Cannibal

by Ivan Shaman

  “Won’t the chains break the wheels?” The girl asked, looking at the new design.

  “No.” Demon stared at his creation, which looked not very impressive. “We’ll check it on the way. Take a canister and hose. I need you to get gasoline out of those cars.” He showed one way but went the other. Half an hour later, the car was ready.

  He pulled away slowly, so as not to let the car fall into the deep surrounding snow. Gradually, he picked up speed. If he went too fast, the car would begin to slip and threaten to stick in nearby snowdrifts, but he managed to choose the optimal speed, and they set off.

  An hour later, they reached the highway. It was already plowed up and compressed with tank tracks. It was clear that a large column had moved out of Sakhalinsk or into it from the north. The car then went much more confidently, and they didn’t reduce their speed until they reached the city limits. There the traces of the column went toward the west, bypassing the city entirely.

  “I wonder what was there,” Jane said when they stopped at the last compressed section. “Who went, and where did they go?”

  “Recalling that conversation we heard at the Japanese cruiser, it must have been General Ferronov with his fighters,” Alex supposed. “They can’t have that many serviceable vehicles as they haven’t attacked Sakhalinsk yet.”

  “Maybe they want to negotiate?” Jane suggested. “That would be great.”

  “You know that’s impossible,” Demon said. “Most likely, they will save their strength and train their troops. It’s winter now. Maybe they hope to starve us out and destroy us that way? Who knows?”

  “Well, they know for sure,” Jane retorted. “We could catch a man and force to tell us.”

  “We could, but that should be later. First of all, the Luminaries.” Having nothing more to say, Alex started the engine once again.

  As they progressed, it became much more difficult to drive through the city streets. A lot of snowdrifts that once had been cars now blocked the road. They had hardly reached the center before they were stopped by a tall barricade made up of many cars, several rows deep. Demon could have sworn that when they had been leaving the city, this barricade hadn’t existed.

  “Is anyone alive here?” He shouted, opening the car’s window.

  “It depends on who you consider to be alive.” There was a voice from the other side and a head in a cap with earflaps and a hood thrown over it appeared above the barricade. “Damn it! Alert!” The man screamed, having seen Demon’s eyes.

  “Why are people here?” Alex asked gloomily as he checked the district. Technocrats were in the south, only about a mile away from their current location. Having put the car in reverse, the cyborg tried to turn around, but the car crashed into a low fence at full speed. Pressing the gas pedal again, Alex twisted the steering wheel, but the vehicle only jerked sharply and remained in place. Looking out, he immediately saw what was happening: the chain had stuck on one of the posts. Demon jumped out to remove the chain, and a second later, gunfire hit the driver’s seat. “Jane! Get out! Quickly!”

  He didn’t need to say it twice. Jane jumped out of the car and ran to hide around the corner of the nearest building. Demon followed suit.

  “Base, it’s North three! We’ve met two controllers. We need help immediately!” The man shouted into a radio.

  Shit, Demon thought. Why do they have working radios?

  “North three, it’s Base. Your request has been accepted. Defend. Snipers will be in position in three minutes.”

  Demon heard the voice from the radio with some difficulty. Three minutes – it wasn’t a lot. He looked out from around the corner and almost caught a bullet to the head. The man was obviously experienced, and he wasn’t alone. About a dozen people stood behind the barricade, bristling with their guns to attack.

  Having broken a window in the first floor, Demon penetrated into a two-storied house. There were large passable rooms inside, so that the enemies could get easy access from that side if they were ready for this. They didn’t see him because of the furniture and the thick curtains, so the cyborg calmly walked over to the window and slowly pulled it toward him. The people at the barricades didn’t even twitch, but the sniper responded well.

  A heavy 9mm bullet passed clean through his shoulder, breaking a couple of bones, and his right arm immediately sagged. The defenders of the barricade also then added in a stream of steady fire, but Demon was already lying against the wall, hiding behind a thick layer of concrete.

  Damn, I won’t be able to use ‘Punch’ for the next half hour, he thought as he tried to get up. Sharp pain went through the right half of his body. Okay, for a few hours.

