I scrambled up the rocky slope, swearing under my breath in Icelandic as I skidded and slipped the entire way. If it wasn't for my gloves I wouldn't have any skin left on my hands. By the time I'd reached the rocky outcrop that was my position I swore I would have climbed the hill at least 3 times over with the amount of times I'd slid back down it. The knee pads on my pants were rough and had gouges in them now from the near vertical climb. I was sweating like crazy and it took me half a minute to catch my breath before I could actually set myself up. I unslung the AWSM from my back and put it on the ground, unfolding the stand. Once it was resting on the stand I lay behind it to zero my scope. While I was fiddling with it I reached up and opened the communication link on my ear piece.
"Lyngley in position," I said trying to make sure I didn't sound too breathless.
"We have to get you a callsign," Clint's voice came over the radio. "Something better than Knuckles. I'm not calling you Knuckles."
From his own steady breathing my guess Clint was in position. I hadn't heard him say it while I was climbing. But I probably wouldn't have heard much over my own swearing and pounding of my heart.
"There is nothing wrong with Knuckles," I muttered under my breath still fiddling with my scope. A quiet chuckle was the only reply I got. I reached up and hit the button to shut the mic off again while I waited. My breathing gradually slowed down to a normal pace as I stared out into the darkness.
There was nothing here. Just a barren landscape of mountains, rocks and sand. There wasn't even any vegetation growing. No signs of life at all. Whatever we'd seen on those satellite videos must have been nothing. There was no way anyone could be out here and survive. I couldn't see much in front of me. There was no moon out, the stars didn't give us any light either. The teams below us moved in darkness and complete radio silence. While I flew us here in the 30 minutes it took both teams had run through the strategies for tonight. It should all be very simple and straight forward.
"Hunterton in position," Riley's voice broke through my thoughts. I jumped at the sound of his voice. I'd been so caught up in my own thoughts I wasn't paying attention.
"Come on Grimm," the other voice teased. "We didn't give you a nickname for you to dump it as soon you join SHIELD."
The SEAL sounded out of breath giving away he wasn't in position yet. I grinned at his taunting as I glanced over towards where I knew Riley was. It was nothing but black in front of me. Even in the scope I wouldn't be able to see much. He was a good half mile away from me. Clint had warned me on the flight here not to use my night vision too much. The brightness of it gave any kind of vision adjustment away so if I had to look away I wouldn't be able to see shit. For now I just had to sit there in the darkness while my eyes adjusted and deal with it. I couldn't help myself, I reached up and opened my mic again.
"So Grimm, as in Grimm Reaper?" I asked with a grin.
"They're SEALS not poets," Riley grumbled quietly. "I didn't pick it."
"That was a line from Doom," I laughed quietly enough that he wouldn't hear it. "Except it was Marines."
"I have never seen that movie," Clint cut in. "I'm downloading it when we get back."
"Panther in position," the SEAL finally said. "That's a shit movie. Funny though."
"I haven't seen it either," Riley spoke up. "Looks like its beer and movie night when we get back."
I wasn't going to argue with that. Add pizza into the mix and it'd be a perfect night. I'm sure I could talk Jared into heading to New York for a good old fashioned New York style pizza. Meatlovers with extra cheese was sounding incredible.
"STRIKE moving out," Rumlow's voice came over the radio. "Eyes sharp people."
I took that as my cue to shut up and start doing some work. I reached up and tapped the mic on the earpiece off again. From now on it'd only be used if circumstances dictated it. I stared out across the darkness again. My eyes were finally starting to get used to the dark more and I could pick out more shapes rather than just shadows. Where I was position I was overlooking a massive ravine. It was shaped like a bowl with no protection or cover in the half a mile wide space. There wasn't even any decent sized rocks throughout it. I could imagine in heavy rainfall it could easily be turned into a lake in there. Perhaps in the wet season that actually happened. But right now it was dry. Just a big bowl of sand and dirt. The night air was cool, but not freezing.
