45: Chapter 45 Night Escape 45: Chapter 45 Night Escape After realizing the machine gun was out of bullets, Gao Yang had no choice but to throw it into the cart, then turned to grab the handles and sprinted off.
Gao Yang pushed himself to the limit, listening to the clattering noise of the cart, now virtually running empty-handed, he quickly caught up with Cui Bo, who was carrying Glolov.
When he caught up with Cui Bo, their pursuers had already emerged.
Gao Yang and his group were only a hundred or so meters away from the chasing soldiers.
Without a word, Gao Yang ran past Cui Bo by a dozen meters before stopping.
He dropped the cart to the side and immediately grabbed the M1A from his back, flipped open the sight, and fired without really aiming.
Cui Bo didn’t need to say anything to Gao Yang; he simply dumped Glolov into the cart and started pushing it away.
Pushing was so much easier than carrying on the back, and Cui Bo’s speed increased significantly.
But Glolov suffered, as Cui Bo, in his haste, didn’t dare to place him gently.
He just flung him into the cart, regardless of how the metal wagon jostled him painfully.
Seeing that Cui Bo had started pushing the cart away, Gao Yang wanted to slow down the pursuers but spotted a swarm of red light rushing in through his thermal scope.
He didn’t even need to aim precisely and simply fired off a few shots, hitting several chasers.
Gao Yang’s shots dispersed the clustered enemies.
Some lay on the ground, while others sought cover on either side of the road and completely stopped.
Gao Yang hadn’t expected the few shots he fired to be so effective, but he quickly realized why.
He was entirely cloaked in darkness, while the enemy had no idea how many were intercepting them, and they could only fire blindly into the dark.
Understanding the key, Gao Yang immediately darted to the side, and in a loud voice shouted in English, “First and second assault teams move in, third team standby, surround them, don’t let a single one get away.”
After shouting, Gao Yang didn’t care if the enemy understood and immediately took off running.
Gao Yang ran for quite a while without catching up to Cui Bo.
Helplessly, he halted and used the scope to scan for the noise of the cart.
It was only then he spotted that Cui Bo had taken Glolov onto a side road; if Gao Yang hadn’t checked, they would have gotten separated.
Having located Cui Bo, Gao Yang quickly caught up.
Before Gao Yang could say a word, a panting Cui Bo said, “You’re running too slow.
I was even thinking about stopping to wait for you.”
For Gao Yang, although he couldn’t match Cui Bo’s strength, when it came to long-distance running and stamina, he could leave Cui Bo far behind.
Without panting or getting out of breath, Gao Yang said, “Cut the chatter, we almost lost each other.
Where do you think you are going?
Do you even know where we are running to?”
“How would I know where it is in this pitch-darkness?
Just running blindly, we’ll figure it out once we’re safe.”
Gao Yang thought it made sense and continued to follow Cui Bo, running down the road.
After about half an hour, Gao Yang hadn’t heard a peep from Glolov and felt they couldn’t run any further without assessing Glolov’s injuries.
After stopping, Gao Yang first used the scope to check behind and, seeing no one in pursuit and deeming it safe, he immediately put on his night vision helmet to check on Glolov’s injuries.
As soon as he saw Glolov’s condition, Gao Yang realized something was seriously wrong.
Glolov was sitting curled up in the cart, but because the cart was too small, his head and feet were extending outside.
At that moment, Glolov’s head drooped motionlessly, and there was already a lot of blood in the cart bed.
Gao Yang thought Glolov was already dead.
He slowly reached out his hand, tested under Glolov’s nose, and then—with relief—discovered that Glolov was still breathing.
With Cui Bo’s help, the two men lifted Glolov off the cart and placed him onto the flat ground nearby.
Afterward, Gao Yang unfastened Glolov’s bulletproof vest and found a total of five bullet holes.
To call them bullet holes wasn’t quite accurate—it should be one bullet hole and four bullet heads.
At the time of the shooting, one person was armed with an M4 rifle, while the other two wielded pistols.
The pistol bullets had all been stopped, but a rifle bullet had penetrated the bulletproof vest, striking Glolov in the left side of his lower abdomen.
Though the rifle bullet had penetrated the bulletproof vest, the vest had nonetheless offered some protection; at least it had reduced the bullet’s momentum, and Glolov’s abdominal cavity wasn’t pierced through.
The fact that the vest had reduced the bullet’s momentum wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Because of the resistance, the bullet could destabilize and potentially enter the body tumbling, which would only make the bullet more lethal.
A victim could die much faster, and Gao Yang didn’t know how serious Glolov’s injuries were.
Now, all he could hope for was that the vest had reduced the majority of the bullet’s force.
As Gao Yang was inspecting Glolov, Glolov actually came too sluggishly.
“How are you?
Can you hear me speaking?”
Glolov shook his head, caught sight of Gao Yang in front of him, and after gasping for air twice, weakly said, “Did you guys get me out?”
Gao Yang said urgently, “We’re safe now.
How do you feel?”
“I don’t know.
It feels like I’ve broken a few ribs, and I’ve been shot in the stomach.
It looks bad.”
Gao Yang said urgently, “Okay, don’t talk.
Rest for a bit.
You must hold on; don’t go to sleep, try hard not to pass out.
We will find a doctor.”
“I was knocked out when I was thrown into the cart.
Please, could you tell Rabbit to be a bit more gentle?
My head hurts so much.”
Gao Yang breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and glared fiercely at Cui Bo.
But he quickly realized that Cui Bo couldn’t see his expression, so he said in a low voice, “Rabbit, do you have any idea that Glolov wasn’t killed by the shooting, but almost died because of your rough handling?
Could you be a bit more careful?”
Rabbit, feeling embarrassed, smiled and said, “It was so urgent at the time, I couldn’t pay too much attention.”
Without a word, Cui Bo’s and Gao Yang’s faces both changed colors, as they almost simultaneously heard the sound of a car.
After exchanging a glance, Gao Yang and Cui Bo, without a word, each grabbed a part, one the head and one the feet, and threw Glolov back into the cart.
Immediately, Cui Bo continued to push Glolov at a sprint, while Gao Yang picked up his weapon, ready to deal with a new round of pursuit.
After the car turned around the corner with its headlights blazing, heading straight for Gao Yang and his group, Gao Yang didn’t know how the enemy had found them, but he knew they could never outrun the car on foot.
After shouting at Rabbit to run down the alley, all Gao Yang could do was try to deal with the leading car.