LEGACY: a bucky barnes story

Chapter 22 - Freightful

We only walked a few blocks from the museum before I forced us to stop. I sat myself in some outdoor bistro chair.

"We can't ignore it forever, you know—you are a prime S.H.I.E.L.D. target right now and they will hunt you down. I know there's much you want to do, and that I've promised to help with... but I suggest we figure this shit out quickly."

He pondered for a moment. "I remember one Hydra safehouse—it was abandoned not long after a mission in 1962."

"Great—where is it?"

"Cuba."

"Cu—how are we supposed to get to Cuba?"

He fell silent.

"Okay, well, if Cuba's an option... we would need to get to Florida—Miami'd be best—then we could get on a boat headed for Cuba?" My words strung slowly amidst the problem-solving gears in my brain.

"We could drive to Miami."

"Bucky—that is a fourteen-hour drive, and we don't have a vehicle."

"What do you suggest?"

"Well, if we're not trying to find shelter before Cuba, I say we get to Miami by train. I've taken the Amtrak through D.C. to Richmond before, but that route does go all the way to Miami. But it'll be expensive and take more than a day to get there."

"Maybe we don't pay..." Bucky spoke coyly.

"What are you talking about?"

I raised my eyebrows at him and he held his hands up. "I think I'm remembering something... freighthopping... with other neighborhood kids, for fun. We saw the hobos do it all the time... so we wanted to try it. Steve... he couldn't keep up... I don't know that he ever hopped on." Bucky chuckled to himself. "But I've done it before. I think I could do it again."

"Seriously?" I asked incredulously. "Bucky—trains are a lot faster than they were in the 1930s."

"We could time it at departure—that'll still be the best speed to hop on."

"Well," I pursed my lips. "I'm glad you're remembering stuff... but..."

He cocked his head at me and shrugged.

"It's a long shot, but it's what we've got right now."

...

"Come on!" Bucky yelled. His super soldier speed let him practically fly alongside the speed of the roaring train. As he neared a car with an external ladder, he sped up only slightly to round a corner. He propelled himself upward and his bionic arm latched onto a rung.

I sprinted but everything in my body begged me to stop. The pins and needles in my leg started giving out as the ladder grew farther out of reach. Bucky outstretched his hand, leaning as far his bionic grip would allow. 

I gave one last gust of a sprint and jumped to grab his hand, but my fingers slipped out of his palm. My temple met the ground with a horrible thud. The wind knocked out of me completely as I rolled in the gravel next to the tracks.

"JJ!" he screamed.

I scrambled to sit up and watched as the train grew farther and farther away. Bucky still held onto the ladder, peering over his shoulder at me. It was too far to see his face, but Bucky Barnes had successfully hopped the train and I'm sat twiddling my thumbs in the goddamn dirt.