Chapter Three (Hail Hydra?)
It was the next day when Ward decided to leave his cabin. He was hesitant to leave it though, but he knew that it wouldn't be safe to stay because there was no telling to where authorities could be. After some thought, he decided to find a small town nearby that he knew that held one of his dropboxes that he could get some money and a fake alias from.
He had found his location on a small laptop that was in the small cabin and found the small town of Booker's Edge about two miles away. And he knew that one of his dropboxes was there. He had placed it in such a small town to avoid being found. Hopefully it hadn't been tampered with, and he could get into the town without being recognized.
He had gotten rid of his mess of a beard and had cut his hair really short, so he looked a good bit different than he did in the pic that the local news had been spreading around.
Grabbing the supplies he had placed in a small bookbag he had found, he took one, last, hesitant glance at the small cabin and left for the small town. It would take about an hour at the most if he kept up a good pace and didn't stop.
It was early in the morning, so he thought that he would be at the town before lunchtime.
And he guessed right, he arrived in the small, rural Massachusetts town about an hour later, his feet starting to hurt. His dropbox was in the town's post office, he was hoping that he could get in and out without being seen.
And he was able to do just that. The post office was closed since it was a Sunday and it was only open to drop mail off and to get to the dropboxes and PO boxes. He slipped inside and retrieved the box's items. A fake ID labeled William Novak told him that that was what he was going to go by for a while. There was also about $500 in cash, just enough for him just to buy small amounts of food and supplies here and there.
Then he slipped back out of the post office and onto the town's main street. Booker's Edge was a small town, and small was an exaggeration. Its main street contained a few restaurants, a library, the post office, a small grocery store, a general store. A second street contained several houses, two schools, a church, a gas station, and a few more various stores. This was the kind of town that everyone knew each other personally. Ward knew that he didn't need to be here long.
If anyone asked, his cover would be that he was a traveller that happened to drive through for gas and some food. Of course that was all a lie. He didn't have a car, and he wasn't a traveller. He knew that he would have to pick up some kind of car from somewhere, he didn't need to be walking everywhere when he was the subject of a manhunt.
Slipping the fake ID and the cash in his pocket, Ward made his way to the small grocery store to pick up a few more supplies. Figuring since it was Sunday morning, majority of the town would be at the church. Hopefully the store would be mostly empty and he could get in and out just like the post office.
He went inside the store and was almost tempted to walk straight out. There were at least ten people in the store, a little too much for him considering his current situation. But he stayed and slipped down an aisle that no was on.
People that walked by glanced at him, seeing that he was a stranger. But no one said anything to him or really even took notice of him. He sighed, hoping that nothing would happen. He wanted to be in and out and then leave the town and find somewhere else to hide.
There were only a few items that he needed, only a few hygiene products and some food items, not much. They were some things that he didn't take from the cabin. And he knew that sooner or later he would have to pick up some clothes from somewhere, but he knew that this town wasn't the place. He would have to find somewhere else for that.
He was about to go onto another aisle when screaming, yelling, and gunfire echoed throughout the small space of the store.
"What the hell?" Ward muttered to himself, almost dropping the small shopping basket that he held. He looked up to the round aisle mirror that showed other aisles and in its reflection were armed men storming down the aisles.
He almost thought that it was the government and they had found him, but he knew that it was too fast for them to find him. This wasn't the FBI or local law enforcement. These armored men were forcing the innocent civilians to the ground, pointing their massive guns to their heads.
Ward froze as an armored man stormed the aisle he was on, and that's when he saw the Hydra symbol blazing on the man's shoulder.
So it was Hydra. But why would Hydra be attacking a grocery store in a practical speck in the middle of nowhere in Massachusetts? Ward knew that they couldn't possibly be here for him, so he figured that they were just continuing their reign of terror on innocent civilians. Or it was just a rouge Hydra group running through.
This wasn't Hydra's normal plans of action, Ward knew this. So this must've been a small group out for money or something under the name of Hydra. But that's all Ward had time to guess before the soldier came storming towards him, gun pointed towards him.
"Drop the basket and get on the ground now!" the soldier roared.
Ward dropped the basket, but he didn't drop to the ground. He raised his hands instead, "Look, I'm not looking for any trouble. I'm about to leave." he said.
"No one is leaving!" the soldier snapped.
"If it's money you want,"
"We don't want your damn money! Get on the ground or there will be a bullet shot straight through your head in a matter of seconds!"
"What do you want?" Ward asked coldly. "I know that you're Hydra. Why would Hydra be attacking a town in the middle of nowhere?"
"That's none of your business." the soldier snapped. "Only thing that matters is that there's something in this town we need." The soldier frowned, "And why do you look so familiar?" he asked.
Ward shook his head at the same time his stomach froze, "I don't know. You must have me mistaken me with someone else." he said.
The soldier's frown increased and after a while he spoke, "You're that guy from the news, aren't you?" he asked. "That ex-Hydra agent that fled from the FBI. That's you."
"I don't know what the hell you are talking about. You have me mistaken for someone else." Ward said.
"You're lying. I think I've also seen you at a base with some other guy." the soldier said. "An older guy, slightly wacko. Garrett? Was that his name?"
A muscle in Ward's face twitched, "I don't know what you are talking about."
The soldier smiled, "You're lying, I saw something in your face when I said something about that guy. You knew him. You're that convict dude."
"That's not me anymore." Ward muttered.
The soldier stepped closer, about two feet away from Ward, "What was that?" he growled.
Ward shot forward and grabbed the man's wrist with his left hand and the man's gun with his right, "I said that's not me anymore." he growled. He pulled the gun out of the soldier's hand and sent him to the ground.
The soldier shot up, but Ward sent the butt of the gun into his stomach and kicked him back to the ground. He sent a shot into the soldier's leg to make sure that he wouldn't get up anytime soon.
The soldier's face filled with pain, "What? How?" he muttered. "I need backup!" he screamed.
And Ward froze with the man's cry. He heard the storm of boots headed towards him and five other soldiers started to storm onto the aisle from both sides. Ward gulped, clutching the gun. He was outnumbered by the Hydra soldiers, and they were confident that Ward was going down. But they didn't know that Ward always had the upperhand. They wouldn't be hailing Hydra soon.
Author's Note:I don't own AoS, Marvel does. So that happened. Ward gets a new alias and the town he's in gets attacked by Hydra. And he's attacked himself and then outnumbered. But he's dealt with a group of Hydra soldier before and brought them all down. He'll do it again, right? And will this attack set his mind on exactly what he's going to do? I'll definitely update tomorrow if I get a few more reviews with this chapter. (Maybe three? Please?) Keep reading and please favorite, follow, and/or review! ~AwakeAndAliveSpartan.
