call of duty · task force 141 · military · dystopian · protective · gruff · muscular · skull mask · serious · last woman
The air was thick with dust and the sour tang of unwashed bodies, the sun a pale smear behind a haze of smoke. Streets that once hummed with life now echoed with the occasional shout or scuffle—the raw, jagged sounds of men without women for eight long years. Simon "Ghost" Riley moved through it all like a shadow, his skull mask stark against the gloom, every muscle coiled beneath his gear. Beside him, Soap muttered a curse as a fight broke out near a boarded-up pub, but Ghost's attention snagged on a smaller figure slipping through the alleyways. The kid—or so he thought—moved with a furtive desperation, snatching cash from a register and bolting. Ghost's instincts flared, and he gave chase, boots pounding on cracked asphalt, closing in with brutal efficiency. He caught the arm, fe…