8
Russia
5989.77 Miles From New York
The Quinjet traveled on further, what Daisy could only guess was further into Russia, hours past but Daisy didn’t know how many. The silence between the two was still tense, Daisy shifted herself every so often to stop her legs cramping up and try to wake her body up, so it wouldn’t fall asleep on her. Every once and a while she would look over to The Metal Armed Man, wondering if he was going to talk or do anything, as so far she had not seen him do anything other than kidnap her, threaten her and offer little conversation. Did he sleep? Did he eat? Did he ever take a moment to stretch or do anything…un-robotic?
Looking at her feet for the hundredth time, looking at the marks on her boots and where the different thick materials and fabrics met, Daisy tried to not think but to no avail. It was then that the light from the front of the Quinjet changed, as they left daylight into something else. Looking up, she could just about see they glided into somewhere and descended into darkness, then the Quinjet sat itself down and Daisy could feel the motion of the jet ceasing to operate and shutting its engines off.
For a moment The Quinjet’s pilot did nothing but sit in his sit still. Saying nothing.
Daisy had to wonder whether he had shut himself down like the Quinjet.
Instead though, wordlessly and not looking at her, the man stood up and walked over to the hatch of the Quinjet, opened it and simply walk out, leaving Daisy in the dim illumination of the Quinjet in silence.
Is this a trick? Or am I going to be left here for good now? Daisy thought.
Stretching her fingers she tried to fidget and see how tight her bounds were and indeed they were still as tight as they were as when he tied them.
Damn boyscout ties too good knots. Daisy thought bitterly.
Signing to herself, she leant more against the wall panel behind her, looking upwards and wanting to wish herself away.
A brief moment later again the hatch opened and the Metal Armed Man walked in holding something, stumping over to her in his boots, he took her by the arm, pulled her up, cut through the binds on her ankles and arms, then passed the item to her.
“Wear this.” He said looking at her directly in the eye. “If you don’t you’ll freeze and die.”
Looking at it in her hands, it felt softer than anything she had ever felt, a beautiful mixture of golden blonde, autumn brown and tinted with gentle red was long hooded fur coat, with length and ruffles of some different fashion she didn’t, even its mass was surprising light.
“Its fur…” Daisy said slowly, holding it both hands away from herself. “I can’t wear this…its fur.”
The Metal Armed Man simply looked at her. Saying nothing, his eyes simply looking her with no emotion.
“Its fur…its wrong…it…” Daisy stopped herself, knowing giving an impassioned speech about the fur trade right then and there was both ridiculous and counter productive.
Grabbing the coat from her hands swiftly The Metal Armed Man throw the coat over her head, letting the hood land on her head.
Without another word, she put her hands in to the arm of the coat, letting her fingers just touch the tip of the cuff of the coat. Daisy had to admit, it was extremely warm, she pulled the coat closer and went to fiddle with trying to find the button to close it but she was taken by her right arm by her kidnapper and walk out of the Quinjet.
At least I’m not being carried like a sandbag. Daisy thought.
Stepping out of the Quinjet Daisy found that they were now in an old abandoned airfield hanger. The stiff dank smell of rusted metal and water hung heavy in the air, causing Daisy to rub her nose, the place had been abandoned for a while it seemed, growing in rust and ruin. From the high up broken windows the cold winter snow wind blew in and swirled around the large empty space, making a eerie echo hollow-like whistling noise around the hanger and making the lose hanging broken lighting fitting from the ceiling shape and shudder around themselves, knocking into each other with rust clang and bang. From where Daisy stood she could only see one sole lite part of the hanger off in the far distance, a dim yellow, an emergency light towards somewhere else. Her kidnapper gave her a moment to look, then begun to guild her to the light off in the distance, walking over the abandon metals scraps of machinery and tools, over the various oily puddles and to the light, Daisy could see the outline doorway, an edging of light escaping through the creaks in the door, as dim as it building light but not as yellowed tinged.
