My heart is pounding as I ran, not looking back. The two precious gem that I had acquired just now is now very much sought after, man and mutant alike. From a distance, I heard the unmistakable moan of zombies and the running sound of the blind dogs. I do not dare to look back, knowing that looking back would make me more scared I am now…
A wooden house appeared from a distance, in the middle of the plain. Without doubt, I run into the house with my now tired legs that had been working for 20 minutes
I go near a crevice at the wall of the house and start looking around. What I see shocked me, for what I am seeing are every kind pf mutation in The Zone there is, following me because of the things I have taken. My odds against them are way too low. I am doom…
I am Amos, a boy from Malaysia, who went into The Zone thinking that it is The Second Gold was on. Till now, I am still keeping this idea, for it is The Zone which has given me lots of money, undeniable, even now.
I was born in 1986, the year of the first Chernobyl incident. Although I have no memory of it during my childhood, my teenage reading had told me about the Incident, especially its disasterous effect on human. But then, during my teenage years, I did not think that Chernobyl would do mankind anymore harm.
I was wrong, wrong as virtually everybody in the world at 12 April 2006.
Though Russia and my country are thousands of kilometres apart, technology told everyone on this Earth what exactly happened, though not the reason why it happened.
I remembered the scenes. An intolerably bright light, followed by strange phenomena lighted Chernobyl zone for days. People were killed by radiation, blood coming out from their mouth and nose, their skin burnt. Thousands were killed, the official statistics told the world, although the real number was not disclosed. Chernobyl was then sealed off. The reason, they said, was an experiment involving nuclear went awry, killing every one of the crew. But that was not what everybody believed. But then no logical reason could be given too.
That was not the end of it, however. A few months latter, the Zone border grew bigger as radiation drift. Populations in the affected area were evacuated. Then, no more news came out the zone. But I did not think much of it. I was 20 years old than, studying t acquire my accountant degree then in university. My future looked bright then.
Year 2008. I had my job, married my dream girl, settled down and started a family. In that year, the Zone exploded, sending radiation across towns and villages in Russia and around the world. Nobody could explain what happened, but the incident sparked a lot of crisis. High death toll was among the incident. Countries in Europe and Asia, after the radiation drift across form Russia into those places, plunged into a economy crisis. Agriculture products, dairy products, and good cannot be exported because they have been contaminated by radiation. Tourism sagged. Millions, including myself, had been laid off because of the economy crisis.
For Ukraine too, it was a national disaster. The capital, Kiev, was emptied and removed to Luts'k. The beautiful country was devastated. Desperate for cash, the government sold the Zone to Russia for 5 billion, since the land would no longer be in used for another 10,000 years.
Year 2010. I was only 24 years old, but already I was on my wits end. My family was broken as a result of divorce. I had no income. The future as if it had no more future for me then.
Then The Zone was reopened.
I heard tales of anomalies, strange phenomena, mutants and all kind of weird tales coming from there. But I also heard that people got rich from the place, working as "stalkers“. I decided to take my chances in there. After all, I had nothing to lose. One year after the zone was reopened, I made my decision.
I got everything I had pawn and borrowed some cash, then converted them into US dollars. From there, I arranged some money for my parents in case I deceased (although they really opposed me for going they), bought a
When I reached The Camp, Chernobyl struck me as odd. I thought the place was more to a desolated desert, but instead, it was a jungle with lush greenery. But I didn't come here to sight seeing. I went straight into The Camp, and bummed into a stalker, the first that I had ever encountered.
" Hey, watched it buddy" the stalker said with a Irish Accent.
" Sorry," I mumbled, and then continued. "By the way, why are you in a HAZMAT suit!“ I couldn't help asking, since this is the first time I seen anything like this.
" Newbie, eh?" The Stalker mocked me with an evil grin, then continued. “ You should go see the ‘The Dealer'. He is the man for newbie. Go straight until you reach a sign post with the word "dealer“ on it. I gotta go now. Nice meeting ya." Then he left, never to be seen again.
When I met the Dealer, the wicked fat man in a vest near to an abandoned building in The Camp, he was too grinning. “ A newbie, huh? Well, well, pay me 600 rubles before I'll talk.“
Damn. What can I do? I paid him.
Then, he gave me a yellow HAZMAT suit, a rusty combat knife, a Geiger counter, a map and a PM Markarov with 3 magazines. “ These are all you need. But do get yourself a room in The Bar. Ask around, you'll find it. And get out of here before you interrupt my business." Then he kicked me out.
I got myself a room at The Bar, a places where stalkers get to eat and drink. Once I stepped into the bar, I noticed that most of them have emblem on their back, as I latter learned, faction signs that marked them as a clan or faction. I didn't care less. I settled down in my room. Before long, The Dealer asked for me, and gave me my first mission.
I never forgot my first mission, which was a mix of excitement and fear. I was to go to an industrial complex in the Zone to take out a controller, the Dealer said, though I had no idea what it was. I just go in., with my HAZMAT suit, Geiger counter, and pistol.
The journey was smooth. Nothing happened.
When I reached the desolated places full of vegetation and leftover machinery where was given by my map's coordinate, I was shocked. Hundreds of humans, or should I say zombie, were wondering around there, without purpose and more or lest wondering around. I thought, at first, these were controllers.
The humans, upon looking at me, frost as though they had never seen anyone before. I say to myself: ‘hey, they are scared of me. They should be. I am the Makarov Guy!' Then I started to aim at their head, taking them out by the pistol
After I had taken out about 5, suddenly they started moving… towards me, making a terrifying moaning sound. I was really scared now. I didn't think I would survive, to say honestly.
Then a funny sensation crept into me. My limbs started to move even though I didn't move them. My body started to move towards the zombies. I couldn't anything at all, as if I were… controlled. I couldn't even shout. I tried pressing the trigger, but my fingers froze. Shit. I am dead meat. They were going to have me as lunch
When I reached the human group, the funniest thing was, they didn't even cared about me, as if I were one of their own. I was now really terrified. Was I to be like this forever, cannot control my body? My soul trapped in this husk? I regretted coming to the zone.
Suddenly, gunshots went out. As I watch, tracers of bullets flew pass me. My body automatically switched direction to where the bullets came from. When I turned, I saw about a few tiny dots from afar, firing yellow dots, or bullets at a very high velocity, which seems to fly past me. Humans around me felled, although I wasn't hit.
My body now froze, although I tried to command my body to run. Then, my arm rose, and my finger pressing the Markarov that was sometime ago frozen in my right arm. The gun was aiming at the black dots at afar, even though I didn't want to. Shit, I said to myself. I mess up big time. Wonder if the dots over there will shoot at me.
Suddenly, I saw a yellow tracer coming to me straight at me. But the most amazing thing was that the bullet didn't hit my heart. Instead, it hit my Markarov, tearing it into two. Great, I said to my self. Now I am even worse off without a gun.
Bullets kept flying past me. Eventually, the entire group of human eventually died, leaving only me, who was now marching towards them slowly, the deed of my disobedient body. I thought, sooner or later, I am going to have a bullet going into my head by the dots, whatever those people were.
The dots become more cleared, changing into bodily shape of 6 men in black HAZMAT suit. My arms now automatically reached for the combat knife while my leg walked to them.
Suddenly, a terrifying scream echoed through the complex. With that, my body stopped moving. I regained my motor skills. One man in the black HAZMAT suit came to me, weapons drawn.
" Who the hell do you think you are, trying to play with zombies and shooting at us with a Makarov? You must be nuts. Luckily we can hit you with this baby SVU." A man, who apparently seems to be the leader, shouted at me.
" Sorry, I am a newbie. Thanks for not hitting me." I thank them profusely, which seems to be the logical action at that time.
The man laughed. “ Well, a newbie, eh? Must be you're day one, right? And let me guess, the Dealer sent you alone here to kill the controller, eh? Oh yes, and then you had been controlled by the Controller and moved like those zombies? “
The man must be psychic, I said. So I answered him yes, while the 5 other people still aiming their weapons at me.
The man then replied back. “ You know why I knew? Only a newbie will go to a controller with a pistol and get himself controlled. Oh yes, by the way, we are stalkers" Then he shouted a command to the other man around him “ Team, code delta, area secured. The man's friendly. Don't scared him with your SVU around" Instantly, the stalkers rested their weapons.
Suddenly a radio cracked from the man, now in front of me. “ Jacques, I've got the controller's head. Going to get 100 rubles with that, also found some dead stalkers and soldiers around here, got some weapons here, pistols, knife and 9
The man, Jacques, command back. “ Acknowledge. Scott, area secured. No hostile in site. We will join you shortly. Look like we would be making big bucks today. Over and out“
Then Jacques turned to me. “ Hey, mate, the controller was the one who got ya zombified. Luckily you are only controlled temporary, or else you gonna get ph.D. Permanent Head Damage." The whole group laughed. Then he turned serious. “ Hey mate, would you like to join us?" he asked me.
How could you turned down a man who has just saved you? I accept his offer without doubt. From that day onwards, I am a member of the group, who called themselves "The Alliance of Hellcats“. That day, these man, or friends, I should call them onwards, brought me back to The Camp alive, gave me a better HAZMAT suit and a brand new Spectra vests with ceramic plates, a FN 2000 with GL, a SVU, a radio, a oxygen mask, a anomaly detector, a thermal goggles, proper ammunition and 5 HE grenades in addition to what I already had. I am now officially one of them.
The number of mutants keep growing: the thousands of zombies were my least concern now. My binocular tells me now there are mutants which I never saw in the Zone, aside from the rat, rat wolves, rock monsters, Raptors, mutated tigers and blind dogs, coming for what I posses now. One of the scariest mutants was this giant monster that looked like a giant tree with sharp tentacles and moving vines all around it and a mouth with razor sharp teeth inside, a more advanced version of the Hydra. Another thing that scared the hell out of me is a monstrous black bear-shaped like mutant with a spiked tail, four gigantic arms and a mouth in the center of its body.
I am now terrified. I shouldn't have come on this mission alone without my friends. There's a big chance I cannot get out of here alive. There's no chance a Gravity concentration will pope out in front of me, sucking these mutants down. It is the 10thof the month today, so anomalies will not occur a lot today. Killing zombies might distract them, as my experience told me mutants may stop and eat dead things when they detected one
I take up my SVU now and, without doubt, starting to take out zombies, one by one. If I am going to die, I am taking at least some of them with me. This s a fight to death, and I am making every shot count, until I finish the last bullets from all my weapons.
One by one, zombies fell. But the mutants don't seem to stop. The things I have carried must be so strong that even controllers cannot control zombies anymore.
