Author's Note

After this chapter, i'm gonna have a little break so please be patient

Chapter 7

John placed his back against the wall, right beside the stairwell. With caution, he peeks his head from behind the cover, and examines the stairs. While they surely are not in as good of shape as the used to be, they definitely can support the weight of the soldiers. Looking back to Price, he nods, and brings his Battle Rifle forward. Just as he is about to step forward, Price shoves his way past him. He glares at the officer for a minute, then raises his weapon and proceeds up the stairs.

"Nothing personal mate, Price just likes to lead." MacTavish says as he walks past him. The Captain carefully walks up the stairs, following Price's lead. Behind him, the orange pony sticks her head out, looking at the door. The door is not moving, but John can understand why she is being cautious. He looks back to Yuri, who has an AK-47 trained on the door.

"You go my friend, I'll keep this area secure until everyone else moves up." He says as he closes one eye. John looks back over to the ponies, where the yellow one still appears to be having trouble breathing. Must have been a reaction to the violence she was seeing around her. John wasn't an expert on these things, but he could guess that they probably didn't have very many wars back where they came from, if any. John didn't really feel sorry for it, but he knew that it was out of it's element. And that, he understood.

"Let's go, get moving." He said, looking over the purple pony. The unicorn nodded and told her friends to follow her. Each one slowly ascended up the stairs, with the purple one in the front. The rest went up in the order of blue, pink, white, orange, yellow. The last one was shivering as she went up the stairs, and kept telling herself to 'just put one hoof in front of the other'. John shook his head as he brought the back of his rifle to his shoulder, pointing his rifle down towards the stairs. The stairs creaked under John's weight, probably due to his armor. Still, he wasn't that worried about falling through them.

"Second floor is clear." He hears from above. The first pony gets up the stairs, and looks around. She's followed up by the rest of them, and John eventually manages to get past them. He looks around, and sees MacTavish checking every inch of the room with his sniper rifle. The scope has been removed, and replaced with a red dot sight. Meanwhile, Price was looking out a window, seeming to be checking for any ways to get out of the building. John looked behind him, seeing Yuri get up the stairs, and instinctively bring his gun forward. He carefully rose his own gun, keeping it more towards a downward position. Seeing Price carefully open a doorway to a balcony, he watches as he motions for MacTavish to make his way over there. The Captain complies and moves over to him.

"Soap, I need you to get these... things to the checkpoint. Whatever they are they're still innocents, and have priority." He said as he lowered his M4, now only holding it in one hand.

"What about you?" MacTavish asks as he holds his gun across his chest and gut.

"I have to finish the mission, I'm not going to let Makarov get another shot at killin' you." He says as he begins to walk away. John steps forward.

"I wouldn't do that. There are way too many of Makarov's men around here, you'd just get yourself killed." He said as he stepped over the yellow pony. She gives a whimper and backs away slowly, while the blue one rushes over and places a leg on her shoulder. She stares at John with a hateful expression, but he just ignores it. Price and MacTavish look over to him, with Price giving a questioning glare.

"You have to wait, he knows you're here, and has everything available hunting you down. You'll have to wait to kill him another day." He says. Price gives an annoyed growl. He places his weapon back to his front, and mumbles that he's already been alive too long as it is. John just shook his head and followed him. Outside the window, there was a large drop, with several hostile soldiers below. John backed away slightly, placing his Battle Rifle on his back. Looking around, he found a small balcony that led across to another building. This would be a good escape route. He backed up and prepared himself to run, as Price gave him a questioning look.

"What the heck are you doing?" He asked. John brushed this aside, and quickly launched himself from the ground. He sprinted as quickly as he could, trying to get as much speed as he could before leaping. When he got to the edge of the balcony, he used all of his strength to push himself off the ledge, and head to the other side. The wind howled in his ears as someone stepped out, clearly wondering what he was doing. John flailed his arms in the air slightly, and grabbed hold of the railing of the other balcony. Looking below him, he sees several Russians walking underneath him, with their guns pointed forward, checking left and right. Fortunately, they have not looked up, giving John a couple of seconds to pull himself up. Giving a quick grunt, he reached his other hand to the rail and pulled himself up. Turning around, he sees the ponies with their mouths agape, while Price just gives him a look that says; 'what the heck was that?'.

