Winter's End [winter soldier//Bucky Barnes AU]

Chapter Thirteen

Ten minutes after the attack

*Bucky's POV*

"Jesus Christ how big is this god damn forest?!" I groaned, frowning at Stark. He rolled his eyes and made me want to smack him.

"Keep your pants on, soldier. We'll get there when we get there." He replied.

My frown deepened as I started to mentally list everything I hated about Tony Stark, but soon I stopped; because it would take way too long to list everything.

Sarah grabbed my real hand and squeezed, quelling my anger in a way that only she could. Instantly I felt better.

I glanced sideways at her and gave a smile of thanks, which she returned. We continued holding hands as everyone tip toed through the forest. This time, everyone was much more aware of our surroundings, and we were constantly looking over our shoulders. After being attacked, we realized we needed to be more careful.

And since we were all paying much more attention to our surroundings, it didn't take us long to notice the sound of a nearby helicopter.

The familiar chopping sound of the blades echoed through the trees, and we all dropped to the ground once again, moving to hide under plants.

The sound got closer and closer until the chopper was directly above our heads. I twisted my neck and peered through the leaves of the bush I was under, to see a large black helicopter floating inches above the tree line. The chopper's ladder was lowering down, and a person was holding on to one of the rungs.

I scooted further into the bushes, covering Sarah's body completely with my own, and I noticed the rest of the team do the same. I could barely see the chopper's ladder still descending down. I reached for my gun while I could, and held it in front of me, prepared to fight.

When I saw the person's shoes touch the rich soil, I held my breath and waited for them to make the next move.

"Guys, come on!" The person yelled. I frowned, because the voice belonged to Maria Hill.

Slowly, we made our way out from under the bushes to see if it really was her, or if Hydra was fooling us yet again.

"Hill?" Natasha asked, looking at Maria skeptically. 'Maria' rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"All of you quit playing around and get on the damn chopper before Fury comes down here! Y'all wanna be get out of here or what?!" She snapped. Steve raised his eye brows and got on the ladder.

"Yep, that's Hill alright."

We laughed and followed Steve up to the helicopter, squeezing in the best we could. Hill climbed up last and pulled the ladder up with her, shutting the side door tightly. Once we all sat down, Fury's booming voice filled the silence.

"What are you doing wandering the forest?!" He yelled. I sighed, because I knew this would take a while.

"We were searching for a place to lie low while we gather intel." Steve replied.

"You ain't gonna find a place to stay in the god damn wilderness!" Fury replied angrily, and I began to mentally make a list of things I hate about him as well.

"We needed to travel in a way where we wouldn't be noticed. Clearly that didn't work, and we paid for that mistake. You don't need to yell when we did the best we could." Natasha interrupted, setting Fury off on a whole new level.

Honestly, I completely tuned the rest of the argument out. Fighting with Fury is probably the most exhausting thing ever and it wasn't worth the aggravation. I just rubbed my thumb against the back of Sarah's freezing hand, staring out the window at the sun set.

A half hour later, we landed a quarter mile from a 'safe house' Fury had found. We walked the rest of the way there, covering our tracks well, in case Hydra tried to find us.

The house was located in a normal rural neighborhood, the other houses spread pretty far apart. We didn't go in the main house which was located close to the road, instead staying in one of the barns at the back of the property. No one would ever think to look here.

Me, Sarah, Natasha, Steve and Clint all set ourselves up in the loft of the barn, amidst all the hay. The others spread out in the lower level of the barn.

Since it was already late, Fury and Hill told us that we would begin our work tomorrow, and start putting all the pieces of Hydra info we know together. For a while now, all we've been doing is hiding from Hydra, and that's not at all what superheroes should be doing; we should be fighting to free the world of the evil organization. Not to mention the fact that a certain unwanted god is still wandering around our planet.

But, all that would be figured out tomorrow. Tonight we will rest.

I hold Sarah close to me, as I try to silence the voices in my head; there were so many thoughts running around at a hundred miles per hour, giving me a royally unnecessary headache.

Soon though, they are quiet, and I drift into a silent sleep.

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