Meanwhile, back in the dark and dusty shed beneath Empire States' underground parking, four friends: One adult and three teens, gather in a locked cell, taken as hostages by the terrorists.
One of them, Mike, a black adult, was more relaxed in this new place than he would have been when he knew he was being held hostage by the terrorists.
"Huh, this doesn't feel that bad, I thought it would be worse." He says.
"At least we are just being locked into a place with dust... and some rats... and total darkness. Still better than being tortured." Selena, a girl sitting next to him comments.
"Yeah, I wish they had a bed for me- I mean for us. That would make it feel exactly like a prison."
"Do you want to be in a prison that much?"
"No, but I mean... exactly like a prison is still better eh?"
"..."
As the two of them shit-talking to each other to kill some time and make themself comfortable with their new "not so new" home, Jenny, another girl sitting huddled next to Selena, doesn't have the mind to care about them.
She still, hasn't gotten over the haunting feeling and grief of seeing her best friend killed in front of her eyes.
Seeing this, Selena wanted to help comfort her best friend's pain, but she knew no matter what sweet or positive words she said, wouldn't make a difference.
It wouldn't change their situation, wouldn't change the fact that their friend was dead, but still, she didn't want to see Jenny huddle in depression.
"Jenny, you should take a rest. It's been a long day for you."
Softly speaking into Jenny's ears, Selena gently grips her shoulders.
"Yeah, you should..."
Out of nowhere, Roy, the boy who had been here long before the three others arrived, spoke up in a mysteriously exhausted tone.
"I've not slept for a full night now. So, if you guys have nothing else to say, can you all keep silent? I'll die if I don't sleep."
"Oh... okay..."
"Thank you."
Having said his piece, Roy goes ahead and lies down on the floor. Regardless of its dusty and dirty state, he simply doesn't care; he just wants to sleep.
"Yeah, I'm feeling tired too." Feeling the same fatigue as Roy, and having spent the entire night watching out for the girls, Mike also starts grabbing cardboard boxes, placing them beneath his head, and then lies down.
"These boxes are terrible pillows."
Regardless of his complaints, he still uses it to sleep on since, despite the square shape and pointy material of the box, having one to use as a pillow is still better than not having one at all.
"Good night, or good morning." He says to Selena, then closes his eyes and drifts off into the world of dreams.
"You should take a rest too, Jenny." Selena speaks quietly. "You had stayed awake for the whole night."
Due to the events of the previous day, Jenny spent the entire night without sleep. Like Roy, she's now extremely tired, yet there's still a lingering sense of fear within her.
"Don't worry, I'll watch out for us. I have slept earlier at the Bar, so I'm not sleepy after all."
"...K."
That's her response—one letter—the "K" in this case stands for a shorter form of "OK". Although it may sound disrespectful, Selena felt that those were the first polite words she had heard since yesterday.
Then Jenny also proceeded to lie down while hugging her own legs and shut her eyes, Selena could see from behind Jenny's peaceful face.
Seeing this, Selena also finds herself at ease. The dimly lit room, along with their already exhausted minds, results in the three of them falling asleep rather quickly. Now, Selena is the only one left to stay awake.
...
After making sure that all of them are in deep sleep, Selena checks her smartwatch for something, then she looks around, back and forward, then begins conducting her secret plan.
-----------------------------------
"Shit. I think I fucked up."
As the bright sunlight shines directly into his eyes, Nick is finally awake from his slumber after being hit in the head by Brent with a rock hours ago.
The first thing he felt after waking up, was the unpleasant burning feeling of staying under medium sunlight for at least an hour, the slug from sleepiness, and the terrified feelings of knowing what could have happened while he was unconscious.
Then he suddenly realizes. "Wait, why am I still here?"
He looks around, and it's obvious that Brent has left, but he is still here, if Brent betrayed them to the terrorists, shouldn't Nick be captured or killed by now?
Somehow, probably by a miracle, after Brent turns himself to the terrorists, he forgets about Nick, the one that he should be paying attention to the most. It could be due to his arrogance of being the upper hand and winning over a veteran has blinded him and made him temporarily forget about the hidden danger.
Whatever the reason, Nick felt fortunate not to be discovered. After taking a moment to understand the situation, he swiftly stood up, cleaned himself, and, also miraculously, Brent had forgotten the AR-15 rifle, so Nick was not unarmed.
He knew that the mission has failed and that Neil with his team has been caught or stuck inside because until now, there's nothing changed, no explosions, no gunfights, and the big ass barrier covering the sky is still there.
Right now, as long as he's still unknown, he needs to find a better hiding spot and find a way to get Neil, and other "teammates" out. But... who?
He knows that Neil is not a traitor, and at first, he also trusted Brent because he thinks Brent is just a rebellious teenager coming of age. But after what happened, he knows that he can't underestimate the mischievousness of teenagers anymore.
And now he's wondering, if he can somehow get inside, who should he help to get out other than Neil? He got no information, nor could he contact them. So before doing anything risky, he has to come up with a plan first, he will have to think of who to save. Who?
...
"Да ты что?! (What the hell?)"
At the same time, in one of the mid-levels of the Empire State Building, a man while walking out to the hall with windows to enjoy the fresh sunlight and air in the early morning after a night in one of the most comfortable beds in the world, saw a strange movement when he was looking down to pity the ones who couldn't "afford" a high place like him.
As he looked closer, it was clear that something, someone was doing something weird on the roof of a small building nearby, an adult man, wearing a normal suit, indicating that he was not one of the terrorists, was holding a black rifle.
And as soon as he sees this, he immediately knows, that this man down there, is a snitch. Now what's important is how would he react. He could just tell others to go and kill the man, but instead, he decided to take the sniper rifle that he had in his bedroom and resolve this in quiet.
