Buzzkill: The Reckoning

Chapter 41

All Ruth wanted was relief, relief from something here. This chair she had been sitting in for three weeks straight wasn't even the least of her problems. If the doctors could just take the electrodes off of her head for an hour, just an hour so Ruth could feel like her mind could relax, that was all she wanted. She had lost track of time now. Who knew how long it had been since they first started the experiments. But how long did she have left? How was her body not decaying from all the abuse?

The last time Ruth looked, her right arm looked like a dart board. Her skin completely covered in bruising. Her left hand constantly red and bruised from the IV.

With her eyes closed, Ruth heard commotion through the walls around her, faint as drums being played in another room. What time of the day was it? Were guards about to come in for another round of injections? It wasn't until then Ruth realized she hadn't seen sunlight since she arrived here.

Ruth didn't even hear the door slam open ahead of her.

"Ruth?" A voice called out.

She opened her eyes, the light blurring her vision before the person the voice belonged to came into focus. "James?" Ruth said breathlessly, unable to move. Was this all a dream?

"My God, what did they do to you..." James said aloud, looking at Ruth helplessly strapped to a chair. Tubes and wires were strung to machines all around her. Her eyes were bloodshot, underneath her eyes sunken and discolored. Her arms...For a moment Bucky forgot she even had scars before. Every part of her skin was littered with scabs and blisters.

Bucky began to take the electrodes glued to her face and upper body off carefully, beneath each sticker a deep bruise, blood blistering beneath her skin. His heart ached. It killed him to see her like this.

"I'm gonna get you out of here, ok? Just hold on," He tried to reassure her, wondering if she could even understand what he was saying.

Ruth scrunched her eyebrows as she tried to concentrate on Bucky's face, then looking to her arms as he undid the restraints. Her skin beneath each restraint bruised and raw from being held for so long. As soon as her right hand was free, Ruth tried lifting it to the side of her head, feeling where the electrodes once were.

Bucky stretched over and grabbed some gauze from the medical stand beside Ruth's chair. "This might hurt a bit. Just stay with me, alright?"

Ruth winced, letting out a small gasp in pain as Bucky took the IV out of her hand, quickly covering the wound with gauze and taping it down.

"Now come on," Bucky urged her, holding out his arms to pick her up.

She could barely move, every muscle in her arm tense and sore, as if needles dug at every part of her skin.

Bucky carried her quickly out of the room, Sam met them just outside in the hallway, loaded with a rifle in his arms.

"Ready to go? We have a path cleared to the jet," Sam informed, leading Bucky and Ruth through the darkened hallways, alert lights flashing around them.

"Yeah, she needs medical attention as soon as we board," Bucky told him.

Sam relayed the information over the comms, getting someone ready on the jet to take care of Ruth.

Ruth struggled to keep her eyes open, "Kal...Did you find Kal?"

Bucky didn't say a word as he turned to Sam, wondering if he heard that. Sam shook his head, telling him not to worry about that now.

"I got you, Ruth. You're safe. Just stay with me," Bucky soothed, just trying to keep her awake. Her breathing was slow, uneven. As Bucky made it out of the building with Ruth in his arms, rushing to medical attention waiting as soon as he climbed aboard the jet, all he could do what thank God that he found her when he did.

"One day I'm going to save your life, you know..." Ruth muttered to him, just enough strength coming back to her voice.

Bucky looked down to Ruth's eyes, the smallest smile emerging on his face, "You already have."