Mother Russia

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ada limped over to the edge beside Hunk and looked down. They were facing the front side of the building, so she looked down on Volodzny Street. From this high vantage point, she could see halfway across the city. Below her, she saw the store where she had crashed the car. It was fully engulfed in flames, and they had spread to the connecting buildings, but there was little risk of the fire spreading farther than that. There were still some zombies wandering around out front, and a few more in the street.

“Over there,” Hunk said quietly, pointing.

Ada followed where he was pointing and saw the lumbering deformed shape of Konstantin Rykov come into view behind a row of trees. He tilted his head up and howled at the helicopter as it receded into the distance. And then he turned and began to lope toward the office building.

One of the soldiers came over to look. Ada didn’t know any of their names besides Hunk, but one of the other soldiers called him Captain, so she figured he was in charge.

“That’s the one that killed Beckett and Campbell,” the Captain said.

Hunk nodded. “Yes, I believe it is.”

“I ran into him last night,” Ada said.

“How’d you manage to get away from it?” the Captain asked.

“I crawled into a drainage pipe.”

Konstantin roared aimlessly and ran down the street before investigating the fire. Any zombies in his way got smashed aside or slashed in half with his massive clawed hand, or simply trampled underfoot. Then he crossed the street again, nudging a car out of his way, and went over to the electrocuted, twitching corpse of the other primary host. Ada didn’t know that one’s name, but she assumed it had to be one of the other main scientists at the lab. It was one of Konstantin’s coworkers.

By now, most of the soldiers had come to see what was going on, but some of them stayed back with the other two civilians. “What’s it doing?” one of the soldiers whispered.

“I don’t know,” the Captain said.

Konstantin snarled at the body of the other host for a moment and then circled around the front of the building. He pushed his way into the lobby and they could all hear him smashing around inside.

“Is it going to come up the stairs like the other one did?” one of the soldiers said, his voice bordering on panic.

“It’s even bigger than the other one,” the Captain said. “There’s no way it could fit up the stairs.”

A few seconds later, Konstantin came back out, snarling loudly and lurking around the front parking lot like he was searching for something. Ada had the horrible thought that Konstantin could possibly be tracking her, but she didn’t think it was possible. There was no way his sense of smell was that good. Besides, if he could smell her then he would have noticed her hiding under the car the last time she saw him. No, she figured he was just drawn to the building because of the other dead host, and was now just searching for potential prey.

Suddenly, Konstantin turned around to face the building and looked up. Ada could practically see his eyes narrow as it noticed them all perched up on top of the roof. He slammed his huge fists into the ground, cracking the pavement, and let out a deafening roar that seemed to shake the office building’s windows.

“I think he saw us,” Ada said.

Konstantin bolted forward and leaped into the air. Ada shrieked and flinched back as Konstantin crashed into the building about halfway up the third floor, his massive body blasting into it like a wrecking ball. Glass exploded out like splatter from a gunshot wound, raining down to the ground below. Konstantin thrashed and grabbed for purchase, but there wasn’t much for him to hold onto, and he lost his grip on the building and tumbled back down to the ground, landing on his feet amidst a waterfall of broken glass and debris.

“Jesus Christ!” one of the soldier blurted out.

“Get on the radio and try to contact the transport,” the Captain said, surprisingly calmly.

Shaking himself free of the wreckage, Konstantin screamed and leaped upward again, crashing into the second floor and forcing his way inside. They could almost feel the entire building tremble under their feet as he ran around inside, tearing the place to pieces.

The Asian soldier that carried Ada from the stairway said, “There’s no way it can get up here, right? I mean, we’re safe up here?”

Hunk glanced at him and shook his head. “No, I don’t think we are.”

“Sir! Over here!” one of the others shouted from the next side of the building. They ran over to see Konstantin hanging off the edge, clawing his way up. His clawed hand smashed through the windows on the third floor but managed to somehow get a grip on a support-bearing section of the floor, and he lifted himself up.

“Everyone!” the Captain called out, swinging his gun up, “Open fire! Open fire!”

The soldiers immediately aimed at Konstantin and the air erupted in a gunfire. Bullets rattled off his thick hide and riddled the side of the building. Konstantin roared defiance and rose upward into the wave of bullets, barely inconvenienced by them. He swung his arm up and grabbed hold of the next floor and lifted himself up, climbing up the side of the building like King Kong.

