But I wasn't allowed to enjoy dinner in peace. There was a knock on the door. I had to go open it. The Wolf was on the other side, who immediately went to the kitchen, sitting down at the table. By this time, the Hunter had come out at the noise and also took a seat at the table. The leader of the newcomers reached into his wide chest pocket and pulled out a communicator, which looked much cooler than mine.
"Here," he hands it to me. "Father Valerian wants to talk to you; there's no normal connection, only by text."
"Can you text on this PDA in the stalker network?" I ask. "Mine doesn't have that function."
"Well, yours is the most ancient," the Wolf explains with a slight smile. "Maps, notes, and the ability to view some messages from the open network channel. But in cooler models, like mine, you can communicate with other stalkers. Both in the general channel and in private."
"What does Valerian want?" the Hunter interjects into the conversation.
"To ask an eyewitness what happened," the Wolf shrugs. "He doesn't particularly believe that a female bloodsucker, if it was female, is pregnant; he says they don't have external reproductive organs, and their sex can't be determined. But Father Valerian still considers the situation quite extraordinary. Nothing more dangerous than boars has ever been found on the Cordon, and now this is happening."
"Uh-huh," I grunt, sitting on a free chair. "No sex organs, but the bloodsucker population isn't decreasing. What stops them from reproducing through their tentacles? They're not fully studied anyway. Injecting seminal fluid into a partner or spraying 'roe,' and then... What?"
"Are you a biologist or something?" the Wolf asks, looking at me strangely.
"No," I reply. "Basic school biology course, that's it. I'm writing to Father Valerian."
Wolf, 19:37.
Father Valerian?
Father Valerian, 19:38.
Greetings, Executioner. I have a few questions, will you answer them?
Wolf, 19:38.
Of course. What interests you?
Father Valerian, 19:38.
Why are you sure there are two bloodsuckers?
Wolf, 19:40.
Atypical behavior for these mutants. It wanted to leave the prey "fresh" instead of drinking it immediately. It didn't pursue the fleeing stalker. Tishka's corpse was found on the second floor of the elevator; the stairs there are terrible; there's no point dragging food there if it can be consumed immediately.
Father Valerian, 19:41.
Did you notice any signs of a second mutant?
Wolf, 19:41.
Besides the second bite on the corpse - no.
Father Valerian, 19:42.
Good. I'll send a couple of my guys to check what's what. If they find anything, I'll write to Wolf. Goodbye, Executioner.
"What did he want?" the pale Hunter asks when I hand the communicator back to its owner.
"Nothing much," I begin to explain. "He just wanted to know why I thought there might be two of them, said he'd send stalkers to check the elevator and, if necessary, write to Wolf."
"By the way, Executioner," the village leader says. "You promised to help me, right? Can you gather the guys and tell them about the second bloodsucker? Say, another one has appeared, so we'll have to stay quiet for a couple more days. And I'll go to Sidorovich and ask about food."
I nod silently and a few minutes later head out of the house. Gathering the stalkers on the street wasn't too difficult; people are used to such gatherings. Some grumbled because they had already gone to bed, but oh well. I count all the stalkers; there are fifteen of them, as the Wolf said.
"Why did you gather us?" Pukh begins. "And what's this emergency situation?"
"Yeah," another stalker supports him. "You dealt with the bloodsucker; everyone saw that. What else could have happened?"
"Quiet, guys," I say before they start chattering. "An unforeseen and truly emergency situation has occurred. There might have been two bloodsuckers."
"Might have been?" someone from the crowd asks. "You and the Hunter aren't sure?"
"Yes. During the inspection of the scene and the corpse itself, indirect evidence was found that suggests the presence of another leech. Tomorrow, Father Valerian, the leader of the base beyond the bridge, will send a couple of his guys to check everything there. Until then, it's best to stay in the camp."
"And what about those who have no money left?" a voice from the crowd asks, echoed by several others. "Are we supposed to starve and wait until you guys sort it out? Isn't it easier for us to gather and kill the creature, huh? Are we men or did we just come to pee? We'll kill it together, and that's that."
The stalkers started getting worked up, and it's understandable. Almost everyone here, one way or another, gathered for profit. And no one wanted to sit in the camp for an unknown amount of time, waiting for the problem to be solved. Especially since an outsider newcomer easily dealt with this mutant, so why couldn't they handle it?
"There will be supplies; the Wolf is arranging with Sidorovich," I interrupt the crowd's murmur loudly. "As for the idea of killing the bloodsucker together – it won't work. It's unlikely to attack a large group of people; it will wait for the right moment. And you won't be able to always walk in a group yourselves."
"Why won't we be able to?" another stalker unknown to me asks.
"And will you share the loot among everyone? There aren't many artifacts here, and they're not particularly valuable," I spread my hands. "Will you share a few thousand among four or five people, or even more? And how much will each get, less than a thousand in hand? And how is that, financially sound? I can see from your faces that it's not. Therefore, someone will inevitably decide that they can go alone, without extra partners, and they will simply be eaten."
"Then you go and deal with it yourself, if you're so smart."
"Exactly! You already took down one, you should be able to handle the second one too."
"I killed it, you're right," I say, looking around the crowd. "But the Hunter got injured, and I won't go alone."
"So what do we do?"
