――Bang!
The sharp gunshot reverberated through the hallway, as if it was tearing through the air.
“Wha—?!”
As something zipped past her, Eleanor let out a shrill scream and ducked into the room.
With a ping, small shards of debris flew up.
The fired bullet struck not far from where she had been standing, scattering fragments everywhere.
As if using that as a starting point, another gunshot rang out in quick succession—
――Tatatatatatang!
Finally, as numerous gunshots filled the hallway,
countless bullets began to rain down toward the room where they were hiding.
“Tsk, they’re not giving us a moment’s peace.”
“What in the world is going on?!”
“What’s going on is, since their tricks aren’t working, they’ve decided to just bury us with brute force.”
Hiding from the rain of bullets, Cooper muttered in disbelief.
Having faced quite a threat to his life, something that could be considered excessive for a single human being,
he was slowly starting to feel accustomed to situations like this.
“There are more of them than I expected. It seems reinforcements are coming.”
Elijah carefully peered out through a hole and heard the sound of concrete thudding below.
Thud, thud, thud, echoed the footsteps down the hallway.
The sounds coming from a distance hinted that there were far more enemies moving than he had confirmed when he peeked outside earlier.
“W-What do we do? We’re going to get completely surrounded at this rate!”
In the tense situation, Eleanor shouted in confusion.
With their escape route blocked behind them and bullets pouring from the front,
they were certainly in a dire situation.
“What do you mean, what do we do? You said let’s get to the control room.”
However, even in such a crisis, Cooper responded to her with a teasing voice.
Upon hearing him, Eleanor pointed at the bullets flying above their cover and shouted back, as if to say, “Look at the situation!”
“I may have said that, but we’re being shot at like crazy from outside right now!”
“Well, did you expect a red carpet to be rolled out on the way there?”
Cooper replied back as he hastily readied his weapon for return fire on the metal furniture he was hiding behind.
Though he wasn’t wrong.
Looking back on what they had experienced in this facility, it was unlikely they’d face no obstacles on the way to their destination.
“We’re short on time and resources, and this is the only option we have left anyway.”
And while the situation was definitely dangerous,
it was still much better than being trapped in a free-fall elevator or being chased by a floating head, or running endlessly down identical stairs while being pursued by an unknown monster.
From his perspective, which was slowly getting used to these kinds of situations, there was nothing particularly frightening about what was happening now.
“Besides, if we’re going to die anyway, you were the one who said we should at least give it a shot. Unless you were just trying to put on a brave face?”
After finishing off a barrage of fire toward the hallway, he lowered his weapon to the cover again.
As he replaced the magazine, there seemed to be a mischievous grin on his face.
“…Wait a minute. What do you mean by that?”
Eleanor felt a sting to her pride from his last comment, as if it was mocking her.
“Nothing much, just that the fearful look you have now is a bit far from the confident persona you had earlier.”
“W-What do you mean I looked fearful?!”
“Oh, I just meant it like that. It’s not like you looked really scared. Just more like you’ve ‘shrunk back’ a bit?”
With a clack, an empty magazine dropped from the gun in Cooper’s hand.
In truth, she was aware that she had acted a bit embarrassed.
As a member of the Management Office, she had prepared herself to face death, and there was no falsehood in that resolve.
Yet, just like that, she had forgotten her earlier words due to the sudden ambush and gunfire from the enemies.
“It’s okay. I get it. With bullets raining down like crazy, anyone would shrink back a little. That’s definitely understandable. I’m doing it too.”
But how easy is it to let go of one’s pride?
Especially when that pride is being jeered at, one’s instinct to protect oneself naturally kicks in.
And in situations like this, that instinct usually comes wrapped in emotions like anger.
“But seeing someone who just a few minutes ago said they’d probably die anyway acting like this, it’s sort of…”
With another clack, a brand new magazine connected to the firearm.
While the rain of bullets continued pouring in from outside,
Cooper pulled the bolt back again, raising his weapon atop the cover.
With his gun merely sticking out, he was about to pull the trigger when—
“Hey, woah!”
Suddenly, his gun was snatched out of his hands by someone next to him.
“What the heck?!”
“What are you gonna do with it? You were just blasting away without even aiming!”
Eleanor snapped at Cooper with a grumpy voice.
Sadly, there was no room for counterarguments from him.
While the magazines he had left behind still lay there, they certainly weren’t enough to deal with the overwhelming number of enemies outside.
And if he used those up like he had just done, he’d surely end up needing to charge in barehanded soon.
It made sense for her, the one with the best shooting skills, to take it.
“Hey, if you take that, what am I supposed to use?!”
Cooper protested repeatedly.
But Eleanor seemed uninterested in his protests, leaning out from behind cover with an indifferent look.
Then, she retorted with an irritated voice.
“Just make one! I’ll break through, and you can grab whatever is lying around outside and use that!”
As she leaned out, a bullet suddenly zipped past her side.
Yet, perhaps due to the excitement stirred by Cooper’s taunting, she didn’t even notice it grazed her cheek.
――—Bang, bang, bang!
The single shots from the firearm in her hands began to ring out in succession.
As the shots multiplied, the numerous gunshots from the hallway started to dwindle until finally,
save for the single shots, no sound could be heard.
“Phew…”
When she returned behind cover to reload,
only discarded weapons and clothing lay scattered across the floor outside the hallway.
“…What are you doing? Let’s hurry up before it’s too late.”
Having presumably released some of her pent-up emotions from the outburst,
she had returned to her previous sharp demeanor after a moment.
And yet, as if still not quite satisfied, she waved them forward impatiently and, soon losing her patience altogether, charged ahead with hurried footsteps.
“….”
After a moment of silence,
Elijah stood there after stepping out into the hallway for a bit and shifted his gaze toward Cooper, who was picking up the fallen magazine.
“…Just checking, but were you aiming for that?”
“Probably not? She just stepped up because she wanted to.”
He shrugged nonchalantly in response.
Though he spoke as if utterly caught off guard,
his expression suggested he wasn’t hiding any mischief at all.
“Clever.”
“Who knows? I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.”
Leaving him behind, still acting aloof,
Elijah hurriedly moved toward the renewed gunfire he could now hear coming from further down the hallway.
