I continue moving along the ceiling behind the group of soldiers. Foue Eyes has grown somewhat nervous and keeps quietly hissing on her radar; it seems I'm getting on her nerves. She should follow Ghost's example—he's as calm as a tank, and unlike her, his devices have been signaling my presence for much longer. No, maybe she's just relieving stress in a banal way, but she doesn't seem like the type to get stressed by an operation like this. They look too professional… said the almost amateur.
"Infected again. Forward." Ghost, who had opened the door to the left of the monitors, spoke briefly and immediately started shooting.
The rest of the squad joined their sniper-searcher, and the hooded man who was closest to the doors (if he damages my clothes, I'll bite him—literally!) knocked the heads off two zombies in police uniforms with a couple of knife blows. My newly acquired memory told me I'd made the right choice of recipient—his movements and technique were even better than those of the drunk special forces soldier.
Quickly slipping into the next room, Beltway, Ghost, and my future victim continued firing there. Considering that I could see nothing but their silhouettes illuminated by the lights, it wasn't difficult to guess they weren't fighting any lurking special forces. Beltway even went too far, tossing a couple of flashbangs, for which he earned a reprimand from Lupo.
By the way, the girls who'd been left alone didn't waste any time either. They ran straight ahead and were already climbing the stairs in the next room, which led to the floor above. Maybe even higher—but if it started right in front of the entrance, just a little to the left for the squad and to the right for me hanging from the ceiling, then I couldn't see the rest, because the first flight ended in a right turn, followed by an upward climb. And I couldn't see through walls… more precisely, the only thing I could say was that there was no one alive there. However, that didn't stop the girls who had passed behind the guys from opening fire. How many zombies are there here? Uh-huh, said the ghoul in the city of the undead indignantly. Yes, it's better not to look at the situation from that angle.
Then the guys who'd finished cleaning up followed their comrades. And somehow my hooded friend moved very quickly in that direction. Is he worried or something? I finally crawled into the room myself. What can I say—it used to be a place where the people watching the monitors could relax. Why did I think that? Well, a couple of comfortable couches, tables, and computers, with a soda machine right by the stairs, gave exactly that impression.
Following my future knowledge (and everything else that came with it, so to speak), I realized my assumption was absolutely correct. The corridor after the turn led into another room, though it was more like the corridor widening to the size of a room. In the corner stood several vending machines with drinks, one of which had been literally gutted. But that wasn't what bothered me. Nor were the Umbrellas standing below me. Not even the two special forces soldiers posted by the doors, which were designed as if they led outside the building (yeah, on the third floor—maybe there were just different rooms beyond them?). Judging by their posture, they were shooting with their backs to us. I couldn't see what they were shooting at, so the conclusion was obvious—zombies. And even the excessively large bloodstain to the right of the group below me. And the absence of a corpse—or even two, considering the splattered wall and floor. No, what confused me was the smell.
Lickers. That's what the thing that attacked me had smelled like. The scent dissipated fairly quickly, and I hadn't paid much attention to it—just as I hadn't paid much attention to the fact that I could smell anything at all. But setting aside the oddities of my body—a corpse with a sense of smell among a bunch of more formidable counterparts somehow doesn't stand out—I seriously wondered: how many Lickers must have been here for the smell to linger until now? According to my modest calculations, I could say with certainty that either a herd of two or three dozen individuals had rushed through here no more than half an hour ago, or there had been about a dozen, but they'd crawled away just recently. No, there's also the possibility that there are three of them and they're still here.
But first of all, I have two walking radars right under my nose, and they're showing nothing. If monsters were here, they'd at least be on alert and warn the others. In fact, they should've gone to full combat alert, but it seems my constant presence on the radars has seriously undermined the mercenaries' faith in their electronic toys. Second, I'm occupying the ceiling, and I don't see any competitors there—and that's exactly the surface Lickers prefer to move along. Sure, maybe they use the floor and walls too, but everyone would notice them on the floor even without devices, and my "neighbors" and I have already checked the walls.
And all of this is really starting to get on my nerves. No, of course I want to test my abilities in real combat against a worthy opponent, but even if the Lickers are weaker, they'll simply overwhelm me with numbers!
A scandalous thought even flashed through my mind—to spit on the mercenaries and run—but the realization that I might miss out on a very promising knife fighter, and most likely a hand-to-hand combatant with extensive knowledge and excellent equipment, immediately chased that thought away. Besides, I can't see any Lickers—or any other infected—with my vision-illuminator, which means I have a chance of running straight into them on my way to the nearest exit, and I won't have a squad to sacrifice.
So what's the conclusion? I'm going (crawling) with the mercenaries(right behind them).
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