My life with the Alliance of Hellcats is fairly well off from the first day I met them. After they armed me with the best weapons and equipment money could buy, they invited me to The Bar that night. There, while drinking vodka with them, I got the chance to met and know all of them personally.
The team leader, Jacques, is a captain with the Legionnaire of the French army, more or lest, the special forces of French, before he came to The Zone and, of course, started this group. The Legionnaire, he explained to me over vodka, is the place he learned his English well, as well as battle tactics
The scout and controller-taker, I learned, was Scott, a British Marine. He had an anti-mind-control equipment on his head, that I leant, was taken from a military stalker of the Russian Government who had, unfortunately, "have no use of it anymore“. My best guess is that the stalker died. He had an AKM with silencer attached aside his SVU, with a combat knife. His primary role is scouting and taking out controllers. When I asked them when it was invited, they said they have no idea, only know it is
The radar operator, I learned, was James, an American physics student majoring in general physics that discontinued his study after the economy crisis and came to The Zone, but have experience in computing, electronics and surprisingly, lock picking. I was amazed with the radar. I learned that it was salvage off a
Ivan, I learned, is a Russian Army soldier who was removed for his drinking habits but, from what I saw, haven't change a bit. Yet, I learned he knew when to be sober at the right time. He was chosen as the radio operator because he knew military terms well, as well as Russian and English. The radio, I learned, was also taken from the downed Hind again.
Next, I met Chavez, a Mexican, who was a former weigh-lifting athlete. This was when I was shown the gem of the squad: A Gatling Machine Gun, bought at a heavy price but useful. This man also carried a
Then, I am introduced to Ali, an
After that, I am introduced to an Australian, Trevor. He was a Australian SAS specializing in logistics,
Lastly, I was introduced to Heng Wei, a Chinese from China, who was an
After introduction, the squad goes into my role. Since I have no experience, they would have me in as a general-assault trooper, using all kinds of weapon.
Next, they explained the squad goals. They were to earn $900,000 US dollars, after converting into rubles so that each of us can get $100,000 each, a sizable sum in the world. They explained the squad would use primarily FN2000 for its well-suited use for combat, although it is damn expensive. Every one of them also carries a SVU for ranged assault. The group's official colour would be black with a flaming cat on the back, which they painted on my HAZMAT suit after they had done talking.
They also told how lucky I was. They were going around in the woods after going for a recon mission, without James of course, when they heard zombie moans. It was Ali who made the shot that cracked my Markarov, which he carried as a souvenir now for his damn good accuracy.
The group was, and still is, very generous. I learned that Jacques controls the group's finance and all of their expenditures, including drinking, were spent together. My new equipment, which they spent about 40,000 rubles, is also taken out from the group's total income. However, none of them complained.
Second day was hell. I have to start my day with exercise, unlike other clan or individual, with the group. Exercise, explained Jacques, could save our life. I have to run 8 miles in 40 minutes in full gear, something I could not accomplish for I collapsed after 2 minutes. I also had to start practicing my accuracy in the group's shooting range, somewhere inside the zone but 10 mins walk from The Camp. The targets was made out of woods, hand made by the team members. Since I had never fired a gun, let alone an
I also had to learn teamwork and the group's own radio commands. But the 2 most important lessons I learned that day from the group was to trust my own instincts and my friends and also to learn how to do teamwork.
I trained hard for 14 days under the drill of the every other group member who all taught me well. At last, I was cleared for mission with the group after 2 weeks. By the end of my training, I was in peak condition.
Day 14 was most unforgettable, as it was not only my first mission, but also a major turning point for the group.
We were told by the Dealer that day that we were to go to Kiev military air base, the place where the we would probably find 5 barrels fuel for the Dealer for 10,000 rubles, though 5 barrels of fuel worth about 40,000 rubles in The Camp. We have to go there by foot, but we would most probably get a vehicle to travel back to The Zone, together with the fuel.
On the trip, the group was very cautious, going by tree by tree. I was told in The Zone, you could never be too careful. You never know when you might find a Serpent, a snake that spit acid, moved faster ordinary snakes and corroding our HAZMAT suits killing us by the radiation in Chernobyl, or a Hydra, a greenish plant that moves and have tentacles to snatch its prey and eat it, Jacques told me.
On
" James, anything on your reading?“
"Nothing around sir, at least no APC of Hind. The scream sounded human, sir!“
" Good. Scott, move out, recon. Group, Code Alpha, shoot anything that move. Fire at will. Ivan, ran radio scan." Code Alpha means high alert status.
"Da,sir!“ Ivan picked up the phones to his ear, adjusting the frequency. “ Sir, something in Russian, civil bandwidth. Here we go." Ivan paused, then continued. “ We are Expedition Group 12, escort all dead, only two soldiers left, one badly injured. The other one's controlled, machine gunner, use RPK, told by soldier. Requesting immediate assistance, over. Anyone? This is Dr. Oleg. We are currently attacked by zombies, the damn controller nowhere is sight. Help!" Ivan translated, then stopped. “ This is the end, sir.“
" Good. Scott, get you
"
We waited for 20 minutes, relying only on binoculars to see around. Finally, Jacques's radio light strobe underneath his radio come to life. Jacques studied it, then pushed his strobe several times. I asked Jacques what was that.
"This is a Morse code device, when silence is needed. Controllers can take quite some bullets, so the later we inform them about Scott the better. You might to learn them when you get back“
"This is Scott, got it, whole magazine into the body, didn't even know what hit him. Assuming sniper position now. Shit, a lot of zombies over the side, sir. Saw one soldier, confirm RPK weapon sighted. No bullets fired, wonder why. Oh shit sir, he has no bullets, using side arm now, very scared. Zombies… some going for him, some eating dead bodies. Need instruction sir. Over“
Jacques thought for a little while before radioing Scott. "Scott, take out the zombies and spare the soldier's life!“
"Too late sir, he had been taken out by zombies, zombies are…taking their sweet meal now!“
Jacques sighed, then continued. Scott, defend yourself, code Charlie!“ Bravo means threats down, but it isn't over yet.
"Team, move out!“ Scott, guide us to your position. You might want to switch on your T for that!“
"Affirm, mate. Sir, new info: my T tells me there is three men inside the opposite building, one's laying down, thermal signal weak, sir. Probably dying. 2 signals still strong. Going to opposite windows now… no sighting. Keep moving sir, I will contact you when sighted!“
" Copy. Jacques out.“
The team carefully went inside the dilapidated city, man by man, moving cover by cover, until the radios come alive. “ Saw you guys, 2 O' clock from my position. Look at my side, look for my shot.“
From our 10 o'clock, we saw a bright yellow burst coming from the top floor of a three-story building. We moved cautiously inside the building.
"James, go up and cover Scott. The rest of you, secure the perimeter 2 by 2, watch for any threat. See anything, tell me and wait for orders. Amos and Heng Wei , follow me. Out“ Jacques gave his order in a whisper, then we all moved out.
Jacques and I quietly threaded through the building, our FN2000 loaded with 40mm grenade drawn. Others went to different direction, 2 in a squad. Then we reached our strategic waypoints. From where I could see, about 40 zombies were eating bodies of soldiers, scientists and their own deads.
"Fire at will!“ the orders shot through the radio. In an instant, the cracking sound of FN2000, including from mine launched through the air erupted. The zombies were mow down in minutes, all dead.
After ensuring nothing moved anymore, Jacques commanded “ everyone except Scott and James, join me. Scott and James, cover us, sight for trouble. Ali, find a high spot for cover. Out.“
The five of us, upon regroup, wore our thermal goggles and proceed to the house over Scott's position. The house was a
When we were at the door, our thermal goggles told us one of the men inside was facing the door, holding… something like a pistol.
" Get ready, people." Jacques ordered, then kicked the door open.
"Don't come nearer or I'll shoot!“ A scientist holding a Fort 12 aimed at Jacques. “ I am a government scientist, and I can…“
"Put down that gun, mister. Even a kid know it is empty. You use all the bullets against the zombies!“ Jacques replied calmly.
The scientist paused, then throw his pistol down. “ Right. Ten escorts all dead. This is my first time in the Zone. By the way, I am Dr. Kilgore. The other scientist is Dr. Oleg, upstairs. There is one soldier up there, currently in shock…“
" That's enough." Jacques said. “ Trevor and Chavez, go out and take the rags off the bodies, we will need it for the soldier." Jacques said. "Heng Wei, go upstair and attend to the man, stop his bleeding but don't give him any drugs. Use some of the rags for heat for the man. You know how to treat shock!“ Heng Wei, nodded, then ran upstairs
" Doc, tell My Oleg to switch to 235 Mhz instead of 121.5 Mhz. You are using civil band. Everybody can hear it through radio. Call for chopper extraction.“
" Yes." After Dr. Kilgore attend to it, he came back and said "Sorry about just now. I taught you are Marauders trying to grab the soldiers AKs and our equipment…'
" Sir, we have some inconvenience now…" Jacques handheld buzz into life. “ James here. I have ten dots on my radar scope coming in fast. Orders, sir. My ETA to your loc : 20 mins on foot. They probably will reach your place by 10 mins“
" Damn…" Jacques shouted. "Doc, get upstairs, protect the radio with Oleg!“ Then, he shouted to Trevor and Chavez who were coming in with rags from outside “ cover the soldier with the rags and then grab your equipment. We have company. Then, use SVUs upstair, aimed but don't shoot until I say so. When I give go, use HWs. Tell Heng to snipe too, then FNs when I give go. That's all." Both of them nodded, then move.
"Amos, you and I will cover downstairs. Go to the window and use SVU to aim. Go for tires. Don't sorry for them!“ I automatically went, excited for my first firefight with humans. Jacques then ordered
" Scott here, saw 4 Nivas with Gatling on top. Emblem on top… Marauder Clan. Must have heard. Also have 8 moskvichs and two KAMAZ truck. Rangefinder from the FN tells me 2.0km and closing. Orders to shoot, sir." Jacques radio squeaked again.
" Negative. Put on T goggs and tell me how many we have.“
2 minutes of silence. Then, “ Sir, I think I saw about 50, KAMAZ full, moskvichs: 3 per car, Nivas: 3 per car, 1 man the gatling.“
"Formation!“
" 2 Nivas in front and back, 4 moskvichs in front and back of KAMAZ. Moving in straight line“
" Hold Fire. Ali, radio in.“
" Yes sir?“
" Can you see them?“
" They are passing under my side.“
"Good. Scott, take AK, silenced, take out 1 Gatling Niva, 2ndlast one, take tires only, delay them some time. The later they know, the better. Now on, use morse!“
"
" Sir, what's Marauder clan?" I asked Jacques, who was now calmly at a window, aiming out.
