A soft dragging sound echoed across the floor as a body was pulled into the room, revealing Arc, who was now slowly lowering the lifeless corpse to the ground.

  He backed away slightly and turned to his left, where the sight of another corpse sitting in the corner, silently clutching a gun, came into his view.

  The sound of radio static crackling from the side made me turn back to look at the corpse beside me, reaching out to grab the radio from its waist.

  The static faded, replaced by the voice of a man speaking up.

  "All units, regroup outside the building. We're moving forces to investigate another location. Over. I repeat, all units regroup outside the building. We're moving forces to investigate another location. Over."

  As soon as the announcement ended, other voices cut in.

  "Unit 14, copy that."

  "Unit 23, copy that."

  "Unit 32, copy that."

  Along with the voices of other units chiming in intermittently, hearing that made me turn back to the two corpses piled on the floor, placing the radio down on one of them before turning to the right.

  Revealing a window about three meters away, with another building not far from it. I stood up and walked straight to the window, staring into the darkness of the window opposite.

  Seeing no light inside the room across, I turned to look at the right side of that same row, then turned to look at the left.

  Just then, light shining from the building on the opposite left side struck the building on this side.

  Seeing that, I pulled myself slightly back into the room and shifted to stand to the right of the window, leaning out to peek at the source of the flashlight, but the light didn't stay long before disappearing.

  So I turned my attention below, revealing a small alleyway between the buildings, where four soldiers were walking out of the building with flashlights beaming along the path.

  At that moment, a flashlight was raised upwards, so I quickly pulled back inside the room, causing the beam to hit the wall opposite, just above the corpse, before sweeping out of the room.

  Standing still in the darkness for a while, I leaned back out to look and saw the soldiers who had just passed, shining their lights into the various rooms on both sides of the buildings.

  Just then, another group of soldiers appeared in a room in the opposite building; those up in the building used weapon-mounted lights to shine back at the group below, before both groups flashed their lights at each other.

  This caused the group below to stop walking, while the group above moved away from the window and disappeared into the darkness.

  Seeing that, I stood silently for a moment before turning back to look at the corpse lying on the floor, then looking back outside where those soldiers were standing and waiting.

  That made me immediately back away from the window.

  As for the four soldiers down below, they were now standing and looking at both buildings, holding their rifles rested against their shoulders with only their right hands.

  At that moment, they turned to look at the building to their right and saw another four people walking out, moving in to regroup with them.

  This caused them to look at each other briefly before facing forward and continuing to walk, shining their lights into the rooms of the various buildings.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Suddenly, one soldier turned around, swinging the muzzle of his gun to the rear, causing his light to strike the face of a soldier in a similar cloak.

  That soldier was also holding an assault rifle with just his right hand, the muzzle pointing down at the ground.

  The soldier who got blinded raised a hand to shield his face slightly, prompting the other man to lift his gun upwards and speak.

  "My bad."

  "Watch it, will you?"

  The soldier replied while shaking his head slightly, his hand still shielding his face, which made the other man shrug lightly and turn back around.

  Consequently, that soldier lowered his hand, revealing a face covered by a black balaclava and hood, with only golden eyes visible.

  Staring at the back of the person in front, he shifted his gaze to the right, seeing other soldiers shining lights at the opposite building while sweeping back slightly, before turning to look forward.

  While the group was moving forward, everyone suddenly stopped walking and looked straight ahead, pointing their gun muzzles in that direction.

  Their lights beamed onto another group of two people just exiting a building; the group in front raised their guns upwards and walked in to join them.

  This made the group move forward again, but after walking only a short distance, the person at the very front turned to the left.

  Revealing a road about 20 meters away where other groups were gathering, causing the golden-eyed soldier following the group to turn and look to his right, where a walkway connected to this spot.

  Revealing another group of soldiers approaching; seeing this, he turned his attention back to the front, and that other group from the side walked in to merge with theirs.

  As the group grew larger, the golden-eyed man slowly decelerated, drifting to the back of the pack before stopping still beside a window and gripping its ledge.

  He vaulted inside, landing softly, keeping the gun in his right hand slightly raised above the floor as he crouched down upon landing.

  Then he backed up to press against the wall beneath the window he had just entered; after sitting silently for a moment, he raised his head slightly to peek over the windowsill.

  Revealing the other soldiers continuing forward without anyone looking back, he pulled his head back in, turning his attention to the room in front of him before pulling down the balaclava covering his head.

  Arc took a deep breath before looking around the room; seeing nothing around, he lifted his gun to inspect it briefly.

  He slung the rifle onto his back, then used his now-empty right hand to draw the pistol from his right leg, while his left hand pulled a knife from his waist as he turned his attention to the door on the left.

  I crept closer to the door and used my left hand to push it outward slightly; a dark, narrow corridor appeared in my sight, so I opened the door further to look behind it.

  Seeing nothing in the hallway, I crept out of the room, closed the door, turned right, and moved stealthily down the path.

  This led me to creep closer to the right-hand wall, pressing myself against it before starting to move forward again.

  But after walking only a short distance, light shone out from a room on the right, two doors down, causing me to crouch lower than before.

  I crept up to the edge of the door frame where the light was spilling out and peeked inside.

  But I found only an empty room, so I straightened up slightly to look out the window, seeing other soldiers lined up, shining their lights along the buildings.

  Seeing that, I crouched back down, faced forward, and continued immediately, seeing light from a room on the front left shining in, passing over my head intermittently.

  Looking straight ahead, I saw the wall further down lit by passing flashlight beams; the light hit a door for a split second before vanishing.

  I froze in place upon seeing that, but after staring for a moment, I turned to my right, revealing a room with its door open in welcome, so I raised the gun in my right hand.

  With my left hand supporting the wrist holding the gun, I crept to the left side of the doorway, aiming the weapon into the center of the room.

  Revealing an empty center with four panes of glass on the left and right, I swung my gun to my right, sweeping the muzzle from the upper corner down to the lower corner.

  Seeing nothing inside, I, still crouching against the doorway, backed away slightly from the frame, shifting my body and gun toward the wooden door.

  I moved diagonally inside; once perfectly centered in the doorway, I stepped back slightly while keeping the gun aimed at the upper corner of the room.

  I leaned in, barrel instantly targeting the upper corner; the dark corner appeared before me, so I moved diagonally toward the window wall, backing up while sweeping the gun along the wall ahead, until finally, the weapon stopped at the corner behind the door.

  But I found only emptiness, so I lowered my gun and turned to look at the window behind me, then walked to the window on the right to peek outside slightly.

  Seeing no one outside, I gripped the windowsill with both hands and climbed out immediately, landing on the concrete floor before checking left and right, then hurriedly continuing to the right.

  Reaching the edge of the building, I paused to look out, then moved quickly through the gap between the buildings, stopping in front of a window to look inside.

  Seeing it was empty, I climbed up, landed softly, and looked straight at the door, pressing my body against the doorframe; after peeking outside, I walked out of the room with my gun aimed forward.