Pain…
It spread through his body in burning waves.
Blood poured from the wound, dyeing the ground crimson.
Dave wheezed, feeling life slipping away from him.
— “I don’t know what you were trying to say with that little speech… but it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Val stood before him, looking down with a slight smirk.
— “Still, I’ll admit… you’re not entirely pathetic.”
Her voice carried a strange blend of satisfaction and indifference.
Dave’s vision blurred. His regeneration had failed. He tried to breathe, but his lungs refused to obey.
Val straightened up and turned her head toward the survivors. But… there were none left.
— “Hah… how amusing…”
She tilted her head, her lips curling into a smile.
— “They ran? In just five minutes? How unexpected…”
She chuckled, shaking her head. Then her gaze returned to Dave’s lifeless body.
— “It was a pleasure meeting you, Ghost.”
Her voice was calm. She turned and, after a few steps, threw over her shoulder:
— “I hope Galian doesn’t stay mad about this for too long.”
And she left him behind.
A broken body.
Dave opened his eyes.
He was standing in that place — the one he had seen before in dreams.
Dark, faceless space stretching in every direction.
An endless void, where no sound existed.
No movement.
He lowered his head and let his arms hang limply.
— “So this is the real end… huh?” he whispered.
But then—
A blinding light flared before him.
Memories.
Dave watched as a scene from the past unfolded — distant, warm childhood.
He saw himself as a child, laughing, running through a field of green.
His mother’s voice calling him in for lunch.
His father, teaching him to fight, laughing alongside him.
Dave blinked, and a faint smile touched his lips.
— “So this is that moment… when your whole life flashes before your eyes…”
But the smile faded quickly.
He understood the truth.
He was dead.
And this… was just memory before the void.
Dave stood, watching fragments of his past.
They shifted one after another — dim, blurred, drowned in the haze of time.
His parents, laughing at dinner.
The friends he once ran the streets with.
The voices of those he used to know.
And one by one…
The memories faded.
When the last pleasant memory disappeared, Dave felt his shoulders slump.
He missed them.
All of them.
And only now, facing the cruel irony of his path, did he let the tears fall.
He cried.
He hated himself.
He knew what he had done.
How many innocent lives he had taken.
And finally, he screamed:
— “WHY… WHY, GOD… WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME?!”
— “Why… someone just answer me…”
He screamed and cried all at once.
But there was no answer.
The memories were gone.
And he remained.
Alone in the void.
He sat down, head bowed.
Until—
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He heard a voice.
Familiar.
— “You ask why?”
He turned.
And saw himself.
But it wasn’t quite him.
The other one wasn’t screaming. Wasn’t accusing.
Just staring.
Blankly.
— “…What do you want?” Dave asked coldly.
Silence.
— “You gonna yell at me like last time?” His voice trembled.
— “You gonna scream that I should’ve tried to save them?”
The other Dave said nothing.
— “I COULD’VE AT LEAST TRIED!”
Silence.
— “BUT WHAT WOULD THAT HAVE CHANGED?! HUH?! ANSWER ME!”
Silence.
— “YOU’RE BLAMING ME FOR DOING NOTHING?! THEN TELL ME—WHAT COULD I HAVE DONE?!”
No reply.
The other Dave simply vanished.
Dave fell to his knees and covered his face with his hands.
— “Why is even my own mind against me?..”
He sat like that for a long time…
Then raised his head—
Suddenly—
Before him stood a mirror.
Huge. Black as the abyss itself.
He stood up.
And stepped closer.
What he saw in the reflection made his breath catch.
It wasn’t him.
Not a human, at least.
But a monster.
Massive, grotesque, covered in mangled flesh.
Its face twisted beyond recognition.
Fangs. Claws.
Eyes glowing blood-red.
He didn’t recognize himself.
Was this… him?
He had seen his reflection before, in water—
But never like this.
— “W-what the hell are you…”
He reached out slowly…
His fingers brushed the cold glass surface.
And then—
The creature moved.
Its eyes ignited.
The hand in the mirror lunged forward!
The glass exploded outward!
A clawed hand burst from the reflection and grabbed Dave.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
The last thing he heard was a whisper—
Dripping with hatred and loathing:
— “Humans…”
And then—
Everything disappeared.
Pain.
Sharp. Piercing.
Dave gasped.
He felt air fill his lungs.
He felt the weight of his body.
He was alive.
His eyes slowly opened.
At first—just blurs.
But then, after a few seconds, he saw the sky.
Cold.
Gray.
He moved his lips and exhaled hoarsely:
— “…What the hell…”
Consciousness returned slowly.
