All wars starts with a battle cry or a gunshot, at least wars that involves human, and only human. My war started with an ear-piercing shriek and the hundreds of dwarfs that were rushing for our blood. Without doubt, our FN2000s started to fire.

As bullets rushed through the air, homing on the torsos and heads of the Dwarfs, the dark and damp surrounding were suddenly lighted up by our muzzle flash, the air turned into the thick smell of both blood and sulfur, along with the painful screams from the Dwarfs along with the continuous cling of metal case hitting the concrete floor.

But bullets could, or would never stop the Horde.

As the Dwarfs got nearer and nearer to us, rushing amid the hails of bullets with their short and stubby legs, they ignored the pain that were tormenting them. The thousands of eyes that were illuminated by the muzzle flash quickly came nearer.

But my men fought on gallantly. All of us quickly took out flashbangs, pulled the pin and threw at them; while at the same time took cover. The Dwarfs sensitive eyes could not tolerate the blinding flash that seemed to stun and shock them, gaining us valuable time to aim. The quick burst of automatic gun rifles seem to stop them for the moment, along with Alexei's RG-6 which effectively turned the Dwarfs into meat.

Dwarfs were not stupid; they never were. When one way failed, another way would do. Pretty soon, a lot of objects flew upwards to the air as those objects boxed up on the HUD. Then, those objects flew noisily toward us. Now we have to two enemies: the Dwarfs and the incoming limbs, bones, bricks, steel and rubbish that must had remained dormant for so many years before picked up by the Dwarfs telekinesis ability.

We also had another enemies: time and ammunition. In due time, our 5.56 bullets had been used up. With no other choice, we quickly took the AKS-74U and Vintorez before firing blindly. Alexei's GL too had ran dry a long while ago.

It must have been such a fight. The drain, built to flow water, was now filled with blood. But we could not care about it. Some Dwarfs had died, but most were still standing. As they started to come nearer to us, I had no other choice.

"People, we have to fall back!" We moved backwards towards the blocked wall that had sealed off the sewage system while firing our weapons. There was no escape.

***

The Blind Dog Leader looked at the dimly lighted surrounding which was to be the resting ground for his pack for the night. They had traveled a long way around the Zone looking for prey. Today they had some luck: they had eaten 2 ill-fated Humans who had come into their way, but they were not enough for the ravenous pack. It watched as some of the Dogs rested on the ground as the rays of the setting sun shone.

Humans. The Leader thought angrily. Their former master, their former loyal friend. Humans had abandoned them to mutate in the Zone. They had left the Zone to escape an unseen enemy, an enemy that had the capability to turn life forms into grotesque monster who devoured others mercilessly, without bringing them together. Those selfish humans had let them to die so that they can escape. But now, for some unknown reasons, humans are back here. The Dogs would make them pay.

The Leader was a 7th generation Blind Dog, descendants of the original dogs that were mutated by the "unseen enemy" or radiation. Unknown to the Leader, however, was that the "unseen enemy" had gave it bustling muscle, ultra-sensitive organs that could smell prey far away to replace their blinded eyes, as well as some abilities. It had lived too long to remember what real dogs looked like.

A scene passed through the air. A human's nose would never detect the scene, but a Blind Dog would instantaneously understand the important importance of it.

It was blood. Food.

He looked at his Pack. They had too sniffed it, for they were now standing up, so full of life at the anticipation of food. They were ready to hunt. They were excited.

The Blind Dog Leader focused his thoughts towards the blood direction. Being a 7th generation Blind Dogs, it had certain abilities that other Blind Dogs didn't have- The Sixth Sense. It has the ability to peer through space and see things that were happening from a distance. However the ability could only be use when he smelt blood, since for some inexplicable reason, the ability required the scene of blood from different species.

As his mind peered to a long distance away, it suddenly saw a big square cave- a human pipeline protruding from the ground into what should had been a river. As its vision went farther, it saw humans battling hundreds of Dwarfs. A lot of food.

The Leader made a howl and ran towards the direction of the battle while the rest of the Pack followed its path.

***

The Dwarfs were very near to us while our backs were leaning close against the sealed war. Only a miracle could save us.

Suddenly, a Dwarf jumped at us. Though we tried to hit it, bullets only wounded its tough skin. Then it landed on Dmitri on my far left, its powerful arm tore through Dmitri's armor, piercing into Dmitri's body centre. As I watched in horror, the Dwarf continued to tear Dmitri torso into an ugly mess, destroying Dmitri's vital organs as he slumped down to the floor. In seconds, Dmitri died a horrifying Death, in an unknown place. But there were no time for sorrow.

The Dwarf proceed to stand up, eyes locking at Gourgen as I proceed to put a 40mm GL into my Herstal's chamber. Then, it pounced at Gourgen as my finger to jerked the trigger back. In midair, the 40mm crashed with the body of the Dwarf and exploded, sending shrapnel into its body. Its lifeless body then knocked Gourgen down.

The rest quickly fired at the mass without aiming at all. We may all die liked Dmitri, but at least we would at least die in a honourable way in the line of duty. We continued to fire in a straight line with our back to the war.

***

The smell grew heavier and heavier as the Dogs neared the sewage pipe. After running for a while, they reached the place. The place was a piece of green meadow that leads down to a dried riverbank. The place was normal, except for on thing: blood was trickling drop by drop into the dried riverbank.

The pack stood, anticipating the command.

With a deep howl, The Leader commanded the bloodthirsty pack to kill. As they run towards their food, dust shook up from the ground in their wake.

***

"Sir, I am out!" Anatoly's voice came into my headset. Our death would not be far now. In a short amount of time, our bullets will no longer be enough to shoot down the oncoming objects and the attacking herd.

Suddenly I heard a loud howl coming from the end of the dark tunnel. For a moment, I was stunned by it: I forgot what was it. Then, as it registered, my blood froze: A Blind Dog assault! We are struck in the middle of an ambush!

***

The Dwarfs too suddenly stopped. Then, the ground began to shake weakly while the thundering footsteps could be heard. Then, a Dog's howling came as the Dwarfs turned to their back, My Thermal Vision revealed a lot of red images coming from the distance. The Massacre had begun.

As we quietly crouched down, the Dwarfs rushed at their mortal enemy, the Blind Dogs. As the two enemies collided, we quickly divided out remaining ammunition among ourselves while grabbing Dmitri's ammo.

I turned to watch the carnage. The Dwarfs tore some of the Blind Dogs into half while some of the Blind Dogs lunged for their neck. The two foes engaged in a mindless killing rage while ignoring our presence for a moment. We knew the Blind Dogs would eventually win: the Dwarfs were outnumbered. As the slaughter continued in the dark and gruesome surrounding, many Dogs and Dwarfs fell, until in the end, the last Dwarf was bitten at the neck and went down as more Dogs pounded the body with their weight.

I had hoped that the Dogs would not notice us, but they did. After they killed the Dog, some more Dogs had come in from the entrance, along with a large Blind Dogs. I could not see the colour of that Blind Dog in the dark surrounding. Then, the Big One looked at us and let out a Growl. Instantly, the pack rushed at us. Our submachinegun and rifles quickly took their target and fired.

Some of the Blind Dogs got themselves killed, but others were rushing furiously at us. Ss they got nearer, they pounced at us. Some landed on my squad torsos while some more landed at my squad's feet. Then, they began to bit us.

A Blind Dog came straight at me while I emptied my clip at it. Then, my bullets finished. The guns came out with the dried sound of 'clicks'. I took out my HP-SA from its holster and took aim, while squeezed out a few burst. The powerful bullet quickly tore through the Dog's head as it fell down lifelessly.

Another one lunged at me before I could aim. I was rammed down and landed on the floor while the Dos landed on my body, legs on me. I took out my combat knife. I dug the knife deep into the Dog. As it fell lifelessly onto me, I found one of the Dogs prepared to take out Arkady's neck. My hand moved around feeling for the pistol. As my hand touched the cold steel, I turned and fired a few shots while screaming "Get your dirty head off my men!"

***

The Blind Dog Leader watched from a distance. It heard the Human screamed. Instantly, it knew what it meant. The Dog didn't understand the word, but it understood the meaning in it. The Dog could read mind, part of his gift. Those words were from a human leader who tried to protect his underlings, just liked any Leader would do.

An idea came to it. The Leader quickly made a high-pitched Growl to stop the pack. He had some use for the Human

***

As another Blind Dog came at me again, suddenly I heard an intolerable noise that made me closed my ears. But the Dogs suddenly stopped moving, their heads turned at looked at the Big One. Something was going on.

We struggled to stand up, but that was an impossible task for some of us. Only Arkady and I managed to stand up and both of us continued to help the rest. When we all finally pulled the others up, the Big Dog came to us. But it stopped a distance away.

"Hello, Human. I have no intention of killing you. You courage had…" A beam of thoughts suddenly came into my head, as if someone was talking to me. It was from the Dogs. The rest too looked surprise as I looked towards them. Clearly, they had it too.

"Cut the crap! What do you want?" I shouted. The Dogs, seeing my uneasy action, growled and prepared to pounce, but the Leader stopped them again with a screech."I will let you go free, but you must kill the enemy of us…" Freedom always comes with a price tag.

I looked at my men. They looked terrible. Aside from Arkady, the rest had a wound here and there. Yuri had a leg wound; Alexei had a large gash of blood coming from the calf. Gourgen had a torso wound. Anatoly was wounded in the arm. My team was not up to the task.

"My team can't…"

"No, not your team. Only one of you." It hit me liked a bomb.

"But…"

" If you don't do as I say, they will die, along with you."

I sigh. "Name your target."

"A Dwarf Leader. Burer."

The words hit me like a sledgehammer. A Dwarf Leader! Even a well-armed stalker could not kill one of it!

"The Dog Leader shrugged. "I couldn't care less."

I sighed. "At least let us get some ammo."

"No. You have a day. If you don't do as I say before tomorrow at this same time, one of your men will die." The Dogs let up a fiendish laughter, similar to that of a hyena.

"I could not take down a Dwarf Leader alone! Damnit, be reasonable!"

"Your humans were never reasonable to us Dogs. Why should I care?"

I let out a big sigh. The Blind Dogs held the upper card.

"Give me some time."

"Take as long as you want. Your time starts now." It was 20.00, 5 hours after our previous ordeal.

I turned to my men.

"People, I will go."

"Sir. I will go. The squad needs you!" Arkady spoke.

"Arkady, it is my responsibility as a squad leader to ensue you all survive.."

"No sir! Be reasonable. The Dogs made an impossible request. I can get some help from outside!"

"Listen, sergeant! I am your squad leader and a captain! I am of higher rank than you! You respect my decision, you hear me?" I barked angrily, that sighed. "I respected my men's opinion, but this is not a time to doubt my decision as a your commander. You will listen to me, Sergeant." Arkady stopped arguing, though I could still see the flashing wave of arrogance at the boyish face.

"Arkady, Trevor is dead now. While I am gone, you will replace me as the squad leader. You are the only men that can lead the squad now. You do not have any injury. Anyone disagree?" The rest shook their head.

"Sir, I will comply." He sighed and talked to me. He finally accepted my decision.

Then the rest all took out their arms. We have only 14 5.45mm and 10 9mm SP-5 magazine left all together. I did not have many choices. I took 6 5.45mm and 8 9mm with me, along with Dmitri's AKS-74U. Last but not least, we went to the place where Dmitri's body lay down lifelessly. He was dead with his eyes still opened wide when his untimely demise came. Yuri gently crouched down and closed the eyelids as he softly said, "Rest in peace, Dmitri. You've earned it."

Then, it was time.

Each of the members hugged me and gave me their blessing before I stood before the Blind Dog Leader. "I am ready."

"Good. Three dogs will lead you there." It made a growl again, and two Blind Dogs came up again. "Follow them, and try to survive for your men."

Without a word, I walked out of the ugly cement sewage system that had been the place of so many death and gore to the unknown, following the three Blind Dogs into the darkness that had befallen the Zone. I set my watch: 24 hours.

***

As the Human Leader left the place which would be the place they would be resting for the next few days, The Dog Leader thought 'Stupid Humans. Liked they could survived.'

Then it joined the rest for a feast on the dead Dwarfs that were plentiful on the ground.

***

I had walked about 2 hours into the blind darkness, guided only by the Blind Dogs through my HUD Thermal images. The only thing that I did not need to worry about is that my HUD ran out of battery. My HUD can function for 48 hours non-stop. But I had a lot to worry about: my gun's power, the Dwarf Leader's Strength, how many Dwarf I might have to kill, how is my men holding on. I was afraid that I might never make it, that my men will gradually died out after what they had gone through previously. I may have to face the odds with the few weapons I had.

***

One of the Blind Dogs moved towards the body of Dmitri while Arkady and the rest stood around it. With a snarl, the Dog tried to force them out of the way so that it could eat the body.

"No!" Arkady said. The Dog got ready to attack when the Dog Leader made a howl again. The Dog balked and retreated.

"You humans are pathetic. Even a dead one you won't let go."

"The "dead one" you mentioned has his honour. He deserved a proper burial."

"That's why. Your human are afraid of losses. That will be you downfall."

Arkady stared hard at the Blind Dog. The Dog annoyed him, but he must do whatever it takes to calm down his arising temper. "Whatever."

***

My watched beeped. 22 hours left. It is going to be the longest day of my life. I said to myself. Trees heavily covered the both sides of asphalt path I was walking on. Ahead, the Blind Dogs were walking while wagging their tail.

Half an hour later, we're still walking. I was starting to doubt where were the Dogs going when suddenly, gunfire came out of nowhere. I quickly took to the ground, while the Blind Dogs quickly search around. But they were wiped out in seconds by sniper fire. Then, my HUD boxed up. 4 man-shaped objects came out from the darkness, holding rifles, in front of me.

"You heathen! Infidel!" One of them said. Then, out of nowhere, a heavy blow came to me from the back and knocked me out.

***

Arkady and the rest were talking to pass the boring and agonizing time. They had removed their headgear and put it onto the floor. They had built a fire near to the end of the sewage system by the scraps of wood that were around the sewage pipe. They all were surrounding the fire to get the warmth.

Suddenly, Gourgen started to have speech difficulty as he tried to talk. He was feeling unwell as he tried to move his body. His movement was stiff as his body started to move uncontrollably. Saliva started to leak out of his mouth Yuri examined him and let out a shocked look.

"What is it, Yuri?" Arkady questioned.

"Gourgen… have rabies! Our vaccine doesn't against them. This is a completely new strand that doesn't kill the host! I am sure of it."

"How much time do we have?"

"Sir, I honestly don't know. I only know that those of us who had wounds will probably got infected already. It must be passed by the Blind Dogs!"

"Damnit."

***

I awoke after hearing a beep. My watch. I tried to move, but found myself tied to a chair with ropes, my weapons and equipment stripped off, leaving only my BDU and armour. I was in a wooden room, with a bright white florescence lamp on my top.

Footsteps could be heard outside. A man came into a room, along with some guards. The way he walked in majestically into the room with the loud boot sound somehow told me that he was someone important.

"Tell me a good reason why I shouldn't kill you here and now, heathen."

"Who are you?"

" My group is more important. We are "Duty." That explained a lot of things.

"Listen, those dogs are…"

"You don't command me, kid. Who do you think you are?" The man took an AK and jabbed the butt at my face. A crushing pain came to my face.

"A Dwarf Leader!" I shouted amid the pain. The men looked at me.

"Who are you?" He stared at me suspiciously. "I have never seen your suit. You are not from The Camp, are you?"

"I am a Special Forces Captain. Look, I need your help…”

"Why should I care? You don't have anything to offer. You never helped us."

"Yes, I did." I told them the story that had eventually led me into my present life.

***

The Blind Dog Leader felt something was wrong. It estimated the trip should take them 3 hours by walking. Maybe something had occurred. Maybe the human wanted to rest. Or maybe the human had killed those Dogs? No. He needed those Dogs to lead him. May be it should be more patient. It was a long time already.

