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Where I'll Be (Marvel FF)- Chapter 7

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                        Chapter 7- Fire Alarms and Losing You


    I hit the water, breaking through a thin layer of ice, and the cold gripped me like a crushing hug. The relief I felt at having guessed the correct ledge to jump from was quickly drowned when my tired muscles all but locked up in the cold water. On the other hand, I didn't plan on actually swimming much anyway.

    The current was swift, and I let it carry me downriver. I stayed underwater, didn't try to swim or direct myself in any way, did everything I could to disappear entirely into the river, holding my breath as long as I could.

    It was too dark to see anything so I kept my eyes closed. I couldn't hear anything but the water rushing in my ears, even my own heartbeat was smothered by the watery roar. I quickly lost any semblance of control on my motion and was tossed and rolled and dragged by the water. I hit rocks and branches and quickly lost any sense of direction in the water.

    My chest burned for air and I pushed off from what I thought was the riverbed, only to bump my head against the actual riverbed, scraping my forehead on the stones. I fought the current and managed to break the surface, gasping and coughing.

    The water continued to carry me along and I didn't fight it except to keep my head above water. I didn't worry too much about keeping quiet since the river was noisy enough in the shallow gorge it ran through, no one would hear me.

    Being carried through the dark, half-frozen, was like the world's scariest water-park ride. I had a vague idea of what part of the river I was in, but that didn't make me feel any better, since I knew the rapids were coming up and I would have to get out before that.

    The river wasn't terribly deep, reaching just passed my waist if I were to stand in it, but the current was too strong for me to win against in my weakened state. I reached out, grabbing for anything that might be stable, an overhanging branch, a rock....

    The current slammed me against a boulder, knocking the wind out of me and bruising my ribs. I managed to grab it but it was tough to hang on with the combination of icy rock and frozen, stiff fingers, but I got my arms around it in a sort of awkward hug.

    I clung to it, coughing, choking up a mouthful of water I didn't remember swallowing. My head spun and my stomach churned and my ears were ringing almost more loudly than the roaring of the water.

    It was still too dark to see much. I could see the water, the boulder, the ice and white foam around me. The sky was getting a bit lighter so if I looked up I could see the vague outlines of the branches and leaves of the trees overhead. I couldn't see the banks of the river, but I could smell mud, and assumed I was close.

    Carefully, I stretched out my right arm. Feeling nothing I moved over a bit more until my fingertips sank into cold mud.

    Of course. The bank was too steep. I would have to keep going until it sloped down closer to the river.

    I could feel myself shivering more than I'd ever shivered before, but I forced myself to ignore it. I dug my fingers into the muddy wall of the riverbank and pulled myself closer. The water was a little shallower there, and the current didn't push so strongly. With my left hand I pushed away from the rock and grabbed onto a root that stuck out from the mud.

    As confident as I could be in a cold, muddy grip, I began a painfully slow crawl along the riverbank. My hands, feet, and legs were all numb past the point of feeling pain, something that was handy when it came to the crackling ice on the the river water. Most of it was thin enough to break when I moved through the water, but some of it I had to break by slamming one numb hand against it until the ice shattered.

    After what seemed like a million years of mud and water and ice and cuts I could see but not feel, the bank began to lower towards the water.

    The river was calmer here, and with the banks lower now the sounds of the water couldn't bounce around against them. It was overall much more peaceful. I wasn't sure how to feel about that. With the dark still gripping the woods so I could hardly see and my body growing more and more numb with the cold it was nice to have loud noise to ground me.

    When I could touch the top of the bank with my hands I wanted to pull myself out right there, but I knew I wouldn't have the strength. I bit my lower lip and forced myself to keep going.

    My left foot, already weakened, slipped into a rut in the soft riverbank and before I knew what was happening I had lost my grip on the bank and slipped back underwater.

    Water muffled everything and the current tossed me about, dizziness and cold dampening my senses. Confusion and fear jolted through me and I kicked out, trying to swim, holding my arms out to stop myself from running into the rocks, being slammed against them anyway.

    My lungs were screaming for air but I couldn't orient myself to get out of the water to breathe. My body wouldn't respond right, too cold to understand what I wanted it to do. I grabbed blindly for anything to stop me from being dragged along, scraping my numb fingers through the pebbly riverbed, striking submerged sticks and rocks. I tried to push off the bottom of the river but I only succeeded in pushing myself ahead faster.

    Something grabbed the back of my shirt and hauled me up, then started to drag me towards the riverbank.

    It was a hand, and at first I thought it was Bucky until I realized it was too small, and my heart froze more quickly than anything else on my body ever could.

