The lost Widow - Natasha Romanoff x Female

Prologue

A cutting sound broke the stifling silence, her whole body tensed under the pain the sound caused her. Her head felt as if it would burst at any moment, the inner pressure seemed unbearable. Hot tears ran down her pale cheeks, bony from hunger, like burning waterfalls. To stifle a cry, she clawed both hands into her hair, a desperate attempt to ease the pain.
As suddenly as the silence had been broken, it returned. The black cell lay dead silent, nothing to be heard except her still painful breaths. As the terrible pressure slowly eased, her knees finally gave out and she sank to the cold stone floor. The rough stone slabs were like cold packs on which she had laid, cooling her temples as she rested her head on the bottom. For a moment she just lay there, on the dirty floor, alone in the dark cell, not moving.
In the corridor on which her cell was situated, something was happening. Several heavy footsteps echoed off the barren stone walls, walking seemingly aimlessly. Still too weakened to move, she closed her eyes and focused on the sounds of her surroundings. "Have you got them all?" It was a man's voice, no doubt. It sounded muffled, but the commanding tone weighed heavily in the few words and sent a cold shiver down her spine. "Everyone out!" another, quieter voice replied, this man seeming further away.
Silence fell again, taking the last thing she could focus on in the darkness. The last thing she was aware of was the loud clack of a lock before the world around her turned to a blank black.

Her eyelids slowly fluttered open as she regained consciousness. Cautiously and still dazed, she honed her head; nothing. She rested her palms on the ground and the rough surface dug into her scraped palms. Suppressing the pain, she bit her lower lip, chapped from dryness, and braced herself with all her strength before taking a deep breath. When she finally struggled to her feet, she had to hold on to the wall once more to avoid falling over again. On shaky legs, she slowly felt her way forward through the darkness until she reached the barred door and gently pushed against it, convinced that it would be locked.
But the door swung open. A hideous squeak accompanied the opening of the door and still echoed as she stood motionless in the now open passageway.
She had no sense of time as she wandered aimlessly through the corridors. They all looked the same, two metres wide and three metres high the corridors stretched, lined with barred doors just like hers; the only difference was that all the other cells were empty, the doors were open and there was nothing in the rooms. It almost seemed as if no one had been here for decades, as if she were walking through what might have been a pre-war military facility that no one had set foot in since.

Her bare feet hardly made a sound, so light were her steps. Protectively, she wrapped her arms around her body, which were covered in cuts, dirt and bruises, for her clothes had not warmed her for a long time. Her trousers were dark grey, also covered in dust, and held up only by the band she had tied tightly around her waist as a belt substitute. Over her still half-white Singlet, a clearly too large and too dusty T-shirt covered her slender body.
The chemise was the only thing that was reasonably tight, replacing her bra and providing - with a lot of good will - a tiny bit of warmth in the kidney area. The grey fabric of the shirt hung loosely from her shoulders, and the dirty hem, ripped in places, reached to the top of her thigh.

She turned into another corridor, which seemed a little brighter, and crept along it towards the steel door at the other end. Surprisingly, this door was also unlocked and could be pushed open with gentle pressure. It was almost like standing in the command centre of a science fiction film, the room was crammed to the ceiling with flat, black screens, with individual lights of the computer systems flashing in between. Everything seemed to be state of the art, it didn't fit in at all with the rest of the building.
The tentative glow of a light caught her attention and, almost like the call of a siren, drew her away from the door and further into the room to the collection of equipment. As her fingertips brushed over the keyboard, on which there was not a speck of dust, a dam seemed to burst in her mind, unleashing a tidal wave of memories. Key combinations, passwords and codes flashed through her mind, and she had the presence of mind to enter a few commands into the keyboard. A short buzz sounded and on a sleep all the screens flickered and lit up blindingly bright in the dark room.
Her eyes danced over the countless flat surfaces, a sea of digitally stored data. There were images of young women and files that resembled mugshots, a giant map of New York emblazoned with bright red markers and cryptic symbols.
Her eyes darted around, slowly she understood. She turned around, there in the corner was a small roll container with drawers, with the dark shade barely standing out against the wall. She had lost a little caution and so there was a soft tap of her feet on the concrete floor as she hurried across the room and with quick fingers pulled open the third drawer from the top. At the very back of the drawer she felt her objects of desire, of course they were there. Her fingers enclosed the two small pieces and she scurried back in front of the screens, stowing the one in her bulging trouser pockets.

No sooner was the USB stick plugged in than her fingers began flitting across the keyboard, typing in one command after another. Warnings popped up at irregular intervals, but these were either ignored or disappeared again after a few seconds.
A single folder appeared on the screen before her eyes. Hesitantly, she opened it and began to read. Her still aching muscles tensed and instinctively she pulled her head between her shoulders as her eyes slid over the Russian words. With an iron gaze she tracked the mouse cursor, again whizzing from left to right and top to bottom as she steered the mouse across the screen.
She had transferred all the important files to the stick and now, with shaky fingers, she pressed the Enter key; "Files Deleted".
It was almost as if she had finally taken her brick-filled backpack off her shoulders; had finally got rid of the burden she had been carrying around for years. She closed her eyes and relaxed her muscles as best she could. Taking deep breaths, she inhaled the cold and somewhat stale air of the bunker-like building.
A sudden, muffled sound jolted them out of their brief moment of calm. The sound rang out again and the concrete walls trembled. It sounded as if someone was trying to smash through the outer metal walls with a battering ram, a lot of anger and brute force.

Like a flash of lightning- her eyes snapped open and her black pupils contracted at the sudden onset of light. Without hesitation, she grabbed the USB stick and gripped it so tightly that the plastic threatened to break. With her other hand, she reached into her trouser pocket and pulled out the second contents of the drawer.
It was a small package, no bigger than a matchbox, rectangular and wrapped in nondescript brown paper.
She had placed the packet on one of the dashboards, took another deep breath and then raised her hand without the stick. With full force, she brought her palm down on the small box and as soon as she had hit it, she turned on her heel and sprinted out of the room.

Pure adrenaline pumped through her veins, making her forget the pain that would have been almost unbearable under other circumstances, so that she could run. What injuries she had, she did not know. She had long given up counting them, long given up worrying about all of them. But now her lungs were on fire, perhaps from the tips of broken ribs? She didn't know. All she knew was that she had to get out of here as soon as possible if she ever wanted to see daylight again.
The last thing she felt was a burning-hot blast that hit her full force in the back, lifted her off her feet and hurled her several metres through the air, and the fist-sized metal shards that came crashing down around her like little comets, drilling into the concrete floor and leaving small craters. Then the world around them changed colour once more into pure, endless black.

---

I have revised the prologue again and lengthened it a little. I plan to do the same with the other first chapters in the near future, but it could take some time...

As always, stay healthy, drink enough and take care of yourselves! <3

Nyx