Early Birds

Freedom 1

 Worm awoke late, feeling extremely groggy from another restless night. She'd felt really positive after the briefing, and after having a productive day. But the conversation with Ghost brought back that sadness and feeling of being trapped and forgotten about. The feeling of abandonment was a heavy burden for Worm. She had lost her mother at a young age, her father was a soldier so was often on some deployment. 

She was essentially raised by her grandparents, who'd died when she was in college, her father passing away only four years ago. She missed them dearly. She had been alone for so long. With a heavy heart, she showered, dressed and headed for her usual coffee to start her day.

Luckily, Worm had a busy morning to keep her mind off her troubles She listened to her favourite music, humming along while continuing work scanning and coding intel documents to the database. After grabbing some lunch Worm got to work sorting through the thousands of image files attached to the intel reports, checking file formats and converting them for upload to the relevant database entries. 

A sharp knock at the door brought her out of her absorption. Unexpectedly, it was Ghost. Before she could ask him what he needed, he simply stated 'Compound entrance 1400' before turning to go. 

Worm interrupted him 'Why?' she asked puzzled.

'We're going on a hike' he replied before walking out and closing the door. 

Worm was stunned. Ghost had been civil to her last night, no harsh words, complaints or mocking, now he was going to take her on a hike? 'What the fuck?', she thought. Checking the time, she had a half hour to get ready, so she jogged upstairs to her room to get her outdoor gear and hiking boots on. Her excitement building. She was getting out.

Worm was at the door before Ghost. She was excited but her nerves were showing as she played with the cuffs of her hoodie sleeves. Why the change in Ghost? A little voice in her head betrayed her excitement by suggesting he was taking her out into the woods to get rid of her. Fuck, no-one would ever find her body. She quickly shook that thought away as Ghost appeared. 

Looking her up and down, he thought to himself, 'always in that bloody hoodie'. Opening the door for her, he barked 'follow me', before striding out across the car park.

Worm struggled to keep up with his long strides, feeling stiff from lack of exercise. Ghost stopped and unlocked the gate in the base outer fence, turning to her. Watching her hurry towards him, he noticed a limp on her left side. 

He locked the gate behind them striding ahead, calling to Worm 'come on, keep up'. 

Worm responded with a huff 'I've only got little legs, lieutenant'. Ghost scoffed, but surprised Worm by slowing his pace.

For over half hour, they meandered through the the woodland trails up into the hills. Ghost had been wondering if he'd regret asking her to come on a hike, expecting to have his ears assaulted by idle chatter. However, she was silent. So silent, he was concerned and kept glancing back to check if she was okay. But she seemed better that okay, her face was bright and wide eyed, taking in the trees and greenery around her in wonderment, a wide smile on her face as though this was a novel experience. 

Ghost smiled under his balaclava and he wondered how it was this easy to make her smile. Continuing walking he pondered how she seemed like a completely different person. In the compound, she would smile and sometimes appear cheerful, but her body language betrayed this. She had a way of making herself look small, her body showed that she was nervous and jittery at times, often clumsy and had a habit of playing with the cuffs of that hoodie that swamped her small frame. 

Yet, out here, her shoulders were relaxed and her smaller strides were confident and showed good co-ordination. Ghost was surprised at the sudden change in this small woman.

After an hour of walking, Ghost was enjoying the silence, but his mind was on Worm. How had this small woman captured his thoughts and made him so frustrated?. Why was she so secretive about her life and identity? Who was she hiding from? Where was she from? She was a mystery and Ghost, who wasn't the most trusting of people, was struggling to understand who she was and what she was? The irony was not lost on Ghost.

He himself was secretive about his identity and past. Only three people alive, Price, Laswell and Shepherd, knew who he was and only Price and Shepherd knew a little about what his life was before 141. The Task Force knew his real name, but they were instructed to only refer to him by his call sign. So the enigma that was Worm, caught him off guard. 

His curiosity was strong and he wanted to find out more about her. Problem was, Ghost wasn't one for small talk, he didn't usually take time getting to know people. Hell, he didn't even like socialising and usually only listened to conversation, not wanting to take part in any discussion that didn't involve missions. Ghost didn't have a life outside of the military, so he felt he had no idea of how to start a conversation with this woman.

After climbing a steep part of the track, Ghost thought back to Worm limping earlier and gestured to a fallen tree 'we'll stop here and rest'. Worm looked at him and smiled, nodding agreement. 

The odd couple sat, taking a long drink from their water bottles and gazed out at the view ahead of them, enjoying the silent repose. Worm broke the silence 'Thanks for bringing me, it's really beautiful here'. 

Ghost hummed in response before asking 'how's the hip?'. 

Worm was surprised that he'd noticed, but then, she guessed his job meant he had to be observant. 'It's fine, it gets easier when walking' she replied. 

'You injured?' he enquired. 

'No, it's an old injury, It was just a bit stiff from sitting so much', she explained. Seeming satisfied Ghost turned his attention back to the view. 

After a few moments, Worm spoke again 'I'm sorry about what I called you the other night, I'd had a shitty day and your comments stung, I didn't mean to get so angry'. 

Ghost was shocked, he hadn't expected her to apologise to him. If anything, he was the one who was out of line and should be apologising. Looking at her, she didn't look upset or bitter, she looked peaceful. Not knowing how to respond, Ghost simply asked 'Constipated Grizzly Bear?'.

 Worm looked up, her hand going to her face to cover her embarrassment. She let out a quiet 'Sorry'. 

Ghost stood up gesturing to start walking again, but responded 'Nah, don't be, I deserved it'. It was Worm's turn to be surprised. She'd expected anger, but he seemed to be apologising to her. Worm smiled before following him down the track.