Second Chapter

And I'm already running through the backyards of one and two-story buildings, how good it is that in America these very plots are located so close to each other and everyone, even the most rundown little house, has its own small plot.

No, maybe it's different in my World, but here everything is exactly the same and it can't but please.

I did not plant the walls, not only did their thickness cause me doubts about my punching power, but there would also be a lot of noise, which in my case is unnecessary.

I did it easier, I listen to my newfound feelings, and if I don't feel anyone nearby (more precisely, where I can be seen from, still a decent string of cars of fleeing citizens stretches along both streets on both sides of the buildings), I jump the fence and land on the next section.

The main thing in this case is not to overdo it, otherwise I have already jumped for the first time, not only that I have soared above my height.

It's good that only a few onlookers noticed me then, two of whom, judging by their height (the thermal imager in their eyes and sees through obstacles), were children.

The police patrols, who were trying to make at least some semblance of an organized movement out of this crowd, were far enough away and did not notice my idiotic act at all.

So, having learned to somehow measure my strength on these jumps, I moved on, carefully looking around, I don't need any more excesses as in the case of the first jump.

Hunger has not returned yet, but the fear of it and the memories of losing control over myself twice drove me forward.

Yes, I need knowledge about who I am and what is with me very much, and only after receiving it will it be possible to think about further actions.

After all, who knows, maybe I, like some infected (the same Birkin), evolve in several stages? And if at first they can still be called reasonable, then in the last stages there is no smell of reason there. Yes, I'm afraid of going crazy, or slipping to the level of another brainless, but strong creature.

Some of the idealists might have resented this approach, but when you shudder in fear in anticipation of the return of hunger, and when you know that you are not completely in control of yourself – in such cases, somehow it is not up to humanity and its salvation.

Yes, my skin is closer to my body, so I'll figure out what was made of me, then it will be possible to play a rescuer and, conversely, a villain. In the meantime, it's better to be selfish, but alive... said the living dead. Yeah, but let's not talk about sad things.

I jump over another fence and freeze, not immediately realizing that I didn't like it. But after a moment I note two factors.

The first is that with my vision with the red illumination of the living, I see the end of this crowd of cars ahead, some two hundred meters in a straight line, and an empty suburb begins.

Although, Raccoon City itself is not visible yet, so perhaps it is a remote suburb or even a town on the way.

The second factor was that I looked through it thoughtfully at first – there was someone in the building in the backyard of which I found myself.

More precisely, I saw three figures hurriedly moving around the house. Either they are laggards or looters. Yes, the second ones can profit nicely at such a time, it's a pity that I see only red silhouettes through the wall, now I would like to see what is happening with normal vision, and one could say for sure who is fussing there.

But then an unexpected but expected event happened. When one of the figures approached from that side to the wall that separated us, I felt the thirst for blood rising in me again.

Before my eyes, as if I were alive, there was an image of me breaking through the wall with one movement of my hand and pulling the victim towards me, literally pulling her out, and how I was saturated with her blood, and maybe meat.

I came to myself already standing at the very wall with my hand raised, folded in the manner of a clawed paw.

Although, why in the manner? It was a clawed paw.

No, it's not like that, the hand has hardly changed, but the nails that have sharply lengthened by three or four centimeters, sharpened at the ends and turned black, like an animal's, hinted that these are not really nails anymore.

Heck! No, it won't work that way, I won't eat people! I'm not looking for a means to slow down or reverse the reaction, and I'm not going to the Hive (a laboratory near Raccoon City) to break down at the initial stage and start eating people!

"You're not human, so why not? After all, this is not cannibalism, we are of different species" – a frightening thought suddenly came to my mind.

No, I don't want to! I'm not a monster!

On shaky legs, I moved away from the wall, trying to overcome the attacks of bloodlust. The body obeyed sluggishly, as if not wanting to follow the orders of the mind, and a quiet, on the verge of audibility, growl came out of the throat.

No, I said! I'm stronger than these damn instincts planted in my lab by these umbrella fetishists!

The body arched, and I could no longer stand, fell to my knees, the growling turned into a hiss, but even so, I continued to crawl away on all fours, backing away (or rather, the lower one) further away from the unsuspecting person.

That's it! As soon as I can control it, I'll go back to that fucking lab and kill everyone!

Not for eating, but to repay these freaks for what they made of me! I hate it!

And then in me, under this influx of anger, something seemed to switch, at least I hope it did not break, and I again saw a terrible picture of how the body that does not obey me unbends and abruptly rushes forward from an inclined position, straight at the wall.

And now it was much more terrible than the breakdown with that zombie dog, because there was a living person behind the wall!

No, damn it, I don't want to!

But whatever I tried to do, my body wouldn't listen.

Here, the arms raised from both sides, bent at the elbows and placed on the same level with the head, break through the wall and grab the person standing with his back to me by the waist.

From the outside, it might seem that I was hugging him, but the grip was brutal, I knew it perfectly well, and the wall pierced by the cross, through which the upper half of my body poked through, also did not contribute to creating a friendly atmosphere.

