My Stalker Fanfic
UltimaGecko
hates endnotes Join Date: 2003-05-14 Member: 16320Members
hates endnotes Join Date: 2003-05-14 Member: 16320Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">...Their forum is a bit small</div> This is (as the title implies), my Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl fanfic. It was initially longer (and I do still have the version that's not cut, so that I could make it longer). I warn you that it is quite long (as in 17 pages in MSword).
...I think it's fairly interesting and fun, but that's probably because I wrote it (despite the fact I usually care little for what I write). If you've never heard of Stalker (the few of you, anyway), if you want to read it, I suggest visiting <a href='http://www.stalker-game.com/index_eng.html' target='_blank'>here</a> to learn about some anomalies, enemies and some weapons ( and <a href='http://www.world.guns.ru' target='_blank'>here</a> if you want to learn about guns in general).
There's only 1 or 2 people (who rarely visit) in the Stalker writing forum, so, any input on sequence, grammar or just overall comments would be nice...I know it's quite long - sorry about that <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> . Also, there shouldn't be too many errors (at least I hope not...), I did read over it a couple times.
Sorry if any of the swears are missed by the filter due to quotes (there's only 4 or 5 of them, and I doubt anyone that young wants to read it anyway). Also note it does feature fairly graphic violence, but it is used sparingly (usually it's just descriptions of shootings instead of descriptions of blood squirting everywhere)Note that the story is seperated into 4 seperate parts for ease of reference and reading.
If anything's confusing...I'll try to help out with that too (if only I could include drawings with it...or something). I also apologize for the lack of indenting on the forums, it makes it substantially harder to read.
So, without further delay I present: "Reliable Siblings" (...possibly Part 1, if I decide to continue it)...
<!--QuoteBegin-Reliable Siblings by UltimaGecko+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Reliable Siblings by UltimaGecko)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
Reliable Siblings
Any discrepancies in verb case through a paragraph are intentional in character intros, and accidental in other places (it was present first, then switched to past).
Reliable Siblings Part 1
The stagnant evening air rustled gently as a figure dropped form a second story apartment window; another figure dropped down behind the first. They crouched down and slinked towards the street, their silhouettes hidden against the dark shadow of the soviet-era apartment block.
In stark contrast to these figures, two men wearing camouflage uniforms stood in the middle of a large field. The field stretched into the distance, surrounded on three sides by similar looking apartment flats. They carried heavy assault weapons, Kalishnikovs, and the profile of grenades and ammo pouches could be seen around their waists. One of them pointed towards the flat, the other made an agreeing nod. They crouched down slightly and slowly walked towards the flat.
The sound of boards and cans knocking together came from the concealed figures, one of them falls over a pile of rubble. The men in the field raised their weapons -
*Crack*, a single rifle shot pierced the air.
The sound echoed for a moment before both men in the field fall over limply and a slight breeze moved the motionless air. Blood flowed freely from the men in the field - from the temple of one man, and the neck of the other.
Alina Ivanovna Mirova lifted her head up from the scope and shouldered her rifle. She leaned out of the second story flat window, shouting to the figures below, ?Maybe you guys would like to stop moving like sloths and hurry up?? The two figures hastened across the street.
Sergey Nikolaevich Bolshenko held his Fort 12 in his right hand as he hurried across the street. He has a fairly muscular build, putting him about 183 centimeters (6?0) tall. His dark military fatigues? sleeves are rolled up and a bandolier stocked with shotgun shells lies under his jacket. He has short dark brown, almost black, hair which is slightly curly and matches his dark brown eyes..
Bolshenko was a native born Ukrainian. At 26 years old he had seen some rough times, but had missed pretty much all of the soviet break up, and any action that went with it. He always hoped to eventually do something important - or at least get rich trying. Most of his time was spent as a scientist for the Ukrainian military before starting a bar with Schutzer?a life he enjoys, but isn?t very proud of. His family was killed by Chechens when they went to visit Moscow, he misses his family but is quite stoic, ?I didn?t see them often.?
He carries around a TOZ-34 shotgun, a LR300 and a Fort 12 pistol. He prefers the Fort 12 when he can use it, ?If I shoot someone, I prefer it?s a gun from my home country.? But he?s exceptional with his assault rifle - despite the fact he has little formal training with military grade weapons of any kind..
Behind him Erwin I. Schutzer carried his modified MP5 in his left hand and scratched the back of his neck with the right. His lanky build makes his 191 centimeter (6?3?) height seem taller, as he has little fat or overly apparent muscle mass. His camouflage pants had a small rip at the knee - where he had tripped over the pile of boards and paint cans. His short blond hair blew slightly as the wind began to pick up.
Schutzer was 28 years old, born in Cologne (K?ln), Germany, August 17th, 1982. He lived in West Germany (and then reunited Germany) until he was 18, when he decided to join the military. Eventually, stationed in Ukraine as a consultant in 2004 he met Sergey. They become fairly good friends and he decided to take a job starting up a bar in Kiev with his new friend after being honorably discharged from the army. He speaks fluent German and fairly good Russian, although sometimes he forgets what he wants to say exactly.
He didn?t see very much action back in the Bundeswehr, but had trained himself frequently with his G3. He also practiced with his friends MP-5 when he could, which he liked much more. When he figured on starting a bar in Kiev, he? ?requisitioned? an MP-5 from the military base, ?Hey, if terrorists can have them, I should be able to, too?at least mines not for?overly malicious uses. Alles gute.?
He carries the ?borrowed? Heckler and Koch MP-5, a USP .45 and generally enjoys being well stocked in grenades, despite the fact he rarely uses them. Whenever he comes across an RPG, he feels the need to discard something if he can?t carry it. ?You never know when a rocket will help you out.?
Alina?s small 170 centimeter (5?7?) frame already stood at the bottom floor of the flat, holding open the door for Erwin and Sergey. Her hair is dark brown and hangs down to her upper back, with bangs reaching just above her eyes in the front . The hair matches her dark russet eyes, except when they occasionally experience a color change to gray, or so people tell her, she?s never seen it. She held her Dragunov SVD by the wooden fore-grip, ushering the others inside with her open hand.
Mirova was born April 12th on the Romanian/Moldovan border in 1985. Her family moved to Chernobyl that same year. Four years after the disaster her father died of cancer, her brother was born a few months later, before her mother died. Her grandfather and brother being her only remaining family, she moved in with them in Kishinev in 1998 after living with friends of her father for a few years. Her grandfather taught her to shoot with an old Mosin-Nagant rifle he had bribed from an officer after WW2, ?It had saved his life, it was only right that he get to keep it. The stock was revarnished, but you could still see the cracks and splinters and the imbedded bullet.?
She uses an authentic Snaiperskaya Vintovka Dragunova (Dragunov SVD) given to her by her grandfather - it is quite old and the wooden fore grip has her initials carved into it, she also carries a Makarov PM for general use and a GSh-18 in her alternate holster, for when it?s needed. She?s an excellent shot and rarely misses. She chooses not to overly acknowledge her skills, something that has occasionally been a source of money for her once arriving at the zone. The SVD is also her meeting point with Bolshenko, when she bested him - and everyone else - in a targeting competition.
Alina, Sergey and Erwin set their packs and weapons down. Sergey took a quick reading with a Geiger counter, and everything seemed fairly good. Erwin knocked a decrepit door off its hinges and broke it apart for kindling. He dragged a piece of corrugated metal over to the others by a window and started a fire. He threw a can of beans in and sat down.
?So, how about we have a look at that artifact?? Erwin began, he?d been interested ever since they found it. He wasn?t quite sure what it was, but if some mercenary-mugger type Stalkers were after them for it, it had to be at least worth something.
?Yea, Alina, let?s check out that pearl.? Sergey said, rubbing his hands together; he?d wanted to take a closer look at it since they?d found it. It interested him so much, because when he first saw it the blades of grass had been bending so strangely. It had took them a while to actually find the artifact. Apparently, it was so strong it could -
?Here it is!? She said excitedly. ?It feels so weird to my skin, even with a glove on.? Her glove was being pulled to fit the contours of the almost spherical dark gray-red orb in her hand. Turning it in the light created darker shines, unlike normal glass or plastic spheres, which would create white or rainbow colored shines.
?So, was ist?what is it?? Erwin asked, as Alina handed the orb to Sergey.
He picked up a loose nail next to him and held it to the bottom of the orb - it hung in place. He then picked up a piece of Erwin?s kindling and it, too, stuck to the bottom of the orb. ?Obviously, it?s an orb that has an immense gravitational pull, but lacks sufficient mass to maintain it - mathematically, at least.? Sergey answered; science had paid off for him in the zone before, and this was just another legitimate application of his skills. In fact, this is the speculation he had when they had first saw it: it was covered with grass and tiny rocks, and grass in the general area was bent towards it. ?Think of it as a magnet, except it?s more powerful than magnets, and it can attract anything, it doesn?t have to be certain metals, like iron and -?
?So, it?s basically nothing like a magnet.? remarked Alina.
?Hey, it attracts stuff doesn?t it? It?s a magnet.?
?I attract stuff, and I?m not a magnet.?
?Ohhh, you?re a magnet alright.? Sergey responded, as Alina quickly took out her poncho and hid herself from Sergey, ?Hiding behind a poncho just means I?m -? ?and the can of beans Erwin had put in the fire promptly exploded. Brown beans covered Sergey, who was sitting closest to the fire, and Alina?s poncho.
??covered in beans?? Alina finished his old sentence. He quickly wiped the searing hot beans from his face and skin.
Erwin, not one to like wasting food, was disappointed at the bean explosion, but he had another can. He threw it in the fire?wondering how none of the beans got on him, but smiling at the event.
?How about you watch those beans this time?? Sergey grumbled, he took out a bottle of vodka and had a swig. Alina smiled as she cleaned a few beans from her poncho.
Erwin, intently watching the beans asked, ?How much do you think that things worth??
?I?m sure we?ll get enough for it,? Sergey replied as he took a swig, ?although it doesn?t seem to have any direct scientific applications, though a magnet?? he glanced at Alina, ? ?that is not metal could probably be used for something.? He handed the bottle to Erwin.
?So why do you think the mercenaries were chasing us?? Erwin had been wondering about it for a while. Being chased a mile back to this flat wasn?t his idea of safe zone hunting - not that the zone was safe anyway. Sure, maybe they wanted to mug them for the artifact, but really - how would they have known what it was from so far away?
?Maybe they found a big stash of artifacts back there?I mean, maybe there?s more of these gravitational sphere things.? Sergey had been going over the same question. The mercenaries were at least 200 meters away when they were spotted, and they couldn?t have seen what the orb had been doing to the grass from that far. ?Maybe it?s a mercenary base or something?.is it beans yet??
?Err, holy ****, yea,? Erwin responded, reaching with a stick to roll the beans out of the fire. The can was puffed out, like a cartoon. He pointed the can away from himself and stabbed the top with his knife. Alina and Sergey took out some MREs. And they ate.
The fire went out and they decided to barricade the door - just in case anything decided to show up. They went up to the 5th floor of the flat. The talked about what they would do with the artifact, the gravitational orb. They talked about tomorrow, the future, the past. They slept lightly - prepared but peaceful.
By now the wind had picked up, the stagnant musty odor in the apartments had left. Leaves rustled on the sparse trees outside, and it was a warm summer night. From the weather, it was easy to tell: at the very least, a storm was coming.
