A Ghost's End

We started walking the distance to the stronghold. Normally on marches, we'd have rucksacks for the rest of our shit, but since this is a stealth operation, all we had were our weapons, our armor, and a few rations. Fun, right?

We took breaks in between our march to enjoy our crappy rations, and take a breather. We mostly sat in awkward silence, since we usually just talk about the mission, although there have been a few times we'd talk about personal shit. We're in a profession where certain death is pretty much a part of the job description, so might as well right?

"Do you have any idea what was going on at the stronghold?" I asked. Kyle looked at me with a questioning look. "You really don't listen to any of our briefings don't you?" "Shut the fuck up and answer the damn question." I said impatiently.

"Calm down, just pointing out a fact." he said with near zero emotion, as usual. "I'm pretty sure you know that we're up against a terrorist group." Obviously. "They should be connected to a newly emerging group in the middle east, hence why they dropped us in Afghan soil." I already knew this shit.

Kyle looked at me seriously "Just pay attention would you?" he said. "However, new Intel suggests that this group has connections to a superpower, we're meant to investigate the connection in its entirety."

"Man, I knew there was a reason I didn't pay attention." I said while eating the rest of my MRE. Kyle gave no noticeable reaction. "I'm surprised they haven't adjusted that attitude of yours." he said. "It's cuz I get the results they want." "And what would those results be?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "We're government sanctioned hitmen, assassins, bounty hunters pretty much, what the fuck do you think?"

"Hey we still got orders, and if they say alive, then we follow." What the fuck does he mean alive? This job has nothing but dead, rotting corpses. "It don't matter what the job is, we kill, or get killed. I'd much rather prefer the former. And I plan on keeping it that way." "To survive?" he asked. "No, cuz it's fun beating the fuck out of the enemy."

"You're a psychopath." Kyle said, still with no emotion. "Got a problem with that?" I snapped. "No, as long as you're effective, it's fine by me, besides makes you less dull than any soldier in this day and age." he explained. "Coming from a guy who sounds like feelings are complete bullshit." he shrugged, not surprised.

"Whatever works for us, we got a job and I do it best the way I am." gotta say I'm a little curious how he got this way. We walked a little more until our rations were already at half, but by then, we could see the stronghold. It was huge, alright. A long, and tall concrete wall stood between the abandoned houses and the outside. Around twelve guards lined the walls watching over each four sides of the damn fortress. That doesn't even come near to how many were inside, that were within sight. Kyle began to set up his sniper and adjusted his scope to the distance between our high position to the stronghold.

"How many we got?" I asked Kyle, he stayed silent. He just stayed there silent and laying on his stomach. "Yo Kyle, how many we got?" Still no response, is he deaf or something? "For the love of..." I was prepared to kick the shit out of him before he gave me a gesture to hold off. "You really need to calm down." he said, finally. "I count twelve on guard on the walls." he adjusted slightly to the right.

"Twenty on the east side, scattered and sleepy. Easy pickings." he adjusted to the opposite side. "Thirty in the buildings in the west, sleepy but a lot." For a second, I would've thought he was worried. "The rest must be in the buildings." he said, adjusting his sights to the center of the stronghold, toward the biggest building. "I see ten inside. Two by the entrance, three on the second floor, and five on the third."

"Anything about these guys imply a superpower involved?" "Nah, weapons are your standard AKs, no modifications, old mounted pickups, some RPGs." This is gonna be easy then, near hundred barely armed terrorists against two elite killers. What could possibly go wrong. I thought to myself "Maybe I should take my time have some fun." I can feel myself grinning at the idea. I saw Kyle looking at me with a questioning look, raising his brow under his mask.

"You really are a psychopath." I found it funny, he seems to have no problem with and yet he called me out on it. "I'd like to think I turned out ok." I shrugged. "Besides, I'm just honest about my fucked up thoughts. If that makes me a psycho then so be it."

"Whatever man, just get ready to go down there." Kyle ordered. "Don't start feeling something now, I'm going." I triple checked my USP .45, , MP5, and my utilities to see if they're all there and functional. Everything seemed to be good to go, I turned on my radio and checked to see if all was green on both mine and Kyle's piece. We switched to a channel made for our unit and tested it to see if we could hear each other.

We gave each other nods to signal that everything was good, then I made my way down to the ground and started walking toward the stronghold. A stronghold filled with roughly eighty enemies against me and my partner who's a few hundred meters away with a sniper, along with the fact that we only have little intel to go on on the entire damn place.

"At this point they're honestly trying to get us killed." I said to myself, letting out a chuckle at the idea.