Chapter Seven: Under the Surface
Hello everyone, well, to the readers, this chapter is totally new and everything in this chapter should primarily be new information but the next chapter is where the real info will be coming out. Be sure to follow, favorite, and comment on this story
Everything is dark with one sole spotlight in the rooms center, I watch from the sideline as the sound of a heavy metal door swings open. Footsteps sound and out from the dark steps a man. A woman with dark brown hair and gray eyes and sits under the rooms spotlight, seated at metal table, the only furniture occupying the room, her hands cuffed to the tables legs.
I can only see the side of the man's face, he seems cold, distant, almost like a machine. The woman keeps her eyes away from his, not daring to meet his cold blue eyed stair. I don't blame her, neither would I. Fear chills through every bone and vein in my body but I keep a plain face as the man pulls the chair across from her back before sitting down in it, scooting closer.
"Hello, long time no see," the main begins, his voice void of everything one would normally hear in someone's voice. Emotions, motives, clues, tells, all of it gone and left with this cold, unfeeling tone giving nothing away.
She doesn't respond, just looks down at the floor so he continues as if she had.
"You know why we're brought you here, I am working on a project that could change the world as we know it. HYDRA has given me a chance to complete my work and all I have to do is complete Ruark's... project," he pauses, covering her hand with his own. She fights against the restraints, trying to get his hand off of hers.
"W-what p-project...?" she looks up at him, her voice wavering.
He grins. "Remember the Black Widow?"
Slowly she nods, as if recalling so distant memory that she would much rather forget. "What about her?"
"Apparently she's never heard of birth control or safe sex and has left the Red Room, and HYDRA a farewell gift. She gave birth to a child, a daughter who has been adopted by a KGB worker and Ruark has convinced them to allow her to be 'borrowed' for mission for HYDRA and in exchange we make her much more dangerous than the Black Widow, who she'll be trained to kill."
She glares at him, the muscles in her jaw bunching together, she's gritting her teeth. "And what so you need me for, I no longer work for HYDRA not after what you did to..."
"I know what we did, he was a distraction. It had to be done, you are one of our best biologists but that isn't what you're here for. I have something else in mind, something much more useful than your skills in the biological field."
She swallows, blinks a few times, and ignores the sweat that trails down her forehead. "And what p-purpose could it possibly be? I left HYDRA on good terms, I-I never told anyone about you or Ruark. I kept the terms of my agreement to the leader when I retired."
He shakes his head. "You're the test subject Rye," he replies, getting to his feet and pulls something from his pocket. Jamming his arm forward I see the flash of metal from a needle as he presses the tip into Rye's arm. She scream out, fighting against the restraints and trying to distance herself away from the man and his needle but she can't escape, and even if she did, there's nowhere to go.
Rye stills, her fighting gone and just when everything seems fine, all hell breaks loose.
"Aaah!" she screams, her voice so loud and high pitched that pain rattles through my ears. She shakes like she's having a seizure, her head bobs back and forth as her eyes rolls to the back of her head. White foam bubbles up from her throat, spilling from her mouth and falls on the floor with more foam oozing out from her, never waning as her body continues to quake.
My hands clamp to my mouth to keep from crying out in fear, horror, and shock. Her skin slowly changes from a creamy, healthy tan to an offset and sickly shade of green. Her eyes are still rolled back in her head but when she finally gets them back in place the land on me and her eyes connect with mine and I can sense it, her fear. "Argh, aah!"
Her eyes roll again as her back arches up from the chair she is before dark crimson red blood pools from her ears and that's when it stops. Her body goes limp, falling from the chair lifeless, her arms still bound to the leg of the table. The man clicks his tongue, head shaking solemnly as if her death was not done by his own hands but some creature and he'd only stumbled onto the remains and was disappointed she hadn't protected herself well enough.
"Tsk-Tsk, another serum, another dead body. Guards!" he yells, then waits as the door opens and four guards enter the room, not even glancing at the woman's lifeless body on the ground. "Dispose of this body, if you need me I'll be back in the lab continuing to fix the kink in the Black Mamba serum. Keep Vanya under lock and key, you know her wandering spirit."
"Sir, about that... Ruark just called from floor A, Vanya is no longer in her room, she's escaped," one of the guards tell the man.
"Go find her, she couldn't have gotten far and once you have, put her in the Pit and maybe she'll learn to obey orders, once you do get rid of this course before it starts to rot and stick up the testing room."
"Yes sir," the shout, hands raising to their head in a salute before dropping again. The guards dressed in black thunder from the rooms spotlight and into the shadows off to look for me. Just as I am ready to back up, hiding myself further into the darkness the man turns, Atticus Rothwell looks into the darkness before I feel his eyes shift to me, my location.
"There you are Vanya, always leaving worry in your wake. How long have you been hidden up there?" he takes a step towards me, I take another step back. "It's alright to speak child, I have no intention of hurting you. Why do you think she," he motions to the woman lying dead beside him. "Was used as a test subject? To make sure this serum is safe and sacrifices must be made in the name of science."
"You..." I narrow my eyes, fear clouding my judgement. "Y-you killed her! In cold blood, s-she never did anything but you... You killed her!"
"This is why children should be kept in the dark, you're young mind isn't capable of understanding what this serum when perfected could do, it will change the game and with your help and this serum, HYDRA will prevail. Perhaps a week in the Pit will change your mind," he reaches for his pocket and pulls out a small plastic, rectangular device and aims it at me.
He presses his thumb on the button and my body freezes up like I grabbed an electric fence, it's like a live wire. "I-I will never, ever help HYDRA for-for something like this, d-death and destruction, yo-you will pay. All of you!" I shout.
Atticus steps forward, a sharp blade swinging out of the small device as he places the tip to my shoulder. "Time for you to learn your place," he jams the knife into my shoulder and pain erupts, filling every aspect of my life, situation, thoughts. My body feels as though its on fire. Leaning down he whispers into my ear. "Hail HYDRA..."
My eyes fall closed but my voice rings through my own head, tone urgent, serious. Under the stairs...
"No!" I shout, bolting up in a bed surrounded in almost compete darkness with the exception of the small ray of light from the artificial moon in the odd underground safe house. Looking around I remember what happened, I'm on the run from the KGB with Bucky Barnes AKA the Winter Soldier. My hearts pounds in my chest and I'm covered in cold sweats.
"Are you okay?" a voice asks from the doorway.
Glancing up I notice Bucky leaning against the door frame, metal arm reflecting the light from the window. Taking a deep breath I run my hands over my face then shake my head before responding.
"Yeah, just a nightmare" but in all honestly, I'm not and what I saw wasn't a nightmare, that happened, I-I know it did and whatever information is 'under the stairs' whatever that means and I have a feeling if that whatever is under the staircase will give me the information I've desperately been craving and I'm damn sure going to find it.