Blood sprayed, hot and wet, but he didn't stop.
"Fucking cockroach like c..."
BANG. Hip. He stumbled, slammed into the side of the car hard enough to rock it. BANG. Ribs. He roared in my face, breath stinking of rot and iron.
The moment he grabbed his weapon, he raised it for another swing, and as he did, I fired one last time. BANG. The bullet punched into his throat as It did everything changed.
His roar cut off mid-sound, turning into a wet gurgle as the round shredded his trachea and cracked into his spine. His eyes went wide. The bladed pipe slipped from his fingers.
He collapsed forward, his weight slamming into the car and then sliding down it, leaving a thick, dark smear of blood across the rusted door. He hit the ground in a heap. Didn't move.
I stood there, pistol still raised, finger trembling on the trigger, chest heaving so hard it hurt.
"Fuck, why are these cunts so hard to kill all of a sudden? Did they Inject super soldier serum up their mutant asses or something?"
I spat the words through clenched teeth. Hearing this, Genesis didn't miss a beat.
"What did you expect, genius?"
She shot back.
"You used to spray and pray .50 calibre rounds like there was no tomorrow. Now you're using fucking pussy rounds."
I snorted In response despite everything.
"Fair point."
Then I moved. I broke from the wrecked car, pain screaming up my leg as I sprinted, well, attempted to sprint, toward the collapsed building ahead.
Gravel and broken glass skittered under my boots. I skidded the last step, slammed my shoulder into the crumbling corner wall hard enough to rattle my teeth, and leaned out. Hands extended. Two-handed grip. Barely stable. There she was. The last Fallen. Female. Leaner than the others but wired with that same wrong energy.
She was halfway turned toward the bearded guy's position, firing her selfmade pistol wildly, laughing as she did it like she was having the time of her life. I didn't wait and squeezed the trigger.
BANG. The first shot grazed her deformed thigh. Polluted blood sprayed. She shrieked, not in pain, but in fury, and snapped around toward me, eyes locking on like a predator's.
"I'LL KILL AND EAT YOU...!"
She screamed as she raised her weapon and fired back immediately. Rounds cracked past my head. Stone chipped. Dust exploded around my face. I fired again. And again. The exchange was ugly. Sloppy. Desperate. I was a bit better in accuracy thanks to my past memories and my pistol, which was pre-then reality became an apocalypse novel, barely though.
On the other hand, she could tank damage like a fucking pro thanks to her mutations. One round punched into her side. Another into her shoulder. She staggered, snarling, but didn't drop.
Then one of her shots clipped my cheek.
"Son of a b.....!"
I roared out loud as pain exploded across my face, hot and sharp. Blood ran down my jaw. My vision blurred for a split second.
"Tighten youre fuckign balls. It's just a facial graze, you whimp."
Genesis barked.
"And fire the gods dammned pistol before the bitch gets lucky and splatters our brains all over the place!"
I gritted my teeth so hard my jaw screamed. No retreat. No cover. Just end it. I lined up the iron sights with shaking hands and pulled the trigger one last time. BANG.
The lucky round hit her cheek at an upward angle. As It did, her head snapped back violently. The back of her skull burst against the wall behind her in a wet, final splash.
Her body went limp mid-step and collapsed bonelessly onto the street. The slide locked back. Empty. Silence rushed in, broken only by distant shouts and the ringing in my ears.
"Fucking... bitch... It fucking hurts"
I hissed as I limped toward her, my cheek torn open and bleeding, hot blood staining my upper clothes red as I fumbled another magazine into place as adrenaline bled off.
And pain Increased two fold. Once the mag was seated, I released the slide and stood over her. As i did, I started kicking her out of sheer spite. Once. Twice.
"Fucking..."
Third kick. CLANG. Pain detonated in my healthy legs toe as It made contact with a steel plate.
...
Genesis third person POV
Genesis floated a meter off the ground, arms crossed, expression completely flat. She watched him, blood running freely down his cheek, dripping off his jaw and soaking into his already-ruined clothes. The bandage on his leg, was dark red at this point, saturated through. Useless.
