Chapter 34
Ruby had tried to go out the front of the building, but there was a group of trainees clustered in the atrium, blocking her path. Backtracking, she searched for another way out of the building. As she made her way down an empty hallway, a door on her right flew open and a body barreled into her, sending them both to the floor.
Ruby sat up and saw Frankie. The other woman had a wild, panicked look about her.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Frankie didn't respond as she leapt to her feet and rushed away.
"Hey!" she yelled after the retreating figure.
What the heck?
Standing and dusting herself off, she glanced at the room Frankie had exited in such a hurry. The plate on the wall identified it as the server room. What was Frankie, a known Hydra agent, doing in the server room? That couldn't be good.
Pushing open the door, she stepped inside and looked around and the stacks of computer equipment. Nothing seemed amiss. Maybe she should go find someone and tell them about Frankie?
Before she could make up her mind, she heard a groan deeper in the room. Going around the end of one of the rows and froze in shock. Laying on the floor in an alarming pool of blood was Izzy.
"Oh, my gosh! Izzy!" she cried rushing to her friend's side and dropping down beside her.
"I'm so sorry, Ruby," Izzy reaches out and grabs her hand to give it a weak squeeze.
"Don't worry about that right now," Ruby brushed her apology aside. "Did she stab you?"
Izzy tried to point at something, but her arm flopped weakly back to the floor. "Gun," she said simply.
So, she was shot. Ruby pressed her lips into a determined line and turned Izzy onto her back. The bleeding was coming from a shoulder. She pulled Izzy's shirt up and used it to pressure on the wound. Her friend groaned. She needed medical attention.
"Can you stand up?"
"I don't think so," Izzy said weakly.
Ruby looked around for something else to use to stop the bleeding. There was nothing in the room. Quickly pulling her own shirt over her head, she folded it up and pressed it to Izzy's shoulder. Grabbing Izzy's other hand, she pressed it to the wad of fabric.
"Izzy, I need you to keep pressure on this while I go for help."
"No, no," Izzy shook her head. "It's too late. I messed this up big time, Ruby."
"Nonsense! You're going to be just fine. I just need to go get the doctor."
Izzy let go of the padding and grabbed her hand to stop her from standing up, "I've got to tell you something."
"Tell me later." Ruby tried to tug her hand gently away, but Izzy wasn't going to let go.
"Listen to me," Izzy hissed. "I'm a Hydra agent. You were my assignment, but I didn't plan on you becoming my best friend. They wanted me to kill you," she closed her eyes as tears streamed down her face. "I couldn't do it. I love you too much. I could never hurt you."
Ruby froze. That nagging thought that had been hovering on the edge of her consciousness suddenly shoved itself forward. Her mouth gaped open as she looked down at Izzy.
"You…," she began. "You've been tracking me with my necklace." It wasn't a question.
Izzy just nodded.
"And the bracelet?"
"It was meant just for Banner, but it ended up affected everyone within its range."
She was suddenly angry. "They tried to kill me!" She shoved herself away from her friend. "Twice, three times!"
"I'm so sorry," Izzy reached for her, but she scooted further away to avoid contact, stopping when her back hit the wall. She pulled her legs up and curled into a tight ball.
"I thought you were my friend."
"You were," Izzy said desperately.
She shook her head, "it was all a lie."
"No!" Izzy rolled over and tried to crawl to her.
"Get away from me!" Ruby yelled and jumped up, running for the door. Throwing it open, she ran out into the hall and away from the room and the horrible lies from the woman she had trusted more than anyone else in the world.
Laura ran towards the dormitory as soon as the alarms went off. She had to kill Ruby and get the hell off the campus as quickly as possible. If any of the other agents and trainees wondered about her running away from the main building when everyone was running towards it, none of them stopped to question her.
The elevator was locked out by the computer system, so she took the stairs down to the residents' floor. Reaching the girl's room, she drew her side arm and kicked the door open. The room was empty.
"God damnit!" she spat, putting her gun away. Where the hell was the flaky bitch?
Upstairs, she left the building and surveyed the grounds, trying to make up her mind whether to give up on Ruby and make for the extraction point or look for her.
"The hell with it," she decided. She was getting the hell out of there.
She jogged across the open field towards the main building, angling towards the right side. Her and Izzy's extraction point was down by the river. Before she reached the corner, she saw her quarry exit the building, shirtless and covered with blood. Maybe she could still finish her assignment.
Changing direction, she hurried towards Ruby.
"Ruby!" another agent cried out and beat her to the blonde.
They arrived almost simultaneously at her side.
"Are you hurt?" the other agent, Mallory, asked.
She shook her head, "Izzy."
"Izzy's hurt?" Laura asked her.
Ruby looked at her with wild eyes, "Frankie shot her."
"Is she alive?" Mallory asked.
Ruby nodded.
"Show us," Mallory ordered.
"Where," Laura asked at the same time.
Ruby looked blankly at them.
Laura grabbed Ruby by the arm, the girl flinched and tried to pull away. "She's obviously in shock," she told Mallory. "I'll take her to the infirmary, and you go look for Izzy."
Mallory shook his head, "no, we stay together." He looked at Ruby, "take us to her."
Laura was left with no alternative. Mallory out ranked her, and she couldn't just order him to stand down. Of all the stinking luck! Ruby shook her off and turned back towards the main building.
"Here," Mallory pulled his shirt over his head and handing it to Ruby.
"Thanks," she said with no inflection.
