Another day, another patrol duty. Those were thoughts of young Soviet corporal named Nikolai Gorev as he walked around generator room in secondary building of Oblask Dam Research Facility.
He looked around and sighed before taking a look at his wrist watch. 11:30 AM. Only one more hour and Misha Korylevna, AKA Lieutenant Frost, as they called her, will take up Nikolai's position.
,,Control, come in. Anything to report in sector G-4 near research center?" Nikolai heard accented voice in his earpiece. It was his commander, Sergei Simonov, AKA Captain Snow. Top dog in this facility. He was currently in communications center on the other side of the dam.
,,No sir. Nothing special to report in this sector." Nikolai replied shortly. Secretly, he wished that something would happen to make this boresome duty a bit more interesting.
,,Nothing here either. Carry on patrolling and report to communication center when your shift ends, Gorev." Snow said before his frequency went static. Nikolai sighed and took a look around the room which was colored in same boring shade of gray. There was litterally nothing he could entertain himself with except for radio, but it was a bad idea since he barely evaded being demoted after being reported by Gregor Steranko, AKA Sergeant Shock for "harrassing" him via radio during one of his guard duties.
As Nikolai was lost in his own thoughts, he heard screams and gunshots coming from withnin large, corroded door with cyrrilic lettering reading ,,WARNING! Biohazard area! Enterance without security clearance and equipment strictly forbidden!"
Nikolai was snapped awake by said sounds and instictively reached for his sidearm, Makarov PM before holstering it when he was sure that no one was coming for him. He looked at door uneasily. Those door were leading into research center where one biohazard container was located. All that lowest ranking soldiers like Nikolai knew about it was to under no circumstances enter research center without security clearance from Captain Snow. If they disobeyed, they would apparently get dragged away in the middle of the night by higher ranking soldiers, never to be seen again. Nikolai never believed those stories and he was notorious among other soldiers stationed in the dam for getting in things that weren't his concern, owning to his nickname "Nosey Prick".
He wasn't sure if it was his curiousity or sheer boredom, or combination of two, but before he knew it, Nikolai was running up the nearby staircase and entering computer room stationed on top of the staircase, pressing large button on control pannel that controled door of research center.
Door of the center opened with strong hiss, revealing dimly lit hallway drilled through mountain that dam was situated on. Nikolai picked up flashlight located below control pannel and left computer room.
As Nikolai slowly made his way through research center which was growing darker as he went deeper, flashlight being his only company, he has started to wonder what were higher-ups hiding in there, and what was the source of mysterious gunshots heard from withnin this part of facility.
As Nikolai was slowly inching forward, his flashlight shone something. It looked like... a hand! Human hand that was ripped from someone and was laying on the ground. It was still clutching handgun. Nikolai quickly moved light beam away after he felt bile rising in his throat. He made few more steps before nearly stumbling over something. He shone it with flashlight, and to his horror, it was a corpse. Horribly mauled corpse of one soldier that had scream of terror frozen on its face, right hand missing. That explained it all.
Nikolai switched flashlight to his left hand and pulled out his handgun, slowly inching his way through facility. There wasn't turning back now, he'll see what is really going on in this facility, or die trying. However, as he made one more step forward, he felt something grabbing his shoulder and heard male voice whispering ,,Nikolai!"
Nikolai jumped and turned around, aiming his gun and flashlight at the intruder. Flashlight shone face of Sergeant Yevgenyj Trotski, refered to by his peers as "Sergeant Shivers", and only afro-russian soldier stationed in this facility. Nikolai's prefered nickname for him was "Scaredy Cat".
,,Dear lord, i nearly shot you sergeant!" Nikolai said and sighed.
,,You shouldn't be here without security clearance, Corporal." Trotski said as he looked around.
,,I'm telling you, there is something seriously wrong here, and i will find out what it is even if it kills me!" Nikolai said shining his flashlight to mauled corpse nearby to prove his point.
,,We'll be killed if someone else finds out about this! I might find a way to save myelf, but you won't be so lucky." Trotski said sighing. He knew it was bad idea to assign Nikolai here.
