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

Chapter Twenty Five

*Bucky's POV*

We heard another huge crash.

Hydra must be sending these things out to make sure no one was spying on them. I'm almost positive that this creature was a mishap that's useless to Hydra, except for use as a guard.

I'm also almost positive that there won't really be an 'upstairs' for us to return to after this.

"We need to get out if here, unnoticed, before it steps on us. I don't know about you guys but I don't really want to be a pancake today." I said. Sarah smiled briefly, and everyone else nodded. Sam pointed across the room.

"Look. There's a door leading to the backyard, and there's a forest past the fence. We just need to sprint, and we can disappear in the leaves. That thing isn't fast enough to follow us." Sam explained.

We moved as a group, walking towards the door. Usually we'd have to be quiet, but the thing was too busy smashing the house to pieces notice us.

I really hope the owners of this house gave good insurance or something.

Nat opened the door, and sprinted across the yard. She jumped over the fence and looked up at the creature, giving us a signal when we could go. She gave the thumbs up and Steve got over the fence. She looked up and scooted further into the trees, waiting a bit before giving the next thumbs up. Tony ran and jumped over the fence. A minute later, Sam was given the all clear. Now it was Sarah's turn.

Natasha gave the signal, and Sarah sprinted across the yard, jumping the fence with ease. I sighed with relief, because I knew she was safe for the moment.

Suddenly, the creature stepped through the ceiling behind me. The basement was collapsing. The walls shifted and cracked, and the ceiling was falling down. I looked over at Natasha, who told me I couldn't go yet. I shielded my head from the debris falling down, and when the wall came down next to me, I HAD to go.

I sprinted as fast as I could, and looked ahead. Natasha's eyes were wide as she looked behind me at the creature, and she was motioning for me to hurry. I pushed my body, running even faster like I was made to do, and leaped over the fence with all my might. The creature let out a horrifying roar, and began following us. We all sprinted through the forest, spreading out and dodging trees as we hurried to get away. I ran next to Sarah. She wasn't as fast as me, so I slowed down a bit to run next to her.

I cast a glance over my shoulder, and watched as the monster began tearing down trees while trying to get to us. One of the tallest trees narrowly missed Sam, who was running on my left.

"I HATE MUTANTS." Sam yelled at the top of his lungs. I was breathing too hard to reply.

Natasha came out of no where on my right, and as the forest thinned out, we all drifted close. I looked around at everyone. They were struggling to keep running, and were stumbling and losing oxygen. Only me and Steve were doing ok.

I looked behind us, and the creature was still on our tail.

Shit, I thought. Think, Bucky, think.
Suddenly, I got an idea.

"Tony! Do you have a grenade or missile or something in your suit?!" I yelled, and he pressed a button on his bag, revealing a secret compartment with a small missile. He threw it to me and I caught it in my metal arm.

"Press the button on the side, and it will blow up five seconds from then!" He called, and I nodded, pressing the button on the side. I turned, and with my metal arm I threw it as high up on the monster as I could.

"Run to the side and duck!" I yelled to everyone, and we veered off course. I brought my arms above my head and threw my body in front of Sarah right as the bomb went off.

The force of the explosion knocked us off our feet, and the monster wailed, falling down and shaking the Earth. I glanced at it. It had a smoking hole in it's chest, and the smell of charred flesh wafted over to us, making Tony and Sam retch. The thing tried to claw at us, missing by inches. I got up and pulled Sarah, Tony and Sam to safety. They were absolutely exhausted by the amount of running, and were breathing hard. Natasha was breathing really hard to, but she has run that much before, so she was in better shape than the others. Me and Steve were barely affected by the running. We looked at each other, as if asking what to do next.

The creature was still wailing as it's body gave out. But eventually someone will come to find out what the destruction was about, so we had to get far away from here, to another house.

"Come on. We need to get moving." I told everyone, and they did their best to stand up. Tony began to put his suit on.

"I'm not sure I have the strength to keep walking. I'm going to fly." He said, putting his face mask down. Me and Steve started walking, gesturing for Sarah, Nat and Sam to follow. They took a few shaky steps, but they were far too tired to even manage a few steps. Sam decided to put on his suit and follow Tony, leaving me and Steve to help Sarah and Natasha.

--

Half an hour later, we figured we had gotten far enough away for now. So we picked a house to stay in for a day or two.

I laid Sarah down on the couch so she could rest, and everyone else fought to keep their eyes open. Tony melted the locks on all the doors that went outside, so nothing could walk in. Natasha pulled the drapes across the windows, and Steve turned the lights out, so it looked like no one was home. If it didn't attract any attention, then maybe Hydra would be too busy dealing with Godzilla, or whatever the thing was, to bother us.

I volunteered to stay up and take first watch, and Steve stayed up with me. We were the only ones with bodies that could hold up under everything we did.

"That was like nothing I've ever seen." Steve said, and I nodded.

"I know. They are going to send more after us." I replied, frowning.

"How are we supposed to defeat Hydra if we could barely manage to defeat that creature? There's probably hundreds more creatures like that in the building. After all, the building is some five stories tall, and as wide as three football fields." Steve exclaimed, clearly frustrated, and I shrugged.

"I don't know, Steve. We just have to do the best we can. Maybe we can get the Avengers together again?" I suggested, attempting to comfort him.

"Maybe." He replied. "I don't know how Bruce will react though, and it'll be hard to get in contact with Thor. But it can't hurt to try."

I nodded.

"Get some sleep, Steve. I'll keep watch."

He looked at me, a small smile on his face.

"You sure?" He asked, and I nodded and smiled.

"It's nice to have you back, Bucky." He said.

"It's nice to BE back." I replied.

He got up and laid down next to Natasha, putting his arm around her. I looked over at the couch where Sarah was, and her eyes were open. She started to stand, and made her way over to me, shakily. I reached out to her to help her sit down, and she sat next to me, leaning on my chest. I put my arms around her, and she sighed happily.

"Go to sleep, Sarah." I told her, stroking her soft hair. She had taken it out of the fishtail and it was draped across her shoulders, framing her face perfectly. She looked at me and smiled, before closing her eyes. We sat like that for a while, and I didn't move for fear of waking her up. But before she fell asleep she mumbled something, and thanks to my super hearing, I heard it loud and clear.

She said I love you.

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