Chapter 4
"Barney? Are you awake?"
Clint was scared. As any seven year-old would be if all you could hear were the sounds of your parents screaming at one another right below your bedroom.
This night was no different than any of the others in Clint's short span of memory. His parents began fighting at the drop of the faucet, and it always escalated into shouting matches that all of Iowa could hear. He hoped and prayed that his father wouldn't make his way upstairs to take out any remaining frustrations on he and his brother like he usually did.
That happened far too often.
"Yeah. I hear them too."
"Can I stay in here?"
"Sure."
The small boy slid underneath the covers, his head resting by his brothers feet.
"I'm gonna get outta here one day, bud. I can't take all this fighting anymore."
"Will you take me with you?"
"Course I will."
........
The next morning when he woke, he finds a note on the side table, and Barney is just...... gone. At the time, he was naive enough to believe that the runaway boy would return for him.
On the ride over to talk to Bruce,
all Clint can think about is his wife. Every promise he made that he would do his best to make this place a different Waverly than the one he was raised in. Promising her that their child would be the happiest and safest child on the planet. Their child would have two loving parents, and a slew of protective aunts and uncles to watch over them.
When did that dream slip away? When did the town he was supposed to be protecting become a nightmare worse than anything he ever imagined as a child? Why does he consistently prove his father right? That he is no good. Can't do any good for anyone.
All he knows is that he has to get to Tasha's office as quickly as possible. He needs to see her, and hold her, and kiss her. That woman and the child she is carrying are Clint's whole world. Everything that is good and right in his life. He knows that he has to protect them. He has to protect his friends. Has to protect what portion of this town is still sane.
Thor can't seem to turn away from the body in the holding cell.
He had volunteered to stay at the station and wait for Steve to arrive with Sitwell, while everyone else went to meet with Natasha and Bruce.
His entire body shutters at the blood splatter on the wall, running down in a perfect trail to meet with the lifeless man on the cell floor.
Scott Lang was a good man. A very good man. He had completely turned his life around, and was so very, very happy with Hope and Cassie.
He feels another shutter run through his entire body remembering the image of the man's house engulfed in flames. Knowing Hope was trapped in there. Knowing there was nothing he could do.
He finally turns his eyes away from the lifeless man to look at the drawer of his desk containing the magazine cut-outs of different engagement rings that Maria had helped him pick out.
Maybe wedding fever was contagious, because not even a full year after Clint and Natasha's wedding, Steve proposed to Bucky, and only a week later, Thor called Maria up in the middle of the night telling her that he wanted to go shopping for engagement rings.
The chain of thoughts have him pulling out his phone and calling Jane in an instant.
"This is Jane Foster. I can't make it to the phone right now. Please leave me a message and I will call you back as soon as I become available. Thank you."
Thor knows that he can't say too much without breeding panic, so he just goes with his instincts.
"Jane, I know a lot of weird shit is happening right now, so I need you to know that I am going to keep you safe. You are the most important thing in this world to me. I love you. So much."
"Bucky. Doll, talk to me."
...........
"Steve! It's pouring down rain, and you want to stop and enjoy the scenery!?"
Steve couldn't help the joyous laughter at the sight of Bucky soaked from head to toe standing right in front of him, wind blowing his long hair across his face. He was wearing a bright smile all the same.
He doesn't think he can contain the love he has for his best friend in his body.
So he pulls him in close and kisses him breathless.
The day had not gone to plan at all. Steve had asked Sam if he could drive out to his family's hunting cabin. He and Bucky were to have lunch together by the lake, then take a hike around the property. He was going to keep the ring hidden until the end of the day, and then when they were watching the sunset from the truck bed out in the massive fields behind the lake, he would ask Bucky the question that had been on his lips since Natasha and Clint's wedding a few months earlier.
It was hardly two in the afternoon, when they get poured on while hiking in the small patch of woods across the road from the cabin.
When Steve pulls away from Bucky's lips, he decides that now is strangely the perfect time to drop to one knee. The two of them have done everything unconventional from the very first time they met at the age of twelve, anyway.
