Fair warning: Winter Soldiers killing people will occur.

     Bolting upright, I drew in short, sharp breaths. The memory of the shipping container reminded me of where I was. The flashlight showed that everything was fine, but I was still spooked.

     My stomach growled hungrily, distracting me from my fear. I was soon scooping meat out of a tin with some stale crackers.

     Once finished with my impromptu meal, I lay back down. My body was still too tense to sleep, so I lay there with the light on until I dozed off. 

     The lurching container startled me awake. With no way to tell time, I could only guess how long I had been out. After washing down another pack of crackers and a tin of meat with a bottle of water, I realized how painfully uneasy both my mind and body were.

     When the container finally came to a complete stop several hours later, I took off on the motorcycle for my target's mansion.

     Three uniformed men with handguns told me to leave when I pulled into the long driveway in front of the building. My assault rifle silenced them permanently.

     Bursting through the enormous, ornate front doors, I met an old man and a young woman. Once both of them had a knife in their chest, I moved on.

     Two men with boxes descended a grand staircase. Shooting them down, I kept searching for my target.

     On the second floor, a plump middle-aged woman crossed my path. In return, I promptly snapped her neck.

     After climbing another set of stairs, I encountered two women decorating a giant Christmas tree. Their bodies hit the floor with a dull clatter after bullets tore through their flesh.

     The next person I saw was a woman with an armful of towels. She screamed when I threw her over the railing but went silent upon hitting the granite floor two stories below.

     Two men rushed out of a room to investigate the sound. I choked one with my metal hand and used my flesh hand to stab the other in the heart with a knife.

     Turning down a hallway, I saw a woman with clothes draped over her shoulders. She was heading towards the large double doors at the end of the hall until I shot her in the back. A moment later, a man carrying suitcases walked out of the room with the double doors, and one of my knives lodged itself into his neck.

     I threw open the pair of doors to find my target, a woman with a clipboard, and a small white dog inside a luxurious master bedroom suite. After taking out the clipboard woman with my assault rifle, I pulled out my pistol and held it to the target's head as she whispered a prayer.

     When my target was eliminated, the tiny furry animal whimpered and nudged at his dead mistress's body. I wondered whether or not a dog counted as a witness. Putting two bullets in him answered my question.

     The shatter of something delicate drew my attention to the young woman in the doorway. Colorful shards of what could have been a vase lay around her. She still wore a face of shock when I slit her throat on my way out.

     I returned to the shipping container since I found no one else as I left the residence, apart from the bodies of those who had been disposed of.

     I ate another meal of tin meat and ration crackers before sitting on my sleeping bag. My mind was full of questions, and the more I asked myself, the more I realized how little I knew. Who am I? What is my story? When did I become a killer? Where did I come from yesterday? Why do these people have to die? How much longer will I have to do this? And I struggled with these questions until a fitful sleep finally overcame me.

~

     "Сэр, на линии генерал-майор, и он хочет поговорить с вами."

     Colonel Karpov groaned at this news. An expensive long-distance call from his superior officer at this hour would be nothing positive, but the chain of command forced him to pick up the phone anyway.

     "Говорит полковник Карпов."

     "Полковник, у вас не было разрешения на создание оружия из гражданского лица без подготовки и опыта!" the Major General barked.

     "Сэр, она была передана мне на попечение, чтобы я мог проводить эксперименты и испытания. Это все что я делаю," Colonel Karpov replied calmly.

     The Major General yelled, "Ее передали вам, чтобы убедиться, что сыворотка Старка безопасна для передачи нашей главной команде активов! Ее не должны были отправлять на несанкционированные убийства!"

     Karpov bit back a scathing remark. "При всем уважении, сэр, она ценна не только как лабораторная крыса, и она активно доказала это на практике."

     "Ее никогда не следовало выставлять ни на какое поле! Вы вернете ее и оставите здесь! Это приказ!"

     Colonel Karpov gritted his teeth. "Да сэр."

     "Позвони мне, когда она вернется." and the line went dead.