Through photos and codes.
Soap×Photographer&HackerFem!Reader
"You think you'll make it out alive from here?"
"Better be, I joined to make a change after all."
You laugh, looking down at your third pint. "What a stubborn poor bastard you are, Johnny." You chug it down, the liquor burning the top of your mouth, lingering in your tongue, wetted and soft lips leaving the glass. He puts his elbow on the table, burying his face into his forearm, his hand grabbing his own neck, his eyes are fixated on you, while the other keeps a hold of his pint.
"So where will you be heading next?"
"Never understood why you love that track; the weather conditions are awful, and the track is a fuckin' death trap on its own."
You look down at your pint as if the liquid inside would give you an answer.
"Maybe I love it just as much as you love to be in this hell."
Silence. The two of you maintain eye contact for a few seconds.
"You always find a way to cage me up, huh?"
"I guess that's my specialty."
He deeply hums in agreement before speaking.
"I'm having a mission this week in the Pacific."
He doesn't look enthusiastic about it; he doesn't look at you while speaking. He's looking down at his empty cup, his iris getting smaller from the thought.
"Might just get a swim in this heat, ain't we now?"
You try to lighten up the situation. His eyes look up, seeking you. You smile at him; it's small, kind of a sign of reassurance, as if you're convincing him that everything will be alright and that the mission will be a success.
Silence brings the two of you together, sharing each other's presence, creating a comfortable ambiance for the two of you to take in. You pull your head up to look at the wood ceiling, eyes heavy with every blink you make.
"Are you going to drive me back home? 'Cause I'm wasted as hell, Johnny."
"Didn't make a backup plan about that, lass."
It's the deep hours of the night; one part of the world is still asleep while another part is still awake, and some are waking up from their slumber.
Price light his cigar shooting a glare at him, maintaining eye contact for a few seconds, as if to say that he will be count on him on this mission, after all the CQB test went well and he even beat Gaz by a few seconds so he really doesn't need to feel this sense of drought but nonetheless it's seats in his stomach and mind swaying just like the loud waves underneath him.
In 60 seconds he's going to put on his gas mask, pull out his MP5SD and rope down the main deck, that's the first objective to surpass, it reminds him of the days in the 3rd Battalion, he met you around that time,
Finally the ship is on sight, Price tosses out his cigar and everyone is focused on it , taking every small detail printed in their mind.
"Lock and load." Ten seconds pass.
"Green light! Go! Go! Go!" They all fast-rope down from the helicopter, landing on the main deck and outside bridge with crew members inside. The adrenaline is starting to kick in. Price is leading the team. Their objective is to recover a suspected nuclear device, which is hidden in a crate inside one of the ship's cargo holds.
Everybody on board that ship is hostile; no one needs to remain alive in there.
Soap follows down Price, checking both stairs and corners. Going down the first pair of stairs, they are met with a drunk enemy: "Пей на здоровь-" Yeah, not today, mate. Soap shot him down immediately as the rest of the team cleared the crew quarters quickly.
They proceeded to the freighter deck, and Soap is met again with the cold wind of the sea. Today the waves are high, and the sea is almost trying to devour the ship and bring it under the cold water that surrounds it.
Yes, we got company indeed, Gaz. Johnny thinks in his mind."Hammer Two-Four, we got tangos on the 2nd floor."
Hammer Two-Four sprays its minigun across the floor, killing all enemies to then proceeding to take off and head back to base.
It all feels like a fever dream, all of it, maybe something out from a game but there it went.
"Copy Hammer. Wallcroft, Griffen, cover our six. The rest of you, on me."
Price opens the door. They enter inside checking their corners! Moving ahead and clearing their path, taking the stairs to go down each time, sometimes even meeting a few enemies, They get stack up at a doorway on of the team peeks around the door, but moves away as hostile bullets almost hit him. Price throws a flashbang into the room. They move down again and engage hostiles spread throughout the compartment. They clear the room.
Gaz gets a radiation reading from one of the crates at the end of the room.
"I'm getting a strong reading sir. You might want to take a look at this."
Gaz opens the crate to reveal a nuclear device covered by an Arabic flag.
"Hmm… its in Arabic… Baseplate, this is Bravo Six. We've found it. Ready to secure package for transport."
"No time, Bravo Six. Two bogies headed your way fast. Grab what you can and get the hell outta there."
"Fast movers. Probably MiGs. We'd better go."
