Artillery fire tears across the mountainside with enough force to shake the ground beneath his boots. The command to fall back is swallowed almost immediately by gunfire, shouted orders, and the deafening crack of exploding shells as Bucky throws himself behind the shattered remains of a stone wall. Dirt and snow rain down around him while he works the bolt of his rifle by instinct, barely registering the sting of fresh cuts across his face. Somewhere to his left, one of his men yells his name. Somewhere ahead, the line is collapsing.
He doesn't hesitate. Pushing back to his feet, Bucky breaks from cover and sprints toward the sound, weaving through smoke and debris as another explosion erupts close enough to knock him off balance. The world flashes white.
For one impossible moment, everything disappears. The cold. The gunfire. The mountains. Even the ground beneath him.
Then gravity returns with brutal force.
His shoulder slams into solid concrete, momentum carrying him into a hard roll before he finally skids to a stop on one knee. A sharp breath tears from his lungs as he coughs against air that smells nothing like snow, smoke, or cordite. Instead, it's steel, glass, and hot asphalt. His rifle never leaves his grasp, held tightly in hands that have yet to realize the battle is gone. The olive drab combat uniform of the 107th is still streaked with mud, soot, and fresh snow, his helmet knocked crooked from the impact as he slowly lifts his head.
The skyline stretches endlessly in every direction. Towering buildings of glass and steel rise where there should've been mountains. Behind him, a massive structure bears the unmistakable emblem of the Avengers.
Bucky stares at it, chest still heaving, his pulse hammering against his ribs as his eyes dart across a world that shouldn't exist. Every instinct screams that he's still in combat, his grip tightening around the rifle as he struggles to make sense of what he's seeing. One thought manages to force its way through the confusion.
Where the hell am I?
@allamericana
