Chapter 5: A rainy night…
"Shit, it's raining." Sergei cusses quietly as he climbs out of the manhole with Pyrrha, both looking towards some of the makeshift barracks as they could see heads of soldiers on the windows because of the building's lights inside, while rain pours heavily from the sky, which was heavy enough to blot out the stars and the moon in the sky.
"Let's use this to our advantage then." Pyrrha says as she pulls back her SKS' bolt back to double check if her rifle is loaded, "Besides being out on the rain reminds me of my childhood days playing in the rain." She chuckles.
"Eh, agreed…the rain is going to cover the sound of our footsteps." Sergei replies as he sits beside Pyrrha and looks at the guard towers watching the entire area, and then looks at the soldiers on the upper floors of the school building not far from where they are "Well, from the looks of it - it's either they're busy securing the factory or they're doing a big operation somewhere else. And from what I can see, there's at least three squads here." He says while pointing at the soldiers at the building, barracks, and watch towers before checking his AK-74 with the bayonet still on.
Pyrrha sighs, "It's not going to be easy sneaking past the soldiers…" as she shivers slightly as a cold gust of wind blows past them, "Nothing seems to be going easy on us today."
"Yeah.", Sergei huffs as he readies his rifle, "Let's get moving. I'd rather not catch a cold. Remember, we go in and out…no firing unless necessary." He says before moving out with Pyrrha following close behind.
They quietly slip towards the main school building, it was made of concrete and had a simple rectangular layout with some of its windows shattered, they then stop by a chain link fence just a few meters away from the entrance being flanked by two soldiers chatting with each other, clearly wanting to be somewhere else than out in the rain.
"Shit we got two guys guarding the entrance. Got any ideas? Cause I'm thinking of you throwing those barrels to knock em out." Sergei quietly says as he glares at the two soldiers by the entrance.
Pyrrha ponders for a moment, and an idea then strikes her as she looks at Sergei's AK-mounted bayonet, "I-I'm not sure, but I can try taking them down with bolts from here." she offers.
"Eh? What are you going to do throw them to see if they'll explode?" Sergei snickers as he keeps his eyes on the soldiers.
Pyrrha shakes her head "No, but…" she takes out two rusty bolts and lets it hover a few inches above her palm "I do have my semblance." She grins "Now give me your bolts."
"Must be cool to have a semblance like yours." Sergei sighs as he watches Pyrrha lean to her left, then finger gun aimed at the two soldiers and then launch the bolts that were hovering around her hand at high enough speeds to punch holes through the soldiers' faces, making them collapse and killing them instantly.
"Let's go." Pyrrha sighs as they move towards the entrance and quickly taking any valuables and supplies from the bodies before dragging them behind some bushes nearby before entering the building.
They quickly move up to the second floor of the building and peek behind a wall to see four soldiers patrolling the hallway. They quickly duck behind the wall and Pyrrha whispers: "Uhm, any idea where they might've stowed the files we needed to get here?"
Sergei shrugs "Probably not on the first floor, and probably on the third floor but that's just a guess." Before letting out a sigh before peeking behind the wall.
Pyrrha raises an eyebrow "So, what do you think?" She glances warily at the stairs just behind them, ready to shoot anyone trying to be sneaky.
"Let's check the third floor first. If it's not there, then we'll check here. And if it's not here, then I don't know." He huffs before heading up to the stairs leading to the upper floor while Pyrrha follows along.
As they get up from the third floor, they see no one in the hallway except for two men talking inside a room they then quietly move towards the doorway and see two men in military uniforms seemingly having a drinking session, the fact made obvious by the vodka bottles and beer cans on the table.
"Shit, this is going to be a problem." Sergei whispers, and then turns to Pyrrha, "Got any more bolts?"
Pyrrha pats her pockets down and shakes her head "It seems I have run out."
"Shit, same here." He curses quietly before continuing to look at the two soldiers.
Sergei then scans the room for anything they could use to knock out the two soldiers in the room, and he then sees a few bottles of unopened beer bottles, he then taps Pyrrha on the shoulder who is watching his back "Hey, I got a plan. Can you see those beer bottles right there?" he points at the unopened beer bottles.
Pyrrha then looks of what Sergei was talking about and nods, "Yes, the bottlecaps are still there right?" Sergei nods in response "Alright…" Pyrrha then takes a deep breath as she again activates her semblance making the bottles float slightly before then flying towards the two soldiers knocking them out when the bottles smash into their heads, shattering loudly.
