Jasper

They were now covering behind a wrecked car. The house was right in front of them, just a couple more meters. Daniel tried if he could see more from here with his binoculars. Nothing.
"I'll move in first, you two wait for my signal" Dmitri ordered as he slowly walked towards the building in a squatted position. He was holding his pistol with both hands now at face height.

The building was a simple 2 story row house with an attic. The attic however, had not survived the war, the roof had collapsed upon it fully, turning the top of the building into one big ruble pile. The windows on the second floor had been boarded up tightly from the outside, it would be hard to peek outside trough them. The boarded up window on the ground floor was, compared to the boards on the second floor, really sloppy, with some planks having almost a 10 centimeter gap in between them. The light was shining out from the ground floor window. Now that they were closer they could tell it was probably a fire or a candle since the light flickered quite a bit.

Dmitri was now only 5 meters away from the building. He dropped to his belly and crouched forward until was now right under the window. He gestured us to come over.
"Ladies first" Jasper said to Daniel.
Daniel pushed his shoulder teasingly and moved out of cover towards the building, crossing the street.
He was almost halfway when they heard a shot being fired. BLAM!
Daniel fell down backwards in the snow.
Jasper gasped as he brought his hands to his head.
"Shit, shit shit!" Dmitri cursed as he got into a squatting position once more. He held his hand up, gesturing Jasper to wait. Just as he tried to look through the boarded window, Jasper was crossing the street.
Daniel was panting heavily while he was letting out soft moans. Jasper sat down beside him.
"Don't worry; I'll get you out of here." Jasper said as he grabbed Daniel under his armpits and started dragging him. Daniel, being shot in the shoulder, was now shouting in agony because of the pressure on the wound.
Dmitri turned to face the street.
"Jasper, what the hell do you think you are doing?!" He yelled angrily.
He got up and ran in their direction.
Another shot was heard. BLAM!
Dmitri fell face forward into the snow and with such speed that he slid forward until his head touched Daniels boot. He was moaning softly. Daniel at this point had passed out because of the pain.
"Run, Jasper, get out of here" Dmitri said in agony.
Adrenaline kicked in. Jasper was in panic. He got up and ran away. Two more shots were heard, but they had both missed him. Barely.

Roos

Roos was cleaning her rifle. She had taken some parts out and had them down on the table. She checked her watch again, 11.43. The morning was almost over. The scavengers would, if they didn't find anything exceptional, be back around 1 in the afternoon. Roos sighed. She hated it when her dad was out there without her. Even though her dad was cautious, he did always go in first taking the greatest risk. She felt she should at least be with him to cover him. On the other hand, he was with Jasper and Daniel, two good and strong guys. Well, Daniel at least. Jasper never struck her as a real macho but more like a nice and smart guy.

She heard a door slamming on the groundfloor. She looked up from her gun. Someone was running up the stairs really fast. She had the first apartment next to the staircase which she shared with her dad. Michelle had also stayed for the night but she had left her already.
She could hear someone running out on the balcony. She walked towards the hallway and put on her gasmask. When she opened the front door and looked to her left, she saw Jasper running towards one of the other doors and knocking on it like a madman. She quickly stepped outside, not bothering to close the door behind her and ran towards him.
"Jasper! What is wrong? Where are the others?" She asked worried.
"They got them! Damn it, they got them!" Jasper said, still panicking and panting heavily, trying to catch his breath again.
"Who got them? How? What happened, Jasper?" Roos asked, now slightly in panic.
The door opened up and Bert stood in the opening with his gasmask on. When he saw Jasper, he quickly pulled him inside.
"Go home Roos. You will hear when it's all over." He said surly as he quickly closed the door.
Roos stared at the shut door. The windows on the door were boarded up. So was the kitchen window next to it. She tried to peek through them, but couldn't see anything. She slowly walked back to her apartment.
She was surprised to find the door open. Apparently she had forgotten to close it. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She took off her mask and put it on the shelf next to the door. As she walked into the kitchen she noticed her rifle on the table, still in pieces. She started to put it back together again.

Mark

A loud knock on his front door alerted him. After he had put on his gasmask he opened up. Nathan stood in front of him. Nathan was a redhead, and quite a chubby one too.
"Bert asked me to get you. You are Mark right?"
Mark nodded and said "yeah, that's me."
"We've got no time to waste. Get your sniper rifle, we have a problem." Nathan said panting. The fatty apparently came here running. Mark, keeping his sniper rifle right next to the door, grabbed it and stepped outside.

They walked to the command apartment, the apartment where the 10 stayed at, and Nathan opened the door. When Mark closed the door behind them they took off their gasmasks. Nathan opened the door and walked into the living room, followed by Mark.
Bert was sitting on a couch with Jasper next to him. The other two couches were filled with the rest of the 10. Mark didn't know them all by name yet. There was Nadine sitting on the couch with Bert and Jasper. She had her arm around Jaspers shoulder. Jasper was resting his elbows on his knees and he was holding his hair, looking at the floor. He was shaking.
On the other Couch was Kevin and, who he assumed, was Mike. He didn't know anybody from the third couch. There was a man and a woman. The man had long black wavy hair and light blue eyes. He was probably around his 30's. The woman wasn't that pretty and was middle aged. She had brown hair and green eyes which made her faded yellow jacket look even more awful and out of place. The guy with the long black hair rose from the couch.
"Good that you were able to come Mark. Bert told us all about you. Your reputation precedes you. My name is Frank, but there is no time for formalities. Let's get down to business." Frank said.
Frank turned to face Jasper. "As you can see, Jasper is quite shaken here. That is because he just witnessed Dmitri and Daniel get shot. Most probably by a sniper."
He now faced Mark again.
"We need your help fixing this, we don't know if our guys are still out there on the street, but if they are, the sniper probably is as well. We have assembled a team of 5 to assists you in this. However, we think it is better that you take the lead and go in first. Spot the sniper and take him out. Would you be willing to do this?" Frank asked and he tilted his head slightly while looking at Mark.
"Of course I will, whatever it takes!" Mark said without a moment of hesitation.
Frank sighed in relieve.
"Good, the team is waiting for you downstairs in the hall. Get geared up and leave as soon as you can. Our boys are bleeding out there and every second counts." Frank replied.
Mark nodded and ran towards the hallway.
"Thanks!" Frank shouted towards him, but Mark was already outside with his gasmask on.

He sprinted to his apartment. He opened the door, grabbed an extra magazine and a box of rounds, and slammed the door shut again. He sprinted towards the staircase and descended. When he got down the team was already prepared to leave.
"Ready when you are sir!" one of them said. They were all wearing their gasmasks. Only two of them had pistols, the others were armed with close combat weapons. One had a baseball bat, the other a kitchen knife and third one was armed with a cleaver. Fighting snipers with bats, knives and cleavers, what has this world come to? He asked himself. At least one of them had an actual combat helmet. As they were about to leave mark held up his hand. "Wait" He said.
They heard someone running down the stairs.
It was Jasper. "Someone needs to guide you in the right direction, right? You almost left without knowing the location!" he panted, through his gasmask, muffling his voice.