The Black Winter

Chapter 24

Joan's pov
  Once I'm in the computer room, James helps me into a chair next to Natalia.

  "What are you doing here Joan? You should be resting," Natalia says.

  "I'm fine, besides, I'm the best hacker there is," I say with a smirk. I watch as Tony leaves and I can see him pull James out of the room on the computer screen.

  "How are you feeling? You still don't look to well," Natalia says.

  "I'm fine, besides, I've been worse," I tell her with a weak smile.

  As the two of us are typing away, James and Tony still haven't come back yet. I start to get a bad feeling my my stomach. Something's off. I go to grab the gun from under the table and Natalia see's this.

  "Joan, everything ok?" She asks in her normal soft voice.

  "Their not back yet," I tell her.

  "Their probably fighting or something. I'm sure everything's fine."

  I just shake my head. I get up from the chair and make my way to the door. Keeping the gun up and my vision sharp, ready for anything. I open the door and no one is there. Not only that but it's quiet. Too quiet.

  I go to turn and go back over to Natalia. I grab another gun and throw it at her. She catches it and gets up.

  "We need to go," I command, and right on queue the lights shut off.

  As we make our way down the halls, Nat and I scan the area around us. As we turn the corner, we run into Rose.

  "Thank goodness, it's only you guys," she sighs with a hand on her chest. In the other, I spot a gun.

  "What's going on?" Natalia asks.

  "Hydra invaded the tower. Everyone is in the common room, I was on my way to get them out" she explains.

  "How many?" I ask.

  "I don't know. I was going to use my powers," Rose responds.

  "No, don't do that unless you want to get caught too," I tell them. I look up to the vents and Nat and I exchange a glance. We both knew that that was how we were going to get to them. Then, footsteps can be heard from around the corner.

  "We need to go now," I command. I rip the vent from the wall and we all pile in. I watch as the soldiers pass us in a hurry.
"Their trying to find us," I add.

  "No shit," says Rose.

  I turn around and give her a threatening look. It didn't matter though, the only thing that mattered was survival.

  "Come on," I command, crawling through the vents.

  As were crawling, I can feel the sweat dripping off my face. I so badly wanted to pass out. Eventually, we come across the common room and everyone is there. Their all tied up and have their hands bound. Wanda though, not only has her hands tied but also has a power dampening collar.

  We needed to be smart with our play. Then Rose puts her shoulder through the vent and drops down, starting to shoot aimlessly.

  "No!" I yell after her.

  Natalia goes after her and although I should cover their backs, that's not the best move. But then again with my conditions, we'd have a better chance if we fought together. Then, I spot him. Ivan. This was my chance. This was my chance to finish my mission.

  I drop down and gently land. I cock my gun back, putting a bullet in the barrel of the gun. I look Ivan directly in the eyes and I aim the gun to his head.

  "Joan! Help!" Rose yells.

  I turn my head and see that two of the soldiers have her arms. They place a power dampening collar on her and you can see the life drain from her. I redirect my gun to point it at the two soldiers. Two bullets fly through the air, shooting both of them right in between the eyes.

  The two men fall and Rose tries to pull to collar off. I run up to her and grab her by the stomach. I look back to Nat to see that they have already gotten her. I dart out of the room with Rose in my arms. She had definitely gotten heavier than the last time I had picked her up.

  As I'm running away I can hear Ivans voice.

  "Get her! Don't let her escape!" He yells.

  As I sprint away into another room I lock the door behind me and place Rose down, then block the door with random things I can find. Once it's all done, I walk over to Rose and put my hand over her mouth.

  "You listen and you listen good you piece of shit. Because of you, you had just gotten another one of your teammates captured. And because of that, it's now just me." Rose tries to talk but I slam her head against the wall. "Shut the fuck up. You have no clue what you are doing so don't act like you do. You can't fight, you can't shoot, I have no clue how you actually survived through Hydra. But, if you try and take that collar off, your going to electrocute yourself to death. So your going to do exactly as I say since you got us into this mess."

  "This isn't my fault!" She yells.

  "No? Because," I grab her arm and lift the sleeve back. "This is how they found us." I pull out my knife and gab a piece of cloth and stuff it in her mouth. Using the knife I cut open her arm. She tries to scream but thankfully the gag is working. Using my human hand, I dig my figures into her skin and pull out a tracker shaped pill.

  "You see this? This is a tracker. This is your fault, not mine," I growl. "Because of you, we could all die and then they would win. So, I tell you what to do and you listen. Got it?" I say through my teeth. I am pissed. This bitch is the reason on how they found us.

  I stand up and start to look around the room, trying to find a way out of this mess.

  "I can't go back," I hear Rose whimper. I turn around to see her with her legs pulled into her chest. "I can't go back," she says again like a broken record. She's so full of her self, everything is about her. Out of nowhere, I get a wave of nausea wash over me, making me grab onto a table for support. I try to fight it, so I push it down and and focus on something else, the way out.