After a decent walk, since her destination was not in the Bronx, Adina had made it to the doors of her new found sanctuary--the library. She opened one of the doors and stepped inside. Even though she had only discovered this library a couple of days ago, it had already become a place of comfort for her. She felt relaxed when she was here, and she stopped worrying, for just a moment, about her precarious situation. The library was the one place where she wasn't constantly on edge.
Adina swiftly walked over to her favorite section of the library, which was the young adult section. This was the section where she had found The Hunger Games, and she planned on reading the rest of the dystopian series.
Although she had never been in a life or death contest broadcasted on live television, she could relate to most of the contestants' situation of being forced to do something they didn't want to do. Adina knew she did not choose to be with Hydra. Who in their sane mind would choose to be affiliated with a terrorist organization? Though she could not remember any solid memories before the age of 12, Adina knew she could not have chosen this life.
Adina scanned the books until she got to the section of authors whose names begin with a 'S.' She grabbed both the sequel and the final book in the Hunger Games series. She knew she would finish these two books pretty quickly, so she browsed around the rest of the library.
Eventually, she wandered to a shelf that contained different DVDs and some CDs. Adina trailed her finger over a random row of DVDs and aimlessly pulled out one.
"Oh, cool! Are you going to watch The Empire Strikes Back? That's one of my favorites," said a brunette boy.
Adina pushed the case back into the shelf and turned her attention to the young stranger. She had been slightly caught off guard, so she quickly assessed the boy. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt with words showing that he most likely went to Midtown School of Science and Technology. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, and was still waiting for Adina's response.
"I was just browsing, but it does look interesting," she replied. In fact, the movie did look vaguely familiar.
"Oh, well, I'd definitely recommend it. Have you watched the previous movies?" asked the teen boy.
"Yep," Adina shortly replied, trying to subtly tell him she was not interested in conversing.
"So, you know the characters and all that. Who's your favorite? Mine's probably Luke Skywalker," he said, obviously not getting the small social cue.
"Ahsoka Tano," Adina quickly said with confidence.
She swiftly developed a headache that grew in pain with every thought. Who was Ahsoka Tano? How does she know a Star Wars character? Is she getting her memories back? All these thoughts and more were coursing through Adina's pounding head as the awkward teen boy continued to talk about Star Wars. It was clear he loved it.
Adina tuned her thoughts back to the present as he asked her for her name.
"AJ," she replied as the lie easily rolled off her tongue.
"I'm Peter, Peter Parker. It was nice to meet you, AJ. I've got to go help my aunt with groceries. See you around, maybe," Peter said as he turned away from Adina and began to walk towards the exit. What a weird kid, she thought as she watched him walk with a slight skip in his step. She shook her head and went back to looking at the forgotten DVDs.
Adina browsed the library for a few more minutes until she headed to one of the librarians' tall desks to check out her books. She went to the same desk she had gone to last time. The same elderly man in a light green sweater with a white collared shirt poking out from underneath was still there.
"Hi, may I check out my books?" she asked while sliding her two books up on the wooden counter and handing him her library card.
"Of course," the man replied, setting down a very colorful thin book he had been reading.
Adina handed her library card over to him and glanced at the weird book he had set down. She realized it was actually some kind of graphic novel. To her surprise, there was a man in a bright suit that resembled the American flag holding a similar looking shield. It looked just like the man she had fought a few days ago.
"So, you liked the first book of the series?" said the grey-haired man, making small talk while he scanned her card.
"Yes, it was very good. I'm going to read the rest of the series," she replied, gesturing to the books she was checking out. "By the way, what graphic novel were you just now reading? It looked interesting."
"Ah, this old comic book? This is one of my favorite Captain America comics. This thing's older than you. Would you like to have it?" he offered.
"Oh, that's really nice of you, but I wouldn't want to take away your favorite comic book."
"Don't worry kid, I've read this old thing dozens of times. I practically have it memorized. You can keep it."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. Well, here's your books," the old man said, handing over the two novels with the Captain America comic book on top. "Have a good one."
"Thanks, and you too, Mr. Lee," Adina replied while grabbing her books.
She took off her backpack, unzipped it, and carefully stuffed the books inside. With the intriguing new comic about the man she had fought, whose name was apparently Captain America, Adina had plenty to occupy her thoughts as she had a long walk ahead of her to get to her next destination.
In fact, Adina had too many thoughts in her head because she failed to notice the security camera she passed by while exiting the library. She was in complete view of it.
~~~~~~
Central Park
It had taken Adina over three hours and a near miss with a taxi to walk over here. To be honest, she could've gotten here an hour earlier, but she had gotten lost. New York City was very confusing to her. The masses of people and traffic overwhelmed her, so she was extra happy when she got to her destination of Central Park.
When she had first researched a bit about New York City, she had been very surprised to read that there was a giant park in the middle of this city of towering buildings and metal skyscrapers. On the other hand, she had also been really relieved and elated. This park was the perfect place, besides the library, to get away from the overwhelming city. Well, sort of. The park still had a decent amount of people enjoying the fresh breath of nature.
Adina had never been around this huge amount of people. At Hydra, she was rarely exposed to others. All her interactions with others were monitored by her handler. Bryan, her latest handler, had never let her talk with anyone, save his superiors. Before Bryan, she had made some small talk with the intimidating Winter Soldier, but even that was taken away by him.
Adina walked deeper into the park until she got to a patch of trees surrounding a small pond. She went to one of the oak trees and shrugged her backpack off her shoulders. She sat down with her back leaning against the rough bark and pulled the comic book out of her bag. With the sun shining overhead, she delved into the interesting graphic novel to find out who this 'Captain America' guy was.
About thirty minutes later, Adina was thoroughly confused. She was even more confused than prior to reading the comic and was left with more questions about the Captain. She learned that his name is Steve Rogers, and he fought in World War II. This puzzled her because if that was true, he shouldn't be alive today. She was pretty confident in her previous assumption that the blond man she fought was also the man in the comic, but now she wasn't so sure. Maybe he had a grandson? Or great grandson?
Either way, the Captain seemed to be a good guy based on the graphic novel. She wasn't sure how accurate it was, so she would have to ask Mr. Lee more about it when she next went to the library. The comic also didn't mention any of the other members of the rag tag group. The metal man wasn't in it, nor was the red-haired lady.
With all these thoughts swirling in her head, Adina rubbed her right wrist. Since the metal band, which was on her right wrist, was destroyed by the blond man's shield, she had developed a habit of circling her other hand around her right wrist when she was stressed or anxious.
Putting her confusion aside, Adina put away the comic book and took out her next book, Catching Fire. She continued to read that until the sky was turning a beautiful shade of soft orange. She had gotten far into the book and almost didn't want to leave the park, but the sky was darkening and the air was getting chilly. Adina remembered a strange side effect of the serum she got was that she was more susceptible to the cold than a normal person. With those thoughts in mind, she started the long walk back to her apartment.
Published: 3/7/22