Men were still leaving the church when, from the corner of his eye, Nate saw Sully lunge at the closest mercenary, one hand on the handgun and the other he was throwing wild punches to the head, most were glancing blows. Before the other merc could get a shot off at his friend, Nate attacked him, throwing a punch to the head and then grabbing the gun with both hands. The merc was groggy but held firm and they wrestled with the gun.
The gun was pointed at one of the blocks of explosives attached to a pillar when it suddenly went off. The force of the resulting explosion threw Nate backwards off his feet. This caused a chain reaction and three more explosions erupted in the church causing the room to shake and rubble began to rain down.
Nate groaned as pieces of stone fell all around him, he felt hands grab him and pull him to his feet.
"Nate! Nate, we gotta go!" Sully said, shoving him towards the door.
The church was dark, the floodlights either destroyed or fallen casting eerie shadows in the dust and rubble. Nate's head rang and from somewhere he could hear a voice shouting out commands. Somehow, the roof hadn't completely fallen in, the pillars still holding, though it looked like the slightest breeze would knock it all down. Nate stumbled through the rubble and debris, coughing in the dust. He hopped over a fallen body and saw another nearby. They must have been caught in the initial blast.
Sully pulled him through the side door and slammed it shut.
"We gotta get out of here. They're going to be after us. Here!" He handed him something. Nate took it and felt the grip of a handgun. Sully must have pulled it off one of the mercs caught in the explosion.
"Alright, alright" Nate mutter, his head clearing. "Let's go."
They ran, heading down a long, narrow stone corridor, the only light provided from fires in sconces and Nate hoped it actually led out of here otherwise they were in deep trouble. He wasn't sure if Khanoğlu and Spence survived the blast and falling debris and he wasn't willing to risk it. He assumed Khanoğlu's men explored this area, which accounted for the torches but otherwise they were running blind.
Behind them came a deep rumbling, it sounded like the pillars had finally given way and then there were more explosions.
"How many explosives did they bring?" Sully panted, running just ahead of Nate.
"No idea, just keep running."
They turned a corner just as the tunnel started coming down around them. They ran, dodging and weaving past fallen chunks of stone, a clump of dirt striking Nate on the shoulder, but he kept going, pushing forward, fuelled by adrenaline.
Putting on a final burst of speed they leapt over a broken piece of timber and passed through another door. The rumbling ceased and the sound of falling debris stopped. Sully shut the door behind them, "There's no lock" he muttered.
Shots rang out from the other side of the room behind them, the bullets thudding into the door and pinging off the stone.
"Get down!" Nate said, diving behind a fallen slab of stone as more bullets rang out in the vast, cavernous room. Nate popped his head up and fired off two rounds from the Yavuz handgun. The room was dim with only a few sconces lit up and Nate could barely see two men at the far end besides a door. Luckily, they were in a wide-open space with no cover and Nate's first shot rang true, hitting the one on the right in the neck.
Sully peppered the other, who responded back with a hail of bullets from his Steyr as he moved to a nearby pillar for cover. But that opened him up for Nate to roll out of his cover, flank the merc and pulled the trigger three times. The mercs body jolted twice and fell.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" Nate said. The room was rumbling as he ran over to the nearest fallen merc and pulled off the Steyr, Sully doing the same with the other.
Suddenly there was another loud explosion and the room started to shake violently.
"This place is going to come down on top of us!" Sully yelled.
Nate agreed and pointed to the door, "That way!"
They ran for the door, more debris falling, and Nate wondered how much longer this place will survive as a pillar crumbled to the ground. Sully had a good 20 step lead on him and arrived at the door first, pulling it open and bustling through. But just before Nate reached it a giant slab of stone slammed into the ground, blocking the doorway.
"Crap" Nate said. He looked through the small gap in the door where he could see Sully pushing against it.
"I'll see if I can move it" his friend said but Nate stopped him.
"We'd need a crane to move it. You go ahead, there's another door. Hopefully it will lead me out of here. I'll meet you back at the hotel."
Sully nodded, "Good luck, kid" and hurried off.
Nate turned and looked around, the rumbling was louder now, the room shaking and falling apart before his eyes.
"Crap" he said again.