“Gerry? Ted? What’s going—”
“They’re dead!” screamed another voice.
“What the fuck are you talking—shit!”
Alex leaned out and aimed at the rightmost corner, hoping to catch the last voice in the open. He centered the red tritium dot on a partially obscured torso and fired twice, yielding an agonized screech.
“Get to the student lounge, quick,” he whispered to Piper. “Don’t open the door.”
He followed her at half-speed, keeping his rifle trained at the corner they had just abandoned, until he bumped into her.
“We’re at the lounge,” she whispered.
Alex lowered his NVGs and gently pushed the door inward, checking the room for surprises.
“It’s clear. I need you to follow the wall to your immediate left and keep going until you hit the corner. You’ll stay there until I come back for you. Understood?”
“It’s really dark in here,” she said.
“You have a clear path to the corner if you hug the wall. How many of them did you see?” said Alex.
“Four.”
“Minus three. See you in a few,” he said.
With the door shut, he lifted the NVGs for a second. He couldn’t risk using them in the hallway once he left this room. The NVGs gave him a considerable advantage in the darkness, but a beam of light directed at the device’s sensitive lens would blind him. Switching to his pistol, he carefully opened the door. The hallway was pitch black. Of course. He lowered the NVGs and studied the green image. The hallway was empty. He closed the door and paused, thinking about his next move. If the guy had been smart enough to turn off the lights, Alex couldn’t count on him to make a rookie mistake. He’d have to go out and look for him.
“Piper?” he whispered.
“Yeah?”
“He’s not there.”
“What?” she said too loudly for comfort.
“Sssshhhh! Keep it down,” he grunted. “I have to search for him, but I’m going to need your help with something.”
“I’m not going out there.”
“You don’t have to. Do you know how to shoot a pistol?”
“My father’s a cop,” she stated.
“Is that a yes or a no?”
“Yes. I can shoot a pistol, but I’m not a good shot.”
“You don’t have to be,” he said and worked his way over to her.
“I just need you to cover my back. Sit in the doorframe, watching the second stairwell door and this door right here,” he said, pointing to the door they had both used to enter.
“Are you pointing in the dark?” she said.
“No,” he said, lowering his hand. “Can you do this for me?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see anything.”
“It’s dark out there, but not as dark as this room. There should be enough background light in the hallway to see either door open. I’m not asking you to get into a prolonged gun battle. Yell, pop off a few rounds and run for it. I’ll take care of the rest. This would make your dad proud.”
“You can spare me the proud parent speech.”
“Sorry. Can you do this, or are you useless like the rest of your generation? Is that better?”
“Sort of,” she said.
“The pistol has no safety. You pull the trigger, it goes boom. First trigger pull is a little tough—”
“Double action. Single action. I get it.”
“Let’s get you set up.”
Less than a minute later, Piper stood in the doorway, propping the door open with her foot and facing the back hallway. Alex removed his boots and placed them inside the lounge.
“Just shoot and run in the opposite direction,” whispered Alex.
“Uh-huh.”
Alex lowered his NVGs and activated the IR laser. He had no idea what he was up against. He didn’t know if the guy turned off the flashlights because they might give up a shadow, or if he had caught a glimpse of the NVGs on Alex’s head. For all he knew, the guy just picked them up because they were expensive. It didn’t matter. The rifle light would advertise his location, and it was too dark to effectively see without the NVGs. He could use the goggles to his advantage in this environment, unless his adversary was crafty. It was still too early to tell.
He took several silent steps on the cool tile, keeping the green laser centered on the empty passage ahead. The bulk of his attention was directed on the doors lining the hallway. As he passed each closed door, he checked the handle to verify it was locked. He felt comfortable enough to turn his back on a locked door. Not that he had a choice. Knocking on doors wasn’t an option right now.
Approaching the elevator lobby corner, Alex tensed. A blood slick trailed into the elevator lobby, beyond his line of sight. His adversary had moved the wounded man, hopefully down the stairwell and out of the building. If that was the case, Alex needed to get out of here before reinforcements arrived. He studied the hallway beyond his son’s door, convinced that the shooter couldn’t have doubled back after dragging his comrade away. A significant pool of blood extended across the hallway where he’d shot one of them in the chest. The tile beyond held no footprints.
He crouched at the corner and executed a quick peek into the elevator lobby. Gunfire exploded, lighting the lobby and exploding the cinderblock wall in front of him. Shit. Crafty. Alex scrambled backward, desperate to escape the shower of fragments, as shards of cinderblock stung his face. Bullets pummeled the concrete on the opposite side of the hallway, sparking and ricocheting into the dark void behind him. The shooting stopped, and he heard the telltale sounds of a magazine swap. Alex sprinted to the corner and dropped to the floor, leaning to the left and placing the laser on the man’s head.
The wounded man sat propped up against one of the elevator doors, desperately trying to change rifle magazines. He acknowledged Alex’s presence by spitting.
“You’ll never take this country from us.”
“Stop loading your weapon. I’m not with the government,” stated Alex.
Fighting to sit upright in a puddle of his own blood, the man’s shaky hand inserted a magazine and reached back for the charging handle. A sharp bark from Alex’s rifle ended the struggle.
Who the hell are these people?
He didn’t have time to analyze the question. He felt certain that the remaining shooter had relocated to the other long hallway. The wounded militiaman effectively served the same purpose as Pip—oh shit!
“Piper!”
Gunshots echoed from the other side of the building, lighting the end of the hallway behind Alex. He scrambled to his bare feet and sprinted for the lounge, arriving to find the door closed, perforated by several bullets.
I killed her.
He kicked the door in and rushed inside, ready to engage any target without long hair. He caught a glimpse of a figure with a rifle crouched near the far wall, but his night vision flared before he could react. Gunshots erupted, and he dropped to the floor, firing blindly at the other side of the room.
“I got him!” screamed a female voice.
Alex raised the NVGs and stared upward at the voice. Piper stood over him, aiming a pistol and flashlight at the other side of the room. A bright red, clumpy stain covered the brightly illuminated wall.
“That’s all of them. Turn off your light,” he said, standing up.
He took the flashlight out of his pocket and guided her out of the lounge.
“You all right?” he asked, handing her the light.
“I hid inside the lounge when the shooting started. I’m sorry. The door opened, and he got halfway across the room before I fired. I couldn’t move. We couldn’t see each other. We just kept shooting,” she said, crying.