Free Vampire's Day (Book 1): Epicenter by Yuri Hamaganov Page B

robbery. One of your soldiers drove them away. I gave him my last normal beer in gratitude. So, take it or leave it.”
    “OK. And give me some chocolate if you have any.”
    He handed her a bill, and she packed the beer and chocolate in a bag, giving him a small pack of hunting sausages as well.
    “Why don’t you go away?”
    “And where should I go? I live down the road, and I’m not allowed to go there by the military. It’s a good thing I wasn’t kicked outside the wall. I'll sit here, it's better than on the street.”
    “And what is your boss saying?”
    “I don’t know, the boss lives in the city. I tried to reach him while the phone still worked, but no one answered. I'll bet a buck that he had already been eaten.”
    Tiger leaned over the counter and stared at the small TV, waiting to see the news. Instead, he saw some girl’s television series.
    “There is no signal, this is a DVD. The urban radio also died, and we were ordered to lock up the house and wait for help.”
    “Lock up because of the rabies?”
    “Yes.”
    The girl gave an evil grin.
    “The soldiers said that in the city people are devouring each other, attacking just like in the movies. Only they’re not zombies, not the walking dead; they are alive, they can kill, and they can also be killed in response. Everyone is shooting each other, and the cops and doctors are preying on people. Cool, right?”
    Tiger didn’t think that it was cool. He opened a bottle and went outside to see how long it would take to remove the last concrete blocks from his truck. The cashier came after him.
    “Do you hear that?”
    There was the sound of shooting from the fence side, first single shots, and then bursts.
    “What is it? Over there – is it the ship?”
    The girl gestured toward the ocean, and, looking there, Tiger saw the distant silhouette of destroyers, on which nose evenly flared and faded short white flame.
    “Get down!”

34. Surgeon
     
    “Who are you? Answer quickly!”
    “I... I'm a doctor, a surgeon from the children's hospital.”
    “Show me you’re ID!”
    “In the left pocket…”
    Black-gloved fingers tore a button from his pocket and took out the card.
    “Okay, you are a surgeon. Stand up!”
    He couldn’t stand, he was sick, he was dizzy, but the man in the black uniform was not interested. He grabbed the doctor by the collar, and lifted him to his feet, leaning against a wall pierced by bullets. Close by there were a lot of voices, and he gradually began to distinguish them. What a strange selection process!
    “Policeman.”
    “Left!”
    “Counsel.”
    “Right!”
    “Unemployed.”
    “Right!“
    “Sales...”
    “Right!”
    His dizziness wore off; his weakness almost disappeared. On the contrary, he is full of energy, but he is suffering some double vision. What was wrong with him, dope? He had tried LSD once in his lifetime, back in school, but the feeling was different. Maybe he had been given something? But who did it and why?
    “Don’t just stand there, let's go!”
    The man in the black uniform dragged him along. They went down the long corridor full of people. Behind continued the same stupid selection.
    “Broker.”
    “Right!”
    “Taxi driver.”
    “Left!”
    “Bandit.”
    “Left!”
    “Come here!“
    The man in black kicked him through a side door.
    “Wait here with the others!”
    This used to be a classroom or a small meeting room. He fell into an empty plastic chair, beside some other people. It was stuffy here, and necessary to remove his shirt. He awkwardly removed it. There was a sticky substance on it – two hundred buck shirt had been spoiled. What was this, paint?
    “Fuck!”
    It was not paint, it was blood. He quickly felt himself - no injuries, but a wasp bite on his right leg. This was not his blood on the shirt.
    “You two – come here!”
    Again, there was a man in black and with him another one in the same uniform. They picked him up with another woman, wearing a green