"Zombie?" the Captain repeated. "You sure?!"
But Konrad had no time to respond.
That wandering pilot was not alone.
'Left,' the parallel brain warned, and he dropped on the floor.
A hail of bullets mowed down the vegetation where Konrad had stood a moment ago.
He could hear the AK click empty when it ran out, and looking up—
"Ugh, that's a yes," he grunted at a blue-faced soldier stumbling towards him. Three rounds from his pistol were enough to stop him, but the pilot was now onto him as well.
Luckily, it couldn't aim for shit, but—
"Why would zombies be here?!" Dmitry demanded. "No way they'd restore the Duga this fast."
'We've also gotten pretty far from it by now,' the voice chimed in.
"I don't fucking know," Konrad shouted, crawling into cover as he spotted the third soldier.
'It could be a stray zombie,' the brain theorised. 'But three at once? What if they had other substations, too? Or, wait. We could be close to that lab they made me in.'
Which was all great and helpful insight, but this was not the time to ponder.
Konrad found a gap in the thick undergrowth and returned fire.
"A little aim-assist would be good," he grunted, missing every shot.
But as the familiar thunder washed over him, he got more than he asked for.
"One down," the Captain confirmed, in case an exploding head didn't make it obvious.
The Wolves finally joined, too, guns blazing to suppress the last zombie.
Not that it would care about the danger.
It sprayed his bullets until he could no longer stand, bleeding out on the forest floor.
"Any losses?" Yuri barked, weapon at the ready. "Hate it when they don't show up on the PDA."
"My ears," Walther complained, walking closer to check the corpses. "Looks like National Guard."
"No, this is the army's uniform," the Captain corrected, eliciting a grunt.
"Okay, smartass. Army then. But who the hell even brings an antimaterial rifle into the Zone?!"
Yeah, not the first time he heard someone ask that.
But something was not right.
Walther was more aggressive than usual, turning his back on the wreck and enemies without a care. Not that they knew him that well, but it was hard to miss how fast his behavior shifted.
A few more seconds, and the barrel of his gun came right up to aim at Dmitry's face.
"Watch out," Konrad yelled, tackling the Stalker before he could pull the trigger.
Another last-moment save, but he kept struggling.
'Something took over him,' the voice claimed. 'Don't let go. I'll try to overwrite it.'
"What the fuck?!" Yuri was shouting, too, their tight-knit formation breaking up.
The other Wolves weren't themselves, either.
"Hurry up," Konrad urged. "They're about to go crazy."
And he could feel it, too.
The blue tint in his vision. Like back in the swamp.
Whispers that made no sense, but he couldn't lock them out.
An unexplainable anger.
Adrenaline. Aggression.
All welling up inside him at the same time.
'Oh, no, not on my watch,' the brain protested, and Konrad's vision cleared up somewhat. 'Your friend, Dmitry. Does he still have the Psy Shield?' he asked. 'Target is at—'
"North, northeast, thirty paces, behind the twisted tree," he yelled, becoming a mouthpiece.
"What?!" The Captain was also confused, watching the chaos unfold, but—
He was still himself.
He had to be, otherwise—
"Fire at that fucking thing," Konrad demanded. "Now."
And the familiar thunder rang out again, and again.
By the third shot, that gnarled tree trunk was gone, and behind it—
A creature. A man?
It did wear some clothes, but its head—
Too big. Neck, almost as thick as his torso.
And its eyes? They stared straight at him. Reaching out with a hand, and something else.
His mind. Overwhelming the parallel brain—
And Konrad's soul was no longer in his body.
For a split second—he was there.
Dragged. Naked. Alone. Face-to-face with this monster.
He could not stand against him.
Even if he had an almost human face, he was much more than that.
A new, stronger race. His new Master. The Will, that—
BANG.
Oversized or not, its head exploded.
At the same time, the pressure disappeared.
A blink, and Konrad was back in his body, fighting a terrifying headache.
And he wasn't the only one.
The Wolves all groaned, rolling on the floor and holding their heads, but no longer trying to kill each other. Captain Dmitry Bandera seemed to be the only one unaffected.
He was also panting, though, the barrel of his Gepard smoking.
But the monster was gone.
"Holy fucking shit," Walther yelped, pinned under Konrad's elbow. "What the hell was that?!"
"Jesus, almost shot you," another of the Wolves admitted. "Never felt this angry in my entire life."
"A Brain Scorcher sub-station?!" Yuri moaned, too, pressing on his temples as if trying to keep his grey matter inside.
But no.
"It was that fucking thing in jeans and the big head," Dmitry pointed his barrel at the corpse. "I could feel it crawling into my mind, too, but tough luck, bitch. I'm not that easy."
"That's the Hero of Kyiv for ya," Walther sighed, trying to get up.
Praising him as if he wasn't trying to shoot the Captain in the face a moment ago.
Well, Konrad knew the real reason for both.
And thank the spirits that his friend kept the Psy Dampener even after the Duga was down.
"Any idea what that thing was?" he muttered under his nose.
Not asking anyone in particular, but expected an answer from his parallel brain.
Except that it was quieter than usual.
Not gone. That much he could tell, but—
Mortified.
'It talked to me,' he finally thought. 'Overpowered me with ease. I never saw it before.'
And like the soldiers, it didn't show up on their PDA, either.
"Shit, I shouldn't have shot it in the head," the Captain groaned, his hunting knife in hand.
Wait. He wasn't trying to take a sample of that thing, too, right?!
"Eyes open, guys," Yuri barked as well. "We don't know if that was all."
"Yeah, they could still lie in wait," Walther noted. "Or try to turn us against each other."
Not that they had any way to defend against that.
And running all the way back to the swamp for more dampeners was out of the question.
Damn it. If not even his parallel brain could stand against it—
"Let me take point," Dmitry suggested, reloading his massive rifle. "And take a more open route."
"If we backtrack and follow the railway," Yuri mumbled, scratching his head. "That's pretty open, right? Though we'll lose some time. But, well, better get there late than dead."
The others grunted in agreement.
Except Konrad. He remained quiet while in a deep conversation with his parallel brain.
'You mentioned that lab,' he thought. 'Where they created you. Is it actually close? Is that where this thing might've come from? Because if so, it might be worth paying a visit.'
'I don't know,' the voice admitted. 'I didn't have access to maps back then. But—'
Yeah. He was still terrified.
Konrad couldn't blame him for it.
But if that place created monsters like these, he couldn't exactly ignore it, either.