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manicrouge · 1 month ago

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TASK FORCE: STALKER

Chapter One: Last Woman On Earth

(Keegan x F!Reader)

Word count: 8.5k

About: After an operation in which the Alpha Team has been instructed to distract the Federation troops goes wrong, Alpha 4 finds herself stranded in Caracas, Venezuela. U.S. The city floods and while seeking refuge, she runs into one of the members of Task Force: Stalker.

TWs: Canon-typical violence, drowning, brief mention of religion, gore, blood, violence, mayhaps some typos here and there too

Note: This story follow the campaign of Cod: Ghosts. If you would like to be added to the tag list, leave a comment :D

‘Alpha team offloads here as discussed.’

A voice ringed in your headset as the helicopter slowly lowered. Staring past the head of one of the Bravo team, you spied the shrubbery of the Forest bending around the spinning propellors of the helicopter, raising to your feet as the door slowly opened. Holding your rifle close to you, you offered a short nod to every man you passed on your way out.

Your boots hit the dirt, a stick snapping beneath your foot. The nerves you felt during your first deployment were lost to the world as soon as the stench of gun powder graced your nostrils. There’s no time to be nervous, you thought back to the words your father spoke while telling stories of his time in battle. He’d hold your dolls, speak with gruff voices as he reenacted stories you had begged to hear. Pulling up the arm of Cinderella, he’d state firmly, you’re in the deep end now, soldier. To which, in your youth, you’d giggle and clap your hands to. Those words were akin to a Bible verse to you, something you repeated in your head, even when your squad leader was barking orders. It was an essential mission, you’d been briefed more times than you cared to consider which only ever meant one thing: do not fuck this up.

‘Keep up, yeah?’ a voice said from beside you.

You turned your head, spying Parker. A man who was in his late twenties, a tad bit older than you were. You'd often referred to him as your older brother, the others in your squad typically addressing the pair of you as siblings.

‘You should listen to your own advice,’ you retorted with a grin.

You set off on foot. Parker walked alongside you as the pair of you walked just behind the rest of the squad. In total, you counted ten men, then yourself and Parker. The noise of chatter was close. You were in the enemy land for sure, listening to the contempt in their voices, you felt adrenaline wash over you as you bent your knees, slowly stalking with the rest of your squad.

‘Razor-1, all Alpha deployed. Moving to secondary HLZ.’

The sputtering of the choppers propellers left you staring in the air, peering through the trees as you watched as the black mass rose into the air, heading further into the District. Your eyes followed the helicopter as you headed further into the greenery, your eyes head not daring to dip. Something in you was aching at the sight of it growing further. The only sound, aside from the distant calls of the enemy, were the short breaths of the soldiers around you, alongside the creeping footsteps as you edge closer and closer.

‘All Stations �� Razor-1 is bracketed. We’re getting hit!’

You looked up, and the cries of the enemy just before you grow louder. And still, you persisted. You weren’t the one under fire, so why would you stop? You watch in the day time sky, witnessing the grey smoke billowing from the missiles fired, heading right for the helicopter, and still, you persist on your operation.

‘Shit, that was a close one,’ Parker laughed to the right of you.

Your eyes are still stuck on the helicopter, your lungs aching as you refused to breathe. Another missile was sent into the sky. The radio was muddled, however, the system managed to pick up a disgruntled string of curses before the announcement came.

‘Razor-1— w- we’re going down!’

The sky was then painted with oranges and reds as a whirring filled the emptiness of nature. The helicopter expelled bouts of black smoke as it twisted and turned, falling out of the sky like a dead bird. It dropped graceless, unable to keep itself from its doom.

‘Hold up,’ said your lieutenant, holding his hand up.

You stopped, as did the rest of the men surrounding you. A shaky breath escaped you as the crash rumbled the ground you stood on, fire engulfing the wreckage while you stood, the breeze blowing through your hair. A part of you was selfishly thankful that your name had been absent from their list; their fate was far from appealing — and at that point, you didn’t even know if they were dead.

‘Bravo, how copy?’ your lieutenant whispered as you crouched behind him, stray sticks and rocks digging into your knees. You and Parker shared a look as the radio remained silent. ‘Bravo, what’s your status…?’

‘Alpha — Bravo compromised. Multiple wounded!’

Your grip on your gun tightened.

‘We’re taking effective fire!’

‘Bravo, we’re advancing on the first camp, hold tight,’ called you lieutenant, briefly looking over his shoulder, before pressing onwards.

No one questioned his authority, and even though you couldn’t quite get the image of the helicopter falling out of your mind (the flames of which had seared into you retinas), when you hit the camp the first thing you did is bring your sight to your eye, marking the head of an enemy immediately. He was much too busy to see you, and when your lieutenant fired the first shot, you wasted no time in pulling your own trigger.

Blood sprayed against the front of the tent the man was standing in front of, his limp body falling into the green canvas. It barely held his weight as his brains poured from the exit would at the back of his head, filling the dip like a swell of rain water would have. It took a few moments for the men standing beside him to react, as they simply stood and blinked at the carnage you had brought with the squeeze of a trigger. Screams exited the mouths of the troops, and you watched as they whipped their heads from side to side in an attempt to find where the bullets were coming from. Waving their guns in the air, you maintained your calmness in the midst of the calamity, not daring to break, even when you and one of the men standing beside the corpse locked eyes.