The sound of rocks sliding behind me pulled my attention away from the ravine in front of me. I glanced over my shoulder into the blackness, listening hard. A slight wind stirred up making the sweat on my body freezing cold. Shivering in discomfort I pulled my attention back to the front. It was nothing. Probably just some loose rocks from my climb up here falling back down the slope.
I scratched the side of my head glancing through my scope. I'd made sure everything was turned off so it was just acting like a regular scope. Again all I could see was rocks and sand. It was a boring landscape. I moved my AWSM around to the left to try and get a better view of the team moving across the ravine. It was hard to see but black shapes could be seen jogging along. A flutter in the shadows behind them caught my attention. Frowning I quickly switched the night vision on my scope. It was almost blinding after being in complete darkness for so long.
But there it was. The flutter of movement was 3 other men trailing along in the shadows. All armed with AK-47's. They were sticking as close as possible to the ravine walls to be in the shadows. With how dark it was and their position no one would have been able to see them.
I reached up to quickly turn my earpiece back on. As soon as my hand brushed my ear, a hard grip seized my wrist and forced my arm in an unnatural position. Before I could let out a whimper a weight dropped on the middle of my back and an arm wrapped around my neck, choking me. The arm was around my neck so tightly I couldn't get any kind of sound out. Panic made me claw frantically at the arm with my free hand trying to get free from the grip. My attacker didn't even need to keep the hold on my other arm any longer. The choke hold I was in was enough to make stars dance around my vision.
Sweat dripped from my attackers arm onto my skin. At the feeling of that drop of sweat hitting me it was like something snapped in my body. There was no moisture to use in the air for my power to be of any help. But my attacker was absolutely dripping in sweat. My breath misted in front of me and suddenly my mind was clear on what I had to do. I reached up, digging my nails into his arm I let the moisture on his skin fuel my power. Ice crystals formed on my fingers right before I let the cold take over and pushed everything I could focus onto his skin.
The effect was instant. He screamed, pulling away with a frozen arm. It was enough for me to suck in some desperately needed oxygen and roll onto my back. My hands reached for my thigh holster without a fumble, drawing the P30 out. I hesitated getting my finger towards the trigger as I stared at my attacker. Dressed in robes with his face fully covered there was no distinguishing features about him. In the dark of night I couldn't even see his eyes. My hesitation was my undoing. He kicked the P30 from my slippery hands and it skidded down the side of the ravine. Well trained and efficient, I barely blinked before the AK-47 that was slung around his body was now in his hands and pointing towards me. The breath stopped in my chest staring down the muzzle of the assault rifle.
My limbs felt like lead as I forced myself to move. It was a fumble of limbs skidding everywhere as I scrambled for traction on the rocky ground. The only thing I could reach for was his legs, so I tackled him as hard as I could. It wasn't the smartest move on my behalf, the ledge I'd nestled myself on wasn't very big. The force of me smacking into my attackers legs sent us both toppling back down the rocky hill from where I came up. We were separated almost instantly as we skidded off. I tried to curl myself into a ball to make myself as small as possible incase his rifle went off. By some minor miracle it didn't and we both reached the bottom. I smacked my head against a rock as I stopped leaving my dazed and with an instant pounding headache. It hurt so badly I wanted to stay curled up on side in the fetal position to make the pain go away. It was only seeing the attacker scrambling to his feet which snapped me out of it. He was upon my nearly instantly, hands open ready to close around my throat again. His face covering had fallen off in our skid down the hill. Eyes wild and angry his face was twisted into a snarling rage. His raised his boot ready to stomp on whatever part of my body he could land it on.
I rolled away, choking on a mouthful of sand as I hit the ground to avoid being kicked. On my back I could see him looming over the top of me. His rifle was gone so it was just us and our bare hands. My fingers desperately scrambled for the knife that was stuck in my boot. I managed to yank it out as the attacker launched himself at me again. He seemed absolutely determined to strangle me, or at least try and stop any noise escaping from me. I was too slow to stop him. Even the adrenaline coursing through my body wasn't any help. This time he fell on me, both hands around my neck squeezing hard. I kicked and flailed underneath him before the grip in my left hand tightened around the object I'd forgotten about in the brief struggle. The knife.
