The building, which was located a couple of tens of meters from the main street, was filled with smoke, and plaster fell incessantly from the walls. The entire third floor, due to excessive pressure and the ruthless flow of time, fell down. All the furniture, the remaining equipment and so on were one floor lower than they were before. The only thing left to still stand in a stranglehold is the walls. All the people who were on the 3rd floor, in the amount of 17 people, fell down. Some are more fortunate, some are less fortunate. Quiet, who recovered one of the first, saw a terrifying picture. More than half of the squad either died or were seriously injured. But there were also those who bordered on crossing the terrible threshold of death and denying themselves.
— Gha-uh, — Quiet immediately took off his mask, which protects against bullets, and spat out a blood clot, which was formed due to strong pressure on the lungs, and also felt a strong pain in his leg, — how hard… «Damn junk». Hey, respond if someone is alive.
— I have two wounded! — shouted one of the mercenaries.
Two more approached him almost immediately, and Quiet with them. They dismantled the rubble and pulled the wounded colleagues out. In order not to injure them further, they left one to look after them so that he leveled any chances of getting more injuries. Quiet slowly crawled to the window to look out of it. There, he saw nothing but a road littered with the bodies of fighters in various outfits. Everything else seemed to evaporate. Only the bodies and the destroyed vehicle showed that fierce battles had taken place here. Hearing soft moans, he turned around. He listened and realized that the sounds were coming from under the stove. He called for two more to push her away. There an unpleasant picture awaited them. The fighter, whose body was pierced by rebar, lay in an unnatural position. He had only minutes to say goodbye to the others and the only thing he mentioned was the red petals flying in the sky. His eyes oozed blood, which led to the conclusion that he was delirious. At the same time, they felt sorry for him because the last thing he saw before his death were hallucinations. They continued to sort through the rubble in order to count the losses and find out how many more people were in any condition to fight. On the way to the last blockage Quiet radio-set began to make sounds, albeit intermittently.
— This is Dove, they are in one ... supermarket env ... No help ... — after which the walkie-talkie stopped working due to the blows received.
After getting the last one out of the rubble, the Quiet group calculated the losses and decided to arrange a long respite with the provision of full medical care to the wounded in the field and supplying them with everything necessary for further recovery.
∆
At the same time, Pie and Pillar were setting up traps throughout the supermarket. Unlike the Quiet walkie-talkie, their radio-set was intact. And they heard everything related to the movement of the enemy and that they were surrounded. A heart-to-heart conversation ensued between them.
— Hey, turtle. How are you, not yet completely climbed into your shell? — Pie asked with a grin, leaning on the rack.
— Only after you crack open, bone junk. — Pillar answered gaily.
— Well, shall we die like real heroes or like fanatics, relying on our chevrons? I seem to be waiting for a more fun fate than you. I look like I'm going to die in battle, and you? Do you dive under the tiles? — Pie said almost laughing.
— Turtles are tenacious creatures. Maybe I'll outlive you, living under the tiles. A skull with a dim fire in the background, what is it for? What is the point? Here my turtle indicates that I am slowly but surely moving towards my goal under reliable protection, and yours? — Pillar asked, looking down at his chevron.
— I don't know, old man, I don't know ... So, I chose it out of stupidity. Probably thinking about something symbolic. Die in battle as a hero or something… — Pie said, looking at his chevron.
— You know, one thought came to me here, — Pillar thought, — and what does two wings parallel to each other mean? Well, like, she's a scout. But can there be any other sacred meaning hidden there?
— Yes, definitely, one hundred percent. She has a thousand secrets, I suppose. But I feel that now her wings have been broken off. — Pie said smiling.
— I just thought, — Pillar began to say, taking the walkie-talkie in his hands, — we haven't contacted her yet.
— You do realize you can kill her with that, don't you? — Pie stopped him.
— And that's right... — Pillar said when she suddenly got in touch, though on a common frequency, because the radio was tuned to her and was from the very beginning.
— If someone is alive, then I'm looking at the main street now. 7th floor. City Hall in direct line of sight. Grave silence. Not a single corpse, not blood. As if the asphalt had swallowed them up. Well, that's right, nothing. The road itself is empty, but the buildings that stand at the beginning of the street glow like New Year's lights. There are even explosions. There was one here, a brave man, he tried to get through to the mayor's office in a car, and he died right away. The road is visible from anywhere. Purely the first, where everyone sat in the trenches for days. Although, the Americans are up to something. They called Devil. "Let there be a massacre, and I will look after it. There was nothing to stick around here... — after these thoughts, a devilish smile could be seen on her face.
