one persons number you knew would pick up as soon as you called. "Come on, Steve, come on!" You said as you bounced from foot to foot anxiously. Your heart almost dropped when it finally went to voicemail so instead of keeping on with his number you decided to try Bruce and almost began crying when he did pick up on the first ring. "(Y/N)? What's going on? Is everything alright? Do you need us to turn around?" He gushed.

"Bruce. BRUCE! I need you to take a deep breath, ok?" You said as calmly as you could. "As for your questions," You continued. "I just tore something off of me that I think you'll all want a look at. Yes, everything's alright and hell yes I want you to turn around." You could hear your voice echoing slightly and you knew that he'd put you on speakerphone. If the slight echo didn't clue you in the audible gasps and Steve breaking into sobs immediately let you know.

"I... Ok! But why didn't you call Steve first? If you don't mind me asking." Bruce asked as you heard Tony and Clint in the background helping each other turn the quinjet back around. "I did try but it went to voicemail." You said sadly. Immediately, the entire crew on the other end of the line went deathly quiet until there was a loud metallic thump and Bucky snarled, "Who. The fuck. Are. You?" Before the line went dead you heard a bone chilling sinister laugh and then the line went dead.