,,You're just afraid. Admit it, Scaredy Cat." Nikolai said and added ,,I bet that you still suck your thumb while you sleep." After that, Nikolai went deeper into tunnel which was progressively becoming darker and colder. Trotski cringed and followed after Nikolai into darkness. His gut feeling was telling him that it won't end well.
As two soldiers made their way to final stretch of the tunnel, Trotski noticed unusually large number of corpses around the facility. And it just seemed to increase as they were going deeper.
Nikolai was shining area around himelf with a flashlight. Metal contruction grid on nearby walls told him that they were nearing end of the tunnel. However, light has suddently started to flicker before shutting off, leaving two men in complete darkness.
,,Nikolai, the light!" Trotski said as two stopped. Nikolai handed his gun to Trotski before proceeding to hit flashlight againist his palm while muttering ,,Stupid flashlight. Does nothing in this damn army work."
While Nikolai was busy fixing flashlight, Trotski felt oddly damp smell ahead before recognizing some sort of tall, dark figure right in front of himself and Nikolai.
Wordlessly, he tapped Nikolai's shoulder to get his attention. As lamp has started to work again, Nikolai shone it on mysterious figure.
,,Oh, my... It's Vasily!" Nikolai said as he watched in horror. In front of him and Trotski was tall man in dirty and bloodstained military uniform. His skin was sickly yellowish and it seemed that his eyes became milky white. Trotski also noticed that he had blood around his mouth. Best description for him would be zombie.
Two men were terrified, but managed to get themselves to slowly back away, with Trotski aiming Nikolai's gun at nightmare creature formerly known as Vasily. However, as they were backing away, both Nikolai and Trotski felt that they hit something and lost balance. It was another corpse. Two soldiers were now sitting on the ground, slowly inching away from zombie that was slowly following them.
As zombie came closer, Trotski screamed and shot him, with bullet hitting zombie's heart. However, several moans were heard as some of corpses near Nikolai and Trotski reanimated and slowly started to crawl towards them.
,,Shit!" Nikolai screamed as he reached for Trotski's gun and shot at crawling zombies, killing two before his magazine ran out.
"Damn! I'm not going like this!" Nikolai said, but he suddently felt two pairs of hands grabbing him from behind and pushing him onto the ground. They looked like some sort of hybrids between humans and something out of old movie about aliens. "NO!" Nikolai screamed as two hybrids plunged their mutated arms in his torso, proceeding to violently stab him. All Nikolai could do now was scream in pure fear and agony as two monsters roared victoriously. ,,Help... me..." Nikolai said weakly as he looked at Trotski one last time before his sight went white.
"Trotski was standing again and was desperately fighting advancing zombies with empty handgun, using it to pistol whip any zombie who got too close to him. ,,FUCK YOU, YOU DEMON SPAWNS!" Trotski roared as he kept attacking zombies. For the moment, it seemed to him like he will be able to escape. However, that hope quickly diminished as he felt sharp pain in his right leg. Zombified Vasily bit Trotski directly in leg, forcing him to howl in pain and bend over, trying to pry zombie off his leg. Hybrids used this opportunity to grab Trotski and force him on ground. He knew it was all over. He was disarmed, wounded and pinned to the ground by two monsters. Knife was dropping on him.
However, hybrids didn't execute him. Instead, they moved backwards. Trotski could easily hear groaning at his side. As he looked on, he saw Nikolai. He had bleeding stab wounds all over his torso and was crawling towards him. Trotski understood it all: Nikolai was one of them now. It didn't matter anyways. He was as good as dead.
Curiosity is what can lead you to greatness, or doom. Those were last thoughts of Sergeant Yevgenij Trotski before zombified Nikolai proceeded to bite at his neck, immideately crushing his throat. He felt blood pooling in his mouth before his sight went white.
,,Control, come in! Ah, stupid radio." Commander Sergei Simonov groaned as he hit his earpiece multiple times. It's been over an hour since Corporal Gorev was suppossed to report here. As Simovov thought what held Nikolai up, he failed to notice red sniper laser at his forehead. He droped down dead only moments later.
,,It's all down to me now." Sergeant Cortez said as he watched his new body and sniper rifle that came with it. First time crystal was somewhere in that dam, and he had to find it. In his body, or body of time native.
THE END