It thought about the Dwarf Leader. The Dwarf Leader was the enemy of the Blind Dogs. Blind Dogs were disorganize groups of animals that had leader of its own pack, but when it comes to Dwarfs, all Dogs shared a common enemy, From his contact with other Dogs, it knew that the Dogs were losing a war against the Dwarfs. The Dogs rule daylight and the outside world, but the Dwarfs are master of the dark. If the Human succeed, The Blind Dogs would thrive long enough to become the strongest in The Zone.

Of course, it had no intention of letting the Human escape alive. It also had no plan of the Human Leader being successful. It was only part of his plan to let the Humans gradually died out, while their fittest was away When they were only a few more left, his pack could easily wipe them out without much casualty.

***

"That explains a lot of mystery." The atmosphere was more relaxed. The Leader of 'Duty', Danny Anderson, had accepted my story and ordered his men to cut the ropes. "Sorry about everything. I thought you are a heathen, a human who had turned to the mutants for survival. My group really hated those traitors of humans. We had…"

"I know your aim. Now, I have an offer. We both share the same enemy: Dwarfs. I need of firepower, while you need mutants to kill. Now, killing a Dwarf Leader would at least slow down the mutants' invasion for some time. Do we have a deal?"

Mr. Anderson thought while touching his beard. I studied the face. The face was quite dark and had scars, clearly showing his experience in the group. The short and stubby chin held a short black beard that obviously was his pride. Apart from these, he was an ordinary stalker with a black hair.

"Deal. Now, what do you need?" He was smiling. A good sign.

I checked my watch. 18.45 and counting. It was still nighttime. The reign of Dwarfs was still on. I was fatigued too.

" I need a bed and an alarm clock to sleep. I also need your men to identify which location am I heading to when I was attacked. Of course, I need firepower. Bring lots of ammo and men. It is going to be a hard fight."

"It will be done." Mr. Anderson smiled and showed me the way to a bunk. I set my alarm clock to 4.00 and dozed off.

***

"Sir, Gourgen's jaw is locking up!" Yuri looked desperately at Arkady. The rest did the same. In the background, Gourgen was making desperate muffled moans that marked that he had breathing difficulties. His teeth was chattering unstoppable, a symptom that his jaw's nerve were attacked. Gourgen was dying.

"Yuri, do whatever you can."

"Sir, I need a cloth or something to hold the jaw open.

Arkadi looked at bloody mess of Dmitri's body. "Sorry, brother." He muttered. He took his combat knife and cut the body's armor open and retrieved the bloody shirt that should once had been the typical black and white stripe shirt used by Russian. The dead man had no use of it anymore.

Arkady looked as Yuri inserted the cloth into Gourgen's mouth.

Suddenly, Yuri said: "Oh no, sir! Gourgen…!" The muffled and intensified screams of Gourgen could be heard clearly now. The rest were holding Gourgen's body. Gourgen was struggling to breath as his body shuddered.

"I thought rabies only attacked the nerve system only."

"Damnit, this is a new strand! The Zone isn’t the same as the outer world!"

Arkady saw the dying man moving his hands on the ground, trying to write on the sand. He looked at it. Messy words, but he understood it. The words were 'end it' in Russian.

Arkady was struck with a dilemma. The rest too looked at him, waiting for his decisions, after seeing the words. Their eyes were locked at him as if telling him to make the call.

"Sir, end the pain. I rather see him dead that continue like this." Anatoly said.

Arkady's eyes were wet as he closed them tight to think. Although Special Forces are trained to be tough and act tough, mentally and physically, their instructors never said anything about killing their own men for euthanasia.

His instructors once told him soldiers are expendable assets. Special Forces are no exception. That was the reason why Special Forces were seldom allowed to get too close, to have feelings for their men. He himself had gone through much too: his Major had made a mistake during an operation to hunt stalker; and led the group into a dungeon and ambushed by Dwarfs. But then, even as his whole squad died in front of him grotesquely, he did not feel anything, just sorrow for them. But for these men, these men that he only knew for about a day only, it was different. He had the power of life and death over his men. That was a heavy responsibility. But he didn't have a lot of choice now.

"Let's do it." He spoke and gave a sigh.

He took out his sidearm and slowly aimed at Gourgen's head. During his training and his career, he seldom had his hand shaking while firing, but now, he was afraid to shoot, to end the life of a human being that was not his enemy, but his comrade.

He looked at Gourgen in the eyes. What he saw in Gourgen was peace instead of fear, even though the eyeball was moving rapidly. It was not betrayal for Gourgen, but it's a relief from the pain. Gourgen knew he would die eventually, and he want to die sooner rather then letting his body died naturally but painfully, the eye seem to say. This gave Arkady the strength he needed. Arkady found his hand no longer shaking. He knew it was the right thing to do.

He took aim while Gourgen continued to shake, and then gently pressed the trigger while he closed his eyes. The loud "Bang" quickly echoed through the air. But even though Gourgen was dead, his body still shook uncontrollably until it slowly came to a weak tremor and stopped. The Dogs turned to see with interest.

After Gourgen body's spasm stopped, Arkady rested the man's eyelids to its rightful place. Then, he settled to a dark corner and cried silently. He hoped the Captain would be sooner before more men died. The stoic and lanky sergeant knew today would be the day to test his, and the squad's, limits.

But none of them mentioned that they too would die the same way. Each of them, save for Arkady, silently realized that they must too had the rabies virus already, that they too will die under the same condition.

***

I only slept until 3.00 before I woke up. I tried to sleep on, but when I thought of my men, I couldn't sleep anymore. Those men actually trusted me to get them out, and I was here, sleeping. A feeling of guilt struck me. Then I reasoned: if I didn't get enough sleep, I could not perform optimally. The guilt stopped. I get out of the bunk and walked down the two flights of wooden stairs onto the ground floor.

In the main room, I saw Mr. Anderson was talking to his lieutenants while pointing onto a map of the Zone on a table. I quickly joined them.

"Ah, captain, you are here."

"Can we attack now?"

"No. I afraid daylight has to come first. It was only 3.02 O'clock. Another 1 hour.

"Give me some gear to clean my gun" There wasn't much to do.

An hour later, the dim ray of the rising sun came up from the horizon into the windows of the small room, where I was in. It was time. 16.00 time left on my watch. A new day had come.

I walked into the main room into the group's canteen, where the stalkers were eating. In the center was Mr. Anderson. I walked straight at him.

"Listen, you say daylight. Now is daylight. My men's life is at stake while you…"

"Relax. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Here, have some coffee." He handed me a cup of coffee. The man was actually not concerned about my men!

I was in no mood to eat. But then, I didn't have much choice either. I could only wait. I sat down and joined them for a tasteless breakfast of omelet and black bread.

Arkady suddenly woke up. The very instance he awaked, he panicked. How could he be sleeping when Blind Dogs surrounded them? Then he saw Yuri and Anatoly standing watch. He let out a sigh of relieve. He had too much worries. A Blind Dog dragged a Dwarf's body towards them and stopped a few meters. The Dog Leader seemed to talk to him in the head: "Eat some breakfast."

Arkady shouted at the Dog Leader. "You expect us to eat this? No way! These meat are contaminated!"

One of the Dog came and towed the Dwarf's body away and ate it with the rest if the Dogs. There would be no dinner for them Humans, but at least the remaining soldiers wouldn't die of eating some unknown meat that might killed them.

***

An hour later, the men was ready in front of the building, all carrying their LR-300 and SVU sniper, while a few more was carrying tech weapons. All of them were in the green fatigues and Kevlar, black oxygen mask, black rubber boots. Except for their eyes that could be seen through the glasses of their mask, you could never distinguished every one of them save for the Black fatigues of the captain. They were ready.

I looked around. I was in The Camp, a place I hadn't been to for a time since I left the life of a stalker. The Duty's HQ was a non-distinguish wooden 3-storey building that was surrounded by hundreds of quarters of other stalkers. I had full 5 5.56 mags and 40mm in my pocket, 10 VSS mags in my backpack, some medkits, some grenades, flares and flashbangs, and a special 5.56 Galantine Bullets, hollowpoints. I was loaded for a bear. My HUD and LFD was fully charged and good to go.

"Ok, captain. We have your Dwarf Leader's loc. It is a dungeon, Gulag Kovic-5 from the map.Anderson read from the map.

Anderson turned to his men. "All right, we will be done a lot of killing this morning. Please take 1 day's provision with you later. We will be walking to the Garage in 15 minutes. Be prepared men, it would be a tough day ahead." They all nodded to their leader. I could see that even these men, who actually believed that their duty was to kill all the mutants in The Zone, would still have a charismatic leader instead of a religious freak that goes around babbling about the doom of the world.

Half-an- hour later, I was in the Niva's back seat, along with Mr. Anderson and tow more stalkers, one of them manning the car.

"Ok, we estimated we'd be there at 8.00 O'clock. Sit tight, the terrain is rough." He was talking while the convoy of 20 cars moved out. We had about 70 men.

***

The Dog Leader could no longer wait. His Dogs was not back yet. Something bad must had happened to them. Maybe the human killed them, or maybe some mutants attacked them, killing them all. It had to be sure. The moon had long gone away, and he Sun was up.

It went out and looked around. The acrylic and cold morning air pierce through the morning. Beyond the ugly cement pipe, it could see the green trees beyond the meadow. The ground below the pipe was now with a huge patch of dry blood. What a beautiful morning. But the sky was clouding out fast. It would rain soon. It had to be quick if it wanted to recover what happened to those Dogs. The Dog tried using his Sixth Sense, but it didn't see them.

The Dog Leader quickly commanded another 3 Dogs to ran and search for the group.

***

I could not get any sleep at all, though I was sleepy with the rainy weather that seemed to make the car comfortable. Every time I started to nod off, the jumpy ride would jerk me awake. Just as Mr. Anderson had promised, the rocky ground was rough, and the bumpy ride beyond in this rough terrain was not comfortable at all. I checked my watch: 6.30. 10 and a half hour had past.

There were cliffs on the both sides, though not tall, and they were heavily populated with trees and tall grass. In the distance, except for the thunder, everything was smooth and quiet in the narrow road that only allowed one vehicle per pass.

Suddenly, the first car in the convoy exploded. The ear-piercing explosion and the starting of gunfire quickly alerted me. Ambush! I quickly get down to the left side of the car and step into the puddle of mud while crouching down.

To my horror, there were enemies attacking from both side of the hill, judging from the muzzle flash that was coming from all over. This was a planned ambush. Some one had tipped them off. But I couldn't afford to think further: many lives were at stack. I quickly joined the counterattack. The surrounding was now full with the sound of rifle chattering, along with the sound if trees and metal being hit by bullets.

I flipped down my HUD. A lot of target boxed up behind the tall grass on the left hill. Too bad they could not hide from my HUD, even in a rainy weather. I quickly fired a few burst at the boxes. One by one, they disappeared as I shot at them.

Suddenly, those boxes moved up… and revealed troops clutching AK-74s who ran and firing their weapon at me! Newbies' tactics, but nevertheless deadly. I quickly jinxed to my left and rolled on the ground as the bullets barely missed me, hitting the metal case of the Niva while making clear 'clings'. I had attracted too much attention.

I landed on the ground. I regained my composure and saw the targets. I set my gun to full automatic and took aim. My finger pressed hard at the trigger. The barrage of bullets left the chamber in a rapid chatter. Those men quickly died down, leaving only a few troopers who were sniping.

A sharp tore through me. I fell into the mud pile. A sniper caught me. But I was still alive. As I landed onto the ground, I emptied my clip towards the few boxed in the distance. I watched satisfying as those boxes too disappear, never to pop out again. I checked my wound while the rest fought on. The wound was painful, but I could still fight on. I reloaded my guns and turned to my right flank.

Whoever had planned this attack was clearly not stupid, but inexperience. The right flank had more enemies, and the commander obviously did so to feel more secure, to fell more invulnerable. Compared to the left flank, they were more enemy. I considered my choices. I could attack here, or snipe beyond the trees.

A rocket suddenly whizzed through the air and lit up the vehicle to my right while turning it into wreck. RPG! The stalker next to Mr. Anderson fell down lifelessly with his SVU in arms, his body turned into a bloody mess mixed with the muddy water. Clearly, if I want a lot of stalkers left to help me, I need to have drastic action.

"Mr. Anderson, I am going up to snipe!" I shouted while I grabbed the SVU.

"Suit yourself!" The stalker was still sinister even in crisis.

As I ran into the nearby forest, bullets continued to whiz around me. Someone was trying to kill me. When I reached into the forest, my green fatigues no longer caught unnecessary attention. Only then the bullets stopped homing for me. I quickly work on going on top pf the hill. I slipped a few times in the process. But without any bullets to catch my attention, my reached the top soon.

I found a lot of body lying on the rough ground, blood still dripping. Another metallic colour of a SVU caught my eyes. I proceeded to check the body which the rifle was on, and recovered some 7.62 magazine. I slowly crept on the floor and reached the steep cliff that oversee the ambush. Time to rock and roll.

I pushed Thermal. There were a lot of red images on the other side, and obviously, those were experienced troops. They only let out loose shots before taking cover. The commander must have positioned new troops at the left flank. My lucky break. I took cover behind a bush that concealed my position.

Next an image of a big and long tube caught my eyes. It was hot. RPG. I closed Thermal, and saw the clear image of a stalker in black holding a RPG-7. He was taking his aim. I didn't have much time to waste. My hands automatically adjust to the direction of the stalker while my eyes rested on the warm barrel to aim. The head zoomed into my scope. I fired. The head inside the scope quickly burst into pool of red. I took my eyes away from the scope, just in time to see a rocket flew through the air. 9 seconds later, it exploded in midair. I had saved some lives.

5 magazines later, the gunshot started to dim down a lot. The enemy was fighting a losing battle as my sniper, tag alone with the weapons from the rest, wiped them out. As some more 'Duty' stalkers continued to take out the some more enemy, the leftover one started to fire roughly without aiming before retreating into their cover. Now, I was faced with another problem: my SVU did not have UV light emitter, which prevented me from using my HUD and SVU together to hit the stalkers that were taking cover. I put down the sniper rifle, and took my FN2000 out while flip down my HUD again.

I had the upper hand now. The Thermal Images in my HUD vision was clear. I could fire through the tree barks now. I grinned to myself while took my target. My finger set the bullets to one-shot. When the Scope vision from my HUD intensified onto a red image, I fired. I watched satisfyingly as the image fell down, never to rise again.

After a few more minutes, the remnants suddenly decided to run away. I quickly took a few more shots that manage to kill the entire remaining enemy. After the last one died, the surrounding quickly became quiet again. The battle was over. We had won.

I rejoined the 'Duty' folks. About 5 from their original convoy was ablaze, while many were either wounded or dead. Clearly there was no victory here, just a battle won.

"Captain, any enemy left?"

"No. I took the last one down."

"Good. You might want to get that wound of yours treated." He pointed at the chest wound that I had while motioning a medic.

I opened my vest. The bullet did not do much damage. My Kevlar vest saved me. The protective layer stopped the bullet, but there was still an angry red mark marked on my chest. The medic checked me. "Your clear, no internal bleeding." He declared.

Then, some stalkers pulled out bodies from the nearby forest. Anderson examined them one by one. Then suddenly, everyone startled in horror at a body.

"Its… Timmy! Damnit, he's the one behind all of this!" Anderson checked the body and came out of a pendant with the Monolith's insignia on it.

I looked at the body. I recognized him. He was one of 'Duty's lieutenant, one of the men whom I shot while running away. I remembered that he was not hunting the remaining stalkers, but running side by side with them. It was not friendly fire.

"Sir, take a look at this!" One of the stalkers pulled out another body. In the drizzle, I could not see who was it.

"Damn. It is the commander from 'Monolith'! Next time we better killed them all in the Camp!" The man shouted, which were followed by the cheers from his fellow comrades. The 'Monolith' and 'Duty' was lifelong enemy.

