10/6/2022
TF-141 was on the chase, they were after a whole militarized gang of human traffickers that spanned across every inch of the world- from the pacific, to the atlantic, back to the pacific. They were everywhere. Laswell had gotten word that someone of importance in the trafficking ring was going to be setting up a "sanctuary" of sorts on the outskirts of Anaheim, California. Ghost and his team, including Soap, were on the hunt. Ghost team set up a stakeout area to observe and monitor the sanctuary from afar before making any moves, intel stated that the sanctuary housed dozens upon dozens of young women and girls ranging from the ages of 12 and early 20s; to the traffickers, humans were just a form of currency to be traded in for material wealth.
"We've got 5 armed guards by the front gate," Ghost spoke into his comms, Soap was listening on the other end while he kept an eye on the backyard of the sanctuary, "Silently take out the guards and enter the building, do not engage till I give the word." Soap nodded as he stared through his scope, there were 3 guards on the top balcony in the back and 4 more on the ground floor, 2 more inside; nothing too difficult to handle. The patient Scotsman waited for his Lieutenant's cue to engage but some irregular movement from the second floor that he caught in his scope drew his focus away from the mission; a young woman, somewhere in her early 20s- between 21 and 23- one of the guards inside was beating her, kicking her onto the floor as she cried. Soap felt sick.
"Now." Ghost's voice rang through the comms but fell on deaf ears, "Johnny! The fuck are you waitin' for?!"
"Sir," Soap snapped back to the task at hand, "There's a hostage, one of the traffickers is going to kill her." worry filled his voice, he wanted to do something- anything- to get that poor girl out of harm's way. But with the guards on the outside still in the way he couldn't do much. Ghost reminded Johnny of the mission at hand, to forget about the girl for now and do his job. She was just a girl, probably another nobody like the others who went missing and ended up being taken by the trafficking ring. Soap obeyed Ghost's command, neutralizing all the outside guards before giving the LT a single 'clear' to let the other man know Soap's half of the area was taken care of. They were now onto the next phase of the plan. Once they were inside and neutralized all the guards they were to inform the other that their rooms were clear of any threats.
After Ghost had neutralized his side of the sanctuary both men pushed forward slowly into the building, from both north and south, with their teams. Soap was determined to rescue that girl at all costs, regardless of Ghost's previous comment, sure she was most likely another "nobody" but that still didn't make it the right thing to ignore her and let her die right then and there. No. Soap wasn't about to let that happen on his watch. He can't.
As the two men made it inside, Ghost was busy effortlessly beating the shit out of any enemy that crossed his path; the man cleared the front foyer in a matter of seconds. Soap on the other hand… Well… The man had other plans. He was hoping to get to the girl in time before it was too late, swiftly taking out any guards in his way- not daring to glance back to make sure they were completely neutralized- sure, Johnny has gotten distracted once or twice on the job but he always managed to quickly revert his attention back to the tasks at hand. Which was to neutralize and get out alive. This time? This time was different; he couldn't get his mind to stop wandering, he tried to tell himself to go back to the living room and to contact Ghost to let him know he was all in the clear, his thoughts were screaming at him but he just couldn't get his body to listen. He made his way to the stairs, not even making an effort to scan for any enemies, the heartbreaking sounds of her crying and pleading falling upon his ears.
"Soap," Ghost harshly hissed into the comms, "Soap, you fucking deaf?! I've been calling you for the past 5 minutes!" Johnny groaned before responding.
"All clear, LT." he hissed before making himself up the stairs, "Kinda busy here."
"Busy with what? Don't tell me it's about the girl again. Drop it, Johnny!" as heartless as Ghost sounded, he did care about what happened to the hostages, but they weren't TF-141's priority right now. You can't save everyone, you can't stretch yourself out too thin, this was life or death here. Why throw away 50 lives for the life of a single nobody? Why waste your time on someone who wouldn't be missed? Ghost began scolding the man for disobeying direct orders and acting on his own emotions, calling the poor Scotsman every name in the book, but Johnny ignored every bit of it. The more Soap thought about it, this young woman wasn't a nobody.
She was someone to somebody.
She could be someone's daughter, sister, wife, girlfriend, mother, teacher, she was somebody to Johnny and in his mind that was enough justification for his actions. He got to the door where her crying was the loudest, without thinking, he kicked down the door in a blind rage and eliminated all the enemies in the room. The girl was crying and hiding behind a worn out spring mattress for safety, as the man who was kicking her leapt out the window to avoid Soap's fire. Johnny ran to the window to try to catch him but the man was already long gone.
"Magairlean." Soap groaned, "Lost the fucker. Hey there lass." he turned to the girl who instinctively shrank away from him in fear.
"Get away!" she managed to stutter. "Đi! Đi!" Johnny cooed softly in attempts to show her he meant no harm, putting down his weapon and showing her his hands.
"It's okay," he slowly made his way closer to her, "You're alright-" before he could say anything else a sharp pain hit his left leg. He yelped and leaned against the mattress for support, he looked down to notice that the girl had picked up a nearby shard of glass and stabbed him in self defense. Soap gave her a gentle and awkward smile as he reached out a hand for her, "Let's get you outta here, yeah?" Before the girl could respond, Ghost barged into the room and tackled Soap to the ground, placing him in a chokehold and waiting for him to lose consciousness.
"I told you not to disobey direct orders," The masked man grunted as he subdued his partner, "You cunt!" Ghost got up and noticed the girl, she was shaking and curled up in a corner. The more he looked the more he noticed how much of a bad condition she was in; torn and blood stained clothes, bruises, fresh cuts and bruises forming over old wounds. The masked man sighed and reached for his comms. "Watcher-1, this is Bravo-7, we got a situation on our hands…"