The Broken Soliders

Part twenty-three

That night, the three of us were trying to sleep on the plane.

"You alright?" Sam asked.

When I opened my eyes, I saw he was talking to Barnes, who was sitting in the middle of the plane, with a hard expression.

Barnes nodded slightly. "Let's take the shield," he whispered. "Let's take the shield and do this ourselves."

Sam shook his head. "We can't just run up on the man, beat him up, and take it."

"Well," I smirked. "We could."

Sam glared at me.

"But, obviously that'd be wrong, or whatever," I finished.

"Do you remember what happened the last time we stole it?" Sam asked Barnes.

I frowned.

"Maybe," Barnes said.

"I'll help you in case you forgot." Sam's voice was stern. "Sharon was branded enemy of the state, and Steve and I were on the run for two years. I don't know about you guys, but I don't wanna live the rest of my life la vida loca. We just got our ass handed to us by Super Soldiers, and we got nothing."

"Not entirely true," Barnes mumbled.

Sam and I stared at him as he got off the box he was sitting on and sat next to Sam, across from me.

"There is someone... that you should meet," he said, looking up at me hesitantly.

"Who?" I asked.

"Just... You'll see. You won't believe me until you see him."

Sam and I followed Barnes up the steps that lead to a tall, old looking house. He hesitated a moment, before knocking.

A black man answered, looking at us with a wary expression.

"We're here to see Isaiah," Barnes told him.

"Nobody named Isaiah live here," the man said.

Barnes sighed. "Look, we just wanna talk to him."

"You must not hear what I just said," the man told us. "You ain't getting in this house. Y'all can leave now."

Sam and I exchanged confused glances.

"Tell him the guy from the bar in Goyang is here," Barnes said. "He's gonna know what that means."

The man hesitated. "Alright, wait here." He closed the door.

"Who is this guy, Barnes?" I asked again.

"Just be patient. He'll talk to us."

The man opened the door a few moments later. "Today's your lucky day. He said he wanna see for himself."

We walked into the house slowly. "Isaiah," Barnes greeted when he saw an old man, with grey hair and a grey beard.

"Look at you two," Isaiah said, gesturing to Barnes and me.

"Have we met?" I asked.

Barnes cleared his throat. "This is, uh, Sam." He nodded at Sam. "Sam, this is Isaiah. He was a hero. One of the ones that HYDRA feared the most." He looked over at me for a moment, before looking down. "Like Steve."

My breath caught in my throat. "We met in '51."

Isaiah glared at me. "If by met, you mean you paralyzed me for life, then, yeah."

I looked at the wheelchair he was now sitting in, before meeting his eyes. "I'm so sorry," I said, desperately trying to keep my voice strong. "I... I didn't have any control over my mind. I swear."