" Suckers. Scavengers who take scientist, military and stalkers equipment. Their number are too large, Number game are what they rely on. Extremely well-armed But no brains.“
" Then, why aren't we hidng?“
" Amos, we may be stalkers, but this group has its own principal. We don't left innocent unprotected. The doc my not pay us for that, but good deeds something get repaid. That's my principle." Jacques talked.
" Mister, the military had contacted us. Choppers will be here in half an hour." Kilgore shouted from upstairs.
"Ok!“
Jacques radio lights come alive several times, spelling in morse, "done 3 mins, group stopped, men change tire while others resume“
"Good!“ He said.
After a while, a shape appeared from a junction far from the house, which was then joined many more shapes!“
"People, load and lock!“ Jacques shouted, which was then joined by cocking sounds of SVUs and "Loaded“ shouts.
" Here we go. Fire at will." Jacques shouted into the radio.
I calmly peered into my scope, aimed at the first Niva's wheel, and then fired. The shot came out of my barrel. In seconds the Niva was skidding. In the next few seconds, the similar SVUs shots came out all over the urban landscape.
The Marauder convoy was in shock, because the convoy stopped. Stalkers came out of their vehicle were quickly picked off. The gatlings from the Nivas shoot wildly, obviously didn't know what hit them, but the noise was quickly killed down after their manners were shot at.
The remaining Marauders quickly took cover from their moskvichs and begun taking aim at us. That was when I spotted a KAMAZ behind the cars, its fuel tank exposed. I took aimed, and fired. Instantly, A fire ball flashed from afar, followed by a tsunami of flames that seem to go towards the moskvichs. The Moskvichs too exploded, exposing about thirty flaming stalkers on fire. Screams filled the air, but quickly too die down by sniper fire.
Those remaining stalkers who took cover behind buildings obviously were inexperienced, for they came out of their cover and charged at us at a zigzag pattern. Jacques quickly shouted, “ Go!“
In a matter of time, SVU's fire sounds were replaced by FN2000's and Gatling machine gun sound, following by the unmistakable sound of the
" Scott, what happen to the Gatling Niva passenger?“
" Sir, they were running away. Shoot“
" Take them out." This was followed by 3 consecutive shot from afar.
" Ask and you shall receive, sir.“
" All of you, join us at the house. Yes take the Niva. You do know how to change tires, do you?“
"Yep. Out“
Two minutes late, a 4X4 came into view slowly and stopped in front of the house.
" Scott, you sure they were no survivors?“
" Positive. No one's standing“
"Ali!“
"Me too!“
" Doc, we leave you here now. I am sure you will be ok. We will be leaving, the military might don't like us " Saying this, he ordered Scott to take an AK from the dead stalkers outside and give it to the scientist. “ Team, collect the weapons from the dead and put them inside the Niva. Ali and Trevor, work on scratching the Marauder emblem from the Niva. We leave after 10 min." 10 minutes later, we left the waving two waving scientists at the house. Scott and Chavez took the car, which was now full with weapons and ammo of all sorts, while the rest of us walked.
The rest of the trip went fine. We reached the base, Scott took out the controller and we killed 100 zombies their with our FN2000. After that, we found a KAMAZ trucked, abandoned but working fine at the base. We fueled it up, put 11 barrels of oil into the truck, and the rest of us hopped in. What happened next would be self explanatory: found the Dealer, sell him the truck and 10 barrels of fuel for 10,000 rubles (never mind the truck's worth), sold him the weapons and ammo for another 20,000 rubles, bought 2 new Niva, equipped them with the XMs, and assembled James's radar on one of the Nivas. We now had a perfect team.
Shots after shots gone out of my SVUs barrel. I fired bullets after bullets, mags after mags, until I run out of 7.62s. Next I take out my FN 2000, fire the grenade at the mass "audience“ outside my house, then fire at them at three round burst, unitl I am only left with 2 more mags.
Desperately, I take out my radio and scream “ Help!" But I know it is pointless: the Alliance would not be backed for a long time, and my handheld was out of range with the team. I can do nothing as the mutants came nearer and nearer, their moans more and more audible. I embraced myself for the worse. I change the firing pin of the FN 2000 to "full-automatic and insert another 40 mm into the launcher's barrel. I may be doomed, but I will engage them at close-quarter-combat range. That is the only thing I can do now…
From day 14 onwards, life with the Alliance cannot go anymore smoother then it was.
Dr. Darien Kilgore, which I have learn, was a scientist from one of the two research camps near The Camp, while Dr. Oleg Dohovich was a scientist from the Agrorith military research facility. Both of them, greatly thankful of us for saving them twice, now almost approach weekly with their new findings and developed equipment.
From what they told us during our weekly meeting at The Bar, we a lot of things others didn't know. For example, we know zombies are actually former humans, but their brains were mutated and retarded by intense radiation. Controllers, on the other hand, have great gray matter inside their brain, enabling them to control people over a range of 500 meters as a result of radiation. We also now knew why some people didn't die after the Chernobyl instant blast of radiation, but got themselves mutated. Apparently, they told us, ultra strong radiation would kill, but they mutated the genes of living cells while supporting them with energy so that they would not die while mutation. An awkward finding, I should say. Another finding was the anomalies do not on
Dr. Oleg would approach us sometimes with new weapons now and then. He had taken out some device from the lab for us to test for him, since the military only allow scientists out only for certain time. The most useful invention he had let us tested and kept is the gravity gun, or ' GRAG', a long weapon that ran on gravitational artifacts, but not the most powerful. This weapon actually allow us to create a gravitational concentration by altering the magnetic field below ground for 5 mins days anomalies occurred. A 1000N g.a (gravitational artifact), typical in the Zone, can use for 5 times to cause the effect, 15 time when used only on the 22ndof the month, the peak value. Stronger g.a promised more "gravity shots“, as we called it. Gravity concentration could kill anything.
Another weapon we acquired was Galantine weapon. Sold at 10000 rubles per gun and 200 rubles pre shot to us, this was a pretty lethal weapon, only used against ultimate mutants, which were mutants that were hard to kill using bullets. The weapon was fashioned out of an ordinary VAL silent sniper, and even the magazines were 9mm heavy cartridges, but the 9mm bullets were laced with Galantine, deadly mutated bacteria that kill fast, no matter what. Only me, Jacques and Ali were assigned to that weapon. Almost everything, no matter man or mutants, died out within minutes. An anti serum can be bought though, but quite expensive at 5,000 rubles, and most of the time, people never get close to their serum after gotten shot.
Plasma weapon running on Mercury Balls to were available to us, but Jacques reasoned they were too expensive at 20,000 per unit, not to mention bulky and only able to use mounted. We had tried it before though at 50 zombies. One shot at them had vaporized every one of them, with nothing but pieces of meat and limb left. The blue-colour shot was also able to destroy any vehicle or building.
Wonderful equipment came to us too. Every one of the Alliance of Hellcats now had the anti-controller device Mk. II, sold at 5,000 rubles per piece by Dr. Oleg to us, and only to us, when the Agrorith was short of funding. I heard that Dr. Oleg was the head of R&D department at the Agrorith, manufacturing prototypes of weapons for the government. The department seldom had enough funding, so he had to turn to us for rubles.
In addition to that, we also had anomalies detector on our Nivas, now refitted with communication device, GPS equipment and Spectra layer for protection. The detectors have many a times saved us from dangerous situation such as "meatmincers“ and toxic fog, to name a few.
Jacques and Scott also have a "heartbeat sensors“. Heartbeat sensors were designed to track the EMP and the strong electrical impulse emit from the heart of mutants, except zombies, and also those of electrical equipment, which normally used by stalkers and military. The "heartbeat“ sensors worked by detecting the impulse, triangulates it from satellite and figures out the range, combine with GPS signals, and show it out on a screen. The locater had a range 500m.
As our group went stronger, roles within the group too increased. James was now an anomaly seeker, looking for artifacts to be salvage. Ali now had a tranquilizer dart to take out newly sighted mutants for research. Scott is now "fire leader“, assistant squad leader. Ivan was now team mechanic, in charge of repairing weapon. Trevor was now car mechanic, chosen for his ability to memorize car schematics well. I am a driver and pack mule, carrying extra bullets for the team, while Heng Wei now in charge of packing food and drinks, as well of medicals aid and equipment, for the team.
I, after joining the group in countless skirmish and attacks inside the Zone, now grew into a veteran, agile, able to carry heavy loads and also a damn good shot. Experience had nurtured my instinct well, for from the mistakes I had made in the past, I learned and remembered them. I knew maneuvering inside the Zone requires perfection. Mistakes could kill as swiftly as a bullet into your head. I also knew to trust my friends by heart, for they are the only ones I have trustworthy. My instincts now would always warned me about oddities I see, such as anomalies, or tell-tale sign of mutants, such as an exposed tail well camouflaged.
As my experience in the Zone grew, so did my sighting with mutants. Not only I had met the Hydras and Serpent, but many other mutants as well. I had the chance to see Rockies, mutants that looked like big chunk of rock while camouflaged but dangerous as it shoots spikes, which loved to burrow into the ground and wait for ambush. Giant birds, called Raptors, that had wings but cannot flew, ran fast on two legs, able to jump down to kill using its sharp teeth from trees and also shot spikes of sharp thorns from its forehead had been encountered too. Besides that, I also met mutants call Debbies by other stalkers, which I didn"t know how the name originated, but sure it looked women-shaped and quite short. Quick, strong and agile, they were good at sneaking behind humans and kill them by their four hands and ripping off their heads. Mutated rabbits also brought danger. These ruminants now had toxins behind their teeth as that of an ordinary viper, attacked in group and eat meat. But the most dangerous mutants are mutated crows. Attacking in flocks, they have neurotoxins at their beak, paralyze stalkers while eating them alive, with the stalkers unable to do anything, let alone screaming for help. We had once heard rumours that a group of 50 Marauders were eaten by 2 flocks of crows in the woods.
As danger grew, so did competition. Many clans and groups were formed in The Camp, and stalkers competed among themselves for rubles. Clan and group war were ordinary inside the Zone, killing each other to acquire others equipment and weapons for food. Groups which did not have enough money will go cannibalistic, eating dead human meats for food to cut cost. The Alliance of Hellcats never made ambushed though, as Jacques reasoned, “ we don't kill anything that don't want to kill us. However, we had barely escaped several ambushed made by clans.
Scientists were also ambushed along with their military escorts for their things, so Dr Oleg and Dr Kilgore both frequently had us passively escorted during their expedition in exchange for info. We would escort them from afar and scout their destinations ahead to clear any "obstacles“, and watched from long range through our sniper scopes for possible troubles.
