Глава 8

So? You fought them off, is that it?

Yeah.

I was right not to go with you. Burning people alive... If I ever have to smell that again, I'm sure I'll throw up.

Alina, don't force yourself.

I'm the one who followed you in the first place.

And I'll protect your Infected here. I will.

No, I'm not here to beg you to—

Of course you're not. Alina, without you, I wouldn't have the time to go gather resources or info.

Who's your contact? Would it be safe to tell me?

Are you worried I'm an Ursus spy?

Just wondering if it'd be better not to get you wrapped up in this.

The moment we became Infected, life for us couldn't get any worse.

I'm in contact with Infected in other places.

Trying to keep tabs on which way the cities are moving, so I can help the Infected surviving out in the Northwestern Tundra as best as I can.

What you're doing is... insane, in a lot of ways.

Where did your conviction come from? Did someone teach you all this?

No.

What taught me was both malignant and deranged, brimming with the arrogance of rule and the terror of power.

And I vowed to walk against it. I'm going to tear their decorous flesh straight from their bones, pull apart the noble cities their pride built layer by layer, and let everyone know the truth, everyone out on the Tundra...

And after that, we'll decide our own destinies.

We're going to clear this land out. We'll found our own homeland, and if anyone thinks to stop us, we'll topple them right then and there.

Part of this world belonged to the Infected in the first place... just as so many places across this land belong to all people.

...Be more realistic, Talulah. This is all too out there.

If you do this, the village will be destroyed. They'll have nowhere to go, and the Patrol Unit will chase them down.

And if I don't do this, the village would still end up abandoned over time.

Not everyone can join the army. The elderly, children, the injured and sick. If you have them give up everything they've ever survived on, they'll die no matter the soil quality.

I know, Alina. So we'll find somewhere new.

Come on. Let's go. We've got somewhere we can stay tonight.

*Sigh*...

Thank you for having us.

Ain't nothing. Without you, we'd probably all be dead by now. Though we're still pretty much at death's door.

Sorry. Back at the start, seeing you, I was readying up to fight. That was all my bad.

Don't really have anything left to welcome you with, either. Just put up with this bit of oat gruel, I guess.

We're extremely thankful, sir. You shouldn't have, honestly.

No, it's nothing. We only had this bit left over, anyway. However many days we have left, makes no difference.

Wanna set up a village, huh? Doesn't matter how far you go... there's no point. Not much point at all.

We can't run. You know how big Ursus is? There's no point heading anywhere when there's patrol guys all over... and other people aren't gonna want us. We've got nowhere to go.

Then come with me.

...Where? Now?

It doesn't need to be now.

I'll wait until you've thought it all through. Or if you end up with absolutely nowhere left to go, and you still want to live on, come find me, or find one of my brothers.

If we head for the wilderness, life in the tundra's... cruel, to say the least.

But we've got places to go. Places without the hearth of civilization as of yet. We'll find somewhere we can sow and harvest; we have so many people, they'd surely be able to help out with business, and we'd have an income.

We can always live on.

And if the patrolmen come?

—We'd defeat them.

Huh?

...What did you just say?

What I can do, you can too. You were correct, arming yourself against me back there.

If people think to come and rob us, we'll come together and fight them off. The Infected have strength.

We Infected can, bit by bit, regain our own lives.

Our bread. Our flames.