War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
-Bertrand Russell

Chapter 12

Sierra rolled into a fallen riot shield, picking it up not a moment too soon as shots landed on the shield, cracking the glass. He waited for an opening and ducked into an alley. Shouts and yells came from the enemy as a couple of 40mm grenades landed close to Sierra's position.

"SIERRA! WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU DOING?! YOU'LL GET YOURSELF KILLED YOU DUMBASS!" Overlord shouted. Sierra couldn't care less, and returned fire.

**Inside the Hotel**

Michael helped Tom up, who gently pushed him away.

"Ester, Nick, take these and get Anthony out of here." Tom said, pointing to a few dead Colombians with their weapons. "Go the back way, everyone else, come with me."

Ken grabbed his Type 89 and followed close, while Bell and Zack were behind with sniper rifles on their backs. Hicks and Fernando took one last look back at Anthony, who was barely conscious, and kept moving with Tom. Tom took a peek out the glass door and opened it, taking cover behind a road barrier. Bell and Zack set up their rifles and scanned the area for targets while Hicks, Weston and Fernando crawled up to a large planter, using the bush as camoflage.

"Why the hell are you here?! You'll get yourselves killed!" Sierra hissed.

"So you don't do something stupid." Ken said.

"Well, since you're here, can you distract those guys?" Sierra asked.

"Sure thing." Michael said.

"Dad?" Jessie said, worried.

"No worries, Jess." Michael said and dug out some C-4. "Batter up!"

Michael gave the detonator to Jessie and threw the C-4 into the air, swinging his P90 like a club, and Jessie detonated the C-4 in mid-air.

"Move!" Tom shouted, and everyone opened fire.

Sierra ran across the street and slid to Tom's side, who elbowed Sierra in the chest.

"OOF! MOTHERBUCKER!"

"Payback! Now come on! Let's go find Johnson." Tom said.

"I thought you said he was dead."

"Well, are you going to leave him in enemy hands?"

Sierra gritted his teeth.

"S*it no."

He raised his F2000 and swung the x4 scope of the hybrid sight in place, and picked off some enemies that were a just a bit more out of cover than the others. Zack rhythmically cocked his rifle and fired, putting every bullet into the foreheads of the enemies.

"Is it just me or do more of them keep coming up?!" Weston shouted as he started the painful reload of his M249 SAW.

A loud shot rang out from the enemy as Sierra staggered back, and quickly removed and threw his goggles on the ground, revealing the plexiglass had been shattered. Safi pulled Sierra into cover and laid him on the ground.

"DOC! GET OVER HERE!" Safi shouted.

Doc scrambled to get to Sierra's side and broke out his medical box.

"Captain, move your hands." He said calmly.

Sierra slowly removed his hands from his eyes, a shard of glass right under his left eye.

"Good. Your eyes are fine. Just let me pull that out." Doc said and pulled out a pair of tweezers.

Doc quickly pulled the shard from Sierra's cheek and used a alcohol swab to clean the wound, then patched it up with a band-aid.

"Good as new." Doc said.

"Thanks... Enemy reinforcements are coming. We're outnumbered." Sierra said. "I don't want to leave Johnson, but we'll get killed out here. Let's retreat."

"*Sigh* I guess that's our only way. Let's go!" Ken said.

The group of soldiers picked up their weapons and backed up, firing their weapons to keep the enemy from advancing.

"Here!" Hicks said, pointing to an alley.

The team reloaded their weapons and kept moving west on another street.

"Nick! Ester! What's your status?" Fernando asked.

"We're taking a sedan towards the sea, we'll call for friendly transport there." Ester's voice rang.

"Roger that." Fernando said.

"Keep moving." Hicks said.

The group kept moving west, and took cover whenever they could, until-

"S*it. Stop! They're right there." Jessie said.

A group of Colombian soldiers walked about on the street, laughing at each other's jokes.

"Suppressors on. Let's make this clean." Tom said and plucked a suppressor from his belt, screwing it on his M4.

"Ready?" Weston asked.

"One." Safi said.

"Two." Ken said.

"Three." Bell said, and sprayed his L85A3 at the enemies.

The enemies were quickly incapacitated. The suppressors were not enough to conceal the sound of the weapons, as more enemies came out of buildings, and fired at the team.

"Crap! Take cover!" Sierra shouted.

The group of soldiers hid behind a bus, and shot anyone who tried to flank.

"What now?!"

(Molotov – Subsource)

A hair- raising cry was heard as a large group of soldiers dressed in green and red camouflage, plus a company of tanks and APC's emerged. Gunfire erupted as the two armies clashed behind the team. The Colombians were quickly mowed down by the sheer number of soldiers and armour.

"TARGET ON THE LEFT FLANK!" A soldier shouted.

"BRUSAYU GRENATU!" Another soldier shouted, lobbing a grenade into a building, blowing two enemy soldiers onto the street. "Vrag ubit!"

"Come on, let's get back in the fight." Tom said.

"HEY! There they are!" A US army soldier said.

"Good. We have been looking for you."

"Viktor." Sierra said.

Victor smiled and nodded. "I thought you have forgotten me, my friend."

"Never. Let's move!"

When nothing seems to happen

And all things stay the same

You're standing in the way!

Viktor raised his AK-12 and fired off his magazine, aiming down his ACOG sight. The Russian and American troops moved steadily forward, decimating any resistance they meet. A Russian machine gunner was shot, and an American rifleman fired back and got to the Russian and dragged him to an APC, where medics tended to him. The American soldier kept moving with the unit, continuing the advance. A Colombian ran out of a building, his hands in the air. Russian troops quickly pushed him to the ground and stripped him of his weapons. An officer started to ask him questions in Spanish.

"Captain, I think you want to hear this." The officer said to Sierra.

"What?"

"Your friend is in a base up northeast."

(Song end)

**Thirty minutes later**

The group of men and vehicles had reached the base. The defences were quickly taken out by shells from T-90's and M1A2's. The team, along with Spetsnaz and Seals, searched the area for any prisoners.

Sierra looked around inside a wing in the main building alone, trying to track Johnson by his short-range broadcast chip. Suddenly, a weak beeping came through Sierra's earpiece, signalling that Johnson was close. Sierra walked forward, the beeping grew stronger, then suddenly weaker. He then walked backwards and entered a dark room with several chairs with cuffs for hands and feet. Blood and vomit was everywhere. Sierra's heart sank. He kept following the signal, and stopped when the beeping was almost constant. Sierra crossed his fingers, hoping that Johnson was alive. His wish was granted when he saw Johnson lying in his cell, breathing slowly.

"Mack?"

Johnson coughed hard, recovering after several seconds. His eyes opened, the formally soulful blue eyes were now gray. His tan, tattered shirt was soaked in blood, his leg was twisted and several of his fingers were missing. Sierra's mouth hung open at the sight. Johnson's left knee looks like it has been grinded off.

"...Captain..." Johnson said.

Sierra tried speaking, but all that came out was cold, dry air.

"Kill me... I'm not getting out alive."

Sierra stared at Johnson, still in disbelief.

"Sierra? Sierra! Don't do it! Don't kill him!" Overlord shouted.

"Dammit! Just do it! I'm not getting out of this place alive!"

Sierra thought for a moment, then his left hand shook, hovering over his holster.

"Sierra! DON'T DO IT!" Michael shouted, running towards Sierra.

"End this war."

Sierra clicked the pistol off 'safe' and pulled the trigger. A flash of white engulfed the room as he was tackled to the ground.