Chapter 28
"So what do we do?"
"Long story short, I go into the wall, where I can blow a hole in this wall. Then, you and I climb out, run, and you're free."
I knit my eyebrows together. "I can guarantee that it won't be that easy."
"Probably not," Scott sighed. "But we can try!"
"Wait," I said hesitantly. "I want my stuff."
"Stuff?"
"Yes. I have emotional attachments."
"Seriously, Cara?"
"Yes. I know where SHIELD keeps confiscated stuff at this compound. With you I can be in and out in a minute."
Scott put his hands on his hips and glared at me. "They told me to not let you get me off topic."
"I'm not leaving without my stuff," I snapped, sitting back down on the cot. "And if you're not gonna help me get my stuff, you can leave."
"Cara, please," Scott whined. "I can't have four Avengers pissed at me because I let you make this more complicated than it needed to be."
"Well it's already pretty complicated."
He sighed loudly again. "Fine. You tell me what to do. If you take more than five minutes, we're done and I'm blowing whatever I need to up in order to get you out of here alive. Am I clear?"
I stood up and smiled at him. "Thank you, Scott. It'll be quick, I swear."
"Alright, alright, what do you want me to do?"
"Umm, hold on," I thought for a moment and looked around the cell. "Do you have a piece of paper or anything in that fancy little suit of yours?"
"Yeah, hold on." He unzipped a pocket on his thigh and pulled out a Post-it note and a small pencil.
I took it eagerly, drawing a small box in the upper left hand corner.
"Okay, we're here. You're gonna use your little suit thing to go into the air duct," I drew a line from the box downwards and drew a small circle. "You're gonna reach a grate over a hallway marked sector 3C. Drop down in there, make sure it's clear, then go to the panel on the wall. I'll be waiting by the door, you disarm the security system and I'll be out." I drew another line, this time to the right of the box. "Then we go down this hallway for a few feet and into the room on the left. I go in, get my stuff, and we go out through the fire exit right next to it."
Scott looked down in awe. "How do you know this place so well?"
I shrugged. "When Tony first had it converted into the Avengers Facility I wandered around it for days. I knew it like the back of my hand within a week."
"Impressive."
"Thanks," I nodded. "So, how does your whole suit thing work? Do you like scramble your body's molecules so that they reconvene where you want them to?"
"Uh, sort of," he said, putting his mask back over his face. "I shrink."
"What?"
"I'm getting the forcefield down, be at the door in a minute!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Scott pressed something on the gloves of his suit, and he disappeared before my eyes. I heard a small pinging noise, then the familiar sound of the forcefield being disabled. I ran across the room and up the stairs to the door, my ankle still hurting from the previous night's fall. I crouched next to the door and began counting in my head, waiting for Scott to hold up his end of the bargain. Moments later, the door slid open and light flooded through the doorway. I squinted, looking around for Scott.
"Hey."
"Wha- SHIT DONT DO THAT!"
Scott had returned to his regular size behind me, scaring the living daylights out of me. I glared at him as he smiled, then turned and started towards the room where my things were.
"You've gotta tell me how that works sometime," I muttered as we reached the door.
"It's really quite clever-"
I pressed my finger to my lips and pointed to the lock. Scott fell silent and showed me his palms before pressing down on the small buttons on his thumbs. He shrank down suddenly, landing atop the doorknob. A moment later, there was a quiet click, and the door flew open. I immediately rushed inside.
The storage room's walls were lined with small containers that looked like safety deposit boxes. Each was sealed tight and had a small electronic keypad on the front of it.
"Oh, this is just great. What now?" Scott was back to normal size and giving me an incredibly judgmental look.
I rubbed my thumb and middle finger together, trying to organize my ideas into a coherent plan. He rose his eyebrows at me.
"Well?"
"I don't have time to go through all of them, that would take hours," I muttered, my eyes flicking from box to box. "I know the codes Tony generally uses for stuff, assuming he hasn't changed them, but it could still take a long ass time."
"Hold on, I might be able to help." Scott shoved his hand into one of his suit's pockets and pulled out a stack of small disk-shaped objects. "Here."
I took them, examining them quickly. "What are these?"
"They'll tell you if there's anything in the box. Then you can determine if it's your stuff."
"Thanks. Keep watch?"
Scott nodded in agreement and stepped into the doorway so he could see the hall. I approached the first box and placed one of the disks on it, then pressed the small red button in the center of it. A small image showed up on the disk, like an X-ray of the box. It was empty. I kept moving as quickly as I could, every box being either empty or too full to be my stuff.
"Cara, come on," Scott hissed after a few minutes. "We've gotta move."
