Okay... so I lied. Loose Ends is NEXT. :D
Don't kill me. Please. You have to wait one more chapter for the CLIFFHANGER OF THE CENTURY!
The real reason this chapter isn't Loose Ends is because... well... Loose Ends is coming together, er, rather slowly. I dunno WHY it's taking me this long, but it is. I guess I'm scared to write the end of the chapter... O_O
Question of the Chapter: If you knew exactly when, why, and how you were going to die, and that time was fast approaching, what would you do? I'm pretty much asking you the same question Queen has to deal with, since it's already known she and Ghost "will die" at the end of Loose Ends... or will they? D:
Tons of thanks to Arhani 'Hanny' Daforcena for reading through a portion of this chapter for me. I just wanted to make sure it was... er... decent... XD
Alrightie guys, that's about it! Enjoy!
-ecto1B
WARNING: SUGGESTIVE THEMES BELOW
Chapter 30:
Almost There
Lt. Simon James 'Ghost' Riley
###
Call it instinct.
Call it crazy.
Call it a burdening gut feeling that sits at the pit of your stomach and slowly consumes any traces of sanity within your body.
Call it whatever you'd like.
But I knew it. I knew we were going to die. Capturing Makarov would not be easy. The intel we'd received for this safehouse location had not disclosed the number of men inside the estate, nor did it mention the firepower within the house. Why was that so? Because I knew—I just knew—this intel had been willingly handed over to us by Makarov himself. They were planning an assault.
However, my hunch was not enough to worry MacTavish or Price. Queen seemed perturbed, and so did the rest of the team. But MacTavish said to ignore my troubling feeling and to just focus on the mission at hand. He also said everything would be fine.
I'm still not too sure.
###
Private First Class Mckinley Shane 'Queen' Front
###
I was so freaking scared.
Loose Ends.
As in the level where Ghost and Roach get shot point-blank.
As in the level where a majority of the Task Force is wiped out by Shepherd's men.
As in the level where I was supposed to DIE.
I was still trying to comprehend the fact that the entire game was going to happen when I returned home, but me returning home seemed impossible after Loose Ends came up.
I hardly spoke to ANYONE the next morning. When Price and Soap came to say goodbye, all I could really do was hug them to death. Soap was under the impression that I had been spooked by Ghost's little confession the night before, so he could understand my desperation when I nearly squeezed the living daylights out of him. But Price was caught a little off guard by my distress… I think it finally dawned on him that since I'd played Modern Warfare 2, I knew what was going to happen. And I thought he was smart. Wow. The funny thing was that he didn't have time to ask me what would happen, because the pave low was taking off as he figured it out. I was talking to Archer as we left, so I "didn't hear what Price yelled to the chopper." Oh well.
While we were on the chopper, Ghost kept me very close. He put his arms around me and literally wouldn't let me go. He didn't speak at all, which made the atmosphere in the pave low quite uncomfortable. I did my best to not burst out into tears on the way to the estate… though I knew I really should've been bawling my eyes out.
I think Ghost might've also sensed something, even though I was the only one who knew the truth. His grip around me was tighter than how I'd hugged Soap.
We were heading to our doom.
###
(Just a note: I took it as if the Task Force arrived quite early at the Georgian-Russian border and set up a temporary camp. So, this is happening early in the morning, and they're about a mile away from Makarov's estate)
The forest was tranquil. Silent. A tired morning fog hung heavily in the air, soothing the restless soldiers and sending shivering winds across their pale, exposed cheekbones. The slender pines and firs that populated the woods remained still in their frigid earthen hold, but their elegant hair of leaves and needles fluttered in the wind. On the horizon, milky shades of cream, yellow and pink brushed each other's shoulders. The waxen hue they emitted turned the nearby lake to gold and the bark of the trees to white.
Though she had been told not to, Mckinley wandered away from the team's temporary camp to watch the gorgeous sunrise peak in the distance. She found a lone tree sitting by itself overlooking the sunrise and leaned against it. She sighed and pulled the zipper on her jacket over her chin and to her nose. Her breath escaped from the neckline, spilling out into the space in front of her eyes. She was very worried. In a few hours, the team would move from their temporary camp to Makarov's estate, where they'd take the house, retrieve the DSM, and then try to leave. But Shepherd… Mckinley clenched her fist and repelled any images she received with the thought of that evil man. He wouldn't be able to kill them… would he? If he killed her, would she not be able to return to the real world? Sighing, she studied the ethereal colors of the sunrise in amazement and tried to ignore the lingering subject haunting her.
