36
Moscow - Russia.
4,666.36 miles From New York
The tall elegantly dressed woman in her dark padded coat walked around the apartment scanning the floor, following the marks all around, there was no reasoning to them but looking at them bought a smile to her face, she knew she was close to finding what she was looking for, after all this time she was close. Reaching out her hand she touched the beaten up old sofa in the room.
“Where now?” Came impatience voice from behind her. “Russia is fucking freezing and I fucking hate it here.”
Chuckling the woman turned to face him, her honeyed red hair turning more slowly than her she did. “You say you hate Russia one minute and the next you say you love it.”
Pulling his hood off, he revealed his heavily scared burnt face, still raw and red and painful looking, the beginning of new skin growing over mismatching each other on his face, over his ears and neck, he showed now sign of feeling pain. “So…?”
Tilting her head the woman smirked, not answering.
“You were right…” He smiled back, his smile only reaching part of his lips, as the right side of his lip was still and lopsided. “
“He was here.” She finished him. “And not alone.”
Moving across the room again to the old rusted radiator on the far wall she leant down and touched the pipe which can up from the floor, to where the pipe brass of the covering of pipe was marked, where something else had been rubbing or scratching against it.
“Daisy was here.” She told him.
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone and he begun to scroll and look at something.
“There been an arson attack in a bar, one of the old Hydra hangouts.” He read. “No-one’s talking, officially, no fatalities, just a lot of ash.”
“Hmm.” The woman said, still crouching. “The lower scum used to go to bar called Matryoshka, is that the one?”
“The one and only.” He replied.
Standing up, she walked over and stood in front of her burnt and heavily padded companion. “So he is chasing us and we are chasing him.”
“My money’s on us.” He smiled.
“You don’t have any money Rumlow.” She replied.
“Figure of speech Cat.” Rumlow said he reached over to touch her waist.
“Hmm.” She said, not moving away from his touch but not moving forward. “He won’t come back here, he’s done with Russia, burning Matryoshka was a sign.”
Now the two of them were very close, their height was the same and Rumlow was holding her waist firmly, he looked like he was ready to kiss her and ready to possibly do more.
“Get me any footage from the area surrounding the bar, I want to know what direction they went in, they haven’t been here for hours, they went somewhere else before they came back here and left.” She said firmly, giving him an order.
Leaning inwards towards her Rumlow smiled. “Yes, Ms Pierce.”
Both stood for a second, before Caitlin Pierce moved away to the side towards the door to leave the apartment. Left standing, Rumlow simply smirked his half smile, pulled his hood back on and followed Caitlin Pierce out the apartment.
Just when they were coming to the outside door Rumlow reached into his pocket and pulled out a grenade and threw it back in to the apartment, to where it rolled to the corner of the room and begun to tick softly to itself. Stepping out on the street and beginning to walk down the road to where their vehicle was parked, the building behind them exploded into rubble, the inside caving in on itself and dissolving into nothing from behind them, the sound of the implosion of the building gave a faint echo for a second in the relatively unused and uncared for part of Moscow, followed by silence and then the sound of Caitlin Pierce and Brock Rumlow driving away from the scene at a normal speed, as if nothing had happened.
Verkhoyansk - Russia
4834 Miles From New York.
Sleeping in a curled up foetal position Daisy slept inside of the back of the Quinjet, she had a blanket covering her and her head rested on her bag that contained her clothes, her hands were close to her, where she had been blowing into to keep them warm.
Despite the fact that they had landed they hadn’t left the Quinjet, James had stood up and walked over to wake her up but reconsidered, knowing it better to let her sleep and instead had sat down in the cockpit sit and tried to close his eyes for a moment, to allow himself not sleep but rest. Closing his eyes he had tried to think of nothing, not thoughts about anything, no planning, thoughts caused him to feel emotions and remember, and each memory that seemed to come out was painful, painful because he couldn’t either remember them or painful because they were memories of him causing pain…to others.
