Nudging the Drone higher to get a more comprehensive view of where the conflict occurred, I was suddenly put into battle mode, causing me to drop the control and move on instinct.
BOOM BOOM, the noise triggered my training reaction. I rolled back away from the window and caught my rifle; as I did so, I sat for a second Rifle aimed at the blackout shade and listened.
BOOM BOOM, there it was again, someone on the other side trying to break the window; the booming sound shaking the wall was enough to wake Renton up, and I watched my phone from across the room as he raced up to me with his rifle.
He entered the room silently and tapped me on the shoulder once, which was his signal to me, stating that he was covering me.
Usually, the force the person was using to hit the windows would have decimated the glass; however, when Renton and I were kids, we used to break the windows all the time accidentally, so our Dad had them replaced with thicker glass than standard windows.
The intruder learned this every time they hit the window as the seconds ticked.
BOOM, they hit the window again, this time hard enough to echo through the house. The glass was too thick for whatever they were hitting it with.
On the phone, I saw the others sit up scared and look around. Chase was the first to grab a weapon; he caught the old rifle I was showing him earlier and loaded it as I had taught him.
But, as I was watching Chase move, my ears picked up shuffling on the window's ledge, making Renton and I angle ourselves away. Someone was adjusting their stance, which signaled that they were going to…
BANG, BANG, BANG.
Bullets tore through the glass and the door in front of the window, and in response, Renton and I returned fire into the blackout shade. From outside, light streamed into the room with every shot that left our barrels.
Instantly, we were met with return fire through the walls on either side of the window. In sync, Renton and I dropped to our bellies and fired across each other. My target was the wall in front of Renton, and his target was the wall in front of me.
The reason behind this is simple; an intelligent shooter would stand back from the wall at an angle to avoid being hit if the person in front of the wall returned fire.
Knowing this, we aimed to hit those people standing off to the side and firing into our house, and soon enough, we knew we were right.
Hearing several howls of pain and thuds as bodies dropped from the ledge to the ground, I held my arm at a ninety-degree angle as a cease-fire.
With the sudden silence due to the lack of gunfire, several moans and curses were audible on the other side of the bullet-hole-ridden wall.
When combat lulled, I took the opportunity to observe my surroundings, and soon enough, my eyes were drawn to my phone, which had fallen from the desk.
On the screen, Tristian and Carleigh were on the ground covering their heads while Chase knelt on one knee, rifle trained at the stairs in case Renton and I had been gunned down.
After several long silent minutes, I motioned to Renton that I was moving up; seeing my signals, he nodded in response and got up onto one knee while pointing his rifle behind me, covering my blindspot.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
While creeping forward, I tried to look through the holes in the wall to catch sight of our would-be attackers, but the line of sight wasn't clear, so I gave up and focused on what was ahead of me.
Once I reached the window, I placed my back against the wall and used the gap between the wall and blackout shade to look out onto the edge of the apartment but saw nothing. Without moving an inch, I steadied my breathing, closed my eyes since they were practically useless, and sat there using all my other senses.
The smell of blood hung in the air, which was insane to me since usually, the acrid smell of gunsmoke took over; I tried ignoring it at first, but it was overwhelming. Next, I trained my ears on any noise, and that's when I heard it.
Like me, someone was on the opposite side of the wall, mimicking my every action. Upon realizing these guys had similar training to me, my heart sank into the pit of my stomach.
However, unlike me, he struggled to control his breathing; thus, I could hear his every breath. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I flicked my wrist slightly, relaying to Renton that someone was in my mirror.
He nodded in response, and following this information being shared, we formulated a plan using small hand gestures and head nods.
If this would work, we had to move as one unit, so to link up, I gave Renton a countdown from five with my fingers.
Five, time slowed, and I slowly exhaled while curling my thumb into my palm.
Four, Renton relaxed his shoulders, exhaled in sync with me, and kissed the trigger of his rifle with the pointer finger of his right hand.
Three, my muscles tensed in preparation for movement, and Renton flexed his hand while steadying his barrel to stay parallel with the ground.
Two, I chose my target on the wall, the spot my enemy's torso would most likely be resting against. My eyes locked onto that segment, and I knew Renton was aiming at the exact location through his iron sights.
One, I couldn't be early or hesitate in my following action. If I did, I would be in Renton's line of fire, and he would shoot the second I hit zero, so I shoved away from the wall and dove while spinning and raising my rifle toward the wall.
The instant I moved, Renton fired a burst; meanwhile, when I pulled away from the wall, I also fired my rifle. We only fired one burst each before I slammed onto the ground, butt first sitting up; my momentum forcing me to slide onto the carpet.
There was no scream, just a loud thump as the lifeless body of whoever had attacked us fell from our floor to the ground. Renton didn't waste any time; he Bolted towards the window and tore down the shade revealing shattered glass.
Checking both sides of the outer wall, he then climbed onto the ledge, causing me to curse under my breath.
"Fucking couldn't wait two seconds," I cursed as I rushed to my feet and followed him out the window. He was moving too recklessly, but it was to be expected. I was the calculated brother, and he was the shoot first, ask questions later, danger-prone brother.
By the time I made it out the window, he had already dropped down to the floor and was checking the bodies.
"Shock eight!" Without looking up, Renton yelled to me.
The phrase shock stood for target killed, so by saying "Shock Eight," Renton indicated we had eliminated eight people.
As he checked bodies, I kept a lookout over the streets. I had a feeling that these eight were part of the group I saw earlier, and at this distance, I was sure that they heard the gunfire and would be coming towards us.
"Renton, hurry up; we need to re-secure the premises quickly, I saw a group larger than this earlier when I was doing recon, so odds are those bastards will be here any minute." Leaning out the window, I said calmly, but then I heard movement from behind, causing me to pull my head back; creeping around the corner with his gun drawn, Chase came into sight, stepped out of the line of fire, and drew his attention.
"Chase, grab the remote on the floor by my closet," I said, using a firm tone, which seemed to startle him.
Doing as told, Chase retrieved my control for the drone and handed it to me, although my friend was shaking as he did so. If I had to guess, that was the closest he'd ever been to a gunfight.
I looked at the screen on the transponder; it was circling on autopilot above the riot, which had grown into a massive fight, so I set the coordinates of our apartment into the data pad and directed it back towards us.
Tristian came up behind his younger brother, and I motioned for him to come to the window.
"I need you to keep overwatch…er…look out for us with the drone. I've programmed it to fly back our way, and it will circle the apartment high enough that you can see at least two blocks around the apartment." Tristian nodded in understanding, hearing my words, so I quickly handed over the drone's control.