Disclaimer: I do not own Call of Duty which belongs to Activision, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch.
Chapter 1
"Ghost. GHOST!" John "Soap" MacTavish bellowed when he saw Ghost sleeping.
"Huh? I'm awake, I'm awake," Simon "Ghost" Riley replied groggily while swinging out of his cot.
"General Shepherd needs us in the briefing tent in 15 minutes, Ghost. Run to the head if you need to. I get the feeling we're not getting many breaks today," Soap guessed.
"Alright, mate. What time is it, anyway?" Ghost asked while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Soap parted the tent flaps. "0200. Have to go wake up Roach, now. He'll be hell to deal with since I'm interrupting his beauty sleep," he replied over his shoulder and walked out.
Ghost grinned and put on his utility pants and boots.
"Roach can be worse than a teenage girl when he gets less than 4 hours of sleep, but who can blame him," he thought.
Ghost put on a white shirt and grey hoodie, grabbed his balaclava, tucked it into his back pocket, then put his red-tinted sunglasses on the collar of his shirt. Parting the tent flaps and taking a step outside, he ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, observing the Middle Eastern scenery, then the activity on Camp Sierra. Even though it was 0200, the base was busy with men and women under the floodlights maintaining the Humvees, exercising, shooting at the range, and even just hanging out playing cards.
"The city that never sleeps," Ghost said absentmindedly.
He felt a slap on his back, jolting him out of his recluse.
"Isn't it a fine and wonderful morning!" declared a rather chipper Gary "Roach" Sanderson.
"Well, aren't you happy this morning," Ghost observed.
"Got lucky last night," winked a grinning Roach.
"My condolences to your hand," Ghost replied, looking toward the mess tent.
"Ha! Nice one," Roach chuckled then followed Ghost's gaze. "Thinking about heading over? Better make it quick, mate. Shep's not one for tardiness."
"Yeah, I'm just going to grab something and eat it during the briefing," Ghost said and started jogging toward the mess tent. "I'll see you there!" he called back.
"Grab me something, too!" Roach shouted.
Ghost gave a thumbs up over his shoulder in response.