Even the best laid plans go to waste sometimes.

As Luis ducked down to reload, back to the wall, he spotted the back door of their building swing open silently and a long, black barrel stick into the room.

In all their haste to take cover they'd forgotten to clear the building.

Amateur mistake.

One that would start costing lives.

The rifle fired, blitzing through the open space.

Rounds thudded into their marksman, dropping him flat to the floor even as the fire continued to rake across the wall.

Luis' eyes widened as he opened his mouth to yell. His arm shot forward to Connor, who was busy firing out the doorway, and grabbed onto his back rigging.

Jimmy's body spasmed as hot lead tore into him, throwing him to the floor in a bloody heap.

[color=red]"Contact rear!"[/color]

He pulled and yanked Connor down onto the floor amidst his sudden protests, even as the rest of the fire raked the wall above their heads.

"Shit!"

[color=red]"We got trouble, Connor!"[/color]

"Yeah no shit! We gotta get to -"

[color=red]"No time, they're gone! We gotta move, this area's getting too hot!"[/color]

"Yeah, but where?!"

Luis' eyes swept the house. In the far corner, there was a staircase heading to the second floor. The thing with these dwellings, always built small and with multiple floors to make space. He betted that there was a ladder to the roof as well. That was their ticket out.

[color=red]"Up! We flash front and back, then we get upstairs! C'mon let's go!"[/color]

He pulled another flashbang from his vest as his buddy did the same. With pins pulled, both men counted down from three and lobbed their grenades out the front and back doors and waited.

The grenade out the front thumped against the chest of an insurgent and he yelled a warning as they scattered.

The other grenade would tumble out the back door and come to rest a foot away from Rez.

Bang.

Flash.

[color=red]"Go go go!"[/color]

Connor stood and ran for the staircase as Luis laid down suppressing fire out the front door with his machine gun, then turned his attention to the back door, raking it and the walls with gunfire for two seconds, before stopping to join his teammate upstairs.

On the second floor, Luis' hunch was proven: a thick wooden ladder stood inside a small skylight in the ceiling. Roof access. Connor was huddled in the far corner, rifle pointed at the staircase. Upon realising that his teammate was joining him, he lowered his gun and sighed as he caught his breath.

"Shit man! Since when did this turn into a shitstorm again?!"

[color=red]"Since we didn't clear the building, Connor."[/color]

The black man's eyes grew wide as he realised their amateurish mistake. He slammed a fist against the wall and yelled in anger.

"Shit! So stupid! Fuckin' A man!"

Luis went over to the big man and shook him bodily by the shoulders.

[color=red]"Connor, focus! We gotta get outta here man, or we'll end up like our buddies downstairs. Now, only way out is through the roof. We're gonna get up there, alright? You go first, I'll cover you."[/color]

He merely nodded as he shouldered his rifle and advanced to the ladder, beginning his climb up. Luis remained in the room, reloading his machine gun as quickly as he could while his other hand trained his handgun on the stairwell in case their aggressors showed up. Slow going, considering he was using one free hand and a little of the other to do so.