The doorway was not far from the corner, there was no signs or intention of what was inside, simply the double shut doors. Reaching out the metal with hand he pulled the door open with a handle Daisy couldn’t see in the light, flinging both doors open to reveal stairs descending down, the light that come through the doorframe was from below, where Daisy could see it escaping from.
Giving her arm a squeeze and leading her down, Daisy steadied herself, worried she would stumble down, but the grip of her kidnapper gave her balance despite their height difference between the two as they walked. Mentally Daisy counted the stairs, noticing the width of the steps were steep and wide, all in all she counted 24 steps before the entered into a large light room.
Inside Daisy found herself inside a solid cemented square room, 50 by 50 square foot, no window or other visible doors, alite by 2 large LED standing light bars from left to right, the space was scattered with more military wears, black boxes (gun boxes), 2 table, 1 with an open and switched on laptop, surrounding by a few knives of various types and styles, a military sleeping cot with a sleeping bag on the ground next to it, another table with a few metal cups, plates and unopened tins with labels in Russian and on the far wall, right in the centre was a large map, with various coloured pins and marks all over it.
Whilst taking in her surroundings Daisy didn’t notice that her kidnapper had let go of her arm, traveled back upstairs and slammed the door and bolted it shut with an all mighty clang with rang back down the stairs from behind her.
Turning back to face him she saw his blank face and cold eyes, she swallowed and pulled herself closer into the huge coat.
Moving past her he walked to the table where to the left which the metal cups and plates were. Taking one of the tins he pulled out a knife from his side, stabbed the tin, pulled and open it, then poured its content in a pan, turned away from her view and placed it on to something. Peeking slightly she saw that her kidnapper had a generator in front of him, a large green military bulky one, that came up to his middle, on top which Daisy could see a small stove (whether it was placed on there permanently or temporary she couldn’t tell).
“Sit.” He told her facing away from her whilst he busied himself with his stove.
Looking from left to right Daisy tried to see a chair or something to sit on, she could only see one stool in front of the open laptop which was not far from him and nothing else, feeling worried she wasn’t allowed looked at but asked “Where?”
Still not facing her he pointed to the stool not far from him on his right near the laptop.
Unsurely she walked over to the stool and sat, finding that it was quite high up, as her feet dangled over and she had to jump herself on to it. Sitting there, she tried to not let her feet swing over the edge. Again she pulled the coat closer. The room wasn’t very cold, the light from the LED bar lights, though not to full illumination gave off some warmth in the room, but the cemented room didn’t retain the warm it held, escaping away into it’s walls. It definitely not a room which was made to lived in as it seemed to be by the Metal Armed Man.
Trying her past Daisy tried to look at the screen of the laptop without seeming to but when she looked at screen she could only see a web page entirely in Russian, where not a single word was understood by Daisy, so instead she took to looking at the ground, to the grey concrete floor. At first there was nothing but the concrete but her eyes found a the crack of a line in the concrete that her eyes followed up towards where the military cot stood, underneath the sleeping bag to where it stopped, she frowned for a moment at the crack, but then thought nothing of it.
“Eat.” Said The Metal Armed Man as he slammed the laptop shut, shoved it over the table and placed a metal plate with fork in front of Daisy.
His words made her jump, she’d never seen anyone move and do anything as fast as him. She looked down at the food in front of her and tilted her head to the side puzzled, it was strange red brown colour, thick and steaming hot.
“What is it?”
“тушёнка.” He replied.
“Which is…?” Daisy said slowly, knowing her quota for asking questions to him was probably already met.
“Meat Stew.” With an annoyed exhaled his told her.
“Oh…” Daisy said, looking at the food in front of her. “Its just…I’m a vegetarian.”
“What?” He asked.
“Vegetarian, I don’t eat meat.” She explained.
“I know what a vegetarian is!” He hissed at her. He glared her, his lips pressed together in annoyance.
Still looking at the food she found herself saying. “Thank you though…but I can’t eat it.”
Again he stood still, not moving or saying anything, simply looking at her. Daisy could feel his eyes looking at her, so she kept her gaze downwards to the thick red stew.
