12th December 1939
Given her position, Edith was not in the mood to be talking about her health in the near future. With one hand squeezing the arm of the chair, her eyes glanced down to the needle taped to the inside of her elbow. The skin was a dark purple colour,
"We will need you to come in next week Miss Woods," there was a squat, round faced doctor sat on a stool opposite her with a note board resting on his thighs, "The hospital requires more research," he told her,
"You've had six pints of my blood already," she muttered, shuffling a little in the chair, "How much else do you need?"
The doctor raised his eyebrows at her answer, "You remember how much we've taken?" he leaned closer, his eyes darting to the window cautiously, "Do you have eidetic memory?" she could hear the slight pinch of a Swiss accent under his hushed tones and she nodded once, her eyes casting behind him at the closed door,
"Close enough to call it that," she sighed, "As I said, how much else do you need?" the doctor hurriedly wrote something down on the clipboard and stood, stopping the blood flow and carefully taking the needle from her skin, a trickle of red spilling from the puncture mark,
"I would advise you to stay in the hospital Miss Woods, I would like to see you maybe in a few hours," the doctor cleaned and taped the pinprick of a wound, "I just need to make a call to my supervisor due to new developments," he ushered her out of the room and slammed the door, leaving Edith swaying in the corridor.
With angered grumble, she pulled her cardigan over her bruised arm and walked back to the waiting room with weak legs. Edith sat down in the same chair by the window that she had chosen this morning before her blood tests, peering over the window ledge down into the busy street below. London was teeming as usual but the mass of green and blue reminded Edith of the matter at hand. War was looming, forces were being prepared; the whole country was sitting tight, listening to the radios for any news of Hitler's advances. All Edith could do was look down upon them, in no way fit to help anyone. She was offered a cup of tea at some point but she declined, reminding the young nurse that she could not eat or drink,
"But your tests have finished," the nurse said nervously, "You can go home," of course the nurse, along with probably the rest of the department knew about her tests. She was a common patient and yet no one knew the real reason why,
"The doctor wants to see me again in a minute," Edith reassured the fumbling nurse, "He said he needed to make a call,"
About new developments.
About her eidetic memory maybe? She was in no danger from being captured or kidnapped, or recruited by an enemy force that could use her memory against her. After finishing university, she was asked to attend a meeting with the secretary of the MoD and other officials of the government; they warned her to keep her 'gift' under wraps, to keep it from any odd or suspicious looking people who asked her too many questions about it. Then they offered her a job in Intelligence, a very well paid job that required hard training and concentration; but she declined, with flushed cheeks, and explained her current condition. September 23rd, 1939 had been when she was first approached by the dumpy doctor with a receding hairline, claiming that he wanted to use her for research, to use her as a volunteer for a new project he was conducting, a secret project. Edith only partly lied to the officials and said nothing about the doctor, instead giving them the news that she was undergoing tests because her blood contained certain anomalies that could be dangerous.
Which was partly true; after her first test the doctor reported back that her blood type was extremely rare and that it contained cells that normal people did not have.
"Am I going to get ill then?" she had sighed upon the news and the doctor shook his head excitedly,
"No, but we will need you to come in for more tests," he had seemed far too enthusiastic for a man who had just taken a pint and a half of blood in one sitting, "Just a few more, to make sure,"
A few more tests translated into one or two every week, for the past two months. More than once Edith had collapsed on the way back from the hospital, and on the first time, had been kindly carried the rest of the way home by two policemen who had thought she was outrageously drunk. They hadn't taken in her white face, the strained veins on her arms and her constant shaking, but her slurred speech had confirmed their hunches. Edith lived alone in a small, one bedroomed flat but often she slept on the sofa for her muscles and body were too drained to carry her further than the sitting room. She was forced to work part time as a librarian to keep up her rent, part time because she could not make other days due to the god damned tests. Her landlord was kind, accepting that she never saw her youngest tenant but regularly checked up on Edith, usually at the most inconvenient times.
"Edith dear, are you okay?" the light knocking on the door had made her vomit into her kitchen sink, "Edith, I can hear you being sick, are you alright? Let me in!"
"I'm fine Mrs Clarke," Edith had assured her in her strongest voice, her throat still stinging and her eyes streaming, "Just a bug, I'll get over it,"
"Okay, well, I am just down the hall if you need help or any medicine,"
Edith appreciated the help Mrs Clarke offered her, but the doctor had not told her about the side effects or other symptoms from taking so much blood in such little time.
These god damned tests.
"Miss Woods," the familiar Swiss-English accent of her doctor broke her stream of thoughts and Edith rose from the chair, her legs now stronger and her arms no longer shaking, "Follow me please,"
She could not help but notice his dark, unnerving expression as she walked next to him, surprisingly struggling to keep up with his fast pace,
"I need to perform other tests-," the doctor began but Edith interrupted angrily, her neck flushing in frustration,
"What do you mean 'other tests'?" she fumed, storming next to him, "You'll drain me dry if you do anymore, they are interrupting my daily life,"
"You work as a part time librarian Miss Woods, I am sure they can afford to lose you," the doctor commented offhandedly, causing Edith to stumble slightly with warm cheeks, "You are completely available to participate with us, Miss Woods,"
"Why do you need me?" she asked, becoming more and more frustrated with what little information the doctor was giving her, following him through a pair of double doors upon which the windows were clouded over and barred. They entered a room that she didn't even know existed within the hospital; it was dark with grey walls and no windows, three small bulbs flickered from the high ceiling. Edith shivered, feeling suddenly very cold and very nauseous. Her hands began to shake again and her vision narrowed, her stomach growing very heavy like lead.
