The walk back down the building was quiet, neither Adam nor Salvatore said anything, not a note of congratulation, nor a comment of tension, just silence. The third man who had taken up residence in the building with them had fallen thanks to the rocket explosion so they had no company as they slowly made their way downstairs.
Eventually they made it to the street around the same time as all the other teams did. Even from the exit of the building Adam had hidden in the smell of death was nearly overpowering. He considered putting on his gas mask he bought from Chuck but decided against it and instead toughed it out, Salvatore, Deccanus, and Grant all seemed to be fine. The same could not be said for the other volunteers.
Two were in the middle of throwing up when Adam had arrived at the scene, a third looked like he was going through a dissociative episode, and a fourth was praying. The rest were a varying mix of disturbed.
"We have to move." Grant said solemnly as he looked at the pile of dead and dying in front of them all. "Our plan to wipe them out requires us to move out immediately, we don't want them to get a chance to get suspicious."
"I agree, the longer we waste the less our surprise attack will work." Salvatore said callously. Adam took a deep breath and then nodded.
"Yeah. I'm good to go too." He said resolutely. Grant looked around at the remaining men, the man who Adam saw get tagged with a bullet earlier was not here, and the one who fell was still laying on the broken and worn blacktop, unmoving. Both were likely dead. But a third guardsman also seemed to be missing as well, likely another casualty that they had incurred while they were taking fire.
Grant looks at the three who seemed to be taking it the worst, the two throwing up and the one who was giving a thousand yard stare and called them out.
"I want you three to stay here and defend the town, everyone else will move to their base. It's only 30 minutes away from here if we stick to the streets." Grant ordered the group.
Deccanus moved over to the man he had impaled with his spear at the beginning of the battle and pulled the spear out of its fleshy sheath and wiped the blood off with a rag from his pack, and then turned to look at Grant, seeming to wait for his order.
"Alright, everyone! Let's move out!" grant ordered.
The trek to the hideout was rather easy, the group moving as a unit scared off any would-be negative encounters, and nothing challenged them as they moved through the ruins of the city streets.
Eventually, after about 25 minutes of walking they arrived at an old bowling alley that Adam remembered going to once before. He was never a fan of bowling so he only ever went once, but it was during a date with a pretty coworker of his at the time so he had fond memories.
Now, of course, the once date spot was a terrible sight, paint chipping, the sign half broken, the windows boarded up. But surprisingly even in this state it was still pretty clearly a bowling alley.
"You sure that this is the place Grant?" Salvatore said as he snuffed out his cigarette with his fingers before putting it back into his pack.
"I'm sure." Grant responded resolutely. "We got reports a few weeks ago from roamers that there was a new group setting up shop over here, 'course we had hoped it wouldn't become a problem for us but I never let myself forget it."
"Well then, let's fuck these fuckers up shall we?" Salvatore grinned as he raised his rifle in the air, ready to fight. Grant nodded.
"I want you, Adam, Deccanus, and 1 of the kids to take the back entrance, me and the other 3 will take the front." Grant said as he looked at the group for consensus or disagreements. When he got none he continued.
"We will draw their fire, while you three sneak in, i'm not telling you to be stealthy but try to use the fact it's the back entrance to your advantage."
"Yeah, yeah, I know what I'm doing, Grant." Salvatore said dismissively before he looked at Adam.
"You ready kid?" Adam nodded, a steeled look in his eyes.
"Let's do this."
Deccanus, Adam, Salvatore, and one of the guardsmen all moved together towards the back of the bowling alley, seeing a metal door left wide open as they came around the side. There was no question that was their target.
"When we get inside, if we can handle them quietly, do it, if you can't then everyone be ready to start blowing their brains out." A soft nod from everyone confirmed the plan was set and then they all moved in.
The backroom was the first thing they saw, a long hallway that was occupied by three doors, two of which were open. At the end of the hallway he could see what was probably the storeroom, but he could see nothing else. It was dark but only slightly so, there was enough natural light that it was not hard to see. In addition there were little candles and lamps spread throughout the areas as far as he could see so things were illuminated.
The four of them slipped in, Salvatore quietly stepped through the first door on the left. It appeared to be a manager's office. There, a man was playing chess by himself on the desk, his back turned to the door Salvatore walked through.
It took Salvatore exactly two seconds to grab hold of the guy's head and snap his neck. He caught him before he dropped to the ground so he wouldn't make a sound.
The next door was closed, Deccanus crept towards it and opened it, finding a changing room full of metal lockers. Inside, a man was lying on a bench sleeping. Deccanus moved without making a sound, getting right up to the man on the bench, pulling out his machete and slitting the man's throat before he even could wake up.
Adam was the next one to split off, heading through the third door which was open to see a room that had been completely converted to sleeping quarters. Whatever it was before had nothing to hint at it left. There was a single man, naked, doing… less than PG things to a woman's body who lay on the ground underneath him. She was mutilated, a huge gash was present on her back, her hair was a wild mess, and she had cuts and bruises all over her body. By the way she was just laying there it was not entirely impossible she was just dead.
Adam showed no mercy, he snuck up behind the man while he was doing the deed and pulled out his ankle knife, planting it firmly inside his neck with one fluid motion. The man's eyes went wide with fear as he slowly turned to look at Adam, blood gurgling out of his mouth as he tried to speak to no avail. He collapsed on the woman half a second later.
Then Adam could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from elsewhere in the building, it seemed as though Grant was doing as he said he would. Good that made their jobs easier.
Adam bent down near the woman and checked her pulse with two fingers. Her heartbeat was faint, barely there at all, but she was alive. That's almost worse than if she had been dead. Poor woman. But now was not the time for such thoughts. He still had bad guys to kill.
He started moving towards the door to leave when he heard from the hallway a voice he didn't recognize yell out:
"Hey! Who the fuck are you!?"
Adam was quick to run out of the room, getting outside in time to see the guardsman being impaled through the heavy coat with a bayoneted rifle and pushed into the wall, a second later the gun fired right into his stomach, killing him, or at least, sending him into shock as his body went limp immediately.
Adam reached for his 10mm and drew to shoot, but Salvatore was quicker and fired his shotgun past Adam hitting the raider with a slug round that took off his right arm. The raider dropped to the ground like a bag of bricks, screaming. Adam was the one to finish him off, firing a single round into the head of the dying man.
"So much for Stealth." Salvatore remarked casually after Adam had finished the raider off.
"Let's get to work kid, they know we are here now."