Steve can't possibly hold back the happy tears when he hears,
"Of course I'll marry you, punk."
...........
Bucky finds that he has to think of happy memories to drive away the sight of Selvig hanging from the wall, and Sitwell's murderous rampage.
"I need you to keep talking to me, sugar. How bad are your injuries?"
Steve has one hand on the steering wheel. The other is pressed to Bucky's abdomen, underneath both of his fiancé's hands, trying to slow the bleeding.
Between his worried glances at Bucky, and trying to hold back the pool of red, it is a miracle that he hasn't ran the car off the road by now.
All Steve can see racing through his mind is the image of Sitwell standing above Bucky, ready to kill him.
He's startled back into the moment when Bucky clears his throat next to him.
"Neither puncture wound is too deep. Nat will probably give me a local anesthetic and sew me up."
He grabs tight to Steve's hand then, the man's warmth and presence willing away his nerves.
His voice is hardly a whisper when he turns to speak to Steve again.
"He was going to kill me, Stevie."
Steve just leans over and places a soft kiss on Bucky's cheek before turning his attention back to the road.
"I wouldn't have let it happen. Buck, I'll never let anything happen to you, okay? You're always gonna be safe with me."
Bucky takes a few steadying breaths before closing his eyes and nodding in understanding.
Steve calms immeasurably when he sees a small smile tug at his fiancé's lips.
"Things were so much easier when I was the one swooping in and saving you."
"Tasha?"
Yes, it's been a rough few days. Can Nat really be blamed if she just breaks down in Clint's arms as soon as he steps through the door?
"I'm okay. This is just all a lot to process."
Rhodes steps forward as soon as she untangles from her husband to place a soft hand on her shoulder. He's a bit better at making comforting gestures than Bruce had been just a few moments before.
"We're going to get a handle on all of this ma'am. Dr. Banner is the best in his field, and hopefully combining his intelligence with the likes of yours and Mr. Barnes' we can find a solution."
Nat finds it a bit unnerving that these men came out of nowhere and know so much about seemingly all of her friends.
Clint, as always, can just tell that she is overwhelmed, and takes her hand in his own.
"Bucky was the first one to make the correlation to the rhabdoviridae. It explains why the infected are experiencing the cerebral hemorrhaging and deterioration."
She finds a sudden fire brewing in her, remembering Hope's face as she drove away the day before. These men are here under the pretense of helping, only after two innocent people, two of her friends, have lost their lives.
"What the Hell were you thinking weaponizing something like this? Who could you possibly be protecting creating a strain like that!?"
Clint just squeezes her hand, and tries to calm her.
"Tasha, just stay calm."
"No. I won't. I sent a man out of here yesterday who was infected by their little experiment, and he murdered his wife! You can't just come down here and sweep this under the rug! They had a little girl! What are you going to tell her!? Sorry, sweetheart, but we couldn't save everyone."
Rhodes actually shies away from her at that point, sensing a shift in the air. It's easy to forget that these are people who are seeing those they've worked and lived with for years just, losing their minds.
It's why he knew he had to be placed on this assignment. Tony was always an arrogant ass, but he is a very good man, and he and Pepper call this place home. He can't imagine what this is doing to them. Seeing chaos just descending on their town.
"We've made mistakes. I'm here to try and help atone for them. I can't do it without help from all of you, though."
The weight of those words echoes in the small room, everyone seeming to fully grasp the severity of what they are about to face. Clint pulls Natasha into his side, while Rhodes and Bruce try to look everywhere else but at the two.
Tony suddenly jumps from his seat and stares out the window. He whips around to face the group, and everyone tenses at the expression on his face, before he throws open the doors to the clinic, and reveals Steve clutching onto Bucky, who is still losing blood.
He reaches out to help Steve guide Bucky across the floor, and sit him on an examination table. Steve is eyeing the two new faces wearily as Tony places a firm hand on Bucky's shoulder.
"What the Hell happened to you?"
Natasha is already throwing on gloves and digging through cupboards before Bucky is even fully seated.
Steve finally turns away from the two men to answer Tony.
"You should see the other guy."
Bucky makes an absolutely horrified face at his fiancé, before using what strength he does have to punch him in the arm.
