―――Tatatatatatatatatatatat!!
Flames erupt from the muzzle of the gun.
Dozens of bullets fly toward the opponent across the way.
The fireworks and noise were more than enough to attract the attention of the other enemies.
At last, while the enemy’s gaze was sufficiently drawn away,
Elijah dashed out, reaching the door of the control room.
As the focus that had previously been on Eleanor and Cooper shifted back to him, the barrels pointed in his direction as well.
He slammed his body toward the old but sturdily closed iron door――
――BANG!
With a dull sound, the door swung open violently.
“Thank goodness! It’s open!”
“Right! At least we won’t have to die from torture――”
Eleanor’s voice burst out in cheers.
Finally reaching their destination, just knowing they could enter there filled her with considerable hope.
Cooper, matching her mood, was about to prepare to jump in when—
――Pang!
“Wha?!”
A bullet flew from the side of what they thought was a safe cover.
Pale with fear, he immediately hid his body in an invisible angle.
“What the hell,?! When did that happen?!”
A sudden bullet flew.
After carefully looking in that direction, what he found was the enemies had already repositioned.
The encirclement was progressing much faster than he had thought.
“Cooper, look! From behind! Behind us!”
“Behind? From behind what?!”
“Footsteps! I can hear footsteps! Something’s coming!”
Eleanor called him in a panicked voice.
Realizing that more footsteps were coming from the direction they had just run from, he couldn’t help but curse.
“Damn it, it’s really one thing after another…!”
With their only retreat blocked off, they were like rats caught in a trap.
Feeling like time had stopped for a moment, he looked around before—
Coincidentally, or perhaps it was meant to be, his gaze fell upon the destination they had originally intended to go to.
Realizing that heading there was the only way to survive, he immediately shouted to Eleanor.
“Elena! You go through the door first!”
“Huh? What about you, Cooper?!”
“Running together is suicide! If there’s no one covering us, one of us is definitely getting hit!”
“Then you go first! It’s awkward for me to cover you from inside!”
“Just go! That way, if you trip like an idiot again, I can carry you!”
“Th-That was a total mistake! Why are you bringing that up out of nowhere?!”
The two argued for a moment.
Though Eleanor protested for a moment at the mention of her earlier blunder,
she soon realized there was no time for such petty squabbling and got ready to sprint for the control room as he suggested.
“I’ll cover you as best as I can once you get there. Just hurry!”
“Okay, just go already! At this rate, we’re really going to get surrounded!”
Again, the guns lit up.
The aiming and gunfire were far more chaotic than before.
Yet, that was enough to briefly divert the enemies’ attention.
Using that gunfire as a signal, Eleanor covered her head and—
muttered something while sprinting as fast as she could toward the control room.
“Ugh, just don’t hit my head. Don’t hit my head…!”
For her small frame, she moved surprisingly quickly to the door.
However, a few bullets were fired at her along the way.
Whether they missed or hit, she couldn’t tell.
But at the very least, she managed to step into the control room on her own.
“Did I make it? Great! Now next—”
Right after seeing Eleanor enter the door,
Cooper hid under cover, preparing to dash for the door.
If they could cover him from the other side, he could simply run.
It would be riskier than what those ahead had faced, but at this time, he could still make a move before being completely surrounded.
If luck were on his side, it might only end with a bullet in his arm or leg.
“―――?”
However, oddly enough,
the two who had just gone inside were nowhere to be seen even after several seconds.
Only the gunfire from all around battered his ears.
“Hey! If you both are in there, can you cover me? I don’t know what’s urgent, but I can promise you it’s not more urgent than me!”
Trying to stay calm while thinking that surely nothing could happen in such a short time,
he became increasingly uneasy as the two offered no response.
“Can you not hear me? Please cover me! If something happens, just tell me!!”
After yelling in frustration one last time and receiving no response,
a chilling fear began to creep into him faster than anything else.
“―――”
Cold sweat dripped down, and his trigger-finger twitched uncontrollably.
The fear of what he had dreaded happening truly occuring.
Before he entered there, he felt that it might be better to just end his own life instead.
And now, without even the time to choose that freely, he heard numerous footsteps nearing around the corner.
In a critical situation,
he remained anxiously twitching his finger on the trigger and slowly aimed his gun at his own head.
“Damn it…!”
Like something breaking free, he finally shouted,
grabbing something to cover the gun; then he tore a piece of cloth from the cover.
“I don’t care, whether I die or not, it’s one or the other…!”
After placing the cloth over the barrel, he put on an enemy gas mask.
Even just looking closely, it was an obviously hastily assembled decoy.
But right now, any moment he could buy would be a good situation.
―――Tatadadadang!
He randomly fired another pistol into the air.
Not a suppressed shot or anything—it was straight-up for grabbing attention.
And right after that, he extended the decoy with the gas mask over the cover
and, almost simultaneously, dashed straight towards the door.
“Ugh!”
Bullets rained down like hail toward the decoy.
If exposed to that, he would have turned into a beehive from the brutal fire.
The countless bullets shredded the decoy in an instant, and barely moments later, the enemies realized it was a decoy.
They turned their guns toward Cooper, who was now sprinting toward the door.
The trigger was pulled, and flames erupted from the barrels.
Bullets zipped past him.
In this chaotic situation, he could hardly tell if he was hit or not.
All he could do was run straight ahead.
Finally, when he reached the vicinity of the iron door, he gathered all his strength and leaped toward it――
“Ugh, KRAK!”
Letting out a grand noise,
he barely escaped the gunfire, crashing to the ground headfirst.
“Haa, haa…”
As he pushed himself up, the first thing he did was check his body.
It only lasted a moment, but while running through that hail of bullets, he had felt an awful sensation as if he were becoming a beehive.
Yet, miraculously or whatever it was, he had made it into this room perfectly intact.
Confirming that there weren’t unexpected holes in his body, he finally let out a big sigh of relief.
“Wait, what are you guys doing?! Why hasn’t anyone said a word since earlier?!”
What came into his view next were the two figures standing with their backs to him.
To be honest, the fact that both of them were unharmed made him feel a bit relieved—but more than that, it was anger and disappointment at their betrayal.
He would’ve preferred if they at least said something, like how they couldn’t do anything right now.
But since they hadn’t said a word, he was even contemplating taking his own life for a moment.
“What the hell are you two just standing there for…?”
However, as he thought it was strange that they were still silent,
he stood up and couldn’t help but turn his gaze toward where they were looking.
“…”
He felt indifferent to the emotions he’d just recognized.
Alongside the two who had entered before him, all three merely stared at the scene in silence.
“…What the hell is this?”
A short while later, he murmured a questioning voice no one could answer, as if lost in meaninglessness.
