Lost to the zone
The zone 20XX
The sky was gray, it seemed as if a storm were brewing in the distance Nikolai knew this better than most. His current unlucky streak were to continue there would also be an emission on the horizon. Nikolai was not your average stalker, although young he was one of the most adept stalkers in the zone. This was thanks to his father, a long time stalker Nikolai's father taught him everything he knew about surviving and even took him in once in a while.
That all changed after his father disappeared. Nikolai worried about his father went searching for him. Eventually he did find him or rather what was left of him. With nowhere to go and no reason why to go back to the outside world he stayed in the zone quickly earning a name for himself.
The familiar sound of thunder could be heard in the distance, slowly but surely the sky turned brighter. Nikolai knew he had to find cover and soon. He ran to a nearby building he knew. It was one of his resting spots when he returned from his artifact hunting, in the old days this place would have been most likely a school or something of the sort. As he entered the building he saw two fellow stalkers also making a v line towards the building.
Once they were all inside they caught their breath. "That was close" One of the men mused. His voice gravely, probably one of the older stalkers in the zone. His battled scarred armor gave it away. His face was ragged, a scar went down his neck, and he had a rather large beard. A more experienced one, Nikolai always enjoyed the company of those veterans as their stories and attitudes reminded him of his father.
"It sure was" the other replied, he did sound much younger than his companion. This one was wearing a leather jacket. One synonymous with rookie loners his face was masked by his has mask. This relieved Nikolai, the last thing he needed was being stuck in a building with two experienced stalkers. Although Nikolai was friendly enough his time in the zone had taught him most people were out for their own personal gain and they were willing to backstab anyone.
"Hello there young one" the older man said with a friendly smile. Nikolai slightly lowered his weapon and smiled back. The storm grew louder and louder and he knew the emission would start soon.
"Hello there, seems you two also saw the possible emission on the horizon" he said as he put his back against some lockers. "So where are you heading?"
"Selling off some artifacts, you know how it is? How about you?" The younger one said. Nikolai started taking calculating how many bullets he still had in his ak. Although nice things could go south.
"Same, with the storm on the horizon I decided to hunker down here." He said nonchalantly, he started looking down the corridor just in case. Although he had cleaned this building many times it always payed to be cautious.
"So what's your name young one?" The older one asked as he walked down the corridor with Nikolai and the younger stalker following close behind.
"Nikolai" he simply answered. The older stalker brought his hand to his chin and scratched his beard.
"You seemed heavily armed, and that armor and weapons don't come cheap. Are you by any chance the son of Tomas?" He asked, Nikolai stopped on his tracks.
"How do you know?" He asked in a lower tone. The older man let out a laugh and waved at him dismissively.
"No need to get defensive. I've just heard about Tomas' son following his footsteps and rapidly ascending the ranks." He said calmly. "I crossed paths with your father many times before. Tough bastard he was" he said letting out a hearty laugh. "Then again everyone has heard of 'Deathwish Nikolai'" Nikolai cringed when he heard that, he hated that nickname. "The son of Tomas Kyznetsov tracked his father's remains to Pripyat, you know going alone and that deep into the zone is a deathwish for a rookie but somehow you managed to not only get your father's pistol back but also the stash he had hidden."
"Thank you, I appreciate the kind words." Nikolai said a bit letting out a small chuckle. "So what you hauling?" Suddenly the mood changed as the younger one got a bit agitated.
"Why do you want to know!?" The younger one asked gripping his smg harder.
"Artyom stand down, Nikolai here was just asking a question. We all are here to sell not to fight." The older man scolded.
"The usual some crystals, Mama's beads, fireballs. A bit of everything really. How about you?" These madmen had been poking around burners. These anomalies produced many interesting artifacts, the drawback was you could end up toasted trying to get them.
"Anything produced by Whirligig and Vortex. Have three of each" he said nonchalantly as the building shook a bit. "And emission is about to hit find cover immediately." Their PDA rang. They saw as the sky turned orange outside and the earth shook hard.
"Oh this one is feisty!" The old man hollered as he laughed. Nikolai gripped his gun as he grabbed onto the wall. The younger stalker seemed terrified and just stood there unmoving. As the storm continued a crushing sense of dread started to fill the corridors. "I think we're not alone in here" The older one said as he unholstered his shotgun. "Artyom get ready I don't know what's happening" Nikolai noticed how his voice had changed, from an air of confidence to what he could only describe as pure fear. Nikolai aimed his ak down the corridor ready for anyone or anything to run down the halls. But then something happened. Their detectors started going wild, as if something completely off the charts was nearby.
"Vlad what's that!?" Artyom asked as he aimed his smg down the hall. Then Nikolai saw it, down the hallway they saw at least five snorks running on all fours towards them. Snorks were guards or stalkers lost to the zone. They had absorbed insane amounts of radiation turning them into some kind of man beast that roamed around the zone.
"Light em up!" Nikolai hollered as he started unloading his magazine down the hallway. As the creatures let out an inhuman cry Nikolai and the rest unloaded with everything they have. One of the Snorks got passed them and jumped on top of Artyom. Not wasting a second Nikolai pulled his father's revolver from his holster and brought it up to the snorks head blowing it clean off. As the smoke settled the creatures had been slayed. Artyom slowly got up coughing violently, he looked at Vlad and Nikolai and let a small chuckle.