"I'm trying!" I snapped, stepping back and scanning the walls for any signal of where my stuff may be. "Jesus Christ, why are there so many of these?! We've never had more than like three people held for questioning at once!"
"Cara-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, speed it up," I muttered and kept looking.
I put detectors on a few more boxes and turned them on. One of them caught my eye and I crouched down so it was at my eye level. I grinned to myself as I realized that the box held my stuff. Hands shaking, I began entering any and every possible four digit passcode that entered my mind.
Tony's birthday. Denied. Mom's birthday. Denied. Dad's birthday. Denied. Pepper's birthday. Denied. My birthday. Denied. The date Tony made his first suit. Denied. The date New York was invaded. Denied. The day Sokovia fell from the sky. Denied.
I grunted loudly and slammed my hand against the wall, my ideas quickly running dry.
"Hey, Cara, I don't mean to rush you," Scott called, sounding panicked. "But we're about to have company."
"What?!"
"We've got security coming our way, is it possible that there's a silent alarm in there?"
"Shit," I hissed. "He probably reprogrammed the alarm to go off if my passwords were entered."
"Okay, I don't care how it happened, we need to get out of here, now!"
"Hold on, I need a screwdriver!"
Scott popped back in the room, looking at me like I was crazy. "I don't have a screwdriver!"
"Well, obviously!" I snapped. "Go hold off whoever is coming, I need five minutes max."
"Bu-"
"Go!"
Scott ran back into the hallway, and I rushed over to the small utility closet at the back of the room. I dug through the shelves until I came across a small toolbox. I opened it quickly, and found the tiny screwdriver almost immediately.
"Hey, Scott, do you happen to know anything about electrical engineering?!" I called loudly, walking back to the safe.
"Uh, yeah, actually."
"Good!"
I took a slight step back and cracked knuckles to prepare myself.
"Cara, what are- HOLY SHIT!"
I cut Scott off by lifting my foot and kicking the safe's keyboard. It immediately fell off, a bundle of wires becoming exposed.
"Alright. What do I do to make this go boom?"
"Boom?"
"BOOM, Scott!" I yelled.
Loud footsteps suddenly sounded from somewhere down the hallway, and Scott disappeared from the doorway.
"Fuck it."
I used the screwdriver to open the blue plastic casing on one of the wires on the safe, then did the same to a red wire coming from the back of the disk scanner.
"Any day now!" Scott's voice carried from the hallway, where I could hear him fighting a number of security guards.
I touched the two wires together and prepared for the worst, but nothing happened. Cursing loudly, I started cutting into more wires and attempting to remember the electrical engineering class I'd taken so long ago. I had taken a green wire and a yellow one and begun to cut them open when there was a loud popping noise, and a bullet ricocheted off the door behind me.
"Cara, let's go!"
"One second!" I touched the two wires together before ducking back, and they almost immediately blew a hole in the safe.
I ran over and yanked the plastic bag out, dumping my things on the floor. My gun was immediately in my hand, Fortis and my phone in my pocket, and my bracelet back around my wrist. I tucked my gun back and pulled out Fortis as I sprinted to the door, where several armed men looked like they were fighting the air.
"What the hell?"
They turned around at the sound of my voice, and I instantly realized my blunder. Something- I assumed Scott- hit three of them in the face suddenly, leaving me with three men to deal with. One of the remaining pointed his gun at my chest, his face serious.
"Put your hands up and drop your weapon!"
I swallowed and tightened my grip on Fortis. "Alright, let's all calm down."
"I said put your weapon down!" He yelled again and fired his gun, the bullet whizzing past my head.
"Or not."
I launched forward, smacking Fortis against the back of one man's knees, knocking him to the floor. Another brought his elbow down on my back, and I quickly grabbed it and flipped him onto the ground. I had turned to handle the final guard when he kicked my hand, and Fortis was knocked out of my hand. I ducked and tried to reach for it, but he grabbed my shoulders and slammed me against the wall. My head hit the wall hard, and for a second, everything seemed like it was spinning. I tried reaching back for my gun, but my movements were sluggish, and he easily stopped me.
Before I could do anything, he was punching my face, and the world spun even faster. I felt my lip split open and blood drip down my chin as my head lolled to the side.
"Hey, asshole!"
The guard turned his head, and I saw a tiny fleck hit him in the face. He fell to the ground, knocked out cold. Scott grew back to his normal size as I struggled to stand, and he quickly rushed over to help me.
"Hey, are you okay? You got hit pretty hard," he asked, holding me up.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I muttered, pushing him away and grabbing Fortis from the ground. "We need to get out of here."
I walked towards the exit as fast as I could, and tried to open the door as I reached it. It didn't budge. I slammed my hand against the door in anger and kept walking.
