If I told you about
the darkness
inside of me would you
still
look at me
like I'm the Sun?
AN awkward silence filled the entire meeting room, I was sitting down with the cup of coffee still in my hands, eyes fixed on the table. In the meanwhile John was scrolling through some papers with so much concentration, as I moved my gaze on him I noticed my picture on the folder he was holding.
"Is it necessary reading it right in front of me?" I broke the silence, frowning a little. Seeing someone reading the hell I've been through was uncomfortable, even though it was necessary, but still.
He knew I was a reserved person so it fueled my irritation more, "I didn't have time to read it in my office." He sighed and closed the file, with a light thud he let it drop on the table.
I opened my mouth, about to respond to him but the door opened abruptly, three deep masculine voices filling the entire room. "We can't get a damn break." One of them said as they approached the other free seats around the table.
And it seemed like they didn't even notice my presence. John then cleared his throat, catching their attention, "It's rude to not greet the new team's member." He said with an amused tone.
I raised my head from the cup and averted my gaze on the three guys — massive guys. Only one in particular caught my attention, he was wearing a skull patterned balaclava and.. sun glasses?
"Grumpy woman?" A familiar voice said and I looked at the guy with the hawk cut, I swear I almost laughed on him. "Dang." He murmured with a surprise expression, before turning to John.
"Soap, Ghost and Gaz. This is our new teammate, call her Scylla." John presented me to them and I gave a slight nod, "I hope we'll get along well." I just replied.
Soap couldn't seem to take his eyes off of me, while Gaz and Ghost gathered around the laptop with Price.
*
"When Makarov escaped, he mobilized his army on multiple fronts. Konni group hit the Urzikstan Port before sunrise, Farah was there." Laswell spoke through the meeting call, showing us slides of the new enemy and his group.
"She hurt?" John asked with a worried tone, holding his usual cigar between his index and thumb. "Negative. Her team engaged, took casualties – left Konni with a kill count of her own." Laswell responded.
Gaz let out a sigh, "Good on ya, Farah. What'd they get from the port?" He proceeded to ask.
"A shipment of American missiles." Her words made me narrow my eyes. How did a russian get missiles from America?
"Konni's got their own missiles.. What does Makarov want these for?" Soap pushed Gaz aside and focused his gaze on the missiles' pictures.
"We need to find out. I'm tracking them now. Once I get a fix, we'll action it." Laswell said and moved the slides to a map. I just came back into action and I already wanted to go away, what did I throw myself into?
This was going to be extremely difficult, even risky. "You said multiple fronts, Laswell.. Give us a target." Ghost's deep voice from behind made a shiver run down my spine. I turned my head to the side and rested my chin on my shoulder, my eyes then laid on his tall figure.
Our gazes met for a brief moment before I looked back on the meeting call. "Konni forced are converging on a nuclear power plant in Urzikstan as we speak."
"Is the plant active?" John asked and turned off his cigar in the ashtray, before placing down his hands on the table and leaning forward on the laptop.
"Abandoned when the ULF beat Barkov." Laswell showed a picture of Barkov and I immediately recognized him. My team was sent on a mission to neutralize his men while I backed away.
"Then what's there?" Gaz asked, "All five of you. As soon as you can."
*
It took me two days of training to get back on track, my body wasn't used to trainings anymore and it ached badly. Luckily I had a high tolerance so I didn't let it take a toll on my performance.
Fixing the helmet with the comms on my head, I started taking deep breaths, ignoring the smoke from Price's cigar that came right in my direction. "Rog, Scylla and I'll recce the plant. Soap and Gaz, secure the perimeter. Ghost cover us with the sniper," He spoke into the comms.
"If Makarov's going nuclear, we'll stop him in his tracks." He added before tossing away the cigarette and standing up from his seat. All of us had the same uniform and gear. I took out my old black bandana and started wrapping it around my neck while I listened to the informations.
"Solid copy. Let's get after it, Bravo." Soap responded and got up with Gaz, ready to push down the crate.
"How is it to be back?" Price asked me as he stepped right in front of my seat. I had to raise my head to meet his eyes, since I was still sitting and trying to not let anxiety take over. "Hell." I simply responded and took another deep breath.
"You'll do fine, Scylla. Just follow my instructions and use stealth tactics." He flashed me a reassuring smile and patted my shoulder, I couldn't help but force a tiny smile to thank him. "Good girl."
"One minute!" The jumpmaster signaled, we were so close to jump down and my anxiety grew worse. With a last deep breath, I finally got up from my seat and approached the rest of the team, swinging my weapon over the shoulder.
Gaz and Soap started pushing the crate towards the closed ramp, "Crate's good to go."
"That's our gear on the ground if we need it." Ghost said, turning around to face everyone, then his eyes laid on me for a few seconds. In return, I arched a brow at him.
"We will." Price nodded his head before stepping closer to the ramp, signaling to me to follow him. Fuckin' Hell.
The ramp started to open, a bright light flashing towards us before my gaze focused on the plant underneath us.
"Pull altitude is 2000 AGL." Price spoke through the comms and turned to look at me, then at the others behind us.
"Cuttin' it close!"
"That's how we do.."
"Roger up at the rally point!" Ghost and Soap bumped their fists as the jumpman opened the crate's parachute, letting it drop in the void. Then he turned to look at me, gesturing with a hand to go ahead, "Standby!"
