The dark made it hard to navigate the woods quickly, not to mention the scared and confused herd of civilians in tow. Richard was forced to sacrifice speed for the sake of those he was leading. That was part of taking care of civilians though, you have to be as patient as possible. He kept his gun raised and eyes mostly fixed ahead, only turning to check on the group as needed.  

His head snapped back when he heard the squeal of one of the civilians. Before he had time to react to the snatch and grab of the man near the rear of the group he was taken by surprise yet again. He had let his guard down just long enough for one of the soldiers to come up behind him and toss a strap around his neck. Suddenly Richard felt the strap pulled tight as the man pulled him back. He fought his inclination to panic and focused on how to break free. Swiftly he let the butt of his rifle drop from the inside of his shoulder to down between his side and his arm then abruptly pushed it back into the man's rib cage. The man's grunt of pain was easily heard but it wasn't enough to make him set Richard free. Dropping to his knees in a forward motion he flung the man over his back, not as gracefully as when he had down it in training but it was still effective. Not even allowing himself a moment to catch his breath he pulled his knife and stabbed it into the exposed patch of the man's neck.



As the confusion whirled around her Rin realized she had lost track of Marcus. That worried her more than the bullet wound in her shoulder. [i]He can handle himself. He's fine. Don't panic. Keep going.[/i] She repeated a few times in her head while pressing forward. The UKD soldiers seemed to be moving along with the group of civilians, therefore so was she. Keeping from the center of the action she did her best to pick them off. It didn't seem like a good idea to take on more than she could handle, she couldn't risk getting hurt further.