Reliable Siblings Part 2
The first soft boom of thunder sounded out around three in the morning, awakening Alina Ivanovna. Spending years with her grandfather and learning all his tricks as a World War 2 sniper keened her senses. Through the rustling of leaves and the boom of thunder she could hear a distinct shuffling sound, as if something were being dragged across the ground in short jerks.
Through the fifth floor window she could see the flat on the opposing side of the field, and noticed it was beginning to drizzle. She stood up to go to the window when a loud crash and the sound of breaking glass came up from the first floor. She grabbed her Dragunov, lightly tapped Erwin and Sergey with her foot to get them up, and went to the window. Staring out the window she waited for the next flash of lighting.
And she saw them, zombies, all over the courtyard?at least 20 of them - mostly decked in soldier camouflage, but a few were in lab coats.
Erwin awoke to a gentle, yet firm, tap to his shoulder. He tried to ignore it, readjusting his head on top of his hands. In the next moment he heard the successive reports of two Dragunov shots. He sat up instantly, grabbed his MP-5 and quickly, but sleepily, got up.
Sergey was also awake, he had begun to get up as soon as Alina had kicked him, he knew there would have to be a reason to get up. ?Erv?hey Erv, hurry up, get up.?
Erwin mumbled, ?I am up.?
Lightning flashed, and three more shots cracked out of Alina?s SVD. ?Okay, now that you two are up, you might want to be a little more quiet?and head downstairs quick - they?re trying to get in.?
Erwin was slightly flustered, ?Who are??
?Zombies?in military?fatigues.? She replied, waiting for the next lightning strike. She needed them to take out the ones by the door, if they got in, it would get ugly. Outside, in the open, they were easy to spot, but having the zombies move freely through an eight story building with multiple ingresses to her position was bad.
?Come on Erv, lets go mess up some zombies.? Sergey shoved Erwin?s pack into his hands and they started downstairs.
Alina shot as many zombies as she could during each flash of lightning. So far she had managed to get five of them, which left at least fourteen more, if her counting before was right. The lightning flashed again, and the rain began to pour down harder. She couldn?t shoot, a group of zombies was doing something in the field, where she had shot the two mercenaries before.
In the next flash of light she saw something she dreaded, the zombies had picked up the mercenaries? AK-74s. She gave away her position, she?d have to move anyway, ?Guys! They?re armed.?
She ducked down, preparing to change rooms as bullets began striking the ceiling, dropping bits of plaster on her. She could feel the bullets? shockwaves as they passed above her head. ?At least they made some of these buildings out of concrete,? she thought, as she crawled to an adjacent room.
Sergey and Erwin had stopped on the second floor, and heard her shout.
They could hear gunfire, and it obviously wasn?t from Alina. ?Hurry,? Sergey shouted, ?They?ve got Kalishnikovs!? He took the steps down to the first floor incredibly quick. He got there just as the first zombies were breaking through the door. Simultaneously dropping his pack, which slid into a room across from the stairs, and taking out his TOZ-34, he shot the zombie wearing a lab coat at the door.
The flat erupted into gunfire. Zombies bearing Makarov PMs and automatic weapons brushed passed the half-missing zombie scientist. Sergey shot his second round at one of the zombies who had just entered the flat. The third zombie began firing his Makarov just when Erwin got down the stairs - bullets flew into wooden paneling behind him sending out clouds of dust and wooden splinters; Sergey dove through a doorway and rolled around the corner. Erwin took a grenade from his belt, simultaneously while going back up the stairs, yelling, ?Fire in the hole!? Dropping it behind him as he ran back up the stairs.
Sergey cracked open his TOZ, expelling the shells. He heard the Erwin?s grenade clinking clumsily down the stairs. He took two shells from his bandolier as the grenade blew and dropped them when the shockwave hit. The world shook around him, shrapnel from the grenade pierced through the wall. All he heard was ringing, high pitched and annoying. He could feel his heart beat in his temples.
He grabbed for two more shells.
Bullets were still ricocheting off the ceiling in the former sniper loft. Alina had gone down the hall, two rooms down. She went to the window and saw muzzle flashes and tracers flashing up to the window a few meters away. A stray bullet struck the wall outside the window and she ducked down.
She heard the distinctive sound of a shotgun, and a moment later a large explosion could be heard from below. She heard a lot of gunfire coming from Erwin and Sergey?s position.
Keeping on with her duty: she stayed very low and set the barrel of her SVD against the window sill. She aimed at the zombies, her left hand rubbed across her engraved initials. She fired two quick shots, dropping them to the ground, the automatic rifles still firing a few shots as the zombies fell.
She saw flashes of light and the sharp snap of automatic rifles, instinctively she ducked. Hundreds of rounds flew into her former location. A round crashed through the cinderblock wall to her back and she dove into the hall. She felt a stinging in her right side.
The distinctive sound of a grenade launcher?s *thoooomp* came to her ears, and the room burst into a ball of flame and shrapnel. She felt warmth on her legs, and a stinging sensation in her left thigh, looking back she saw a five centimeter long wooden splinter jutting out of her leg. It quickly became red with blood. She dragged herself away from the door, another grenade exploded, bathing the hall in an eerie orange light.
She pulled the splinter out, held her hand over the puncture to try stopping the blood, gasped at the pain. She clenched her teeth as she pushed down on the wound harder, determined to slow the flow of blood. She noticed her Dragunov was on the floor grabbed it with her right hand, ignoring the pain for a second.
She held her leg, held her rifle.
She thought about her brother and grandfather. And, for a moment, the gunfire was silent. All she heard was the sharp patter of a heavy down pour outside.
Erwin stood by the stairs leading to the second floor. He had heard explosions come from above a moment before, he thought, ?Sergey might be dead, Alina might be dead. I should see if Alina is okay. I should go upstairs. I can?t help Sergey, there are to many of them. No, no, I?m just rationalizing. I have to help Sergey. I have to help Sergey first.?
He leaned over the banister and saw a zombie coming up the stairs. He opened fire with his MP-5, bullets sprayed the wall and the zombie, it toppled over and fell back down the stairs. He stood at the top of the stairs, looked down. The stairs were very splintered, they were built solidly, but it was a wonder they still were in such shape after a grenade. A door at the bottom of the stairs led to a room on the right, and he saw another door across from the stair?s landing.
?Sergey, are you alright?? He yelled down.
?What?? Sergey?s reply was muffled through the wall Erwin had just shot through.
Sergey was surprised to find that he had sustained no injuries from the grenades and its shrapnel - aside from his decline in hearing at the moment. He heard Erwin shout something, but it was muffled, and the ringing wouldn?t stop. ?I can?t hear you.? He heard his own voice hollow in his own ears.
He stood slowly, he still felt his own pulse through his temples, but it was slower and didn?t pound as much. He leaned passed the doorframe and saw numerous zombies, they had stopped shooting for a bit before, but now they all seemed to be firing at where Alina had been. He lowered his shotgun and plucked a grenade from his belt. ?Throwing grenade, take cover!? he shouted, lobbing it out the door, out into the darkened field beyond.
The grenade landed and then rolled a good 30 meters from the apartment building, it?s explosion obliterated three nearby zombies, and illuminated the field. It also drew their fire.
Again the courtyard erupted in gunfire, tracers flew passed the doorframe again, he could smell the phosphorous. He realized the wall he was standing behind wouldn?t stop a 7.62mm round - a little bit too late. A bullet pelted through the wall, it had lost much of its force but managed to imbed itself in his calf. He limped his way to a nearby door, but it was locked. He blew the door knob off with his shotgun. Looking back he saw the wall he stood by moments ago had now been thoroughly perforated.
?Fire on the courtyard Erv, if you can hear me, fire on the courtyard!? he shouted. He heard a hollow noise he recognized, even with diminished hearing. He heard a low *uuumph* come from outside. He saw the grenade sail through the air - he closed the half-destroyed door as quickly as he could. His world shook again. Bracing himself against a wall, he snapped open the magazine again and reloaded two shells.
Erwin heard Sergey. He reloaded his MP-5. He pulled a sheet of corrugated steel up to the window, and held it in place with some cinder blocks. Raising his arm, Erwin emptied his entire clip out the window, reloaded and repeated. He could hear return fire clatter off the cinder blocks and steel in front of him. He saw bulges in the steel form.
Moving to an adjacent room, he grabbed his pack and took out his one spare RPG. Slowly, he stood up, aiming at the largest cluster of muzzle flashes he could. He wished, ?Please God, don?t let the lightning flash.? He squeezed the trigger and watched as a smoke trail poured out from the front of the tube. The rocket?s flame refracted in the light, Erwin saw a halo around it. The rocket sailed into the middle of the field. The screams of zombies drowned out the sound of rain and gunfire for a moment.
A fireball stretched 12 meters into the sky. A sizable crater was now in the field. ?Oh yea! Take that you ****!? He shouted, ?Sergey, I think I got them!?
In the next flash of lightning, he saw he had not. Five zombies ambled around the corner of the flat across the field. He heard heavy footsteps on the stairs, he turned quickly.
?Hey it?s me!? Sergey cried as he limped up the stairs, waving for Erwin to point the MP-5 somewhere else. ?Did you get them?? I didn?t see any when I looked out coming up the stairs.?
?No, I didn?t.?
?What??
?No, I didn?t get them.?
?What?? Sergey shouted again. Erwin pointed to the flat across the field, held up his hand showing ?There are five over there,? held his fingers close together, ?at least.? Sergey responded, ?Take my LR300, wait for them to come in range. I?ve got to pull a damn piece of lead out of my leg.? Erwin nodded in response. ?Where the hell are they coming from??
Alina?s back was against the wall. She could feel splinters through the back of her shirt. There was a pool of blood under her left leg, but it had mostly stopped bleeding. She felt dizzy and she had a headache, taking her own pulse it felt a little weak. She pushed herself to a standing position with her right leg, sending throbbing pain down her leg.
Leaning against the wall she took her Dragunov in both hands. Her fingers rubbed her initials, sticky with dried blood. The wooden stock had numerous pits and scratches. Her breath was heavy. ?No.? She gasped, ?no, I?m not giving up. No. Grandpa never gave up, neither will I.?
She pulled herself along the wall, trying not to use her left leg. The wall made a good crutch as she limped 15 meters to the end of the hall. She had made her way to the corner of the apartment building. The sound of rain was heavy, thunder boomed in the distance. She hadn?t heard any gunfire lately.
The window sill was level, it was dark, a protrusion in the outside wall prevented the lightning from giving her away. She had at least one good shot. Gingerly kneeling, trying to prevent putting pressure on her left leg, she set up her SVD. ?There has to be a way to stop them; I?m going to find it,? she thought. She pulled her face to the scope.
Erwin waited at the window, the zombies were almost in range, half way across the field. Their shuffling seemed so slow, and only some of them were armed - most were wearing lab coats. He wanted them to be closer, he didn?t want to give away his position until he was sure he could hit every single one.
Sergey had a tweezers and was pulling the bullet out of his calf, grimacing as he tugged it out.
?You should save that, you know??
He flicked the fractured bullet out the window, began digging for the pieces. ?Just watch the zombies.? A trickle of blood came out of the hole in Sergey?s leg. It didn?t seem too serious, it stopped bleeding quickly. He looked over his shoulder, out the window. ??when did you plan on shooting them??
The zombies were well within range now, 200 meters away or less. Erwin replied, ?I want them to all be in range, I don?t want to miss a single one of the ****?don?t you want to take them out for hitting you in the leg??
?I wouldn?t need to take them out if you hadn?t tried to blow me up in the first place.?
?Hey, I warned you and everything.?
?You didn?t warn me that it would drop right outside the room I was in.?
