First Light | Steve Rogers (Book Two)

Chapter Thirty-Two: Rush

"I think I know where we are," Coulson said as he looked out of a tiny window at the cold water on the other side, "In the fifties, the Soviets built top-secret submarine refuelling stations under oil-drilling platforms. This might be one"

"You can tell from the one fish we've seen, or did you learn that in a SHIELD briefing?" May scoffed.

He shrugged quietly, "Neither. I know that from being a history teacher, I was kind of a Cold War buff. Can't believe I'm seeing this with his own eyes"

I examined one of the strange Framework helmets and sighed heavily, "You almost make it sound like it's good news"

"Not a lot of help here," May called as she searched through the medical supplies, "We have saline, all the B12 we could ever need... Epinephrine. Emergency dose"

"That's too dangerous" Steve huffed as he made his way over to her.

She ignored him and pulled out a small vial, "Might give me enough adrenaline to take on some terminators"

He looked to me for help, "No way. If anyone's fighting these guys, it's me"

"I got out unscathed, Jeffrey didn't. He should be in here with us, still in the fight. I need to take one for the team" she argued.

"You'll be useless afterwards, unconscious or unresponsive"

The woman shrugged, "We all have first aid training. Besides, you'll be there to help... if I need that"

The door slid open and we all took our stance, waiting for the robots to attack. I did my best to ignore every compassionate instinct that came from the other person inside me. Lashing out at one of the robots, I hit him with as many vicious blows as I could, using him as a way to take out my anger.

He growled angrily, lifting me up from the ground and dropping me down again, making me gasp as I tried to catch my breath. I rolled to the side as his fist collided with the ground, hitting him with a few shots from my blaster.

Steve took out the one that had been fighting him, watching in shock as it fell to the floor. I dodged another blow from the one fighting me, yanking on his collar to pull him down to the ground with me. 

I snatched a stray sheet of metal from the floor as I flipped the robot and I over, bringing it down on his neck with all the strength I had. It took a few blows and a lot of blood until he was finally unconscious.

We watched May warily as she repeatedly brought a hammer down on the robot's head, twisting his neck right round until it made a sickening crack. She staggered backwards, falling to the ground in an exhausted heap.

Steve frowned as he helped me up from the ground, giving me a worried look as I stumbled a little. "It makes no sense," he huffed, "If they wanted us dead, they would have flooded the place. They were stalling"

The four of us walked through the corridor, glancing around anxiously. Coulson was carrying May, and Steve was scouting out the place a little way ahead, stumbling a few times as he did. He was still shaken from what had happened, we all were.

My head felt full, like someone had crammed it full of cotton wool and cymbals. Every tiny sound seemed to cause me pain and each movement seemed groggy and reluctant. There was a battle going on in my mind, two conflicting sides furiously fighting for control. One part of me just wanted everything to be normal again, to have my life back, to fight my way out. The other part of me wanted to go back to my quiet life, to be with my wife and my daughter, to be happy.

There was a bang and a plume of water suddenly crashed into us with full force, knocking us off of our feet. I gasped, trying to wipe away the water that had gone into my eyes as I struggled to get up. Steve hit the ground next to me, holding me down before a another spout of water could hit me in the face. "We gotta get to the surface!" Coulson yelled over the rushing sound of ice cold water pouring into the room.

"We can't leave Mack!" May yelled angrily.

"You'll drown down here. I'll get you up top, then I'll come back for him"

We began to wade towards one of the doors, desperately trying to escape before the water levels got any higher.

Sirens blared and pipes hissed, barely able to contain the rising pressure of the water that was rapidly coursing through them. There was a series of violent shudders, causing us to stagger to the side. I could feel myself growing weaker and weaker as we fled, unable to cope with the stress for much longer.

The lift creaked slightly as we came to the top, gasping as we emerged into the sunlight. My legs finally gave way again and I felt Steve lift me into his arms. There was another shudder just as we boarded the containment module. We both collapsed in the corner, panting as we tried to calm ourselves down.

We held onto a handle on the wall, clinging on to each other as the containment module began to rise into the air.

——————

"You sure you wanna leave now?" Coulson asked gently. Steve and I were stood by the exit, small bags slung over our shoulders as we said our goodbyes.

Steve nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Yeah. We're supposed to be fugitives, it wouldn't be fair to expect you to hide us again. We've got our stuff, we've got a car... we're ready"

There was a moment of silence and I threw my arms around him. Both of us tensed up and I frowned, not entirely sure why I did that. "Thank you, Coulson," I murmured, "Thank you for everything"

"No problem"

"And next time you decide to come back from the dead, drop us a memo. That wasn't fun"

He nodded and we turned to the others with sad smiles. Fitz had been tranquilised and locked up until they could deal with him and Aida, and Mack was still in the Framework.

I sighed quietly, "Take care of Mack, okay? And try not to judge him too harshly, he's staying there for his daughter. Some of us weren't lucky enough to get a choice"

Steve tensed up a little, but finally nodded to them all as we turned to leave, "Stay out of trouble, okay? Give us a sign if you need us"