"Come on, let's go." He says as he pulls his Battle Rifle off of his back. Looking over the railing, he sees that one of the Russians have stopped and looked up, but not in his direction. He hears chatter, with what sounds like shouting. He looks back over to Price, and sees him looking down at the Russians as well. The Captain looks up to John, and moves his arm forward, telling him to move back. John nods and steps back, making sure to give him plenty of space for his jump.

...

Price rears back, setting his weight on his back foot. Keeping a firm grip on his gun, he readied himself, getting himself into a good starting position.

"Be careful old man." Soap says from the side. Price scoffs. If this misfit tinman could make that kind of a jump, it couldn't be that difficult. He slows his breathing, and makes sure to keep his pacing even. With one last breath to remove his anxiety, he sprints forward. He gives a quiet grunt as he launches himself off of the railing of the balcony, flying through the air. He holds his breath for a moment, as the air blows against his face. He lets go of his rifle, allowing it to dangle from it's harness on his side. He grunts he lands on the railing, but isn't able to grab it. He gives a short grunt of panic as he scrambles to grab onto something, as he begins to slide away from the rail. He throws his arm out, and grabs hold of the very edge of the balcony, just under the railing. A few loose pebbles fall from the balcony, creating a soft rumble. Price gives an exasperated gasp, and looks up to the railing. Standing over him is the soldier, sticking his hand out.

"Need a hand?" He asks. Price growls and throws his hand up to the railing. Using his strength he lifts his other arm onto the balcony, placing the foremost part of his arm onto the railing. He looks back to the soldier, and his hand is still out. Price smacks it away and mumbles to himself. Using his forearms, he lifts his right leg over the railing, planting it on the surface of the balcony. He lifts his other leg onto the balcony, and looks over to the other side of the jump. One of the ponies seem to be suppressing a laugh, the blue one. Price growls and brings his rifle to his front as he watches Soap begin to rear back for the jump.

...

Price had his back planted against the back of a wall, his finger readily around the trigger of his weapon. Soap is on the other side, with his sniper at the ready. The ponies look nervously around, as Yuri gently closes a door behind them. Price looks out of one of the windows, and sees a hostile patrol. He looks over to the soldier, who has his back planted on the wall besides another window. Looking back over to Soap, he sees him checking the chamber of his weapon.

"Anxious?" He asks. Soap shrugs.

"I just wanna make sure history stays changed." He says as he rubs one hand through his Mohawk. Price places a hand on his shoulder, and looks at him sympathetically.

"It will. I'm making sure of it son." He says with a reassuring nod. There was no way he was letting these monsters get to Soap, not after all they had been through. Soap was a hard man to kill, and he wasn't going to let Makarov ruin that reputation. Looking back out the window, he sees a patrol stop, and check the building to the right of them.

"Get down!' He whispers as he crouches below the window. Soap responds quickly, allowing himself to go into a prone position. The soldier also crouches, with his weapon pointing up towards the ceiling. Price shifts uncomfortably against the wall, where pieces of the wall scrape against his arm. A light shines through the window, and he can hear one of the ponies begin to cry.

"Shut up!" He whispers harshly. The pony does quiet down, but when he looks behind him, he sees that she is terrified, as she begins trembling. It's the yellow one, and Price instantly regrets his words. He could already tell that that one was the most out of her nature, and was clearly scared to death. He shakes his head, and looks over to a door.

"Shh..." He says as he gently goes into a prone position and begins to crawl over to the door. The floor is rough, and is covered in cracks. It's in poor condition, and creaks when he shifts his weight. He pauses for a moment, and holds his breath. Outside, he can hear the Russians conversing, but they don't sound alarmed. With haste, he crawls along the ground, making sure to keep the floor as quiet as he can until he reaches the door. He rises up, and grabs the handle of the door. He wiggles it a moment, and sees that it isn't locked. He looks behind him, and sees Soap with his weapon trained on the door. He nods, and Price places his rifle forward. He carefully opens the door, which leads to a large stairwell that leads to a tunnel. The escape route.

"This is it, move."