?I probably saved your life!?
?There was only one of them!?
?So?!?
?What do you mean so? You don?t say so when you almost kill someone?you should see that wall down there, it doesn?t even exist anymore?and then you almost shoot me through the wall. Hell, I?m lucky I can hear right now, stupid gren-? He was interrupted by a single shot from four floors above.
The world is a different place through the scope of a rifle. Everything seems quieter, peaceful. Everything seems sharper, clear. Time slows down, you breathe slower, every trivial movement of the hand is exaggerated. The world has so much detail. The scope can be beautiful.
But it can also be ugly. You have to stare at the man you?re about to shoot - the man who?s life you will end. Sometimes you stare into his eyes, and it?s an endless struggle of morality that has to be decided in an instant. The eyes are a gateway to the soul, you see the good in people through the eyes- it makes it harder.
It panged her, to have to shoot someone - every time. To know you?re ending a life. Her grandfather had told her how hard it was when she was learning to shoot. He had shot plenty of people during the war. He said, ?The first time you shoot someone, that you stare into their eyes, when they look right at you, it haunts you forever.? He would have such a look of sadness. ?You have to rationalize, make excuses. Think to yourself, ?Hey, this guy might end up killing my family.? or, ?Hey, this guys evil, he probably killed a hundred people.??
Except, she did not feel like that now. She was looking at a grotesque creature: this was no human. The creature had eyes, but they were ghostly, and bulged out. The creature was human-like, but it was wrinkly and decrepit, like a zombie - except it wasn?t a zombie. It?s brain cavity seemed too large, its arms too thin . It had blood around its mouth. It grinned with an evil smile - as if laughing at the death surrounding it. And Alina shuddered.
Her single round echoed through the field. The round punctured the creature right above the nose, it fell backwards, out of the tree saw it in, lifeless. All the zombies around it seemed to nod off, and fell to the ground.
She collapsed backwards, into a fresh pool of her own blood. She didn?t know if it was her side or her leg. She just felt calm, sleepy. ?So grandpa, how was that?? she thought. She heard footsteps on the stairs below, the rain seemed quieter, and darkness came.
Reliable Siblings Part 3
It was around 4:30 now, the first hint of sunlight, though hidden by the clouds, was lighting up the sky. There was a light drizzle outside.
Erwin and Sergey came up the stairs to the fifth floor. They were greeted by a disaster. The cinder block wall had a gaping hole, and an additional hole in the ceiling allowed them look up to the sixth. Alina?s pack was in a corner, numerous splinters were imbedded in it, otherwise it seemed okay. Erwin?s boot splashed in something on the floor, it was black in the darkened apartment room.
?Sergey, flashlight,? Erwin requested. Sergey shined his flashlight on Erwin?s boot, it was dripping with a dark red liquid. ?Blood?? he questioned. Sparse drips formed a makeshift path out of the room leading to a puddle of blood. The puddle was fairly large and there was a streak of blood on the wall. It seemed to smear down the hall, to the corner building, paralleled by a path of blood on the floor. They came to the corner room.
?Oh no??
Her body was crumpled backwards, bent at the knees, laying in a sizable pool of blood. There was a large rip in the right side of her shirt, matted down with dried blood and a deep puncture in her left leg, Sergey wasn?t sure if it was a bullet wound or not. Her Dragunov lied next to her, pitted and stained with blood.
?Alina, are you okay?? They rushed over to her lifeless body.
Sergey took her pulse, weak, but it was there. Erwin picked up his pack and pulled out a heavy gauze with disinfectant, placed it on her leg and taped it down, while Sergey searched her neck and spine for any fractures. He found nothing, checked the rip in her shirt and found no signs that a bullet remained in the flesh.
The gauze on her leg formed a small pink dot of blood, the bleeding seemed to have stopped. It would not be safe here though, and they knew it. They?d have to get to a doctor, for her injuries and to check for infection in Sergey?s leg. She didn?t seem close to reaching consciousness soon. They?d have to find an effective way of getting her back to the border.
?We need to get some transportation, I?m going to check the surrounding buildings,? Sergey began, ?you look after her, change the bandage on her leg in a few minutes.?
?You?ve been shot in the leg, I think I should go.?
?It wasn?t a shot, it was a loose bullet - my leg?s fine,? was his response, ?I can walk and run just fine.?
?I don?t know?? Erwin questioned the stability of Sergey?s leg.
?Just make sure nothing comes up here, I?m going to try and find a car.?
?Well, take the Geiger counter and be careful.? Erwin handed the Geiger counter to Sergey and pile their three packs into the corner. Sergey walked out of the room, it?d be up to him to get them out of this, they couldn?t leave Alina here, and he had the best to go out on his own. He pulled up his LR300 and headed for the stairs.
It took him a few moments to reach the first floor. The gaping hole in the flat led outside. The rain had picked up a little again, but it was lighter out.
He leaned out the hole and checked the left and right, nothing was moving. The zombies were obviously dead, many of them were ripped apart by the numerous explosions from before. Some just had a single bullet in their head or chest from Alina?s SVD.
The first thing he checked was the corpses from the evening before. ?Maybe they had car keys or a radio,? he thought. Looking at their corpses he saw they had little of anything. They must have been gnawed apart by animals between being shot and when the zombies came. Gnarled bite marks covered the corpses, overlapping each other, dried with blood. Ragged chunks hung on by strings of flesh and it was a terrible site. He turned around and felt sick, but he thought they were fortunate enough in that they had died before this happened.
Resuming his search he went over to the street. There were many repetitive flats on the right, separate only in their weathering and damage. On the left he saw a gas station and numerous brick office buildings. Figuring the flats would be void of pretty much anything useful at the moment, he headed over to check the gas station.
The window glass was shattered, the pumps rusted and scratched, bits of metallic junk were in the street. It didn?t seem like anyone would leave a vehicle here. Entering the station he found numerous empty shelves and a few with basic articles of a gas station on them; cans, a box of plastic silverware, assorted lengths of wire - nothing useful. There were numerous puddles on the floor, looking up he saw numerous leaks in the ceiling.
There was a door leading into a bathroom and one leading to a mechanic?s office and garage. He went through the office into the garage. Naturally there was no car. Numerous tools were strewn about the ground, there was a plastic gas container on a workbench. Shaking it, he found it had at least a couple liters of fuel. A smaller container was next to it, he siphoned the gasoline into the small can, put a cover on it, and placed it in his side pack. He rolled open the garage door and continued his search.
To his right was an office building, many of the windows were destroyed, so he figured he?d climb in one of them. He thought to himself, ?On the top floor I might get a better view of the city. Maybe some sorry bas -?
His train of thought was interrupted by a sniffing sound coming from around the corner. Instinctively raising his weapon, he bent down and walked towards the left, to try and get a look around the corner. Steps echoed in puddles, something was definitely walking towards him. Suddenly, a dog appeared from around the corner, its eyes seemed swelled shut - or nonexistent, he couldn?t tell. It began sniffing the air and walking in his direction.
Sergey backed up as it came closer. To his surprise, more animals came around the corner, there were three, now four, six, ?This probably isn?t good,? he moaned to himself. He inched his way backwards, to the garage - a few more steps and he could close the door?but the mutated dogs were close.
A growl came from the closest animal, it bent down in a definite posture of attack, numerous animals behind it began to sprint towards the garage door. Sergey leapt backwards, outstretched his hands up, searching for the door handle. He pulled it down, heard the sickening sound of a skull cracking against metal. One animal almost got through, it was trapped under the door.
The animal growled, and snapped at him. He kicked down on the door handle, the dog yelped and continued trying to get in the garage. Other animals? snouts were peaking under the door, trying to get in. He put his full weight on the door and took out his pistol.
?The garage is closed.? he said, firing into the mutant?s head. Immediately the animal went limp. He stared at it?s deformed head for a moment before pushing the corpse out from under the door and stomping it shut. He slid the locking bolt into place on the door?s track. ?Well, if they?re blind, they can?t see me - this shouldn?t be hard,? he reasoned. He looked down at his leg and the small dark spot of blood on his pants, and rolled his eyes - they could probably smell him instead.
Numerous animals continued scratching at the door outside, he didn?t have a window to see how many there were. He thought about it for a moment and rationalized that he?d have to go out the way he came in, except at that moment he heard the clattering of cans and boxes in the front room. The doorframe to the mechanic?s office lacked anything, it was just an entrance - there was no door he could close.
Erwin sat in the dilapidated apartment, he had switched the bandages a couple minutes ago. There was no blood coming from Alina?s leg wound anymore. She had a slightly stronger pulse. The light coming from outside was fairly bright now, but the rain was still coming down.
He picked up Alina?s Dragunov, and felt the stickiness of blood on it. It made him a little queasy to think he was touching someone?s blood. Taking out his canteen he poured some water onto the wooden stock, and began to rub off the blood. He thought to himself ,?Well, I can?t fix the scratches, but I can clean this up for her - there?s nothing else to do.?
While he did, he looked down at her body lifeless on the floor. He remembered ?She had fired one shot; one shot and all of the zombies went kaputt. She must have figured out how to stop the zombies, who knows how many there were. There could have been an army of them, but she shot once?and they all fell over.? She was a hero in his book. They might have stopped the zombies with shear force, they might not have.
So, he poured a little more water on the rifle and red-tinged water ran off the gun. He felt numerous pits in the gun?s stock. He wondered why she used such an old gun. He wondered about her past, and Sergey?s past. He thought about his own.
His life was relatively boring. He enjoy talking about it much. The greater part of his life was spent in school, which only lead him to join the military. He wasn?t sure why he joined. The Schutzer family wasn?t rich, but they were fairly well off, and even for college, he wouldn?t have needed the money. Maybe he wanted to fulfill his name, Schutzer meant defender after all. Who would he defend? He lived in Germany, sure, the entire western world had to defend against terrorism and rioting, but he didn?t much consider them a threat.
His parents never really cared if he left. They would wish him well in any endeavor, as long as he wasn?t bugging them. His older sisters didn?t much care either. They were successful. Anne would offer him advice once and a while. He enjoyed visiting her, even if she was seven years older than him. She would say, ?Erwin, you can do anything you want, I?m not going to tell you what to do.? She actually had a principle, everyone else - they were just too lazy to advise him. So, he joined the military.
He had done well in the army, most of the time he was posted in Germany or occasionally exchanged to the United States. He found that the former Soviet Union was fairly nice. Many of the people were poor, but he felt for them, he had wished he?d been born here. He felt he could connect with them - but that was stupid. He should worry about himself out here, watch over his friends, but care about himself.
He told himself that. He was trying to worry only about himself, how he could leave this place, leave the danger, leave the work, he could sit alone on a deserted island. Except he couldn?t, he wanted to be with his friends. He wanted to be with Alina and Sergey. He looked down at Alina, thought, ?I don?t want to leave her though, even if I?m not the one doing all of the protecting.?
He sat down on the floor next to her. He checked the leg bandage, it was almost clean, but he replaced it anyway. He was careful in retaping it, ?not to much pressure, we don?t need this bleeding again.? He set her Dragunov down next to her, picked up her hand. ?You can do it,? he said, as he put her hand down on her rifle.
His peace was interrupted, gunfire sounded in the near distance.
Sergey had pushed a workbench perpendicular between him and the door. He had crouched down, waiting for the first of the beasts. When they had appeared he had ripped the doorframe apart with gunfire.
Now there were numerous bodies at the foot of the door, but two of the animals had gotten in when he had reloaded. The garage was fairly large though, three large doors and three maintenance pits. ?The blood from the dead ones might throw off the others? scents,? he thought.
