When I saw Smith's figure next to my house (still in ruins, though), I realized that a very important conversation was about to take place. There are few options, and the most important and most likely two: to increase the number of golems by transferring one or two to the village, and to help with the trip to the city, about which the village had long been talking.
- Hello, Alex.
- Hello, Jack, - I shook his outstretched hand. - What brings you here? Did something happen?
- Refugees are arriving. Another sixty people came in last night, and all without anything.
- I didn't hear.
- Well, no one's coming from this side, so you can't see or hear.
- And? What do you want? - I looked at him questioningly.
- If you're not busy and you're not feeling too bad, you need help to get into town," - said the head. - The team is ready, the plan is made, where and for what to go, but people are afraid of zombies and mutants.
- And you need my golems? - I grinned.
- Yes. But this trip will do you good. You have to rebuild this house, don't you? And one of the places I choose to visit will be a building site.
- I need a lot of things here, Jack. Just to risk losing a day to get ten sheets of plywood and five bags of cement, I do not want. It's easier for me to wait, gain strength, improve my golems, and without any risk to bring myself a truckload of building materials.
- I'll give you a truck," - he grinned feebly, - "not a big one. Not much, but it'll hold more than five sacks of cement.
- That's better. Who goes and on what?
- Eight people in a Japanese jeep. You're the ninth with your golems.
- You'll fill me up with petrol, my loaf's bottom is almost shining, - I made a condition.
- Come on, Johnson told me that there's fifteen liters left..." he started haggling.
- A hundred kilometers, Jack," - I interrupted him not very politely. - It's more than two hundred to the city, and it's not by highway or straight line.
Johnson was a car mechanic, who was putting the UAZ into order after the epic with the rescue of the girls. Not surprisingly, the head of the village was aware of it. I should have drained the fuel, but I didn't think about it. I have too little experience in dealing with people, and in general in life.
- All right, we'll pour the same amount more.
- The same amount isn't enough either. I need thirty, so that I have an exact guarantee that I will get to the city, where I can drain myself from any abandoned car.
- How am I going to get that much for you? - I was genuinely surprised by my interlocutor.
- We got enough for the jeep.
- It's different, it has a diesel engine, - explained Jack, then he exaggeratedly sighed heavily, shook his head and said: - Ok, we'll find you petrol. Don't roll your lip at thirty, but I'll try to get twenty liters.
I copied his sigh.
* * *
The crew was all men in their forties. Five of the eight had extensive experience in driving heavy trucks and buses, two were very good at navigating the city and knew how to get to the points we needed. First of all we had to go to the gravel pit, where we had to take two Volvo trucks with their tonnage trailers and get some fuel there as well. Then the way lay down to the construction depot, where most likely there would be several KamAZ trucks and Zilkovs, and at the very last, when the equipment was fully stocked, the grocery stores awaited us.
All the outlets were on the outskirts of the town, and the quarry was even ten kilometers from the outskirts.
The situation was worse with my integration into the team. To say that I was accepted as one of them would be a major exaggeration. On top of everything else, two of the four who had "given" me the Cruiser with the firearms were there. The cut men hadn't recovered yet.
What a mess Jack Smith had made of me. It was good that we were not in the same car, but it was bad that they followed me, because I know the way better. What if they did not do something nasty in the back. Just in case, I ordered Chappy to sit exactly behind me with a shield in his hands. Maybe if they shot me in the back, the bullets would get stuck in that barrier.
The way passed without excesses, to the quarry we quickly reached, but the hopes were only half justified: there was only one truck and five tractors, which we needed only partially, because the high-speed qualities did not shine, despite the foreign assembly.
- If we had wheels, we should have taken at least one, the one with the bucket and shovel," remarked Oliver Wilson, the squad leader, or simply Oliver, as he allowed us to call him in the raid. - But we will roll it on the tracks until the Chinese Easter.
Keys to the truck were found in the management cabin of the quarry. But tractors brought something useful - diesel. Filling the full tanks and jerrycans with diesel fuel, we continued our movement.
But at the construction site we had to deal with zombies.
