After the Hunter washed up, I helped him treat a wound that looked like a chemical burn. The skin on his collarbone was covered in white blisters and was very red, but blood was still flowing, which took a while to stop. It's a shame there's no ointment for such cases, so all the treatment was limited to washing and applying a sterile bandage. Then I took another jacket from the old man's supplies, as mine was ruined by the mutant's claws. It's the same leather jacket, and what's with the fashion of wearing such jackets here? Just a bit wider than my previous one. Then the stalker literally pushed me out of the house so I could go to the merchant and sell my trophy. And he told me not to agree to anything less than five thousand.
"Hello," I greet the merchant. "I've come to sell a trophy."
"Heh, long time no see," Sidorovich replies. "If it's hooves again, I'll take them for a hundred and fifty a piece. You know yourself, they run around here like wild pigs, heh-heh."
I silently lift the bloodsucker's head and place it on the table right in front of the merchant. He reluctantly turns away from the computer, his eyes widen, and he almost jumps from surprise. I didn't think anything could surprise him.
"Whoa!" the merchant exclaims. "Where did you get that?"
"It killed one of the newcomers at the elevator," by the way, I should go and look for Tishka's body; he wasn't in that building, and it wasn't convenient to search then. "I had to go hunting with the Hunter, and here it is."
"And why the hell did you cut off its head?"
"It just happened," I say and decide to warn him. "I wouldn't recommend grabbing it by the tentacles, though. The Hunter has a burn all over his collarbone, and we barely managed to stop the bleeding. How much will you take for it?"
"Don't teach your elders, kid," he replies. "Such a specimen, mmm, I think I'll take it for about six thousand. I'll sell it to some collector or scientists. Deal?"
"Deal," I agree. It turned out to be a bit more than I expected. "I don't need the goods, I'll take cash."
"Yeah, right," Sidorovich says, getting up from his chair, and goes into another room. He returns with a blue container labeled "Human Organs for Transplantation." I raise an eyebrow at the sight of it. "What did you think? I'd put a head on a shelf just like that?"
"I'm just surprised by the label on the container," I spread my hands.
"Well, why invent something new when there's already a ready-made solution," and, putting on latex gloves, the merchant puts the head into the container full of ice. Then he takes off the gloves, pulls money from his vest pocket, and hands it to me. "Exactly six grand. You want to count it?"
"No, goodbye," and I head for the exit of Sidorovich's bunker.
Returning home, I check on the Hunter; he's already peeling potatoes for dinner. I take out the money and give half to the old man. He looks at me with surprise but accepts the money. I'd like to keep it all, but no. He's already done more for me than this three thousand. He gave me a good rifle, took me in, and is teaching me.
"I want to go back to the elevator to look for Tishka," I tell the Hunter. "It's not right to leave him like that."
"You're right, kid, you're right," the Hunter replies. "Go, and take that idiot who was with Tishka. Let him help carry. I'll go to the Wolf and ask him to have the newcomers dig a grave."
Before going outside, I spend some time checking my weapons. I wouldn't want my pistol or my TOZ to jam at a crucial moment because of the dirt that got into the barrel. But it was fine; the TOZ was clean, and the Fort was only dirty on the outside. I wipe it down and go to find the red-haired stalker's companion.
He's sitting alone by one of the campfires. The dejected guy is sitting right on the ground, with his knees pulled close to his chest and his face buried in them. I approach and place my hand on his shoulder; he flinches and lifts his face. Pale, eyes teary and red from burst capillaries, his short brown hair is disheveled.
"Want to go with me for Tishka's body? Help me carry it," I offer.
"Y-yes," he says, sniffling. "Are you okay with that?"
"Okay with what?"
"Well, me," the stalker says and looks away. "The others don't pay attention to me anymore, saying I'm unworthy. Abandoned my best friend in trouble and ran away."
"But you're alive and well," I say after a slight pause. "We barely managed to deal with the creature, and..."
"No!" he exclaims, raising his voice slightly, looks at me, looks away again, and buries his nose in his knees. "If I hadn't run, I could have helped, we could have escaped together..."
"Don't," I pat his shoulder. "History doesn't like hypotheticals. 'If this, if that.' If you had stayed there, there would likely have been many more than two corpses. Thanks to you, we learned that there was a bloodsucker at the elevator. And we killed it before it could kill anyone else. I feel sorry for your friend, but this is the Zone. And the only thing we can do for him is to bury him properly before mutants drag his body away. So, are you going to help me or continue moping?"
"I-I'll help," he says, stuttering slightly, agreeing for the second time, slowly getting up from the ground. "My name is Nik."
"And I'm..." I hesitate, not daring to reveal my new nickname; it's too grand.
"And you're the Executioner, I heard," Nik says. "Thank you. Both for Tishka and... for this."
Then we silently headed towards the elevator. I walked ahead, Nik, armed with a sawn-off TOZ, was behind. I don't know what my temporary companion was thinking, but my thoughts were probably much more mundane. I need Tishka's PDA, and maybe money, if any is found. But searching him in front of Nik would be impolite, and carrying him back to camp alone would be difficult.
It was already starting to get dark, and the sky, from the setting sun, had taken on red hues. Beautiful. And, in general, the Zone is very beautiful. Trees, flowers, and bushes growing freely here and there. Nature taking its course, overgrown with numerous abandoned buildings. And the general spirit of abandonment fascinates me. But at the same time, it makes me grip my rifle tighter. Dangerous beauty.
"Shall we split up?" I say as soon as we reach the elevator. "The sooner we find him, the better. We need to get back to camp before dark."
"O-of course," Nik says with feigned bravery, and I notice how pale he is and how white his knuckles are on the weapon.