He fired at both of the dogs in the room. The rifle was good for close quarters combat, it was supposed to usually offer a one shot take down, but these dogs were tough, ?They must be made of pure muscle.? Their skulls also seemed to be tough bone, because some of his initial head shots had ricocheted off and left a bleeding streak of white - exposed skull - you rarely saw that with smaller animals. He figured he?d spent about 15 rounds through burst fire on two of them alone.
Another animal appeared at the door and he fired, aimed behind the animal and fired through the wall. He reloaded again, two clips and he had only gotten around seven of them. He had seen some blind dogs similar to these on one of his first trips into the zone. They weren?t nearly this tough though, and that was only around a month and a half ago.
He was now in the middle of the garage, his side pack managed to get stuck on the broken part of a workbench, and hindered his reloading. The garage was now flooded with animals.
The sound of scratching had long since died from outside, and he risked going outside instead of being trapped inside. He was at the furthest door from the animals. The door rose jerkily, the tracks were rusted. He got the door about 60 centimeters off the ground and rolled under. The dogs were almost to his position. They seemed to generally know where he was, but they weren?t smelling him. They were moving slow, ?too slow to get me,? he thought.
The door was stuck, but he managed to reach around to the inside and pull the door down. It wasn?t quite closed, but the animals wouldn?t be able to get out from here. He looked around again, to the right was the office building, it seemed too open. In front of him, across the street there were some two story buildings and some more flats in the distance behind them. The flat with Alina and Erwin was behind him and to the left, but he didn?t want to bring anything back there, ?I don?t want to risk bringing anything back there with an injured comrade,? he reasoned, he couldn?t go back there until he had a way to get to the zone border.
He looked to the left, saw a half destroyed flat, mingled with a couple zombie corpses, ?They must have been coming from behind us too.? He realized it was much brighter, and it had to be around 5:30, the rain was coming down and it was dark and gray, but much easier to see than before.
His thinking was interrupted with the appearance of the dogs around the corner to the left. They appeared quickly, and headed right for him. They seemed to know exactly where he was. He drew his weapon and opened fire, ?I guess the two story buildings win.?
He ran while reloading. There were at least eight dogs left, he had killed about that many already. It was hard to reload while running. At first he fumbled with the clip, but eventually got it in alright. He turned around, working his legs while doing so and shot at his pursuers. 30 bullets flew into the animals, one fell over dead mid-stride, a couple were hit.
He reached down for another clip. Turning around he tripped over a piece of debris in the street. He fell. He was running so fast the initial fall propelled him into a roll. He was lucky he?d left his backpack with Erwin. He slid himself around and stood up quickly, the animals were much closer now. He let go of his gun, let it drop down to his waist on its strap while he sprinted for the open door of the building.
Upon entering the building he spun around and closed the door, he leaned against it as hard as he could while he reloaded. Looking quickly around he figured he was in a shop of some kind. There were a couple pieces of degraded furniture. There was also a large glass window. He knew stairs lead to the second floor somewhere.
The animals were splintering the wooden door behind him. He stripped a grenade from his belt with his free hand. He pulled the pin and gripped the doorknob tightly. He pulled the door open slightly, held it in place with his foot, and dropped the grenade on the other side.
He heard the click of the lever popping up. He slammed the door shut and ran to the back of the store. The explosion jarred the door loose and shattered the window, but it also dazed the dogs for a moment. Looking around, he saw a door recessed in the back wall.
Opening it he saw steep stairs leading to a second floor, he climbed them as fast as he could. The door at the top was locked and there was no room to kick it and he didn?t have his shotgun. He waited for the remaining mutated canines.
There were four dogs left. They entered the store through the broken door. They found it empty, except they could sense the man. They could sense him - through the wall in the back?slightly above them. They moved quietly.
Sergey waited at the top of the stairs. He couldn?t hear anything from below, but somehow he knew the animals were there. He wouldn?t go down. He stayed as quiet as possible. He lifted the strap on his LR300 over his head and pointed the barrel down the stairs. The next few moments felt like an eternity, but eventually the first of the dogs appeared.
The first one entered the stairwell and Sergey shot it quickly, it slumped to the ground. He aimed behind it, shot through the wall. Half the clip was gone. Another dog appeared, and charged up the stairs. It was halfway up before it seemed to run out of forward momentum. Sergey felt the weight of his gun. A third animal emerged from the door, and Sergey blasted away, seven shots flew into or near the dog. The gun clicked: empty. It was still standing, it began to climb the stairs. He dropped the LR300, pulled out his Fort 12.
He aimed carefully, and it still took five shots to take it down. He waited, staring at the three bodies on the stairs. After a minute he took a step down. He slowly crept down the stairs. A few steps down the stair creaked loudly.
He heard a howl and a large dog bounded through the doorframe. He shot it as quickly as possible. The animal was half way up the stairs when his clip ran dry. It was bleeding from multiple places, and its head had streaks of skull showing.
It reached him with surprising speed, he barely had time to pull out his knife. The animal lunged at his neck, he lifted his left arm to block. The animals teeth sunk into his arm deflected slightly by his clothes. His knife thrust into the animals chest, he imbedded it all the way. The animal snapped on his arm, biting it again, snarling. He stabbed the dog again, and again.
The animals grip weakened. It toppled backwards down the stairs, pulling him with. He dropped the knife. Falling down the stairs, everything seemed to move slowly for Sergey. He stared into the animal?s lumpy eye sockets as they fell. He struck it, as hard as he could, in the face. They rolled to the bottom.
Everything seemed still. He got up slowly, he could feel a small stream of blood trickling down his sleeve. He kicked the animal. The LR300 was at his feet, he picked it up and brought the strap around his shoulder. He found his Fort 12 under the last dog, grabbed his knife. He was hurt, but he wasn?t done yet.
He walked back outside, the rain had mostly stopped, a stray drop would occasionally fall into the numerous puddles in the road. Looking up he could see Erwin sitting in the corner room on the fifth floor of the flat. Looking down the street to the left he saw just what he was looking for, he spoke aloud, ?alright, finally some luck.?
He had road rash, he had a bleeding arm, but he also had a car.
Reliable Siblings Part 4
It was covered in large rust spots, and a puddle had formed in a dent in the roof. It seemed to be in fairly good condition for being at least twenty years old. Through a quick check Sergey Nikolaevich could see that it might run.
Adrenaline pulsed through his veins, he listened for signs of an ambush, tried to smell the hint of decaying flesh that might indicate a pack of blind dogs. The car sat in the middle of the road, its front tires were turned towards the office building. He tried the car?s door handle; it creaked with age and rust, but opened effortlessly. Peering inside, he saw the key was in the ignition, it was in the off position. Looking at the front panel he saw that the gas tank was empty, and it lacked sufficient oil.
He had gasoline, but it would have to run with low oil. As long as the battery carried a charge it would suffice. He slid into the driver seat and twisted the key. An empty clicking sound spurred out of the engine. He got out and checked under the hood.
The engine seemed to be covered in strands of rust . Sergey saw that the positive lead to the battery was frayed and not making contact due to the strings of what looked like rust. ?It looks so strange,? he thought,? almost like hair.
Reaching in, he pulled away the rust from the wire. His hand began to burn, he pulled it away. An acrid black smoke puffed up from his hand. The skin began to blacken and tighten. His fourth and fifth fingers seemed paralyzed.
In all his years as a scientist in Kiev, he never encountered an acid as strong as this. ?It must have the highest molar content I?ve ever seen, it?s like a string of solidified acid.? Observing his hand, he saw it was deeply scalded and jet black, ?I?ve never seen acid scar like this either,? he thought.
The inability to get rid of the rusty strings was quickly resolved with a pair of gloves from his pack. He brushed away the rusty hair and secured the lead back to the battery. The hair seemed incredibly wispy and stuck to the gloves, He tried rubbing his hands together. It was like his hands were covered in fibrous cotton.
He took the gloves off, being especially careful not to get anything on his wrists. He could move his right hand slightly, the black skin cracked. It hurt a lot. He ignored the pain and got back behind the steering wheel. He tried the key again, it sputtered, but the ignition seemed to work, ?It just needs gas now.?
Erwin had rechecked Alina?s bandages once more, there was no longer a sign of hemorrhaging and a scab was beginning to form on her leg. It was about 20 minutes since Sergey had left the flat. It was fairly bright out now, and the rain seemed to have stopped.
A few minutes ago Erwin heard gunfire, and saw Sergey run across the street, followed by numerous dark shapes. There was a large explosion and more gunshots. Then Sergey had walked out by himself. Now he had gone down the road, and an office building was blocking Erwin?s view. He readied their packs, just in case there was a car.
Sergey only had to drive a few hundred meters to return to the flat. The fourth and fifth fingers on his right seemed hard to move, and they still burned slightly so he drove with his left hand.
There were numerous zombie corpses, he tried to avoid running over them, but they were clustered together. The field was flat, which made it easier, but they were unavoidable. The hole in the building made an ideal parking location. He got out and went to get the others.
Erwin and Sergey strapped on their packs, Erwin slung Alina?s Dragunov around his neck and Sergey took her pack.
?You lift her legs, I?ll lift her head,? Sergey instructed, ?be careful.?
Erwin rolled his eyes, he had watched her for the last half an hour, why wouldn?t he be careful? ?Vorsicht, vorsicht, I get it.? He paused, looking at Sergey?s hand. ?Why is your hand black??
?I touched some rust or something, I don?t know. It burns a little.?
?Rust?? that didn?t seem right, ?Do you think you should touch her like that??
Sergey shrugged, ?Okay, you take the head, I?ll take the feet.?
They carried her down the stairs, the going was easy and they had no rush. She was fairly light, so with two of them it was quite easy. The loaded her in the car. They set their packs in the back seat, so Alina wouldn?t roll onto the floor of the car. Erwin drove.
He drove back around, passed the gas station and the two story shops. ?See over there, in that busted down apartment?? Sergey said. pass
?Zombies??
?Yea, they were coming behind us too.? Erwin thought about it, he was happy Alina was still alive. Not just because she was his friend, because he had a debt. They had relied on her last night. Now, she relied on them.
She was shaken. Her body was rocking back and forth. The light was bright, she squinted. Her eyes adjusted, and then she felt the throbbing in her leg and groaned.
Sergey tapped Erwin, ?Hey, Erv. She?s awake.? He looked back at Alina, ?not that I want you to talk much, but how do you feel.?
?Maybe you should impale yourself in the leg and find out,? she responded weakly.
He turned back towards Erwin, ?Looks like she?ll be fine.?
?Either way, we?re almost there, only a couple of minutes to the border,? Erwin said. He looked down at Sergey?s hand, ?that blackness seems to be getting bigger.?
?What blackness?? came from the backseat.
?This.? Sergey said, as he lifted his hand above him. He reached back with his left hand, felt around in one of the packs for a pocket knife. ?Yea, I think it is.?
?You?re not going to cut it off, are you??
?Maybe.?
?I wouldn?t recommend that?and?hey, use your own knife; someone might eat with that thing.? Sergey fell back in his seat, with a smile. He pulled his glove back on, there was an audible crack as the black skin folded over itself. At least they were getting back to somewhere safe. But he already felt safe.
Alina was his sister and Erwin was his brother. They were siblings. He relied on them last night. They had relied on him. His hand burned, he would get it looked at when they got to the border. He looked at Alina and leaned back in his seat . For the first time, in a long time, he felt at peace.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comments welcome, again, sorry it's so long (Truthfully, I don't expect many people to respond...but whatever). Maybe I should try out NS fanfiction instead, eh?
