Cannibal

by Ivan Shaman

“No.” Demon grinned, baring his teeth, “You’re not all getting away.” He threw a sniper rifle in front of him, laying out the bipods. The distance to his enemies was about two hundred yards. Despite the snowfall, he saw the targets perfectly, so that the main argument in favor of the sniper rifle was for its silencer, not its accuracy. The people fired back and, catching the pace, he fired at the distant enemy, trying to get to the head or neck. The combination of the rifle’s sight and the ‘Marksman’ ability worked wonders for Demon, and the bullet he fired entered the base of the skull of one of the people. He shifted the sight to the next one, then another and another. Only when the fourth corpse fell forward, did the people understand that they were being fired from behind.

  “Go!” Demon commanded, throwing away the sniper rifle and picking up the machine gun. The brothers were a great distraction. They died so he could live. They would come to the Light. Like him, someday. But not today. Marksman! Again he shot at those who were aiming at him. Jerk! He got to a sheltered position.

  As if in slow motion, he saw rebar falling from above. Iron spokes fell from the sky like heavenly spears or arrows. Each of them weighed about ten pounds. Dodging a couple of the arrows, he looked around the corner of the building. His guess was correct. Hiding behind the concrete wall, a Goliath threw rebar after rebar, taking them from a large pile at his side. Demon grinned. Necessity is the mother of invention. Now everyone who would level-up could take the ‘Shooter’ option. The people had left many weapons behind.

  Marksman! He aimed at one man after another, including those going after the APC. The bullets made neat holes in the people, and the blood flew out of them like thick wine from barrels. The APCs snarled with the fire of machine guns. Demon looked around the corner once more and almost caught a bullet in the head. He was being waited out. A woman with a scar on her face fired only at the higher-level cyborgs, not distracted by the low-levelers. Once more, when he tried to look out, he jerked his head back so sharply that he hit the wound that hadn’t healed yet in his head.

  “Tina, we have to go!” A voice came from the other side, and Demon saw the woman, cursing, getting into the APC. The remaining shooters jumped directly on the vehicle. The engines howled and the APC also disappeared into the forest.

  The people fled from the battlefield, leaving the dead bodies and their wounded companions to die, without taking the equipment and ammunition, and without even destroying the final inverted bullet-ridden APC. Demon came out of the shelter. The low-levelers were quickly finishing off the enemies that still clung to life. The senior brothers, like he, simply rested.

  “Oh, you’re alive.” Kris smiled. “Jane was looking for you. She thought you were killed.”

  “No, I’m mostly intact.” He showed the hole in his head to the surprised woman. “Where is she?”

  “She’s looking for you there,” she nodded at the TPS building. “Look from that side.”

  “OK. Oh, if you level up, take the ‘Cannibal’ option,” Demon joked. “You’ll develop quicker.”

  “No,” Kris replied quickly, shrugging, and then she suddenly seemed to stop and think about it. “Actually, I’ll think it over. They say that the morgue is full here. You can go there to pump.”

  “Well, that was enough for me,” he circled around the station. “Work through the roof. It’s better to get the corpses away.”

  He walked past the dead bodies, trying not to step on them – which was easier said than done. Approaching the destroyed building, Demon noticed that there was no steam anymore. Only inside, near the ceiling, the temperature still remained reasonably high, but there was no smoke from the pipes or the cooling tower.

  “Jack, how are you?” He asked, passing the giant lying against a wall. He didn’t have a left side, only a mixture of gelatinous mass and blood that was slowly congealing.

  “Thanks to you I’ll live,” the Goliath answered. “Thank you. I won’t forget it.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll pay me back. Life is long after all. Have you seen Jane?”

  “There. Look. Near that thing.” He waved at a huge machine the size of an electric locomotive. A diagram of a steam generator with a capacity of half a megawatt appeared in front of Demon’s eyes.

  “Thanks. Have a rest, brother.” Demon went farther, looking around. In the frozen air, the steam quickly turned into ice, and icicles appeared on all the open surfaces. It was very slippery as he waded through the huge shafts and heating pipes. Demon stopped in his tracks as he saw a large group of technocrats arguing loudly about something.

