A/N: OKAY! So, this is a new story (duh) that's been nagging at me for DAYS and its killing me, so I might as well just start writing it before it kills me. If you've read my other stories, then you know that I write really dramatic things and most of the time someone gets tortured... or captured... or BOTH! But, anyways, I should just start this before one of you guys die... that would be bad...

Disclaimer: I don't own Call of Duty, just my OC (Luke).

Shepherd' s evil smile was all he could see as he heard the shot from the .44 Magnum ring in his ears, a sharp pain in his abdomen following close behind. As he fell to his knees he heard a second shot ring out and someone yelling. He winced, wishing his ears would stop ringing. He had a killer headache. All he could feel was pain. He felt the warmth leaving his body as he dropped to the ground, laying on his side.

He listened as someone spoke quietly to the blurry figures standing above him. Their voices sounded far away... A pair of hands grabbed his wrists and another grabbed his ankles, picking him up. He cried out as they jostled his multiple wounds. He tried to wriggle out of their grasp, but he was getting so tired. The darkness at the edges of his vision was advancing. White hot pain flared up in his right side as he was thrown in a ditch, then a few moments later, another person was thrown in with him and landed on top of him.

The smell of gasoline filled the air and made his throat burn. He felt something wet and realized that someone was pouring gasoline all over them. He gagged on the terrible smell and could taste blood in his mouth. "That's just great." He thought, wondering if things could get any worse. As if silently answering his question, someone threw a match in the ditch and a fire rose to life, greedily devouring their uniforms and eventually reaching their flesh.

A pair of hands grabbed his shoulders and roughly shook him yelling, "Wake up Roach!" His hands immediately shot forward under his pillow to where he kept his combat knife hidden when he slept. A hand seized his and pinned them to the bed, preventing him from grabbing his knife. Panic surged through him until he heard Ghost's familiar voice.

"Roach, stop! It's just me!" Ghost said, noticing for the first time that Roach was covered in sweat and looked pale.

"Roach... are you alright?" He asked. Roach had recently started having nightmares and they were getting worse every time it happened. The whole task force was worried about him. Roach looked at him for a minute, the panic leaving his eyes.

"Ummm, yeah... I'm fine." He said, shoving Ghost's hands off of his and sitting up. He looked at the clock that sat on his bedside table. It read 4:00am.

"Why the bloody hell did you wake me up at 4:00 in the morning?!" He roared. Ghost just glared at him. They glared at each other for several minutes before he gave in. "Sorry, sir." He said, dropping his eyes from Ghost's icy glare.

"I just thought you might want to know that we have another op to go on. You have 10 minutes to get ready and meet the rest of the team at the helipad. You'll be briefed on the chopper." Ghost informed him before promptly turning on his heel and leaving the room.

Ghost sighed as he left the room. He was worried about Roach, who was getting grumpier by the day. They were going to have to have a talk about these nightmares. If they got any worse, Roach might have to take drugs that would (well...should) stop the nightmares, but would also get him declared 'unfit for duty' and he wouldn't be allowed back in the field until he stopped taking the drugs (which probably wouldn't help his mood).

He walked down the hall to his room and unlocked the door. He grabbed his ACR and a Desert Eagle, made sure they were fully loaded, and started for the helipad to meet with the rest of the team. He walked silently to the helipad, boots crunching on the freshly fallen snow. He could already see the group of men that were going on the op with them. Archer, Toad, Captain Price, and Captain MacTavish stood in a loose circle, probably talking about the mission they were about to go on.

Shortly after Ghost joined the group, Roach met up with them and they were on their way. Everyone got on the chopper and were all silent during takeoff. After they were in the air, Captain MacTavish turned to them and quickly gained their attention.

"Alright. We are headed to North Carolina. We believe we may have found a lead on Makarov. Supposedly, his supplier is holed up in North Carolina, so we need to catch him and get as much info as we can. If we are lucky enough to find him, do NOT shoot to kill. He's the only lead we've got right now, and the last thing I need is one of you lot killing the bastard."