From that moment, bullets reigned down hell and you intended to walk out alive.

Advancing on the war zone was always done with caution and you did so gradually, shooting with key precision. Any missed shot was disregarded in the blink of an eye; you could recover steadily with as little as a hitch in your breath. You continued alongside a handful of your team, whilst the read of them went to the right hand side. The burning of fuel filled your nose, and when you peaked from behind the truck you were crouched behind, you caught sight of a thick cloud of smoke travelling upwards into the sky.

‘Adams, Jones, flank left,’ demanded your lieutenant, before turning to you, ‘missy, you’re with me. We kill and we get to the Bravo team,’ he stated firmly.

‘Yes sir,’ you nodded, following behind him. You kept your scope upwards in the search for anyone who may have had him in their sights. In the matter of seconds you had advanced, sitting before a crate of ammunition. You watched as he pulled out his magazine, checking his ammo, before snapping it back into his gun. Maintaining a stark look on his face, he sucked on his bottom lip, looking at you.

‘You got enough?’

‘Yeah,’ you hummed, ‘have you?’

He chuckled, ‘of course I do, ‘haven’t missed a shot.’

You narrowed your eyes at his remark.

Whilst subtle, you were quite sure it was intended to be a jab. However, whatever offence you had quickly shattered when a hand snaked around the corner of the ammunition.

In the blink of an eye, the smug expression on the man’s face quickly fell as chunks of his brains and skull exploded, covering you.

The sound of the gunshot left your ears ringing, a spray of your superiors blood covering your face. A gargled gasp escaped your throat, and you blinked rapidly in an attempt to rid the redness from your eyes. The man fell limp on the ground beside you, the barrel of the gun that had just killed him now aimed at you. You looked death in the eye, snatching your gun and squeezing the trigger as you scrambled to get out of the way of the bullet.

You landed on your back, the man you’d shot at falling to the ground. A dull ache radiated in your shoulder and you hissed, lifting a shaking hand to assess the damage. Your gloved fingers sank into a bullet wound and you let out a shattered huff.

This entire thing seemed like an ambush — none of the planning made sense in the slightest.

It was a death trap, you swore so under your breath as you pushed yourself up off of your back, a strained grunt escaping you as you did so. It was a pain unlike anything you had felt, and still, it was the least of your concern in that moment. Peaking around the box, you gulped at the sight of your dead superior, using your hand to wipe his blood off of your face. Behind were the feet was a Fed soldier, squirming where he laid, holding his stomach as he screamed out bloody murder.

Maintaining your cover, you pushed up keeping a tight hold on your gun as leaned over him, grabbing the pistol he had shot you with, attaching it to your belt before pressing the barrel of your gun against his chest, lifting your throbbing arm up to the radio attached to your chest.

‘This is Alpha 4, Lieutenant Williams is KIA.’

The shakiness of your tone was embarrassing and when you let go of your radio, you winced as you waited for a response. There were more gunshots, more screaming, yet the radio was silent.

‘Does anybody copy?’ you asked, looking around, pressing your back against the ammunition station.

‘It’s a fuckin’ blood bath!’ A voice exclaimed, ‘A- Alpha 2, and 6 are KIA.’

‘Parker?’ you asked.

‘We gotta retreat,’ firmly said the man, ‘fall back to the landing zone and call med evac. We can’t fight all of these, we’re down a full team and three of our own.’

Everything in you was insisting on listening to the man; that ultimately seemed like the right call and you supposed you couldn’t exactly turn to your lieutenant for answers. However, when you peaked once again and spied to the crash site, something inside you urged you to persevere. There were people who were injured and as you looked downwards, you swallowed the last of your cowardice and shook your head.

‘No,’ you said through your radio, ‘people are hurt — I’m not going to leave them.’

‘Are you fuckin’ stupid?’ he asked, ‘fall back. You will die.’

You plotted a bath before yourself. You could rush into the tree line and use the trunks as cover, sneak around the outside of the camp and just a little further to where the helicopter had went down. With the noise from behind you, you were more than sure you could make a break for it; there would be a brief intermission in the fighting and you could slip away without alerting a single soul; for all they knew you had been shot alongside your lieutenant.

‘No, I’m not leaving without trying,’ you said, letting go of the radio.

Grabbing the dead man’s shoulder, you turned him so he was on his back, taking hold of the dog tag around his neck and yanking it. It snapped off and you shoved it in your pocket before turning your full attention to the tree line.

With your gun in hand, you took one last breath before pushing forward, scurrying away from the position. There were more yells, and had they caught onto the fact that you were rushing away, you were unsure. No bullets were fired in your direction, and you remained crouched, even when you made it back into the shrubbery.

Smoke continued to float up into the sky, and with your gun close to your chest, you pushed on with your heartbeat ringing in your ears. A voice rattled through your radio, one you recognised to be Parker, however, you disregarded his scolding as you turned it off fully, not daring to compromise yourself. Gunshots from the main camp continued as you creeped further and further to the crash site, stopping just behind a tree trunk when you heard the crackle of flames and the creaking of metal. There was a weeping, followed by a few stray gunshots, but aside from that, the yelling was distant.

