Natasha's POV

Maria took a hard left the wheels of the jeep grating against the dirt seeking friction. Next to me Sharon lurched to the side and gripped the roll bar to keep from falling out.

A spray of bullets pelted the ground kicking up streams of sand upon impact. Looking through the scope of my gun I had to use every muscle in my body to keep my aim steady. Spotting the cockpit of a plane ready to make an overhead run I pressed down on the trigger shouldering the kick back.

The plane careened to the right spiraling to the ground and exploding sending shards of shrapnel into the sky. I was forced to abandon my position and flatten myself on the floor of the jeep, covering my head, as two planes came in at a sharp angle guns raging.

The hinges of the door on my side busted off and the metal went crashing into the dirt quickly being left behind.

"Where are we going?" Sharon yelled over the noise. Maria reached up and adjusted her rear view mirror.

"Hang on kids." She jerked the wheel hard to the left and the jeep teetered for a moment. My heart leapt into my throat as I was concerned the car would flip. However Maria was an expert driver and the wheels soon caught friction and we were back on all fours. She had expertly reversed directions throwing the course of the planes off.

"We can't go back there's the mountain range." I protested kneeling on the back seat and scanning the skies intently.

"Side trail." Maria said gesturing off to the far right. Bucky's jeep pulled up next to us and it was clear he had the same idea as Maria.

Maria took the lead a trail of dirt spraying up into the air as she accelerated even more. Sharon ducked as one of the planes swooped surprisingly low the blades spinning and keeping it afloat tearing the air to pieces.

If she hadn't ducked I was certain her head would be gone. It was the largest of planes and as it shot forward in front of us the back opened up and a vehicle made the small drop onto the ground followed by another.

"Life is never simple." Sharon grumbled re-loading her weapon quickly and efficiently. Maria swerved drastically avoiding the vehicles which fell in behind us. They too were armed but their guns were not as big as ours.

The person in the passenger seat held up a pistol firing with surprising accuracy. The loud bang of the gun echoed in the sky.

"I'll focus on the cars keep track of the sky." Sharon nodded and turned her attention to the blue haze above her weapon crackling.

Before the passenger could fire another round I pelted a bullet into his chest. The driver hardly glanced at his comrade and punched the gas their vehicle lurched forward.

Glancing over my shoulder I became aware of how close we were to the side trail, it would be just big enough for two cars to drive side by side. Maria navigated the terrain with ease and the tires gripped the more solid ground shooting us forward into the mountain pass.

The enemy vehicle I had engaged lurched around Bucky, Thor, and Sam's car cutting them off from us. A crack of lightning from Thor nearly shredded open a plane. The driver who'd cut us off fired blindly over his shoulder, tires squealing on the ground the metallic frame jostled at the terrain transition.

A plane over head darted between the crevice of the two mountain faces and opened fire. It's bullets pounded into the Rocky Mountain sides causing boulders to tumble down onto the path. Without hesitation Maria jerked the wheel darting in and out of the rubble.

Sharon managed to destroy the planes propeller causing it to careen sideways and into the mountain side. Fire exploded sending metal and plane parts scalding with heat in all directions. Maria cursed as the windshield shattered sending glass flying everywhere as well.

In her moment of distraction the car hit a bump sending Sharon off balance. In a spurt of reflex I caught her by the arm as she dangled precariously halfway out of the vehicle eyes widened in fear.

"Think you're leaving me to shoot on my own?" I asked tugging her back in safely and garnering a small smile from her.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Sharon breathed but our small interlude of a conversation was quickly interrupted as the enemy behind us slammed into our bumper. Maria cursed managing to keep control of the car.

The vehicle darted up to our right as the path twisted opening up to a large drop off to our left. The rims of our tires were centimeters from clashing. Before any of us could react I was surprised to see a person pop up from the back seat and fire their weapon.

The bullet plunged deep into Maria's shoulder but she kept her grip on the wheel firm and white knuckled. The vehicle rammed us from the side inching our car towards the ravine. Rocks from the path tumbled down into the deep expanse of space.

With Maria wounded we couldn't afford another hit or we'd all tumble into a not so friendly jagged maw of land. Standing with perfect balance I fired hitting the person in the back seat in the heart. They slumped over blood spilling from the wound.

Taking a moment to calculate my next move I darted around Sharon, planted my foot on the side door and leapt the gap between our vehicles landing lithely in the back seat.

The driver was taken by surprise and his next attempt at ramming his car into ours was halted. Before he had time to think I reached up and slammed his head into the steering wheel, once and then twice until he was unconscious.

The car swerved dangerously but I gripped the wheel studying the trail. It was straight for a while before curving sharply to the left. Good. I locked the wheel in place by wedging my gun between its inner wheel and the dashboard.

Slipping between the seats with ease I grit my teeth making the jump from the enemy car to Bucky's which was trailing a few feet behind. I landed on the hood foot scraping the ground as it grated into my shoe.

Scrambling up the hood I slipped in the passenger seat and made a move for the back row. Bucky was engaged in heavy fire trying to hold off a plane and the second jeep. All I heard from him was "Are you fucking insane?!" Before jumping to the next vehicle.