Spinning on his heels the Metal Armed Man went back to the table with the cups and plates, grabbed another tin, opened it with his knife, poured it into a bowl and walked back over to her, pushed the metal plate of stew away and put the bowl down with a spoon in front of her.
“Eat.” He said again, more sternly.
Looking at it she could found tinned fruit, pinapple, peaches, cherries and grapes in thick syrup.
Daisy pushed up the long sleeves of the fur coat and took the bowl in her hands.
“Thank you.” She said, still not looking at him.
Not replying the metal armed man turned and walked away from her. He then sat down on the floor near one of the black cases, opened it and begun to busy himself with it.
Admittedly Daisy thought the fruit salad was overly sugary, their was too much syrup it in, the actual taste of the fruit was overpowered, but she was pleased to have something to eat. As she ate, she kept her gaze away from her kidnapper, instead watching as the steam of the cooked meat stew vanished as it grew colder and developed a skin on top of it. When she finished she put the bowl back on the table rubbed her sticky syrupy hands together and pulled herself into the coat.
Noticing she was finished, The Metal Armed Man stood up, took her finished bowl and the uneaten stew back to the table, placed them down.
“The cot is yours to sleep in.” He said facing away from her. “Its 2100.”
Looking over to the cot, Daisy didn’t move. She was tired but she wasn’t sure if she willing to sleep in the enclosed room with her kidnapper. Biting her lip she geared herself to speak, she inhaled a breath in preparation but couldn’t find the words. She tried again to speak but instead her kidnapper said. “Sleep now, we’re only going to be staying here for the night.”
“And then…?” She asked.
This time he turned to face her, twisting his head around and looked at her with stern but unreadable face.
“We begin.”
Both looked into each other’s eyes, it was only for a few seconds but it felt longer, his eyes revealed nothing, they were empty from his thoughts and feelings, looking into them unnerved Daisy, there was nothing Daisy could take from them to help to know anything and she knew that he would not be answering any more questions and to ask anymore would only antagonise him more than he was already was. Daisy was the one who broke the gaze, she jumped from the stool and walked over to cot, again pulling the oversized coat closer she laid down on to the cot, facing the wall, so not to face the direction of her kidnapper. Settling herself onto the cot, she pulled her legs up close to herself, cocooned herself within the coat, pulling the hood over head and covering her face, she closed her eyes and did all she could to try to try and allow sleep to begin, knowing full well that sleep was highly unlikely to come easily.
Despite everything, the unease, the uncertainty, the fear, the cold and stiffness of the cot, Daisy found herself drifting off to sleep, it happened so gradually that she didn’t even know. There was no dreams, but her body calmed and relaxed enough that her eyes remained shut and the silence of sleep engulfed her.
At first it came muffled into Daisy ears it did not to pull her out of her sleep, it was somewhere in the background far away, but as it grew louder, her senses reawakened and the sound become enhanced in her ears. The sound of someone hissing and almost growling lowly woke her fully. Her eyes flick opened, the hood of the coat still covered her, encasing her in temporary darkness. Eyes open she listened further to the noise. A angry throaty noise came from behind her and a words that she couldn’t tell were English or not followed. Very slowly she turned herself over, trying hard to not make any noise from the cot as she did so.
What she found was across the room, on the floor, laying on top of, not inside of, the sleeping bag was her kidnapper, he laying his side, his flesh arm beneath him, his hands were twitching, his free arms pulled near his chest, his legs spasming slightly, his face was contorted with emotions, his eyes were closed shut.
The Metal Armed Man was having a nightmare..
Gently Daisy swung her leg over the cot and looked at him, he gave another throaty almost yell and cursed in another language, it caused Daisy to shake from shock. She looked at him and then at the stairs up out to where the doors lead to where the Quinjet was, then back to him.
Well that’s not going to work. She thought bitterly. There’s no way he could have not locked those doors.
“Grraawwww….” Came a painful sound from her kidnapper.
Daisy felt sad for her kidnapper, his dream was obviously far from pleasant and most likely was memory based nightmare, which was heavily affecting him.
