Phantom ~ [Simon Ghost Riley]

XI. Pressure point

My brows furrow as Soap offers to carry my backpack on top of his own.

"Soap, I literally walked a whole day in the burning heat with a backpack even heavier during selection."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot," he says as he straps his own backpack on tighter.

"Thanks though. A real gentleman."

"I try, I try," he smirks.

I close the straps of my backpack in front of my chest and we jump out of the plane. Wind immediately blows my hair around as sand softly hits my face. Dried dessert land takes up my whole field of vision. There's no green to be seen for at least a couple of miles.

"Jesus," I say as the side pieces of my hair hit me in the face. I catch Soap grinning at the sight of me in my peripheral vision. I squint at him in response.

"Over here," Price yells over the noise of the plane.

Soap and I made our way over to Price, passing Ghost as we do so. He stands tall with his hands crossed in front of his chest, almost as if he doesn't carry a backpack. His gaze follows my movement, and I try not to look in his direction.

Price stands in front of an odd-looking base entrance. It has a weird shape that prevents it from being seen from a plane above.

Captain Price presses against the door with his whole body. The massive door creaks loudly and opens with a huff. Behind is a staircase that leads us down into a small hallway.

The massive door made it seem as if the base below would be huge, though the opposite seems to be the case.

We all get down the stairs, and the hallway seems to connect several rooms.

"Alright, this is it. It's not massive, but it'll have to do for some time. There's two bathrooms, one shared bedroom," Price says with a sigh before continuing, "a kitchen, and a sort of living room with couches and stuff."

Soap immediately heads for the bedroom. I quickly jump after him, though the rest of the guys all start running for it as well. The room is full of bunk beds, and Soap immediately stakes his claim by throwing his bag on one of the top beds. Chaos insures when all of the guys start copying him. Backpacks fly over my head even though I'm one of the first in the room. Even Price has claimed a bed before I had. He chose the one closest to the door, with Gaz on the bed above him.

"Jesus," I mutter as I look around the room.

Suddenly I spot just one empty bunk-bed, directly next to Soap. I quickly head towards it, putting my backpack on the bottom bed.

I sigh in relief, glad I was able to get a bottom bed. I have never been a fan of sleeping on top. It always made me feel less secure, while the bottom bed had a sense of "cover".

Soap suddenly scrapes his throat. When I look at him, I can tell that it's meant for me.

The looming presence of something behind me suddenly appears.

What now...

"I think it's best if you take the top," his low voice comes from behind me.

Of course, it's him..

I turn around to be greeted by his oh-so-familiar skeleton mask.

"But-" I try to protest at first, but the way he has to look down to look me in the eyes says enough.

I sigh, "fine."

"Good," he says as he throws his bag on the bottom bed, precisely on the spot where my bag was just a few seconds ago.