29: Chapter 29 Trust 29: Chapter 29 Trust After firing, Gao Yang cycled a new round into the chamber as quickly as possible, then kept his eyes on the scope.
Since he had already fired, there were no other options but to tightly seal off the stairway leading to the rooftop.
“Good shot, but the timing wasn’t great.
You should have waited until he was completely on the rooftop before firing and you should have aimed for the chest.
Ensuring a hit is more important than ensuring a kill.”
“Understood.
Actually, I was too nervous and just fired subconsciously without thinking.
What should we do now, sir?”
Fedor raised his binoculars and said leisurely, “Remember, on the battlefield, calmness is your friend.
Impulsiveness and nervousness will get you killed.
If you don’t want to die, don’t fear death.
The worse the situation gets, the calmer you need to be.
Now that the enemy doesn’t know your true intentions, the situation isn’t as bad as you think.
Hmm, there’s an idiot observing from a second-floor window, at four o’clock.
Take him out.”
Without a second thought, Gao Yang swiveled his gun barrel and saw a man at a second-floor window.
He was holding a pistol and had pushed aside the curtain, standing slightly inside the window with a walkie-talkie to his mouth, looking in Gao Yang’s direction.
Upon spotting his target, Gao Yang immediately fired, bearing Fedor’s words in mind.
This time it was a hit, with the bullet striking the chest of the person at the window.
“Kill confirmed, very good.
At this range, a hit in the chest is definitely fatal.
They don’t have a sniper or artillery support.
You now control their lives; you are the Grim Reaper.”
Gao Yang really liked this feeling of having everything under control, being able to freely harvest the enemy’s lives while they were completely helpless.
This truly gave him the sensation that he was the Grim Reaper.
Gao Yang quickly moved his gun barrel back to the stairwell, but after waiting a few minutes, no one emerged.
“Sir, they’re not willing to come out now.
What should we do?
I don’t think we can drag this on.
Once it gets dark, I’ll be completely out of options,” he said.
Fedor chuckled softly and replied, “You need to learn to observe, young man.
Think about it; there are now eleven more bodies here.
Those militiamen, or whatever you want to call them, they won’t give up just like that.
Your chance will come when they attack again.”
Gao Yang felt that Fedor made a lot of sense, so he focused his aim on the stairway entrance, not thinking about unnecessary things anymore, while Fedor continued to use his binoculars to observe the situation and to scan for targets, perfectly playing the role of an observer.
After a brief silence, some people started to emerge from corners of the streets.
Fedor observed them for a moment then said sternly, “Get ready.
I think another round of suicidal charges is about to begin.
While ensuring the attic’s security, you need to also watch the windows.
It would be best if you can force those mercenaries to retreat on their own.”
Gao Yang and Fedor were prepared, but after a long wait, the locals didn’t initiate a charge.
Just as Gao Yang was wondering if these people were planning to gather more people before attacking, he suddenly heard intense gunfire.
After glancing backward, Fedor cursed furiously, “F**k, f**k, these idiots, these son-of-a-bitch idiots, what is this supposed to be?
What is this?
What are they doing?
This isn’t war, this is shit.”
Gao Yang didn’t know what had made Fedor so angry.
He quickly turned his head and what he saw made him want to curse out loud alongside Fedor.
Looking around, he saw groups of three or two at each alleyway on Gao Yang’s street, now holding guns and firing towards the corner restaurant.
However, the issue was that some were as far as seven to eight hundred meters away, and even the closest were three to four hundred meters.
At such a distance, using AK47s to spray fire, they would be lucky to hit the external walls of the restaurant.
In fact, the weapons these people had weren’t limited to AK47s.
Gao Yang also saw at least two machine guns, but even with machine guns, they had to know how to use them.
Gao Yang didn’t know if these people learned their combat skills from movies or what, but they held machine guns in a mighty posture and sprayed wildly.
Once their bullets ran out, they’d retreat back into the alleys, load a new belt of ammo, and stand out again to empty their rounds in one breath.
Gao Yang particularly wanted to shout to those people to use the prone position when using machine guns, and at least aim.
Gao Yang and Fedor silently moved further inside because stray bullets kept hitting the low wall, sending bricks and cement flying.
To avoid being hit by these stray bullets, they had to shift their position.
The aimless firing did nothing to the mercenaries inside the restaurant, not even serving as a deterrence.
Gao Yang thought if he were one of the mercenaries in the restaurant facing such opponents, he would only feel more confident.
Fedor sighed with helplessness and shook his head, “Forget it, these idiots are hopeless.
Damn it, what kind of war is this, trying to scare the enemy to death with gunfire?”
Gao Yang felt this war was un-fightable.
A bunch of civilians who knew nothing but to fire into the air, while the mercenaries hid inside the restaurant, refusing even to return fire, resulting in an ostensibly fierce but actually peaceful coexistence between the two groups.
Just as Gao Yang was at a loss, he heard Bob shouting, “Gao, Gao, your friend’s on the phone.”
Gao Yang turned and saw Bob somehow had climbed to the rooftop and was running towards him.
Gao Yang gestured and whispered, “Get down, get down.”
Crouching, Bob raced over to Gao Yang and handed him the phone, signaling for him to take the call.
Gao Yang glanced at Fedor and, seeing him signal to take the call, picked up the phone, took a deep breath, and said softly, “Rabbit, is that you?”
“Who is this?”
“I’m Gao Yang.”
When Gao Yang heard an exclamation from the phone, “Brother Yang?
F**k, weren’t you dead?