This girl was in shock, Laura thought. Maybe she could salvage this. She just needed the right opening. They went back in the door she just exited. If they turned left, they would head towards the server room. To the right was the infirmary. Taking advantage of Ruby's zombie-like demeanor, she stuck out a foot and tripped her.
"She's in shock," she told Mallory when he caught her. "Let me take her to the infirmary. You go check on Izzy."
Mallory shook his head again, when he turned towards her, she saw something she didn't expect. He was afraid. She was never going to get him to go out on his own. She made a split decision.
"Ok, then you take her to the infirmary, and I'll go. It's just down that hall then to the right," she tried to reassure him. "I'll go look for Izzy." When he still hesitated, she pulled her pistol and handed it to him, "here take this."
Mallory looked at the girl swaying beside him in a daze and nodded, "okay. But be careful."
Laura was already walking away, "fucking coward," she muttered low enough for him not to hear.
Izzy lay numbly on the floor staring at the empty space where Ruby had been. The pain in her shoulder was nothing compared to the pain she felt when Ruby rejected her. She made no move to staunch the bleeding, thinking that maybe it would be better to just let herself bleed to death.
She had no idea how long she lay there, hovering on the edge of consciousness, when the door again opened, and a pair of shoes appeared in front of her face.
"I should have known you'd screw this up," Laura bent down to look at her.
"Ruby?" she whispered.
A dark look crossed the agent's face, "don't worry about her. She's taken care of."
Izzy didn't think it was possible to hurt more, but her whole body spasmed with the pain of loss. If she had any tears left, they would have made a bigger puddle than her blood.
Laura reached out and poked her roughly in the shoulder. Her ragged cry of pain was muffled by the noise of the ventilation and equipment around them.
"I don't think you're going to make it," the agent announced, wiping her finger on Izzy's pants before straightening. "At least that's one loose end I don't have to take care of."
She turned to leave. Izzy's vision blurred with anger and she reached with her good hand for the gun that lay just under the edge of the shelf where it had slid when Frankie's foot hit it during her escape. Pulling it out, she rolled painfully onto her side.
"Laura," she wheezed.
The agent turned around with a frown that disappeared when she saw the gun.
"Fuck you," Izzy told her and pulled the trigger.
Laura fell back against the wall and slid down it to the floor. A red spot bloomed in the middle of her chest. What do you know? Izzy thought. Bullseye.
She watched as the light died in the agent's eyes.
"That's for you, Ruby."
As she reveled in the triumph of killing the woman that killed her dear friend, she realized she wanted to live. Pushing herself to her feet, she held on to the shelf to steady herself. Awkwardly, tucking the gun into her pants, she looked around the room. She needed to get the hell out of here.
Ruby paced angrily back and forth in the conference room. After being seen by the doctor, she was pronounced well enough to leave the infirmary. During that time, the fugue state she had been in wore off. The memories of her interrogation by Fury had returned in force and she couldn't wait to see the man so she could punch him in the face.
The agent and escorted her to this room and told her to stay put. Her patience had lasted less than five minutes before she was at the door, only to find it locked. She had pounded on it and screamed until her hands hurt and her voice gave out. She had even thrown a chair at the window. Well, tried to. The best she could manage with the heavy chair was to swing it awkwardly. It had bounced off the surface and landed painfully on her foot. Now she was limping.
There was a phone on the table, but no ringtone when she picked it up. Not that it would have done her any good. She didn't know the phone number of anyone she could call. Except for her father, and there was no way she was going to call him for help. Ever.
She had never been this angry in her life. After the shock of Izzy's betrayal and the recovered memories of her 'enhanced' interrogation by Fury had started to wear off, that anger had begun to build inside her until it threatened to explode violently. Being trapped in this room wasn't making it any better. She was pissed at Fury for the way he had treated her. She was pissed at Izzy for faking her friendship all these years. She was pissed at Hydra, but that was nothing new at this point. Most of all, though, she was pissed at Bruce for standing by and allowing Fury to do what he did.
Her frantic pacing came to an abrupt stop when the door opened, and Bruce walked into the room.
"You!" she screeched at him, grabbing the first thing off the table that she could reach. The stapler flew across the room and bounced off his arm.
"Ouch!" he recoiled. "What…?"
She didn't give him a chance. Snatching everything she could pick up, she flung them at him. All he could do was hold his hands up to protect himself.
"You rotten…,"
"Wait…,"
"lying…,"
"I can…."
"yellow-bellied…,"
"explain…,"
"piece of…,"
"Ruby!"
"Garbage!"
"Stop throwing shit at me!" he bellowed at her, his eyes flashing a furious green.
Ignoring the threat of his anger getting out of control, she rounded the table and launched herself at him, fists flying and feet kicking.
"You used me!" she screamed at him.
Bruce growled deep in his throat, but she kept pummeling him while berating him for betraying her.
Strong arms encircled her from behind and she was lifted off her feet and away from her victim.
"Calm down before he loses control," Bucky said in her ear.
"I don't care!" she kicked and clawed at him, ineffectively. "I hope he loses control and destroys this entire place and all of you with it! I hope he pulls Fury apart limb for limb and flosses with his intestines."
"That's a little blood thirsty, isn't it," Fury asked as he inserted himself between her and Bruce.
"I hope he squeezes your head so hard your only eyeball pops out! I hate you! I hate all of you!"
With that declaration, her anger turned into heartache. She quit struggling in Bucky's arms. Looking around Fury to the distraught man he was protecting, she choked out, "I trusted you, Bruce." Her eyes were dry and itchy without tears as she faced him.
"I loved you."
