Golden Widow #1: Awakening

1

WHITE. That's all I could see. Endless white. Harsh, numbing winds slapping me in the face with flakes of snow as I pushed my way through the biting blizzards, shrouded in a huge puffer jacket. I could barely hear the men around me, shouting to be heard over the blistering, screaming wind.

My name's Isabelle. Isabelle Rogers. Yeah, younger sister of the famous Captain America. And I bet you're wondering, how is she still alive, being born in the mid 30s, the Great Depression? Well, that's for you to find out.

I could feel my lips change from pink to blue, snowflakes embedding themselves in my eyelashes, weighing them down so dramatically I could barely see anything at all. My arms subconsciously wrap around my freezing body, rubbing furiously at each other as my teeth chattered to breaking point.

The only light that could meet my eyes was the red one being held a foot away from my face, being carried haphazardly by the man battling the weather beside me. "Watch where you're pointing that thing." I grumbled, though he couldn't hear me. From the corner of my eye, I could see him raise an arm and wave it wildly in the air, and my eyes snapped to right in front of me. Bright white lights shone from the dark sky, almost blinding us, heading straight for us. My hand automatically lifted to shield my eyes as the source slowed down, its engines barely audible over the howling blizzard.

The trucks stopped a few metres short of us, the lights still glaring at us like opal cat eyes. Both doors struggled to open as two men tried to get out, the wind slamming them shut for them as they waddled towards us. I could feel my facial muscles struggle not to smirk at the sight, despite the numbing cold. "Are you the guys from Washington?" Daniels yelled from beside me, earning an eye roll from me.

"You get many other visitors out here?" One of the men joked, bundled up in fur-trimmed snow gear, as his friend finally decided to join us, moving a lot slower than the first guy. It was so dark from the snow, that I couldn't make out many of their features.

"Well, Agent Rogers arrived earlier, from S.H.I.E.L.D. Its quite the discovery." Daniels replied, rotating his head to look at me. My eyes are drawn to the setting sun as my lips lifted into an irresistible smile.

"Yes, well, Fury did tell you to alert me if you found anything." I clarified, before turning back to face them.

"How long have you been on-site?" The other man asked, as we began to walk away from the vehicles, trudging through thick snow that stuck to our boots, heading towards something we couldn't see.

"Since this morning." Daniels called, desperately holding onto his thick hood as the wind threatened to blow it clean off his coat. "Rogers arrived two hours ago." He added, nudging me with his stick-free arm.

"Three." I found myself muttering under my breath. "You just ignored me for the first."

"A Russian oil team called it in about 18 hours ago." Daniels continued, oblivious to my correction.

"How come nobody spotted it before?" The second man shouted over the wind, snowflakes sticking like spider's web on his unshaven stubble.

"It's really not that surprising." I replied, as Daniels opened his mouth to respond. The others looked at me with raised eyebrows, which made me subsequently exhale in annoyance. "This landscape's changing all the time. I thought everyone knew that."

"Right," The first man replied, as my eyes were drawn back to the setting sun. It was breathtaking. An orb of gold still visible in the sky, despite everything above us being shrouded in charcoal grey clouds, still bright enough for us to comfortably see without burning through our eyes. "You two got any idea what this thing is exactly?"

"I don't know." The second man responded before any words could lift off my tongue. "It's probably a weather balloon."

"You wouldn't have called me out here if you thought that it was a weather balloon." I pointed out, looking at Daniels out of the corner of my eye.