I looked around, freaking out, subconsciously spotting any and all escape routes, and trying to figure out what the hell to do now that I had been spotted. Do I run? Do I try and calm them? Do I explain what's going on?
I would have run by now but my limbs had locked in place from panic. I was unable to do anything except stare at the lady who had screamed when she had spotted me. She looked just as frozen as I was, her hand covering her mouth, eyes wide and panting.
Why was it that I didn't freeze up when faced with a physical threat like Hydra literally chasing after me in cars but suddenly someone screaming at me when I was trying to do something that was against the law but so I didn't alert anyone or die in the future... and I was stuck in place like a deer in headlights. C'mon brain, this is the exact opposite of what I need right now!
I swallowed, now that they knew I existed maybe I could get help from them? If I explained what happened they might not call the police - because I had obviously scared them half to death and I might look like a weird humanoid because of my large bug-like lenses. It would start a trail that Hydra could track and I had only just made them lose it. I couldn't let that happen.
Maybe if I told them they would get me something to wrap my probably broken wrist in too! Maybe some hot food and clothes... hot food sounded delicious right about now. I wouldn't hold out for a shower, however, I was getting pretty dirty but that wasn't that big of a problem.
So, hesitantly and slowly as not to startle them any further, I raised my arm and gave them a small wave.
Their panting and panicking seemed to calm down a little bit, enough for them to give me more of a confused look than a terrified one. They took a cautious step forward and when I did nothing except relax my tense stance, they gained enough confidence to come over to the window. They paused a few feet from me.
"Ungubani?" they said in a very muffled voice. I frowned, what did they
"Um, what? I didn't quite catch that..." I said, feeling the urge to rub the back of my neck but stopped before I lifted a hand. Injured arms were so annoying.
They tilted their head, obviously confused. Why were they looking at me like that? Was the window muffling my voice that much? Surely not, I could understand their gibberish sort of fine! "What you said? Yeah, I didn't understand a word of it." I said, my voice dropping into a monotone one. I was too tired from everything to be angry, frustrated, or anything like that. I was in pain, I wanted my arm fixed, clothes to keep warm and blend into a crowd in, a shower and warm food. Was having of that too much of an ask?
According to life, yes.
"Andiyi kuqonda into oyithethayo." She said, frowning and crossing her arms.
Okay, so the gibberish was probably just her language. Which meant she couldn't speak English. I mean, ok wow, that was pretty ignorant of me. Of course she wasn't going to know what I was saying, this wasn't a country that was a part of the Western world. It wasn't expected of her to speak English. I knew that many people studied English even when they were in places like India but they often had some tourism from English speaking countries. Wakanda... didn't.
Some parts of Africa accepted aid but Wakanda refused any and shut down any attempts to help them, so people wouldn't travel for that. There weren't any sights to see besides from farmlands... but obviously Wakanda wasn't all it made itself up to be. I wonder what they are trying to hide, anyway? I wasn't going to discover that now while I was here, I had things like not dying to worry about, but it was curious.
I shook my head lightly, trying to get back on track, neither of us speaking the other's language was going to be a problem. I couldn't tell her about Hydra, so SHIELD would never really get notified about them because this lady couldn't tell the authorities here, so it broke any chance of them being shut down. It also meant that I had to somehow explain that my arm needed a bandage and I would like some clothes without freaking her out.
This was going to be a pain, but with all of this in mind, I made a quick decision and began to tentatively pull off the glove on my injured arm. I exposed my swollen and bruised wrist, and now I could properly see it in the sunlight even I winced.
Her eyes widened and I sighed in relief as it appeared she understood what I needed. She finally came over to the window and pulled it open. I hovered just outside, glancing between her and her home. She rolled her eyes and waved me inside.
Seeing no other reason to hesitate (my spidey-sense was very calm right now), I climbed inside with my arm kept close enough so it didn't bump against the window frame. I couldn't be bothered to take any more steps. I slumped against the wall and took my mask off in one fluid motion.
I felt... exhausted. Really exhausted. Mentally and physically. I guess my escape from Hydra, the motorbike chase and the swimming had taken more out of me than I had thought.
