The Seventh Avenger

Chapter 1: Life After

        EDITED: 23/12/2021

To be out of the facility for the first time in months – to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, the strain of the sunlight stinging my eyes, the freezing snow crunching between my feet and taste the fresh air on my tongue – feels too surreal for me. No longer do I find myself surrounded by dull, grey walls that reek of blood, tears and pain, or enemies that wish to only inflict pain on me in the worst ways possible. The freedom that I have been denied since I was first taken by this mysterious group is finally within my reach, yet my brain can't seem to fully comprehend this yet.

I'm free. I'm free.

I can finally go home.

Violent coughs rack my body as the air surrounding Clint and I fills with the smoke left from the explosion. They're violent enough to cause my body to jerk against the ground, which is painful enough as it is. The experiments that I have been forced to endure daily in the facility has left lingering, aching effects on my body, and I can't help but think that they will remain long after I return home.

With the pain comes exhaustion, the adrenaline that had vigorously pumped through my veins during our escape dispersing into nothingness now that there were no signs of imminent danger. I take my time to draw in long breaths once my coughing has died down and try to relax for the first time in months, but it appears that Clint has other ideas.

"C'mon," he coughs, before slowly pulling himself up from the ground. The back of his uniform is white with snow, and his face is flushed from the sudden chill in the air, but he looks more determined than he ever has before.

"There's a chopper waiting for us about five miles out from here. We gotta go."

I don't immediately jump at his words, choosing to close my crystal blue orbs and pretend that he hadn't said anything. Surely we can spare just a few more moments. Just a few...

The snow and dirt beneath his feet crunch as Clint moves to stand beside me, and his towering presence causes a shadow to cast over my closed lids. Letting out a barely audible sigh, I blink my eyes open once more to meet his firm yet understanding gaze as he stares down at me. While I would like a few moments to catch my breath, it seems that my uncle has other ideas.

"I know you're tired, Lyd, but you have to get up and keep going for just a little longer, OK? We don't want to be here if someone comes back to check the wreckage."

And just like that, fear grips me in a tight vice once more. The last thing that I want is to be found and dragged to some new facility or shot dead where I lay when I was so close to going home with Clint, so I pull myself up to my feet, flinging out a hand as to steady myself and keep me from tumbling over and onto the ground once more. Clint offers a helping hand, but I only wave it away, determined to stand on my own.

He shoots me an encouraging smile once I give a small nod of my head. "Alright. Let's go."

Despite our eagerness to get as far away from the remains of the building as possible, Clint doesn't push me to go at a pace that is uncomfortable. I still slip and curse more times than I can count and the exhaustion continues to weigh me down, but welcoming promises of safety and whispers of encouragement from Clint who never strays from beside me is enough to keep me going. He always grabs me before I can trip and land on my face, and I thank him each time he does it. For several minutes we move along, though once the remains of the facility are long behind us, I feel the need to remark, "This doesn't look like Greece."

Clint snorts. "We're just outside of Annecy, France. We, uh, we didn't think to look here. But whoever these guys are, they got a bit sloppy with covering their tracks. We found a trail that lead us right to you."