"Like A Fart In The Wind"
Hydra arrived just as Bucky made a sound plan of escape, or as much one could be in his circumstance. There were still too many variables unaccounted for. How much have they poked and prodded him in the past month? What modifications besides his arm could they have done that he couldn't remember? Where was he located? In Mexico he'd have a better chance of escaping as the building was only two stories, but in Siberia the facility was a maze of underground silos. Lagos would be a death trap if Hydra reinhabited it.
No matter the missing holes in his plan, he slowed his breathing and relaxed his body, heightening his senses as the door clanked and creaked open. He purposefully flinched, letting his body shake from the cold to seem feeble.
"Ah, it's awake. Perfect. Get the Asset in gear, a very important mission awaits."
Bucky gulped as hands wrapped around his arms, forcing him up. There's no way Kavlov is alive. He put a bullet through his skull a year and a half after he escaped.
...A problem that would have to wait for a different day.
Bucky was led down a straight hall, and as he predicted, the orderlies were dismissed fairly quickly. He could feel the neatly tiled floor, solid ground beneath them, along with the temperature change of light, warmer than LEDS, meaning there were windows. Hydra only put windows as large as these ones in two facilities, he was either in the Everglades of Florida or in the Brazilian rainforest. Mostly good news. The bad news Bucky couldn't wrap his head around was that he blew up and buried both places, leaving no trace or ash behind.
Another problem for a different day.
They turned left down the hall - Florida - as Kavlov barked orders at scientists passing by. It was fairly quiet otherwise, Bucky counted three escorts, the Kavlov impersonator, and five scientists bustling around. Exactly one minute after turning left, the sound of a keypad, four two six eight, then double doors slid open.
"Give the Asset its best weapons, then I give the orders and we go."
The fake Kavlov began speaking quietly to a scientist as the guards started dressing him.
The sinking familiarity of the whole situation told him he had to escape before Kavlov uttered the first command word. He had to, and could think about how he knew the door code, how fake Kavlov sounded so real, how the facility wasn't ten feet under swamp water, later.
Now was the time for focus. Just as the guards strapped the bullet proof vest on him and fitted guns to his belt, he snapped.
Eyes still closed, he pulled a Taurus G2C and Austria 48 from the holsters, as he could tell by the feel of the weapons. Two shots and both men at his sides were down. Bucky kicked the guard directly in front of him hard enough to make him knock into fake Kavlov, as two bullets interrupted their panicked outcry.
Bucky holstered the guns quickly, listened closely and stalked to the scientist curled into a blubbering mess.
"P-please don't-"
"Shut up. Which wing am I in."
"Th-th-third-"
"Which wing is HVAC in?"
"O-o-one- no wai-"
Bucky sunk the combat knife into the scientist's throat.
"Wrong, it's Two." Bucky wiped the blood on his tactical's, the sound of his boots echoing as he walked over to the keypad on the inside of the room. He locked it, four two six three, before feeling around to the air duct he knows to be in the west most part of the room, and hoisting himself inside.
"That's what you get for lying, asshole."
After crawling for a few minutes, he opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the brighter environment. While the dim light made his head throb, this way by the time he got to the HVAC center, the sensitivity will have hopefully subsided.
Not soon after, he heard familiar sirens blare obnoxiously. He hard locked the room, so the usual code won’t open it right away. They'll know he's in the duct, and assume he'd head straight for points of entry. As Bucky makes his way to HVAC, he thinks of the facts, as carefully and as detached as possible.
1. His memories of Sam, Steve, Torres, Rhodey and everything else before waking up are real, as evident from the map he recalls pouring through before destroying this facility remaining accurate.
2. Fake Kavlov, sounded and carried himself exactly like Kavlov.
3. He’s in Florida, the Everglades facility about seven miles north of Alligator Alley.
4. He didn't just remember the maps. He remembered this place, these events. He remembered Kavlov opening the door, instead of taunting him like usual, he went straight to the point, the very important mission. He was also lucid and unharmed, however too dazed from the most recent wipe he forgot how to even think, much less try a daring escape like this one. Kavlov then shipped him off to assassinate a target in New York City. The target was…the target was…
Nick Fury…
Bucky paused, drowning out the chaos from below. Vomit once again threatened to expel itself from his body, more likely his entire stomach. How could that make any sense, he knows exactly where he is, what codes they use, knew the rooms and, even the guards, with aching familiarity now that he had the time to evaluate. He never opened his eyes, but could recall their faces and names, their breathe smelled the exact same. Jean, Andrew, Ian.
"What the fuck." Bucky gritted out, his hands balling into a trembling fist with the temptation to punch something.
His arm, his cursed arm, was not refitted in a month, but had always been there.
Bucky needed to calm down, his skin felt flayed open as tears began forming. Bucky then recalled a calming exercise Sam taught him when they first moved in together. He comforted Bucky before paranoia threatened his sanity after his night terrors.
Sam's eyes twinkled that night with understanding, and Bucky couldn't help but listen closely.
"You just have to take a deep breath, as if you're about to dive into the deepest ocean, and count to five. The slowest five seconds of your life, but that's all you need to pull yourself together."
As Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and took his breath, he felt the breeze of the shaft against his shoulder, yet the weight of Sam's hand anchored him all the same. They counted together.
"One."
Two.
"Three."
Four.
"Five."
Bucky exhaled, carefully controlled, carefully resolved. He crawled forward before reaching the vent above his destination.
5. His memories of Sam are real.
He emptied his mind after exiting the vents, focusing on wiring the HVAC to explode once he shot the right unit outside the facility. The air ducts lead down a straight and narrow chute to the back of the building, as he recalled from the site plans.
He punched out the vent leading outside, empty, as all the agents were scouring the opposite end of the building. Bucky dropped a measly few feet, efficiently locating the target unit, before scanning the environment for an indicator of South.
"Sun is approximately 102° degrees directly above, the Second wing is opposite of Five so straight from the vent is South…how convenient."
He would much prefer the forest of Brazil than swamp and wheat grass; and if Sam was with him, he could have an excuse to hold Sam close by the waist and let his partner sail them safely across acres of swamp creatures.
Bucky sighed, trudging through ankle deep mud, before stopping a safe but close enough distance to shoot the unit, and watch the building explode for the second time.