Prologue: No Russian
Zachaev International Airport, Moscow,
Russia. August 12, 2016
Aaron Gungnir, civilian
I questioned who exactly Zachaev was as soon as I set foot in this airport. It was a little stop my girlfriend, Cat, and I took just for sightseeing, before making our living in Paris, mostly for college though. I wasn't having the most fun, but my optimistic self made the most of it. We were back at the airport, passing the statue. "Hero of The New Russia," It said in many translations. I decided to ignore it despite my curiosity, for catching the plane to Paris was more important.
I turned 19, just 4 days ago, so I still got looks for being this young. The officer handling my passport made this clear.
At this point we got to security. Ironically, this place is where I felt the most vulnerable in my life.
If I'm correct, we were a couple people away from the metal detectors. There was a cop and an elevator to our right. The next thing I remember, I saw the elevator behind the cop. I heard the typical Russian phrase, "S'nami Bog" out of the elevator. It means "God is with us." The elevator opened to reveal a couple armed men, in black. Now, these men had large American made assault rifles, like an M4A1 in one man's hands, and even a light machine gun; an M240 in another's hands. The men seemed to be in a black uniform. They're faces weren't covered, so I assumed they were security. The one in front with spiked black hair looked peculiar. The cop, and many people by the elevator just like me turned and stared. No one was sure if they were supposed to be scared or not.
When everyone was turned. I heard one man mutter, turning to the others, "Remember, No Russian."
They pulled their guns to a hip fire stance. I took Cat, and threw her backwards. And they opened fire. I felt a couple shots to the legs and torso. I couldn't feel how many, as I fell to the ground, behind an X-ray machine. I couldn't hear anything, but I knew that there would be people screaming. As I began to get my hearing back I saw Cat screaming at me, I put my hand over her mouth, grabbed her shirt, and pulled her behind the machine with me. I felt the tears dripping down. She tried to scream at the pile of bodies that lay before us, but I didn't let her. The men walked over the bodies, and through the metal detectors. We could hear the beeping sound of the machines amongst the screams, and we saw them shoot every last person in the room, and those who tried running up the escalators.
The men left up the escalators, but we still heard alarms, screams and gunshots. I took my hand off of her mouth to hear her utter,
"Aaron… I… I love you…" she stuttered a lot.
"Calm down, I'm not gonna die." I said, tasting blood.
"Yes you are! You're gonna fucking die!" She said, collapsing on me, bursting into tears.
I lifted her head, to try to talk to her, but she clung to me before I could say anything. I hugged her back, and after that I heard various clicking noises, and saw the departure board; seeing everything switch to "delayed." I tried to do everything to calm her down, to no avail. Cat continued to scream and sob. I was starting to black out before I saw a woman coated in blood, in a medic uniform running around as if she was looking for someone. I noticed she had a briefcase. As she noticed us, she ran in this direction. I felt a bit of relief, and I passed out. I decided not to ask Cat the rest of what happened that day.
I was told at when I woke up in the hospital, that 243 people were killed in the massacre.