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pennysheets2024-01-03 02:01 pm
worthallthis) wrote in pennysheets2024-01-03 02:01 pm
Entry tags:
A bit of happiness at the end of the world
Bucky never thought the (second) apocalypse would become routine. And it hasn't, not really. Everything is still pretty terrible. The uncorrupted population of the Earth is, as far as they can guess, somewhere in the hundreds of thousands, and at least half of that is centered in Wakanda. The fog has only thinned in a few areas, mostly through the efforts of Kamar Taj's small army of sorcerers, and actual safe locations are few and far between. Food is often hard to come by, as planting crops is difficult when the fog might damage them at any time and hunting the fog-warped monsters requires careful cooking or cleansing spells from said sorcerers for the meat to be edible by normal humans. Unmarred animals have been rare enough that they haven't managed to breed anything but chickens, so the only food they have every day is eggs. The small groups of eldritch raiders that roam the planet aren't edible at all, not even if you're a supersoldier. Bucky would probably kill someone for a loaf of bread.
But being sent out to check on anomalous magical fluctuations, and subsequently shooting whatever comes out of them, is pretty normal now. Bucky and Peggy are the only ones on this particular mission: Banner is in the middle of a project and can't be disturbed, and Scott and Hope are on a different trek checking out something to the south. Bucky prefers to be sent out with Peggy, anyhow. They work well together, both on and off the battlefield. He might even privately admit she's managed to partly fill the hole in his heart left after bisecting Steve's zombified corpse. It will always be there, but it's more bearable these days.
They left the city a couple hours ago, on foot as this didn't wasn't far enough out to waste fuel on the jet or armored truck, and are nearing the coordinates Wong gave them, somewhere in upstate New York. There's only been a couple dog-sized bundles of tentacles to shoot, and it's mostly woodland. Probably formerly cultivated woodland rather than something truly wild, but it's wild now, with the planes of the trees reaching as much horizontally as vertically.
"Think it'll be another raiding party?" Bucky asks quietly, rifle up as they approach what used to be a lakeshore, though the lake itself appears to have mostly dried up as part of it broke open into a shimmering sinkhole.
But being sent out to check on anomalous magical fluctuations, and subsequently shooting whatever comes out of them, is pretty normal now. Bucky and Peggy are the only ones on this particular mission: Banner is in the middle of a project and can't be disturbed, and Scott and Hope are on a different trek checking out something to the south. Bucky prefers to be sent out with Peggy, anyhow. They work well together, both on and off the battlefield. He might even privately admit she's managed to partly fill the hole in his heart left after bisecting Steve's zombified corpse. It will always be there, but it's more bearable these days.
They left the city a couple hours ago, on foot as this didn't wasn't far enough out to waste fuel on the jet or armored truck, and are nearing the coordinates Wong gave them, somewhere in upstate New York. There's only been a couple dog-sized bundles of tentacles to shoot, and it's mostly woodland. Probably formerly cultivated woodland rather than something truly wild, but it's wild now, with the planes of the trees reaching as much horizontally as vertically.
"Think it'll be another raiding party?" Bucky asks quietly, rifle up as they approach what used to be a lakeshore, though the lake itself appears to have mostly dried up as part of it broke open into a shimmering sinkhole.