I mean, I guess I hadn't allowed myself the chance to properly process what was in store for me either. Like the fact that I was all the way in Africa. The fact that I had to somehow sneak my way half-way across the world before Hydra caught up to me. Or that on top of all of this... I hadn't seen home in something like a month. Physically, beyond my arm, my eyes were drooping alarmingly quickly, pleading for a proper sleep and not just the mindless unconsciousness of being knocked out, because otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to sleep with the sharp agony in my wrist.
Suffice to say, I was not doing a hundred-percent. I was probably around fifty or forty percent. Maybe less...
The lady looked on with a small frown on her face before she went into another room, probably to get something to help me. Or to alert Hydra. Eh, I could escape out the window before someone got to me, right? I didn't bother to move into a position which would make my escape quicker, I couldn't be bothered.
Maybe that was concerning too but whatever.
While I waited for them to come back, I studied my arm. Yep, it had definitely swelled more, somehow going from twice its normal size to three times. Impressive. The bruises had gone a more mustard yellow around the centre of my injury and had spread further down. The purple bruises had gone halfway down my arm and just past my knuckles. That wasn't good. Hopefully, if she was going to help me, whatever she brings back would help boost my healing factor just enough that it would heal relatively soon. Relatively soon being an optimistic couple of day or a hopeful week.
After a couple of minutes with the sound of shuffling, one crash, what sounded like a swear word and then she finally came back holding a ball of something I recognised instantly as bandages and a bottle. I raised an eyebrow at the bottle, what was any type of liquid going to do for a broken wrist? Maybe it was something superstitious, like how people prayed for people to get better.
"Oku kuya kukulimaza. Kuya kukunceda nangona kunjalo." She said softly before holding her palm out expectantly. I hesitated a moment before extending my arm out for her to grab.
She gave me a quick sympathetic look before she opened the bottle and squirted some warm liquid (that sort of looked like conditioner, except it was green) onto my arm. I watched in nervous confusion, wondering what was supposed to happen. At the very least it wasn't sending my spidey-sense off.
She gave me a long look, studying my face before she slowly reached down and pressed into the gel-like substance and began to spread it. I bit down hard enough to taste blood to suppress the scream that threatened to once again alert anyone nearby to what was happening. I couldn't hold everything back, however, and closed my eyes and whined in pain.
"Uxolo, xola," she murmured, her voice sounding... sorry? At the very least she sounded understanding and empathetic. She continued to rub the green conditioner stuff all along my arm and fingers, all the way up to my elbows. It seemed bizarre, what was it supposed to do? But it felt nice, as it seemed to ease the pain. The warmth helped too, like a heat pack on an aching muscle.
When she seemed satisfied she finally grabbed the roll of bandage, wrapped my arm up similarly as to what I had done with my webs and created a sling so it could sit comfortably. Finally done, she smiled at me before standing back up again.
My face probably looked very confused. I was very confused, even as I was grateful. I mean, without a word she had given me something for my probably broken wrist. And she had all this stuff lying around the house, too...
Was she a doctor or something? Did I get really get that lucky? I mean, my luck was crap. Why did Karma decide that now was the time to help me? It felt suspicious, but I didn't want to question it too much. In case luck decided to turn against me again and whoops turns out they're arresting me or are apart of Hydra or something.
Huh, I wondered if my luck would also allow me to get on a plane courtesy of someone so I got home really quickly.
Actually, that wasn't a bad idea... Not the getting help from someone part, but getting on a plane or a boat. Wait no, it was a pretty obvious choice. I wasn't going to even try and hide on a boat for a couple months or something. That was dumb. But! There would probably be more security at airports that could pick me out and alert Hydra... I would think about it later.
The nice lady had stood up and I could hear the sounds of a kettle boiling. I wondered how I would ask her for some clothes to borrow, since that was the last thing I could reasonably ask of her.
I guess I could point at the clothesline or something. Maybe they had a phone so I could ask for it google translate? If they had a phone. They probably had a phone.
It was weird to think that less than twenty-four hours ago I was wondering how I could sneak out from under Hydra's nose. Less than twenty-four hours I had escaped on a freaking motorbike of all things. So much had happened since escaping that it felt like so long ago. The journey ahead of me was long, but getting from home, to Hydra and then escaping and reaching this moment right here had been just as long too. It was beyond weird to think about.
When she finally did come back in I grabbed her attention by raising my uninjured arm, then I tugged on my costume a couple of times. She frowned, tilting her head a little bit before she seemed to get the idea and went to a nearby desk drawer where she pulled out a large piece of cloth. She chucked it in my direction, it hit me square in the chest, and then the kettle whistled. She left the room again.
