I am so so sorry for not updating this earlier. I was very busy with my mid-terms and finals. Still have 4 exams to go! And I am studying software engineering so the finals aren't a walk in a park. Hopefully I will manage to squeeze in one more chapter between preparing for final exams this month. Hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for reading.
Roach P.O.V.
Four days have passed since I got sick. Cathy visited me when I had to lay back and skip training. I felt flattered, it was nice to stay beside her. I tried my best to keep cool and not to show how nervous I was whenever she was next to me.
That day I finally felt well enough for any kind of activity. We all gathered at the training grounds. It was fun to get out of bed and move. I have no idea how Cathy managed to stay closed up for two months. Each of us ran three courses. Of course Captain and Ghost had best results. Cathy was closest results to our superiors which is amazing. The rest of us were from 3 to 4 seconds slower with no targets missed.
When we were done with courses we all gathered outside the training grounds.
"This is all for today's training." said Ghost. Soldiers were very happy. "Whoa, whoa, no need to hype about it too much."
"Ghost is right." said Captain. "Since Makarov is not coming out of his shelter we are going to smoke him out. We have a mission today. All of the details will be explained in briefing. See you in two hours at Shepherd's office. Dismissed."
It was a thrilling moment. I had a few small missions with other members of task force before but thay was one powerful mission if so many members were going. Cathy looked excited, but nervous at the same time. It was her first serious mission with TF. I walked up to her for some comforting. "How do you feel? It's exciting, isn't it?"
"It is." she nodded. "Wonder how it will go."
"Relax." I smiled. "Carmen, we are the best soldiers that Shepherd could find on Earth. We'll do fine."
"I hope you're right, Roach." she said and we decided to walk back to barracks.
"Mind if I stay with you? I really don't want them mocking me right now." I asked when we reached the barracks.
"Sure. Come on in." she said opening the door to her room. It was neatly cleaned. I walked in closing the door behind me and sat down on one of the unoccupied beds. Cathy was smiling but I could see she was quite nervous. Cathy laid down on her bed and looked at me.
"You know, I still have those papers on which we played hangman." She said.
"No way, really?"
She nodded leaning over the side of her bed. Cathy opened one of the bags and pulled out a bunch of papers
"Here are some where you won." She said handing them to me. I smiled at the cute doodles we've drawn. "Can I keep them?"
"Sure thing." She said and shifted in bed. "I have a bad feeling about this mission. I have a bad feeling about this whole Makarov hunting thing."
"Hey, don't worry, we'll be fine." I said and got out of bed taking two steps towards hers. I sat down next to her and she sat up to hug me. "We can do this. We have Captain and Ghost with us."
Briefing started half an hour late. We were handed out some papers with information we needed to know about the mission. Our target was four story building complex 10 miles away from a small village in far east. Those buildings were deserted but many weapon deals were happening there and our task was to interfere one of them and capture the dealers.
We had to leave early in the morning. Our LZ was 20km away from the complex.
During the briefing I noticed how anxious Carmen was. Captain noticed that too but didn't say anything. When TF left Shepherds office Cathy stayed in to talk
I don't know what they talked about bit when she left she didn't look too happy. I didn't have enough time to ask what happened since Captain sent us to rest.
We had to leave at 3am so we were up at 2. I took a cold shower while others were either eating or preparing their load out. Cold shower helped me leave dream kingdom and be more sane and since I wasn't really hungry I decided to go to armoury to pick my weapons.
When I entered it saw Carmen and Ghost getting ready. I greeted them. Ghost was friendly as always but Carmen was cold and simply mumbled 'Hi'. I was used to seeing her quite excited about training it was strange seeing her like that. Though it's not very strange when you think more; it wasn't training. It was real. A battle that consisted of killing other people.
Few minutes later I was done arming myself. Soon enough rest of TF joined us. When we all gathered around the pave low that was supposed to carry us to our destination Captain made a quick note.
