Behind His Eyes (CoD: Ghost Fanfiction)

7

The air was cool, the breeze flowed through the grass slowly, swaying it at a gentle tempo. The night had come and hid the remnants of the day's fight. The cartel had buried their lost members, and as night fell, it seemed as if nothing had happened at all.

Yet somewhere, hidden under the ghillie suit in the field, Ellie lay still. Left behind by her comrades with a bullet wound from a 50 caliber round from when it sliced the skin on the right side of her head. Had the bullet gone another few millimetres to the left, it would have cut through her skull.

Her ears were ringing, and the pain in her head was almost unbearable as she began to come to hours after the fireteam had left. It was too much for her to enjoy the cool breeze that the night gave off.

Ellie blinked an eye open slowly the best she could and her ears slowly stopped ringing as she tried to regain her bearings. Her entire body ached, but her head was pounding worse than any other thing she felt. Her right eye was crusted shut from the dried blood, and she felt her tongue was a bit swollen from biting it on her way to the ground.

She flexed her toes first, feeling them move in her boots. Ellie slowly moved her way upwards, shifting each limb to make sure they were still functional. All of the memories from the day were coming back a bit at a time, and it made her head hurt more.

Ellie lifted her head slowly and glanced around at her surroundings. The field she was laying in was dark, the only light coming from the warehouse a hundred yards away. The moon was hidden behind dark clouds that had begun to drift in, and Ellie could smell the rain coming. The sound of the ocean washing against the cliffs filled her body with a sense of calm that she desperately needed. She looked around the field the best she could, and saw no other human life around her.

She was alone.

Her heart began to race as she realized that the fireteam was long gone as well, leaving her in the middle of cartel territory, alone and hurt. Ellie took a few deep breaths as the worry only caused her head to hurt more.

"Focus, Ellie," she said to herself quietly, taking a few deep breaths to calm the panic attack she felt growing. She felt her sniper laying in the grass beside her, but she didn't bother to pick it up as she shifted to look towards the warehouse. She could see men walking around it, but none of them would be able to see her from so far away in the ghillie suit.

Ellie grabbed her sniper and put it over her shoulder as carefully as she could, being sure not to make too much noise. She stayed low to the ground, the grass staying over her body as she began to make her way towards the treeline.

She stopped every few feet to glance over at the warehouse, but nobody saw her. The crawl was agonizingly slow, but she couldn't risk standing just yet. Her head was pounding, and it took all of her strength to not scream in pain and annoyance. She wished it had just killed her...

Ellie let out a shaky breath as she reached the treeline and risked getting on her hands and knees to get into hiding. She crawled a bit quicker through the brush and over roots until she was well into the woods.

Collapsing back against a tree, Ellie pulled the hood of her ghillie suit off of her head slowly. Part of the fabric ripped when she was shot and stuck to where her blood had dried it to her skin, and the tug of the skin made her wince in pain. She didn't know how bad her injury was, but it sure as hell hurt like a bitch.

Ellie took her hair down from its ponytail and put it up again to keep it out of the way of her wound. After it was tied up, she forced her crusted eye open, wiping away the dried blood. "Gross," she muttered.

Taking a deep breath, she touched the skin lightly where the bullet had grazed her. The laceration was a few inches long, and was split almost a centimetre wide, and very closely cut to the bone. Ellie took a shaky breath when she realized how lucky she really was.

Grabbing at her radio, she made a plea into it. "Raze One to Bravo One, do you copy?"

Silence.

"Price, are you there?" When there was no reply, she cursed. "Gaz? Soap?... Ghost?"

The radio remained static, and Ellie slammed her fist into the root of the tree. "God fucking dammit." Reaching into one of her numerous pockets, she pulled out her phone in hopes to reach Soap. The screen cracked at some point on her way down when she got shot, and it soured Ellie's mood even more.

The time on the screen read just after midnight, and Ellie took a deep breath as she checked for service. Thankfully she had about two bars, but when she tried to make a call to Soap's cell, her phone wouldn't work.

"Don't you fucking dare," she cursed, smacking the phone with her hand. Trying again, the call didn't connect and it instantly cancelled the call. "Fuck! Of ALL the goddamn times to be a piece of shit."

Ellie hissed as the increase in blood pressure made her head throb. She took a few breaths to calm herself, and tucked her phone away. That was a later problem. She needed to cover the wound before it got infected.

Checking her pockets in her vest, Ellie found some bandages and gauze, much to her relief. Placing the gauze over the wound delicately, she wrapped the bandages around her head to keep it in place. She didn't tie it tight enough to make her head ache, but it wouldn't fall off easily. She would definitely need stitches, but that would have to wait until she got back home.

Now that the worst part was done, the next thing she had to do was get the hell out of the area without drawing attention to herself. Ellie tore off the rest of the ghillie suit and vest, leaving her in just her jeans, boots and grey long sleeve shirt. The less she had on, the less conspicuous she would be, and not draw attention to herself.

Grabbing her pistol, she tucked it into her pants and dug into her vest for her passport that she always had with her. It was all she had for identity items, and she only had 50$ in USD in her phone case pocket. "Like that'll do any good," Ellie muttered as she tucked her phone into her pocket.

Grabbing her knife, she strapped it to her pants and hid all of her equipment and the sniper under the ghillie suit just as rain began to drizzle down through the leaves. She would have to try and get some pesos from somewhere if she had any hope in getting home.

Checking her phone one last time, Ellie tried calling Soap and Gaz, but both calls immediately ended. Shaking her head, she tucked her phone away and began making her way out of the trees towards the back of the warehouse.

In the dim light of the warehouse external lights, Ellie could see the security thinned out thanks to the rain now coming down. One man wandered the perimeter alone, cursing out the rain as he walked around.

Keeping to the shadows, Ellie kept her footsteps as quiet as she could to blend in with the rain. She made her way through the brush that filled the side of the dirt road, and she hid behind the crashed truck she had shot the tire of earlier that day. She watched the guard wander near the edge of the lights, and Ellie took that opportunity to sneak around behind him.

Being sure he was out of the line of sight of any door, Ellie silently snuck up behind the man and stabbed him in the throat, her hand going over his mouth in case he screamed. He grappled for her as the blood began to flood from his neck, and Ellie helped his body fall to the ground slowly.

As soon as she knew he was dead, Ellie dug into his pocket for his wallet. She took out all the cash he had before tossing the wallet onto his corpse and tucking the money into her pocket. It wasn't much, but it'd be enough to get her something to eat and maybe a motel room when she got to the closest town.

Ellie snuck off into the darkness, going back to the treeline before any other guards came looking for the one she downed. Hiding under the safety of some leaves, she took her phone out and tried out Google maps. Thankfully, that app still worked and she searched for the closest town or city. The nearest one was almost twenty miles away, it'd take her the rest of the night to get there on foot. She didn't see any trucks or vehicles she could steal, so she'd have to start walking soon if she wanted to make any progress.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Ellie tracked the city and tucked her phone into her pocket. She would have to stay off of the roads if she wanted to make it out of this alive. The cartel's territory expanded into the city she was going to, that much she remembered. She couldn't risk going to the hospital without drawing attention, and that was the last thing she needed.

Her body beginning to shiver from the rain, Ellie began her twenty mile trek through the woods to the nearby city.