Chapter 1: Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Forest

Laughter exploded in the living room of the small student apartment in a little town called Maple City. There were three of us in the apartment, all sitting in the living room and laughing our heads off. Analise, Michelle, and I were all spread out with Michelle on one couch, Analise on the other, and me on the floor. It was mid-January, and a blustery wind blew outside. The laughter in the living room was warm and friendly, something I had missed out on the previous semester of school. Our laughter soon settled down into small chuckles, then sighs of relief from the stretched pain in our ribs. My two new roommates looked around at each other, then at me, waiting for me to go on with the story I was telling.

"What did you do next?" Michelle asked, prodding for me to continue.

"Well, I said that we couldn't make his copies in the Production Lab. If he had a problem with that, then he could go upstairs and talk to Shirley or Shelly. He didn't believe me, but he never did come back!" I shrugged and giggled again.

We all laughed hysterically at the antics of some super privileged student who I had denied access to my job's copier earlier in the day. He had wanted to copy his math notes for everyone in class, but since it had nothing to do with the Education Program, he couldn't use it. As our laughter settled down, I yawned and glanced at the clock in the kitchen to check the time. It was getting late into the night, and I realized that it was time for me to get ready for bed.

I was an early riser, something my anxiety and depression was using to slowly destroy my sanity. I kept that struggle to myself though because I didn't want my new roommates to worry about me or see me as a potential source of unneeded drama. I stood up and stretched, putting an end to our current conversation.

"I'm headed off to bed. I have to go to the gym in the morning." I told my two new friends who both nodded and muttered how they too had classes and whatnot early in the morning. I knew they wouldn't go to bed just yet. I usually went first, then Michelle, and at some point, Analise would find herself up in her room.

I gave them my goodnights and headed upstairs to my bedroom. It was strange to have an upstairs bedroom in this apartment. For as long as I had lived in student housing, I always had the private bedroom and bathroom downstairs, just beyond the kitchen and dining room. That had all changed abruptly thanks to the events of the previous fall semester. In truth, I had started in a totally different apartment building, with three different girls as roommates. I had roomed with two of the year before, and the third was a friend of theirs from back home in the northern part of the state. Everything had started out just fine, but feelings and sentiments soon decayed and turned to dust as the semester went on.

I started having extremely bad anxiety at the end of my third year of college. It had subsided a little during the summer but had come back with a vengeance this year. Every day I was in a constant state of panic, convinced that something bad was going to happen to ruin my life and reputation. My heart was beating heavily and out of control, I was jumpy, and quick to irritation, and the new roommate saw it all. She jumped at the chance to try and micromanage me, but I wasn't having it. For one thing, she was two years younger than me, and I had been at the University longer than she had. With every situation my panic worsened and then punched me down into a deep depression. Luckily, the man who owned my apartment building owned two more just across the street from me. I worked up the courage and called to ask to be moved to a different apartment. I sought out Michelle and Analise to see if I could move in with them, since I already knew them from church.

Michelle and Analise had been so kind as to say yes, and I was extremely happy. It was a good turn of events, since the landlord had wanted me to live in another apartment with two girls from Korea. It would have been a new adventure, but I could only think that I would have been incredibly lonely, which was something I desperately needed to avoid after all the turmoil in my life. Also, I had actually known Michelle for years since we went to the same church since I was a freshman. As soon as finals week came, a group of my friends and my grandparents helped me to move my things over, and I started my new path to healing.

I thought about all of this as I headed up to my room, furrowing my brow as I thought more and more. It seemed like I was taking a long time to heal and move on from what had happened in my previous apartment. I was still having horrible panic attacks that lasted every waking moment, school seemed to just get more and more stressful, and the previous weekend, I had had my first ever suicidal thought. It was that moment that I sought out help from the counseling center at my university. Even though the sessions were helping me to find ways to destress and be happy, I still felt deeply troubled. I felt so off of my original life "path" that I couldn't see how I could go back to what I ultimately wanted to be: an English teacher. The dream was slipping away from me, and all I could see was dark trouble brewing on the horizon.

I sighed as I closed the door to my room and looked around it. The room seemed large, only because I was the only occupant in it. There usually were two people in each upstairs bedrooms, but Michelle, Analise, and I had all opted for private contracts, giving us our own space. There were a few posters and pictures on my walls, a small desk and shelves set into the farthest wall near the window, and two closets (one full of clothes, the other with household items that were mine, but were not needed). I had made it feel like home for myself by adding in the final touches of Marvel Comics collectibles and memorabilia.

