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-The Next Morning-
-08:00-
The Ruby Mall, abandoned due to lack of business, was a perfect next stop for the 141. There would be supplies and maybe transport, with no one there to betray them to Hollow.
Predator and Worm were erasing signs of their camp. Predator had been telling Worm about his capture, minus the bit where he landed in Makarov's breakfast.
"Poor Ghost." Worm whispered. "Betrayed and killed like that."
Predator slowly nodded. He remembered his run of the pit. He'd tripped on something that an observer had discarded on the course from above Predator, and Ghost had helped him get another go.
Predator's eyes watered a little. Must have been sand blown up from a breeze.
He finished brushing the sand down and walked to the rest of the group. Soap and Price were once more checking their possibilities.
Aqua and Roach were animatedly talking and laughing some distance from the group. Roach put an arm round her neck and pulled her closer.
Predator grinned and looked away, instead focusing on Liquid and Worm.
Worm was being told the 'full story' by Liquid, who was pretending to land on a table and some food. Predator's grin slid off his face and Predator put his head in his hands.
"I'll kill Roach for this." Predator growled, as Worm roared with laughter.
-08:34-
Other escapists had decided the Mall was a good next step. Viktor, Jackal and Tony, entered the mall through a side door. They had left the prison sooner and took less of a break and so they arrived sooner than the 141.
But they hadn't arrived before the SAS.
As they walked down the main hall, a sniper round blew Tony's leg clean off. Viktor and Jackal hid inside a DIY store. Tony was crawling weakly after them, but at the door another round blew his head apart.
It had been a mistake to come to the Ruby Mall.
As Viktor looked cautiously through the window, he could see shadowed and armed people darting around cover.
-08:41-
Roach walked up to the main doors of the mall. Slowly he pushed them open and walked inside. He stepped into the nearest supermarket with Aqua and Worm.
Price and Nikolai were stealing a rusty old coach in the car park. Soap, Liquid and Predator were looking for stuff to fix their ride.
A heavy rifle shot punctured the silence, followed by a wet thud.
"Liquid's down!" Soap called through the radio.
"Get out of there!" Roach yelled back, ducking for cover under the small wall in the front of the supermarket, cautiously watching Soap's team who were still in the central area of the mall.
Two people in a shop reached out and grabbed Soap and Predator, pulling them inside.
"Soap? Predator?" Aqua asked.
"We're ok." Predator answered. "We're with two of Makarov's men. We'll need each other's help to get out of the mall."
"What the bloody hell is going on?" Price asked angrily. He was outside with Nikolai, and didn't have a clue what was going on.
"The mall's a death trap. SAS probably." Soap informed.
"No." Predator said. "Sheperd's men. Shadow company."
"But this means…" Aqua figured, "We can shoot to kill."
"Looks like it." Soap decided.
Roach holstered his dart pistol, got a sniper rifle off his back and aimed it carefully towards the top floor where someone was moving. Tilting the gun slightly, he fired and blood sprayed into the air.
-08:49-
Hollow paced back and forth. They'd been identified, and unlike the SAS, who they were leaving alive, Shadow Company had been deemed killable. They had one man down and the 141 were in cover currently. Plan B?
"Plan B." He said out loud.
One of his men, Alien, nodded, and closed the security shutters on all the mall's exits with the master control. Foot troops took up strategic positions around the mall and closed in on the DIY shop and supermarket.
RPGs readied in a line in front of Hollow. Alien took up one of them.
Hollow was going to win, even if he was the last man alive.
-08:51-
A hand shot up from cover and riddled with Viktor's bullets, but not before it could deliver the frag grenade it was about to throw.
Soap and Viktor darted backwards and Predator curled into a ball behind his cover. The explosion rocked the room around him, knocking pots of paints of shelves, staining the floor with pastel colours.
While their defence had been broken by the grenade two guys charged the shop. Jackal leapt up and shot one guy in the head, stabbing the other one in the chest with a screwdriver. He stole one of the men's high-powered machine gun and fired bursts of fire at another guy in the shop opposite.
"RPGs!" Viktor yelled. The pile of lead pipes Predator was currently behind flew into the air by a blazing explosion. A pipe hit him on the head hard and he fell. Everything seemed to go darker and quieter. He was slightly aware of Soap asking for covering fire as he ran over, grabbing Predator to bring him to cover. Then Predator blacked out.