"Wait for Father Valerian's people to check the elevator," the Wolf says, appearing and approaching the stalkers. "Don't worry about food; it will be provided. If I find out that someone from the camp has gone more
than ten meters away, that someone will regret not being eaten by the bloodsucker. Understood? Everyone dismissed."
And the stalkers began to disperse in all directions. Some went to the campfire, some went home. I walk closer to the leader of the newcomers and see that he has a tense expression on his face. Frowning eyebrows, an angry look. Something happened with Sidorovich.
"Did he demand a lot for his help?" I ask him.
"Enough," the Wolf exhales angrily. "The merchant demanded fifty thousand for provisions for a week."
"Fifty?" I ask in surprise. "Isn't that a lot?"
"That's still cheap," the stalker replies. "If it weren't for this whole bloodsucker situation, this pleasure would have cost me seventy grand, or more. And so I've gathered a hundred and forty cans of stewed meat, a hundred kilograms of pasta, and fifty kilograms of buckwheat. That's one can of stewed meat, three hundred and fifty grams of dry pasta, and buckwheat per stalker per day for seven days."
"Wow," he even whistled, never thinking that feeding so many people was quite expensive.
"You can say that again," Wolf chuckles. "Sidor is even willing to give it to me on credit, only the interest is insane. I'll have about twenty grand, and I won't be able to collect it from the rookies, they don't have that much, even if they all chip in. I'll have to work it off..."
And silence fell. After a moment's thought, I reached into the breast pocket of my jacket, pulled out five thousand, almost all the money I had left, and handed it to Wolf. He looked at me in confusion. I really didn't want to part with the money, but it was necessary. And the service rendered to an experienced stalker would cost much more than these five thousand.
"It's not much, but take it, it'll help somehow," I took the stalker's hand in mine and placed the money in his palm. "And ask the Hunter, maybe he can add something. It's better to owe him than Sidorovich."
"Thank you, Executioner," he replied after a slight pause, and shook my hand firmly. "Thank you, and you're right. I didn't want to borrow from my own, but there's no other choice. The Hunter won't demand interest, at least..."
The next morning began with unpleasant news. The Hunter had fallen ill. Badly. Shortness of breath, cough, and even a runny nose with a fever. The bloodsucker's wound under the bandage looked painfully red and inflamed. I even had to run to Sidorovich for medicine, taking money from the Hunter. The antipyretic couldn't bring down the fever, but at least it stopped rising.
"Kha-kha-kha," the stalker coughed. "How... did I get into this..."
"Probably from the bloodsucker," I said quietly, sitting by the Hunter's bed on a small stool and changing another cold compress.
The old man's room was quite cozy. A large double bed with a thick mattress, a nightstand with a photo of two very similar men with weapons in their hands, apparently the Hunter himself with his son. And a wardrobe. The rest of the room's furnishings were no different from other rooms. The same wallpaper and the same floor.
"Other hunters, kha, were also bitten," he said with slight pauses after his words. "And nothing, they didn't get sick..."
"Either it's age, or this one was contagious," I shrugged, wiping the sweat from the stalker's face. "You need to rest, try to sleep. If anything, call me, I'll be home."
I got up from the stool and left the room, closing the door behind me. I walked straight to the stove and put the kettle on to brew herbs. At least it would be of some use to the old man. I sat down at the table and pondered. I could never have imagined that a mutant's bite could have such consequences; it wasn't like that in the game. But on the other hand, this is not a game here and now, why should everything follow the game's laws? I'll have to buy at least some antiviral medicine at the first opportunity, and vitamins too.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and I had to go open it. It was the grim Wolf, who silently walked past into the house and settled in the kitchen. I closed the door behind him and went to him. The stalker was already sitting at the chair and tapping his fingers on the tabletop.
"How is he?" he asked briefly, nodding towards the back of the house.
"Bad," I took the boiling kettle and poured herbal tea into three cups. "Cough, fever won't go down."
"Things..." the stalker replied quietly, paused, took a sip of tea, and continued. "We can't leave him like this."
"We can't," I nodded in confirmation. "But what are the options? There are no hospitals or doctors here, and going north is also not an option, it's too long and dangerous, the Hunter might not last that long."
"There's a chance," he said, setting his cup aside. "But we'll have to take a risk."
"Take a risk? How?"
"Go to the Swamps and try to find a stalker there. He's one of the druids."
"Druids?" I raised an eyebrow, I had never heard of such a faction.
"Yes, special guys," Wolf said. "They believe the Zone reacts to electronics, so they go around without it. They are extremely rare guests in this part of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone; they come more from the direction of Belarus."
"And how is this druid supposed to help the Hunter?"
"One of the experienced stalkers said that a Shaman settled on the outskirts of the Swamps," he explained. "He himself was wounded during a raid and thought he wouldn't survive. But this Shaman healed him. He cured him with local herbs."
"Does this experienced stalker know where the Shaman lives?" I asked the most important question.
"That stalker is no more, so," he spread his hands. "You'll have to find him, Executioner. I would have gone myself, but I can't leave the camp. I can't send the rookies, and you're a good guy, you've befriended the Hunter. You're the only one who can help him."
"But I'm also a rookie," I objected.
"And already much better than many," he replied. "You know how to avoid anomalies, and how to shoot animals. You didn't run from the bloodsucker. Who else but you? And think about it. If you decide to go, come see me, I'll show you the maps and share some provisions."