Terrorcest one shots

(part 7) Language Barrier

Baby Ruby Theoni screams as the air raid sirens go off. Tommy feels like screaming too. Nikki left a little over an hour ago, looking like a true soldier, and ready to die for Tommy and Ruby.

A huge boom that rocks the house, drowns out the sounds of the air raid sirens, and Tommy nearly drops Ruby. Someone screams, and Tommy notices that the shelling hit close. So close in fact, that their house has several cracks spreading throughout the walls, and a piece of the ceiling falls and shatters into a million pieces, just inches away from where Athena is standing.

"Dad?" Tommy asks, eyes brimming with tears.

David thinks for a moment. "The stadium, the stadium acts as a bomb shelter."

Voula nods. "Yes, and several of our friends have taken their children there since this morning."

"But momma, what about Ruby?" Tommy asks, wondering if that's really the place he should be taking his newborn.

"She will be fine dear...all fine..." Voula tries to reassure him, but deep in her eyes, Tommy recognizes her fear too.

Nikki ducks, nearly rolling off of a sloped roof as gunshots narrowly miss him. His heart pounds in his chest as he presses himself against the crumbling tiles trying to breathe in and out. He's basically stuck up here with his rifle. There's a soldier in the street, there's a soldier on the roof across the street, he's stuck until someone dies.

A scream from the street below makes Nikki realize that someone managed to take out the ground soldier. He needs out of here, now. His mind works overtime trying to figure out how he's going to get down without getting shot. He needs to stay alive, if only for Tommy and Ruby. A thought formulates in his head, resembling a short story he had read in high school about the Irish civil war.

He grunts as he struggles to take off his coat, and he grabs the lightning rod of the house he's on top of, and he drapes his coat over it, lifting it up to where the Turkish soldier can see. Instantly, he hears the gunshot and he drops the lightning rod so that it falls off of the roof. The other soldier stands up, Nikki aims and fires. This time, he hits dead on, and the soldier falls to the ground. 

Before the realization of what he has done hits him, he breathes a sigh of relief. He has to get off of this goddamn roof, he's backed himself into a corner up here, without even realizing it. He slowly tries to lower himself to the ground, letting go of the roof before he can reach the ground.  He clatters to the floor with his rifle and hisses in pain. A large boom shakes the  ground, and the trashcans rattle.

He didn't do that right? Right?

Slowly, Nikki gets to his feet and looks around the alleyway, coughing. 

He looks around, disoriented. As he slowly scans the street, he notices flames coming from the stadium, where lots of people have evacuated to. Smoke billows out of the building and floods the streets, and as his ears stop ringing, he hears the screams of the victims. 

Nikki sprints towards the fire, before being ushered away by local police, telling him that he is not needed. People stagger out of the stadium entrance, now reduced to mostly rubble, bloodied, burnt, sobbing, and looking for their loved ones.

His eyes are drawn to these people as sirens get ever closer, he wishes that he could help them, but his job is with the army right now.

"Feranna!" One of his buddies, private Rodriguez shouts.

"We're heading out, past Athens, there's a camp of soldiers there." Rodriguez says, motioning for Nikki to follow as they duck through alleyways until they get to Rodriguezes vehicle.

Nikki doesn't say a word. He just nods and climbs into the vehicle, hunkering down against the side, and closing his eyes.

When they get near the suspected site of the encampment, Rodriguez shuts off the vehicle, and they all hop out and spread out in opposite directions. Nikki keeps his gun aimed toward the ground as he scours the landscape, ducking behind some ruins to try and keep an advantage.

"I don't see anybody." Nikki whispers to Private Jacobs.

"Head toward that tree line, I'm going to head towards the clearing." Jacobs says.

Nikki nods and does his best to keep quiet as he stalks through the trees. He sees a flash, like someone's running through the trees, and he glances around, grabbing his gun. Nikki aims his gun at the tree line, but sees nothing. 

There's a movement out of his periphereal vision, and then something lands next to him. Nikki looks down, and wildly glances at the ground, seeing a grenade. "Oh shi-" Nikki turns to run but only gets a few steps away.

The grenade goes off, and Nikki is hurled against a tree. His vision spots with white, and he can hear Rodriguez screaming his name, but he can't answer. His eyelids grow heavier and heavier and his thoughts are blending together.

"NIKKI. NIKKI ANSWER ME!" Rodriguez screams, shaking Nikki's lifeless body.

Nikki groans and gurgles. "Jacobs, Luis, we gotta get him out of here...get him to the hospital." He sighs.

They carry him back to the vehicle, and put him in the back, Rordriguez checking his pulse.  Jacobs hops in the back with Nikki, and keeps talking to him, getting small movements for answers and the occasional groan or mumble. They get to a hospital and Rodriguez glances back at Nikki, covered in blood, pale, and no longer answering Jacobses desperate attempts to communicate with him.

------inside the hospital, 3 days later-----

Nikki slowly opens his eyes, wincing and closing them again immediately afterwards. His body is heavy and weak, and he feels a pain spreading across his lower abdomen.

The TV is on, and someone is sleeping in a chair. Nikki can't crane his head far enough to see who it is, but the boots indicate Rodriguez. He instead settles on glancing at the TV. A large banner scrolls the top of the screen in both Greek and English, informing them that the images of people being shown are missing people, most of who were seen last night.

Nikki squints, not seeing anybody he recognizes, that is, until a grainy photo of Tommy flashes across the screen.