Timeless

Chapter 34

A/N: Okay okay, just one more surprise because I'M IN LOVE WITH THEM OKAY?!

Morning came all too early for Kathryn. It seemed she hadn't even been resting for a full hour or two before she was being roused by Buck. It was still frigid and Kathryn felt as though her bottom was stuck permanently on the ground. Still, Buck seemed upset by the concept of waking her—he extended a hand to her and pulled her off the ground.

Almost immediately, she wanted to cry at the sensation of her feet aching and screaming at the leather shoes. "We're not marching right now," Buck murmured to her.

She wondered how he was so good at reading every single one of her emotions. Or maybe she looked genuinely pained by the concept of standing. Either way, it was slightly endearing that he just knew .

"Where are we going then?" Kathryn questioned, squaring her shoulders and staring out at the cold.

"They've got us on a train," Bucky answered. "It's not far from here."

"Like cattle," Kathryn mumbled, somewhat numbly.

Maybe they really were being rounded up like lambs to the slaughter now. It wouldn't surprise her. Wouldn't shock her if that's what the plan was. To get them all in the same place and to just have one mass grave. She had seen enough things like that on the front back when she was there. But they weren't just on the front now—they were headed towards the heart of Germany and that was nerve-wracking enough.

Even being herded into that damn train was its own battle. Kathryn had nearly been trampled—and probably would have been, if it hadn't been for Buck—in the stampede of men rushing to climb into the train-cars. It was no more than a wooden freezer that would move them from one prison to another. That's all that it was. It was not a reprieve.

Bucky was up first, pulling himself in. And before she could even make a move to climb up herself, Buck was lifting her and handing her to Bucky—it took her by surprise, truth be told. Either she was frightfully thin and weighed next to nothing (which was probably the truth), or Buck was stronger than she thought that he was.

Still, she didn't relax until he was standing next to her in the train car. It wasn't as bad as the march had been, but that was only because snow wasn't blowing straight in their faces and they weren't trekking through snow.

Kathryn stood between her brother and Buck, occasionally breathing on the tips of her fingers for warmth. She scarcely remembered what warmth felt like, let alone what the feeling of home was. She wondered if anywhere would feel like home, if they made it through this entire thing. It all just seemed like some sort of fever-dream.

Life before wasn't real—none of the luxuries that had existed before were real. The thought of soap or lotion or a shower was so far out of mind, that even thinking about it made her tired. But this entire train-ride, it also seemed like a fever-dream. Like it was never going to end. Like this had always been her life and it always would be. There was just no end to it all.

Solomon stuck close to the train walls, eyes peering out to see where they were going. "This isn't good. They're going to take us somewhere to kill us, aren't they?"

"They've had plenty of chances if they wanted to kill us," Daniels murmured.

"They're Nazi's," Solomon retorted.

"It'll be okay, Sully," Buck was quick to cut into the conversation. There would be no talk of death, no entertaining the notion—because these were his men and he was responsible for them too. No one was dying on his watch.