"Well, they probably heard it, let's get what we need and get out of this place." Sergei chuckles as they quickly rush into the room in search of the documents. They search for a while, turning over scraps of unimportant looking documents before Sergei then sees a metal-plated briefcase on a desk.
"Have you found it yet?" Pyrrha asks before seeing the briefcase in Sergei's hand, "Nice, now let's get out of here - I would like to sit by a fire without the risk of getting shot or mauled to death." She smiles
Sergei nods "Yeah that'd be nice." He chuckles as they rush out of the room, not bothering to stop and loot the two soldiers that were still knocked out.
As they go down to the second floor, they stumble upon a confused soldier who pauses for a moment letting them run down the stairs before. The soldier realizes his mistake and starts shooting, but fortunately missing them both. The soldier then radios the rest of his unit when the duo slips out of sight and the alarm is raised.
Pyrrha and Sergei run down the stairs with the soldiers from the second floor giving chase. Upon exiting the building, they see more soldiers running towards them, who upon seeing the duo, raise their rifles and fire. The two continues to run with bullets whizzling by and some even hitting them. And though their auras thankfully keep the bullets from piercing their flesh, they still hurt like a bitch.
Sergei fires back wildly towards the soldiers, although not hitting anything, it was enough to make the soldiers to scramble for cover, giving them more time to escape.
Sergei arrives at the scene of Pyrrha shooting a soldier from his watch tower "Come on!" she calls out before running to a trailer not far from the army camp. He follows, nearly slipping because of the wet concrete and mud that makes it harder for him to run.
Arriving at the trailer, he pants as he collapses by the entrance with Pyrrha right beside him, "Shit that was crazy!" he laughs hysterically, throwing his head back onto the wall.
Pyrrha pants, "Yes…it was." She chuckles lightly, "So, what now?" she asks while turning to look at Sergei.
Before Sergei can reply, a soldier enters the trailer, the soldier curses out loud as he points his rifle towards Sergei, but Pyrrha is quick on the draw and she raises her rifle and then fires at the soldier, making him yell out in pain as he falls to his side only for Sergei to scramble for his knife then stabs the soldier's throat.
Bullets then start hitting the trailer, forcing the duo to immediately scramble behind cover before returning fire.
Bullets rip into the trailer as a soldier rakes his weapon across it, making Sergei curse as he drops behind cover to change out his rifle's magazine. He then glances over to Pyrrha to see how she is doing, and his eyes light up when he sees her shield "Hey Pyrrha! I got a plan!" he yells over the loud heavy downpour and gun fire.
"What!?" Pyrrha yells back as she also drops behind over to reload her rifle.
"Is your shield bullet proof!?" Sergei asks before returning fire at the soldiers to slow them down and to force them into cover
Pyrrha then ponders for a second, before patting her pockets for her scroll – only to find nothing, "I can with the help of aura!" she then says, "But I'm not sure how much will it last!" she then ducks as more bullets rip into the trailer.
Sergei curses under his breath before turning to Pyrrha, "Alright, we'll risk it! I'll toss a grenade and we get the fuck outta here!" he yells as he grabs a grenade from his pouch and prepares to pull the pin "Ready!?"
Pyrrha nods with a determined look on her face as she readies to sprint out of the room at moment's notice with her shield covering herself and the stalker.
Sergei then pulls the pin, "Merry Christmas, bitches!" he yells at the soldiers as he throws his grenade through the window of the trailer, the firing stops for a few seconds as the soldiers scramble to find cover before the grenade goes off with a deafening explosion that echoed throughout the Zone, which is then followed by screaming injured soldiers.
The duo then both run out of the trailer, with Pyrrha taking the lead, bouncing off rifle rounds with her shield as some soldiers recover from the explosion while Sergei fires back as rounds zip and whizz all around them.
They eventually manage to slip away in the darkness with some stray rounds hitting the nearby trees and dirt as the soldiers fires away at their direction with some colorful words being thrown at them, making Sergei wince. They continue to run back from the direction they came from, before hiding in a bush, waiting for the gun fire to die down and once the soldiers stop firing, and then moving out of their hiding spot to continue their walk back to the garbage.
As they close towards the factory, they faintly hear a man humming a song. Investigating the source – they find a bandit, peeing on a tree with his back turned away from the two. Pyrrha turns away which makes Sergei smirk before slowly creeping up on the unaware bandit.
