Love In A Sinking Realm ⊰BTS⊱ Steampunk

CHAPTER 12 ➣ Mine City Part 3

A hand and a muzzle of a rifle preceded a man entering the barn, followed by another, under the cover of darkness. They stepped in stealthily, cautious. The first man did a military signal to his comrade to go left, while he went right, ignoring the blood of the corpses of the hounds, blending with the mud.

Y/N stayed still as a rock, waiting for them to conclude their search. Their movements were clearly of military training, which made her extremely nervous. Although, she doubted that they could ever suspect a sixteen-year-old, still small enough to hide in an empty barrel, pointing her rifle through a hole.

One of them climbed the ladder to the upper floor. He lit his small oil lamp and looked around.

"Colin! They took some guns and rifles, and stuff" Called the man in a loud whisper.

His comrade shushed him, and said barely audibly, "They ain't here."

The girl observed through the hole the other man climbing down the ladder. The night vision goggles permitted her to see clearly through the pitch darkness.

"How'd you know they're not still here?" She heard them chat.

"Must be one of 'em gypsy pricks again."

The other hummed in agreement.

The girl carefully slipped out of the barrel and kneeled on the edge, aiming the rifle at one of them while they made their way out. And just when she started to relax, one of them stopped, nudging his companion and pointing his hand somewhere in front of him.

Her heart kicked her ribcage so strongly that she became dizzy when she heard him saying: "Colin look! Do you see that? There's someone there---!"

Her finger acted before she could process it, pulling the trigger of the rifle, and firing a bullet right through the man's skull. His body fell and pilled up with the war hounds. His comrade immediately jumped out of the barn and threw himself behind the wooden door. Y/N cursed under her breath, tossing the rifle to the ground and drawing one of the revolvers from her belt, being lighter and faster to reload and better for close proximity combat.

The WRA soldier fired a few hits from behind the door. She fell to her stomach and pointed her gun at the oil lamp that had fallen aside from the man's corpse. She shot it, making sure she had the total darkness to her advantage.

For a few seconds, only the rain was audible, for both opponents were waiting for the other to take action. Y/N was more patient however, having her night goggles aiding her, compared to her enemy who was blindly waiting behind the door.

"Come on you bastard," she whispered to herself.

More time passed. Neither made the first move, scared to expose themselves, waste ammo, or worse accidentally hit a landmine. Y/N eventually grew inevitably impatient, she had Taehyung in her mind, as well as herself. She didn't have time to waste any longer.

She looked around and weighed her options. The window! She thought. On the roof, she could have a better visual and a high vantage point. So she climbed the table and opened the roof window. Rain showered down upon her as she emerged on the slippery roof and moved towards the edge, crawling on all fours. At the edge of the tall barn she looked down at the ground, but no one was there, nor can she hear anything. She crawled marginally, her eyes fixed on the ground, fearing that she may lose any type of movement, or worse her balance.

Her concentration was such, that after circling the roof, she failed to notice on time the dark silhouette that was erratically moving towards the roof window. The two figures let out a cry and the man toppled on her and fell. Panic overcame the girl when she realized that it was the WRA soldier that she was looking for.