    Not-Bucky hauled me through the water to the bank and started to drag me up, wrapping one arm around my waist.

    Still confused from my tumbling through the river I struggled, grabbing the arm around my waist and trying to push it off while I was half dragged and half carried up the riverbank.

    “Get off me!” I yelled, twisting and trying to wrench myself away from Not-Bucky's body. “Let go of me! Let go!”

    “Hey,” Not-Bucky said, icily calm, alerting me to the fact that my attacker was a woman, “hey, take it easy.”

    I yelled wordlessly, swinging my arm back in an attempt to drive my elbow into her ribs or stomach or anything I could reach.

    Not-Bucky caught my arm with her left hand before I could strike her. She twisted my arm painfully, and I turned to try and relieve the sudden pain in my shoulder. Before I could react, her right arm, previously around my waist, snapped up to pin my arms to my sides.

    I yelled again and then her left arm was over my mouth. With both arms holding me securely against her I could do little more than struggle pathetically in her grip. She could have snapped my neck if she wanted, a fact that I became very aware of when she turned my head just a bit to the left, almost like a threat.

    “Take. It. Easy.” She growled in my ear.

    I stopped fighting quite so much, it was pointless anyway.

    She pulled me farther up the bank until we were under the trees, then I heard someone else approaching in front of us.

    I couldn't see who it was, or even a face or any features, but I saw a dark form coming up to me and alarm bells went off in my head. Swiftly I pushed back against Not-Bucky, then threw all my weight into kicking both feet out in front of me. I was rewarded with a satisfying impact and a surprised oof, followed by the thud of someone falling down.

    “Hey, hey, it's all right,” Not-Bucky said, speaking to me again, “we are not here to hurt you, we're here to help, okay? Just calm down.”

    I considered her words carefully. I couldn't remember any of the Hydra agents being a woman but I hadn't exactly inspected any of them. And yet she hadn't actually hurt me so far, beyond trying to subdue me. And really she had probably just saved me from drowning.

    I stopped trying to fight and forced myself to relax a little, a tough feat when I was still shivering a lot.

    “Okay that's better. I'm gonna let you talk, okay? No yelling, all right?”

    I nodded as best I could with her arm holding my head and she moved her arm away.

    “You okay Sam?” She asked.

    The figure on the ground groaned and coughed. “I'll be all right...just give me a sec...”

    I almost felt bad for kicking him. Almost.

    “Okay,” Not-Bucky said, “I know you've had a tough time, I know Hydra's here, but we are not with them, okay?”

    “Who are you?” I demanded harshly, too tired and cold and angry to beat around the bush, “What are you doing here? What do you want?”

    “We're with S.H.I.E.L.D. We're here to get you and Sergeant Barnes out of here.”

    “Sergeant B- you mean Bucky?” I stammered. I knew he'd been in the army but I'd never thought to refer to him by a rank he'd held over seventy years ago.

    She seemed a bit surprised, hesitating a heartbeat before answering. “Yes. Do you know where he is now?”

    “He's...he was...” I closed my eyes tightly, brain climbing uphill against the cold to try to remember where I'd last seen Bucky. I gestured vaguely upriver. “He was surrounded, I gave him an opening and he was fighting, I led some of the Hydra guys away, and I jumped into the river.”

    “Do you know how many agents there were the last time you saw them?”

    I paused again, trying to remember. “I don't know. Seven or eight? Maybe more?  It's hard to say, I wasn't exactly counting.”

    The figure on the ground was sitting up, an arm over his stomach. I opened my mouth to apologize, since it seemed these two were on my side, but then a third person arrived suddenly out of the woods, silent as a shadow.

    This third person was a man, tall, very muscular. The feeble light from the slowly arriving dawn picked out a white star on his chest, and short blonde hair on his head. On his back was something large and round; light reflected from a red finish. When the entire picture assembled in my mind, I very nearly fell right over.

    Captain America.

    “Lying down on the job, Sam?” He asked as he came closer, frozen earth crackling under his feet.

    Sam, the man on the ground, coughed. “Don't get too close, Cap, she'll get you.”

    He was almost right beside me when he stopped and looked at me like he hadn't noticed I was there.

    “This is her?” He asked Not-Bucky.

    “Fished her out of the river.” Not-Bucky came closer, standing to my left, talking over me to Captain America, “She was with Bucky not long ago, he could be just upriver.”

    “Then why are we still talking? Let's get moving.”

    All at once the three of them moved ahead to disappear back into the forest, leaving me standing baffled and half frozen on the bank.

