Buzzkill [Winter Soldier]

Chapter 34

Only a couple of hours later, an alarm sounded throughout the building, startling Ruth from her thoughts. Lights flashed in the hallways and rooms around her while agents and lab coats alike frantically ran around.

Ruth stood and walked to her door, looking or listening for a hint. A couple of agents walked quickly past talking through their earpieces,

"They need help on the lower levels collecting the files. I'm on my way to the weapons lab." The man seemed anxious. He sped through his words while keeping a hand on the back of his pistol.

Ruth had no idea what could be going wrong in a building like this that was made of pure cement and stone, being mostly underground.

Dr. Mage made his way into the open dining area in front of Ruth, people passing by him asking for direction on what to do and where to go.

"What about her?" An agent asked Mage rather loudly.

Dr. Mage looked over at Ruth and back to his clipboard as he continued to scribble things down. "She's the last to go. Getting her on the Quinjet won't be easy and any anesthetics won't last long," Mage replied, knowing Ruth could hear him as he continued to glance at her.

"We could just knock her over the head and she'll be out without a problem," the agent said with a laugh.

Mage kept a straight face and glared at the agent, "If you knock her in the head and mess with her brain to start a recalibration, you will have wasted precious time and money and I would kill you."

The agent took the smile off his face, nodded, and moved on.

Another agent came up to Mage, one Ruth recognized quite easily as an agent higher up on the authority level who had many times threatened her.

"Sir, we need to regroup with loading the experiment and the procedures that go along with it. We don't have much time to evacuate."

"Hydra has spent too much time and money to let this go to waste," Mage said firmly.

"Sir, Pierce is dead and the asset is missing! Whatever is left of Hydra is falling apart, we need to be thankful for what we can get out of here."

"The asset being missing is exactly why we need this experiment, Colonel. If the asset is not found or is dead then this experiment is the only chance we have at getting back our place on the map. Do as I say," Mage spat out at the agent. Though Mage was significantly smaller than the Colonel, he stared up at him, completely unafraid.

The agent hesitated, then nodded in agreement, and moved on.

Ruth couldn't believe that Pierce was dead, or how he was even able to be killed. But her heart sunk at the thought of having James go missing. The Winter Soldier just couldn't be "missing" from Hydra's reach. He was either dead, or in some way got enough of his memory back in order to not want to go back to Hydra at all; the latter seeming impossible to Ruth after seeing the way James was earlier that day.

Ruth tried to get someone's attention for fifteen minutes after the alarm sounded, but everyone was too frantic to pay attention. Dr. Mage had already continued on, and she doubted that he would even come back at all. Ruth didn't really know what they were worrying about. If Hydra compromised SHIELD, who would try and stop Hydra? Even with Pierce dead?

Now there was no one on the floor besides two agents who were assigned to stand outside Ruth's cell and wait for the order to grab her. She had nothing to do but anxiously wait for something to happen. Her mind swam with thoughts of her impending end to any chance at life she had. If Hydra kept her as an asset, it wasn't going to be temporary.