Hans crossed toward the third apartment building with Dmitri, Adrian, Rex, and Vex while the survivors watched them with strange looks.
"Where's that person going?" asked one.
"Do you not know? He's the Commander of this base!"
"Strolling outside with his soldiers, he must be on a mission."
"Or a death wish..."
The entire room turned silent. Everyone else turned their heads and glared at the survivor who made that remark.
"Do you want to die?" a male survivor approached that person and grabbed their collar.
"Look, desperate times it may be but to say words like that-!"
"Heh, fools." The person slapped the arm away and walked as if nothing happened.
The rest cursed under their breath, returning to the windows and watching Hans and his small squad disappearing into the distance.
...
"This entire place is too silent," Hans commented, and despite the lack of wind, a chill still crawled across his skin.
The apartment complex was always boisterous with countless shouts, cheers, and buzzing of car engines. Now, the large area felt haunted.
The pools sat empty, weeds had grown through the neglected edges, and even the birds that once chirped on the tree branches were gone.
Only their boots against the cement broke the quiet. Rex and Vex trotted on the sides, curiously observing their surroundings.
"Woof!"
The two dogs suddenly barked, alerting the three humans. Hans glanced at the unnerved dogs then shifted his eyes to the third apartment building.
"That building is cursed indeed."
Their continued barking deepened the frowns on Adrian and Dmitri's faces, and both readied their MP7A1s as they approached the entrance.
"Do you feel it?" Adrian's body tensed, taking a deep breath while closing in.
"Yes, psychic energy," Dmitri responded, "It seems the meteorite shard has this effect."
"Psychic energy?" Hans couldn't sense anything himself. "What do you two mean by that?"
"Commander, psychic energy has the ability to alter a living being's mind." Adrian explained, planting his back to the wall, "Talk about mind control and going insane."
"You were introduced to this?" Hans was bewildered, not expecting this concept to show itself now.
Yuri's abilities carried something like this. Don't tell me it has something to do with that?
"Our training manual did, but to encounter it here..." Dmitri's voice turned cold, gripping the gun's vertical grip tighter, "Commander, please be careful. The psychic energy has limited effects on us but may not be the case to you."
Despite himself, Hans felt oddly pleased by Dmitri's concern.
"You don't have to worry about me. I can handle myself. Focus on the path ahead of you."
"Yes, sir." The two advanced through the entrance, checking their corners as they went.
"Lights out. Toggle your night vision." Dmitri slid down his NVG and peered through the darkness. He went to the right side of the hallway, Adrian opposite him.
Hans waited at the entrance and watched the two Scouts move with careful precision. Rex and Vex followed, growling on the way, their heads slightly tilting above.
"Hallway, right side. Clear."
"Hallway, left side. Clear."
Adrian and Dmitri turned around and regrouped at the center.
"Maintenance Room, move." Dmitri led the way, forming a small column with Adrian and the two dogs.
"Check the door. I'll take cover."
Adrian grabbed the lockpick set from his tactical pack and touched the door handle, finding the doorknob fixed in place.
He knelt and quickly picked the lock, "Door's unlocked. Moving in."
He slowly pushed the door while his gun pointed ahead, targeting the head of a maintenance crew zombie. A single bullet plopped it down, the thud echoing throughout the spacious area.
"Careful. Zombies around."
After a short inspection found no other threats, Dmitri approached the switch panels again.
"Floors five, six, and seven are down."
"Noted. The meteorite shard must've struck there," Adrian remarked.
"Agreed. Check every floor, eliminate threats, and move on. No looting," Dmitri reminded him.
"I know. Time isn't on our side here." Adrian took a slow breath, trying to shake off the pressure building in his head. "How about the Commander?"
"I'll take point, you guard our rear." Dmitri stood up and moved out.
"Hehehe, I'll be your spotter again?" Adrian chuckled and slightly lagged behind.
"Quit the chatter. Check the kitchen and the back first, then upstairs."
"Roger that."
Time passed slowly while Hans held his MP5 and tapped a finger against the trigger guard; the hallway had gone quiet after Dmitri and Adrian moved out of sight.
"I hope nothing happened to them..."
As he murmured, footsteps echoed from the far end of the hallway. The two scouts returned, unscathed and full of energy.
"How did it go?"
Dmitri and Adrian stood in front of him. The dogs' ears stayed perked, their bodies as alert as ever.