Advancing upwards, you approached the helicopter, finding the entirety of the back to be missing, creating an opening which allowed you to rush into. ‘Bravo team, how copy?’ you called, looking around the wreckage.

‘Well ain’t you a sight for sore fuckin’ eyes,’ a voice called, and when you lifted your head, you spied a man with his back up against the wall. ‘Where’s the rest of Alpha?’

‘Three KIA including Williams,’ you said, rushing up to the mans side, ‘you?’

‘All KIA from what I know,’ he said, using the butt of his gun to push himself up off the ground, ‘one wounded if you’re countin’ me.’

‘Alpha 7 called for us to fall back — call med evac to get us out of here; the entire things been a fucking shit show.’

‘I’ll say,’ said the man, ‘you get hit?’

‘Only my shoulder,’ you uttered, ‘I’ll live… can you walk?’

‘Just about,’ he hummed, watching as you approached him, wrapping your arm around his shoulders. He leaned on you, however, you noted he was careful with ho much weight he put on you, as the pair of you hobbled to the entrance. It was quite the awkward journey counting that he was a few inches taller than you, luckily for him however, you never feigned in the face of a challenge. ‘Where’d he say he’s callin’ med evac?’

‘Original landing site.’

‘They won’t make it there,’ he said, ‘they know we’re here now, they’ll shoot that helo down just like the shot our one.’

Grabbing your radio, you tuned back into the channel. ‘Alpha 7, this is Alpha 4. All apart from one in Bravo have been KIA. How do you copy?’

‘Med evac is on the way, report back to the original landing site,’ Parker said, ‘we’ll recon here and then go further to get the fuck outta here.’

You turned to the man beside you. ’You think you’re gonna be able to make it there?’

‘Do I have a fuckin’ choice?’ he asked with a chuckle, ‘you’re basically askin’ if I wanna live or die, love.’

You rolled your eyes at his words. ‘We’ll keep to the outskirts of the camp. How much ammo you got?’

‘I’m low, about nine or ten more.’

‘Fuck,’ you sighed, ‘we’ll just have to keep a low profile.’

He hummed, ‘by the sounds of things they’re distracted enough for us to get around them.’

‘I hope so.’

Each step was agonising, and with the weight of the man on your shoulder, you found your arm was beginning to ache. At that point, the bullet wound in your shoulder had its own pulse and it was throbbing with a ferocious anger, leaving your eyes watering as the pair of you kept low and out of the way of the camp. Despite the burning in ever inch of your body, you refused to submit to the will of the enemy, and with each shout, you bowed your head further in the hopes to keep in the cover of the bushes around you. The man beside you was trying his best to keep quiet, gritting his teeth to stifle every single grunt that passed his lips. With an uneven ground, there was the occasional stumble which would result in the pair of you cursing under your breaths.

‘Shit, sorry miss,’ grumbled the man, digging his blunt nails into the black sleeve of your shirt.

Biting back a hiss, you gulped back a curse. ‘I- It’s fine,’ you struggled out through gritted teeth in spite of the fact that you felt as though you were two steps away from collapsing. The wound in your arm was leaking, the blood pouring out of it soaking into your torn shit. It was sure to be a bitch when it eventually came to the removal of the bullet. Despite your doubts, gun fire was prolonged behind the pair of you, and the further you moved through enemy territory the more you found hope that more of your squad would make it out alive.

‘Alpha 4?’

‘Parker?’

‘I got bad news,’ murmured the man through the radio, ‘radioed med evac and they said they can’t drop here; people know we’re here according to what’s been relayed to the team. If we want to evacuate, we have to push on into the city; apparently a task force is out there looking to assassinate General Almargo — we’ll get out with them.’

You paled at the news and both you and your new friend stopped in your tracks.

‘Are you fuckin’ serious?’

‘Unfortunately,’ sighed the man, ‘it’s just me… no one else made it.’

‘Fuck,’ cursed the man beside you, looking at you, ‘miss, I can’t make it into the city with my fuckin’ leg, we’re five miles out.’

You gulped. ‘I have one of Bravo’s members, his leg is fucked—’

‘We meet up, rob a car and get the fuck out of here and meet up with the soldiers in the city. I’ll be in the roadside just North of the camp; there’s a road that will take us directly into the city.’

You kept your mouth shut in spite of your objections. ‘Okay,’ you said, ‘we’ll walk to the road but keep just in the clearing to make sure we’re not spotted.’

‘Roger that.’

The channel fell silent and you turned to the limping man beside you. ‘It’s the best we can do… I’m sorry.’

He sucked in a breath as though he was accepting something. ‘Not your fault, miss,’ he uttered, stumbling. The pair of you wobbled as a result of his misstep, a particularly loud crunch sounding. A strained whimper left his mouth as he fell forward, pulling you along with him. You attempted to catch your fall, turning to your side in the hopes of avoiding landing on your right shoulder. In spite of such, when you hit the ground, a pang of pain which caused goosebumps to form flooded the entirety of your body. Forcing your lips together, you rolled onto your back, immediately holding your arm, a trembling hand hovering over the wound.

