2-1
Sven regains consciousness from severe pain in an unfamiliar bedroom of a modest house, the atmosphere in the room resembles the life of the English and Romanian countryside. Examining himself, the man sees a lot of bloody bandages and bullet holes all over his body. Finding the strength in himself and approaching the mirror, Sven sees his half-bandaged head in the reflection, also with a trace of a bullet through it. Suddenly, Sven has a severe headache due to a flashback that begins, in which he, a pregnant Anna, Victor and Emmy are hiding in a cabin among the dense forests. From these memories and severe pain, Sven becomes ill, and he falls to the ground with a crash.
At the noise, unknown armed men burst into the room with surprised exclamations in an incomprehensible language that Sven is still alive, despite a large number of wounds. The older man turns to the younger one, asking where the pregnant woman and the others are, to which he receives the answer that they managed to escape.
Over the next few days, strangers avoided Sven in every possible way, and only a young girl named Beatrice, who was courting the man, revealed some details of what was happening. The girl was the only one who could somehow communicate with Sven in Sven, which, according to her, she learned from books sent by mechanical birds, until her father declared them messengers of heretics. The girl explains to Sven that the men visiting him are her father and brother named Jacob and Dani. There is also a mother named Jeannette in the family, who is subordinate to Jacob in everything.
The entire family, along with their immediate neighbors, are the true followers of the abstract mother, fighting against the fiends, heretics, and mechanical birds from the other end of Eden.
The abstract mother is the embodiment of life and the source of all things in the Promised Land. Every manifestation of life is its child. Jacob, the main guru of the abstract mother's children, is eager to hear her announcement of a new beginning that is about to happen.
Sven is haunted by realistic nightmares in which the naked silhouette of a woman with tentacles resembling the structure of chromosomes whispers incomprehensible words to him, hinting at Anna's pregnancy. Later, Beatrice, his neighbor, reports that she does not know about Anna's pregnancy, as Sven was brought here unconscious, with a shot in the head.
Sven tells Beatrice about his dreams and visions in which a naked woman gives him various signs. In response, she shares with him that all the locals see a similar silhouette, which they call an abstract mother. According to Beatrice, in the past, people could communicate with an abstract mother in an ancient language that is now forgotten. However, in the modern world, people see it only in dreams and visions, without understanding their meaning.
When Sven shared his dreams with Beatrice, it finally convinced her that he, too, was under the influence of an abstract mother and was not a fiend. She asked Sven to limit communication with her, as Jacob forbade them to meet.
Left alone, Sven realized that he no longer felt a craving for serum. He suggested that this was due to a head injury. Over the next week, Beatrice helped him learn the local language. When he was able to stand on his feet, he was suddenly beaten up by Jacob and Danny. They demanded an explanation about his connection with the newcomer and why he did not become a fiend. Sven could not answer these questions, and this only increased the anger of the attackers.
Such interrogations and beatings have become regular, despite Beatrice's attempts to stop them. In between them, Sven had dreams in which he remembered his life with the pregnant Anna and realized that he would soon become a father. One night, Danny tried to attack Sven, but he resisted and severely beat the attacker. Danny was reprimanded by his father, and Beatrice smiled at him mischievously.
At one of the interrogations, Jacob and Danny no longer touched Sven. The man admitted that he would soon become an immortal and regenerating fiend. One night, Sven heard Beatrice's screams in the street. He went out and saw a group of guys with Danny harassing her, pointing a gun at her. Danny threatened to kill the girl, and Beatrice smiled back at him.
One evening, Sven heard Beatrice's heartbreaking screams coming from the street. As he stepped onto the door, he saw a group of young men, including Danny, threatening Beatrice with a revolver at her. Danny and his accomplices threatened to kill the girl, and Sven was forced to sit on a chair, where he was tied up with leather straps. Danny and his friends then brought Beatrice home and raped her right in front of Sven.
Sven spent the next days alone, watching from the window as many naked female silhouettes with many thin limbs watched him at night. All the while, he was haunted by distorted visions of past events: sex with Anna, an attack by a monster, and an encounter with a dying Sshiru.
2-2
One morning, Beatrice came into Sven's room, handed him clean clothes and told him to change his clothes. She took him to the main hall of the house, where the entire local community had already gathered. Sven was seated in a chair at the end of the table, separate from the others, and again strapped hand and foot.
