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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐧: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐍𝐨 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧

HYDRA Base, Austrian Alps

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Now, all Allie has to do is wait. She did all that she could do and sooner or later, somebody would come for the American prisoners. Whether that would be a huge scale attack led by the U.S army or a small tactical team led by the very own Captain America himself, she does not know . But somebody would have to come. Bucky's life depends on it. The other soldier's lives depend on it.

She had already been back a week and there has been no word on the American troops breaking through HYDRA's territory. Slowly, the hope that she is holding onto is starting to fizzle away. But it is out of her hands now. She just has to make sure that Bucky is well enough to get himself out of here when the time comes.

Speaking of which, Bucky has somehow gotten better during the couple of days that she had been gone. She was shocked when she had come back to see that he could remember her and that he didn't look like he was about to arrive on death's doorstep anymore. Whatever those doctors had injected him with seems to have made a difference, but whether it stays that way is the bigger question.

She has visited him three times in the past week and every time he has shown good progress. He was actually able to hold a conversation with her while she tended to his health. With each visit, he has somewhat returned to his normal lively and charming self. Well, as lively and charming that he could be for someone in such circumstances.

Allie never told him that he was going to be rescued soon. She didn't want to dangle false hope in front of him only for it to be snatched away. She couldn't possibly fathom how excruciating it would be to have to be experimented on like vermin and hoping that help will come to rescue you, only for it to never arrive. She isn't even sure that anybody will come so she will secretly prepare him in case they do.

When Allie came back from her day with Howard, she lied through her teeth about what she discovered. She told Klaus that Erskine died with the notes for the serum and that Howard was more focused on creating military equipment to rival HYDRA's instead of the serum.  Klaus was slightly uncertain about believing her but when she showed him a file that she copied on a tank that Howard was constructing, his apprehension lessened greatly.

She left out that Howard had acquired a sample of Steve Rogers' blood in the hope that he would be able to replicate the serum sooner rather than later. If HYDRA found out that Howard was experimenting on Steve's blood, they wouldn't hesitate to put bullets through both of their skulls. The entire war itself has so far relied on Erskine's serum so if Howard could replicate the formula, America would have the means to finish the war. They could finish HYDRA for good.

Allie snaps herself out of her thoughts, shaking her head as she looks over and sees that once again, Felix is asleep. She is just about to push herself up from her chair and go see Bucky when she spots a shadow dart through one of the televisions. She narrows her eyes as she leans closer to make sure that she isn't imagining anything when she spots it again. She catches the familiar red and white stripes of Captain America's shield darting around the base. He is right outside of the building and at the rate that he is going, he should reach the prisoners in a couple of minutes.

"Took you long enough." She mumbles under her breath as she quietly makes her way out of the room and towards the prison chambers. She walks as inconspicuously as possible, passing a few soldiers who are on night patrol who disregard her anyway.

Soon enough, she is just about to enter the chambers when she hears a loud 'thump'. She peers through the glass on the door and spots Steve knocking out the guards on duty. She pulls the keys from her pocket and slowly opens the door, watching to make sure that nobody spots her.

She sees Steve fiddling with the keys that he stole from the now unconscious guard, trying to figure out which one opens the cages. She waits with a smile on her face as she watches him struggle. On his head, he is wearing a deep blue helmet with white stars imprinted on the front, half covered by a pair of goggles that are resting on top. His eyes are a mesmerizing ocean blue remaining totally focused on the task in front of him. His face is strong and defined, almost like he had been sculpted from clay. His thick golden eyebrows are sloped downwards in utter concentration giving him a much more serious look. Even she must admit that Steve Rogers is one devilishly handsome man.

"It's the thin gold one, Cap." She says with a sigh as he still can't figure out which key is the right one after a couple of minutes. "But, you better hurry. Your friends are getting a tad anxious in there." Steve lifts his head up to Allie's in alarm and he almost drops the keys in surprise. Allie holds her hands up in defense and Steve takes two large steps towards her and then pushes her back against the wall, holding his forearm over her throat. She drops the keys that she is holding in her hands as she clutches at his arm in shock.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't knock you out like what I have done to every other HYDRA soldier in this place?" Steve sneers as he pushes down harder on her throat, severing her air supply.

"Because I'm the reason you are here." She grins and Steve's face contorts into one of anger and disbelief. "Lies." He mutters as he presses down on her even harder.

"Well first of all, if you could please let go of me I will explain." She wheezes. Steve looks at her challengingly and after a few seconds, he drops his arm from her throat. "Thank you." She says as she straightens out her uniform. "I was the one who gave Howard Stark the location of this base. I was in New York a week ago on a mission from HYDRA when I slipped him a note with the coordinates of this base. And, I happen to know your close friend, Bucky." She continues as she rubs her sore throat and Steve's eyes immediately widen at the mention of Bucky.

"You know where Bucky is?" He asks in disbelief and Allie nods her head in reply. "I do, but if you want even the slightest chance of getting out of here alive, you need to get these guys out now." She instructs as she picks up the keys that she dropped earlier and heads over to one of the cells filled with soldiers.

