Hotel Six: A Call of Duty Fanfiction

Chapter 7: Hangover

"If your attack is going too well, you're walking into an ambush." — Infantry Journal

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Jessica lay staring at the blood pulsing out of her face. She was rapidly losing consciousness, and soon it went dark. Slowly, her blurry vision returned until it finally settled on a cruel face, snarled up in disgust, distorted by red and orange tongues and waves of heat. His eyes were blazing gold, and he made a loud, falcon-like screech as his mouth unhinged and opened, swallowing the world around them. Terror seized her as she realized she was being swallowed as well, and by her side, Price and Soap, battled frantically to escape the black maw. Price was wailing for Soap as the mouth closed and its teeth clamped shut and severed the Lieutenant in two. Soap's upper half fell beside her, his blue eyes wide and mouth twitching in death spasms, she felt bile rise in her throat.

"SOAP!"

His eyes snapped onto her suddenly perfectly focused and she stepped back, frightened by his alertness. "Why did you sacrifice me?"

Her brows furrowed uncertainly. "What? Sacrifice you... I didn't..."

"Why didn't you save him, Gal?"

Jessica looked up at John, his eyes blank and glowing white. "I-I didn't know! I didn't..." She did a double-take and looked back down at the severed torso in front of her.

It was Gaz. She bared her teeth in disgust as a fly landed on his pale face, crawling over his open eyes and she shooed it away, desperately picking up his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do this!" Tears flooded her eyes and she held him close, burying her face in his shoulder. "I didn't mean to let you die, Gaz, you weren't a sacrifice."

"If you had the chance to change your actions... Would you?"

She lifted her head to look at Price again, but this time she saw an open space, glowing warm like a candle flame, and in the middle, she was holding Gaz, wearing a radiant white gown, a veil flowing behind her; he tilted her chin up for a kiss and leaned in and she felt a warmth in her chest.

Her fingers passed over the divet and she felt an ache. Someone was standing in the distance, shaking his head as he walked away and she felt a deep sense of loss for him. As she took a step forward to see who it was, she heard a raspy voice- a voice she'd never heard before- and the click of a hammer being pulled back.

"Or would you let someone take a bullet for your happiness?" 

She turned around and in a split second, she saw the barrel of a pistol. 

BANG!

The scorching heat of the bullet tearing through her knocked her back to the ground and she fought to get back to her feet.

BANG!

"Wait... No!" She shielded her face as the black silhouette of a man stood over her, crushing her neck under his foot. "NO!"

TAP!

Jessica aggressively started awake and winced when another pebble bounced painfully loudly off her window. She hadn't been this hungover in a long, long time, and she regretted every moment of it. Wearily, she looked at her clock, hardly able to make out the blurry numbers on its face.

It was 08:00.

She heaved in a horrified gasp. "No!"

"Jess!"