Liang Song carried a wounded soldier toward the building, his steps heavy and dragging. The lingering injuries from the recent battle still pained him; with every stride, a sharp ache shot through the wound on his right leg, while the numbness in his right arm made his movements sluggish. Yet, he gritted his teeth and pushed through the discomfort, driven by a single conviction: he had to bring his comrades out safely.
Stepping inside, he was met with a choking smell of dust and a gloom as deep as the dead of night. The once-bright lights had long since died, leaving only faint shafts of sunlight filtering through the gaps in shattered windows to spill across a floor littered with rubble and debris. Liang Song looked up at the elevator. It stood silently in its shaft, the doors half-open like a gaping maw. Evidently, the previous explosions and fighting had severed the circuits, rendering it out of commission long ago.
"We'll have to take the fire escape," Liang Song said with a helpless sigh that echoed through the empty building.
Chapter 404