Hotel Six: A Call of Duty Fanfiction

Chapter 13: The Village

"You alright there?" Price asked her.

She blinked and looked away from him. "Yeah, I'm fine, why?"

"You look a little worried."

"No, I'm alright." She turned further away from him to look at the other end of the bookshelf. Her eyes landed on the empty glass in his hand. "Here, let me fill that for you."

"Oh, no, it's-" He almost finished his statement, but when she reached for it, he sighed. "Alright; but only a little more."

She dipped her head. "Sounds good. I'll be right back."

When she returned to the room with his drink, Jessica noticed Price looking at a small table at the end of one of the sofas. He was very still, barely even breathing it seemed as he stood there.

"What're you looking at?" she asked.

After a beat of silence, he hummed nonchalantly, and took the glass. "Just looking at your pistol." he said. "Gaz's if I'm not mistaken."

The blood in her veins almost ran cold. "... Oh, yeah... What about it?" she asked.

"It looks like it has a new inscription on it."

She looked away form him with a stony expression on her face. "I know you've seen it before, sir." she said. "No need to act surprised by it. Not even sure why you're interested."

He was quiet again, and his voice softened. "You still miss him, don't you?"

Jess shrugged. "Who wouldn't? It hasn't been that long, Price."

The Captain nodded and looked out the window ahead of him. "No, it hasn't." He looked at his drink and sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

"It's alright. I can't let it weigh me down." Her fingers worked in her palms. "Every time I wake up, I have to live without him, and if that's the case, I have to actually live without him."

He looked at her. "I'm glad you've been able to thrive as well as you have; you take good care of yourself."

"I can't afford not to." she replied. "Besides, what would you do without me?" 

Price grinned at her, challenge gleaming in his eye. He opened his mouth to reply, when the clock on the wall chimed 22:00. "Ah." he mused. "I should probably get to sleep. But, good news," He patted her on the shoulder as he walked by. "We get to sleep a little longer."

She smiled. "What time do you want me to be there tomorrow?"

"No later than 08:30." 

Roach was stiff as a board as he crept through the tall grass behind Ghost. His eyes were darting all around, certain he would see Ultranationalists lurking in the dark. He jerked his rifle up at something moving a few yards away up on a rock ledge; an axis deer was mindlessly chewing on a mouthful of weeds and grass when he took aim at it, and it's sensitive ears pricked and its body went rigid.

"Don't make any sudden moves, Roach," warned Jessica. "If it runs or makes an alarm, you'll give us away; if we do have a potential threat on our hands, they might look for that."

"There are other predators out here with us, Gal; no need to be that wary." said Soap.

Price held up a fist and everyone stopped, peering ahead at whatever had halted them. The Captain motioned them to get down, and slowly moved up. 

"What are we lookin' at, sir?" asked Ghost over the com.

"Looks like a convoy," he replied, looking through a pair of binoculars. "And they're going right into the village."