"Where are we going?"
"There's another exit around here somewhere, come on."
A loud alarm suddenly erupted, and both of us clapped our hands over our ears to protect them from exploding.
"Goddammit!" I yelled, "Scott, we've gotta move!"
We began sprinting down the hallway, the alarm seeming to get louder and louder. Every time we turned a corner it seemed there were people there. People that wanted to kill us.
"Jesus, it's like the fucking Breakfast Club," Scott whispered as we scrambled around another corner.
"Shut up," I hissed. "Here, this way."
We rounded a few more corners, and I felt relieved when I realized there was an exit at the end of the hallway we were in.
"Split up! If you hear or see anything, you yell. Do not let her escape!" Reid's voice echoed down from a hallway to our right and I instantly felt panicked again.
Scott and I ran forward and flattened ourselves against the wall as best we could. A string of expletives repeated over and over in my mind, and I prayed that whoever came down our hallway didn't look to their right. Quiet footsteps moved closer and closer to us, and soon Joanna was standing less than fifty yards away from us. I slipped Fortis out of my sleeve, not at all wanting to use it. I held my breath as she turned her head from side to side. Suddenly, her gaze met mine.
Joanna's eyes widened, and I stared at her pleadingly.
"Joanna," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "Please, don't. I'm begging you."
I could practically hear Scott thinking about what an imbecile I was. Joanna stared at me for a few moments, then took a step back.
"Please," I breathed.
"They're not down here!" She yelled suddenly, "I saw them go the other way!"
I exhaled loudly as she looked at us expectantly.
Thank you, I mouthed, and pushed Scott towards the door. I ran after him and out the door, getting away from the building as fast as I could. Scott led the way, seemingly headed for the woods. I suddenly stopped in my tracks, something dawning on me.
"Cara! What the hell?!"
I dug my phone and my gun out of my pockets, and quickly threw my phone into the air. I cocked my gun and shot the phone right through the center. It fell to the ground and I picked it back up before chucking it in the opposite direction. Scott called my name again, and I sprinted back to catch up with him.
"Come on," he grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the right as we got deeper into the forest.
After what felt like hours we stopped, and I was immediately gasping to catch my breath. Not working out for almost a week when I'd been in top shape since I was seventeen took a greater toll on me than I thought it would. My legs burned and my lungs and throat felt like I'd just chugged an entire bottle of Fireball. Scott started walking forward again, and I groaned loudly.
"Cara, keep going, we're almost there," he encouraged me.
I flipped him off, but kept walking. "Fuck you, Scott."
I saw him smile slightly as we approached a small road. It was pitch black, and I could barely see ten feet in front of me. Suddenly, two headlights appeared, and Scott ran towards them. A black pickup truck followed the lights. It's stopped, and the passenger side door opened.
"Cara, Scott, come on!"
I looked up to see Steve standing in front of the truck, and eagerly ran towards him. By this time, my vision was becoming even blurrier, there was still blood all over my face, and my ankle felt like someone was trying to rip it off of my body. I almost collapsed as I reached my best friend, and he quickly caught me.
My thoughts were instantly all about Bucky. I knew I was damn close to passing out, and I needed to see him. I needed him to be holding me up instead of Steve. I needed to know that he was here, and safe, and with me. If I saw him, if I had him near me, everything would be okay.
"Where is he?" I mumbled, my eyes darting around the forest.
I could see Sam in the drivers seat, looking concerned. Scott had climbed into the passenger seat of the truck, and was staring at Steve and I through the windshield. But the only person I wanted to see was nowhere to be found.
"Steve, where is he?"
Steve hesitated and moved me towards the car. "He's not here."
"What do you mean he isn't here?" I cried, pulling away from him.
"Cara, calm down, it's okay. We couldn't bring him so close to the compound, it's not safe to have all of us in one spot that's so vulnerable," he said calmly. "Once we have a secure location, Clint and Wanda will bring him, okay? But we need to get out of here, now. So you need to focus on staying awake for me. Can you do that?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded slowly. He exhaled quietly and helped me towards and into the truck. The second Steve closed the door, Sam hit the gas, and we sped away from the compound.
I sat there in silence, staring straight ahead and trying to gather my thoughts. Tears welled in my eyes and slowly rolled down my face. Steve put his hand on my shoulder softly.
"Hey, are you okay?"
I took a shaky breath and turned so he wouldn't see me crying over my boyfriend like some stupid teenager.
"Cara, you've been through a lot, you don't have to act like you don't have emotions," he whispered.
I shut my eyes and ran my hands through my hair. A broken sob escaped from my mouth and I buried my face in my hands.
"I miss him."