  Having calculated the approximate trajectory of the bullet that had hit him, he realized that he could hide behind a distant jamb, and from there he could shoot at the barricade. Having risen to his feet, and holding his right arm, he ran to the cover. Several bullets whistled after him and pierced the wall. Drywall, Demon realized with regret. It was impossible to hide from even a strong wind behind such a pointless wall. Helping himself with his teeth, he tied his arm to his body, throwing a noose around his neck.

  He had no weapons other than his own body but, fortunately, the gun worked perfectly and was ready for use. Accumulate a charge. Marksman! He shot out the window. Jerk! The fireball explosion partially destroyed the barricade, dropping the top two cars. The people were stung by the shock wave, but they seemed to survive the blast.

  “Jane!” He called through the ‘Connection’. “What do you see?”

  “Nothing really, but this is problematic – I have a bullet sticking out of my forehead. I won’t recover for at least half an hour.”

  “Damn it!” He slowly climbed to the second floor and opened a door to one of the rooms. The windows there overlooked the right direction. The sniper shot a bullet at the place where, in their opinion, Demon’s head would be, and it missed by less than five inches. Maybe he was foiled by the wind or something else, but the cyborg decided not to take any more risks. It was going to be necessary to retreat. “Where are you? I’ll pick you up.” Demon used the ‘Connection’ again, but there was no answer. “Jane?”

  Overcome with a terrible premonition, he looked out the window and saw two people dragging the girl by her legs toward the barricade. Blood flowed out of the girl’s neck – there was no implant. Sudden rage engulfed him. Marksman! Shoot!

  He didn’t shoot at those who were dragging the girl but behind them, at the corner of the barricade. The shock wave threw them slightly forward, and they dropped Jane, and that was quite enough. Jerk! He jumped from the second floor directly onto the man’s back. Strongman! With force he stepped on his head, and the man’s skull burst like a ripe pumpkin. Having pulled a machine gun from the dead soldier, he opened fire, holding the gun with his armpit. The people hid behind the remains of the barricade. A second later, another sniper’s bullet hit his skull on a tangent.

  His head twisted unnaturally, and a bloody veil clouded his vision. If he were an ordinary person or didn’t have the second level of the ‘Hard skull’, he would have fallen dead, but he was still alive. Pulling out Jane’s implant from the cold fingers of the second man he had killed, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the entrance of the nearest building.

  In a hurry, Demon couldn’t immediately insert the implant back. His fingers were shaking badly. Finally, he did it, but it simply didn’t work. In a rage, Demon struck the wall with his good hand, and at that moment remembered his ringed finger. He led it to the company logo and powered it.

  “Please, stay alive! Please!” He muttered, powering up the implant. But it didn’t work. “Oh, Light, I beg you, let her live! I’ll do everything to make her live!” As if answering his prayers, the implant clicked and started working. A convulsion passed through Jane’s body, and then she, having arched her back, took a deep breath.

  “Thanks,” Demon whispered, stroking the girl’s hair. Without waiting for the wound to heal, he took out
the bullet with his claws. Whoever the sniper was, he had done an excellent job, fortunately, not completely though. Alex heard the people walking outside, slowly surrounding the building. He cocked his plasma gun and prepared to shoot.

  “North three to Base. Leave. The operation is completed,” came from the radio outside.

  “Base to North three. We’ve almost got two controllers. Give the go-ahead for liquidation.”

  “North three to Base. Your losses?”

  “Damn,” the fighter swore. “Base to North three. Three dead, one seriously wounded, and two lightly wounded. The order is clear, we retreat.” He heard the men swearing, taking things of value from their dead companions. Then the car engine, which he’d repaired, roared into life, and the people left.

  Demon took a deep breath, but he was afraid to leave the building. Until the evening, they sat in the building and slowly recovered. Only when the sun colored the sky with orange, they, carefully and looking all around, moved toward the center.

  “How are you?” Demon asked when they had already gone half way and had calmed down a bit.

  “I’m okay for someone who was dead three hours ago,” Jane answered, rubbing her neck. “I’ve lost most of the experience I gained up to level twenty-nine. As if I never had it.”

