44: Chapter 44: Night Raid 44: Chapter 44: Night Raid Once through the main gate, the light from the windows spilled into the courtyard, brightly illuminating it.
A mere glance out the windows would reveal Gao Yang and Glolov.
Outside the windows, there was a corridor.
To reach the corridor and get close to the windows, Gao Yang and Glolov had to make their way past the doorway.
They moved lightly, tiptoed onto the corridor.
The window sills were quite low, only reaching up to Gao Yang’s waist.
Gao Yang and Glolov were forced to crouch, inching step by step to the window they planned to target.
Once both were in position, Glolov nodded at Gao Yang, then slowly opened the box containing mortar shells.
He took out a shell, counted down with his fingers—three, two, one—and then sharply struck the shell against the wall.
Standing up, Gao Yang fired a shot at the glass closest to Glolov.
They had expected the gunshot to shatter the window, but contrary to their expectations, only a small hole appeared in the glass without it breaking.
Glolov couldn’t toss the mortar shell into the room.
Gao Yang’s shot set off pandemonium inside, with twenty or thirty people yelling and reaching for their guns.
But with the mortar shell unable to be thrown, Gao Yang didn’t give them time to react, nor did he make Glolov wait too long.
He fired two more shots at the glass, and just as Glolov was about to throw the shell, the whole pane finally shattered with a crash.
The moment the window broke, Glolov threw the mortar shell hard into the room, then immediately ducked down; Gao Yang, a bit slower than Glolov, also managed to take cover behind the wall just in time.
Right as Gao Yang got behind cover, a tremendous explosion followed.
The lights went out in the room that had been hit by the mortar shell.
Flying debris from broken furniture and the blast wave surged out the window, and Gao Yang’s ears rang, leaving him temporarily deaf.
Dazed by the nearby explosion, Gao Yang almost instinctively turned his gun around and fired mechanically into the room.
He only got off two shots before Glolov pushed him aside.
Glolov then hurled another mortar shell into the room.
Gao Yang, taking cover behind the wall, quickly reloaded two shotgun rounds.
After the second shell exploded, he darted out and shot into the room, all the while keeping an eye on Glolov’s actions.
Seeing Glolov strike each shell against the wall and then toss them into the room, Gao Yang immediately darted back behind the wall.
Two explosions went off almost simultaneously, the whole building shaking.
The 82mm mortar shells weren’t incredibly powerful, but with four going off in one room, Gao Yang didn’t think anyone inside could have survived.
After tossing out all four shells, Glolov, grabbing his M4, shouted at Gao Yang.
However, Gao Yang could only hear a buzzing in his ears and couldn’t make out what was being said.
But from Glolov’s actions and expression, Gao Yang realized what had happened.
Gao Yang turned to look and saw the door had been flung open, and people had already rushed out.
But as they did, Cui Bo’s machine gun erupted.
Several who came out were mowed down, with three falling immediately at the door.
Cui Bo had the door covered, so Gao Yang didn’t have to worry.
He turned back toward Glolov, gestured wildly that it was time to withdraw.
It was then that Gao Yang spotted, to his shock, three individuals emerging from the other end of the corridor.
People appearing from the other end of the corridor could only mean that there was a side door, and the worst part was they were behind Glolov, who had yet to notice.
Gao Yang shouted a warning and immediately raised his gun.
His bullets nearly grazed Glolov’s ear, taking down one armed enemy to the ground.
Gao Yang’s actions alerted Glolov to the danger.
As he spun around to return fire, the two remaining assailants behind him also pulled their triggers.
While turning, Glolov jolted as he fell.
As Glolov went down, even though his M4 had fired and hit an approaching enemy—causing another one armed with an M4 to stagger and fall—the enemy’s bullets also struck Glolov.
As Glolov fell, Gao Yang chambered another round and fired.
His shot whizzed over the head of the falling Glolov, blowing the last enemy’s head apart.
It all seems to unfold slowly, but everything happened in an instant.
The three people suddenly appearing from the other end of the corridor had taken Gao Yang and Glolov by surprise.
Although they reacted swiftly, taking out all three assailants, Glolov was shot and fell.
Gao Yang didn’t get hit simply because Glolov stood in front of him, taking the bullets from the two gunmen.
“Rabbit, cover!”
Seeing Glolov fall wounded, Gao Yang panicked.
After shouting, he didn’t wait to see if Cui Bo heard him.
He threw his shotgun to the ground, dashed to Glolov’s side, grabbed his waistband with one hand, his collar with the other, and roared as he lifted Glolov, then hurled him over the waist-high railing of the corridor that was the height of a man.