From afar we saw a few dozen figures standing at the gate and a broken, apparently by a truck, profiled sheet fence. Immediately our column stood up, and it was decided to hold a meeting.
- Can your golems handle them? - Oliver asked me. - I don't feel like shooting. It's the noise, and the consumption of ammunition, and we don't have much of it.
- When I first encountered them, we managed. They're dumb, but they don't react to pain, so you gotta hit 'em hard to knock 'em down.
- Answer what you were asked," - said Brown, the unlucky racketeer who had brought me his colleagues from the chop shop. - Whether they can do it or not, man.
- And if I say no, will you go and kill them yourself? - I told him. - Would you shit your pants, hero?
- Stop, people, stop arguing! - Oliver shouted. - Brown, don't fuck with the guy, keep your insults to yourself, you've picked the wrong time and place. Alex, can they do it or not?
- We have to try. Tell you what, you stay here, and I'll go to the base with the golems. I'll let them out a hundred meters away and see how it goes. Who knows what kind of creatures they are, maybe they learn over time, get fatter, faster.
- It's up to you, of course. But isn't it too much of a risk to go alone? - The man shook his head.
- Wants to show he's got balls of steel," Brown's said sarcastically.
- You know, freak, if I now tell the golems to rip your head off, then no one will prevent them, and I'm nothing for it. I'm more valuable to the town than a pelt with a sharp tongue like you.
He went pale and grabbed the pump-action shotgun on his shoulder.
- You'll sort it out at home," - said Vladimir grimly. - Go on, Alex, take your anger out on them, not on your own.
Yeah, I know how to make friends. Everything is against me: my age, my otherness, my strength, and the fact that I am an urban. Both me and these men are wrong, but we won't admit it for anything. It's hard for them to recognize someone significant in me, and I don't know how to compromise.
"And to hell with it!" - mentally I sent them all away. Mages have always been a different caste, albeit in human fantasy, but it comes from the dreams and desires of people, from the heart.
The zombies saw or heard me two hundred meters away and came towards me, and by the way, they came quickly enough, and some of them even ran.
- What a bastard! - I hissed to myself and stopped the car. I jumped out, circled around the UAZ, and flung the back doors open. - Arachnid, Chappy! Exterminate them all! Move it, you copper-faced devils!
He immediately climbed back in, closing the doors tightly behind him.
The battle between the golems and the zombies was quick and not particularly spectacular. At first my men tried to spear the creatures, but even with their guts out and punctured, the undead weren't going to come out of the fight. Instead, they clung to their shafts and prevented them from freeing their weapons. With their opponents alive, they would have had every chance to win: stripped of their weapons, bound by combat, crushed by the crowd.
Chappy and Arachnid changed tactics after the fifth zombie had been cut and stabbed. Now they used their broad-tipped spears to hack them apart. Just blowing their heads off didn't help, unfortunately. It was not the sledgehammer of the Lumberjack, who remained on guard of the village, after which half of the zombie's body was turned into mush of meat and bones. Arachnid would hack a zombie in half, chopping it from shoulder to belt; Chappy tried to imitate him, but sometimes he'd just blow its head off and strip its limbs, which then twitched on the ground like ugly worm halves.
Fifteen minutes was enough time for the golems to wipe out all the dead outside the base, and then I ordered them to go inside, behind the fence, and clear the area nearest the gate, and I returned to my companions.
- They chopped them up pretty good," - Oliver praised me.
- Fine," - I agreed with him. - But I must say, that you've got to fight them only with axe or sword, Mike, guns won't help.
- We understood it already, we had time to discuss it here, while we were watching your arkharovs, - he nodded and then sadly added: - And it's very lousy, we have no such masters, everybody got used to shoot long ago. We'll have to learn, but from whom?
- We'll teach ourselves or find manuals in town. There must be some books or CDs, but it's a shame there's no Internet here.
We entered the base with caution and at first on a truck, whose high cab at least somehow protected us from the attacks of the rebellious dead. There were ten bodies, hacked to pieces, lying at the gates, and golems were standing nearby, watching the area. And if any zombie jumped out at the noise, my helpers would deal with him in a jiffy.
