Chapter 3: Garbage and Bandits
Pyrrha, a little drowsy but awake, while she sits on the dilapidated floor of the old check point, that they were staying in for the night. She watches over Sergei who is on the floor, asleep and using his backpack as a headrest.
She then looks around with her newly salvaged MP5 as Sergei called it, before setting herself back down to examine her new submachinegun. Pyrrha thought that the pistol rounds it is chambered in isn't enough to take down grimm – at least requiring multiple magazines before doing so. But then again, these weapons aren't made for grim…but for other people.
The thought disturbs her.
It' s relatively quiet and uneventful, tonight; with only the sound of crickets, the distant sounds of mutants, gun fire, and the soft crackling of the fire were the only things keeping her company as she kept herself alert for any intruders.
She then ponders for a moment, remembering the abandoned village and other buildings in the Zone, wondering what could the story be behind their abandonment.
After a few hours, she yawns before noticing the sky starting to light up. Pyrrha then looks towards Sergei who is still sleeping peacefully, with a line of drool sliding down his chin. Amused, she smirks before speaking: "Hey wake up." She shakes Sergei who starts to mumble while still asleep.
"Ugh, five more minutes mama…" The stalker then turns away from Pyrrha and starts to snore.
Pyrrha starts poking Sergei on the ribs, making him groan and turn to Pyrrha with an annoyed look "Ugh, what is it?" He grumbles as he sleepily looks at her with half-opened eyes.
"First light, remember?" Pyrrha replies with a smile "Come on now Sergei, just get up already." She then shakes him further.
Sergei fumbles through his pouches before dropping a Geiger counter and a PDA on the floor "Five more minutes…" he grumbles in response before turning over and going back to snoring almost immediately. Pyrrha sighs before picking up the two items Sergei dropped on the floor.
Pyrrha examines the Geiger counter. It's a rectangular white device with a few buttons on it which has symbols and words she doesn't understand. She then examines the PDA next. It was like that of a scroll except that its bulkier, old looking, and it has a glass screen instead of hard light. It has buttons on one side of it that lets the user navigate through it if the touch screen feature can't be used by the owner for whatever reason.
While waiting for five minutes to pass, Pyrrha then decides to familiarize herself with the PDA. Finding the map, encyclopedia, and contacts function - she finds that her contacts list is empty - She then takes a quick look at the map, the PDA showing her current location, before moving on to the encyclopedia app which shows her the list of the Zone's creatures and anomalies.
She then looks at the list of mutants, which gave her the list of some mutants and the ones she has already knowledge about such as the blind dogs and the grotesque flesh mutant, while also reading ones she doesn't know about like boars, snorks, controllers, poltergeists, and burers. Although it wasn't the most accurate or the most informative, the mutants still terrify and horrifies her. Even worse are the speculation that they could've been results of failed experiments, and descriptions of their terrifying feats of strength or psychic powers.
Pyrrha then moves onto the anomalies discovering more interesting yet brutal anomalies such as the vortex and the whirligig anomalies that rip apart anything that is unfortunate enough to step in its range of activation. She is still reading when Sergei yawns and sits up groggily, making her look up from her PDA.
After getting himself in order, Sergei looks at Pyrrha "Gathering information I see." He chuckles, "That's good - thinking like a good stalker." He then yawns "Oh, what I wouldn't give for another few hours of sleep." He grumbles while stretching his arms to the air.
"So uh, breakfast?" Pyrrha ask with a small smile. Sergei turns towards her with a sleepy expression on his face, which she finds amusing.
Sergei sleepily nods "Most important meal of day. Can't miss it. I'd rather not have my stomach peppered with holes, acid, or something else." He chuckles before handing her some sausage which Pyrrha accepts and starts unwrapping from its packaging.
The two then sit for a while eating their share of sausages before Sergei asks: "So uhh…you got superpowers then? And by the way, thanks for saving my ass yesterday." He says before taking another bite out of his sausage.
