Angelus took the emergency elevator down two levels below. Two main elevators crossed all floors of the laboratory, but they did not want to work. Why it was unclear, most likely that creature broke. Creature! He remembered her again. What was that?? The light around her was just being absorbed… Or it seemed to him. No, it didn’t seem, it couldn’t. He clearly saw IT approaching. But the darkness was only a disguise, a mask, a cover for what was really in it. Those two piercing red eyes… Immediately a shiver ran down my spine, just remembering them. No, don’t remember, don’t think about it. Think about the task! Yes task! The path was not close now, we will have to use workarounds.
Ange fell out of the elevator and looked around the hall. It’s a small hall, unremarkable, just think, three scientists lying with headrabs on their heads. What a miracle… Strange heads, of course, a little larger than usual and with long yellow legs. And all covered with sharp plates. The bodies of the scientists, it should be noted, were covered with yellow pimples… Ange took aim and… the zombie jumped to the side! What a bastard! He was already on the ceiling! Well, hurry up! And those two also stood up and staggered towards him, from both sides. Angel tried to shoot one of them, but he jumped to the side as soon as he came under the gun. This was not enough yet! Smart Zombie! Although which one is a zombie then?. This is not the time for such debates.
Realizing that things were bad, Edge fired a burst without aiming at the creature on the ceiling. She didn’t expect this and several bullets broke her arm, or already her paw. Two have already come close and now they will hit… But to hell with you! Ange hit the headcrab with all his might with his right hand, throwing the machine gun over his shoulder, and at the same time hit the headcrab of another zombie with his left foot. My hand hurt terribly. Crap! Yes, he has armor plates right. But the leg was able to knock the second head off his body, although not kill him. The agent dodged the blow and now responded with a rifle butt and a point-blank shot… The bullet got stuck between the plates. And the zombie on the ceiling was already jumping at him… Angelus immediately jumped, rolling to the side and almost fell under the headcrab’s jump, but fired in time. Yeah! Where is their weak point?! Their mouth is not armored, luckily for their enemies, woe for the headcrabs. Now it was clear how to act. Dodging the blows of the zombies, which were moving quite quickly, he grabbed the headcrabs and pulled them with all his might. They sat firmly, but not strong enough and ended up on the floor. Their strong shells hit the floor and one of them turned over, immediately receiving a bullet. The second one turned out to be luckier and more cunning. Once on the floor, he began to run behind Ainge, but he also had to constantly turn around. Finally the confrontation ended and the head was hit by a burst from a machine gun. It was thrown away, leaving deep furrows. The headcrab realized that the force was not on his side and disappeared around the corner.
Angelus followed him and saw him hiding in the ventilation.
That’s it… What. What, here it is. There are no words. Scientists didn’t eat bread for nothing if they were able to create smart headcrabs, eliminating most of its shortcomings. Ange sat upright on the floor, catching his breath. If everything goes on like this, then he won’t get to his destination… Where was the laboratory for creating and improving weapons for combines? It’s time to look there. But it’s a lower level, and there’s still more sawing and sawing… Unfortunately, Ange didn’t take the saw with him, but it probably would have helped against these heads and zombies more than a machine gun. Better yet, a knife or ax. But no, no trial.
The agent stood up and checked his supplies, half a horn. Well, there are a few more left, so we can fight. The corridor was narrow and had glass walls through which the offices were visible. Here is the first one, there are flasks in it with headcrabs inside. Here are the usual ones, here are the fast ones and the poisonous ones. Must be contained as gene raw material. And then it’s more interesting – the same armored heads that he met, seemingly sluggish and not surprising them in battle, Ange would never have believed that they could move so quickly. It also seemed like empty flasks… Although no, there seemed to be gas in there, or something like that… Wow, they were also armored… Although these ones are not the same anymore, a little more massive, it’s even hard to imagine it on the head and sand-colored with a seemingly harder shell. Further on one could see heaps of broken glass and several dead heads. Yeah, this is where the creatures escaped and judging by the glass, there were so many of them… Suddenly, Angel got an idea, he looked around the room and saw a terminal. There must be information there… Any knowledge is power, the main thing is to be able to apply it. Not noticing the Heads in the room, he went inside, opening the same glass door as the walls. He inserted a flash drive and immediately began writing all the information related to research onto it… Some hissing distracted him. Turning around he found nothing. But no, it couldn’t seem, nothing happens here for nothing. Ange began to move his eyes… Damn, nothing happened! Still, my nerves began to play out… That sound again. Now he knew for sure that the head was somewhere here. Glancing at the terminal, he pulled out the storage medium and put it around his neck. He looked around again and began to quietly, step by step, approach the exit… It was an unconscious gesture, which however saved his life. Instinct said duck down – and he ducked down. A gray creature, the same color as the floor, flew overhead. She landed on the table, among a pile of papers, and immediately began to change color, becoming half brown, half white with blue squiggles. Headcrab chameleon. Edge stated the fact and shot at this miracle of genetics. This creature was created for surprise, and what kind of zombies will there be… It’s scary to think, now we need to look more carefully and even look closely at the walls.