"Steve. That is so inappropriate."
Natasha pushes everyone out of the way to pull Bucky's shirt off of his body.
"Steve, reach into that cupboard behind you and hand me the bottle of Lidocaine. Tony, if you could grab me an ice pack, I can start to numb these wounds."
She is furiously at work, already wiping away the blood from his shoulder, making sure to use a dry cloth, not daring use the water from the tap. Then realizing the wound is not all that deep, she wraps it up with gauze.
"You're definitely going to need a suture for the stomach. What happened, люблю?"
He smiles at the nickname. At first he hated it, but finally considered it a fair trade off for him being the only one allowed to call her Natalia. The smile doesn't last very long however, when he remembers exactly how he received the wounds. Absentmindedly, he reaches to his left, and thankfully Steve understands. The man steps forward and grabs a hold of his hand, before clearing his throat and addressing the room.
"When I went over to the funeral home, I found Sitwell standing over him with a bloody scalpel, preparing to stab him to death. So I put a bullet in his chest."
Steve hates that Bucky has the same vacant expression as before. It's not like the way Selvig looked at Clint, or how Sitwell looked standing over him. There is nothing but fear in his fiancé's eyes. After all that Bucky has done for him, Steve abhors that he can't make the love of his life feel like he's protected from things like this.
"Jesus."
It's Clint's turn to be ghost white, reaching out in front of him to hold onto the countertop and steady himself.
"This Extremis has now killed four people. You still convinced that we can put a cap on the situation, Colonel?"
There is a hostility in Clint's quiet statement that absolutely unnerves everyone in the room.
"What the Hell is Extremis?"
Bucky finally finds his voice to ask the question to Rhodes, who seems to plan each word before he speaks them.
"It's a rhabdoviridae-based biological weapon created by the Air Force to be a fail-safe. An aircraft carrying the....."
"An aircraft carrying the strain crashed into the town's water supply. We've heard this story 100 times already, and still no one has given any type of solution."
Clint is now standing in front of the Colonel, seemingly challenging him to say one wrong thing. Give him one more reason to completely lose his mind with anger. He's got four damn bodies to answer for, and one of his best friends is now bleeding out right in front of him thanks in part to this disease. Needless to say, he is just plain pissed off.
"If you all weren't so invested in fighting me, maybe we could come to an agreement for course of action."
Bucky finally has a fire in his eyes again, and Steve is happy to see that his Bucky and his dominant personality are coming to the forefront of all the horrors that the day has wrought.
"Says the bastard who sneaks into town after the fact to try and save face for the government. Do you know what rabies does to people? It drives them mad. They completely lose their minds. They do shit like tie you down to a table and try and cut you open. It's not something that we can control."
Bruce steps forward, and stares Bucky down. That is, until Steve gives him a look that makes him back about ten feet away.
"Mr . Barnes, I think you're forgetting the fact that a rabies vaccine does exist."
Nat lets out a dry laugh from where she has started to prep Bucky for the stitches.
"Vaccines only work as a preemptive action, Doctor. We also already discussed the fact that you can't use an antivirus on a God damn laboratory experiment."
Tony steps into the center of the room before anyone has a chance to start throwing punches.
"Stop fighting! All of you! This is a scary situation obviously, but Rhodey didn't manufacture that strain. The only reason he's here is to try and help us. We're all very intelligent, capable people. If we put our heads together, I'm sure that we can come up with a solution."
The tension in the room seems to diffuse almost immediately after Tony finishes speaking. Everyone begins to tend to their own business.
Natasha starts to apply the stitches to Bucky's stomach, while Steve offers to drive back to their home and grab a change of clothes for him. Clint steps away from the group to send calls to Thor, Maria, and Sam.
Rhodes and Bruce find their way over to Tony, and the man looks to be absolutely drained from the stress of the day.
"This all is certainly going to hinder my campaign next year."
Rhodey just pats him on the arm, then leads him over to Natasha and Bucky.