  “You don’t understand!” A bald man of forty, tall and muscular, shouted.

  Marcus, Immortal Master Luminary, level 62, neutral

  “They blew up one of the three boilers! The second one was damaged in an accident caused by the EMP, and the third one hasn’t even been started yet! We physically can’t apply energy either on the relay station or the surrounding houses. Even if we could, the losses would be too great—we aren’t able to work enough to power the station!”

  “We must turn on the relay station by all means!” Lex objected. “This is our main task, do you understand that? The rest of our tasks aren’t anywhere near as important!”

  “Of course, I know that! I’m here because the Supreme Mind has guided me. I’m responsible for this district, and I’ll be responsible for it as long as I have the strength,” Marcus said in a tone that brooked no objection. “When we get this place in order and start the generators again, then I’ll go with you to the southern TPS, and we’ll restore it together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m busy!”

  “What do you suggest I do?” The Luminary exclaimed indignantly. “Wait till you fix it? How many months will it take you?”

  “No more than two weeks!” The Immortal Master said sternly. “Believe me, we have a lot of work to do here. I need to find the Masters and any leveled-up brothers. And most importantly, I need to find a way to stop the raids of these barbarians!”

  “Here’s one, Master.” Lex nodded at Demon. “And with regard to the people, they’ve lost about three hundred today. I don’t think they’ll return anytime soon.”

  “You are wrong; this isn’t their first attack, and it will not be their last. Although, I confess, it was the largest and most destructive one yet.” He waved to Demon. “Come closer you! It’s the first time I’ve seen such a status – ‘Master Cannibal Demon’. But the main thing is that you are a Master, so I need your help.”

  “Not until I find Jane,” he replied quietly. “When I see she’s doing well, I’ll help you.”

  “Really? Well… Jane? Immortal? Twenty-ninth level?” Marcus asked. Demon nodded in surprise. “She’s coming.”

  Suddenly, the entire complex of buildings was covered with a wave of song intended only for Jane. Demon felt it as the Light pierced him and went on through. It didn’t stay inside. Three minutes later, the breathless girl appeared on the threshold of the TPS. She immediately flew past the Luminaries and threw herself around his neck.

  “Alive! You’re alive!” She said, kissing him passionately on the lips. With a cry, he moved away and pointed at the hole in his skull. “Oh, I’m sorry. Please, I’m sorry!”

  “That’s okay.” Demon smiled. “It’ll heal up. Master, I’m ready to work.”

  “Great!” Marcus threw up his hands in delight. “First, call me Senior Master, then follow my instructions clearly, and we’ll get along.”

  “All right, Senior Master.” Demon smiled.

  Chapter 15. Library

  “Fasten them tightly! Use a double knot,” Demon commanded the brigade of fifteenth-levelers as they were tightening another tube, collected for the TPS steam generating boiler, with ropes. It was the size of a three-storied building and was designed to turn thousands of tons of water into high-pressure steam every minute. Then this steam, at a steady temperature of five hundred degrees and able to completely cook a man in seconds, would be fed into a fifteen-yard generator.

&
nbsp; Work was progressing well. Due to the nanomachines, they were stronger and sturdier than ordinary people. The Senior Master watched them approvingly as they lifted the multi-ton structure without a crane and attached it with bolts. Ideally, it had to be a one-piece corrugation tube, but necessity was the mother of invention, so they made it from what they had available.

  “Great! Now lower it slowly!” Demon had done the main part of the work. The most difficult was to now assemble an elbow pipe for the heating plant, but in general, everything was almost ready. A few seconds before the crash, he felt with his keen perception that the rope was going to tear. “Lower it! Hold it from the bottom!” he yelled as he charged forward.

  Jerk! He jumped into the boiler, but his dexterity wasn’t enough, and he twisted his ankle. Above him, the thick rope burst with a loud crack. Strongman! Demon certainly wasn’t able to hold such a thing, even if he were a Goliath, but it wasn’t necessary. He pushed at the pipe, inserting it into the groove so that the end of the fastening came out into the hole cut out for it, and the base stood on the platform. The pipe creaked, subsiding, but it withstood. For now.