Desperate for air I plunged the knife into the first thing I could reach. It wasn't until blood seeped down my hands I realised I'd actually plunged it into the side of his neck. A spray of blood erupting from his mouth, soaking my face and neck. The hot liquid felt scalding as I could only stare in horror and surprise at what I'd just done. His grip on my neck loosened and with another choke of blood dribbling from his lips. He fell on me, trapping me underneath the lifeless body.
I kicked and flailed underneath him in panic. It took me a few seconds to actually push the body off me. As he landed with a thump in the sand I scrambled away as quickly as possible. Wide eyed horror dawned over me at the realisation of what I'd just done. My hands were slick with blood which I frantically wiped on my pants. My heart was racing. I could feel it echoing all the way into my head as I stared at the dead body. My teeth began to chatter as I pulled my knees into my chest, hugging my legs.
Don't freak out. Don't freak out.
I chanted in my head as I couldn't pull my eyes from the dead body. Even in the black of this night I could see the sand around him turning dark with all the blood seeping out. It wasn't until the loud crack of the CheyTac rang out across the quiet night air I came to my senses.
"Contact, your 10 o'clock," Clint's calm voice filled my ear. "More heading in. It's an ambush."
My body reacted before my mind caught up. Before I knew it I was scrambled to my feet, yanking the knife out of the side of the attackers throat and climbing back up the hill. I jammed the knife in my belt, not game to stop to get it back into my boot. As I reached the ridge a yell to my left snapped my attention over there. To my horror there was a group of 5 enemies picking their way up to my ridge. Where they'd come from was anyone's guess. The sound of bullets pinging off the rocks around me made me realise I needed to get out of here in a big hurry. I dove for cover, taking even more skin off my body as I felt my pants rips under the sharp gravel. As I crawled across the ground yanking my AWSM off its stand. I didn't bother to grab the stand, it would only slow me down. I swung it around towards the group closing in on warning shot from a .338 Lapua Magnum round would make most sane people get out of the way. I didn't look through the scope. Trying to aim was pointless in the time I had to make this happen. Tucking the rifle into my shoulder I cringed knowing the inevitable kick that was going to happen from it. Grabbing the bolt I pushed up and pulled it back. Sliding the bolt forward to chamber a round, I pushed down and had my finger on the trigger to fire. It was muscle memory now. I didn't even have to think about doing it.
The shot was loud, making me deaf for half a second in my right ear. I didn't even feel the recoil on my shoulder, but I knew it was going to hurt like hell later. I'd left it sitting out a quarter of an inch too far and the fucker kicked like a mule. But it had its desired effect. The shots raining down on me stopped, giving me enough time to high tail it out of there. Slinging my sniper rifle over my shoulder I reached up and turns my mic back on the comm link while I launched myself as fast as I could go over the edge. I slid for a few feet before my feet finally cooperated enough for me to run.
"My position is compromised," I could barely get the words out I was so out of breath. The mad run I was doing down the slope towards Rumlow's STRKE team and the SEAL's wasn't helping either. The sounds of bullets pinging off the rocks around me kicked my feet into another gear as I zig zagged like crazy hoping I wouldn't get hit.
"Kari," Riley's voice came into my ear. "Duck."
I slammed into the ground the second he said it. Just as I thew myself down, something hit me hard in the shoulder blade. It felt like someone had thrown a rock at me as hard as possible. The body armour took the brunt of the hit but it still hurt like hell. I had no doubt whatever hit me just left a fucking huge bruise. With the amount of rock being kicked up with the bullets hitting them I had no doubt it was just a ricochet.
Lying on the ground I could finally hear all the chaos around me. I don't know how I didn't notice the sound of gunfire before. Or the shouts from both sides. My mind seemed to have shut everything out but my own survival. I was so not trained well enough for this situation I just found myself in. A figure came from the dark at speed. Rifle raised and a few shots were let off. The figure got close enough for me to make out it was Rumlow. He grabbed me by my body armour and yanked me back to my feet.
