Avengers: The Recruits (On Hold)

Chapter 24

  Harley's POV:
   The plane shakes abruptly, waking me up from my nap.
"What the hell?" I hear Maddie ask from the cockpit.
I unbuckle the seat belt that was strapped across my chest and make my way towards my friends.
"What's going on?" I ask as I take a stand on the right side of Maddie, who sits in the pilot's seat, and Allie standing opposite of me.
"We flew straight into a thunderstorm," she says as I notice her grip tightening on the throttle. "But no worries," she continues as she bites her lip and furrows her auburn eyebrows together "I got this."
   I turn to face Allie and I ask "do you think you could calm the storm for us?"
   "I wish," she replies, "but I haven't gotten that far in my training."
   "Don't worry," Maddie says, "we can use the storm as cover, so the enemy doesn't see us."
   A streak of lighting cuts the sky in front of us, shaking the plane, and a loud boom echoes in my ears. Allie and I quickly use the pilot's seat to steady ourselves as the plane bounces. Eventually the shaking subsides, and I place a gentle hand on Allie's shoulder before I go back to my seat.
   I strap the seatbelt across my chest as a sick feeling grows within my stomach, and it's not just from the storm. Why do I have this feeling? I question myself as I grip both the arm rests of the seat. A heavy, shaky sigh escapes my lungs as I try to brush off the feeling. "How much longer?" I ask aloud.
   "Maybe another hour," Allie replies, "we're almost there."
   "Good," I mumble as I focus my gaze back onto the vacant seat across from me. Just like the seat, I feel an emptiness inside me...wish you were here.

We soon landed the plane deep within a forest, which puts us maybe a mile or two from the Hydra base. Maddie is setting up live camera feeds around the perimeter that will link back up to the small screens in the jet, meanwhile I check and make sure we have plenty of firepower. I load bullets into a magazine and then sit the magazine in a pile of other loaded mags. Nothing, but the sound of metal being moved around fills my ears, that is until Allie speaks.
"Do you think we will bring him home?" She asks suddenly.
I stop what I'm doing and look up to find her standing near the pilot's seat, looking at me for an answer. "You should know by now that the answer is yes," I chuckle and then she looks down at the floor with a sad nod. I hear her let out a heavy sigh, so I then say with all seriousness "we will get him, Allie. I promise."
She turns her pale blue-eyed gaze back up at me and nods in agreement. "Thank you," she replies with her voice straining.
I give a quick nod and then get back to work.

An hour later...
"I'll go, but I can't be alone," I answer "I need someone to watch my back."
"I'll go with you," Maddie volunteers and then turns to face Allie, "could you watch the plane for us while we're gone?"
"Yeah," Allie says "just watch these screens right?"
   "Yep," Maddie replies before turning to me and asking "ready?"
   "Let's do this," I reply.

   We silently make our way through the woods. Pushing past briers and thorny vines, I hold my rifle in the ready position with Maddie following closely behind watching our backs. As we get closer and closer to the base, I feel my pulse rising due to a mix of anger and anticipation growing inside me. We then begin walking at an incline. Maddie gently places her hand on my shoulder and comes around in front of me.
   She whispers "wait here." She then looks around and approaches a tree with somewhat low lying branches, and then she begins climbing.
   I grip my gun tighter to my chest as I keep lookout while Maddie gets a good look at our surroundings. A cool breeze gently pushes past me, resulting in a few hairs tickling my face. I shake my head in aggravation while I try moving the hairs anywhere except my face. Quiet fills my ears, except for the sound of the occasional bird chirping, thank goodness for the birds; if they stop chirping then that will alert anyone nearby that we're here, that is assuming there are other people as observant as us. I continue looking around, piercing my eyes at anything that could serve as a hideout. The sound of Maddie moving back down the tree makes me turn back around just as she gets back onto the ground.
"So what's the deal?" I ask quietly.
"Well, we're about to move to the top of this hill," she begins "once we get into position, we will be able to get a good look at two sides of the base. They just had to position the building to where we couldn't see the front and back clearly."
I smile at her sarcasm and I reply "well, wouldn't you?"
She smirks and then rolls her eyes jokingly.