Infinity Rises Read Online Free PDF

around me, stark against the blanket of a snow-covered forest floor. I look up and see snowflakes gently drifting down from a gray sky that’s crisscrossed with the black spindles of bare branches overhead.
    I don’t feel like me anymore at all. I feel strong, focused, determined, and . . . deadly.
    CLICK CLACK.
    It’s the unmistakable sound of an automatic rifle being cocked right behind my back. The muzzle of the rifle jabs roughly at my head as a deep male voice threatens menacingly in Russian.
    “You move, and you’re dead.”
    I freeze in my tracks.
    “Who are you?” he demands.
    Not only do I understand the man behind me, but I also lie to him in perfect Russian. “My name is Sasha.”
    “Turn around.”
    I do as he says. The brown-haired man is 1.8 meters tall and dressed in a white-and-gray-patterned winter combat uniform. He has a nasty-looking scar under his left eye and at least four days’ worth of stubble on his face. He smells like sweat and campfire smoke.
    “What are you doing in this forest?”
    “I’m collecting firewood for my family,” I say, offering up the bundle of small logs and branches in my arms.
    “Where is your family?”
    “We have a small farm. Not far.”
    With the gun still pointed at my head, he shifts his eyes up past me, scanning the forest from left to right. His gaze snaps back to me as the radio crackles to life on his hip.
    “Viktor, check in.”
    The man looks at me carefully, from my eyes, down over the shabby jacket covering my threadbare yellow cardigan, my tattered dress, my worn-out brown leather shoes, and up to my face again. He lowers his assault rifle and pulls the radio from its pouch.
    “Viktor checking in,” he grunts.
    “Everything OK?” asks the voice.
    “Nothing to report. Going to check the southwest boundary, then heading back,” says Viktor. “Don’t let Andre eat any more of my cookies. My daughter made them especially for me.”
    “Sure, but I can’t promise you that I won’t eat them,” the voice says. It’s followed by a jovial laugh.
    Viktor smiles. “I’ll be about twenty minutes.” He stuffs the radio back in its pouch and looks at me.
    “How old are you, Sasha?”
    I meekly whisper the only grain of truth he’s gonna get out of me. “I turned seventeen one week ago.”
    “Really? I have a daughter about your age. You’re a good girl to help your family, but now you must take your firewood, go home, and don’t come back here again. This is not a safe place for pretty young girls like you. There are wolves and bears and scary men with guns,” Viktor says, smiling down at me.
    I cock my head and look up at him. “How many men?” I ask.
    Viktor’s smile fades, and his eyes narrow. “Why do you want to know this?”
    “My father makes vodka in the summer and keeps it in the cellar for winter. People say it’s very good. One bottle shared between two men will last the whole night and keep the cold away. I can bring some for all of you? Leave it here by this tree? My father won’t mind; he was a soldier once, too, a long time ago.”
    Viktor’s smile slowly returns. “You are a kind girl, Sasha. That would be very good.”
    “How many bottles shall I bring?” I ask.
    “Well, we are big men. Bring one for each of us; six bottles will do. I will return in an hour. Make sure to call out when you return, so that I know it’s you.”
    “There are six men?” I ask.
    Viktor nods and smiles again.
    “Thank you, Viktor.” I drop the firewood, and my leg becomes a blur as my front kick slams into Viktor’s diaphragm. The last air he will ever breathe sputters from his lips as he buckles, his knees crunching into the snow at my feet. I bend down, grab his head, and twist hard. I’m instantly rewarded by the glorious popping sound of his neck bones separating in his throat. Viktor twitches once, then slumps lifelessly onto the snow. His dead-eyed face, now amusingly almost backward on his body, is slack-jawed and