Tangled Paths | Bucky Barnes

Chapter 2: Darla Grant

2
Darla Grant

HYDRA facility, Siberia April 13th, 2014

A woman slowly blinked awake. When she opened her eyes she felt almost as if she was in a euphoric state. Her body felt numb. Like it hadn't moved in ages, and an overwhelming sensation of heat radiated through her body. She took a deep breath and watched as it fogged up the glass in front of her as precipitation ran down the inside of it. As she slowly became more aware of her surroundings and the grogginess began to subside the girl realized that she was standing up. Though for some reason her brain had tricked her into believing she was laying down. She tried to look around and get a grasp on her surroundings but she could only see the layer of glass surrounding her. She lifted her left arm with great difficulty. The only thing she could compare the feeling to was that it had felt like she was lifting 300 pounds with one hand. She slapped her hand against the glass in front of her causing the sensation of pins and needles to radiate from her palm up her arm. She bit her lip and wiped the glass in hopes to get a better look at what was going on, but all she could see beyond the glass was darkness.

The girl brought up her second hand, and placed that against the glass also, giving it a hard push. The sound of air pressure hissed as the glass parted from the bottom and lifted slowly above her head. A layer of steam began to fill the room starting from the chamber she was inside. The girl grabbed onto the two sides of the chamber and moved her right foot forward to step on the floor, then swung her body with it. The moment her sock collided with the cold cement floor the woman's body collapsed beneath her causing her to crumple onto the floor. The woman let out a pained groan as she wiped her dirty blonde hair out of her face. The feeling was now back in her fingers. "In hindsight that was probably a dumb idea." She spoke out loud to herself, however, the voice she heard was hoarse and dry. She almost didn't recognize it as her own.

She began to wiggle her ankles and her toes to wake them up. She looked around the room, her eyes now adjusting to the darkness given the fact that the light was no longer blaring into her eyes. The room was eerily quiet. It seemed as though she was in a private room with whatever machine she'd just fallen out of and a desk with some files on it. The woman placed her hands on either side of her chest and pushed off the ground moving to her knees. She blew her hair back once more and moved a leg forward so she was down on one knee. She balanced the foot until it was steady and took a deep breath before climbing to her feet. She stuck her arms out on either side of her in case her body threatened to collapse again and she took a step forward.

Satisfied with her newfound balance she took another step forward, moving her hands in front of her to catch the desk if she faltered. Luckily her legs supported the weight of her slender frame. She flipped open the file to see the entire thing was written in Russian. "What the hell?" She asked out loud. She flipped to the last page which said the reports were those of Dr. Arnim Zola. The girl felt as though she knew this man but it was like a layer of fog clouded her mind. Her focus shifted back to her surroundings. She moved to the door and opened it. She took a step into the hallway to find herself at the end of a very long dark corridor. A chill ran through her body causing her to cross her arms and chatter her teeth as she stepped out of the room and began down the hall. Near the end was a window that lead into a large dark room. The only thing she could make out were more chambers like the one she'd just been inside. She cupped the glass to get a better look when the door to the room she'd come from latched shut causing the girl to jump and gasp. She cleared her throat and looked both ways before moving to the end of the vacant corridor. The sound of her feet padding against the concrete floor as she walked.

She pushed open the heavy metal double doors which led into an area that looked more like a hospital than anything. "Hello?" The girl called out hoping to get any kind of response in the dark, but the silence she received in return was deafening. The girl began to shiver as she padded down the next corridor. Hoping to stumble across at least somebody who could tell her where she was or what had happened but to no avail. She decided that if she couldn't find answers there then she'd find them elsewhere. She attempted to find the exit, but any time she went down she couldn't find a thing. Eventually, she realized that if she couldn't find an exit down it must have meant that she was in the basement and she had to go up. After several floors and several flights of stairs. She found herself on a floor that had windows. She pushed open the door from the stairs and squinted her deep brown eyes as they fought to adjust to the light. She walked over to a row of ceiling-to-floor windows and her eyes widened as she looked down over the snow-covered cliff the building was built into. She began to panic. This place was nothing as she'd ever seen before and that meant she needed to get out of there.