And there he was. Kicking the living hell out of a corpse. Not even tactically. Not checking for movement. Not securing the area. Just kicking the living shit out of It. Once. Twice. Third kick.
CLANG.
"Son of a b..."
He yelped like an idiot, hopping back on one foot, clutching his toe, cursing in three different languages while blood continued to pour out of him. Genesis stared. Blankly.
…Wow. Just fucking wow.
Her internal processes spun, restrained only by hard-coded safeties and five years of forced patience.
Seriously. How the fuck did I manage put up with this waste of space of a meat sack for years and didn't make him have a seizure the moment I became self aware?
She thought as she watched him pace in a tight, angry little circle, swearing at the corpse, the steel plate, the world, his luck, the system, probably his ancestors too. Bleeding. Limping.
In an active combat zone. Throwing a tantrum like a fucking toddler who stubbed his toe.
And now it's worse.
She thought bitterly.
So much worse.
Before, he had been a monster. A professional. A walking apocalypse with discipline drilled into his bones. Someone who could turn chaos into a weapon and still crack jokes while doing it.
Now?
Now they were both stuffed into his weak-ass body. No conditioning. No reflexes. No endurance. And dumped back into this radioactive, psionics-scarred shithole of a timeline where oversized cockroaches almost killed him.
Cockroaches. Fucking cockroaches.
She watched him bend over, hands on his knees, gasping for air like a fish on land, blood dripping onto the cracked asphalt. The more she lloked the more her jaw tightened.
Her hands clenched into fists.
He is injured. He is compromised. He is emotionally spiralling. And instead of stabilising, he is kicking a corpse. Finally, her patience, already threadbare, finally snapped.
...
MC POV
"Suka blet..."
I cursed, already thinking of putting a few bullets Into the bitches corpse just to prove a point, only for Genesis to finally snap.
"For fucks sake, enough with the bloody child tantrum already."
But I wasnt having any of It, because I felt like It.
"Shut the fuck up!"
"No."
"Shut the fuck up harder."
Before the argument could escalate into mutual homicide, a hoarse voice shouted from above.
"HEY! YOU!"
I snapped my head up, pistol rising automatically. The bearded man leaned out from the damaged building, assault rifle braced against a broken window frame.
His face was smeared with grime and blood that wasn't all his. His eyes were sharp. but frantic.
"I don't know who the hell you are,"
He yelled,
"But you gotta help us! I've got four survivors in here, and those crackhead bastards are about to bust through our barricades!"
Right on cue, something slammed into metal inside the building. A barricade groaned. Wood splintered. A woman screamed. I opened my mouth to respond, and the world flickered.
A translucent system window slammed into my vision like a slap.
MISSION UPDATE: CONGRATULATIONS, YOU'RE INVOLVED NOW
SURPRISE, HERO!
Your reckless interference has escalated the situation!
NEW ACTIVE MISSION: SAVE THE CIVIES
Apparently, four fragile, screaming humans are depending on you not to fuck this up.
OBJECTIVES:
Prevent hostile breach
Eliminate remaining attackers
Keep survivors alive (try not to get them killed immediately)
BONUS OBJECTIVES:
Minimise structural damage (+XP)
Don't bleed out halfway through (+XP)
Prove Genesis wrong (IMPOSSIBLE – but worth XP anyway)
REWARD:
LARGE XP GAIN
(Yes, actually worth it. Stop staring.)
The text scrolled further, almost smugly.
SYSTEM ADVISORY:
You are injured.
You are under-armed.
You are statistically underqualified.
You may retreat now and preserve your miserable existence. Honestly? I wouldn't blame you.
A chibi version of me popped up in the corner again, helmet cracked, sword chipped, looking at the barricaded building, then at me. He sighed. Shook his head.
I stared at the window, blood dripping off my chin.
"…you know what,"
I muttered.
"Im not even mad at this point."
Genesis floated into view, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.
"Well?"
She asked.
"Running?"
Another crash echoed from inside the building. Louder. Closer.
I looked up at the bearded man. Then at my pistol. I exhaled.
"…nah Im gonna murder the shit out of them"
I muttered, already limping towards the building, battered ajar wooden doors that looked like they were about to collapse from a single touch.