As they started to put their dead into their vehicles, the rainfall quickly washed the gore and the blood away, while extinguishing the flames from the wrecks. Minutes later, there were no sign of any combat going around here, just some charred bodies and car wreck at the side of the car. It was 7.30 am when we finished and left.

***

The Dog Leader saw the three Dogs it sent came back. The Dogs told it that they could not track the smell because of the rainfall. They would have to wait until the rain stopped before they could try again.

***

9.00 a.m. We had reached the site where the 'Duty' had estimated as the location of the Dwarfs'.

As everybody started loading up their equipment, I too checked my weapons. My two AKS-74U was in my pack, while I had 5 magazines for my Herstal in my pocket. I was ready to face the odds.

The heavy rain was starting to die down now. The heavy droplet of water that was falling onto us was now reducing to tiny beads of water that would soon be a trickle, than stopped completely. As I looked at the surrounding scenery, I couldn't help telling my "What a nice day!" But stalker would tell you that no day is a good day; everyday is just the same in The Zone.

Our convoy was stopped somewhere in front of a prison, a dilapidated Old Russian Era ones. It must have been a political prison or gulag, I guessed, judging from the gray colour of the paint on the wall. But this was no abandoned prison. What was used to be windows was blocked of by wooden plank, perhaps to block off sunlight. This must be the Dwarf's Lair. The place was surrounded by rusty barbwire, some of them already broken. There were around five blocks of buildings; one of them will lead to the Dwarf Leader eventually. The building surrounded a piece of barren land, possibly a former packing lot or an exercise field. There was a building each at the west, the northwest, the north, the northeast and the east.

I looked at the others. Most of them had the reliable LR-300 loaded and ready to attack when their commander gave the order. There are some who had RPG-7 and RG-6, but there were three 'specials', a 'Duty' Clan's term for those who had tech gadgets. Two of them had the G.R.A.G in their hand, while one had the plasma launcher in arms. Seeing the plasma launcher, I couldn't help thinking back reminiscence of my past. The long tube that looked like a LAW rocket launcher had been used by me as a stalker before. Utilizing those precious Mercury Balls to provide instant death. Of course, those men had Ak-74 readied in case anything happened. Most of them already attached flashlight onto the front of their weapons, while the 'special's and the leaders had Night Vision Goggles in their pocket.

"All set?" Anderson asked.

"Good to go!" All the members shouted with excitement. Clearly, they think this would be easy, I thought wryly. If it were easy, the Dogs wouldn't have sent me to deal with their problem. Anderson continued to arrange his men into five groups, around ten men per group. I was lucky enough to get into Anderson's group,

Slowly, everyone started to proceed into the compound and entered those five buildings.

***

The rain had stopped. Good, the husky Dog Leader thought. It could now continued to search for the fate of the human and the 3 other Dogs inside The Zone.

It looked at the pathetic humans that were resting on the far side of the tunnel. One of them was tending the wounds of the rest of the group, while the rest were staring warily at the Pack, alert of anything happening around their surrounding. So far, only one had died. Those men would be the food of the Pack for the next few days.

The leader thought balefully. It thought of what it had done. It had given the human false hope, that they might survive unscathed. Well, It had no intention to let those Human out alive. But it had to wait, of course. If those human knew its tricks too soon, they might put on a fight and kill some more of the Dogs. It couldn't let that happened to the dwindling pack.

It commanded the previous three Dogs to continue their search.

***

Burer was sleeping on the ground. The maniacal genius was the Leader of the Dwarfs. He was resting in a big underground bunker, what the Humans remained when they left.

The Dwarf Leader was almost identical to other Dwarf physically, except that He had a humongous size and stronger legs compared to its underlings. But in the sense of abilities, no Dwarfs could match Burer. He had stronger anticipation than the rest, while his telekinesis ability could carry heavier loads compared to the others. That was the reason why he was made The Leader.

Suddenly, inside his lazy mind, He sensed that something was wrong. Someone was intruding the Stronghold of the Dwarfs. It was the Humans. He quickly stood up.

The Dwarf thought angrily at what Humans had done to him before the Changes. He was once a boy, an orphan who lived under the Humans political system. He forgot the name, only knew that The Government gave the people freedom to do anything. Freedom to left the rest of the orphans to die after The Incident. He had watched sadly that many of the orphans died because of radiation and hunger, died because their keepers who had abandoned them for dead had locked them inside the orphanage. He, and many of the rest, had forced to eat the dead body of their friends. He remembered vividly that he, under strain of emotion, had to salvage food from bodies of his peers. That experience had left him emotionless, a savage who had no feelings for the others, save for his own people, the Dwarfs.

The Dwarfs too were ordinary humans who had turned into their present form after The Incident. Many of those from the orphanage who had not died turned into Dwarfs and had special gifts- telekinesis and anticipation as well as strong arms. They also had certain deformation. They were short, had clumsy legs, and intolerant of strong light and also yellow skin. He remembered the morning when he finally managed to kick the orphanage door down. The sunray pierced and burnt his skins, but that was a long time ago. It was a long time since he and the rest escaped from their hell and came here.

But enough of nostalgia. The Dwarfs' time of revenge had come.

I was walking cautiously along the dark dungeon, with my HUD on Night vision mode. The rest was excited. They were talking loudly inside the dark and damp corridors, their voice echoing along the corridor. If those Dwarfs were really in here, it would not be long before they strike, I thought.

I was also not feeling comfortable among these men. The Special Forces worked quietly and stealthily, trying to strike as quiet as possible. But these 'Duty' men obviously kill mutants because those mutants came to them. Only a few, including the Leader, were quiet and alert enough to look around for targets.

Suddenly, a man shouted: "Look! A Dwarf!" A Dwarf had came out of nowhere and started to ran slowly when it saw us.

In an instance, those men shouted with excitement and started to run towards the Dwarf while firing their weapons madly. I could hear those men's rubber boots clashing against the metallic floor while the panting sound of the Dwarfs scattered from the back and the LR-300 hitting the metallic floor.

In the chaos, Mr. Anderson tried to regain control of his men. " Calm down! It must be a trap!" Many did stop, but some didn't care. They still rushed.

Suddenly, two girders, to our horror, clashed down towards the remaining ones who were a moment ago running. They must had either triggered a mechanism or something else. In seconds happened, those men were turned into squished meat. It was a trap all right. The Dwarfs weren't stupid at all.

"Damnit!" Mr. Anderson said. From a distance, an evil laughter came to our ears.

We had eight men left from our original ten. If we continued to be ignorant and careless, no one would survive.

Soon, chatter of radios started to go through Mr. Anderson's Radio. All the groups had been attacked. We were expected. But we continued on, this time slowly. I too had my Kinetic Vision on with my life-form detector's port connected to my HUD. Those men now were edgy and panicky after looking at what happened.

There were red blimps here and then, but they quickly get out of range the moment they heard us.

Then, two red blimps appeared in my HUD… somewhere to my back and running at us!

"Dwarfs at the back!" I shouted.

In an instance, all the lights from the weapons were gone to the back of the group. The lights revealed two Dwarfs… obviously stunt. They had thought of an ambush! Without any prompting, the LR-300s came to life and after a few chatters, they died. My HUD didn't register any red signal at all.

One of the stalkers decided to get his sweet revenge. He walked towards one of the bodies of the Dwarfs. He pointed his rifle at the Dwarf and smirked "This is for Johnny. You…"

To my surprise, my LFD detected another red blimp exactly to the location where the Dwarfs died. I tried to shout. It was too late. The two arms of the Dwarf got into the stalker's torso before the body was torn and threw at us by the Dwarf.

I did not hesitate; my visual recorded 2 red boxes when the body flew at the rest, a diversionary tactic. The moment the two boxes were separated, I fired at the one at the back. I did not miss. The second box slumped down with a scream while the first one hit some of the stalker. This time, I made sure the Dwarfs were dead. I fired at the two Dwarf bodies and made sure that they didn't come up again.

Suddenly, Anderson's radio came to life. "Sir, Team Charlie. I found a big hole underground. A passage. Awaiting orders." Then similar finding too came from the radio. Those Dwarfs had tunneling system all over the area. These mutants are really smart, I reasoned.

A stalker's torchlight caught a hole in the wall that led downwards. We decided to follow it. Anderson too commanded the rest to do the same.

I looked at my watch. It was 11.00 am. 9 hours before the deadline.

Arkady looked at his watch. It was 11.15 am. "The cap better be fast or we're dog food!" Yuri was trying to cheer up the gloomy and quiet atmosphere as the rest observing the dogs that were moving around, some sleeping, and some fighting. There were a few that were mating too, a profane action which the group tried not to observe.

It was something new to him. Arkady, who considered himself a veteran of the Zone, had not seen a Blind Dog's daily life. It was almost similar to the Alaskan Husky he had once before, when he was a civilian.

Then, he saw three dogs coming back from the end of the tunnel, the place that was the exit to this hellhole. He saw the Dog Leader walked towards them. They exchanged sounds. The Dog Leader was suddenly angered. Its teeth reached for the neck of one of the Dogs. The bitten Dogs quickly crashed onto the ground, its blood making pool near its body. "Well, that's something you don't see everyday." Anatoly spoke.

After the remaining two dogs quickly ran off. The Dog Leader came to them. "Your leader is smart. Managed to escape my dogs' scene, eh?" Then it growled. "Not so soon, you pathetic humans! He will die, just like the rest of you."

That was when Arkady realized those dogs had no intention of letting them survive.

My group had walked down the constricted earth passage. Without any proper equipment, no one could see his or her way around here. Other then the 'special', Anderson and me, the rest were only guided by the mini-torch of their rifle.

Along the way, a few Dwarfs had tried to catch us by surprise; there were a few who actually dropped down from the ceiling to surprise and shock us, but weapons quickly took care of the job.

Soon we reached the end of the tunnel. It led to a surprisingly enormous cave, a similar passage, only this time it had four other entrances. We had reached the main lair. After some time, all the groups had joined us. From the original 50 men that had came down, only about 37 made it.

Then, my watch beeped again. It was noontime.

"Sir, It is 12.00 o'clock. Thought you want to know." I spoke to Mr. Anderson.

To my surprise, he ordered everyone stopped. "People, it is lunch time. Time for rest and food. We'll rest for 20 minutes." All of them put down their weapons and took out their lunch box for lunch.

I couldn't believe it. We were at hostile territory, ambush would happen without warning at all, and these people were actually sitting down and taking their sweet time for lunch! All of them! This is ridiculous.

"Mr., Anderson, you got to be kidding!" I tried to control the anger in my voice. "This place is…"

"Enough. We need food for energy, everyone knows that. You want to continue alone, go ahead. You don't, you join us to eat."

"You call yourself a leader? You're putting your men at risk!"

"And I am putting my reputation as a thoughtful commander at risk if I don't let them eat! You are a former stalker; you know what are the effects when we're without food, eh?" He said impatiently

What choice do I have? If you can't beat them, join them. I followed suit.

***

The two Blind Dogs that were sent to find the missing Human and the three Dogs frantically smelled around the area for their targets at the muddy path that the smell trail of the missing pack ended.

Early on, the Dog Leader, upon hearing their finding, had killed one of the Blind Dogs as show of force and consequences if they didn't find the group. They had been warned not to come back until either they had found the body or there are ready to die. The Blind Dogs had not much choice, so they continued their search.

The scene of the previous Blind Dogs had stopped at a particular spot. After that, they seemed to disappear without a single trace. The human went farther, but the spot too vanished. It seem as if the group had disappeared into thin air.

The Dogs had been searching for hours now. They had been digging around the area, at any place that smelt suspicious. So far they had no results.

One of the Dogs smelt leaves in the area. Big ones, with their chlorophyll still fresh. Not abnormal. Over the last few hours, the Dog ignored the area with those leaves because they never thought it would be there. The Dogs decided to dig the area.

Once the two Blind Dogs dug away the leaves, they smelled the acrid stench of dead bodies, but still a distance below the ground. The leaves had sucked the smell away! This must be the work of the Human! They continued digging. Soon they uncovered bodies. Using their paws, they felt the bodies. There were two bodies, with the shape of Blind Dogs.

But the Human was nowhere! The Human must had killed them and went alone! The Blind Dogs summed.

With that, they ran back to the Dog Leader to tell him the news.

***

"I wonder what is the Captain doing now?" Alexei spoke while complaining about his growling stomach. It should have been lunchtime, but they had no food at all. They could eat those Dwarfs if they wanted, but eating those was alien to them.

Suddenly, the group heard screeches from the distanced. The sound didn't registered at first, though it was really familiar. Then, they all remembered it. Rats!

"Crap! What a nice combo. Lunch and rats." Alexei said.

The Dogs too heard it. In an instance, they stopped doing whatever they were doing. They all looked at the Dog Leader. The Leader made a cry, which Anatoly suggested, a war cry. Every Blind Dog quickly ran outside.

From the far distance, the group heard different cries from the two mutants. There were sounds of Blind Dogs in pain, and also the screeched of rats. The Group didn't dare to venture outside; they knew the consequences.

Then they saw Rats rushing in from the end of the tunnel.

Without any prompt at all, all of them pulled on their helmet and pull the HUD down. Combat time. The HUD's visual boxed up with target, they started to shoot with their AKS-74U remaining bullets and grenades.

“Well, I wonder what is the captain doing now while we are having rats for dinner.” Alexei said while firing.

***

I quickly consumed my meal while thinking about my men. I wondered what were they going through now. After I finished the meal, I quickly bury the boxes.

The boxes themselves are a technological marvel. Made up of biodegradable material, they could rot on the ground after being consumed with the presence of the amylase enzyme from the mouth. The Russians created it. If they weren't invented, The Zone would already be a place full of rubbish, I thought wryly. The Ukrainian and Russian Government might not want environmentalists to poke around The Zone.

After I was done, those men were still eating and chatting around. I quickly took the time to refill my pockets of ammunition, flares and grenades. Every minute was precious to me.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Dwarfs started to burst through the dirt wall of the dark cavern. Surprise attack! It was as if they had anticipated that we were not ready for them

All of the troops were not ready. Those sitting near to the cavern walls were torn to pieces even before they got their LR-300. Those who managed to grab their rifles quickly fired blindly at anything that moved. I myself got a scare too, but I was ready for it. It didn't took me long to get my FN 2000 and started firing through my HUD.

When the smokes finally cleared, bodies were on the ground. Nothing moved. Everyone was tensed. No one dared to make a move.

"Captain, any suggestion?" Mr. Anderson whispered. I shook my head.

I noticed the holes the Dwarfs came in. I sensed there was something moving from there.

"Mr. Anderson, you feel anything from those?" I whispered while pointing my finger.

"You did too?"

"Yes. Let's give them a surprise, should we?" My hand reached out for a flashbang, a 40mm and a 5.56 magazine. Slowly, I reloaded my weapon.

"Mr. Anderson, tell your men to bang those hole," Mr. Anderson quickly passed the message.

My past taught me that Dwarfs had anticipation abilities. They knew what you are up to when your body moved. Luckily they hadn't developed mind reading yet, I thought sarcastically.

As quick as I could, I pulled out the flash grenade's pin and threw into the hole. "Go!" I shouted.

As the flashbangs dropped into the hole, I could hear the crisp and metallic clangs, followed by some gasp. The ear-splitting bangs took over. The Dwarfs screamed in a tone I never heard before. The inhumane scream that sounded like a baby's cry shattered the silence.

Without much ado, I ran while flipped my HUD down. My right hand reached for the Thermal Button of my HUD. My two hands steadied on my weapons as I jumped into the hole. I quickly peered my left and right. My left was a dead end, but my right was a lot of Dwarfs, obviously stunned and disorientated.

My fingers reached for the front trigger. I yanked the gun up as the grenade left the chamber. The 40mm exploded in the middle of the Dwarfs. The Dwarfs screamed as some of them dropped down dead. 30 bullets later, those nearest to me were dead, while the other Dwarfs ran away from the tunnel.

