Darkness from the arch connecting two multi-storey buildings hid four silhouettes, and we were left alone. Pakhom muttered something under his breath and closed his eyes.
“Uncle Pakhom, are you all right?” Katya placed our backpacks on the ground and sat down next to us.
“I'm fine,” old geezer replied dryly. “I sprained my ankle, better get the bandages and alcohol out, that "hero" needs his shoulder treated.”
Girl had already started rummaging through Pakhom's bag, but I decided to stop her:
“There's no need to, blood already stopped.”
“You're dumber than a bag of rocks! You better tell me, when do we need to behead you? How long does it take to transform?”
I sighed and rolled up my sleeve.
“That’s when I was bitten for the first time yesterday.” Then I pushed back the neck of my T-shirt. “Here I was bitten the second time; third bite's on the calf.”
Pakhom looked at me gloomily.
“So, you bamboozled me? And I, Sasha, even hold the breath next to these creatures. Why are you so cruel to this old man?”
I rubbed my temples and somehow explained the events that happened to me yesterday.
“Is he telling the truth?” Pakhom asked Katya.
She nodded affirmatively.
“Hmm, which means that bastard took a similar book?” Pakhom summed up my little story.
“Yeah,” a reminder of the stolen loot bitterly scratched the strings of my soul.
Pakhom thought a little more and, apparently, believing in my story, put the grenade back in the pocket.
“Oh, Katya, since treating him is unnecessary, come here!” Old alcoholic snatched away a bottle of vodka from her and, quickly unscrewing the cork, took a couple of noisy sips. “Uhh! Damned hooch. Alright, leave the alcohol here and go.”
“Did you decide to take this bastard's advice and stay here?” I chuckled and got up, leaning on the rusty railing.
“Ha, ha, ha!” the old man croaked defiantly loudly and took another sip. “Did you see my leg? What am I to you - a grasshopper? Or will you carry me on yourself? That'll be the end for all of us.”
“If necessary, I will do so, but I still hope Katya will help you!” I looked over at the girl. Has her mana been restored?
She silently nodded, and the old man stared at me incomprehensibly.
“What are you two up to?”
“Don't worry, Katya is a real healer. The only question I have is do you believe in God?”
“Well, I would not say so!” Old geezer got even more confused.
“Then I do not promise anything, but do not be afraid, it will definitely not get worse.” And then added a little quieter. “I hope.”
“Uncle Pakhom, show me where it hurts and roll up your pants.” Katya sat closer and rubbed her hands.
The old man, apparently, figured something out and, after sipping from the bottle for about five seconds, followed the instructions. This time, I wasn't the test subject, and could look with unending interest at the magic in action. Strangely, in the case of Pakhom, the wait was not so long - a warm golden mist gently enveloped his foot and dissipated a moment later.
“Done!” Katya stepped back a little.
Test subject slowly moved his leg and gasped in surprise. Then he got up and took a couple of steps.
“This is... Some kind of a miracle! Katya, my dear! And here I thought I would have to die. Come here, my little sun.” Pakhom was obviously buzzed, and he picked up the girl in his arms but then a second later placed her back. “Ouch.”
Pakhom grabbed his waist and made a mournful face.
“Oh! My back! Come here, help your uncle once more!”
«Well, and here it is»
I mentally facepalmed myself.
Gullible girl had already begun to rub her hands.
“Stop, stop! Don't listen to this old fart, we might need your mana later. Now he has back pains, in a couple of minutes it'll be hemorrhoids.” I have already put on my backpack and picked up my spear.
“Damn you!” Pakhom spat and, no longer humping, straightened up. “I am so getting you back. Wait, did you hear that?”
A series of gunshots resounded very close. After which was a furious howl, and tramping feet echoes. Painfully familiar faces popped out of the archway.
«Who are they running from? » the answer to the question came right after - octopus tentacle quickly rushed out from the darkness and wrapped around the legs of the boy who was running last. A plaintive cry, and the guy smashed face-first into the asphalt. Even standing tens of meters away, I heard it clearly. Two more tentacles bursted out of the darkness: now they completely wrapped around their prey and pulled them back into the dark gap between the houses. Everything happened in a matter of seconds, but the system managed show me information about the attacker:
Altered, sub-elite (**).
Level 4.
Green faction.
“Run!” I shouted and rushed along the road in the opposite direction of the fleeing thieves.
When the creature rushed out, we were already at the edge of the house. I took a couple of moments to examine it - a lump of slow and clumsy flesh. The human form was still recognizable in this creature, but it was clearly on the verge of shedding and abandoning its previous shell. Instead of chasing bipedal prey, this creature opted for a feast that we organized.