  “What are you doing, you stupid bastards?!” Marcus yelled at the fifteenth-levelers. “Fasten it quickly! Demon, how’s the pipe?”

  “I’m alive, thanks for asking!” The Cannibal answered, looking at the bend of the pipe deforming under its own weight. “We must fix it quickly, otherwise it’ll break!”

  “Don’t I know it!” Without waiting for his assistants, the Senior Master took a backpack full of mounting bolts and climbed inside the pipe. These bolts, each 20 inches long and 2 inches in diameter and weighing about 10 pounds, were designed for mounting especially heavy items. Demon appreciated the Master’s full dedication to his work. He was spiteful, picky, and loud, but all this was compensated for by the high level of his competence and commitment. In less than thirty seconds of falling through the pipe, Marcus had already managed to put a dozen basic bolts in place. The pipe subsided a little more and then stopped.

  “Here you are,” the Senior Master commanded, handing a wrench that looked more like a bar with a groove in it to Demon. “I’m holding the nuts, you’re tightening them.”

  “Okay.”

  While the low-leveled assistants were coming down to them, they fixed the pipe with two-dozen bolts sufficiently. But it was still not enough, according to Marcus. As Demon climbed up the stairs, he listened to the Master scolding his subordinates, forcing them to put a further eight bolts on each joint.

  “How are you?” Lex helped him to get out of the boiler and onto the platform.

  “We’ll finish in a week,” the Cannibal said as he strained his perception, looking at the construction. “Or perhaps eight days. But then it’ll work reliably for fifty years.”

  “It won’t,” the Luminary replied indifferently. “Six months maximum.”

  “No, I assure you, everything is safe,” Demon objected looking around.

  “That’s not the point,” Lex said, heading for the exit as the Cannibal followed him. “I’ve checked: coal and gas reserves in the storage will last for half a year at most. Then the station will simply stop working.”

  “But the stocks should be somewhere.”

  “Yes, but we don’t know where. They say there is a library on the outskirts of the city. There must be books on environmental management there. Will you join me?”

  “Well, if Marcus doesn’t mind.” He pondered for several seconds. On the one hand, Lex was his mentor, on the other hand, the Senior Master needed his help. “I’ll ask him, okay?”

  “Okay, but do it quickly,” the Luminary nodded. “We’ll wait for you by the road.”

  “Who else will go?” Demon asked with interest.

  “Come and see for yourself.” Lex smiled mysteriously. “You have five minutes.”

  Demon nodded and returned to the boiler just in time to give a hand to the rising Marcus.

  “All right, we’re done here!” the contented Master said. “Now we need to sort out the generator turbine to make sure that the steam doesn’t blow it.”

  “I need to take half a day’s rest,” Demon said apologetically. “Lex needs help to find the data related to the extraction and delivery of raw materials for the TPS.”

  “And what? Now I have to let my second best Master leave to read books?” Marcus asked angrily, and then he thought about it for a moment. “Actually, I have a guy sitting idle there. His name’s Antony. He’s a Luminary-beginner who’s recently reached the fortieth level. He has nothing except ‘Control’ and ‘Communication’. When you’re in the library, send him back here. That’ll make the work faster. But don’t be away more than a day, I need your help!”

  “All right, Senior Master.” Demon smiled and ran to the exit. His leg didn’t hurt. Jerk! He activated his skill just to save time. For covering fifty yards in an instant, he once again praised his past self, small and stupid, for choosing such a useful skill. However, the ‘Cannibal’ option was also proving to be very useful.

  “At long last! We’ve been waiting for you,” Lex grumbled. Jack and some unknown cyborgs stood next to him. Two of them were at the fifteenth level and seven were at the tenth.

  “Where are Jane and Kris?” Demon asked the Luminary.

  “Do you miss the girls?” He chuckled gloatingly. “Jane has broken up with you because you’re spending all your nights in the repair shop.”