Gao Yang had no other options left, as Cui Bo had to block the position of the house door, and Gao Yang couldn’t drag Glolov away from there.
Therefore, his only choice was to throw Glolov down into the corridor below.
After tossing Glolov out, Gao Yang leapt down into the corridor as well, but it was only after jumping down that he realized he had forgotten to take the shotgun, and Glolov’s M4 had also been left in the corridor above.
Just as Gao Yang had jumped down, two more people charged out from one end of the corridor.
Gao Yang immediately drew his pistol, and just as the two men who had rushed out were about to lean over from the corridor above to shoot him, Gao Yang fired first, hitting one of them and causing him to topple down into the corridor below, while the other fell backwards but quickly got up and immediately popped his head out again to shoot at Gao Yang.
When the enemy who had been shot but was unharmed—clearly wearing a bulletproof vest—was about to fire again, Gao Yang’s pistol ran out of bullets.
Gao Yang had fired all seven rounds and was changing the magazine, unable to shoot in time, but fortunately, Cui Bo’s machine gun turned its muzzle in time and sprayed a flurry of blood on the man before he could shoot again.
The bulletproof vest could stop Gao Yang’s .45 ACP hollow points, but not the machine gun bullets fired at close range.
By this time, Gao Yang had replaced the magazine.
Holding the pistol in one hand and grabbing one of Glolov’s arms with the other, he started dragging Glolov and running for their lives.
Glolov was about one meter eighty-five tall, not fat but quite sturdy, and must have weighed around two hundred pounds.
Gao Yang should have struggled even to drag him, but the potential a person can unleash in a moment of desperation can be astounding.
Gao Yang almost didn’t feel Glolov’s weight as he dragged him, also keeping an eye out for any more attackers, and he ran to the back of the pickup truck with surprising speed, meeting up with Cui Bo.
While shooting with the machine gun, Cui Bo shouted, “What’s wrong with the Old Russian!”
“He’s been hit!”
Cui Bo might not have been proficient with the machine gun, but at a mere thirty meters, even an idiot could hit the target.
Whenever someone tried to charge out of the house, Cui Bo’s bullets forced them back.
Now under cover, Gao Yang finally had the chance to check on Glolov.
As he bent over him, Glolov shakily extended a hand, grabbed Gao Yang’s shoulder, and said in a weak voice, “Gao, are you trying to kill me by throwing me?”
Gao Yang’s heart surged with joy; seeing Glolov alive, he shouted, “How are you?
Where have you been shot?”
After coughing, Glolov shook his head and said, “I don’t know, I think I’ve been hit by at least four or five bullets, it hurts so much.
You guys go on, I’m done for.”
Gao Yang no longer paid attention to Glolov but turned to Cui Bo and yelled, “Can you carry him?”
Cui Bo, silent while shooting, picked up a drum magazine, and in the momentary lull when the gunfire ceased, he swiftly changed to a new drum and fired a few more shots before bellowing, “Take the gun; you cover.
This is the last drum, be careful.
I’ll carry him.”
Gao Yang ran over to Cui Bo, took the machine gun and fired a few bursts.
Then Cui Bo slung his M700 over his back, squatted down next to Glolov, roared, hoisted Glolov onto his shoulders, stumbled a few steps, steadied himself, and then jogged with Glolov down the street.
Cui Bo, only one meter seventy-five tall and weighing about one hundred fifty pounds, wasn’t very tall or big, but he had strength, capable of running even while carrying Glolov, who was much larger than him.
Gao Yang always called Cui Bo “Rabbit,” but Cui Bo also had other nicknames, one being “Mule” and another “Beast,” though these nicknames weren’t as widely known as “Rabbit.”
Gao Yang was both relieved and amazed by Cui Bo’s actions; he thought it was good enough that Cui Bo could lift Glolov, but he never expected Cui Bo to be able to jog with him.
True to his “beastly” nature, even though Cui Bo also drew upon a burst of adrenaline, Gao Yang could never have carried a two hundred pound man himself, not to mention the weight of guns and ammunition Cui Bo had on him.
After Cui Bo had run a few dozen meters, Gao Yang slung his M1A, firing the machine gun as he retreated.
However, as Gao Yang reached the last pickup truck and was about to move out of cover, he found two small carts in the truck bed, the kind with a metal bucket and two wheels underneath, commonly seen on construction sites in his homeland.
Gao Yang opened the truck bed, pulled one of the small carts down, then placed the machine gun on it, retreating backward while firing.
This firing method made it difficult to ensure accuracy, and once Gao Yang had moved, he could no longer pin down the people inside the building.
After firing a burst, Gao Yang pulled the trigger again, but the machine gun fell silent; the bullets from the last drum magazine were finally spent.