John Soap MacTavish - Call Of Justice

XVII. WHAT MAKES EVEN A STRONG MAN DIE INSIDE

"Johnny, open the door," Ghost commanded Soap.

He's been stuck in his house for almost two weeks without showing any signs of life. It was tough for all of them especially when they found her dog tags covered in soot.

The same morning the whole place was turned over, they found a couple of bodies – Boris' which was confirmed by his X-ray of teeth, since the body was badly burnt. They found the bodies of the guards who were already dead before the explosion and another female body.

And there was the issue – they could not identify it, all they could tell by examining the bones was that it was a young female as tall as Pine, what broke Soap completely.

But since the body wasn't close to the dog tags, there remained hope that Pine somehow managed to survive the explosion or even left before it happened.

Ghost thought of the latter – he didn't know why, but he felt that she wanted to run away because of something that happened in that bedroom while they were getting the truck ready.

Price was quiet. Awfully quiet while thinking that the body which was found isn't hers. He was working in the base the whole time, just like Ghost and Gaz while Soap took a leave of absence with undetermined number of days. He had that option since he hasn't taken almost any vacation days.

He liked being in the base, having chats with new recruits, help them train and prepare for their own missions. Ghost was busy with teaching them too, but he didn't exactly enjoy mingling with them after the training was finished.

But now, nothing could get Soap out of his house that was clouded with darkness. He, neither Price or Gaz saw him in such a state and a lot of bad things happened back on the front.

"Soap!" Ghost repeated and knocked quite strongly on the door, making them shudder under his hits.

He was pissed, because he knew all along what will happen if Pine doesn't make it back. That's why he was against her joining them, against her dating him – against her being around them. Or so he told that to himself when he let a glimpse of thoughts appear at night, just to protect himself from actually grieving.

He had his loses, he had his back stabbed by people all too many times and he didn't let such things affect him anymore. He whistled and by the time the song he blew past his lips, nothing mattered anymore.

At least he thought so.

"Soap, goddamn it, you cunt! If you don't open the fucking door in the next few seconds I will breach them and I don't care if you're jerking off or sleeping! Open the door, Johnny!" he continued, taking a few steps back from the door in order to get enough momentum to crash the doors with his own body.

He started counting, seriously thinking about doing exactly what he said.

"I am not joking, Johnny. Open the damn door! 10, 9, 8..." he counted shaking his limbs and preparing himself to cause a great deal of impact to the doors.

He came to 2 when the doors still remained shut, already running towards them, stopping just before he would hit them, by the sound of the lock clicking while being unlocked.

 And finally, the lost man showed himself. He opened the doors just a bit, before leaving back inside.

"For fucks' sake, Johnny!" Ghost angrily grunted, entering his house that was in a total mess. He wasn't a particularly overly clean man – he had things sorted since military does teach you to always be tidy, but from time to time he let his house become a little messy. There was a little dust on the shelves, unwashed clothes piled up in the bathroom, a couple of dirty dishes but nothing else much that would be poking you in the eyes if you visited him.