Not Quite a Soldat

2

Chanel decided to take Steve and Nat's advice to drop the HYDRA/S.H.I.E.L.D. project. She didn't even want it in her apartment. She knew exactly where to bury the information but first she needed to start with returning books on it to the library. Then Chanel would head back home and get rid of the other information. Not information, evidence at this point. Her stomach rumbled and Chanel realized she hadn't eaten breakfast yet or lunch. She had gotten so used to Sam feeding her that she didn't realize she hadn't been making food or eating outside of the three times a day visits.

Hopefully, Steve and Natasha would return him soon. But Chanel also hoped Sam was having a good time doing whatever he was doing with them. Chanel dropped the books off at the library before stopping at a food truck. The lemonade felt refreshing as it went down her throat. She dropped the change in the tip jar and took her tacos. Maybe Sam would be able to make tacos?

"Sorry, ma'am. New rule, no open food on the bus even if you aren't eating."

"Oh, well when's the next bus?"

"Ten minutes."

"That's fine then, thank you."

"Have a nice day."

The driver closed his doors and Chanel quickly shoved the rest of the taco into her mouth so she could get on the next bus. She finished the lemonade and threw it away as well. The next bus rolled up in exactly ten minutes like the other driver said and she got on, greeting the driver. Chanel decided maybe she should take a long ride on the bus before going home so she could clear her head. That would require music.

She pulled some earbuds out of her backpack— the dog tags attached to it jingling— looking at the tangled mess, sighing as she started to pull at the strings. Chanel was almost done untangling them when she was thrown from her seat as the whole bus tipped over, broken glass spilling everywhere. She looked up as best as she could.

"Steve?"

Chanel watched the Captain America grab his shield and try his best to stand straight in the bus he had just crashed into. She didn't have much time to process because that's when she heard the screaming and gunshots. It was all very discombobulating but Chanel knew one thing, the bullets hadn't gone through the bus yet. The bus was currently the safest place, clearly not being the target of whatever was going on. Until she heard some more yelling and then eerie silence. Steve looked at Chanel and grabbed her, shoving her body behind him and the shield. She screamed as the bullets pierced through the bus. Steve guided her out of the bus.

"Wait, wait! Let her go. She's a civilian, let her go!" Steve yelled once they were in the middle of the street.

Chanel peered from behind his shoulder to see lots of men with lots of guns. One of the men, the boss she assumed, nodded. Steve shoved Chanel, telling her to run. Having seen enough action movies and learning a lot from her siblings and father, Chanel knew better than to run in a straight line. She didn't care how silly she looked running in a zig-zag pattern, if those men at any point turned on her, she wasn't going to make it easy.

Of course, bad luck seemed to be following Chanel that day. She ran away from Steve only to be on the exact same street that Nat was fighting. Nat made eye contact with her, screaming for Chanel to get away before Natasha was shot in the shoulder. Chanel gasped as she watched Nat sink down behind a car, clutching her shoulder. Chanel looked up to see the culprit of who shot her, some man with a metal arm. The elusive Winter Soldier that she had read about in the notebooks of a few soldiers.

Whereas the Winter Soldier was ignoring all the other screaming pedestrians, he was staring right at her. Chanel realized that as he stalked deliberately her way. This was it, they already knew about her. She wasn't target number one but HYDRA had definitely told him about her, or maybe he saw Chanel's name and face in a debriefing on Steve and Nat. Either way, she was a target— even if it was a small one.