The flames got much louder, hotter, and brighter, too.
Konrad's only luck was that it turned into a huge pillar of fire, rather than exploding into a fireball. It still set him ablaze, but once he rolled on the cold, wet floor, he was fine.
As fine as he could be with an aching rib and singed hair.
"Damn, the rail is melting above," Walther noted with his jaws hanging open.
"Hmm. Yeah. We won't come back this way anytime soon," Yuri scowled, too. "If the underpass collapses but the anomaly remains, it'll become an unpredictable deathtrap."
Hold on.
"You mean I ruined the route?!" Konrad protested. "No way I was the first one to trigger it."
"I didn't say that, kid," the leader of the Wolves said. "If anything, I had never seen it act like this."
"Yeah, it used to be much faster. Gave you a nasty burn and calmed down," Walther claimed, watching the pillar finally shrink. "But this? As if it took a deep breath before going all out."
Konrad could only blink.
Did it have something to do with him? The anomaly reacting to his mana?
While he couldn't even use it still?!
"Anyway," Yuri put the stretcher down. "We should get going. We've a long walk ahead."
And he wasn't kidding.
They hiked for two miles in the forest until the trees gave way to a bog with muddy ground and a terrible smell. And once they passed a strange cliff in the middle of nowhere—
A wet basin opened up before them with reeds and a little lake.
Almost like the one where they held his second battle in the tournament in Kasserlane.
But that wasn't the odd part.
It was the crowd, stumbling on the other side, like two hundred paces away.
"That's a lot of Stalkers," Konrad noted, straining his eyes. "What are they searching for?"
Yuri smirked, though it didn't reach his eyes.
"For their sanity, I guess."
"Those are not Stalkers," Walther said. "At least, not anymore."
If only he had brought one of the gun's scopes.
But he could squint all he wanted; those looked regular, everyday people to him.
"What do you mean, not anymore?!" Konrad demanded. "What are they, then?"
And before a more serious reply, Yuri let out a loaded sigh.
"Zombies, kid," he claimed. "Zombified Stalkers."
"What?" No. Wrong question. He knew exactly what zombies were. And he remembered the talk about the Brain Scorcher as well. The right question was, "Are they dangerous?"
"It depends," the leader of the Wolves shrugged. "They're rather territorial, but slow and dumb."
"They all have their old weapons, and don't care about pain, though," Walther added. "It's a pain in the ass to take 'em out, because they keep getting up. But most of them still have their PDA—"
"Meaning, they show up on your map," Yuri explained. "And if not, they, well—mumble a lot."
"Mumble?" Konrad repeated, leaning against the strange boulder.
"Don't ask," he said. "I don't know the reason. Could be that they like hearing their voices."
"Or trying to repeat what the Scorcher tells 'em," Walther theorised.
That gave Konrad the chills.
"It talks?" he asked after a loud gulp.
"You're about to hear it," Yuri claimed, adjusting the stretcher in his hands. "But do us a favor and don't listen to what it says. Let's go before your friend bleeds out."
Right. They were in a hurry, but this scene was so overwhelming, he almost forgot.
The Wolves took the stretcher down on a slippery path towards the basin.
"Where are we even going?" Konrad asked, wary of the zombies.
And, well, the Brain Scorcher's voices.
"Come, and you'll see," the leader said, and he wasn't wrong about that.
Once he left that boulder, the scenery expanded.
About fifty paces into the depression, a sizeable concrete structure was, well—
Sinking.
"That octagonal bunker is the scientists' lab," Walther explained without looking. He had to be careful with his footing. "A huge chopper dropped it from the sky, right into the swamp."
"This is what I call book smart," Yuri scoffed. "Geniuses with no common sense."
The air changed as he followed them.
His vision swam, and the world spun around him for a moment.
A headache was forming, the back of his neck already throbbing.
And it felt like someone put a blue filter over everything.
"A-aren't they worried about the zombies?" Konrad asked, disoriented.
The closest one was only a hundred paces away from the bunker.
And now he could hear it too. Their moaning synced well with a strange whisper in the air.
"You can bet your ass they are," the leader laughed, though the closer they got, the lower he kept his voice. "Why do you think they're in such a hurry to build some psy protection?"
Right. They talked about something like that at the bar.
The voices became louder.
And then the beep almost made him jump.
It was his PDA, showing an increase of signals in his proximity.
"Seems like they're home," Walther noted. "Let's go inside before I lose my mind."
They put down the stretcher and banged on a heavy steel door.
It was like the one he saw at Sidorovich, but they kept this closed.
Up until the third bang, when it seemed like it opened all by itself.
"Now, be nice and smile for the camera," Yuri whispered, hauling the Captain inside.
Konrad found himself in front of another steel door, but before he could take a look, the outer one closed on them. With a loud click, the intrusive voices ceased to exist, too.
Instead, a speaker crackled to life.
A tired voice mumbled a greeting in Ukrainian.
"What killed your friend, Yuri?"
A different voice took over. It spoke in English but with a strong accent.
"He's not dead, but bleeding," Yure said, staring at the speaker.
"From what anomaly?" the voice urged. "You know we're not running a public clinic here."
"A lead anomaly, moron," the leader snapped. "Your guards shot him while collecting a sample for you. Now, treat him, or we won't make deals with you anymore."
Konrad had to rein in his face at the obvious lie.
There was a long pause, the speaker crackling with static.
Then finally—
"If this is another trick to get a free healing, I'll lower the rate we buy stuff from your guys. Stand by for decontamination—and leave your weapons in the airlock."
Before Konrad could ask, a rush of compressed air almost blew his ears off.
They blasted it for ten seconds before the inner door finally opened up.
"I'm taking an empty pistol," Walter announced, holding up the gun that shot them. "Because we didn't see this type here before. Take a look in case it helps."
"Leave it in the storage block," the speaker screamed.
But now they could hear the real human's voice behind it, too.
There was a third set of doors further in, but forget the heavy plating.
It seemed like they built the entire bunker from steel and disinfectant.
The narrow corridor looked both ancient and high-tech.
And it smelled of curiosity and paranoia, with cameras watching every corner.
The third door only opened once Walther put the pistol down, and the storage block locked shut with a loud click. And if all this concrete and steel wasn't enough to shield them—
On the other side, they found four scientists in full, space-grade skafanders.