Phantom ~ [Simon Ghost Riley]

XXXI. Quick thinking

"Can't we just destroy the entire shipping container? We've got enough grenades," Gaz says over the comms. They have all gathered around the main room, trying to find a way to stop Kahdemi from continuing on with his plan.

"-No. It'll kill everyone with an implant," Ghost replies, his voice a bit harsher than he intended.

"Fuck," Gaz responds.

Time is ticking and Ghost can feel his patience slipping away with each second that passes. He's not here to fuck around, and the fact that he feels like he can't do anything slowly but surely has his anger building up.

The group is suddenly interrupted by the sound of loud banging on the steel door they're behind. Everyone raises their guns and Price jumps to stand in front of the rest. Ghost goes to stand with him, the rest of the sergeants behind the two.

"-Ghost.." a feminine voice sounds from the other side of the door.

Her voice.

"I know you're in there... help me.."

Price's head snaps to the side, looking at Ghost with a warned expression. The grip on Ghost's gun loosens as her voice reaches him.

"-Simon," Price warns, his voice stern.

"Captain.."

"-Don't," he says. "It's a damn trap. You know it."

He's right. Ghost knows he is.

But he can't. He can't leave her standing there.

"Get her in here. I'll take that damn thing out myself," he rasps.

"-Simon, you're not thinking straight."

"We're with enough men here. We can handle her," he says as he moves towards the door.

Price sighs loudly, and Ghost knows if it were anyone but him, Price would've stopped them. "For fuck's sake, Simon," Price says as Ghost opens the door.

She comes barging in and Ghost catches her as she does so, her body crashing against his with a dull thud from the impact on his gear. She doesn't have any guns, so she's less dangerous than before. Though her strength alone is too much for just one of them.

Price and König jump in, pulling her off of Ghost and getting her on a chair. To both of their surprise, she gets herself out of their grip, once again lunging forward toward Ghost.

Soap jumps in and wraps his arms around her from the back. With all his force, he pulls her backward, letting himself fall into that same chair as he keeps his arms around her. In a split second, Price an König get her secured too.

"Ghost, hurry man. We're not gonna be able to hold her very long," Soap grunts as she twitches in his grip, her emotionless yet somehow anger-filled eyes kept on Ghost.

He leans forward to pull her braid to the side. He's thankful for the fact that she kept trying to get it out, since this prevented her skin from healing back over the implant. "I'm so sorry," Ghost mutters as he reaches for the wound.

"No, no, no, no, stop," her screams get louder and louder, and Ghost swears that when his eyes meet hers, for a split second he can see her hidden underneath, trapped in her own body. With a cleaned-off surgical instrument, he tries to get underneath the implant, but when the stainless steel forceps touch her, she screams as he's never heard before.

He let's go of the forceps immediately, the steel instrument dropping to the floor with a loud clank. She doesn't stop screaming. Soap looks at Ghost, his expression showing nothing but worry. He doesn't know what to do either.