REALITY - Dedicated to Imi, best friend and beta-reader when she can be bothered.
I reject your reality and substitute my own -- Adam Savage
"Ok here goes," Daniel said as he reloaded his gun and checked his supply of grenades. He quickly poked his head inside a doorway before turning to face Cameron.
"You ready?" Cameron asked, turning away to check around the next corner. Seeing it was clear, he walked around it further into the building.
"As ready as last time" Daniel replied as he followed behind his teammate along the corridor.
"Shouldn't we be more ready than last time?" Cameron asked, not turning around, "Baring in mind how that ended?"
"Yeah I guess," Daniel agreed with a shrug.
"And?" Cam prompted as he walked up the flight of stairs with mouldy-looking carpet peeling from the mouldy wallpaper-covered walls.
"Ok," Daniel sighed, "I'm even more ready than last time,"
"Good," Cameron gave Daniel a satisfied smile then muttered, "This house is disgusting,"
"Yup. So, you ready?" Daniel asked.
"I'm always ready," Cam shrugged with a grin.
"R-ight," Daniel rolled his eyes. They walked on in silence for a while, trying to find their way through the maze of the abandoned house. They got to a fork in a hallway, "Ok, it's down this way, right?" Daniel asked as he looked down the long dark room.
"Yep, I recognise that wall," Cameron agreed, walking past Daniel straight on without a second thought.
"You recognise a wall?" Daniel asked doubtfully.
"Hey, I'm trained to notice things, remember?"
Daniel laughed, "Yeh, you see, Jack used to use that 'special ops trained' stuff all the time. Didn't always work," he shook his head.
"Different kind of training," Cam defended with another grin, "This is my speciality,"
"And that's saying something," Daniel said quietly, but purposely loud enough for Cameron to hear him.
"Hey," Cam said with mock offence and punched Daniel on the arm. They lapsed into silence again and eventually found themselves out in a courtyard. They looked around, taking in their surroundings. There seemed to be plenty of opportunities for cover; high walls, low walls and burnt out cars.
"Ok, if we wait here," Cameron said, running and ducking behind the nearest car.
Daniel took cover behind a long low wall further forward. "Do you reckon the others will meet us before we start getting shot?" he asked, getting into position and checking through his sights.
Cameron laughed, "You're kidding? They're never here when we get into trouble," he peeked around the car to keep an eye on the gap in the buildings where they knew the enemy were going to be appearing.
"Good point," Daniel admitted, "And we always end up having to save them if they're here anyway,"
"Right," Cameron agreed and checked through his personal arsenal.
"Nothing's happening," Daniel said after a while, "We've waited long enough. I think we need to go a bit further forward,"
"Ok," Cameron checked ahead, "There's more cover further up there," The two men broke cover and ran further into the courtyard. Sure enough, as soon as they moved, a mob of the hostiles appeared, "Ok, that brought them out. I can see them coming,"
"Where?" Daniel asked, looking through the sight of his gun in the direction Cameron was looking in.
"11 o'clock," Cameron pointed, "There must be about 20 of the bastards,"
"Great," Daniel groaned, "Can't see them. Get them to start shooting,"
Cameron laughed, "Never thought I'd hear you say that," he said, aiming at the head of one of the hostile aliens and blowing its brains out, drawing the attention of the others. Cameron and Daniel quickly ducked behind cover again as bullets rang around them.
"Oh shit. There," Daniel breathed and chanced another look.
"Yup. Got a clear shot?" Cameron aimed and took out another one with a quick burst from his gun.
"Yeh, I'm in a good position, I think," Daniel picked off two in rapid succession and retook cover.
"Ok, they're advancing. Aim for the heads. Let's get this done quickly,"
They stopped talking, all attention on eliminating the enemy threat with impressive headshots and deadly rapid fire. Eventually, all opponents were gone.
"Well," Daniel sighed, voice loud in the sudden silence, "That wasn't too bad,"
"Famous last words, Jackson," Cameron smiled and stood up out of cover and looking around cautiously, "There's always more round the next corner, remember?"
"Right," Daniel said, reloading and taking point moving to the other side of the courtyard, "Just trying to look on the bright side of all this, that's all,"
"There isn't bright side, Jackson. This is serious business. Saving the world and all that," Cameron's face was straight but there was humour in his voice.
