30

KIRILL My instincts have never failed me. So when I made the decision to get the fuck out of here, I wasn’t doing it arbitrarily. This is an emergency situation—escaping is a necessity, not an option. However, Sasha didn’t listen to reason and insisted on going back to the old couple. A decision that landed us straight in the middle of this fuckery. Three armed men in gas masks open fire, then disperse as soon as we approach the house. The critical part is that they came from inside the house. The worst part, however, is that they’re wearing gas masks, which means some sort of chemical weapon is involved. At my shout, Sasha drops to the ground behind a tree, but her eyes are shifty and her hold on her rifle is unsteady. She must be mulling over everything that I just thought of in her own mind and coming up with the worst possible scenario. Two elderly people have no chance when faced with terrorists with firearms and chemical weapons. When I was with Nicholas in the market earlier and