Buzzkill: The Reckoning

Chapter 54

Bucky pushed Mage over the bodies of Kal's soldiers lying on the ground in the halls before the lab. He gave a final shove to Mage's back as they stepped foot inside. With his pistol, Bucky motioned for the wall over to the right, "Go stand there."

Mage did as he was told, his hands still raised as if he were calling a nervous touchdown.

With the remote still in his hand, Bucky turned up the dial as far as it could go, looked directly into Mage's eyes, and hit the button.

Mage's whole body jolted, his face contorting as every electrode glued to his skin sent dangerous amounts of electric imbalance flooding through his body.

Bucky let go of the button as soon as Mage hit the ground, unconscious and laid out in an incredibly awkward position. Bucky threw the remote on the table next to the computer in front of Nat, setting his rifle down against it.

"You don't know how hard it was for me to not kill that piece of shit," Bucky muttered angrily to Steve who stood beside him.

"The bombs in here have been disabled. We're going to start barricading the exits to hopefully reduce the blast," Syd explained to Bucky as she moved furniture around.

Bucky looked around the room, his movements frantically increasing with each moment that he didn't see her face. "Where's Ruth?"

Sam looked over to Steve apprehensively, not wanting to be the one to share the news.

"She hasn't come back yet," Steve told him, his voice low.

Bucky let out a small, exasperated laugh. "What do you mean she's not back yet? She's still out there? Where is she?"

"We don't know," Nat said.

"The hell you mean you don't know?" Bucky's voice began to escalate.

"We lost all communication with her thirty seconds after you two split up," Nat explained cautiously, solemnly. "All cameras on the first floor have been cut off as well."

"Can you get them back online?" Bucky rushed over to the computer, looking at all the screens of the security cameras, all the feed from the first floor nothing but black static. "The cameras, the comms, anything?"

"We've been trying," Syd chimed in. "Nothing's worked."

Bucky ran his hands anxiously through his hair, his heart dropping to his stomach. He looked to the door, "Then we have to get her. I have to go out there and find her."

Steve grabbed Bucky's arm, "Buck, we can't. The whole building will blow up in three minutes," He shook his head, "There's no time."

Emotion started to rise to Bucky's chest, crawling its way up and catching in his throat. "No...no you—you don't understand I can't just leave her out there."

"Dani will keep an eye out for Ruth and Kal. She's making her way south down from the hill she's on to see if she can get a better angle," Steve tried reassuring him, but the fear, that hopelessness that was in Bucky's eyes he had never seen from him before. "Ruth's smart, and tough as hell. She'll make it out, Buck."

Bucky turned back to the door, watching it, praying Ruth would run back in at any moment. It took every ounce of strength inside of him to not go sprinting out the door to find her. "I should never have let her go on her own," He muttered, his voice breaking. He rubbed his forehead with anguish, "Dammit!"

"Cap, I'm sorry, but we need to barricade this room now," Syd spoke up, cautiously giving Bucky distance. "We need to do everything we can to make sure this room doesn't collapse on top of us."