We Who Serve

Prologue

10th March 2015

"Incoming!" Soap yelled as he watched several mortars drop onto their location. The explosion caused the ground under their feet to rumble. "Fucking hell, they are relentless!" He yelled down the comms to the rest of the team. 

"Where the fuck is our evac!" Ghost yelled down his comms to Price as they continued their fight. Sending lead rounds speeding toward their enemy. 

"Trust the Air force to be late!" Grimes yelled over the comms. Grimes was reasonably new to the team; she had only been with them for over a year. But in that time, they have grown very close. While they knew she could handle herself, it didn't stop Soap from being protective. But Ghost, even more so, there were times Grimes thought he looked at her, not as a sister. But she also knew that work relationships never worked.

Grimes continued to fire down her rounds at the enemy ahead of them, Her hair tied up in a tight bun with a few stands of loose hair. Her face was covered in dirt due to fighting at the evac point. The sounds of their weapons firing filled the air with the occasional sound of a round flying above their head with a whistle and then a thud.

"Throwing Grenade!" Gaz yelled as he pulled the pin and chucked a small grenade toward the enemy. 

This was supposed to be an easy mission, an in then out job. But yet again, it quickly turned difficult, and they were again expending a lot of ammunition. Finally, the buzz of a helicopter could be heard approaching. 

"Finally, Soap, Gaz you first!" Price yelled out as the helicopter flew over their head and began to land. Soap and Gaz stopped returning fire and rushed over to the helicopter.

"Grimes cover!" Ghost yelled as he ducked from one wall to another as Grimes continued to fire.

"Ghost, Grimes, move now!" Price yelled, and they began to pepperpot their way back to the helicopter. While one moved around, the other two would give cover fire. Price was the first of the three to return to the helicopter while Gaz and Soap laid down careful fire.

Just as Ghost started running to the helicopter, a man jumped out at Grimes. Attacked her from the side with a knife. Luckily she saw this at the last minute and ducked under the swing for her throat.

"Jesus fucking Christ! Where the hell did you come from!" she muttered as she stepped back again, avoiding a knife swing. She found her moment and stepped into the men's range, and wrapped bother her arms around the arm that held the knife. She brought her right knee up several times to connect with his genitals before stepping her right foot between his legs and twisting her body to hoist him over her shoulder, flipping him to the ground. She then swung his arm with the knife still in his fist so that he stabbed himself in the throat.

"Grimes! Move now!" Ghost yelled out, and Grimes pushed her slung weapon behind her back and ran towards the helicopter. The men gave her covering fire as she ran the 50-plus meters.

But just as she was about 20 meters away, a shock of pain rippled through her body. A bullet hit her right shoulder, causing her to release a painful gasp. The force of the bullet hitting her and her running mixed in, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground. She landed on her right shoulder.

"Grimes!" she heard someone tell, but she wasn't sure who as sounds started to echo in her head. She managed to force herself to her feet. Blood began to fill her mouth as she tried to breathe. Just as she took a couple more steps, another round whistle through the air, landing in her back. Blood flew from her mouth as she coughed in pain. Falling to her knee, she watched as Ghost and Soap tried to run to her.

"Grimes!" They continued to yell as Gaz and Price held them, pulling them into the helicopter. The enemy behind them had begun to move up and closer, and they had to leave. Just as the helicopter started to take off, Grimes smiled at them. Before falling face-first into the sand. She could hear the distant sounds of the helicopter disappearing before she heard a familiar voice over the comms in her ear.

"Stand down, soldier. You've done us proud." Price spoke solemnly as she felt herself being pulled into a warmth of darkness.