Jacob introduced Sven to the audience as a new perfect fiend, the destruction of which, according to him, will allow people to start from scratch, receiving the blessing of an abstract mother. He placed on the table a thick leather-bound book, the text of which was a set of incomprehensible symbols. According to Jacob, this book contained the entire history of their people since creation by an abstract mother. He remembered that his grandfather still understood some words from the book, but his generation was no longer able to perceive them, as they had lost their way from the path blessed by their mother.
Jacob's speech was difficult for Sven to understand, and it seemed to him that he heard only a set of incomprehensible words. At this time, Jeannette and Beatrice were serving treats to the guests.
Jacob continued his speech, arguing that defeating such a perfect fiend would finally unite all people under the true authority of the abstract mother. He expressed confidence that all heretics could be brought back to the true path by pointing to Beatrice, whom he said he had adopted as an infant after accidentally finding her next to the bodies of her apostate parents.
As she walked past Sven, Beatrice whispered in his ear that he had to run right away. Dropping food from the tray, she imperceptibly loosened the straps on Sven's arms and legs. Sven noticed that Danny was watching them closely.
Jacob announced to everyone present the imminent appearance of the true interior of the fiend, pointing the ritual blade directly at Sven. Suddenly, Danny jumped up from his seat, snatched the blade from his father, and offered to speed up the ceremony. Walking up to Sven and leaning over to him, Danny confessed that he had seen Beatrice whisper something in the fiend's ear and plunged the blade into his stomach.
Sven abruptly freed his hand from the belt and, grabbing a fork lying next to him, plunged it deep into Danny's head through the eye, killing him.
In the midst of the turmoil, Sven was able to free himself from the shackles and the rope in his mouth. Snatching the revolver from the holster of the dead Danny, he opened fire on Jacob, who was confused. After being wounded and killing several others, Sven grabbed Beatrice by the arm, and they jumped out of the window onto the canopy of the building, from where they fled.
Jacob, looking furiously at his son's corpse, ordered his men to catch up with the fugitives. A group of armed thugs brought tame wolves that took the trail of the fugitives.
At this moment, Sven and Beatrice, trying to remain unnoticed, make their way into the house of sleeping locals. Their appearance woke up a frightened old woman, who hurried to take refuge in the barn. There, having bandaged Sven's wound with their handkerchief, they begin to discuss the further plan of action.
Beatrice is convinced that Jacob was the killer of her parents, and now she has a chance to get revenge. In response, Sven thanks her, noting that he now owes her everything. After making sure that there are no cartridges left in the barrel of the revolver, he throws it aside.
Soon the hangar is shelled and set on fire. Sven and Beatrice make their way out of the burning building, but lose each other in the confusion. Suddenly, a flying drone appears above Sven's head, dropping a double-barreled vertical shotgun along with ammunition at his feet. Realizing what the locals call a mechanical bird, Sven, who was ambushed, uses the weapon he received to fight the attackers.
After killing the tame wolves, Sven dispatches almost the entire group of thugs, constantly changing hiding places among the many houses. In a hurry, he searches the entire settlement for Beatrice, but soon receives a direct blow to the head with an axe from Jacob.
When Sven wakes up, he hears Jacob's exclamation, who was impatiently waiting for the prisoner to come to his senses. Noticing that Sven is regaining consciousness, Jacob states that the fiend was sent by heretics who sent a mechanical bird with weapons to their spawn. Looking around, Sven notices that he is tied to a wooden pole, under which flames are already blazing. His gaze meets the eyes of Beatrice, also tied to a pole and badly beaten. In despair, hanging her head, she expects a quick death in the fire.
2-3
Jacob sentences the girl to death along with the fiend for betrayal, remembering that he raised her as his own daughter, and she, in turn, killed her brother. He tells the assembled crowd to watch if the fire kills the immortal fiend. The fire was already beginning to reach Sven's feet, causing him great pain.
Suddenly, Sven hears a familiar high-pitched roar from the side. A carcass in the form of a human heart bursts out of the forests, breaking trees, tearing apart everyone who comes across it. During the carnage that has begun, Sven is freed by a young man (about 30 years old) in a scary leather long coat. After freeing Beatrice as well, he asks her to trust him and flee into the thicket, because this may be their only chance of salvation.