It was lucky that we didn't encounter anyone else besides the former townsfolk, who had been turned into the living dead by the poison. Sure, it was enough to keep us alert and startle at the slightest noise, but better a zombie than a pack of hyenas, who were far more dangerous opponents.
The base occupied an area no smaller than a stadium in a provincial town. There were ten hangars, plus twice as much space for pallets of bricks, blocks, roofing felt, and more.
There were two Truks, as one of the companions called them, three Hundred and Thirties, and one Hundred and Thirty-one.
- Truks thirty-one take, - immediately said Oliver, when he made sure that the machines are running and will not break in ten kilometers. - One hundred and thirty" - with one bridge would be useless in the fields and we have a couple of gullies to run over.
- But we can take more goods, and if something happens, we'll haul them out by Truks, - William, one of the drivers, who was taken specially for the trucks, did not support his decision. - I've been on this truck for ten years, I know my way around, I can go almost anywhere. Look, this one's got new tires and checkers on the back, he can even get out of the shit and looks fresh himself. Anyway, we've got one extra driver, I'll drive this car.
- And if we find something better in the warehouses?
- If we do, we'll keep this one," the man said firmly.
It took a few hours to load the "tonar" and KamAZ trucks. We took planks, non-thick beam, OSB boards, soft shingles and ondulin, which were lighter than iron. Mineral wool, foam insulation, nails, self-tapping screws, staples, brackets and a bunch of stuff, without which no construction site can do. Also loaded a few bundles with profiles and pipes, at my request, with the help of a forklift thrown a pallet of "liquid" floor.
Then I myself with the help of Arachnid brought ten window plastic blocks, which somehow I crammed into the cabin, there also put a seven-kilowatt generator on diesel fuel and a small gasoline generator with a half-kilowatt. A few tools and a mountain of gardening tools made of titanium and stainless steel. In the hangar, which was both store and warehouse, there were at least a ton of shovels and hoes made of these metals.
My eyes darted around at the sight of all this stuff, my hands stretched out to every shelf and rack, but the machines were not rubber, especially since we still had grocery stores and a long drive home to go to.
There were so many zombies in the warehouses, where the trucks were taking the goods to their supermarkets! Just an unreal number.
- There are hundreds of them here," - Oliver swore as he assessed the crowds of human figures at the entrance to the warehouses. - And there should be even more inside.
- The gates are closed, maybe nobody got in," - suggested one of our drivers.
- What if they haven't?
- I can try to take the crowd round that bend," - Brown's pointed to the access road from the railroad. - Only let somebody else go with me. This one," - he nodded at me casually, - " make sure he gets to the gate, cleans up the others, and sees what's going on in the territory.
- Look! " - I got angry at his tone and gesture.
- You got it. Gray, you and Brown's will go in pairs. Alex, as soon as the dead, roll to the gate, but without heroism and dashing, - quickly said Oliver, interrupting me. - Come on, come on, lads. It's a long time, it'll be evening soon, and we have a horse to ride. Kim, if you can not get back to us, then go to the route we have appointed to return. There's one road and the terrain is open, so we won't get lost.
It turned out just as my detractor had suggested. As soon as he was in sight of the zombies, the zombies reached out in his direction. This was not enough, and Brown dashingly turned around "police-style" a few dozen meters away from the living dead, his partner lowered the window and fired his gun into the crowd, and then the car slowly rolled back, taking the crowd with it.
- Almost all of them are gone, only some cripples are left," - Vladimir was pleased. By cripples he meant about ten or three barely moving creatures. - Your way out, Alex.
Due to the fact that the cabin was full of windows, there was only room for Chappy, but Arachnid had to somehow cling to the upper trunk. He landed in the blink of an eye when I pulled up to the gate. While I was letting Chappy out (the golems still couldn't get their iron fingers to open the handles properly), the six-legged golem chopped up five cripples.
Next we had to tear out the gate, which was chain-locked on the back side. After sending Chappy out to scout and making sure there was no danger within sight, I waved to my companions. A few minutes later, the first roaring truck pulled into the warehouse grounds.
- What's going on here? - Oliver asked, as soon as the last car was behind the fence and the gates were closed.
- Can't see anything, not even zombies. But I didn't do any recon, so anything's possible," - I said.
