"What? I'm alive? Cain? And you've changed, Sire… WHAT? What's wrong with me?" Four Eyes immediately began to hysterically ramble. Well, that wouldn't do—though she was understandable, having gone through so much over the past few days, especially the last half-day. But the sobering slap had the opposite effect.
"I'm not in pain… I don't feel any pain! What have you done to me, you bastard!" She jabbed me in the stomach with her rifle.
"I turned you. I had no choice—or rather, the choice was clearly not in your favor. It was either death, and considering the place of death, a subsequent existence as a regular zombie… or this. And you have to admit, this option isn't so bad," I replied philosophically.
"Not so bad? Are you aware that we're both now directly dependent on the serum with the G-virus? And Nemesis won't work for us. To be honest, I tricked you so you'd fight him without hesitation—that's why I said what I did last time. As it is, it still the same T-virus! We either have to find the intact serum in the lab or fight a monster even stronger than Nemesis, who's already flattened everyone." She blurted it all out, though she was in no hurry to pull the trigger.
"If need be, we'll fight. There are two of us now, and we're both much stronger than humans. And I've clearly gone through my first evolution, so even someone as defective as me should have improved characteristics," I replied calmly.
"How easy it is for you to say… Do you understand that we're both monsters now? And ones that both humans and other infected will attack? And judging by what I called you—and the fact that I can't shoot… believe me, I tried twice—my transformation into an infected has somehow affected me. It was quite possible this was just banal imprinting, but it could also be something more complicated. You know, I understand your desire to keep a scientist by your side, but I don't want to be a monster!" And now the muzzle of the rifle was pressed against her lower jaw. No, this wouldn't do.
There is, of course, a way to stop a human woman's hysteria. And despite her physical changes, her consciousness should still be mostly human, so it might work. Or it might not.
Lean forward and kiss the girl.
Hmm. She doesn't push me away and doesn't seem to resist at all—but she doesn't respond either. Which is understandable; roughly speaking, she was just kissed by a half-corpse. Still, it's definitely better than hysterics and depression. And most importantly!! I felt her lips!
"What are you…?" Four Eyes said sluggishly, eyeing me warily as she moved back and pointed her weapon at me again. As for me? Nothing—I was just digesting the experience, because aside from blood, it was the first time I'd felt anything.
"I just felt that kiss… damn, how I missed those feelings!" I smiled happily—no, with my jaw and fangs, only the word grinned would be appropriate.
"But I didn't feel anything. And I even have a theory why. You drank my blood very recently, and when you consume human blood, you become—as I already explained—'conditionally alive,' at least more alive than without blood. Without it at all, you risk becoming another infected, albeit with strange abilities. But as we saw, Nemesis would smear you across the wall. I didn't feel anything because my blood was inside you. In other words, my blood was already drunk, and no new blood has arrived yet. Damn it! Now I'll have to go on a hemoglobin diet too!" At the end of this tirade, Four Eyes hit on the knee with the butt of her rifle. Knee cracked and seemed to break—and so did the rifle butt.
"Be more careful, alrught? Otherwise, I think something like a fatherly instinct is awakening in me… or not quite fatherly," I said, helping the grumbling girl to her feet as she mourned the loss of her rifle, whose barrel was also bent. Someone had miscalculated their strength. Yeah, I understood her—I'd learned to control myself only after earning more than a dozen fractures.
"And yes, we can test your theory. There's a living representative of the government squad lying unconscious below us, and apparently no one has tried to eat her yet. I'm already full—overfull, judging by the feast down there. But you need it. Especially the first time. Believe me, the first hunger really messes with your brain," I added.
"You want me to eat a human… um, drink blood. No. I've had to kill before, but to do that… I'm a mercenary, not a crazy cannibal!" Four Eyes said, though by the end her voice trembled.
"And you're not human. I'm sorry to remind you, but the sooner you come to terms with it, the easier it'll be for you," I said, looking her straight in the eye.
"I'm not… okay. Let's at least go down first." She finally regenerated her leg and tried to climb onto me, but I stopped her with a gesture.
"And you can't do it yourself?"
"Are you kidding? This is the ninth floor!" she snapped—and only then did it dawn on her.
"Yes. Even if this height is a bit too much for your legs right now, first of all, this parameter will start to grow after injury—you said so yourself. And the main thing is not to fall headfirst. The rest is trivial," I replied, not bothering to mention another point. Unfortunately, I hadn't taken into account that my interlocutor was far from stupid.
(End of Chapter)
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