Pyrrha shakes her head, "No, I should be the one thanking you because instead of probably leaving me somewhere to die or do something horrendous, you decided to take me in." She gives Sergei a small smile "And as for your initial question…I guess I do? It's called a Semblance, and it's a projection of ones aura of sorts."
Sergei cocks his head "Aura? Is it like some sort of magic power?" he chuckles, his curiosity making him remember fairy tales and stories of witches, especially the infamous Baba Yaga who kidnaps and eats children. 'Hopefully, she doesn't put a curse on me or something.' He thought in amusement.
"Well, it is the manifestation of one's soul - so anything with a soul has Aura. And it has various uses such as protecting oneself." Pyrrha explains before she activates her aura, giving off a soft red glow around her.
Sergei looks at Pyrrha with the look of shock and awe, "It's not radioactive, is it?" He asks before pulling out his Geiger counter and pointing it at Pyrrha's direction. He feels relief when the Geiger counter came back with the normal radiation levels inside the Zone.
Pyrrha chuckles as she shakes her head "Probably not. Try poking me with a stick or something.".
Sergei then nods before pulling his knife out and hesitantly tries to make a cut on her jacket sleeve, which did nothing as the knife simply slid on the jacket harmlessly as something made contact on the knife's edge, preventing contact between the contact between his blade and the fabric.
"Holy shit…I'm not drunk, am I?" Sergei asks Pyrrha with a look of awe on his face as he sat back down sheathing his knife before he pinches himself a few times just to make sure.
Pyrrha replies with an amused look on her face "Nope, not at all." She chuckles, and Sergei stops pinching himself.
Sergei ponders for a moment before asking "So, uhh…how does this 'aura' related to semblance?" as he gawks towards Pyrrha, staring mostly at her Aura.
"Well, semblance is fueled by aura in a way. One example of that is that when a person runs out of Aura, then they cannot use their Semblance anymore." Pyrrha answers before noticing Sergei's expression and stammering "U-uhm…it's rude to stare you know." Staring mostly at her aura.
Sergei shakes his head, and chuckles, "Oh, sorry. So, aura has its limitations huh" He then remembers what Pyrrha told him about semblances, "So uh…what's your semblance?" he asks, his curiosity eager to learn more about his otherworldly companion.
Pyrrha then takes a 9mm round out of her pocket and activates her semblance, making the bullet float a few inches above her palm "My semblance is polarity, it gives me control of magnetism and metals." She then deactivates it, letting the bullet fall onto her palm and looks at Sergei who is listening attentively "And semblances are unique to each person."
"I see…also you did mention living beings with a soul has aura, right?" Sergei asks as he looks at his PDA before pocketing it, with his attention locked towards Pyrrha.
Pyrrha nods "Yes, that includes you too." Before yawning and looks out of the window.
"So, uh…is there any way I can get mine?" Sergei asks with a hopeful glint in his eyes.
Pyrrha nods "Well with training you can…or I can help you activate yours, but it will exhaust my Aura considerably. "She replies with light smile.
Sergei then looks at his watch and sighs "Well, we can do that next time. For now, we should move, the conflict between lone stalkers and bandits in the garbage is worse than that in the Cordon." Before giving a Pyrrha a small grin as he stands up and dusts his pants.
Pyrrha nods "Okay, lead the way then." She replies as she takes her MP5 out.
Sergei then moves to the door that led out towards the garbage "Ladies first." He Laughs lightly.
Pyrrha raises an eyebrow while she gives an appreciative smile towards Sergei as she walks out of the dilapidated check point building with Sergei catching up to her after.
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It then started to rain when they've arrived reached the gate leading to the Garbage. Sergei motions for Pyrrha to get behind him as he opens the gate a bit and then peeks out of the small crack to see if the coast was clear.
Pyrrha shivers at the cold wind blowing past them as she watched Sergei peek through the crack between the gates. Wanting to help, Pyrrha then uses her aura to expand her perception, which let her detect three men not far from the gate.
"I think there's some people outside." Pyrrha whispers over to Sergei who nods in response.
"Thanks for the heads up, didn't see anyone, avoided possible death right off." Sergei chuckles as he slowly opens the gate and slips outside, then motions for Pyrrha to follow.