...I think it's fairly interesting and fun, but that's probably because I wrote it (despite the fact I usually care little for what I write). If you've never heard of Stalker (the few of you, anyway), if you want to read it, I suggest visiting <a href='http://www.stalker-game.com/index_eng.html' target='_blank'>here</a> to learn about some anomalies, enemies and some weapons ( and <a href='http://www.world.guns.ru' target='_blank'>here</a> if you want to learn about guns in general).
There's only 1 or 2 people (who rarely visit) in the Stalker writing forum, so, any input on sequence, grammar or just overall comments would be nice...I know it's quite long - sorry about that <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> . Also, there shouldn't be too many errors (at least I hope not...), I did read over it a couple times.
Sorry if any of the swears are missed by the filter due to quotes (there's only 4 or 5 of them, and I doubt anyone that young wants to read it anyway). Also note it does feature fairly graphic violence, but it is used sparingly (usually it's just descriptions of shootings instead of descriptions of blood squirting everywhere)Note that the story is seperated into 4 seperate parts for ease of reference and reading.
If anything's confusing...I'll try to help out with that too (if only I could include drawings with it...or something). I also apologize for the lack of indenting on the forums, it makes it substantially harder to read.
So, without further delay I present: "Reliable Siblings" (...possibly Part 1, if I decide to continue it)...
<!--QuoteBegin-Reliable Siblings by UltimaGecko+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Reliable Siblings by UltimaGecko)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
Reliable Siblings
Any discrepancies in verb case through a paragraph are intentional in character intros, and accidental in other places (it was present first, then switched to past).
Reliable Siblings Part 1
The stagnant evening air rustled gently as a figure dropped form a second story apartment window; another figure dropped down behind the first. They crouched down and slinked towards the street, their silhouettes hidden against the dark shadow of the soviet-era apartment block.
In stark contrast to these figures, two men wearing camouflage uniforms stood in the middle of a large field. The field stretched into the distance, surrounded on three sides by similar looking apartment flats. They carried heavy assault weapons, Kalishnikovs, and the profile of grenades and ammo pouches could be seen around their waists. One of them pointed towards the flat, the other made an agreeing nod. They crouched down slightly and slowly walked towards the flat.
The sound of boards and cans knocking together came from the concealed figures, one of them falls over a pile of rubble. The men in the field raised their weapons -
*Crack*, a single rifle shot pierced the air.
The sound echoed for a moment before both men in the field fall over limply and a slight breeze moved the motionless air. Blood flowed freely from the men in the field - from the temple of one man, and the neck of the other.
Alina Ivanovna Mirova lifted her head up from the scope and shouldered her rifle. She leaned out of the second story flat window, shouting to the figures below, ?Maybe you guys would like to stop moving like sloths and hurry up?? The two figures hastened across the street.
Sergey Nikolaevich Bolshenko held his Fort 12 in his right hand as he hurried across the street. He has a fairly muscular build, putting him about 183 centimeters (6?0) tall. His dark military fatigues? sleeves are rolled up and a bandolier stocked with shotgun shells lies under his jacket. He has short dark brown, almost black, hair which is slightly curly and matches his dark brown eyes..
Bolshenko was a native born Ukrainian. At 26 years old he had seen some rough times, but had missed pretty much all of the soviet break up, and any action that went with it. He always hoped to eventually do something important - or at least get rich trying. Most of his time was spent as a scientist for the Ukrainian military before starting a bar with Schutzer?a life he enjoys, but isn?t very proud of. His family was killed by Chechens when they went to visit Moscow, he misses his family but is quite stoic, ?I didn?t see them often.?
He carries around a TOZ-34 shotgun, a LR300 and a Fort 12 pistol. He prefers the Fort 12 when he can use it, ?If I shoot someone, I prefer it?s a gun from my home country.? But he?s exceptional with his assault rifle - despite the fact he has little formal training with military grade weapons of any kind..
Behind him Erwin I. Schutzer carried his modified MP5 in his left hand and scratched the back of his neck with the right. His lanky build makes his 191 centimeter (6?3?) height seem taller, as he has little fat or overly apparent muscle mass. His camouflage pants had a small rip at the knee - where he had tripped over the pile of boards and paint cans. His short blond hair blew slightly as the wind began to pick up.
Schutzer was 28 years old, born in Cologne (K?ln), Germany, August 17th, 1982. He lived in West Germany (and then reunited Germany) until he was 18, when he decided to join the military. Eventually, stationed in Ukraine as a consultant in 2004 he met Sergey. They become fairly good friends and he decided to take a job starting up a bar in Kiev with his new friend after being honorably discharged from the army. He speaks fluent German and fairly good Russian, although sometimes he forgets what he wants to say exactly.
He didn?t see very much action back in the Bundeswehr, but had trained himself frequently with his G3. He also practiced with his friends MP-5 when he could, which he liked much more. When he figured on starting a bar in Kiev, he? ?requisitioned? an MP-5 from the military base, ?Hey, if terrorists can have them, I should be able to, too?at least mines not for?overly malicious uses. Alles gute.?
He carries the ?borrowed? Heckler and Koch MP-5, a USP .45 and generally enjoys being well stocked in grenades, despite the fact he rarely uses them. Whenever he comes across an RPG, he feels the need to discard something if he can?t carry it. ?You never know when a rocket will help you out.?
Alina?s small 170 centimeter (5?7?) frame already stood at the bottom floor of the flat, holding open the door for Erwin and Sergey. Her hair is dark brown and hangs down to her upper back, with bangs reaching just above her eyes in the front . The hair matches her dark russet eyes, except when they occasionally experience a color change to gray, or so people tell her, she?s never seen it. She held her Dragunov SVD by the wooden fore-grip, ushering the others inside with her open hand.
Mirova was born April 12th on the Romanian/Moldovan border in 1985. Her family moved to Chernobyl that same year. Four years after the disaster her father died of cancer, her brother was born a few months later, before her mother died. Her grandfather and brother being her only remaining family, she moved in with them in Kishinev in 1998 after living with friends of her father for a few years. Her grandfather taught her to shoot with an old Mosin-Nagant rifle he had bribed from an officer after WW2, ?It had saved his life, it was only right that he get to keep it. The stock was revarnished, but you could still see the cracks and splinters and the imbedded bullet.?
She uses an authentic Snaiperskaya Vintovka Dragunova (Dragunov SVD) given to her by her grandfather - it is quite old and the wooden fore grip has her initials carved into it, she also carries a Makarov PM for general use and a GSh-18 in her alternate holster, for when it?s needed. She?s an excellent shot and rarely misses. She chooses not to overly acknowledge her skills, something that has occasionally been a source of money for her once arriving at the zone. The SVD is also her meeting point with Bolshenko, when she bested him - and everyone else - in a targeting competition.
Alina, Sergey and Erwin set their packs and weapons down. Sergey took a quick reading with a Geiger counter, and everything seemed fairly good. Erwin knocked a decrepit door off its hinges and broke it apart for kindling. He dragged a piece of corrugated metal over to the others by a window and started a fire. He threw a can of beans in and sat down.
?So, how about we have a look at that artifact?? Erwin began, he?d been interested ever since they found it. He wasn?t quite sure what it was, but if some mercenary-mugger type Stalkers were after them for it, it had to be at least worth something.
?Yea, Alina, let?s check out that pearl.? Sergey said, rubbing his hands together; he?d wanted to take a closer look at it since they?d found it. It interested him so much, because when he first saw it the blades of grass had been bending so strangely. It had took them a while to actually find the artifact. Apparently, it was so strong it could -
?Here it is!? She said excitedly. ?It feels so weird to my skin, even with a glove on.? Her glove was being pulled to fit the contours of the almost spherical dark gray-red orb in her hand. Turning it in the light created darker shines, unlike normal glass or plastic spheres, which would create white or rainbow colored shines.
?So, was ist?what is it?? Erwin asked, as Alina handed the orb to Sergey.
He picked up a loose nail next to him and held it to the bottom of the orb - it hung in place. He then picked up a piece of Erwin?s kindling and it, too, stuck to the bottom of the orb. ?Obviously, it?s an orb that has an immense gravitational pull, but lacks sufficient mass to maintain it - mathematically, at least.? Sergey answered; science had paid off for him in the zone before, and this was just another legitimate application of his skills. In fact, this is the speculation he had when they had first saw it: it was covered with grass and tiny rocks, and grass in the general area was bent towards it. ?Think of it as a magnet, except it?s more powerful than magnets, and it can attract anything, it doesn?t have to be certain metals, like iron and -?
?So, it?s basically nothing like a magnet.? remarked Alina.
?Hey, it attracts stuff doesn?t it? It?s a magnet.?
?I attract stuff, and I?m not a magnet.?
?Ohhh, you?re a magnet alright.? Sergey responded, as Alina quickly took out her poncho and hid herself from Sergey, ?Hiding behind a poncho just means I?m -? ?and the can of beans Erwin had put in the fire promptly exploded. Brown beans covered Sergey, who was sitting closest to the fire, and Alina?s poncho.
??covered in beans?? Alina finished his old sentence. He quickly wiped the searing hot beans from his face and skin.
Erwin, not one to like wasting food, was disappointed at the bean explosion, but he had another can. He threw it in the fire?wondering how none of the beans got on him, but smiling at the event.
?How about you watch those beans this time?? Sergey grumbled, he took out a bottle of vodka and had a swig. Alina smiled as she cleaned a few beans from her poncho.
Erwin, intently watching the beans asked, ?How much do you think that things worth??
?I?m sure we?ll get enough for it,? Sergey replied as he took a swig, ?although it doesn?t seem to have any direct scientific applications, though a magnet?? he glanced at Alina, ? ?that is not metal could probably be used for something.? He handed the bottle to Erwin.
?So why do you think the mercenaries were chasing us?? Erwin had been wondering about it for a while. Being chased a mile back to this flat wasn?t his idea of safe zone hunting - not that the zone was safe anyway. Sure, maybe they wanted to mug them for the artifact, but really - how would they have known what it was from so far away?
?Maybe they found a big stash of artifacts back there?I mean, maybe there?s more of these gravitational sphere things.? Sergey had been going over the same question. The mercenaries were at least 200 meters away when they were spotted, and they couldn?t have seen what the orb had been doing to the grass from that far. ?Maybe it?s a mercenary base or something?.is it beans yet??
?Err, holy ****, yea,? Erwin responded, reaching with a stick to roll the beans out of the fire. The can was puffed out, like a cartoon. He pointed the can away from himself and stabbed the top with his knife. Alina and Sergey took out some MREs. And they ate.
The fire went out and they decided to barricade the door - just in case anything decided to show up. They went up to the 5th floor of the flat. The talked about what they would do with the artifact, the gravitational orb. They talked about tomorrow, the future, the past. They slept lightly - prepared but peaceful.
By now the wind had picked up, the stagnant musty odor in the apartments had left. Leaves rustled on the sparse trees outside, and it was a warm summer night. From the weather, it was easy to tell: at the very least, a storm was coming.
Reliable Siblings Part 2
The first soft boom of thunder sounded out around three in the morning, awakening Alina Ivanovna. Spending years with her grandfather and learning all his tricks as a World War 2 sniper keened her senses. Through the rustling of leaves and the boom of thunder she could hear a distinct shuffling sound, as if something were being dragged across the ground in short jerks.
