Eclipse (Born at Dusk - Book 1)

2

July 29, 2025

"It's just a favor," Bucky muttered to himself as the first gust of icy wind hit his face. Squinting against the snow, he made his way down the jet ramp toward the mountain facility's entrance.

Bucky attempted to open the door, but it didn't budge. Sighing, he took a step back before throwing his weight against it once, then twice. To finish it off as he kicked it down, a cloud of dust rose as it crashed to the floor.

"Pretty soon, it'll be nothing but favors." Bucky scoffed as he stepped into the narrow hallway of the facility, gun, and flashlight in hand.

"I heard that," Sam commented in his ear.

"I had every intention of you hearing that." Bucky fired back. He carefully stepped over fallen debris as the hallway got darker the further he went.

"Oh c'mon, you would've done it anyway." Sam laughed.

"Remind me again why you can't do it yourself. Shuri did hand this mission directly to you." Bucky asked, annoyance pitching into his voice.

"In which I handed to you. You looked bored."

"I was on leave."

"Exactly."

Bucky scoffed and moved forward, stepping into an abandoned flight hanger. Old and looted machinery lay strewn about the entire floor, a thick coat of dust covering everything. A set of footprints caught Bucky's eyes beneath the light, and he began following them."Remind me what I'm looking for." Bucky said as he followed the footprints through another hallway.

"Radio signals were set off two days ago. Someone was there that shouldn't be." Bucky's senses heightened as he focused his attention on the narrow hallway, accompanied by doors on each side every several feet.

"And?"

Sam sighed. "Well, whoever was there was the last person to be there since 1992."

"So what's here?"

"Like it said, it used to be a HYDRA base in the 80's until their intel was leaked and everyone involved was killed. Not long after, the U.S. looted the entire thing and closed it off."

Sam was right. Half-emptied pallets and equipment sat in each room, sitting motionless. He was curious as to how a HYDRA facility managed to stay in the dark for years. It is even equipped with its own landing strip and jet hangar high in the mountains of Romania.

"So what was this guy looking for?" Bucky asked himself as the trail of footprints finally turned towards a doorway towards several flights of stairs. "I'll reach back when I get back to the hangar," Bucky told Sam before shutting off the comm line.

His boots were silent as he made his way down the stairs, tension pooling in his gut. Three stories later, the trail separated into a hallway and through another door. Stepping into the room, Bucky swung his rifle around the room, casting beams of light through the disturbed dust. Once clearing the area, he scanned the floor, tracing the footsteps through the room. They went back and forth and were retraced several times. Pacing likely.

Bucky covered his light, leaving him in pure darkness to see three lights barely visible across the room. Two of them were together, another on a separate wall. He made his way to the two, keeping track of the footprints beneath him. Exactly what he'd guessed, the two lights were on the generator in the corner of the room. Taking only a second to figure it out, he flipped it on, the machine spurring to life.

Cautiously, Bucky watched the lights in the room flicker on, lighting the room with a yellowish glow. He scanned the room again; this time, his attention was pulled to a massive chamber on one wall, where he knew the third light was located. Making his way over to it, Bucky stopped as he spotted a closet door.