"Where the fuck are they anyway?"
As Nick wandered the roof, contemplating his next move, he was oblivious to the lurking danger above. The sniper had grabbed his rifle and was already moving into position.
"Come here."
Now, all he needs is the perfect opportunity when the target stands still, to pull the trigger and quietly eliminate the potential threat.
...
A sudden chill ran down Nick's spine as he realized he'd let his guard down. Standing up and walking around, he'd almost forgotten that he wasn't invisible.
As a battle-hardened veteran, his instinct tells him that he's being watched, and the longer he spends standing still, exposing himself in the open air, the more chills he feels.
Reacting quickly, Nick rushed and rolled behind a large car-sized rooftop air conditioner just as a rifle bullet pierced through his left side and hit it.
"SHIT!!"
Having heard about it from Neil, Nick couldn't believe it until now—the terrorists indeed used firearms that were eerily silent. No booms, no gunshots; just quiet hits on the target to get the job done.
"You wanna play? I'll play with you!"
Instead of being terrified, however, Nick was somewhat panicked but also excited, because he hadn't felt this life-threatening feeling for a long time, this brought him nostalgia during Afghanistan.
It was almost like the times he used to play hide-and-seek with the enemy snipers, attempting to figure out their location as they tried to blow his head off each time he tried to spot them.
Was it terrifying? Yes. Was it dangerous? Yes. But was it fun? Absolutely. Until now this is one of the mysteries in male psychology, enjoying the thrill of life being on the line, especially in war.
Return to Nick, he was making sure that his rifle had enough bullets to deal with this sniper hiding on some floor of the Empire State Building shooting down, he checked the magazine, and checked the rifle's condition, the thing was fine and let's say he had more than enough bullet to deal with this.
While Kosho, the sniper, was gripping his sniper rifle tightly, making sure it doesn't shake and move even a centimeter, all he needed now was a single moment where his target showed out just an inch of his forehead, and he could finish him.
...
Strangely enough, minutes passed and no new movement have been made from neither sides, Kosho started to wonder if the target is still there since everything is hidden by that big annoying rooftop air conditioner.
...
Suddenly, he saw what he'd been waiting for. Through his scope, Kosho witnessed the target revealing his head a few inches, visible to the naked eye on the left.
Without hesitation, Kosho shifted his rifle from its previous position, refocusing to the left, and pulled the trigger.
Swoosh!!
He missed.
The target quickly noticed him and bowed down just half a second before he took the shot, despite the silent bullet.
Growing frustrated with the second missed shot, Kosho decided to get serious. He zoomed out his scope, encompassing the entire rooftop in his line of sight.
Additionally, he expanded his focus to cover the entire area rather than just a single spot.
"You piece of shit."
He cursed as his patience was being tested, Kosho expected this to be a quick fun task to kickstart the morning with a few shots. Now, more than 10 minutes had passed, and he still hadn't taken down the target less than a mile away.
Something, that he remembered, would be a piece of cake for him in the past. But the fact that this target is a stubborn one is the only reason that pissed him, when he was just half a second away from pulling the trigger, he had seen through his scope the eye of the target was looking at him.
He could see those eyes looking directly at him as if he was just a bug unworthy of attention. The frustration set in because he felt underestimated by this amateur son of a bitch.
...
Wait. Something is off... Right now, Kosho suddenly realized something from his previous thought. To think of it, wasn't it strange that he and the target were looking directly at each other? How did the target look at him if he didn't know about his locatio-
...
Unless he didn't. The target looked directly at Kosho because he knew his location. One of the most forbidden things for a sniper is to stay in the same place when their location is revealed, and Kosho had remained in the same location for minutes.
"Блядь! (Shit!)"
Instantly, he snapped back to his scope after just a few seconds of distraction by his own thoughts. Zooming in, he scanned right, up, down—the rooftop air conditioner where the target was hiding. And...
He was too late.
Nick, the target, lay under the shadows of the rooftop AC, stealthily moving in the dark. He pointed his gun up, directly in Kosho's direction.
At that point, it is all over, and what he sees next is a white flash coming out of the black rifle's muzzle, and the glass window slightly above him is shattered into pieces.
"Bingo."
After Nick made sure the bullet hit its target and disabled the sniper, he rolled back and hurried downstairs before other terrorists starts coming here.
Since Nick wasn't a professional sniper, the shot didn't kill Kosho, but shattered the glass window into pieces, making a very loud noise and giving Kosho a long scar on his cheek.
"I heard the glass break, does anyone know what happened?"
A few seconds later, the walkie-talkie that Kosho had with him crackled, it seemed like others had heard the glass breaking sound and were confused about what was happening.
Kosho knew he had to respond as quickly as possible, he was still shocked by what had happened. He had believed, until now, that he was one of the world's best snipers and that no one could beat him in a one-on-one match, regardless of whether they had a larger rifle or a better scope.
Yet, today marks the first day since he was last hit five years ago. While not a direct hit, it will leave him with both physical and mental scars.
Losing to someone without a scope, and using an assault rifle - the things that made Kosho think he had the upper hand, shocked him to the core.
Today, his arrogance made him pay. But Nick's victory wasn't about skills, it was about experience.
While Kosho trains his sniping skills through sniping schools and contests. Nick gained experiences through real combat, through countless times of being in life-or-death situations, his mind was battle-hardened enough to know how to deal with this situation he had.
Living in a constantly at-war country like the United States gave Nick chances to learn and evolve that will Kosho never have. And it also looks like the Soviet Union has been too peaceful.
Remembering what he had to do, slowly, he crawled and grabbed the Walkie-Talkie.
"In... Intruder! We have an intruder from outside! He's coming in!"