Dmitri and the others approached Apartment Building Two with their combat knives already out, keeping to the quieter side of the road while Rex moved near his leg.
"Remember, no noise," he whispered, then pointed Ryan and Adam toward the entrance.
Two infected wandered near the doors, their clothes hanging in tatters and their mouths working through low, useless groans. Adam and Ryan split without needing another instruction, circled into their blind spots, and struck almost together before lowering the bodies instead of letting them crash onto the pavement.
Dmitri slipped through the entrance and checked the lobby from the side of the doorway. Four infected were visible, with more sounds coming from deeper inside, but none had reacted to the two kills outside, so he waved the rest in.
Team A checked the maintenance area while Team B took the crew quarters, kitchen, and rear rooms; Team C stayed around the lobby and entrance so nobody could wander in behind them. Compared to Building One, the infected here were scattered and strangely quiet, which made the work easier but did little to make Dmitri comfortable.
"Team B, Team C, report."
"Team B reporting. Kitchen and crew quarters clear."
"Team C reporting. Lobby quiet, stairwell secured."
"Copy. Secure the elevator too. I don't want something opening behind us."
Inside the maintenance room, several indicators on the breaker panel were dead while others flickered weakly. Dmitri checked the faded labels and frowned.
"Floors Three, Six, and Eight have no power. We'll take those."
His night vision made the choice obvious, and Rex would be more useful in the dark than any of the others.
When Dmitri returned to the lobby, Lukas and Elise were already dealing with the elevator. Elise stood off to one side while Lukas covered the opposite angle, and when she pressed the call button, the doors opened with a soft ding and a security-uniformed infected lurched out. Elise stepped back before it reached her, and Lukas drove it into the side of the car. One hard stomp ended the struggle.
"You okay?" Lukas asked.
"Yeah. Thanks."
Dmitri glanced into the elevator before turning toward Connor and Lukas. "All right. Since Three, Six, and Eight are dark, my team will take those floors. Team B can handle Two, Five, and Seven. Team C, stay here until Two and Three are clear, then take Four and Nine."
"We'll follow your plan, sir," Connor said.
"Adam, Nadia, stay with Team C for now. Ryan, you're with me."
"Understood, sir."
Dmitri touched the comm bead near his ear. "Team B, move when ready."
"Moving now, sir. Starting Floor Two."
The clearing began without much trouble. Team B entered the second floor while Dmitri, Ryan, and Rex passed them for the dark third floor, and the lights faded until only the glow from the stairwell remained behind them.
Dmitri lowered his night-vision goggles. The hallway returned in pale green detail.
Rex moved ahead with his nose low, slowing near the first unit as his tail dropped and his body went quiet. Zombies inside, gotta be careful.
Dmitri eased the door open and checked the nearest corners before stepping through. Three infected stood inside, all facing away, and the suppressed MP7A1 coughed three times before any of them could turn properly, dropping all three where they stood.
"Moving to the next room."
The second door was locked, so Dmitri worked the lockpick kit until the mechanism clicked. He put the tools away, drew his knife, and entered with the blade ready in front of him.
An infected rushed from beside the doorway, but Dmitri caught it through the face and drove it into the wall. He left the knife there long enough to put two suppressed shots into the other infected behind it, then pulled the blade free and kept moving.
Ryan stayed near the stairwell and listened to the soft clicks, brief thuds, and occasional suppressed shots coming from the rooms. Dmitri made it look easy, but Ryan had already seen enough fighting to know that easy was not the same thing as simple.
Still, watching a Scout work through the floor alone with Rex made the difference between their training painfully obvious.
I have a rifle and better armor. He has... all of that.
Ryan exhaled through his nose and tightened his grip on the M16A4. No point sulking in the middle of a clearing operation.
"Third floor clear," Dmitri reported over the comm bead. "Team B, status?"
"Last room on Two. Almost done."
"Copy. Ryan, stairwell?"
"Empty."
"Team C, move to Four once Two confirms."
Footsteps came from below as the other groups shifted upward. Team B finished Floor Two soon after and moved to Five while Team C took Four, leaving Dmitri to continue through Six and then Eight.
The operation settled into a rhythm after that. One team cleared, another secured the stairwell ahead, and the next moved only after the route behind them was confirmed. Dmitri still worked faster on the dark floors, but he stopped paying attention to who was ahead of schedule; the building was being cleared without anyone getting hurt, which mattered more.
By the time Team B secured Seven, Rex stopped halfway up the next staircase.
His breathing changed as he lifted his head and sniffed toward the upper floors.
"What is it, buddy?"
Rex stared upward, then looked back at Dmitri. Fresh human scent?
Dmitri remembered the red signal they had seen from Building Two and tapped his comm bead. "Team C, check the ninth floor carefully. We may have the survivors up there. Don't force your way through anything they barricaded."
"Copy, Team A. Moving to Nine."
Ryan started to follow them, but Dmitri caught his shoulder. "Go with Team C. If they find people, I want an Army Soldier there before anyone starts panicking."
"Copy that."
The ninth floor was still lit, though several bulbs flickered in the hallway. A messy barricade of tables and chairs blocked part of the stairwell entrance, and Lukas stopped before touching it.
"Team A, this is Team C. We found the barricade."
"Any movement?"
"Not yet."
"Call out first. If nobody answers, clear only what you need to get through. Don't go kicking their door down."
Lukas looked at the others and raised his voice just enough to carry. "Anyone up there? We're soldiers. We're clearing the building."
Something shifted beyond the barricade, and they waited until a chair scraped and a hoarse voice carried from farther down the hall.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
Connor had reached the floor with Team B and stepped closer, though he kept his rifle lowered.
"Hello. This is Connor Hayes, an Army Soldier. We're clearing the building, and we didn't know anyone was still up here. If you're inside one of the units, tell us which one so nobody gets surprised."
Silence held for several seconds before a younger voice burst from behind one of the doors.
"So-soldier?! You're finally here!"
Something banged inside before the same young voice shouted, "Old man, hey, old man! Wake up, damn it! Our rescuers are here!"
A much slower, rougher voice answered, "'Ey, Evan. Stop quarrelling so loudly. The old man's gonna die if you yank him like tha'!"
"But the rescuers... Oh yes, I have to open the door!"
"Aish, what rescuers, ain't them all dead?"
"But... but they're here! I heard them talk to me just now!"
"Ya lad must be hallucinating. Let me open the door for ya, see how stupid your brain has go'en."
Locks clicked one after another at Unit 9-6 while Connor and the others spread out instead of crowding the doorway, keeping their weapons pointed down as it opened. A young man appeared, thin and exhausted despite the excitement on his face, while another man beside him looked so tired that disbelief came before relief.
The second man rubbed his eyes and stared at the soldiers.
"No, this can't be real... this can't be. Them soldiers are alive... and real?!"