Going out into the corridor he examined two other rooms. One contained cryogenic chambers with zombies; due to his superstition, Enju did not go there. The second was something like an enclosure for heads, where one could follow the life of these “cute” creatures in the “natural” environment of the Earth.
The corridor turned sharply and led further forward. There were ordinary office rooms here, judging by the signs, where scientists probably simply carried out calculations, as well as an embryonic hall where new creatures were grown. Somewhere in the middle of the corridor, groans were heard… Well, yes, how could we do without them… From behind, a broken door slammed on the floor and a hunchbacked figure leaned out… Covered in a grayish shell… I wonder how much it takes to build up a zombie shell and how big it is. This zombie clearly wasn’t interested in such things. He just began to get closer, and the bullets bounced off him as if from metal. Having not come up with anything smarter, the agent simply ran to meet the reincarnation, he approached with a deadly hug, but Ange quickly kicked with all his might in a roundhouse. The creature swayed, but it resisted and even managed to respond with a blow, which, of course, did not reach the target. Now jump, using the opponent’s shoulder as a support and also kick from behind to the head. The zombie began to turn around and Ange jumped over his back without any problems and clung to his headcrab. This is power! He seemed to have simply grown to his new body, but he managed to deviate him a little. He stuck a metal disk from his sleeve into this gap, trying to cut off the head. The whole reincarnation shuddered and fell, and the evil creature, nicknamed the head of the crab, tried to limp away. But that was not the case. The kick turned her over and a sharp object flew straight into her mouth, piercing right into her shell.
Angelus wiped his sweat and pulled out his shaken.
– It’s fun, guys, living with you, however. – he said, wiping away the blood and returning it back to his sleeve.
And ahead you could see a hall, another hall, it seemed like there was nothing special about it, but something was alarming… Approaching it, for some reason my vision became cloudy. Shadow focused his gaze and realized what was going on. The zombie, or more precisely, the headcrab, also realized that things smelled fried. Separating himself from the wall, he jumped forward, but just a few centimeters short, he fell to the floor, pouring yellow blood from his crab head all over everything.
Ange wiped his face and looked around again… Quickly bending down, he rolled back, dodging another chameleon and immediately released, but the machine gun pitifully spat out one bullet and clicked emptyly. The reincarnate was again nearby, striking from above. Grabbing his paw at the base, the agent threw the chameleon over himself and, while he was turning back, took out Makarov and fired from it. Two accurate bullets were enough for the head and he fell down. The angel reloaded the machine gun and leaned against the wall in the corner again took a break. More nervous than physical, just to relieve the nerves. Of course, he had to kill both ordinary and fast zombies, and even poisonous ones. I had to outwit civil defense officers, rebels, and even soldiers. But he had never had such intense battles before. When the enemy has such superior capabilities. “Well, Gina promised to complete the design of the costume. So, I won’t take a step from the headquarters until I have it,” thought Ange, remembering this woman. So pretty, although already aged, there was still something about her… She had to design costumes specifically for agents. It should be noted that she had been working on them for a long time, but something was constantly not going well for her. Either other developments or personal problems. But now I’m taking it seriously. Maybe something good will come of it..
Raven looked at the scene of https://cryptowinscasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ the massacre and could not believe it. I couldn’t believe there was such a thing that could do this. The entire detachment died at the entrance and there were no traces… More precisely, there were traces, and even a lot, but they didn’t say anything. It was impossible to determine who or what did this. Did a squad of soldiers die from a creature that definitely waved them off?. Or simply tasted their blood… Yes, blood, because there was not a drop of blood. Where else could she go, if not become food for this… this… in general, this something thirsted for blood and got it.
But what to do now? Raven clearly wanted to leave here, but… something was holding him back. What? Some Alliance instruction in the chip, fear of shame in front of his soldiers, curiosity, or simply the hypnotic influence of these corridors… One thing, or all of them at once, kept him here and did not let him leave. Go further and deeper, to where the zombie chameleons lurk, to where this creature is, where there are still a lot of mysteries and secrets… Step… Another step… The squad followed him. Of course they followed him, his squad, his soldiers, his… children. For every commander, his soldiers are his children. They only knew him for a day, but they followed him. Although they really had no other way. The corridor stretched on and on… Near one of the offices, Raven noted bulletproof glass with a dent. Yes, it was definitely that creature… Why a creature and not a creature. He didn’t know, but he felt it.
