Dmitry reacted too late. But wherever that Anomaly took them—
Strelok was there, too.
And before he'd even gotten up, the Stalker had already taken out all the troops traveling with them. Not a single one survived. Nor did the Captain's Gepard, its trigger group still in his hand.
"What the fuck was that?!" he groaned, throwing down the now-useless scrap.
"She teleported us out," was all the old man said.
Although according to his file—
He wasn't even old, and only looked like shit.
"She who? The zombie?" Dmitry demanded, trying to get up. "We have to go back to Konrad—"
But Strelok had smacked him in the head.
"You're talking 'bout my sister, bastard," he grunted.
And the Captain would have snapped back, but—
"What?" Was the only thing he said.
"You heard me," the Stalker gritted out, reloading his gun. "And yes, we have to go back. But you don't have to worry about Konrad. He's a big boy. But the state they left my sister in—"
So that thing was—holy crap.
Yeah, they indeed left her in a state, for sure.
Still, he was more worried about Konrad.
Now that he lost his love, the Gepard, he couldn't lose his friend, too, to those bastards.
"He no longer has that parallel brain thingy," Dmitry pointed out. "And he also lost his magic."
"I know," Strelok snapped back. "Since Paula's copy is right here with me. Now, come on."
He yanked the ammo pouches off the dead Monolith guys and set out on the rooftop.
Because that's where they were, somehow.
On the roof of the old CNPP Sarcophagus, with the new Dome sparkling above their heads.
Which—he wasn't an expert, but it shouldn't have been doing that, right?!
"I still don't know what you're talking about."
Dmitry pulled out his own backup gun, trailing him behind.
Or did he miss something since they had split apart?
"Who's Paula? What copy? And—you do know that Konrad lost his magic, right?" the Captain tried again, checking his magazine, and—by the time he looked up, the Stalker was gone.
'Two more steps, straight ahead,' a woman told him out of the blue, and he shuddered.
"What's two steps ahead?" he asked, but now that he strained his eyes—an Anomaly?
One like those Teleportation Bubbles.
Was it safe to touch?
'Weren't you in a hurry back to Konrad?!'
Ugh. The unknown lady was right.
He took a shaky step, and the next thing he knew—
Strelok was with him again, and—no. He was the one teleporting after the grumpy veteran.
And now he grabbed his arm, too, so that he wouldn't get lost on this other rooftop.
"Hurry up, kid," he grunted, taking off. "Know I said not to worry, but we ain't got all day."
"A-a woman talked to me," Dmitry mumbled, following in his footsteps. "In my head. The same way as that parallel brain did before. Is that this Paula you talked about?"
"Yeah. Same," Strelok said. "So don't get stuck on every little detail."
Hmm. Okay. That did make sense now—not.
"And about the boy's magic," the Stalker panted—
Disappearing and reappearing while still holding his hand.
No. They must have jumped through another Anomaly.
So that was normal now?!
"That fucking Teleportation field got us trapped earlier," Strelok noted. "And then your friend admitted he could have gotten his magic back. So he did, but told me to keep it a secret."
"What?!" the Captain yelped on the run. "Why would he do that?!"
"I don't know. He grabbed some gem from his backpack and chewed it up."
Wait. No, that was the how, not the why.
But now that he mentioned it, Konrad did say something like that before.
"He said Paula was under pressure from the Monolith, and they might have read our minds."
Ah. And that might have covered the why, too.
Now he only had to find out who the hell that Paula was, but—they jumped again.
This time, reappearing somewhere on the ground.
And yes, Strelok still kept his killer tempo.
"Almost there," he said. "And then we have to free my sister."
Dmitry shivered. Was there anything they could even do for that zombie?
'I'd like to remind you that I can still read your mind,' that woman warned him, as if he weren't already a mess. 'I am the parallel brain. And Paula. But we'll explain everything in due time.'
If he even lived that long. And now he wasn't sure if he wanted to know anymore.
But they ran through a corridor and teleported into a room with rotting corpses, and—
There it was, that control room they had been in before.
As it turned out, Strelok told the truth.
Konrad was still there, unharmed, with the place and two scientists frozen solid.
The main bad guy who barked orders earlier was half-frozen, too, pleading for his life, but—
His friend paid him no attention.
"She's in the corridor," he greeted them, without batting an eye. "I knocked out her guards, too, but couldn't recover her. This bastard did something to the controls, and shit's happening."
The bastard in question let out a painful laugh, his arms and legs at an unnatural angle.
"It's the safety protocol," he gritted out. "We borrowed the idea from the Cold War. If anyone were to force his way in and cause enough damage, we rigged the whole place to blow."
Konrad scoffed and kicked him on the ground.
"If you mean MAD, you should have put out a warning first."
"MAD?" Strelok repeated, stopping only at the door on the other side.
"Mutually-Assured-Destruction," his friend grunted. "And how are we cancelling it now?"
"You can't," the mad scientist grinned, even as his teeth clattered from the cold. "It's beyond anyone's control. There will be a third explosion, bigger than either one before."
And that's when Dmitry's eyes went wide.
He finally realised.
They were still in the CNPP. And new Dome or not, if this place exploded again—
It still had enough radioactive junk that, if it scattered?
The current war would have been the least of his problems.
Now he wanted to kick that half-frozen bastard, too, to beat an actual answer out of him, but—
Once more, he was too slow.
Strelok was always one step ahead, and he didn't stop at kicking him, either.
"If you can't stop it, we have no need for you now," he said, stepping over the scientists, and—
"No," Konrad yelled, but was too late.
The Stalker pulled the trigger point-blank, and the scientist's head exploded.
Then he turned around and emptied his magazine into those weird tanks in the center. Reload, and keep firing until Konrad finally knocked him out.
"For fuck's sake," he grunted. "I did have a use for him still."
But that parallel brain woman begged to differ.
'He would've died before betraying Lucifer,' she boomed. 'And you still have Strelok and my original. So let's get her out before the entire place blows up with us.'
"W-wait," Dmitry protested. "You can't. If it explodes—"
'Well, you heard the man,' the woman scolded. 'There's no way to stop it now.'
"Yeah," Konrad nodded, too, but flashed him a smirk. "But it doesn't mean it has to go off here."