oh captain! my captain! | barnes

return

3:18 pm
On the Road

"And if they're convinced I am the Devil incarnate?" she questioned Steve as she kept her eyes on the road. He was doing a MadLibs.

"They won't. This happens."

"Killing the only person that makes you happy?" she looked at him.

"Death happens, Audrey. They get that more than anything else," he stated and went back to the sheet in the book. "Besides, he's alive."

"We need to stop for gas soon," she thought aloud.

His legs were on the dash and their things in the truck bed. She looked at the rear-view mirror only to see a black truck behind them on the backroad.

She furrowed her brow, "Is that truck unmarked?"

He closed the book and sat up, taking his legs down and looked into his side mirror.

"Yeah. We'll come out on this highway, keep going south and take the first exit. If he follows we'll kick up speed," he stated and set the book into the glove box.

"There's a gun under your seat," she stated. "Pop his tires."

"We don't even know if he's following us," Steve protested, reaching under his seat anyways.

"Pop his tires," she commanded. "Now."

He rolled down the window and fired behind him, the black truck rumbled to a grinding stop and he sat back down.

"Drive faster," he stated.

"There're motorcyclists," she stated. "Shoot them."

"No, what if their innocent."

"No one's innocent-"

A storm of bullets were fired at the car they were in, just as they got to the highway.

"Shoot them!" she hissed at him. He reached once more and fired at one's arm, and the other's leg. He sat back in and rolled his window up.

It was then they were rear-ended.

"Christ!" she hissed and slammed on the gas.

The large semi behind them was yet another unmarked vehicle.

She finally realized what was happening and took an exit with a sharp turn, slowing the semi down a bit.

"It's HYDRA," she said quickly. She pulled over as the semi slowed down, hitting their car once more. "Stay here."

She got out quickly and headed towards the driver's seat. The door opened, she froze.

"Soldier 0324," he grinned as he stepped down in a black suit and dress shoes.

He rose a gun and fired, she dodged as she'd been trained. She took him on, fighting despite her broken hand in wrapping.

She'd taken off the cast a week prior, and only wrapped it. The cast would've come in handy right about now.

He continued firing and she held the barrel in her broken hand as he continued to fire, the burning feeling surged through her fingers. She bent back the barrel and tossed it aside, beating on him good.

She pinned him to the asphalt and gripped his gangly neck with both hands, forcing her thumb down.

"Audrey let him go," Steve said. "He can do good."

"He can't undo what he's done by doing good deeds," she stated through clenched teeth. "He deserves death."

"That's not your call."

She eased up her thumbs and he coughed beneath her body. She got close to his elongated and sculpted face.

"I'm the Advocate then," she snapped his neck in a single, swift motion and he lay dead beneath her. She stood and spat on his limp body: "Doctor West."

"Come on, we've got to get out of here," he pulled her to the car and he drove this time. She clenched her left fist and let go, time and time again. Each hurt more than the last.

"You can't help Bucky by killing other people-"

"What if Doctor West had killed Bucky instead of triggering us to kill each other? I don't even know what West did to him, but it must've been bad if he could manipulate a man as strong as Buck. I had to kill him Steve-"

"Just like you had to kill that clerk?"

"I didn't mean to."

"So he raised the gun and killed himself?"

"No."

"Then you did mean to," he stated for her. She looked out of the window at the approaching City.

"I'm aware I'm a murderer. I didn't need him to give me a dumb name and remind me of it."