Looking out to the view in front of the Quinjet, James saw the snow beginning to fall again, so much constant snow, he wondered sometimes would it ever stop.
A memory popped back into his head of snow falling and his running. He couldn’t remember how long ago it had been, he knew from that memory that he had been taken by Hydra earlier on, he remembered the feel of the metal arm and how cold it managed to become in the snow. He remembered he hadn’t been wearing much, a vest and pants, that he was bare foot, he remembered he had been running for his life, moving as fast as he could through the snow, which was becoming heavier and heavier. As he was running forward ahead he felt the wind change, as it become stronger in front of him, it caused him to stop just in time as he found himself standing in front of a cliff, looking straight down into mountainous drop. Standing then at the top of the cliff, he thought then about jumping, he could die quickly and hopefully painlessly, he would be free of Hydra, as he was about to move forward a electric net was thrown over his head from above and he fell to the ground as the currents run through his body, causing him to pass out.
“Hmmm…” Came a groan from behind him that pulled James back into reality.
Standing and turning around James found Daisy sitting up and taking the blanket off herself, she looked up to see him and begun to stand.
“I slept.” She said, stating the obvious, but not knowing what to say.
He nodded and said nothing.
Looking behind him she could see the snow felling but nothing else.
“Are we still in Russia?” She asked.
“Yes.” James replied. With that he walked to the back of Quinjet and opened the hatch to exit, saying nothing else.
Folding the blanket and putting it on to the floor she followed him out of the Quinjet.
As soon as she stepped out she realised they were not far from the front a house/cabin, a old very weather worn and battered, it looked like a typical slavic wooden house, with old thick curved wood, carved and elegant but sturdy despite it weather exterior. Looking at it, it was like a postcard, hidden in the snow and trees around it, somewhere deep and far away a wizard or witch from some old fairy tale or folk tale would live, facing James she thought it a weird way it was fixing this would be the next place they would go.
Stepping on to the snow towards the house Jame led, his feet purposeful and steady as always, Daisy following slow, unsteadily and wide eyed. Around them the snow was still falling, taking at that moment to pace itself, taking a breath and holding back. Taking another step, Daisy fell into the snow, landing on her knees, but quickly getting up again, taking another step and continuing before it happened again.
“Damnit.” Daisy hissed, her legs were too cold and still in the process of waking up, they didn’t want to obey.
Walking ahead, either not hearing Daisy or ignoring her, James had reached the front of the house/cabin when he turned to face Daisy walking a few steps and felling again. Mentally he rolled his eyes and swore in Russian, she was as bad as a toddler as she moved slowly.
Getting up again Daisy saw that her kidnapper had turned to face her, his pale face and his blue eyes narrowed she could tell he was annoyed again. Exhaling she took another step forward, more slowly and didn’t fall. “Stupid snow.” She mumbled.
From behind Daisy something caught James’ eye, in the perfect undisturbed snow and line of the trees he saw something moving, slowly, its motions paced and steady. Focusing his keen gaze he saw what it was. Looking to the left and the right he saw two more things moving, one gave a quick glaze of yellow flexer of light from its eyes.
“Daisy…” James hissed quickly, he hands reached outwards to her. “…stop.”
Stopping Daisy frowned and looked at him. “Stop?” She asked. “Please no more fireman picking-ups.”
Moving towards he keep his eyes focused hers. “Daisy, you need to stay where you and not move one inch.”
“Huh?” Daisy asked. Moving the hood off her head she said. “Why?”
In that instance from behind her on the right she heard a deep throaty noise, a growl.
Turning her head sideways she caught the briefest glimpses of a darkish brown fur mixed with grey, whether it was an ear or it neck, she could’t be sure, but it was enough to paralyse her on the spot.
From a few metres in front of her James moved steadily forward, stepping sideways, silently and steadily, his hands reached out to the side to steady his body. “Stay where you, when I get near to you, don’t run.”