"I don't understand, this isn't our usual room," she forced out. Her mouth turned dry, "I though you said you were going to perform more tests?" she asked the doctor, finding him standing in between two men twice the size of herself; dressed in a black uniform, with black masks to cover their faces and a large red cuff secured to their right bicep. She gazed up at them, eyes so wide they reflected the three men in front of her,
"Yes, but not here," the doctor replied darkly and Edith shrank away from his tone,
"They aren't doctors, are they?" Edith asked pathetically and the doctor nodded, his round, impish face stretching into a rather villainous smile,
"Quite correct Miss Woods," his voice changed mid-sentence, lowering and he started to snicker menacingly. Edith began to inch her way backwards, the two uniformed men following her movements, taking out guns that made her cower in fear. A metal object flew towards her head and she ducked, turning towards who had tried to attack her and spotted several other large men in black uniform, all advancing towards her with raised guns,
"I don't understand why you need me," her voice wavered, "Why do you need all this?" she gestured around her at the men and she found that her hands were noticeably shaking, her heart pounding painfully against her ribs,
"We need you for experimentation Miss Woods," the doctor told her with a harsh laugh and she felt a sudden lightning pain strike the back of her head. Edith's vision immediately clouded and her skull felt as though it had been split in two. Her body keened forwards and her eyes rolled to the back of her head, a small gasp escaping from her lips. The doctor watched as his patient was cuffed and carried away by two men, her feet dragging along the floor. He followed the armed guards out of the hospital, making sure to lock the doors behind him and he pulled a hat low over his eyes, tucking his hands in his pockets before joining the crowds of ignorant people passing by.
14th December 1939
Edith woke with a start. She squinted in the harsh light a few times before gazing around herself. It hurt to move her neck and her head throbbed painfully. She noticed a table with several instruments one would usually find in a surgery and Edith decided that she was in some sort of laboratory, sat in a chair facing a darkened window, the tiles so white they reflected her distressed expression.
"Ah! You are awake!" an accented voice exclaimed happily from behind her and she struggled to turn her neck, the pain preventing her from doing it easily. She then found that her wrists and ankles had been bound to the chair with thick pieces of rope,
"Where am I?" she asked nervously, watching as the Swiss doctor came round to stand in front of her,
"You are in Austria," he replied and Edith's hands closed into fists, "London was far too dangerous, someone might have discovered us,"
"Who are you? Really?" her voice wavered a little and the doctor went over to the instruments, straightening them out and polishing a scalpel with the sleeve of his coat,
"My name is Anrim Zola," his tongue caught between his front teeth, "I'm a doctor and I work for HYDRA,"
A door to the right slammed open, three black uniformed men marched in followed by a fourth who was dressed a little different. He had a long pinched face and watery blue eyes; he was dressed smartly in a suit with a tie, all black with a small red badge pinned to his lapel. He towered over them all,
"We are a division of deep sciences, branched from Nazism itself," the huge man explained proudly, "We are HYDRA,"
"I've never heard of them - you," Edith stuttered, feeling her legs quake,
"We are to begin a new project, a new weapon of science," another doctor entered the room, this one a young female and she had a pair of scissors tucked into the top pocket of her coat, "We've been watching you Miss Woods, for several years in fact. You are lonely, friendless, hopeless with almost no will to live," the man's tone was almost seductive, filled with emotion that did not seem to show on his face, "You live alone, work alone, and think alone – with that beautiful mind of yours. Oh! We have such plans for you frauline; you will be magnificent – so strong and godlike. Our doctor here," he gestured to Doctor Zola, "wants to compete with our enemies, we want to win, we want victory and with you as our prime subject; you are to be our own Soldier to fight for our ideals,"
Edith let out a terrified breath she didn't know she was holding and a sudden exhaustion washed over her. A soldier - a subject; for a test, for experiments and her face paled at the thought. She thought it was odd enough that her doctor was foreign, him taking more than the advised limit of blood from her each week, for the last month and a half. Edith's heart thudded so hard against her chest she thought that she was going to vomit. Her bones quaked at the sheer thought of being used for a science experiment, created by her country's enemy. Her breath hitched and she began to wheeze painfully,
"What? No – I don't want to!" Edith struggled against her bonds, "Don't, please! I don't understand! Why me?" she started to cry as the female doctor stood in front of her, holding the scissors up to the light. Edith, in a flurry of tears, head butted the woman and blood splattered the floor. She tried to rip herself from the chair and freed one ankle before kicking the female doctor in the chest. Edith wasn't very strong, she knew that, and she wasn't very brave either, because she began to sob again when she managed to slip her right wrist free. A guard lunged at her, wrapping a beefy hand around her neck,
"NO! STOP, PLEASE!" she sobbed and clawed at the tightening fingers over her windpipe. The guard grabbed a fistful of her hair, yanking so hard that the chunk fell out on to the floor. Edith screamed and dragged her nails over the exposed flesh of his wrist, causing him to hiss and let go of her. She saw black spots in her vision but still started to scrabble at the rope binding her other wrist, foolishly not seeing the man in the suit stalking up to her. He thrust his fist into the side of her head, knocking her and the chair to the floor.
