Wake Up
You felt a sharp pain in your right knee, but kept walking, you had to keep walking. You limped slightly, your knee searing. You rolled up your jeans but there was no wound, maybe something dislodged but nothing major. It didn’t matter, as long as you kept going. He needed you.
As you made your way through the torn wreckage of the room, kicking debris and stray rocks out of the way with your toes, you saw a figure under a large amount of rubble. Your heart thudded loudly in your chest, pounding harder and harder with each step you took towards the person. As you approached, you saw his curly brown hair and ran towards him, completely disregarding the screaming from your injured leg.
“Bruce? Bruce, are you okay?” You said, lightly pushing his shoulder. He didn’t move, and you only just noticed why. His arm was caught under a large rock; it didn’t seem to be crushing it, more trapping it, thankfully. He lay there, almost lifeless, eyes closed, chest barely moving as he took raspy breaths. Your eyes stung with tears but you fought them back. He’s okay, no need to cry, this will be okay. You knelt beside him, brushing dust of his button-up shirt. For once, all of this destruction hadn’t been from the Other Guy. You took his freed, right hand in yours, and stroked his hair back from his forehead. When you took your hand away, they were slightly stained red.
“Bruce, you’ve got to wake up, come on!” You were close to shouting now, coughing from the dirt inhalation. You let go of his hand and shook his shoulders, tears starting to fall now, you couldn’t stop them. You watched as a few drops hit his shirt, darkening the purple hue of the fabric. His breathing was getting somehow even slower, yours getting faster. You pushed back the panic that was attacking your system. He needed you; you didn’t have time to panic. You placed your forehead on his chest, listening to his slow staggering heartbeat.
“Please, I need you,” you whispered, squeezing your eyes shut. Your heart was breaking. This couldn’t be happening. You heard rustling and movement a few feet away from you and you looked up to see Clint Barton struggling through the wreckage towards you, a look of fear on his face. You knew that’s what he saw on yours too.
“What happened?” he exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing your shoulder, crouching beside you. He hit a bruise on your skin, but bruises covered your skin anyway so you shrugged it off. He saw you wince in pain and quickly let go of your shoulder.
“I don’t know, one moment we were working away in the lab and the next I’m waking up in all this dirt. It happened so fast that he didn’t even have time to Hulk out. It doesn’t matter right now, we’ve got to help him!” you pleaded, indicating to Bruce.
“Right,” Clint said with a note of determination.
He stood up and heaved the rock off of the doctor’s arm and checked to see if there was much damage. The rock tumbled to the side loudly, crushing bits of broken concrete. The noise rang in your ears and you winced. Clint slide one arm under Bruce’s back and the other under his left leg. You followed suit for the other side and together, you carried him out of what was left of the lab in the Avengers Tower. The hallway looked just as bad, electrical wires hung from the walls and a pipe had burst on the ceiling, slowly filling the hall with steam.
“Listen, I think the elevator is down, we’ll have to take the stairs,” Clint said, groaning under the weight of Bruce.
You nodded and shuffled as fast as you could towards the staircases, wincing every time you put pressure on your leg. Clint saw the pain in your eyes and gave you a concerned look. You brushed it off and walked faster, your heart racing with adrenaline. Eventually you made it and began the daunting descent down the stairs. Each step you took, your knee buckled a little more. Both of you were sweating now and you looked at Bruce, watching to see if he moved in any way on his own.
After what felt like hours, you made it down the torturous steps, greeted by the alarming sound of an ambulance. You were so close to escaping. Someone barged through an emergency exit and began shouting, but your vision was too blurry to tell who it was. Another person ran after them and they took Bruce from your arms. The second his body was taken, everything went black.