"Huff... Huff... Huff..."-Only sound of my heavy breathing and ringing in my ears...
The smell of fried flesh, iron and gunpowder hovered around and hit right in my nose...
This... This is freaking hell. I guess I'm just cursed, if this always happens to me. To hell with this world, these disgusting monsters and this damn fate!
I slowly opened my eyes and saw faces I know the most, my brothers and sisters, the last of them. Their eyes were empty and faces of them were contorted in a grimace of pain, and their bodies were gray, covered with red veins. This is not the first time I have had to see this picture of the loss of my loved once, I slowly took a few steps back, they reacted to my movements and rushed towards me. I got the detonator that we prepared specifically in case we were turned into one of this monster. And it was trusted to me, by every person in our squad.
Warm memories swam through my mind. I opened the shutter and pressed the button. And they began to tear from the inside. Drops flowed from my eyes. But the time to mourning had not yet to come.
"Captain... Captain... thank you captain..."-I heard their voices...
There was only one monster left behind. He stood in the middle of a ruined street and a pile of monster corpses. Unfamiliar to me, the one who gave gave the order to attack us to this flock and because of whom, I lost so many people dear to me. He looked the same, only his face was different. It stretched out in a grimace of uncontrollable pleasure.
"Damn demon, smile while you can."-Rage tore at my heart, but I tried to keep my mind calm and cold. He is extremely dangerous. I pointed a rifle at him, it seemed that he was not paying attention, laughing with all his might. But as soon as the shot pierced this street with their sound. He began to dodge at incredible speed.
"Bam!!!"-missed... He began to close distance.
"Bam!!! Bam!!! Bam!!!"- He dodged everything and was in ten steps. I heard a sound indicating, that the cartridges had run out, pressed the switch and threw the rifle at him. He didn't dodged and caught her.
"Boooom!!!"-Rifle exploded in his arms. I took out long knife and rushed at the bewildered monster he roared and also headed toward me. But due to the fact that he was confused, I managed to land my thrust, right in his heart. Rivers of blood flowed...
I took out my sword out of monster, walked away, checking if sounds attract attention of something or someone around, shook the knife and sheathed it. There was emptiness in my heart and I went to complete our mission. Walking down the street...
...
I felt a hand reach out to me. Grabbed it and slowly opened eyes looked at person who dared to bother me. It was daughter of old bartender Eugene and I saw fear in her eyes, her name was Rona, I guess. She was kind soul and always polite, good kid, I let go of her hand and looked at her with question:
"Sir, a client come to you, he is in private room number 3."-She managed to calm down, adaptability is great quality for this world.
"Rona, you mustn't touch the sleeping mercenary, and it's better not to approach us at all, didn't the old man teach you? Mercenaries all are complete trash."- She looked at me and a smile slowly appeared on her face.
"You are different, even my pa treats you with respect. And if it weren't for the mercenaries, who would have cleared the zones from monsters."- She looked at me again and began to blush, quickly looked away, trying to hide it.
I felt that a blow was flying into me from behind and decided not to dodge. A strong hand slapped me on my back, I lost my breath for a moment and heard loud laugh:
"Damn rogue, you decided to capture my daughter's heart."- He laughed but his eyes were filled with seriousness and somewhere deep danger, he definitely was testing me.
"Old coffin dodger, your daughter is beautiful and smart. But you know, she's too young and tender. And I'm loner, who is not adapted to live with anyone"-Teased I him with his his nickname. Rona completely turned red. But he did not raged, but rather looked at me with sadness:
"But you almost the same age with her and you need to settle down and stop risking yourself, change this job. Trust me I'm speaking from my experience."- I looked at his deep wise eyes:
"I'll... think about it, but for now, I have client waiting."-Not listening to what he is going to say, I walked past Rona and headed upstairs to room number three. And the bar behind me plunged into usual noisy cheering of drunk and gonna-to-be-drunk peoples. But ahead of me was plain wooden door. I heard nothing behind this door, but I felt that there was three person. I sniffed and felt the smell of quite expensive female perfume, one of them probably woman and they definitely have money. I looked at the floor and saw three types of prints of different shoes, two were definitely men's, because of size and structure of the shoe and one was in heels. According to the pattern of footprints, it did not look look like they were from military or who have been in combat. It was reassuring, but I could have made a mistake. But there is no point in thinking about it. I checked to see if my knife was in place. Unfortunately, firearms are banned in the central city area, which I think is stupid for reality where such monsters can attack any time. Of course people carry it even without permission, but it costs too much to be caught with it. So only security and military can wear it.
I took a breath slowly, stopping the flow of my thoughts. And breathed out relaxing my face and every muscle in my body. I made three short knocks on the door.
"Come in."-I heard the melodic voice of a calm man. Opened the door and made my first step to a fateful meeting that will turn my life upside down...