‘Fuck,’ you hissed, the world spinning momentarily.

Much to you dismay, your fall was not as silent as you had hoped it to be as a whistle confirmed that the men who were hunting you almost heard it. Your pity party was brief as you pushed yourself off of the ground, staring down at the man who nursed his leg. It was only then that you truly assessed the damage done. His bone protruded from his skin, droplets of his blood leaking onto the dirt below the pair of you.

‘We’ve gotta go,’ you willed, leaning over to grab hold of his wrist, ‘they know we’re here.’

‘I’m not going anywhere miss,’ he said through a groan, ‘I can’t walk in this.’

‘You can lean on me,’ you whispered, tugging on his arm all for him to raise his hand, prying your hand off him. ‘Come on.’

‘No,’ he huffed, dropping his hand to grab his dog tag from around his neck, pulling it off and holding his chain out to you, ‘take this and run.’

‘We can—’

‘No,’ he refuted harshly, lifting his head up as footsteps edged closer, ‘take this and get the fuck out of here.’ Pressing your lips together, you looked the man in the eyes. ‘You tried your hardest, but you can’t save everyone,’ he said, shaking the chain in his hand, ‘now take it and get out of here… for the both of us, yeah?’

With a sigh, you snatched his dog tag off of him, wasting little time as you swooped down, retrieving your gun from off of the ground. Your aching knees were thankful for the increase of pace and you didn’t care to look back at the certain slaughter of the man who had essentially given up his life for yours. Rather than tightening your hold on him, which you much rather would have, your hands clasped tightly around his chain as you proceeded North, uncaring for anything that might have stopped you in your tracks.

The entire thing was a disaster, so, when you eventually came across Parker hidden near the roadside, you couldn’t quite believe your luck. He’d grabbed your ankle as you were staggering, pulling you into him. Before you could yell out, he hushed you, his paw-like hand covering your mouth.

‘Chill, it’s just me,’ he whispered.

Despite knowing you were in safe hands, you drove your elbow into his stomach. His hold on you released immediately as he keeled over with a straight moan.

‘Asshole,’ you exhaled breathlessly, turning to look at him, ‘you get hit?’

‘Not until this point,’ he struggled out, ‘you?’

‘Shoulder,’ you said, looking down at your arm, ‘hurts like fuck.’

‘I can imagine,’ he hummed, ‘where’s your friend?’

‘Didn’t make it,’ you said, your hands hovering over the pocket where you had safely tucked his dog tag away. ‘He had a broken leg, he gave up.’

‘Fuck,’ he cursed, ‘that entire thing was a shit show,’ he grumbled, ‘they said it would be easy… there were more than we were told.’

‘Tricks of the trade,’ you said, ‘how far are we from the city?’

‘Twenty five minutes,’ he said, ‘this road leads to the national park, but if we follow it south we’ll get to the city.’

‘Okay,’ you hummed, ‘any traffic in this area?’

‘Haven’t seen a car pass me and I’ve been here around twenty minutes — but best to keep out of the way, yeah?’ he asked, ‘how are you for ammo?’

‘Still got some.’

‘Good,’ he hummed, ‘c’mon, they’ll be gaining on us if we stay here for too long.’

The pair of you set off with a fierce hunger, not wanting to be captured by the enemy. Shifting to the other side of the road, you traversed through the dry forest, your hands shaking. Your eyes ached and your head throbbed as the pain in your shoulder worsened. Whilst anyone else would be fleeing from the city and turning around when they caught the sounds of gunshots, you found humour in the fact that the pair of you were charging into battle head on. Parker walked alongside you keeping an eager eye out, his gun poised and prepared to shoot.

‘I can’t fuckin’ believe this,’ he huffed, ‘I got no fuckin’ intel — didn’t even know we were going in there to just die. Did you know about the other task force?’

‘No,’ you answered, ‘we were there to kill and find evidence; that’s what they told us at least.’

‘Yeah fuckin’ right,’ snorted the man, ‘more like sent us in there to die.’

You bowed your head, your face creasing. The dried blood of your lieutenant was sticky. ‘At least we’re still here,’ you mumbled.

Parker chuckled, ‘of course we’re still here,’ he said, looking at you, ‘you really think we’d die like that? No; we know what we’re doing. When this task force sees us, they’re gonna be jumpin’ for fucking joy.’

You laughed at his enthusiasm. ‘Sure they are.’

‘They’ll sign the pair of us and we won’t have to deal with any of this bullshit.’

‘Or they’ll kill us on sight.’

‘I’d like to see them try,’ he snorted, ‘we’re gonna get there, help them execute that son of a bitch, and then ride out of here on a helicopter.’

‘Into the sunset?’

‘You bet,’ he hummed, ‘have a cocktail in hand too.’

Even though the pair of you were on the verge of a brutal death, you still had to quiet your laughter at his words. The images of what had happened moments prior were still very much present, and yet, you laughed. It was a strange feeling, for your head to be set alight with horrific images and to still be able to laugh about something ridiculous. Were you even still human for doing so? That, you were unsure of, although, you supposed morality meant nothing in this line of work.