Military interventions inside the Zone were frequent too. Special force, the Spetnatz would conduct operation inside the Zone, often killing stalkers on sight, since stalking or poaching was illegal inside the Zone. They also now escorted scientist and kill mutants themselves. Military stalkers, the "Government's stalker“ made of recruited Spetnatz and ordinary stalkers, would group in five and did things the Russian Government wanted them to do. Garrison troops, the ordinary soldiers, now have heat sensors, long range artillery and
I once asked Jacques why didn't the Government closed down The Camp. Jacques thought wisely, then told me The Zone was an income for the Russian Governments themselves. International research companies would come to research in The Zone, and for that, they need to pay the Government. The Dealer himself had contacts in the army, and through bribes and money given to these contacts and local military officials, the money would eventually reach the central government. Stalkers coming in from other countries needed to pay for plane tickets and bus trips, and that's income for the Russian. The Whiskey and Vodka in The Bar, were imported from Moscow, and the money will reach the Government too in the end through taxes. Last but not least, technology acquired through research would result in the making of weapons, and through this The Russian Government can export them. These incomes were vital for the survival of Russia, he told me, and that's why The Government wouldn't close it down.
I also started to see how lucky I was, since on the first day, I was already recruited by the Alliance. Rarely do I find new stalkers came back from their first mission, which is always controller killing, just like my first. They either got killed by zombies, got themselves mind-controlled, or killed by stalkers for their gear. Newbies also get recruited by the various clans in The Camp the first minute they step into the place.
The Alliance finance grew by leaps and bounds as time past. In no time, we had almost reached our targeted sum of 2,100,000 rubles, the value that,after converted, would be $800,000 US dollars. In time to come, we would equipped ourselves with SVU MK.II which uses 7.62mm and can automatically adjust into any length, meaning that we now could use bullets from the AK rifles for our sniper, which wasn't possible with the MK.I version.
As I watch, the armies of mutants marched closer and closer. I left the crevice and go to the center of the house, my FN2000 cocked ad ready. I also have a HE grenade in my left hand now, ready to be used. I hide behind a table in the center of the house, though I know this will not give me enough protection from the invading army.
Suddenly, a tentacle burst through the wooden wall of the house and come to me straight. I throw the grenade at it and unpredictably, the tentacle take it and left. 5 secs later, a boom and a scream can be heard; followed by splattering of liquid, which I guess is blood, onto the wall.
Suddenly, the house starts to shake. A lot of pressure came onto the door. The only reason the wall haven't broken down yet is because of the AK stuck there. Now, all kinds of sound can be heard outside: moans of the zombies, the "laughing sounds coming from Blind Dogs, the sound of rats chewing at the door, and the thudding sound of a bear.
The showdown has begun. My hand rested against the front trigger of the FN2000, aimed at door, and prepare to fire when the door finally come down
Yesterday was
I was taking my usual practice this morning -running, when a frightened stalker from the clan "Duty“ ran towards me. "I never wanted to be a stalker again. I'm going home!“ He shouted while running across the fence that garrisoned the Camp. This was quite normal among stalkers, as when stalkers encountered grotesque events, they would always swear they would quit stalkering, though many later ate their words. But something was special. I decided to follow him back into his quarters.
When I reached the guy's room. I saw him packing up. He is for real, I thought. Must be something traumatic. So I invited him for a drink at The Bar.
As soon he gulped the vodka, he burst out in tears. Crying, he told me yesterday morning, 200 members of his clan, the "Duty“, went out to Chernobyl reactor side, the place which causes the Zone to happen, for mutant killing. They had barely step into the building when a gigantic green mutant, he said, jumped out of nowhere and killed many stalkers. He didn't stay to help. Instead, he "chickened“ and got into one of the group's Niva and drove of. He said several did the same, but "The Thing“ burnt them off, how, I didn't know how. He said his Niva broke down last night, so he had walked from the Zone until now. He was lucky not to be attacked by other mutants.
I was bored that time, and looked forward to action, an action that I will regret. So I went to the Dealer and asked him to "borrow“ me one of the Niva he had.
"Where to!“ He asked.
"Chernobyl reactor. Hunting“
"You gotta be crazy!“ He said. Then he replied again. All right, I will give you 1,since you are might favorite customers. But you would have to get it back!“ He handed me the keys.
I quickly went to my bunk, took out the keys to The Alliance's armory, located in Jacques's room. I got my FN2000 out, loaded it and put it in my duffel bag. Next, I took a SVU from the shelves, loaded it. Then, my Galantine sniper and 5 mags with a laser scope also. After that, I took out 9 mags for the SVU and 15 mags for the FN2000. I also took 10 40mm grenades and 4 HE grenades. After that, I took 8 AA batteries and inserted them into My FN's computer-control fire module, thermal scope, and anti-controller equipment, with two more spares. After I took my gear of equipment and provisions for 1 day, I went to fuel up the Niva. Last but not least, I left a note for the Alliance, noting that I was going out "hunting“. With that, I was ready. Then. I moved out.
The trip went out just fine, not usual for me. Nobody seemed interested in attacking me. So after five hours of driving through rough terrain, I reached the Chernobyl. I parked the car in the woods and went out slowly to the reactor side.
The moment I reached the forested area covered with all kind of odd faunas, I instantly noticed something was wrong, and that something quite explained why no ambush happened to me. From afar, when I used my binocular to peek at the area, I noticed that many died bodies lying on the ground. Many stalkers of different clans were attacking a green, gargantuan mutant with a very ugly face that was spitting fire at their comrades, burning them alive. Wreckage of vehicle also could be spotted around them, still very much in flames. The Green mutant not only spray rains of flames at them, it was also throwing various objects at the stalkers. Before long, noise of gunfire died down with nothing standing anymore except for the Green Mutant, which then lay down and started to eat at his victim's ash and bodies. A few vehicles were left untouched. Why syalkers were there, I could never tell.
I reasoned that I might not be able to handle this mutant alone, but that was before I spotted my strategic item: a tank of fuel inside a dilapidated depot near to the reactor, possibly a vehicle depot.
As I watched, yellow radiation fog suddenly started to build up around the reactor. However, what was to happen I could never comprehended it. The mutant literally sucked out the fog and as a result, grew bigger. I could only say "Damn!“ to the astounding scene I had never saw before.
After a while, when I am very sure that the mutant was diverting its full attention to eating, I begun to walk slowly but cautiously along the forest until I approached the depot. Then, I ran into the depot which was covered with vegetation.
As I stepped into the depot, suddenly, a giant spider jumped down from the ceiling, which shocked me. The moment I saw it, I quickly on the laser scope of My FN and started shooting. As my bullets hit it one shot by one shot, it shuddered backwards, but at the same time sprayed sticky spider wax at me, which I was quick in dodging it. After I empty 2 mags, the huge arachnid finally came down dead. I can now relax a bit, I thought.
As I put down my weapon, suddenly a roar came from behind. As I turned, I saw the hulky, mutants running at me from a distance, its arms each grabbing a car wreckage still in flames. I suddenly remembered why I was here, which a moment ago must had disappeared from my mind while killing the spider. I quickly ran into the depot and ran on the rusty pieces of steel ladders. As I reached the second floor, the mutant finally came into view. The green thing saw me first, and hurled one of its wreckage at me. I dodged it as it missed me barely, but hit the steel ladder above me. The pieces of steel crumbled and started to collapse. As metal crushed on the second floor, my level of steels could not bear the weight and momentum of those heavy steel and fall down to the ground floor as I watched and froze in terror.
That was no all. The heavy pieces of steel could have crushed me easily and eased my oncoming death from the horrible mutant. But they did not. Instead, they spared my life and left to the giant monster by stopping just an inch above the ground. I was now staring face to face to the green mutant, which was clearer smiling as if killing me was all too easy.
But I refused to go down easily, I said to my self. I raised my FN and fired at the mutant. However, my efforts were in vain, for bullets refuse to pierce through its skin. Conventional methods were now useless. I quickly took out my VAL and shot at it. This time, the bullets seemed to go through its skin, for I saw little blue droplets coming out from the mutant's wound after the velocity of the powerful VAL seem to go through. But that too, as I watched, disappeared when the wounds joined on its own.
But luck came to me. The mutant accidentally stepped on the corpse of the mutated spider on the ground, and when his leg tried to rise, it was stuck to the ground. I reasoned that the spider's abdomen's spider was must have been so sticky that it had stuck the hulk to the ground. Quickly, I ran toward the only exit there was: the way I came in, and the place where the mutant was now.
As I ran, the mutant hurled his pieces of steel at me, but all of them hit where I was a moment ago. Next, as I ran past the green mutant firing my VAL at the same time, it sprayed fire at me. But my hours of training saved me: I ran fast enough to get myself safe from the napalm of destruction.
As I exited, the mutant managed to free his leg from the spider wax… but with a mistake. It must had used so much strength on freeing his leg, for when it managed to free his leg, it unwittingly into a steel beam supporting the depot. As I watched in relief, the ceiling collapsed and fell on the mutant who was now trying to outrun the speed of the falling concretes and steel but failed. It let out a scream as the wreckage fall on it. The mutant must had died, I said as I let out a sigh out relief.
Then, to my horror, the mutant jumped out of the wreckage, exposing a large beam that went through its body. It calmly, pulled the beam out from its wound and then threw it at me.
As I ducked the steel javelin, I saw the tank of fuel that I too forgot about it, hidden in the barrage of concrete and still but nevertheless exposed through a little hole.
When I landed on the ground, I threw my VAL aside and took out my FN2000, on its laser scope, and aimed at it. The mutant, didn't aware of my plans, jumped on the concrete chunks and ran at me. But this time, in a mix of fear and excitement, I took out my 40mm grenade, pulled the grenade launcher chamber open, inserted the grenade in, and scrolled my hands so that the laser pointer was on the large fuel tank's exposed part. I told myself:"I can't miss this one!“ As I put my finger, now cold with fear, on the front trigger. It was the Mutant or I.
The moment came right. The Green mutant stepped on the chunks of concrete just above the fuel tank. Then everything went slow motion. I squeezed the trigger forcefully. The "wush“ sound of a 40mm grenade escaped from the chamber, flying towards the fuel tank. I could even see the grenade's yellow flames this time as the grenade flew towards its target, the fuel.
On contact, the grenade exploded, igniting the fuel which too exploded into a tsunami of fire. The sound of explosion was the music to my ears, a sound that I welcomed the most now. The explosion now threw the Mutant into the air, while its flames stuck at it. The Mutant then flew back straight into the flaming tank, making a large "thud“. As I watched, the Mutant stood up again, but this time, its body on flames. It was stills coming straight at me while screaming in pain, so I loaded my 40mm grenade again. But it appears that my action were useless, for the mutant slowly come to a stop, then finally go to a stop and crashed to the ground. My ordeal was now over. The mutants chest moved for a while, then finally stopped.