"I owe you both an apology. I can't even imagine how harrowing all this must be. I'd like to start with a clean slate. Tony tells me that you're both incredibly intelligent. We need to get ahead of this thing. I still think our best bet is to gather everyone at the school, and quarantine those infected. From there, we can try and find a way to reverse the effects of the virus."
Bucky nods in agreement, then looks up at Rhodey, ready to try and work with the man to help this town that he calls home.
"How long is the incubation period?"
"After forty-eight hours, you're either dead, or you don't have it."
Natasha doesn't look up from her work, but adds her thoughts all the same.
"I don't think it's a coincidence that Sitwell, Selvig, and Scott are the three closest houses to Odin's Mire. They'd have been exposed to the strain first."
She places a soft hand on Bucky's cheek then, smirking down at her friend.
"All finished. I told you that a private water supply would pay off in the end."
And, damn. He hadn't even thought about it, but how incredibly lucky it is indeed. Both Clint and Nat's, and his and Steve's homes had a borehole for a singular water supply, meaning that they would have no way of coming into contact with the disease. That is, unless....
"It's still just waterborne? No possible way of being transmitted through blood? I've now been in close contact with two infected individuals."
Bruce clears his throat then, the rest almost forgetting the man had been standing there the whole time.
"I can say with certainty that you'll be fine. All of my scans on this virus have shown that it only spreads in water, not blood. When the government created it, they meant for it to be released into a major water supply, therefore causing mass infection as quickly as possible."
Rhodes just clenches his eyes shut, and shakes his head. He's proud of his service, and wouldn't change a thing about his line of work, but things like this make him really wonder what horrors could possibly constitute a design of this caliber.
"Just another of a very long list of mistakes that this country has made recently."
Sam is growing very antsy. He and Maria are making the drive back into town after her stay at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids. Upon examination the night before, paramedics discovered that she had a minor concussion, and Sam had drove her to the hospital, and stayed with her all night.
She hasn't said anything since they had gotten in the car, just sitting in her seat and staring out her window, lost in thought.
He reaches over and shuts off the radio, then searches his mind for the right words to say.
"It wasn't your fault, Hill."
"Don't even start with that shit."
"Maria....."
"No. I was right there. I was right fucking there and I let him catch me off guard. Now Hope is dead."
He wants to press further, but knows that Maria will just grow more dismissive if he pushes the issue too far, so he stays quiet.
They sit in silence for what feels like another eternity, before she turns and speaks to him in a very small voice.
"Thank you for staying with me last night."
It's not much, but it's a start. Eventually he'll have her talking it all out.
Before he has a chance to respond, he comes over a hill, and sitting on the other side is a road block. A man in military uniform is seemingly standing guard at the makeshift gate, a fleet of Humvees lining the road on the other side.
He pulls up to the man, then rolls down his window.
"Afternoon. This road open to local traffic?"
"I'm afraid not, sir. I have strict orders to re-route everyone to the truck depot on State Route 90. This whole area is under quarantine."
That has both deputies attention in an instant.
Maria nudges Sam out of the way and leans over him to address the man.
"Quarantine for what? Was there a chemical spill? We're both on the Waverly police force, something like that is top priority for us."
"I don't know any details, Ma'am. Just know my orders."
She makes to argue, but Sam just raises his hand and cuts her off.
"Not a problem. We'll head out that way. Thank you."
As he turns the car around and drives off in the direction they just came, he can just feel Maria's frustrated eyes on him.
"Call Clint. Maybe he'll tell us what the Hell that was all about."
She sighs frustratedly, but does as he asks regardless.
"I'm not getting a signal."
Sam reaches down into the console and fishes out his cell, then passes it to his friend.
"Try mine."
She repeats the same process from seconds before, once again to no avail.
"Still nothing."
It's hard to place, but Sam feels a panic rising inside of himself. He leans forward to turn the radio back on, and sure enough, it's not a welcome sound.
"All local stations are down until further notice. KCRG apologizes for any inconvenience."
That's all he has to hear before he's shutting the thing off once again.
"You know what, Hill? Waverly's in trouble."
"Why?"
"Because they don't want us to know what's going on past that barricade."
