Love and War

Hero

The bullet grazed my arm. I winced. I looked to see who called my name it was Joh Filch.
He laid on the ground holding his leg. a HYDRA agent was boring down on him.
"Rogers just leave him!" Ryan Maze yelled. I sighed and gritted my teeth. I hated John Filch especially cause he's the reason Bucky was still trapped but I couldn't leave him to HYDRA.
I raised my gun and fired it at the HYDRA agent. And well I missed.
"Shoot." I muttered. I fired again this time just in the nick of time. I ran and helped Filch up I ran with him his arm around my shoulder.
By the time we were in the clear my adrenaline was gone. I felt sick and weak again. I dropped John by the base of a tree. Anger still managed to boil inside me.
"I should kill you right now." I spat at John.
"You're the reason he's still back there! If Bucky is dead I blame you!" I raised my gun.
John didn't seem fazed. "Go ahead shoot." He said miserably.
I hesitated. In a blind rage I fired the gun. But I hit the tree just above his head.
"I thought you were gonna kill me." John breathed. I threw my gun in the dirt.
"So did I." I snarled. I helped him clean his leg then I wrapped it for him.
"We'll make camp here tonight." I said, "tomorrow were going back to camp and getting whoever is left and then we're saving the rest of our men."
"Hold on we are not going back there." Quincy said.
"I'll go back and save the rest of the men myself then if I have to." I spat.
"Cowards." I muttered. I sat at the bank of the creek enjoying the fresh cool air that I hadn't felt in months.
"Um thank you." I looked over to see John Filch sitting next to me.
"You're welcome." I mumbled.
"Why'd you do it? I mean I've been awful to you." John asked.
"It was the right thing to do besides I want to kill you myself." I said shrugging.
John spread his arms in surrender. "Well here's your chance."
"I'm not going to."
"I'm sorry. Especially since you saved me."
"Water under the bridge." I mumbled.
"You know why I'm like this? It's cause I'm bitter. It's cause of my brother. He was retarded. Had anger issues. He wanted to be a dancer. But my father was dead set against it. He said it was gay and he wanted my brother to go to the army like every other man in my entire family. My brother refused and one night he came home and said he'd gotten into a dance school. My father was ashamed so he gave the school my brothers mental health records and sabotaged his chances. My brother found out and came home with a gun and killed my mother cause she tried to stop him and he killed my father and then himself." John explained. "I've never been the same since."
I had a sudden sympathy for him. "I'm so sorry." I said.
"It's okay, my past gives me no reason to treat you the way I did. You're a hell of a soldier actually and so is uh Sergeant Barnes."
"Thanks."
"Are we good?" John asked hopefully.
"I suppose I'll restrain myself from killing you." I said.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
My sleep that night was awful. I was haunted by nightmares of Bucky getting killed in any way possible. I woke up in a cold sweat. Quincy and Ryan were shaking me awake.
I was shaking.
"Rogers you've gotta shut up or you'll give away our location."
"Shut up?" I asked.
"You were screaming." Quincy clarified.
I started freaking out. I was scared for Bucky. I rocked back and forth crying.
Mumbling his name.
"What's wrong with her?" Ryan asked. I heard him but I could only half comprehend the conversation.
"I don't know but if she's leading us like that we should leave her. Let's go." Quincy said.
"What? No!" John protested.
"Don't you hate her?" Ryan asked.
"I was being stupid and didn't you guys worship her? She saved our lives we can't just leave her." John protested further.
"We can't save two cripples and besides if she's like that she will only slow us down after all it's not like we're losing anyone important." Quincy reasoned.
"Katie was right you two are cowards. You pick who you think is the strongest and you hide behind them and as soon as they have a low you leave them to die." John spat.
"Since when are you the good man?" Ryan demands.
"If you two want to go get lost go get lost." John spat back. He knelt next to me.
"Hey, Katie you okay?" He asked, "it'll be okay we'll get Barnes back." John put an arm around me. I snapped out of my break down.
"What?" I asked. I stood. "Never mind let's get moving I know who to go to." I said.
"Who?" Quincy asked.
"The Captain America guy. I heard Schmidt cursing about him so I'm guessing he's a good ally."
   I began to trudge through the dark, quiet, and sickly peaceful forest.
  "Do you even have a plan?" Ryan complained.
   "Bits and pieces." I muttered looking around for a path. I settled on a narrow one leading Northeast.
   "How much of a plan?"
  "About 12%." I replied picking my way carefully.
  Quincy scoffed, "that ain't a plan."
   "If you must know I thought this out: get back to base, find Captain America, have him help us and gather more troops to save the rest of the 107th."
  "That's a plan." John said.
  I smiled triumphantly, "see?"
  "Great but who the hell is Captain America?" Ryan asked. I bit my lip he caught me there. I wasn't really sure.
  "His name is Captain America, pretty sure he's a friendly." I said.
  Ryan kicked the dirt, "great." He muttered.
  "Well you got something better?" I asked stepping over a large rock.
  "Seriously we need a leader who isn't insane and only concerned with saving her pretty boy." Quincy added.
My blood boiled. How ungrateful could these men be? I was tired, sick, cold, bruised, and scared, I was not about to stand for this crap.
I whirled around stopping in my tracks to face them. "Looks like we've all shown our true colors." I spat.
  "Turns out Filch is the better man here and you two are cowardly vermin. You two worshipped me back at camp, I thought you were my friends. But when things get rough you cowards back away as to not get your hands dirty. I'm not going to lead cowards and half wits back to that camp, I'm going to lead soldiers. You two might not have known what you signed up for so I'll tell you. War, that's it. And another thing there will be no more criticism of Sergeant Barnes! He's twice the man as you two and you better watch it cause he still has authority over you and when we get him back he can still make you run a crapload of laps! Understood!"
  Ryan and Quincy looked intimidated which was a good sign. "Yes ma'am." They both managed to whimper.
  "Great." I said, "let's get moving."