Jacob looks around in despair, seeing the torn corpses of his comrades everywhere and the almost complete destruction of the settlement. Not believing what is happening, he looks at the large ruined straw figure of a naked woman, asking her if it was her will. Seeing Beatrice running away in the distance, Jacob takes a rifle from one of the corpses.
Out of breath, the stranger asks Sven and Beatrice not to stop. Suddenly, Beatrice's body is struck by a bullet, and she falls to the ground, choking on blood. Celebrating his winning shot, Jacob does not have time to react to the carcass that arrives at him, which literally smears the man's body on the ground.
The stranger asks Sven to hurry, convincing him that the girl is already dead. At this time, Sven holds Beatrice's head, unable to hold back her tears. Hurrying Sven, the stranger pushes him away, cutting his wrist with a blade. A stream of blood falls directly into the girl's mouth, after which the stranger and Sven hurriedly continue moving. Moving away, Sven turns around hopefully, noticing how the wrist of Beatrice's lifeless body moves.
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After running as fast as they can, the fugitives finally stop to catch their breath in the depths of the forest. The stranger introduces himself to Sven as Benedict. According to Benedict, he, like Sven, was held captive by Jacob after his escape from Northern Pelace. Hearing the approach of the carcass, Benedict found the moment to escape, stealing the key from the warden. Seeing Sven tied to the pole, Benedict immediately recognized him as his brother in misfortune, deciding to help him and the girl next to him.
Sven abruptly interrupts the man, asking him about the fate of Beatrice. Benedict asks not to worry about her, explaining that now the girl will be reborn thanks to the same mechanisms that Sven himself uses. Benedict notices Sven's badly burned legs, asking him about the lack of regeneration, and then hands him a capsule of dark red serum.
Holding the capsule in his hands, Sven admits that he does not experience withdrawal from the serum after a direct hit to the head. In response, Benedikt assures Sven that the use of the serum is his own business, asking what their next plan of action is.
After Benedikt disappeared, Sven managed to gain access to his computer. From it, he learned that the project center of the Observatores corporation, Northern Peleys, was funded by a global fund and represented the only chance to save humanity from total extinction caused by a deadly virus called "Retribution".
This virus was discovered almost a century ago in the first inhabitants of the settlement on these islands.Sven asked Benedict to tell him everything he knew. With a smirk, Benedict stated that all patients of Northern Peleis have the same past and future.
According to Benedikt, Sven and he themselves were artificially created from a set of organs at the Northern Peleis establishment. They became test subjects in experiments against a virus capable of destroying modern humans. After the initial tests, all those collected are sent to the settlement, where they observe the impact of the virus on them, receiving information from residents who are its carriers.
Under the influence of the virus, the bodies of the "collected" are transformed into monsters that behave like immune cells, seeking to destroy the carriers of the virus, such as Sven and the villagers. These monsters have been terrorizing the settlement for a long time, but its inhabitants have learned to fight back. The corpses of monsters could not be studied due to the fact that they instantly decompose after death.
Sven and Benedict are among the successful test subjects, the so-called perfect "assembled". They are also carriers of the virus, but it is not fatal to them. Additional modified organs provide them with complete resistance to the virus, increased survival and regeneration. All those harvested from organs carry a virus that is not fatal to them, but can lead to mutations that turn them into monsters called local fiends.
Basic bodily functions and resistance to the virus in those collected are maintained with the help of serum containing enriched cerebrospinal fluid. According to the guesses of some scientists, the virus consists of organisms from another dimension. According to the theory, he has already exterminated humanity in another reality.
Benedict noted that all of Northern Peleys' patients are animate instruments and consumables for Observatores, which has made billions of dollars selling synthetic organs grown in the bodies of the assembled and made them dependent on serum.
At this time, Sven noticed a flying drone that was following them. Benedict confirmed that Observatores is even now monitoring them. Sven told how a weapon was delivered to him from such a drone, which allowed him to fight off the locals. Benedikt took this as proof that Sven was part of the global Observatory plan. Now that he is no longer addicted to the serum, he can die truly free.
Sven remembered the lost Victor and Emmy, as well as Anna, who was pregnant with him, admitting that he could not leave without them. Benedict noted that his child with Anna is also part of the Observatores experiments.
