Dead Memories

8

Chapter Eight

Steve followed Bucky without a second of hesitation. He followed him out of the giant room, and down the corridors, because he was not going to lose him again. Especially not now that he knew that Loki was the hooded man. Bucky was in deep trouble, being in the company of someone like that. Hydra he was not worried about. They were people, normal humans for the most part, he knew how to fight against them. He would've understood if Bucky's reason for going up against Hydra was vengeance. But clearly this was not the case. His friend got himself in a lot bigger mess than that.

Bucky knew where he was going, so he must've memorised the building's layout. They reached a small, mostly empty room rather quickly. There were a few wooden desks shoved up to a wall and old metal filing-cabinets. And one closed safe in the wall. Bucky went for that.

'They just left that here?' Steve questioned. 'Was this a trap?'

Bucky was pulling things out of his belt and putting it on the safe.

'They were afraid to take it out,' Bucky said quietly.

Steve had about a million questions immediately, but the distant rumbling of the beasts grew closer and the floor started vibrating under his feet. Steve crossed the room to stand by Bucky's side.

'We need to get out of here,' he said as he watched how cracks appeared on the floor.

'Not leaving this here,' Bucky said, his fingers moving quickly. Steve only paid little attention to what he was doing exactly.

Yellow light started pouring out of the cracks, pulsating so brightly Steve had to turn away.

'They're coming, we need to get out of here!' Steve insisted.

'No, they're not gonna get it!' Bucky told him angrily and kept focusing on the safe.

Steve wanted to ask who he was talking about, but the rumbling was getting pretty loud. He turned back towards the cracks and gripped his shield tightly. The grey monsters started to appear, they climbed out of too thin cracks, their red eyes immediately focused on Steve and Bucky.

'Bucky, I don't think I can fight them off,' Steve said.

'I'm almost done,' Bucky said.

'And then what?' Steve asked. One of the creatures approached, but the rest of them were still just slowly inching forward. Steve just knew they would all jump them soon enough.

One of them charged from his right. Steve slammed his shield in its head and tried to dodge the claws without leaving Bucky's back unprotected. They were so done for. The force of the attacks made it hard for Steve to stay in one spot, he was getting pushed back, away from Bucky. Just as he was about to stumble back, Bucky turned and shot the thing in the eye with his SIG. The creature roared back a bit. Steve managed to regain his balance, while Bucky turned back to the safe.

But more things were coming, not just the three already eyeing them, more were crawling out of the cracks, and there was literally nowhere to go from this place.

One of the things body-slammed him and he hit the floor even though he expected the attack. He held up his shield, but he could feel his arms straining from the weight. No wonder, even Thor struggled with them. Steve knew he wouldn't be able to fight back for long. Some of the weight disappeared when a metal hand smashed into the thing's neck. Then Bucky wrapped the same hand around a horn and yanked on the creature's big head. The thing immediately focused its attention on Bucky, so Steve smashed its head with his shield again, then kicked it in the chin as hard as he could. Then he quickly got out from under it.