Before We Fall

Chapter 5

I tugged up the zipper of my dress as I walked out of my tent the next morning. I finished tugging it up as I met up with Coronel Phillips and my father.

"You're not really thinking about picking Rogers, are ya?" Phillips asked my father. My father glanced back at me then turned back to Phillips.

"Wasn't just thinking about it. He is the clear choice, just like my daughter told you last night." He reminded the Coronel.

"You brought a 90 pound asthmatic onto my army base, I'll let it slide. I thought what the hell. Get some use out of him, like a gerbil. Never thought you'd pick him." Coronel told me.

"He was my choice, since he signed up. The reason you will not pick him because you don't want to be wrong about this. But trust me, we are not wrong, Coronel." I stated.

"Up. Jumping jacks." Peggy's voice reached my ears as we got closer to the squad. Coronel shook his head at me, brushing off my comment.

"Stick a needle in that kid's arm, it'll go right through him." Coronel pointed out how skinny Rogers' arms were. I looked at him as he struggled to do jumping jacks. I leaned up against a truck filled with grenades. Fake ones of course. "Look at that. He's making me cry."

"I am looking for qualities beyond the physical." My father reminded him. I tuned them out as I watched Steve. The way he moved, so differently from the others. The way his face scrunched up in exhaustion.

"Then throw me a bone. Hodge passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast. He obeys orders, he's a soldier." Phillips pointed out Hodge.

"We're just not looking for a soldier." I stated to him. My jaw tightening.

"He's a bully." Seems like my father did read my notes about Hodge. The Coronel turned to him.

"You don't win wars with niceness." He said to my father. I turned around and picked up a grenade and held it out to them.

"Shall we test my theory about Rogers, Coronel?" I asked him. He looked at the grenade and took it from my hands. He pulled the string and held the trigger.

"You win wars with guts." He told me. He tossed the grenade into the middle of the squad. "GRENADE!"

Everyone scattered but Rogers and Peggy. Steve ran over to the grenade and laid down on it, curling up his body around it. I smirked as I realized I was right all along.

"Get away!" Steve yelled at Peggy as she tried to get closer. "Get back!"

I watched as he waited for it to exploded. Waiting for his painless death. But it never happened. He un-tensed and uncurled his body. He sat up on his hands and I smiled at him. He looked straight at me.

"Is this a test?" He asked me. I raised my eyebrow, turning to Phillips.

"Proved my theory right, Coronel." I shoved it so hard in his face. He slightly glared down at me and huffed in defeat.

"He's still skinny." I looked away from his retreating back and to Steve. I smiled at him before walking away with my father. He took my arm and wrapped it around his, holding my hand.

"Thank you." I frowned at him.

"About what?" I asked him.

"For showing your heart again after..." He tapped my hand. "Your mother would have been proud for the woman you have become. And for that, I am thankful for being able to witness it."

I hugged my father. I hugged him tightly, trying to consume his pain.

"I'll make him regret what he did to my mother. I will make him feel the pain we felt. I promise you that I will not stop, until he remembers and feels what he did to us when he took her." I whispered into his ear. He pulled away from me and looked into my eyes.

"I don't expect any less of you." He told me.

"How about this one?" I asked my father as I pulled the bottle out of the box. "I got for you from Germany a year ago. I'm surprised you haven't drunk it."

"Oh yes. I remember when you gave it to me. I was saving it for something special." My father told me.

"Well I guess we'll just have to use it." I said.

I held the bottle as my father knocked on the door, slightly opening it.

"May I?" My father asked.

"Yeah." I heard Steve say. My father pushed open the door and we walked in. Soft music reached my ears.

"Can't sleep?"

"Got the jitters, I guess." Steve said as he walked me move past him and sit down on the bed across from him.

"Haha, me too." My father sat down, in front of him. Steve placed his book down next to him and leaned slightly forward.

"Can I ask you a question?" He said.

"Just one?" My father replied. I leaned against the wall, watching both my father and Steve.

"Why me?" Steve asked him.

"I suppose that is the only question that matters." My father took the bottle from my hands and showed it to Steve.

"Ms. Riley got this from Alsburg. My city. So many people forget that the first country Nazis invaded was their own. You know, after the last, my people struggled. They felt weak, small. Then Hitler comes along, marching. The show of the flags. He hears of me, of my work, he finds me. And he says, "You." He says, "You are strong."" My father began his story.

"Well I am not interested. So he sends a head of Hydra, of his research division. A brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt. Now Schmidt is a man of the inner circle and his ambushes. He and Hitler share a passion for core power and atomic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers, but for Schmidt, no fantasy. With him, it is real."

"He has come convinced there is a great power hidden in the Earth, left here by the gods. Waiting to be creased by a superior man. So he hears about my formula and what it can do, he can not resist. Schmidt must become that superior man." My father finished.

"Did it make him stronger?" Steve questioned.

"Yes, but there were other effects. The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. You see, the serum amplifies everything in the inside. So good becomes great, bad becomes worst. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man, knowns value of strength and knowns compassion."

"Thanks, I think." Steve replied. He smiled slightly and I smiled because of it. My father fanned his hand to the glasses and Steve held one out to me. I took it and he held out the other two. My father filled them up half way.

"Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are, not a perfect soldier. But a good man." My father tapped his chest, over his heart.

"To the little guys." Steve raised his glass and we clicked the together. I raised my glass to my lips and looked over at Steve. I jumped at him as he raised his glass to his lips.

"No, no. Wait." I took Steve's glass from his hands. "What are you doing? You have a procedure tomorrow, no fluids." I poured the drink into my father's glass.

"Huh, alright. We'll drink it after." Steve said, looking at my glass which was raised to my lips.

"No, we don't have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after? Drink it now." My father said. I smiled but it was hidden behind my raised glass. I finished my drink and stood up. Steve's eyes shoot to me. I set my glass down on the window seal and bid them both goodnight before returning to my tent.