Once all the prisoners have been released, Steve comes back up to Allie and holds his hand out to her. "I'm Steve Rogers, ah... I'm sorry about our first introduction but I think you can understand my weariness." He says as Allie places her hand in his and shakes it. She returns a bright smile and a short laugh.

"I do hope that you are nicer than that to your friends! But yes, I understand." She jokes, as she pulls the keys from her pocket and gives them to him. "Here, the silver key should get you into Bucky's room. He may be a bit slow at first but with time you should both be able to make it out safely." She continues as Steve takes the key from her hand.

"Why are you doing this?" Steve asks confused. He never expected any help from a HYDRA soldier. He didn't even think that HYDRA soldiers could be nice.

"Well, believe it or not, I am a prisoner of HYDRA too." She says with a sad smile. Just as she is about to briefly explain, she is interrupted by a man wearing a bowler hat with a copper mustache.

"So what, are we taking everybody?" He declares as he glares at a smaller Asian man who is wearing a cap on his head. The man then pulls out his dog tag from underneath his clothes and holds it out in front of him with a smirk. "I'm from Fresno ace." He responds annoyed.

Steve walks in between the two, cutting off the argument, and is followed by Allie who also pushes between the two. "Is there anybody else? I'm looking for Sergeant James Barnes." He announces as he moves towards the exit with Allie at his side. A man in a red beret with a small brown mustache looks over and responds.

"There's an isolation ward in the in the factory, but no one's ever come back from it." He says as they all follow Steve and Allie nods her head in support. "It's towards the east part of the base. He is in the second room." She adds.

"All right. The tree line is northwest, 80 yards past the gate. Get out fast and give 'em hell. I'll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else I find." Steve says as he pulls away from the group of men, holding Allie's wrist gently as he pulls her with him.

"Wait! You know what you're doin'? You are bringing the bitch who put us in here with you!" The man, Mr. Jones Allie recalls, growls in anger as he pushes his way in-between the two men at the front.

"I'm also the bitch that helped get you out of here as well." She retorts in frustration. 

Steve ignores Allie's profanity and instead nods his head at Mr. Jones, "Yeah. I've knocked out Adolf Hitler over two hundred times." He responds which leaves all the men in the room stunned. Together, the two of them turn around and run out of the room.

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The pair fight their way to the hanger. They dodge kicks and punches, evade bullets that are sent their way and return with their own attacks. They take down as many men that they can and then before they know it, the alarms are set off. Indicating that Schmidt is finally aware of the prisoner's escape.

Steve sends a powerful kick into the remaining soldier that stands in front of them and he goes tumbling over the edge of the platform. Allie quickly catches up to Steve and grabs at his shoulder, spinning him around so that he faces her.

"Steve you need to get to Bucky now. If Schmidt knows that you are here he will blow up the entire base and whoever is left in it just so that he can kill you." Allie says frantically, trying to ignore the droning of the alarm.

"Come with me then!" He urges desperately. Allie shakes her head and points to the hallway in front of her.

"I can't, there is some stuff that I need to grab but I will meet you guys out the front if I can. Bucky is down that way, enter the open doorway on your left and he should be in there." She shouts as she pulls away from him and starts to walk into the hallway behind her.

"Hey! I didn't even catch your name?" Steve shouts back, a small smile playing on his lips.

"It's Allie Williams at your service!" She yells just before she turns around the corner and runs towards the archive room.

She dashes down the hallways, encountering not a single guard. Probably because they all have retreated to the outside of the base to fight the freed American troops. She passes doorway after doorway until she reaches the archives. The guard that is normally on duty has vanished so she quickly pushes the door open and heads inside.

She is greeted with the familiar sight of rows upon rows of old steel shelves, filled with cardboard boxes containing important documents that could potentially end the war for good. She takes a step forward and almost trips over a backpack that someone must have dropped when they raced to escape when they heard the siren. She pulls the backpack up and rifles through it, only finding a small granola bar and a pen. She sighs but keeps ahold of the bag, knowing that it will come in handy.

"All I need is three documents," she mumbles as she scans the aisle that she is walking down. "Erskine's serum, Project Valkyrie and HYDRA bases." She continues. When she spots the documents that she needs she grabs as many pages as she can and she shoves them into the backpack then moves onto the next document.

When she reaches Project Valkyrie she once again spots her own file in the box next to her. With a frown, she pulls the file out and shoves it into the backpack before averting her attention back to her main task. Just as she is about to leave, she accidentally knocks a cardboard box of files over and the manilla files fly across the ground.

"Shit." She swears as she goes to step over them and run out of the room but she spots something peculiar. She bends down and picks up a file that has been heavily redacted. She looks up to the heading and it reads 'Tesseract' and right as she is about to drop the paper, she spots the unredacted version right next to where she found the paper that she is currently holding. Allie drops the paper and picks up the other one and quickly shoves it in the backpack.

