Get down and meet Evgeny

I decide not to risk it all by searching for another target, and duck back down behind the desk. I almost had him, but it doesn't matter. Not this time. I crawl from the desk to the doorway, and come to my feet to head for the staircase. I see Evgeny coming down.

"It's good to see you still alive." He tells me, and stops to give me a quick hug.

"Was that you?" I ask. "I saw his barrel, but I didn't have an angle on him."

"That was me." Evgeny answers. "I got him."

"You did good." He says, and pats me on the back.

"No I didn't." I tell him. "I didn't kill anyone."

"Not this time, but you were smart and you got down." He explains. "You lived to fight another day. If you keep this up, if you stick around, the kills will come."

"Thank you, Evgeny."

"I'm proud of you." He says when we reach the bottom of the stairs, and he drops to his stomach to crawl through the room with the big windows. I follow his lead. This time, the room is empty. Evgeny and I reach the back of the building and step outside. The **** rages on around us.

"We should tell that officer that the machine gunner is dead." I tell Evgeny as we approach the corner.

"It wouldn't do him any good." He tells me. "Look."

I turn my head to see the officer laying on the ground, his arms spread out at his sides, staring blankly into the sky.

"We need to get out of here, and keep heading north." Evgeny says. "We're going to have to cross this street."

The idea of running across an open street littered with corpses makes me sick to my stomach.

"We need to go now, while the pressure is on them!" Evgeny tells me.

"Okay." I mutter.

I take a deep breath and a step backwards so I can have a running start, and grip my rifle tightly.

"Go!" Evgeny cries. "I'm right behind you."

Against every survival instinct in my body, I charge forwards and run past the corner into the deadly openness of the street. There is only one thought in my mind: to make it to the other side. I hear Evgeny running behind me. To my surprise, nobody shoots at us, and we both manage to reach the opposite corner and take cover.

"Nicely done." Evgeny says, and looks back over his shoulder just in time to watch a round of artillery shells pummel the front of the building which we were just inside of only moments ago.

"Chyort!" I gasp. "We were just there!"

"We're lucky." Evgeny tells me. "Let's go."