I took slow steps next to Price and he squeezed my shoulder with a hand, "You remember how we do it? Yeah?" He asked me and I responded with a nod.
"Go!" The jumpman exclaimed and Price immediately ran, letting his body drop in the void. I followed right after and the strong pressure knocked the air out of my lungs. I shut my eyes tightly, I didn't want to look or else I would've started panicking.
I am strong.
At a good height I deployed my parachute and finally began breathing again, "Watcher-1 to Bravo, ISR is overhead." The comms came online, Laswell immediately connecting to watch over us. "Be advised, Konni has three helos on the ground. Locations marked with orange smoke."
"Extract points for the nuclear material." Ghost butted in. I was slowly descending towards a building while Price landed safely on the other one.
"Affirmative. Those helos are your primary targets. Destroy them and we can keep this threat contained."
"Roger that, Las." I responded and finally landed on the building. I got rid of the parachute and exercised my breath to calm down. Moving my gaze around the place, I noticed the orange smokes Laswell was talking about. The helos were radiation free so we could use explosives make the work easier.
"Scylla, I destroy this one, you go to the other one. Ghost, check on Scylla and have her back." Price's voice oozed from the comms. "Roger that, Captain." I responded and grabbed my weapon, switching off the safety.
I climbed down from the building and started to head towards the other helo, sneaking behind walls and crates as I got closer and closer. I crouched down and turned to look at my side, noticing a RGL-80, laying on the ground. I quickly grabbed it and checked its grenades, "Perfect for me." I murmured before standing up from behind the crate and pointing the weapon towards the helo.
I pulled the trigger a few times, letting the grenades fall towards the helo and explode one after another while the enemies started yelling, probably looking for me. Gun fires erupted from the other side of the plant and a loud explosion made everything tremble, Price took out the other helo as well.
I took advantage of the gun fire and sneaked away towards the other helo, "Scylla to Price, I'm moving towards the third." I spoke through the comms as I made my way towards the last target.
I recharged the RGL and hid behind a container, before peaking out and firing the grenades right under the helo. "Kaboom, baby."
I watched how it exploded, pieces flying in the air, a big fire erupting and its heat expanding towards me. I clicked over the button of my comms, "Last helo destroyed."
"Nice work. Whatever Konni's after stays on the ground." Laswell responded to my call, "Be advised, Scylla and Bravo-Six, Konni has entered the reactor. You need to get down there." She added and my eyes widened, "The reactor? What?" My steps were quick towards the entrance and I noticed Price's figure standing next to it, signaling me with a hand to come faster.
As soon as I approached him we ran inside, taking down the enemies quickly. I took Price's back while he headed towards the reactor's entrance, pushing the button to open the armored gates. "Scylla!" He called out to me and I took down the last few enemies before running after him.
As the gates prepared to open, me and Price quickly recharged our weapons and grabbed new mags from the enemy's supplies. "Konni found something! They're bringing in secondary extraction! We have to stop them now." Soap's voice ringed in my ears.
The gates finally opened and Price immediately fired at the guards on the first floor while I took down the ones extracting cannisters. "All stations, Konni's extracting cannisters from
the reactor!" I said and aimed my rifle towards the other guards, firing at them.
"Scylla, can you confirm the contents?" Laswell asked and before I could respond a yellow-ish smoke erupted from the reactor. "Fuckin' hell!" Price shouted , "Konni's extracting chemical weapons," He exclaimed, "This is Six! Reactor's sealed, we're locked in!"
"Locked in? What the fuck do you mean?" My body went on panic mode, my eyes were wide open with terror, "Price, what the fuck do you mean?!" I walked towards him quickly, shaking his shoulders frantically as I waited for an answer.
"ISR shows Konni personnel entering the reactor." Laswell informed us and I gripped onto my weapon once again, "Find cover! We're on our way!" Gaz said before turning off the comms.
The gas was slowly raising, almost at our level, and I stared at it with an horrified expression. Price grabbed my arm and abruptly dragged me with him towards an higher level. "Watch out!" I pushed him to the side as a bullet went flying past him.
We grabbed our weapons and started to return the gun fire, but the more we took them down the more they came. The gas was slowly reaching our positions and the thought of dying by it was coming up in my head.
"Captain, we're up too!" Gaz suddenly spoke, "Grab the rope." Ghost said and I looked around, searching for the damned rope, "There's no rope—" But then it just fell right in front of my eyes.
I took out my ascender just like Price did and attached it to the rope. He was so quick on getting pulled up. I jumped and grabbed my ascender, but before I could leave one of the Konni's jumped after my leg, almost dragging me down.
I let out a scream, accidentally inhaling the gas, "Fucker, get off of me." With a hand I grabbed my gun and shot him in the head, his body falling and disappearing in the gas. My lungs were starting to burn, my vision blurried. I coughed harshly, the feeling of my throat closing up was horrible.
The ascender started to work and pulled me up towards the exit. A pair of strong arms grabbed my body and I couldn't even recognize him, "We got ya, we got ya." A rough voice spoke, trying to reassure me, but the gas was taking a big hit on me. My body felt numb, my lungs were burning and my vision was completely blurred.
"Stay with us, Scylla." The voice spoke once again, now it was muffled and almost unrecognizable. The image of my mother, smiling, appeared and everything seemed to feel so comforting. You're so strong, Riri.
"Stay with us.."
I wish I was that strong. In this life I was never strong enough and I got punished severely for that.