My love for Marvel comics seemed to be the only thing in my life right now that brought any sort of stability. The evidence of it was strewn around my room in posters, hand-drawn pictures, and household items. Some of my greatest possessions were the stacks of Captain America comics one of my older brothers had given me for Christmas, and my life-sized Captain America shield I had received from a friend freshman year. My favorite hero was obviously Captain America; I had been obsessed with him since I was in high school, and with each passing year my love for the character grew.

In the last couple of years Marvel had released movies to build its Marvel Cinematic Universe, making each and every hero come alive on the big screen. It all started with Iron Man, and soon that movie was followed by The Hulk, Thor, and most recently: Captain America: The First Avenger. I had waited so long for that movie to come out! When it finally reached theaters, I had gone to see it in the theaters with my twin sister and a friend, and even carried along my life-sized shield too. Then, not too long ago, the movie had come out on DVD, and I rushed to snatch up a copy for myself and watch it repeatedly. During this whole roommate issue, it felt like Cap was there, helping me along, and thinking about that made me happy.

I smiled at one of the Captain America plushies I had on my bed, and then quickly changed into my pajamas: an oversized university shirt and long black basketball shorts. My socks were bright blue and stood out against the drab brown carpet of my room. I picked up the Captain America plushie on my bed and looked at it. It had been one of the last gifts my twin sister had given to me before leaving for Tuscon, Arizona, to serve an LDS mission. I loved it dearly, and I gave it a quick hug, hoping that somehow my sister would feel it miles away.

'Why am I so messed up?' I asked myself then.

My twenty-four-hour panic attacks were making it so I couldn't think straight at any time of the day. Every time one of my supervisors talked to me, I thought I was going to get fired, or that they would tell me that I was expelled from Maple State University for some random thing I didn't do. My heart sank as my mind listed all of these things, and I realized that my whole personality seemed to be collapsing in on itself.

Where was the eternal optimist that I used to be? The person who could smile and bubble up with enthusiasm over anything? Where was my happy exterior that supposedly matched the equally happy interior? It felt like that part of me was slowly disappearing, and all that was left behind was this anxious shell of myself.

I pushed these thoughts into the furthest part of my mind as I finished getting ready for bed. I took my bevy of medication, brushed my hair and teeth, and took out my contacts. I then laid in bed for five minutes, laying on my side and staring blankly at the wall in front of me. I held onto the Captain America plushie tightly, hoping that perhaps my twin could feel it like a hug in Arizona.

I shuffled myself to turn on my other side, facing my Marvel-styled bedroom once more. My eyes started to close as sleep started to overcome me. I blinked my eyes slowly, breathing deeply despite the constant thudding of my panicked heart. After one particularly long blink, I could have sworn I had seen a man in the corner of my room, looking at me with a soft, sad smile and bright, white eyes. Another blink, and he was gone. I must have convinced myself that it was nothing but my strange imagination, because the strange vision didn't scare me. It was almost like a sort of lucid dream, and I let it slip from my mind as I soon fell asleep.

XXXX

It was bright in my room. I could see it even with my eyes still closed from sleep. I smiled to myself and stretched comfortably. It was a bright day, and maybe that meant that today would be a good day for me. Wait a minute… My mind sputtered and scratched like a record. Bright? It can't be bright!

I sat up with a gasp and desperately tried to locate my alarm clock or cell phone, anything really to tell me that it was not past six o'clock in the morning like I feared. My eyes adjusted to the brightness, and I realized that I wasn't in my bedroom. In fact, I wasn't in my room, my apartment, or any place recognizable. I was laying on a bed of soft moss surrounded by a grove of tightly packed trees. The air smelled fresh with vegetation and dirt, and the soft light from the sun above filtered through the leaves of the trees. If I had to guess, it could have been easily early morning, approaching mid-morning.

I started to breathe quickly, gasping in short and unmeasured breaths. I whipped my head around several times, looking around at the trees and leaves as I gripped the moss I was sitting on. Where was I?!

"Okay, okay," I said out loud to myself. "My name is Maddie Davis, I am twenty-one years old, I go to school in Maple City, I live in an apartment with Michelle and Analise." I patted myself down as I said this, making sure that I was still as solid as when I went to bed. I was relieved to find myself still in my pajamas and could see them and the trees around me clearly.

"Wait a second," I reached up and gently felt around my eyes as I mumbled to myself. How was I seeing so clearly without my contact lenses? Without them, I was completely blind, and the trees and scenery around me should have been a blurred mess of greens and browns.

