The air smelt dank as a slight breeze swept over the wet, deserted road. Not a soul in sight, twenty years ago this place would of been busy, plenty of people rushing around, meandering around each other to get to their destination. Instead, now just silence, only the occasional gunshot or tortured scream breaking it. All that was about to change..
4 pairs of boots landed heavily, kicking up a cloud of black dust.
"KURWA" Shouted the leader, the one at the front. 6ft tall and slim, Aleksi Vidichenko was a seasoned veteran when it came to the zone. You name it, he'd seen it, done it and probably shot at it. Unlike now..
"Where the fuck did it come from?!"
The 4 stalkers came tearing around the corner, wild AK fire battering the walls behind them.
"Shit shit shit.. this is bad" said Piotr Romanov hurriedly, another of the group.
Piotr was relitively new, fresh from the Polish Military. Still wet behind the ears, he hadn't quite got used the idea of being shot at with live rounds. Safe to say at this precise moment in time, he was scared.
"RUN RUN RUN" Piotr exclaimed, the 4 of them made it around the corner, clear from sight for a few key seconds.
"We need to find fucking cover NOW" he shouted at Aleksi, panicked.
"The building, there" Aleksi pointed straight where they were headed, at the end of the road.
A large, assumedly abandoned building stood at the end of the road in front of them. They started to sprint towards it, boots kicking up a thin veil of dust all around them. Aleksi was still replaying the quick succession of events that has just happened, trying to correlate everything into order. Right, so walking down the road towards Point A, shots came from behind.
And not very good ones at that. The frantic and quick barrage of bullets fired at us says we unintentionally surprised our enemy. The fact that they got off about a clip at us and didn't even hit any of the 4 targets says this is probably a scared amateur. Still, they shot at us first so fair game.
Piotr followed quickly behind Aleksi, desperate to get to safety. They ran down a road full of boarded up buildings, which were usually prime bandit hideouts. Also, the building at the end offered a tactical advantage, as it was taller and had some exposed windows, plenty of possible vantage points. Behind Piotr was Sergei Prochazkova.
Former military also, Sergei came to the zone like many others, to seek plenty of action. He was with the military in the zone for just over 4 years before finally going AWOL. All the little unfair deals, backstabbing and rule-breaking his superiors got away with really grated on him, so after getting his last meagre paycheck and watching the higher-ups get away with things for too long, he just took off in the night and fended for himself. He quickly made cash as most do trading artifacts with Sidorovich, occasionally keeping the more expensive ones for himself to sell off privately later. This job was no different, the only difference being this job was quickly going from bad to worse..
So close to the building now, Piotr kept an ear out as he heard shouting coming from the street they had just run from.
Another volley of bullets slammed past the group, easily missing all of them by a few feet. Yanov Pochivra turned quickly, the last of the group, and pulled out his sidearm. He fired a few rounds, the bullets narrowly missing their target, slamming into the nearby wall.
Yanov never saw it coming. He turned around and ran, a little closer to the walls than everybody else, still sprinting in the direction of the building they were going to take cover in. Loud gunfire and the rush of trying to keep a mental note on their persuers position caused him to take his focus off his geiger counters beep for just a split second..
Then suddenly, he felt it. A little elated feeling, surrounded by all this carnage he was suddenly plunged into absolute calm. His head felt light, and he looked down, everything felt as if it was in slow motion. He looked at his feet, and suddenly, as if by magic.. the ground fell away beneath him. He was slowly rising up, being pulled backwards in fact. It was at this point he realised what was happening.
Yanov could feel his mind, his brain boiling inside his skull. His stomach turned and he opened his mouth to scream but nothing came up. He looked straight at Aleksi and just caught his gaze, Aleksi turning around momentarily. A loud, dull thud came from directly behind Yanov, indicating nothing but a Whirligig anomaly. Immediately after, Yanov's body was torn inside out. A large plume of dark red liquid looked almost beautiful as his body was emaciated by the invisible anomaly, tearing lumps of flesh one from another and re-distributing them into the tinest of pieces. Aleksi just stared in disbelief at the enormous shapeless puddle of blood and flesh that was Yanov. No fucking way, just.. no way..
It took the frantic shouting and Piotr dragging at his shoulder to bring him back to normality. Yet more wild AK fire smashing into the concrete garden wall near them, digging into the brickwork.
"Fuck, come ON" Piotr shouted.
The 3 remaining stalkers bolted toward the door, wild bullets pinging off nearby brickwork, not much of a threat Aleksi thought.. but then it only takes one on target bullet and that's it. Piotr was the first through the dark doorway, even though Aleksi was the leader. Aleksi then closely followed by Sergei came through next. Aleksi moved to the side of the doorway, his back to the wall.
