Pre War Bucky Barnes One Shots

The Fall

All at once he wakes up, gasping for breath, coughing and spluttering up water. His throat raw and his lungs screaming for precious air. Bucky's eyes flutter open and nothing but bright white invades his vision. His ears are ringing, his head is thumping, his sight is blurred, his whole body is numb from the freezing cold.

Slowly he gets his bearings and gingerly lifts his head, peering around him to see nothing but snow, trees, and a nearby cliff face. He's at the edge of a river filled with icy water and strong currents.

Suddenly everything hits him like a tonne of bricks.

The fall.

Plummeting into the river. Desperately trying to reach the surface but feeling as though someone was pulling him down by his ankles and being pushed further and further into darkness as water filled his lungs, nose, throat and mouth until he blacked out. The river must've chewed him up and spat him out or else he wouldn't be here.

But shouldn't he be dead? Shouldn't the impact of such a high fall be enough to kill him? Or if not that shouldn't he have drowned?

His whole body is in agony but there is a particularly sharp pain in his left shoulder. He tentatively looks towards it, not knowing what to expect and gagging at what he sees.

His left arm is completely gone and all that is left is a bloody, mangled stump. A frightened, weak whimper leaves his lips as barely more than a rasp, stinging his throat on the way out.

Realising his in trouble he tries to sit up but nearly faints from the pain so he tries a different approach of rolling over and it takes so much effort that black spots cloud his vision. Instead he can't do anything but slump back down on his back.

His feet and legs are numb from still having the icy water of the river running over them and he has been sapped of all his energy from literally doing nothing. It isn't long before he feels himself fading out of consciousness again and he doesn't do anything to fight it.

                               ~~~~

The next time he comes too it is because of the feeling of being tugged at. He's vaguely aware of the sound of shuffling feet around him and boots crunching in the snow.

It's like he's functioning in slow motion and it takes a few seconds for it to click that he could either be in serious trouble right now or be being saved. Just as he starts to feel himself being lifted onto something and as he's starting to get dragged along he flutters his eyes open and manages to make out the fact that he is on some kind of cloth being dragged, leaving a trail of blood in the snow from his amputated soldier and there are two soldiers escorting him, one at his head and one at his feet.

It isn't until he gets a good look at them that he really starts to panic. They're soviet soldiers, they aren't people he knows. Why are they taking him? Why would they want him? Unless he is of some sort of use to them they would've just left him. So what's going to happen to him?

Automatically a terrified whimper leaves his lips and Bucky does the first thing that he can think of. Scream for help from the one person he can rely on even though he knows that it's useless.

He draws in a deep breath and yells with all the energy he's got left.

"Steve!" He shouts. "Steve help me!"

He only manages to get that out before the soldiers drop the cloth he's on causing the breath to be knocked out of him and his head to be smacked against the hard packed snow resulting in him seeing stars. Both soldiers suddenly appear right above him as he blinks dazedly at the white sky.