After everything, the pair of you walked together as though you were two school friends walking home. With each step a second passed and you were conscious that the world still proceeded spinning, even though the hearts of many had stopped beating. It was a vindictive cycle — cruel, how everyone simply continued even when a life ended. You supposed, however, that you couldn’t address nature as a monster when you kept putting one foot in front of the other; you were just as bad as her.

The city appeared on the horizon after what felt like an eternity, not helped by the dry humour of Parker. Much to your surprise, it seemed too easy to have found your way into the city and you raised your brows upwards as the pair of you rested against a wall of a house with shattered windows. It appeared to be a grounds keepers home, only, it was empty and the windows had been shattered. Inside, you spied graffiti across the breast of the living room wall, staining the yellow wallpaper. It was a shame to see such a quaint home in ruin.

‘Alpha 7 to Home base. Myself and Alpha 4 have made it to the city, looking for exfil; both the rest of Alpha and Bravo are KIA.’

You stared at your feet, awaiting a response. ‘Alpha 7, this is home base. Task force Stalker are in the central area, exfil will be near the dam.’

‘Roger that,’ Parker said, allowing his hand to drop, ‘we should’ve robbed some of the uniforms from the dead troops; we’re gonna stick out.’

‘It’s either we get killed by them or our own men — which is worse?’

‘Both are bad,’ he said, ‘from where we are, we fifteen out from the dam,’ he said, pausing for a moment as gunshots echoed in the distance, ‘we’re probably going to walk into a battle.’

‘What’s one more?’ you asked, ‘we’re closer to getting home, that’s all that matters.’

He nodded his head at your words, ‘keep an eye out. If we see a guard, kill them quietly.’

You smiled. ‘Roger that.’

Without a word, the pair of you head through the city, ensuring to keep in the shadows in spite of every street the pair of you passed appearing to be that of a ghost town. War had most definitely destroyed the inners of the city; there was rubble in the streets and what were once family homes were shells of their former selves. It was a shame they met such a fate, an undeserved one and thankless all at the hands of corruption. You wondered if the families who lived there made it out alive or if they were forced into the military… or worse.

It was difficult to track the gunfire as with each street you walked past, the sound seemed to travel all the same. For all you knew, the pair of you could have been on the cusp on the battlefield and would have been none the wiser to it.

Either way, you were prepared.

You’d made it that far, you were not going to dare to fold at this point. You could hear yelling from the enemy, resonating off of the houses just like the gunfire did.

‘You have any idea what they’re saying?’ you asked.

‘Something about the dam,’ replied Parker.

‘That’s where the task for is, right?’

‘Apparently so,’ he said, ‘whatever it is, it sounds like they’re panicking.’

You pursed your lips. ‘Maybe our guys are winning.’

The screeching of tires caught your attention and when a car whirled past the pair of you, Parker grabbed you by the forearm and pulled you into an alleyway. Only, there was no way the men in the car couldn’t have seen you, and yet, they didn’t stop. Instead, the sped away as though they were in a police chase, not caring for anything in their surroundings.

Your chest tightened when another car followed suit, and then another, and then another. The stench of burning rubber filled the streets and you watched each car speed past you. Something was not quite right and when you turned to face Parker, you found he felt the same.

Opening your mouth, you went to question the strange behaviour all for the ground to rumble below the pair of you. Furrowing your brows, you held the wall behind you to steady yourself, all for another rumble to shake the ground again. What sounded like an explosion sounded, however, when you turned your eyes towards the sky, you found it was clear.

‘What the fuck was that?’ you asked.

‘It sounded like a bomb went off,’ he remarked, the pair of you moving away from the alleyway. ‘C’mon, we’ve gotta make it to the dam.’

Nodding your head, the pair of you cut through the alleyway, onto the main street. It was then you saw it. Very rarely were you surprised, the blood on the face was enough to prove that shock had very little effect on you. However, your burning legs were glued to the spot as your eyes widened at the sight before you.

A wave that must have been three stories was barely a mile out and it was charging with a vengeance with the intention of dragging you down for the life you took that day. A shaky sigh escaped you, and when you turned to Parker, you found the same horror on his face. Turning to look at the house behind you, you cursed under your breath finding that the apartments across the street would be much more suited; the buildings were taller.

‘Parker, we gotta go,’ you said breathlessly, grabbing his wrist and pulling up. He awoke from his trance, breaking into a sprint.

You chased after him, your hold on his wrist slipping as he marched forward. Your body was set alight, the last reserves of adrenaline you had within you powering you to make it to the door of the apartment block just as the water came crashing in. Parker was already half way up a flight of stairs, leaving you wading through waist high water which was only growing deeper and deeper.

‘Parker!’ you yelled, holding your arms out to the side of yourself in an attempt to maintain balance. The current beneath the surface was reckless, pulling you side to side as you battled. No way in hell would you be able to swim your way out of this — especially not with a busted shoulder.

