Chapter 10
Ruby didn't continue her struggles and let herself be led to the back of the trailer in a daze. It all made sense now. Her father's involvement with Hydra explained why he was so adamantly against her working at the institute. If the institute was just a front for the organization, of course he wouldn't want her involved. It also explained why she was shut out of so much that went on there. Her math and logic abilities weren't in question. No, her trustworthiness was.
With good reason, she thought. There was no way she would ever condone or support Hydra. It was a terrorist organization through and through. More lives had been lost because of its plots and machinations over the years than had been lost during the last two, no, three alien invasions. The only event more catastrophic had been when half the life on the planet had been snapped out of existence by Thanos. The history books might not mention it, but Hydra had been part of every genocidal event that had taken place since WWII.
And her father was in bed with them. The knowledge was mind-numbing with its implications. How much of her lifestyle had been financed by his involvement? How much blood was on her hands because of his duplicity?
She snapped out of her daze as two pairs of hands reached down from the trailer to pull her up into it. Once inside, she looked around with more interest. The trailer was split into two functions: one was a laboratory where three technicians worked feverishly on a collar similar to the one used on Bruce when he was captured at the institute; the other was a surveillance center with multiple screens for tracking targets.
Two of the screens showed a very angry Hulk running through the forest.
"We need to roll," one of the soldiers told the others. "How much time do you need?"
One of the techs working on the collar looked up from her work, "five minutes."
"You don't have that. Make it three." He turned to the other two soldiers, "secure the trailer."
As the other two jumped down and swung the door shut, Ruby turned to the one giving orders.
"Wait. Why do you need me? I don't know anything." It was the truth.
"We know," he said frowning. "You're worthless as far as I'm concerned. But you do serve a purpose: as bait. For some reason, that green monstrosity out there wants to protect you and I'm going to use that to our advantage. Now go sit down out of the way and be quiet, or I'll put a bullet in you and use your corpse instead."
"My father wouldn't be happy if you killed me," she pointed out.
The soldier laughed mockingly, "why would I care?"
Deflated, Ruby obediently sat down on the nearest stool near the monitors. The trailer lurched under her as the semi-truck was put into gear and started rolling forward. As it gained speed, she watched the monitors. There were still at least a dozen soldiers out there, all firing their weapons at the Hulk. Of course, all they did was make him angrier and she watched with amusement as he picked p black-clad man up and flung him through the air like a ragdoll. The soldier went sailing over the tops of the trees, out of sight.
"We got it, sir!" one of the lab techs announced, stepping aside to make room at the bench.
The soldier in charge walked over to inspect their work.
"And this will work?"
"It should," answered another tech. "The prototype failed because he could still feel pain. This one has a nerve dampener installed. That's what took so much time. Trying to combine the two technologies."
"It better. I'm out of patience." He turned to Ruby, "you're up."
"I don't understand." What exactly did he think she was going to do?
Covering the distance between them in three strides, he pulled her up from the stool and steered her over to the monitors.
"You're going to give me a good scream." He grabbed a microphone with his free hand and held it close to her face.
She shook her head, "not going to happen."
He put the microphone down on the console and pulled a knife out of his belt. It was a large, vicious-looking weapon almost as long as her forearm. He held it up to her face for her to inspect it. The cutting edge gleamed in the artificial light and she could see her eyes, wide with fright, reflected in its surface.
"You are going to scream for me, or what little use I have for you will be gone. Do you understand what that means?"
Ruby swallowed and nodded slowly.
"Um, sir?" one of the technicians cleared his throat.
"What?"
"I, um, don't think she needs to scream to get his attention."
"What are you talking about?"
"Look at the monitors, sir."
Keeping his grip on her arm, he turned to look at the bank of monitors. On the far left, a monitor showed the road the semi was following. In the middle stood the Hulk, becoming closer as the rig approached. Ruby felt the trailer slowing down.
"Commander," the driver's voice came over the speakers, "we have a situation."
The soldier shoved Ruby away from him and keyed the mic, "stop the rig."
He pressed a button to change channels, "Lincoln, do you have eyes on the target?"
"Yes, sir," another voice answered over the sound of a helicopter.
"Do you have a clear shot?"
"Roger that."
"Take it."
On the road, the Hulk roared a challenge at the truck and took a step forward. He was instantly pinned to the asphalt by a metallic net. Spaced evenly around the edge, barbed spikes were hydraulically driven into the ground, securing the enraged Hulk.
The soldier turned to the techs, "will it hold?"
"It should, yes," the woman replied not taking her eyes off the screen as the Hulk thrashed against the netting. "It's an engineered blend of nano-technology and vibranium. It could withstand a nuclear detonation."
He nodded, "good. Grab the collar and come with me."
"Me?" she squeaked, looking at the soldier.
He raised his gun and pointed it at her head, "yes, you. Unless you are disobeying my order. Are you?"
Ruby could see the woman swallow her response. It would have been comical, if she hadn't been in the same situation just moments before. Now, she almost felt sorry for the technician.
"No, sir," she said quietly and picked the collar up from the bench.
Ruby could tell it was heavy and she struggled with it for a moment.
"You," he motioned impatiently to another technician with his pistol, "help her."
He didn't give the man time to argue as he strode to the back of the trailer and unlatched the door. Pushing it open, he jumped to the ground and waiting for them to follow.
When the three disappeared from site, Ruby and the tech left in the trailer turned their eyes back to the monitors. Ruby knew she should take advantage of this opportunity to make a run for it but couldn't pull herself away from the drama unfolding on the screen.
