Hotel Six: A Call of Duty Fanfiction

Chapter 18: Refuge

"Only the dead have seen the end of the war." ~Plato

Warning: this chapter contains strong language and suggestive material that some readers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Jessica started awake to the feeling of someone pushing on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see Abdul looking at her.

"Hey, wake up!" he whispered. "It's dawn, and I can hear people walking around the streets; we should start moving."

She stretched awake. "Yeah, sounds good." Her hazel eyes cast to Price who was still asleep, Soap hesitantly poking him with the tip of his boot to awaken him.

Price was just barely awake when a call came over the com.

"Bravo Six, this is Command. Give me a sitrep, over."

Price tapped the comlink. "Not looking good," he replied. "Tise place is crawling with Russians, and worse, we have a kid who got lost in the village, over."

"You're kidding..." muttered Command. It was quite a shock to all of them to hear something so casual from him. "Roger, uhh, how bad is it, Bravo Six? Would you require assistance from another team, or are there enough civilians evacuated to call in an airstrike, over?"

Price thought for a moment. "We haven't seen any other civilians aside from the kid since we got boots on the ground. An airstrike might do nicely, over."

Command chuckled ever so mildly. "Alright, Bravo Six, we can have close air support entering the airspace later in the morning around 1000; suggest you get your asses out of there before then and call in that airstrike, over. "

"Good," he said. "We'll get the kid and ourselves out of here by then. Will we be needed here still, or are we getting an evac after the strike, over?"

"We'll have a relief team drop in once you're out to take care of the civilians; you'll be taking the evac. LZ will be outside the next village to the south, over."

"Yasoustar?" piped in Ghost.

"Affirmative."

Price nodded. "Sounds good, we'll see you there. Out." 

Jessica tilted her head. "Isn't that the refuge village?"

"Yes," said Abdul. 

She nodded. "Alright then. Let's get out of here; show us the way, Abdul."

He grinned cheekily at her. "Can I ride on your back?"

Getting out of the village proved to be more challenging than they had hoped. The team had divided up trying to maneuver around the Untranationalist patrols. Galaxy lay behind the cover of a broken brick wall, Abdul sitting on her back with his hands knotted into her fur in case she needed to run. They watched as a thick patrol of eight men walked around them, scouring the alleys and streets for any sign of the British force.

One Russian was getting far too close. Galaxy wiggled her shoulders to encourage Abdul to slide off. "Stay here and cover your eyes," she whispered. She stalked slowly to the edge of the wall and waited. The soldier started when he saw the massive wolf, but before he could utter a cry , his throat was clasped in her jaws. Gal pulled back behind the wall and held him, rasping and wheezing as the other soldiers carried on in relaxed silence. She grunted as the soldier she held struggled and fought for breath, prying on her face with his hands. Her jaws set a little tighter until finally, he went limp, his neck crunching between her teeth.

Another soldier was walking on the other side of the wall and when he turned the corner, he caught sight of Abdul. He gasped and then made a cry in Russian to his comrades. Galaxy herself gasped and threw the body of the man she held at the soldier, hitting him squarely in the chest with the corpse. Before he could regain his breath, she grabbed his throat, savagely tearing at it until he began to gurgle.