It was a quiet night in the snowy Siberian wilderness. Save for a single cleared road leading up to the building, all there was within a few kilometres of the Hydra compound was snow untouched by man and the frosted coniferous forest.

At least, that's how I imagine the scene was set before the base blew up. We likely weren't even in Siberia.

The Hydra compound blowing up wasn't directly my fault. It's not like I found some explosives and went "Oh goody let's have these blow the building apart while I'm still inside."

Ghouls are unfortunately susceptible to fire. Also, it'd be a waste of effort if Bucky were to die here after all I went through to take him with me when I broke out of there.

The first warning I got that shit was about to blow up was the calm male voice saying something in russian over the speakers and the security teams the Winter Soldier and I were steadily making our way through changing tactics from 'stand and shoot' to 'run and gun'. The bullets left holes in my clothing but left my skin with only bruises which were erased after just a few seconds.

The second was the Soldier becoming even more efficient in his deadly dispatch. The first command I'd given him was "Get us both the hell outta here alive". Had he not been brainwashed into an emotionless cyborg, I would've described his actions as 'panicked'.

Metal shutters rolled down to isolate the hallway. I impaled a guard as he dived under the shutter and it would've closed on his neck if the Soldier hadn't dived as well and stopped the shutter by sticking his metal arm under it. I dragged the guard towards me like a horror movie monster. The shutter mechanism let out an awful grinding sound as the Winter Soldier demonstrated the power of the super serum and bionic arm and forced it back up.

The screams of my unlucky next meal stopped when my kagune punched through his head. I crouched down to partake. The Soldier grabbed me before I could and ran.

"What? Can't you see I'm trying to eat here?" I complained even as I cut an arm off the corpse to go.

There were barely any people left in the building when the alarms stopped their insistent blaring and the russian message stopped broadcasting. I had only a second to frown at the sudden silence before the explosions started.

Boom. Rumble. Boom.

"Oh no."

I was almost impressed by how calmly I said that.

I stopped dragging my feet. Another metal shutter loomed in front of us.

I twined all four kagune tails together in the shape of a cone and thrust the sharp point forward. The first hit didn't quite penetrate and I smacked face first into the dented shutter.

"Ow," I said from the ground. The Soldier punched and deepened the dent with his bionic arm. The explosions grew ever closer. I leapt to my feet and frantically tried again.

On the third hit, I punched through. I pulled the hole open and threw myself through it.

The Soldier leapt through the opening with significantly more grace and pulled me to my feet. He released the back of my shirt when I'd gotten my feet back under myself. We ran.

The physical superiority of a ghoul soon became apparent when I outpaced the Winter Soldier. If my memory serves me right, Kaneki Ken once ran up a vertical wall - which, by the way, was complete bullshit - so outrunning a super soldier was easy once I really got going.

It was exhilarating. Was this how Usain Bolt felt as he won every race?

Basking in the euphoria of speed, I almost didn't notice the split corridor in front of me. I only had time to bring my kagune up before I smashed into the wall with all the force of a stupidly distracted ghoul going at full speed.

"Ghrk!"

The Winter Soldier caught up. I could almost see the gears in his head turning as his eyes flicked from the partially destroyed wall to the two paths on either side of us. Any survivors had long evacuated and it was just us and the bombs.

Coming to a decision, he punched the wall. The plaster burst in a cloud of dust around his metal fist. I made sure to time my strikes in between his as I helped.

Between the two of us, the wall was quickly taken down. Hope soared within me as cold air rushed in. It had taken about three seconds. That was about a second too long.

I instinctively wrapped myself around the Winter Soldier just before the final explosives detonated.

I think I might have screamed when the fire hit me. I think the shrapnel might have pierced my spine. I know that I blacked out because the next thing I knew, I was on the Winter Soldiers back as he trudged away from the self destructed base.

He didn't get very far. The Soldier collapsed just as we reached the treeline.

He fell face first into the snow. I rolled off his back. I took a deep breath of that cold, fresh air.

"...Holy shit," I said, staring at the night sky. "We did it. We're actually out."

I allowed myself three seconds to admire the stars. A full moon illuminated the night. I made an oath to start worshipping the beautiful night sky.

"Alright, that's enough of that," I told myself, sitting up. I winced as I pulled a particularly long piece of metal out of my side. It was a good thing the scientists had been feeding me well in the time I'd been there. I might have gone all starving ghoul otherwise. And with the only human around being the one I was actively trying not to kill…

The Winter Soldier had burns all over his body. My own were healing quickly and adrenaline masked any pain I might have felt. Soon the only evidence I'd been injured at all was the blood and my ragged garments. The entire back of my shirt was gone. It was a minor miracle my pants hadn't just fallen off.

He looked like he'd just rolled around in shrapnel, and most of his wounds were bleeding sluggishly. I crouched down next to him. The arm which I'd cut off the guard had somehow survived all the chaos and was lying in the snow a metre or so away. I retrieved it with my kagune.

I grabbed the arm and poked the Winter Soldier. He didn't react as the fingers of a dead man nudged his face.

I giggled. It started quietly, and I tried to muffle it with my hand, but no matter what, I just couldn't stop. I finally gave up and flopped back into the snow, cackling.

"Oh my fucking god," I gasped, "Th-there's nothing to laugh about, why am I- snrk, hahahaha! Oh my, oh my god, my stomach hurts."

I knew why; I just didn't want to admit that maybe I'd cracked a little under the stress of being thrust into such a prolonged high stakes situation after living nineteen years as an average, if a little sheltered, person.

I'd killed several people! I'd eaten several people! I'd cut off a man's arm so I could eat it later like take-out and I'd just used it to poke someone who I'd previously only known as a fictional character!

I resigned myself and just rode the laughter out. Finally, the giggles died and I sat up. The Winter Soldier was still unconscious.

I organised my kagune into a stretcher. It took a few tries, but I finally got a shape that didn't break apart as soon as I stopped focusing on it. I lifted Bucky onto it, placed the arm on top of him, and off we went into the snowy wilderness.

I broke a branch off a tree to brush away my footprints. It didn't do that great a job and I was no doubt leaving a dozen other marks that could be used to track us by, but this was the best I could do. With any luck, a blizzard would pass by and erase our trail completely. Hopefully after I found shelter.

I'd survived Hydra, and I'd survived bombs. Now I had to make sure I survived the cold.