Noelle - Day 314 (Continuing with Survivors)

Hi everybody!
Sorry I sorta dropped off the map!  School and move prep are slowly killing me.  Plus, the homeschool group is doing an art show today, so I'm super PSYCHED and I have lots of work to do to help out, so...yeah.

Here's new Survivors parts (because I'm still marathoning...BECAUSE IM ALMOST DONE WRITING!!  SQUEEEEEEE)

The Survivors (Parts 50 & 51)

“So what’s this idea of yours?”  Red tried to take the laptop from Jess and got a smack on the hand.

“I think I might have tracked down a Hydra/Lake base,” The blonde said, pulling her hair into a ponytail.

“You get internet out here?”  Sam said at the same time Red interjected, “I thought you said that Lake doesn’t fund Hydra?”

“No, I said he funds offshoots of Hydra, mostly the science divisions interested in super humans and manufactured powers,” Jess said, scribbling in her little spiral bound notebook.

“Lake is a power-scrambler, isn’t he?” Red said.

Sam poked Jess in the shin.  “What’s a power-scrambler?”

She ignored him and said, “Yes, Red, he’s interested in a superhuman army.  Not for hire or rent, like Oscorp, but for himself.  Of course, his employees are told it's for the ‘good of the human race’.”

“Employees like you?”  Elise remarked in an off hand sort of way.

“That’s enough, Red!”  Echo snapped.  Everybody jumped.  They had forgotten that she was there.

Jess, meanwhile, refused to be baited so easily.  “This has signs of a Hydra or Lake base all over it.  A valley basin, near water and mountains, surrounded by small airports and train yards.  Smaller airports means less security.  It’s near a country border, in the one of these four cities - Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, Mariupol, and... Dnipro?.... Dnipropet? ....whatever Dino town.”

“It’s pronounced Dnipropetrovsk,” Red said, rather snootily.  “We had a mission there once.  Why Ukraine?”

“I dunno?  Whatever,” Jess repeated, gazing at the computer screen.  “I’m thinking Mariupol.”

“Why?”  Sam and Red chorused.

“Call it a gut feeling,” Jess said dismissively, but the glint in her eyes said otherwise.

*******

Both Red and Jess took turns attempting to teach Sam how to fight that day and the next.  Eventually, Jess agreed - he was hopeless.  Actually, he kept getting thrown off by Jess’s scars - they weren’t just on her face.  In fact, from what he could tell, they were everywhere.  The shrapnel cuts from the Shadow incident were the freshest, but some seemed so deep cut they should have killed Jess.  He tried not to look at them, but whenever she threw a punch, marks on her wrists and arms were revealed, making him shudder and forget what he was supposed to be doing.

That night, they agreed that there was no point in hanging around and waiting for S.H.I.E.L.D. to catch them.  They would start searching Mariupol, Ukraine, the next day.

Sam made an effort to get up early the next day, but without an angry team member or an alarm clock to wake him up, he failed hopelessly.  Again.

“Where’s Red?”  He said as he stumbled into the main cave.  Jess and Echo were in the middle of a conversation, he knew, but he was too groggy to care.

Jess barely looked up.  “In the training hall.  Prepackaged sludge?”  She flicked him a bag of the vita-mix that they had been eating.  Sam sighed and drank it in two gulps.

Red was practicing in full battle armour.  Her shoulders were protected by custom-made shoulder armour pads, as was her torso.  The combat boots and cargo pants had remained, however, along with a tight belt that held a sword.  “I wish that Ka- Jess would make a punching bag or something,” She said, before Sam had even opened his mouth.

“Mmph.”

“What’s up?”  She sheathed her sword and spun around.  “Something you want to say, Sammie?”

“Just that Jess isn’t particularly fond of punching bags.”

Red rolled her eyes.  “Who is?”

He shrugged, feeling stupid.

“Alright, I know that you can’t punch or kick, but can you at least load a gun in a reasonable amount of time?”  When Sam shook his head, she tossed him a gun - not one of Jess’s improved ICERs, but a real gun.  He swallowed a huge amount of nervousness.  “It's easy, you weirdo.  Watch.”  She showed him how to load and unload bullets, as well as how to hold the gun properly.

“You two, we need to get a move on if we want to find this base today,” Blue said from the doorway, surprising Sam into dropping the gun on his foot.  He bit back a yelp and put on his helmet.

§§§

That's all for today! I'll post more tomorrow! And now for our daily....

This one is for Elena, our newest author

(HINT HINT ELENA!!  YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY POST NOW!! YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE!)

Anyway, ahem, bye!  Have a great day!