Opening the serum capsule, Sven admitted that he was acting according to the corporation's scenario, but promised to do everything to prevent their plan from going smoothly. Benedict supported Sven's decision with a smirk, arguing that they needed to stick together to get out of the island as quickly as possible. After drinking the serum, Sven passed out when he and Victor agreed to meet in one of the hunting huts in the northwest of the island.
2-4
The door of the hunting hut opened abruptly, and Sven hurriedly asked Benedict to close it. Catching his breath, Benedict noted that the forests had become literally teeming with fiends, suggesting that they were here, following the carcass. After catching his breath, Sven admitted that this was not the same hut, and the path to their goal was long, although after three days of travel they should already be there.
After searching the hut, the travelers found shabby but clean clothes (similar to the hunting clothes from the 2012 movie The Hunt), supplies, as well as hunting rifles and ammunition for them. As Benedict sat in the living room in the dim light of the burner and prepared the game he had shot, he suggested that the meeting with Victor and the others would take place in a similar house somewhere nearby.
After taking another dose of the serum, Sven noticed that Benedict began to look much older due to the many gray hairs and wrinkles that appeared in him. In response to the remark, Benedict assured that all this was a consequence of constant stress.
Then the travelers went to sleep in different rooms, agreeing to continue their journey early in the morning. Sven could not sleep for a long time, listening to the creaking of the old house and the wind outside. Hearing the shrill screams, he immediately picked up his gun, noticing hordes of altered female nude silhouettes approaching the house. Direct hits did not do any damage to them, which caused Sven to quickly run after Benedict into the next room through the living room.
Suddenly, several silhouettes burst into the cabin, immediately grabbing Sven. With the tip of the tentacle, the silhouette tried to pierce Sven's head through the eye socket. At this time, one of the silhouettes whispered words to Sven in an incomprehensible language, from which the man managed to make out that he was not a real person. Despite the man's desperate resistance, the edge was almost close to his eye, which made Sven scream in horror.
In response to the screams, Benedict ran into the living room with a loaded rifle, seeing Sven in his delirium trying to stick a sharp wooden stake into his eye. Snatching the stake from Sven's hands, Benedict reassured the man, saying that sometimes the serum had unexpected side effects.
During a light snowfall, Sven, taking aim, kills another fiend with a well-placed shot to the head.With a second shot, Benedict distracts the rest of the fiends in the area, giving them time to move safely around the perimeter.
Sven carefully examines each building, trying to find the place of meeting with Victor from memory. They take a boat to the next part of the island, where they split up to explore the area. Soon, in the midst of a snowy clearing, Sven notices an unusual fiend, dressed in human clothes, with a massive organic arm on which a blade is attached. This fiend has well-preserved human features. Following him, Sven witnesses a fight with a group of ordinary specimens.
A special fiend easily dispatches the attackers, after which he swiftly heads towards Sven. At this moment, he is knocked down by a direct shot to the head. Looking around, Sven notices that the shot was fired by Benedict. However, after a short time, the fiend gets back on his feet and, quickly reaching Benedict, unleashes a series of powerful attacks on him, literally smearing him on the ground.
Rushing to the aid of his comrade, Sven shoots the fiend several times in the back, distracting him to himself. After that, the fiend knocks Sven off his feet with a precise blow, trying to tear him to shreds. At this moment, Sven recognizes him as Victor. He manages to calm down his friend, despite the injuries he received.
At this moment, a terribly crippled Benedict pounces on Victor, literally trampling him into the ground. Benedict continues to try to crush Viktor's head, despite Sven's pleas to stop. He declares that this is no longer Victor, but a monster that must be destroyed, continuing to mercilessly beat up his opponent.
Suddenly, a mutated Emmy pounces on Benedict, cutting off his arm with many tentacles that resemble whips. Emmy recognizes Benedict as Lewis, stating that she will now avenge her father. Benedict manages to dodge all of Emmy's attacks by ripping off several of her tentacles and grabbing her by the throat.
Dodging the attack of the crippled Victor, Benedict knocks him down with a precise blow, stepping on his throat. Sven points a gun at him, asking him to stop. In response, Benedict thanks the man with an evil grin for leading him on Anna's trail. Sven shoots him in the head, giving Victor and Emmy a chance to counterattack.
From numerous blows, Benedict's torso is exposed, and a gaping scar becomes visible on his abs near the navel. Realizing that he is losing the fight against two opponents, Benedict heads to Sven. However, his attempt to attack is stopped by Victor, who grabs Benedict with a strong grip.
