TALES FROM FALLEN WARRIORS ─ marvel

IV. I Failed Them

Chapter Four
Julian

Erica Oxton has been here for four days, and every day it's worse than the last. The second day she was here, she tased Soroya so much that Soroya passed out. The third day, after Soroya refused to kill another prisoner, she was beaten with the baton so hard that it will take a while to heal even with her regenerative healing. And today, Soroya told Oxton that she would never obey her command, and Oxton got so pissed she didn't even use the baton, she got a whip and did the job that way.

Training is over for today, Soroya is asleep in her bed, bandages covering every square inch of her back, whimpers of pain escaping her lips whenever she moves even a centimeter. I stand there in the doorway of her cell just staring at her, wishing more than anything that I could fix this, that I could take her pain away. Her words to me Oxton's first day here have been rattling around my head incessantly, that Oxton won't stand for her not obeying orders, that Oxton will kill her eventually. I didn't want to except it before, but she's right. Oxton will kill her. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday.

And I won't stand for it.

I have told myself several times that one day I'll help Soroya escape and I'll take her and Ana away from this place. Away from HYDRA, away from their pain and struggles. I promised myself that they would be free. I just thought that I would have more time to make a plan of escape, a plan for our future together, the three of us, but I don't have time. Any day now Oxton could lose it and get too aggressive with her baton or whip, she could kill Soroya without even meaning to.

I have to act now.

But I have to be smart about this. I can't go home and get supplies and then come back, that would look suspicious. I can't just set Soroya free here, there are too many guards and Oxton could appear at any moment. I can't escape with Soroya through the front entrance, I'll have to take a back one. I know there's on on this floor, just around two corners, it's where supply trucks deliver packages. I have to take Oxton out and the guards leading towards that exit, then hopefully Soroya and I can steal one of the supply trucks and then pick up Ana.

It's not a full proof plan, but it's all I've got right now.

I don't have a weapon on me, but there's one on the guard standing near Soroya's cell. I exit her cell and mumble to the guard that I'll be back with medication for Soroya, and the guard nods. I return from the medical bay moments later with a syringe needle filled with morphine. I move towards the cell, acting like I'm about to enter inside, but at the last second, I stab the guard in the neck, plunging the morphine inside him. The guard stares at me in horror, then after I punch him in the throat, he falls over, choking, holding his neck, his eyes widening as the morphine begins to work its way into his blood stream. After a moment he collapses onto the ground, never to get back up again.

I don't waste a single second. I grab the gun off of his belt and run down the hall, shooting any guard I set eyes on. By the time I make it my office, I've shot down four guards, five including the one I shoot in order to enter the office. In all my years at HYDRA, I've never taken a life myself. I've been the mastermind behind experiments that took lives, assisted others in experiments that did the same, but I've never had blood directly on my hands before. Unlike the deaths I've caused in the past, I don't feel any remorse over the guards I've taken out, and I certainly won't feel remorse when I kill Erica Oxton.

She's sitting at my desk, writing some notes on a clipboard when I walk inside, my gun aimed at her head. She drops her pen, folding her hands on her lap under the desk as looks up at me, no fear, no shock, nothing in her eyes or expression.

"Is she really worth it? Is she worth throwing away your career, your future?" Her voice is hollow, cold as usual.

"HYDRA has already condemned my soul," I reply. "I won't let it condemn hers."