Buzzkill [Winter Soldier]

Chapter 12

Down the backstreets Ruth traveled until she made it to the closest city. She knew what the vans looked like that would transport the kids, but to look for one specific van out of hundreds when they already had a large head-start would be impossible in the time she had.

Once Ruth reached the city, she stopped at a small park where she was able to see down multiple streets, and pulled out her phone. Through her helmet, Ruth turned on the bluetooth to the phone and pulled up the communications with each of the three vans that escaped. She waited for a grueling half an hour for someone to give up where they were going and/or which van had the children. And finally, her question was answered; they were headed east to Russia. They announced their rendezvous point at a port in a city north of Stockholm where they could quietly get themselves, the children, and their cargo over to Finland and easily drive to Russia. The men and women in charge of the cargo didn't take any chances to have a run in with any type of law, so they traveled along the main roads and went the speed limit, anxiously accepting the traffic jams and the long five hours it would take to get there.

It was Ruth's job to learn how to take back roads and avoid government enforcers. The will to get these children was much stronger than her fear of getting caught.

Thankful for the traffic jams, Ruth caught up to one of the vans just an hour before the rendezvous point. On her motorcycle, she came up right behind the van when the lane cleared and stayed on their tail. The driver, not knowing who it was, cautiously announced over the radio that he was going to take a turn down a couple of backroads to see if the person was still going to follow them before getting back on the main road. As soon as the driver turned onto an empty street with Ruth continuing to follow, Ruth shot a large electric charge panel from her motorcycle onto the rear bumper. The electricity from the panel caused the van to short out, engine and breaks dying out within seconds. Just as the van came to a complete stop, Ruth sped up to the driver's side, jumped off her motorcycle, and went for the drivers.

After breaking the driver window, she struck her palm against his nose, breaking it. The pain and affect on his body caused him to nearly pass out, allowing Ruth to shoot the passenger guard with an electric charge to knock him out. She then quickly reached for their radio and destroyed it. The driver was fading back in now, so she struck him again with the end of her gun, knocking him out. Ruth knew she didn't want to have to take care of the guard's bodies given this situation. After she knocked them out, Ruth quickly carried them out of the van and past the curb just over a dip in the hill. When the men woke up, they would be beaten, bloodied, and with no way to communicate with their other agents unless they walked to the city hours after their crew was supposed to leave the port.

After Ruth left the guards unconscious in the ditch, she opened up the back doors of the van to make sure the children were in there and safe. None of them said a word when the van had stopped and while they heard the scuffle going on. They knew they weren't supposed to.

Out of the eight children, three of them smiled to see Ruth standing at the van doors, the rest were terrified of what was to happen to them. Ruth was someone who was respected and feared throughout the facility, she was the Woman's right hand.

    "Are you all alright? Is anyone hurt?" Ruth asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

    They all said they were ok with their voices low as if someone would hear them.

    "Good. I'm going to get you out of here. Do as I say, and you will all be safe soon."

    "But how do you know we are going to be safe?" One girl asked, "What about Her?" the girl's voice even shook at mentioning the Woman.

    Ruth's heart felt a deep shudder once again.

    "I can promise all of you that that Woman will never harm any of you again. Now I just want to make sure you're safe from the men who were driving you and the ones like them, ok? None of you will be going to Russia."

    "Where are we going?"

    "I'll tell you soon, but we have to get going now."

    Ruth closed the van doors, then walked to the driver's seat, looking around her to make sure she wasn't being watched or followed. She turned on the communications radio through the phone that she had. After twenty minutes, the drivers of the other vans were repeatedly asking for a status report. Ruth knew she couldn't try to answer and lie her way out. She had a female voice that wouldn't even nearly resemble the men's voices that were here. Ruth left the window open to the back so she could talk to the kids if she needed to, but they stayed silent. The only thing she could hear was the occasional mumbles when the kids would talk to each other.

    The silence of the drive was excruciating for Ruth. Silence allowed her mind to dwell on everything that happened that morning. She wondered how quickly SHIELD completely infiltrated the facility, how quickly they were able to get to any files in the Woman's office and if they could recover anything from the fire, and how quickly they got to the Woman after she died.

Ruth felt hopelessly alone now. Once she dropped these kids off at the orphanage in Norway, she would be on her own. She didn't know where to even start, where to begin her life by herself. SHIELD would probably be looking for her. Who knows how many other people from all over the world would want to find her for a crime she committed against them. The fear crept up inside her until it became overwhelming and she had to turn on the van radio for some noise. She didn't listen to music at all while at the facility. Music triggers memories, and if memories are recovered then agents don't do their jobs, and agents who don't do their jobs are dangerous. It was when she was out on a mission would she listen to music, or watch movies. Ryker loved Disney movies because they were a mixture of both music and indescribable happiness.

When Ruth turned the radio on, she turned from station to station until something stood out to her. Every song with words seemed to be too much, and the words seemed to all relate to a sadness or anger. Then a station came on without lyrics, only the heartfelt notes from cellos, pianos, violins, and flutes filled the van with music. Though it didn't have words, the music spoke to her better than words could describe. The notes seemed to remind her of Ryker but in the best ways; it reminded her of his happiness.