Daniel turned to him and smiled, "Yeh it's great we can get together like this,"
He smiled back, "Too right. Too bad we're only ever fighting evil aliens,"
"Can't have everything," Daniel said absently, walking through the doorway of the next building, "It's this way, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Just need to kick this door down," Cameron moved to stand in front of the closed door and smashed it down with a booted foot.
"Nice work," Daniel admired, stepping inside and looking around, "And an empty room. We're in luck so far," he moved into the middle of the room, "Wait, what was that noise?"
"Wolf thing!" Cameron shouted seeing a mangy creature bounding towards Daniel.
"Where?!"
"Coming right for you!" noticing Daniel was having trouble he aimed at it, "I got it," he let of a short burst of gunfire and the creature slumped to the ground.
Daniel breathed out, "Thanks, Mitchell. I hate those things. Alien wildlife has always creeped me out,"
"No problem," Cameron shrugged, "Who else could you possibly want watching your six,"
Daniel chose to ignore the question, "How do those things get inside these buildings in the first place?"
"Doors?" Cameron suggested, walking though the open door on the opposite wall of the room.
"So wolves can open doors now?" Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"Ok, doorways then," Cameron rolled his eyes, "This is an abandoned bit of town; doors have a tendency of not existing here,"
"So not a good place to look for a new apartment then?"
"I don't think it's recommended,"
They emerged from the building onto a street, scattered with rubble and debris. They came to a stop and looked around. There was something in the atmosphere that made the hairs stand up on the backs of the men's necks.
"Something's wrong," Daniel voiced both of their thoughts.
"Yeh, I don't like this," Cameron said in slow agreement, "It's too quiet,"
They looked around the street and up at the windows and rooftops. Then Daniel caught sight of a movement just before a bullet whistled passed his ear, leaving a trail behind it.
"Shit, sniper!" He yelled and ran for cover.
Cameron instinctively took cover in response then poked his head up, "I see him,"
There was another shot, enough for Cameron to lock onto his position.
"Shit! He shot me!" Daniel's voice could be heard from behind a concrete barrier then a pained grunt.
Cameron didn't look away from his head shot, "Badly?"
"Uh. Yeh. I'm bleeding everywhere," he said with a surprisingly calm voice, "So much blood," he said, more quietly with pain.
"Hang on, I'm coming to get you," Cameron regretted losing his target shot but he needed to help his team-mate, "Where are you?"
"Just in front of you to the right," Daniel said quickly.
Cameron rolled from behind his shelter and jumped covers until he reached Daniel. He checked him over, "Ok, get up,"
"Thanks," Daniel smiled. He took position around the side of the barrier and shot the sniper as soon as he reappeared.
Cameron whistled, "Nice shot. Good reflexes,"
Daniel grinned, "Yeah, it's funny just to see them falling over the edge so dramatically,"
"Well, if you just got shot in the head, the one thing you want to make sure of is that your last act is making someone smile,"
"Right. Go out on a high?" Daniel swept the area for anymore hidden snipers. Finding none, he stood up and started down the street.
"Right,"
Turning into the next street not blocked by abandoned cars and rubble, the others of their team could be seen waiting for them.
"Oh, I see the others have decided to join us again," Daniel said sarcastically, "Now our lives aren't in mortal danger anymore. That's just their usual great timing,"
"Are you two still at this?" Sam's voice reached their ears.
"Yeah, this is actually really addictive," Daniel said, attention still on the TV screen, "The graphics are quite good,"
"Quite good? This is amazing," Cameron broke his gaze from the game and looked appealingly up to where Sam stood next to the sofa, "Wanna play?"
Sam raised her eyebrows, "No thanks. With a job that involves fighting aliens on a surprisingly regular basis, I don't think a video game that involves fighting – grasshoppers? – is my kind of fun. I'm surprised you can play it,"
"Locusts," Daniel corrected.
Sam rolled her eyes and was about to respond when Vala bounded into the room followed by Teal'c. They were carrying pizzas and beer, ready for tonight's team night.
"Is that a 'video game'?" Vala asked, wide-eyed and excited.
Teal'c smiled, "Gears of War," he nodded to the men on the sofa, "An excellent choice," he studied the area on the screen and there was a strange twinkle in his eyes, "I see you still haven't made it past Act Two,"
Note: This was just a short silly thing i wrote for my friend. We have a fixation on a certain game right now and this just captures it all