“We have to start evacuating everyone out now,” Bucky yelled over the chaos to the others around him. Some were fighting, others were running, but right now he was more worried about making sure everyone made it out alright rather than saving their homes. Homes could be repaired or rebuilt; people and their safety were more important.
It had all happened so suddenly and without much warning. Bucky had been at the base when the alarm of the attack came in, and he’d rushed over as quickly as possible to help where he could. He’d come to blows with a couple COS agents, but once he made it past the biggest line of fire, he started working to evacuate homes one by one or those that may have been struggling to get away. He could take more fire than most and get back up again.
He’d already taken a blow to his good shoulder, but he ignored the pain and continued going house to house to make sure everyone was out or accounted for from each of the Head houses. The other housing sections were taking hits too, but the majority of the fight seemed to be at Head. Homes had already been destroyed with more being decimated by the minute.
“You!” He called out to Riley close by. “Let’s go!”
For the first time since Intake was attacked Riley felt like she actually was going to get a good nights rest. Real sleep, it was important and all that other good stuff for living life. She was curled up fast asleep when the first attack happened. Blinking at first she thought someone, probably Bozer was playing some game but as she woke up more she remembered he wasn’t here.
Shit. She was in Atlantis and that definitely didn’t sound like any kind of video game she knew. She heard screaming and before she knew it she was somewhat dressed and running out of the door. She looked around for the best thing to do when she heard someone yell out.
“Me?” She asked jogging the few steps towards the guy. Bucky, if she wasn’t mistaken. “Okay,” Riley said quickly. Her mind working out that people needed to get out. “There are probably more people sleeping in some of the houses.” She nodded towards a few that were still standing but who knew for how long.
Based on the firefight that was going on around them, Bucky could tell that Head seemed to be getting the brunt of the attack at least so far. A part of him wanted to change course and do what he could to stop the agents, but he knew that helping evacuate people was just as important.
He saw the houses Riley pointed out and immediately started to move towards them. The time for knocking was over, so he used his strength to bust open the door and search the main room to see if anyone was in the house.
“Is anyone in here!?” He called out. “I’ll search the rooms on the front if you’ll search the back.” He didn’t waste any time waiting for confirmation but quickly searched each room to verify no one was still inside. After not finding anyone, Bucky went to the main room just as he heard Riley making her way back too.
It was hard not to be stunned by the damage and hearing the screams from here and there. For a moment she wondered if she’d wake up and all of this would have been a horrible dream. She’d wake up safe in LA and tell Mac and Bozer all about the weird dream she had, but when she heard Bucky give her an order of searching the back she just nodded and started back.
“Anyone back here?” She called but everything was dark. She opened a few doors not finding anything yet, or anyone. It was likely they might have been already out somewhere or no one lived there.
“I don’t think anyone is here,” she called out to Bucky just as she felt the shock of an explosion nearby. Riley didn’t hesitate as she ran towards the window where she saw the house next to them start to shake and start to crumble on the left side.
“Holy shit,” she looked around for Bucky nodding so they could rush over there.
Bucky heard the explosion across the street first and when he looked out the window, he knew that it wasn’t good. Houses were being destroyed left and right, and he could only hope that no one was inside when it happened.
“Come on,” he said while on his way out the door. Riley followed, and he stayed close to her. If any agents came at them or fired shots their way, he needed to be close enough to use his arm to block the hit or get her out of the way. Near where the explosion happened, he saw two women on the ground up against the side of a house that was still standing - for now. The roof had been blown off and was on fire.
“She’s been hit!” One of them called. As they got closer, he realized the the woman that was hurt was one of his roommates, Rose, along with Emily Fields there with her. Emily was pressing a shirt onto Rose’s back, and Bucky could see the blood on both of their hands and over the back of Rose’s shirt.
“I’m fine,” Rose turned to look back at the cut that Emily was pressing a shirt against and Riley saw her wince. Riley tilted her head and glanced to Bucky not believe it for a second.
“Sure you are,” Riley muttered under her breath as she jogged up. “We need to get both of you out of here, can you walk?” She asked Rose who seemed to push herself up awkwardly but clearly it hurt to move.
