Strength Together

Chapter 4

TW: Guns, violence, strong language, injury, blood
WC: 2389

Ophelia was not too keen on the idea of her being so close to the action. Price insisted she stay at the safe house they would have set up a few clicks from the action.

"How ya feeling, Lia?" Gaz had asked, nearly yelling into the mic attached to the headset he wore. The helicopter was loud, even with their headphones on and Ophelia wasn't enjoying her time at all. She had ridden on helios before but they were usually just above a city and for a brief moment while she tended to a patient. But here she had to sit patiently and wait as they flew over empty lands where the wind was much harsher.

"I've been in better situations." She answered as she cupped her hands around the headphones, hoping to drown out as much noise as possible.

"You'll get used to it." Price added, they were all on the same channel, meaning everyone in the helio could hear their conversation, including Ghost, who of course, added nothing to it.

"Run the plan by me one more time?" Ophelia asked, trying to distract herself from the height of the helio as well as the growing pit in her stomach.

"You'll be set up at the base camp, heavily guarded by some elite men of our team. Ghost, Gaz, and myself along a small squadron will be infiltrating their base. Makarov is in custody but that doesn't stop his men from wreaking havoc. Our goal is to simply clear them out. Easy work." Price informed her in a nonchalant way, as if taking the lives of these men, murders or not, was nothing to him. And it was nothing to him. Of course he'd never kill an innocent person, she could see none of them would do that. But the thought of taking a life never sat well with her.

Ophelia had been in the medical field for awhile, dealing with intense cases many times before. She's seen death, unable to save her patient at times. Although her fatality rate couldn't even come close to the men before her. They probably stopped keeping count. It's probably better that way.

She trusted these men. She didn't at first, of course, men who kill like they do couldn't be trusted right off the bat. That would be foolish. She did her research, finding the files of each member of the force, even Soaps. The one thing that made her warry was Ghost's lack of a photo in his file. There wasn't even one of him with the mask, it was just empty where the photo should have been. But she knew better than to ask anyone about it, Ghost would give her a cold shoulder, probably be upset that she read his file in the first place. Gaz probably wouldn't know much about it and Price would give her some joking answer.

Their ride was coming to an end as the small, broken down house came into view out the side door of the helio. Her new home for the next two days. She hoped it wouldn't take any longer than that. Price had told her that they usually had some sort of estimate on the time but it could end earlier or end up taking a week extra. There was no telling, not really.

"I know it's not cozy, but it's safe and at least has a bed and running water. We had it cleared earlier this week so we could use it at our safe house. We have two more safe houses in locations that will be marked on your tac map." Price handed her a small GPS handheld that had a screen with a map as well as a paper map that matched the handheld.

"Why two maps?" Ophelia asked as she examined the two, and noticed they were identical.

"The handheld can track our exact locations, we all have trackers that will show as little white dots on your handheld. If the light goes out, we died. It's attached to a heart monitor we always wear. Helps identify the living. If you tap the white light, it'll show our call sign so you can see exactly who is where."

"The paper map?"

"If we get DDoSed."

"DDoSed?" Ophelia cocked her head to the side, there were terms she was still learning as her time continued on the base.