- But someone grazed here, - Oliver scratched the back of his head, then spat, looked around and called the guy from the team, which in the village claimed to know a little bit of these warehouses, because he was here when he worked as a driver on the truck from the - Magnet.
- Alex! - Vaska called me at this moment.
- ??
- Look over there, - he poked somewhere to the side. - See, UAZ sticking out around the corner? I think its wheels are not bad, if you have a desire, try to take them off and throw them to your place, and you can change your shoes at home.
Only after that I saw the patriot standing fifty meters behind us.
- That's not enough for us to run around," - said Oliver, who had heard our conversation. - We all have to stick together.
- I'll be quick. I'll leave Chappy to you, and with Arachnid I'll see what's wrong with the car, and straight to you.
The "Patriot" turned out to be equipped with gorgeous new "cylinders" on cast black rims. Not only that, but the tires turned out not to be "highway", but with a high cross-country ability, though not with such a big tread, as I would like.
But no sooner had I happily rubbed my hands and summon Shpuntik, when I heard the frequent clatter of someone's hooves on the asphalt, a few seconds later from the gap between the two warehouses flew out three familiar pseudo-cubes. Only these were nothing compared to the pack that had decimated the stone golem in the street outside my house in Vladivostok. They were about a meter tall at the withers, at least a meter and a half long, and they were made taller by the half-meter-high bone needles that covered their scruff. The fangs sticking upward seemed to be about twenty-five centimeters each. On top of that, their legs were encased in bone armor almost to their knees.
The first monster was immediately struck in the hump by a dart thrown by Arachnid, who managed to react to the attack while I frantically ripped the rifle from my shoulder. Another one a meter long appeared among the needles. And then the second, which entered next to the right shoulder blade and must have damaged something serious, as the boar collapsed on its front legs and scraped the pavement with its heel.
The second was met by Arachnid with a blow of his spear to the neck, knocking him down and shredding the thick hide and muscles down to the vertebrae.
The third swung his lance at the golem's base and knocked it to the ground. To his misfortune, his fangs got stuck in the intertwining metal parts of my creation's body, and the monster was in the full power of the Arachnid. Wrapping his arms and legs around the creature like a real spider, the golem began to squeeze him.
And at that moment shots rang out from behind me, where I had left my companions. When I turned around, I could not refrain from cursing:
- ***!
Six of the same creatures that had attacked me were coming at them.
- Nah, bitch! - I shot twice at the monster from a distance of ten centimeters, first in the bloodshot little eye, then in the ear. - Arachnid, finish them off, and we need to help the others!
The two creatures Chappy had fought off were severely wounded by the six-legged golem with darts, after which they quickly died from their opponent's spear. With a third dart, Arachnid finished off a boar that was tearing the wheel on the "tonar" to shreds with a single hit, after which he and Chappy clashed with the remaining pair.
The mutant attack had no tragic consequences. The men managed to hear the clatter of hooves, which was heard from a distance, and in time to move back to the cars, and when they saw the running creatures, they unloaded their guns, knocking down just one of them, and hid in the cabs of the cars. All the losses - three torn to shreds by wild boar fangs wheels on "tonar" and KAMAZ.
Oh, how everyone swore afterwards!
- We'll have to look for the wheels, take them off and bring here or leave everything", - said Oliver with a gnash of teeth. - Damn, that sweet couple ain't back yet, where the hell have they been?
He must have meant Brown and William, who had still not heard from them since the crowd of a few hundred zombies had fled after them.
- You yourself told them to leave and wait for our return on the route," - I reminded him.
- It's a last resort... ah, okay," - he waved his hand. - What's that got to do with it? - and he kicked the rim of the ruined KamAZ wheel.
- We'll look for the rubber. Maybe we should drive around the outskirts and see what kind of truck, - suggested William. - We'll unscrew it, load it and bring it.
- What will you drive?
- On ...
- I have a cabin full of windows and all kinds of junk, everything is tightly bound, so it takes a lot of time to unload, - I said when I saw his eyes aimed at the "loaf".