"Up, up, up," Rumlow commanded me hastily. He didn't wait until I was fully on my feet before dragging me along. He'd lifted me completely off by the ground just by pulling on my vest. Fuck me I needed to either put some weight on, or these boys needed to stop lifting so many weights. He pushed me forward so I was in front of him. I didn't need to be told twice. It took a few paces for my legs to work again into something that resembled more like a calf trying to run for the first time than an actual run.
"Where's your sidearm?" Rumlow asked me loudly. His Steyr was raised and he was retreating backwards as quickly as I was running forward. The group that had been pursing me seemed to have stopped firing towards me now. There was still plenty of gunfire going on around us, but not raining directly towards us.
"It got knocked out of my hands," the excuse sounded weak, even if it was the truth. Before I could keep going to explain what had actually happened something whizzed directly past my face. It'd been so close I felt the heat of it mark a trail across my cheek. I jerked back and stumbled into Rumlow. A soft thump of whatever it was hitting the sand came from only a foot away. Both of our heads snapped in the direction of what landed. My eyes widened in horror seeing a Stark Industries logo sticking out of the sand. It was attached to a small bomb.
The world seemed to stop around me. I was only vaguely aware of Rumlow grabbing me as if to push us both down on the ground. Every felt like slow motion as that bomb just stuck out of the sand, taunting us of our fate about to come. There wouldn't be much left of us when that thing goes off.
Adrenaline does very funny things to your mind. My body should have been telling me to run like hell as fast as I possibly could. Instead, I raised my hands, not even sure why I was doing it until I felt ice forming on them. The very little moisture in the air seemed to all come together right in front of me as like it was whispering to me what I needed to do. The whisper was too quiet for my brain to comprehend but my body instantly took over. My sub conscious seemed to know exactly what to do even if I didn't. I was just a passenger in my own body. A wall of ice appeared in front of us just as the bomb went off. In all my years I'd never been able to conjure so much ice with so little moisture around me. I don't even know where it was coming from. I could feel the ice melting and trying to shatter from the kinetic shock that was blasted back to us. I kept my hands pushed up against it as hard as I could feeling my power surge through them strengthening the wall from shattering. The melting ice hardened instantly under my hands, pushing out around Rumlow and I.
It seemed like hours that the ground stopped shaking around us from the blast of the bomb. I'd fallen to my knees, my hands still pushed up against the wall of ice I'd created. My ears were ringing. I couldn't hear anything at all. I don't know if I was gasping for air, or holding my breath. Either way my lungs were screaming at me for more oxygen. I couldn't feel any part of my body except the palms of my hands. They were tingling from the cold of the ice.
Rumlow's hand shaking me hard finally brought me back to earth. I had to shake my head to get everything to come back into focus. He was standing to the side of me, lips moving but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I was seeing double for the first few seconds, blinking stupidly to get my bearings.
"Come on, gotta move," Rumlow's voice finally reached me. He didn't wait for me to respond, he just grabbed me by the vest and yanked me to my feet. My legs still didn't want to work. I collapsed against him as soon as I tried to take a step. Rumlow didn't miss a beat, he slung an arm around my shoulder giving me support to lean on him. I didn't miss the firm hold he still had on my vest which stopped me from falling over once we started to move. It took a few steps but my land legs finally came back to me. I was able to half walk, half run with him back to the group.
"Your good, just keep one foot in front of the other," Rumlow instructed me as we made our way back. "You can freak out later but right now you need to hold your shit together."
That made me laugh. It came out more like a strangled cough but at least it was something. Rumlow glanced over to me briefly with a small grin at the sound.
"See you're laughing, your fine," Rumlow picked the pace up a little more, forcing me to wobble faster beside him. "Seriously, of all the places to get compromised it had to be yours didn't it?"