F**k, is that really you?
F**k, Brother Yang, you’re alive, damn it, I thought you died in a plane crash, I always thought you were dead, f**k!”
Gao Yang helplessly cut off Cui Bo’s rambling, growling, “Enough with the ‘f**k’, can’t you speak like a normal person?
I’m not dead, alive and well.
If you continue to spout nonsense, you’ll be the one to die first.
I’m on the roof of Malik’s store, aiming right at your stairwell entrance, Mauser 98K.
That’s my situation, now tell me about yours.”
“Brother Yang, I really thought you were dead, damn, it’s so good you’re not.
Oh, the situation, I’m not sure how many people there are, I saw two white guys and four black guys, two of them looked like scouts, no heavy weapons spotted, mostly AK47s, though it seems there’s one FAL.
These guys started killing everyone as soon as they entered the store, no survivors, not good people at all.
Now I’m the only survivor in the store.
Brother Yang, I can’t believe you’re alive, and we’ve even run into each other here, damn it, heaven’s got eyes after all.”
Gao Yang could sense Cui Bo’s excitement.
That’s not strange, truth be told, Gao Yang was also quite thrilled.
However, Gao Yang had more pressing matters, and now was not the time to rejoice at reuniting with an old friend.
If he wasn’t careful, the next thing he might see would be Cui Bo’s corpse.
“Alright, cut the crap.
I’m telling you, I’ve killed two people, one black and one white.
The white one seemed to be their commander.
I’m confident I can lock down your stairwell, but once night falls, I’ll be out of options.
You know the layout, is there any way to escape?”
“This restaurant is newly built, not connected like the houses over there, no way to make it to a neighbor’s house.
If I want to run, I could only jump out of the window.”
Of course, Gao Yang knew that the building where Cui Bo was holed up was standalone.
What he wanted to know was whether Cui Bo had any way to get down, such as rappelling down with a rope.
“Isn’t there a rope or something?
If you jump down, you’re not going to die, but you’ll be half-crippled at least.”
“No, nothing at all.
If I had a rope I would have used it by now.
All I’ve got here is junk and tools, nothing useful.
But I do have a hammer I can smash someone’s head with.”
Gao Yang wanted to say more to Cui Bo, but just then, Fedor urgently exclaimed, “Danger, second target point, sniper!”
Gao Yang immediately dropped the phone in his left hand.
Even as he spoke, his right hand never left the trigger, his eyes never straying from the scope.
As he put down the phone in response to Fedor’s alarm, Gao Yang had already aimed the rifle’s muzzle at the second target point, the window of a building across the street from the restaurant, which was a prime spot for a sniper to set up.
Aiming at the window, Gao Yang saw a gun muzzle pointing right back at him through the scope.
Without a second thought, he fired instantly.
As he fired, he also saw the flash from the other gun’s barrel through the scope, and for a moment, Gao Yang thought he was a goner.
“Missed, move!”
After Fedor’s loud shout, Gao Yang realized he hadn’t been struck and quickly ducked below the low wall.
In a flurry to reload, a bullet whizzed past, grazing the brick wall over his head, leaving an indentation.
Had he not ducked, that bullet would have been the end of him.
Bob had been lying low on the ground, and Fedor had also drawn back in time, urgently saying to Gao Yang, “Change position, we’ve been spotted.”
Without Fedor’s warning, Gao Yang already knew they had to move.
The exchange of fire he and the opposing sniper had just engaged in was hasty; neither had hit their target.
However, it was clear that the enemy was using a semi-automatic sniper rifle, which could fire much faster than his, and with the advantage of the sniper rifle, the enemy sniper had him suppressed.
The problem with bolt-action rifles is the slow firing rate.
It’s manageable at long distances, but at close quarters, there’s hardly any chance of a follow-up shot.
Now, if Gao Yang were to try to aim again, the time it would take would be long enough for the enemy to take him down.
Gao Yang picked up the phone, crawling three meters to the side along the brick wall with Fedor.
The rooftop wasn’t large; moving completely to another corner wasn’t the best option as that area would be a focus for enemy fire.
After moving position, Gao Yang picked up the phone again and whispered, “I’m being targeted by a sniper, right at the second-floor window of the building across from you.
I’m totally suppressed and can’t risk showing my head.
You need to be careful since there might already be someone on your roof.”
Rabbit’s urgent voice came through the phone, “I’ve already heard footsteps, someone is coming up.
Brother Yang, remember the tactics from the movie ‘Enemy at the Gates’?
The ones we’ve used before.
I’ll go out to draw their attention, then you take the shot.
Countdown from 3, 2, 1 and I’ll go out, you fire a second later.
Starting now, three.”
Gao Yang shouted, “No, don’t, they may not know someone’s in the attic.”
“Two.”
Gao Yang immediately dropped the phone, grasping the rifle in his hands, preparing to silently count the final one.
Gao Yang knew what Cui Bo was about to do; this was something they frequently did playing wargames.
If an opponent was left alone, well hidden, or had them suppressed so they couldn’t take them out, then one would rush out to draw fire, allowing another to take down the target.
The tactic had a high success rate, and they nearly always managed to get their target.
However, at the same time, the person drawing fire had a high chance of not making it out alive.
Of course, those were games, and being ‘killed’ just meant a bit of pain before sitting out the rest of the match.
But now, the one drawing fire was risking their actual life.
“One”
After mentally counting one and waiting for just a moment, Gao Yang immediately darted out, aiming the rifle at the spot where he remembered the window to be.