When It Rained

Chapter 31 - His Rock

Crossing her arms over her chest, Finley stared intensely at the pod she had just locked Steve into. "So how long have you known him?" Howard asked while flipping a few switches.

For a short moment, she contemplated even answering him. It seemed to feed his ego, the more attention he got. That was a big characteristic she had heard about him- egotistic. The guy was full of himself, and those were the type of people she typically tried to avoid.

Swallowing down her pride however, Finley tilted her head backwards making sure he could hear her voice.

"7 month's tomorrow."

The lights flickered around her as engines roared to life. It made her drop her hands, raise her attention, and listen for any sign of Steve's protest to the experiment. "And I'm really hoping to make it to tomorrow, so please focus on keeping him alive."

With one more look up and down her back side, the scientist focused back to his controls with a smile. "Yes ma'am." he chuckled before hollering out to his scientists. "Reaching moderate power!" As soon as his hand had flipped the switch, the window covering Steve's face was covered in a solid white light. Immediately, a sharp scream left Steve's lips.

Finley stepped forward balling her fists at her side. Upon the monitors around them, his heart rate and vitals were displayed. Each one was picking up drastically. "Increasing power!" Howard called out again.

Dr. Erskine was scurrying back and forth between monitors and levers. He seemed to be doing everything at once, but it wasn't enough to pull her attention away from Steve.

His screams got louder, but none of them were a plea to stop.

"Keep going." Erskine motioned for Howard to continue.

There was a slight hesitance in Howard's actions, but deliberately- he increased the power again.

Just when she thought Steve couldn't scream louder, Finley was wrong.

His screams echoed in her head. Quickly, she had found herself in a different room.

She jammed the knife deeper, harder, and faster than she ever had before. It didn't matter how loud their screams were, they deserved this. Finley was going to make sure they never hurt anyone again.

Her rage pulled her away from the inhumanity she was causing; but that's just what revenge did. It made you blind.

Shaking her head, Finley pushed harshly on Howard's arm. "Turn it off." she commanded. He looked at her, frozen, not knowing what to do. This time, seeing as Howard wasn't going to do anything, she spoke louder so all the scientists heard. "I said turn it off!" The volume of her voice echoed past Steve's screams. Then, more alarms started to buzz, his heart rate was getting too high. "You're going to kill him!"

By now, Peggy was backing her up. "This is too dangerous. We need to shut it down."

"NO!" Steve's scream drew all of their attention. Finley's head snapped around to look a the pod. Immediately the room silenced, even the doctors trying to calm the women down. "I can do this!"

Finley's heart sank hearing her friend. The kid was still willing to do anything to be a soldier, even go through the pain he was in now.

Swallowing down the fear for her friend, Finley watched Howard lock eyes with her, give her a sorrowful nod, and crank the energy to full power.

This time, Steve tried to hold in the screams, but he couldn't do it forever. They cried out to her like it was the first sound she was hearing in her life. It was a cry she would never forget.