"All safe!" I shouted. Similar gunshots followed. Soon, the air was silent again.

The rest quickly counted the dead.7 men were killed, either by friendly fire or Dwarfs. Some were injured. The medics wasted no time in giving the regeneration booster. Some of them who weren't injured quickly gobbled down the food and buried the waste. Then, we quickly grabbed the ammunition and weapons of the dead.

I saw a LR-300 on the floor. I picked it up and studied it. It was almost like the M-16 assault rifle that I saw frequently when I was a teenager. I started to like it. It was of compact design. It was almost lighter than the FN2000. It might come in handy, so I put it on and slung it to my back.

Pretty soon, the rest were ready to move out. We reloaded our guns and moved out cautiously.

***

Burer sensed the humans were still alive, though their number had decreased drastically. It would be soon before they were wiped out. Some of his minions were already dead, while some were incapacitated and dying. He felt sorrow for them, but their deaths were nothing compared to the greater cause.

The humans had things that can spit projectiles. He would be ready for them. He looked around. His bunker was full of former human waste: long metallic girders, bricks, concrete blocks. These could be lethal projectiles used by the Dwarfs too.

Using his telepathy, he signaled his 'servants' to come. Pretty soon, 3 Dwarfs appeared and started to bring the stuff to the main lair.

***

"I can't hold on!" Alexei shouted as the rats started to move around their legs. He was trying as hard as possible to avoid being bitten, but they were too many of them. Most of them were jumping around with one leg, trying to either avoid the swarm of rats of to kill them by stepping on them. They were firing with their weapons. From the HUD thermal vision, the ground was covered with red images.

Some of the Dogs came back into the hole and started killing the rats. Using their mouths, they bit the rats to their death before continue on.

The rats themselves reorganized themselves. Most of them swarmed towards the Dogs while the rest attacked the human aggressors. Some of them managed to bit the dogs, but it seemed to have no effects on the dogs. The dogs quickly killed them as if nothing had happen.

Before long, the rats died down. The threat was gone. But there was something worse: most of the group members were bitten.

"Yuri, you had anything to cure these?" Arkady asked.

"Yes, but I had only 2 vials of anti-venom."

"Try to share it among ourselves."

Yuri took out 5 needles from his med kit. He slowly inserted the needles into the vials and tried to make five shots out of the two bottles that contained the precious drops of chemical. Then he inserted into the place where the others and him were bitten. For the rest few minutes, the rest complained of headaches and hallucination, but it wasn't long before they resumed to their original condition, with no more effects. They had survived. The anti-venom worked.

The Dogs weren't as lucky. As the humans looked at their captors, they saw many of the dogs had their feet bone bare, the bones protruding out from the Blind Dogs' legs while pieces of flesh still hanging from their legs. Their every move hurt as they barked in pain when they tried to move. As the noon sunlight shone through the tunnel, lighting up the dark surrounding a little bit, the group members saw the Dogs were actually moaning in pain. The rats' poison too had got them.

The inside and outside of the sewage system was filled with dead body of Dogs, rats and rat wolves alike. Some of the Dogs that weren't fortunate enough to survive were lying on the ground outside, their body surrounded by either blood or rat's body.

In desperation, The Dog Leader came to them. "If you can heal my dogs, I would let one of you go help your leader!" Its thoughts beamed into their head. But there were no anti-venom left. A Special Forces Medic never carried too much gear. If it were possible, the team members would gladly give it to the Dogs.

Slowly, the humans saw the Dogs starting to growl and barked at the walls, obviously seeing something that the human couldn't see. The human couldn't understand it. Is there a new threat?

They started to pounce at the air. Hallucination. Some of the Dogs soon lay down on the floor, panting and moving only their legs at the black air. Their saliva leaked out of their mouth, wetting the floor. Some the Blind Dog eventually died; their body slowly wrecked with spasm before coming to a complete stop. Rat's venom must be attacking their brains too.

But there were a few lucky ones. After sometime, they stopped moving like crazy and regain their original composure. They were the ones that recovered.

Arkady counted the remaining Dogs. There were about 25 Dogs left. Still too many if they want to kill them all.

***

The rest of the 'Duty' stalkers had learned from their past experience. Their front light never missed a section as they carefully scanned the landscape. The air was still the same: tense. We had lost enough men from our original 70-men team. We couldn't afford to lose more. Only the 'specials' hadn't lost any men; the three men had more experience the rest of the troops. They were sticking closely to Anderson and me.

The passage, although broad, was twisted like the body of a snake. We had moved through the passage for such a long time, but the Dwarfs' lair or its leader were nowhere in sight.

I pressed my watch's light. It was 1.00 pm. 7.00 more hours.

Arkady watched silently as the rest of the Dogs gradually died down. Some of them lost a lot of blood to the fatal wounds that had ravaged what were remained of their legs. As the Blind Dogs walked around the place, their blood stained the ground.

Some of the Dogs began to communicate with the Dog Leader. The Dog Leader slowly walked to them.

"My Dogs said if you had the abilities to heal you own men, you have the ability to stop the remaining from dying from losing the red liquid," It said to Arkady.

"Hey, you all might as well die from bleeding. We humans can survive while you Dogs don't even know how to stop your bleeding."

Then, Arkady tried to imitate what the Blind Leader had said in the morning: "This would be the downfall of you Blind Dogs!" Arkady felt good at being able to poke at the Blind Dogs.

The Dog Leader decided it had enough. It furiously jumped and knocked Arkady down. Its mouth reached for his neck. But Arkady remained cool. "You still need us to stop the bleeding!" The Dog's neck stopped moving.

"Alright. If you stopped our bleeding, we might not kill you now and here, you Humans." The thoughts once again went into the group's mind.

"Yuri, got bandage?"

"Lots of them."

"Use them."

As Yuri started to move, Arkady pressed his watch. It was 13.10.

"People, I had a plan." But before he leaked any more words, he turned and made sure The Dog Leader's attention was focused on Yuri who was checking its legs.

"Ok, here's the plan. Clean your weapons. At 2.00 pm, we will kill those dogs and get out of here." The rest nodded in agreement.

"Yeah! Let's kill these son of bitches!" Yuri spoke. The rest tried to control their laughter.

***

After a turn to the left, suddenly my NV mode HUD saw a lot of huts, to my astonishment. I never seen anything liked it. It was perhaps the town of the Dwarfs, or the dwellings of the mutants. From afar, it looked solid, suggesting that it was made of mud since there was no remote possibility that those huts or houses could be build with concrete. There were a lot of those huts in the area. The area looked abandoned. There was no movement.

Perhaps it was an ambush. Or perhaps we had killed most of the Dwarfs.

Anderson put up an all-stop hand sign. We carefully crouch down while the lights scanned the area. There were a few who had spotlights equipped onto their LR-300, and the area was carefully scanned for target.

Suddenly, a spotlight caught a moving thing that looked like a Dwarf. The thing saw us, stood for a while and tried to run before those bullets tore into its limbs. It collapsed down into the dirt floor, apparently died. Some men fired a few more shots to be sure.

After a few minutes, the humid atmosphere was quiet. There was no movement to be heard, only the heavy breathing of us all. Them, Anderson put his hand up and moved his fingers. All team move out, the hand signaled.

We carefully aimed the guns at huts while moved slowly towards the hut. Any second, Dwarfs would come out of nowhere and slaughter us if we let down our guard. Every one of us was edgy: we were willing to fire our gun without letup if we see any Dwarfs. Every one was tense.

We approached the huts. There were no ambush or attack. But we dared not to put down our guard.

"Stack!" Anderson commanded.

We all pressed our body against those huts. Slowly, a few men peeked at the surrounding while some of them now took out their handheld life-form detector. There were no blimps. The few that had peeked out moved and peeked to the inside of the first few huts. There were nothing inside, just a few bones and some pile of mud, perhaps their pillows, I guessed.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Dwarf's scream echoed through the cavern landscape. Instantly, the few scouts that had gone out instantly moved back to our position, somewhere neared the first few huts, near the entrance. After a while, we heard footsteps. Suddenly, the life-form detectors started screaming. They were coming.

To my horror, all the huts rapidly flew upwards, exposing our cover. It was quite a shock. All of us gasped in surprise and horror as the huts gone up to the ceiling of the cave, revealing about hundreds of Dwarfs that obviously had been waiting for us… along with lots and lots of projectiles hovering in the air, pointing at us! The ever-advantageous Dwarfs were too smart.

Without warning, the rapid chatter of our LR-300 machinegun started to fire.

As the crisp cling of the metallic case hit the floor, the Dwarfs too had their own attack. Those projectiles that a moment ago was motionless suddenly flew towards us as if an invisible force had ordered them to. The Dwarfs, in the wake of the projectiles, too ran at us. The wooden huts that had rammed upwards a few moments ago now crumbled into dust, reducing our vision.

Some of us fired at the advancing projectiles, some of us shot at the rushing Dwarfs. The sound of gunfire was now mixed with al kinds of sounds: sounds of bullets hitting the pieced of wood and metallic arrow, sounds of the bullets hitting the ground, the sounds of the bullets piercing into the tough skin of the Dwarfs with a dull thud, and the sounds of Dwarfs screaming in pain.

Some of the projectiles rammed into the body of the first few stalkers in the line. As the arrows pierced into their body and protruding from the other end of their body, they screamed in pain as they fall, their blood splattering onto our suits. I could imagine the pain, but I couldn't help them. As the sharp throngs of wood and metal beams rained onto us, I used my long LR-300 to hit the objects to hit them down.

All of a sudden, the Dwarfs stopped and retreated, to my surprise.

Our gunfire continued to shoot at them; the tracers flew through the air. Some Dwarfs eventually tumbled down to their death, while some slowed down because their injury. Most of them soon disappear into another turning.

When the air was silent, save for the moaning of the injury, the rest crouch down and put on a defensive parameter. The medics quickly went to work: they pulled out the beams of wood and metals while injecting the regeneration booster into the injured once.

They would survive, of course. The regeneration booster, a modern medical miracle, fastens the mitosis process of the subjects to four times its original cycle at a specific spot. An iron solution will take care of the blood loss.

I studied the bloodied beams that were pulled up from the injured troops. The wooden beams were obviously sharpened, though crudely. The metallic beams were worse: those were construction metal beams used to put into concretes. The Dwarfs had broken them into pieces and used them as projectiles. Those Dwarfs are getting deadlier.

The group was ready to move again. We reloaded our ammo belts were moved. This time, most of the men had flashbangs at their hand while the rifle at the other hand.

After we walked to the second turning, the Dwarfs were already waiting for us. The worse part was that it was almost like a hill in front of us. The path led towards a high ground, and the Dwarfs were exactly there, high above us, with projectiles hovering in the air, same as previously.

As soon as we turned and saw the Dwarfs, the flashbangs' pin were instinctively pulled and let go of our arms while we tried not to look at them. The last thing I saw before I covered my eyes was the rain of projectiles rushing at us.

Loud bang echoed through the air. As soon as the series of bang stopped, the air was followed by the continuous clings and thuds of the projectiles. I realized that those Dwarfs had used their telekinesis ability to use those things; the flashbang must have shifted their focus.

While the Dwarfs were in chaos, our rifles quickly sent out sparks of Death at them. Those Dwarfs in turmoil didn't know what to do as one by one, their brethrens were mowed down. Their dead body slowly rumbled down the gentle cliff, landing near us. We took no risk. We fired a few more bullets to be sure they were dead.

Before long, the Dwarfs came into order again.

Suddenly, blocks of solid objects flew up through the air. I though those were supposed to flew at us. I instinctively reached for my flashbangs, along with the rest. As my finger reached for the pin, suddenly I saw the blocks were neatly stacked onto the gentle slope. In less then five seconds, those blocks of things completely shadowed the Dwarfs from us.

The wall was solid, but crude. It was not neatly arrange, yet it was stable. It would not fall down, for now. The Dwarfs were buying themselves time.

"All right, lets blow off those walls." Mr. Anderson commanded some troopers who reached into their backpack and revealed out blocks of explosives.

"TNT. My favorites. Luckily I told the explosives guys to bring them. " Mr. Anderson quipped while ordering those men to paste their explosives at the wall. I felt that something was indeed wrong.

"Anderson, for once, listen to me. Those Dwarfs might be expecting us to do so."

He looked at me, along with the rest. "Hey, Captain. You might be in the Special Forces, but I was here long before you did. I was one of the few who had reached the Zone first in the First year. Are you challenging my experience? Than I advise you…"

"No. I am not challenging your experience. But for once, listen to me. Paste the bombs at the middle of the slopes."

"That wouldn't do us any good at all."

"When those rocks fell, and they will, you need something to block off their advance. You still have no ideas of what those Dwarfs had in mind." Some of the men nodded their head in agreement, but some, including the leader, still doubt me.

"All right, if your plan didn't worked out, I will hold you responsible. If any of my men died, I will kill you." Mr. Anderson threatened me. He sounded as if he was angry with me for 'interrupting' his leadership.

The explosives quickly went in place. After the men rejoined us, Mr. Anderson asked: "Now what?"

"I need an RPG there. All of you form a defensive perimeter. Explosive men, get ready to hold those rocks." I pointed towards the middle of the wall.

After we were ready, I took a metallic beam from the floor and, with all my strength, threw it towards the wall. The stick lost its speed as it traveled farther and farther. In the end, it reached the upper part of the wall with a soft thud. I expected the Dwarfs would react and tumbled down those rocks on purpose.

I was sure that the momentum of the stick were not that powerful; among with the rest. In a second, the walls toppled down. I watched as the lower part of the walls, the blocks of dirt suddenly came out and the rest of the walls crashed down. It was what I had planned.

As the sound of the wall rumbled, suddenly, the natural dirt wall to our both left and right side burst with Dwarfs. The Dwarfs had it all planned.

As the Dwarfs rushed at us, obviously trying to catch us by surprise, they were clearly stunned as they saw us. It was as if they expected we in turmoil, supposed to be near the tumbling wall. They were shocked for a second, then quickly retreated towards their hole as our gunfire started to blast at them. A few troopers reached for their grenades and threw them into the little tunnel they had made. A few seconds later, the hole was illuminated with explosion, followed by lots of painful scream. A few more grenades later, the hole collapsed. Whatever was inside should be dead.

The tumbling dirt came to us like an avalanche. A few quick blasts of explosive followed and later, the dirt suddenly braked down, slowing and stopping by our feet while the air was full with dust. Of course, we wasted no time. All of us fired at the dusty air, expecting the Dwarfs to be rushing at us. The RPG flew threw the air, exploding upon contact.

When the dirty air cleared, they were no Dwarfs in sight. Obviously, whoever had planned these must have read too much military strategy books or is a genius. Worse still, the Dwarf Leader had known that we were here. It would be a tough fight ahead. The Leader had redrawn his Dwarfs minion into the inner sanctum.

" Well, Captain, for once, your judgment proves sound." Mr. Anderson seemed to be mocking me as his troops whooped in the background. It seemed to me that he didn't like me for what I did just now. Maybe I had made him lost face in front of his troops. But for the next few moments, he didn't say anything else. Maybe he had let go. But I had a feeling that this would not be the only time that clashes would happen during our 'alliance'.

I was oblivious of the time that had passed during the encounters. I pressed my watch's light. It was 1.58 pm.

***

The Dwarf Leader was angered. He stamped his feet rapidly onto the ground, like a spoiled child being refused of certain things. He was throwing off his tantrums.

Burer was infuriated by the humans. Yes, some of his plans did work. He managed to reduce the attacking force to almost half of its original size. Yet, he couldn't hold off the humans' advance now. Those leftover were more experienced. Just now, he had calculated that the humans should have paste things to blow off the wall. He had ordered his Dwarfs to collapse the wall when they felt that they was a pressure coming towards them. He had expected the humans to be in turmoil, or dead, when his second wave of Dwarfs attacked from the rear. Instead, the Dwarfs had found the humans making a perimeter, facing the surrounding calmly while mowing down the Horde. Those Humans were getting near to the main lair. He couldn't allow the Dwarfs race in this area to be eliminated.

