Fear the Fever ⏃ Captain America [3]

Chapter Eleven

Christina woke to see Liam's face staring down at her. He looked worried. His skin was pale and marked with spatters of dried blood, and there was black soot on his forehead and a bruise forming on his cheek. As if his wounds reminded her, she suddenly felt the fiery agony on her thigh.

"Shh, try not to get up, okay?" Liam said. "You've been in and out for hours." He glanced over his shoulder, looking to the front of the vehicle. "Micah, Mary - we need to get some food and water, if we don't she's going to die in the back of this truck."

Christina swallowed thickly, trying desperately to coax her throat to keep it from aching. "How long have I've been out?"

"You've been unconscious for almost ten hours."

"Serious?" Christina couldn't believe it - it seemed like it had only been a matter of minutes. Liam nodded. "We've been driving that long? Where are we going, the moon?"

"No," Micah replied, turning around in the passenger's seat to look at her. "We're actually just outside of Paris, France, driving through the outskirts. I contacted some old friends who still owe me a few favors. He's a pilot, and owns a jet, when we arrive he's going to fly us on out of here and back to America."

"What about my leg?"

Liam's face fell. He gingerly removed the blanket that was covering her legs, revealing her tattered and singed half thigh. Christina gasped, placing a hand over her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. Pieces of burnt and mangled flesh dangled from the bone, and small parts of her femur were slightly charred.

Liam noticed the look on her face and placed an assuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, once you're properly fed, the healing will kick in and you'll be good as new."
- - - -
They planned to park the vehicle at a private resort Mary's father owns, that was only a few miles away from the private airport they planned on heading to. They finally ate a quick meal; and Christina felt the best she'd felt in the past month and a half.

Christina clung onto the jacket that was wrapped around her shoulders while slowly making her way to the upstairs bathroom. She placed Micah's jacket on the bathroom counter before she prepared the shower for use; the room quickly filled with steam and the smell of lavender. She wearily ran a hand through her tangled locks and nervously fumbled with the ends as she stood in front of the large glimmering mirror.

Her thigh had completely healed, the only evidence of there ever being something wrong with it was a large scar that resembled something of a shark bite. Blood, soot, and dirt caked her entire body, along with several bruises, cuts, stab wounds and the bullet wound on her side. Her back was completely covered with long white lashing scars, her abdomen was now marred with the remnants of burn and stab scars.

She furious began to rub at the scars, tears rushing to the surface. She felt completely broken and battered. Her chest tightened as she softly sobbed inside the shuttered bathroom. Her throat angrily ached as it became swollen and dry. A frustrated cry escaped her lips, and she dropped to the tiled floor. She grunted as she landed with a soft thud, her eyes remained closed while she leaned her head against the wall behind her. She felt nothing but the numbness of her lungs and body.

Twenty minutes passed by before she finally found the strength to bring herself to her feet and undress and clamber into the welcoming shower. Christina washed herself at least a dozen times; making sure that the filth, grim, and any other evidence of her time spent in Germany.

After her shower, Christina wanted to be alone, but she knew that was impossible with the precedent threat still at large. She found a reclining chair in an out-of-the-way corner in the living room of the mansion and curled up in it, her back open to the area behind her. She had a blanket, and she pulled it up and around her, feeling cozier than she had in a long while.

And even though she was scared of what might come, she also felt a sense of peace. Maybe they were close to breaking the bonds of HYDRA forever. She thought about their escape and all that had happened along the way.

Finally sleep took her from all of her thoughts.
- - - -
Christina decided she needed to tell everyone more about what she actually was. About what she suspected why she had been kidnapped by those Germans anyway.

As they sat down for the little "meeting", she made them all swear to keep their mouths shut until she was finished. They'd all huddled around the burning fireplace in the living room. Christina then began to tell them about everything she remembered about the Super-Soldier serum inside her - memories of the Winter Soldier, HYDRA scientists, her body healing from being poisoned by snake venom, how all the torture wounds had been healed - only leaving brutal scars behind. All of it. When she got out all that she could remember, she waited for a response.

"I don't see what that has to do with anything." Mary said. "Just makes me hate HYDRA even more. Good thing we left, and I hope I never have to go back to that God-forsaken country again."

Micah, who'd been irritable and distant, spoke for the first time since they'd sat down for the "meeting".
"Geez, Brazil's freaking California compared to that blood-filled country."

"When did you change?" Liam blurted out.

"Huh?" Micah and Mary replied.

"When did you two become so gun-hoe about taking down HYDRA? You've worked for them, you did all those things they wanted you to do - according to Christina. Micah, you were standing in line with the rest of those sons of bitches who were torturing Christina. When and how did you two come so strongly over to our side?"

Micah sighed; he looked tired, but his words came out laced with anger. "I have never been on their side. Never. I've always disagreed. But, what could I do on my own? Or even with Mary? HYDRA took us away from our lives. I was shot in the temple - they injected me with some miracle cure and captured me, forced me to fall in line with all the crazy shit they do. Mary, too. We've done what we had to do to survive. But then I saw what they were doing to Christina and it made me realize...well, it made me realize that we have a chance. However right or wrong it may be."

"I don't think there is a right or wrong anymore," Christina said, hearing the numbness in her own voice. She desperately wanted to go home and go to sleep. "Only horrible and not-quite-so-horrible."