The Seventh Avenger: Memories Never Die// Bucky Barnes

THREE: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

"If you want to survive this place, then there are a few things that you're going to need to know," Riley informs me as we walk through the many corridors-so many, that I had quickly given up trying to count how many we had passed. This place,or this part of the building anyway, reminded me much like a maze, and I knew that it was going to take me a while to properly work my way around here without get lost.

Her words have me sending a scowl to the side of her head, recalling the conversation between the two of us moments before. "I don't intend on staying long."

"If that's what you want to believe, then fine," Is her almost dismissive reply. "But, considering that there is a chance that you don't manage to escape here, what are you going to do then?"

I remain silent at this, not particularly wanting to think too much of possible failure. Because at this stage, the only way that I was going to be able to leave this place, was to rely on myself and myself only. Well, me and the person whom Riley was taking me to see at this very moment. Hopefully her words proved to be true and whoever this person was would be able to give me the right information that I needed to leave.

Riley takes my silence for an answer, continuing, "That's what I thought. Anyway, things around here are actually quite simple...or the routine is anyway. We wake up and immediately head off to the cafeteria for breakfast-"

"There's a cafeteria here?" I ask, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Mhm. Think of this place like a boarding house. We have meals three times a day and the rest of the day is either filled up with classes, or experiments."

I can't help but come to a halt at her words, my mind racing at what she had just said. She notices this and quickly stills in front of me, turning around so that our gazes locked. She must see the confusion plastered all over my face, as she tilts her head considerably asking, "Is something wrong?"

I can practically feel my eyebrows on the edge of my hairline at this point. "Did you seriously compare this place to a boarding school?" I inquire faintly, not quite believing the words as they left my own mouth. When she nods her head in confirmation at this, I feel my jaw drop. "How is this place anything like a boarding house?"

I half expect her to snap with impatience at my continuous and confused questions, though she doesn't much too my surprise. Instead, she repeats calmly, "Like I said, we have meals, we have rooms-cells," She corrects when I shoot her a pointed look at the last part, not believing that 'rooms' was an appropriate word to describe the space that I had spent the majority of my time in since waking up. "In between meals, we either have classes, or we're experimented on."

"Classes?"

She nods her head, before crossing her arms over her chest and leaning up against the wall beside us, resting her head gently against it. "Only the classes aren't anything like the ones that you would be taught in regular schools. No English, no maths, no history, science-nothing like that at all. When I say classes, I guess I should really be saying training. Hand to hand combat. Sometimes they train us with weapons as well, but they never give us anything that we can use to kill them. No guns. No sharp, pointy knives. It's mostly just batons really."

I feel myself straighten at the mention of the batons. During my time as a SHIELD agent, I had worked heavily with them as they had been my personal choice of weapon whenever I went on missions. If I managed to get my hands on one then it meant that there was a chance that I could use it to fight my way out if it came down to that. I'm assuming that most of the other test subjects in here didn't know how to properly use a weapon, meaning that there was a chance that I could take these people by surprise. If they underestimated me and my abilities with a weapon, then it increased my chances of getting out of here alive.