Conquest // Bucky Barnes // APOCALYPSE Book 1

.. XIV .. Quite Remarkable

~ ~ ~ August 4, 1943 ~ ~ ~

I stand in complete darkness. My eyes are open but I am unable to see anything. I look around, desperately trying to find something. Anything. As I twist and turn in a panic, I spot something out of the corner of my eye. I lock my eyes on it and walk closer to see a small pile of dirt forming out of nothing. Slowly, a small piece of green begins to worm its way out from the dirt. As if I am watching the world fast forward, the small green plant continues to grow, forming leaves until it reaches its peak height, forming a closed bud at the top. Still consumed by a world of darkness, I watch as the bud blooms. Bright yellow petals begin to open and grow outwards as the large soft brown circle forms in the center. The sunflower, finally fully formed, turns slightly, now facing me directly.

I reach out to touch the beautiful plant when I see something else fly into my vision. I retract my hand quickly with shock before relaxing when my eye finally catches the miniature insect. The beautiful monarch butterfly swiftly lands on the flower, slowly fluttering its magnificent wings. I lean in closer to examine the beautiful orange wings with their intricate black lines and white dots. As I continue to try to gain a closer look, the insect begins to crumble into dust right in front of my eyes. As if from top to bottom, the top of the sunflower soon follows suit until I am left kneeling in front of yet another pile of dirt.

I jump when I see something moving under the dirt. I stand and take a step back in fear. Suddenly, a jet black raven crawls its way out of the dirt. It flaps its arm, clearing off any leftover dirt on its feathers before becoming still and looking right at me. I stare back in confusion for several seconds before the bird finally takes flight and screeches as it heads right towards my face, it's dark eyes filled with evil and rage.

My eyes fly open in a panic, unaware of my surroundings. I search my mind for the last thing I can remember and all that comes up is cold, icy darkness. I sit up quickly, gasping for air to calm my panic and notice the dull white walls of the room I am in. Before I am even able to blink, somebody rushed to my side and rubs soothing circles on my back.

"It's okay, you're fine." I work on slowing my breathing and begin looking around the room. White walls, boring bedsheets over my legs, overhead lights and a small table. I am in a hospital room. What happened?

I turn to the person next to me and relax even more, feeling comfort in my surroundings. Steve. "When did you get muscles?" He laughs at my comment but the worry is still stuck to his face.

"How much do you remember?"

"I remember the procedure. But there was someone there. Someone bad. They shot Erskine and took me. The last thing I can remember is being thrown into the back of a car and him hitting me in the head with his gun. 

"Okay. That's good. Well, after that, he took you and threw you into the water when he was done using you as a human shield to get to his submarine. But before that, he put some chemicals in your system. The doctors took a blood sample yesterday, Stark and other SSR scientists are testing it right now. Stark may not be a biologist or a chemist but he's the smartest person here now that-" He hesitates, not able to say it out loud. "So far there don't seem to be any effects." 

I can see in his face that he left something out.

"How did I get out of the water? And you said "yesterday," how long have I been out?" I question, wanting to know all of the details. 

"Right after he threw you, Peggy caught up and got you out of the water. I got the man who shot Erskine but he took a cyanide pill and died before anyone could question him. When I got back to you, Peggy was doing CPR, your heart had stopped." I see tears coating Steve's eye but they all refuse to fall. "Eventually we got you breathing again, but you've been in and out of consciousness for a couple of days now. The doctors checked you, though, and you don't seem to have any injuries. They said it's quite remarkable actually."