The 3 of them quickly regrouped, in the safety of the large buildings lobby.
"Quickly, Sergei give it to me" Aleksi pointed at a large object hanging from the side of Sergei's backpack.
"Time for a little payback"
Sergei handed Aleksi said object, to which he curiously placed into a nearby pile of rubble right beside the door. The large building, along with all the others in Pripyat, was in a state of complete dis-repair. Years ago this building would of been a thriving hive of human activity, these days only home to a passing stalker or stray mutant. Ceilings hung low or collapsed due to constant rainfall, paint chipped away slowly and tiles broke off.
Aleksi thought quickly about his next move. He had to come up with something quickly, that anomaly would slow their persuers but not stop them.
"You two, upstairs to the window directly above this room, keep low and cover me. Do not give away your position until you hear the signal, understand?"
"Affirmative" said Sergei, he turned to the stairs behind him and started jogging up them, Piotr nervously following. He kept low, no need for his flashlight, felt his way around. He crawled up to the window and ever so slowly poked his head up to survey the street below him. Derelict, grey buildings and the odd weed here and there seemed to dwarf the 2 figures that stood still. 2 shortish figures, clad in long black coats, balaclavas on. Bandits.
Sergei slowly reached around and pulled his AK47 free. He slowly brought it up to eye level, the butt resting into his shoulder. He put his eye to the fitted scope for a closer view of the people that had just been shooting at them, and clicked the dial around to single shot. One of the 2 bandits was carefully inching forward, right beside the pile that was formerly Yanov.
"Oh what.. are you being serious.. ?" Sergei thought to himself. The bandits were robbing the exploded corpse of their ex-team mate. A slice of anger cut itself into Sergei, if he shot either of them now it would be the end of both bandits. He held his finger firmly on the trigger, knowing one shot from his rifle is all that he needed, but he stuck religiously to his orders. No shooting until the signal. The crawling bandit inched forward, and seemed to grab something from the pile of mess.
Would you believe it? Sergei watched intently through his scope. It was Yanov's sidearm, a Beretta 92f. The bandit passed it back slowly to the other stalker, and reached into the gore pile again. He slowly lifted out Yanov's backpack now, still drenched in blood from his dead body.
Sergei had his crosshairs directly over the upright Bandit's face. The horizontal Bandit crawled slowly back, avoiding the anomaly cautiously. He stood up, next to his friend and together they examined the contents of their newly looted bag. The Bandit that had been crawling through Yanov pulled his hood back and took off his balaclava to get a better look.. it was then Sergei's turn for a stomach churn. Those 2 bandits were just kids. Not a day older than 16 or 17, yet had the balls to shoot an automatic weapon at 4 armed men. Ugh, what to do Sergei though. But then he knew what was going to happen anyway, this is the Zone after all.
He kept his crosshairs directly above the still-hooded child Bandit. A pair of Beretta clips, fully loaded already knowing Yanov. A tin of presumed food, a rare delight in these parts nowadays. 2 RGD-5 Grenades. All of these items looked at and placed back in the bag along with Yanov's sidearm, apart from the small wad of roubles the hooded child Bandit took and put greedily into his pocket. He then looked and stared at the building, the unhooded Bandit looking also at the building the 3 Stalkers were in, they quickly exchanged words and both drew their AK47s. Sergei quickly looked behind him, there was light coming from the bottom of the stairs.. Aleksi had turned his flashlight on!
"What the fuck are you doing Aleksi?" Piotr called quietly from his spot, conveniently behind Sergei.
"Don't worry boys, it's under control" Aleksi said calmly from his new position at the top of the first flight of stairs.
Aleksi lied down and perched himself so he was completely hidden by the stairs, only the front of his AK47 exposed and pointing towards the door. Sergei resumed watching the 2 child Bandits. Should he tell Aleksi they are just children? He could stop it all right now, they could probably stop all this shooting if they just called out from their position, they were just children after all.
Sergei though about it. Those children now have Yanov's grenades, they could easily throw them through the windowless gap, maybe even injuring or killing one of his squad, let alone the structural damage and possible implications that would cause.
No dice. Sergei followed the hooded child bandits every move, he was bound to be the spotter of the 2. The now un-hooded child Bandit was the leader Sergei thought, the more ballsy to say the least. He would have done the bulk of the shooting, and he was leading the hooded bandit. The hooded bandit cautiously stopped.