Emmy then cuts off Benedict's head with a precise punch, throwing his body into the river, which will carry him away with the current. Ignoring all of Sven's questions, Victor grabs him and Emmy and, despite being severely injured, jumps out of the fight area with powerful jumps.
2-5
Sven finds himself in a shelter in the basement of one of the hunting huts with Anna, Emmy, and Victor. After a passionate meeting, Sven notices that the size of Anna's abdomen is typical for the late stage of pregnancy, but only about three months have passed since conception. Anna suggests that this is how her pregnancy is affected by an overdose of serum before conception. Victor and Emma, having been seriously injured (they literally had bones sticking out and pieces of flesh hanging down), drink the expressed blood from Anna's wrist.
Victor explains that he and Emma lack innate resistance to the virus, which is why they have to take small doses of serum directly from Anna's blood in order not to lose their minds and finally turn into monsters. However, the doses of serum taken are too small to completely suppress the virus, causing it to constantly mutate and cause changes in Victor and Emma's bodies, giving them superhuman abilities.
Victor informs them that now they need to lay low in order to fully heal from their wounds. When Emma asks where and how Sven met Lewis, the man replies that he introduced himself to him as Benedict. Benedict helped him escape from Jacob's settlement, who was then killed by a giant carcass that came from Northern Pelace. Everyone gathered rejoices over the death of Jacob, extremely interested in the personalities of Benedict and Lewis. Emma recalls that during one of her father's experiments, when his career was at its peak, a fire broke out in the laboratory, after which Gerhard Greckham was declared missing without finding his body. After this incident, Lewis became the head of all affairs in Northern Peleis, who in every possible way hindered the progress of the investigation and the search for Gerhard. When Sven arrives at Northern Pelace, Lewis has been the head of the establishment for a year, but as a protest, almost all the staff called the manager Gerhard Greckham.
Victor speculates that Lewis gained his powers by experimenting with the virus. Sven, Victor and Emma agree to keep Lewis out of touch with Anna and her child at all costs. Discussing the further plan of action, Victor remembers all the information about the territory that he managed to collect during his sorties. Northern Pelais and all local settlements are located on a group of islands located off the northern coast of Scotland. At the moment, there are two settlements on the islands that are feuding for religious reasons, which were once one people.
A lot of information has already been collected about the settlement led by Jacob, but almost nothing is known about the second one.
Victor assumes that the second settlement is small, but more technologically and culturally developed. He draws attention to their ability to control hacked Observatores drones.
Victor carefully studies the flight paths of the drones and notices that some of them move erratically, performing various tasks - from collecting firewood to reconnaissance of the territory. He offers to track the location of the second settlement by one of the drones that secretly watched their fight with Benedict.
Emma also reveals that she discovered her sister's presence somewhere nearby, finding her hairpin given to her by her father. The group concludes that they need to make contact with the second settlement and team up with them to find a way to escape the islands.
Left alone with Anna, Sven also drinks her expressed blood, experiencing severe withdrawal from the serum. Anna herself did not feel withdrawal, assuming that her body always had the necessary concentration of whey contained in the fetus she was carrying.
About a week later, the recovered Victor returns from hunting with a deer carcass on his shoulders. Noticing a drone closely watching the area, he decides to follow it. Hearing strange sounds from the thicket, Victor is attacked by an unknown person.
Anna, who is engaged in the household, sees how a bloodied Victor with many terrible wounds goes down to the shelter. The man tells everyone to flee immediately, as he is being chased by Lewis, who has sewn his head back. The group tries to hide in the forest thickets, following one of the drones painted with unknown symbols.
Soon, a very old and deformed Lewis manages to catch up with the group. Despite his severe injuries, Victor, after being instructed to follow the drone, engages Lewis, giving the group time to escape. As they escape, the entire group watches as Lewis kills Victor by tearing him in two.
Following the drone, the group finds themselves in forests covered in thick fog, in which it becomes difficult for them to breathe. Lewis almost catches up with them, but once in the fog, he retreats, experiencing severe suffocation. Continuing to move in the fog, the whole group loses consciousness due to lack of oxygen. Closing his eyes, Sven notices a group of strangers in capes made of skins with deer antlers approaching him.