At the crash, the other two started moving in our direction, but somehow sluggishly, spending like five seconds on each step, so it seemed to me then, and my victim, who turned out to be a young girl packing a suitcase, just started opening her mouth to scream.

But there was less and less pity in me, consciousness gradually faded under the waves of terrible hunger, when I captured her T-shirt from both sides and slightly tore through the skin, but the smell of blood of a living person turned out to be too alluring.

The control over the body did not even think of returning, and the field of view narrowed more and more, until only a small spot remained in it, giving an overview of a couple of meters around instead of extensive vision.

And now this area was occupied, my body was looking at the vein throbbing on the girl's neck.

No! I don't want to and I won't! But the next attempt did not give anything, I was just a spectator now.

And all I could do was watch powerlessly as with one backward leap I, along with my victim, flew over the neighboring fence, overcoming at once both four meters from the building to the fence, and the two-meter stone fence itself.

Apparently, the remnants of sanity were enough for my carcass not to start its feast right before the approaching help, although maybe it was some kind of instinct? I don't know much about it.

And the body has already begun its feast, with a deep growl digging into the neck of the girl. She just let out a frightened (as it seems to me) moan, and went limp. Lost consciousness? It's good, at least he won't suffer.

However, judging by how quickly the scarlet liquid enters me (and I feel it very well), she would not have suffered for more than a couple of seconds anyway.

Three seconds later, it almost went out in my vision spectrum, and my skin became deathly pale, and it was then that I again felt that "driving" was no longer an instinct, but me.

I unclench my jaws and throw the body of a twenty-year-old girl away from me, feeling in addition to disgust, horror of what I have created, and disgust for myself, also a slight regret.

That's just what I regretted, not about the murdered girl, but that I didn't finish everything, because I see, even if there is a faded glow around her, but it still exists, and I still feel the blood in her.

"Well, finish it! You want it, and it was delicious!"

Again, the inner voice began to push me somewhere wrong. But I agree, it was delicious, and I still crossed the line, and there are no vomiting.

Although, the latter is not surprising – fuck my body will part with such a valuable liquid.

But how disgusting it is in my soul, I feel like just a finished creature and a weakling, I couldn't even cope with my own body and killed a person.

And what am I supposed to do now, lose control of myself every time I see blood? Or is it enough for me and a person at a distance of a couple of meters from me?

But I'm not so pale anymore, I think I'll pass for a person in a thermal imager now, and the next couple of hours (I know, I'm an optimist) too.

And the victim's blood, which is not much, but splashed, soaked through the pores of the skin like last time, and the clothes are clean, well, more precisely, there is only dirt and stuff on it, without a drop of blood.

By the way, it's time for me to change my clothes, otherwise I still look like what I was wearing when I escaped, and that's what I stayed in.

And I'm wearing some kind of oversized chlamydia of a light green shade, looking like a doctor's operating suit and a shirt of a mentally ill person at the same time. It will be necessary not just to change clothes, but urgently!

After all, if they're looking for me, and they're probably looking for me, then I need to change as soon as possible, I'm too noticeable.

Also, by the way, an additional reason to go to Raccoon City, because if you can still find me in other places (the apocalypse, judging by the abundance of fleeing people, has not yet begun, limited to one city), then it will be difficult to do it in the city among other monsters, there I will be almost invisible.

And then ... it will be necessary to contribute to the spread of the zombie apocalypse outside the city, otherwise the hunt will be conducted only on me, although according to the canon, my intervention in this process is not really necessary, but what the hell is not joking? I shouldn't be here at all, so who knows what I'll change with my presence?

But I didn't have time to take a couple of steps in order to get away from the corpse, as the victim's memories came flooding back to me. What the hell!?

That's what flashed through my mind when I was looking through how this girl– Sarah, if by name, went to school.

It was an out, I got all her memory, though it was faded, like I was watching an old movie, but the fact itself.

Although on the other hand, it's good that without an emotional color, so these memories will definitely not be perceived by mine.

As for how this is possible, somewhere I have heard about the data of "generations" in the human DNA.

Maybe this is it?

But how it simplifies my task! If it was not a one-time effect, then I need to pick up the next recipient wisely, in other words, a couple of scientists to whom I will take revenge will still go to food, because even if this does not go to the skills section, but even so, being just a set of memories, the knowledge of scientists will be very useful to me.

Although, a couple should still be left alive – knowledge is one thing, and having real experience "eggheads" is quite another.

So, the plan remains the same, first we enlist an assistant in Raccoon City, at the same time we can help him get out, it will be easier for me than for an ordinary person, and then we ourselves find a recipient for absorption.

Yeah, somehow I quickly began to think not the most joyful things: "recipient", "absorption". "Great," I've completely settled in, I'll forget how to talk a little more. What he denied, he came to.

I'm a monster.

And then, finally, Sarah's memories ended, and judging by the father and brother of the drunk girl who had just reached the fence, I stayed in such a defenseless state for a short time, at most a minute, which can not but rejoice. A jerk from the spot, and I hide from the opposite side of the building.

