"SH-SHHH-SSSHHHH!" Then the zombie hissed even louder and swung its massive hand. The punch was rather stiff - either it wasn't yet used to its new body or it was just a clumsy piece of rotten meat. Another punch! It missed - but there was now a dent in the wall.
"Its strength is only slightly inferior to the strength of the big mutated zombie!" The unlucky marauder gasped, dodging another clumsy attack.
When the opportunity showed itself, the boss slashed the zombie's arm with his sword, but it just strained its muscles and the sword got stuck, just barely cutting the bone! Sergei summoned another second level sword into his left hand, which really surprised the living dead, and pierced it right through its eye. It cried from pain, but stopped quite soon and just died, awarding Sergei with much needed experience points.
"It was in pain?" Sergei was surprised. Because zombies never felt anything before…
The muscles in the corpse's limb relaxed and the boss was able to free his black sword. One swing - and its head was separated from the body… You know, just in case. The tentacle screeched unhappily but couldn't really do a thing aside from cursing its bully in its own twisted language.
YOU KILLED AN INFECTED ZOMBIE LV 1, AND RECEIVE 5 XP.
YOU KILLED AN INFECTED ZOMBIE LV 1, AND RECEIVE 5 XP.
YOU KILLED AN INFECTED ZOMBIE LV 1, AND RECEIVE 5 XP.
"Five experience points! The green egg!" The three sphinx wannabes dropped the green egg and one ten units worth coin. Greedy thoughts started to fill the boss's head, but his brilliant ideas weren't destined to come true as he heard Annette's cry.
"Get out of there, Boss! There's a suspicious activity inside the walls!"
"Crap, there isn't even a moment of peace!" The boss started running down the hallway while a huge tentacle made of flesh bursted through the wall behind him, throwing the pieces of concrete everywhere.
"Don't follow me! I'm not a Japanese schoolgirl and it's not a hentai! Fuck!!!"
Another tentacle bursted through the wall in front of him! Thanks to his battle reflexes Sergei was able to duck and avoid the disaster, but he wasn't given any time to draw breath as one after another, the tentacles started appearing out of the walls around him.
Some loud curses flew out of his mouth and an assault rifle appeared in his hands. Just a second prior he heard Solomon's voice through the headpiece, which told him to grab the rifle that was loaded with special bullets from the table. One shot, two - and the tentacle got blown into three pieces. It turned out that the rifle was loaded with explosive ammo, which was quite effective against this unknown crap.
After commending Solomon for his quick thinking, Sergei continued his bloody parade. Fortunately, the stairs weren't too far ahead.
Cursing the architects that designed this building and praising the Soviet architects who always built simple and straightforward, the runner finally reached the seventh floor.
"Where to next, Professor? Hurry!" The tentacle was banging on the door and the walls, but, thankfully, those were reinforced and were still holding up. However, the problem detector, aka his ass, was promising him the big catch.
"The central unit, that's where the computing server and data storage units are located. You need to enter the following command in the console: SCP-percent sign-1001001-percent sign. The server will stop operating and you'll be able to shut it down safely!" Professor took the microphone from the girl.
"Are you kidding me?" Sergei only understood that he needed to enter some kind of command in the console and that it started with "S".
"There can be unpleasant consequences if you don't do it…"
"The hell with it. Is there anything else of value on this floor?"
"Yeah, a few million dollars worth of equipment, but unfortunately, it's useless for us." Professor sighed.
The floor was filled with zombies, because once the apocalypse started, everyone ran to the seventh floor - that's where the only escape route was. So now Sergei was forced to spend some bullets in order to shoot almost three dozens of walking corpses. Fighting that crowd in close combat would've costed him the vaccine, well, and a few chunks of missing flesh.
The floor, the walls, the ceiling - everything was sheathed with metal. Even doors were much more massive and durable. Interesting observation - Sergei never saw any evacuation or building plans while he was running through the floors. In fact, all the walls were absolutely bare, not even one fire extinguisher in sight.
After shooting off all the zombies, the boss finally reached the central unit. Inside was a perfectly white room and three huge objects that resembled miniature passenger carriages, not like those in the subway, but more like train carriages.