"Queen?"
Mckinley spun around to see Ghost standing there, with his hands in his pockets and his mask rolled up to his ears. A mesmerizing pair of azure-shaded irises gazed lovingly at her over the hem of his balaclava. An amused smile was also perched upon his lips as he saw her alone from the other soldiers, despite his orders.
"I thought I told you not to wander off," he said, feigning severity. "A bear could'a gotten to you… or a fox…"
"Or a Russian?" Mckinley joked, stifling a giggle. Ghost raised his eyebrows and darkened his gaze. She recoiled, noticing she'd touched a soft spot. "I'm sorry, sir. I wanted to see the sunrise. I just noticed how pretty it was from this hill."
Ghost took a step forward, growing slightly stern. "Don't joke about that, Queen," he said, almost pleadingly. "You know I'm not gonna let any Russian lay a hand on you." His cheeks turned bright red. "And… um… I don't know about the sunrise, but I know that you look quite pretty from this hill," he told her shyly, sliding his foot in the dirt and glancing downward. "Much prettier than any sunrise I've seen."
Mckinley couldn't restrain herself any longer. She giggled timidly and covered her rosy cheeks with her glove. When she saw Ghost's bashful grin grow wider from the corner of her eye, Mckinley placed her forehead against the bark of the tree and took deep, silent breaths. Act coy. Act flirty. Play hard to get. Maybe he'll—
Suddenly, she felt hands slide around her waist, turning her around and leaning her on the tree. Fingers cautiously unzipped the top portion of her jacket, and then a pair of pale, chapped lips swathed the middle of her bare neck. As Ghost dragged his mouth lower on her skin, he spoke to her in an almost inaudible whisper.
"We're about to go capture Makarov," he said softly. "Some of us could die when we get to the estate. I could lose you…" Loosening her jacket a bit more, Ghost kissed the deep indent on the curve of Mckinley's neck, and then ran his tongue along the cold skin of her shoulder. Mckinley felt an excited shiver bombard her spinal cord at the feeling.
"You're not gonna lose me," she murmured tenderly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and watching in delight as he brought his face back in her direction. He gave her earlobe a few taunting licks before kissing her eyelids. "I… I promise. It'll… it'll all be okay. We'll do this together. We'll defeat our enemies."
Ghost suspended his luxurious kissing to meet her gaze seriously. "Love… I… I don' wanna scare you, but I don' think that'll be the case. We got our intel without difficulty… as if Makarov willingly handed it over." He exhaled. "I think it may be the end for most of the team."
"No… don't say that…" she begged. "We're not gonna lose anyone. It's just another mission." She could hear herself trying to convince both her and Ghost, but it seemed like neither could buy such hollow words.
"I'm not trying to be pessimistic about it, love, but we have to consider all the possibilities." Ghost laid his lips on her jawbone and gentle nibbled the skin there. "This is gonna be helluva lot harder than anything we've ever faced. I can feel it."
"Anything I've ever faced," she corrected him. "You're Superman; you've faced everything. You've taken on things thirty times scarier than anything I'll ever see in my entire lifetime. Why are you so worked up about this?"
"I just told you." His shoulders began to shake, and Mckinley felt her body being forced closer to the tree. "I fear losing the thing that's kept me sane for the past year. I've lost so much already, and I don't want to lose you, too." The dreary tone in his voice choked out more words. "I haven't told anyone this, but I've been having more horrifying dreams lately about this mission… about someone murdering you and 'Tavish."
Mckinley gasped.
"D-Dreams?"
"Awful. Vivid." Ghost nuzzled the crook of her neck like a young child cowering in his mother's comforting arms. "Unbearably painful. So incredibly mind-destroying that after every dream, I went to check on you and MacTavish in your tents to make sure I was just imagining things." He shuddered. "I can't begin to fathom experiencing that missing feeling in real life."
It took Mckinley a few seconds to reply. She was completely shocked that he was—again—speaking so easily to her about his feelings.
"Ghost…" she murmured quietly, shivering as Ghost's breath tickled her neck. "I'm very… um… sorry that you had to see that. I never wanted the sight of me to be painful."
