S.T.A.L.K.E.R Pripyat's cry:oblivion chapter 1
(Introduction)
It was early still, in the years I mean.
Early two thousand eight, when the zone was still hazardous. When
freedom and duty were constantly at war. When going to the CNPP was
nothing but a pipe dream.
The winter when I entered the zone.
My name, you may ask, is Nolec Alexander Zero, but that is not as
important as you may think.
Not in the zone, at least, because here, in the words of an old
stalker named the stranger, your destiny is to die and be forgotten
leaving nothin behind but brass. Since then, around 2013, when I heard
those words, many have died. The zone has taken those closest to me,
but the zone has brought me farther than I ever thought possible before.
This is my story, my legend and legacy. At least what you wish to
believe of it. Even I can't believe some of the things that happened
to me. Now let us go back to where it all began.
I awoke to the clamor of my Swiss wind-up alarm, its shrill cackle
tearing into my head.
"Fuck!" I swore as I finally opened my eyes, the darkness in the room
cut open by the sliver of light from the window in my small two-bedroom apartment.
Bathed in the light of the window, parts from different weapons were
strewn about, along with papers, schematics and empty army surplus
5.56mm ammunition boxes.
I finally decide to haul myself out of bed and silence that
infernal ringing.
Throwing myself from the edge of my bed, I shout profanity as my foot
drops down onto a sharp screw left there from my work the night before.
"Fuck, I'm glad I'm getting the hell out of here today," I say to
myself as I finally get to the dresser that my alarm is on.
After turning it off I made my way out of my room. A pair of Simple
flekturm camo pants and a brown T-shirt I slept in the night before were all
I'm wearing.
"Oi! Ciel, you awake!" I shout to try and contact my sister, living in
the same apartment as me to help pay the rent.
"Yeah! Ya don't have to yell so damn loud!" she answers with an
equally loud yell.
Lumbering down the hallway, I reach the small kitchen. A half-eaten
pizza is already waiting for me to devour.
I lazily turn and look as my sister walks into the kitchen, wearing
loose-fitting military clothing just like me.
she hauls an AK74 assault rifle with her, its shiny new parts
reflecting all of the florescent light from the bulb above us.
"So... You ready to go?" she asks while grabbing a piece of the cold
pizza and slowly chewin' on it.
I answer with a nod and continue eating the piece I grabbed beforehand
and walk from the kitchen to my room.
Once I enter my room I snap the switch up with entirely too much
force. The bright florescent tube lighting draws all the darkness
into it. At the foot of my bed, a new American-made assault rifle and
handgun lay atop huge mountaineering backpack, along with a tactical
armored vest.
The reason for all of this is all to clear to me. I have decided to
go into the zone. To start over where no one knows me as the simple
middle class kid with his life going butt fuck nowhere. It's kind of
funny that they call me a kid, since I haven't legally been a kid for two
years. Though it's not like I use that fact to go anywhere in life.
I don't know why but Ciel insisted on coming with me. I guess the
company will be nice, but I'm going to be more worried about her than
anything else in the zone.
I just find it great that my best friend, Vladmir Puchiskiya, is
coming with us. He has been there through it all with me, and is as
straight a shooter as there ever was.
Being a big guy helps too, at 6'5 he is the biggest guy I know, and
luckily the strongest one as well. If I were to fight him I was pretty
sure he could kill me with one good punch.
I slowly get ready, buckling on the fully-loaded vest, putting my
sheath knife on my belt within easy reach, and finally picking up the
backpack and holstering the American-made custom browning model 1911.
The only real custom thing about it is its chambering to .44 magnum.
It's a significant step up in power from the common .45 acp.
I sigh as I sling the very common AR-15 rifle across my shoulder and
walk from the room, switching off the light as I go.
Ciel stands ready to leave at the door to the apartment. Vlad's
military surplus trucks diesel engine grumbles out in front.
I open the door and walk out to the truck, a pack and a Swiss FN-
scarH sitting in the cab next to Vlad.
He opens the window on his side and tells me to get in the bed of
the truck.
