Invisible string | Yelena Belova

two

Cole woke up to the sound of a beer bottle, opened his eyes, and turned over in Natasha's bed. Slowly he got up and went to the living room where he saw Natasha at the table with ice in her hand. She smiled at Cole and he returned it and then set about cooking.

"How long was I asleep?", he asked while his food was cooking in the pan. 

"About three hours," she replied before returning her attention to her movie.

When the food was ready, Cole placed the vegetables on two plates, took them in his hand, and went to Natasha. She just gave him a mocking look, but he knew that she had not eaten anything except ice cream.

"Come on, just because we're hiding here doesn't mean we can only live on ice cream."

When she realized that Cole was serious, she took the plate and got up to put the ice cream back in the fridge.

So now they both sat on the bench at the table and ate while Cole watched the movie closely. 

"You do know you're acting like a mother, right?" said Natasha with a smile after a while. 

"What, only because I can no longer watch you eating only ice cream and cereal because you can't cook", he replied jokingly.

Suddenly the light went out, and Cole and Natasha were sitting in the dark. "Oh, great," Natasha said and went to the door, and Cole followed her. 

After a few tries, Cole got the generator working again and then headed into town to throw out all of their trash. 

The ride was silent for the most part, but at some point, Cole could no longer stand the distressing silence.

" You know you can talk to me, right?", he asked her while looking at her with concern.

"Yes, of course," she answered shortly, without even looking at him.

Sighing, Cole looked out the window again and almost couldn't notice the red blast as it suddenly shot toward them.

"Watch out", Cole yelled. But it was already too late, and they were blown up by a huge explosion.

All Cole felt was pain as he bounced around in his car seat.

When the car finally came to a stop, Cole noticed that half of the car was hanging off the bridge, and he immediately turned to Natasha to see that she was unconscious. Carefully, without setting the car in motion, he grabbed Natasha and shook her gently.

 "Nat... Nat, we have to get out of here," Cole said, his voice shaky with pain.

Suddenly, Cole saw a figure with a mask coming menacingly toward them and at the same time, he noticed Nat moving and looking up at him. 

"We have to get out of here," Cole groaned and pointed at the figure.

They undid their car belts and climbed into the back seat. While Nat set about shooting the person, Cole tried to open the back door.

Suddenly a jolt went through the car and Cole turned to see a shield stuck in the back window.

 "Come now," he said briefly to Nat and pulled her with him out the now-open door. They both drew their guns and aimed at the person, but he was out of sight.

They looked around for her, but suddenly she jumped over them from the car and blocked their shots with his shield. Cole and Nat kept shooting, and the figure kicked the gun out of Nat's hand, causing both of them to go into close combat. But Cole quickly realized that he had hurt more in the car impact than he wanted to realize.

Filled with pain, Cole limped to the car to get more bullets and saw out of the corner of his eye how the figure threw Nat to the ground. He quickly drew his gun and took aim when he suddenly saw the figure and Natasha jump up and land in sync, and wondered if there was even a human behind that mask.

Suddenly the figure looked in Cole's direction and he gripped his gun tighter. But the figure walked past him to the car, and he heard Nat say, "You're not here for us".

Nat gave Cole a look and he nodded determinedly. The next moment, Nat ran at the attacker with a knife, giving Cole enough time to get to the car. He quickly looked into the trunk and his eyes immediately went to the small black suitcase, which, according to Nat's information, was from her time in Budapest. Cole quickly grabbed it and opened it. Urgently, he quickly took the content and stowed it in his jacket pocket. 

Suddenly, something bumped into him, and he fell through the air for a few seconds before landing hard in the water. Then everything went black.

Cold surrounded him as he felt pressure on his chest. Cole jerked upright and coughed to get the water out of his lungs. He glanced around and noticed Natasha looking at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?", she asked.

" Yeah", he replied, groaning in pain as he sat up.

"It doesn't sound like it!"

"I know. But I hope it was at least worth it for this.", and took the red glowing tubes out of his pocket. He handed them to Nat, and she pulled out a paper from between them, and they looked at two photos of little girls. 

"I know where we need to go," she said firmly. 

"One second... Then I'll be good to go again."