Why does the Alliance need such toys?? Why create and invent things that you yourself will regret later?. Like a child who pulled out a small stone from under a rubble, that small pebble on which all this fragile support stood and the whole rubble falls on him with a terrible weight… Why?? Why be so belligerent? Why can’t science be turned to more useful peaceful things?? Why turn people into stalkers?? Is it really so difficult to create robots… Why make stuffed animals out of living beings… Yes, stuffed animals, only these can still move. It’s like killing a wolf, taking out the bones and replacing them with steel, replacing the mosk with an integrated circuit, replacing the muscles with hydraulic systems, and the heart with a battery… This is an evil toy. Very angry. Playing with the body of the deceased… In principle, it doesn’t matter to him, but… If you put yourself in his place, then… It’s better to burn. Yes, I’m tired of burning into the dust and gunpowder from which we were born and into which we will go. Why kick someone who has fallen?? Why stab in the back? Why you can’t shake hands with the winner, even if he’s your opponent? No, you need to be in the enemy’s back when he is sleeping, when his sentries are lying with their throats cut. When a seventeen-year-old girl, who ended up among the rebels only because her parents were in the resistance when she was not even seven, lies with a punctured lung and suffocates, looking with eyes that no longer see into the night sky. The sky, where there are so many stars that drag her soul towards them… And a pool of blood highlights her dead white face with black scattered hair..
This memory came out of nowhere. Raven had never tried to remember what happened before the operation, but now he remembered… He remembered how he bent over this girl, how a tear flowed down his cheek, because she was completely unarmed and a plea could be read in her frightened eyes. And a soldier approached him from behind, raising his weapon for a control shot..
The officer’s heart sank from the melancholy that he was experiencing then, and it suddenly reminded of itself, as vividly as it was then… He could not remember anything else. I haven’t been able to yet. But where does he get such dangerous thoughts about the Alliance?? This place was clearly not ordinary, it did something to him.
After all this self-immersion, Raven found himself at the elevator. The call button did not call anything. Apparently it’s broken.
— Screw, what’s wrong with the emergency elevator??
– Doesn’t work.
– So you have to go down the stairs.
And according to plan, for some reason she was not nearby, but further. I had to walk several dozen subways along the corridor until the door to the stairs appeared..
– What is this?! – exclaimed the soldier covering the rear.
Everyone turned around and saw the lights turning off behind them one by one.
– Quickly, here! – the officer shouted, opening the nearest door to the office and everyone, one by one, quickly began to hide there.
This was a convenient solution if we had to defend ourselves. No one would attack from behind and the entrance was only through the door and it was perfectly shot from ten guns. But at the same time they were trapped. The soldier who walked last did not have time… The lamp behind him went out and he was suddenly pulled into darkness. Raven fired a burst there, but he himself understood that the soldier was no longer alive, and disappeared into the room, closing the door.
…Darkness plunged everyone into itself. Thin rays of light from the lanterns cut several holes in it; their dim light stared there, behind the door. Silence. Dead silence. Even improved sound perception, nothing was perceived through the helmet. It seemed that time had simply stopped… A sudden blow on the door sounded unexpectedly light and quiet. And again silence. No one took their eyes off the place where it could have appeared… But it did not appear. The light appeared and everyone was silent. Nothing happened. The officer even decided that it was just his psychosis caused by what he saw, or maybe there was a hallucinogenic gas in the laboratory. Just a power outage. He had already forgotten about the soldier who had disappeared into the darkness… But when he opened the door, he remembered him again. The body lay under the doors, and it was it that hit them. The combine had no head, there was blood neither here nor in the corridor. After examining the walls, the officer found holes from his turn. None hit the target.
— Further commands? – asked the Wasp.
— We follow the plan and be more careful. – Raven answered and mentally added: “And let’s also hope that dying isn’t so painful.”. »
Angel stood in front of the door and looked at her in surprise. It seemed nothing special, an ordinary Alliance door made of a dark alloy. But not everything is so simple, neither the usual metal structure, which is easy to knock down with a pry bar, nor the mechanism that opens the electronic master key. There was a good old retinal scanner. Where in a modern laboratory, a retinal scanner? Where did they get such old stuff?. Is it old stuff?? Neither a master key nor a crowbar will help here. But you can only open it with your eye… This mechanism could have been easily hacked, but only if it had not been built into a metal wall. Access to the armory, without the right eyes, was not possible. Where can I get them?? Ange sighed, he’ll have to carry all the corpses he finds. There was, of course, an alternative, just to tear out their eyes, but he could get dirty with blood, and he wouldn’t have a change of clothes soon. He sighed again and decided that now, first of all, we need to look for this very corpse that has eyes, and then think about how to deliver them here.