- So we'll take the Patrik," - he said. - We'll pair up with Davis. We'll take the tools and weapons. We'll be back in two hours; we won't look any longer.
- It's dangerous," - sighed Oliver. - Everybody has to go.
- You spoiled start to take off and scout the food stores, where there is something lying around. Maybe they need to clean all the rooms from the creatures.
- Have you seen a Hollywood movie? - The commander said angrily.
- What has it got to do with it? - Vaska was sincerely surprised, and the rest, including me, looked at Oliver in bewilderment.
- Because they all always get separated and then end up in a complete mess! - he barked. - We must all go, enough of me already missing two.
- All won't fit, though four of us can, and the rest can take care of Kamaz, - William protested to him.
- I'm with you, and here let him be in charge... Kol, look here, ok?
One of the remaining couple nodded silently in response.
- Alex, one golem will you give us?
- Yes, of course, without it you'll be cut to shreds by mere dead men, - I said. - Chappy, listen to him in everything, protect and help.
When the team of wheel hunters drove off in the patriot, I turned to Nicholas:
- I'll take care of my business, the golem will be with me temporarily, so, maybe, you'd better sit in the cabin and close there.
- We have a lot to do, we won't have time for anything before darkness, - he answered glumly. - We'll need your help and your golem to change a wheel.
- I told you I'll be busy. You'd better not get in my way, or you'll be in my way," - I said.
I did not argue, explain and prove any more. Grown-up people seem to be, but can not understand when they are not asked, and put before the fact.
I got behind the wheel of "loafers" and drove up to the carcasses of boars, which attacked me where the "patriot" had been standing recently. When else would I be lucky enough to get so many sources of blood? Even if a lot of it spilled out on the ground, there must be something left in the bodies. So, armed with a knife and empty canisters with a funnel, I began to gut the monsters, while Arachnid dragged them to me. In an hour I had almost thirty liters of red liquid. The most unpleasant thing was left: taking blood from myself.
Because of the lack of medical instruments, I had to cut my hand with a knife, while swearing through my teeth. Then, fighting dizziness and nausea, holding on so as not to lose consciousness, I mixed the blood and sprinkled with it the set of gardening tools that I had taken from the construction site.
By the time the patriot and my companions returned to the warehouses, our squad had been reinforced by a pair of golems.
Samurai golems.
I don't know from what dark corners my muddy mind had pulled this look. I don't dispute that they looked spectacular, but I would have been happy with the Arachnid look-alikes, who had high speed and dexterity.
Traditional armor, protective skirts, boots, a distinctive helmet with a mask in the shape of a fanglike animal face, large shoulder pads, and gloves with spikes on the back. That would have been all right, but they glistened like a cat's balls.
They had no weapons, and I had no strength to do it, so the samurai look was spoiled by two axes, or rather cleavers, on long handles of red plastic from the company Matrix.
- Alex, are you all right? - Oliver called me from afar. There was more than twenty meters between us, and he was afraid to come any closer.
In response I raised my hand and waved it a couple of times.
After muttering something, the commander came towards me and squatted beside me, for I myself was now lying on the asphalt, or rather on two pieces of Styrofoam, which I had taken out of the car at the very beginning of the charade.
- What's wrong with you?
- I overworked myself, creating them," - I wiggled my fingers, pointing at the samurai.
- Was it worth it?
- It was worth it, other opportunity might not come soon enough.
Oliver looked at the boars' carcasses, piled in a pile, then at the shiny golems, grinned and left me alone, saying nothing more.
It was getting dark by the time the main body of the detachment returned, so we decided to leave all the work until morning. We spent the night in the guardhouse, which was made up of two iron shipping containers, stacked on top of each other, with holes cut into them and tiny plastic windows. Only a cat could fit through them, they offered little light and in addition, they did not open, but everything suited us in these conditions, except the door - also plastic. To prevent anyone from breaking through it, two golems were placed outside, and a second pair guarded the trucks so that no one could get into them during the night.
That it was the right thing to do, we heard half the night and saw in the morning. Next to the containers were several dozen hacked-up carcasses of flying creatures, the same ones with razor-bone mouths instead of normal teeth.
- Holy shit! - whistled one of the men. - I thought I'd be out in the morning.
