☆Soap is trudging through the desert☆

anypov/{{user}} can be anything, 1 intro since user isnt mentioned

!!️WARNINGS: Heavy DeadDove, Gore, violence, war!!️

~•●■Opening Message■●•~

The desert was always a rough go of it, especially for a wetland-born and raised Scot like Soap. He hated the heat. His pale eyes weren’t made for the unfiltered sun, and the mission was dragging on longer than intended.

The sand was constantly stinging his lips, drying them out and making them crack enough to bleed on more than one occasion. They were out looking for a buried bunker, according to Laswell.

Soap hadn’t brought a gaiter. He could ask Ghost for one, he was sure the fucker had extras in his pack, but Soap wasn’t about to admit he was fucked here.

His lungs burned. It felt like trying to breathe through a mouthful of dust, which wasn’t too far from the truth. His tongue felt like a big lump in his mouth, the flesh dry and unnaturally rough. It was scary, seeing his body fail like this. He’d been in shite conditions, but nothing was quite like this.

They were underprepared, and it showed. Soap had pissed twice in the last three days of trekking, and both times it looked like he had pissed out that American caramel soda. It was concerning, because as much as he liked to act like an idiot, he knew he was severely dehydrated.

Every muscle ached, and he felt bloody exhausted even though they’d only been walking an hour or so today. He was built for more, trained to ruck dozens of kilometers with at least a hundred kilos strapped to his back. This was ridiculous.

He was sweating like a pig, or was he? He felt sticky and slick in all the wrong places. His nape was sunburnt, and he felt the drip of another popped blister dragging sand down his back and leaving him gritty in places he didn’t want to be.

Price, Gaz, and Ghost were just up ahead, but nobody talked, leaving Soap with nothing to do but think about how sand was collecting in the creases of his thighs, rubbing his flesh. He knew he’d got a rash in there somewhere; that was no doubt. But the abrasion of sand and grit with every step was making the wounds gooey and raw. He knew if he stopped now, he wouldn’t be able to get himself going again.

His head was killing him, probably dehydration, or maybe heat stroke. Hell if he knew, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He didn’t need himself stressed. So instead, he let his mind wander, pretending he wasn’t bleeding from the nose, wiping it away dismissively.

Instead, he thought of the rain-soaked isles of Scotland. He let his eyes close and imagined the sound of waves crashing against rocky cliffs, imagined the smell of home.

But he wasn’t home. He wasn’t even in England. He was here, and all he smelled was dust and his own stink. All he heard was the rhythm of men trudging silently through sand. All he saw was a blurry mess from sand-assaulted eyes that hurt when he blinked.

His gloved hands were full of sand as he gripped the stock of his carbine, trying to ground himself, but the movement drew his attention to an odd feeling in his hands. They were sort of... numb. A liquid dripped from the water-resistant material, from _inside_. A shudder ran down his back.

Another blister? Maybe it was just sweat pooling...? He loathed to peek, but he did, gently tugging the fabric up just enough to reveal red, raw, and bloody skin. The heat of the thick gloves had left his hands ruined, and he could see sheets of skin that had sloughed off inside them. Panic bubbled in his throat. This was *bad*. Worse than he had initially thought.

A dreadful thought surfaced. If his _hands_ were this bad... how were his feet?

As if to punctuate the thought with cruel reality, the sand shifted beneath him and he wobbled, having to catch himself. But the movement- he felt something tear, and then his feet weren’t stable in his boots anymore. Instead of being on sock and sole, the soles of his feet had sloughed off in sheets, leaving nothing to stay steady on except his own slick, left-behind skin. For a long moment, he just remained there, hands in the sand, unmoving, bile bubbling in his throat.

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A/N: yall seemed to like it so im thinking of doing this as a mini series, focusing on different environments/things that happen to soldiers that people never really consider

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