Through the fifth floor window she could see the flat on the opposing side of the field, and noticed it was beginning to drizzle. She stood up to go to the window when a loud crash and the sound of breaking glass came up from the first floor. She grabbed her Dragunov, lightly tapped Erwin and Sergey with her foot to get them up, and went to the window. Staring out the window she waited for the next flash of lighting.
And she saw them, zombies, all over the courtyard?at least 20 of them - mostly decked in soldier camouflage, but a few were in lab coats.
Erwin awoke to a gentle, yet firm, tap to his shoulder. He tried to ignore it, readjusting his head on top of his hands. In the next moment he heard the successive reports of two Dragunov shots. He sat up instantly, grabbed his MP-5 and quickly, but sleepily, got up.
Sergey was also awake, he had begun to get up as soon as Alina had kicked him, he knew there would have to be a reason to get up. ?Erv?hey Erv, hurry up, get up.?
Erwin mumbled, ?I am up.?
Lightning flashed, and three more shots cracked out of Alina?s SVD. ?Okay, now that you two are up, you might want to be a little more quiet?and head downstairs quick - they?re trying to get in.?
Erwin was slightly flustered, ?Who are??
?Zombies?in military?fatigues.? She replied, waiting for the next lightning strike. She needed them to take out the ones by the door, if they got in, it would get ugly. Outside, in the open, they were easy to spot, but having the zombies move freely through an eight story building with multiple ingresses to her position was bad.
?Come on Erv, lets go mess up some zombies.? Sergey shoved Erwin?s pack into his hands and they started downstairs.
Alina shot as many zombies as she could during each flash of lightning. So far she had managed to get five of them, which left at least fourteen more, if her counting before was right. The lightning flashed again, and the rain began to pour down harder. She couldn?t shoot, a group of zombies was doing something in the field, where she had shot the two mercenaries before.
In the next flash of light she saw something she dreaded, the zombies had picked up the mercenaries? AK-74s. She gave away her position, she?d have to move anyway, ?Guys! They?re armed.?
She ducked down, preparing to change rooms as bullets began striking the ceiling, dropping bits of plaster on her. She could feel the bullets? shockwaves as they passed above her head. ?At least they made some of these buildings out of concrete,? she thought, as she crawled to an adjacent room.
Sergey and Erwin had stopped on the second floor, and heard her shout.
They could hear gunfire, and it obviously wasn?t from Alina. ?Hurry,? Sergey shouted, ?They?ve got Kalishnikovs!? He took the steps down to the first floor incredibly quick. He got there just as the first zombies were breaking through the door. Simultaneously dropping his pack, which slid into a room across from the stairs, and taking out his TOZ-34, he shot the zombie wearing a lab coat at the door.
The flat erupted into gunfire. Zombies bearing Makarov PMs and automatic weapons brushed passed the half-missing zombie scientist. Sergey shot his second round at one of the zombies who had just entered the flat. The third zombie began firing his Makarov just when Erwin got down the stairs - bullets flew into wooden paneling behind him sending out clouds of dust and wooden splinters; Sergey dove through a doorway and rolled around the corner. Erwin took a grenade from his belt, simultaneously while going back up the stairs, yelling, ?Fire in the hole!? Dropping it behind him as he ran back up the stairs.
Sergey cracked open his TOZ, expelling the shells. He heard the Erwin?s grenade clinking clumsily down the stairs. He took two shells from his bandolier as the grenade blew and dropped them when the shockwave hit. The world shook around him, shrapnel from the grenade pierced through the wall. All he heard was ringing, high pitched and annoying. He could feel his heart beat in his temples.
He grabbed for two more shells.
Bullets were still ricocheting off the ceiling in the former sniper loft. Alina had gone down the hall, two rooms down. She went to the window and saw muzzle flashes and tracers flashing up to the window a few meters away. A stray bullet struck the wall outside the window and she ducked down.
She heard the distinctive sound of a shotgun, and a moment later a large explosion could be heard from below. She heard a lot of gunfire coming from Erwin and Sergey?s position.
Keeping on with her duty: she stayed very low and set the barrel of her SVD against the window sill. She aimed at the zombies, her left hand rubbed across her engraved initials. She fired two quick shots, dropping them to the ground, the automatic rifles still firing a few shots as the zombies fell.
She saw flashes of light and the sharp snap of automatic rifles, instinctively she ducked. Hundreds of rounds flew into her former location. A round crashed through the cinderblock wall to her back and she dove into the hall. She felt a stinging in her right side.
The distinctive sound of a grenade launcher?s *thoooomp* came to her ears, and the room burst into a ball of flame and shrapnel. She felt warmth on her legs, and a stinging sensation in her left thigh, looking back she saw a five centimeter long wooden splinter jutting out of her leg. It quickly became red with blood. She dragged herself away from the door, another grenade exploded, bathing the hall in an eerie orange light.
She pulled the splinter out, held her hand over the puncture to try stopping the blood, gasped at the pain. She clenched her teeth as she pushed down on the wound harder, determined to slow the flow of blood. She noticed her Dragunov was on the floor grabbed it with her right hand, ignoring the pain for a second.
She held her leg, held her rifle.
She thought about her brother and grandfather. And, for a moment, the gunfire was silent. All she heard was the sharp patter of a heavy down pour outside.
Erwin stood by the stairs leading to the second floor. He had heard explosions come from above a moment before, he thought, ?Sergey might be dead, Alina might be dead. I should see if Alina is okay. I should go upstairs. I can?t help Sergey, there are to many of them. No, no, I?m just rationalizing. I have to help Sergey. I have to help Sergey first.?
He leaned over the banister and saw a zombie coming up the stairs. He opened fire with his MP-5, bullets sprayed the wall and the zombie, it toppled over and fell back down the stairs. He stood at the top of the stairs, looked down. The stairs were very splintered, they were built solidly, but it was a wonder they still were in such shape after a grenade. A door at the bottom of the stairs led to a room on the right, and he saw another door across from the stair?s landing.
?Sergey, are you alright?? He yelled down.
?What?? Sergey?s reply was muffled through the wall Erwin had just shot through.
Sergey was surprised to find that he had sustained no injuries from the grenades and its shrapnel - aside from his decline in hearing at the moment. He heard Erwin shout something, but it was muffled, and the ringing wouldn?t stop. ?I can?t hear you.? He heard his own voice hollow in his own ears.
He stood slowly, he still felt his own pulse through his temples, but it was slower and didn?t pound as much. He leaned passed the doorframe and saw numerous zombies, they had stopped shooting for a bit before, but now they all seemed to be firing at where Alina had been. He lowered his shotgun and plucked a grenade from his belt. ?Throwing grenade, take cover!? he shouted, lobbing it out the door, out into the darkened field beyond.
The grenade landed and then rolled a good 30 meters from the apartment building, it?s explosion obliterated three nearby zombies, and illuminated the field. It also drew their fire.
Again the courtyard erupted in gunfire, tracers flew passed the doorframe again, he could smell the phosphorous. He realized the wall he was standing behind wouldn?t stop a 7.62mm round - a little bit too late. A bullet pelted through the wall, it had lost much of its force but managed to imbed itself in his calf. He limped his way to a nearby door, but it was locked. He blew the door knob off with his shotgun. Looking back he saw the wall he stood by moments ago had now been thoroughly perforated.
?Fire on the courtyard Erv, if you can hear me, fire on the courtyard!? he shouted. He heard a hollow noise he recognized, even with diminished hearing. He heard a low *uuumph* come from outside. He saw the grenade sail through the air - he closed the half-destroyed door as quickly as he could. His world shook again. Bracing himself against a wall, he snapped open the magazine again and reloaded two shells.
Erwin heard Sergey. He reloaded his MP-5. He pulled a sheet of corrugated steel up to the window, and held it in place with some cinder blocks. Raising his arm, Erwin emptied his entire clip out the window, reloaded and repeated. He could hear return fire clatter off the cinder blocks and steel in front of him. He saw bulges in the steel form.
Moving to an adjacent room, he grabbed his pack and took out his one spare RPG. Slowly, he stood up, aiming at the largest cluster of muzzle flashes he could. He wished, ?Please God, don?t let the lightning flash.? He squeezed the trigger and watched as a smoke trail poured out from the front of the tube. The rocket?s flame refracted in the light, Erwin saw a halo around it. The rocket sailed into the middle of the field. The screams of zombies drowned out the sound of rain and gunfire for a moment.
A fireball stretched 12 meters into the sky. A sizable crater was now in the field. ?Oh yea! Take that you ****!? He shouted, ?Sergey, I think I got them!?
In the next flash of lightning, he saw he had not. Five zombies ambled around the corner of the flat across the field. He heard heavy footsteps on the stairs, he turned quickly.
?Hey it?s me!? Sergey cried as he limped up the stairs, waving for Erwin to point the MP-5 somewhere else. ?Did you get them?? I didn?t see any when I looked out coming up the stairs.?
?No, I didn?t.?
?What??
?No, I didn?t get them.?
?What?? Sergey shouted again. Erwin pointed to the flat across the field, held up his hand showing ?There are five over there,? held his fingers close together, ?at least.? Sergey responded, ?Take my LR300, wait for them to come in range. I?ve got to pull a damn piece of lead out of my leg.? Erwin nodded in response. ?Where the hell are they coming from??
Alina?s back was against the wall. She could feel splinters through the back of her shirt. There was a pool of blood under her left leg, but it had mostly stopped bleeding. She felt dizzy and she had a headache, taking her own pulse it felt a little weak. She pushed herself to a standing position with her right leg, sending throbbing pain down her leg.
Leaning against the wall she took her Dragunov in both hands. Her fingers rubbed her initials, sticky with dried blood. The wooden stock had numerous pits and scratches. Her breath was heavy. ?No.? She gasped, ?no, I?m not giving up. No. Grandpa never gave up, neither will I.?
She pulled herself along the wall, trying not to use her left leg. The wall made a good crutch as she limped 15 meters to the end of the hall. She had made her way to the corner of the apartment building. The sound of rain was heavy, thunder boomed in the distance. She hadn?t heard any gunfire lately.
The window sill was level, it was dark, a protrusion in the outside wall prevented the lightning from giving her away. She had at least one good shot. Gingerly kneeling, trying to prevent putting pressure on her left leg, she set up her SVD. ?There has to be a way to stop them; I?m going to find it,? she thought. She pulled her face to the scope.
Erwin waited at the window, the zombies were almost in range, half way across the field. Their shuffling seemed so slow, and only some of them were armed - most were wearing lab coats. He wanted them to be closer, he didn?t want to give away his position until he was sure he could hit every single one.
Sergey had a tweezers and was pulling the bullet out of his calf, grimacing as he tugged it out.
?You should save that, you know??
He flicked the fractured bullet out the window, began digging for the pieces. ?Just watch the zombies.? A trickle of blood came out of the hole in Sergey?s leg. It didn?t seem too serious, it stopped bleeding quickly. He looked over his shoulder, out the window. ??when did you plan on shooting them??
The zombies were well within range now, 200 meters away or less. Erwin replied, ?I want them to all be in range, I don?t want to miss a single one of the ****?don?t you want to take them out for hitting you in the leg??
?I wouldn?t need to take them out if you hadn?t tried to blow me up in the first place.?
?Hey, I warned you and everything.?
?You didn?t warn me that it would drop right outside the room I was in.?
?I probably saved your life!?
?There was only one of them!?
?So?!?
?What do you mean so? You don?t say so when you almost kill someone?you should see that wall down there, it doesn?t even exist anymore?and then you almost shoot me through the wall. Hell, I?m lucky I can hear right now, stupid gren-? He was interrupted by a single shot from four floors above.