"You put me there asshole," I rasped out. My throat was so dry. It felt like I'd swallowed half a desert full of sand in it. I hadn't noticed until now how incredibly thirsty I really was. I couldn't even conjure any spit my mouth and throat were so dry. Any supplies we had, such as water were all back in the Quinjet. Still 2 miles away. I'd just have to suck it up until then.
"Your handler put you there," Rumlow corrected me. "I only suggested it'd be good for you to get out of the Quinjet. You know, see the world and visit exotic places and all that bullshit SHIELD likes the sprout to get us to do stuff we don't want to do."
That made me laugh again. A second later I wish I hadn't of because my body decided to give me a lung rattling coughing fit. I would have fallen down if it wasn't for Rumlow's support. The last few steps to get back to his team and the SEALS ended him with him dragging me along while I coughed uncontrollably. It sent a wave of pain down my back where I'd been hit by the ricocheting rock earlier. The ring of Agents and SEAL's parted as we reached them as Rumlow dragged me into the cover of the middle of the group. Even when I stopped coughing I wasn't given a chance to slow down. I knew we needed to keep moving. I could see hear and see all the fire going on around me.
"Lets get the fuck out of here," Rumlow raised his voice. With his free hand he pushed it up to his ear. "This is SHIELD Team Alpha with Gold Knights. Mission has been compromised, ordering immediate evac of all personal. Do you copy base?"
I couldn't hear anything in my ear at all. Rumlow didn't pause while he spoke. He kept me supported with his free arm, his Steyr slung around his back. Unlike my internal freak out I was keeping squashed down, he looked calm and confident. His stride didn't falter, even with my unsteady feet slowing him down. I'm pretty sure he could have picked me up with one arm and held me out without missing a stride. It took me a few minutes but I was finally steady enough on my feet to shrug his grip off my shoulders.
"You good?" Rumlow asked before actually moving his arm.
I nodded, I didn't trust myself to speak yet. Rumlow dropped his arm, but didn't look very convinced I was fine without it. I just kept moving. I wasn't sure how I was still going but my body just kept following. I couldn't see Clint anywhere. Or Riley. I didn't even know what was going on. There was the occasional burst of fire from somewhere but everything had gone quiet as we high tailed it out of there. Despite saying I was fine, Rumlow stuck no more than a pace away from me at all times. If I started to lag he was there giving me a gentle shove to keep going. I couldn't pay attention to anything more than keeping my feet moving one in front of the other.
"Quinjet just ahead," Rumlow gave me a gentle smack on the chest of the body armour to get my attention. "You good to fly?"
The Quinjet was sitting uncloaked about 200ft in front of us. I'd turned the cloaking off when we landed because all of our scans showed no hostiles in the area. We hadn't even picked up any IR signatures. That'd been one big lie.
"Where's Hawk?" I deflected. I wasn't sure if I could keep my head straight enough to get us in the air. I must have hit my head a lot fucking harder than I thought earlier on. We'd pulled to a halt. Everyone around us breathing heavily, but still on guard. I wasn't so out of it I missed everyone's rifles still raised scanning through the night.
"He's coming," Rumlow jerked his head backwards. He pulled his own sidearm from the holster on his leg offering it to me. "Providing cover for our rear. Same with Riley. You were the only one they found."
Great. My lack of ability to defend myself just compromised the entire mission. I had a fucking sniper rifle on me. Why I didn't just stand there and create a whole lot of pink mist from the small group of enemies coming down on me? I knew how quickly I could let shots off with it. I knew my accuracy was good enough to do it. So why did I run? I could have taken out a lot of people if I'd stuck to my ground and done what I was there for. To provide cover. Not to shit myself at the first problem and run out of there. I couldn't stop the angry tears from welling up in my eyes. I was such a fucking idiot to think I could come out here and do this. My cockiness could have gotten us all killed.
"Hey," Rumlow prompted me bringing my head back into this conversation. "Whatever is going on in your head right now doesn't matter. We need to get out of here. So can you fly or not?"
"Yeah I can…." I didn't get to finish my sentence. The air around us suddenly erupted into a bright light. A second later the Quinjet exploded.