The carriages were four meters long and two meters high, they were also sheathed with metal, which was painted with white paint. Some sections could be opened with a key, and a lot of sophisticated equipment could be seen through small windows. Part of the one of the carriages' hulls was opened, it was where the access terminal was located. Just like in those movies about hackers - the black screen and the console. After punching in the code under the professor's instructions, Sergei heard the siren blaring and the hull closed.
"Sergei, move to the zone marked with red and wait there," he heard the professor's worried voice.
Even though surprised by such a request, the boss still complied, went to stand in the needed spot and started observing everything. The carriages lifted and some metal wheels appeared from their hulls, then they merged into one long construct and stood on the rails that appeared out of the floor.
"Sergei, move the server to the haven and press the big red button that appeared on the wall."
"The big red button… How original," the boss grunted but sent the huge unknown structure that the Professor called the server to the haven. Then he pressed the button and remained in the red zone - and did the right thing. The central part of the floor turned out to be the elevator that was supposed to move the server to the evacuation point.
"Hey Prof, where does this elevator even lead to?"
"To some safe location."
"That's very good, and now - question," Sergei waited a moment and voiced his question. "Just exactly where is this safe location?!"
"I… no one knew that because of the secrecy."
"It means, that if I press this button, I will be transported to the unknown location, without any means of knowing whether I could get out of there or not?"
"… I… I didn't think about that."
"Professor Mark fucking Curie!" Sergei barely stopped himself from starting a cursing fit. "Annette! What's the situation out there? I can hear some noises, is there any possibility for me to get out of this accursed building?"
"Boss… the tentacle just broke through the door and walls, the monkeys and the mice are pouring out from the ventilation and are currently fighting the tentacles. Also, the tentacle has taken over the dead zombies' bodies and is now puppet-mastering them…" answered the girl, who was deeply shocked with everything that was going on.
Sergei silently approached the wall and pressed the button. The siren blared once again and the elevator rushed downwards, albeit with difficulty. The hatch closed above him so he was now safe from the trouble airdropping on him. At least, that's what our passenger thought…
The elevator was descending for five minutes, not sharply downward, but rather at an angle. It arrived into a big shaft - a huge one really. The ceiling was about ten meters high, the walls - fifteen meters wide, or maybe even more. The elevator turned at a right angle and slid into a metallic platform, like a last piece of a puzzle.
"Boss, hurry up and grab hold of something!" Annette shouted. Sergei had excellent reflexes, so he immediately grabbed onto one of the many thingies… who knows what those were… that were sticking out of the floor. One and a half meters high and ten to fifteen centimeters wide pillars, with two leather trimmed handles.
The boss barely had any time to grab the handles when the platform bolted like a racing car with a turbo boost. Because of such a sharp jerk, Sergei almost lost his consciousness - the breathing was almost impossible. Fortunately, the platform slowed down after five minutes, and the shaft started leading upwards. After two minutes it stopped completely. A wall descended behind him, blocking the tunnel, then the platform made a 90-degree turn once again and a massive door opened somewhere in the front.
"Almost… fucking… died…" Once the platform stopped moving, the boss' legs turned into jelly and he was barely able to keep himself from falling.
(fr) "What!? Who are you? Hands in the air!"
An armed military detachment happened to be right behind the door and now they were aiming their weapons right at him.
(rus)"Motherfucker!" Sergei shouted and raised his hands.
The soldiers ran inside, two of them seized an unexpected guest, the rest began searching the premises. However there was nothing there - nothing except for a big platform and a weird man.
(fr) "Who are you?" One of the soldiers asked, holding the stranger at gunpoint.
(eng) "I don't speak French."
(fr) "Does anyone speak English?"
(fr) "I do, Corporal."
(fr) "Good, ask him who he is, how he got here and what is behind that wall."
(fr) "Yes, sir!"
"Hey, who the hell are you?!" The young, twenty, maybe even nineteen years old soldier, approached Sergei and threateningly demanded the answer.
"Sergei Vitalyevich, but you can call me "uncle Seryozha" ha-ha-ha," uncle Seryozha answered, looking the young soldier in the eyes.
"Son of a…!" The soldier punched Sergei in the face with all his strength.
