Bucky's

Chapter 3: Meet & Eat

Tanya—who henceforth shall be referred to as "Patty"—was terrified beyond reason. She squirmed and scratched and bit Bucky's hand, to no avail. Bucky had rough, calloused hands, the hands of a working man who had labored in a kitchen for years washing dishes and cooking, and she wasn't even able to pierce his skin with her teeth. The Giant gave her a hard squeeze to subdue her.

"Heh, you're a feisty little thing, aren't you?" Bucky mentioned wryly. "If you struggle too much, I might drop you, and that won't end well for you. Especially if I 'accidentally' step on you. You're expendable, you know." Patty froze up at the thought of his gigantic shoe squashing her like an insect, crunching her bones and organs into a bloody pancake. She didn't want to be eaten, but she didn't want to be crushed either.

Her frantic mind took in her surroundings, seeking some way out of her predicament. Bucky had carried her out of the storage room and down a tiled hallway, the thuds of his great footfalls resounding off the walls. He entered a door off to the side, into a shadowy room with big metal washtubs and boxes of supplies. He dumped the tiny woman into one of the washtubs and blasted her with a flood of lukewarm water to wash off his saliva. Patty sputtered and blocked her face with her hands reflexively. With a flick of his finger, Bucky tore her undergarments off her body, destroying them in the process and leaving her stark naked. He poured a soapy powder on her and rinsed her down to sanitize her, moving too quickly and roughly for Patty to react properly. He threw a washcloth on her so she could dry off. She covered her nakedness with shame.

"Put these on," Bucky grunted, tossing some rubbery clothes at her that were little more than booty shorts and a bra. Patty didn't want to wear the provided garments, but she didn't want to be naked either, so she hastily slapped on the clothes. The material was odd, uncomfortable, and clung to her skin, but she didn't protest. Bucky reached down with his huge hand, blocking out the dim light overhead, and Patty recoiled. He stuck something to her chest with the pad of his thumb, then affixed a sleek electronic device, similar to a watch, tightly on her wrist with a snap. Patty had to marvel at his expertise with handling humans, despite his incomprehensible size. Cleary, he had completed this ritual several times before.

"That's a tracking device," Bucky explained, his loud Giant voice echoing off the metal sides of the washtub around her. "Don't bother trying to run, because if you do we'll find you and make you regret your life choices." Patty shuddered at the foreboding threat. Not wanting to look up at the Giant, Patty glanced down to her chest where he had touched her and saw a nametag with the appellation "Patty" written on it. She grimaced, hating the new name, but any complaints she had died in her throat with unfiltered terror.

Bucky left her unattended for a moment, so Patty darted to the edge of the tub and attempted to scale the side. The wall was slick, shiny silver, however, and too tall to reach the top. She tried to tear the tracker off her wrist, but her pathetic human strength wasn't enough to unclasp it. She would need a Giant's help to remove it. Bucky returned with a small stick of metal in his hand, burning cherry red on the end. He knocked Patty over on her side and pinned her down with his fingers. She fought back, with no reaction from Bucky, and suddenly felt a searing hot pain on the side of her thigh that made her scream.

Bucky released her, and she scrambled away into the corner, her heart pumping hard. She gazed down at her reddened, burned thigh to behold a "B" branded into her flesh. The object Bucky was holding was a branding iron. He had seared his mark on her like she was nothing more than livestock. She experienced a powerful revulsion that nearly compelled her to vomit. She had been stripped of her identity, her clothes, and her personhood. She was little more than cattle, a piece of meat—a hamburger patty. She wondered darkly why he even bothered with all the extra steps if she was just going to be eaten anyways.