"Then I'll check this building," I nod towards the two-story structure. "You look around the area; if you see anything, shout immediately."
"Understood," he replies.
And we part ways. I head for the entrance to the grain elevator building, bypassing the stairs to the second floor; it's better to start with the first. I step over the threshold and see huge piles of construction debris in front of me. A pile of dust, broken bricks, and some junk. In the center of the room are two huge metal structures, long since rusted without proper maintenance. They were probably used for sorting grain or something else, I don't know. I take a few more steps forward and notice a black spot on a thick layer of dust out of the corner of my eye. A guess dawns on me; I look up and see the stalker's body lying on the metal floor made of grating.
I quickly leave the building and go up the stairs to at least transfer the data from the PDA. Possible anomaly maps or marked trails are valuable, but it's not good to do it openly. I don't want to tarnish my reputation by being willing to search the corpses of comrades who are not yet cold.
Tishka lies on his back, arms spread. The horizontal shotgun on his belt, which he didn't have time to use, rests nearby. The stalker's skin has become very pale, almost white. His eyes are wide open, and his face is frozen in an expression of agony. He died horribly. I start looking for Tishka's communicator before Nik, who was in the second building when I went up the stairs, sees it. Found it. I turn it on and immediately start transferring data via Bluetooth; I'll figure out what's what later. As soon as I finish, I put the PDA back in my pants pocket, from which I took it.
"Nik, come up, I found him!" I call out to the stalker, stepping onto the stairs. "Let's bring him down, and then we'll figure out how to carry him to the village."
We somehow managed to bring Tishka down the narrow stairs, and we laid him on the ground between the two buildings. I couldn't help but wonder how the bloodsucker managed to drag the body up there alone? And why? I glance at Tishka and notice something strange. There were two bite marks. On his left arm, from which blood was dripping onto the ground, and on his neck. I look at the slightly out-of-breath Nik.
"Nik, do you remember where the mutant latched on when it attacked you?" I ask him.
"Right on the neck," he replies, straightening his back. "Why?"
"Then I have bad news," I raise my rifle and start looking around.
"What happened?!" he exclaims, also raising his sawn-off shotgun.
"We need to get out of here, and fast. There's only one bloodsucker, and there are two bites on the body. And I don't like it. Grab the body and let's go!"
I see Nik turn very pale, but he nods and, slinging the sawn-off shotgun over his shoulder, grabs Tishka by the legs. I also put my rifle away and grab the body by the arms, lifting it with the stalker. We walk back much slower than we'd like because we keep looking around and taking short breaks. Dogs howled somewhere in the distance, and the sun had almost set below the horizon. It got darker with every minute. But we made it. As we
approached the camp, several newcomers ran out of the village and took the body from our hands. I look for the Wolf and find him in conversation with the Hunter, sitting on one of the village benches. I quickly walk towards them.
"Ah, Executioner," the Wolf begins. "How did it go? We, by the way, discussed with the guys and decided to give Tishka's things to..."
"Not now," I interrupt him and look into the eyes of the Hunter, who looks a bit worse than before. His skin has turned gray, and he looks gaunt. "How often do bloodsuckers leave food for later? And how often do they gather in packs?"
"Leave food for later," he says, thinking and recalling something. "No, never, or it'll escape, or die from its wounds. They like fresh meat. They drink blood alive; they don't touch dead bodies. They often gather in packs, but single individuals are encountered much more often. You're not suggesting there are two bloodsuckers, are you? If that were the case, we wouldn't have gotten out alive."
"Tishka has marks from two bites," I reply, sitting down next to him. "I don't know what to think, but there are indeed two of them. One on the neck, the second on the shoulder. And this is atypical behavior for a solitary individual."
"Wait, wait, wait," the Wolf interjects. "You think there are two bloodsuckers, right? But why didn't they attack you both then? And only one attacked Tishka and Nik."
"The one we killed," I reply after a moment's thought, "could have been guarding a weakened or starving individual. It drank blood itself, and then let the other one drink, otherwise why drag the corpse to the second floor via the stairs? Not to mention two bites when a bloodsucker could have drained Tishka in one go. So, the second one..."
"The second one was recovering in another building at that time," the Hunter picks up. "We didn't check anything, we just left, damn it!"
"Hunter," the leader of the newcomers says to the old man after a pause. "Do you know how bloodsuckers reproduce? It's one thing if the second leech was wounded, but if..."
"We need to contact Valerian urgently," the Hunter hits his thigh. "If it's really a pregnant bloodsucker, then stalker life on the Cordon might come to an end."
"The stalker network has just started working," the Wolf nods. "But what do we do about the village? There are no defenses, and the only ones we can truly trust are you, me, and the Executioner. I'm sure if it weren't for him, the others would have dismissed the oddities."
"First things first, we need to bury the body," the old man replies. "Then we need to go to Sidorovich and arrange for provisions. With all this going on, we'll have to stop hunting. It's a shame we didn't take those boars; who knew it would turn out like this? And anyway, who among us is the leader of the village, you or me? Get to it."
"Understood," the stalker replies, getting up from the bench. "Let's go, Executioner, I'll give you Tishka's gear. And then we'll decide what to do..."
"I'll help," and I lightly pat the Wolf on the shoulder. He gives me a long look and nods.
The Wolf and I walk to his house, and there he hands me a rather light bag with Tishka's belongings. It's unlikely there's anything particularly valuable in it, but it certainly won't hurt. Then the leader of the newcomers went to Sidorovich to arrange for provisions. And I decided to visit the local cemetery, which was located a few dozen meters from the village. A small stalker procession was already burying the body under one of the several crosses. But I didn't stay there; my stomach rumbled loudly, so I went home almost immediately.