(Music- 'Fear the Future')
19th July 2013
"Unacceptable…" Antonov was saying as he paced along the line of officers at the morning briefing, all of us shitting ourselves silently as he repeated himself.
"As I said, unacceptable…"
He took a deep breath, before his calm façade suddenly dropped and he had drawn his Makarov, waving it in each man's face as he roared.
"You let he line drop you dozy fuckers! I gave you all you needed, weapons, ammo, information, and what do you do?! You let that…blob, take out a strategic point, and lost me twenty good men! How do you expect me to not deal out some punishment? Alright, we start now. Who was in charge of the defence line?"
A portly captain near the end of the line began to raise his hand nervously, and was dead before he could say a word in his defence.
"Now…" Antonov began, absently running a finger along the barrel of his smoking pistol. "Who ordered the retreat?"
I began to raise my hand, and Antonov was staring into my face, and, before I could say anything, he absently patted me on the shoulder.
"A sound decision Videnski. Without your quick thinking we wouldn't have any men left…"
I felt a wave of relief in me, that maybe there was a shred of a soul in Antonov's psychopathic mind. That thought died as he shot the officer next to me in the face.
He stood in front of us once more, calmly slamming another magazine into his pistol.
"Now, I believe that we still have unfinished business down in the reactor level. Commander Miller, I want you to assemble a force and cleanse that hell."
It took me a second to realise that he was talking to the Spetnatz commander, who had just swaggered into the command centre with three heavily armed commando's at his side. But it was the commander's next words that would come as the biggest shock.
"No."
Every man in the room winced at that word, a few covering their ears at the almost certain bark of Antonov's Makarov.
"What?" Antonov said finally, and instantly his pistol was up and pointed at the commander's face.
Commander Miller smiled calmly, and drew his own weapon, a heavy MP-412 revolver, its long barrel an inch away from Anotonv's right eye as said, without even blinking at the gun in his face.
"Yes Quartermaster." He laughed, nodding at me in an eerily friendly manner. "You're not the only one who has a revolver, but I've got the balls to actually use mine."
"This is mutiny Miller." Antonov hissed.
"Yes it is indeed, Antonov, and I don't think there's anything you can do about it .You may be surprised at this, but frankly, you've had it coming for a while. Maybe you might prefer my younger brother, he's a stubborn little shit, but maybe a bit more principled than me, a bit less likely to see the facts in this place. Unfortunately for you, last time I heard from him, he was deployed at the Moscow State Library. Hopefully he's dead in the rubble by now... And, unlike my poor, principled little bother, I now intend to attain victory, victory against the thing in the basement and against your little hellhole…"
His eyes were cold and murderous as, in less than a second, he turned his gun away from Antonov, shot dead one of the officer's in the line still staring in horror at the exchange happening in front of them, then transferred his aim back to Antonov, all before the lieutenant colonel could even blink.
"You see, I'm almost as good at shooting your officers as you are…"
As they continued to talk, and with nobody looking in my direction, I eased the revolver in my holster out and into my hand, hoping nobody had noticed, but they were all glued to the current confrontation.
"If you want me and my men…" Commander Miller was saying "We will be down by the main entrance, keeping to our orders. Making sure not one little fuck gets out of this bunker alive…"
That's when I saw my chance and raised my revolver, firing one shot, which hit the nearest Spetnatz soldier clean in the forehead, the soldier falling to the ground in a heap.
For a second, there was silence, as Miller aimed his revolver at me.
"Well, looks like someone grew a…"
Before he could say any more, Antonov had rammed his Makarov down the brute's throat.
"This is what happens to those who fuck with me." He hissed, and then pulled the trigger.
Before the commander had hit the floor, the two other commandoes were held at gunpoint by the rest of the officers, both of whom spat at Antonov as he stepped over to them.
"Now…" He said calmly, wiping blood off the end of his pistol.
I watched the two Spetnatz men, one glancing at the door then nodding at his comrade, who reached into his pocket and pulled out a large bladed knife from his webbing, offering it handle first to Antonov.
"If you're going to kill me pig." He spat "Do it with my own blade."
It took me a split second to realise what he was holding, a Spetnatz NRS 2 shooting knife, and I quickly tackled Antonov and pulled him to the ground, the bullet launched from the hilt of the knife whistling overhead.
Instantly the Spetnatz man was gunned down and slammed against the far wall in a splash of crimson, but his friend was already out of the door and away, a few officers making to run after him.
"Stop." Antonov commanded, roughly pushing me off him and standing up. "Let him run. I have a little surprise for the rest of those traitors."
Turning to me, still lying on the floor, he snapped.
"Videnski, bring me Container V77 from the main storeroom. Now!"
I nodded and ran from the room, the fleeing Spetnatz man already gone, just visible on a higher catwalk running toward the train line to the main entrance across the chasm like gap between the entrance and the Atrium.
Container V77.
My blood literally ran cold at the mention of the thing. To think Antonov was going to use such a weapon showed how desperate things were. The container was filled with over a hundred separate conatienrs, all filled with Novichok agents. Otherwise known, in layman's terms, as something else.
Nerve gas.