“Give me a gun!” Ada shouted.

Hunk paused for just a second to draw his pistol and he tossed it over to her. She caught it and added her own shots to the staggering barrage of gunfire.

“Shoot its hands!” the Captain yelled. “Try to make it let go!”

They did as commanded, shooting repeatedly at Konstantin’s hand. It burst and spurted with blood and diseased flesh, and he howled in rage, hauling himself up even higher. Raising one arm in front of him to block the shots, he pushed off with his feet and smashed up into the fourth floor. As the wave of bullets tore across his body, he crawled through the wreckage and ducked back inside the building.

“We must have shot it a thousand times!” one of the soldiers shrieked.

The Captain ordered, “Check the other sides! Find out where it went!”

Ada’s pistol was already empty. She noticed one of the soldiers had a rifle in his hands and another slung over his shoulder, so she ran over to him and said, “Give me your other rifle!”

“What? Do you know how to –”

“Yes! Yes! Give me the damn thing!”

He did as he was told and she followed Hunk to the front side of the building. They could all hear the beast rampaging around just two floors beneath them. The two civilians were cowering in fear by the door to the stairs, probably second-guessing their decision to remain behind. To be honest, Ada was second-guessing that decision too.

“Do we have any more grenades?” she asked.

“No,” Hunk said bitterly. “We used them on the other one.”

“Over here!” someone shouted. “It’s coming!”

They ran over to the opposite side as Konstantin smashed his way free and began to climb out, reaching up to the fifth floor. Gunfire rang out again as they tried to shoot him loose, aiming at his hands and the area he was holding, hoping their shots might weaken it so it broke free under his immense weight. But it was no use. Konstantin ignored the gunshots that peppered his body and kept climbing until he was halfway past the fifth floor. He roared and swung upward, his hand batting aside one of the guns. The soldier holding it stumbled backward and tripped over his own feet.

“Back!” the Captain yelled. “Split up! Over there! Fire from different angles!”

The soldiers split into three groups in a rough semi-circle so their lines of fire didn’t risk hitting one of the teammates. Konstantin howled victoriously and rose up from the edge of the building, like a demon rising out of the pits of Hell, his eyes burning red as bright as stoplights. His grotesque body was absolutely riddled with bullets, and his dark red skin was covered in a grisly coating of blood, gore, and dripping fluids.

They opened fire once more. Ada braced herself and fired a few single shots first, to get a feel for the recoil of the gun, before switching to full auto and squeezing the trigger until the gun clicked empty. She shouted for a clip and one of the soldiers tossed one at her. She switched quickly and resumed firing as Konstantin hauled himself up and tried to get onto the roof.

But there was nothing for him to grab onto. Unable to find a handhold to pull himself up, Konstantin howled and swung his entire body upward and got one leg up. Everyone began shooting at the leg and the short lip of the roof until it broke away under Konstantin’s weight. He roared again, spitting blood and saliva from his distorted mouth, and kept climbing. The gunfire was so loud that it drowned out everything else.

One of the soldiers tossed his rifle away and drew his pistol to continue shooting. Right after that, another soldier did the same.

“I’m out!” someone else shouted.

They simply didn’t have enough rounds to take the monster down. Their shots were doing significant damage – Konstantin’s body was ripped apart and shredded by gunfire – but it did little to slow him down. In another minute, they would be out of ammunition entirely, and then there would be nothing to stop the creature from climbing onto the roof and slaughtering them all.

Just as Ada used her last round, she felt a sudden breeze on her back, and turned around to see the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her entire life.

The helicopter soared over their heads and angled its body downward. One of the soldiers cupped his hand over his ear and began screaming, “Shoot it! My God! Shoot it!”

With a whoosh of smoke and a spear of flame, a missile shot out from the helicopter and flashed downward like a meteor. Konstantin screamed and leaped upward, and the missile struck him square in the chest. Everyone dove for cover as the explosion shattered the sky over their heads, the shockwave knocking them to their feet. The helicopter swung sideways with the force of the blast at such close range and nearly spun out of control. Chunks of scorched flesh rained down in a sickening hail.

The lower half of Konstantin’s body flopped down at the corner of the roof and then tipped over the edge and fell out of sight.

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