"First floor is clear, Commander," Dmitri reported, "The fifth to seventh floor is blacked out. We suggest a careful approach."
"You want me to remain at the center?" Hans guessed their intentions. There was no problem in using the common method of clearing the floors.
Still, the caution in Dmitri's words suggested that something unknown might be waiting in the darkness, or perhaps they simply didn't want him stumbling into danger firsthand.
"Yes, Commander. I shall take point; Adrian will be at your rear."
"Then I'll be in your care." Hans almost reached for a flashlight before remembering the Scouts' night vision.
Dmitri realized the problem as well and offered a solution, "Hold my shoulders, Commander. You can follow me that way."
"Yeah, better not point this into your back." Hans slung the MP5 over his shoulder and placed his right hand on Dmitri's shoulder.
"Moving."
Hans tried to match Dmitri's pace, taking small steps in the blood-ladened floor tiles. The team arrived near the stairwell, leading into the second floor.
At that moment, Rex and Vex barked loudly, pointing their bodies straight at the stairs. Dmitri and Adrian shifted their sights, staring at the empty wall ahead.
"Do you see something?" Adrian asked.
"No, but I sense it," Dmitri peered through the goggles and noticed a slight imbalance in the texture of the wall. "Center, right above the railing."
Adrian followed and spotted a curved outline of a human body stuck in the wall. Rex and Vex growled at the figure, saliva gathering around their sharp teeth.
"Kill it?" Adrian aimed.
"Fire."
Two bullets flew out, hitting the obscured figure in the darkness. The walls near the stairwell cracked, cement fragments falling to the floor.
"It's quick and tough," Dmitri remarked as he continued forward, while Hans stayed back and let the Scouts handle the fight.
"Dark blood, fresh. The bullets wounded it, but it escaped, bleeding." Dmitri flicked off the blood and started scouring the second floor.
Several fluorescent lamps hung crooked from the ceiling, flickering weakly over wooden fragments and dust scattered across the floor.
"Adrian, watch that stairwell. Commander, stay with Adrian," Dmitri patted Rex's head, "Lead me to him, buddy!"
Rex barked and sprinted ahead to the end of the corridor, stopping midway and glancing at the ceiling not far away.
Dmitri stepped through the broken doorway, and the wooden fragments cracked beneath his boots just as the air whistled and several pale streaks cut toward him.
The attack came fast, but Rex moved faster and launched himself into the air, biting onto something that Hans could barely see.
The dog and the obscured figure fell. Rex grumbled, shaking its head while clamping deep at it. Rex's body tensed before it yanked itself off, tearing a large portion of rotten flesh.
Dmitri leaped backward and raised his gun, firing into the wound Rex had just torn open.
A hoarse roar rang through the corridor as blood sprayed across the floor, but before the warped figure could recover, Rex pounced again and tore into its neck while Dmitri kept firing.
Man and dog kept the creature off balance between them; it thrashed and clawed, but it could neither catch Rex nor reach Dmitri before another burst struck it.
The struggle lasted only a few seconds, and when the figure finally stopped moving, the strange warping around its body faded with it.
Dmitri closed in and observed the smooth grayish skin of this figure.
"Another kind of zombie." Dmitri crouched near the grayish skin without lingering over it. "A sneaky type, one that turns almost invisible in the dark, huh?"
He looked over the clawed hands. "Must be how it climbs the walls."
Rex trotted to his side with its tail wagging, and Dmitri rubbed the dog's fur.
"Good job, buddy. Is there more?"
"Woof!"
Rex barked, moving to the stairwell and looking back at him, "Upstairs, huh?"
"What was that?" Adrian asked, interested about the earlier fight.
"Another special zombie. This thing can turn invisible."
Dmitri's words startled both Adrian and Hans, "An invisible zombie?"
"Not quite. You saw that strange warping earlier. It's hard to catch, but now we know what to look for."
"If there's one here, there's more above," Adrian tightened his grip on the gun, "But think about it, they didn't leave this building. That's very suspicious, don't you think?"
"Agreed." Dmitri looked over the broken doors and scattered wood; most of the ordinary infected seemed to have run outside.
"These creatures may be sensitive to light."
"Flashlight?" Adrian suggested.
"Do it if you want to be blind." Dmitri snorted and went past Adrian, advancing to the upper floors.