After these words, the shooting stopped abruptly, absolutely everywhere. There was a moment of deathly silence. But in less than half a minute, the shooting became much more intense than before. Each side had its own thoughts, but in one thing they were sure that the newly developed napalm was called the devil, which burned not just everything, but did not leave a single atom. That's what everyone had in mind about him. Because of this, both the Americans and the Russians were already fighting to leave the city. Because although the losses were heavy on both sides, they did not exceed more than 20 percent of the entire personnel, and here the threat of complete destruction loomed. The only ones who didn't know about it were the mercenaries. But not their commanders, who gave a new order – for no reason to let two armies out of the city. And this order was already more feasible, because even at the very beginning of the local war they were forced to retreat to the borders of the city, only occasionally engaging in battle.
Suddenly, in the general broadcast, someone began to talk about penguins. He was immediately sent to hell by both sides, and the Quiet squad realized that it was their commander who spoke. It was, so to speak, their signal to go to one frequency for communication when they were apart. Absolutely everyone switched to the required frequency. Quiet spoke first. It is not known where Quiet got the walkie-talkie, but it was akin to a miracle that it worked.
— Attention. I'm in a building southwest of the main street. She's not far from here. Half of the detachment left this mortal world. There are about nine of us left out of 17. Where are you?
— Me and Pie in the supermarket. Directly under City Hall. About two hundred meters to the south. The exits are blocked. We'll have to use explosives. But we need a reason. Bird, how are you?
— I'm near the city hall, back to back. I am on the 5th floor. The movement on the main street got heated after my words. Finally, the normal fights that were before started. Watching west of city hall is a good building, perfect cover for a gun duel. Of blue color.
— Roger that. I and nine other guys will be waiting for you there. Try to get there in 5-10 minutes. Something I do not like the sharp activation of the tower after the mention of the devil. End of broadcast.
∆
After the end of the broadcast, both Pie and Pillar cheered up. They began to slowly pack up and load bullets into all the magazines they had. Suddenly Pie started talking in a perky voice.
— Well, how is it, ready to crawl out of your shell? Now the real heat will begin, my eyes are already on fire. Russian weapons against German, just after the mention of the First. Perfect, isn't it? If you die, then only as the chevron predicts, — Pie said, pulling the shutter. There was a small twinkle in his eyes.
— I wanted to say that we will not die today. But after such words, someone always died, — Pillar laughed, — so let's die side by side as the chevron says!
The Pillar charged the store, and both got up from the ground. The fire of struggle burned in their eyes, and the fighting spirit consumed them. They were ready to die in one battle, shoulder to shoulder, but only in such a death that is indicated on their chevron. Pillar began to prepare to blow up the wall of the supermarket when footsteps were heard in the distance. The blockages at the entrance were dismantled, and the Americans went inside. They heard loud shouts from here, so they went inside. Their advantage was a huge number of bright lights, as well as the presence of a pair of strobe lights that played on the rapid change in light. They slowly moved forward, examining every centimeter. Soon, one of the soldiers, due to the light of his partner's strobe, did not see the stretch and activated it. There was a small explosion that instantly killed the one who activated this mechanism. The other one, who was standing nearby, received shrapnel wounds and fell to the ground with a scream. This disorientated the others, and at the same time, lead rain fell on them. They quickly reacted and took cover behind various hard and thick objects, losing only two fighters, not counting two stretch marks. A fierce gunfight ensued, with Pillar and Pie increasingly at disadvantage. They decided to activate the explosives that were on the wall and run away at the same moment. The plan was successful, and they ended up on the street. They, under the cover of various buildings, moved to the northwest, to the indicated meeting point.
∆
At the same time, Quiet and his companions left the building in which they were hiding. As they slowly approached the exit, they heard the enemy moving around the back of the building, trying to get to City Hall as soon as possible. Quiet and his group returned to the building again and set up a small ambush for them. It worked, but only partially, although that was enough. The Quiet group, with little difficulty, destroyed the militants that fell into an impromptu ambush. They turned out to be mercenaries from Sweden, which surprised everyone very much. So little by little they made their way to the necessary building. However, before entering, they had to engage in a fierce battle with the Russians. Due to a fair amount of fatigue, as well as the entry into the shooting battle of the Americans, they again lost half of the fighters of the new detachment. After breaking through with heavy fighting, they finally entered the building. Unfortunately, soldiers from Britain were already waiting for them there. Quiet was instantly wounded in the bone of his right hand, and the one who stood next to him was killed. He quickly crawled under a nearby sofa and took out a grenade. Giving a signal to his partners, he pulled the pin and waited two seconds from the rebound of the fuse, threw a grenade at the enemy. There was an explosion, and the shots stopped. His partners instantly ran up to the enemy and neutralized those who were still alive. They entrenched themselves on the ground floor, and Quiet provided himself with emergency medical care, creating an impromptu stand for an already inoperative arm, and bandaging the wound on his leg, received earlier, with a bandage. The sounds of shooting in the street did not stop. Soon Pie with a Pillar also got to them. The only one missing was Date. Since time was running out, they contacted her.