The sound of the rain covers the sound of the rusty gate opening and closing as they creep up behind a rusty military jeep. Peeking from behind cover, both can see three armed men looting the body of an unfortunate loner. The two wore the common bandit outfit, consisting of most likely fake adidas tracksuits and shoes and the other presumably their leader was wearing a long dark hooded trench coat. All of them armed with pistols or shotguns.
"Alright let's keep this simple - take down the two and I'll finish off the last one, okay?" Sergei whispers to Pyrrha who nods with a look of uncertainty on her face, which Sergei tries to reassure with a pat on the shoulder before readying his shotgun to shoot one of the bandits.
Pyrrha follows Sergei's example, aiming her submachine gun at one of the bandits. Admittedly she knows that she wasn't the best at the weapon type, but she at least has some experience at shooting some, because of her old team…mainly Ren who had a similar weapon type.
Sergei shoots a glance towards Pyrrha and nods. She then opens fire on the bandits with her rounds hitting two of the bandits - immediately knocking both down while the leader yells something and tries to make a run for it before getting blasted by 12 gauge from Sergei, making the bandit crumple to the ground, dead.
The huntress and stalker then walk out of their hiding spot, with Pyrrha still unsettled after killing the bandits they ambushed. Sergei, meanwhile, immediately sifts through the bodies as he looks for anything valuable before wrapping his hands around a small box. He pulls said item out to reveal a box of 9x19mm rounds for Pyrrha's MP5. He continues to look for more, only to get more pistol ammo in their magazines and shotgun shells.
"Here, take this." Sergei said as he hands over the small box of 9x19mm rounds to Pyrrha, "it's ammo for your submachine gun. Also, try not losing your magazines, eh?" he grins as he loads fresh rounds into his shotgun.
Pyrrha nods "Understood." She replies briefly as she accepts the box of ammo with a troubled look on her face.
Sergei gives her a small smile of reassurance before standing up as they can hear intense gunfire in the distance and not long, their PDAs receive a voice message "Anyone out there, help us in the scrap yard. Bandits are overwhelming us!" the voice calls out before abruptly cutting out, the two then looks at each other before nodding as they run towards the scrap yard to help just in case Fox was actually there.
They arrive at the scrap yard with stalkers and bandits, either dead or wounded, with the stalkers still on their feet killing the dying bandits either through gunfire, knife, or any sort of improvised weaponry. Pyrrha ignores it as she kept her eyes behind Sergei as they approach a stalker with an AKS-74U, the man wore a gas mask, so his facial features were indescribable.
The man then sighs in relief "Phew, we managed to fend off that first wave." He said in russian before looking at the two "Hello, we need more people to help us out here with the bandit problem. Mind giving us a hand?" he asks the two.
Sergei nods "Sure thing, for some piece of information of course." He replies with a chuckle as he notices Pyrrha being rather close behind him, as he does notice glances from other stalkers mainly directed at Pyrrha.
"I'll try answering as much as I can…and of course some rubles for the trouble." The masked stalker replies with a sigh of relief "And by the way, name's Martini. Let's keep the bandits from fucking everyone over, da?" he chuckles before turning back to rally the remaining able-bodied stalkers to the fight to their positions.
Sergei and Pyrrha walks up to a rusted wrecked bus and hide behind it, with Sergei outside readying his shotgun, and Pyrrha inside, peeking out on one of the bus' windows scanning for bandits with the help of her aura.
The free stalkers then wait, with tensions rising as they wait for the bandits to come out. Pyrrha sensed them coming up towards the junkyard, so she aims her MP5 towards one of the bandits will walk into the scrap yard before pulling the trigger. All her shots hitting and bandit she targeted falls onto the while choking on his own blood. The rest of the bandits yell something before firing towards Pyrrha's general direction, she ducks and narrowly misses having to waste too much aura, but she still winces as some hit her head.
The firefight escalated from there, with both sides taking casualties, Sergei and Pyrrha held their position on the bus as more bandits came towards the scrap yard. However, the two are forced to retreat as the number of bandits slowly starts overwhelming the free stalkers.
