The Break of Winter ▸B. Barnes

Chapter 5

Liv's POV
The cool wind forced me to pull my long hair up into a ponytail to get it out of my face. The team that Steve had assembled, including Bucky and I, had become known as the Howling Commandos. We went on several missions, taking down as many HYDRA bases as we could.

Now, we stood on a snow-covered cliff looking over railroad tracks, awaiting a train carrying Dr. Zola. "Remember when I made you guys ride the cyclone at Coney Island?" Bucky asked.

I laughed at the memory. "Yeah, and Steve threw up?" I smiled at Steve, who hung his head in shame with a smile of his own.

"This isn't payback, is it?"

"Now why would I do that?" Steve replied.

"We were right, Dr. Zola is on the train," one of the other commandos announced. Steve walked over to him, while Bucky pulled me off to the side.

"I wanted to give you these, you know... just in case,"He said, handing me his dog tags.

"Funny," I smiled. "I wanted to do the same thing." I pulled the dog tags from around my neck and handed them to him.

"Let's get going, cause they're moving like the devil." Another announced.

"We only got about a ten second window," Steve said as he started to hook himself to the zip line. "You miss that window..."

"We're bugs on a windshield." I finished.

"Better get moving bugs!" Dum Dum Dugan advised.

Steve, Bucky, and I slid down the zip line, landing on the roof of the train. As we made it to the ladder that leads to the side of the train, I grabbed by bow, just in case. We climbed into the train and started moving through the carts, when suddenly a door shut, leaving Bucky and I separated from Steve. Soldiers flooded into the room. Instantly, Bucky started firing his gun at them and I started firing at them with green arrows. Realizing we were outnumbered and he was running out of ammo, Bucky glanced over at me. "Use one of the red ones," he commanded.

"But they-"

"Just do it!" He shouted in panic. So, I equipped one of the explosive arrows and pulled Bucky down behind a container to protect him from the blast. The explosion took out the majority of the men and left a large hole in the wall of the train. However, another man walked into the room. He wore bulletproof armor and a to shield over his face. Bucky went to fire at him, but he had run out of ammo. Knowing my arrows couldn't pierce the armor, we both ducked behind the containers. Just in time, Steve managed to get the doors open and tossed Bucky a small gun. Bucky nodded to him before him and Steve both went after him. Steve forced him to duck down by pushing a container straight at his head while Bucky shot him in the throat, the one place the armor didn't cover. "We had him on the ropes," he said, refering to Steve's old excuse.

"I know you did."

However, our victory was cut short when yet another soldier and the machine that Steve had been fighting entered from the room Steve had just escaped. "Jesus, where do these guys keep coming from?" I sighed.

I resorted to using my hands against the HYDRA soldier, knowing my arrows wouldn't do much good in such short range. However, I was quickly overpowered and found myself in a headlock. "Doctor Zola will be thrilled to have you back," the soldier whispered in my ear.

"No no no no... Bucky!" I went from a whisper to a scream in seconds. Bucky turned his expression to me in fear, he pointed his gun at the man, but had no way of shooting him without hitting me. "Kill me, Bucky." I pleaded. Sorrow filled his eyes "Bucky, please! Shoot me!" I begged. I couldn't go back to HYDRA. Finally, knowing they wouldn't win this fight, Bucky started to raise his gun, but was cut off by the soldier turning to shoot him. It had knocked Steve down, causing him to drop his shield. Bucky picked up the shield and tried to use it to deflect the attacks from the machine, but the force of the blast sent him flying out the side of the train. "No!" I screamed, tears were streaming down my face now.

"Bucky!" Steve shouted, rushing to the side. "Hang on," he tried to reach Bucky, but he couldn't get to him. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as I watched the love of my life fall to his death. I swear I could feel my heart shattering into millions of pieces, and I finally stopped fighting the solider that was holding me in place. I was so caught up in Bucky's death, that I didn't feel the needle go into my neck, causing the world to go black.
•••
Cold

Pain

Those were the only things that I could feel as I started to wake up. I felt restraints around my arms, legs, and stomach holding me to a metal chair. I heard screams coming from a room nearby. HYDRA. Despite knowing it was hopeless, I pulled against the restraints, desperate to escape. I eventually gave up when the door opened and none other than Dr. Zola walked in. "Hello Miss... I mean Sergeant Quinn," He greeted.

"Shut the hell up and get to the point," I snapped, hatred dripping off of every word.

"Well, I was going to give you a warning, but since you're so eager, I'll just, as you said, get to the point," he responded calmly. "We can't have the dear Captain thinking you're alive, so we'll just have to send him a messages to let him know that Olivia Quinn is dead." The door opened again and a doctor came in with an electric saw and another man. The man took the chainsaw and powered it on before moving it to my right arm. I instantly started screaming in pain. My arm felt like it was on fire, and my chest burned with each scream.

"Stop, please!" I pleaded with the man as I started to slip out of consciousness.