While the police officers are hurriedly making their way down the stairs, Dawn suddenly pauses in her tracks and turns to her colleagues.
"Did you guys hear that?"
Amanda, who was moving just behind her, shook her head. "I didn't hear anything. What was it?"
"Except for the noise we're making, I didn't hear anything else."
Dawn just gave them a glance before refusing to elaborate further. Instead, she addressed her fellow colleagues and ordered. "Weapon's hot, I believe they're already inside."
"They already found the secret passageway this fast?"
Everyone grew alarmed as they hurriedly ran down the flight of stairs, and from the sixth floor, they quickly arrived on the third floor in no time. Reaching the third floor, the group of policemen immediately slowed down and took their steps carefully to avoid exposing their location.
Dawn quickly put her fist in the air and everyone immediately stopped in their tracks. She turned behind her and ordered them through hand gestures.
Two of the policemen nodded their heads and slowly walked ahead of them and flanked the door ahead. The two men exchanged looks and nodded at each other before the one far from the door knob reached towards it.
Grabbing the door knob, the dark skinned officer slowly twisted it before he cautiously and slowly pulled it open towards him while the fair skinned bald officer, with his gun drawn, first checked the corridor within his first line of sight before immediately turning his attention towards the corridor facing the door.
He didn't dare turn around, but instead gave them the hand gesture for "all clear" before moving ahead of them with Dawn immediately following after him, and with the rest behind her.
Everyone slowly and cautiously made their way towards the opposite stairwell leading to the second floor. The reason why they didn't proceed all the way down from where they were from was because they had already barricaded that section of the stairwell. It wasn't only to facilitate a single route of entry and exit, but to also guard against intruders for easier defense.
Sadly, it seems like Dawn or any one of them had the mind to actually think of just staying put and defending the stairwell leading to the third floor.
"This is unusual, isn't it too quiet? I don't think this is a good sign. Assuming they are already inside, why don't we try to ambush them here instead of going further down?" Amanda whispered to Dawn when she finally noticed the unusual atmosphere in the air.
Dawn turned her around and looked at her for a moment before responding. "I was just about to do that."
"Alright, bring everything out from inside the rooms that can be used for defenses. We'll defend this area and wait for them to come up. I don't believe they have more guns than us."
Kachak!
Dawn faced them and gave them following orders before following it up with loading the shotgun on her hands.
Her colleagues did not hesitate to follow her words, though some looked annoyed, such an example is Amanda.
'Damn bitch! You were about to do just what? I was the one who clearly thought of this plan and you have the nerve to say you already thought of it?' Amanda gritted her teeth in anger and angrily pulled a bed out of the room and onto the hallway.
"What are you doing? Keep it on the down low, or are you trying to make everyone know that we're here?" Dawn snapped and glared at her in annoyance.
Amanda hung her head low and apologized with a dark expression. "Sorry."
Meanwhile, on the ground floor where Michael and the others are.
"Did you guys hear that?" Hearing a noise coming from above them, Glenn stuck half of his body out of one of the rooms and looked at Michael who's standing in the middle of the hallway.
"It seems like our host finally already figured out that we're inside." Michael answered while looking towards the stairwell leading towards the second floor.
Nolan didn't dare come out of the room he's in and just stood by the door. He looked at Michael and asked worriedly. "What should we do, boss? Should we leave?"
Michael just smiled at him. "And why would we do that? It's not like we came here with ill intentions."
"Uhh..we certainly came here with impure intentions." Glenn remarked from behind.
Daryl confidently came out of one of the rooms with his crossbow pointed upwards and looked at Nolan with obvious disdain. "What use are those muscles for if you're being such a pussy?"
"Make use of that dang rifle in your hands and spray it if there's enemies in front of you." Then he turned to Michael and asked. "Should we head up and meet them?"
"Nah, let's stay put here and make them anxious." Michael answered with a mischievous smile on his face.
"But there's nothing here." Nolan cautiously came out while looking around and complained.
Annoyed with the constant complaints coming from him, Michael lightly smacked him on his head. "Goodness, if you don't find anything that is on the list. Then look for books that you think would be useful for the community and bring them out here. For a person with your stature, you certainly complain a lot."
Nolan rubbed the painful spot on his head with a wrong expression. "Man~, I'm just worried since I'm not exactly bullet proof when bullets start flying, you know."
Michael punked him and Nolan hurriedly ran inside one of the rooms in fear.
"I told you not to bring him with us since he's troublesome to deal with." Glenn said to Michael while Daryl just grunted with no opinions about the guy, he doesn't really care who comes with them as long as they don't hold them back.
Michael just snorted with a chuckle. "That's the reason why I brought him with us. I'll make sure he returns a changed man by the time we're done here."
Inside a room office, Nolan was able to overhear them and couldn't help but shiver in regret.
On the other hand, the policemen on the second floor anxiously pointed their guns towards the stairwell, but as moments passed. Their arms started to feel leaden as the weapons in their hands started weighing like a ton after only a couple of minutes had passed.
"Damn it, where the f*ck are they?"