//𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 (Lee Christmas x Reader)

seven.

You were thrown back into a wall at the force of the blast, completely unaware of what was happening. You held your arm up above your eyes to block out the bright, swirling sun, shrouded in a fine mist of dust and sand and smoke. Your ears were ringing so loud that you had to flinch, wincing and squishing your face against the relentless high pitched chirp. You felt something warm and sticky slither down the side of your face and you shuddered, pulling your hands back to rub it away. When you looked down at your fingers, they were bloody. You were confused.

That's when Gunner hoisted you up and shook you, dragging you back to reality. You heard people yelling, guns firing, and Gunner calling out your name.

"What happened?" You asked, bracing yourself against his arms as you shook off the unsteadiness you felt.

"Fucking bomb," he said, looking over his shoulder. "We gotta go!"

"Where is everyone?" You asked, blinking dust and sand from your eyes.

"I don't know, I can't see shit, they were already through the door-"

"We need to get the hostages!" You said, pulling out your handgun and pulling off the safety.

"We need to find the-"

"We have a job, Gunner!" You snapped, giving his arm one last squeeze before you let go of him entirely. "We know where they are! There's a lot of confusion right now, so let's just go there, grab them, and then head back to the rendezvous. I think we're the closest."

Gunner pressed his lips together before he agreed, nudging you to lead the way. You had memorized the layout of the dingy little facility in your hours working out plans in the cockpit of the plane.

You climbed over the broken wall and Gunner followed. There was evidence of a spray of bullets on the inside, but there were no bodies that you could see beneath the cloud of dust. Holding the gun out in front of you, you spit some blood from your mouth into the uneven floor at your feet and pushed on.

When you made it to the next room, there were soldiers in broken down uniforms holding up guns and shouting in a language you didn't recognize or understand. You didn't hesitate- one, two, three bullets out and finding a home in each one. They had fired off a few shots of their own, missing both you and Gunner in the process. The sound of the guns going off made your ear ring again and you shook your head, trying to stave it off.

You were distracted by the ringing and didn't notice the two other soldiers that started yelling and firing at you. Gunner grabbed you by the vest and pulled you back behind a pillar, a bullet narrowly missing you as you stumbled. Gunner fired at them and they went down and you grunted your thanks, running out in front of him towards the area you suspected they were keeping hostages. When you got there, there was a hole blown in the wall and cracks webbing through whatever remained. There were bodies inside, what you assumed were both old and new, and a small group huddled in a far corner.

"Keep watch out here, I'm going in," you said, and before Gunner could reply, you were gone. The room was dark and relentlessly musty, filled with the scent of blood and feces and decomposition baked under the desert sun. You padded over to the corner and held your gun up, looking for the faces of the people in the corner.

"My name is Y/n, I'm American and I'm here to get some other Americans out. You wanna leave?"

They nodded and looked around timidly before they stood; three men, lanky and clearly starved, as well as one woman, bloody and pale.

"Are any of you the American big-game hunters?"

"Us," one of the men said, motioning to himself and the man at his side. The other man swallowed and watched you carefully, and the woman shuddered, brows drawn over her eyes and afraid.