CHAPTER EIGHT:

"Excalibur, this is Gold Eagle. Fire mission-target package Romeo. Danger close."

"That's within one hundred metres of your position, sir!"

"That's not a suggestion! Send it!"

"Roger, fire mission danger close."

Price's voice slowly came to Mui's ringing ears. She blinked, catching her breath. She felt Soap's presence directly beside her, his breath near the side of her face. She couldn't tell what he was saying for a moment, and then it all came flooding in as her hearing returned.

"Get down! Get down!" Mui looked up at the mouth of the cave base. Bombs were being dropped in rapid succession to the front of the base. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, up you get." Soap's soft Scottish accent whispered. Mui slowly rose to her feet, grabbing her sniper rifle off her back. Soap still had the riot shield and he gave her a form of cover while she took shot after shot. Price led the way.

They ran through the maze that was made up of sandbags, barriers, and crates. The wind had picked up, tossing sand everywhere. They got to the bottom of the hill, met by a helicopter filled with troops. Soap took care of them with one magazine of his shot gun. The trio kept moving quickly, turning left and right through the base. They cut across the area back into another cave, escaping with their lives.

Day 7, 2016

18:10.27

Site Hotel Bravo, Afghanistan

Price, Mui and Soap had made it down to the docks inside of the cave system. They boarded a boat in a hurry, chasing after Shepherd. They were so close to getting him that it hurt. Mui took point with Price while Soap manned the engine. They chased him through the waterways outside, dodging bullets and RPGs by mere inches. "Learn to drive the bloody thing!" Mui cursed at Soap as he nearly hit the rocks.

"Can you do any fucking better?" He roared back, ducking his head in time to miss hitting it off an overhanging cliff face.

"Shut up and focus!" Price barked, shooting down three men in quick succession. Soap sped the boat up even faster, dodging the rocks this time. Mui kept her head down, firing off shot after shot. They made it out into the open, dodging .50 caliber rounds from a scout helicopter. Soap directed the boat into a smaller area, surrounded by high rocks to the right. Mui lined up her scope with the helicopter pilot's head and shot him. The bird slowly went spiralling down into the water. "Soap, focus on driving the boat, Mui and I'll take care of the res-AH!" Price roared as they went over the edge of a waterfall.

Mui reached over, grabbing onto Price, keeping him in the boat as they went down a series of water falls. Each one nearly caused them both to fly out. They soon came within twenty metres of Shepherd's boat. "Come on!" Mui yelled, aiming down her sights. Unluckily for them, they got hitched up on another boat. Price however, easily took care of the enemies and they sped onwards, continuing the pursuit to get Shepherd.

Suddenly, an enormous helicopter rose above them. Price grabbed Mui's sniper rifle, and then took the shot, eliminating the pilot. He tried telling Soap to turn the boat around, but with the noise of the helicopter exploding behind them, he couldn't hear a thing. Mui's eyes went wide as they began floating over the edge of a gargantuan waterfall. She closed her eyes, grabbing onto something, anything to keep them together as the boat went flying over the edge.

Water. It was all around. Mui opened her eyes, holding her breath. She swam towards the light of the surface. Once she was there, she gasped for her breath, coughing, gagging a little on the salty water. She crawled onto the shore, still short of breath. She heard another set of coughing to her right. It had a masculine sound to it. She turned her head slowly, pushing her hair that had fallen loose from its hair-tie out of her face. Soap was on his hands and knees as she was. The sandstorm had really picked up, and grains of sand got into Mui's eyes. She brushed it away among the stinging and crawled over to Soap.

"Where's Price?" She mumbled.

"I…" He coughed again, spitting out salt water. "I don't know…"

"Come on, we've got to go…" Mui stood to her feet, pulling on Soap's shoulders. He too rose up, leaning on her. He pulled out his knife and they stumbled across the desert slowly, keeping their heads down out of the wind. There was an American straggler, crawling across the desert floor, with hardly any life in him. Soap quickly killed him. They continued pushing across the dry arid land. "Keep going…we're…we're almost there." Mui looked up to see a shape of something in the near distance. She led Soap towards it.

