The Most Evil Kind.

Who are the inhabitants of the forest? An interesting question for a city dweller. Alexander knew from different programs that there are wolves, foxes, bears, boars, elks, hares, squirrels, deer, a whole bunch of different birds in the forest, but the wolf's memory stored memories of dozens of species of animals that he could not remember from the programs.

"Okay, we'll determine as we go," he thought and immediately forgot - a hare jumped out from under his feet and rushed away, as it probably seemed to the long-eared one. Alexander stopped, but immediately continued his run, deciding not to pursue the animal.

He would always be able to catch another one... perhaps he could, but the hare was moving fast and it would not be so easy to catch up with him in the forest.

Alexander ran, continuing to absorb the odors of the surrounding forest and determine who they belonged to, remembering how the same odors were perceived by the wolf he had killed.

Then Alexander's nostrils smelled something new and he was surprised to realize that it was the smell of a human. Only human sweat mixed with the dirt of clothes, boots, and shit could smell like that. The odor was faint, but its direction was very clearly defined. It lay slightly off the chosen route, but the humans were clearly worth the change.

As he began to follow the smell, Alexander did not run, but rather walked quickly, pausing to sniff and look around. During the time he was running, he was at least three kilometers away from the camp, but more likely four kilometers.

Though he couldn't give away the location of the others, he decided to be cautious when he encountered people. A naked man coming out of the forest is not normal in any northern country, not Africa.

The smells of people were getting stronger. They were joined by smells of food, leather, some animals, spices. His hearing began to distinguish screams. He did not dare to determine the language yet, but if he could hear people, it meant that they were almost within his reach.

Having switched to running, Alexander stopped looking for an ambush in every bush and rushed to the place where, as his sensitive hearing told him, several dozens of people were discussing something heatedly. It became clear - they were not speaking Russian. It was impossible to identify the language - it was not similar to the ones he had heard before.

Blood!!! The smell of blood hit his nostrils sharply! Human blood! He even felt the taste of it in his mouth, though of course it was only a memory of his own bitten lips and tongue, but the iron taste was extremely pleasant. There were still a hundred meters to the target.

Slowing down, he moved more cautiously, trying not to make a sound or reveal his presence here. The shouts were joined by the sounds of clanking iron, blows, and other such sounds, clearly indicating that there was a fight ahead with the use of improvised means.

Alexander stopped and took a breath and ducked down to the bush. Apparently, from behind this bush there was already a view of what was going on ahead. And such a view did open up - literally three meters ahead was a gap in the trees, there was a road, and on the road... on the road nineteen men, dressed in strange for the twenty-first century clothes, which probably should be called armor and armed with cold weapons, were killing each other. Some of them were already lying on the road, and some of them were not showing signs of life. But they smelled tantalizingly of blood.

As if mesmerized, Alexander watched the action unfolding before his eyes. The road looked quite decent and was as wide as a two-lane highway. And there was a battle going on across its width. Neither side had a clear advantage in numbers or in the skill of their fighters.

Which, of course, didn't stop them from killing. Watching another poor man fall to the dust, Alexander suddenly had an unbearable urge to jump out onto the road, and snuggle up to the wound and savor the taste of human blood. Suppressing this inappropriate desire, he began to think about what to do next.

The fight would not last forever, and the blood of humans would not only quench the strange desires of the new entity, but also provide information. After all, if the blood of animals along with the power gave the memories of their lives, then the blood of people should do the same. In the meantime, the events on the road had come to a close, and there were only five people left on their feet.

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