"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.

Abdul looked at the man with horror in his dark brown eyes. More men were yelling to each other, and Galaxy knew they'd been made. She slid her head under him and he clung to her shoulders as she ran through the street. "Hang on!" she barked just before she took a mighty leap upward to the roof of a house, racing along its edge until she had to jump to another rooftop.

"Jessica, we're compromised; there are enemy patrols all over the place here. Where are you, over?" Price inquired through the comlink.

She sat behind the cover of a wall of a taller house, setting Abdul beside her and shifting. Jess pulled her rifle to her chest and peered around the corner. Bullets whistled and sang as the chipped away the sandy stone by her face. "I'm near the northeast end of the village, over."

"Can you see the highway to Yasoustar, over?"

She looked around at the streets, now swarming with Russians. "No, not yet, sir." she replied. Jessica gritted her teeth. "I'm gonna make a push and get out there!"

Price became audibly flustered. "Wha- no! Wait, before you go, don't-!"

He was cut off by a loud crackling of static in the line. "Price?" she called back. No answer. "Shit..." Jammer. Her eyes darted around again for a clear path, and the least challenging way seemed to be to jump across the street and try to land on the opposing roof.

She shifted again and grabbed Abdul. "Okay, hang on again. I'm going to jump across."

His eyes rounded. "That's a far jump!" he warned.

Galaxy bunched her muscles and sprang as far as she could. She barley gripped the next roof top, and her back legs slipped on the wall, leaving her dangling vulnerably over the conglomerating group of tangos below her. Abdul yelped as he held tighter to her.

"Hang on!" she exclaimed, her feet scratching the wall as she finally got up onto the roof. She took off running again, dashing for the next roof top, which she managed to land on perfectly this time, and ran along it's edge until she could find another place to jump. Abdul was barely holding on now, and he whimpered every time he heard a bullet blister the roof under Galaxy's feet.

They saw the highway. It was a vast, wide, deserted expanse of sand between the two villages, with just a dusty path running between it and the vague outlines of houses on the horizon. There was a patrol watching the perimeter of the village; they would have to sneak through the patrol if they wanted to get out of there.

"Price-?" She stifled a growl; she'd forgotten about the jammer. Hopefully, they would figure out about the patrol before they got caught outside the perimeter.

Gal howled when a bullet pierced her side just above her hip. She tripped just before the end of a roof and fell heavily into the alley below, getting caught on a clothes line and a couple of weak, wooden crates on her way down. Abdul uttered cries of terror as he fell with her until they both lay on the ground below.

He found himself mostly unharmed aside from a scrape on his leg from the clothesline. "Jessica?!" he whimpered, shaking her shoulder.

Galaxy moaned and shook her head, and then cried in pain when she felt the wound in her side. Her back felt numb, but she was too afraid to see why. "Crap..." She could hear Ultranationalists advancing on them and bristled. "Abdul, do you know how to get to the highway from here?"

He thought for a moment, looking around. "Yeah, I think so."

"Get out of here and stay away from the enemy patrols; I'll catch up with you. Go!"

He nodded and sprinted down the alley and ran as fast as he could toward the expanse, keeping out of the enemies' sight.

Galaxy stifled a painful moan; she found herself unable to move, and wondered if the numbness in her back wasn't paralysis. She heard the Russians approaching, and shifted, picking up her rifle. It was painful, but she'd rather die fighting than let them by where they could find Abdul.

Bullets clattered and yowled against the walls, and men wailed out on the street. She wanted to see what was happening, but moving that far was too hard. What was happening? Who was shooting whom?

Price peered around the corner at her. "Gal?" he called.

She exhaled sharply. "Price!" she said, trying to smile past the pain written in white on her face. "What's going on with the team?"

"Never mind us, we're fine," His blue eyes were concentrated on the puddle of blood on her shirt. "Shit, you're bleeding," he said, kneeling at her side. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know... It hurts like a bitch, but I don't know how bad it really is..." Her eyes widened and she gasped when Price put his hand over the wound and applied pressure while putting his other hand around her back. "Price, Price, let go!" she snarled.

He looked at her wide-eyed.  "It went through; now what?"

She looked at the alley in the direction Abdul went. She could only hope he would know not to run into the crossfire. Her azure eyes turned to Price and she shifted, grabbing her pistol. "... Look away." she said.