As the bandit zips his pants back up with a relieved sigh, Sergei then hits the back of the bandit's head with the butt of his rifle hard enough to render him unconscious, Sergei then quickly searches the bandit's body to only find a bandage, some old 9x18mm rounds, and a handful of bolts and empty ammunition casings, which was something they needed.
Sergei goes back to Pyrrha and hands her some bolts and empty casings, "Alright, all set, let's head back to the train yard in the garbage." He moves but then pauses after a second, and then turns to sneeze "Cyka…a cozy campfire would be nice." He grumbles.
"Agreed…" Pyrrha says as she hugs herself "We're probably going to be sick at this point." She sighs, seeing her own breath freezing due to the cold.
They leave the bandit and continue trudging on under the rain, with the occasional gusts of cold wind making matters worse. Pyrrha rubs her shoulders, shivering intensely with her teeth chattering "Are we there yet?" she asks Sergei.
"Not yet, but we'll be arriving in a bit." Sergei huffs, not doing exactly well as he can barely feel his fingertips, he then glances at Pyrrha who was shivering "You okay back there?"
Pyrrha feebly nods, "Yes, I'll manage."
Sergei looks over for a moment before nodding, then he turns to continue leading their walk towards the trainyard.
Arriving at the trainyard, they immediately walk towards the campfire pit and start the fire. Sergei sighs in relief as he basks in the comfortable warmth of the flames by stretching his hands towards the fire to warm his freezing fingertips, "I swear I was getting frostbite out there." He chuckles before turning to look at Pyrrha who is hugging herself to keep herself warm, though both are still soaked from head-to-toe from the rain. "You okay?" he asks Pyrrha.
Pyrrha looks up at Sergei and nods "Y-yes, just a bit cold that's all." She tries to chuckle but is interrupted when she sneezes.
"Yeah, 'just a bit cold'." Sergei snorts in response before stripping off his vest and then lays it next to the fire to dry.
They stay silent for a moment to enjoy the warmth and to dry off. Then, a few minutes later Sergei looks at Pyrrha and scratches the back of his head, "So, you got any stories to pass the time?" he asks.
"Well, I do…" Pyrrha then pauses for a moment before continuing with a small smile "But how about you tell something about yourself this time."
Sergei, who was in the process of taking some food out of his bag, raises an eyebrow and scoffs "I doubt you'd be interested; my stories are boring if you ask me."
Pyrrha then drags over a dirty looking mattress nearby and lies on her side "Well, I'm interested to hear it." She smirks. "There, ready to tell?"
Sergei sighs throws his hands up in surrender "Where do I start?"
"What was your life like…you know like before the Zone and all?" Pyrrha asks her eyes intently on Sergei.
"Well…" Sergei falters as he stares into the fire "Well, just a guy who was just getting by. Had a lot of part time jobs and stuff."
Pyrrha raises an eyebrow "It can't be just that, I'm sure there's more?" she says with an enthusiastic tone.
"Well, got nothing else that will be interesting." Sergei shrugs as he hunches over and rests his arms on his knees.
"Hmmm…what's your favorite color?" Pyrrha asks after getting herself up into a more comfortable position.
"Grey…hmmm…probably green." Sergei answers while rubbing his chin.
"How about your favorite food?" Pyrrha asks before chuckling "Sorry, it just came up. I'm a little hungry."
Sergei shakes his head "Nah, same here…and a hot meal would be great, too bad I don't have a military issue cooking field kit." He sighs "That's one more thing to add in the shopping list." He then takes out a sausage and hands half of it to Pyrrha.
Pyrrha then takes and stares at the sausage for a moment before she says, "So is your favorite sausage? Because you seem to have some with you all the time."
Sergei looks at Pyrrha for a second before bursting into laughter, "Well, you might be right about that, but really I eat anything that's edible and doesn't taste like ass."
Pyrrha, in the process of biting down on her piece of sausage, scoffs in amusement, "I see, so do you like…have any hobbies? Like what do you do during your free time?"
Sergei ponders for a moment says sheepishly, "Is reading engineering books and disassembling guns a hobby?"
"…Well, they can be if you do enjoy it." Pyrrha shrugs before taking a bite out of her sausage.
"Huh…I guess they are…" Sergei replies with a smirk "So you got more questions for me?"
Pyrrha then taps her chin "Hmmm…so what was the most memorable experience for you?"
