Olivia Holmes' day started off like any other. After she had finished work, she visited the bagel shop on the corner of her street, where she was known by name now. Then, with a delicious tuna salad bagel in hand, she visited 'Lao Ping's' next door, where she bought her orange chicken dinner and brushed up on her Mandarin. But as she walked home, BANG. She was knocked out and thrown into a little glass cell somewhere.
"Just keep calm, Miss Holmes, you'll be let out shortly."
It was ridiculous. A steel-glass room to keep a 120 pound girl secured? Seriously? For god's sake she didn't even know where she was, let alone why she was in there. All the people that walked past were in suits, black all-in-ones, each of them looked even more serious than the person before them, if that were possible. There had to be at least fifty people, maybe more, walking outside her container, she felt more like a god damn hamster in a cage than a 'safe and secure' guest in a room. And on top of all that, she was stuck with Miss Prissy- Bossy-Doesn't-Give-A-Monkeys Boots 'looking after' her. If you classed 'looking after' as just being stared at continuously with a blank expression.
She was stuck in a glass cage. An actual glass cage. Three glass walls to be exact, and a light grey metal sheet at the back of the room, not the comfiest of environments. The room was exactly like an observation room in a science lab somewhere. A small bench, which could be doubled up as a bed, lucky her, was behind at the back of the room. A newspaper from three weeks ago was resting atop some super comfy looking fibre blankets. Some more five star hotel qualities included a toilet bang on in the corner of the room so that everyone outside could sneak a peek at her doing her business, and last but definitely not least, a sink on the floor. Yep, not elevated, not normal height, but on the floor in case someone's feet needed washing.
The view from her room was equally stunning. She was in a luxurious dark lair of some sort, a gorgeous dark rock corridor, which her room was placed at the end of; led to an exotic rock cave which doubled as an evil villains' lair. The corridor where outside of her cell wasn't very wide, enough to fit two people side-to-side, though it seemed to be a main walkway as the density of people walking past had remained steady. The establishment was not very organized, she will have to deduct a point for that, as there were large crates scattered everywhere in the lobby in the cave. And to top it all off the car park was in the middle of the large cave, with the exit against the back-right hand corner. Great. Freaking great.
Not to worry. Don't panic. Don't panic. Pacing doesn't help. Pacing for an hour doesn't help. How long had she been in here? Who the hell was S.H.I.E.L.D anyway? Their name was plastered all over the crates. Were they a club? An exclusive bad-guy club? One has to have to have an evil laugh and a bad temper to join. She laughed to herself. She'd never even heard of them. And here they were locking her up as if she was some kind of animal, in this gigantic glass box.
Olivia strode up to the door of the container, and banged her fist against the thick glass. "Hey. Hey you, Miss Miserable."
The woman with the blank expression, who was currently leaning against the wall opposite her raised her eyebrows, and started to uncross her arms and placed them by her sides.
"Look. I don't know why I have been brought here. I don't know who you are, and for god's sake I don't even know where I am. Can you just tell me why I am here?" Olivia tried to keep her voice as solid and strong as she could, but ended up failing miserably with points in the sentence wavering and climbing in pitch.
"Look Miss Holmes, all you need to know is that you are safest in the box."
"Oh for god's sake. I am not a terrorist. I am an engineer. The least scary job in the world! I did not plan to kill the president, or any other presidents in the world… Unless you are a terrorist, then I don't want to join thanks, no thank you. I kind of like America's president. And freedom, etcetera."
"Miss Holmes, you are not in any danger, we are not going to hurt you unless you act dangerously." The brunette's voice sounded monotonous and slightly too deep, she was taking her baby-sitting role far too seriously.
"Dangerously? I am an engineer, not Chuck freaking Norris."
The woman laughed, placing a hand over her eyes to rub her brow.
"My boss is probably wondering where I am, he'll call. And, and, and… sue you. And call the government. And then you'll be in big trouble. Boy, I do not want to be you, when you get the call of the end of your employment." Olivia crossed her arms, pouting slightly. She knew she was acting like a child, but she didn't give a damn.
"Tony Stark is not going to be wondering where a lowly engineer is. He probably has hundreds."
Olivia sighed and squeezed her eyes shut. Damn you Tony Stark. Damn you to everything.
"It doesn't really matter how much he has, he doesn't employ a hell of a lot, and doesn't have lots in his tower. That's only for the…"
"Oh just can it. He won't give a damn. Anyway, it's eleven at night. Why don't you sleep or something?"
"Why don't you go sleep or something." Olivia's voice dripped with sarcasm and the accompanying face she made with it did not win her this woman's hand in friendship. As the woman's glare cut right through her face and into the wall behind her.
All of a sudden a man ran in from a door just out of Olivia's line of site, he was sweaty, pale and looked like he could do with a mars bar. He and Olivia's best friend started chattering furiously, speaking in rushed, hushed whispers. Until the woman swore loudly and started shouting somewhere, or to herself, Olivia will never know. A radio was produced from the lady's belt and she began barking orders into it and then the two both took off running.
"Where am I going to… hello?" Olivia threw her arms in the air as the two people ran out of the corridor and into the door to the far left of her. So rude.