It's been a rough few days for Jane. After now two bodies in the morgue, the students were starting to become unnerved. For a community as small and close-knit as Waverly, things like this have a way of shaking everyone to their core.
All day today had been meetings with psychologists, and a rally in the auditorium for a fundraiser for Cassie's college fund.
When she pulls her phone from her purse, she finds a voicemail from Thor, and opens it right away.
"Jane, I know a lot of weird shit is happening right now, so I need you to know that I am going to keep you safe. You are the most important thing in this world to me. I love you. So much."
The man sometimes makes her want to rip every hair from her head, but he always makes up for it in the smallest of ways. Be it like now, knowing exactly what to say, or just the right touch to will her nerves away, he is the best of her life.
All of a sudden, the power in the building is cut out, and the dim red pools of light filling the empty halls let her know that the back-up generator kicked on.
Add this to the list of reasons why she will be requesting an extended vacation at the end of the year.
She begins to make her way to the stairwell, headed to the main power board located in a supply closet on the third floor.
If at all possible, it's even darker on this floor. The only light coming from the large window on the opposite end of the corridor.
Also down there is the silhouette of a man.
Closer inspection reveals Happy staring back at her, expression completely dead.
And, damn. Jane's seen that look before. Right before Clint put a bullet in Erik Selvig.
Before she can even blink, the man is charging at her, looking murderous.
So she runs. Turns away, and bolts as quickly as her feet will carry her, careful not to lose her footing on the steps.
As soon as she hits the floor on the ground level, she is full on sprinting toward the exit doors. She can hear Happy close behind, screaming incoherently.
As she rounds the corner to the small hall leading to the doors, she's surprised to see an older man in an army uniform standing at the entrance to the building.
As soon as the guy spots Happy behind her, she has but a few heartbeats to drop to the floor, before the guy is placing a bullet square between his eyes.
She doesn't dare look back as she nearly crawls across the floor toward the man.
He has a name on his uniform, Ross.
"Are you alright?"
She nods, unable to formulate any words.
He reaches down for a radio hanging off his pocket.
"Rumlow, initiate containment protocol."
"Any particular reason you grabbed the tightest pair of jeans I own, Stevie?"
And there's that blush that Bucky adores.
"You look good in these, Buck."
Clint makes a noise of agreement to which Nat swats him in the back of the head.
Once he is sorted and clothed, the four make their way back over to Rhodes, Tony, and Bruce.
"Dr. Banner, did you and your team ever come close to a cure?"
At Nat's words, the man's face falls. She figures that more than answers her question.
"Unfortunately not. This strain quite literally hi-jacks major brain functions. Whoever the infected were before the virus is wiped away."
The room is eerily silent after that, hope draining with each passing second.
The doors to the clinic are suddenly thrown open, and two men in swat gear come storming over the threshold, guns drawn.
"This town is now under Marshal Law. We need everyone to calmly file out of the building to the shuttle which will transfer you to the quarantine zone."
Rhodes raises his hands in a placating gesture as he steps forward.
"Whose orders? I was sent here directly by Representative Pierce himself along with General Thaddeus Ross."
One of the two steps dangerously close to Rhodes, a menacing smile sitting on his lips.
"Well, Ross is sitting at the highschool right now if you'd like to address the issue at its source."
"All available personnel clearance level eight to the situation room. Containment Protocol enacted."
And Sharon's day just went from a slew of mindless reports and bland coffee, to completely full throttle insanity in less than ten seconds.
Everyone is buzzing with confusion, trying to squeeze any information out of those among them who may have access to it.
As she enters the small room, only herself, Director Fury with the Homeland Division, Representative Pierce, and surprisingly Iowa's Senator Stern are present.
"Am I the only one who heard the call?"
Pierce makes his way over to her, and places a soft hand on her shoulder as he leads her to sit at the table with the rest of the group.
"You are the only level eight not already on location for this excursion, dear."
As she takes her seat, she reaches toward the center of the table and grabs the manila file labeled, "Project: Extremis"
Her heart drops into her stomach when she reads Waverly, Iowa listed as the contamination area. That would explain why Stern is there.
