Chapter 3
The guard walked out of the room, “get in a line. You in the back,” he pointed to the winter soldier, “the redhead in the middle, and the small one in front.” He looked at the soldier for a moment before walking towards the training rooms.
They walked down the hallway and passed the training room where they met the winter soldier the day before. Natalia and Yelena looked at each other when they walked past the door that held their usual training room. The questioning look that Natalia sent to Yelena Was only received with a shrug.
They were heading towards the stairs, which was more odd because they weren’t allowed to go up stairs until they graduated to the next level. Natalia had been training on the fourth level of the red room for just over a year now, And wasn’t supposed to have her test until her sixteenth birthday in just two months. And Yelena just passed her test last month, So she didn’t know why they were heading to the fifth level.
Yelena and Natalia were hesitant to walk up the stairs thinking that they were being tested somehow. The guard made it three steps before realizing that he was no longer being followed.
“Why are you all down there!?” He barked.
“We aren’t allowed to go upstairs.” Natalia said, looking down sheepishly at her feet.
A long white staircase that stood tall in the corner gleamed in the light, as the man barked and gestures to them. The shiny steps peered back at them, as if mocking them. “If I tell you to follow me and I go upstairs then you’re going to go upstairs! And if you ever talk without permission again you will not like what happens!”
She nodded her head and nudged Yelena to get her to start walking. They continued their walk up the stairs until they were at the top. When they meet a new guard, “Nate, you're almost ten minutes. why?”
The guard , Nate, looked nervous, shuffling his feet a little and tugging at his grey-blue uniform that had been adorned by 4 large red stripes over the shoulders, “well… you see I was held up by the little girls, they wouldn’t go up the stairs. Sorry for the delay, sir.” Nate ducked his head.
“Hmm,” the taller man seemed to be thinking about what his guard had told him, “ You three come here.” They walked towards him, stopping a foot or so away.
“What do you think is going to happen now that you have not only invented me but were disobedient towards your commanding officer?” He didn’t yell, he sounded more like a parent reprimanding his children.
Yelena felt as though this was all her fault, “Sir. It’s my fault, punish me, not them!” Her tears threatened to spill.
He was now only glaring at Yelena. The tension was thick in the air and the man looked pissed. “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OUT OF ORDER!” He raised a hand to hit her, but before he could reach her- the winter soldier had grabbed his arm with his human hand, thankfully, and twisted it.
“No.” Was the only one word, but the power of it filled the room.
Everyone was flabbergasted. The guard in charge of them had a combination of emotions, anger, fear, shock.
“Let go of me you rat.” He pulled his arm away from the soldier's loose grip. “You’ll be in that room until you pass out from exhaustion.” He dismisses them before walking off.
-
The training room was a large nightmare room, intricately decorated with various greys, blacks, and reds. Different types of equipment was scattered across the floor, adding an additional pop of color to the desolate space that seemed suffocating despite being so open. When he said that he wanted them to pass out from exhaustion, he meant it. They were running for at least two hours before he finally told them to stop. Now they were on shooting drills.
Natalia was in shock with how accurate the soldier's aim was. The soldier didn’t even flinch when the gunshots were fired. Yelena flinches back at the loud thundering sound.
“That’s enough.” The voice boomed.
“Next, I watch you practicing boxing, switch every twenty minutes.” The younger woman barks outwardly, “Yelena and the soldier first.”
That was how the rest of the day was spent, switching from place to place in the large room until Natalia and Yelena succumbed to their exhaustion and collided with the floor, “pick them up and bring them back to the room.” It was the same guard that walked them to the room before- he looked solemn.
The guard guides them back through the long white hallway and back to the little grey room that was lacking of a viable light source. The soldier carefully lies each girl in their beds, and tucks them in. “good night.” He said before creeping back towards his bed and hiding under the covers