II: The Girl Who Ran: Little Monsters

1945- Siberia, USSR

The girl, now eleven, smoothed the pleats of her black and red polka-dotted dress in front of the semi-reflective door. In her hand she held a maroon, leather notebook. "How much time do I have?"

The doctor was a short, middle-aged man with round spectacles that made his murky gray eyes seem too large. His forehead was shiny with perspiration, even in the chilly room. He wiped his palms on his lab coat and handed a manila folder to her, "One month. Maybe two at most. Vonexa has wanted more soldiers since you turned out to be successful, and because you so ardently advocated against the subject's execution, he gets the honor. Try to get whatever information you can from him. He wouldn't tell us anything." The doctor looked toward the door and lowered his German-accented voice, "It would, after all, bring bad publicity if Vonexa went around asking the US for information regarding missing soldiers."

She grabbed the folder, stuffed it under her arm with the notebook, and nodded, "Understood. Does it matter what activation words I decide to use?" The girl pulled at the white surgical mask covering the lower part of her face.

The doctor shrugged, "I do not believe so. Choose words that would not be used in a daily conversation together. And write them down." He started to turn away to the other set of doors.

The girl caught his sleeve and he recoiled like she'd stabbed him. She let go of his arm and spoke quickly. "Wait! What are you going to do to the," she gritted her teeth and spit the word out, "'subject', that you did not do to me?"

The doctor tilted his head, as if wondering what to tell her. "We will be administering a different serum than the one we used with you. It is weaker, and more similar to the Erskine serum." He dipped his head to look down at her as she stepped toward the doors. "As always, your country thanks you. Ready to comply, Soldier?"

She stood straighter and tried to empty her features of every emotion that was flitting through her mind, "Ready to comply." As the doctor walked away, she glanced at herself one last time. She marched into the room containing the man who was going to become the world's first Winter Soldier.

"What's with the mask?" The boy, now a man, asked in English. He was chained to the chair in front of a small table with another, empty, chair. He didn't seem to recognize her.

She answered him in Russian, "Hello."

"What is going on?" The man persisted in English as she sat down behind the table in front of him. She set the file and the notebook down, then leaned back in her chair and examined him. His eyes were the green-blue of the Volga river in the fall, a scratch stretching from the corner of his right eye to his temple. His brown hair was of middle length, just long enough to curl at the ends. His features were strong, and his jaw square.

Any other girl would have thought him handsome. He hadn't shaved in a bit, and the stubble gave him a haggard look. His body strained against his cotton shirt, which was at least a size too small, if not more. His left sleeve hung limp and empty. Looking at it, the girl could readily call to mind the sound of the screams that had echoed through the base in the weeks past since he had arrived. After she had convinced them to not immediately kill him, that is. "What is going on?" He repeated, sounding desperate but not appearing so. "Who are you?"

The girl leaned forward, opening his file and scanning the list of injuries he had come with. Fractured left clavicle, broken right tibia, ruptured spleen, mutilated left arm, severe concussion. The list went on for almost half a page before she closed the file and set it back down. She stroked the back star on the notebook and lifted her gaze to his, for the first time terrified for him. For what he was about to go through. She exhaled, sitting straighter in her chair.

"I am the Summer Soldier. You may address me as so, or as Sunny, if you prefer. My responsibility is to train you to be one of the most effective assassins on this planet. Once you have achieved this, you will become the first Winter Soldier."