How They Should Have Died

This is an alternate take on some deaths in Call of Duty: Black Ops. While know Treyarch feels those deaths were necessary for plot, I feel they are less than what I expected. I find Steiner's death satisfying but Kravchenko's and Dragovich's left me wanting. Still, it's their choice. Here it is. For now here are the deaths of two minor characters.

Act 1: Thugs

Prison Guard...

"You will break American!" Reznov shouted to Mason as he gave him a punch through the face. The other prisoners working in the coal mines watched, many of them cheering them to fight on. He then turned his head as if to look at the crowd of cheering inmates when Mason seized the chance to strike back, handing him a blow of his clenched fist to the face. He could hear the guards shouting order for them to get back to work. Then the former Red Army sergeant mocked, "You hit like a child!"

A guard pushed through the crowd of prisoners. And shouted to them to get back to work. He then turned to Mason, whom he suspected to start the fight. "Come on! Work, asshole!" He shouted to him.

Reznov then taunted the guard, "Hey- Svoloch!" The guard does not take insults from prisoners lightly.

"Always you, Reznov!" He raged, knowing off course that Reznov's the troublemaker. He then proceeded to beat him like he did to many other inmates so many times before. Mason slowly took a nearby rock and thought, just as according to plan. He stood up and walked to him. Here is a time to show him what's it like to have the boot on the other foot.

"Hey, asshole," he tapped his shoulder. The guard looked back and didn't see it coming as he swung the rock against his face. It produced a satisfying loud crack as he flipped over to the ground. The prisoners shouted 'URA!', the traditional Russian warcry. He said, "Reznov...", and he gave him a hand. Reznov grabbed it and smiled.

"Mason... Every journey begins with a single step." He said as he walked the guard, who was too dazed to stand up. He picked up his truncheon and keys. He then raised the keys and shouted, "This is Step 1!"

The prisoners cheered jubilantly, "Secure the keys!"

"Now we take Vorkuta!" Reznov bellowed. As he did, Mason noticed the guard is trying to move to a hidden alarm. Mason stepped on his hand, causing him to scream. He saw the bastard's rat face. He treated many of his fellows prisoners like cattle, like slaves. Now the sudden turn of events clearly showed the coward he really is. He turned to a group of prisoners nearby.

"Hey, anyone want to take care of this piece of shit for me?" he asked.

The prisoners smiled, "With pleasure, American." One of them said. Then they surrounded him and circled around him like vultures before they beat him savagely. The guard cried in pain and he tried to shout for help but the prisoners began punching his mouth and hurling jeers at him.

"Don't take too long," he reminded them.

"No worries, Mason," another replied, "We will catch up." He then ran on to join Reznov as the revolt took heat.

Spetsnaz Operative...

Mason and Woods approached the man the former had shot, the thick-set pig of a bastard who killed Bowman, who beat him to death on the head like an animal. They have finally got the sonofabitch, their vengeance won't take long as he lay there with pain on his legs. Woods approached Mason, "You got him, Mason." Mason smiled. Then they heard the Russian cough, blood coming out of his mouth. The two saw him give them a vicious mocking smile.

"You American scum will not make it out alive," he taunted in Russian. Coughing some more, he added, "Kravchenko will kill you both. Or he will see to it that you will never reach our base."

Mason didn't respond for a few seconds. He then answered him, "At least we'll die trying. On the other hand, it's not hard to see what we'll do to you." To which the Russian gave a hard laugh and coughed.

"Shooting me would not make a difference to your dead friend, the blackie," he shot back another smile. Mason clenched his fist in anger and his eyes are aflame, he beat their best friend to death and now had the nerve to insult him! The man was like that guard in Vorkuta, his first kill during that prison uprising. He saw him beat prisoners almost to death to keep them working beyond their bodies' capacity to work, he him turned humans into cattle. This bastard is not so different from him.

Woods picked up a pipe wrench and handed it to Mason, "Who said anything about shooting?" He asked the Russian. The man's eyes widened with fear he realized what they plan to do to him. "We're not gonna let you go easy as we did with those gooks back there."

The Russian tried to shout but Mason quickly stomped him hard on the solar plexus, causing him to roll over and cough violently. Woods handed him the wrench. Mason then said, "Woods, shut the pigshit fucker's mouth. We're gonna give him a taste of his own medicine." Woods picked up a red-and-white checkered headscarf from a dead Vietcong guerrilla and rolled into a ball. He then went to Russian and tried to open his mouth. He refused. Mason stepped on the bastard's leg's gunshot wound and he groaned loudly but his best friend quickly stuffed the cloth into his mouth, silencing him. Then proceeded to hand on him the same treatment he meted to Bowman and perhaps to countless other victims that met their deaths in his brutal hands.

The cave was flooded with muffled screaming and strikes of tools hitting flesh as the Russian was taking blow after blow of retribution from Woods and Mason, their eyes filled with rage, their beatings timed with precision to induce as much pain on him as possible. It continued for minutes until Mason saw him expire, his eyes lifeless and leaving the expression of fear and pain on his face. He said to Woods, "Stop it, Woods." He raised a hand to halt him. Seeing clearly that the ghost had left him, he added, "He's dead." They both stood up. Woods kicked his head and spat on it.

"For Bowman," he said.

"For Bowman," Mason said.

Woods then turned to Mason, "Let's go. We ain't got time to waste." Responding, he gave his friend a boost and climbed up with him. As Woods pulled him upward, he added, "Kravchenko's compound can't be far. The evil bastard's days are numbered." He pushed the door aside and motioned Mason to move. He followed. As he did, he smiled in agreement to Wood's declaration.

Kravchenko's and Dragovich's death will come up sooner, if not later. I plan to have Kravchenko's death to be a two-part chapter.