The blast wave knocked me clear off my feet. I blacked out for a few seconds because one minute I was falling to the ground. The next I was rolling onto my side coughing and spitting up mouthfuls of sand. My lungs felt like they were on fire as I drew in a few ragged breaths while trying to get my bearings. My hearing was gone again. All that was in my head was a loud ringing sound. I tried to push myself onto all fours but my balance failed me. I ended up back on the ground, my hands clutching at the sand as my head swam in my discombobulation. My vision swam around me as I tried to focus on anything I could. Right now it was a SEAL trying to get to his feet to my left. My eyes slid shut on their own accord. At least in the blackness I wasn't feeling so dizzy I could throw up. My head ached. The entire left side of my body felt like Natasha had been repeated punching it. I just couldn't make my body do anything right now except lay here disorientated and in pain. It wasn't hard to give into the darkness of unconsciousness that was begging me to join it. I knew I should stay awake, but a few minutes wouldn't hurt. Would it?
"Kari," a voice finally reached my ears. It only felt like seconds had passed. "Come on, eyes open."
My body dragged itself away from the edges of sleep. I still couldn't open my eyes. I could barely focus on the voice that was talking to me. Everything sounded so tinny and robotic. I squeezed my eyelids togethers tighter a bit more, trying to make them work enough to pry open. A gentle tap on the cheek from a very calloused hand made them finally pry open.
I was lying on my back. Something my mind hadn't registered until my eyes actually opened. It took a few blinks but Clint's face finally came into focus. He was kneeling over me, worry clear in his blue eyes. His hand was laying against my cheek still as he kept my head in place so I could look him in the face clearly. An uneasy and forced smile slid onto his face when I could finally focus on him enough that there wasn't multiple copies of him.
"Hey," Clint's voice echoed in my head painfully. I winced as a headache made itself very well known inside my skull. My brain felt like someone had opened my head and stirred it around like cake batter. At the pain in my head I could feel my eyes start to shut again on their own accord.
"Come on, I need you to stay with me," the worry was clear in Clint's voice. "Big boy pants on, I need you to get up."
"I'm a girl," I whispered licking my cracked lips. I winced at even the small motion of doing that seemed to hurt. But I opened my eyes again to his face still hovering above me. This time he didn't need to force a smile on his face. It was already there, no doubt due to my sassy remark.
"I can't say big girl pants on for you because I'm sure you wear a pretty tiny size," Clint chuckled. He hadn't removed his hand from my cheek yet. I reached up, painfully and slowly to put my own hand over his. The contact of feeling his skin against my hand was enough to wake me entirely. It grounded me back down to earth being able to feel something besides my own aching body. I still couldn't focus properly but at least I was conscious.
"Size 4 baby," I tried to swallow to get rid of the scratchiness in my throat. But my mouth wouldn't produce any kind of moisture. The friction of my throat constricting on itself only made it worse. My chest tightened to the point of being painful. I felt like if I coughed while laying down I was going to choke. Shooting upright, narrowly missing head butting Clint, my entire body spasmed as I coughed. It made everything hurt so badly but I couldn't stop myself. Pain exploded across my head but that was nothing compared to the ache on my shoulder blade and left side of my body. I felt like I'd been hit by a train.
"I need some water," Clint's raised voice did nothing for my headache. The sound of his deep voice vibrating around my skull only making the pounding worse. I clutched at my head with my hands, pressing my palms against my temples as my eyes squeezed shut again. It felt like hours had passed with me sitting there holding my head in my hands until a canteen was pressed into my hands. I felt like I was going to drop it until Clint's hands closed around mine in a steady grip.
"Drink," Clint instructed. His hands guided my own until the canteen was pressed against my lips. I was forced to put my head back up and tilt it back slightly to actually drink. Once the water hit my lips I had to stopped myself chugging the entire thing down. I knew I'd made myself sick if I did that so I limited myself to small sips and gentle swallows. Some of it ran down my chin but I didn't care right now. As I was drinking Clint gently pinched the skin on the back of my hand. I didn't need to look at the skin to feel the pull of it standing upright a lot longer than it should be.
