Phasing in and out of consciousness, Vasili only recalled someone helping him walk down a road. When his eyes opened he saw a long and broken road, a slope to the side and lights in the distance, when they closed he saw home, he saw a small apartment in the urban sprawl of Moscow. His happy family and his happy self, he saw cars zooming to and fro and he saw people walking down the street. He zoomed out and saw all of Moscow, then all of Russia, then the world, then he was zooming in again but not towards his home but towards the Ukraine, towards the zone and then zooming right back into himself. This happened over and over again, until suddenly he was falling in his vision, he was falling and screaming.
Vasili hit the ground with a THUMP. Suddenly he was sitting up, gasping for air as sweat trickled down his brow. Looking around while gasping, the events coming back to him, he wondered if he was dead. If he was, than heaven was a small room with a dangling lamp and a single dirty bed that he had been sleeping in. His clothes were balled up in a corner but when he tried to sit up he gasped in the pain shooting through his ribs. Looking down, a bloody bandage covered his chest, some one must have treated him. But who?
Vasili fell back down and groaned from pain, some one must have heard him because soon after a man walked in, he had a green suit on with green kevlar over it. A hood surrounded a mask that reminded me of the one the man who saved him from the bandits was wearing. An old AK-47 was slung over his arm and bottles of whiskey clinked together on his belt, just next to a holster that had a revolver strapped in securely, his kevlar was covered in extra pockets he had sown in and they looked like they were filled.
"You took a lot of damage my fellow loner." He said, walking besides Vasili and bending his legs so that their bodies were even. When he got no response from the confused Vasili he went on,
"Me and my band were walking back to the camp when he heard gunshots and screaming, we ran down the road and found your sorry ass sprawled along the concrete, reaching for a jellyfish." He took a breath and wiped his hands, quickly continuing, "Brewer and Nikolai went off to the field to find the source, me and Nova then fixed your leg up." The man thought for a moment, trying to recall what happened, before going on. "We found three dead bandits and a snork filled with bullets. From the dirt, it looked like you had gotten your ass kicked. But anyway, I think it would be better if you told us how it went down."
Vasili sighed, he felt humiliated but decided that he owed this man at least a story. Vasili began to tell him all about the ass hole agent and his fall down the hill, both elicited a laugh from the man. Then he explained the landmine incident before going into detail on the dead man and the strange object, then how the bandits were killed by the man. Finally he ended with his stumbling onto the road.
The man nodded and rolled his shoulder, he thought a bit again and told him his name was Sinova, then asked for his.
"M-my name is Vasili." He told him, the stalker nodded again and reached up, pulling off his mask to show his dirty and ppale face, mud colored hair matted to his head and a scar blemishing his chin. His nose was long crooked from many fights and a smile was played across his face.
"Well Vasili, it looks like you gotta pay off your debt to me now, for all we did. We took the artifact you had and that paid the medical bill." He stood back up and reached into one of the pockets, sliding a 9mm handgun out. He pointed it at Vasili whose eyes widened in fear, but Sinova simply raised an eye brow and flipped the gun around, holding the barrel and pushing the grip towards Vasili.
"You can help us around, watch our backs with that gun and earn your own share of the loot for a few adventures, than you can leave if you want." Vasili smiled, genuinely happy for the first time in what felt like years. He gripped the pistol and pulled it while Sinova grabbed his shoulder and hoisted him up. "Calm down you big baby." He said as Vasili gasped from the pain in his chest. Walking to the side, he took Vasilis leather jacket and tossed it to him, then took a simple, light black scarf from his pocket and handed it to him.
"The zone gets cold as fuck, and it is sometimes better to conceal your face. Looks bad ass too, I reccomend wearing it." Vasili nodded and took his jacket, sliding his arms through the sleevs and buttoning it, he tooks the scarf and wrapped it around his neck, adjusting it so it covered most of his neck and draped down over the front of the jacket before pulling the hood up over his head. For the first time this gear felt like it fit, everything just seemed right. Vasili pulled on his jeans and grabbed a holster Sinova put on an end table next to the bed for him. Sliding it around his leg and then pushing the pistol is, Vasili smiled and looked up.
"Now that's a stalker." Said Sinova jokingly, pushing himself off the wall he had been leaning on while Vasili dressed. "Now come on, we should go make introductions with the rest of the team." Sinova walked up some stairs and slid his gas mask on, then he reached up and pushed open the cellar door with Vasili on his heels. Vasili looked up and covered his eyes, the light having not touched his skin for days. Temporarily blinded, Vasili walked into the zone.