Gritting your teeth, you lunged forward, grabbing onto the bannister of the staircase, letting out a mangled cry as you pulled yourself upwards. Your right arm felt as though it was going to fall off, and the more pressure you put on yourself, the deeper the bullet lodged in your arm dug. A flash of hot pain seared as you continued to use the banister to keep yourself from sinking into the water.

‘PARKER!’ You screamed, in the hopes of catching the mans attention.

Your heart was thumping in your ears, your eyes were burning as the water grew higher and higher. Swallowing hard, you fought with all your might to break through the persistent current. It soaked your wound, pooling just above your chin. The sudden flush strained the muscles in your arm, your grip slipping. The building creaked and your arm was pulled behind your back. Blinded by your fury, you opened your mouth to scream the mans name once more, all for it to be a gargle as your hold on the bannister slipped completely and you were pulled into the water.

The water was murky, hiding all enemies within it.

You were subjected to travel with the current, forcing yourself to keep your eyes open in spite of how bad the stung. Looking around with each passing metre of water, you searched desperately for something to latch onto, waving your arms like a madman. You broke the water once or twice, gasping for air. Your lungs were flooded and you spluttered before being sucked back under. Your choking continued under water, being damned to a watery grave. Your head grew lighter and your lungs ached.

This was it. This was how you were going to die. All because of a coward.

Your vision began to darken, the void yearning for you to fall into her arms. Only your troubles were quelled when you spied a hand in the water. Without a single thought, you reached out to snatch it, choking out under water in agony as you were nearly pulled with the water. However, the hand on you turned into two and you were pulled up and out of the water.

The building you were pulled into was full of water too, only, it was still.

You took a few seconds to choke up the water you had swallowed, unable to thank your saviour — hell, for all you knew, it could have been the enemy. Wiping your eyes with your wet sleeve, you snivelled, lifting your head to see a man adorned in a green gear staring at you. He was masked in spite of the risk it posed to the water. A sniper sat on his back and he reached his hand out to take hold of your arm. You let him, wiping the snot on your upper lip with your gloved hand, blinking away the water.

‘You American?’ he asked with a gruff tone, observing the patch on your arm.

You nodded quickly, unable to think of the correct words. ‘Alpha 4,’ you rasped. ‘O- Our team was ambushed… helicopter went down.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘I got away,’ you confirmed, clearing your throat, ‘called for exfil a- and they told us to meet a task force here.’

‘Stalker?’

‘Yes,’ you nodded. He gave you a nod. ‘Are you with them?’

‘Yeah,’ he answered, keeping hold of your arm. ‘You the only survivor?’

‘I was with someone else,’ you said, ‘but he left me for dead. We got caught in the flood and he rushed ahead of me… I got swept under. I couldn’t keep hold of anything because of my shoulder.’

His eyes fell down, spotting the bloody bullet hole in your shoulder.

‘He one of your squad mates?’

‘Yes,’ you confirmed.

He shook his head. ‘You got a weapon?’

Patting the holster on your thigh, you took hold of the handle of the knife. Pulling it out of the water, you showed it to him.

‘Good,’ he said, ‘you’re with me.’

‘O- Okay,’ you said, ‘where’s the rest of your squad?’

‘Watched them run into a warehouse,’ he said, ‘follow me and keep low,’ he instructed, moving through the water without another word.

Following after him, you held the knife in your hand tightly. You were trembling so much you feared it would slip out of your hold, and then you really thought you might have been fucked. You supposed almost dying would do that, but the betrayal of the man you had thought to be a brother felt worse. It was a dull jab in your spleen and your head throbbed as your face grew hot at the thought.

What a fucking coward.

‘What the fuck happened?’ you asked the stranger in front of you.

‘Set off two missiles and blew the dam open.’

‘Why would they do that?’ you choked out, their action seeming senseless.

‘Scorched earth.’

‘Oh,’ you mumbled. Your nose continued to run as you wiped away streams of snot. ‘Thank you,’ you blurted out. The man in front of you stopped, looking over his shoulder, appearing what you could only interpret as confused. ‘You could have left me to drown.’

He nodded in your direction, it was curt and reeked of professionalism. He turned his back to you again, moving further through the building, expecting you to follow after him — and you did. His quietness was peculiar, unlike the sorts you had seen, especially after living with such a rowdy squad for so many years. The contrast was as sharp as a dagger, and you almost felt offended by his dryness.

Opening his mouth for a ‘you’re welcome’ surely wouldn’t have killed him. Still, you didn’t know him and your grievances fell flat on their face. You couldn’t insult the man who had just saved your life, no. You’d save that anger for the man who left you to die.

You traversed through the building, eyes darting, surveying each and every corner.

‘To any calls signs on this frequency, please respond. This is Ghost Two-Two.’

The man in front of you stopped, pressing his fingers into his earpiece. ‘Clear, Merrick.’

‘Keegan?’ said the voice on the other end, ‘you have sights on Elias or Rorke?’

‘Negative.’

‘Shit,’ huffed the man, ‘we lost ‘em in the water… we’re heading towards the hotel to recon.’

‘Roger,’ said the man, ‘I’ll be on the look out for Rorke and Elias. On my way.’

‘Heard,’ said the man before the line fell dead.