The thing is, she used to spend summers out in Waverly, visiting one of her favorite non-relatives whom she endearingly called Uncle Howard. Her Aunt Peggy was closer to very few other people, and she absolutely adored, 'precious little Tony'.
Sharon always thought he was kind of an asshole.
"What the Hell happened?"
Fury doesn't say a word. Even with just the one eye visible, Sharon can tell that Pierce would be flat on the floor if looks could kill.
The man looks to the group of people slowly before finding his words.
"Project Extremis was being overseen by myself and General Ross. It was created to be a fail-safe in situations where our armed forces weren't enough to neutralize threats. The strain was a modified version of the rabies virus, and a cargo craft carrying the virus to be incinerated was lost en route three days ago. Yesterday, an e-mail was sent to a Professor Helen Cho in Cedar Rapids. Waverly's medical examiner, James Barnes had noticed a trace of rhabdoviridae while running tests on a saliva sample. I sent Ross, Colonel James Rhodes, and both Rumlow and Rollins to ascertain the threat. See if it was truly our virus that Mr. Barnes had encountered. After examining another infected individual, Ross is sure that we've found the missing plane."
Sharon places the folder back on the table and grabs her head in both hands. Pierce's words still ricocheting inside her skull.
"What does this Extremis do, exactly?"
She knows before she even finishes asking the question that she doesn't particularly want to hear the answer.
Fury jumps in before Pierce has a chance to speak.
"Allow me, Representative. You'll just do more of that sugar-coating bullshit. It's a pawn of the rabies virus, Ms. Carter. Once infected, the individual starts to deteriorate mentally at alarming rates until they eventually die less than two days later. This particular strain turns the infected into mindless murderers. Your boss wanted a killing machine, and unfortunately for this town, he got one."
She feels absolutely sick as she sends a prayer to her Aunt Peggy to watch over 'precious little Tony'.
Madness. Absolute madness.
Mothers are separated from their children, wives from husbands, brothers from sisters.
The school is a labyrinth of sealed off corridors and holding chambers, each corner leading to yet another mass of arteries extending around the entire perimeter of the complex.
Most men here are dressed in Hazmat suits, and are parading the hoards of terrified people through this Hell.
Clint holds tight to Natasha as they are lead through the crowds, almost anchoring himself in her presence. Behind them, Steve is holding Bucky in identical fashion, careful however not to put any pressure on his fiancé's wounds. Rhodes, Tony, and Bruce are also close behind, looking just as disturbed as anyone else on the premises.
"Tasha, what are they doing?"
He's looking toward two men up ahead, stopping everyone before they pass.
"They're checking for fevers. I assume to try and isolate those already infected."
"Clint? Clint!"
The group turn to see Thor being dragged away down one of the chambers, seemingly leading to the football field.
"Find Jane! They won't tell me where she is. Please find her!"
"What are you doing to him? Where are they taking him?"
Clint's questions don't even seem to register to the man escorting them through the maze. He brings them up to the two he mentioned earlier, and that's when all Hell breaks loose.
He is deemed all clear and pushed along out of the way, but only a moment later, both men are forcibly pulling Natasha away from him, her temperature registering high enough to elicit panic in them both.
"Wait. WAIT! She's pregnant, that's what the fever is!"
"CLINT!"
The scene becomes a massive struggle then, Nat fighting against the men taking her away, Clint fighting to pull the two away from his wife, and Steve trying to keep Clint from getting himself shot.
"SIR, STEP BACK."
"FUCK THAT!"
"Clint, calm down!"
"Steve help me, not them! Be careful with her, she's carrying a child!"
They're all stunned a moment later when one of the men knocks Clint out cold with his rifle's shoulder stock.
As Steve helplessly watches Nat being carried away, he blindly begins reaching for his fiancé.
And then his heart nearly stops beating in his chest.
"Bucky? Bucky!?"
He's spinning around, searching the surrounding crowds frantically for his fiancé, who just vanished into thin air.
He bounds across the floor in an instant, taking a hold of Tony and forcing him to look in his eyes.
"Where did they take him?"
"Who?"
"Bucky! Where is he?"
Nothing.
He's just....
Gone.