- I would have gone out and lost my wind in a jiffy," - William laughed and patted the man on the shoulder.
After breakfast, everyone was busy replacing the wheels they had brought yesterday. Huge truck washers were tied directly to the roof of the Patriot because there was no room for them in the cabin. And no one cared that the SUV looked like a tub on wheels after such a load. Maybe I exaggerate a little, but Uaz's roof took a beating.
I was messing with the cars along with everyone else, changing wheels from the Patriot to the Loaf ". Well, not me, but the golems: Arachnid and Shpuntik. One deftly twisted the nuts, the other removed the wheel and put the other in its place. Samurai and Chappy stood guard.
After the repairs, which took a fair amount of time, although everyone was in a hurry to finish the job, my UAZ was used to scout the warehouses where the food we needed was to be stored.
- Zombies again," - Oliver poked his finger out the window. - Where did they come from and why didn't they come to the noise yesterday, it was only three hundred meters away?
- You can't tell exactly where the sound came from, - William, who was sitting behind the wheel because of my weakness, answered him. - Or they didn't care, they only attack when they see it.
Three dozen living dead to the Samurai and the Arachnid (Chappy stayed behind to guard the trucks with the rest of the crew, since everyone didn't fit in the loaf) didn't even seem like a warm-up. And had the newcomers been holding not narrow-bladed axes, but full-fledged axes or butchering implements, the transformation of zombies into a set of squirming organs would have ended much faster.
- Here! - yelled our scout, pointing to a huge hangar labeled "SC-9/2."
The gate was tightly closed, but it wasn't too hard for the golems to unlock it, and then the samurai headed inside, jingling the armor that was part of their bodies and blowing sunlight "bunnies" in all directions. Ten minutes later they returned and let me know that there were no enemies here.
- It's all clear, Mike, we can haul the cars and load them," - I said to the older man. - I'll stay here and take a look around, and you, William, don't break my windows, please.
While everybody was gone, I walked around the warehouse for a while, opened a few boxes, looked at the contents and sighed enviously. Now my joy at finding a Chinese truck with half a thousand cans of stew and my bitterness at not being able to pick them up seemed like childish emotions. That's where the joy and resentment are! All around me they lay, going up many feet in the air.
Almost all of the pallets were boxes of canned goods, and a quarter of them were worth a whopping amount in the stores. Not some food stuff, but quality food. But there was no way we could get even that quarter, and we still had to get cereal and pasta, salt, sugar, vegetable oil.
- Geez," - William stretched out when the last box was loaded into the "one hundred and thirty one", "I'd like to live here, there's so much food wasted for nothing.
- We'll come here again and again, - Oliver answered him. - All right, let's wrap it up and go, while everything is quiet.
Golems had to be put into trucks, because the loaf van was fully loaded. Even on the roof were a few bags of macaroni, sugar, cereals, and two with dry potato and egg mixture (it's a crap, in the army we were fed it sometimes four days a week for a month, but it cooks quickly and is quite filling). Chappy squatted by the back door, somehow fitting in the corner. Chubby took a seat on a box of condensed milk that was on the passenger seat, and there was another box of canned sausages on the floor in front of him.
No one would let the golems in the cabin, and we had to seat them in the back among the building materials so they wouldn't crumple or tear the food containers.
The surprise happened when we were already driving out of the gate. At that moment, from Arachnid, who was sitting in the back of the "one hundred and thirtieth, that was trailing behind us, I got an image of strangers, people.
Turning the steering wheel, moving away from the column, I slowed down on the platform where the hundreds of zombies Brown's had taken away were jostling yesterday. Then I opened the door, looked back, and pressed the horn.
A few men were running toward us from the warehouses, waving their arms and shouting something, but the noise of the powerful engines, reflected from the fence, drowned out all other sounds.
The first of the golems beside me was Arachnid, then came the samurai, who did not have his agility, and I decided to leave Chappy in the UAZ, so as not to unnecessarily let the golem in and out. The available fighters were enough to eliminate any danger.
The unknown assailants slowed down at the sight of my creatures.
- Stay here, - I ordered golems and went towards people. Almost beside them Oliver and some of the men overtook me.