"Hmm…" Sergei thinks the question over for a moment, "Knocking out a robber with a farting cow." He recalls with a snicker.
Pyrrha nearly chokes on her food when she hears Sergei "Excuse me?"
"Well one day a robber got into my grandmother's house at that time. I saw the man, I chased him to the barn where my grandmother kept her cows. And I kind of pushed the cornered robber onto the cow's butt face first before it farted." Sergei chuckles at the memory of the robber's dazed expression, "God that was funny." He says with an amused look while Pyrrha looks at him with a bewildered expression.
Pyrrha then shakes her head before moving to the next question, "So how is your family?" she asks, only realizing she hit something personal as Sergei's cheerful expression fades and he stares blankly at the fire.
"…They're gone, except for my sister." Sergei says with steely look on his face.
Silence then settles between them like a heavy blanket before Pyrrha yawns "S-sorry if I asked something personal."
Sergei sighs and shakes his head, "It's fine, go to sleep - we'll be heading to Rostok first thing in the morning." He says to her before standing up, "I'll be taking first watch."
Pyrrha nods, "Alright…good night, Sergei." And then lies down on the ground and using the mattress as a pillow. Before succumbing to comfortable sleep, she takes one last look at Sergei who is listlessly staring at the fire.
It is once again silent as Sergei watches over Pyrrha while she sleeps. He then stares at the fire with once happy memories flashing in his head, so he doesn't notice a man walking up to him till the man stops behind him and asks: "Mind if I join you?" Sergei then quickly turns around, tense and reaching for his rifle, before relaxing upon seeing it's Uncle Misha, also wet from the rain.
Sergei nods "Yeah go ahead." He replies with a sigh, and Misha then sits across the fire, "So, what are you doing here?"
Misha raises an eyebrow "Here to visit you, and some change of plans. You got the files from the military camp?" his Uncle asks as he rubs his hands together.
"Yeah, why?" Sergei asks putting his hand on the briefcase that he got from the military base in Agroprom.
"Change of plans." Misha answers briefly before taking a few stacks of roubles "I couldn't find any guns that you wanted…in good condition at least so I thought money would be a better option."
Sergei looks at the money suspiciously, "What's so important with the files in here anyway?" as he slowly pushes the brief case behind him.
"Its…something." Misha nonchalantly replies, before pulling out several wads of cash. "Here, sixty-thousand roubles…I sent thirty thousand for Valentina's treatment, is that enough?" as he hands him the money.
Sergei stares at Misha and then the wads of money he had in hand before hesitantly handing over the briefcase.
Misha nods, "Good. Besides, I think you two will need some better equipment. I suggest taking missions from barkeep from now on… also, I'll be seeing you two in Yantar." He says as he takes the brief case and stands up "Well, have a good evening, Sergei." He says before putting his hood up then leaving the train yard.
Sergei continues to stare where Misha walked out before turning back towards the campfire. His uncle's visit has him thinking about home, which then has him glancing towards Pyrrha's sleeping form.
'I wonder if she still wants to go back…' he thinks before shaking his head, 'of course she would…she's literally a world away from home…not that the Zone is a nice place to be in either.' He sighs before returning to staring at the fire wistfully.
…
Pyrrha wakes up hours later with Sergei still sitting at the exact same spot where she saw him before she nodded off, the stalker humming a song that she doesn't recognize. She then groggily sits up and yawns, making Sergei stop to look at her, "Good morning." He greets her with a small smirk "Sleep well?"
"Not really…" Pyrrha shakes her head, "Hard to have a good night's sleep when you're drenched." Her remark earns a scoff from the stalker, but silence then forms between the two.
"…Do you miss your world, Pyrrha?" Sergei suddenly asks out of the blue, catching Pyrrha off guard.
"I…" Pyrrha meets Sergei's eyes, His blue eyes reminding her of Jaune, of JNPR, of Beacon, of home.
She sighs, "…Yeah, I do."
Sergei nods with a small smile, "I don't think it needs to be said, but I'm gonna help you find a way to return you to your world." He says as he pulls his backpack beside him.
"R-really?" Pyrrha stutters out, though she can feel her lips form an appreciative smile.
"Well you do still have to teach me how to become superman anyway." Sergei chuckles "But I do have a lead…"
Pyrrha's eyes widen, "You have? Tell me!" she enthusiastically says, making Sergei scratch the back of his head.
"Well, it might be involved with my 'dead' uncle…" Sergei replies while rubbing his chin.