I held it out in front of me with my one spare arm and found it to be so large it was dragging on the ground a bit. I guess I was supposed to put it on like a robe? It would hide all of my costume and arm pretty well. So, I wrapped it around myself sort of how I would a scarf, except I left the fabric fall around my body. It did exactly what I thought, covering both my arms more or less even as my arm was still able to peek out. My costume was hidden except for a bit of my neck and my feet.
I tucked a loose corner into the armpits of my injured arm, which effectively kept it in place. Huh, this could work out well. Now as long as I kept quiet and didn't talk, no one would know that I wasn't from around here!
Probably. Hopefully. It was better than nothing.
When she came back in with two mugs, I bit my lip. I didn't want to refuse anything from her, especially after all this kindness they had shown me when they could have just hit me with a broom or something to get rid of me.
But... if they were a part of Hydra (or especially concerned about me too I guess) they could have put something in the drink to make me tired. With my guard down they could give me over to Hydra, or the police or maybe some other scientists who might want to poke and prod at my enhanced body or... I shook my head to clear it and when she passed me one of the mugs I accepted with a small nod.
"Thank you," I murmured, and even if she couldn't understand what I was saying she smiled warmly. I brought it up for a sip, waited a moment for confirmation from my Spider-sense that it wouldn't hurt me, before I had a drink of it. It tasted like tea with honey mixed in it. I hummed appreciatively.
She sat there with me, against the wall, both of us quiet and in the moment, finishing our drinks. Yeah, I never thought I would see this happening in my life but my life was nothing but weird.
I climbed out the window as the sun began to set on my second day of being free of Hydra. I hadn't built up the guts to go out during the day, as the nice lady had proved that she wasn't a threat to me or my safety so I saw no reason to go outside. The longer they didn't find me, the colder my trail went. If I waited for a week or something they would probably be going to different countries in search of me. That would give me the chance to get on a plane and head back home before they even knew it. It seemed smarter and easier for me.
But... I wasn't going to lounge around here. I didn't want to be confined to one room or this house longer than necessary and staying here any longer and accepting her kindness would be selfish.
I had waited until night fell to come out, it was easier to spot someone climbing out a window, crawling up walls and jumping between buildings in the daytime than at night. Shadows were always annoying dead giveaways.
I had allowed this day to be quiet. I had only moved from my position leaning against the wall to lie down on the couch and take a long nap. It had been good for me, it had made me more coherent and rejuvenated. It also sort of felt like the time spent asleep allowed my arm to heal faster but that was probably just wishful thinking. It was probably more because of whatever she had given me.
The couch had been surprisingly comfy anyway.
I was glad for the chance to relax before I properly started trying to go half-way across the world. It had been more than I had hoped or expected for. I had expected to just be a few steps ahead of Hydra, if any, and constantly hiding and avoiding them. The reality so far was them having zero idea if I was even alive.
So when night had settled over the place, leaving everything darker than I was used to, I waved goodbye to the nice lady and climbed out of the window. I had no idea where I was going, except to a hopefully more populated area where I could more easily hide among the crowd. The more people in a place, the fewer people to suspect I wasn't actually a citizen.
So, I had decided to just keep moving further inland, keeping to roofs and shadowy corners to stay hidden. The streets I jumped and passed by were mostly quiet, except for the occasional person walking along the street, and not one of them were aware of my presence as I moved past them. Each time the relief was enough for my knees to feel like jelly... and made my belief in my powers and ability to sneak past Hydra grow.
It felt surprisingly good to be able to get past someone's notice like that, if Hydra had done anything good for me... it was teaching me how to slink around without notice. It helped that the moon wasn't very bright so as long as I jumped above the lights keeping the streets lit, though not bright, there was barely a shadow of me.
It took a couple of hours of running, but the buildings began to get taller, the distance between buildings grew to the point that I had to get a good run up if I didn't want to use my webs and the total width of the buildings grew as well.
Eventually, I slowed down as the sun began to rise, stopping on a particularly tall building that didn't appear to have any access to the top beside from a small hatch. Just in case, I webbed the corners down. My eyes were beginning to droop so I went over to one of the corners, hiding away from the breeze there and settled in to sleep as the sun began to rise