"Pyrrha go! I'll cover you!" Sergei yells as he peeks out from his cover and fires his shotgun at two bandits closing on their position. One of the bandits drops dead on the ground immediately, while the other bandit still alive, yet injured quickly runs behind a truck not far from where he and Pyrrha are at.
Pyrrha then quickly gets out of the bus and sees a bandit about to sneak on Sergei from the other side. She tries to fire, only to find her gun empty. With no more time to reload, she draws her knife and charges towards the bandit with her shield raised and her knife ready to strike. The bandit fires his shotgun towards Pyrrha, only for her shield and aura to deflect the pellets, but still making her wince in pain when they hit. She shrugs the pain off and continues forward, then slashing at the bandit's face. The bandit staggers backwards but Pyrrha strikes him down with a horizontal slash across the neck, making him fall to the ground choking in his own blood. And with no time to spare, Pyrrha quickly ran back to Sergei, who is now taking cover behind a truck, much farther into the scrap yard in friendly lines.
Sergei fumbles to reload his shotgun as more and more bandits poured into the scrap yard. He leans out and a bandit is just there at the end of his barrel. He panics and fires, blasting the bandit's head off, staining himself with blood, bits of bone and brain matter before ducking back as a hail of bullets whizzes past. He quickly peeks out again and fire back at the bandits before quickly going back and reloading.
"Sergei! We have to retreat!" Pyrrha shouts as she reaches him and slaps his shoulder to catch his attention. Who then nods in response before getting up.
The two then run back to a broken-down armored personnel carrier near Martini who is keeping the bandits busy with his AKS. "Shit we're getting overwhelmed! We need to flank those bitches if we want to live!" Martini curses before turning to the two "you both will flank them and cause some trouble, understand? I'll cover you two." Pyrrha and Sergei nod and quickly takes off.
The two run up behind the school bus they took cover in as the Bandits slowly concentrate on the other side of the scrap yard with Martini running and firing his AK to catch the bandit's attention. Not wanting to waste more time, they quickly move and not long after they find a bandit on a back of a truck which Sergei quickly shoots with his shotgun, painting the steel behind the poor bandit red.
Another then comes up in front of them who yells something in Russian before firing a stream of bullets towards Pyrrha who quickly raises her shield in front of her which she manages to deflect the pistol caliber bullets from herself and Sergei, draining a bit of her aura as she charges at the now confused bandit with her knife which she quickly takes down with a quick slash on his face, before stabbing the man in the base of his spine, making him drop onto the floor quickly as Sergei jogs up to Pyrrha from behind while reloading his shotgun "Remind me not to piss you off." He nervously jokes before they continue to engage with the rest which now noticed the duo.
The fight then continues to drag on with the bandit forces' assault now faltering as Sergei and Pyrrha causing confusion around the flanks. At one point, as Sergei was reloading, he was nearly killed by a bandit who charged at him with a pistol. But before the bandit could manage to fire, Pyrrha quickly shots out her arm at the direction of the charging bandit and activated her semblance to jam the bandit's gun, letting Sergei then shoot the bandit dead before giving Pyrrha a nod in thanks.
The battle then ended when Martini shot the bandit leader wearing a thick leather coat, making the other bandits to run off from the scrapyard. After that, with an exhausted, but relieved expression on his face, the carbine wielding stalker then approaches the pair, "Thank you, we would've been dead if not for you two!" He thanks them in Russian before laughing lightly, which Pyrrha couldn't understand but could piece together his gratitude from what just happened, "Now for your question and of course, compensation for dragging you two into dealing with those scum."
Sergei nods "That'd be most appreciated." As he accepts the money that Martini handed over "Miller told me you know where Fox is." Sergei then says after counting the money Martini gave him, which was around a thousand rubles which he splits with Pyrrha.
"Ah…Miller, eh?" Martini chuckles "Yeah, I do know where Fox is, he said he was going to the Flea Market right outside the Duty check point." He then stretches his arms and massages his shoulders "He said he was about to do some business." Martini continues before turning back towards the campfire that some of the surviving stalkers were sitting by.