My panic was at an all-time high. My labored breathing was causing my asthma to rise, and I had difficulty getting air. I gulped several times and looked around. The only thing that seemed certain to me was that I was not in my apartment. And that was painfully obvious, and I had to stop myself from sarcastically cackling out loud. It worried me, though, because on my list of problems in my life now, I totally could have slept walk out of my apartment.

I used to sleepwalk all the time when I was younger. I would roam the house, rummage through closets, and even wake up outside now and again. I discovered that music helped me to alleviate that, and so I listened to music every night as I slept. Sometimes, I had breakout moments where I thought I had slept walk, and when I lived with my grandparents, apparently, I did, though I never woke up from them. With all my current problems, my sleepwalking issue could have resurfaced, but it was still concerning. How could I have gone unnoticed in a small t own like Maple City? And how could I somehow walk myself up into the mountains?

"This doesn't look like Maple Mountain," I muttered as I swiveled my head around once more, making small observations. There was hardly any red in the soil, a titular element in Maple City thanks to the iron the county was named after. The trees also didn't look like the stubby shrubs or aspens the mountain had.

The trees around me were tall and smelled strongly of pine. Dotted along the trees were flowers I had never seen before, and the lofty bed of moss I had awaken on. It all seemed to strange and unfamiliar, and seeing that made fear prick up once more inside my heart. I was still seated on the bed of moss, and brought my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them to hug myself tightly. Where was I?

In my panic, my eyes swept around the eerie clearing and immediately spotted a small path leading up the hill. I took a deep breath and shakily stood up. It seemed that the only option I had of being found was to follow the path. I looked down at my feet and saw that I was still in my bright blue socks. If this had been a dream, I would have for sure been wearing shoes, or there would be a pair somewhere close to me. I bit my lip and looked up the path once more, noting how rocky it was, and the roots that snaked through it here and there.

It was an obvious choice, and if I wanted to answer the questions, I had about what was going on, I was going to have to get out of the clearing.

Gingerly, I began walking the path. I stumbled over a lot of stones and roots, wincing every time I stepped on a particularly sharp rock. My feet soon began to throb from the pain, but I forced myself to trudge on. When I reached the top of the hill, my feet were practically numb, and I was taking deep, raspy breaths. I turned and gazed back down into the clearing I had started from as I tried to catch my breath.

I had climbed a rather large and steep hill, based on how far away the clearing was. I could see a little circle of bright green from the sun shining down on the moss. Around it and me the forest was densely packed with trees and looked to be the only clearing in the area, which seemed strange. The mystery of how I had even ended up in that specific clearing burned constantly in the back of my mind.

Keep going, I told myself as I got up from the rock I had been sitting on.

I walked for most of the day. The humidity around me was high; the air seemed to stick to me and drag me down the longer I walked. I wondered if a storm was approaching but continued plodding on. Thankfully the area had stopped being hilly, and the path was mostly flat. Despite this though, it felt like I was walking forever, and I would continue in that way until I inevitably passed out.

I was about to rest for the sixth time when I thought I could hear faint voices somewhere ahead of me. I squinted through the trees and foliage and could barely make out a break of an opening in the dense forest.

"Oh my god, yes!" I muttered as I hobbled a little faster.

By now I could see tears and spots of blood on my socks, evidence that I had been walking on unstable ground for a long time. Despite that, my feet only throbbed in pain just a little as I stumbled onward. As I reached the opening in the path, my foot caught a lone tree branch and sent me sprawling to my knees out in the open. I cried out a little at the pain in my knees and clutched my chest as I gasped for air.

There was a yell of surprise ahead of me, but I kept my eyes closed as I panted and gasped for air. I looked up once my breath felt steady and smiled slightly. Standing a little way off from the path were two men in dark uniforms. They stood by an open topped Jeep that had its doors open, and both extremely looked surprise. Both of the men had sparkling blue eyes and blond hair and looked like they were twins. It was obvious that one was younger though, because of his slight and delicate facial features. The other man had a hardened look to him, one I didn't like all too much.

The younger man immediately walked towards me while the more serious, older man remained by the jeep, glaring at me with cold intensity.

"Please help me." I rasped, clutching at the man's arm as he came and knelt beside me.

He looked startled and turned to his companion, who stared back at him sternly, though now with a curious light in his eyes. They began speaking to each other in rapid German, and my mouth fell open in surprise. I watched them as they spoke and felt heavy under the confusion building up inside me. They began to argue, glancing over at me once in a while. After a long pause, the younger man (who I still held onto tightly) turned back to me.