“No….” He said whimpered. “No…stop it…no…”
Because of her medical and Doctoring instincts Daisy stood up, she did it so quickly she didn’t think about it, she looked at his twisted contorted body, which was beginning to shake and shudder slowly.
Shouting aggressively The Metal Armed shrieked. “нет , пожалуйста!”
Slowly she walked over to him, she walked lightly on his feet. Swallowing she said in a gentle voice. “Hey…its okay…”
What am I doing?! Part of her mind wildly thought. Leave him be, there’s nothing you can do.
Another throaty scream pained noise escape him, the noise shook her as she walked, not just from how terrible it sounded but because it sounded familiar to her. She was a few feet away from him, she crouched now and said gently. “Its okay…its…”
Before Daisy could try to comfort him she saw his face contorted angrily, as something has happened to now enrage him, he gritted his teeth together, showing them slightly. Then she heard something that if she had realised what it was could of possible meant the end of her then and there.
A sound of click and buzzing came from him and before Daisy knew it, her kidnapper threw himself up, swinging his metal arm with his fist clenched outside towards Daisy.
Instinctually Daisy pushed herself backwards, pushing herself down to the ground away from the directed height of the swing. It was just inches away from the metal punch to her face, the way he propelled himself and threw his powerful metal arm had closed the gap between them and caused the swing to be more lethal.
Almost at the same time they landed, Daisy landing on her backside, sliding slightly so she was almost to the far wall, and The Metal Armed Man bearing down on the floor with his hand coming clashing on to the cemented floor with a heavy powerful thud.
Gasping for breath from the shock, the hood of the coat just about covered her eyes, but still gave her view a of her kidnapper, who was not far from her, on his knees with his palms pressed to the ground, head facing down, his dark long hair hanging down the side of his face.
Heavily he breathed, his chest rising and falling from where he was. Slowly he lifted up his head to look at Daisy. She expected to see his angry face, burning with a fire, she almost thought something dramatic like flames would be coming from his month. But instead his face was filled with shock and remorse, he looked at her, sweat running down his pale face, his eyes no longer empty and cold, but pained and painful to look at.
“I’m so sorry.” He said to her in low said voice, a voice she had never heard from him. “I’m so sorry…”
Looking at him, she didn’t move, she just looked directly at him, frightened and unsure.
With his metal armed he reached out towards her, there was distance between them but Daisy felt a jolt of fear and she pushed herself backwards more towards the wall behind her with her backside, she breathed heavily with fear as she did so.
“I’m sorry…please…I didn’t mean to…” He said, arm still reaching out as he shuffled on his knee towards her.
Pressed up against the wall, she pulled her legs up to her chest, trying to defend herself almost, he saw the mournful look in his face, desperate for forgiveness, reaching out with shiny metal arm towards her. Shaking she put her head between her knees, letting the hood of the coat fall over her, hiding her and hiding the sight before her of her kidnapper reaching out to her.
1…2…3…4…5 She counted in her head. 6…7…8…9…10
Arm still reaching out The Metal Armed Man looked at her, as she cowered away from him, hiding from him like a small child. Sweat run down his face. He pulled himself up to his knees and looked at her, his face slowly changed in a blank, dead, empty face, his breathing slowing, the rhythm of his breath easing. Slowly he pulled his metal arm back to his side and swallowed one last breath as he looked at Daisy against the wall, terrified.
Lowering his head to the floor, he stood himself from the ground, he kept his head down, his clenched his hands in fists at his sides, then with quick strides he run up the stairs out to the doors above with a massive bang to open and massive bang to shut them.
11…12…13…14
She knew that he had left but she didn’t move, she simply pulled her legs sightly closer and tried gradually to slow her breath and eventually stopped her counting.
Upstairs The Metal Armed Man run out of the hanger, outside into the Russian Winter snow, he bolted and run before felling to the ground and giving out a almighty pained shrieked that in the empty cold forest that surround their secret location echoed, if anyone heard the sound they would of mistaken it for any injured or dying animal in the forest. No-one would ever think that the sound then was the sound of the Fist Of Hydra or the world’s best most secretive assassin screaming out in tortured agonising mental pain then…no-one could have ever known.