My arms shaking from the burst of adrenaline, I slowly rosed, picked up my VAL and reloaded my arms. I slowly walked past the charred body, which was once the hull of terror, to the Entrance of the Chernobyl Reactor Plant.
As I walked through the wreckages and bodies into the entrance, I saw that most part of Chernobyl was very much completed, save for a big hole that was churning out radiation, which illuminated the air. I walked into the main entrance of Chernobyl.
The moment I reached the inside, I saw "Rusty hair“ growing on the inside part of the building, consuming whatever was metal. Scores of skeleton and bones were laying on the floor, probably the work of the mutant Any hopes of recovering any old weapons would not be possible as the radiation must had destroyed them, so I explored the inside of the old building, careful not to touched the "rusty hair“ to avoid turning to chinks of carbon.
While I was exploring, I caught sight of a room. This room was the same as any other room, but it was very peculiar: it was opened. I slowly ventured near the room.
When I reached the room, I saw a skeleton on the door and blocking the door from closing. But what was more peculiar: was a hole at its skull. I opened the wooden door blocking the entrance.
The room was covered with obsolete surveillance equipment of Old Russian era, none of them useable anymore though. The equipments' glasses were all broken, and a porcelain mug still on a table inside the small room. As I look around, I saw a CD recorder, part of the surveillance equipment. Out of curiosity, I took out my SVU and slammed its butt onto the rusty equipment. The player broke easily, revealing an unmistakable round thing that I knew instantly by looking at its reflective side: a CD. I put it inside my backpack, and then exited the room.
Something odd happen when I got out of the room: an alarm sounded. I gave no notice to it, as it died down only after 5 secs. After going, I went around, looking for anything to be salvage, but found nothing except ordinary AK rifles and some gatling chaingun. So I took out their bullets and refilled my magazine, and also put 3 AK mags and an
When I waked up the next morning, I saw a sight I never forgot: 10 military stalkers in green BDU and HAZMAT were nearby in the area, walking in the open cautiously in a group and looking for something. I hid inside my car and peeked occasionally at them.
I saw one of them, presumably the team leader, talking in Russian to a handheld radio and listened to its chatted. This action was repeated for several times. Then he spoke to teammates: “ Ok people, the man could be around here somewhere. Shoot on sight, but no GL allowed. The CD is too important. We must acquire it. Stay close, team.“
I did not hesitate, and started shooting at them. They were quickly wiped out in lest then 10 seconds time. They must be after the disc; I remembered the alarm and reasoned it must be something very important to the Russian Government. Might fetch a lot of money for it. But I did no care about its danger then. I went, picked out 6 of their 40mm grenades as well as 5.56 bullets, and decided it was time to go.
Before I left, I remembered something. Maybe I could cut the green mutant and sold it to scientists. So I go to the died stalkers, pulled out their clothing, go to the dead mutant's place, cut off its head and heart and covered them with the clothing.
Then I drove away, back to The Camp, feeling happy for what I had now. The Day is going to turn out great, I said to myself.
But the Day would be my worst.
After I had been driving for two hours, my Niva suddenly died down in the middle of a meadow. I came out, cursing the lousy vehicle, then started to walk on foot. By luck, I be back at evening. Well, at least the scenery was beautiful, I said to my self while walking along the dirt tracks which should lead to The Camp, according to my map.
Before long, I heard moans coming from behind. When I looked backed, hundreds of Blind Dogs were coming at me fast from afar, about 1 km. I took out my SVU and fired rapidly onto anything that came into my scope. Bullets after bullets pumped out from my rifle.
When I finished my SVU's ammunitions, I saw the number increased by thousands now. Blind Dogs have good smell, but not this good.
I fired my FN 2000 at them. Before long, I emptied 5 mags, but the Blind Dogs were still coming. Worse, I could see zombies and many kind of other mutants coming from every direction, such as rat wolves. Damned, I said. The mutant's blood must be drawing them, as I saw my sack carrying the Green Mutant's head was now covered in blue blood,
Without hesitating, I ran.
The door came down all in a sudden, revealing a lot of zombies. I took a deep breath and fired the grenade. A "wush“ sounding came, and next came a boom and pieces of meat and also splashes of blood. But that didn't help much. The thousands of mutant were now prowling outside, drawn to the blood. Throwing the head at then seemed a good idea, but I felt I could make lots of many out of this. So I decided to do so for a last resort.
10 40mm GLs afterward, I was now more then desperate, zombies were now squeezing among themselves to come in. I changed my safety pin to 1 shot and on the laser scope of the FN. I carefully fired shot after shot at the mass outside killing the zombies outside.
Suddenly, some zombies flew straight up, as though something was trying to push through the "crowd“ outside. Next, a lot of zombies flew up again, dropping yards away. As the "thing“ that shot the zombies upward came closer, I realized my demise was near.
It was the Bear, the one that I saw a moment ago. Aside from the features I saw just now, the Bear had three eyes on its face, a feature I didn't saw through my scope. Suddenly it opened its mouth, and with that came out two more small mouths. Its arm swinging menacingly, the Bear was now coming nearer and nearer to me. I quickly changed my firing pin to auto, the laser pointer now at the Bear's face. I also pushed a 40mm into the GL chamber.
Suddenly my radio came to life.
" Damnit, Amos, are you there. Answer me, I am Jacques.“
With that, I quickly screamed, "help“ into the radio. The Bear, hearing me screamed, charged at me.
I quickly pressed the back trigger. In seconds, volley of lead flew towards the Bear noggin. Bullets pierced into his face, which angered it further. The Bear jumped at me, to which I quickly dodged sideway. The Bear's powerful arms and claws missed me by inches as it landed near me.
"Amos, if you are still there, get out of the house now!“
While The Bear was still struggling to stand up, I pressed the button on the radio and shouted "How? I am stranded!“
"Amos, you have to find a way. We are going to vaporize the area. Get out now! We will try to cover you!“
Taking a deep breath, I charged at the door and fired the grenade outside. I didn't wait for the smoke to clear.
The moment I ran out, I fire my remaining shots at the zombies outside, until the shots came out empty. Then I drew out my combat knife and started swinging it blindly and madly against anything that blocked my way. Sharp thing tore through mt HAZMAT suits, but I no longer cared.
Then a Blind Dog brought me down.
The instant I fell, I saw the Blind Dog facing at me, its brown saliva leaking out of its mouth. Then, its razor-sharp teeth came out and rocketed towards my neck. I closed my eyes.
But at that very instant, shots flew through the air. I felt a pressure dropped forcefully on me. Instantly, I knew salvation came.
As I stand up, I saw 3 shadows was firing from far north above something that looked like vehicles, facing the entrance of the house. 3 more shadows were running madly towards me.
"Damnit, you stupid idiot. Get up and round!“ The radio screamed. Instinctive, I got up and while pushing and dodging the enemies.
When I managed to get to the end of the crowd, I saw Trevor, Scott and Heng Wei firing their FN2000 while running at me. “ Move it, you idiot!" Scott screamed at me while fishing out a 5.56 mag and threw at me. Catching the mag, I quickly inserted it into my weapon's chamber. As I ran, wave after wave of yellow tracer flew past me and the other three. From the rapid fire, I know it was the
The moment I reached the vehicle, the burly shape of Jacques came into view, firing his sniper together with James on top of the vehicle, while Chavez was firing his chain gun like crazy. Seeing me, Jacques screamed into the radio. “ The VIP has reached us. Extract now!" As I turned, I saw three shadows ran at me. I quickly reached for my FN2000 and fired at the overwhelming terror that was racing towards us.
" James, the plasma. Now!" Jacques screamed in fury. For a moment, I couldn't comprehend what Jacques just said. Then I saw James took out a long shaped black metallic object at the mass of mutants and set it up onto the rotating beam behind the Niva , opened a box and threw in its content, and took aimed. The moment Trevor, Scott and Heng Wei reached us, he fired.
The blue-coloured shot that came out stunned me, for I haven't seen anything liked it for a long time. As it impacted the mass of mutants, a blinding blue wave occurred, incinerating anything that came into the wave's way into oblivion. Then I realized it was a shot from a Plasma Cannon.
Trevor and Scott quickly jumped into two cars, while Jacques, me and Heng Wei jumped into the other two. As Trevor leaded, Jacques drove in the center, with Scott escorting in behind. James were on the back of Trevor's car, while Chavez were in the back of Scott's Niva, firing his Gatling from the rotating mechanism into the distance.
"Damnit kid, why you left without us? We should had left you with the mutants and let them have you for lunch!“ Jacques shouted at me, a gesture he seldom did, even when under pressure. He must be very angry. Then his tone quieted down a bit as he drove. “ What have you got that made the mutant loved you so much?" I showed him the head of the Green Mutant in the rag, which was now covered with blue blood!“
"Shit, you son of a…' he paused, "all right!“ Then he speak to Heng Wei. “ Heng Wei, replace his HAZMAT suit with a new one. And attend to his wounds." I looked at my limbs and saw blood oozing out from the torn HAZMAT suit of mine, with teeth and claws still stuck there. Some parts of my HAZMAT suit were melted, possibly acid from Serpents. As Heng Wei quickly administering antidotes and regeneration booster to my wounds, pulling out foreign object and treating my wounds in my legs and arms with iodine, I couldn't help noticing the laceration on Heng Wei's body parts, some still with the pikes of Raptors sticking out. The Team must have willingly sacrificed for me.
"Sir, where's Ivan!“
"He is not that well, he said, so we left him in the Camp. Well, eight people operation is still sufficient for this one!“
After 10 mins, when we were sure we were safe, we stopped near a forest. While Heng Wei attended to the injuries of Scott, Trevor and himself, I changed into my new HAZMAT suit. After a while, they, too change their torn HAZMAT for new ones.
Suddenly, a roar ricocheted nearby. As we all instinctively turned, Raptors were running at us, with the Bear following close.
"Code Alpha, fire at will!“ zoomed through the air.
Burst of FN's and Gatling cut through the air. Trevor took out his
I quickly took my backpack, took out my VAL and calmly aimed at the Bear while the Alliance fired on. When the head of The Bear filled my scope, I fired. Instantly, the muted sound of VAL shots came out, and through my scope I satisfyingly saw the center of the head of the Bear turn into a black hole filled with green blood. As I watched from my scope, the Bear walked slower and slower, though its speed was still very fast. I continued to put several rounds more into its mouth and torsos. After a few minutes, It went down, never to stand up again. Other mutants too, died down.