The Dwarfs still had lots of projectiles to be used. That might be their last stand

***.

"Guys, you're ready?" Arkady asked their fellow men. They nodded.

The Dog Leader looked at him, feeling something wasn't right about these men. It was as if those men had something evil in mind.

The Blind Dog Leader itself was not heavily injured in the leg. That was the first concerned that racked Arkady's thought as he took out his VSS Vintorez. After Yuri checked, he declared that the Dog Leader did not need to be bandaged. Arkady was shocked and surprise; he had expected the Dog Leader to be so. He asked Yuri to recheck, but the results were the same. But he couldn't allow his plan to be ruined.

1.59 on his watch. Arkady's breath got heavier as he readied himself for the attack. His eyes slowly scanned across the blocked sewage system that was getting hot as the afternoon sunrise approached. From the leftover 25 Blind Dogs that were around, there were only 17 left now. He tried as hard as he could to not to point the rifle at the Dogs until it was time.

All of a sudden, they heard some barks in the distance. It was a Blind Dog's sound, but this time, it was followed by thousands of footsteps sound that came from the distance. Arkady's instinct told him it was not yet time to rebel. His instinct told that it was danger approaching.

"People, hold up!" The rest looked at him, then obeyed. They all put their rifles back into the backpack. There would not be any revolt, for now.

Suddenly, large tremors of the ground being stepped on could be heard clearly, as if there were horses stamping on the ground. The group members' focus shifted to the entrance to see what was happening. The Blind Dogs, their senses sharp as ever, too looked at the entrance to the tunnel.

Slowly, dark images started to fill the entrance of the tunnel. The objects looked four-legged from afar, as far as the human eye could see. Slowly, those objects came into the hole, slowly but alert and aware of the surrounding. Arkady flipped down the HUD display unit, with Thermal Vision. It looked like… Blind Dogs! Another Pack!

"People, get those weapons ready. We might be in for a Stalin's bloodbath."

***

We reloaded our rifles. I myself refill my ammo belt and inserted the 40mm into the FN2000's GL chamber. Then, I pressed my Night Vision button located on my Helmet's right side.

Cautiously, we walked upwards onto the gentle slope, rifles pointing frontward. I could hear the harsh breathing of air going through the men's oxygen tank and the occasional scuttling sound from the distance.

The upward slop revealed another plain, dirt plain that was too quiet. Something was again wrong. Quietness never meant safe. The Dwarfs, from what I knew, never let go so easily. It must be an ambush ahead. But my life form Detector revealed nothing.

We cautiously stepped onto the plain. The ground, this time was soft, instead of the hard crusty rock surface that we had been traveling on. Something was indeed wrong. I took a few steps back.

The other looked at me.

All of a sudden, My LFD sparkled up with a lot of red blimps instead of blue. The Blue signified those of humans, but the red ones meant to be for mutants. Trouble!

"Get back! Get Back! Dwarfs in the ground!" I shouted. Those fast enough responded, but there are a few who took their sweet time to ponder upon the words.

They were too late by the time they knew what I meant. The Dwarfs popped out from the ground, some in front of those stalkers. Their arms first came out of the ground, then they used their strength to press against the ground and got themselves up. As the stalkers gasped in shock, the Dwarfs pierced their powerful arm into those men's torso. They screamed at the pain. The Dwarfs had no mercy. They pulled their arm out and laughed. But their laughter was inhuman; it was almost ear piercing to hear that laughter. Seeing the scenes against was as if history repeated itself again.

We instinctively pulled the trigger of our assault rifle as the illumination lights reflected from the skin of those Dwarfs; their eyes lighten up by the bright yellow spotlights. The tracers flew through the air the next few seconds, resulting in the painful shouts from the Dwarfs as the bullets continuously cut through their body. No matter how tough their skin were, they would eventually died. My 40mm flew through the air, lighted up the dark surrounding with its temporary blast and send shrapnel into Dwarfs.

Some Dwarfs ignored the threat; they charged on. Soon, some got too close for comfort. Some retreated though, but those attacked were more than those retreating.

I was somewhere near to the front line when a Dwarf unexpectedly jumped up and landed upon me. Somehow, it had forgotten to drive its powerful hand into my body. As it landed on the ground, it struggled to stand up. I wasted no time. I reached for the combat knife in my gun belt. It was a battle for speed. The Dwarf stood up. I touched my knife the same time. As its hand reached for my body, my knife reached its head. I violently pushed the knife into its head. It landed on me with a gentle thud. I was sill on the ground when its blood and tissue dripped on my body. It was dead. I pushed it aside

But other Dwarfs were steadily gaining their foothold and coming towards us nonstop, even though they were dwindling. My FN2000 got lost in the shuffle while I fall. I had no time to find out where was it. I took out my LR-300 and fired while I was still on the floor.

I had no idea about the amount of the time I had spent lying there. I dared not to stand up, because I would lose valuable seconds. As I fired magazine after magazine at anything that moved in front of me, I could hear screams of pain coming from both Dwarf and human, the voice of Anderson shouting commands to his men that no longer paid attention to him but to their rifle's iron sight.

The Battle was a bloody showdown. I kept shooting mindlessly. It was just like in the combat movies where the good guys battle the bad guys for survival. Except this time, there were no good guys or bad guys. I was in a battle for survival now.

When it was finally done, I saw the last Dwarf fallen down lifelessly, bullet holes inside its head as blood oozed out. The place was a mess of blood and body, along with the screams of those Dwarfs who could no longer stood up and fought, just lying on the floor and waited for their time to come. My Life Form Detector had no red blimps in the 100-meter radius. I was safe, for now.

In relief, I lay my aching neck onto the soft ground, now wet with blood. The air itself was full with the sharp smell of sulfur, the burnt smell of smoke wafted through the air. It was tiring battle; at last, we had succeeded, for now. I closed my eyes to rest. It felt good to lie down in the cold and humid earth once in a while.

A rifle's butt gently touched me. I opened my eyes, to find a powerful spotlight shown on my face.

"Get that bloody light off me!"

"Hey, you're still alive! The huge shadow behind the rifle spoke. He put out his hand to help to get up.

"How was it?"

"Lot's of men died, and lot's of men didn't."

I paused for a while. "How many died?"

"About 7." My heart sank. 23 troopers left.

"Ever thought that I was leading you people down here to die?" I tried to ask the stalker who helped me up.

"No sir. We came down here to kill Dwarfs." The man, whom I could see only dimly through the poorly lit surrounding, beamed in pride as he said so. "We 'Duty' had a mission to save the world from these mutants. We will die trying." Typical fanatics.

I opened the front light of the LR-300 and started finding my FN2000 amid the corpse. In the background, the medics were frantically trying to save lives of those who were either dying or wounded.

I turned up the corpses that were around me one by one. None of them moved, but my FN 2000 were nowhere in sight. I continued searching. At long last, I acquired my precious weapon, The FN2000 Herstal, underneath the body of a dead Dwarf.

I rejoined the main group. By now, most of the troopers were dividing the dead's ammunition among themselves at the 'pack-mule', a stalker's term for someone who carried extra grenades, ammunition, batteries and things like that. I too joined them and got my ammunition full up. In the background, the others were pulling dog tags from the dead ones. They were so military like, I thought. After they were done, they put the body neatly aside the cave's cavern to be pick up later, if they survive at all.

After we were ready, we moved out towards a right turning about 500m away.

***

Arkady watched nervously as the packs of Dogs gathered somewhere in the middle of the sewage tunnel. From the afternoon light that had now shone into the cave, he could see that the previous Dog Leader' s skin was fully white in colour, while the new Dog Leader's skin was transparent! Its red muscle could be clearly seen, still moving. Its skin, tough transparent, was still there, serving as a protective layer. Arkady wondered whether the transparent Dogs had fur. If they had, he could get those out and sell it to some textile dealer, and he could be rich then. He smiled.

But fantasies were fantasies. In reality, he really doubted that he would survive. During the two Dog Leader's conversation, the new Dog Leader from the new pack seemed to look at him a few times in the middle of the 'Blind Dog' talk. Arkady could see the hatred of the Dog Leader inside its eyes while it looked at the humans. It looked as if the New Dog Leader wanted to kill. That sent chills into his bones.

He looked at his watch. 2.20 pm.

"Are they going to leave, or are they going to sit down for their afternoon tea?" Yuri tried to joke. Another one of his stale jokes.

Suddenly, The Two Dogs growled at each other fiercely, while baring their teeth. The building aggression took the humans' and the rest of the Dogs' attention.

The next thing Arkady knew, the Dog Leaders sprang at each other. The fight had begun.

The Dogs first tried to knock each other down using each one's strong front legs. It was like boxing, save for that the Dogs tried to bite their opponents too in the process.

The Two Dogs fought ferociously.

The New one sent a kick, or to be exact, a punch towards the Previous one. As the human's watched on, the New one tried to bite the Previous one. The Previous one Dodge it by rolling aside while gaining its footing. The Previous one stood up. The Previous one used its legs skilfully and forked the New one. The new one tripped down. The Previous one tired to reach for the New one's neck. The New one used its front legs to kick the Previous one body, sending it to the back.

"Hey, it's like watching kungfu! Did those guys watched Jackie Chan?" Alexei joked again. The Group members' didn't laugh. Their focus was on the action.

The Old Dog Leader hit a wall while let out a howl of pain. As it tried to recover, the New One's bit into its legs, sending out more howls.

Arkady's mind was racing. If the New Dogs won, it would not be good for them. He had seen the uneasy feeling inside the New Dog's eyes. There was hatred. Hatred is the greatest weapon of all. It could render you mindless as you tried to kill someone.

The Dogs would surely kill the Special Forces if the New Dog Leader won. They had to help the Previous Dog Leader of they really want to survive until the Captain came back. Even though the Previous Dog Leader didn't promised that they would be out alive, at least they could stale for some more time.

"Anatoly, get the VSS ready. Aim for the New Dog Leader's head.

Silently, Anatoly followed.

The bald soldier with the friendly face was a smart man with an IQ of 140. He had acquired a degree in general physics from the University of Moscow. He was a gifted man, yet he joined the Army against the will of his parents. In The Army, next, he made it to the Spetnatz, and because of his intelligence, he was chosen as a Tech man. The soldier knew what Arkady was up to. He knew his plans. He quietly swiped out his VSS.

"The rest, when I signal, shadow Anatoly." Arkady spoke. The rest nodded.

The two Dogs were now in the middle of the tunnel, making circles while facing each other, The Previous Dog was now limping, blood dripping from its legs. The Two Dogs snarled at each other, their teeth shown clearly.

When the two faced each other in a vertical formation, Anatoly silently pressed the trigger as his head laid again the barrel of the rifle, taking his aim through the scope.

The silent bullet traveled at subsonic speed towards each target. Although it didn't have the velocity of ordinary bullets, it was silent. Completely silent. A powerful ally when the situation called for it. The bullet silently travelled passed the Dogs.

The bullet went into the skull of the New Dog Leader. The other Blind Dogs were sure that they heard a noise of very low amplitude. They looked at the Humans while the New Dog Leader howled in pain as it collapsed down it pain. The bullet had not kill it, as the velocity was too low to penetrate into the centre lobe of the brain. The humans were acting quite suspiciously, all lying on the floor. But there were no guns in sight.

Before the Dogs could do anything, the previous Dog Leader had already made a loud bark that turned all the attention back to the main event. The New Dogs was now rolling in pain while the Previous Blind Dogs dashed towards it. The Dog Leader jumped and landed his teeth into the New Dog Leader's neck. In seconds, the jugular vein of the victim was pierced open by the sharp teeth. Blood spurt out to the surrounding as the Dog Leader hollered in extreme pain. The Previous Blind Dog Leader quickly made a few more bites. The following few seconds, it quickly bled to death. The fight was over.

The next thing the humans knew, the newly arrived Blind Dogs quickly went over to their new Leader. They watched in awe as the Blind Dog Leader sprayed his urine on the new Dogs. It was as if the newcomers were marked. They were family now.

"This is a new discovery! The Dogs actually mark their pack this way! We can actually used this finding to…" Anatoly wanted to continue, but Arkady quickly hushed him. If the Blind Dogs knew, they were in big trouble.

The Dog Leader came to Arkady, obviously in a display of both pride and arrogance. "If I can defeat another Blind Dog Leader, why can't I destroy you Humans?"

Then it left and started to eat up the dead Dog Leader's body, as a display of victory.

"Damn the Dog. We actually help him, and he didn't even appreciate it!" Alexei said it in anger. Again, Arkady hushed him.

"What happen if the Dogs found out? They will kill the Leader and us too! We just kill their Leader!" Alexei, hearing so, nodded in agreement. It made sense.

Arkady looked at his watch. It was 2.30 pm now. They would have to wait for another chance to come.

The weather was just nice: hot but humid. The drowning sensation of sleep came to him. Arkady didn't want to resist it: he wanted something to pass the time. Without much ado, he slowly felled onto the floor and rested.

***

We approached the area of the next turning.

The moment we turned, I saw another village exactly like those I had encountered previously. This time, the village was so enormous that it actually filled the whole cave! The cave itself was very large, which I estimated about the size of 2 Boeing 747 jets vertically. This must be the main lair! In the distance, there was a cave that led to somewhere else.

"Techies, time to bring up the juice!" Anderson commanded. The men quickly pull out their tech weapons.

"The rest, whoever had explosives weapon, bring them out now!" The sound of the RG-6 and the RPG-6 clang against the ground followed. In seconds, those men turned into a dangerous mob of men welding killer weapons.

"How come a sudden change of tactics? I thought you reserve those tech weapons for the boss?"

"I did, but I can no longer tolerate any man loss. I can't afford to go close-quarter. Tech, switch the G.R.A.G to reverse gravity.

I was surprised. The Gravity Gun weapon was formerly used to suck mutants and humans on the ground. Those scientists must be having more advance weaponry now.

The men looked at the lair that was in front of them. There was a mix of excitement in the air. These people were feeling invulnerable with their gear. I really hoped it was so.

"People…" The air was suddenly silent. Everyone paid full attention to what the Leader had to say. I took out the SVU that was in my backpack and snapped in the only magazine I had. Then I inserted a flare grenade into my FN2000's GL chamber.

"It is time. Let the firework began!"

The next seconds, the sounds of those deadly ammunition of explosion leaving their chamber could be heard almost simultaneous. The air was filled with the sound of grenades and rocket flew through the air. Then, the whole place was light up like the firework display of the Fourth of July. It was time, time to kill.

I aimed my FN2000 upwards and fired the front content. In a far distance away, the flare lit up. Time for a tough fight.

Burer had never anticipated it. He had thought the humans would go into the main lair. He had placed his Dwarf into each an every one of the mud huts, where those humans would be culled, one by one, when they get too close. He thought that his plan would be a success, that the humans would have the most horrifying death before the group would either fled or exterminated completely when they were thrown into a frenzy.

***

He was wrong. The Human had attacked from long-range. They had completely changed their tactics. The Dwarf Leader, although a genius, had grown accustomed to the way those humans had attacked without even realizing that they could change. Instantly, his heart sank, throwing him into his tantrums.

He could sense that most of his minions were already dead when the explosives landed onto the main lair's huts. The explosions had killed his men without them even knowing that the bombs had landed. Now, it was his men that were in frenzy.

Burer desperately commanded his Dwarfs to retreat into the main lair. His 300 Dwarfs-strong army had been waiting for nothing.

A few Dwarfs that served as scouts had been hiding near the entrance reported that this time, the Humans weapons' didn't emit a lot of light. They were just brief stroke of strong light. This worried Burer further. The Humans had weapons that could make a lot of fire, yet the weapons itself didn't spit out a lot of light. He had received similar findings from Dwarfs from the other dungeons and Dark Places that the humans had these weapons, but the Dwarfs had killed them with ease in the dark surrounding without the humans even know it. Now, things were different. His Dwarfs couldn't get near to the humans without being killed. He could only tell them to retreat.

