Buzzkill [Winter Soldier]

Chapter 22

Ruth spoke up to James when he didn't turn his gaze from the pistol.

    "James..." Her voice was low, but loud enough for him to hear it.

    He didn't reply, he didn't take his gaze off the gun.

    "James, are you ok?" Ruth asked again, hesitantly standing up from the bench and taking a step. She had seen this look before more than once, and the familiarity terrified her.

    Ruth was just a step away from him now. In a flash of a moment, James put the gun under his chin, not even seeing anyone else in the room.

Just before the trigger was pulled, Ruth wrapped her right arm around James' head and held it as she pushed away the gun from his chin as hard as she could with her other arm. The echo rang throughout the room as the bullet fired into the ceiling. The only mark James got from the gun was a scrape from the force of the barrel being pushed away from underneath him.

    The voices in his head stopped, they were silent. In the next two seconds that he tried to figure out what just happened, Ruth grabbed the gun, sat on the ground, grabbed James' metal hand and made him hold onto her wrist as if he were restraining her. When the guards walked in, Ruth succeeded in making it look like she was the dangerous one.

    What the guards saw was the Experiment on the ground, pistol in hand aiming just past Soldier's face, and the Soldier's grip holding onto the Experiment's wrist keeping her from killing him.

The guards didn't hesitate for a moment. The first one grabbed the gun out of Ruth's hand and threw it to the ground. The other grabbed Ruth by the collar of her jacket and threw her across the room and away from James. Ruth's back crashed against the metal bench, sending jolts of shooting pain through her spine and the rest of her body. She coughed and heaved in pain on the floor, unable to move.

    "What the hell happened?" One guard yelled, demanding for an answer.

    Before James could speak, Ruth talked with gritted teeth, trying to gain her breath, "I couldn't stand it anymore... I wanted to get out, so I took his gun to shoot him." Ruth coughed, all of her breath went in to talking loud enough to sound angry. She grimaced in pain as her ribs burned within her.

    James just stood up in disbelief, still dazed and trying to figure out what just happened.

    "You filthy piece of—" One guard cursed at Ruth and beat her to keep her on the floor.

    Ruth just tried to protect her head.

    "Stop...please," was all James could make out, the emotion welling up inside of him making his voice was barely above a whisper. He could feel his chest hurt with disorientation.

"That's enough!" Dr. Mage stormed in. "You can't kill her, we've got too much time and money in this experiment for her to die like this."

    At Mage's words the guards stopped. They told him what happened, and Dr. Mage ordered them to pick Ruth up carefully, to which she still took a while to get on her feet as they lifted her up by her arms. Her face was covered in blood that dripped onto the floor, unable to keep her eyes open.

    Dr. Mage looked briefly over at James, he still looked dazed.

    "Take her to the injection room for another round immediately," Mage commanded the guards. "I'm not surprised by a sudden anger outburst, but I'm going to fix it." Mage and the guards strode out of the room, dragging Ruth along.

    "No, please...don't do this," James tried to say, but now he was the only one in the room.