We rushed past houses and various shops in the intensifying rain. Two times I had to break away from my lagging companions and deal with some single monsters. And both times they turned out to be reptilians from the red faction. Their movements were slow and sluggish, and their coordination was clearly impaired, as if they had been buzzed.
We came out on to the wide road soaking wet. Pakhom didn't look as frail, which wasn't a surprise to me - he drunk a little too much i believe. Katya, on the other hand, had lips blue from the cold already. We had to stop at a shawarma stall to take a breather and look around. A small canopy of the flat pavilion roof somewhat protected us from the ubiquitous rain.
Almost nothing was visible behind the never-ending walls of water.
“Pakhom, through which courtyard did you want to go?”
“Phew,” he took off his rag cap and squeezed it out, then put it back on. - The one behind the «Malyshok1» store.
I don’t know why, but my eyes caught a police UAZ parked in front of a store on the opposite side of the road. What's that... I barely had time to push my companion away - the glass broke, something struck a couple of meters on the asphalt, metallically scratched out on the side of the stall.
«Bastard! »
It was Vitya, peeking out from behind the windscreen of a remarkable car and firing at us from a machine gun.
***
Viktor
This new world showed up just in time - it saved me from another very long sentence. Five kilograms of powder on me is no joke.
«If the cops had broken in a couple of minutes earlier… Brr, I don’t even want to think about it. »
Everything happened exactly as it should have. Voice inside of my head said that only a small number of people were selected and of course I became one of them. The chosen ones, who will now subdue this world by force.
As soon as the divine voice notified me, a mini hell broke loose in the apartment. I was able to survive only thanks to my luck and Slavic blood. Out of a dozen of my people, two survived. Most turned into some kind of creatures, and some had to be sacrificed for the good of the rest.
And then we broke into apartments and had a real fun, never in my whole life had I been so amused. In one of the apartments, we found a pretty girl, and most importantly, she immediately understood how one should behave in this new world. We didn't even have to explain her anything.
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Olga told us about the camp of survivors - it's not a bad idea to go there. "Brave new world! We have to celebrate!"
***
Damn it, somehow, we found ourselves on the roof of the damn store, and all around us is a crowd of pale-faced freaks, trying to eat us alive.
Oh, the rescuers arrived: some old fart and a young hero. But they sure have some serious weaponry - half the creatures were blown to pieces by explosions.
«Tch, that guy has level 2, and that spear… We will definitely have problems dealing with him… Ha, and here is the solution: this creature bitten him! My luck is as good as usual. Yes, and Olga did well, now we just need to quickly finish them off»
Negotiations didn't go the way I wanted. That old bastard, he surely would've pulled out the pin, I should have readied my rifle earlier. Now it's too late. Well, they're dead anyway. Finally, these suckers came in handy - Oleg found a wonderful book, it's good that I seized it in time.
Active skill book: Demonic might. Volume 1.
Do you want to learn: yes/no
«Of course I do!»
The face of the young hero at that moment was simply unforgettable. To kill so many enemies, almost die, and not get anything in the end. Awesome.
«Let's see the status»
Name: Viktor Knyazev
Level: 1
Acolyte of Anguish (Class Progress 1%)
Experience: 6/150
[https://sun9-16.userapi.com/impg/_D-2FhnC5nQoJWnZAxzKqZilac3cVBxcwKxP0A/a1H44IbKpw8.jpg?size=505x484&quality=96&sign=26ffb18954c6dff1f7af80672f5e3f3f&type=album]
Now we have to wait for them in the passageway. Surely, they will follow us to take revenge. It's so dark in here and it stinks. Fuck, and where are these freaks? Did they really decide to stay there? What is this rustle?
I had to shoot the whole clip into this thing. But the creature didn't die. WHAT THE FUCK?! We rushed out of the dark place. At the very exit from the arch, I had to shoot Dima's leg, cause how otherwise will we survive?
Those bastards are still there. I hope this monster, after he ends Dima, will devour all of you too!
Oh, I'm so fed up with it, fucking rain soaked me thoroughly. Well, we will soon get to the shelter and rest to our heart's content.
We crossed a wide road in short runs from car to car. At parked police car we came across a couple of zombies - mindless creatures wandered back and forth.
