Seven figures entered the seventh-floor hallway, turning the quiet corridor crowded almost at once. Adam, Alexei, Ethan, and Selene stood near Hans while the newcomers formed a loose line in front of him.
The first man held himself upright, scanning the hallway before lowering his weapon. His voice was calm, with a faint Middle Eastern accent.
"Conscript Noah Idris, reporting, sir."
Ravi Patel stood beside him, blinking rapidly as his eyes moved across the doors, stairwell, and broken windows before settling on Hans.
"Conscript Ravi Patel, reporting for duty."
Diego Cruz wore half a grin and adjusted the MP5 hanging across his chest before saluting.
"Conscript Diego Cruz, Commander! Show me where to point my gun!"
Kenji Watanabe was quieter. His shoulders remained squared and his gaze steady, and he waited until Hans looked at him before speaking.
"Conscript Kenji Watanabe, standing by, Commander."
Tobias Klein looked far more eager, almost too eager.
"Conscript Tobias Klein! Where are our enemies, Commander?"
The last two were women. After Selene, Hans wasn't as surprised this time.
Amara Liu stood calmly with both hands near her weapon sling.
"Conscript Amara Liu, awaiting your assignment, Commander."
Nadia Reyes adjusted the strap across her shoulder before giving Hans a short salute.
"Conscript Nadia Reyes, reporting, Commander."
Hans looked over all seven of them. His infantry had nearly tripled in less than a day, and the thought left him excited despite the nervousness sitting underneath it.
Eleven soldiers now.
That was enough to attempt the lower floors, but still a very small force inside a city full of infected. Hans knew he would eventually lose people under his command. That possibility was something he could not completely prevent, but throwing lives away was different.
They were real people. If he ordered them into danger, he owed them at least a good reason and a plan that gave them a fair chance of returning.
"Welcome. You already know me and the four here, so we'll get straight to work."
The seven nodded simultaneously.
"Adam, Alexei, Ethan, and Selene already cleared the sixth through fourth floors. Before we touch the lower three, I want floors four through nine secured properly. Search the accessible rooms, mark anything locked or suspicious, reinforce the exposed windows, and clear the bodies from the hallways."
The barricades would not make gunfire quiet, and Hans knew better than to expect that. Their purpose was simpler: deny easy entry through the windows and keep the upper floors from becoming another direction they had to watch once the fight moved downstairs.
The lower three floors could wait until morning. Hans still did not know how many infected were trapped below the barricade, and the four soldiers who had fought earlier needed rest.
"Adam and Alexei, split the group between you. I'll leave the details to both of you."
Adam took Ethan, Selene, Amara, and Ravi. Alexei took Noah, Diego, Kenji, Tobias, and Nadia.
"Once the floors are secure, set a guard rotation. Adam, Alexei, Ethan, and Selene get the first rest period. We breach the lower floors tomorrow morning."
Ethan raised a hand. "Commander, what do we do with the bodies?"
"Move them into one of the cleared rooms and keep the door shut. We'll take them outside once the ground floor is secure."
Throwing corpses from several floors up would only create more noise below and leave a pile beside the building. Hans already had enough problems without announcing exactly where they were.
Adam spoke next. "Will you join us tomorrow, Commander?"
"I'll stay behind the fighting line, but I'll be there."
Hans still lacked any reliable picture of the lower floors, and this would be the first time all eleven soldiers fought as one group. He wanted to see how they handled a larger engagement without standing in the middle of it.
There was also the matter of his promotion. One more Conscript would give him the twelve units he needed, and he was still short of the Gold to train one.
"Anything else?" Hans waited, but nobody spoke. "Good. Get to work."
The two team leaders gathered their people near the stairwell.
"Upper floors or lower?" Alexei asked.
"Upper. Seventh through ninth," Adam replied. "We'll help once we're done."
"Fine. We'll take fourth through sixth."
The work went quickly after that. A few infected remained inside rooms skipped during the earlier sweep, but the teams dealt with them without gunfire. Locked doors that showed no movement were marked instead of being forced open immediately, while anything useful in the accessible rooms was collected for Hans.
Six hours later, floors four through nine were clean enough to use. The search produced less than Hans expected; most of what remained was cheap jewelry or small silver pieces, and the automatic conversion barely moved his balance.
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[ Automatic Gold Conversion complete. ]
[ Gold: 87 (+8) => 95 ]
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Hans needed five more.
He was close enough that the next useful piece of jewelry downstairs could give him the final Conscript. If nothing appeared, then he would simply fight with eleven. Promotion would help, but he wasn't going to delay the entire operation over five Gold.
Reinforcing the windows took longer than the room searches. Some furniture could not be moved at all, while the heavier pieces needed several soldiers working together. Ethan's strength helped with the worst of it, but nobody expected him to drag everything alone.
The scraping carried through the building, and groans soon answered from below. Several infected gathered against the lower side of the existing barricade between the third and fourth floors.
Adam checked the obstruction and left it intact. The infected could stay there until morning; opening the route early would defeat the point of waiting.
Once the work was finished, the eleven Conscripts returned to Hans's apartment, ate from their field rations, and settled into the guard rotation.
Hans spent part of the evening looking over the apartment complex from his window. The grounds below were quieter than the streets farther away, though infected still wandered between the buildings.
He briefly considered having the Conscripts fire from above, then dismissed it. The MP5s were not quiet, and shooting from an exposed window would advertise their position to anything nearby for very little gain.
Movement occasionally appeared behind windows in the neighboring buildings. Hans could not tell whether he was looking at survivors or infected.
If there were survivors, he would deal with them when contact actually happened. Friendly people could be helped. Anyone who wanted to be left alone could stay that way. If someone attacked them, Hans would respond accordingly.
For now, he had enough to worry about inside his own building.
He spent another few hours adding notes to the blue book until the familiar throb returned to his head. Hans closed it, lay back on the bed, and eventually drifted off.
His sleep was restless, shifting between nightmares and calmer dreams.