They were right outside the building now, the unhooded Bandit in the corner of Sergei's eye, ready to enter the building. He looked back and said something to the hooded child bandit, Sergei couldn't make out what, and he heard a faint laugh from the unhooded Bandit who was making his way into the building. Rookies. Sergei kept his crosshairs deadlocked on the hooded bandit stood stationary outside and waited.
The rookie child bandit made his way cautiously to the door, gun raised, waiting to catch sight of the person with the flashlight on again so he could finish him off. He walked slowly forward, finally entering the building, then everything happened at once.
An tense silence fell over the 3 stationary Stalkers.. followed by a deafening crack. The claymore Aleksi placed in the rubble by the door erupted violently as the child Bandit entered, blasting him backwards. As Sergei felt the windowframe shake, he precisely fired 1 single 5.45mm round into the head of the lone hooded child Bandit. It struck the bandit directly in the face, punching him backwards instantly, his body bowled over. Sergei let out his breath, just another day in the zone.
He stood up and looked at Piotr who gave him a blank look, then they in turn got up and walked down to Aleksi who was also just getting up from his position. The 3 of them silently started to make their move down to survey the damage.
The first thing they noticed was the smell. Burnt wood and concrete, a thick dust covered everything. As they walked towards the door, guns drawn, a big black crater greeted them, along with a new hole in the side wall of the doorway, large enough to duck through. The doorway was completely shattered by the blast, chunks of wood and concrete blown everywhere. Then they heard a moan.
The 3 Stalkers made their way outside, and found the unhooded child Bandit. He was about 5ft away from the black crater, still breathing but barely concious. The small childs body had been thrown back, the foot and some of the shin bone on his right leg had been blown completely off. His left leg was just as bad, still intact anatomy wise but torn completely open, dark red blood flowing out onto the concrete. His young face was one of complete shock. When the human body is hit with
massive damage, it releases vast amounts of Adrenaline to keep the body alive as long as possible, pain so severe it just can't be felt. This child isn't even old enough to have proper facial hair Aleksi noticed, trying not to think about what he had just done. Oh well, not as bad as the mission with Jens Hridkot down at the Garbage that one time, nobody needs to or will ever hear about that he thought to himself.
Aleksi and Sergei looked at the young Bandit, and just walked on.
"Christ guys, he's just a fucking kid." Panicked Piotr.
"Have a heart, I mean come on. Sergei give me one of your medkits." Piotr asked, feigning authority.
"No." Sergei replied.
"This is FUCKED. Sergei give me a medkit now." Piotr panicked again, now kneeling beside the dying child.
"They shot first, the way of the Zone." Sergei calmly replied, knowing that this meant certain death for the young child.
"We can stop the bleeding, if we hurry we can get him back to base, Kor will be able to fix him up properly" Piotr said, looking back at the child.
"We have a job to do, Piotr" Sergei said, reminding him of why they were there in the first place.
"I didn't sign up for this, what the hell are you guys doing?" Piotr said louder, his voice slightly frustrated.
"Not our fault, as he said, it's the way of the Zone. People die. Besides, they'd slow us right down and I do NOT fancy becoming mutant food today, or any day in fact." Aleksi said calmly. Aleksi made his way to the second small lifeless body. A small puddle of thick blood surrounded his head, his face slightly indented behind the balacava where the single bullet smashed through his left cheekbone. Aleksi calmly bent over beside the body, Piotr thought he was checking his pulse.
"I thought you didn't care?" Piotr said.
Aleksi stood up and turned around, Yanov's bloody bag in his hands.
"We need this"
Aleksi returned to the body and patted him down. They were gonna do the same to us anyway he though, as he removed the clip from the child bandit's AK and another from the inside of his jacket. He placed the clips in his own bag along with Yanov's small backpack and stood up, then walked over to Sergei, surveying his PDA closely.
"Well, not that much of a detour actually, we just head down this road here." Aleksi pointed down the road that ran next to the large building. "We head left there, right down to the bottom and we should be able to see it from there."
"What's the ETA, man?" Sergei said.
"16.54pm" Aleksi replied.
"Best get moving then" Sergei replied calmly, as he looked over at Piotr. "That explosion will have alerted any nearby patrols, as well as any mutants in the vicinity.
Piotr was still kneeling next to the child, who had now rested his head back onto the concrete, the blood flow now stopped. He touched the childs wrist, nothing. No pulse. Piotr thought he was going to vomit. He had just let a child die. Ugh. He stood up and looked at the other 2 Stalkers, his stomach aching. A weird numbness came across Piotr, he just could not take in what had happened, as well as the other 2 Stalkers innate human coldness. He walked slowly towards them and they turned around, the 3 of them setting off towards the objective.