"You're so dehydrated," Clint murmured, more to himself than to me. He let me finish the entire canteen without another word. By the end of it I was feeling slightly more human and less like a beaten up piece of meat. My headache had subsided to a dull throb instead of the intense stabbing pain. My body didn't feel any better but at least I could finally see straight.
Clint and I were alone amongst the wreckage of the Quinjet. The very little that was left of it. Twisted metal was scattered through the sand of what was once our ride home. Most of the pieces were no bigger than a few feet across. Whatever had hit it sure did a fantastic job of demolishing it. A couple of feet away all I could see were shadows of people standing up, who I assumed were the STRIKE Team and SEALS.
"I'm going to pick you up," Clint's voice pulled my attention back to him. I moved my head too quickly and it took me a few seconds for everything to come back into focus. Damn this one was hell of a wicked concussion. "And you aren't going to complain. We need to get moving and I don't want you walking anywhere."
"Where's Riley?" I managed to croak out. I wasn't going to argue with Clint. I don't even think I could walk if I tried.
"About 100 yards that way," Clint pointed back towards where we had come from. At least I think it was where we'd come from. "Still providing cover like a good little marksman."
If I'd provided cover none of this would have happened. The bitter through sprang into my head before I could stomp on it. Combined with the pain I was in, the anger at myself for not doing my job hit me full force. I felt like a complete and utter fuck of up a failure. I couldn't stop tears that started to fall down my face. I couldn't even raise my arm enough without help to brush them away before Clint saw them.
"Fuck," Clint swore. He quickly reached up and brushed the trail of tears away with the heel of his palm as fast as they came out. "I'm not used to crying. If Nat cries I feel like the world is going to end within the next 3 seconds. It freaks me out. Please don't cry."
Clint's pained confession stopped my tears as quickly as they had leaked out. I even managed a strangled chuckled through my sniffles. At the sight of my tears stopping he gave me a gentle smile.
"That's better," Clint scooped me up so I was laying in his arms bridal style. If I wasn't in so much pain I'm sure I'd be feeling all kinds of embarrassed. "If you throw up on me when we start moving you owe me a bottle of scotch."
"Only if we can drink it together," I wanted to laugh at his joking tone. But my eyes were heavy again. Just the effort of sitting up to have a drink had drained all the energy from me. Laying with my head on his shoulder I let my eyes drift shut again. If Clint noticed he didn't say anything. I was passed out again by the second step he took.
When I came to again I was lying on my uninjured side. A jacket was laid over me to ward off the now chilly night air. My eyelids ached, feeling like they weighed a thousand pounds each keeping them shut. The material of what I guessed to be another jacket was pressed under my cheek, giving my head some support. Everything ached so badly. I couldn't even tell what was sore anymore. My entire body was just throbbing. It wasn't hard to give into the pull of unconsciousness yet again.
That was until I felt some wrap around my neck.
All of a sudden I was back in my nest with the attacker trying to strangle me. Despite my aching body I struggled like crazy, kicking out and flailing my legs to get whoever it was off me. I ended up on my back, adrenaline numbing any pain in my body. Hands pinned me down making me struggle even harder. My fist suddenly connected with flesh and bone. Through my panicked struggle I heard someone groan and a very familiar voice let out a not very nice string of cursing.
"Kari," it was Clint's voice that finally made my eyes snap open and out of my panic state. Whatever had touched my neck was long gone. It was only Clint's face over me, yet again. He had a firm grip on my shoulders keeping me pinned to the ground. "You're ok."
At those few words my stomach recoiled. Nope. I was definitely not ok. With strength I didn't know I had I pushed Clint off me just as my body saw fit to start to heave. Bile rose up in my throat and I knew dinner was going to follow it very quickly. Clint knew exactly what was about to happen. Without another word he scooped me back up in his arms, marched from where I'd been lying and in a few hurried strides deposited me behind a bush. It wasn't a gentle drop but I was feeling too nauseated to care. My knees hit the ground just as the threatening bile turned into vomit and erupted forcefully from my stomach. My constricting stomach and throat muscles burned as I kneeled in the sand feeling absolutely wretched. I threw up until there was nothing left in my stomach but my body kept dry retching.
