Vampire's Day (Book 2): Zero Model by Yuri Hamaganov Page B

shaking.
    “Your share would have been greater if you’d supported us earlier, Colonel. Perhaps we would have been able to hold the city.”
    “You were too late coming to us with the offer. By that time, fighting was going on all over the city, and we couldn’t distinguish the enemy. That only became clear after the assault on central quarters began.”
    Richardson drank down his whiskey, and then poured once more.
    “So what are these panicky rumors about the undead?”
    “It isn’t a rumor, Colonel. I saw them with my own eyes! Only it's not the undead, it's real people. They can be killed, I checked personally by shooting two.
    “It all started last night. Several dozen small pendehos tried to challenge my leadership, and I had to take measures to get rid of them. I thought it finished this morning, but then I got reports of killings in favela, among ordinary civilians who aren’t aisles. I thought it was my competitors and sent out my men, but they didn’t return. While figuring out what had happened, a panic started, and people were all running at once, like rats from a burning ship. That was about four in the morning.
    “We have detained several civilians and they are all talking about some cannibals, or even the living dead, who went from house to house and killed people with their bare hands. And then my men reported that they were fighting with some loonies, before the shooting started. They didn’t offer any threats or anything; they just killed everyone they saw. A few minutes later the bastards started appearing all over the city, and soon we were surrounded. That's when I saw them with my own eyes. They almost all had torn throats, by teeth or knives, and were covered in blood. And they can walk, these bastards coming at us.”
    “It’s impossible, such wounds are fatal,” Richardson said.
    “Hell, I know that such wounds are fatal! But I saw my former people with their throats cut, attacking all around them. And you know what they were doing? They cut the throats of everyone they took down. And then those victims rose to their feet, and started it all over again!”
    “So, it's these dead that they are screaming about on the radio?”
    “They aren’t dead, Colonel! They breathe, I don’t know how, but they do breathe. And those who we killed by bullets or fire, they fell dead and never got up. They die from bullets, shrapnel and fire the same as ordinary people. We mowed down hundreds of them in the central block. I don’t know what the hell they are, but they’re certainly not dead.
    “At first, they just threw anything at us with their bare hands. When we repulsed the first wave, those who survived returned with guns, and drove the cars with explosives. Someone said its vampires – we waited for dawn, thinking they would all die in the sun, but nothing. The sun didn’t kill them, they just became angrier. It’s difficult to stop them, Colonel. They go on us like bulls at bullfights, they don’t feel pain at all, and strong, they are very strong. Give me a cigarette.”
    Richardson gave his guest the opportunity to take a couple of puffs, and then continued his polite questioning.
    “Do you know how it all started?”
    “I know what one civilian told me. At night a man came from the port; he was wounded, burned badly. He came back to his family and killed them all. Then, his family killed their neighbors. And then those neighbors left the house and carried on the slaughter.
    “A man from the warehouse? This is true?”
    “How do I know the truth or not?! I haven’t seen him, and there are no witnesses left. The civilian I spoke to was killed in battle. But he said that this man was from the port, from the fire.”
    “In the port – that’s where it all began?”
    “I don’t know. Again there were no witnesses left; those who survived the fire were finished off by Bronson. But I heard on the radio that it was very similar - some of our men suddenly went mad and started