War Dog

Chapter 19

I crouched down in the rubble left behind as bullets flew overhead. I tucked myself in against the cover, panting in the  heat of Kabul. The modified boots and gloves I wore protecting the pads of my hands and feet from the heated ground, the doggles protecting my eyes from the bright sun overhead. I glanced around trying to find Ghost. I could smell him, but with the dust, the heat, the gunpowder and enemy soldiers sweating, I was struggling to pinpoint his location.

I heard footsteps approaching my cover, and before the enemy could find me, I leaped out, my jaws clamping around his throat. Teeth sunk into unprotected flesh and a jerk of my head removed the soldiers throat from his neck. The soldier stood there for a second, surprise and horror mingling on his face as his legs slowly collapsed underneath him as his body came to the realisation that he was dying.

I slunk close to the ground moving to a new position of cover. A bullet strayed too close, straight through my ear. I growled in pain but kept moving. It hadn't been my aim to get a modified ear piercing, but alas. I felt blood trickling down my ear but ignored it. 

"Wolf, what's your location?" Ghosts voice growled into the earpiece, relief flooding me as I finally got contact from him.

"Ghost! I'm south of the soldiers under heavy fire. I think there's three or four of them. Taken one of 'em out. I'm pretty close to where we arrived."

"Copy, coming to you Wolf." Relief flooded me and I waited crouched down behind the wall I'd find and counted down the minutes until Ghost arrived. I heard the familiar click of Ghosts gun. The volley of bullets slowed and stopped. The immediate vicinity cleared and the comforting presence of Ghost approached my cover. I stepped out from behind the cover, Ghost's eyes immediately catching the wound on my ear, blood now caked with dirt and dust congealing around the wound. 

"Tsk. Ceri." He growled at me and pulled out a medkit. 

"It's fine," I stood patiently while he pulled out saline and gauze and cleaned the hole up. 

"Ceri, I am not having you sent to the damn hospital when we get back to base because you caught an infection."

"I really wish Dr. Cooper hadn't told you how easily we get sick. You're like a damn helicopter mum, I swear to God." Despite my complaints I stood still as he applied a thin covering of second skin over the wound on both sides. My ears twitched as he finalised his ministrations, and declared me ready to continue moving on.

"Little Wolf. If you let yourself get sick and you're out of action because you were negligent, I'm going to be pissed off."

"Yeah yeah, maybe your new callsign should be 'worry wort'" I snort dropping back to all fours. Ghost cuffed me over the back of my head, sending me chuckling as I lope along next to him. He glanced at the rest of my body, checking to see if any other injuries had occurred after our separation. 

"I'm fine Ghost, really. No other injuries, promise." 

"Fine. We need to get into the compound. Can you manage to do that without getting shot again?"

"You don't like my edgy new piercing? Maybe I should get an earing made from a bullet casing like those plugs people wear?" I flicked my tail at the back of his thigh as I teased, a wolfish grin on my face. Ears twitched as moved quietly through the war torn and abandoned streets. There were still some civilians hiding out, mostly inside the few homes still left standing. The streets had soldiers crawling all over them, haphazard and unorganised. 

They had been organised enough however when they'd come across us we'd been separated quickly, I'd chased one of them down taking him out as he fled, Ghost being pushed away through gun fire. They'd hunted me down one or two at a time before realising I was easily taking them down when they approached. So they'd banded together using suppressing fire keeping me under cover and keeping my jaws and claws away from their bodies.