As more suited people started to run past her container, she realised that they were all either sprinting, or shouting, or looking extremely scared. She wondered why, and as if the universe read her mind the ground, walls and door began shaking violently. It felt like going on a rollercoaster after having ten too many tequilas. The people began to move all of the boxes stacked up near the military cars and loaded them into the boots of the vehicles and one by one all the cars started to drive away. No one was looking at her, not even sparing a glance in her direction, which again was super rude. And as soon as it had started, the amount of people running through had dwindled to only a couple every ten minutes, all of the containers, boxes, equipment around her were gone, except for the box filled with her stuff just outside of the door. A cruel reminder that she was, essentially, a sitting duck, trapped in a cage. It was right about then that she started to panic. With no one walking through, she couldn't hear any voices, any footsteps, any sign of life apart from herself, she'd been there before.
"Hello?" Olivia missed Miss Miserable already, seemingly growing attached to the masculine woman.
She turned around just to see a light blue smoke appear from the door the farthest from her, and disappear just as quick. Walking over to the side of her cage, she pressed herself against the glass, trying to hear anything that would alert her to the fact that she had not been forgotten, merely kept safe from all the harm that was about to happen.
Then as fate would have it, Miserable walked out of the door, though keeping to the area which once held the big boxes of equipment. Paying her not the slightest bit of attention.
"Hey, let me out." Olivia screamed, and threw her hands against the glass again, harder and faster, repeating it until she felt the dull thrum of pain from her palms.
Every instinct Olivia had in her body switched on in an instant, she stood back from the door, trying to pinpoint the door's weak spot, any sort of small weakness. The door slid open rather than swinging open, it slid to the left, as shown by the door hinges on the bottom and top of the door. Could she just pull it off? The answer was no as her pathetic attempt didn't even shake it. It was electronic, so it was controlled by the touch screen just outside. So in basic terms, she was screwed.
The bench she sat on was the uncomfortable reminder that she would probably die here. Which was nice and comforting in her time of need. Even the metal grates that held the bench together was thick, cold and dark. Wait a second.
She lifted the bench so that the legs were in the air, tucking it under one arm she walked over to the door and looked for an opening to try and put the legs through. Sure enough, being the genius that she is, she found a wide enough gap at the top left right-hand corner of the door frame to fit one of the thin metal legs through. As she slid the leg in, she began pulling the other end of the bench towards her with all her might. Bearing her teeth from exertion, she pulled and pulled until she heard a loud groan, whether it was from herself or her door she didn't know but the door cracked and disconnected from the wall. It left a small gap, just enough so she could jump and wiggle herself through. And then fall unceremoniously to the floor in a heap.
"Ow." She mumbled into the cold rock.
She wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings, as per usual, until she heard the voice of an extremely familiar person. Delicious velvet, wrapping round her body until she was suffocating. Lifting her head she just made out his long black hair, with his long black cape billowing as he squatted down in the back of one of the military cars, with Miss Miserable chasing after him, trying to shoot him, and failing. She was much better at baby-sitting.
Stupid woman. Shouldn't be so optimistic, instead of using a…
Olivia was stopped from her thoughts when a deafening boom echoed throughout the cave, the walls began to shake more violently and small chunks of rock fell from the roof and walls and crashed onto the ground.
"Oh shit." She screamed and scrambled to her feet. She grabbed the box containing her belongings and sprinted towards the only car still parked in the cave. It was smaller than the rest, and roofless. She ignored the fact that her brain was telling her to not go to the dangerous car, which had a high probability of injuring the driver given the circumstances and flew over into the driver's seat.
Turning the key to the ignition, quickly thanking whatever idiot left the keys in the ignition. She pressed her foot down until she felt it connect with the floor of the car and shot through the tunnel in front of her. Of course it would heat up the engine, but the car's tank was full and the maximum speed was 170. She did her best to try and avoid all of the masses of rocks that were now raining from the heavens, bringing the whole of the ceiling down behind her. She heard the scraping of rock against rock as it all collapsed in on itself; she felt the ground rumble under her car, causing her to grip the wheel as if it was threatening to fly away from her.
There was another, smaller tunnel fast approaching from the side of the main channel. Unsure whether to take the exit, she did anyway, coaxed by the amount of un-moving and upturned cars in front of her. The tunnel was definitely a lot smaller, and a lot more claustrophobic. It was completely pitch-black, save for the light from the front of her car, the tunnel was more stable, but she could still hear the heavy thuds of the rocks falling as she zoomed down the runway.
After twisting round every turn and every corner, she came to a straight stretch of road, but the end was closed off by a dark brown metal door of some sort. Seeing no alternative, she kept going. The rocks from the ceiling were fast approaching her, until it brushed against her back tires. She screamed as the car crashed through the metal door.
The scraping of the metal against metal deafened Olivia for a short while, as she kept one hand on the wheel, and clutched her head with the other, the slightly stronger- than-normal front of the car didn't completely crumble under the weight of the heavy metal, though there was some structural damage. But the glass of the windshield shattered completely, into tiny little pieces. Olivia felt the shards scratch and embed themselves in the skin of her cheeks and arms, all the way up to her shoulders.
The car still moved forwards, albeit a little slowly than before, and she felt the cool air hit her skin, which she welcomed gratuitously. Everything had turned from deafening to completely silent, the air was cool and still, the car grumbled as she spun it around and onto the small dirt path in front of her, without taking another look back.