"Damnit, kid, you brought you VAL along, eh!“ Trevor smiled at me. “ You're one really lucky chap, from day 1 till now.“
"Kid, ever wonder about our new toy came from!“ James asked me. "We went Dwarf-hunting and saw one laying outside the dungeon on the body of a ‘Monolith' guy, its head replaced by a brick. He had no use anymore, so we took it. Only had one Mercury ball though!“
"Not good, sir!“ James speaked, then continued. "Hinds coming in…2!“
We waited until the choppers neared, while parking into the forest. When The Chopper came into view, volleys of 7.62 from the Gatling welcomed them. In minutes, the Hinds were on the ground, its engine on flames and passengers all died.
"Strange. Hinds don't always come after stalkers!“ Jacques said. Then I showed him the CD from my pocket.
"Damnit,amigo, why just for once you started picking up things and everyone started to love you. If I were you, I bring those stuff to Mexico and lots of gals and babes will come to me…' Chavez chided.
"James, any hope we might be able to read this!“
"Can't tell. Might need a computer of some sort to see the content!“
As we spoke, James said again. “ Sir, choppers coming in fast. There another blimp, can't tell, but faster than a chopper. Might be an
"Threat to us!“
"Might be, but maybe spotter. Wait and see!“
Moments later, a plane flew overhead.
"Sir, something is wrong. That thing sounded like a Galaxy, sir. I heard the droning sound before in England. But can't see the props, so cannot be sure!“ Scott said.
Within moments, the aircraft flew far away. But then, something odd happen. We saw eight shadows fall from the back of the plane. All of them dropped down liked a stone, but moment before they touch the ground, parachutes open above all of them, slowing their descent.
"My friends, you had just witnessed a HALO jump. That skill isn't available all around the world. UK SAS wouldn't bother to come here, so… We have SOFs here in The Zone…Americans. Hard to tell which part, but they are elite, better that Russian SFs. My best guess is they are after the disc. Must be on Future Warrior suits with M29!“ Scott expressed with terror in his eyes.
"Brief us!“ Jacques said.
"Watch your six, people. Shoot anything that move!“ Scott continued. "Those FW suits can camou into the background. T gogs wouldn't help-those suits are anti-thermal. M29 OICWs are better than our FNs, and their 20mm fused g's really hit hard. If configured correctly, those grenades can exploded in
"Good. I am stating our primary mission now: acquire laptop. Everybody move out in a group. Be careful people!“
We headed out to the place we thought the SOF landed. Overhead, we saw about 4 more aircraft repeating the same thing again, but at different direction.
The moment we neared the place where we thought the soldiers landed, a shout of terror shot through the heavily forested area. Everybody got out of the Nivas and reloaded their weapon. Everybody too handed a 5.56 magazine to me.
"Code Alpha. Make it silent. Fire at will. Go into group of four. Scott, fire leader. Trevor, James and Ali, follow Scott. Heng Wei, Amos and Chavez, follow me. Take HWs along. Scott, on T gogs. Now on, use Morse. Out!“
As we spoke, chatter of machine gun come out.
"Damnit! Engage! Engage! Engage!“ Jacques shouted. Everybody ran towards where the shots came from, running cover by cover, team by team.
"Sir, enemy sighted!“ Scott screamed into the radio. "Sir, Raptors there. Require immediate instruction!“
"How many!“
"Pack of ten. SOFs has 5 man down, three more firing at will!“
" Hit the Raptors." This was followed by mad burst of FN's fire from Scott's team. As we ran toward to the engagement zone, three grenade exploded, followed by more screams from humans and mutants.
The moment my team reached there, we saw 3 SOFs lying down on the ground, bleeding heavily, while the 2 Raptors jumped at them. Within moments, they were died. 4 more raptors were already dead, but four more were rushing towards Scott's team.
"Code Omega!“ Jacques shouted. No command needed. Defend Yourself.
Instantly, my team started shooting. Chavez's minigun quickly tore through the woods, spurting red blood of the mutated birds onto the ground. A charge from the
The two Raptors, now sighting us, aimed their head at us. A ‘wush' sounded consequently occurred. Moment latter, two headless raptors were, too, lying on the ground of the thick forest covered with vegetation.
"Code Bravo. Scott's team, see what we have. My team, cover them!“ The code meant possible enemy around.
" Sir recovered the laptop. Scratched, but no damage to the hard drive.“
" Give it to James. Amos, The CD to James." I obeyed, then resume to my position.
" Sir, there's another thing. The arm patch sir. These SOFs come from different operation branch. I only recognize 2 though. One is Ranger, another one is Night Stalker.“
"Damn. Scott, get your team to recover ammunition and food from these guys. When you finished, go to the Niva. We'll cover!“ Then Jacques mused. "Those suits may have protect them from human, but not mutants!“
"Sir, found something else. We have batteries from their M29
"James, what do you have?!“
"Sir, the CD is still working. Problem is, this system's Linux!“
"Speak English, James!“
"Sir, this CD's format is not runable on ordinary system. I never see this system format before. Judging from the10 files size, I think this is a security tape. Must be Russian-designed. We need something that can play this thing…maybe from a military command post!“
"Damn. James, try to see from the GPS to see we can get a command post!“
"Sir, my reading says there's one aproximately12 kilometres north from the Camp, but just inside and border of The Zone. I think it is a mobile command post. Approximately 30 km from our current position“
"Scott, Trevor. Get us into ten miles radius of the zone, can you? I need to talk to Ivan!“
"Roger. This is Trevor. I think we can get to first waypoint in half an hour. Second waypoint will take an hour and a half!“
Half an hour later, our convoy stopped.
"Ivan, can you read me!“
"This is Ivan, Sir, where the hell are you!“
" Ivan, we are still inside the Zone. We got Amos.“
" Sir, the military had lock down the Zone. Nobody was allowed in an out of the Zone, save for the Government. I have
"Ivan, listen carefully. I need you to pack your gear. Get yourself silenced weapon, maybe a cheap VAL, silenced pistol and something good like the FN P90 silenced. You are going operational!“
"Why!“
"We need to get to a mobile command post north 12km to The Zone. Something important!“
"Sir, I do not have cash!“
"Listen. Under my pillow, there are 5000 rubles for emergency use. Spend it all on weapons. You do now how to attack silently, don't you? Also, try to bring along some
"I can try!“
"We will meet you there. Jacques out!“
"Out“
On our trip to the Command Post, we saw a lot of carnage that we never seen before. Wreckage of vehicles and bodies were lying and burning on the Eulasyian plain, as stalker call it, near the border of the Zone, no doubt as the result of rocket attacks by Hinds. The Military was desperate for the CD now. Fortunately, no more mutants were on sight chasing after the Head. No choppers were in the radarscope also, according to James.
After an hour, we reached the command post, located on a plain covered with grass.
The command post was still and quiet. As we approached, suddenly, two soldiers welding Aks came into view, rushing at us.
"Damn, Ivan wasn't here yet. Must have squandered all those money on Vodka!“ Chavez said, at the same moment took aim at the two with his
Suddenly, the two soldiers' head were blown away, like melons being shot at. As they fall lifelessly onto the ground, Ivan came out, dressed in black, holding a silent VAL and a silenced
"Cool, isn't it? I haven't use a Silent VAL for so long since I left the Spetnatz!“ Ivan quipped, while passing us the things Jacques told him to bring. He brought along 35 5.56 mags, 16 batteries and enough food to last us a week.
"What? You are a former Spetnatz!“ Jacques asked, shocked.
"Yes. An Alfa too!“
"Never mind. All dead!“
"Yes Sir. Maybe some leftover!“
"Good. Lead us to the mobile command post!“
As we walked to the caravan-style command post inside with military camps around, we saw bodies lying everywhere, the job of Ivan. As we walk along, Ivan said, "Luckily, most of them went to the Camp to guard the Border“. Then, we reached the inside of the command post.
As we stepped inside the detached caravan wit ha radar dish on top, Ivan pulled out his
As we stepped inside, Ivan spoke the soldier in Russian, rifle on his face. The soldier was really afraid, and quickly played the CD passed by James to him.
As we watch, the 16 screens from the equipment lit up simultaneously, showing the date 12 April 2006, the day of the 2ndChernobyl.The
As the time on the screen turned 12.04 am, we saw 3 squad of soldiers in HAZMAT rushing into the nuclear reactor plan. A leader spoke to the guard detail, then command his men to move. Those soldiers, Ivan said by judging from their uniform and
Next, nothing had occurred, so Ivan commanded the soldier to fast-forward it to 1.00am.
Then, as we watch, suddenly burst of fire can be heard. Soldiers and guards, all in HAZMAT, ran out to battle. More shots occurred. After that, we saw a soldier flew back and rammed against the wall, blood splatting against the wall. As the body slit down, a lot of man, about 150 welding
Then we saw the invaders hurriedly going around the area, looking for something, but couldn't find it. For some reason, there were men in Bunny-suits, probably scientists in the building. Those men were escorted to the leader, and one by one, after asking them something in Russian, the leader killed them, one by one, until they all died. The team leader got angry, and joined his men in search of something. Ivan then commanded the soldier to fast-forward the video to 2.00 a.m
As we peer through the 16 video footage of Chernobyl reactor, we saw in horror, as the men took a large thing that looked like a nuclear warhead to the front door. Next, we saw the men fired at something, not covered by the camera at the front door. The men retreated to the main reactor. Then we watched scores of other Alfa, not in HAZMAT, rushed in to retake the building. As the gun battle was quickly forwarded to 2.20 am, we saw a lot of invaders down, the Alfa now fighting the enemies in spite of the danger they were facing. The Alfa had suffered tremendous casualties, but those brave men, not matter injured or not, continued to fight on. At long last, on 2.22 a.m, we saw only two invader left: The Team leader and a soldier.
As the two hide cowardly behind a piece of machinery, the team leader spoke to the other man, what Ivan translated as "We must not be prosecuted, or else we will die in the hand of the Russian Government“. Then the Team leader took out the warhead, and forcefully slammed the warhead against the floor.Then, exactly in 2.23am, the video went blank in static.
We now knew what happen that day. The rest was self-explanatory. The warhead exploded, killing everyone and blowing the reactor apart, spreading nuclear holocaust to the world.
As James reached for the CD, suddenly, sounds of Hind Chopper could be heard coming from a distance.
"Get out here, I'll cover you!“ said Ivan as he slammed the butt of his rifle against the soldier, knocking him unconscious. As we ran toward our Nivas, Ivan took an
We had been in the Zone for a week now, with our food almost finished. We had meet with mutants and military. After several encounters with humans and mutants alike in the week, we were now very low in ammunition. Our HWs had now been discarded. Chavez was now on his
On the 7thday after seeing the CD, our Nivas were on the last reserve of diesel oil.
If we had the chance, we would be willing to stay as long as possible, but something happened that day that propelled us to try and escaped the Zone or die trying.