"You punch like a girl," the captive taunted with a smile - it was obvious that the guy wasn't a system user. Nevertheless, Sergei could've easily broken free and killed them all - but only as a last resort.
(fr) "What the hell are you doing, soldier?" The Corporal shouted.
(fr) "But… he's refusing to cooperate!"
(fr) "You, son of a whore! Some armed people seized him in a less-than-subtle manner, and you think he'll happily start cooperating with us? A week on guard duty, you imbecile!" The officer growled angrily but soon calmed down. "Who else can speak English?!"
(fr) "Me, Corporal, but my English is not very good…"
(fr) "Still better than ruining everything." The soldier nodded and approached the stranger.
"Sorry… Mark is young and fool. We be surprised by your arrival and little confused. You can tell who you be and how you here?"
"Sergei, I came from Paris."
"Paris?! This way go to Paris?!" To say that the soldier was surprised would be an understatement.
"Yeah, but I was moving on that thing over there at the speed of sound, so I couldn't really see the road. I don't know if it will lead into the city. It's a tunnel, a very deep and reinforced one at that."
"I understand, thank you for information, but me think that our divisional general be wanting to speak with you. We be sorry again for the misunderstanding before."
"Alright, let's take a look at your general," Sergei nodded and got up.
(fr) "Corporal, he said that he came from Paris, and that this way really leads into the city, it's an underground tunnel, sir!"
(fr) "Excellent! Did he agree to come with us?"
(fr) "Yes."
(fr) "Good! Release him, first and second squads - guard the perimeter, the rest return to the base."
Sergei was escorted out of the building. It turned out to be a warehouse building which belonged to the pharmaceutical company, the laboratory of which was looted by Sergei. But, in reality, it was a cover-up for the evacuation point, though now the building looked empty. The soldiers took everything of value and became very interested upon finding a massive door, but were unable to open it. Not until Sergei showed up like a prince on a white horse - or rather like a Russian on a high-speed platform.
A column of military vehicles drove towards a small town. The column was not big, four SUVs equipped with machine guns, and two vans filled with soldiers. Sergei was put in the SUV, driven by the soldier that he was talking with.
"Our division be located in small town Beauvais. We free it from zombie so it be completely safe." The soldier kept "entertaining" their guest with the stories about the area, the events and so on.
The town wasn't too far away, it took them only ten minutes to arrive. There was a huge checkpoint at the entrance to town and the town itself was surrounded with a makeshift wall made of debris and various machinery. Sergei also spotted some civilians digging a rather deep moat.
"Strengthening the protections, I see?"
"Yes, we notice the big horde recently, it be going to Paris."
"What the hell do they want from there?"
"I not know, but for some reasons they all be going to Paris," the soldier answered honestly.
The town was small, with the population of 60 000 people on a good day, now, however, it was obviously overpopulated. A lot of refugees were wandering around the streets and the soldiers were tirelessly patrolling the roads, with guard posts on every corner. This place looked better than the Louvre, but much worse than the Basilica or the Hubert's camp. The lack of paid work and acute famine did their job. Military headquarters were located in the center of the city and that was where they brought Sergei.
"General is waiting for you, follow me!" Sergei and his entourage were met by some sergeant (according to his patches). Junior or senior- Sergei didn't know.
His convoy remained outside while Sergei was led inside the building, that previously used to be a school or something like that. The second floor housed the operational headquarters or something similar - all the signs were in French and Sergei never even considered learning that language.
There was a huge table in the room with many laptops on it and a stern looking officer sitting behind it. There were a lot of people on either side of him - or ten, to be more specific, nine in military uniforms and one in civilian clothes.
"Greetings, please, have a sit," said the officer in the middle. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Rafael Demarais, General of Division."
"Sergei Vitalyevich," Sergei nodded and sat down in a very comfortable chair.
"Would you like some tea?" The General offered, it was considered improper to start a serious conversation "right of the bat", after all.
"I wouldn't mind, and I'd appreciate a little snack as well, it's been a shitty day."
"Ha-ha, I understand, coming right up." The general waived his hand and one of the officers left the room.
