When they finally found a way through the rubble, it had at least been an hour since the lights had gone out. After moving back and forth over and over, Nova had realized the ventalation shafts were not caved through and had moved to htem quickly. Nova had no fear of the dark it seemed, he slid right into the shaft as if it was home and scurried through like a rat, when Vasili got him however, he shook from fear. The only sound being the groaning of metal and the smashing of metal as he crawled through.
The shaft seemed to have no end for what felt like an eternity, the darkness going on and on and Nova's small body blocking the small head lamp that the veteran stalker wore perfectly. Vasili was about to say something when suddenly he heard metal groaning beneath him, and saw Nova's head shoot up suddenly.
Nova began to say shit but never finished as the air shaft gave out from under them, Nova dropped down suddenly, his attempt to grab onto the floor failed as he found no purchase; slamming onto his chest, Nova shouted as he slid down into the hall way. Vasili was soon after, his side of the vent tilted foward and sent him face first out of it, everything went dizzy when he slammed face first into a slowly standing Nova's back; throwing both of them painfully down, Nova's life flickered out and bathed both of them in darkness.
Nova harshly shoved him away and got up, rubbing his back and groaning in pain. "Fucking newbie" he muttered as he grabbed his rifle from the ground and smacked it until the flashlight flickered back to life. As Vasili helped himself up and dusted off his jeans, he tried his best to look around. They had fallen in a hallway, there was rubble directly behind them. In front of them, through a doorway was a larger chamber with old and dusty consoles sitting dormant. Nova moved in cautiously, Vasili close on his heels with his pistol drawn.
Nova hardly glanced at the consoles; the screens broken and black, before looking for the exit, as he walked around the room looking for a door Vasili noticed something suspicous. The thick coat of dust on the floor was broken up by several sets of footprints of various age, Vasili quickly motioned Nova over by clapping his hand on one of the consoles twice. Nova spun around with his shotgun to bear before he realized what he was doing. "Flash the light over here, on the floor." He said, pointing, Nova stood there reluctantly for a moment before taking a step foward and lowering the weapon.
When Nova found what they were both pointing at, Vasili took a deep breath. The foot prints were deffinitley not human. Three huge toes with what looked like claws sticking out from each toe, there were at least three sets and they all led out a doorway through the other side of the room. Vasili looked up to the veteran stalker, hoping that he may have an answer for him. Nova looked back and shrugged. "Nothing I ever seen before" he said modestly before walking out the doorway the footsteps led. Vasili followed by closely, complaining in a hushed voice. "For Christ's sake Nova, we aren't alone in here! Those look fresh!"
"Than it will not help anything if we sit in there and cry, would it?" He said mildly, hardly turning his head.
"Nova-"
"What would you suggest than newbie?" Vasili did not have an answer for that and sighed from frustration. The two continued their trek through the facility in silence, the only noise being their boots on the floor and the metal creaks that constantly echoed through the facility. After about ten minutes, Nova started to whistle a song under his mask, the sounds echoed through the hallway and Vasili flinched for a moment. After a moment he recovered enough to listen to the tune he made, Vasili wondered if Nova acting slightly cheery was some way Nova coped with seething hatred and frustration. Or maybe he was afraid? No, that had to be impossible; it was Nova, he could never feel fear. After another minute, Vasili decided to ask him what he was whistling.
"Paradise City" he said before resuming his tune.
"What is that?" Vasili asked, dumbfounded.
"American song" was all he got. Vasili thought that would be a good place to end the conversation, but talking was helping him calm down and so he continued.
"H-how do you know American songs?" He said, awkwardly. Nova shrugged as they walked.
"I know some Americans."
"You know? What do you mea-"
"I know some Americans. Leave it at that kid." Vasili suddenly found himself confused. In for a penny in for a pound he thought to himself before blundering on.
"Where are you even from Nova?" Nova's shoulders tensed up slightly at that.
"Well there is a war going on there right now." He said evenly. Iraq? No he isn't Arabic... is he? Vasili had never seen his face come to think of it, but there were plenty of places that had wars going on in them.
"Afghanistan? Iraq?" He blurted out before he could think of a better thing to say. Nova sighed and shook his head.
"Been to both, but too far. I ain't telling you now shut your trap already." Vasili looked at the floor, that was probably a wise suggestion he decided and thus they continued on in silence. After what he assumed was nearly an hour, Vasili slammed into Nova's back, the stalker having stopped suddenly. He let out a gasp as he fell backwards, narrowly stopping his fall by grabbing a pipe on the wall. Nova cursed at him in some foreign tongue as he stumbled forward, his rifle firing off as he pulled the trigger by accident. When Vasili reorganized himself, he saw that Nova had forgotten the incident and was in the middle of another room through the door way. This one was large, two large pieces of machinery taking up most of the room and many boxes. Nova was in the center, between two of the boxes, staring up at the ceiling. Or lack of it.
