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

Chapter Nineteen

*Bucky's POV*

The second the elevator door opened, all hell broke loose. Some twenty guards were standing in the hallway, and the moment they saw us, they sprang into action. Their bullets ricocheted off of the elevator walls as I fired back as fast as I could, nailing a few guards in their chests. Steve stood in front of me and protected us both from the bullets using the shield, before standing and throwing it as hard as he could. He knocked several of them out and I shot the rest as we hurried past them.

We then entered a hallway with several doors. I kicked the first one open to see a horrifying sight, that made me pause- several people sat in cages, with disturbing growths, odd body parts, and horrifying experimental procedures on them. The whites of their eyes shone in fear as I rushed over, unlocking their cages and giving them their freedom. Steve and I let all of the poor things out and rushed to the next room, which contained similar horrors.

All of the rooms in that hallway contained experiments. Some were alive, some were unconscious, and way too many were dead. It was a horrifying sight.

My eyes couldn't comprehend what I was seeing. The things were moaning in agony, dragging themselves out of their cages. I saw a man with severe burns covering his entire body, screaming as he clung to another person just to stand. A small child hung onto her mother using only the stumps of her arms. A woman with lizard-like scales slithered out, just like her reptilian counterpart.

I swallowed hard, my eyes wide, as me and Steve turned away from the madness that lay in front of us. We pushed through a set of doors and were once again met with a ton of guards; whom we killed as fast as we could.

Past that we got to a section even worse than the previous.

A huge lab was spread out in front of us. Scientists hurried around, grabbing papers and other materials, and the sounds of screams were coming from behind several locked doors. Guards streamed over once we entered and I ducked behind an operating table, a line of bullets missing me by inches.

I grabbed my gun and popped out from behind the table, shooting round after round at the guards. One of them hurried towards me and I shot him straight in the chest, the blow knocking him back. I noticed several scientists running towards the back of them room and I aimed my gun towards them, shooting as many of them as I could. They were murderers, torturers. They were despicable human beings that deserved a much worse death than I was giving them.

Steve's shield flew by and slammed into a guard by me, knocking him into the wall. I stood and shot down six guards as Steve knocked the others out.

After a few tiring minutes, only a couple guards were left, and the gun in my hand was out of bullets. I leapt off of a table and slammed my body into a guard, punching him forcefully in the head. Blood poured from the wound as I turned and roundhouse-kicked the next guard in the chest. He flew across the room and Steve finished him quickly, before I tackled the last guy, throwing him against a table head first. His neck snapped to the side and he fell to the ground dead.

I panted and wiped sweat from my brow. I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them, Steve was opening the door to one of the 'experimental procedure' rooms.

A look of horror crossed his face and he shut the door quickly, clearly shaken up by whatever was in there. I made eye contact with him. The screams had gone silent- and I found myself wondering if that was because they were dead. That was probably what Steve had seen.

"Let's not go through these rooms. There are clearly no Hydra leaders down here, and we killed all the scientists. Let's go help the others." I said, and he nodded in agreement, shaking his head and following me back back to the elevator. On the way back we passed the Hydra prisoners again.

They eyes us warily as several of them struggled just to stand; some were having trouble just breathing.

I made eye contact with a young man, who's leg was stuck in the broken bars of his cage. Blood was pouring from where the cage had impaled him and he was yelling in agony. I immediately rushed towards him and bent down, pulling his leg as gently as I could from the cage, and pressed my hands to his wounds. Tears streamed down his face as he tried to thank me; but all that came out of his mouth were groans.

"It's alright. You're ok. We'll get you out of here, I promise." I told him, and he but his lip and nodded. I pulled a rag out of my pocket and tied it around the wound tightly. When I stood up, I looked around the hall.

"We will help all of you get out here once we take the base. Just hang tight for a few minutes, and we will come back to help you get out." I told them. Some of them nodded, and I sighed, knowing that I couldn't help them just yet. We had to take the base first.

So me and Steve rushed to the elevator and hopped in, headed towards the fifth level.

I hoped to god that Sarah and Nat would be waiting for us, alive, when we got there.

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