Farther south, another group heard the same rumbling, the same thunderous roars.
They did not see Golden Eagle's army.
They did not see the armored columns leaving the base, nor the howitzers raising their barrels toward the distant edge of Grefort City.
They only heard the guns, the same scenario as before.
And for people who had survived this long by staying quiet, that was enough to make everyone stop moving outside.
Inside an abandoned commercial building, several figures crouched between overturned shelves, broken office partitions, and stacked plastic crates. Cloth covered the windows. Metal sheets blocked the lower entrances. Every gap had been stuffed with whatever they could find.
From wooden planks to old boxes, to any furniture durable and large enough to block everything from the outside.
A young man near the second-floor window slowly lowered his binoculars.
"They're firing again."
Nobody answered.
