Alright guys, here's an extra tidbit for my readers of TAORAM. This isn't foreshadowing, because if you play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, you'll recognize this. The only thing this might show you is some future characters, and the brotherly bond of Ryan and Matt, rivaling that of Price and Soap.
Matt and Ryan sneaked through the cave, keeping their crossbows at bay. They heard a whooshing sound, so the followed it. They peeked around a corner, and they saw a glance of Conrad paddling away on a small boat with a couple of his minions.
"Come on!" shouted Ryan. They both ran down to the dock, where a boat was docked. They untied it and headed out in the rapids, Matt paddling, and Ryan shooting his crossbow at the number of enemies on the banks, all firing arrows at them. They sped through a cave and out into an open lake, following Conrad. Several other boats were in the water, all which had arrows flying from them in their direction. Their were also several enemy black dragons flyin around leaving streaks of fire quite close to Ryan and Matt. Conrad led them into some rapids, where he sped out of sight, and further along the river, a black dragon dropped down. Right as Ryan and Matt sped around the corner, they saw Conrad taking off on the dragon. They also saw they were facing an unfriendly-looking waterfall. Matt backpaddled as hard as he could.
"Keep it steady! Steady!" shouted Ryan over the sound of the waterfall as he aimed his crossbow at the dragon. he fired a single shot, and it landed in the dragon's mouth. It thrashed around in the air before hitting the ground left of the pool which the waterfall led to. "Back up! Back up!" shouted Ryan. Even with both of them backpaddling as hard as they could, the boat still was definitely going over. It fell down, and the last words Matt heard were Ryan shouting "Hold on!" before he plunged into the water.
Matt slowly opened his eyes. He coughed twice, hard, followed by thirty seconds of throwing up water and then wretching. He slowly got up, and stumbled. Kinda like one too many beers. He took his dagger from his belt. He had to kill Conrad. He stumbled along until the dragon came up on his left. He could barely see it through the sandstorm. There were several dead men laying around it, as was the dragon itself. Conrad was not among them. He continued walking. He was about to pass the dragon, when Conrad ran out from behind it. He was running away from Matt he lunged. He lunged, at him, but was still about an inch short. Conrad disappeared into the storm. Matt limped after him. A few seconds later, a broken down wagon appeared on his right. Conrad was leaning against it, obviously wounded. Matt lunged at him again. Conrad dodged out of his way and smashed Matt's head against the wagon and shoved him to the ground. He took out his own dagger and shoved it into his stomach. Matt almost passed out.
"Five years ago, I lost thirty thousand men in the blink of an eye. And the world just stood there and watched. Tomorrow there will be no shortage of patriots, no shortage of volunteers. I'm sure you understand."
Matt opened his eyes to Conrad poised holding a crossbow directly at him. Matt closed his eyes and braced himself for death. It never came. he heard the sound of the crossbow, and then a thump. But he was still alive. He opened one eye a bit. Ryan had come from the right and tackled Conrad to the ground, where they were fighting, and Ryan was losing. Matt saw the crossbow laying on the ground a few feet away. He started crawling toward it. He was just reaching for it when Conrad punched Ryan to the the ground and kicked the crossbow away. He stomped on Matt's face. He then kneeled over Ryan and repeatedly punched him in the face. Matt knew he had to do something, but what could he do? He looked at the dagger in his stomach. Cheez - its and doughnut holes, really? He knew he had to do it, so why postpone it? He grasped the dagger with his right hand and started to pull. It slowly, agonizingly, started to slip out. He grasped it with his left hand too and started pulling as hard as he could. it finally came out, and he flipped it around in his hand. He aimed it at Conrad, and right as the dagger left his hand, Conrad looked up. It pierced his eye, and he flew backward. Conrad was dead, and he could die happy. Good thing too, because it looked like that wasn't too far away. He slowly started to lose consciousness, but then! Something made his eyes jolt open. He didn't even know what it was until he saw it again: Ryan moved! he slowly got to his hands and knees and crawled to Matt.
"Matt! Matt! Hold on!" He said as he wrapped a strip of cloth around his stab wound. Then there was a great flapping sound. Matt looked to see what it was, and who else but Anna was descending on a dragon as Ryan helped him to his feet. Anna ran over to hold Matt up on his other side, as they walked him to the dragon. "I thought I told you this was a one - way trip! said Ryan.
"Looks like it still is," responded Anna. "They'll be looking for us."
"We have to get out of here." said Ryan.
"Come on. I know a place."
*Fades to black* Alright that wraps up that, I hope you enjoyed it, because it delayed chapter three by about half a week!