As a group of soldiers approached, led by the man that had threatened Ruby, the Hulk stilled momentarily to watch them warily. They fanned out to surround him and the one in charge motioned the techs forward. At the sight of the collar, the Hulk renewed his struggle against the net.
She couldn't hear what was being said, but the roars of the Hulk could be heard through the walls of the trailer. The leader grabbed the collar from the timid techs and stepped up to the thrashing prisoner. Before he could get the collar close enough to even make contact, the Hulk jerked back with a mighty shove against the pavement. Ruby could see it buckle under the pressure. A spike came loose as the asphalt it was buried in tore free in a chunk.
"Come on. Come on," she encouraged, gripping the console with white knuckles.
The remaining tech looked at her and snorted, "not a chance. That net isn't going to break."
"It doesn't have to," she told him.
As if he heard her, the Hulk heaved and strained against the net. It dug into his back but didn't break the skin. Two more chunks of asphalt were ripped from the road along with the spikes in them.
"Holy, shit," the tech breathed.
"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" she asked.
He looked at her like she was from another planet before snorting, "shut the fuck up, Blondie."
"I've had enough of this," she announced. "I'm getting out of here."
He grabbed her by the arm as she walked past him, "you're not going anywhere. Sit down and shut your yap up."
She shook off his hand and shoved him backwards, "get your slimy Hydra hands off me!"
He staggered back and caught himself against the lab work bench. Outside, gunfire sounded as the soldiers open fired on the Hulk. Over that was the whaap-whaap-whaap of a helicopter followed by the louder retort of the gun mounted to it.
"I guess they gave up on taking your lover alive," the tech smirked at her.
"He's not my lover," she corrected indignantly. "And all they're going to do is make him madder."
To prove her point, a roar rattled the trailer. The tech paled and glanced at the monitors.
Taking advantage of his distraction, Ruby ran past him and jumped out of the trailer. Ignoring the fight taking place on the road in front of the rig, she ran back up the road until she was around a corner, and then veered off heading back into the forest. Running downhill, she went as fast as she could while still maintaining control of her descent.
Stopping to catch her breath in the dark undergrowth that grew over a trickle of water at the junction where the mountain she just ran down met another one, she listened intently. The gunfire had stopped as had the roars from the Hulk.
"Please have escaped," she whispered into the quiet.
A noise from her left made her creep forward to peer through the foliage. It was a car coming towards her on the highway. The roadway curves sharply towards her and a short bridge spanning the tiny stream. The bridge was less than twenty yards from where she crouched.
Scrambling out of her hiding spot, she ran towards the road to intercept the car. Waving her arms wildly to catch the attention of the driver, she approached the bridge and hauled herself over the short railing. The car slowed as it approached but showed no sign of stopping.
"Oh, come on, you can't just drive past me," she said aloud as she stepped out onto the road, into the path of the car.
The car did indeed come to a stop a few feet away from where she stood panting.
"Are you crazy, lady?" the driver yelled at her.
He might have been younger than her, but it was hard to tell with the bushy red beard he sported. As she approached his side of the car, he glared at her.
"We need to get out of here," she told him and pointed up the road in the direction he was heading. "There are Hydra soldiers up there trying to capture the Hulk. It's not safe."
He shook his head, "sure, whatever," and started to roll up his window.
"No! You don't understand, we're in danger if we stay here." She lunged forward and grabbed the edge of his window to try to keep it down.
"Look, you probably just got some weed laced with something. It happens. Just go back to your camp and take a nap. When you wake up, it'll be okay. Okay?"
"You know what?" she threw up her hands. She was tired of everyone pushing her around or treating her like an idiot. "No, it's not okay. In fact, it is as far from okay as it can get!" She grabbed the door handle, praying that the car was in park, and jerked it open.
"Whoa, lady! What the hell!"
"If you want to stand around waiting for Hydra or the Hulk to come down off that mountain, be my guest. But I'm leaving!"
She grabbed him by the arm and yanked him out of the car with more strength than she thought she was capable of. As he stumbled and fell on the road, she jumped into the car and slammed the door. Reversing, she made a neat three-point turn on the bridge before putting the car into drive and stomping on the accelerator.
Driving as fast as possible on the mountain road, she spied his cell phone and grabbed it. Hitting the 'emergency call' icon on the screen, she held the phone to her ear. Nothing happened. Looking down at it, she saw that there was no signal.
"I can't catch a break at all, can I," she wailed and threw the useless phone in the seat beside her.
As the road turned to begin its descent towards Lake City, she glanced in the rearview mirror. There was a smudge of halfway up the slope of the other mountain.
"I hope you gave them heck, Bruce," she smiled.
Then screamed as the car hit a large object in the road. It would have gone flying if the Hulk hadn't caught it and dropped it back onto the pavement.
Dazed once more, Ruby stumbled out of the car. The front end was completely caved in and was leaking fluids. It wasn't going anywhere.
"Are you kidding me?" she yelled up at the sky. "What did I do to deserve this?"
When the heavens didn't answer her question, she turned back to the Hulk and the wrecked car. Hulk shook his head and stumbled away. Concerned, she followed. She couldn't see any wounds on him, but she knew he had been shot multiple times.
"Are you okay?"
He stumbled and seemed to shrink. Nope, he was definitely shrinking. And growing less green. Within a minute, Bruce Banner stood in his place, holding on to a tree for support.
Ruby signed wearily and shook her head.
He was naked again.