Jester’s POV

“What the f*?!”

Everyone was startled and confused.

Just now she was here, then she approached a wall and puff, she’s gone!

“W-what are we going to do…?” The soldiers fell in disarray. The initial confusion and shock were evaporating, leaving only concentrated terror. The decision is needed yesterday.

“Troops, form up!” (O)

“Ha…?” Everyone was surprised.

“What is it, son? Never heard of the chain of command? As the next in line after our captain, I assumed command of this operation. Any objections?” Old man’s bark reorganized the herd. The murmurs died out fast and the thinned group continued moving.

We were not too worried about the safety of our captain, as there are only two ways one may go here: forward and back, both of which are corked by the allies. Not to mention she is armed and ready to shoot anything that disagrees with her tyranny.

“I wish we had some way to deal with the darkness.”

“What do you mean?” (O)

“Well, she had all of our chemlight supplies. Ours are only for the emergency.”

“We’ll see and act.” (O)

The shield wall continued moving closer and closer to the city.

“Checking time. 5:33. We should’ve been in place by now…” (O)

“Just how long is this f*ing passage…?”

“Focus, Dima.” I shut up.

We continued walking until we arrived to a fork. There were two passages: left and right.

“What are we going to do, Hannibal?”

“Perhaps we should split the squad in two, Brutus?” (O)

“Khi-hi-hi~! Whacha think ‘bout giving me your fancy eyewear? One of us will be with the NVG, the other one will be with the stick of light [AK with the flashlight]?”

“Good idea.” I put on the night vision googles under the dim light of the flashlight. I felt that it would be better if this piece of junk would not be here in the first place.

“Just why did she use this c* thing? It doesn’t even glow properly!”

“Durak ti, Dima. Eto NOVEYSHAYA razrabotka TsNII ‘Tochmash’ [Central Scientific and Research Institute for Precision Machine Engineering]! Fonar’ dlya osvesheniya na 2 metra!” (O)

“HA-HA-HA!!!” We both started laughing our a*s off, despite the surprised gazes of the soldiers around.

“My, Old man, you are the best!”

‘Whistle’

“Let’s get going people. Half with me, half with this weirdo.” ‘My’ troops gave me a gaze of mistrust but obediently, albeit slowly, formed their wall.

“Shout out if you see something wrong. We’ll rush to help immediately.” (O)

“Won’t it be better the other way around?”

“Ha! I’d rather ask Belov to wear another girly stuff, than let myself accept help from a greenhorn.” (O)

“Oh God… Here comes the old farts’ bushido…” Seeing that this starts to drag on, I waved and headed out. It was enough with the jokes so we continued moving. I went to the left passage, and Old man…

Old man’s POV

“F* piece of f* s*…”

The visibility was negligeable. This f* s*light barely highlighted anything. I barely could see any silhouettes.

Bang

Bang Bang Bang

I heard some gunshots in the distance. Dima already encountered himself some company. If we are lucky, all of our enemies will come there and leave the passage clear.

Bang Bang

Our own contacts appeared soon as well.

I only saw a glimpse of a silhouette before the enemy soldiers rushed out of the pitch black.

‘Clang’

‘Screech’

The allies were pushed back by the momentum and the formation was broken. I ended up a meter behind the frontline.

BANG

A bullet pierced one of the attackers’ chest, and his distorted face disappeared behind the shields.

I aimed at the second one while he was caught in fighting.

BANG

A fountain of human flesh scattered around his head’s contents, before I could close my eyes.

“W-wow… that’s brutal.” I patted the young soldier who said that.

“Relax, son. It’s just the beginning.” I warned him.

“You don’t mean…”

“We’ll be fighting there, for a while.”

Bang

I was reminded about our pace and we continued forward.

We did not see those secret rooms we were told about, and kept on pushing, since we have no time to crawl and examine every brick here.

In front of us I caught a glimpse of something. I readied the rifle but the light reflected green optics of the night vision googles.

“Bald head, I’m here!” (J)

“You brat, I am still quite hairy, am I?” I rubbed his hair with my fist.

“Any good news?”

“Nothing major.” (J)

“Let’s rest for a minute and get to the place at last.”

During the rest we did not encounter any living soul. Even after we moved, the enemy did not counterattack. As if the passage was empty.

I felt something is off, and it was more or less confirmed when we walked into a closed door.