Save Me || Bucky Barnes

45

The woman shivered for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past 24 hours. It wasn't a cold shiver that ran down her back, she had changed out of her soaked uniform hours ago. It was more or less the feeling of something following her or the anticipation that she would get caught. She never made it more than 24 hours without HYDRA breathing down her back.

This was a change for the woman and she wasn't sure how to handle it. To add onto this feeling, she had no idea where she was, who she could trust, or where to go. Her levels of confusion were off the charts and she didn't know where to start to figure anything out. All she knew was a name, and even then she wasn't sure if it was real or not.

He had called her Charlotte. The name did sound familiar, but Charlotte had been taught she couldn't trust anybody. HYDRA had told her that again and again. They were the only ones she could trust. But where were they when she was trapped under that beam? Where were they when that man was fighting her and she didn't have any backup?

She knew, almost for a fact, that she couldn't trust them anymore. She didn't want to go back and she knew if she did, she would go insane. So she did all she could think of to make sure they didn't pick up on her trail again. As soon as she had ditched her old uniform in the back of an alley, she climbed the fire escape of the nearest apartment and snuck into someone's room.

She made sure she didn't leave a trace, but all she took was a new outfit, some floss, tweezers, and a pair of scissors. She left unnoticed and went back to the dark alley. She changed into a loose fitting pair of black jeans and a grey long sleeve shirt. She couldn't find any socks or shoes, or anything else she may have needed for that matter, so she resolved to sneaking into a couple stores the next night to find what she needed.

Once she had finished changing, she searched the alley for any reflective material. Soon, she found a rather large shard of glass and smiled to herself. She set the glass on a ledge her height and for the first time in seventy years, she looked at her own appearance.

She had several cuts running up and down her face, with several scars along the rest of her body from her previous fights and training sessions. Her eyes were no longer the bright, vibrant blue they used to be back in the 1940s. Instead, they were a pale, cloudy blue. Her blonde hair hung in waves down the length of her back until it reached the top of her jeans. From her recent fight, she still had bleeding wounds and a broken arm to tend to.

Quickly and quietly, she scrambled back up the fire escape to the room and rummage for a few shirts she was sure the owner wouldn't miss. She quickly found two white shirts, but the sound of the door unlocking shocked her so she left in a hurry. By the time the owner knew he had a suspiciously open window, she had already relocated to a different alley.

She set all of her stolen items on the ground before she gently sat down with the glass shard set up at eye level. Cautiously, she glanced at her reflection again, as if it would have changed in the few minutes since she had looked. But it hadn't. There was still some blood smeared around her hairline, the cuts on her face and scars on her chest, and her broken arm. 

Gently, she tore the shirts into strips and used some of them to fashion a sling so she could hold her arm in place effortlessly. The rest of the strips were used to wrap around the broken bone to hold it together so it would heal in the right position. Then, once it was set, she used her other arm to sew up the larger cuts she had across her abdomen with the floss and tweezers.

With a sigh, she looked at herself in the glass once again. She stared at her features, her hair in particular, for a long time before a singular tear slid down her cheek. In an emotional rush, she grabbed the scissors with her left hand and the bottom of her hair with her stationary right hand. In one fluid movement, she cut her hair off just above her shoulder blades.

Tears continued to run down her cheeks as she finished her task. She wasn't sure why she was crying, she just felt the need to and didn't try to stop herself from doing it. When she finished, she sat surrounded by millions of long blonde strands blowing away with the wind. By the time she made an effort to get up, the sun had already started rising.

It was now officially her first day without HYDRA, her first day not being spent as the Winter Solider, her first day as Charlotte.

But she still didn't know what to do or where to go. In the last fleeting hours before the stores opened, she made a snap decision to get a new outfit now so she could spend the day beginning to piece her life back together. 

Hurriedly, she made her way to the center of the sleepy city. The first clothing store she set her eyes on, she made her way around back and quickly broke the lock. She then disabled the alarm and cameras before she began making her way through the store. 

She spent five minutes picking out another long sleeve grey shirt that actually fit, a new bra and pair of underwear, and a leather jacket. Her problem came when she tried to find a pair of jeans that fit her. She could only use her metal arm to pull on the tight pants because her other arm still wasn't fully healed yet, it would be another couple of hours before that happened.

She eventually found a pair that worked and, without cleaning up her mess of jeans and tags, made her way to the shoe aisles. She quickly located a pair of black boots that she thought would go nicely with her outfit and wouldn't make her stand out too much. Finding the right size took her nearly thirty minutes. However, seeing as it was her first time going shopping in seventy years and there wasn't anyone to help her, she did pretty good.

Once she was done, she left the same way she came in: through the back door. On her way out, she also restarted the cameras and security system. Although, there wasn't much she could do about the broken door lock. The city was just beginning to wake up as she wandered around.

She could tell the seasons were getting ready to change. The leaves were turning green and flowers were beginning to bud. Under normal circumstances, she thought she would have liked the scene. She could almost imagine strolling down the street arm and arm with a man, but she couldn't place a face or name to the man. 

The woman shook the thought from her head as she continued to walk down the street. Eventually, she came to a large building with a poster outside that read "CAPTAIN AMERICA EXHIBIT: 3 WEEKS ONLY". She remembered seeing the Captain in the flesh, and the look of shock that had passed over his face the first time they met each other.

Obviously she had some sort of connection to him. She thought there wouldn't be any harm in sneaking inside to see how she supposedly knew the two men. So that's exactly what she did. At the top of the steps, she turned and looked at the park across the street, feeling as if someone was watching her.

When she couldn't find anyone, she shrugged and entered the building, ready to begin piecing her memories together.