Without a second thought, she pushes herself up from the ground and makes her way out of this hellhole.                                                     

And she runs. She runs like a cheetah racing through a grassy African plain. Her long chocolate locks whipping back and forth as she flings herself over pieces of concrete and bodies alike. She runs as if her ankles are made from coiled springs instead of bone. Each of her strides taking her further away from the nightmare that she has lived for so long. Barely breaking a sweat, she pushes harder and faster than what she ever thought possible.

Her surroundings blur as she sprints down hallway after hallway. Even when she spots a HYDRA guard, she pulls her gun from her waistband and sends a bullet flying into their chest before they even have time to react. She doesn't check to see if they have survived or not. She just keeps running.

But then a foreign sound starts ringing in her ears. Her feet skid to a stop as she whirls her head around looking for the source of the noise. A noise that doesn't belong in a place like HYDRA. The noise of a baby crying.

She pushes every door open and checks inside but to no avail. First left, then right. Left, right. Left, right. Like a pattern. She searches for the baby as their cries become louder and louder. And then she finds it.

She pushes open the last door of the hallway and finds a small baby, wrapped in white cloth and placed in an old, decrepit crib. The entire room is painted black and the only source of color in the room is the brown cradle and the baby that lays inside. Allie cautiously steps forward, making her way towards the child. The baby cries hysterically, calling for its mother perhaps, and Allie has no clue what to do. She doesn't know how to look after a baby. She can barely remember her own childhood so she can't even do what her mother used to do for her.

As she nears the crib, she places her hand next to the baby who is still wailing. But much to her surprise, she feels tiny fingers curl around her index finger. The baby peers through its long eyelashes and up to Allie who lets a warm smile overcome her features. The baby kicks its legs and waves its arms as it looks for comfort. Comfort that Allie has no clue how to give.

Allie gulps as she realizes that she has only a few minutes to get the baby out of the camp before it blows up. She coos softly as she lifts the baby from the crib and holds it tightly against her chest.

"Hey, it alright. We'll be okay. Jesus Christ! I have no clue what to do!" She cries out softly as she rocks the baby back and forth. Allie then slowly makes her way out of the room and walks hurriedly out of the base. She clutches the baby tighter as the cold winter air greets them as they exit the danger of the camp, only to be greeted with a new kind of danger.

"Shit!" She curses as she realizes that in this weather, both of them will struggle to survive the night. She hears the baby cry out even louder and in response, she mutters soft words into her ear as she makes her way towards the garage.

White snowflakes whirl around in front of Allie's eyes in an angry vortex that swallows up everything in its path. Allie flicks her gaze around the base, and thankfully all she sees is the bleakness of winter. She can hear the fighting that is occurring at the other side of the base. The constant 'bangs' of the bullets hitting their targets pushes her to move faster. To get away.

The wind rages seemingly without end. The sheer ferocity of it almost drowns out all other sounds. And then Allie finally spots the garage. She races towards the door and almost falls through it in an attempt to escape the cold. Now that they are sheltered, the babies cries become deafening and the tears stream down her tiny face.

"Shhhh, we're ok. I'm going to get us out of here." Allie coos and rocks the baby in her arms. She lightly pats her back, trying to ease her wailing. The child's tiny toes peek out from the corner of the blanket and they look almost blue from the cold. Allie looks around the garage and spots a clean towel and she quickly takes it and wraps the baby up in it as well. Hopefully, offering it some relief from the cold.

She turns around and takes a key from the wall where they hand from and heads over towards a motorbike with a sidecar that she can place the baby in. She spots the moss green colored bike and she quickly straps the baby up in the sidecar. Thankfully, the bike is at the front of the garage so Allie races over to the wall and releases the hatch which will allow them to leave. She pushes open the door and is once again greeted with the familiar embrace of the bitter cold. When the gap is wide enough she jumps onto the motorbike and shoves the keys in the ignition. She hears the roar of the motor and quickly pushes forward into the snow.

20 meters is all that finally stands between her and her freedom. No more torment. No more pain. No more HYDRA.

15 meters. She holds a hand up to her eyes to see what is in front of her. Hopefully before long, the two of them should be resting in an uncomfortable and foreign bed of a ramshackle hotel in the middle of nowhere. Or maybe somewhere in the forest. But that doesn't matter. As long as it isn't here.

10 meters. The cold pierces her body, depleting her of any warmth. Faintly she can hear the baby cry but there is nothing that she can do for it now. Her ears ring from the combination of the engine, the fighting, and the wind. They overwhelm every other sound.

5 meters. She waits for one of the wheels to stop moving. She waits for somebody to stop her. She waits for HYDRA to take her back. But they never come.

0 meters.

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A/N - WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP! THE STORY IS GETTING JUICY!

Thank you guys for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. I'll keep this A/N short for a change and I'll let you guys get on with your days :)

1. What did you think of the chapter?

2. Who is your favorite Marvel character?

3. How was your day?

- Grace xx