    “No wait!” I gasped, scrambling to follow, much louder and more clumsy than any of them. I stumbled over my own feet and Not-Bucky steadied me with a hand on my shoulder.

    All three were looking back at me expectantly, Captain America shifting his weight like he couldn't stand to stay still for another minute.

    “It's just...I don't know if he'll remember you, or he will but only a little and...and bad things happen if he only kinda remembers and just...no...” I rubbed at my eyes, head swimming, “He's been with me for like a month or something like that, he knows who I am, I have to go ahead of you guys.”

    Captain America came closer, scowling, face dark. “I'm sorry, who are you again?” He growled.

    “Steve...” Not-Bucky said softly.

    Capta- Steve turned to half-glare at her, stepping away. “What, you agree with her Natasha?”

    Sam put a hand on Steve's arm. “Hey, take it easy. She's right, we don't know what kind of a place Bucky's in right now. Seeing you might just set him off.”

    There was a brief, tense silence before Steve turned back to me. “How do we know she's not Hydra?”

    I groaned, already fed up, and started marching ahead. “All right, while you guys debate my alignment, I'll go find Bucky.”

    That seemed to surprise them, and it took a couple of moments before they started following me.

    It only took a short time walking before I realized that this wasn't going to do much good. I had no idea how far down the river I'd drifted. I didn't know where Bucky had gone. More important, there was clearly something wrong with me. My chest and stomach ached distantly, and my mind kept getting more and more muddled. I actually forgot where I was going a few times, and had to look back at the people following me before I remembered. But at least I'd stopped shivering so violently.

    “Hey, you okay?” Sam asked when I stopped, dazed, for the third time. “You don't look so-”

    A hail of gunfire broke out uncomfortably close to us, and all four of us ducked down.

    Sam shoved me back behind him while Steve and Natasha dashed ahead into the undergrowth, towards the shots. After only a heartbeats' hesitation he followed, and I stumbled along after him.

    The shots hadn't seemed to be aimed at us, but whether it was Bucky being shot at or doing the shooting, he was nearby and that was all that mattered to any of us.

    There were no more shots after the first burst but I hardly noticed while trying to keep up with the other three. After only a brief run that felt like forever, we came to a rocky outcropping dappled with ice.

    Bucky had apparently managed to get his hands on a gun from one of the Hydra agents. Three of them were lying on the icy ground around him, horribly silent and still.

    In the dim light he looked like a wild animal, huge and dark and breathing hard, a massive form like a bear, pondering his victims with his back to us.

    Steve and Natasha were a few strides ahead of me when I stopped at the edge of the small clearing.

   Steve stood almost transfixed, like he couldn't believe the person in front of him was real, like he'd imagined him so many times he wasn't sure if this was actually happening. Carefully, he took a step forward. Ice crunched under his foot.

    Bucky whirled around silently, lifting the rifle and aiming it expertly.

    Steve held up both hands in a placating motion.

    Bucky's face was stony, calculating, impersonal. His eyes were hidden in the shadow of his hair, his mouth in a firm line. He moved to look through the rifle's scope.

    I never remembered deciding to, but I hurried forward to stand in front of Steve.

    Bucky faltered.

    “Bucky, it's okay, they're gonna help you. They're friends.”

    His eyes were wide, but empty, as expressionless and impersonal as his face. It was like looking at a statue. He didn't move, hardly breathing.

    Steve reached out to as if to put a hand on my arm. “Thalia-”

    The moment he spoke Bucky snapped, whipping the rifle back to Steve and letting loose another volley of bullets. Steve dove out of the way in a blur.

    “Bucky!” I screamed because there was nothing else for me to do. “Bucky! Stop!”

    He turned, raising the rifle to me.

    “Buck-”

    Natasha slammed into me, taking me bodily to the icy dirt while bullets slashed the air where I had been standing. She hauled me into the undergrowth before I could register that she'd just saved my life.

    “No!” I screamed once she let go of me, turning to look back at the now-silent outcropping.

    Bucky was gone.
Next- *coming soon*
Previous- Where I'll Be (Marvel FF)- Chapter 6

Okay! Finally caught up! Sorry for the spam but it would take forever to post it a little at a time and also I kept forgetting. I'm a genius. :la:

Sorry for the super short chapter but I'm trying to get myself back on track as far as my pacing for chapters goes. I have it worked out in my head. Sorta. :dummy:
© 2015 - 2024 Redfeathyrs
Comments4
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TrielleAmnessis's avatar
Dahrg! Such a great story!
Looking forward to the next chapter. Keep the good work up. ^^