They drew closer and realised it was the wreckage of the helicopter. Again, another survivor was laying there. Soap killed him as well. They pressed on, both hardly being able to stand upright. Suddenly, General Shepherd himself came running past them. Mui took a swipe at him, but missed in her dizzy state. They began jogging after him. For a moment, they lost him in the fog of the sand storm, but then heard him coughing ahead of them. Soap let go of Mui and went after him again. Mui watched them struggle, and Shepherd slammed his head down on the car he was leaning on. Soap fell down on his back, semi-unconscious. Shepherd took out a knife and buried it deep within the Scotsman's chest, blood pouring out of it. Mui made a move for him, throwing her knife hard. It merely scraped his arm. He took it out of the frame of the car. She went to charge him, punching him in the face. He grabbed her fist, and then he stabbed her own knife into her right shoulder, a little below the collarbone and a little higher than her breast. She fell over as he pulled it out of her, hand clutching the wound. She panted hard, watching Shepherd take off. Her world went black.

When Mui opened her eyes again, she was dizzy, probably from blood loss. Soap also seemed to be there, somewhat.

"Five years ago, I lost thirty-thousand men in the blink of an eye. And the world just fuckin' watched." Shepherd's cold toned voice wavered in and out of Mui's ears. Her eyes were held half closed as she felt blood dripping out of her vest and down the front of her. She weakly held up her left hand. It was soaked in bright red blood. She opened her eyes more. Shepherd was standing above both her and Soap, holding the same magnum that he killed Ghost and Roach with. "Tomorrow, there will be no shortage of volunteers, no shortage of patriots. I know you understand." He finished putting in a new clip into the magnum and held in front of him, poised to shoot.

A shot went off, but Mui heard Shepherd yell out in surprise. Then she heard something fall to the ground. She tried to lift her head, but couldn't. She heard two men struggling, then a gun kicked out of a hand. She had to put her hand back over her stab wound, else she would bleed out. She wondered if Soap was still alive.

"S-Soap?" She called out meekly. No reply. "Dammit…"

Then Mui felt him move beside her. He was alive. He kept crawling ever so slowly and it took her a moment to realise what was happening. Price had come back and was fighting Shepherd. Soap was going for the gun. Mui tried to roll onto her side. She was successful, though it came with masses of pain. She grunted, watching Soap go by. Suddenly, Price was thrown to the ground. Just as Soap had reached the gun, Shepherd kicked it away, and kicked Soap to the head. Mui watched in pain, wishing she hadn't thrown her knife away. She didn't know if her M9 was still functioning after being submersed. But, she figured it was worth a try. She took it out of its holster and tried to load it and fire it. Click-click. Nothing, it was rendered useless. She tossed it in Shepherd's direction the best she could. It hit flesh, but didn't do any good. She kept watching Price struggle with the general, down to throwing punches and kicks now. She didn't know if she was going to make it out of this alive, but she had to try with all that she had left.

Mui rolled over again, lying on her back. "Soap?" She looked over at his body. "Soap!" He lifted his head. She saw the knife sticking out of his chest, and got an idea. "Use the knife!"

Soap nodded, and slowly began pulling the thing out of his chest cavity. Every centimetre it caused him immense pain, but he knew the mercenary was right. It was the only chance they had of killing Shepherd once and for all. He grunted with pain until the thing was out. He twirled it around in his fingers and took aim. Shepherd was on top of Price, punching the hell out of him. Soap took aim, and threw it. Shepherd just happened to look up as the blade hurled towards his face. He had no time to react and the blade stuck right into his eye, killing him instantly.

Mui looked at the two men, unsure if either was still alive. She doubted if she'd still be alive after this. She felt like her life was draining out of her body slowly with the desert wind. Once more, her eyes closed, her world going pitch black.