In the middle of emerald forest, as the sun shone its rays between the green leaves of the trees and as the birds singed in a calm tune, Yevgeny Prigozhin laid there on the ground, the soft grass and cold soil contrasted with the heat of the sun on his head woke him up, disoriented and with no clue of where he was.

"Ah blyat my head... feels like someone is playing with a power drill in my skull..."

He sat on the ground still disoriented, holding his hand for a while trying to make the pain go away without success, after the pain subsided he opened his eyes, the brightness blinding him momentarily before getting accustomed to it. Prigozhin looked around, the scenario looked like a normal forest with a bit more life and color.

"Fuck, where the hell am I? How did I get here? I was on my plane with Utkin and Chekalov but I don't remember anything after that, fucking hell, did I drink too much? I never got this drunk before, damn I'm so thirsty, why did they let me wander around and get here in the first place? They will regret neglecting me when I find them"

Prigozhin got up on his feet still a little confused about where he was, however, he knew staying there wouldn't improve his situation, he started walking aimlessly in hopes of finding a village or any sign of civilization. Still wearing his khaki jacket, cargo pants and his trusted Makarov on his hip with 8 bullets, more than enough to kill anything that moves, Prigozhin strode along the lifeful forest with an uneasy feeling, these trees didn't seem native to Russia, also it was abnormally warm even during the summer, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of water, a small stream a little ahead of him, he quickly forgot his uneasiness and rushed to the stream, kneeling and taking as much water as he could with his hands and drinking it all.

"I don't know if this water is potable but fuck it, I won't start a fire just to boil it."

As Prigozhin got satisfied he got back to his thoughts, still kneeling beside the stream.

"I swear that when I find Utkin I'll rip his skin off, letting me get so drunk then wandering off to the woods... well, at least now I have something to follow, there must be some settlement besides this flow of water..."

His thoughts were again interrupted by a sound, this time the sound of bushes moving a few meters from where he was, Prigozhin quickly got up and placed his hand on the Makarov, just in case.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

Suddenly a black animal jumped from the bushes straight towards him, it was nothing like any animal he had ever seen, a bear sized dog that had pitch black skin and white bone like exoskeleton with red glowing eyes. Prigozhin's first instinct was to dive on the ground, dodging the strange animal's attack and desperately pulling his Makarov, as he pointed the gun at the animal it charged him, working purely on instinct of self-preservation he shot the animal 4 times, although the first 2 bullets had stopped it, the beast fell on the ground lifeless and before Prigozhin could say anything the corpse started disintegrating before his eyes. Still sweating and shocked with his near-death experience on whatever that thing was he kept his gun pointed at the corpse, shaking his hand nervously and almost wasting another bullet. After long seconds of shock passing, he let his arm relax just a little bit and breathing heavily still trying to understand what happened.

"Blyat, holy shit, just... what the fuck is that thing? WHERE THE HELL AM..." He shut himself up realizing his yelling could draw more of those things, still unsettled he breathed more slowly, wiped the sweat of his brow and recomposed "Calm down... call down Yevgeny, the priority is to find shelter, I just need to follow the stream and eventually I'll find something, I hope not but if more of these monsters show up I always have my friend here with me."

As he ran across the bank of the stream, hastily but still as quietly as possible to avoid alerting more beasts, his memories began flowing back to him, the plane, him drinking with his subordinates of Wagner, the pilot warning them of something and the sudden heat he felt, his quarrel with the Kremlin, it made sense to him finally. "Fuck did I... die? Shit, that little bastard shot down my plane! How could I trust his words? All because of those two little shits from the ministry of defense were jealous of my army. Dammit, is this hell? If it is, it's nowhere near what I expected and I really doubt I went to heaven, one way or another I think the priests lied to me my whole life"

After jogging for what seemed hours, Prigozhin was exhausted and nearly giving up until he saw on the horizon, black smoke, he could be running towards a common forest fire, but it could also be some type of human made construction burning, he had no choice and ran even faster towards the fire. As he got closer, he could hear screams muffled by the forest, he wasn't sure if this was good or bad but, in any case, he had hopes of finding something or someone that could help him in his situation.

When he finally reached the outskirts of the fire he realized it was a small village, a few tiny houses made of wood and some roads made of dirt, many of the houses were burning and the people who lived there were running in panic, he rushed inwards and spotted some villagers, 5 or 6, with rudimentary weapons such as hoes and forks fighting, or rather trying to fight 2 more of those black beasts, the villagers were hardly holding on, the monsters were not afraid of their meager struggle as all seemed lost to the villagers, as one of the villagers fell on the ground and as the beast prepared to land a killing blow, Prigozhin acted swiftly.

*POW* *POW* *POW* *POW* *click*

The sounds echoed through the village as they silenced the turmoil, the two beasts fell dead on the village's ground, the screaming stopped and now only the sound of fire could be heard, as the villagers noticed what happened they looked at the stranger, this time with a solid posture and serious face, standing there with a small, unloaded gun pointed at where the black beasts were, every single one of them speechless, alas, relieved about what happened, Prigozhin lowered his weapon, looking back at the villagers for what seemed an eternity, until one of them broke the silence:

"Uhh... you... you saved me mister..."