"Stop fighting you foolish girl!" he snarled, kicking her once in the stomach,
"I don't know! I don't know what you said!" Edith pitifully wailed, earning herself another kick to the abdomen, "Please!"
From where she had fallen on the floor, the chair had splintered and the ropes had loosened just enough for her to break free. Edith let out a heaving cough as she was picked up by the hair and kneed in the stomach. She spat blood into the man's face.
"Let me go!" her hands pushed at his chest, thumping with all her might but he did not loosen his grip, "Let me go please!"
"Comply to our programme," he hissed into her ear and Edith frantically shook her head, kicking her feet out in all directions in the hope she would hit something. Her face was sodden with tears and her throat was hoarse from screaming and crying, "Do as I say, your orders come from me now," the man told her, loosening his fists and letting her slide to the ground by his boots,
"I can't speak German," Edith managed out, shuffling along the base of the wall to get away from him,
"We will teach you, and other things," he assured her, as if now everything was perfectly fine, as if she had agreed to his terms, "We will train you to be the greatest soldier in history,"
"But I'm a librarian," Edith tried to reason with him, propping herself up against the wall with one hand wrapped around her bruised stomach, "You can't do this to me,"
She did not even see him move, a fist connecting with her jaw so hard that her head smacked against the wall,
"You will comply, you will obey me, you will be trained and you will be my greatest creation," his foreign words echoed in Edith's head as she was dragged from the white room to a grey room with barred windows. She was sat in another chair, this one made of metal and her hands were cuffed behind her back. They secured her ankles so tightly that she started to cry again, though silently this time.
Edith was left alone for hours, staring at the wall opposite her, watching the dust particles swirl in the light emitted from the one lone bulb. She never stopped crying, trying so hard to figure out what the man had told her; she knew, from her very limited knowledge of the German language, that the arrangement was entirely non-consensual. Silent sobs wracked her sore chest when a stick thin woman with yellowing skin entered the room, adorned with a pair of scissors and a shaving kit.
"For hygiene," the woman told her in a very thick German accent, hacking away at Edith's carefully grown hair before shearing her scalp clean. And again, Edith was left alone, shivering from the loss of her beloved locks, her eyes painfully dry from crying for so long. She didn't know what time it was and she didn't dare fall asleep, in case the man in charge returned.
"Hello my dear girl," that voice snapped Edith's head up from the lulled daze she had dropped into, "How do you like the facility? Herr Schmidt made it just for you," it was Doctor Zola,
"I don't understand, why me?" Edith was tired, she wanted to rest and have something to eat, "Why not any other person? Why not a prisoner of war or a betrayer?" she was still desperate for them not to use her in the programme; she still had hope for freedom.
The doctor seemed to know what she was thinking because he shook his head and laughed excitedly,
"You are very special Miss Woods," he took her hand and squeezed it, "And your blood is equally special, as you know, and further testing has shown the anomaly I have been looking for," he rubbed his hands together, "When I tested your blood with my serum, the anomaly not only accepted the serum; it mutated in ways I have never seen before! We tried so many others, but you were the only positive result and so therefore the only one worthy of joining our programme,"
"SHUT UP!" she roared, throwing herself around the chair, gnashing her teeth at Doctor Zola and crying out with everything she had left, "I DON'T WANT TO JOIN YOU SADISTIC BASTARDS! DON'T YOU GET IT? I DON'T WANT TO BE WORTHY!" Edith was shaking with rage and with fear, kicking her legs out and attempting to wriggle free of her metal bonds. She was blinded with overflowing emotions, seeing a mass of black flood the room and a siren started going off in the distance. Edith still struggled and bit and spat and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Her attempts were pitifully ineffective, especially when one figure of black easily dodged a poorly executed head butt and lunged at her neck, plunging a syringe beneath her skin. Edith lashed out with her mouth, sinking her teeth into his hand and he let out a startled squeal before thwacking her over the head with his forearm. Her screams immediately ceased, though her mouth was still wide open and her limbs began to quiver involuntarily. Edith slumped forwards lethargically. Someone placed a hand on her shoulder, as if to comfort her slowing breaths and her vision began blur. Edith tried so hard to stay awake, rolling her head around and moaning out, fighting to keep the greyness from overtaking her senses; stretching her back into an arch before lolling her head to one side. The same hand stroked her bare scalp and whispered several gentle words of encouragement into her ear, in German and she merely huffed out in response; it was all she could manage before her eyes closed.