BUCKY THE BUTCHER
Tales from the Wasteland by @P1X37, @PanddingtonRed & @bbdefender | #buckyeah | @NUCLEARNERDS
Episode 2: Outside
“What if we are? All the better for us. Fuck them. Fuck them all.” An angry Bucky replied to 2035 from across the sofa. “We need to find a way to contact Norm. He would know what happened and what to do next. Or at least someone there will.” Replied 2035 more to herself than to the doll. Maybe it was just in her head?
She started to look around the basement again for something to dig themselves out, or some crack in the debris covering the door. “What the fuck are you talking about? shouted Bucky. "Who the hell is Norm? Is that the son of a bitch that shrunk me?" He was pacing across the sofa now, hitting the side of his head with his tiny hand. “Why can’t I remember him 2035? Are you fucking high again? "Yes, you must be high. You always get confused when you’re high.”
2035 let out a sigh. She should just level with it. It was just a doll; it couldn’t even hurt her if it tried. Maybe take its batteries out? Will that stop it? Kill it? Was it even alive? “Norm is our friend Bucky, he works at NORAD. Now, get down from there and help me look for a way out.”
Bucky jumped down from the sofa and continued his pacing on the floor. “Yes, that bitch. Of course, I remember him! Do you think I’m stupid?” He started walking next to her as she continued to look for a way out of the basement, lost in thought. “Maybe that NORAD will have answers. Yes. Get me back to the way I was. Full size. Yes.” 2035 turned sharply to face Bucky, “You were never…” She decided not to have that conversation yet.
He started pulling on her leg. “We have to go there 2035! Let’s fucking go! What are we waiting for?” She was ignoring him at this point, which just infuriated him further. He punched her in the leg this time. “You’re not listening to me 2035! Let’s go! Time’s a wastin.”
That was it. She grabbed him by the hair and lifted him to her eye level. “Stop that!” She yelled. He looked at her, wide-eyed and silently terrified, then started swinging his tiny arms trying to scratch her face. “What do you think you’re doing you bitch! Put me down! Motherfucker!” She stretched her arm further, taking him completely out of reach. He was still flapping his arms around when she noticed a stream of light coming from a crack in the concrete that covered the exit.
She dropped the doll and ran to the wall. “That’s it! That’s our way-out!” Bucky was on the floor, face-up, struggling to stand up. “Hurry up! I need your help.” She was standing on her tiptoes, trying to make the opening in the concrete bigger. “Pass me that dumbbell.” He finally stood up, still shaken from the clash, murmuring to himself. “Fucking bitch. Who does she think I am?”
He tried to pick up the dumbbell to no avail, the thing weighed twice what he did. Resigned, he started dragging it slowly across the floor. “Stupid dumbbell. Stupid 2035. Stupid Norm.” Once he was close enough, she just turned around and picked the dumbbell up like it was nothing. She hammered at the concrete for a couple of minutes until it started to crumble, making the opening bigger.
The putrid air hit 2035 by surprise. The amalgam of charred concrete, metal, and flesh was so overpowering that she was forced to take a step backwards. She coughed a couple of times, covered her mouth and nose with a tattered rag and then resumed the hammering. It took hours to make an opening big enough and she was psyching herself up to squeeze through when an idea hit her...
“You should go first. You are smaller, and it will be easier for you to climb out. I’ll follow afterwards.” He just stared back at her; arms crossed on his chest. “Oh, fuck that, I’m not going out first.” “C’mon! It will be easier for me just to push you up. It’s not like you’re really…” She stopped mid-sentence to take out the pocketknife she had taken away from him earlier. “Here, just in case. You’ll be fine.” She kneeled in front of him to offer him the knife.
He stared at her for a few seconds, then snatched the blade out of her hand. “I told you I’d fucking cut you if you ever grab me like that again.” He paused, carefully considering his next move, then silently turned and faced the wall just beneath the opening with his arms lifted and elbows out, he waited for her to pick him up. 2035 obliged and pushed him through the hole. “Fucking watch that hand! I’ll shove this knife-” She didn’t hear the last part as Bucky disappeared outside.
He stopped dumbfounded. It was so bright and vast. Burnt rubble littered the ground as far as he could see, with random charred tree trunks and leftover beams sticking out like sore thumbs. He took a few steps through the debris, engrossed by the scale of everything, when something crunched under his foot. He looked down and spotted the calcined leftovers of a hand. “Holy fuck!”
2035’s yell startled him as she followed him out of the small, chipped concrete hole. He pushed what was probably one of 2035 parent’s hand underneath a piece of wood. She stumbled towards him, eyes locked on the Cheyenne Mountain complex up the hill from what used to be her backyard. A huge chunk was missing from the side of the mountain; the base entry and all of NORAD road were now just a massive black crater. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” She kept looking at the mountain, then around the destroyed house, then back to the mountain again, somehow expecting things to make sense the more she did it. She fell to her knees and started searching through the ruins. “I have to find them.”
“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” She was acting crazy. “Shut up Bucky! Just fucking help me find them. We have to find them!” Bucky started walking towards her when a raindrop hit his hand. He didn’t feel any pain, but his hand started to melt around it. “Motherfucker!” More raindrops started to fall. He rushed to 2035 and yanked at the sleeve of her destroyed fast food uniform. “We need to go!” She wouldn’t stop digging. “You crazy bitch! We are going to melt out here. We need to go back inside!” 2035 finally noticed the rain and what it was doing to their skin. She came to her senses, stood up and followed Bucky back through the basement entrance. Still in shock, 2035 stood in front of the couch, her eyes fixed on the wall across from her. Bucky collapsed against the wall, panting. How come that didn’t hurt? He thought to himself while examining the melted spot on his hand.
“We better board up that entrance, just in case.” 2035 simply nodded in response.
https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmbA6XWNJ2JeBz8SxCt5f7GPDEgPP2e2TV6xr9Hj9fKH2R
https://www.nuclearnerds.io/story/472/