He turned around and thought about where to go. To the left were rest rooms for staff, and to the right was the laboratory itself. The very phrase “weapons laboratory” was already pleasing to the ear and the choice immediately fell to the right.
The laboratory consisted of several rooms, all with the same glass walls and a shooting range, where weapons were most likely tested. The door to the shooting range was closest, and Ange walked in here. It was a very long and wide room, probably about two hundred by twenty meters. The targets were various junk, both small and large things, as well as several mannequins in body armor. There was a red button sticking out in the very corner… I wonder why people always press the red button when they see it? The question was interesting for the agent, but he did not press the button. Most likely, this is simply the activation of moving targets, and if not, then you shouldn’t press it. A quiet knocking sound attracted attention; it was a sticky zombie running across the ceiling. I wonder what he was doing at the shooting range, and even on the other side? Angelus shrugged and began to do what one should do at a shooting range – shoot at the target. The first burst successfully hit the zombie, and he fell with his head shot off. The headcrab itself did not need the head and it immediately lagged behind the body, trying to run to the shooter. But Ange shot the support for the heavy iron sheet in time, and it fell, crushing the creature.
— It’s a good shooting range, you can’t just walk in and not shoot. — the agent smiled to himself and left without waiting for new goals.
The rest of the rooms didn’t hold anything special. Draining the information available on the computer onto a flash drive, Ange also looked at various parts of the weapon and their not quite finished prototypes. Only the parts from AR2 were familiar here, the rest were most likely born and never left these walls. After downloading the information, I had to go back to the intersection. There were only rest rooms left.
The first room was a vast dining room with three long tables. On one of them lay a scientist who was being eaten by a couple of zombies. It is noteworthy that they were absolutely ordinary, and Angelus was happy about zombies for the first time in his life. It was a pleasure for him to slowly aim and fire two shots at each headcrab. The bodies collapsed, and the agent himself approached the scientist lying on the table. His eyes were filled with horror… Just what we needed… Suddenly it got colder. And then familiar chilling sensations appeared… Yes, this creature was nearby again. Angelus looked out into the corridor and saw darkness approaching at its end.
Crap! Where to run?! The dining room was a dead end! Although, no, there was a door behind the counter from which food was given out. Quickly jumping over it, the agent rushed there and ended up in a small kitchen. Old slabs and other things were clearly here before the arrival of the Alliance. I wonder if he thought the laboratory was built after his arrival… Although there is no time to think about it. We need to run further. But the next door led to a dead end, there was a refrigerator in which lay a frozen scientist. This was still not enough, the refrigerator door of which opens only on one side. You’re lucky, so what do you want to do??! Become food for an unknown creature, or freeze in the refrigerator if you don’t suffocate first.
— Think Angel! Think! – the agent muttered to himself. Meanwhile, the feeling of how it was approaching was growing.
To hell with it! Come what may! Huddled in the farthest corner, Ange checked the magazine of the machine gun and prepared to meet his fate. Come what may! He waited… but nothing happened. The lights went out in the dining room, but not in the kitchen, and after a while everything came back. And nothing! Angelus laughed hysterically. He was already thinking about saying goodbye to life, but the creature simply didn’t notice him! Suppressing the hysterical notes within himself, he took the fork from the table and went out.
… The scanner scanned the eye and the segmental doors began to open. The eye on the fork remained in Ange’s hands, he decided to take it with him inside the armory, suddenly the automatic doors locked from the inside and again demanded to scan the eyes… But all this, he forgot, having seen the warehouse from the inside. Several rows of shelves with a variety of weapons delighted his eyes and made them run away. Excitement took my breath away. The agent stopped, taking an uncertain step. Where to start equipping. From armor! Yes, you need to find a good body armor. It turns out that not only prototypes were stored here, but also spare ammunition for the complex’s security. By the way, he had never seen the corpses of guards, or he hadn’t noticed them, if the former, then it was strange. But all the thoughts later! And now is the time to deploy your equipment. Soldier armor suits were not the most suitable thing, they were tailored for combines, but not for people who do not have bulging or retracted symbiotes. And here it is nearby..
– Crap. Well, nevermind. – that’s all Edge could say when he saw a suit similar to H.E.V.