"You are, American?" He asked slowly in accented English. I could only nod, dumbfounded. "And what is your name?"

"Maddie," I whispered, wondering why in the world I was even talking to this man. "Wh-Where am I?"

"You are in Austria." He replied. "My name is Conrad, and that is my brother Barnard." Conrad motioned to Barnard, who seemed suddenly bored with what was happening in front of him. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest, and he leaned back against the jeep.

"Austria?" I snapped my attention back to Conrad who nodded and waited. I stared at him with wide eyes, bouncing back between staring at him and Barnard. I could see that he was getting a little impatient as he pushed away from the jeep and stepped a little closer to me and Conrad.

Barnard snapped something in German, making Conrad turn to look back at him. Conrad replied back, and Barnard continued on angrily. I watched the heated exchange as my panic raced on inside me. (Let's be honest here, the moral of the story was that I was constantly panic, but now I was feeling down right terrified.)

I looked more closely at their uniforms, closely scrutinizing them for any familiarity. There was some; they both wore the same dark uniforms with silver trimmings to the buttons and latches, and their black boots gleamed brightly, as if they had never been worn before. I could see a patch on Conrad's left arm surrounded by a black band. The image on the band was hard to make out, but the color of it was dark red, like blood.

"You need to come with us, Maddie." Conrad said, standing up. He turned and I instantly got a clear view of the image plastered within the band on his arm. It was a patch with a red skull and tentacles that fanned out around it. My heart felt like it stopped the moment I saw it and recognized it. I wanted to run and throw up, but I remained on my knees, rooted to the ground.

"No way," I mumbled, snapping myself out of the haze and trying to get to my feet. I stumbled backwards and cried out in pain. My feet throbbed painfully; the pain sent me back to my knees, and tears came to my eyes.

"What is wrong?" Conrad asked, concerned.

"That's a Hydra patch," I choked out. I pointed to his arm, and he glanced down at the patch in wonder.

"You know about Hydra?" Conrad's brow knitted into an expression of confusion, and Barnard snapped at him in German. Conrad nodded hurriedly. "You must come with us." He said firmly as he reached down to help me back up to my feet. I slapped his hands away and shook my head furiously.

"No way! Hydra is bad! What's going on?" I snapped at him, sounding a little manic.

What the crap was going on? Were these two men in cosplay? Or was I somewhere where Hydra existed? No, Hydra wasn't real, it couldn't be. It was a main villain group in Marvel Comics, and the main antagonist organization in Captain America: The First Avenger. Mad confusion raged within me as I fought back against Conrad who looked genuinely concerned for me.

'I was thinking about Captain America before I fell asleep,' I thought to myself as I tried to rationalize the situation. 'So, mow I'm dreaming about it!'

I was still fighting with Conrad when Barnard must have had enough of our antics. He suddenly pushed past his brother, glaring as he stooped down and picked me up effortlessly from the ground.

"Put me down!" I struggled against his grip and flinched at the pain in my feet whenever they came in contact with him.

I was helpless as he carried me to the jeep and pushed me to the middle seat, beside Conrad who had scrambled to get to the vehicle to prevent me from escaping. Barnard got in beside me on the driver's side, and I was trapped between the two brothers. The jeep started up without any sort of problem, and it started to drive down the dirt road away from the path I had come from.

I was in meltdown panic mode now. I was trembling and muttered to myself, watching the trees as they whizzed by us, my blood running cold. What was happening? Why was I in Austria? Why was their Hydra? The questions bombarded my mind into numbness, and every time I moved in any way, Conrad would gently push me back into the seat. Was he afraid that I would try to jump out of the speeding vehicle? He looked about as uncomfortable as I felt; he shot Barnard anxious looks as we continued down the road. All the while I couldn't believe what was happening to me.

This couldn't be a dream. It felt all too real; the air blasting my face as the jeep drove on, the pain in my feet as they throbbed in rhythm with each other. A small part of me still clung to the idea of this being a dream. I told myself that sometimes I had hyper realistic dreams, and my stress had caused the one I was having now. Another part of me, though, knew with a sinking feeling that that wasn't true.

If this was real, why was I in a place that Hydra existed? And, if there was Hydra here, did that mean that there was Captain America too? Was I somehow in the movie, trapped in 1940s Austria in World War II? I couldn't keep my thoughts straight as I struggled to figure out what exactly was happening.

The one question that nagged me though, making my stomach twist into knots, was:

Who are these men taking me to?