Chapter 2: Those Old Familiar Feelings
To see how the experiments were effecting them long term, the survivors' health was closely monitored. As the weeks passed, Charlotte tried not to notice the similarities of the medical facility she was currently being kept at and the one she had been held at before. The tests were really what got her. She was being pricked and poked and every little minuscule thing about her scrutinized. The longer it went on, the deeper she buried her head in the sand.
The hours spent not in the medical labs were spent with a therapist. Dr. Johnson, the one in charge of her mental health, repeatedly expressed concern that she needed to open up. To do more than recite the facts of what had happened to her, she needed to talk about what was going on inside of her head. It also worried the good doctor that she had not made any significant connection with any of the other survivors. A couple of the other women had tried to reached out to her, but Charlotte was convinced that if she cracked the lid on her emotions even the slightest bit, she'd never get them contained again. And as far as she could tell the other women weren't coping any better than the she was.
She found herself sitting at in a circle with the others and Dr. Johnson. It was just like any of the of other numerous group therapy meetings they had endured together. Evie, the blonde who seemed to endlessly cry, was across from her. Jasmine, on her right, who had tried to end her life, had a blank expression on her face. Jasmine was on a heavier dose of meds than the rest of them. Not that what Charlotte was taking was anything to shake a stick at. Then there was Mary who was sitting between Dr. Johnson and Evie. Mary was presently expressing herself with a string of curse words that were not even making sense anymore. Evie was sobbing, and not for the first time Charlotte noted that the gorgeous blonde even cried pretty. With a sigh Dr. Johnson called an end to the meeting. It was just as well as far as Charlotte was concerned. She was expected for a checkup in the medical labs anyway.
She shuffled down the hall, avoiding eye contact with anyone she passed just in case they wanted to be friendly and speak. She found the right room, climbed on to the exam table and stripped off the hoodie she was wearing. The medical doctor did not leave her waiting long. It was the same routine checkup that she got once a week. Mostly just checking her vitals, and a few questions about her health. When it was over, the doctor opened the door and waited while Charlotte pulled her hoodie back on over her t-shirt. He told her that everything looked normal and that if anything changed, to let them know immediately. She tuned him out as she followed him out of the exam room. It was the same thing she heard every week.
Shouts caused Charlotte to look up. Through the open doorway of the exam room across the hall, she could see several men were struggling with someone on a hospital bed. They seemed to have been trying to hold someone down. One of the men went flying backwards, and for the briefest of moments she saw a metal fist.
Her heart stopped.
He was here.
The soldier.
Charlotte did not even realize she had started moving toward the commotion until after she was shrugging her doctor off of her. She stopped at the foot of the bed. The doctor tried to pull her away again, but she yanked her arm out of his grasp. The men struggling against the Soldier paid her no attention. The soldier himself continued to fight against the men and took no notice of her. She realized that the men were trying to tie him to the bed, when they used straps to restrain his arm.
The sight of them tying him down struck her as wrong. Her own memories of being tied down like an animal flooded her mind. In the beginning she had screamed and fought against the Hydra doctors and agents, much like he was doing now. Those familiar feelings of fear and hopelessness washed through her. She had not been able to escape, and even when they had broken her and she had begged, no one had helped her. In that moment she could not stand idly by and watch that be done to someone else.
"Don't tie him down!" She shoved at the man closes to her.
She reached for the soldier's wrist, the flesh and blood one, the one the men had managed to secure. She clawed at the straps frantically. Someone grabbed her from behind and started to drag her away, but she kicked back hard enough that they let her go. It took a few tries but she managed to his arm free.
The soldier reached out with his newly freed hand and grabbed a fist full of her hoodie and yanked her close.
"Don't." He snarled at her before forcibly shoving her back.
Charlotte crashed into her medical doctor. She struggled, but the he had a firm hold of her. He dragged her from the room while she screamed for them to leave the soldier be. She continued to fight against the hold he had on her. Out of nowhere she felt a stinging prick, and the world tilted, before she lost consciousness.