— Date, where are you, — Quiet asked, after which Pie burst into the air abruptly, — yes, birdie, where are you?
— The bird will no longer fly with you, — came a gruff female voice from the other side of the radio.
Before Quiet had time to put in a word, a loud explosion was heard on the other side of the ether, which was visible even to them through a hole in the wall. They understood that there was no time for parting, so they advanced to the mayor's office. As soon as they were about to leave, a rocket flew into their building and they all fell while the ceiling collapsed on them. Quickly moving away from the shake, they saw how a heavy slab fell on Stolb. Only the upper part of her body was sticking out from under her, and blood was flowing from her mouth in a small line. He spoke.
— And here is the ending, but what a… — the Pillar said in a hoarse voice, — as you predicted. So good luck to you to die in battle, as you said. By the way, I just now realized this, but where is the Cake? — Pillar asked, after which he closed his eyes and his body completely relaxed.
After the last words of the Pillar, everyone was silent. They understood that they had lost more than 15 people from the detachment, as well as two family members. The third one was simply forgotten. Even if Cake was alive, he did not deserve the fate of being forgotten by his family members. After all they had experienced, they held a moment of silence in order to put the memory of the dead in their hearts. After it, they decided on a new plan of action. There was a multi-level car park next to City Hall. That's where they had to go.
— Does everyone understand the plan of action? There aren't many of us left, — Quiet began to say, — so no more mistakes. We pass behind the city hall, go into the parking lot, climb several levels and clear the street. After we go down to the storage under the city hall and pick up the cargo.
Everyone agreed with this plan and began to slowly move towards the city hall from the extreme northern side, which sheltered them from unnecessary eyes. In parallel with this, in the same period, a strategic bomber was flying in the sky, which was not displayed on the radars, being at a great height. He was heading towards the city, opening the bomb bay. Only a few minutes remained before the goal.
While a fierce battle between the two sides was taking place on the main street, which had already been forgotten about the napalm threat, on the borders of the city there was a battle that was in no way inferior in scope to the first. Only the goals of the warring parties were different.
Quiet's group moved slowly towards City Hall, keeping to the dark wall of nearby houses. Although they acted covertly, they were also not exempt from the fate of entering into a shooting duel. So little by little, one might say, running away from the place of the duel, they entered the parking area, after which they began to climb to the third floor for the best view. Climbing to the second floor, where the trucks stood, miraculously not succumbing to corrosion, they saw in the distance a bright blood-red fire that was slowly approaching them. It slowly burned everything in its path. Those who were overtaken by hellish flames experienced, at least for a moment, but still terrifying pain and, unable to make any sound, died. Their skin was instantly covered with huge blisters, which exploded, thereby exfoliating the remnants of the skin even faster. Flesh burned in seconds and internal organs seemed to evaporate, leaving only bones that began to crumble under the influence of incredible temperatures. Together with the bones, concrete structures also crumbled into pieces due to a sharp drop in incredible temperature.
The only one who reacted quickly was Quiet. He quickly jumped into the cab of the white truck, shutting the door in front of the flame itself, to which only a few millimeters remained. The rest was waiting for the general fate. Succumbing to the enormous temperature, the parking lot began to slowly collapse, and as the flames abruptly disappeared, it finally collapsed and everything fell with it. Vehicle lay on the ground, completely battered. The white truck that Quiet was in fell almost on the roots of the only tree in the area. Quiet, whose body was pierced by the remnants of a red-hot cabin, and fragments dug into his entire body, bleeding, completely refused to die. While the others died just like their chevron had painted, the Quiet One refused to go into the arms of Death, who personally came for him. His chevron, in which a girl dressed in a black dress, held a pistol and a machine gun, denoted Death itself incarnate, which personally came for him. After all, next to him lay a machine gun, and a pistol stuck in a holster. In the background was a gas mask with broken lenses, covered in blood. He looked exactly what the Quiet expression was. The only difference was that the fire in his eyes burned with an unreproachable bright red flame of the desire to survive, no matter what. In front of him, he saw the Blood Flower, whose scarlet petals frolicked beautifully in a wild dance of free flight. Next to him was a dark bony hand, which was located less than 15 centimeters from the flower and slowly approached him. Quiet decided to save the Bloody Flower and, taking it in his hand, tore it out of the ground, moving it away from the bony hand. The hand moved sharply and soared into the sky, and the flower that he held in his hands seemed to say words of gratitude to him. The blood flower shot out sharp spikes and dug into his hand, quickly dimming. Soon the flower completely lost its color, and the veins on the arm seemed to turn into bright scarlet lines that drove something else inside them instead of blood. The Quiet` eyes filled with blood, after which he closed them forever, and Death receded...