Clint was there the entire time with me. He kept my hair our of my face, which was a task and a half in itself considering most of it was falling out of the tight braid I started with earlier in the night.
"Its just adrenaline," Clint soothed me as he rubbed my back with his spare hand. "It happens."
At least it happened outside away from everyone else. I wouldn't be able to thank Clint enough for that small discretion he'd done for me. With one last final heave my body stopped the dry retching. I fell back on my haunches feeling miserable as I looked to the ground. The darkness of the night covered most of the mess up. The few patches of different coloured sand wasn't hard to make out though. I went to wipe my mouth on the back of my hand, stopping a second before it touched my skin. My hands were still covered in blood, It was dry and cracked in a few places now. But still there. The sight of it made my stomach constrict again. I couldn't move. I just sat there frozen staring at the blood that definitely wasn't mine. Everything that happened before starting to come rushing back to me, a blur of images rushing through my mind.
"Rub them in the sand," Clint's hands covered mine and guided them away from my face. "It'll get rid of it."
Clint's steady voice quickly brought me back to reality. I hastily complied with what he told me. Grabbing a handful of sand I rubbed it so hard it felt like I was taking the first few layers of skin off my hands. Not that I needed any help with that. They were already scraped and bruised. I turned them over inspecting the tops of my hands. I barely had any skin left on my knuckles, the flesh red and raw. From the feel of them I had no doubt they would be all colours of the rainbow tomorrow. It would be a match to the rest of my body judging by the aches throbbing throughout it.
"That looks like one hell of an arterial spray," Clint probed gently as I scrubbed my hands. "Wanna tell me what happened?"
I didn't want to talk about it. I really didn't want to talk about it. Talking about it made it all real again.
"I stabbed him," saying those words made me shake all over. I couldn't believe I'd actually done it. The words came out despite me trying to swallow them back. "He tried to choke me and I stabbed him. I fucked everything up."
Bitter tears crept into my eyes at the thought of my complete and utter failure on this mission. I was such an idiot believing I could do this. Believing I could be a worthy part of STRIKE Team Delta. I was a nobody. Just a stupid girl who thought she might belong in this crazy world I'd found myself thrown into. Who was I kidding? It was just luck that didn't get everyone killed with my fuck up. Why did I run? Only cowards ran. I didn't think I was a coward but tonight had just proved otherwise.
"You're ok," Clint repeated again. He pulled me into his chest as my tears turned to sobs. "This time you can cry. I'll take crying over throwing up."
If I wasn't feeling so fucking wretched that would have made me laugh. But I was too caught up in my own misery as I gave into the emotional rollercoaster I was feeling. I just let myself fall against his chest and sob so hard I cold barely breath. What a shitty day this had turned out to be.
Authors Note
This chapter was really intense to write. But a lot of fun. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I liked writing it. Poor Kari, just when she feels like everything gets on track I'm an awful author and throw a curve ball at her.
I know I said I wasn't going to get time to write until New Year, but life has been a lot quieter than expected. So I'm enjoying a long weekend of nothing but writing and only having to work 2 days the next week I'm getting a lot more done than I ever expected.
I started a Facebook page as an Author. The link is in my profile if anyone is interested. Or just look up my pen name. I'm in the process of posting bits and pieces of pictures and eventually chapter previews on there.
And like the forgetful person I am, I also wrote some one shots to go with this story if anyone hasn't found them yet. They're mostly from Jared's point of view. I'll be adding to them when the inspiration sparks me. Its also good to take a break from this to get some inspiration as well when I'm having writers block.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and are planning an exciting New Year!
Big thanks to my reviewers for the last chapter kira shadow wolf and Serelena! I love when you guys theorise about what's going to happen later. All I can say is in about 5 chapters things are going to get really wild.