The squad was right at the front of the dungeon gate. Egor stepped forward more, and the gate opened on its own. Two platoons of soldiers, pointing their weapons toward the gate, were around it. The massive structure moved?, but it didn’t make any sound whatsoever. The experience was quite bizarre.

  As the gate ?opened, revealing the inside, a massive hallway led into total darkness. Egor looked behind him, nodded to his squad, and entered the massive structure. Right from the start, they turned on the flashlights attached to their rifles, looking around for potential targets.

  As they moved forward, no sound came from the darkness. The light on their backs came from the entrance, but that was fading away as Kurt received communication and ?looked behind, and his squad mates followed.

  Like before, the Gate was closed behind them ?and didn’t make a sound; there was no point even running; it ?closed, immersing Egor’s squad in total darkness, with only their flashlights as a light source looking at one another.

  'So... we are dead; that was quick.’ Asher gave a nervous laugh.

  ‘Don’t be dramatic, soldier. They can open from the outside but can’t remain open for long. Kurt here can call, and they will open for us. Now focus.’ Egor turned around and walked forward.

  'So... if Kurt is taken, or the device is broken, we are dead, got it.’ Asher took a deep breath before following the others.

  The lights they used showed the house, like the hallway, with massive pillars on the sides. The squad was walking in the middle, and from their point of view, the walls were six trucks from the middle on each side.

  ‘Sarge, how is the ceiling higher than the gate? I just noticed that.’ Ethan pointed his flashlight in the gate's direction.

  The light was already dim because of the distance, but it was like he said, and it made little sense because the gate was projecting out; it wasn’t like a tunnel in the rocky mountain.

  No sound came from anywhere other than their steps on the floor, which echoed and made them feel more nervous with each forward step.

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  ‘Sir, there's an entrance on the right side.’ Oran pointed his light at it.

  ‘Alright, everyone, you know what to do; Ethan, take the lead.’ Egor walked toward the entrance at a faster pace.

  Ethan looked at his team, nodded at them, and ran toward entering his team right behind him. He pointed to the left side of the entrance, and Samal and Oran separated; Ethan was on the right side, with Caleb and Asher in the back.

  Ethan looked at Samal, and with his hand, he counted to five using his left hand. At zero, Samal entered, followed by Ethan, and the others, one by one, entered what appeared to be a room with multiple entrances, like water; they filled all spaces, and each time, like in training, they yelled. Their training kicked in, a reassuring reminder of their preparedness.

  ‘Clear!’ Ethan yelled as he scanned one empty room.

  As he returned to the main room, Egor entered and looked around. The place was well-lit because of the light from the soldiers' rifles and flashlights. The walls had different details and pillars carved in them, but he didn’t think it had a purpose.

  ‘Well done, everyone; we will take turns doing this until we get to the city.’ Egor turned around and left the room, his confidence in the squad's adaptability evident.

  ‘We are always the firsts; I don’t get it; I blame you, sir.’ Asher sighs, looking at Ethan.

  ‘Just do your job, Asher, and you will return to your new Velvent girlfriend.’ Ethan laughed as he walked out of the room.

  The others looked at Asher with smiles; he was starting to blush when they started to walk out of the room. As they continued, other similar places were also cleared, but with nothing different within them, just more rooms. There was another with a second floor and more rooms, but nothing more expanded them than that.

  As they continued to walk right in front of them, there were rubbles similar to the walls. Looking to his right side, Egor noticed how heavily damaged the wall was, like something busted out. He put his left hand up and halted; everyone took a half-moon position with him at the center, aiming at what looked like a hole in the wall.

  As they got closer to the massive hole in the wall, the light didn’t find an end to it, and like the massive hallway, they were current it. Egor looked at Kurt.

  ‘Give me a line with command.’ Egor extended his hand towards Kurt.

  ‘Yes, here, and give me a second.’ The soldier started to move some knobs in a device he had in hand.

  Kurt then gave the radio to Egor, but this one was attached to his backpack, just like the device with knobs the soldier had in his hands. That annoyed the sergeant, but he looked around briefly, focusing on the task.

  ‘Command, this is Spear; do you copy?’ His voice echoed more because of the massive hole in front of them.

  ‘Yes, loud and clear, what is the situation? Over.' Alon’s voice came out of the radio.

  ‘We cleared some rooms to the sides, but now we found a massive hole in the wall, and from the surroundings, it looks like something came out of it; there is rubble everywhere. Over.' Egor looked around for a moment.

  Maybe it was the darkness or the openness of the hallway, but for a moment, Egor felt like something was watching him, but nothing was behind him; even the other soldiers pointed their rifles toward the hallway where the rubble was more prevalent, because now at the hole, they noticed more of what looked like more rubble. Still, they couldn’t see where it could have come from.

  ‘Spear, don't explore the entrance; move forward with caution. Over.' Alon’s voice came out of the radio.

  ‘Copy, moving now, spear over and out.’ Egor gave the radio back to Kurt.