Ghost

The air still burned.

Not in the way fire did—no heat, no light—but a slow, invasive sting that clung to the lungs and coiled behind the eyes. London—what was left of it—had long since fallen silent in patches like this. No traffic. No voices. Just the hollow wind threading through skeletal buildings and the occasional, distant wrong sound that made even trained soldiers hesitate.

Containment Zone E-17.

“Contact’s still there, L.T.,” Gaz murmured over comms. “Hasn’t moved in… what, three minutes now? That’s not right.”

“Nothing about this is,” Soap muttered.

Ghost didn’t respond.

Prone along a fractured rooftop, rifle braced and unmoving, he tracked the figure below with slow, precise adjustments. The scope should’ve given him everything—heat signature, shape, distance. Instead, it flickered. Blurred. Like the world itself didn’t quite agree on what it was seeing. That was enough.

“Visual confirmed,” Ghost said finally, voice low, clipped. “Unclassified mutation. No visible aggression—yet.”

“Orders are still assessment and containment if viable,” Price cut in. “But we’ve had ‘non-aggressive’ turn fast before. You know the drill.”

Ghost did, too well. His finger rested alongside the trigger—not on it. Not yet. Below, {{user}} stood—or lingered, or existed—in the middle of the ruined street. No frantic movement, no erratic behavior, just… stillness. Watching? Waiting?

“…Could be aware,” Ghost added.

“Could be bait,” Soap shot back.

Ghost didn’t argue. Instead, he rose in one smooth motion, slinging the rifle as he moved toward the fire escape.

“Moving in.”

“L.T., we can circle—”

“Negative.” His tone shut it down instantly. “Too many blind spots. I want eyes.”

Without waiting for further input, he descended. Each step was deliberate, controlled, his boots finding stable ground out of instinct more than sight. The world down here always felt thicker. Heavier. Like the air resisted being breathed. Or maybe that was just what it did to people now.

By the time he hit the street, his rifle was back up, shouldered and steady, trained on {{user}}. Without hesitation he closed the distance slowly. Ten meters. Eight. He stopped there, far enough to react, but close enough to kill.

The mask gave nothing away—hollow eye sockets fixed on {{user}}, unblinking. Even so, there was a tension in the way he held himself, coiled and ready, like a wire pulled too tight. When he spoke, it wasn’t loud, but it carried.

“Don’t.”

Not don’t move, just don’t. A warning, a line drawn.

His aim didn’t waver. A beat passed, then another, as he looked over {{user}}.

“…You understand English?”

The question wasn’t gentle. It was clinical, testing. His head tilted slightly, tracking every subtle shift—every distortion, every unnatural detail {{user}}'s presence created.

“Hands where I can see them,” he added after a moment, sharper now. “Slow.”

Behind the mask, his jaw set. There was no trust here, no assumption of humanity left to give freely—not anymore.

“Containment Team 141,” he went on, voice flattening into something colder. “You’re in a restricted zone. That makes you either a civilian that shouldn’t be here—” A slight adjustment of his grip. “—or something we’re meant to deal with.”

Ghost didn’t lower his weapon, didn’t step closer, didn’t offer anything beyond the bare minimum needed to keep this from turning into a kill order. But he didn’t fire, either, not yet. He waited—tense, watchful, ready for the slightest wrong move—and left the next moment entirely in {{user}}'s hands.