Everyone nodded their understanding and settled in, preparing for the long ride ahead. Roach was sitting alone in the corner, nervously loading and unloading his sidearm. Ghost observed him for several minutes. Roach was usually calm and excited before an op, not tense and nervous. If he was nervous before an op, then he usually never let it show. It probably had something to do with the recently occurring nightmares...

He silently walked over to him and sat down beside him. Roach didn't seem to notice, as he was still loading and unloading his sidearm. He saw Price glance over at them and say something to MacTavish, who looked over at them as well.

"You alright, mate?" He asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Roach flinched and yelped slightly in surprise, nearly dropping his sidearm.

"Woah, easy mate. I just wanted to see how you were doing." He said, wondering why Roach was so jumpy.

He looked at him and replied, "I'm doing fine."

Ghost locked eyes with him and said, "Oh, really? Because you don't look fine, Roach. Tell me what's wrong."

Roach held his gaze for a moment, then looked down at the floor. "I don't know."

"Yes you do. Tell me. Now." He commanded.

"I...I just have this feeling." He said, not really knowing how to explain it. He still refused to meet his eyes, Ghost noticed.

Ghost looked at him confusedly. "...What sort of feeling?"

"It's just that... Well- I-I just feel like something is going to go wrong..." He trailed off. It was true, though. Something didn't feel right...

Ghost thought about what he had said for a moment. It took alot to make Roach nervous because... Well because he was Roach! He was pretty sure no one could kill Roach, no matter how hard they tried.

"Nothing's going to go wrong, Roach. It'll be fine. Just relax, we have a long way to go," he said, waiting for the younger man to nod before getting up and going to sit in his original spot by Price and MacTavish. He could still hear Roach loading and unloading his gun. Click...click...click...

When he sat down beside them, Price looked up at him expectantly and asked, "What's up with Roach?"

"He feels like something is going to go wrong." He replied quietly, even though they were well out of earshot, Roach could hear really well and he didn't want to chance him hearing their conversation.

"What could go wrong?" MacTavish asked sarcastically. A lot of the missions had gone really wrong lately. Every time they went on a stealth mission, the enemy always knew they were coming and was ready for them. They still couldn't figure out how that kept happening.

"I'm pretty sure it's just nerves. He had another nightmare this morning and he still seems shaken up."

"You mean they still haven't stopped?" Price asked incredulously. The nightmares had started about two weeks ago and had gotten more and more severe as the days went by.

"No, this morning I went to get him for the op and he looked terrible. He was really pale and sweaty and when I tried to wake him up, he went for his knife."

The two Captains were too shocked to respond. Roach had never tried to attack any of his comrades before. It seemed that those nightmares really were getting to the poor kid. But yet he still refused to talk to anyone about it. Something seemed different... Then they noticed that the click click click of Roach's sidearm being loaded and unloaded had stopped. They glanced over at him to find that he had fallen asleep, his sidearm sitting loaded in his lap.

"Should I-"

"No," Price interrupted, "let him get some sleep. He hasn't had any in a week."

"But he'll have another one..."

"And if he does then we'll wake him up, but we can't have him sleeping in the middle of an op. He'll get himself killed."

3 Hours Later...

Nikolai' s voice crackled over the speaker in the chopper, "ETA 15 minutes."

Captain Price stood up and got everyone's attention. "Alright, gear up and make sure you have everything you need, we'll be there in 15 minutes." There was a nod of understanding that rippled through the group of assembled men as they prepared for their arrival in enemy territory.

Roach was still sleeping soundly in the corner. MacTavish finished loading his M4A1 and walked over to Roach and grabbed his shoulder.

"Roach? Roach, wake up." He said gently shaking his shoulders.

Suddenly he flinched violently and nearly jumped up from the floor of the helicopter. He looked up at MacTavish and the panic left his eyes.

"What is it?" He asked, yawning and rubbing at his eyes.

"Hey, ETA' s 15 minutes. You ready?"

"Yeah... I guess," he said uncertainly. Roach still seemed unsure about the whole thing.

Soap offered him a hand and he took it, pulling himself up and going to sit with the rest of the Task Force. He made sure his main weapon and sidearm were fully loaded and he had extra clips so he wouldn't run out of ammo for a while.

He was ready.