Although this similarity was only at first glance. Then other shapes became noticeable, and the material was nothing like. The suit was black, and in the semi-darkness of the arsenal it was difficult to see its details. Well, to hell with them! How did he not guess, immediately look through the information on the computer in the laboratory?! It’s okay, he’ll do it right away, but first you also need to grab yourself a gun. Walking through the rows, my gaze fell on the familiar shapes of AR2. Familiar but not very familiar, the weapon definitely resembled some of its details, such as the semi-circular magazine and grenade launcher, although this one was a little lower and stretched all the way to the end. The handle was redesigned and made it possible to shoot with one hand, if the shooter’s physical strength allowed him to lift these five kilograms of dark alloy, although in general it was intended for two hands. There was an inscription under the barrel… However, nothing surprising, AR3. This is what you would expect when you see this weapon. Angel grabbed the pulse machine and the suit dragged his prey to the computer terminal to obtain information about these things.
A wasp stood over the body of a dead zombie.
– Has anyone seen anything like this before?? – Raven asked, but in response the entire squad remained silent.
This reincarnation looked like the one that attacked the party while passing through the warehouse. His headcrab lay nearby and was clearly killed by gunfire. And this meant… in general, it didn’t mean anything new. That thing could have been killed by that rebel on the tape. Or it could have been someone else, damn you can figure out what, who and when is going on here.
— Let’s move on. We look around, open fire at any suspicious movement. – ordered RS 4.
The soldiers lined up to overcome the narrow corridor. Ahead of course was the squad leader and machine gunner.
— Grom, you used to be part of a detachment that cleared the catacombs under the city from zombies? – asked the fourth.
– Yes.
—Have you ever come across mutated headcrabs before??
– We came across. Fast and poisonous… Only..
– Just now?
– Nothing. It’s just a false thought.
— Speak. This is an order!
– Only they don’t look like mutants. In twenty years it is impossible to rebuild and change so quickly. They were changed.
– Who?
– I don’t know… But who can do it??
“We…” and Raven fell silent.
Indeed, only the Alliance on Earth had and still has enough strength and resources to genetically change creatures. Man is a rather complex organism, you cannot change him, and this requires reproduction, which humans do not have. But you can have a headcrab… Why?? Well, this is an ideal weapon – you throw a rocket at a rebel camp, some die, some become zombies, and even after a week, a month, a year, the echo of this explosion can reach you in the form of a blow from a rotten zombie hand, or a headcrab jump. But ordinary headcrabs can be placed in hundreds and they are more likely to weed out onlookers among the rebels. But they are fast and poisonous… They are truly serious opponents… But here is a new generation of headcrabs… One creature can take the life of an entire enemy camp. But then this creature must be stopped somehow. How? Perhaps the creators got carried away and didn’t think about it… Or maybe they did. Who knows. But the answer must be here somewhere.
The squad quietly entered the corridor with glass walls. And looking through them, everyone involuntarily stopped. There were headcrabs… Ordinary, fast, poisonous… armored with sharp plates, they had already seen something like this, but here was another armored yellow head… And what was there in the other flasks? Gas? Raven turned on the heat sensor… But no, it was also a headcrab..
– Chameleon… Everyone turn on thermal vision. – ordered the fourth. – Damn these scientists..
Moving further, the squad came across other laboratory premises. One of them turned out to be a damaged enclosure. It was all splattered with yellow blood and only a couple of spiky heads were running around in it. Seeing the soldiers, they rushed towards them, but crossed an invisible line and both exploded.
“Interesting…” drawled Osa.
– So they implanted bombs with this, and let others run around like that. – Vint commented on what was happening.
— Implantation probably occurs after a certain period of growing up. – Sokol answered.
– This explains a lot. – Raven said quietly, more to himself than to others, but his words were heard.
– What are you talking about?? – asked the Wasp.
— These creatures would definitely be used like other headcrabs. But even for us it’s not easy to fight them.Therefore, to guarantee… Yes, exactly..
– What exactly?? – Sokol now asked the question.
— Cities, intermediate stations, factories, factories, railways and other objects under the cover of the Alliance, they would transmit a signal, a signal that would prevent headcrabs from crossing the border. The world would really consist of two parts: the Alliance and its security and the rest of the places where these creatures live, which means certain death… A bad idea.
– Why?? – Vint was surprised.
– Maybe I’m not right, but I prefer to kill enemies openly with my own hands..
The conversation was interrupted by the cry of the trailing soldier. Turning around, the officer saw a soldier fall limply with his head torn off. Infrared vision showed the creature on the ceiling, but the Raven did not have time to shoot, the Wasp was ahead of him.
– Damn it, I ordered the infrared spectrum to be turned on! – the commander shouted, but that didn’t change anything. There are only eight soldiers left in the squad.