Most of the ceiling was caved in at the center, pieces of concrete, dirt and rocks were spilled across the room. When he started to say something, Nova raised a hand and took out his PDA, he let out a quiet Whoop! And began typing something on it quickly. Suddenly Vasili heard Sinova's voice crackle to life over the PDA.
"Nova?" Scchhhhh "Nova? Is that you? Damn it Nova where are" Scchhhhhhh "looking for a way in for an hour but" Schhhhhhhhhhhhh "-ack to the bar, decided to try and find hel-" Schhhhhh "no one could do anything" Scchhhhhhhhh "Snitch told" Schhh "stalkers thought we were trying to get artifacts" Schhhh "bandits too" Sccchhhh "half the bloody zone is comi-" Schhhhhhhhhhhhh. The radio turned to white noise completely and Nova cursed, smacking it and complaining about how this sort of thing always happened to him. Vasili was too busy flipping shit, he began to speak quickly, stumbling over his own words.
"Oh hell no, OH HELL NO WE ARE FUCKING DEAD!" He screamed, "PEOPLE ARE GOING TO COME AND KILL OUR SHIT." Nova spun around and backhanded him again, Vasili stumbled back but in a fit of rage he threw a punch right back after recovering, his fist connecting with Nova's neck and causing the surprised stalker to step back; gasping for air. Vasili had a moment to consider the act of suicide he just committed when suddenly Nova's boot went flying at his temple, he yelped as he was lifted off his feet from the force of the round house kick and slammed into the floor as Nova jumped down onto his chest. He tried to look up when one of Nova's fists connected with his jaw, then his other, and then another. Being able to do nothing but whimper as Nova's legs pinned his arms, he began to tear up from the pain; blood coming up from his broken lip and out of his nose and then mixing with the tears.
Vasili nearly went unconscious when Nova grabbed the sides of his head and shook him for a moment. Finally, he stood up, wiping the blood from his hands as Vasili slowly got up; using the machine for support. Nova grabbed his fallen pistol from the floor and pointed it at him, Vasili suddenly froze and began to whimper when Nova flipped the weapon so that the grip was pointed at his chest. Letting out a sigh of relief, he grabbed it before Nova could change his mind; Nova nodded and dusted himself off.
"Well now that that little episode is over, we can try and find a way to get past the mili-" he stopped as they both heard a loud roar from inside the room. Vasili saw Nova's eyes go wide behind his mask and the stalker cursed loudly, raising his shot gun and sweeping the room around them. Vasili had no idea what was going on, but that roar was horrifying and soon he was pressing up to one of the machines with his pistol raised. Vasili suddenly heard another roar to his left and saw a mutant with long bloody tentacles hanging from its mouth suddenly appear out of thin air. The creature charged straight for Nova who shot wide in a panic and attempted to hop to the side; instead the mutant smashed into him and spun him around, the mutant attempting to grab his arm.
Nova raised his shotgun to bear with one arm and fired at the creature, stumbling back. The mutant took the blast in the shoulder, screamed and then ran off, leaving a trail of blood. Nova pumped the SPAS when Vasili looked over and saw another one of the beings appearing, screaming for Nova to watch out, he raised his weapon and fired for the first time.
Vasili was caught unaware from the kickback of the weapon and his elbows pushed back into his chest, ignoring the recoil, he fired the pistol again and again at the creature. Nova had tried to turn around in time but the creature had dived onto his back and in a fit of strength, Nova kept his knees straight and stumbled around with the creature on his back, its long red tentacles beginning to wrap around the back of its head.
Vasili wondered what to do when suddenly a roar came from the right again and the wounded blood sucker came sprinting at the distracted Nova. Nova had barely enough time to slam the one on his back into the machine before the other one smashed into his side, his shotgun went flying and Nova lurched to his right suddenly; Vasili was amazed that he was still able to stand with the two of them grabbing on, Nova's screams through his mask were very audible however and his panic was clear.
Vasili raised the weapon, deciding to act, and held his breath as he pulled the trigger.
Click, click, click. "FUCK," he screamed, raising the weapon up, he ejected the clip and saw no rounds inside. When he lowered the gun and looked over, Nova collapsed from the weight and the two mutants began to feast.
Then he saw the light.
"This is alpha team, this is alpha team. We found an opening." Vasili heard as some ones flashlight shone through the hole in the ceiling, the mutants screeched at the sudden light and ran off in opposite directions, going invisible again. Vasili looked up and saw four stalkers suited up in red were looking down, their rifles aimed squarely at him. Vasili threw his hands into the air, allowing the pistol to drop from his hands and clatter to the ground.
