Without You

I didn’t know what was worse; death, or being caged like this. Instead of receiving the easy way out, our troops had been seized and taken prisoner. We were crammed into small cells and supplied with such little food and water it felt as though they were keeping us on the brink of death.

None of my new friends in my cell could figure out why we were still alive. It made little sense. We should have all been slaughtered on the battlefield, they should have taken our weapons and not wasted time and resources on us, but instead we had been forced to surrender. The torture of not knowing was eating away at me and felt like it was going to be the thing that killed me instead of starvation. My only relief was that I had been able to apologise to Bucky properly, and he had understood and forgiven me.

I heard a door in the distance clank open and the low chatter of the prisoners fell to a hush to reveal footsteps. Eventually the men strode past our cell, their leader’s eyes flicking over us before he moved to the next group of captured soldiers, but then he stopped. With a puzzled frown, he returned to our cell and met eyes with me.

My stomach dropped.

“You,” he stated. I refused to drop my hard stare, hardly blinking from fear. “You are no man.” Apparently keeping my long hair tucked beneath my helmet and not cleaning the dirt from my face had hidden this fact from the enemy until now.

I remained silent and still as he stepped closer. I could feel my friends tensing, preparing for a brawl if it came down to it.

“Women are not soldiers,” the man continued. I wanted to slap that German accent out of him and set him straight about who were good fighters.

“Women can do anything they want to,” I retorted and he smirked back at me.

“You are strong; just what I need,” he said with a nod before turning to the guards at his side. “Take her.”

My face fell, surprise and panic churning in my stomach and making me feel nauseous. A guard slid a key into the lock and my comrades readied themselves for the worst.

“If anyone dares to interfere, they will be executed, understood?” the man said and all but one of the men backed away to the corner of the cell.

“Take me,” Bucky suddenly proclaimed and my mouth fell open as I turned to him.

“No!” I hissed. “I won’t have you suffer!”

“And you think I’ll let you suffer? Let them take you and beat you and rape you and do God knows what?” he countered, more determined than I had ever seen him.

“You wish to see what I have waiting for her?” the man asked Bucky and he nodded, his stance stiff. “Very well. Seize them both.”

I gasped. Two guards stormed in, followed by another pair. I took a few steps backwards before kicking the first guard to approach me, which caused him to stagger and provided me with an opportunity to deflect the second one’s punch. As I wrestled to put his arm in a lock and prevent him from grabbing his baton, the first man jumped me and I was soon detained. I was dragged from the cell, kicking and struggling just like Bucky was. The guards pulled me to a stop before their leader on his command.

“You are indeed strong. If there is anyone who should survive the treatment, it might just be you,” he said with a wicked grin before signalling for us to be taken away. As we were shoved towards the exit, I turned to meet Bucky’s eyes.

“Treatment?” I rasped, feeling the tears well in my eyes from dread of the unknown.

“You’ll be fine,” he promised. “You’ve got me.”