Hidden underneath a tarp like rain shield me and Ciel wait silently
as the loud truck approaches the cordon after the long ride.
The cordon is a heavily guarded exclusion zone meant to keep people out
of the actual zone farther in.
Our plan was to say that the truck was a supply truck for the
military men inside of the zone. Failing that, plan B is to end our
friendship with the military and charge in with guns firing.
Luckily, the border guards believe Vlad and let us in peacefully.
Finally, were in the zone. A map lead us to a large stalker camp
just past the cordon.
When we arrive at the outskirts of the camp, Vlad yells back to us
that the truck was almost out of fuel and wouldn't be able to go too
much further. So, that camp would also be where the truck stays forever.
We left the truck parked in a small garage like building near the
camp and left with all of our gear, leaving nothing behind at all. We even stripped the wiring from the cab, and for some reason Vlad even took the knob off the shifter,
depositing it in one of the many pockets of his pants.
After that, the three of us walked to the border around the camp,
assembled out of rusty razor wire and weathered wooden stakes, with a
guarded iron tubing gate being the only entrance and exit.
"Who are you? New meat?" The gate guard roughly grumbles as we walk
up to him. His body is covered in a long, cracked tan leather trench coat,
and his face is darkened by the hood of the coat.
He has his left hand resting on the barrel of an AK-47 rifle, its
butt on the ground.
Upon seeing my sister, his eyes travel up and down as if appraising a
piece of meat. It makes me want to cut them out of his head.
"Oh," he quietly whispers to himself before gruffly asking, "How much
for the girl?"
A sickening smile coming across his hood shaded face. "Unless maybe
you just want to give her to me." he moves to raise the Kalashnikov
assault rifle to his shoulder.
Suddenly Vlad pulls the combat knife from his belt and lunges at the
gate guard, cutting into his arm with the blade.
The man hollers in pain and slams the butt of the AK-47 into Vlad's chest,
making him hiss in pain and fall on his back.
The hostile guard lifted his rifle to his shoulder and racks back
the bolt, aiming it at Vlad.
I react as quickly as I can and tug the 1911 from my hip holster,
angling it towards the man. In one quick motion, I pull the trigger.
A loud bang meets my ears and the recoil of the gun nearly throws it
from my hand.
I hear a pained cry and I finally look away from Vlad and towards
the gate guard, his hand gripping his stomach and a profuse amount of
blood spilling through his clothes and hand. He dropped the rifle when
I shot him.
Vlad scrambles to take his handgun from its holster, a Beretta M-92
9mm. He finally gets the gun from his holster and carefully aims it at
the man.
I step between the man and Ciel and close my eyes as three quick
pops meet my ears and I feel flecks of blood hit my face and the man's
cries stop.
I open my eyes and see him on the ground, two more men dressed just
like him rushing towards the gate with there rifles ready.
They stop ten feet from the gate and kneel down onto the dirt road.
"Holster your shooters!" the one on the left shouts.
We comply and holster our pistols. I reach down and pull Vlad up
from the ground, and grab his shoulder as he stumbles slightly,
grabbing his chest and grunting in pain.
"You okay, man?" I ask him and he shakes his head and answers, "Not
really."
The two armed guards jog up to us and look down at the dead guard
laying in a red snow patch, colored by his own blood.
"Shit... Lenechsky... What happened here, and no bullshit," the one
that yelled for us to put our guns away says roughly with authority.
The second one keeps his eyes focused on us and his hands on his gun.
"Well." I start, carefully of what I say, trying to keep an air of
authority, even though I'm not the tallest or scariest one here;
that's Vladmir's job.
"This idiot here attacked us for no reason. He injured my man and
threatened my sister. He tried to kill my man here so I had to put him
down." I finish and glare at the man who is seemingly in charge.
"Well..." he says, struggling to find a rebuttal to what I said.
"Fuck, go in. Gate take them to the boss. And no stopping along the
way or else!" he shouts to the guy he is with and he nods, turning
around and slowly walking back into the camp. We follow him silently
through the small rows of worn down crumbling brick buildings.
"So..." he starts, trying to start a conversation.
"what are your names?" he asks looking at us over his shoulder.
