The Soldier and the Child

Chapter 5: Hydra

"When something feels off, it is." -Abraham Hicks

Percy couldn't sleep.

That should've been their first warning.

Whether it was on a slanted floor or on a really uncomfortable bench, Percy could sleep anywhere. He generally did when he and Winter were moving around at the dead of night, his sleep schedule often just being whenever he could get a few hours of sleep while Winter looked out.

But that night was different, and Percy couldn't sleep.

He had paused when he was about to go to bed on the mattress on the floor as he realized the air felt weird.

It almost felt like there was a dense unseeing cloud in their small place of a base, one that kept telling him that something was wrong, that he needed to move. The same unseeing cloud was also the very thing keeping him awake, his body seemed full of energy.

"I can't sleep," Percy finally told Winter as he exited his room and walked toward the man sitting stiffly against a wooden chair that was facing toward the only entrance to the place.

Winter didn't say anything, and Percy couldn't tell if he was displeased or not as the mask he hid behind made its appearance.

But then Percy saw the tenseness in his shoulders, how his non-metal hand slightly clenched against his knee while the other gripped the pistol in his hands a bit tighter. How his legs, previously being crossed, suddenly straightened and stayed that way.

He saw the alertness in Winter almost instantly despite how minuscule it was, he didn't have to read his actual face, but rather his body language.

But seeing how tense his guardian was, made Percy himself tense even as his stomach felt nauseous, something he had been feeling since they left the tourist spot they visited earlier and Winter said they could stay one more day.

"Go put on your hoodie and lie on the floor by me," Winter finally said as his eyes swiped from the only door to the place to the two windows by the kitchen.

Knowing how paranoid his friend was, not that Percy was feeling any better right now, Percy quietly padded over toward the small table that was designated kitchen counter and grabbed his sweatshirt. Pulling the cloth over his head and arms, Percy felt a bit of warmth flow back through his body as the place they were in didn't have any heating or cooling because that required them to be on the grid.

As Percy was about to sit down near Winter's feet and try to get a few hours of sleep, a crashing sound had both males in the building looking toward the broken window where some type of cylindrical device had been thrown in with circles along its sides.

Winter had recognized the flash device immediately and dove his body to cover Percy's body. "Cover your ears," he shouted and saw Percy shove his hands over his ears as the flashbang suddenly went off.

The flash of the stun grenade didn't affect him nearly as bad but his hearing was certainly affected. Whether it was because of the chemicals they had long since injected into him, but his hearing has always been better than the average human. So a stun grenade this close to him disorientated the Winter Soldier immediately even as he tensed and turned his slightly blurry vision toward the door that had gotten kicked down.

He didn't think when his mind pierced together they held M4A1's, he just reacted by pointing his pistol at the intruder and firing off instincts. Knowing Percy was more than likely still disorientated, Winter turned toward the kitchen and saw two bodies coming into the room with their own weapons.

Two more shots, two more dead bodies. He had four more bullets, and from the way the men kept coming into the room, they had more than four men.

He knew this because he recognized the insignia patch on their arms, after all, almost everyone knew what Hydra's logo looked like.

Knowing this was going to end in life or death, the Winter Soldier fired his shots and then used his gun as a weapon itself as he raced at the nearest alive soldier that had gotten close to them.

But there were too many, and the place was too small and only had one exit, something he'd have to fix later if they lived, and soon his arms were pinned behind him even as he got stunned from a cattle prod one of them brought with him.

Percy himself seemed to finally recover from the shock and stunning from their entry but had been pinned down himself. His eyes wide as he stared at Winter as they electrocuted him, something in his stomach rebelling with the action.

"Stop that!" Percy shouted as the man with the cattle prod stunned his friend once more.

The man, at least, Percy assumed it was a man based upon his masked reflection and black tinted glasses he was wearing, just turned his head toward Percy before looking at the man holding Percy down.

Percy didn't know much Spanish, the only language he remotely knew was Greek and that was because a vendor had apparently spoken it and Percy just replied easily without thought as it sounded like English to him. But he thought he pieced together the words: not need, throw away, being directed at him.

If anything, the increased struggle from Winter confirmed the few pieces Percy had gathered from what the man said to the guy holding him, and Percy struggled against his captive as the man grabbed his arms and lifted him to his feet, forcing him to stand.

The man had finally seemed fed up with Winter's struggles though as another man handed him this red book, Percy noticed, as he started saying words that didn't make sense: Longing, Rusted, Seventeen, Daybreak--

The more he spoke, the more Percy realized, as he was dragged away, that Winter had struggled strongly as the first hint, but his body was slowly stopping and his eyes, the bit he could see from where he was at, seemed almost dead inside.

Something snapped when Percy saw it.

And then all he heard was the ocean in his ears.