Winter's Ghost
Chapter 5
Don't ever stop running, or fighting, or doing whatever the fuck you have to do to reach your goal. If you quit, and you're still alive, you failed. Never forget that. Dora remembered her fathers words to her as she ran behind the truck, trying to catch up with it and jump onto the back. It was going pretty fast, faster than the speed limit, the driver probably had a schedule to keep and was running out of time. Either way, it was gonna be tough to get on there without them seeing her. She got a yard closer, and another yard closer. She was now about six feet away from the back of the truck, a couple more feet and she'd be able to grab onto the back. Paying close attention even though it was starting to get darker outside, she pushed herself harder and made it close enough so her hands could latch onto the sidebar on the back of the vehicle. Lifting the rest of her body quickly her boots almost slipped off of the tiny ledge, ripping her grip on the truck, but she held on as tightly as she could until the car stopped lurching so much. Now to find the way of getting inside. There was a latch on the doors, it looked pretty difficult to open but she could probably do it, if she was careful enough. Reaching out, but still not letting go of her position on the handle, she grabbed the latch and pulled it towards her, the door closest to her swinging out and almost knocking her off of the truck. She jumped onto it, clinging closely as it swung back towards its original position and flung her into the truck itself.
Mission accomplished.
The door swayed slightly behind her, but it wasn't making a whole lot of noise, or even seeming to cause a distraction for the driver so Dora left it alone as she rose to her feet slowly, making sure to try and keep her balance as the vehicle swayed and jerked back and forth. Looking around at the boxes inside of here, it took her eyes a moment to adjust, but once they did, she staggered backwards in shock and alarm. Red labels were pasted all over the boxes and crates, warning that they were radioactive, deadly, not to touch them, and, most terrifying of all, the skull with the octopus body was painted onto every single one of them.
This was HYDRA property. These were full of some kind of chemical, a poison perhaps, and wherever they were taking it, they meant no good. This truck had to be stopped, and someone very important had to be contacted. But then Dora remembered that she was a fugitive. She couldn't just— call the police and tell them that there was a truck full of highly dangerous material being carted around to who knows where, owned by a terrorist organization that she'd once been a part of. They were looking for her, and she wasn't stupid enough to walk into that.
No, she would have to deal with this herself.
Sinking to her knees in disbelief and trying not to panic, she tried to pull her thoughts together, not letting her excitement get the better of her. She had to get control of the vehicle, and get it away from civilization. Taking out the driver was the first step, and then she'd think about it from there. There was a way to get out of everything. There was a way to get out of this, too. Climbing back out of the truck and holding onto the side as best as she could, slowly Dora was able to scoot her way towards where the driver was, more quickly as she got more sure of herself. The driver, an older overweight man wasn't paying attention and didn't see her until she was right at his open window, at which point she punched him, but he wasn't that easy to knock out. The look of panic on his face told Dora exactly what was about to happen, he couldn't risk her stopping him, he couldn't risk being caught. And he couldn't risk her being alive after seeing his face associated with the contents of this truck. Before she could grab her gun and kill him, he quickly veered off the road towards a steep drop off, the truck bumping over the grass and tumbling down, rolling over and over again. It all happened so quickly that Dora wasn't able to let go and jump off, she ended up sandwiched between the car and the ground as it kept keeling headlong towards the river at the bottom of the slope. Finally, the heavily damaged vehicle ceased to plunge downwards and hit the ground hard before silently stopping. Fortunately, Dora was able to slip out from underneath it fairly easily, even though she was badly hurt from the fall. The driver had accomplished his goal, the man was definitely dead, his head bashed in and blood flowing down onto the windshield. Dora stumbled towards the back of the truck, noticing some of the crates had fallen out. This wasn't good, they were probably spilling whatever was inside and it would start to affect people in the area. She grabbed one of the boxes, a sharp pain in her ribs stabbing her lungs and stealing her breath from her.
Fuck.
Doing the best she could she loaded the boxes back into the truck. That was when she finally noticed the hissing noise, only because it was getting louder. It sounded like a cross between a snake an a machine, Dora assumed it was the engine of the truck. And— it was about to blow up. Diving behind a big tree, she crossed her fingers and prayed this was not how she would go out.
The ground shook as a deafening crack ripped through the air. The tree Dora had fled to for protection toppled down. She lay paralyzed on the leafy carpet, not able to move, not able to breathe as the ashes began to fall onto her, flames burning into her face. They didn't hurt, funny thing. For the last time she thought of Bucky, and hoped he was okay. This was the end.
Goodbye, world.