  “The main thing is that you are alive,” he replied. “Devil knows why they pulled out your implant, but, apparently, we die without it.”

  “It’s funny,” Jane replied. “It’s impossible to kill us with a headshot, having cracked the skull, but we’ll die if they pull out a microcomputer. Ariel was right – we are more computers than people.”

  “Come on, we’re alive, and...” He wanted to say that everything would be okay, but then he saw Padre’s body. The Luminary lay with his neck and head perforated. Nearby there were a few dozen low-levelers, all absolutely untouched. A little farther there was another body, and then another.

  Chapter 28. Throne

  Pushing through the low-levelers, Demon ran up to the Luminary. The shots were almost perfectly aligned. The first one had pierced through his implant, and the second one had made a hole in the middle of the cyborg’s forehead. Obviously, it had been made when Padre had turned around to see the sniper’s location.

  Demon hesitated a bit, deciding whether to collect nanomachines or not, but then he stuck his claw where the implant used to be. Jane turned away.

  Active nanomachines were not found

  Reactivation is impossible

  He read the message with surprise.

  Rising, he approached the second body. Demon didn’t know who he was, but he had obviously been someone very pumped-up. Their ‘Horn armor’ of the second level was covered with cracks. There were no nanomachines on the body’s claws, so he didn’t even bother to check if there were any left inside.

  He went around a few more bodies. The situation was the same. Two shots per body, sometimes three. Usually, the first shot hit the implant. Following along the string of corpses, he went around a corner and saw Caesar, the Blazing Luminary, in the distance, sitting at the wall. He was wounded but alive, and technocrats from the twentieth to the fortieth level surrounded him.

  “Caesar!” Demon shouted from afar, quickening his step. “I’m glad you’re alive!” He managed to take a few more steps before a black shadow appeared right next to the Luminary.

  “Quickly!”

  Demon heard the last words of the Blazing Luminary, and the next second, the black clawed paw hit Caesar in the stomach. The Emperor sank his teeth into Caesar’s neck, and Alex saw the life, along with nanomachines, instantly leaving the Luminary’s body.

  “No!” The last Luminary shouted, running up to the crowd. “What have you done? What for?”

  Because only I can confront people and subjugate all technocrats. The voice sounded in Demon’s head. Today you’ll sacrifice everything for our common victory too. The fog thickened and disappeared, and then it appeared again right in front of him. Demon had no chance against the Emperor, and he understood this very well, but he really wanted to live.

  He did the first thing that came to mind. Jerk! The Emperor remained in the same place, looking at him more irritated than surprised.

  There is no sense in trying to run away or hide. I’ll get your experience and become a supernova.

  “Damned the Emperor. Damned the Luminaries. Damned the Mind,” Demon muttered, going higher and higher up the stairs. He needed to find a position where he could win. “Think! Think!” He couldn’t stay on the floors, as the enemy had a rail gun that could pierce through walls, but he also had volume explosion ammunition that detonated from any obstacle. He needed an open area, but preferably one where his enemy had nowhere to go, so he could just shoot at his feet. Roof!

  Demon rushed up the stairs to the very top. To accelerate, he even used ‘Jerk’ several times. Finally, he was at the height of the fortieth floor, on the completely flat oval roof with a diameter of at least a hundred yards. It was covered with hard snow; the temperature at the top was clearly lower than at ground level. The wind stung to the bone, but it was unimportant, because only one entrance led to the roof. Demon took aim, waiting for the door to open, ready to release his maximum deadly charge immediately.

  Nothing distracted him from the sight: neither the howling wind, nor the cold, nor the noise of the engines behind his back. Engines? Demon abruptly turned around and got a kick of such strength that he flew over to the very entrance he had been watching. The Emperor descended on two jet turbines decorated with wings.

  Buddy, I could have easily killed you from behind and devoured you. But if you want to warm up before dying, it may even be fun for me.

  “It won’t be that easy!” Demon shouted. Marksman! He aimed at the enemy, but he seemed to evaporate before his eyes. However, traces remained on the snow. Shot! A shell of superheated gas, enclosed in an electromagnetic trap, escaped from the barrel of the gun and flew past the place where the Emperor was supposed to stand. Jerk! He had to move as far as possible. Move all the time while looking at the snow. Jerk!