We were roving around the Zone in the afternoon, as usual, trying to escape the usual wave of Hinds now combing the Zone everyday for us. The radar James had was a great help.
That was before we met the Comanche.
While we were driving along, suddenly, a Comanche helicopter showed up. Its stealth capability had hidden it from us, and its speed and agility had covered itself against us until the very last moment. We also could have spotted if not because of our fatigue. We were now sleeping only 3 hours a day.
The chopper followed us for a while, then blocked us in front.
The moment it touched down, the pilot was seeing us through a goggles, then, as we tried to open fire at it, it lifted off, turned around, and its Gatling Machinegun started turning at us, sending sparks of Death straight at us.
Everybody got down from their vehicles and ran.
The Comanche tried very hard to hit us, but fortunately, we were fast enough to dodge it while we ran towards the nearest forest.
Then, a bullet got Chavez's leg.
As he screamed in pain, Chavez told us to leave him. Though usually we never do so, this was a dire circumstance. We were forced to leave him. As we walked farther and farther into the wood, we heard an explosion. Chavez was now dead, we concluded.
During the night far away from the site, Jacques was devastated. Although he was a born leader, he also had his emotions. The lost of his two men while trying to save the group's members had not been expected. Now, there were only seven men left. As we clear a perimeter for the night, using tree logs to form a triangle for cover, he sat down in the center; thinking while the rest of us ate our
At a distance away, we saw the sky lighted up in yellow. Weak tremors shook the ground weakly. We also heard strange sounds coming from afar.
"Damn… blowout!“ Scott observed, while packing up his
Suddenly, Jacques tensed up, looking at me. The moment I looked into his eyes, I saw a combination of fear and anger lighting up his pupils. He took up his FN2000 at aimed at me.
"Damnit, Jacques, what the hell are you doing!“ Trevor said in fear. Instantly, everyone stopped eating.
"I saw a Raptor in front of me. Saw where my gun is pointing!“ He is right there, not moving.
"That's Amos!“
" No, that isn't.“
Suddenly, he was more frightened than ever. "Wait, you all are Raptors. I'm going to blow you all sky high!“ He pulled the safety pin of his FN2000 and, as I watched in terror, pulled his lasers and aimed at me…
Suddenly, a black shadow flew through the air and pushed Jacques down. As we continued to watch, Heng Wei, who now had Jacques on the floor, pull a needle out and injected something at his neck. Jacques slowly relaxed and then slept.
"Valium. Jacques must be on a lot of pressure. The Blowout can cause hallucination if you are in the affected zone, but far away, if you're too emotional or tired, you too can be affected!“
Then Scott said. “ All right. I want you to get 8 hours sleep. Amos, Heng Wei and Ali, you go sleep four hours first. We stay watch." Without a noise, we slept at 9.00pm. Through out the night, nothing had happen.
All of us rotated sleeping that night. After the others and I slept 4 hours, we woke up, and let Scott and Trevor slept while we stayed watch. When they had 8 hours, we slept again. By the time we woke up, it was 9.00 am. Jacques too had woke up, now very calm.
"Amos, I'm very sorry about last night. Now everybody listen up. We are going to storm the border today. Ordinary borders are electric-wired and mine, and the Camp is sealed off. The only option is through the garrison checkpoints. I want you to rearrange your bullets into full magazine. James and Trevor, work on logistics. We are going to get out of here, dead or alive!“
" Sir, according to the laptop, there's ten garrison checkpoint around us. The nearest one to us is about 15 km. There another one which is farther but lest activity around there, about approximately 20km." James informed us.
"I decided on 20km ones.
"Sir, I think we can get to the place by nightfall if we hurry. If we can recover our Niva…'
"Not possible. The cars' smashed!“
"Sir, if we have a vehicle, we can reach there faster!“
"If we ran!“
"I think maybe we can be there by two 'clock. Since our weight load had decreased!“
"Good. People, ammo condition!“
"Sir, we have about 10 mags of FN 2000 and 5 mags of SVU. Sidearm all full“
" People, make sure you only bring provisions for 1 meal only. Don't use your T gogs any more, save it for The Battle, except for Scott. Yes, also, since you guys hardly used your GLs, pass some along to Trevor. James, bring the laptop.“
"Now for the team. Scott, Trevor, James. and Heng Wei, Team A. You guys in charge of taking out heavy equipment. The rest, follow me. We'll be running, but stop and shout when you guys see anything unusual. Scott, you'll be running with your T gogs on, and you're the point man. Tell us of enemy. Everybody, move out after you are ready, we'll move in a line.
During the trip, things were unusually quite. We ran on plains to save stamina. But along the plains, we did not encounter anything. The plains were unusually quiet, even though we were still bringing the Head along in my sack. Perhaps it was because now, since we were nearing to the border, mutation died down. We also had to prone on the ground when Hinds were moving. But at long last, we reached the checkpoint at 1500 hours, though exhausted.
While we rested in the forest near to the Checkpoint, we peeked along the Checkpoint Garrison. 7 buildings were on site, which after monitoring, we presumed they were 1 administration office, 3 barracks, 2 depots, a guard tower near to the entrance of the base and an armory, along with a lot of camps. Guard details were strong. Many of them were having the
"People, still had grenades!“
"Sir, we haven't used our HE yet!“ Scott said.
"Good. Now Scott, I want you to listen carefully. I need Trevor and you to infiltrate the Area. KEEP SILENT AT ALL COST. Go on silenced sidearm if must. On my go, destroy those heavy equipment with Gs“ Everybody started screwing on silencers on their equipment.
"Ali, you stay here to snipe until ammo finish, then join us. Heng Wei, Amos and James, give your sniper ammo to Ali!“ As he instructed, we all emptied our sniper mags and passed our 7.62 bullets to him. We would surely have the 7.62s soon enough.
"Scott and Trevor, go. The rest, follow me. Ali, stay put and snipes when go.
The Battle was to commence was unusual then other engagement. In other engagement, ammo was plentiful, and the enemy would always be not much. This time, however, was different. We were fighting for survival, low on ammunition and facing perhaps a battalion of troops. Even if we could have a lot of ammunition, the odds were way to low, perhaps 300 to 8.
As Jacques, Heng Wei, James and I followed slowly behind Scott and Trevor, my stomach was turning as if it was doing acrobats. The mix of excitement and nervousness now filled through myself as I watched others too proceed in fear, walking along the jungle. There's almost no hope on surviving, but at least we would die with our friends around. No soldier, or stalkers, would ever asked for better death like this. Dying alone would be most horrible.
Soon we reached the wired gate, undetected by the sentries on the Guard Tower. Byt even if they did, the moment before they made a sound, a bullet from Ali would be tearing through their head.
As we covered them, Scott and Trevor tool out a knife and slowly cut the barbwire. Wires surrounding the Zone were electrified, but the wires around Checkpoints were not electrified. Mutants would rather charge onto soldiers then cutting through wires.
Next, each of us walked through the wire, and one by one, we took cover behind Administration building, nearest to the wire.
"Sir, I have 2 soldiers nearby. My gog tell me!“ Scott whispered to Jacques.
"Throw your knife around so that they could see and prepare to shoot. Everyone else, get ready to grab those body“
Scott followed. In moments, footsteps could be heard. Then two bodies came out at the corner of the gray administration building. In an instant, muffled AK shots came out, and Jacques and I grabbed the limp bodies to the back of the building. We then checked the body for ammunition. We got 6 mags of 30 7.62. We greedily popped the bullets into the SVU mag. We were now full with SVU bullets.
"Amos, take your VAL and disposed of the sentry quietly!“ A bullet soon tore through the body of the Russian soldier above the guard tower.
"Ali, take your targets. Trevor and Scott, do your thing!“ Both of them ran stealthy to the back of the dept, located next to the administration building.
After a while, the radio strobe Jacques flashed.
"GO!“ Jacques whispered
The Battle stared with 2 booms, then sound of bullets tearing through the limbs of human. We were now at war.
Taking cover behind the administration building and the depot, we fired SVU shots at confused trooper who didn't knew what happen. Mutant attacks doesn't start with a boom, and they were expecting mutants, not human.
As more and more troopers fell, the other soldiers regain their thoughts and started taking cover while shooting at us. More grenades flew through the air, destroying the Tanks and APCs. Soon, all the armored vehicles were on flames.
But not the UAZs. They were now stopping not far from the administration building, near the barracks. As bullets hit the cement, we took out our FN2000s, loaded grenades and fired when the soldier stopped firing.
As more and more soldiers came at us, charging madly, we now fired madly with our SVU, shooting even without aim. Noise of gunfire now could be heard everywhere the crackle of AK rifles and the electrical sound of the Gatling. Trevor's and Scott's grenades too were throwing a lot of things in flames now.
Then, a grenade flew out of nowhere, landing in front of me. Without thinking, I kicked it, and in a second, the grenade exploded in midair. "Good thinking!“ Jacques said.
"Sir, one UAZ coming from your guys right, right to the building. 5 soldiers on UAZ. Looks like their going for an ambush. Can't take them: too fast!“ Jacques radio crackled.
"Heng Wei, they're yours!“
"Heng Wei turned to his right. In 5 secs, a UAZ truck with 4 men sitting down and a man manning the minigun came into view. Hails of bullets greeted them onto Death. The four
"People, switch on goggles now! Make every shot count!“ Jacques ordered. Everyone followed suit.
After one and a half hour, we finished our SVU bullets, and other ammunition was slowly diminishing. But not the enemy.
"Sidearm!“ Jacques now shouted. Next, shots after shots came out of pistols. 5 minutes later, we too, finished our sidearm. Impromptu, all of us now took out our leftover weapon. Even Trevor finished his
"Scott here, we cannot join you, under heavy fire!“ Scott and Trevor had tried to join us, but every time they tried, bullets were homing at them.
Suddenly, 10 Hinds came into our view.
"People, it had been a pleasure working with everyone of you in the last 1 year!“ Jacques said through the radio hopelessly. “ Ali, run while you can.“
"No, sir, I'll fight till the end!“
"Good lad. People, prepare for the worse!“
8 Hinds now flew towards us, while two more flew to the other site, the view blocked by the administration building.6 Hinds flew towards Jacques, James, Heng Wei and me, while two more flew towards Trevor and Scott. In a few moments, our misery would be spare by the volleys of rocket on the Hinds rocket launcher.
But for some inexplicable reason, they didn't. Instead, they just hovered on the air, their aim still at every one of us.
Next, loud but rapid commands came out from a loud speaker, in Russian though. Then, “ Jacques and everyone of the Alliance of Hellcats, please step out to the corner so that we can see you. We will not open fire, but do not aim your weapons at us.“
We looked at each other, then to Jacques. How on earth could the Military know The Alliance, let alone out team leader? The military weren't busy body, and they were too happy to blast hollowpoints into our face then knowing our names.