Instantly, he went rigid in her arms. "Wait, love, I never said seeing you was painful. Seeing you is like heaven on earth. But seeing someone hurting you is painful." Shoulders continuing to shake, he clutched her tighter. "Oh God, Queen… I can't… can't stand this waiting... I'm going mad again…"
Mckinley put her hands on his shoulders to keep him against her; she'd sensed that he was about to start tearing up, and she wanted to be his shoulder to cry on, like he would for her.
"Shh… don't cry, Ghostie…" Carefully, she reached up and uncovered the rest of his face, dropping the balaclava on the ground. "Everything will be all right… I'm here… I'm fine, Soap's fine, nothing's the matter."
Ghost lifted his head off her shoulder and met her gaze with his tear-clouded blue eyes.
"I'm sorry that I'm acting so wary, love," he managed. "I just—"
His sentence was cut off, however, as Mckinley seized his lips with her own. She really didn't know why she'd acted so abruptly, but kissing Ghost seemed like the only logical thing to do. If he ranted any longer about their fate, she would've began crying her own tears. The two of them were to die by a point-blank shot, there was no doubt to that. Before it happened, though, she wanted to feel Ghost's passionate kiss one last time.
Much to her amusement, Ghost didn't seem at all startled by her spur-of-the-moment action. Instead, he growled hungrily and strengthened the motion of his jaws, sliding his lips effortlessly atop hers. Mckinley felt her body heat up when he slipped his tongue between her lips, letting the two tongues clash aggressively once they collided. She felt the thick scraggly indents on the tree bark dig into her back as the pressure Ghost applied intensified, but she paid no mind to the discomfort.
Soon, she felt his fingers pulling her legs around his waist in an act of desperation. He wanted complete control, as usual. Shrugging, Mckinley submitted. Her legs locked around him, only fastening herself to him further. The hold was overly stimulating, and she felt every inch of her body erupt into flame at his touch.
But when Ghost's hands dove eagerly for her belt buckle, Mckinley had to stop. She couldn't have this now, as their death inched closer with every beating second. Her mind wouldn't be able to focus when the mission came up. Reluctantly, Mckinley jerked her mouth away from him and flashed him a bemused look.
"No, Ghost," she scolded. "Not now." Her eyes darted around the sky, which had grown significantly bluer since she'd remembered. "Not here."
He looked crestfallen. "Why not?"
"We're in a forest, Ghost."
Shrugging, he raised his eyebrows. "Last time we had it off in a laundry room. Both abnormal locations where a bed was absent. I don't see the problem."
Mckinley rolled her eyes. "A minute ago you were telling me about how we're all gonna die, and now all you care about is 'doing it?'" She expected his face to turn a light shade of red in response, but he didn't seem to mind.
"You distracted me," he replied simply, putting his hands at her legs to keep them from sliding. "And this ninja grip you have on me is rather arousing, I must say. If anyone, it should be you who wants to go through with it." He let his eyebrows curve downward imploringly.
"I distracted you?" she half-screeched. "You're the one being all cute and sweet and innocent in my arms! What am I supposed to do?"
Ghost chuckled and pecked her on the cheek.
"Woah, someone's hyper," he teased, and she gasped sarcastically.
"Are you trying to be mean?"
"No. Just trying to get you to let me unzip your pants."
She slapped him playfully across the cheek. "HEY! That's not funny!" Crossing her arms, Mckinley gave him a death-glare that caused him to burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" she inquired hotly.
"I just now noticed how cute you are when you're angry," he responded. "That poor attempt at a nasty face only makes me want you even more than I already do." He smirked and kissed her straight on the mouth when she began to retort back.
Naturally, such spontaneous actions carried the two completely out of hand, but Mckinley had given up fighting. She was going to die. She deserved at least one more moment of passion before everything was destroyed.
Dunn: What a romantic ending... but DUNN DUNN DUNN, what will happen during Loose Ends?
Foley: (shrugs and cowers beneath blanket)
ecto1B: Ohmigosh, Dunn, you actually did the DUNN DUNN DUNN thing without being asked! Good boy!
Dunn: Yeah, I guess the reviews from last chapter made me happy.
SOME SUGGESTED MODERN WARFARE 2 STORIES TO CHECK OUT:
The Red Dragon Redux by Arhani 'Hanny' Daforcena
To Lead A Flock To Slaughter by Emily 'Gadget' Robins
A fine Line by Erin Peepsta
Haunting a Ghost by GHOST oo007
Our General Theory of Total World Domination by AstroRen's UberNova (written as a collab with me)
Fire by Carovinee
Chinese Fire Drills by Dunedain789
KAYBYE! ^_^