Bucky's

Chapter 2: Bucky

Tanya's first instinct was to run, but she realized the futility of such an act right away. She couldn't see a thing in the darkness, and if it were that easy to escape, the guards wouldn't have abandoned her like they did. As her eyes slowly adjusted, she began to realize she could just barely make out steep concrete walls around her. She walked across the floor, also concrete, a long distance before she reached one of the walls. She slid her hand across it, fingering the cold, smooth surface. She wouldn't be able climb up those solid walls without any handholds or tools.

She looked up, confused. There was no ceiling that her eyes could perceive, but she wasn't outside. There was just infinite blackness stretching above her. Dim lighting, barely perceptible, was coming from somewhere past the wall, enabling her to see, but she wasn't able to discern where it was coming from. She listened for sound and could make out dull, indistinct vibrations from far away. Oddly, beyond the mustiness of the air was the faint but familiar aroma of food cooking, but Tanya couldn't identify the specific dish.

Tanya was baffled. Nothing made any sense, and she had no clue where she was. She stumbled around for a while, feeling the walls for a door or exit. Nothing. Just the deserted rail station, with the tunnels closed off with metal doors, and the concrete walls confining her in a spacious, yet fully enclosed area, with blackness all around. She felt as if she were trapped in some sort of strange dream that she couldn't wake up from, in this unnatural and confusing space that didn't conform to any reality she was familiar with, completely alone.

She wasn't alone for long, however. Just as Tanya was about to sit down, not knowing what else to do, the floor and walls began to tremble around her. Tanya stiffened. At first, she thought maybe a railcar was driving through, or the tremors were from an earthquake, but then vibrations grew more intense, more rhythmic. They had substantial weight to them, as if something incomprehensibly massive was approaching. Tanya went pale. The cadence reminded her of footsteps. But what could possibly be large enough to rattle the entire room around her?

The gap above the walls was suddenly flooded with distant light, and Tanya heard a huge door creak open. Tanya was shocked to see her holding pen of concrete was actually ensconced within a much larger room that looked like a basement or storage facility, on an impossibly grand scale. She didn't have much time to process this realization, as she gazed up over the wall to see a colossal silhouette framed by a gigantic rectangle of light. Tanya froze and broke into a cold sweat, craning her neck back with disbelief. The shadow was the shape of a man, tall and broad, but so vast she couldn't believe her own eyes.

The gargantuan shadow lumbered into the room, and the floor shook beneath his feet with each step. Tanya heard the heavy, masculine breathing of an enormous beast. Her heart dropped into her stomach. What she was seeing and hearing wasn't possible. The outline of a mammoth arm reached up to the ceiling, and a bulb like the sun was illuminated as the cord hanging from it clicked it on. Tanya stared up in horror as the great shadow was finally illuminated in full detail.

She was gazing up at a Giant—a man of cosmic stature, hundreds of feet tall, towering above her like a living mountain. He was not only ridiculously tall but also wide, with a prodigious girth and a round, ruddy face. He was dressed strangely, in crisp white pants and a vest red as blood over a short-sleeved white shirt, with a nametag pinned to his chest that read "Bucky." The concrete walls penning her in barely reached above his ankles.

The Giant crouched down, careful not to touch his knees to the ground and soil his spotless white pants. The sight of the enormous man surging down closer to her level, waxing larger, made Tanya fall on her backside and cower in terror. She scooted back to the nearest wall and clawed at it helplessly, even though logically she was aware of how futile her efforts to get away were. She was hopelessly trapped. The Giant observed her with a thin smirk of amusement, resting one of his large meaty hands on top of the wall.