Chapter 6
That very night, James took all the precautions for their flight the next day. He packed a bag full of clothes and food as well as a number of knives, guns and ammunition. He always kept those weapons in his locker, and as he habitually ate alone in his room, nobody thought much about it when he carried some provisions from the mess hall. Knowing that hiding in plain sight was always the best disguise, he had told Natalia to do the same and to meet him at 5 a.m. the next morning in the garage.
At the appointed time they both entered the huge underground hall that contained the facility’s car pool. They knew that the place was monitored by security cameras but as long as they acted like they had a right to be there, it was unlikely that anyone would pay special attention to them.
James’s heart was beating violently against his chest as he opened the door to one of the jeeps and threw his bag in the back seat. Natalia followed suit, like him keeping an unmoved face, only her eyes showing her fear.
They didn’t talk until they had left the garage and were headed for one of the exits on the other side of the premises. It was still dark and there was no one to be seen.
“You can still get out,” James said, his eyes fixed on the road. “It’s very likely we will be dead within the next five minutes, and I’d hate to have dragged you into this.”
“You didn’t drag me into this,” Natalia replied, not looking at him either. “I would have done it long ago if I had had the courage. I don’t want to be a tool anymore.”
James nodded as they approached the guardhouse at the northern fence. “Leave the talking to me,” he said relinquishing his grip of the steering wheel that he had grabbed so tightly that he nearly bent it with his metal hand. “And whatever happens … I love you.” It was the least romantic way and definitely not the right moment to say it but he wanted her to know and the soft touch of her hand on his leg told him that she felt the same. She quickly removed it though when they came to a halt in front of the gate that stood between them and the outside world.
A guard stepped out of the small house next to the gate and motioned them to lower the driver’s window.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked eyeing them suspiciously. “Only authorized agents are allowed to pass this gate.”
“I’ve got a mission,” James said firmly, keeping an eye on the man’s rifle and his own hand hovering over his gun that lay just out of the man’s view between James and Natalia. “And it is urgent, so you better open the gate.”
“You’re not on my list,” the guard said not sounding too confident, his fear of the Winter Soldier clearly having an impact.
James ground his teeth like he was losing patience. “I got the order only an hour ago. By General Schulz himself. Do you want to call him and tell him why you’re keeping his best soldier from completing an urgent mission?”
James could see doubt shining in the man’s eyes but his sense of duty was too strong, so he reached for his radio to call for backup or have James’s story verified by Schulz.
Without a warning James’s metal arm shot out of the window grabbed the man’s throat and squeezed it shut until he felt the man’s body go limb. He dropped the body and jumped out of the car to open the gate. One minute later they sped out into the Siberian wilderness.
James cursed and floored the gas pedal to get them away as quickly as possible. The guards had to radio in every half hour giving a short report on the situation at their station. It was now ten past five, so Natalia and James had twenty minutes tops until someone realised that something was wrong at Gate N.
While they sped away, they both kept checking the rear-view mirror for any pursuers but there was no one to be seen. Nevertheless, James left the main road as soon as possible following narrow paths that led them ever deeper into the woods.
They had been driving for almost two hours when Natalia finally broke the silence. “Do you have any idea where we are going?”
James had to admit that he did not. “Away. We have to leave the country, take on new identities, start a new life somewhere they cannot find us.”
“As long as they aren’t following us already.”
“They probably are. We need to get rid of the car and cover our tracks as good as possible. We won’t let them get us. Never again.”
Luck seemed to be on their side. They drove all day without seeing any Hydra agents, and when the sun set, they reached a small village. Under the screen of night, James hot-wired a car that stood in an old barn and they continued their way further south until James couldn’t stay awake any longer. He had been up for almost twenty-four hours now and his eyes were burning and his body aching. Natalia had already fallen asleep curled up on the passenger seat. When James stopped the car in a clearing deep inside the woods, she awoke with a start.
“Where … where are we?” she asked looking frantically around. “Is everything okay? Did they find us?”
“Calm down. Everything’s fine. I found us a place to spend the night. Just stay here until I put up the tent.”
“Oh, okay.”
James quickly put up the tent that was part of the survival kit found in every Hydra jeep and then carried Natalia into it lying down next to her. The night was cold and they only had one blanket but huddled together and having the promise of freedom before them, they slept better than they had done in a long time. This night, James didn’t have any flashback dreams.
In the morning, Natalia prepared a simple breakfast while James went to a small river some half mile away to get them fresh water. He had just filled their bottles when he suddenly heard a sound that didn’t belong to the woods. He froze and listened intently. There it was again. A metallic click, scarcely audible, but his enhanced sense of hearing identified it immediately: it was the sound of a gun being cocked – and the next second a bullet zipped past him, missing him by a mere inch, a second one hitting his metal arm and falling to the ground.
They had found them!
Without missing a beat, James whirled around and broke off in full speed chasing back to the clearing. Behind him a group of Hydra agents burst out from behind the trees, firing at him but missing.
James zig-zagged through the forest, blood pumping in his ears, fear grabbing his insides. Natalia. What if they had already got her? Twenty yards from the clearing, he saw her. She was just folding the blanket to put it back into their bag.
“Natalia! RUN!” he yelled running even faster.
She looked up and took in the situation within a second. In a heartbeat she had spun around and set off to the other side of the woods. James crossed the clearing, managed to grab one of the guns lying at the tent’s entrance without slowing down and chased after her. Within a minute he had caught up with her, grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him.
He knew that it was useless. There was no way they could outrun them and they had only a gun and a knife to defend themselves. They would be dead within a few minutes but he was prepared to fight until his last breath.
All of a sudden the forest ended, leaving them on a wide grassy plain. They desperately looked around for a place to hide but in vain.
Engine noise made them freeze as they saw a group of black motorbikes shooting towards them.
“That’s it. We’re going to die,“ Natalia said surprisingly calm. „But if we do, we’ll take as many of them with us as possible.“ She took the knife from him and kissed him passionately. “I love you, James. Thank you for everything.“
Before he could say anything, she turned around and sprinted back to where they had come from, straight into their pursuers‘ arms. They had stopped shooting and the last thing James saw before something hit his head from behind was Natalia kicking and slashing at the agents injuring at least half a dozen of them.
Then everything around him went dark.