Desperately, the maniacal genius told his scout to approach those humans silently to kill them stealthily.

The Dwarfs heeded his command. They obediently walked towards the humans, cover by cover.

Suddenly, Burer could sensed that his scouts were blinded by strong lights that came out of nowhere, tearing the darkness with its powerful lights. His Dwarfs were blinded instantly. One by one, those Dwarfs, in confusion, were killed, until in the end none was left. Those Dwarfs only managed to tell him that there were exposed.

Burer knew he was about the fight a losing battle. But he knew that there also would be a chance for the Dwarfs to win.

***

The sky was covered with dark clouds, the typical Zone weather. The strong wind was gusting as the dried leaves flew through the air, landing on the soft and wet ground near the camp surrounding. It was autumn, the general remembered silently as he looked out. His eyes was tired from looking at the plans

Suddenly, the clear sound of the unmistakable "Thump!" sound of a helicopter could be heard. Lt. General Ivan and the few commanding officers quickly left the command camp in the camp and got out.

The chopper landed in the clearing a few yards away from them, sending waves and waves of wind towards the men as they stared at the chopper. The wind caused the dried leaves to rise and spread to the surrounding. The Mi-8 landed on the clearing. The men quickly approached the chopper in their best manner and stood in front of the chopper door.

Silently, the commanders cursed at the chopper as its door opened, revealing a private which quickly saluted to someone in the chopper while taking a huge step back.

That someone was notorious enough to be well known in the Russian Government and military. It was the Lt. General Stuliasky Burkarov, the head of the Russian Internal Affairs department.

As the man in black trench coat stepped down from the chopper, the commanders quickly throw off a snappy salute while cursing their luck. This man would be here until the crisis was finished.

"Lt. General!" General Ivan followed the echoes of his fellow commanders. They were all roughly of the same rank with the Lt. General, yet they still pay their respect.

"I am no longer a Lt. General, comrades. I am a Major General now. Stand down." The man said as he smiled. The commanders exchanged looks. The storm is about to come.

"What's the situation?"

"We are still deploying: we had just arrived 5 hours ago sir. The perimeter itself was secure enough yet to fend off any escaping mutants."

"5 hours! What are you all doing? Sleeping?" The major general shouted at the commanders who had turned ashen-faced. “ Do you realize how long 5 hours can be?”

"Sir, we are still waiting for the Spetnatz cadets to arrive at Base Alfa. The Antanov haven't arrived yet due to the adverse weather condition. One of the generals said. That seemed to soften the major general.

"How about recon?"

"Sir, we are still waiting for the MAGAX robots to arrive together with the troops. Right now, we could only wait sir. We can't afford to send men inside. Survivors said that situation is too dangerous."

The generals slowly let out their breath as they watch the major general surveyed the scene with his sharp cold eyes.

The general was quite tall, about 6 feet. He had some wrinkled on his forehead that showed his experience in the Russian Governing Machine. He himself was a former Spetnatz, having several tours in Latvia and Chechnya, both before the Communist system and after its fall. He was a man of democracy, yet he was a feared dictator whose quest for the best was rally fulfilled. His combination of the sharp blue eye and sharp nose were enough to earn him the nickname 'The Berkut", the Golden Eagle.

"All right." He finally said, obviously satisfied. "I am not God, so we had to wait for the planes to land first." The commanders too let out a sigh. It was a relief for them.

"Now, what do we have so far about the incident? And when can I interrogate the survivors?"

***

The place was smoke-filled. In about 5 minutes, the Dwarfs' lair was reduced to rubble. Nothing was left except fire, from my eyes. Of course, the spent cartridges and ammunition casing was on the ground, along with my useless SVU.

Out of nowhere, sticks and metallic beams flew towards us. But I was calm. I was confident of the abilities of the G.R.A.G

As the arrow neared us, one of the Techs aimed his Gravity Gun towards the objects and pressed the trigger. I instantly felt a wave of invisible energy came out of the long tube with a big round reloading plate on it. The energy bolt flew towards the oncoming objects. The two collided, and the objects quickly dropped down on the floor.

"Move out! Weapons: default. I want Peter and Sam to hold on to the RG-6." Anderson commanded as we cautiously moved out. Of course, we knew that it was pointless: most of the Dwarfs were already cooked.

We passed through the lake of fire, where the flames fed on the body of the dead Dwarfs. As I slowly marched forward, I no longer see any moving Thermal images in my Thermal Night Vision combo sight.

The combo sight was actually a battery consuming function: it allowed Thermal Vision and Night Vision to be used together. Any object would be in red if it emits heat, but the background would be in green instead of red. Optimum for night ops.

From the distance, I saw small moving things that had been marked in red. I reloaded my GL chamber and moved forward to take a better look.

As I looked, about 10 small Dwarfs came towards me, still crying. Those were just baby Dwarfs, having the size as big as my calf. They were slightly bigger than a newborn human baby. Their skin was the same as the mature Dwarfs: yellow in colour.

They were walking towards me.

I wanted to shoot at them, but my mind hesitated. Seeing those things reminded me of babies. Cute and harmless. Maybe these Baby Dwarfs were the same.

Suddenly, burst of rifle jolted me awake from my thoughts. A few little Dwarfs were dead on the ground, but some were still coming at me.

"Captain, are you nuts? Those things can kill you!" A voice said at my back.

I quickly realized the Dwarfs were equally dangerous as their adult ones. They were not cute anymore, let alone harmless. I pressed my weapons front trigger. Seconds later, what were left of the babies were pieces of limb and meat. Of course, the dark had censored me from the gore, just liked my previous encounters.

Slowly, my group walked out of the burning lair while killing more Baby Dwarfs that were obviously left unprotected by their parents. They were swiftly eliminated. When we reached the end of the lair, the hole that I had seen in the distance was now clearly in sight.

But there was something that had surprised me the most.

From the dim lights of the fire, I saw concrete walls near inside the hole of a cave. I knew The Dwarfs didn't possess this kind of technology. I guessed this must be a former missile shelter, designed by the Russians to protect the VIPs during the Cold War; it must be abandoned when the first Chernobyl incidence occurred.

Now, everything started to make sense. The gulag had a secret entrance to the missile shelter, and the Dwarfs, over the years, had tunnelled it and shaped it into their home and fortress. Smart Dwarfs.

Another thing came to my mind: This place must be leading to the Dwarf Leader!

This was it: The Final Showdown.

Together, the rest of the 'Duty' clan and I stepped into the cave.

***

Burer could feel it. The Humans. They had massacred most of the Dwarf siblings that he had no control on, as their minds weren't developed yet. Those human had mercilessly killed them. Now, they had head into his bunker, where his leftover Dwarfs were in for the final fight.

The Dwarf Leader himself had not participated in any major battle with the Humans in his life; neither did he want any. But if today he had to lead his men into battle, he would.

He looked down to his subordinates. He was about 3 times higher then them; his powers stronger than them too. He will survive, he told himself. His skin would be tougher then the ordinary ones. His surroundings were full of concrete girders. He would prevail. He must, for the sake of the Dwarfs race.

His surroundings were full of girders concrete blocks and bricks, something that they had salvaged over the last 2 decades. Those things were intended as building material, now they were weapons.

Burer took a deep breath and swiftly melted into the dark surrounding, along with his subordinates.

***

The first impression I had when I walked into the place: messy and dirty.

As I had expected, this place is a former missile shelter, something places for the Russian to take cover during an escalated nuclear war. The ground was full with upturned obsolete computers and tables, not to mention bones. The wastes were strewn around in the dark surrounding. The bunker itself was very wide, about 300 meters, though the ground was dirty and littered with waste.

As I peek around, suddenly, my HUD caught a lot of red signature in the dark.

"Anderson, don't raise your gun yet. You saw those Dwarfs?"

"No. Where are they?" He whispered to me. His NVG couldn't catch them.

"I have a flare. Tell your men to get ready with the bangs and guns."

I tried hard to not to raise my rifle to the threat. The Dwarfs knew we were here now. Somehow, there were still waiting. Perhaps to catch us in the dark as a surprise?

"Go!" Anderson, who was next to me, whispered.

I took a deep breath. I raised my weapons upwards and pressed the front trigger. There was a smooth "boop" sound coming from the GL and the light clang of the metallic case of the flare against the rough ground. Every clang made my stomach wanted to turn. I was nervous.

The flared lighted up. A lot of Dwarfs scream soon followed. Similar flares launches were heard. The surrounding quickly lighted up as clear as day… revealing a lot of Dwarfs and an ultra big one! The Dwarf Leader at last!

"Bang!" a Lot of shouts echoed around me as projectiles were thrown towards the Dwarfs. I heard the clasp of their equipment against their body as they got down to take cover against the oncoming blinding lights.

My HUD itself was a soldiers dream. Aside from the four functions, the visual display unit itself is a light purifier. It would absorb sudden burst of lights that normally blind the human eye. The outer layer of the HUD is the anti-glare device that too would safe the eyes from the blinding effects if the flashbang.

A lot of white bangs lighted up in the air, followed by the usual ear-piercing screams of the Dwarfs. As the Dwarfs were quickly thrown into confusion, we quickly opened fire at the targets that were moving around madly, since they could no longer see for the time being.

40mm Grenades launched through the air. Explosion followed everywhere. In less then 10 seconds, what was of about 50 Dwarfs were reduced to about 8.

This was where the trouble started.

I tried to fire bullets at a remaining Dwarf. The bullets seem to come at them, then slowly stopped at came to a complete stop in front of them. I couldn't believe it. It was almost like the special effects in the movies during my teenage times. Those weren't real, but this was. The bullets then dropped to the ground in a clang. These were the Dwarfs Lieutenants. Of course, the remaining Dwarfs didn't run away; they had nowhere to run.

Then, all the rubbish around us: the computer wreckages, the concrete, the bricks, the tables, suddenly flew from the air. We were in deep waters.

As the Tech and soldiers frantically trying to shoot those objects down, I reloaded my weapon's chambers. The instant the grenade was in, I aimed at one of the Dwarf Lieutenants and fired. I wanted to see how they stopped this.

The 40mm grenade, like most projectiles, flew into the air. The Dwarf's gravity defence mechanism slowly put the thing to a decent, and then it dropped to the ground. The thing fell onto the floor a few centimetres away from the Dwarfs. The Grenade dropped to the floor with a clang. It exploded. The shrapnel cut into the Dwarfs as it screams in pain. The following bullets were not stopped; the Dwarf Lieutenant that was my target had lost control over his focus and gravity shield. After a few bullets in the head, it dropped down dead.

A trooper saw my similar action. This time, the trooper took out his RPG-7 and aimed at one of the Dwarfs Lieutenant. The RPG flew through the air. Just like previously, the RPG was stopped again in front of the Dwarf and felled to the ground. Then, as its 9 seconds fuse detonated, the flames rush through the air, incinerating the Dwarf alive. Although the air then was full with the shouts of commands and ammunition flying in the air, the Dwarfs voice of anguish was heard clearly. The trooper, seeing this, remarked: "Nothing like fried Dwarfs for dinner!"

In a minute's time, we killed the remaining Dwarfs. Now, there was only one Dwarf left: The Dwarf Leader. The Boss.

During the engagement, I didn't bother to see the Dwarf Leader. Now, as my attention was focused only to the beast, I was seeing a miracle, a something that I had never seen before in my life.

I looked around, to see that most of the troops were frantically escaping from the bunker. I then saw bricks flying across the area, homing onto their intended target. I was hoping for an explanation, but the questions came from Anderson. The reply? "Sir, we need time for reloads! The GRAG is dry!"

Then I saw the bricks from another pile rose up noiselessly, and then turned to my direction. Those were intended for me.

My adrenaline filled my blood as I realized this. I quickly ran towards the exit, the silent swoosh following behind me. I reached the exit. Then, a heavy object hit my head. I collapsed on the floor. Overhead, the objects flew past me to the distance. Luckily, my helmet covered me. I was a little dazed by the pressure that had hit my head. I was a few feet away from the exit. I quickly came to my feet and ran. I turned to a sharp corner, just in time to dodge the second wave of bricks and concrete.

I looked around. The troops were reloading their weapons. Then, a few leaned tight against the wall, did a sharp turning and fired their rifles at the monster. Every step of the monster shook the ground. Then, its footstep could be heard near to the entrance to its bunker.

An astonishing sight caught my eye. After the troopers shot and leaned back to the wall, the bullets would suddenly flew back onto the ground. This is bad, I told myself. The Dwarf Leader even had control over our bullets.

"Sir, that thing is too close!" A trooper to the entrance told his commander.

"People, retreat!" Anderson commanded as his troops pulled back and headed towards the entrance to the main lair. I ran with them.

I ran across the still-burning landscape in the middle of the main lair with the rest. I heard a loud sound of sand collapsed from the arch at the back. I turned. I saw an immense large heat signature from my HUD. I quickly reset the HUD to kinetics only.

When I was neared to the entrance, suddenly, I heard screams. Humans. I kept running until I reached the entrance and took cover behind the solid wall of dirt.

After I took cover with the rest, I turned to see the situation inside the former main lair. A few stalkers had large metallic beams inside their body, crying for help! Anderson ignored their desperate plea for help. He couldn't afford to loss any more men.

"Anderson, you got to help them!" I shouted at the man.

"You want to save them? Go ahead! Go at met your demise!"

I turned and peeked again. One of the stalkers had the GRAG in his hand. He was crawling towards us. I quickly made a decision. I ran to him and carried him to my back and ran back towards the entrance.

I heard another almost-noiseless whoosh coming from the back. I kept running, not daring enough to turn my back. I heard the stalker screamed again in pain. It was at the same moment I reached the entrance again.

I put the man down. As the medics worked on him, I noticed two beams, one that was shorter, was protruding from his stomach. One of the beams must have got us while I was running! He had shielded me. It was only the darkness that saved me from seeing the gore. The medics worked on him for some more time. It was helpless. The men soon stopped moving. The medics turned to Anderson sand said. "Sir, we had to call him."

I heard more screams, then a large sound of gobbling. I turned and watched again, The Dwarf Leader was actually picking up the stalkers, pulling the beams from their stomach… and eating them alive! But there was nothing we can do. Now, we only had about 20 men left.

"Captain, get to the GRAG!" Anderson shouted at me. I quickly picked up the object and searched the former owner for the gravity artefacts capsule. I found two, and put them in my pocket.

"Those who had the GRAG, switch the pin to 'sucking'!" A stalker attended to it, but I was inexperience in this matter. I quickly studied it. The weapon had 4 pins: safety, 'forward', 'reverse' and 'intensify gravity'. That must be it. I switch the selector switch

"Take aim at the entrance!" Anderson ordered again. The 'Boom!' footsteps of the Dwarfs could be heard. Every one of the footsteps made my heart pumped faster. I was afraid. It was scary as my hand started to shudder while it aimed at the entrance.

Suddenly, a metallic beam pierced across the wall and stopped. A part of its beam was protruding out, barely missing a stalker in the process. Everyone started to panic and retreated to the centre part. It was as if the Dwarf Leader knew we were taking cover there. Now, the incident had caused most the men to be paranoid and panicky. I could hear screams that say, "I don't want to die in here!" or "God, Help me!" and phrases like that which showed that these men were in extreme confusion and fear.

Then, I could hear the sand from the wall above in the entrance started to fall. The Dwarf Leader was moving in. I focused my attention and my weapon, the GRAG, towards it. The moment the gargantuan object appeared, I fired my weapon, along with the other stalker.

The monster was literally stuck to the ground, as I saw it tried to move but couldn't. The double G.R.A.G had intensified the gravity force higher then the normal 10N, but this condition was not likely to last very long.

