I turned toward the exit—but I didn't make it out of the plant. Nemesis, wedged at the end of the tunnel, gave an especially violent jerk, helping itself with its tentacles. Then it burst free like a cork from a bottle, hurtling through the air across the entire chamber. It smashed into the gauss gun and was immediately covered by a web of electrical discharges from the system that controlled it.
A wild screech pierced my ears. Convulsing from the electric shocks, Nemesis lashed out with a tentacle and struck me. For a second, the light seemed to fade before my eyes, and the force of the blow hurled me into the corridor widened by the monster's earlier rampage.
But unlike Nemesis—who even smelled faintly of burnt flesh— I came to my senses rather quickly. I lunged for the exit again, dodging jets of acid spraying from its body and tentacles thrashing wildly without pattern.
A dash toward the door—and failure again. The monster, finally done convulsing, snared one of my legs and yanked me back, slamming me against the wall and leaving a deep dent in the steel plating.
Twisting in midair, I barely managed to sever the thick tentacle and crashed down, damn thing had already lifted me for another strike.
I sprang up and immediately rolled to the right, avoiding tentacles crashing down from above, and thus approaching the doorway. I had no intention of accepting a fight I couldn't win.
At the very door I'm forced to leap back, narrowly evading a spit of acid fired in anticipation. Ducking low, I let another tentacle—only slightly thinner than my own leg—whip past overhead. Then, flattening myself in a leap, I burst out of that cursed room.
From the other side, the monstrous creature barreled after me, tearing through the steel wall as if it were paper. Acceleration—I ran at full speed, weaving and dodging the agile appendages as I closed in on the outer perimeter wall.
I vault over it like a swallow, and the mass—gathering momentum, only slightly slower than me—slams into the wall… tearing through it as if it were cardboard. Even the wall panels bend outward, and they're made of steel!
A flip in midair—I kicked off Nemesis's body, which ended up slightly below me since I'd leapt over the barrier while it had pierced straight through it. Using that boost, I covered even more distance before crashing down already beyond the park visible below.
Behind me came even not a roar, but something I couldn't even find a word for. Trees began collapsing in my direction.
Nemesis, are you really that stupid? I'm not S.T.A.R.S.!
I sprinted down the street, vaulting over cars, pushing off zombies, knocking aside the redheads who decided I was within their reach, and without looking back hurled them at Nemesis to slow it down—if only a little. I tore through streets, alleys, side roads, smashing through dead ends. Sometimes I cut straight through buildings—and not always through doors or windows.
Faster. Faster!
In my head, it was as if a small ticking bomb had taken root, counting down the last moments of my life. And only one thought pounded through my mind—just make it in time!
A mad marathon I would never want to relive, with a monstrous abomination on my heels. Thanks to its sheer mass and writhing tentacles, it built up terrifying speed and smashed through any obstacle. Among ordinary zombies, I didn't even bother weaving anymore—I simply barreled through them with my bulk, used lampposts to pivot directions, and cars became makeshift springboards for long jumps.
Another street. Another crowd of mindless zombies scattering like bowling pins, not even slowing me down—only to be swallowed by the mass behind.
A dive through a window—no braking, no searching for an exit. At full acceleration, only shielding my face with my arms, I smashed through a wall. Then another. A burst—and I was outside again.
I kicked off the pavement, vaulted a car, caught the tongue of a Licker flying at me, and without stopping or turning, ripped it off the wall and flung it behind me—where, no more than fifty meters away, give or take ten, thundered a mass of flesh and tentacles.
Once again I burst onto a wide street, weaving through new turns. Damn these redheads; there are more of them everywhere! And the cars—always in the way! Occasionally I passed barricades erected a few days ago by police officers who were still alive back then. They stirred a dull anger inside me.
Another turn. A burst forward. Faster, pushing every ounce my body could give. And then the realization…
I was too late.
A low hum rolled across the city. A missile, leaving a trail behind it and shining against the backdrop of the sunrise, was already hurtling toward the city.
This is the end, Cain.
What the hell end? Been there—done that. barely twenty minutes ago I almost kicked the bucket, nearly let myself be eaten!
Speaking of being eaten…
Nemesis, closing in behind me, you are, as I recall, survived two direct hits from the gauss gun in canon. Before that, you lost your head and both arms and kept fighting to the last. Then you fell into a vat of acid—and crawled out looking like a beauty queen. And here, too, you've been blasted with high voltage and shrugged it off like nothing. I wonder how heat-resistant you are? In your first form, as I recall, you walked away from a grenade explosion without so much as a scratch. And you survived that earlier missile strike that wiped out almost an entire city block.
Come here, big guy. Uncle won't hurt you!
I spun sharply, crushing concrete underfoot, and charged straight at Nemesis's bulk. A leap—and I hurled myself into the writhing mass of tentacles, refusing to be dragged into its maw, slashing with my claws.
I carved a path inward.
Severed tentacles. Sliced flesh. Bit into meat.
I must have swallowed not only blood and venom but also sent meat to my stomach. I'd probably throw up later, but the main thing is to survive, and I'll get through the stomach upset somehow.
I burrowed deeper and deeper into the flesh, acting under acceleration.
After some time, resistance faded—I had plunged into Nemesis's body. The creature had frozen in agony.
Not enough. Not nearly enough!
I kept hacking and digging, striving to bury myself in the very center of its mass.
And from somewhere outside came a roar—and a blinding light that reached even me, hidden deep within Nemesis's body.
Now it's done, Cain.
You did what you could.
Let whatever will be, will be.
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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