“They are mine,” Oleg obediently stepped aside, and my bat brought me some more experience. Looking inside the car, a gift was found on the back seat - AKS-74U. Good stuff, definitely useful. Maybe we should return and finish off that bogeyman? Once mentally in that courtyard, I suddenly remembered my house. Powder effects are pretty much gone already, I rummaged through my pockets - it was empty.
“Oleg, do you have anything?” To my question, he just shook his head frustratedly to my disappointment.
«Damn you...» desire to turn back stuck in my head too hard.
“Viktor Andreevich,” Oleg interrupted my thoughts. “They're coming.”
He pointed to the side of the road we had come from. A group of «rescuers» leisurely ran out from behind the houses. In front, as usual, was this young man with a spear in his hands. Oncoming monsters seemed to move right onto his sharp spearblade themselves and lifelessly dropped on the asphalt afterwards.
«He really hasn’t transformed yet! » the obsessive thought to return was replaced by another: they follow us, they want to take revenge for the fact that I took away their book! We need to stop them!
Because of the trembling hands, I could not properly aim. If I do hit, that's good too - the kid won't leave him. Holding my breath, I pressed the trigger - a small burst chirped.
«B-bitch, I missed»
It was inconvenient to shoot, I was not used to such a thingy. Meanwhile, my targets hid behind a stall.
“Vitya, maybe, well, we just go? If we do make even more noise, we'll attract even more zombies,” Olga came closer to me.
“I myself will decide what to do, speak up again - you will be left without teeth. Or maybe it'll be even better for you this way!”
«We need to smoke them out somehow»
I switched to single shots and fired several times at the cars parked next to the stall.
Ha! A couple of cars alarm went off, and my mice ran out of the mink. They rushed along the street, hiding behind abandoned autoes, and then disappeared into the alley. Fuck, seems like I missed all my shots.
“If it wasn't raining, I would have definitely killed all of them”
“AAAA!” Olga's screeching resounded. Three buildings away from us, a huge black monster jumped out onto the road and rushed towards the ringing cars.
***
Alexander
«Fucking asshole! If we survive, I will kill him with my own hands, and I will make a chamber pot out of the skull»
Having avoided the shots, we took cover in a narrow passage between the houses littered with rubbish. I looked out from behind a brick wall - the bastards were still sitting there, hiding behind the car. Why isn't anyone attacking them? After all, the noise was...
At that moment, across the street from us, a huge black shadow jumped out onto the sidewalk. Apparently, it was hiding from the rain in the store, or whatever the hell it was doing.
«Ha ha. » It was now time to gloat. «Now this giant daddy will teach you that making noise is bad for your health… What the hell? Why is it rushing here??»
The creature moved on all fours, like a gorilla, rushing towards the howling machines. There was a rumble of metal and a roar of a monster. There was no point in looking anymore - I jumped back from the opening and, hitting the wall with my wounded shoulder, hissed in pain.
“What's over there?” Pakhom asked hoarsely.
“One big problem! Now we have to go through the courtyards.”
One by one, in ankle-deep rainwater, we squeezed between brick walls and mountains of debris.
«What sort of piglins threw out so much litter? »
I stumbled over another bag of trash and almost fell, and kicked it with my foot out of anger.
“My name's Alice! Let 's play!” a stupid children's song began to play from the damn bag. Who even throws out working toys??? I hope that specimen didn't hear anything over the noisy rain.
Pakhom turned around and stared at me disapprovingly, but a second later his eyes widened in horror, and my right side exploded in of pain. I stared dumbfounded at the spiked tongue protruding from my belly. My brave companion, uttering a heartbreaking cry, stumbled and fell into the muddy waters.
The slimy flesh, tearing my insides with spikes, flew back into the mouth of its owner.
Altered, sub-elite (**).
Level 5.
Yellow faction.
In an attempt to stop the bleeding, I clutched at the laceration and leaned my back against the wall.
A huge toothy muzzle, sensing blood, greedily gazed at me. The creature tried to squeeze into the narrow gap between the houses, but its body was too large, and, having abandoned senseless attempts, it again opened its mouth. Exhausted, I could only watch how the scarlet tongue of the monster writhed like an eel, and its yellow devilish eyes inevitably predicted my imminent death.
Bang! Boom!
Slightly deafening me, resounded two shots. The creature instinctively covered its heinous face with a huge black paw, but it did not help much avoiding damage: yellow mucus flowed down the creature's cheek, mixing with raindrops. The bullet blinded its left eye.
Pakhom quickly reloaded his gun, and two more shots rang out. It didn't give the creature a chance to attack again.
“Sasha, move out!” as soon as the black giant tried to move his hand, the old companion fired again.