  Demon carefully traced the tracks appearing in the snow. A little bit more. The gun was reloaded; even the ‘Marksman’ ability wasn’t needed here. Shot! The explosion turned a snowdrift into steam, and a few others were just swept from the roof. This wasn’t important, because he had hit his target. The Emperor stood, looking puzzled at his melted foot, then he looked at his enemy and shook his head in satisfaction.

  Attaboy. Now die. Barely noticing movement, Demon activated the ‘Jerk’, but he found he was imprinted against the roof. The Emperor pressed him to the floor with his knee – one hand taking Demon’s shoulder, and his second hand clasping his head. He started to turn Demon’s neck like Caesar’s one several minutes ago. Strongman! Punch!

  In a frenzy, Alex struck the Emperor several times in the stomach, but he only frowned, intercepting the blows as if he were shaking off flies. Then something happened that Demon felt much later than the Emperor.

  Suddenly the Immortal Absorber bounced away from his victim and began to look around in agony. Demon also got up. In a split second, he saw nuclear mushroom-like explosions rising in the directions of Japan, Korea, China and Russia. Then the nanomachines in his body turned off and the world went black.

  Chapter 29. Long Night Begins

  He felt nothing but scorching cold air. The frost brought him around, burnt, pricked and making him feel a little alive. Concentrating on this pain, he tried to imagine the air dispersing through his body, giving warmth, but he failed.

  Alex forced himself to live – inch by inch. Starting from his ribs and heart, he passionately, uncontrollably wanted to live.

  He didn’t know what had happened a few moments ago, but, with great difficulty opening his eyes, he finally realized that the feeling of death was gradually receding. At least, for him. The starry sky was quickly being covered by clouds, which were coming from the mainland and from the Japanese archipelago. Gradually regai
ning control of his body, he was slowly able to move his fingers, but he wasn’t able to bend his left arm, or, it turned out, his right one. Along with the increased sensitivity came more severe pain.

  Alex could feel the hole in his shoulder, the cracks in his ribs, and all the abrasions, bruises and wounds that covered his body, but this didn’t override his main thought: he had to survive, so he needed to get out of the frost. Rolling over onto his stomach, he stiffened, and, with great difficulty, rose to a kneeling position. His original idea to crawl away on all fours had to be brushed off, as his left arm didn’t obey, and the right one just hurt a damn lot. Therefore, Alex inhaled slowly and gingerly rose to his feet.

  Only on getting up was he able to appreciate all his helplessness. He saw and heard almost nothing, and he wasn’t able to apply any skill or even see the interface. Having tried to recall something about nanomachines or technology, he realized that they didn’t exist – at all. All his ‘Perception’, ‘Knowledge’, ‘Strength’, ‘Stamina’, and ‘Dexterity’ had disappeared in an instant.

  However, he was still lucky. Nearby a deceased thing that a few minutes ago used to be the Emperor lay. The skeleton with keratinized skin didn’t breathe. The eyes were empty and had burst inward. The muscles had turned into shapeless lumps, the armor had cracked and crumbled, and even the long claws had dulled. Only the gun barrels, sticking out of the right hand, remained in order.

  With undisguised pleasure, Alex went up to the body and, standing on its forearm, tore the gun away from the rest of the arm. The Emperor’s bones weakly crunched, breaking like matches, and the skin was torn like paper. Instead of blood there was only dust of nanomachines.

  “Damn, you probably died at the same instant,” Alex muttered with regret. “The savior of all technocrats crumbled to dust. But, at least, you died quickly.”

  Moving slowly, he reached the door leading down from the roof and looked down with sadness. Not only was it absolutely black below and nothing could be seen, he also clearly remembered that the staircase was very steep and lacked a railing. Hissing in pain with every movement, he knelt and, turning his back to the aisle, began to descend. It was unpleasant but vital. It wasn’t warm inside the building, but at least the cold hurricane-like wind didn’t blow there.