He surveyed the group quickly, seeing that they all seemed to be ready. "Well," he began, his voice low as he started off in the direction of the nearest building in the complex. "I guess we gotta go in sometime..." No sooner had he finished than a shot echoed through the afternoon air. Just inches to his right, Auden's body whipped around in a half-circle, a warm, crimson mist spraying from his chest and onto Shinobi's fur.
"AUDEN!!"
Shinobi turned his attention to the nearest rooftop, where somefur was standing, ejecting a spent casing from a bolt-action hunting rifle. Before the fox could make out who it was, they turned and bolted off, disappearing into the rooftops of the apartment complex.
"Leaf! After him!" he barked, grabbing hold of Auden's arm and slinging his rifle as he hauled him into the complex, where there was more cover. Robin leaned heavily on Michael as the two wolves hurried in with the rest of the group, and Auden—clutching with a quivering paw at his chest—left a bloody trail in the grass. Once they had passed through the gates to the complex, Shinobi leaned the now spasming snow leopard against the railing fencing off a ground-floor apartment's small side porch.
"Rena," he panted, his eyes darting around the upper floors of the complex in search of even the smallest sign of movement. In spite of the chaos that had just unfolded, the area was unsettlingly quiet. "See what you can do with him. Try to get inside this apartment; it's probably safer in there." The small apartment had a sliding glass door separating the modest, concrete porch from its interior, which would likely pose no problem for Rena. He then turned his attention to Michael, who was in the middle of standing up a plastic lawn chair that had been tipped onto its side, so he could set his wounded brother down in it. "Here," said Shinobi, unslinging Auden's rifle and tossing it to the wolf. "Take this for now, and keep an eye on Rena, Auden, and your brother."
With that, he sprinted to the nearest staircase and began climbing. Clearly these furs were up high; he and Leaf would need to take that advantage away from them.
He could still feel the tiny flecks of Auden's blood on his fur...