Came for the Low- Revised

Untitled Part 14

DAY 18: FREE

Tear stained and terrified, lost but unwilling to admit it to herself, Christine walked in the shadows of a city she did not know.

They'd been here for weeks but she'd spent most of her time in the refugee camp. Now what was she supposed to do?

The police had come with no warning and so quickly, she didn't even have a chance to save them—the little brothers Otto and James, her friends Alva and Dasha— Hiro. She shut her eyes trying to block the vivid memory of his face. There were so many people for her to worry over and all of them gone!

The sign had said the camp was harboring a known terrorist group and they'd been taken away. What that really meant for them, she was too frightened to say.

What it meant for her was pure uncertainty.

To her unending shame she realized it was not just the loss of the refugees that had broken her heart.

Zemo was a liar. He'd been using her all along.

She walked through an empty market place with her arms wrapped tight around herself wishing she had her thicker jacket, but it, like everything else she owned was inside the camp that she could not go back to.

Thankfully it was early morning, meaning she had all day to find her way to the train station before dark.

All she wanted was to get away from everything—the serum that never was, the Flag Smashers who she thought she knew, and him, who she thought she could trust.

With a shiver Christine shut her eyes. She could still feel the way he'd snaked his arm through both of hers from behind, holding her like a hostage with a knife to her throat. The quickness and threat of violence had stunned her for a moment, but mostly it just woke her up— snapped her out of the spell he had her under— but not before shaming her in front of the smashers.

She would never forget the way they looked at her as Zemo backed out of the room with his leverage held tight and too surprised to fight back.

Everyone knew. They could all tell that something was happening between them. She'd enjoyed her shifts watching the prisoner a little too much. And of course there was the time Hiro saw her curled up at the end of the dilapidated couch while Zemo read the book she'd found to her. That confrontation had not gone well.

Luckily, as he pulled her along, none of them had tried to fight the man for fear he might hurt her. Instead they just followed at a distance encouraging Zemo to let her go, but he'd held her close, walking her down the back steps of the building until they stepped out into the back courtyard where he finally shoved her away and into Dovich's arms.

And then Helmut Zemo was gone; slipping into the alley behind the compound before she could even turn to see him go, just as they ran out of time.

Even now she could hear the wailing of the sirens...

"Leave her! We have to go!" One of the other smashers shouted on his way back inside to evade the police. The others had already run off to deal with the pressing chaos breaking out in the compound, leaving only Dovich, and with Karli off hunting down super heroes, they really were on their own.

Christine would never forget the look on Dovich's face when she stepped away.

"I can't go with you." She'd confessed.

"What?" He'd looked horrified and glanced back over his shoulder, nervous as the threat neared. "Chris, we're a family! We look out for one another."