"I will not torment you with idle talk - I want to know what is happening in Paris." The general's voice became serious, as did the expression on his face. Demarais was closely observing his guest, as if trying to see whether he was lying or not.
"So, those were your men who tried to force their way into Paris today?"
"Yes… It was a failure," the general said sadly, one of the officers lowered his head in shame.
"Yeah, I saw how many zombies were there… It's pointless to try to break through without an armored division. But if your people were a little bit more determined they would've made it through."
"Is that so? …Perhaps, but there's no need to try and break through to get some information now, is there?" The general smiled wryly.
"Ha, yeah, probably. What do you want to know?"
"How many survivors are there in the city?"
"Can't say for sure, but from what I saw - from sixty to hundred thousand. You can forget about the west of the city, that's where the majority of zombies are gathered."
"That's less than we expected… What about the authorities?" The general was deep in thought and started tapping his fingers on the table, after five seconds or so he looked at his guest once again and asked the question.
"Well, as far as I know, most of them are holed up in the Louvre - that's were the police is, along with the remnants of the army, but they are all ruled by some mythical officials, they live on the upper floors and no one has seen them. So far, theirs is the biggest camp in the city," the guest started spilling the beans, while happily sipping his tea and munching on a fresh loaf of bread. Sergei was pleasantly surprised by the bread, but didn't show it. The soldiers could've easily robbed a few grain storage facilities, which they probably already did.
"I see, what about other camps?"
"There are five more camps, three of which will never agree to any kind of cooperation. One of them are the cultists, the second ones are anarchists, the third ones - the crazy raping feminists."
"The crazy raping feminists?" No one in the room expected to hear those words together, it was usually the other way around…
"Exactly, it's a small army of ugly ass women, who capture men, force-feed them the bull viagra and have intercourse with them until they die. Oh, yeah, and they enslaved some more prettier girls and turned them into their servants."
"I see. And what did you do in the city?" The general asked, after having somewhat recovered from the shock.
"Me? I'm a merchant," the merchant stated with a smile.
"Yeah? And what is it that you sell, sir?" Smirked one of the officers.
"Food."
The room became completely quite, resembling a graveyard, and only Sergei's slurping and chomping disturbed the silence.
"So you must be one of those, who was lucky in the very beginning of this mess to rob a few food storages and now you are selling it to other people gauging the hell out of them!" The older looking man in civilian clothes said.
"Ha ha ha!"
"What's so funny?" The civilian frowned.
"You must be a politician?" Sergei asked with a smirk.
"Well, let's say I am, what about it?" The man answered, raising his voice in irritation.
"Well, you know, your eyes lit up when I mentioned food. And I've been wondering when will you declare that I'm a bad person and need to be plundered."
"Plun… what?"
"You know, "for the benefit of the state" or something like that. I'll have to disappoint you, my food is from another source."
"Nonsense! What other so…" - bang! An orange object collided with the man's forehead. The politician almost lost consciousness from the force of the impact.
"He, he tried to kill me! Kill him!" The man cried in outrage. Most of the officers immediately drew out their guns but were stopped by the General.
"Stop! Are you dumb? Look at what our esteemed guest threw first!" The General growled looking menacingly at the civilian.
"Huh? Does that even matter?" The civilian muttered while rubbing his sore forehead. He almost had a concussion…
"It does!" The General roared.
"Well okay, this… this… this is not possible!" The man picked up… a fresh carrot!
(fr) "A carrot? How?"
(fr) "Maybe it's fake?"
"It's real! And… very delicious!" The General took the carrot from the politician and bit off almost half of it in one bite.
"It can't be real, the soil is poisoned, it is not possible to grow vegetables!" The civilian was almost on the brink of tears.
"Ha-ha-ha, everyone says that. I'll let you in on a secret. The skills!" The arrogant guest declared with a wide smile.
"S-s-skills?" The shocked politician muttered.
"Exactly, the system, sometimes, creates some… extraordinary skills," the guest stated with the same wide smile and finished his tea.
"And you have the ability to grow food?" The General asked incredulously.
"Me? No, I don't… But my people do," Sergei made a dramatic pause, making everyone become a little nervous, before continuing with the second part of his statement with a sly smile and observed everyone's reaction.