One Lucky Winner

Chapter 39 ~ Steve

Day 2
8:23 PM

Today was the first day of Thor being gone.

When the mutts attacked last night, I kept running through the woods and I didn't stop until I was positive they weren't at my tail. Tony joined me in the woods soon after, and then we were alone. Thor was dead. I was emotionally and physically exhausted, and it was probably about four or five in the morning by then, so we just collapsed and slept.

All day, we've been walking around, trying to find food or something that would help us survive. But we have nothing except water; we've been drinking the snow. Besides that, we just have our suits.

Right now, we're sitting on the ground. It's probably a weird image, seeing Captian America and Iron Man all suited up and ready to fight just sitting in the snow like two potatoes.

Tony and I barely talked all day. Without Thor, we're complete strangers. He was the one who held us together; It's been so awkward without him. He's having a huge impact on us. I miss him and don't miss him at the same time. He was sort of my friend, and I've known him for a while. He was the only thing that stopped Tony and I from fighting all the time. At the same time, I hardly knew him. He never told me about his past or his family or anything personal like that. All I knew about him was that he didn't come from earth and his bother was Loki. I don't know if I should refer to him as a real friend or not.

Maybe that's Tony and I's problem. Allies are suppose to connect and be friends, but all I know about Tony is that he built the first model of his suit in a cave, and his girlfriend is Pepper. That's it. All he knows about me is probably that I was in World War II and I was found years later, frozen in ice. He doesn't know about Peggy or Bucky...

"You know, we should probably go back to the cornucopia. See if the mutts left anything," I say. I don't want to think about Peggy or Bucky. I get depressed for the rest of the day if I do.

"If we can find it," Tony says.

I don't reply and stand up.

"I'm flying," he says abruptly, with no emotion.

"Fine," I say. We're okay with splitting up, because we can both easily defend ourselves.

Tony bursts up into the air, leaving me on the ground. I stand and trudge through the snow. It doesn't bother me. I actually like it; it provides water. This suit provides warmth, so I'm not cold.

I follow Tony from in the air and eventually reach the end of the forest. I walk out into the open snowy area that used to be filled with grass. Tony is crouched down by something, a ways from the cornucopia. I walk over to him.

"What are you doing," I say to him. As I get closer, I see it.

Thor's hammer, sticking out of the ground.

"Thor's hammer," I say, immediately getting sad. I quickly remind myself that he wasn't a friend, just an aqquantence.

"Not just his hammer," Tony says standing up. The face mask part of his suit is down. I don't like when he talks to me like that. It feels like talking to a robot. He points at something. I look back down at the hammer, and see what he's pointing at. Digging marks.

"You tried to dig it out," I say, think it was kind of a stupid move. No one can lift Thor's hammer except Thor, and he's gone.

"I didn't," Tony says. He points to the ground by the hammer. I take a step closer and look at it. Footprints. I look closely.

"Bilbo," I say. I know it's him because some of the footprints are real; not shoes.

"And the other two freaks he's with," Tony says. Along with Bilbo's footprints, there are also boot prints.

"The footprints are over here too," Tony flies to the cornucopia. I follow him. The mutts really did clean up our supplies. Nothing's left but debris. But that doesn't make sense; I don't think they wouldn't eat something practical, like a knife or a pair of mittens.

Tony lands and points to more footprints in the cornucopia.

"They took the leftover supplies," I say, finally realizing it.

"And..." Tony flips up the face mask, so I can actually see his face. He always tries to make things dramatic. "I'm willing to bet they stole our three bags of food."

It starts to click in my mind, but then a little bump prevents it. How did Bilbo steal the bags? He couldn't have just disappeared. It doesn't make sense.

"How would he do that?" I say. "How did he slip past us?"

"Don't know," Tony says. "I know it was him, though."

"Well if you're so sure, we should get back. We need to attack," I say.

"Agreed," Tony says. "When should we."

"Tomorrow," I look at him. He has his face mask on again. I resist the urge to tear it off.

"When tomorrow. I need details," Tony says. Ugh. He's so tedious.

"Evening," I say.

"Jarvis, I need tomorrow evening's forecast," Tony says.

"27 degrees farinehiet. Clear, chance of snow: 0%," I hear Jarvis say.

"Perfect," Tony says. "We'll attack then. We'll kill all three and take all their stuff."

"You mean all of our stuff," I say.

"Right," he says. "That way we can get something to eat." He sits down on one of the logs by the pit that used to be the fire. He's sitting in the same place he sat the night Thor died. It's haunting.

"We haven't ate since those berries this morning," Tony says, his voice empty and hollow sounding.

"We have no food," I say, sitting next to him. "We don't know how to hunt." I regret not learning how to. I was so confident I'd have everything, I didn't think I'd need to. None of us Avengers did. We were so dumb. I regret my actions so much.

"Let's find more berries," Tony says like it's obvious. "Let's find them all before they die and freeze."

"You do that," I say. "I'll clean this place up a little."

"Deal," Tony says. He stands up and bursts into the air. I get up and walk around the cornucopia and it's surrounding area, picking up debris and tossing it in the fire pit. I feel like some kind of earth day cleaner. I pick up trash until everything is clean.

Once it's clean, I look at the cornucopia. I remember last night it was so good. It was stocked full of supplies and food, we had a blanket hanging over the opening, we had a huge fire going with lots of firewood, and all three of us were alive. Now, Thor is dead and Tony and I have nothing. How can do much change in such a small amount of time?

Tony comes back and we eat the half-frozen berries he collected. They're pretty much tasteless; I wonder if they're poisonous. Neither one of us know how to identify poison berries. That's another thing I regret not taking the time to learn.

We sit on the log in silence, staring at the fire-less pit, eating tasteless berries that might be poisonous.

Wow, we really need Thor back.