Immortal

Part 1 - The Escape

Being in and out of cryostasis was never any fun; it messed with my head and muddled my memories even further than it did the time before or the time before or the… you get the picture.  The last time they woke me up and injected me with some bastardised mix of Dr Erskine's serum, something went wrong. There was a glitch during my programming and the machine electrocuted me.  I woke up confused, my arm was no longer just surgically attached to me but almost soldered into my skin; melted together with a greater sense of feeling. Strangest of all was that I had flashes of memories; not just missions but of people and places. I still didn't know who I was though; I never had a name only designations - The Asset. The Winter Soldier. Soldat.

The lab I had been in was completely ruined.  Fires were still burning though the internal systems had put most of it out.  Bodies of scientists and military lay dead - just charred flesh and material all trying to get out the exit which had been purposefully closed and sealed to protect the rest of the compound.  

It took me a short moment to put together the scene around me and figure whoever was alive probably thought I was dead, otherwise I would have been taken with them.  I was valuable to HYDRA and they wouldn't have just left me - or this was all a test and they were watching me. I sit up and hold my head as what seem like a thousand dreams merge together and want to make their voices all heard at the same time.  Only these aren't dreams; these are flashes of memories I don't remember making, missions and people.

I'm not supposed to remember.

Standing was painful but manageable and if I wanted to get out of here I couldn't crawl; I'd have to run.  Glass and metal crunched under my boots but someone had cleared me a path as best they could before succumbing to fumes and heat at the bottom of a ladder.

A quiet voice whispered to me and I turned to see a slightly raised hand moving, beckoning me over. It ached to move and everything felt like lead as I made my way towards the half dead scientist.

“Get out. Up the ladder and into the ducts…. Follow the direction of the air; they lead to the rooftop.”   The voice was strained and barely above a whisper.

“They'll track me.” I answer bluntly.

“They can't, not any more.” The scientist smiles before pointing towards the ladder. “Quickly… I'll keep your secret safe.”  He closes his eyes and carefully measures his breaths.

I nod and stagger towards the ladder catching a reflection of myself; there were no cuts, no burns, no bruises. All previous scars that had littered my torso had healed and disappeared.  My arm, that only moments ago seemed angry and sore at the join was now a neet meshing of flesh and metal. It was easier for me to stand upright, to walk, to move. I wasn't achy or in pain anymore, my back didn't feel stiff.  I didn't have time to question what was happening though because I could hear voices from outside the blast doors. I heard the voices of military men and women loud and clear as if they were next to me in the lab.

The ladder required me to jump eight feet to catch the bottom rung.  It was easier than I thought it would be and I seemed to spring up higher.  I climbed up and hid myself out of sight as the door seal was broken, before quickly climbing into one of the many air ducts and silently army crawling in the direction of fresh air while the voices in the room below yelled and panicked that I had disappeared.  After a few more seconds there was an explosion and then silence; the scientist had kept his promise to me.

The ducts were like a labyrinth of box metal and I had to backtrack more than once to find the right direction to go.  Whenever I could I'd check through vents into rooms; there was tension in each of them the further out from the lab I got.  Anyone without the highest clearance simply knew that 'something’ had happened and though the sirens weren’t sounding outside zone two the ducts I was using to aid my escape were also carrying the sound through the building.  There was no hiding that something was wrong and word was beginning to filter through that 'The Asset’ was missing.

I came to a vertical climb and looked up, seeing nothing but darkness.  After a few moments I could pick out stars and then a haze of cloud would cover them. Thirty-five feet separated me from the outside world and my next mission; escaping the HYDRA compound and finding my way to somewhere safe.

The climb up the duct vent was easy now I wasn't in any pain and pushing out the grate that covered the end was almost as if it had been set up for me; there were no screws, no nuts, no bolts.  I was beginning to think that this had been planned for me but the explosions hadn't been. The roof was empty and silent but I was fully aware of the various guard towers that would know I was missing and needed to be found; I was hoping they'd believe me dead or they would never stop looking for me.  I put the vent cover back in place and stuck to the darkest areas of the roof; it looked like much of the power had been knocked out by the explosion and the emergency generator would only keep the most important systems online. Who needs to waste power on flood lighting when there's night vision and infrared equipped into their goggles?

Navigating my way down ladders and the occasional cracked wall didn't take me long but planning my route out was going to take a little more time.  I could hear radio chatter about me; parts of my flesh has been discovered and a couple of metal plates from my arm leading them to believe I was, at the very least, heavily injured and hemorrhaging blood.

It took me three passes around the compound to spot the breached wire fence and my way out.  The area wasn't guarded so I don't think anyone knew there was a small section missing; around it were some large wooden crates and a derelict truck all I had to do was make sure I wasn't seen as I made my way over.

More radio chatter from a guard tower; I couldn't hear it all but I did get two important words - '....Suspected deceased’.  Whether it was about me I don't know, but while they were distracted I took my chance and silently made my way to my next hiding spot.  Once I was sure nobody had seen me I slipped through the fence and into the surrounding woods where I found a pathway of sorts - as if someone had carefully been pushing down stalks and plants to create a makeshift throughway.  There didn't look to be any other way through so I took my chances and stepped through, staying low down and as out of sight as I could be.

It was feeling more and more like most of this had been engineered to free me but I still suspected it was all a trap or elaborate test to fool me.

Further away from the compound the stalks were less flattened but still led me towards a large hold-all bag that held clean clothing and an electronic information pad that needed an access code to unlock.  I quickly changed and searched the way for anything else of use; coming up empty I followed my way along a single line of flattened greenery to a highway and my freedom.