Bleeding and scratching my skin on the uneven brickwork, I hurried away from the monster as fast as I could.
Boom! Boom!
Another pair of shots, but this time, apparently, the creature managed to shoot out its tongue - a powerful push hit me in the back. I stumbled and fell flat into the water full of sewage. Someone roughly grabbed my backpack, and my consciousness enshrouded in a veil. I woke up already in the yards, Katya's worried face loomed over me. As soon as I opened my eyes, the girl screamed:
“He woke up!” Katya helped me to get up - my ears immediately started ringing, and I felt dizzy.
“Where’s this creature?” I fumbled around with a cloudy gaze.
“He starts the car.” The girl obviously misunderstood me and pointed somewhere in the direction of the parking lot.
«Car? Why would an altered need a car? »
My elbows gave way, and I again plunged into the nothingness.
“Fuck, you're so fat” three bald translucent heads floated through the air around me. They noticed that I woke up and, puffing out steam and fire, they ordered, “get into the car faster!”
Pakhom threw me into the back seat of the SUV, together with my dear spear, which was now next to me. The doors banged: Pakhom got behind the wheel, and Katya next to him. The engine roared - I shook, my stomach twisted from a new wave of suffering.
“Fucking fascist iron tub!” Pakhom started the stalled engine again.
“Uncle!” The girl's voice sounded too worried.
“I know!”
The SUV jerked back; a wave of water splashed onto the windshield - monster missed. Pakhom, biting his lip, looked out from the driver's seat. The old geezer collected all the potholes in the yards. Having slipped through several houses, the car turned rapidly, and Katya hit her head on the side glass. I also wasn't unscathed. Elderly Schumacher, on the other hand, was completely fine - he pressed gas to the floor, and the car, roaring, rushed out onto the wide highway.
More or less coming to my senses, I raised myself on my elbows, looking out the window. The creature was not going to let go of its prey and, accelerating, rushed after us on all its four limbs.
The old man, apparently using all his abilities and luck, maneuvered along the slippery road, only miraculously avoiding obstacles in our path, but the creature seemed to be much simpler: almost without losing speed, it either demolished obstacles or simply jumped over them.
“Pakhom, gun!” At my command, he threw his double-barreled rifle, holding the steering wheel with the other hand and not taking his eyes off the road.
“And ammo!” I added.
“Sure, damn it!” The car abruptly veered to the side. He quickly emptied his pockets, throwing handfuls of ammunition to me.
With a butt of smooth wood, on my fifth try, I was finally able to break the rear window. My insides reacted to my every movement, at least my wounds stopped bleeding. Intuitively loading the double-barreled rifle, I fired twice at the creature pursuing us. The gun could not cause any noticeable damage, but after each shot the giant slowed down or bent its head to the ground - apparently, it was afraid of losing its other eye.
Traveling by car turned out to be much safer than I thought. Most likely, of course, the pouring rain helped. I fired again and found that there were almost no bullets left!
“Pakhom, how far are we?”
“Pretty much there, one more turn, and we are at the goal!” Pakhom was clearly at the limit of his strength. The SUV went into a steep skid.
«What is this…»
Three hundred meters remained to the «Okhotnik2» store, and even I uttered a few surprised remarks. According to my recollections, the gathering place was the intersection of small streets with garages and railway tracks. The store was located at the end of an old three-storey building, which is probably a hundred years old. This area of the city was called the old city, in warmer seasons it was fully in green scenery. The old architecture and cozy streets have always attracted a lot of people here for walking and relaxing.
Now, everything here resembled, rather, a hotspot. The road was blocked by a two-meter heap of rubbish - the base was made up of the carcasses of broken or burnt cars, and on top of it all people threw various household utensils, covering the cracks with wide metal sheets.
I don’t understand how we didn’t hear the sounds of gunshots beforehand? A huge group of altered creatures stormed the barricade. Among them, two octopus-like ones could be spotted. Under ceaseless gunfire from windows and balconies, the creatures clambered over the rubble and corpses of their comrades. The most dexterous and stubborn ones were met at the top by the defenders of the camp with a wide variety of weapons: from shovels and pitchforks to rifles and machine guns.
The most problematic monsters were a couple of sub-elites. Bullets and shells did little to their slimy bodies. The writhing creatures could not climb up, but they sometimes managed to grab humans with long tentacles and threw them down, straight into the arms of their ugly brothers.
We were approaching this massacre at high speed.
“Hold on!” Pakhom pressed himself into the leather driver’s seat.