The rest of the troops quickly emptied their bullets onto the monster. This time, the bullets was again stopped by the invisible the telekinesis analogue of a gravity shield. The bullets quickly came to a halt, and then zoomed back to the exact direction where they came from. The men quickly dodged around the room. A few were hit.

"Where is the plasma launcher? Damnit!" Anderson shouted. "Where is Danny?"

" I am here!" A stalker came and pulled out his plasma cannon while inserted a mercury ball. He aimed it. Then, he fired the launcher.

A blue ball of flames came out from the launcher, lighting the dark surrounding with a dim blue colour. The light itself was gentle to the NVG. It streaked across the room towards the head of the Dwarf Leader. The Dwarf Leader tried to control it. Its eyes were focused on the flame. But the thing was energy; it was barely matter. The Dwarf Leader couldn't control it!

The energy ball hit the Leader. It was at the exact moment a beep came from my G.R.A.G, telling me the gravity energy from the artefact was finished. I watched as The Dwarf Leader flew across the room, hitting the wall with a loud thump. Surprisingly, his head wasn't blew open. But it didn't matter anymore. The Dwarf Leader crashed against the cavern wall. As it slumped down towards the ground, the dirt came down and covered him. The Dwarf Leader barely moved. It was dead, finally, after so much death and gore.

***

Arkady was looking at the end of the tunnel, bored by the waiting. They had done everything possible to pass the time: cleaning their rifles, sleeping, talking, and looking around. If only there were a pack of cards around, he thought and smiled. Aside from vodka and, for some, cigarette, cards are a Russian soldier's best friends.

The tunnel, a moment ago was hot as if they were in an oven, now was cooling down. Its stinky stench had come back, along with the coolness. Darkness was approaching. He looked at his watch: it was 3.34 pm. The Zone's night arrived at six.

Suddenly, two Blind Dogs came from the distance again.

"Sir, I am sure those are the ones that left in the morning!" Anatoly whispered.

The two Dogs quickly went to the Dog Leader and made some sound, as if they were talking. After that, the two Dogs went to the remaining and decaying bodies of the Dwarfs and greedily indulged the food.

The Dog Leader went to another two Dogs and seemed to tell them something. Then, the two Blind Dogs obediently moved out to the tunnel. The Blind Dog Leader turned to them.

"Your captain is missing. My two Dogs are dead. Your captain seemingly had abandoned you!" The Blind Dog's thought seem to go into their head, though its mouth was hardly moving. It turned and joined the rest of the Dogs.

"Damn. Let's hope the cap isn't attacked by some mutants." Yuri said. Deep inside, they really hoped to see the captain again. They wanted to survive this alive.

***

An hour later, I was at the surface, watching the 'Duty' Clan carrying the body of their friends and comrades with their leftover equipment to the vehicle. I couldn't help feeling lucky, for the Marauders didn't appeared and stole the vehicle.

The 'Duty' Clan respected the Dead. They never left the dead one's body in The Zone. They had their own graveyard to put the bodies. Most of the body had been acquired, but a few had to be extracted from the stomach of the Dwarf Leader.

"Well, Captain, it has been my pleasure to work with you, although you caused a lot of death among my men." The 'Duty' Clan Leader had an unwelcoming tone inside his speech, as if I had led them into a death trap and killed most of his men purposely.

"We will sent you to the place where we had picked you up last night. It is approximately two hours' trip to the location." He spoke as his men loaded up the Dwarf Leader's body.

I looked at my watch. It was 4.30 pm now.

***

Arkady couldn't help staring at his watch again. Time was really passing slowly. It was 4.35 pm now. "Damnit, cap, you better come back soon, or some of us will be dog food." The sergeant said to himself while taking out his canteen and drank its fill. Its water quickly trickled into its mouth, and then there were no more water left for him.

Suddenly, he heard grunts coming from the outside. It sounded like a pig.

"Not again! Now what?" Alexei said. They were pretty used to sudden occurrence that happen in the last 20 hours. To say honestly, they were pretty bored by it now.

The grunts sounded louder and louder, but surprisingly, the Blind Dogs weren't scared at all. They were excited by it! All of the stopped what they were doing and looked out in interest.

"What could that be?" Anatoly too asked while he whisked out his AKS-74U and inserted his last magazine. "I never heard those sounds during the info-briefing."

All of a sudden, four-legged things came out from the distance. It looked like Blind Dogs, but it looked bigger. It had four legs, and that was the only obvious thing that they could see. The 'things' quickly filled the entrance of the tunnel. Apparently, those things were unwelcome emigrants who wanted to stay here.

With a thunderous roar, the Dogs rushed at them. The 'things', upon hearing the roar, too rushed at the Dog. The group watched in bewilderment as the Blind Dogs quickly rushed towards the 'things' that were outnumbered.

The fight quickly escalated into a massacre. The agile Dogs jumped at those things and bit their neck to death. It was a five-minute cull. In the end, all the 'things' were quickly dead. The Dogs had one death, but how the human didn't know.

The Dogs quickly feasted on it. The human watched in interest again. The things that they had killed were quite meaty.

"Hey, Doggy Head, give us some pork over there, would you?" Alexei shouted, to the surprise and shock to his comrades.

"What the hell are you doing, Alexei?" Arkady whispered to him as his eyes looked at the Blind Dogs that had turned their head and stared at the humans. The Blind Dog Leader too looked at them. Then, it slowly made a few bark to his Dogs. One of the Dogs dragged the thing to their front and continued its meal with the others.

The group studied the thing through the dim rays of the sun that shone into the sewage pipe. It was a mutated wild boar! It was almost similar to the ordinary boars, save for its gigantic size which was about 1.5 metres long. It had tusk too, and that must had killed the Blind Dog. It seemed healthy, but the Humans knew the meat was tainted.

"Sir, I am hungry." Alexei spoke to Arkady. The sergeant, who was a small fellow, sharp nose and educated soft voice with the typical square face of a Ukrainian descendant, was persuading the leader to let them eat.

Arkady himself was tempted too. Arkady himself had studied history before, and he knew that hungry stomach was what drove people to revolution. Of course, Alexei wouldn't revolt, but every one of them was at their wits end with those Dogs and weak from skipping for about 3 meals now. The longer they last without food, the sooner they would become weak.

"Yuri, can we eat those meat?" Arkady slowly spoke.

"Yes sir, but I don't recommend it myself. The thing was 'dirty'." He was referring to the dosage of radiation inside the meat of the boar.

"Dog Leader, can I get some wood to put on a fire?" Arkady braved himself to ask the question. The scraps of wood had been used up. They need to cook the food.

"Do you have to do it now?" the Dog Leader seemed to complain as he commanded two Dogs to escort him outside to the nearby woods to collect branches.

While he was outside collecting the dried branches on the ground, the Dogs were trailing him nearby. As he picked up the branches slowly as he could, Arkady enjoyed the short period of freedom that he had now. It was joyous to have the ability to walk out, slowly strolling around while breathing in the fresh autumn air instead of the stale air inside the drain he was in, with the brown leaves crunching beneath his rubber boots. Yes, it was good to be free again, he thought as he took another breath of cold air. The sky was getting dark. Maybe it would rain again tonight.

But then another thought hit him. He had the desire to run from the hellhole. He felt his belt. His FN HP-SA was still there, so was a full magazine. The idea to escape was nagging him. Maybe he could get help in time and save his men with some outsider.

However he thought of his men. What happened if he ran? His men would be killed because of his treachery. Those Special Forces men who had high hopes to get out alive need him to lead. His Captain too had ordered him to watch over those men. Yes, those Blind Dogs would be angered if he ran. It was his duty to stay, he reasoned. Thinking, this, the thought to run quickly disappeared from his mind.

The two Dogs suddenly barked at him, waking him up from his thoughts. He looked around. There wasn't a threat nearby in the forest near to the sewage pipe. Most of the trees here had already shed their leaves in preparation to winter.

The Dogs continued to bark at him. He looked at his hand. The dried pieces of wood had filled his hand. It was time to go back. Arkady quickly followed the two Dogs back to the sewage pipe. He had his responsibility to attend to.

***

The 3 KAMAZ trucks came into sight with its full truckloads of soldiers. Two Niva outfitted with XM-134, almost an imitation of the Americans Humvee, were in front of the convoy, serving as escorts. The generals watched as the sentries opened the blockade and allowed the vehicle to go through from the asphalt trail that led to into the perimeter.

The KAMAZ trucks stopped in front of the command post tent. The soldiers inside quickly rushed out in an orderly manner that classed as the typical Spetnatz: disciplined and quick.

"It's about time!" Major General Stuliasky Burkarov commented.

Two cadets help to carry out a MAGAX robot. The magnificent machine was then put in front of the commanders as the two soldiers quickly saluted and ran off to build their tent. Another cadet brought a computer, a laptop.

"What is this? You expect me to believe that this thing that needed to be carried down from a truck could be used to scout the interior?"

"Yes, sir." Lt. General Ivan walked towards the robot and crouched down while opening its cover located in the centre of the robot by pressing a button. A board with nine buttons on it came up/. The general pressed the different buttons one by one for about nine times. Then a sound followed in Russian: "Input code correct. Authorization complete. Good afternoon, General Ivan."

"Who the hell design this? The Americans? Since when did the government…"

"Sir, this is from several students from University of St. Petersburg together with Kolumna Design Bureau. Homemade." General Burkarov's voice started to calm down.

"You mean there was no foreigner who designed this?" the general asked cagily.

"Well, there is a American who study at the University though. But this thing is still at experimental stage."

All the commanders from the different bases and the IA general watched as the robot came to life.

The MAGAX robot, or Mechanical Anti-Ground and Artillery eXperimental, looked like a chicken with its metallic chicken feet. But the thing itself is a powerful weapon system: It had a computerized infrared system as well as a normal visual system that helped it to walk around while beaming its images into a controlling system nearby. The Head itself had a processor system, although it made it looked like the hammerhead. The AI inside it could identify the threat or mutants that had been keyed in, allowing it to distinguished who were friendlies and who were not. It also had twin auto cannons located at its left and right bay, along with two rocket launchers. And it that was not enough, eight PVS incendiary rocket system was mounted on its back. The body compartment had a lithium battery cell that could last 16 hours under normal working condition, with longer operating system in daylight with its solar panel for recharge. Additionally, the centre-processing unit coordinates firing while moving.

"How long before we can get things set up and ready?" General Burkarov asked.

"The moment we get the plans scanned into the computer's AI." General Ivan spoke as the MAGAX's scanning panel came up.

***

"Damn, nothing is like roasted boar meat. My first since my childhood." Anatoly quipped as all of them had the pieces of meat cut and hang of the sharp pieces of wood. It looked as if they were at a barbecuing party, Arkady thought. But they were enjoying it, a sensation they had not been feeling for a long time now.

It had been almost 24 since their battle with the Green Men, and almost 22 hours since the Bomb Strike. Night would approach at soon at seven. Their time was coming.

***

I awoke as a pressure suddenly jerked me up. I quickly scanned my surrounding. I was still in 'Duty' Niva with Anderson and another stalker in front. I must have fallen asleep as I was exhausted by the battle. I looked at my watch: It was almost 6.00 pm. With luck, I would be back to the lair and had my men rescued in time.

Another thought popped inside my head. What happen if the Blind Dogs lied? What happen if they had no intention of letting us go, just using me as a tool? Of course, I thought of these before, but then, I hadn't attacked the Dwarf Leader yet.

The battle with the Dwarf itself was an arduous journey. It was as if the Blind Dogs had sent me on a suicide mission. I knew without those 'Duty' men, I couldn't have killed all the Dwarfs by myself. A huge part of the thanks should go to them. Another idea came to me again. Since after I rescued my men, or if they really let them go, I had no more bondage with the Blind Dogs. Then, the 'Duty' folks could kill them!

"Mr. Anderson." I spoke. He turned to me. "Are you interested in killing Blind Dogs?"

"Why?" He eyes e suspiciously.

"I had Blind Dogs waiting for me back at the place I came from. After my take my men, they are all yours."

"Keep talking." He said, and then spoke into the short-wave receiver inside his car. "Folks, we had a Dog-killing party to go to.

I checked my pack. I had returned the LR-300 to the 'Duty'. I still had my 2 AKS-74U untouched and my VSS Vintorez. Maybe we could take it into good use. I took them out and slung them behind my right shoulder.

***

The two Blind Dogs were inside the dungeon where the Dwarf Leader was used to be. They were scouting around the darkness. The scene was quiet. Too quiet. There were no footsteps at all, although the Dogs could still smell Dwarfs, along with the heavy smell of gunpowder and Human.

They approached one of the Dwarfs that for some reason were on the ground. The Dwarfs didn't moved. The Dogs, out of curiosity, touched it. The Dwarf was cold. Dead.

The Dog moved around. Eventually, they arrived at a hole- sealed and blocked. The Dogs kept digging, but the end was nowhere to be reach. The Dogs smelled the earth. There were traces of explosive and smoke. The Humans must have sealed the hole and entombed it with bombs. All the Dwarfs here must be dead then!

The two Dogs, arriving at the conclusion, quickly ran back to the sewage pipe. The Leader must now this. The Dwarf Leader had been killed! The Blind Dogs war had been victorious, for now, before another Dwarf Leader would rise.

***

Darkness had befallen the Zone. It was now seven-o'clock in Arkady's watch. They had already finished their meal. To say honestly, there was nothing like the sensation of having hot food inside the stomach, especially when you are hungry.

The Dog Leader came and stood in front of them. "Your leaders haven't come back yet. Get ready to choose who would die now."

Suddenly, Arkady remembered what the Dog Leader had said about 23 hours ago.

"Can't you wait for another day? The Captain is doing the Dog Clan a great favour!"

The Dog leader pretended that it didn't understand as it walked away.

"Guys, listen up. The Dog Leader wants one of us dead if Cap doesn't arrive by eight. I had no intention ofletting him do so. Who disagree with dying gun-blazing?"

None of them disagreed. That was what Arkady enjoyed as a Spetnatz: the elite camaraderie of soldiers who are willing to die together.

"Be prepared! The first moment, pop the nearest Dog with the Vintorez. When they get too close, use the AKS-74U. We would not survive this. But at least we will die well. Before that," Arkady paused. "It had been a pleasure working with you people."

***

The two Blind Dogs rushed through the thick undergrowth as the sun started to disappear. Night time was approaching. By then, if they didn't reached the lair, the hunting mutants would take good care of them.

Arkady stared at his watch. It was 7.30 pm. As each second went by, Death was nearing. But as an elite soldier and a Russian Orthodox Church attender, he was not afraid of Death. Death would eventually catch up with someone. The problem is whether Death would come at the appropriate moment or not.

He looked at Dmitri's and Gourgen bodies. "You guys are lucky not to go through this," He said quietly at the dead body.

Suddenly, he saw two Dogs ran into the sewage pipe, apparently breathless as they collapsed in fatigue after they arrived.

"I wonder what got them." Yuri said

The Dog Leader approached them. The Two Dogs seem to say something to the Dog Leader. The Dog Leader heard it intently, along with the rest. Then, the Dog Leader made a loud and long howl, similar to those made by a wolf. The rest quickly joined its actions. It was as if they were happy

"The Dwarf Leader is dead!" The Dog Leader seemed to say it joyously to the group of soldiers. "Looked like I had underestimated your leader."

"Good. Then you can let us go, right?" Arkady said.

The Dog Leader gave him a fiendish smile. "No. I had no intention of letting you go out alive." Its ghastly grin suddenly turned into an aggressive face, its teeth bared. It didn’t look too friendly.

"Damnit, you cheat!" Arkady shouted. "I knew it!"

***

"Alright, you people take cover in the dark before I get inside." I said to the group of 'Duty' Stalker who had their LR-300 in their arms, listening keenly to my instruction. We had just arrived in time to get my people out. It was 19.14 now. Just in the nick of time. Darkness now had befallen the Zone. It was almost total darkness now, except the little light that had came out from the sewage tunnel. Around me, I could hear the chirping of the birds and the crackle of the insect. It was just like any other night, except I wasn't here to enjoy the scenery.

