Game: Call of Duty: Ghosts

POV: Logan Walker

Time: After the mission "Sin City"

Gone…

Just like that. Nothing can be done. Perhaps it is this realization that makes this all so much harder. The Ghosts squad remains silent in the roar of the helicopter which flies them all back to base. Not home. Base. There is no home for them to return to and the two Walker brothers have been freshly orphaned. The shock has not completely worn off and their minds of steel resist more than a civilian's would. Logan looks up at the empty seat across from him, where his father should have been. Where he would have been, had Logan been able to completely wrest Rorke's gun away. Too slow, too weak…too late. Nothing can be done. Just like that.

Gone…

His father's voice still rings clearly in his mind. "I'm proud of you, Logan."

Proud of what? He couldn't save him. He failed. The one time he should have fought with all his warrior's strength and skill. He should have shown his father's work paying off there. But he didn't. He struggled and he did not succeed. Logan fights back the tears, biting the inside of his cheek and tearing his gaze from the empty seat. The bullet lodged in his ribs throbs painfully enough to make a lesser man cry out in agony. Logan can hardly feel it as he gazes out with blurry eyes at the desolate, destroyed, dead landscape below. No sign of life, every building collapsed or crumbling. Nothing survived. How did this happen? Whose fault was it? Who's to blame for everything? The Federation? Almagro? Ramos? Rorke? …None of these.

Logan himself is to blame. He couldn't save him…He loses the fight against his tears; they slip silently from his once-warm brown eyes. A darkness has extinguished their light, killing something deep inside along with his father. Logan closes his eyes and lays his head back against the headrest.

"Everything's gonna be…okay…"

But it wasn't. It isn't. Nothing will ever be "okay" now. He won't stop until Rorke is dead. He knows Hesh won't back down, either. Together, they will destroy Rorke, even if they die in the process. Redemption is key and a Ghost will not succumb to mourning when there is a war to be won. So the cycle of violence continues, an eye for an eye; a life for a life, in this case. Logan's eyes open. A new electricity sparks within them, kindling a fire which takes the place of the dead darkness. He meets Hesh's green-eyed gaze and he sees the same fire in them. Hesh nods once at him, a silent agreement and understanding passing between the orphaned brothers.

Let's do this.