"Remember, this has to be as stealthy as possible. I will be giving orders through coms and you will follow them. Especially newbies. No chatting is allowed unless it is about the enemy position or it has something to do with the mission. Alright. Get in."
Trip was long and others decided to have some naps. Cathy was staring into the emptiness in front of her. Even our superiors let her have her personal space and time and didn't ask how she's feeling. The look on her face sent shivers down my spine.
"So, Roach" began Captain. "How do you like serving in the States?"
"To be honest I miss Britain. Though I enjoy being here. It's nice to serve with fellow soldiers from SAS." I answered.
"It's nice to have you here Roach. You remind me of how I has years ago." Said Ghost laughing.
"That's optimistic." I said leaning back. "Maybe one day I'll end up as Lieutenant too."
"End up?" Captain mocked. "You need to put a lot of effort and hard work to become Lieutenant."
"Really?" Said Ghost. "Hard work? How did you become a Captain, sir?"
We all laughed at Ghost. Having that chat made me ease up a little and forget about the awaiting danger.
3rd person POV
The heli landed and soldiers followed their superiors lead. It was an early morning and it must have been raining earlier as the weather was cold and humid. Team was moving through woods. The distance they had to cover was long.
Once they reach the complex Captain stopped the group.
"We will enter the first building in groups. Toad, Ozone, take the entrance on the left. Carmen, Scarecrow, to the right. Roach, you're with me. Others stay outside. Move up."
Soldiers moved into smaller groups and walked up to entrances. Captain nodded and each group entered the building. They moved up just to find it empty.
"What's your sitrep?" Asked Captain.
"No sign of enemies, sir." answered Ozone.
"Nothing here." said Scarecrow.
Captain told them to move up to the roof carefully checking each floor. Soldiers went from room to room checking each of them for enemies but there weren't any. Cathy was feeling extremely nervous but tried to look more cautious than scared. She was glad that Scarecrow was by her side. He was more experienced. Though it was obvious why he was called Scarecrow. His face and rest of visible skin was covered with scars. Young female wondered how much pain he had went through.
"I don't like this." Scarecrow whispered to Carmen. "Let's move up."
Carmen nodded and followed Scarecrow up the stairs.
Meanwhile Captain and Roach were at the last floor. It was getting on Roaches nerves. No enemies, not even a sign they were there, no footsteps in the dust of the deserted building like Captain and himself were leaving. This obviously was off and when he was about to exclaim how ridiculous it is Captain shut Roach up saying "We have to do our job, Roach."
The two of them reached the roof first. Minutes later other two groups joined but before they could group up a loud explosion was heard. Soldiers turned to where the sound came from just to see that where Carmen and Scarecrow were was a cloud of dust.
"Carmen!" Roach shouted going towards the explosion.
"Roach, stop." Said Captain grabbing his arm and pulling back.
"Sir, it's an ambush." Said Toad ducking behind cover. Rest of the group followed him whrn bullets started flying towards them from other buildings.
"Ghost, take everyone inside. We've been ambushed." Captain ordered still holding onto Roach. He was all stressed up since MacTavish didn't let him check up on Carmen.
"Return fire and move one floor down." Ordered Captain and everyone moved towards the stairway. Four men moved down the stairs. Once they were on the fourth floor they noticed a huge hole in the ground that was also in the roof and ground of lower floor. Roach ran up to it as fast as he could. "Sir, they're not there."
"We have a bigger problem right now. Go fight enemies, Roach. That's an order." Said Captain and moved up to window to shoot enemies.
Rest of the group was on the ground floor with Ghost also fighting enemies. Ten minutes later they cleared out enough enemies to move and regroup.
"Ghost, what's your sitrep? Any sight of Scarecrow or Carmen?" Captain asked leading the group few floors lower.
"Negative, sir. But we've found an entrance to basement. It looks like it leads somewhere." They heard Ghosts answer. "You can see blood trail too."
I am also sorry for this cliffhanger. I'll post next chapter as soon as I free myself from finals. And again thank you for reading :)