Yes, I decided not to kill people once again, let it become my principle, because without principles, my difference from ordinary creatures will only be that I am a little more reasonable, and that's not a fact.

Jump and I'm already clinging to the window frame on the second floor. Unfortunately, the window is closed, but, as in many such houses, it opens with an upward movement. So it was not difficult to push through the claws that I learned to calmly release and retract almost to the state of ordinary nails (except that they are a little sharper and longer, and the color remains black) and pull up sharply.

A quiet click and the lower part of the frame opens, I calmly crawl through the existing opening and I'm already inside an empty house. And now the main thing is to wait out the scandal in the yard, and move quietly, and then you can dress up. And the window should be closed.

A couple of seconds and the window looks whole and closed again, and I sneak around the second floor, trying to find clothes for myself, and at the same time listening to the screams outside.

But fuck you, after I was covered with obscenities and threats, I definitely won't come out.

And anyway, zombies, of course, can come to the noise, but people are not far away, so they will be killed quickly, and they will not go to the yards, it's only me who is so smart ... screwed up.

After three rooms I was lucky – I came across things of my size. Yes, the house was obviously left in a hurry, there were enough things here, but before that I was in the fat man's room and glimpsed the women's room, I didn't even go into the last one, there's definitely nothing to find on me, and being known as a transvestite ghoul... it's somehow not for me.

However, after a minute my mood became somewhat different.

Yes, the clothes fit, but she didn't have the style that I would like. In my case, dark, discreet colors are needed in order to be more inconspicuous, and I had in my assortment: a red T-shirt with the inscription "Suck it" and a down arrow, white sneakers with a backlight line at the very sole, a gray shortened Olympic jacket and black jeans.

The only thing that did not cause complaints was just jeans, a thick cut and black color, consider it a classic. But everything else, didn't African Americans live here?

But it's still better than this stupid costume, so I tore off this muck and changed into what I found. It will do, but at the first opportunity you need to choose something better!

But this item can wait until the city, there, in empty shops and dress up. But I finally found out how I look, the benefit of the wardrobe with clothes, although now without it, there was a full-length mirror.

What can I say, I will not be able to call myself by Barrett's name, if he was a tall brown-haired man with a bronze tan, then someone with an aristocratic pallor, thinner than the recipient during his lifetime and with shoulder-length black hair, was looking at me from the mirror.

If it is still clear with the skin, death does not color anyone, then why the hair suddenly became several shades darker, I do not understand.

I also had to conclude that in order to pass for a person, I need to stop smiling and not open my mouth wide.

The fangs, although not as large as at the time of the bites, are still much larger than normal, clearly cannot belong to a person.

The red iris of the pupils is still okay, I'll explain somehow, a lot of things happen to people's eyes, so this issue has been resolved.

In a good way, it's really worth getting sunglasses, after all, I won't be the only one walking around in them. Let's set a new fashion with Wesker. I'm being so ironic, if anyone didn't understand.

Claws, in principle, are not particularly noticeable, and if anything, I will say that they played a joke on me before the disaster, painted my nails with varnish ... indelible.

No, it's better to get gloves, of course, but if they are not at hand, then I will stick to this version.

And my appearance reminds me of someone, but I can't remember who. And the clothes are clearly not from "this opera".

It's a good thing I'm not red myself, otherwise I had enough of my first life, where everyone practiced wit, insulting my hair color, and it was natural.

Well, okay, I finished the inspection, now you can get out of here, until the inconsolable relatives came to their senses from the picture they saw of their daughter \ sister and called someone for help.

I don't think I can scatter policemen with guns. Maybe I can, but I don't want to try, it's better to be a live reinsurer than a dead idiot.

I walk through the house, and at the window opposite the very building where I caused the destruction of a piece of wall, I freeze.

If you open the window, and having accelerated as much as possible, after also accelerating, jump, then in principle people under me will not notice anything, so you can try.

Said — done, opening the window, I take a small acceleration and start not even from the room but from the corridor, I fly out the window like a swallow and land on another site.

A somersault over my head, and having thus extinguished inertia, and at the same time smoothing out the sound of landing, I springily get up and go on without stopping, and I lost so much time, five or ten minutes for sure, and for me with my speed it's really a lot.

By the way, about the speed, did it seem to me, or then, in a fit of hunger, I moved much faster than I could squeeze out of myself now?

That's another thing, to find out how to switch to such a speed without insanity and thirst for blood.

So much to do, so much to do, and there may be so little time. I noted sadly.

***

EvT 05 did not turn around, so he did not see a strange picture, because in his vision it looked as if one of the men left behind suddenly hovered half a meter above the floor, kicking his feet in the air, and the second began to back away, and then settled on the grass, like the first one who fell on it.

And then they both started to lose the red backlight abruptly.

And the vampire, who was sated after five minutes, straightened up and took the scent of the one who turned her, because the chick should be next to the progenitor, so her instincts screamed.

After another couple of minutes, her former relatives also got up, but unlike the girl, these two were just ordinary infected with the G-Virus.

But Barrett/Vasily didn't see it.