"I saw my whole life pass by, it was short and boring" he said trying to lighten up the mood. Vlad let out a hearty laugh and patted him on the back.
"Life is never boring in the zone, you'll be wise to remember that" As they all settled down they noticed something. Their detectors were still going crazy, something like this shouldn't be happening. Silence filled the school, the only thing that could be heard was the storm outside.
"Something doesn't add up" Nikolai said breaking the silence. "Any ideas Vlad?" He turned to look at the older stalker who seemed as perplexed as he was.
"I have no idea what the hell is going on but I suggest we get as far away from here as soon as the emission settles down." As he said that another thunder could be heard but this time the school shook violently. They all reloaded their weapons just in case and covered each other's back. The mounting dread had come back and this time it enveloped them completely. A sense of hopelessness none of them had ever felt.
And then….. "Oh god please help me!" Artyom said letting out a blood curdling scream as something lifted him from the ground and flung him across the corridor. Nikolai thought it was a poltergeist, a ghostly abomination created after the second explosion in the zone. But something didn't quiet add up, poltergeists didn't just appear anywhere let alone fling someone across the room. Those who could were in very specific zones and this wasn't one of them. Nikolai started unloading on the thing trying to stagger it as Vlad ran towards Artyom.
Something disconcerting started happening whatever attacked Artyom was taking some sort of humanoid form. It seemed to be covered in some kind of black tar, its eyes were bright yellow and it sported an unnatural white grin. The thing let out a blood curdling scream as it jumped past Nikolai and pushed Vlad against the lockers. As it got closer to Artyom the boy started floating. When the creature got to him he dug his had deep into Artyom's stomach as the boy let out a cry. He tried bringing his smg to the creature's head but then he started being tossed around like a ragdoll, he hit the lockers, he hit the floor and he hit the ceiling. Nikolai reloaded and started shooting at the creature who didn't seem to care.
"Artyom!" Vlad hollered as he got back up and rushed the thing with his shotgun but as soon as he got closed he was pushed back with tremendous force landing on top of Nikolai.
"God help me please!" Artyom screamed as he started bleeding more and more and the hall was painted crimson. Nikolai had never seen this creature nor heard of him. The school shook again violently. This wasn't a coincidence, a never seen creature and an emission like nothing he had ever seen before. Whatever that thing was it seemed to be almost bringing the building down on top of them. Vlad got off Nikolai brought out his revolver and started shooting at the thing. It almost seemed impervious to bullets.
"Vlad! We need to get out of here!" Nikolai screamed as he jumped back to his feet.
"We need to save him!" Vlad said. Nikolai grabbed his arm and pulled back.
"Save what!?" He asked pissed, the building shook again violently. "He's a dead man and we both know it. A bullet in the head is mercy so try to give him the pity bullet and let's get the fuck out of here!" Vlad looked at Artyom and sighted.
"Rest in peace" as the shot rung through the corridors Artyom went limp the creature dropped the body and looked at it almost as if he were disappointed. Knowing going outside before the emission stopped was a death sentence they both ran towards the stairs making their way to the far end of the corridor only thing behind them was a window.
"You got grenades?" Nikolai asked, if anything grenades could stagger him long enough for the storm to pass.
"A whole lot of em. We're taking this bastard down!" Vlad said handing me three grenades. We held our breaths as we waited the only thing we could hear was the storm outside. Then the creature let out a scream and ran up the stairs jumping on the ceiling and started crawling on it. Vlad pulled the pin from the grenade throwing it at the creature. When the blast went off a cloud of smoke rose up.
As they tried looking through the cloud they saw the creature on the ground twisting and turning as it slowly got back up again. Nikolai pulled the pin from the next one and threw it at the creature. Once again it staggered, Vlad pulled the pin on the next one and threw it. Then the thing let out a cry as it slowly stopped moving. They both got a breather as the smoke settled the creature had fallen apart almost like a doll, its arms were in different places of the hall and its body was broken in half. A black substance pouring out of the body.
"And stay down ya bastard!" Vlad said. Nikolai let out a small chuckle, whatever this thing was it took one hell of a beating. As they looked outside the emission had subsided too, finally, they could leave this forsaken place. "Let's get out of here," he said patting Nikolai's back. Then Nikolai saw something that chilled his blood, the thing was putting himself back together. "Oh, shit here we go again!" Vlad said handing two more grenades to Nikolai. As the thing got back up it moved at them at an incredible speed barely giving them time to react. In what seemed like a split second Nikolai pushed Vlad out of the window. Why did he do it? Not even he knew at that moment, as time slowed down for him as he pulled the pin he closed his eyes he muttered under his breath "я йду додому."
The veteran stalker Vlad Petrovich told the story of the unkillable mutant. A story that was quickly confirmed by Duty soldiers. The body of Artyom Romanovich was recovered but according to Vlad, he was saved by Nikolai Kyznetsov whose body was never found. Considered KIA by everyone, little did they know he was taken to another world. A world that was stranger than the zone in many ways. The Kingdom of Lugnica would soon have a stalker in its midst.
And cut first chapter done. We'll be following my OC Nikolai Kyznetsov a stalker in the zone. If you don't know what a stalker is I highly recommend you check out the stalker series of games and the book roadside picnic which both heavily inspired the world Nikolai comes from. Now I will be basing most of the story on the anime/manga as I haven't gotten around to reading the LN so you've been warned!
Now ukranian leason! я йду додому (I'm coming home). See you all next time!