"The fuck do you care!" Ciel angrily growls a him, surprising all of
us.
"Ooh, feisty!" Gate says and pulls the hood off his head, showing a man
that couldn't be more than a year older than me and Vlad, and
apparently not bad looking according to the blush on my sisters face.
"Sh-shut up you!" my sister stutters flustered while obviously trying
to hide the blush on her face.
A cheeky smile finds its way onto Gates face as he looks back forward,
"Ha ha, I'm just having fun with ya, no need to be hostile. Tell ya
the truth, I'm glad that cocksucker Lenechsky finally got killed." he
says, an emotionless look coming over his face "He's a lecher, and
more than once I've caught him with those girls the bandits prostitute
out." He sighs his expression hardening.
"They probably got them by kidnapping them outside of the zone, fuckin'
bastards," he gets quieter at the end, harshly whispering the last two
words.
"If I was you, girl, I would keep that little detail a secret out
here in the Zone, at least until those damn slaver bandits get killed
off. There's no chivalry out here in the zone." he says harshly,
s his slow walk as he reaches a red painted wood door.
" If I may ask, how long have you actually been in the zone?" I ask
him, expecting him to say a year or more.
"Three months, And that's a long time out here in the zone. Most
people don't even make it past a week." He stops and knocks twice on
the door, a deep authoritative voice inside saying "Enter" moments later.
"The boss is inside. Tell him exactly what happened. Don't bullshit
him, he can tell. I will stay out here for when he is done with you."
He smiles slightly. "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure he hated Lenechsky
too."
He pulls the door open and motions for us to enter. We follow his
motions and go inside, a dark red painted badly lit room meeting us on
the other side, much warmer than the cold snow patched Chernobyl
winter outside. There is a single large man sitting against the wall
of the other end of the room cross legged on a bed. A bottle labeled
cossacks in his left hand raised towards his mouth, the light of the
outside showing a black tattoo on his forearm reading S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
"So You are the new guys that killed Lenechsky. Bringing a woman
into the zone is a bad idea. You.. stalker," he starts up seriously
then looks to Vladmir, who coughs violently into his hand, pulling it
away to show blood on it. "should go see our medic, Vrolank will fix
you right up, then we will talk." he finishes and pulls a small
battery powered radio from one of his vests pockets, and talks into it
too quietly for me to hear.
Moments later, two large men walk in with a military canvas stretcher
and I help Vlad onto it, telling him that we will find him later. The
two large men walk out carrying the stretcher with Vlad on it. Gate
closes the door behind them.
"He will be fine in no time. The good doctor is a magician, his
assistant Svolask is just as good as any doctor out in the real world,"
the boss says reassuringly, before switching to a serious expression.
"So, you came to the zone today. Most newbies die within the first
three hours, but usually because they are not prepared, but you all
seem very ready, gear wise, for the terrors of the zone. Which I will
try to explain to you when your friend is back. Until then..."
He stands up from his bed and walks to a cabinet, pulling three shot
glasses out of it, and a bottle labeled cossacks vodka. He pours the
glasses full and hands me and Ceil each a glass. Taking the last for
himself he sits back down, motioning for us to do the same on the oil
drums along the wall.
"let us drink to your fist day in the zone," he says just before
throwing back the shot of hard liquor. Ciel and I look at each other
then drink both of ours.
The sharp alcohol stings my throat as it burns its way down to my
stomach. My first drink in the zone.
So far, The zone isn't that bad. Other than our brief brush with
near death, it's been okay. But from what I've heard, it won't stay
that way.
( AU: die and be forgotten leave nothing behind but brass and the
stranger are both property of the authors of the zone at .com
, I neither own nor claim to own rights to stalker, but I do
claim rights to anything I pulled out of the corner of butt fuck and
nowhere.
The character Nolec is based after a bit of myself and my friend
mark, Vladmir is based nearly entirely off of mark, Ciel is based of a
few of my closest ladyfriends jumpy personalities,
the boss is based after my auto shop instructor, gate is based of my
friend johnny. All other insignificant characters are based off my
imagination, that is all. Please review and respond)