Pain... searing through every nerve.
Dave lay on the cold ground, staring up at the morning sky.
Dawn.
He breathed heavily, as if his lungs had forgotten what it meant to be alive.
Each breath felt like a battle — life reclaimed by force.
But one question drilled into his skull like a nail:
"How did I survive?"
He remembered it — the feeling of Val’s hand piercing through his chest, crushing his heart.
That wasn’t something anyone could live through.
And yet, here he was. Alive.
A growing unease churned inside him.
His body slowly began to respond; sensation returned to his limbs.
And then… he felt it.
Something.
Something clutched in his hand.
His fingers were digging into… something soft.
He tensed, heart racing.
Slowly, he raised his hand—
And screamed.
A scream of despair, of fear, of revulsion.
In his hand…
was the head of a girl.
Her skull was torn open by claws, her face twisted, one eye hanging loose.
Her head dangled from his fingers.
Dave recoiled violently, yanking his hand free from the mangled remains.
He stumbled to his feet in horror.
Looked around…
And the breath froze in his chest.
Bodies.
Everywhere.
Torn, mutilated — as if savaged by some wild beast.
Blood. Flesh. Bone.
And right behind him — a headless man’s corpse.
Crushed ribcage. Fragments of skull scattered nearby.
Dave’s eyes followed the bloody trail—
leading right from where he’d been lying.
— "...No…"
He touched his lips…
And froze.
Blood.
Human.
— "Oh God… no…" he staggered backward, barely able to stand. "What… I… I couldn’t have…"
Panic took hold.
Flashes erupted in his mind:
Claws. Screams. Blood. Flesh.
He lurched forward.
Violent nausea surged.
He dropped to his knees, vomiting, body trembling with disgust for himself.
He didn’t understand.
He’d died.
He was sure he had.
…Right?
He lifted his head.
In the distance — a road.
He had no strength, but he started walking, stumbling forward.
He had to find answers.
After a while, he reached a large metal sign.
Rusty, dirty…
But the words were clear:
“SOCHI — 15 KM”
He froze.
— “What…?”
His face went pale.
— “How the fuck did I go from Dagestan to Sochi?!”
He stood there, dumbfounded. None of it made sense.
The last thing he remembered — he had died.
But now he was here, miles from the battlefield, and his body… whole.
— “What the hell is going on…?” he whispered, eyes fixed on the sign.
He reread the words, but it didn’t help.
Reality refused to align.
He looked back—
Back to the field of corpses.
Fear gripped his chest.
He ran.
He needed to find someone.
Anyone.
He needed to believe this was just a nightmare.
— “God… please, someone…”
He whispered prayers, barely realizing what he was saying.
But the bodies didn’t move.
Too still.
He kept counting — ten, twenty, fifty… over a hundred.
And not just humans.
As he moved deeper, Dave saw a mound of parasite corpses.
Torn to pieces. Burned. Mutilated.
— “What the fuck happened here…?” he breathed.
He tried to remember, but his mind was a blur.
Fragments. Screams. Pain. Then—
Nothing.
Then, a sound.
Dave spun around.
One of the bodies twitched—
Then went still.
“Playing dead?”
He approached slowly.
— “Are you alive?”
His voice was hoarse.
No answer.
He stepped closer.
— “Can you hear me?…”
He knelt down, reaching out—
— “STAY AWAY FROM ME, MONSTER!”
The scream pierced the silence.
Dave staggered back.
A girl — young, covered in blood, her eyes wide with terror — was pressed to the ground.
— “W-what…? M-monster…?” he blinked in disbelief.
— “DON’T TOUCH ME! STAY BACK!” she sobbed, shaking.
— “I…” he stepped forward, but she shrank away in pure fear.
Dave froze.
— “W-what…?”
She gasped for air, trembling.
— “I-I thought you… you were helping us… When you showed up, you started killing those things. We cheered… we thought we were saved…”
Her voice cracked with sorrow.
Tears welled in her eyes.
— “Then you looked at us… with eyes full of madness…”
Dave felt the ground vanish beneath him.
— “…and you started killing us too… one by one…”
He stood motionless.
— “…you bit a man’s head off…”
— “…Are you going to kill me too?”
Silence.
Something shattered inside him.
He didn’t think. Didn’t speak.
He turned—
And ran.
He didn’t know where.
He didn’t know why.
All he could hear was the question screaming in his mind:
"WHAT THE FUCK AM I?!"
Sorry it took so long to release the new chapter. I’ve been feeling under the weather, and it’s been hard to work on the script with this damn headache