"Loners! Loners! Don't shoot!" All he heard was safeties being clicked off, Vasili tried to think fast about how to convince these men not to kill him or at least why they were here to start. A light bulb suddenly went off inside his head when he remembered Sinova's radio message and he frantically tried to speak before they turned him to Swiss.
"Artifacts! We have artifacts! We h-had a rucksack full of them that the bloodsuckers smacked across the room! I can show you!" This seemed to give them pause, the stalkers all looked at one another when one of them spoke up.
"Free artifacts, I was in the mood for a bonus anyway."
"But Lieutenant Bunchuck will ki-" replied one of the lower ranking men.
"Fuck Lieutenant Bunchdick, he never needs to know." Interrupted a third. The fourth lent his voice to the other two and they convinced the reluctant fourth to come down for the artifacts. Vasili walked to Nova's side and knelt down to meet him eye to eye.
"Nova come on, we gotta go... get up..." he grabbed Nova by his arms and tried to pull only to groans of pain from the veteran stalker.
"My fucking arms." He groaned out before Vasili decided to let him back onto the ground. The stalkers had by now lowered a rope down through the hole and were sliding down the cords, Vasili noted how military like they moved around.
"Show us kid." Said the leader, Vasili scooped up the SPAS and tried to make it look like his own as Nova dropped his head and started to fade out.
"It's over there." He said, pointing to the end of the machines and in front of a door way. He walked over halfway and stopped. "A lot of strange glowing shit, at least five of them was this smooth ball with a cone on it. Jelly something I think." The four exchanged looks, and quickly jogged down the hall; forgetting all risk. The young one was practically crawling trying to find the bag when he yelled over.
"There ain't nothing-" his opportunity to speak was cut when one of the bloodsuckers dived from the darkness and onto his back where it promptly began to tear through the back of his head despite the stalkers screams. The three others raised their rifles when the other bloodsucker dived out from the darkness and tackled the leader to the ground. The two remaining stalkers had no idea what to do when Vasili raised Nova's shotgun to bear. His heart in his throat, he pulled the trigger.
If he thought his pistol had recoil, that quickly changed after he felt the butt of the gun slam into his ribs. One of the stalkers screamed and fired into a wall as he dropped, the buckshot having ripped through his back and lodged into his spine. The other tried to spin around when Vasili pulled the trigger again, the shells tore his arm into pieces and broke his gun. The man fell to the ground in a bloody mess, crying and whimpering for help as he tried to move the gorey remains of his arm.
Vasili's arms were numb, the two men were now silent as the mutants feasted on them happily, the sounds of their feast only occasionally broken the sounds of the dying man.
"Oh my god what have I done." He thought as he stared at the remains. "I-it was the-em or us." Muttered Nova who tried to stand up before sliding back down in pain. Vasili ran over and slid down to his side.
"Nova! Nova! You are awake! Quick lets climb the rope, we need to go!" He said, blubbering the words out as if Nova only had a minute to live. Nova simply shook his head.
"I- I can hardly move my arms, I ain't climbing shit." Vasili groaned, from the sounds of Nova's voice it was as if the stalker had given up all hope for survival. He looked for a way out when he realized it was right in front of him.
"The rope!" He thought, looking at the cord that dangled from the opening in the roof. He scooped Nova's shotgun from the ground and threw it through the ceiling, hearing the sound of it falling down onto the hard ground. He quickly ran over to Nova and grabbed him by the arms again, and despite his shouts of pain; dragged him over to a spot directly underneath the opening. He took the excess part of the rope and began looping it through Nova's heavy leather belt. Satisfied with the knot he made, he tugged to make sure it was secure and then stepped back.
He got ready to try and climb when he heard the man again.
"Please... please kill me. Don't let them eat me pleeasseeee..." the man then broke down into more sobs and whimpers. Something in his words struck a cord in Vasili, who began to walk over to him without thinking.
He was the farthest away from the bloodsuckers, and was curled into a fetal position; or at least as close to the position as he could be without an arm. Vasili slid the knife from his belt and fell to a knee next to the man, gingerly pushing him onto his back and then sliding the knife through the flesh of his throat. He kept eye contact with him, staring into his scared and tear filled eyes as the blood poured forth from the slit in his neck. The man gurgled for a moment before his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he died.
Knowing full well that he didn't have long before the bloodsuckers turned their attention over, he cut a large bag from the mans belt and then left his body for the mutants, walking over to the cord.
As Vasili began to haggardly climb up the rope, he realized he was crying.