With head and body straight, she nodded her very briefly, barely moving her lips she asked. “Are they looking for dinner?”
“Yes…” James answered. “And thats they’ll get.”
“What?” Daisy hissed louder than she intended.
With his eyes focusing on Daisy, James let his eyes dart around them, he counted there to be four wolves there, not large, not as large of the wolves that lived in deepest Russia that he encountered before, but skilled, he knew what their movements meant and what they were doing. Looking above he searched for what he needed, what he knew would be there.
The other side Daisy could hear more growls and the gentle sounds of the wolves feet on the snow.
Not far from her now, a metre or less, James stopped put his hands to his side and looked directly at Daisy.
“Walk towards me.” He said firmly.
Though she wanted to, she couldn’t, from her left she heard a snarl from one of the wolves.
“Daisy…walk.” James said firmly.
Though she was ready for angry answer back to him, she stopped herself an begun to move, to which she could hear the wolves started to growl more. Looking directly at James she saw him pull out one of his guns from his side and pick it directly at her, seeing this, she stood dead in her tracks.
“Keep…moving.” James said lowly.
Eyes wide open she swallowed and kept moving. Mentally saying oh my god over and over.
For just the briefest of seconds he looked away from Daisy to the side, then back to her. She was getting nearer but very slowly.
“Daisy…” He said softly. “On the count of three I want you lower you head but keep moving to me. Clear?”
“No…” Daisy replied.
“Good.” James answered, leaving Daisy unsure if he had heard her or if she had spoken at all.
“1…” James asked, the sound of the wolves growls increasing. “2…3.”
Lowering her head she looked down to see the footsteps James had left, doing so briefly made her dizzy.
Holding up his gun, James fired off one long quick clean shoot into the tree line behind Daisy and in front of the wolves who were gradually filling out into the open. For a second the wolves stopped, shock at the echoing sound of the gunshot.
But then from above a freshly shot dead large hawk came, which now had it had completely blown off, landed in the pure white snow, right in the middle of the four wolves, who stood still looking at the dead animal, its blooded not spattered in the snow.
Rushing forward, James made a grab for Daisy around the waist and part dragged and part walked her over to the house, her head still lowered down.
From behind the wolves moved forward to eat the dead bird, not taking it back into the forest, but eating it there and then, eventually leaving noting behind but the blood stained snow which would eventually be covered up by more snow soon enough.
Opening the door, James and Daisy stepped inside to the most perfect perfectly preserved old rustic slavic house, which from only the briefest of looks looked as if hadn’t entered into the 21st century or even the 20th century. Its furniture of brightly polished perfect dark rich wooden. The contrast of the outside to the inside was amazing. Though there was no lights lite, or fire burning, the snow’s reflective glow inside illuminated it all.
Moving her over to the wooden chair next to a table near the fire, James placed Daisy down and then moved back to close the door.
“What…just…happened?” Daisy asked slowly.
Turning back to say her, James made a grimace of face she couldn’t read, clearing his throat he replied. “Wolves.”
“Right.” Daisy said. “They wanted to eat me.”
Shaking his head James replied. “No…they wanted to be fed.”
Frowning, pulling her arms around herself for worth, shaking slightly she stared at him. “Fed…you fed…you what?”
Moving over to the fire, James begun to make a start of making it come to life by putting the logs which were by the side of it on to of the old ash and burnt wood. “This cabin,” He started. “belonged to Armin Zola, I’ve been coming here for the last few months. The wolves,” he looked up her, “don’t bother me if I fed them whatever animal they can’t reach in the trees.”
Looking at him confused. “So there like your neighbours?”
Stopping what he was doing he looked back at her Daisy, bitting his lip for a second he thought maybe she was going to receive an angry answer but instead she given something else, a soft gentle smile that played on the corner of his lips and a reply. “Yeah…I suppose so.”