Insanity

Chapter 22

Song: Flesh and Bone by Black Math

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"Break the truth inside of me, 
call down the hand on the 
devil's tree."

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The force of the kick knocked him backwards and before he knew what was happening, the woman who he was supposed to be killing had her legs wrapped around his throat, sending his weapon clattering to the ground. In a not-creepy way, he suddenly had a weird feeling of deja-vu, as if he'd been stuck in a scenario similar to this sometime before. He tried to bring his hands up to throw her off of him but she managed to wrap a wire she had pulled from God-knows where around his hands and under his chin, keeping his hands firmly in place and slowly beginning to cut off his air supply.

Soldier, however panicked he was feeling, knew he was far stronger than she was, seeing as she was grunting just trying to keep his hands in place. With one swift stroke he snapped the wire away from his hands and threw her off of him, sending her soaring several feet away and smashing into the side of the car. He figured she'd be out cold for a while but so far on this mission, few of his assumptions had seemed to work out so he decided not to take any chances.

Soldier was correct, and the woman began to regain her footing. Thankfully, his weapon hadn't gotten too far, and he was able to retrieve it fairly quickly, hurrying to get it ready to fire. He wasn't fast enough, however, and the woman tossed a small disk at his left arm before getting up and bolting away, a terrified look in her green eyes. Soldier was just about to pull the trigger of his weapon but as the disk came in contact with his arm it stung like an electric eel had wrapped around his arm, sending electric shocks through every part of it and suddenly making him regret having feeling in his arm. Slowly, his arm began to grow still and despite the blinding pain, he couldn't move it an inch. He winced and his arm began to light up a bright electric blue in between all of the joints and divets, sparking worryingly. Using his opposite hand he dropped his weapon and pried the disk off, throwing it to the ground where it proceeded to smash to pieces.

Soldier's arm slowly regained control, and he wondered where the woman had gotten such high tech equipment; was that the kind of stuff S.H.I.E.L.D. had nowadays? It seemed so unlike them. He curled and flexed his fingers, assuring himself he had full control back. He had control, but his whole arm felt tight as if he'd given its nonexistent muscles an insane workout. He shook his wrist out and gave his arm an aggressive roll in his shoulder socket, accompanied by an unhappy whirr from the deadly arm.

Once again, his weapon was on the floor. Soldier scooped it up and took to a speed walk, hunting down the woman, his blood practically boiling with loathing for her and her irritatingly expert fighting tactics. It seemed wherever she went she yelled at people to run, so perhaps if he followed the noise he'd be able to find her.

As he had earlier, Soldier weaved in and out of abandoned vehicles in search of the woman. He tried to tune his senses to search only for her, to find out where she went. He strained his eyes to search every crack and crevice, checking every door he passed. He heard the faint sound of people screaming in the distance and he ran in that direction, following what he hoped to be the source of the sound.

Swells of people began to appear, and Soldier hadn't realized how fast he'd really been running. People were still jumping out of cars, still running away from him with terrified looks on their faces. As he passed by one car he thought to be abandoned, he heard a muffled sob come from inside of the smashed window. He whipped his machine gun towards the noise, pointing the tip of it through the window. He expected to see the woman, and he was only partially wrong; it was a woman, but not the woman. She was struggling to detach a child's seatbelt and when she saw Soldier, she froze. The woman covered what looked to be a small child's carseat, her skinny body sprawled across the small child so only its little legs were poking out. For a brief second she looked scared, like she was afraid she was about to be killed. Then, a look of bravery crossed over her face, and she glared at Soldier. "So, you're gonna kill me?" she asked rhetorically, and Soldier noticed a slight shake in her voice.