I'm Here | ✓

03 - Ambush

What am I going to do here by myself?

I wasn't used to having this much free time. I didn't know what to do. For a while, I just stared out the window over the city, until I realized Stark probably had face-scanning technology that could be roaming the streets right now. I backed away and started anxiously fiddling with my knife, watching the minutes on Steve's clock move so slowly. I didn't know how to work any of his technology, and I was never a fan of reading for fun despite all the books in his bedroom. Eventually, I decided to do my best to relax on the couch and try to regain some of the sleep I had missed the night before. I peel off the hoodie and yank down the sleeves on a long-sleeved shirt before settling in.

Footsteps.

My eyes shot open. I'm on my feet in an instant, scanning the room, remembering where I hid that knife in the middle of the night yesterday. It's taped under the table. I creep over to it.

Silence.

Then there's a voice, but it's quiet and gravely. It's a radio. It's right outside Steve's door.

Shit. I rip the knife out from under the table and sprint over the window over the sink, throwing it open. I instantly spot a man on the opposite roof with a rifle pointed straight at me. I slam it shut and duck behind the wall.

I try the other window on the opposite wall. There's someone there too.

The radio in the hallway gets louder, and there's a whispered normal voice that responds to it. The door's not an option, not anymore.

I glance between the windows. Both have snipers. The second is larger and has a balcony within reach. I shatter it with my left arm and wait for a moment, listening to my breathing and my heart pounding and the glass tinkling to the floor. Someone yells on the radio in the hallway, and I heard a pounding at the door. It's now or never.

I take a few steps back and launch myself out the window.

The balcony was closer than I thought. I practically double over the rusted metal bars and nearly slide right off, but my metal arm catches me. I push off the balcony to land on a small fire exit on Steve's apartment building and start racing down those stairs. It's only four stories, but I pause as I glance down and spot at least six more agents with guns advancing up from the ground level. "Fuck," I whisper, and jump to the other building. I use the metal rail as a rope like I did in Romania to bust through a set of doors and straight into someone else's apartment.

I race straight through. No one is home, thankfully, and I use my metal arm as a battering ram to tear down their entrance door. I smash into the opposite wall, cracking it, but I sprint down the hallway instead.

Steve, where are you?

I'm not out of the woods yet. I find a staircase and run down that. I hear screaming and gruff commands on the floor above me. The agents, they're here.

Conflict is waiting for me in the lobby.

I slide to a stop as four agents point their guns at me. I'm breathing hard.

"I don't want to hurt you. I'm not the Winter Soldier anymore," I hiss.

Someone cocks their gun.

"Please. I'm just looking for a place to stay."

There's pounding footsteps on the stairwell behind me, only a floor or two above. The agents here don't look like they're backing down at all, and I know as soon as the other ones get here, I'll be arrested. That's not happening; not today.

"Fair enough."

I launch myself at them, and the bullets fly.

Adrenaline pumps through my body and I relish the feeling, channeling that power into strength and strategy. I curl my metal arm around my head protectively. I fling a spinning right hook that catches someone right in the temple. I twist the gun out of his hands, firing a single shot without looking. There is a grunt and I glance around, spotting another guard raising his gun to fire. I duck. The bullets implant themselves in the wall behind me and I propel forward without waiting for my ears to stop ringing. The agent lets out a final shriek that I silence efficiently.