Running as fast as he could, Konrad had to swear something to himself yet again.
"I'll never assume that anything would be easy," he gritted out.
And his sword cleaved a zombie clean in half.
He could finally pause for a moment, using the crumbling body as a meat shield.
And the hail of bullets catching up with him had shredded it into pieces.
But the poor Stalker's gear had slowed the projectiles down enough so that his Mama's Beads could do the rest. Oh, man, this final approach to the Duga was anything but easy.
'Two Snorks from the left and one armed zombie behind them,' the parallel brain warned.
And good thing he did, because that zombie was a second away from a clear shot.
"Aren't these zombies way too good?" Konrad moaned, dashing to the left as soon as the machine gunner finally stopped to reload. "They're still slow, but—somehow more tactical."
'Whenever you feel like listening, I have a few theories to share—'
But they both knew this wasn't the time.
One of the Snorks leaped towards Konrad, but he was already expecting it.
He could be very tactical himself, sparing the monster's cursed life for a little longer.
His target was the zombie beyond it, the adamantite blade cleaving off its right arm.
The rifle it was holding fell to the ground, but it did not stop the poor soul from attacking.
Only that he was much less of a threat to him now.
In fact, as the machine gunner reloaded his RPK, they turned into Konrad's next shields.
"Any lead on that sniper now?!" he gritted out while ducking below the hail of bullets. "I can't have Dmitry come any closer until that fucker's taken care of."
Because yes. The zombies here had both a machine gunner at the gate and a sniper, too.
Plus, some trenches, traps, and generally well-prepared defenses.
Heck, they even used all the nearby anomalies to their advantage.
'The obvious position would be the rooftop, and do I sense three zombies up there, but—'
If that were the case, they would have already fired at him.
And when someone actually did it, the shot came from a completely different direction.
'Prone behind the gatehouse. The tall grass has been covering it.'
But then, how was he even seeing what he shot at?!
Whatever. Konrad repeated these exact words on the radio. And a second later, the Gepard's familiar thunder washed over the area. The huge bullet almost skimmed the ground.
"Did it hit?" Dmitry asked, providing his covering fire from a fair distance away.
'No. A little lower and to the left,' the brain estimated and Konrad repeated it.
BANG.
This time, the blood and brains from the exploding skull made the hit obvious.
"Got it," Konrad grunted, but the machine gunner didn't give him much rest. "Now the RPK."
At least they knew where to find that one.
It shot from a guard tower by the gatehouse, an easy target, if not for the weird reinforcements.
But the steel plates they bolted all over gave even the Gepard a run for its money.
And Dmitry couldn't find a better firing position before he dealt with the sniper.
So now with that out of the way—
"You sure there's no other?" the Captain hesitated.
"The only thing I'm sure of is that the RPK is about to reload, and I'm out of cover."
While Konrad didn't count himself as an expert strategist, these defenses were strong.
Way too strong for mindless zombies.
And if he even counted the corpses on his approach—
Strelok must have already thinned them out.
'If he himself is still alive,' the brain noted, not helping with Konrad's mood.
"If he's dead, we came this far for nothing," he grunted, poking his head out from the remains of his cover. The machine gunner reacted immediately, peppering the place with bullets.
No zombies should have been this fast, or aim this well.
But the Captain was even better.
BANG.
"One RPK down," he reported. "Thanks for drawing his attention."
It wasn't like he did that on purpose.
"So how about you cover me for real this time?" Konrad panted. "I'm making a final approach."
Or at least, it should have been it.
The Duga's gigantic antenna complex had already filled his vision in every direction. But no matter how much he ran, it kept growing larger and larger. Still a hundred paces or two?
He finally made it to the gatehouse, squeezing past a barricade, and paused to take a breather.
"I kinda want to take that RPK," he panted. "It would be easier to mow down the zombies with it."
But when he glanced up at the tower from this close up, he didn't see a way inside.
It didn't make any sense.
It wasn't only covered up from the front, but from every side. Top and bottom, too.
So whoever manned the machine gun had no way in or out.
Heck, he didn't even have vision slits.
Only a tiny hole on each side through which he could poke the barrel of his gun.
"How the hell did the fucker aim?!" Konrad grunted. "And he was pretty accurate, too."
The brain also seemed to be a bit taken aback.
'Could be an artifact? Or one of those anomaly things?'
Yeah, no. He didn't know about those, and it was showing.
"Wait," Konrad said. "Are those three still on the rooftop?!"
He had a hunch, and he wanted to test it.
'It appears so. But they're unarmed, and way out of range even for a Snork.'
"For being a brain, you're not particularly smart, huh?" he grunted, raising his sword. "Point my blade exactly in their direction. Dmitry? Forward observers. Rooftop. Take all three of 'em out."
"Roger that," the Captain confirmed, and the Gepard roared three times.
'They're dead,' the parallel brain claimed, sounding a bit offended. 'Now what?'
"Now I can run straight without getting shot," Konrad said, putting his theory to the test.
Leaving his cover, he aimed for the closest building, seeing zombies line its windows.
But their fire was much less accurate now.
The artifact he carried did not even activate before he reached the entrance.
"Those three coordinated all the others' aim," he pointed out. "And there's no fucking way they did this with a pre-recorded signal. You sure the Duga will be so easy to disable?!"
Because coming this far was anything but simple.
'At the time of my transfer to X-16, no other creatures or brains were capable of anything like this,' the voice claimed. 'I was the most powerful psyonic entity in that facility, so—'
"In a lab that specialized in cloning, you mean?" Konrad asked. "Think a little."
For all the snark of what this parallel brain had until now, it felt great to prove him wrong.
Less fantastic when it turned out how much harder their jobs would be now.
But Konrad wasn't alone. This thing inside his head wasn't completely useless.
He had the Captain to cover his advance.
And judging from the blaring alarms that went off at that moment—
Strelok must have been working hard somewhere on the site as well.
It was only a matter of catching up with him now, then he'd figure out the rest.