Not The Only One - A Winter Soldier Story

Chapter 18

     To say the duffle was cramped and stuffy would be beyond an understatement. I could not move at all, and every breath I exhaled only added to the rising temperature and increasing staleness of the air around me.

     There was also the fact that I could see practically nothing. Steve could drop me at any minute without warning, and there would be nothing I could do to anticipate or break my fall. I was extremely vulnerable and completely at the mercy of these two men right now.

     We proceeded quietly for several minutes before Bucky's voice broke the silence. "What about all those things on your list?"

     List? What list? What is he talking about?

     "Shoot! I forgot about that! Do you think that you can take her back while I go get this stuff?" Steve asked.

     My mind reeled as to what the "list" and "all those things" could possibly be.

     Bucky agreed. "Sure."

     "Here are the keys," Steve offered, and a light jingle followed his words.

     Steve then set me on the ground, and Bucky put the duffle's strap over his good shoulder and lifted me off the ground.

     "Be back soon!" Steve said as we started moving again.

     Bucky walked differently than Steve did. He balanced my weight against his right hip instead of slinging me diagonally across his back. I felt safer with him carrying me, which was completely ridiculous. He only has one arm, so logically, I should feel less safe with him carrying me. It was almost like Bucky could feel my pain, and he quickened his pace so as to end my suffering sooner.

     We must have climbed several flights of stairs because his gait morphed into a rhythmic upward motion a few minutes later.

     I heard him fumble to get the keys out of his pocket and unlock something. The creak of what sounded like a door followed behind it. We walked a short way before the creak happened again followed by two very different sounding clicks.

     I was set on the ground again. Bucky unzipped me from my prison. I sat up and took in a long, deep breath of fresh air before getting to my feet.

     A quick survey of my surroundings showed it to be a run-down apartment. There were two doors and a couple of dirty windows. A few bags were over in one of the corners, but otherwise, the place was bare.

     I turned to Bucky. "So Steve is 'Captain America,' but who are you?"

     "A friend," he replied softly.

     I frowned. "That's vague. What's your story, Bucky?"

     He laughed nervously. "My story. I don't think you want to hear about all of that, Doll."

     "I want to hear it."

     "Trust me, you don't want to hear it right now," Bucky told me.

     "Yes, I do," I insisted.

     "Okay," he said with a resigned sigh. "I was born on March 10th, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York. Met Steve and we became best friends as kids. Joined the Army in 1941 and fought in World War II until I was captured by HYDRA and experimented on. You know how Steve was also experimented on, and fortunately, he came and saved me. Steve and some of our friends and I ended up making this group called the Howling Commandos and we fought against HYDRA and the Nazis. On February 1st, 1945, we were on a mission, and I ended up falling off of a train into the river gorge below. Everyone thought I was dead. But I survived the fall because of the experiments HYDRA had done on me. Or most of me survived; I lost my left arm. HYDRA found me and gave me a metal arm just like yours. They brainwashed me, and I became their puppet. I did whatever they wanted me to do. After every mission, they would freeze me until they needed me again. I was theirs for almost 70 years. Two years ago, they sent me to kill Steve, and I almost did. But seeing Steve triggered my memory and broke the brainwashing. I've been hiding for the past two years trying to get all of my memory back until Steve found me and everything went down."