Pyrrha then looks at Sergei and asks; "So what did he say?"
"Well, looks like our man, Fox is somewhere around the Garbage." Sergei replies as he turns to face Pyrrha "I'll go check the bandit's bodies before we move. You're free to join me if you want." He says before walking past Pyrrha to check on the corpses of bandits that were killed in the earlier engagement, with some stalkers seen checking on some of them already.
Pyrrha sighs and jogs after Sergei, although still repulsed by the idea of looting corpses, she instead watches Sergei do the work of sifting through the bodies for more valuables while loading her empty MP5 magazines with the meager amount of ammo she has for it.
After a few minutes, the two were back on the road again. Sergei swerves his head as to keep an eye for hostiles with his shotgun in hand. And Pyrrha does the same, except using her aura to keep her alert for anything that may come after them.
Pyrrha then spots a Flesh mutant in an open field between two scrap heaps the size of small hills, it seems to be running from a pack of dogs, squealing in panic as it ran, before it runs into an anomaly. Wind then starts to swirl around dragging then lifting the mutant in the air, squealing in pain as the winds became stronger before it was abruptly ripped to red colored confetti. She winces at the sight and shudders when the unwelcome thought of her stepping into one of those things surfaces. Justly worried, she turns to Sergei and asks, "So what kinds of anomalies are in here?"
"A lot, you've seen two of them." Sergei replies while still scanning their surroundings as they walked.
"Three actually…I saw one in the distance lifting a flesh mutant in the air before ripping it into pieces." Pyrrha said as she starts to eye her surroundings for anything, especially anomalies.
"Ah, a vortex, you can see them with the subtle distortion in the air or hear the weird warping sound they make. But as usual, just throw a bolt to be safe." Sergei chuckles as a crumbling ruin beside two towering tanks filled with most likely filled with radioactive liquids or debris "We're close, just remember to holster your weapon and we'll be fine." Sergei then points at the obstacles that were set up to be a defensive perimeter not far up ahead from where they currently are, where heavily men in red and black uniforms watched the roads and an open field "See those guys, they're Duty, one of the major factions in the Zone. Try not to piss them off, they can be a pain to deal with."
Pyrrha raises an eyebrow "From experience I assume?" She asks as she eyes the Duty check point up ahead warily.
Sergei nods "Now, let's go restock ammo and supplies before we go to Argoprom, that place is crawling with either military, bandits or mutants." He sighs "fucking blood suckers." He mutters in his mother tongue as they walk towards the crumbling ruins of the building with some stalkers sitting and standing guard on what remains of the upper floors of the ruin.
They then go up the rickety concrete stairs of the Flea Market, most likely made by the stalkers of the Zone. They then pass by the other free stalkers who are going about in their businesses as they go up another set of rickety concrete stairs, before walking up to two men who were talking, and the floor around the man that who was sitting on the ground was surrounded with some crates while the other was standing as they chatted. Both are wearing similar clothing to that of Miller and Martini.
Sergei then walks up to the two and clears his throat, catching both men's attention "Any of you guys know Fox?" he asks in Russian, making both men look at each other before the man who was standing replies.
"Yes, and what do you want from me?" He asks with a scowl on his face while his hand went to the sling of his rifle.
"I was told you know the location of some certain 'files'." Sergei replies calmly as he makes a quick glance at the man's hand on his rifle's sling.
"Those? It's currently at Argoprom Underground…Assuming another stalker hasn't found that secret stash that is." Fox replies lowering his voice.
Sergei nods "Alright…" slipping some cash into Fox's hand before turning to the man who was sitting "So what's in stock?" he asks as he slings his shotgun on his shoulder.
"Basic stuff, armor, weapons, and ammo. You know the deal." The man replies curtly as he shows them his wares.
Sergei nods "Alright…" before motioning to Pyrrha to give him her money, which took her a moment to realize and react to before giving Sergei the money she got from the ordeal from earlier, only to be handed with ammo and med pack by Sergei, before he turns back to the merchant and buys more things.