The driver was surprised to say the least as were his companions. Up ahead the car I had stalled to drive only in a straight shot missed the sharp turn and slammed into the mountain exploding on impact.

The driver made a move to shove me off the hood but with a firm kick I bashed in the windshield. Slipping inside I was greeted by two other members squaring up for a fight.

Planting my feet firmly on the seat I ducked a wild slash of a gun's hilt and caught the front. With a firm push the barrel slammed into the attacker's nose and he went tumbling out the side of the vehicle having lost his balance.

His friend drew a blade slashing with it. The weapon tore open the seat as I dodged the attack only for a kick to land on my knee. Grunting my leg buckled but I used the opportunity to use my lower ground to push the man down into the back seat.

Surprised by this I managed to free the blade from his hand and with a bit of effort I kicked him out through the open window so he could join his friend. The driver went on in a panic filled silence.

Bucky managed to pick off two more planes but by the frustrated look on his face he'd run out of ammunition. However by the steaming and streams of smoke from the only remaining aircraft it was clear he'd damaged it.

Turning the blade over in my hand I calculated my throw before hurling it as hard as I could with the correct trajectory until it lodged in the engine stalling the plane which crashed to the ground.

Turning to the driver and only remaining member of the enemy I gave him one order. "Drive and you won't die."

At the first opportunity Maria exited the mountain pass just as the jeep sputtered to a halt the gas tank empty. The others were soon to follow until we were crowded in the shade beneath a tall tree. The roots of it were twisted and gnarled crawling over the receding mountain face.

Bucky grabbed the only survivor of the enemy and pushed them up against the rough bark of the tree. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Obvious enough isn't it?" The man grunted much shorter than Bucky.

"Tell me." Bucky growled almost scarily.

"INGSOC and some ancient guy hired us. There was this cat lady real intimidating. It was good money and you weren't hard to miss with that massive jet." The man shrugged. "We work for money around here. Got no alliances in the wars going on as long as we get paid."

"What was the ancient man's name?" Bucky asked.

"He had people that could go into shadows and stuff. He's got eyes and ears everywhere. Your friends ain't safe." The man spilled not exactly the toughest of people. Bucky growled and let go of him.

"Scram. And tell your friends not to mess with us understood?" The man swallowed hard and gave a curt nod before sprinting off back down the dirt road. "Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah from the looks of it." Maria nodded supporting Sam's weight who was still rather out of it.

"Good. We need to figure out how we're getting out of this." Bucky sighed shaking his head.

"Do the cars have radios in them?" Sharon asked.

"Ours did." Sam mumbled.

"Maybe we can get help find an open radio wave link " Sharon proposed going to Bucky's vehicle. She fumbled around in it for a bit before holding up the speaking device belonging to a rustic truck radio system.

The rest of us crowded around and Usain the man who'd aided us through all of this flipped through the static long dark skinned fingers tweaking the knobs with ease.

At first there was nothing and my hope began to sink slightly until the static broke free and a voice cut in.

"Whose this? Israel outpost 12B." Came an accented voice.

"Hello. This is Sharon Carter an agent of Shield. My team and I have been stranded in a mountain pass, attacked by a rogue group of operatives. Is there any way you can retrieve us our vehicles are down." Sharon spoke with an authoritative tone and there was a pause on the other end before a response came.

"Alright dispatching an aircraft remain at your location. If you can give us indication of where you reside and please be patient." Sharon replied that she understood and that was the end of the discussion and transmission.

Maria and Thor set to work on setting the tires aflame to give a thick plume of dark smoke as a beacon to our location. Bucky took the opportunity to take my arm and guide me away from the others.

"What?" I asked already getting the feeling that I was about to be lectured.

"You are completely insane I hope you know that." Bucky said. "Jumping over cars? What were you thinking?"

"That we were all going to die and something needed to be done." I replied with a shrug.

"Nat under normal circumstances I'd be okay with such daring tactics but you can't be that reckless anymore. Remember you can't just think about yourself anymore." I knew he was right. Bucky was always right but at the same time he wasn't exactly taking initiative earlier.

"Yeah I know. I'll be more careful from now on." I promised half heartedly kicking at the dirt.

"Thank you. Although I have to say you pulled it off rather flawlessly." Bucky gave a small smile he was never capable of staying mad at me for too long.

"Yeah I know. I'm flawless. It's a gift." I laughed as Bucky rolled his eyes and shoved me playfully.

"Whatever. Let's just get out of here and see if we can get an update on how the others are doing." I had almost forgotten that everyone else was off doing missions of their own. I hoped quietly that they were all okay but by the enemy's words I had a feeling things were probably as difficult for them as they had been for us.

If anything I hoped they were all at least safe and only had minor injuries if any at all. Most importantly I found it aggravating and worrying that the enemy was somehow capable of remaining one step in front of us the whole time. What was worse. We hadn't been able to secure the objective of our mission.

We would have to deal with that later, as for the mean time, we had to be rescued.