SHIELD Agent Eleanor Flint

Chapter 4

The gunfire outside was faint but still audible. So far, that was the only sense I could identify. I breathed in through my nose. The cold air had no particular stench to it, just stone and earth. I was at a disadvantage. A huge one. I was alone in a dark room five feet under this base and there was possibly an 0-8-4 right in front of me. 

I pressed my earpiece. "Clint? Do you copy?" 

Nothing. 

I breathed in and tried again. "Natasha, do you copy?" 

Again, nothing. 

My heart rate rose again and my breathing quickened. I shut my eyes, which made no difference to the darkness in the room and began counting to ten. 

"Think, Ellie, think." 

I opened my eyes again. Or did I? Who knows. It's still pitch black. The best thing I could do for myself is to figure out where I am. Know my surroundings, find a way out. I'm on a mission, I have to complete it. Find the 0-8-4. 

I reached my hand behind me to touch the cold stone wall. I slowly turned and drug my hand across the wall as I walked, trying to make out the basic shape of the room I was in. I held the hand that was holding my gun out in front of me to make sure I didn't run into anything. So far as I walked, I concluded that the room was round. 

I stopped in my journey around the room and began to walk across to the center of the room. Sitwell said there was something right ahead of me, maybe that was the 0-8-4. I took about ten steps forward before the barrel of my gun tapped something. I stopped and blindly reached forward with my other hand and touched something metal. Little square pieces rose from the surface, leading me to assume they were buttons. Perhaps this was a control panel. My hand trailed further up the panel until it came to another surface that jutted up from the panel. My hand reached a ledge on the second surface and I felt the flat top. A pedestal? I reached forward and the tips of my fingers touched an object of no definite shape, rather it was made of multiple shapes. 

I placed my entire palm on the object and a surge of energy ripped through my body like a wave crashing over me. There was a loud boom and I was blown back to hit the wall behind me. 

~~~

Suddenly the quietness was replaced with loud gunfire. I sat up and looked around. Pitch black. I was still in the mysterious room. What just happened in the last five minutes or so? I touched something and I was blown back into the wall. Did I touch the 0-8-4? Oh... I set off an energy wave. Nice work, Ellie. 

The gunfire rang out overhead and I could only assume that meant that my team reached the base. If not, then I don't know what I would do. I looked ahead of me in the general direction of the 0-8-4. I set off another wave that Sitwell didn't track. What if... What if my team was hit? What if my team died and I was the cause of it? 

If that was the case, then that puts me in charge of the mission... In this dark room with no way out. My heart rate increased and the air suddenly felt tight. I took in deep breaths which turned into heaves as panic set in. I felt trapped. Familiarly trapped. I was trapped in a dark room not knowing what was going to happen next and I was scared. I glanced down at my unseen hands, feeling frost spread over them. I quickly wiped them on my pants and shook my head. Not yet. The gunfire ceased and I sat in silence. Waiting... 

"Ellie?" 

I stood as soon as I heard Clint's voice on my earpiece. 

"Clint, I'm here!" I shouted. 

"Oh, thank God," Clint sighed. "What the hell happened? Where are you?" 

"I'm below the base with the 0-8-4," I answered. "I think I set off an energy wave by touching it."