Keegan continued on without a word and you followed after him. He lurked like a shadow as the pair of you came to a set of shattered window. Pushing himself upwards, he hung over the edge, before pushing himself off of it, landing on a bus which had gotten lodged in the middle of the street, acting like a bridge to the other building.

You’d expected him to continue on without you as you pulled yourself out of the water with a wince, hanging off of the ledge. Using your feet, you pressed them against the concrete, propelling your jump. You fell freely for two seconds before landing a top the bus. It creaked with the pair of you standing upon it, urging the pair of you to continue onwards. You took the warning without a question, following after the man.

Unlike when you followed your squad, you felt like a lost puppy following after the first person who had leant down to pet it. It was demeaning, patronising. But you didn’t change your demeanour, too conscious of upsetting the man who had saved your life. However, there was one burning question that caused your legs to move faster in order to catch up to him.

‘What is your squad doing here?’ you asked, jumping back into waist-high water as the pair of you entered another building. You landed with a huff, lifting your arms slightly to keep them out of the water. ‘We weren’t informed of there being anyone else… that’s why I’m asking.’

He looked you up and down as though you were one of them. Thinking for a second longer, his shoulders raised slightly as his tilted his head to the side. ‘We’re here to neutralise General Almagro,’ he responded, ‘and that’s still the plan.’

His discomfort in confessing such was potent and you had believed that he would have much rather kept it to himself. It seemed as though he thought telling you was a compromise — a breach, despite knowing you and him were fighting the same battle. Granted, even if the pair of you did escape, you were quite sure you wouldn’t be able to look any one in the eye and recount the terrors that had happened in such a short span of time.

You wondered if you still had blood on your face.

Navigating the flooding buildings with him was oddly peaceful, contrasting the crashing waves and sirens blurring on the streets. Instead, you waded through the murky water, keeping your mind clear of what else could have been lurking in there with you. Goosebumps ran rampant on your flesh, and your bottom lip trembled as your teeth clattered. Despite the beaming sun outside, the water was ice cold, subzero even. It did, however, work to soothe your burning limbs.

You travelled building to building, cautious when it came to crossing over to another one. Luckily the cars in the street worked well to be a good enough bridge to ensure your safety. Anyone else would have convinced the gun fire would have been quelled after such a catastrophe, but it raged on, seemingly with more of a vengeance. Not that you were naive enough to believe that an operation would have been abandoned, of course not. Your mind seemed to be escaping you, you concluded, conjuring thoughts you’d typically roll your eyes at.

It was when you made it one of the last buildings in your pursuit that you stilled, the gun fire being much louder than any you had heard over the passing minutes. Keegan turned to you, motioning towards a set of stairs which, supposedly led to the roof of the building. Reaching in his belt, he retrieved a pistol, holding it out to you.

‘You need that,’ you said, pushing his hand away whilst shaking his head. ‘I’m fine.’

He didn’t speak, rather taking hold of your wrist, forcing the pistol into your hand, leaving you with no time to give it back to you as he turned his back to you, stalking up to the stairs.

The next few minutes play out in your hands.

The typical battle you have part-took in during your time in the military, only, you had more time (than you would have liked) to watch the man who had been so insistent of you taking his pistol. He moved like the men’s shadows, quiet, slick — it was so impressive that you had only managed to take down one of the men when there had been four; he dealt with the rest, using their own guns against them.

When their bodies were floating in the water, he let out a short breath from behind the mask, turning to look at you as you approached him. It was a wordless token of his appreciation, you supposed, not knowing fully what his look meant. His recovery time from battle was seamless and the pair of you carried on as though nothing had happened.

‘Merrick, hold your fire, we’re approaching your six,’ Keegan called as the pair of you moved down from atop a building into the remnants of one that had originally been stationed beside it.

Below the pair of you as you climbed was a group of men wearing similar uniforms to the one Keegan was wearing. The tightness in your chest eased ever so slightly upon the sight of the group as, while you had seen Keegan in action and had your own capabilities, there was something about being surrounded by more soldiers which made you feel at home.

‘Happy you could make it,’ an unfamiliar voice called over the radio, ‘thought your luck had finally ran out.’

A man with a black cap approached the pair of you, holding out his hand to you while Keegan jumped down back into the water. While you furrowed your brows at his advanced, you opted to be polite and placed your hand in his, allowing him to help you down. He did so with ease, looking you up and down. His confusion was evident. ‘Who’s your friend?’ he asked, letting go of your hand to hold his gun again.

‘Her team was ambushed,’ Keegan answered, ‘the groups sent to distract.'

‘Ah,’ breathed the man, ‘you the only one to survive?’

‘There was another,’ you responded, trying to swallow down your anger. What the fuck did he mean by distract? ‘Left me for dead to save his own ass.’

‘That’s the problem with people in those squads,’ said the man standing in front of you, ‘they never protect their own. But you don’t have to worry about that happening while you’re with us,’ he said, looking around at his group, pride swelling in his chest, ‘does she?’

There was a collective ‘negative’ that sounded from all the men standing around you, and you felt your lips twitch, yet bit back your smile.