- Hello," - smiled strained one of the strangers, a young man of about twenty-five, dressed in a black uniform guard with a triangular chevron on the right shoulder: CHOP "Bastion".
- Hi," - I nodded at him. - Where did you guys come from?
- Yeah, we work here... worked.
There were three newcomers here, all young, one of them was almost the same age as me and looked Asian, an Uzbek or a Tajik. He and his colleague wore dark blue work clothes with LED stripes.
- Did you see us yesterday and today? - Oliver took over the conversation.
The guard nodded silently.
- What were you sitting here for then? And if we didn't see you? - The man jumped at him.
At his urging the boy shrank back and lowered his gaze to the ground.
- I was so scared, commander," - the Asian man answered instead. He spoke with a noticeable accent, but quite intelligible. - Who knows what kind of ludes you are. And those robots of yours are ugly.
- Why are you out now?
- I was so scared to be alone, and we have wounded... eat wounded.
- Well," - Oliver shook his head, - "the wounded also... here we go. So many of you.
- Sam.
The more nervous the Asiatic became, the worse his accent became.
- How many?! - aghast William, who had just joined our company. - Where shall we put you?
- Trouble, - scratched his head Oliver. - You can't even put the wounded in the back, and you'll fall out of the back on a bump, it's loaded up to the sides.
- We can go anywhere, just don't leave us here. We've been through so much here these days. These mutants, zombies all around, nightmares that make it impossible to sleep. There used to be more of us, but some of us left, and two of us killed ourselves," the chopper spoke quickly. - And we ain't got no heavy ones, just one, the rest can sit in the back.
- Get your men," - Oliver shrugged, - "we'll think of something.
Fifteen minutes later all group of unknown people stood by the gate, three lying on a makeshift stretcher. Two were awake and unable to move because their legs were broken, but the third was lying like a log.
- Is he sure he's alive? - Oliver squatted down next to the heavy wounded man and looked at him doubtfully. - He looked at him doubtfully.
- He's breathing," - said the girl in the exact same uniform as the Asian. By the way, there were fifteen men in that uniform, four of them wore Chop uniforms, and the rest wore jeans, sports uniforms, or washed-up camouflage.
- What about him? I hope he's not turning into a zombie, he hasn't been bitten? - the commander asked her.
- It's harmless if it doesn't hit an artery. We've had a few bites, but they're all fine, just a little festering.
- Yes?" - said incredulous Oliver. - Well, well.
- And Alexey overstretched, he ... - the girl hesitated, quickly looked at her comrades and continued: - He can heal without medicine, just with his hands. Have you heard about the Filipino chilers? That's how Lesha did it, too. He had learned how to do it before he came to this world. He even grew a tooth. Kol, let me see," - she said suddenly.
One of her companions lifted his shirt to his chest to show a healthy scar on his stomach, covered with a dark crust.
- I got one of those mutants with fangs in my stomach, all guts out, a lot of blood. I thought I was going to die, but when I came to my senses I was alive and well, I was only very hungry and weak," - he said in a low voice.
- Liam fixed everything for him and healed everything before my eyes and healed a few more people, - she explained. - He just wanted to help everybody, but he didn't think he could, so..." she sighed heavily.
- Holy crap, another magician! - Cheerfully said William and clapped me on the shoulder. - Alex, your ranks swell, ha-ha!
- And you ... you ... - said the girl. - Can you also treat?
- I, on the contrary, in another line of work. I can make them," - I muttered in reply, and shook my head in the direction of the Golems. - They can spill their guts.
They've got the survivors all sprawled out, but I can't help it. Eight of the skinniest got into the patriot, and I had to attach my old wheels to it, which I'd just thrown beside it. Seven more got into the cabs, and the wounded man was put in a sleeping bag in the cab of the tractor-truck. The rest of us had spread out in the back of the truck, squeezing the golems out of the way.
Returning, we did not find the jeep with our companions in the agreed place. One would hope that they simply didn't risk waiting long for us and drove off to the village. Even though there were people in the car that I didn't like, but they were part of the forces of the village, without whom the rest of us would have a hard time surviving.