Price snatched the pistol away. "No! You're not going to shoot yourself!"

"What are my other options?"

He set his brows and handed her back the gun. "... Fine... I don't want you to do this, but fine. We'll find Abdul, and you can catch up in a minute. Which way did he go?"

She pointed down the alley. "That way."

When Price left with the team, despite the rush of fear she felt, she put the pistol under her chin.

She raced down the alley a mere minute later, the wounds healed. Jessica wove through the alleys, her heart pounding as the enemy grew closer. She saw a small hole in the perimeter wall and she squeezed through it, stuck at the hips before she finally pried through it. Jess looked out at the expanse of desert and panted. Where were they? She looked at a dilapidated tank and jumped up on it to look around, crouching low on it so the Ultranationalists inside the village wouldn't see her.

Jessica caught a glimpse of a concrete tube about two hundred yards out, and little Abdul poked his head out. She waved to him, and he, seeing no enemies, waved back and darted toward the highway.

She sighed relief. He'd be home soon and then all they had to do was wait for close air support. 

She shifted and her ears pinned back. There was a stray Ultranationalist soldier aiming at him with an AK-47.

"ABDUL, NO!!!"

Three shots were fired.

Abdul disappeared in a cloud of sand.

Galaxy launched from the tank to the ground and pelted toward the Ultranationalist, passing Price as she went. She buried her teeth into the soldier's head and shook him back and forth, hearing him scream until his neck broke. She didn't stop shaking until his head pulled free of his shoulders.

Price ran to her. "Jess!"

She didn't hear him. Her azure eyes were focused on the sobbing, wailing boy laying in the sand. Galaxy walked quickly over to him. "Abdul... Abdul, you're okay. You're okay, do you hear me?"

His glassy brown eyes met hers, tears streaming from his eyes. He was saying something in Arabic and he shakily reached out to her, holding her neck and pulling her close.

Galaxy choked. "It's okay. Hold onto me; we'll get you home."

Price stood behind her, but didn't move when she picked him up, shifting to her human shape as she carried him toward the refuge village, sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her.

Jessica entered the village and looked around her wildly. "Someone help!" she cried. She looked around at a bunch of bewildered villagers. "Please, someone! Help! He's hurt!"

Two young boys ran back into the crowd, but no one else moved.

Jessica looked down at Abdul, who was shaking and gagging on fluid. His skin was oddly pale and his eyes were distant. "Come on, baby, you're okay."

Price and the others bounded into the village, and he asked in Arabic for medical personnel. But what he was saying faded in her ears.

"... Abdul?" The boy was still, and the breathing in his chest was gone. His eyes were no longer focused, and his pupils dilated. She squeezed him. "Abdul, come on... Come on, don't do this... You're okay..."

Jessica sank to her knees and her eyes brimmed over. She doubled over him, holding Abdul to her chest, and her body trembling with convulsive sobs.

"ABDUL?!" A woman in a black hijab in about her thirties ran to Jessica and furiously spat deadly-sounding Arabic words at her.

Price intercepted her, and explained that Jessica had been trying to protect the child. The woman, who now seemed to be Abdul's mother, reached out for her son, and Jessica lowered her arms so she could lay the boy on the ground. The woman covered her mouth as a horrified wail echoed the streets, the most mournful sound any of them had ever heard. The wails soon turned to screams, and the mother collapsed on top of her son.

Jessica felt Price's hand touch her shoulder. "Jess?" he murmured. When she didn't respond, he tried to help her to her feet, but her legs were too weak. Covered in blood, with a blank stare, she stayed looking at Abdul, clutched in his mother's arms.

On the evac about an hour later the whole team sat staring blankly ahead of them. Roach flinched at the sound of an airstrike on the compromised village and covered his face with his hands. Ghost put his hand on Roach's shoulder in silence.

Price was holding Jessica, who stared blankly outside, not moving aside from the occasional tear that strayed down her cheek. He couldn't speak, let alone think of words to comfort her. He looked to Soap to see if he could get any kind of guidance from him, only to find that even the lieutenant was wiping away tears.

Jessica, despite her alarming calm, was buzzing with rage. They didn't even spare a child. A child! Fuck them! If she ever saw another Russian, she would gut him and hang him with his entrails.

Abdul... He didn't deserve this. And his mother; lost her husband and her child only days apart. It wasn't fair...

It wasn't fair...