The world is a different place through the scope of a rifle. Everything seems quieter, peaceful. Everything seems sharper, clear. Time slows down, you breathe slower, every trivial movement of the hand is exaggerated. The world has so much detail. The scope can be beautiful.
But it can also be ugly. You have to stare at the man you?re about to shoot - the man who?s life you will end. Sometimes you stare into his eyes, and it?s an endless struggle of morality that has to be decided in an instant. The eyes are a gateway to the soul, you see the good in people through the eyes- it makes it harder.
It panged her, to have to shoot someone - every time. To know you?re ending a life. Her grandfather had told her how hard it was when she was learning to shoot. He had shot plenty of people during the war. He said, ?The first time you shoot someone, that you stare into their eyes, when they look right at you, it haunts you forever.? He would have such a look of sadness. ?You have to rationalize, make excuses. Think to yourself, ?Hey, this guy might end up killing my family.? or, ?Hey, this guys evil, he probably killed a hundred people.??
Except, she did not feel like that now. She was looking at a grotesque creature: this was no human. The creature had eyes, but they were ghostly, and bulged out. The creature was human-like, but it was wrinkly and decrepit, like a zombie - except it wasn?t a zombie. It?s brain cavity seemed too large, its arms too thin . It had blood around its mouth. It grinned with an evil smile - as if laughing at the death surrounding it. And Alina shuddered.
Her single round echoed through the field. The round punctured the creature right above the nose, it fell backwards, out of the tree saw it in, lifeless. All the zombies around it seemed to nod off, and fell to the ground.
She collapsed backwards, into a fresh pool of her own blood. She didn?t know if it was her side or her leg. She just felt calm, sleepy. ?So grandpa, how was that?? she thought. She heard footsteps on the stairs below, the rain seemed quieter, and darkness came.
Reliable Siblings Part 3
It was around 4:30 now, the first hint of sunlight, though hidden by the clouds, was lighting up the sky. There was a light drizzle outside.
Erwin and Sergey came up the stairs to the fifth floor. They were greeted by a disaster. The cinder block wall had a gaping hole, and an additional hole in the ceiling allowed them look up to the sixth. Alina?s pack was in a corner, numerous splinters were imbedded in it, otherwise it seemed okay. Erwin?s boot splashed in something on the floor, it was black in the darkened apartment room.
?Sergey, flashlight,? Erwin requested. Sergey shined his flashlight on Erwin?s boot, it was dripping with a dark red liquid. ?Blood?? he questioned. Sparse drips formed a makeshift path out of the room leading to a puddle of blood. The puddle was fairly large and there was a streak of blood on the wall. It seemed to smear down the hall, to the corner building, paralleled by a path of blood on the floor. They came to the corner room.
?Oh no??
Her body was crumpled backwards, bent at the knees, laying in a sizable pool of blood. There was a large rip in the right side of her shirt, matted down with dried blood and a deep puncture in her left leg, Sergey wasn?t sure if it was a bullet wound or not. Her Dragunov lied next to her, pitted and stained with blood.
?Alina, are you okay?? They rushed over to her lifeless body.
Sergey took her pulse, weak, but it was there. Erwin picked up his pack and pulled out a heavy gauze with disinfectant, placed it on her leg and taped it down, while Sergey searched her neck and spine for any fractures. He found nothing, checked the rip in her shirt and found no signs that a bullet remained in the flesh.
The gauze on her leg formed a small pink dot of blood, the bleeding seemed to have stopped. It would not be safe here though, and they knew it. They?d have to get to a doctor, for her injuries and to check for infection in Sergey?s leg. She didn?t seem close to reaching consciousness soon. They?d have to find an effective way of getting her back to the border.
?We need to get some transportation, I?m going to check the surrounding buildings,? Sergey began, ?you look after her, change the bandage on her leg in a few minutes.?
?You?ve been shot in the leg, I think I should go.?
?It wasn?t a shot, it was a loose bullet - my leg?s fine,? was his response, ?I can walk and run just fine.?
?I don?t know?? Erwin questioned the stability of Sergey?s leg.
?Just make sure nothing comes up here, I?m going to try and find a car.?
?Well, take the Geiger counter and be careful.? Erwin handed the Geiger counter to Sergey and pile their three packs into the corner. Sergey walked out of the room, it?d be up to him to get them out of this, they couldn?t leave Alina here, and he had the best to go out on his own. He pulled up his LR300 and headed for the stairs.
It took him a few moments to reach the first floor. The gaping hole in the flat led outside. The rain had picked up a little again, but it was lighter out.
He leaned out the hole and checked the left and right, nothing was moving. The zombies were obviously dead, many of them were ripped apart by the numerous explosions from before. Some just had a single bullet in their head or chest from Alina?s SVD.
The first thing he checked was the corpses from the evening before. ?Maybe they had car keys or a radio,? he thought. Looking at their corpses he saw they had little of anything. They must have been gnawed apart by animals between being shot and when the zombies came. Gnarled bite marks covered the corpses, overlapping each other, dried with blood. Ragged chunks hung on by strings of flesh and it was a terrible site. He turned around and felt sick, but he thought they were fortunate enough in that they had died before this happened.
Resuming his search he went over to the street. There were many repetitive flats on the right, separate only in their weathering and damage. On the left he saw a gas station and numerous brick office buildings. Figuring the flats would be void of pretty much anything useful at the moment, he headed over to check the gas station.
The window glass was shattered, the pumps rusted and scratched, bits of metallic junk were in the street. It didn?t seem like anyone would leave a vehicle here. Entering the station he found numerous empty shelves and a few with basic articles of a gas station on them; cans, a box of plastic silverware, assorted lengths of wire - nothing useful. There were numerous puddles on the floor, looking up he saw numerous leaks in the ceiling.
There was a door leading into a bathroom and one leading to a mechanic?s office and garage. He went through the office into the garage. Naturally there was no car. Numerous tools were strewn about the ground, there was a plastic gas container on a workbench. Shaking it, he found it had at least a couple liters of fuel. A smaller container was next to it, he siphoned the gasoline into the small can, put a cover on it, and placed it in his side pack. He rolled open the garage door and continued his search.
To his right was an office building, many of the windows were destroyed, so he figured he?d climb in one of them. He thought to himself, ?On the top floor I might get a better view of the city. Maybe some sorry bas -?
His train of thought was interrupted by a sniffing sound coming from around the corner. Instinctively raising his weapon, he bent down and walked towards the left, to try and get a look around the corner. Steps echoed in puddles, something was definitely walking towards him. Suddenly, a dog appeared from around the corner, its eyes seemed swelled shut - or nonexistent, he couldn?t tell. It began sniffing the air and walking in his direction.
Sergey backed up as it came closer. To his surprise, more animals came around the corner, there were three, now four, six, ?This probably isn?t good,? he moaned to himself. He inched his way backwards, to the garage - a few more steps and he could close the door?but the mutated dogs were close.
A growl came from the closest animal, it bent down in a definite posture of attack, numerous animals behind it began to sprint towards the garage door. Sergey leapt backwards, outstretched his hands up, searching for the door handle. He pulled it down, heard the sickening sound of a skull cracking against metal. One animal almost got through, it was trapped under the door.
The animal growled, and snapped at him. He kicked down on the door handle, the dog yelped and continued trying to get in the garage. Other animals? snouts were peaking under the door, trying to get in. He put his full weight on the door and took out his pistol.
?The garage is closed.? he said, firing into the mutant?s head. Immediately the animal went limp. He stared at it?s deformed head for a moment before pushing the corpse out from under the door and stomping it shut. He slid the locking bolt into place on the door?s track. ?Well, if they?re blind, they can?t see me - this shouldn?t be hard,? he reasoned. He looked down at his leg and the small dark spot of blood on his pants, and rolled his eyes - they could probably smell him instead.
Numerous animals continued scratching at the door outside, he didn?t have a window to see how many there were. He thought about it for a moment and rationalized that he?d have to go out the way he came in, except at that moment he heard the clattering of cans and boxes in the front room. The doorframe to the mechanic?s office lacked anything, it was just an entrance - there was no door he could close.
Erwin sat in the dilapidated apartment, he had switched the bandages a couple minutes ago. There was no blood coming from Alina?s leg wound anymore. She had a slightly stronger pulse. The light coming from outside was fairly bright now, but the rain was still coming down.
He picked up Alina?s Dragunov, and felt the stickiness of blood on it. It made him a little queasy to think he was touching someone?s blood. Taking out his canteen he poured some water onto the wooden stock, and began to rub off the blood. He thought to himself ,?Well, I can?t fix the scratches, but I can clean this up for her - there?s nothing else to do.?
While he did, he looked down at her body lifeless on the floor. He remembered ?She had fired one shot; one shot and all of the zombies went kaputt. She must have figured out how to stop the zombies, who knows how many there were. There could have been an army of them, but she shot once?and they all fell over.? She was a hero in his book. They might have stopped the zombies with shear force, they might not have.
So, he poured a little more water on the rifle and red-tinged water ran off the gun. He felt numerous pits in the gun?s stock. He wondered why she used such an old gun. He wondered about her past, and Sergey?s past. He thought about his own.
His life was relatively boring. He enjoy talking about it much. The greater part of his life was spent in school, which only lead him to join the military. He wasn?t sure why he joined. The Schutzer family wasn?t rich, but they were fairly well off, and even for college, he wouldn?t have needed the money. Maybe he wanted to fulfill his name, Schutzer meant defender after all. Who would he defend? He lived in Germany, sure, the entire western world had to defend against terrorism and rioting, but he didn?t much consider them a threat.
His parents never really cared if he left. They would wish him well in any endeavor, as long as he wasn?t bugging them. His older sisters didn?t much care either. They were successful. Anne would offer him advice once and a while. He enjoyed visiting her, even if she was seven years older than him. She would say, ?Erwin, you can do anything you want, I?m not going to tell you what to do.? She actually had a principle, everyone else - they were just too lazy to advise him. So, he joined the military.
He had done well in the army, most of the time he was posted in Germany or occasionally exchanged to the United States. He found that the former Soviet Union was fairly nice. Many of the people were poor, but he felt for them, he had wished he?d been born here. He felt he could connect with them - but that was stupid. He should worry about himself out here, watch over his friends, but care about himself.
He told himself that. He was trying to worry only about himself, how he could leave this place, leave the danger, leave the work, he could sit alone on a deserted island. Except he couldn?t, he wanted to be with his friends. He wanted to be with Alina and Sergey. He looked down at Alina, thought, ?I don?t want to leave her though, even if I?m not the one doing all of the protecting.?
He sat down on the floor next to her. He checked the leg bandage, it was almost clean, but he replaced it anyway. He was careful in retaping it, ?not to much pressure, we don?t need this bleeding again.? He set her Dragunov down next to her, picked up her hand. ?You can do it,? he said, as he put her hand down on her rifle.
His peace was interrupted, gunfire sounded in the near distance.
Sergey had pushed a workbench perpendicular between him and the door. He had crouched down, waiting for the first of the beasts. When they had appeared he had ripped the doorframe apart with gunfire.
Now there were numerous bodies at the foot of the door, but two of the animals had gotten in when he had reloaded. The garage was fairly large though, three large doors and three maintenance pits. ?The blood from the dead ones might throw off the others? scents,? he thought.
