Project Alpha

Chapter 14- News, News, and More News

Voices swarmed me; engulfed my subconscious. None of them were voices that I was familiar with. None of them reminded me of anything.

"How is she?" a man asked. His voice made him sound muscular and manly, but also kind.

"Doctor says she should be awake any day now," a woman answered. Her voice seemed to give me warmth, but also a sinking feeling. It felt like falling into a warm pit in the middle of my stomach.

"How are you?" the man asked. He seemed genuinely worried about whoever he was talking to.

"That's something I should be asking you," the woman gently mocked. She was clearly avoiding the question, anyone could see that.

Without all of the talking, I was suddenly aware of everything touching my body. I jerked upright, earning a splitting headache. I tried to take a gulp of air, but there was a tube that I hadn't yet realized was in my throat. It was preventing the one thing that it was supposed to help me with.

A nurse came running in through the door, probably hearing all of the commotions. Once she got me to calm down a little, she told me to cough on the count of three. "One... Two... Three," she called. I coughed the tube out into a bucket that the nurse had at the ready.

The tube might have been out, but that didn't mean I wasn't still freaking out. I had no idea where I was. Even though they were familiar, I had no idea who these people were. My mind was racing, trying to put everything together, but failing miserably.

"Hey. Hey," the woman, who had been talking earlier, rushed to my side. "You need to take deep breaths. In... and out...in...and out." The breathing helped. I wasn't hyperventilating freaked out anymore, but I was still very concerned. I still had no idea where I was or who these people are.

After calming down a bit more, I was able to take in the other two people in this room. The woman who had helped me calm down was of average height. She was probably my size, had red hair, and was looking at me with a desperate look. The man that she must have been talking to while I was unconscious was, in fact, a muscular man. He was tall, broad, looked like the perfect man. His look was different from the redhead's. His look was a sad one, but it didn't look like it was only for me.

All I could do was look at the woman sitting next to me on the bed. She was so familiar to me, yet also a stranger at the same time. Who was this woman?

Looking around the room for answers for any of my questions, I made eyecontact with the man. Immediately I realized exactly who I was in a room with. "You," I said with anger in my voice. "Where is the Winter Soldier?"

I began to get up, starting my charge for the already beaten up man. He had bruises on his face from the fight we had so high in the sky. The battle was coming back to me in little flashes.

Captain America took one too many moments to answer my question, only increasing my rage I felt towards him. Before I could get too far in my attack, I was grabbed and pulled back.

I looked at the hand that was grabbing my arm, following it all the way back to it's source. It was the woman who had grabbed me, and she was now giving me a stern look. "We aren't going to hurt you, which mean you don't hurt us," she said.

"Where is Winter?" I asked desperately. I had no idea where this desperate cry for him was coming from, but right now he was the only thing that made me feel comforted, which meant I wanted him here with me.

The only thing the two people in the room could do was look at each other, trying to figure out what they should tell me, or even if they should tell me. "Please," I begged, "I just need to see him."