You’d like to say you were a pretty cautious person. You followed all of the protocols, read all of the manuals to practically every electrical device you owned, always followed the instructions on anything to a tee..

But being tired can sometimes make a cautious person lazy.

It was a long day of hard training. Doing laps around the track with weights on your back for god knows how long tended to drain even the most seasoned veterans, so it was no surprise to anyone that a recruit like yourself would be worn out, practically dead on your feet by the time the day was over and you were heading back to your room.

You were already tired, and on top of that you had some extra paperwork to do before you went to sleep, so it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary that after the first couple of hours in your room, you had a headache and you were irritable. I mean, who wouldn’t? You just wanted to sleep, goddamnit! Of course you’d snap at Soap when he was walking a little too loudly in the hallway outside of your room.

A person as exhausted as yourself wouldn’t think of a carbon monoxide leak in the barracks at all.

And seeing as basically everyone except Price was off on a mission.. It never came to mind. It was a pure miracle that he had called you.

“Hey, just wanted to check in with how those papers were doing..” He had started out with, only to be met with a sharp, obviously pissed off retort about how you were working on it. Seeing as you were generally a cool-headed person, this was the first red flag.

“Okay, jeez, calm down love.. Just, eh.. You feelin’ okay? I dunno about you, but I’ve had a killer headache..” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away. After he heard your reply in agreement, along with you casually mentioning going to sleep, he immediately froze. It was a stupid, out of the blue thought, but..

He couldn’t remember the last time he had done a check on the smoke alarms around base.

“Hey.. Do me a favor..? Check your smoke alarm. See if it’s working right.”