  “Don’t scare the guy!” Jack snapped. “Demon, don’t worry. The girls have just gone to get some supplies, to rummage in some shops, and to gather low-levelers. They’ll be back soon.”

  “She’s changed.” The Luminary nodded. “She’s become surprisingly calm, although her needs are almost at seventy percent.”

  “You can tell me frankly that she wants sex,” Demon said calmly. “We’ve agreed to wait until the evening. My needs are also over sixty now.”

  “Wow! Then it’s good that you’ve found each other.” The Goliath nodded approvingly. “So good.”

  “Once alone, the men began to discuss the women.” Lex grinned. “It was the most popular topic in male society before…”

  “Why are they alone?” Demon pointed at a few low-levelers.

  “They aren’t technocrats, but rather they are animals,” the Luminary started, but he got a slap from Jack.

  “You’re speaking like the people now.” The giant frowned. “Maybe you’ll call them zombies next?”

  “Well, that would be a bust, even for me,” the Luminary replied, rubbing the back of his head. “But, in some way, it isn’t far from the truth…”

  “I’ll kill you,” the Goliath said sternly.

  “Oh, come on. Your ‘Intelligence’ is less than a hundred,” the Luminary muttered, dodging another slap. “In the end, it doesn’t matter what we call each other. We are two different species, and what will happen next isn’t very clear at all.”

  “Before thinking about what will happen next, we must first do something to solve our current problems,” Demon remarked cautiously. “Maybe in the process of doing so we’ll be able to agree, if we stop raising the actual question: it’s either we or they.”

  “No,” the Luminary said abruptly. “To do this, you must first do something with low-leveled brothers, otherwise they’ll attack people, the people’ll attack us, and then the cycle won’t open. Naturally, we won’t kill our brothers, so we need to take control of them.”

  “Wow, your approval of me as a Luminary, and also using mentoring, is the path to peace with the people?” Demon smiled. “I’ve never thought it would be so.”

  “Stop kidding me,” Lex said. “That is the plan, even though I wasn’t the one who invented it. It was actually Caesar. We are to take control of all low-levelers, drive them to the center, and then try to reach successful negotiations.”

  “Yeah, you just have to survive in order to talk,” Demon said. “And for this, you need to be at least a Goliath, an Immortal or better yet, an Eternal
Titan.”

  “And you would need to have at least 300 in ‘Intelligence’. So, we don’t have heroes such as these yet.”

  Behind the rows of snow-covered houses, gunfire sounded, which echoed through the deserted city. The low-level ones started in unison, turning their heads in the direction of the sounds. Nevertheless, having skirted the building, they didn’t see a large crowd or APCs. But inside the library, there was a fight going on.

  Chapter 16. Traitor

  “Look, a man just went into the library alone.” Lex chuckled, taking a quick step. “I would understand if it were a grocery store, but not a library.”

  “Something’s wrong,” Demon whispered. He quickly ran his hands over his body, suddenly realizing that he wasn’t wearing a bulletproof or load-bearing vest. He had even left the machine gun back in the TPS. “I’m not fucking equipped.”

  “Well, then stay out of it!” The Goliath roared. “You don’t need to worry anyway: look at the crowd around him. We’ll need ten minutes just to reach them. They’ll kill him, no matter what a super soldier he is, before then.”

  “He isn’t alone,” Lex said a minute later, staring at the building. “I can barely reach the building with my ‘Connection’, but Demon’s right, something is wrong there. It seems that some technocrats with the support of this man and a beast are fighting with other technocrats. Quite successfully too it seems.”

  “You’re delusional.” Jack frowned. “That’s impossible!”

  “Just because we’ve never seen anything like this before, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible.” Lex squinted. “I can’t run fast and broadcast the song at the same time, so I’ll be strengthening instead. Cover me.” With these words, he plunged into a trance. Jack took him in his arms.

  “Hurry up. We need to walk a mile, and I have a bad feeling growing,” Demon said, wondering whether to distribute his skills while he still could. The fight was going on in the building, but it was radically different from yesterday’s. “Shall we run?”