Sergei then recounts the night when he met Misha at the checkpoint at the Cordon to Pyrrha. She looks happy but bewildered by the fact that Sergei's uncle knew about her.
"Strange…but he did say about returning me to my world, am I correct?" Pyrrha asks with a serious look on her face.
Sergei nods "Yeah…and that brief case we got from that military base was sort of his idea…I only gave it to him because he paid my sister's medical bills…" he says hesitantly.
Pyrrha tilts her head, her tone sounding slightly disappointed, "You should've told me of this earlier, so we wouldn't have to go through the trouble of going somewhere more dangerous now."
"Hey, it didn't occur to me at the time." Sergei raises his hands up in surrender, "But ah…I guess that's a fault on my part too…" he sighs while running a palm across his face.
"It definitely is…" Pyrrha says while leveling him a glare.
"…Alright, then I'm going to sleep, wake me at five aaand good night!" Sergei says nervously before hastily collapsing on his backpack, immediately falling asleep.
"Yes, good morning… Pyrrha mumbles at Sergei's obvious faking before letting out her own, genuine, yawn.
When the sun rose, the two immediately left the train yard. With Sergei still yawning and rubbing his eyes while Pyrrha was fully alert, turning her head left and right for any sort of threats. The walk was uneventful, with only a handful of anomalies they had to avoid being of note. They eventually walk into the Duty check point, with Pyrrha putting on her gas mask and hiding her long scarlet hair under the hood of her anorak hoping she'd look like an ordinary stalker that's just passing by.
The guards didn't pay them mind as they pass. And as they walk past the gate, Sergei then instructs Pyrrha: "Alright, behind me, there's anomalies in this part of the path." She nods and follows as the more experienced stalker continues forwards.
Sergei knows where the anomalies of the path are, but he still occasionally tosses bolts and empty casings from time to time to be sure. Once they got past the anomalies, he then says to Pyrrha "Alright, just ready for a anything, there's a mutant den not far from here."
Pyrrha looks around as they walk down the road. It's partly forested on the sides, with trees growing on top of the hills that flanked the road and has grass growing by the road on which some old rusting vehicles occasionally dot.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask this but…do you mind telling me why this place is abandoned?" Pyrrha says while admiring the haunting beauty of the environment.
"Oh, about that. A few decades back the nuclear power plant here exploded because the engineers apparently did some tests which went bad. And they had to evacuate everyone here because of the high levels of radiation and this was before all the Zone crap." Sergei answers casually "And it was the worst nuclear disaster in human history."
Pyrrha shakes her head "That's horrible…" she says with a hint of sympathy "What happened to the people?"
"Well, many died – especially the guys who worked round the clock to stop the fires in the reactor, and also clear out the scattered fallout and stuff." Sergei says, "My grandfather was one of the fire fighters who first reacted to the incident…he used to tell me stories of his experiences before he died." He then smiles softly and scoffs "It's funny his grandson to return to where he got his radiation sickness from."
Pyrrha lowers her head, "I'm sorry…"
Sergei shakes his head "No, it's fine. I… I actually just wanted to share that." He chuckles.
They continue to walk towards the buildings in the distance. As they come closer, they can see some sandbags and some soldiers standing guard. It was relatively quiet aside from the usual Zone background noise of the eerie wind blowing past, and some distant gunshots.
Sergei then glances left and right and sighs in relief as Duty has finally purged out the mutant lair nearby, which saved them the trouble of dealing with mutants which they quickly walk past and towards the Duty checkpoint who pays them no heed.
After a few meters past the checkpoint, they turn left and enter a warehouse with the sign of the 100 Rads Bar and duty side by side on top of the door. The interior is spacious, although there are some ivy-like things hanging from the ceiling of the warehouse. "Don't touch them, or don't move too fast when you're touching them. Those things are called burnt fuzz anomalies." Sergei says, making Pyrrha avoid the anomaly with alarm and quickens her pace to walk beside Sergei.
"Get out of here stalker."
Pyrrha looks up to see a patrolling duty soldier on the catwalk looking at them, she would've said something in reply, but realized she's fallen behind Sergei who just ignored the dutier and continued to the bar as planned.
A/N: Hell, yeah chapter 5 finally done! And I am sorry for the massive delay, due to school and literally writer's block to deal with the past few months. So yeah, hopefully I'll be able to publish another chapter next month or less.
Good hunting Stalkers and Hunters! And stay safe out there!