Chapter 2: The Sniper!!

The duo was in a state of shock by the incident. They were lying prone on the wooden floor just beside the body of their dead comrade.

The flare fell down from Akira's hand as he was shaking due to the impact of the bullet's noise. Akira and Itsuki lied quietly for a while in complete darkness until something entered Akira's mind. The idea that entered his mind was a very bizarre one, and it was supposed to save their lives.

He saw the trajectory of the bullet and calculated a graph in his mind. Akira was also from a military background. Even Though he wasn't an S rank elite yet he was trained amongst the best. The trajectory that he shaped was with respect to the bullet missing the window by some inches, "he might have saw the light of the flair from the window but due to the wall of the graveyard covering it horizontally, the sniper must be located on a height, of course what could be better than the bridge" Akira thought to himself.

Akira seemed to be sure of his calculation. Now the position of the enemy was 90 percent predicted and all Akira could think of doing was to crawl out slowly through the cabin entrance into the darkness and slowly make way into the pedestals of the cemetery leading him to the wall which was standing up against the bridge. That was the only place in the graveyard compound which had no visuals from the bridge.

He explained the plan to Itsuki quietly and they both were almost about to crawl out when something entered Akira's mind and he shouted in a suppressed voice "Abort, the crosshair (the aim of the scope point) of the sniper needs to be confirmed". Akira was already under so much stress that he almost forgot such a critical detail before giving a go to the plan and he felt ashamed of that

Akira took the burnt straw of the flare and rolled it out of the cabin assuring that there was no response made to it. He observed that there was utter silence and nothing had happened, he felt relaxed and gave a green signal to the plan.

Itsuki was lying closer to the entrance of the cabin, as soon as he received a thumbs up from his partner he started to crawl out very slowly with his chest towards the wooden floor of the cabin. They quickly made it out to the soft green grass of the cemetery.

The plan was followed successfully as the grass suppressed all of the noises they made while crawling, and since it was already pitch dark no movement was seen by the sniper or else they would be dead already. When they reached the wall, Akira made himself comfortable up against the wall and Itsuki followed. He lied near the edge of the wall.

Fear got the best of them. They looked into each other's face and kind of assured each other that the problem had been dealt with and the situation was under control, given the unfavorable conditions.

Akira closed his eyes and thought to himself "please god you have brought me this far, please help me go a bit more farther, not for my sake but for the sake of people who i stand up to as a leader"

Now all the duo could think was of surviving the night anyhow. The atmosphere was dead silent again, only the wind made the sound of "shhh shhh"

The wind was cold and the grass was wet due to the dew forming on them and the moisture from the river flowing besides. The cold breeze sent chills up the nerves of both men. They were in a state of fear, shock and confusion.

Breaking the silence around Itsuki spoke in a suppressed tone "brother, do you think we could survive this night, if not the sniper the cold will kill us for sure"

"I think we should get out of here ASAP because if the sniper calls for backup and they flank us and flush us out, we are dead men anyways" he continued

Akira was not a fool, he listened quietly. This was going through his mind for hours and he was strategizing for how they would move, what would be their way and how they could flank the sniper. If not capturing him at least to know that he really belonged to Adrenaline mob or was he someone else?

Akira knew how important a target he was and him getting captured or killed would be very demoralizing for his group. He made up his mind and planned for every case scenario while laying there in the graveyard.

The plan made was very straight forward but there were some conditions meant to be followed in order to complete the plan successfully. It had to be carried out in the darkness as if daylight falls before the completion then the duo will directly fall into the line of fire of the sniper.

"4 hours to the break of dawn" said Akira to his partner and explained him the rest of the plan about how they will get out of there

The wall on the west side of the river was broken, it had enough space for passage of one man at a time, without getting stuck. This was exactly what Akira had observed earlier upon reaching the cemetery grounds.

Graveyard as mentioned earlier was on the banks of the river but on the west side lay Father's territory "FRELIX". In between his town and the banks of the river lies a range of evergreen forest.

Akira planned that he and his partner must get into the forest avoiding the line of fire of the sniper located on the bridge and then they would have a fair chance of survival.

Both of them were very much aware of the fact that even a tiny bit of identified movement or a tiny bit of unsuppressed sound and they would be dead men. The distance between the broken wall of the cemetery and the forest range was roughly about 800 meters.

"Brother, pray to god for one last time and remember all you've loved" Itsuki said in a broken voice. Akira who was already under so much stress due to the situation became furious about this and told his partner to knock it off as it would definitely get them killed. He also assured Itsuki that he hadn't planned on getting killed anytime soon.

Itsuki smiled a bit over the confidence of Akira but became serious instantly. Akira decided to lead this time as Itsuki was the one who led the escape from the cabin near the entrance of the graveyard. He started crawling very quietly with his chest pressed on the ground just besides the wall.

When they reached the spot where the wall was broken, they observed that the edges of the broken part were very sharp as if they weren't broken naturally. "Must've been father's men?" Itsuki asked, not being sure. Akira simply gave a hand sign to keep moving and one by one they got out very carefully and then started crawling again.

Now they had successfully escaped from the cemetery grounds and now only the hard part of the plan was left. The forest was not clearly visible due to the pitch black environment but yet Akira had the idea of the area.

The bridge covered a very wide open area. Anybody sitting with a sniper can shoot up to kilometers with the height advantage. This thought was going through Akira's mind as this time he hadn't even checked the crosshair of the enemy before moving yet he crawled on, having faith in the darkness and his skills.

Slowly and carefully they were able to clear 60 meters of the total distance. Now all that was left was roughly 20 meters. The path was not covered with grass this time so it took quite a time crawling as rough ground was more vulnerable to causing noises and self made noise was a bigger enemy than the sniper himself at the point.

The duo was badly exhausted with all the trauma they had since coming to the graveyard and their morale started to decline. Yet they held onto their will and continued making it to the forest.

Since they were approaching father's land, the risk was also increasing with every meter they covered. Akira had no idea what was to come.

Now the tree line was visible as dark figures in the distance and this sight relieved both of the men as this was a very wonderful sight for them. Upon reaching the forest range the duo seemed to be relaxed a bit, Akira kept on leading for a while into the middle of the forest and Itsuki followed while giving him cover by watching behind him.

The duo upon reaching the middle of the forest decided to take a rest for some hours and that they'd decide where to go after they woke up. They were very badly traumatized by the incidents that followed a few hours ago.

Akira was the one who got the chance to sleep first and Itsuki took the watch. Akira fell asleep as soon as he fell on the ground covered with soft grass and weeds, while Itsuki sat beside him near his head and cleared his rifle.

After 2 hours when Itsuki got bored sitting beside his friend, he decided that a walk nearby would keep him awake and that he could also do some reckoning while his friend sleeps.

He reloaded his rifle with a fresh magazine and headed out, right in the direction of the bridge. He moved with great caution and suppressed his walking noises.

After walking some distance, Itsuki decided to return back. As soon as he turned his back towards the direction of the bridge there came a bullet right into his vest. He fell down upon impact yet held his consciousness and ran for his dear life.