Then Jacques radioed. "Since that may be our only hope, follow the man. Safe you weapon!“ Clicks quickly followed, and one by one, we stepped out from our hiding place.
As we went out, I saw hundreds of trooper training their
Next the Green Beret said: "Good. Walk and get to the chopper!“ As he waited for us.
As we slowly neared him, we saw the man's face. He looked familiar, James whispered to us. He had the face of Ivan, but Ivan was dead, we were sure of it.
Suddenly, he commanded. That's close enough. Where's Ali!“
"He's outside at the forest!“
"Good, Jacques!“ The Man said as he motioned a UAZ jeep to go out to pick Ali out. As we waited, we felt the atmosphere was intense, so tense that I felt it could be cut through by a knife. The soldiers were tensed and nervous. We didn't dare to have any sudden movement, as any move would surely bring death. All of us had our hands in the air.
At long last, Ali was driven toward us by the UAZ. He hoped down and joined us. Next, everything went like clockwork: the Black Beret and We went out on one of the Hind under heavy guard, while the soldiers with FN2000 escorting us to the chopper. Then, we took one of the choppers with The Green Beret, while the other soldiers went on the other one. Lastly we took off.
The Black Beret took off the beret. “ Forgive my friends, I am Colonel Ivan Gourgen, Vice Commander of the Spetnatz." He said. “ I was also known to you as Ivan…" We were stunned. After that, Jacques spoke.
"How the hell did you got out of that Hind Assault!“
"I didn't. The Hind was commanded by me to shoot to make me look dead. I was the one who radioed in the Hinds!“
"But why did you kill the soldiers in the command post!“
"They were expendable assets, pawn of war. I had to do so to acquire the things that you had…' Ivan looked at James, who quickly drew out the disc and gave it to Ivan.
"James, why did you…'
"Relax, you would not be prosecuted. You have my words. Now, any question you would liked to asked, shoot!“
"Where were we going!“ Heng Wei asked.
"Moscow Military Airbase, where you all will swear under oath to not to leaked the secret you had seen!“
"Why!“
"The secret is too valuable. Under normal circumstances, you all will be killed!“ Ivan paused. “ But you are all men of honour, though rogues. I believe you can keep some secret. But, nevertheless, I will not hesitate to assassinate you if you leaked out the secret.“
"Why? The world deserves to know!“
"No. My country has its honour and dignity. Though we are not rich as other country, we have our dignity. We had tried, and failed to stop the incident!“
"Tell us about the incident more clearly!“ Scott interrupted.
"3 hours before 12.00am that day, Moscow police had managed to caught a suspicious Russian mafia lieutenant. For the next two hours, they had grilled and tortured him, until he suddenly revealed a plan to steal a warhead, and as he said, no one could stop it. We Alfas were instantly summoned. My brother, Igor, was the Team Leader of the first squad to protect the warhead. They dressed up in HAZMAT and Kevlar armor before sent there to protect the warhead!“
"Why was a warhead there!“
" The Russian Government had assumed the warhead would be secure. The warhead is that of a tactical nuclear ballistic missile, a prototype version that isn't as strong as a full nuclear one. A squad of 6 Spetnatz would always protect it from spies, moving places to places to avoid detection until Moscow decided to manufacture it. Americans, especially, were very interested. Then somehow, the information leaked. Somebody wanted to buy it, so the Russian Mafia tried to stole it. That night, the team was stopping in Chernobyl. We thought that after the first explosion, everybody would think it was desolated, so the government reused it as a
" But why the Government were only sending 18 men?“
"Number game, my friends. Special Forces were trained to play number games, and the number of enemy would always more then us. To add that we never knew that 200 men were storming the place!“
"How come the later Alfas weren't dressed in HAZMAT!“
" When HQ heard the radio from Igor, we never had enough time to dress up in HAZMAT. 48 Alfas were sent airborne 2 minutes after the transmission. They were technically, in time. Although we were never be sure how many died during the second encounter if the bomb never exploded.“
"But how the radiation spreaded if the facility had been recycled? It is no longer a nuclear reactor“
"The facility ran on nuclear fuel from the previous reactor. That's why went the warhead exploded, the reactor too exploded!“
Next, it was James's turn.
"Chernobyl was Ukraine asset. How come your stories sounds not Ukraine at all!“
"Chernobyl was a thorn in The Ukraine government's eye, no use but a junk. So they decided to rent it to the Russian in 2005 for certain cost. This thing was
"How do you explain America's interest!“
"You government was very interested in what happened, and to the warhead. By coincidence, the entrance at the Security camera room was rigged with an alarm, our equipment all wiped with Carbon -16, so anything that goes out will alert Soviet Central Command. Amos was unlucky, since the alarm was still working somehow. But we'll never know how. That was just pure luck!“
"Some moles in the Russian defense ministry must had alerted the US government. That's why American had came in!“
"When did you know!“
"Only after three of our
"The Americans had long wanted to sneak into the Zone, for they too were interested in The Zone's finding, especially the Plasma Cannon technology. After you guys were in the Zone, we had a fleet of American carriers in Mediterranean Sea. We didn't know what they were after. I will issue a warning to them when we landed!“
"The MiGs had managed to destroy the Comanche by gun fire and saw your friend, lying under a tree. Perhaps I was going too fast. After I reported back to Russian Central command, I had to wait for 4 days before I was cleared and reinstated by Central. I was then promoted to Vice Commander of The Spetnatz by the President. The Russian General, General Vladimir, who was in charge of this operation, was a friend of mine. So, he handed me the power to run this operation to recover the disc!“
" He was the one who ordered the Camp sealed and engage any stalker, as he thought that maybe, by any chance, he might be able to get the disc. I manage to convince him to use the soft way. So, I ran Hind SAR to find you people.“
"The MiGs let us spotted Chavez. But Chavez was incapacitated, so I had to paradrop in 20 military stalker to cover you're friend for the night before a recovery operation could be conducted. Was hoping you guys would come back to bury Chavez too, but you guys didn't. If you had, you wouldn't have gone through some much trouble. '
"Hell, those guys are quite good, sir!“ Chavez grinned. "We were in the middle of a Blowout, and they calmly covered me. Also manage to hold back 200 Blind Dogs coming in for my blood as well as mutated crows. Boy, you should have seen the flamethrower. I just loved toasted crows, fried extra crispy!“
Ivan continued. "After we recovered Chavez, I reasoned you must be nearby, so I tried looking around to pick out you guys by Hind, but apparently, you guys were good. I was in Moscow when the Border attacked started, so I rushed here to save you guys butt, which I succeeded. He smiled at us.
"Now, for the most important question of all: Why were you in the Camp!“ Jacques suddenly spoke.
"The Government decided having military stalker was not enough to acquire good information about The Zone, so they needed someone to sneak and in acquire information of any sort, any importance to the Government, on the inside of the Camp. They also needed someone to run military stalking operation, someone with experience, so I was chosen for my experience with the Alfa and Spetnatz. The Government promise high promotion when I came out. Joining your group was also a strobe of luck: I was luckily encountered by Jacques and the rest of you on my first day, some three months after the Zone was reopened. You all remembered, ya!“ The rest of us, now more relaxes, joined the laughter. Then he continued. “ The experience with you will be something I cherished for the rest of my life. You all had taught me well in the past. You all more or lest contributed to Mother Russia, so I had some reward on behalf of the Government. With that, he walked in to the cargo bay and carried out 8 suitcases.
"Inside are 250,000 US dollars each suitcase. Something to reward you all. After all, money was why you came!“
Trevor asked: "How on earth did The Russian Government acquire so much money? Russia is in debt, isn't it? How come your poor Government had so much money!“
"First, my Government isn't so poor, so don't you humiliate my country. I am a patriot. Secondly, you all knew what are income taxes. So I decided to ‘collect' some tax on behalf of the Russian Government from The Dealer and to break into the safe in Jacques room. I decided to forfeit my share though. I work because of Russia, not because of money!“
"But how on earth could he agree? That chap wouldn't have agreed easily, would he!“
" Well, not with 6 FN2000s and a Hind Chopper aiming at you from you window." We all laughed.
Then I remembered something. "Ivan, something for you. The Mutant really loved it. I almost forgot to gave you!“ I pulled out the Head covered with rags. But surprising, the Head wasn't rotting yet, and blue liquid still continue to ooze out from the Head's brain.
"Well, another something for Dr. Oleg to research for!“
"So what will be happening to the Zone!“ Ali now asked.
"It will be reopened. I had command the sentries there to leave the Camp a few hours ago. By now they should be leaving. But you all wouldn't be going there anymore, since you must now leave Russia. You all have a plane ticket back to where you come from. I did a little research on all of you and… well, try to prove me wrong. However, a few of you wouldn't be going back yet though. To Heng Wei and James: there's a place in University of St. Petersburg waiting for you in MD and E&E. I believe that was something you decided to do after you go back!“ He paused, and then continued. “ For the rest of you, there's nothing Russia can offer you, so you would be leaving this country with the gratitude of the Russian Government. For that, each of you would be receiving a Medal.“
"As for the disc… well, we tried to acquire it over the months, though every time we sent a team, non came back alive. Since we have finally acquire it, it will be kept safe in the Safe of Kremlin, along with other secrets, such as,' Ivan winked, "The film of Noah's Ark!“
"Oh yes,' James suddenly said. “ I have another thing that might be of your interest." He revealed the laptop. “ For the Russian Government. Salvaged from SOFs that came after us. American Special Forces were in the Zone hunting us.“
"The thing had a transmitter. That's why the Americans found you. They must had thought you're one of them, so they sent the Comanche to track you. And when the Comanche founded out you are no Americans, they tried to kill you. Luckily the MiGs were around, or else Chavez here would be buried in a matchbox!“ We again laughed.
Then Ivan walked into the Cargo Bay again, bringing out a Vodka bottle and 9 glasses. “ To drink for the very last time. Let's drink." When we each had a glass of Vodka in our hands, Ivan cheered. “ Cheers, for Mother Russia, we drink Vodka.“
"Cheers!“ We all echoed.
As I looked through the window of the Hind, I saw The Camp, shone by the beautiful reddish ray of the setting sun. This sight, though I had seen it countless times, would be my last. The Camp, which had been the cause of so many deaths, would now be nothing but a memory that I'll remember vividly. As we flew above the lines of tanks and KAMAZ truck now leaving the Camp, I couldn't help thinking of my future. I turned to my friends, whose face a moment ago were tense but now relaxed and enjoying the Vodka. My future is going to be bright; I rationalized as we flew towards Moscow. No more killing and no more deaths, at least for now.
I had survived The Zone alive.