He fired at both of the dogs in the room. The rifle was good for close quarters combat, it was supposed to usually offer a one shot take down, but these dogs were tough, ?They must be made of pure muscle.? Their skulls also seemed to be tough bone, because some of his initial head shots had ricocheted off and left a bleeding streak of white - exposed skull - you rarely saw that with smaller animals. He figured he?d spent about 15 rounds through burst fire on two of them alone.
Another animal appeared at the door and he fired, aimed behind the animal and fired through the wall. He reloaded again, two clips and he had only gotten around seven of them. He had seen some blind dogs similar to these on one of his first trips into the zone. They weren?t nearly this tough though, and that was only around a month and a half ago.
He was now in the middle of the garage, his side pack managed to get stuck on the broken part of a workbench, and hindered his reloading. The garage was now flooded with animals.
The sound of scratching had long since died from outside, and he risked going outside instead of being trapped inside. He was at the furthest door from the animals. The door rose jerkily, the tracks were rusted. He got the door about 60 centimeters off the ground and rolled under. The dogs were almost to his position. They seemed to generally know where he was, but they weren?t smelling him. They were moving slow, ?too slow to get me,? he thought.
The door was stuck, but he managed to reach around to the inside and pull the door down. It wasn?t quite closed, but the animals wouldn?t be able to get out from here. He looked around again, to the right was the office building, it seemed too open. In front of him, across the street there were some two story buildings and some more flats in the distance behind them. The flat with Alina and Erwin was behind him and to the left, but he didn?t want to bring anything back there, ?I don?t want to risk bringing anything back there with an injured comrade,? he reasoned, he couldn?t go back there until he had a way to get to the zone border.
He looked to the left, saw a half destroyed flat, mingled with a couple zombie corpses, ?They must have been coming from behind us too.? He realized it was much brighter, and it had to be around 5:30, the rain was coming down and it was dark and gray, but much easier to see than before.
His thinking was interrupted with the appearance of the dogs around the corner to the left. They appeared quickly, and headed right for him. They seemed to know exactly where he was. He drew his weapon and opened fire, ?I guess the two story buildings win.?
He ran while reloading. There were at least eight dogs left, he had killed about that many already. It was hard to reload while running. At first he fumbled with the clip, but eventually got it in alright. He turned around, working his legs while doing so and shot at his pursuers. 30 bullets flew into the animals, one fell over dead mid-stride, a couple were hit.
He reached down for another clip. Turning around he tripped over a piece of debris in the street. He fell. He was running so fast the initial fall propelled him into a roll. He was lucky he?d left his backpack with Erwin. He slid himself around and stood up quickly, the animals were much closer now. He let go of his gun, let it drop down to his waist on its strap while he sprinted for the open door of the building.
Upon entering the building he spun around and closed the door, he leaned against it as hard as he could while he reloaded. Looking quickly around he figured he was in a shop of some kind. There were a couple pieces of degraded furniture. There was also a large glass window. He knew stairs lead to the second floor somewhere.
The animals were splintering the wooden door behind him. He stripped a grenade from his belt with his free hand. He pulled the pin and gripped the doorknob tightly. He pulled the door open slightly, held it in place with his foot, and dropped the grenade on the other side.
He heard the click of the lever popping up. He slammed the door shut and ran to the back of the store. The explosion jarred the door loose and shattered the window, but it also dazed the dogs for a moment. Looking around, he saw a door recessed in the back wall.
Opening it he saw steep stairs leading to a second floor, he climbed them as fast as he could. The door at the top was locked and there was no room to kick it and he didn?t have his shotgun. He waited for the remaining mutated canines.
There were four dogs left. They entered the store through the broken door. They found it empty, except they could sense the man. They could sense him - through the wall in the back?slightly above them. They moved quietly.
Sergey waited at the top of the stairs. He couldn?t hear anything from below, but somehow he knew the animals were there. He wouldn?t go down. He stayed as quiet as possible. He lifted the strap on his LR300 over his head and pointed the barrel down the stairs. The next few moments felt like an eternity, but eventually the first of the dogs appeared.
The first one entered the stairwell and Sergey shot it quickly, it slumped to the ground. He aimed behind it, shot through the wall. Half the clip was gone. Another dog appeared, and charged up the stairs. It was halfway up before it seemed to run out of forward momentum. Sergey felt the weight of his gun. A third animal emerged from the door, and Sergey blasted away, seven shots flew into or near the dog. The gun clicked: empty. It was still standing, it began to climb the stairs. He dropped the LR300, pulled out his Fort 12.
He aimed carefully, and it still took five shots to take it down. He waited, staring at the three bodies on the stairs. After a minute he took a step down. He slowly crept down the stairs. A few steps down the stair creaked loudly.
He heard a howl and a large dog bounded through the doorframe. He shot it as quickly as possible. The animal was half way up the stairs when his clip ran dry. It was bleeding from multiple places, and its head had streaks of skull showing.
It reached him with surprising speed, he barely had time to pull out his knife. The animal lunged at his neck, he lifted his left arm to block. The animals teeth sunk into his arm deflected slightly by his clothes. His knife thrust into the animals chest, he imbedded it all the way. The animal snapped on his arm, biting it again, snarling. He stabbed the dog again, and again.
The animals grip weakened. It toppled backwards down the stairs, pulling him with. He dropped the knife. Falling down the stairs, everything seemed to move slowly for Sergey. He stared into the animal?s lumpy eye sockets as they fell. He struck it, as hard as he could, in the face. They rolled to the bottom.
Everything seemed still. He got up slowly, he could feel a small stream of blood trickling down his sleeve. He kicked the animal. The LR300 was at his feet, he picked it up and brought the strap around his shoulder. He found his Fort 12 under the last dog, grabbed his knife. He was hurt, but he wasn?t done yet.
He walked back outside, the rain had mostly stopped, a stray drop would occasionally fall into the numerous puddles in the road. Looking up he could see Erwin sitting in the corner room on the fifth floor of the flat. Looking down the street to the left he saw just what he was looking for, he spoke aloud, ?alright, finally some luck.?
He had road rash, he had a bleeding arm, but he also had a car.
Reliable Siblings Part 4
It was covered in large rust spots, and a puddle had formed in a dent in the roof. It seemed to be in fairly good condition for being at least twenty years old. Through a quick check Sergey Nikolaevich could see that it might run.
Adrenaline pulsed through his veins, he listened for signs of an ambush, tried to smell the hint of decaying flesh that might indicate a pack of blind dogs. The car sat in the middle of the road, its front tires were turned towards the office building. He tried the car?s door handle; it creaked with age and rust, but opened effortlessly. Peering inside, he saw the key was in the ignition, it was in the off position. Looking at the front panel he saw that the gas tank was empty, and it lacked sufficient oil.
He had gasoline, but it would have to run with low oil. As long as the battery carried a charge it would suffice. He slid into the driver seat and twisted the key. An empty clicking sound spurred out of the engine. He got out and checked under the hood.
The engine seemed to be covered in strands of rust . Sergey saw that the positive lead to the battery was frayed and not making contact due to the strings of what looked like rust. ?It looks so strange,? he thought,? almost like hair.
Reaching in, he pulled away the rust from the wire. His hand began to burn, he pulled it away. An acrid black smoke puffed up from his hand. The skin began to blacken and tighten. His fourth and fifth fingers seemed paralyzed.
In all his years as a scientist in Kiev, he never encountered an acid as strong as this. ?It must have the highest molar content I?ve ever seen, it?s like a string of solidified acid.? Observing his hand, he saw it was deeply scalded and jet black, ?I?ve never seen acid scar like this either,? he thought.
The inability to get rid of the rusty strings was quickly resolved with a pair of gloves from his pack. He brushed away the rusty hair and secured the lead back to the battery. The hair seemed incredibly wispy and stuck to the gloves, He tried rubbing his hands together. It was like his hands were covered in fibrous cotton.
He took the gloves off, being especially careful not to get anything on his wrists. He could move his right hand slightly, the black skin cracked. It hurt a lot. He ignored the pain and got back behind the steering wheel. He tried the key again, it sputtered, but the ignition seemed to work, ?It just needs gas now.?
Erwin had rechecked Alina?s bandages once more, there was no longer a sign of hemorrhaging and a scab was beginning to form on her leg. It was about 20 minutes since Sergey had left the flat. It was fairly bright out now, and the rain seemed to have stopped.
A few minutes ago Erwin heard gunfire, and saw Sergey run across the street, followed by numerous dark shapes. There was a large explosion and more gunshots. Then Sergey had walked out by himself. Now he had gone down the road, and an office building was blocking Erwin?s view. He readied their packs, just in case there was a car.
Sergey only had to drive a few hundred meters to return to the flat. The fourth and fifth fingers on his right seemed hard to move, and they still burned slightly so he drove with his left hand.
There were numerous zombie corpses, he tried to avoid running over them, but they were clustered together. The field was flat, which made it easier, but they were unavoidable. The hole in the building made an ideal parking location. He got out and went to get the others.
Erwin and Sergey strapped on their packs, Erwin slung Alina?s Dragunov around his neck and Sergey took her pack.
?You lift her legs, I?ll lift her head,? Sergey instructed, ?be careful.?
Erwin rolled his eyes, he had watched her for the last half an hour, why wouldn?t he be careful? ?Vorsicht, vorsicht, I get it.? He paused, looking at Sergey?s hand. ?Why is your hand black??
?I touched some rust or something, I don?t know. It burns a little.?
?Rust?? that didn?t seem right, ?Do you think you should touch her like that??
Sergey shrugged, ?Okay, you take the head, I?ll take the feet.?
They carried her down the stairs, the going was easy and they had no rush. She was fairly light, so with two of them it was quite easy. The loaded her in the car. They set their packs in the back seat, so Alina wouldn?t roll onto the floor of the car. Erwin drove.
He drove back around, passed the gas station and the two story shops. ?See over there, in that busted down apartment?? Sergey said. pass
?Zombies??
?Yea, they were coming behind us too.? Erwin thought about it, he was happy Alina was still alive. Not just because she was his friend, because he had a debt. They had relied on her last night. Now, she relied on them.
She was shaken. Her body was rocking back and forth. The light was bright, she squinted. Her eyes adjusted, and then she felt the throbbing in her leg and groaned.
Sergey tapped Erwin, ?Hey, Erv. She?s awake.? He looked back at Alina, ?not that I want you to talk much, but how do you feel.?
?Maybe you should impale yourself in the leg and find out,? she responded weakly.
He turned back towards Erwin, ?Looks like she?ll be fine.?
?Either way, we?re almost there, only a couple of minutes to the border,? Erwin said. He looked down at Sergey?s hand, ?that blackness seems to be getting bigger.?
?What blackness?? came from the backseat.
?This.? Sergey said, as he lifted his hand above him. He reached back with his left hand, felt around in one of the packs for a pocket knife. ?Yea, I think it is.?
?You?re not going to cut it off, are you??
?Maybe.?
?I wouldn?t recommend that?and?hey, use your own knife; someone might eat with that thing.? Sergey fell back in his seat, with a smile. He pulled his glove back on, there was an audible crack as the black skin folded over itself. At least they were getting back to somewhere safe. But he already felt safe.
Alina was his sister and Erwin was his brother. They were siblings. He relied on them last night. They had relied on him. His hand burned, he would get it looked at when they got to the border. He looked at Alina and leaned back in his seat . For the first time, in a long time, he felt at peace.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comments welcome, again, sorry it's so long (Truthfully, I don't expect many people to respond...but whatever). Maybe I should try out NS fanfiction instead, eh?
Comments
i think it's hard for the OT people to make a commitment like this. more luck in fanfix forum.
PS: i think it's good. submit it!