-08:58-
The DIY shop was under RPG fire, but as it was on the other side of the central walkway to the supermarket, the RPGs were above Roach, Aqua and Worm's position.
Aqua was doing her best to protect the DIY shop from ground troops. Roach and Worm were in other places in the supermarket, covering the shop itself.
"Price here." Price said through the radio. "I'm rigging the mall with C4. When you're out we'll drop the roof on these bastards. Do you have an escape route?"
"Negative." Aqua replied. "They shut all the exits."
"I'll make a new one." Price assured her.
Aqua looked left and saw a shelf falling on her. Shadow Company men had infiltrated the shop and set the shelves to fall down like giant dominoes.
Aqua was pinned down under a heavy shelf and boxes of teabags, with a nasty head wound where the shelf had hit her. She put her one free hand to her head and it came away bloody.
A group of men were sweeping the shop, hunting for their enemies. Aqua saw Worm on the ground, injured but alive, until someone put two rounds in his skull.
Another man stepped in front of Aqua. She aimed her pistol at him, but it was kicked from her hand.
A bullet hit the man between the eyes and he fell down.
Roach crouched next to her, and grunted with effort as he lifted the shelf, letting her wriggle out.
Grabbing her pistol, she took out two of the other men in the shop and Roach took out the last one. They both dropped back into cover and reloaded.
"Be quick making that exit, price!" Roach said, "Or we'll be exiting via hell!"
-09:06-
Predator opened his eyes quickly, yet things came into focus slowly. Soap and Viktor were firing on the enemy while Jackal reloaded. Jackal looked too far from cover and a bullet hit her, stunning him. He was left open to a burst of assault rifle fire.
"Jackal!" Viktor yelled.
"Man down over here!" Soap yelled in stress into his radio.
"Ready!" Price replied, and a meter wide hole exploded in the wall. Price fired through it.
"Nearly out, Predator!" Soap told him, almost grinning.
-09:11-
"Roach, Aqua, we should be able to get safely to Price's exit from the DIY shop." Soap said. "Can you do it from the supermarket?"
"Negative." Aqua replied. "The only strategy I can see is to dash to the DIY store and take your route."
"You'd die!" Soap yelled, sounding frustrated.
"It's our only hope." Roach said, but it sounded like he'd already lost hope. "We'll prepare."
Aqua looked at the enemies; overwhelming odds.
Aqua looked at their ammo; running out.
Aqua looked at Roach.
"Typical." She sighed. "I don't see you for 7 years, and now we'll both likely die."
"That's always been our luck." Roach muttered.
"I'm sorry about that, Gary." Aqua said.
"No need to be." Roach told her reassuringly. "If anyone's to blame it's that bastard Hollow."
Aqua looked at him for a moment. She threw her arms around him, breaking down. There was nothing they could do.
"It's ok." Roach whispered.
"We need to get moving." Soap said over the radio, bringing them back to the situation at hand. Aqua composed herself, and picked up her pistol from where she'd just dropped it.
They nodded at each other, readied their guns and gave Soap the signal.
Aqua and Roach ran from the shop.
Aqua fired desperate and un-aimed of gunfire at the enemies while they charged at the DIY shop.
An explosion made her stumble and slip to the floor. Roach didn't notice for a second, but then he turned round and gripped her arm, nearly dragging her forwards. The shop was two meters away.
A bullet hit Roach squarely in the back. He gasped painfully and lurched forwards. Aqua grabbed him, trying to support him and run at the same time. At the doors of the shop, Soap and Viktor reached out and pulled them in.
-09:13-
Alien had launched his last rocket off hastily, but it had knocked Aqua down all the same. He switched to a rifle and shot Roach. As the pair limply dragged themselves to the DIY shop, Soap and Viktor reached out, away from cover. This was getting too easy!
He fired a round off that hit Viktor in the face, making him crumple to the floor. He aimed again, this time for Soap. He evaded death and they got into the shop safely.
Two out of three wasn't bad, Alien thought. He reloaded.
-09:14-
Aqua fell behind cover, struggling to get her breath back. She looked next to her where Roach was lying. The bullet had gone right through him, and blood was pouring out. It even covered Aqua from when she'd helped him.
"Gary, No! NO!" She cried, uselessly.
"Soap… Bell… I didn't…" Roach let out a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. Aqua took several long breaths, wiping a tear from her eye. She picked up Viktor's dropped shotgun and pumped it. People were going to pay.
Author Note: Sorry Roach, I killed you again! Well, one more chapter after this…