The Mind of a Soldier [1]

10

      Now more hurried than ever, the pair went straight for the soldier's supposed safehouse. It was located inside a rinky dink apartment building. The red brick walls were dusty and coming apart as the white trim had almost some sort of fungus growing on the edges. Sergeant Barnes had found it by looking in the recently deceased section of the newspaper. Apparently an old geezer had recently lived inside one of the flats until his untimely demise. His family all lived in Romania and there was no mention of any friends in america, so, the room would be empty for at least a few days.

      Walking up the steps and down the hallways the two of them stayed silent. Neither wanting to talk about the shit show that had happened moments before. Opening the door to the grandpa's apartment, Alena noticed that even though the exterior of the building was disgusting, the interior was more homey than anything she had ever seen. There was a fuzzy blue carpet floor and nice white walls, with a chesterfield sofa sitting a few feet in front of the TV. It's cushions were big and lush and smelled of old grandma perfume. Old Mr.Whitewalls must have had a special someone at one point, but not long enough to be mentioned in the news paper. Alena felt bad for him, and the sofa, she wouldn't have wanted a cougar girlfriend geezer sitting on her either.

     The soldier decided it would best to have Alena sleeping in the bedroom and him toughing it out on the couch, he was closer to the door that way.

     Alena hadn't seen a bed this new in ages. It's blankets and pillows all toppled on top just waiting for her to jump on them. The sheer size of it all baffled her. It was a king size but to her it was for giants. As she climbed on, the comfort and warmth of it all welcomed her, however she still felt cold. She had still murdered a man in plain sight today and she still remembered the people's horrified faces. Horrified of her. She had killed before but never so people, real people could see. Alena was beginning to wonder if she, herself, were human, as she only felt numb. No remorse or sorrow filled her heart. Just confusion. Why had she killed that man? Why had it felt so right at the time? Why was this the way she functioned? Because she was different. She was born and bred to be a human killing emotionless machine. One that didn't give a damn about anything else besides the mission. Except she wasn't that either. She had feelings. She felt sadness, anger and pain just the same as anyone else, but not for the same things. If she wasn't normal and she wasn't what she was supposed to be, then really what was she? Like many other things she still didn't have the answer to that question.

     The rubble was heavy and took days to clear, all the while three children had their eyes glued to a bomb begging for it not to go off. A bomb that read STARK Industries. Alena clung helplessly to her older brother Pietro's chest, as he kept her safe in his arms. Her sister Wanda shook with fear staring out into the debris, her eyes glowing with hatred and revenge. Even as a child Alena could see it in both of her sibling's eyes. They now had a darkness in them that would be hard to get rid of.

     The next morning was odd. She felt as if she awoke from reality and was walking in her dreams. In some ways it was true, the memory she had just seen was reality, but so was her surroundings. Paintings and photos hung around the area, none of the people in which she recognised. Still she pondered at them. Who were they? What did they do? Why did they decide to take the photo? And most importantly why were they all smiling? It creeped her out. Walking away from the strangely passionate photos she saw Bucky in the kitchen, ransacking the fridge. Raising an eyebrow she caught the man's attention.

"Uh... I was never good at over easy...." Walking closer Alena saw that he wasn't only raiding the cold cupboard, but also attempting to cook something. It was yellow and looked mushy. She scowled at it.

"I think i'm good, do you have a protein bar?" she asked quietly. It was the only thing she actually liked to eat at the base, and the only thing they'd give her as a reward.

"You can look, but I don't think you'll find any" Barnes said trying not burn his vomit looking food.

     Alena started pillaging the entire pantry. Throwing boxes to the ground while also being amazing at how many green lima beans this old dead dude had. Finally she ended up with a sealed container. Opening it up she grabbed something that looked quite homemade. They were thin and brown much like her protein bars, so she took a bite. Her taste buds didn't light up with joy but it was at least ok, for the most part.

     Once the soldier had finished his first actual meal he took a look at the labeling on the snack Alena decided to have. Reading it his eyes widened as this was definitely something that he recognized. The writing on the container read "Bran Bars For Harold's Constipation" He hadn't had one of those bars before, but he did strangely remember being forced to eat a bran muffin all those years ago. He had lost a bet to Steve one time, saying he could get it with this one girl and if he didn't he'd have to do something nasty. Eating dirt apparently wasn't that great going out the other end.

    Minutes later Alena walked over to the container yet again before Bucky could snatch it away.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, uh, you can't eat these"

"I just did" she said crossing her arms. Not once in his life did the soldier imagine he'd be dealing with a teenage girl's attitude, and yet here he was.

"No, i mean you can't eat anymore of them"

"Why?"

"Because..... They make you....go" he emphasized trying to get the point across.

"Go where?" Sighing he accepted that Alena would never really understand, unless he went through the whole human waste system, and that was not an option.

"Just, don't eat them anymore. How many did you grab anyway?"

"Five" and that ladies and gentlemen is why she spent 50% of the rest of her day on the toilet. Turns out she didn't need to leave the apartment for adventure, there was more than enough to explore within the radius. They both just hoped the next one wouldn't be as.... Gross.

Author's note: yeah I feel like I should explain myself for this one. I basically just thought if they were crashing inside an old dude's apartment wouldn't Alena find something like that? I mean she's read about half the universe in her books but I think the funny thing is she hasn't actually seen many of the things she knows about.

Comments and votes are appreciated :)