Sergei thanks Fox and the Flea Market merchant before leaving the ruins with Pyrrha close behind him. When they're back and walking on the road, Sergei pulls out his PDA and checks the map, a moment later and his eyes then light up as he's hit by an idea.
Sergei then stops in his tracks making Pyrrha bump into him as she was too busy admiring and checking their surroundings "Huh? Why did we stop? Is there something wrong?" she asks while cautiously eyeing every bush any sort of hiding spot, cover for hostiles or any signs of anomalies, even though she couldn't sense anything with her aura.
Sergei chuckles as he turns to Pyrrha with a small grin on his face "Well, there's something I want to show you." Before suddenly sprinting towards a hill of junk "Come on!" he yells as he reaches the top of the hill and Pyrrha jogs after him with more aura involved as she leaps forty feet into the air before landing beside Sergei.
Sergei chuckles in response, still amazed by the abilities Pyrrha can perform. He then clears his throat and motions towards an empty field with rusted metal scraps and broken pieces of concrete sticking out of the ground.
Pyrrha gives him a confused look "So, what am I here for?" she asks.
Sergei then tosses her a small device with a circle screen taking up a quarter of the device's appearance along with some buttons and small light nodes. Pyrrha then examines the device with a part of the screen lighting up while beeping "Uh…what does this do?"
"An artifact detector, specifically a bear model - got one from the bandits earlier in the scrap yard." Sergei then pulls out his detector which was the same model as that of Pyrrha's "I got one too, it detects low to midclass type of artifacts. It isn't the best, but better than the echo model." He then motions towards the field and says, "Alright, why don't you try following where the detector leads you, and remember, the more frantic and louder the beeps are, the closer you are to the artifact."
Pyrrha nods and slowly walks towards the field, suddenly stops not far from Sergei as she then hears odd, deep warping sounds not far from her. Taking the experienced stalker's advice with anomalies at heart, she takes out a bolt and tosses it in front of her, only for the bolt to hit the anomaly, glowing as it made contact and it is suddenly tossed back to her feet. She then picks it up, and checks her left, only to produce the same result, and then her right side with the opposite happening as the bolt simply landed on the ground which Pyrrha follows the direction of the bolt and picks it up before readying to throw it again.
Pyrrha barely manages to maneuver through the anomaly cluster, as she closes in on the artifact, the more anomalies she had to avoid, she can feel panic starting to settle and at the process of trying to calm herself down, she nearly stepped on a springboard anomaly making her stumble and fall onto the ground panting heavily. She then calms herself and stands back up, she then listens to her detector which was now beeping frantically signifying she was really close to it, Pyrrha then looks down and at her feet is a dark purple cylindrical object glowing in a dim purple light, it that had some oddly shaped holes like that of holes made in degrading rusty scraps of metal. 'this must be an artifact' Pyrrha thought before picking it up and pocketing it. Noticing the detector has gone quiet, she then retraces her steps back to Sergei which she then shows it to him with her heart beating in excitement.
Sergei grins as Pyrrha shows him the artifact she retrieved from the anomaly cluster "Nice find! It's an inactive artifact, but hey, an artifact is an artifact…so it will still sell… or you can keep it." He chuckles as he gives her a pat on the shoulder.
"Inactive?" Pyrrha asks as she examines the artifact in hand "It looks odd though." She remarks before asking "Is it radioactive?" Sergei shakes his head in response.
"Nah, usually inactive ones are not radioactive." Sergei replies before noticing her dazed expression and paling complexion. "Are you alright…?" he falters when he notices that his and Pyrrha's Geiger counters are going off.
Pyrrha tries to nod, but everything feels too heavy "Y-yes, I…" she tries to say before her world suddenly turns black…
A/N: Phew, another chapter done, been playing STALKER anomaly recently, so I kind of wanted to make the hills in the garbage not radioactive like in stalker anomaly
but as always thank you Nla Eid for helping me edit this chapter and as always, good hunting out there stalkers and hunters!