“Are you okay?” She added to Emily, she couldn’t see anything but that didn’t mean anything.
Emily nodded. “I’m okay. I wasn’t inside when my house was hit.” She still kept the cloth pressed onto Rose’s back.
Bucky took note of the cuts that were bleeding well enough to know Rose would probably need stitches but also gave her a quick once over to make sure she seemed to be alright otherwise and then did the same with Emily. He then turned his attention back to what was going on around them. There were two agents going up against three of their people across the way, and he waited until their attention was turned the other direction before nodded to the others. “Around the back, let’s go.”
They ran behind a couple of the houses, houses that were burning, and out of the line of sight of the agents he had in sight. As long as they could get clear of the main fight, the streets on the way into the city seemed to be mostly clear.
Riley watched as Rose winced taking the cloth Emily was pressing and pressing it herself. She was pretty sure she heard her mumble something about having worse and to move.
Riley let Bucky take the lead as she fell in step behind Emily and Rose, she kept a close eye on any movements behind them and while she knew all of them probably wanted to fight, the goal was getting people to safety, not battling right now.
“Hey!” She called lowly as they started to round to one of the roads to the city. She nodded behind her and pointed to a good place to duck and hide for a moment before gently pushing Emily in that direction. As they got in two COS agents on scooter type things roared past them heading out of the housing area.
“Where the hell are they going?” Riley breathed out.
Crouched down and waiting for the agents to pass, Bucky poked his head out ever so slightly to take a look down the road back towards housing. The agents were leaving little by little and away from the rubble of some of the houses.
“Are they’re leaving?” Emily asked, half as an observation but also posed as a question.
Why were they leaving? Bucky knew that some had probably been injured or even killed by the people fighting, but either something had spooked them or this was another attack to keep them wounded and to keep them guessing.
There was a break in agents zipping by, so he nodded to the others. “I don’t know,” he said, as confused about what had happened as the rest of them. He exchanged a look with Rose and shook his head. He didn’t know what was happening, but he could ask questions later. “Alright, let’s keep going. It’s possible they’ll come back or have something else planned after they’re gone.”
Riley noticed as Bucky and Rose exchanged a look, she got the impression that the two of them had some thought about it that they weren’t sharing right that moment. That didn’t totally surprise her though, they both seemed like they fought in a lot of battles kind of people, well, she’d seen Bucky in movies, so she knew he had.
“Please don’t make me defuse another bomb,” Riley muttered under her breath. She’d done it, more than once now but it was one of her least favorite things to do in the world. She took up the position in the back again as they started to move, her eyes were looking out for anything that might be a bomb but so far she didn’t see anything, instead she saw what looked like a place people were evacuating too which meant they were almost clear, but also meant that it would be time to head back into housing to help get more people out.
There were still a few stragglers or agents that had been caught up in fights with those battling, but most had left the scene. Bucky didn’t like what this might mean. He doubted that they would give up this easily if this was to be the final fight between the two sides, and that only meant more would be coming.
“Alright, you two should be safe here,” he told Rose and Emily once they reached the area where others had started to gather away from the main fight. “And you need to have someone look at that,” he said to Rose. One look around and he could see those with medical training helping people who had been injured. By the looks of things, he could tell that Rose’s injuries were minor in comparison to some.
“I’ll make sure she’s checked out,” Emily said to them.
With a nod, Bucky looked at Riley. “I’m going back in to see if there are others trapped or need help getting evacuated.” If she wanted to stay, she could, and he wouldn’t have blamed her either way.
Riley nodded to Emily and added a short thank you, it was clear that Rose would have rather gone back out to help but Riley got the impression the woman knew it was better not to given where her injury was.
Looking back at Bucky she took a deep breath in and nodded. “Still seriously hope we don’t have to defuse any bombs, but let’s go.” She wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing while she was perfectly fine and capable of being useful, besides she didn’t want to sit around and watch and wonder. She looked back to see Emily and Rose headed more towards medical and turned back to Bucky and followed him back towards housing to see what, or rather who, they could find next.