"Soap, grab the manifest in the container. Move."
There's rush in soap that makes his blood pump out faster than usual maybe it's the adrenaline from everything he grabs the manifest as fast as possible.
"Wallcroft, Griffen, what's your status?"
"Already in the helicopter sir. Enemy aircraft inbound…Shit! They've opened fire! Get out of there! Now!"
There's no time to look back as they are already running for their lives.
An explosion erupts in front of them, they all fall to the ground for a few seconds, cold water getting inside their vest, the ship is tilting, the MiGs have opened fire on the ship and there was not time to lose, every millisecond counted to save their lives, and not even one needed to go to waste.
"The ship's sinking! We've got to go, now!" Gaz tells him shaking his shoulder up for a brief second.
Johnny is trying to get up, but the water around him it's making the task difficult, the glass of the mask is a bit broken, a hand is placed in front of him and he doesn't even think, Price gets him up, he feels dizzy
Captain Price: "Big Bird, this is Bravo Six we're on our way out! On your feet, soldier! We are leaving! Get to the catwalks! Move move move!"
Everything in his body just tells him to run, there's no time for thoughts to process, there's is no time to look, all he has to do is just run to the Heli,
His view is slowed as if he just taking all in and nothing at the same time, escaping from the rising water that acts like a threat every instance, in his pocket all he has is the manifest he grabbed but that can be dealt with later, for now all he has to do is just survive.
Getting to the main deck of the ship, he's met with the cold wind, wide eyes searching the Heli, just to get out of this cold, wet hell; finding it in time, he jumps for it; he's losing his grip on the ramp. Gaz notices and frantically points at him. Price notices and turns around; he's rushing to grab him. "Gotcha! We're all aboard! Go!"
"Roger that, we're outta here. Baseplate, this is Big Bird..." The voices fades off his ears, the sound of the high waves swallowing the rest of the ship into the freezing cold sea water.
You are shopping for a few new lenses for your camera in Oxford Street, the weather is cloudy, the street is full of people, so full that you almost feel clamped between the people passing, As they push or try to walk in the busy road, you make it halfway to the store, and while you are tryin' to go in the direction the store is, someone bumps into you, "Hey! try to-" While anger tried to take over, shock does instead, your breath leaves as your eyes widens to the scene in front of you,
"Oh, Sorry I didn't mean to..." The guy in front of you goes silent as his body becomes stiff seeing you; The guy in front of you is Jack, the two of you broke off a week ago, you got to know him because you and him worked for the same magazine, after seeing him a few times at the same circuits you decided to give it a shot, ...after all you two seemed to be a good match, helping each other out on multiple occasions, It was easy to fall in love with him, he was charming and was genuinely a nice guy, there was never a problem with him but when you started your work life got into the way,
You two just share a soft smile, and wonder off to where you were before; once strangers then lovers to back to strangers again.
It's time to get back to Hereford, you're on the train with your laptop on reviewing the photos you took in Silverstone, a notification comes from below, you respond to the sender "Sorry, in public right now, might text later if I'm available." you close the tab, but then another message came, you open it:
"We're thinking about starting the recruiting program, any thoughts?
"isn't it too soon? and didn't i gave a scheduled date already?"
"i know but are you sure you don't want now? I'm just saying that it's seems like a good time to start."
"Just stick to the plan."
You finally come home, putting your expenses on the kitchen isle you fall on the couch, staring at the ceiling you start overthinking about the happenings of this week,
You decide your better off working,
Opening the door to your small studio, you are met with a messiness
it warms you, you never really liked having a squeaky clean house, and not a complete mess of a house, in it's own way it is organised and clean.
Hopping to your chair you click the photos you took at the circuit, suddenly johnny pops up in your mind,
You too met at a circuit, you were sat next to him, engrossed on your camera trying to take the perfect shot of every car passing, until he interrupted you,
Looking back you were met with those piercing blue eyes, his face looked softer then even when he was serious, it gave away a warmth.
You take another breath reminiscing on the past, you would've never imagined at the time that he was trying to make it in the SAS, but there he is now.
Sometimes you can't understand him but at the same time you can, it's his life after all, not yours, but a feeling of worry still surrounds your heart.
You might be a bigger pawn than expected.
(hello, the writer here, so sorry for not being active being busy with school and various, I'll be writing as much as I can, thanks for the patience.)