A crash alerted all of you as a pile up of cars formed on the street, building a makeshift path to the parking lot across from you akin to the path you and Keegan had taken whilst traversing the wasteland of a city. Water spills up and over the metal, however, it seems to keep steady despite the creaking of the vehicles.

‘We gotta get across,’ said the man in the black cap.

Turning to him, a bearded man furrowed his brows. ‘Any ideas?’

The man in front of you glanced to the pile up, nodding. ‘Yeah. Follow me!’

He pushed first, climbing over the disintegrating wall and jumping onto the side of the car that had gotten caught. You watched as he moved effortlessly, and one by one, the group followed after him. You waited patiently, not wanting to overstep, and when it was only you and Keegan left, you waited for him to move.

However, he didn’t, instead motioning for you to cross over. You did as you were told, your eyes trained on your feet to ensure you did not end up in the treacherous waters again. Keegan was quick behind you, and when you made it to the other side, you allowed yourself to breathe, not noticing you’d been holding your breath.

Taking cover behind one of the cars, you caught sight of more men in the water before the group, holding the pistol you had been gifted in your hands.

No words are shared as you work on clearing out more enemies, the further you push giving you ample opportunity to tuck the pistol into your waistband as you take one of the dead men’s guns. Pulling the magazine out, you glance into it, ensuring there is more than one shot. You were pleased to see only a few shots had been fired, pushing it back into the gun. You spied dry land in the distance, and the two soldiers who were shooting were dropped quickly. The whirling of propellors was the thing which sparked conversation.

‘Helo Inbound!’

‘They’re picking up Almagro. We gotta move!’ declared the man with the black cap.

‘We gotta get through that building!’

As though sent into overdrive, the gun fire and rounds shot increased and their determination left your own heart raging. The prospect that you were fighting with one of the best teams dawned upon you and you felt inspired. The day had started so terribly, yet, you made it out alive and you were fighting with a Task Force. How twisted the universe could be — to take so much but still give so much more.

It almost made the betrayal you suffered hurt a little less.

‘Elias, Merrick, you’re with me!’ stated the man, ‘Ajax, Keegan, miss! Cover our six!’

You promptly nod, although slightly soured. He couldn’t have been blamed, however; neither of you had had the time to share formalities. You pushed up two flights of stairs, being met with a metal door. Both the (who you assume to be their leader) and the bearded man crouch either side of the double doors.

‘Elias, the door!’

The man standing before the pair of them, charged the door and force it open, meanwhile, you, Keegan, and Ajax watch on. When the door is pulled open, a helicopter is right there. Without a second thought, the three men charge it.

The three of you approached their position, keeping your eye trained on the surrounding area to ensure no stray bullets could compromise the objective. You stood idle with your finger on the trigger, all for the sight of a helicopter propelling downwards to catch your attention. Gunshots echoed from the inners of it, as it near enough squealed as it nose-dived downwards. You watched in horror — three men were in that helo, and there was physically nothing anyone could do to help them aside from watch as they met the doom.

A crash erupted, as it dipped from out of view and you stared wide eyed, looking at the two men standing beside you. Ajax shared your horror, rushing to the edge of the roof, peering over the edge. Meanwhile, Keegan kept his eye out for any possible threat. Following Ajax, you peered over the edge to see that the helicopter had crashed on a balcony below the roof, most of it dangling off of the side. It creaks as a fire rages.

‘Is there anything we can do?’ you asked.

‘Negative,’ Ajax said, shaking his head, ‘to go after them would be a death sentence — they didn’t fall far either. I doubt any of them are seriously injured.’

You pursed your lips, unsure whether or not his speculation was the truth. The helicopter began to shift, falling forward. Swallowing hard, your throat tightened at the sound of half of the helicopter falling into the water with a splash.

‘Everyone good?’ a voice called from inside.

You caught the relief on Ajax’s face.

There was a mumbled voice, you didn’t quite catch what was said before there was another splash in the water below.

‘Shit! Rorke! Somebody, grab him! The whole thing’s shifting!’

There was a grunt and the crunch of metal.

‘It’s breaking apart! We gotta move, now!’

The remaining part of the helicopter began to teeter on the edge it was sitting on. The weight of the day you had crashed down on you, the adrenaline that had powered you and kept your mind away from the bullet in your shoulder wearing off in the blink of an eye. Your entire body was on fire and you were stuck in a state of peril. Too many people had died that day, and you were going to be forced to witness three more die too.

‘We’re too heavy! You gotta let him go!’

The creaking continued before you heard a shrill yell, ‘ELIAS!’

You spotted a body falling into the water, the man condemned to his untimely death as a row of ladders kept him trapped. His yelling was quelled when he his the rushing stream, and just as the rest of the helo followed suit, you watched as two men climbed out, throwing themselves on the ground. The heaved out breaths, Elias forcing himself up off of the ground, peering over the ledge. You couldn’t see his face, but he was trembling.

Behind him, Merrick grunted, looking up to the three of you on the ledge.

‘Amalgro’s dead,’ he said breathlessly, pressing his fingers into his ear piece, ‘threat neutralised. Rorke’s MIA. Calling for exfil.’

Chapter Two

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