Suddenly, I heard gunshots coming from the tunnel and loud sound of swearing. Instantly, I knew what it was. Trouble! The Dogs had no intention of letting the rest of my group go out alive. My group member had started on their final fight.

"Damnit! Engage at will!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. The other stalkers wasted no time. They ran towards the entrance of the tunnel.

I reached for my backpack. The Galantine 5.56 was still there. I took it out and inserted into my ammo belt, together with a 40mm grenade into my GL chamber.

"Die, you Blind Dogs!" Arkady swore at the Dogs that ran towards them. The Dog Leader decided to kill them here and now. A few subordinates had been killed while covering the Dog Leader. The Dog Ledaer knew they would kill him first.

"Sir, I am out of ammo!" Alexei spoke as he drew out his sidearm. The 80-Dogs strong-horde was running at them. They had no intention of letting them go out all right.

Suddenly, he heard more gunshots coming from beyond the tunnel, somewhere near to the exit. This time, the gunshots weren't the same as any rifle they had used before. Outsiders coming to help?

Next, projectiles flew through the air and landed on the ground, revealing lights. The flares had the Blind Dogs confused while most Dogs in the pack were being butchered. The Blind Dogs didn't know what to do. They were in disarray as they were attacked from both sides.

Then, what were remained of their pack ran towards the Human from the exit.

"Damn, this is a piece of cake!" I overheard a stalker who said this while firing his LR-300. It was a true massacre for the Blind Dogs. Although the Blind Dogs had tougher skin compared to the ordinary dogs, bullets would took care of them eventually. I couldn't say I felt sympathetic to them; it was just part of a life in The Zone.

Then, among the commotion, stood the Blind Dog Leader. It was distinguishable from its larger size than its minion. The Dog Leader at first was rushing madly towards us. Then, saw me. It stopped and stared at me. The other stalkers apparently were too busy engaging the other Dogs.

"Human, you are the over cause this! You will die!" Its thought flashed.

"Let's end this tonight. Bring it on!" I shouted as my finger reached for my Galantine 5.56 mm.

The Dogs barked loudly, then started to rush at me.

I took my FN 2000 and aimed at the Dog. I pressed the front trigger, and then pressed the back trigger. The loud chatter from my FN2000 signalled the battle against the two species had begun.

The 40mm grenade exploded at the Dog Leader. It howled it pain and collapsed onto the ground. It quickly recovered. My bullets quickly embedded in its body, although it showed no effect, at first.

The 5.56 mm Galantine is soft hollow point ammunition designed by the Russian to kill mutant adversaries fast. As the name implied, the bullets were laced with Galantine, the deadly bacteria harvested from The Zone. Upon impact, the bullets would cause a massive wound at the target. When the Galantine reached the wound, it would prey upon the cells and tissues of the victim, causing pain and death eventually.

***

Arkady and the rest watched from the distance as their Captain shot at the Blind Dog Leader. Their Captain had turned into an effective cool killing machine, even though The Dog Leader was rushing at him.

Under normal circumstances, the human eye could not distinguish a Special Forces from the other stalkers in the dark, yet the Russian Scientist had invented something that could 'glow' from the SpecOps BDU under the Thermal Vision of the HUD, reducing the chances of friendly fire during night ops.

"Should we help?" yuri asked while clutching his VSS vintorez.

"No. Your bullets might reach the wrong thing." Arkady replied.

***

Clicks came from my FN2000. The chamber was empty. There weren't enough time to reload. The Galantine hadn't take effect yet. I threw my FN2000 onto the floor and grabbed one AKS-74U on my back.

The Blind Dog Leader came nearer and nearer. I frantically trying to aim my submachinegun at the Blind Dog Leader's direction while my submachinegun's recoil at the continuous burst of automatic fire.

The much-dreaded click came again. I quickly threw the useless weapon into the floor while reaching for the third rifle. The Blind Dog Leader had no sign of going down. The rest of the 'Duty' Clan stalkers were too busy fending off the waves of Blind Dog rushing at them.

As my finger pressed onto the trigger, the Blind Dog Leader suddenly began to waver as if it was drunk. It tried to walk unsteadily towards me. It was acting as if it was stuck by some illness. It was losing focus.

The 30 bullets from my submachinegun finished. I was reaching for my FN SP-SA when the oversized mutated Dog collapsed in front of me. Its body started to had spasm. The Galantine bacteria attacked its nervous system. Dark liquid started to leak out of the Dog's ear while it shook violently on the ground as I picked up my FN2000 and reinserted another magazine. It was blood, I thought.

Another Blind Dog looked at me from the distance. Then, it began to run at me.

"Not again!" I said to myself while firing at the Blind Dog.

The Dog was bleeding when it started to pounce at me from a few meters away. I jinxed to my right while firing my remaining burst at it. The Dog landed on the floor a few meters away from me, dead. I looked at the Dog Leader. It was not moving. Dead.

About five minutes later, the culling had ended.

I saw four humans at the end of the tunnel. I ran at them, knowing that those were my men. But why there were only four? Am I too late?

The men from the distance too walked towards me. As they came nearer and nearer, I confirmed that those were my men, judging from their attire.

"Sir, am I glad to see you!" Arkady shouted while throwing a bear hug at me. The rest followed suit.

"Where is Gourgen?"

Arkady gave a sour look. "Sir, he is dead, struck by rabies."

"Rabies?"

"Yes, si…si…sir." Alexei suddenly started to have speech difficulty.

"Not again!" Yuri said. The rest too struck in horror.

The 'Duty' Leader came and saw Alexei's condition as he started to collapse onto the ground. "Rabies, eh?" Anderson said. "Blind Dogs. There's treatment for it."

"Can you offer us a ride?" I pleaded the men.

He gave me an evil grin. Instantly, I felt something was wrong with the grin.

"What makes you think that we are here to save your men? We are only here to kill mutants!"

"Damnit! Why didn't you asked me earlier?"

"You never asked."

"Please, don't you have some conscience? My men are humans too! Don't you want to save humans?"

"Yes, but not Special Forces." He gave me an angry look suddenly. "You know what your people did to me? Killed my best friend Zaifah when I was in The Zone for the first time. You sons of bitches never shown any kindness to me, so why should I show it to you? At first I was able to tolerate you, then I can't stand you bossy habit."

What bossy habit? I didn't knew that he was still angry with me!

"Hey, it wasn't me how do it, ok? There is no logical sense at all in this!" Is shouted at the top of my lungs. "PLEASE, BE REASONABLE!"

But Anderson didn't seem to hear me. He walked towards the rest. I quickly ran after him.

"You have the guts to call yourself a leader? You don't even have any compassion for humans! You call yourself a 'Duty' Clan Leader?" I tried to scream so that the others could hear me as his back turned to me in the dark landscape. The others turned and looked at Anderson and me.

"Okay. I will follow my men's decision as a thoughtful leader. Whoever wanted to help these men, get out and join them now!" Anderson said calmly, knowing that that had nothing to do with compassion. From the dim moonlight, I could see his face, now rid of the gas mask, was full of arrogance and pride. He was taking his sweet revenge.

***

Daniel Bogart heard the words, among with the rest. His mind started to rumbled with thoughts.

He was a 24 year-old man who had joined The Zone about three months. The first moment he stepped into The Camp, the place where stalkers lived, he was recruited by the 'Duty'. At first, he was impressed by the noble goals of the clan. Now, he was sickened by it. The goals only served as a cover to kill mutants, nothing else.

Anderson, his leaders, also disgusted him. Three months ago, he worked with him once. Told him he got potential, but it had been three long months since he had any attack on the mutants. He also hated the arrogance of the Leader. He obviously had experience, but he never wanted to accept the advice of others. It was often that he did save lives because of his experience, but his arrogance had often came with eh cost of a lot of new Stalkers. He hated it. He was disgusted with the life as a 'Duty', although he couldn't comprehend why others didn't despise it. Anderson also never allowed people to escape 'Duty' clan. Called it betrayal. He saw once that the Leader killed a Newbie who wanted to quit, and then buried it.

He turned and saw the Special Forces men. Anderson had often given a lot of propaganda talks about how dangerous these people were. Told that those men were gun-toting soldiers who shoot any stalkers in sight. But from what he had seen, the soldier was a reserve man who acted thoughtfully before acting and struggled to save his men. Those were good men. He wished to help them.

He took a deep breath, and then stepped out one step. "I will help those men." He said timidly.

***

I saw one of the stalkers stepped out and claimed he wanted to help us. Instantly, Anderson's proud face turned ashen.

"You sure about that, Charlie Brown?" The 'Duty' Leader was eyeing the man with a sharp look, a look that was threatening, while bullying him with his words.

"Yes." The man, looking dignified as the moonlight shone on its face, spoke.

"Alright then. People, let's go. Leave the man here."

"Wait, I didn't mean joining them. I just…"

But Mr. Anderson didn't cared. He left, along with the rest of his followers. The stalker tried to run and catch the Nivas, but they were faster. In a few minutes, they were nowhere in sight. The stalker came back looking sad.

"Sorry to drag you into this shit." I said while the rest had attended to Alexei, who now could not talk and made chattering sound from his moving jaw muscle that he had no control on.

"Never mind." The Stalker said as he proceeded to help the rest to carry Alexei into the large and broad sewage pipe.

From the dimly lighted surrounding, I studied the face. The man's face was square, with a sharp jaw. The hair and eyebrow was brownish, with a sharp nose. The man was medium sized, as with his height. He was about as tall as me, around 1.7m.

"Tell me, why you got yourself into 'Duty." I said.

"Well, it's a long story. Call me Dan. Not Charlie Brown though. The Terms for newbies, and I have been hearing that sick term for such a long time.”

***

The commanders were staring intently at the screen of the laptop. It was the interior of the incident side. From the laptop, they could hear the eerie silence that should once had been a busy and bustling place. They could also see the dark and chaotic interior with the powerful spotlight attached to it. From a distance, florescence lights sparked and buzzed on and off.

After a few minutes of moving around, they saw blood… and bodies on the floor.

"Crap." General Burkarov whined.

Suddenly, an alarm buzzed at the laptop. The robot detected a heat signature. The robot turned to the direction.

It was a Human, a scientist in bloody lad coat. There was something about him. There was a big bloody hole in his torso, clearly exposed. He walked like a zombie, each of its movement stiff and scary, from the computer screen.

General Ivan keyed in a series of command. Then, the commanders heard the robot said in Russian. "Stop and identify yourself before I shoot."

The man didn't respond.

"Impossible. The Psy-defence barrier was still active. That couldn't be the work of a controller." One of the Lt. Generals said.

The MAGAX robot was motionless for another five seconds. Then, there could hear the sound of mechanism being moved. Next, they could hear the sound of the twin auto cannons being fired rapidly. The velocities of the bullets throw the zombies to the back and rammed it against the wall. The rapid "tatatat!" sound echoed from the speaker.

"Strange. It should only take a few shoots to kill a normal human!" Another Lt. General said as they saw in horror at the screen. The zombie rose again.

The robot deployed another few more burst. Finally, the zombie collapsed, dead.

"I wonder what happened to the rest." General Ivan couldn't help saying.

Suddenly, the robot's flat and large head turned to another corner. In the distance, the ground crawled with worm-like things.

"What the hell is that?" All the generals said almost in unison. They never saw anything like those. Those were oversized worm that were homing at the robot fast.

The Robot quickly fired its weapons at the worms, and as the general watched in horror, the worms' amount grew more. Finally, the worms reached the robot even though the robot tried to fire madly at the threat, with every weapon it got.

The generals saw the robot fall down. They saw the worms tried to dig into the hull of the robot. One by one, the cameras were destroyed. Then, the robot's uplink was broken. Although the visual was gone, the generals could still hear the eerie sound of the worms trying to eat through the robot. Then, an explosion. The robot was destroyed.

"Damn. A new species? Why I don't have them here in the species transcript? Why we had never seen it before?" A general said as he busily peered through the papers.

General Ivan felt depressed. It was almost one day since the incident. They could only recover about 4 survivors, and they didn't even give anything helpful.

General Ivan thought of the Spetnatz soldiers that were trouble before he received the call. Out of curiosity, the general called the command centre in Moscow.

"Sir, there is some signal coming from 2 kilometres of the bombsite." The operator at the base confirmed.

General Ivan heart raced. Maybe the Spetnatz had survived? But then, his heart sank again. Not possible. They had lost radio contact even before the strike.

Maybe it's the mutants that the Spetnatz had been talking about. General Ivan didn't know how they looked like, but it was a good thing that they had been wiped out. Saved him and the rest a lot of work. Well, maybe it's just the remnants of the mutants.

General Ivan didn't want to take any chance. Those mutants had one squad of Spetnatz dead. He might as well exterminate them all.

"Operator, send a terminator chopper."

***

It was now 9.00 pm. The nights were getting cold. The situation looked bleak. I didn't have any confidence that we would survive. Outside the sewage pipe, it was raining. At least that was our guarantee that now mutants would attack for the night.

Now, Alexei and Anatoly were struck down with the new strain of rabies. Yuri had hypothesised that during the attack, their blood flow had sped up the infection of the virus. Gourgen must have too died the same way, since he had more wound.

But we also had luck on our side. When the 'Duty' Clan left in a hurry, they forgot to take Daniel’s backpack along. Inside the backpack, there were lots of ammunition, food supplies, vodka, and necessary items such as matches. We could survive for a few more days, but I had doubts on the two men with rabies.

My plan was to survive through the night. We had enough ammunition and guns to fend off mutants, some alcohol to use as Molotov cocktail if the rats attacked. It was just the matter of getting through the night. In the morning, we would try to find our way back to the nearest block post, though I had no idea where was it. Maybe we would stumble across a stalker who had a map and bartered our way through.

Time passed really slowly, especially with the moaning sound of the two sick ones. It was something that was beyond their control. We could only put some clothes to their mouth so that air could still pass through. I had no intention of letting them die. We would survive this, no matter what.

***

The 'Duty' Clan's Nivas were stuck in the mud pile. As the diesel engine of their vehicle complained at the obstacle, the 'Duty' stalker was bored. Progress was slow. They were only about an hour trip back to home under normal circumstances. They had to proceed slowly because of the rain that had made the ground soft.

Inside one of the car, Anderson was grumbling. He had gone through a lot today, and now, this rain. Well, at least he could sell the body of the Dwarf Leader that was at the car's back. Things were not really that bad. He still had 83 stalkers back home.***

"Ivanoff, how are you getting used to this?" Boris asked his co-pilot as they flew through the dark sky.

"Still ok. Just missing the noisy conversation we used to have with the boys."

They were in the Ka-50N Black Shark, one of the most advance attack helicopter in the world equipped for night assault. Presently, the chopper was outfitted with 20 80mm unguided HE incendiary rockets with four 122mm rockets and four rocket pods. They were just transferred to this chopper this morning. After all, they wouldn't be flying the Mi-24 until the next cadets of Spetnatz were trained. They also enjoyed the chopper that looked like 'Airwolf' in the old television series: sleek, black, and fast.

The two pilots were former test pilots before they were recruited as 'Cossacks Flier', term for the Spetnatz crack chopper pilot. Boris was a tall Russian with a stubby nose and thick eyebrows, together with a loud voice and a bigger body size, while Ivanoff was a quieter pilot shorter then his partner, smaller in size. Both of them were opposites, yet they made a great team: Boris as the main pilot, while Ivanoff the weapon officer.

The radar beeped. The terrain following radar caught something.

"Ivanoff, what do we've got?"

"Lots of vehicles." The co-pilot studied the electronic map.

"HQ, we had convoy in the Zone. Any Expeditionary teams in the area?"

"This is HQ, no. The nearest Ex-t team is at 60 km south of your position."

"HQ, we had stalker convoy in the area. Request permission to engage."

"Negative. Engage only when attacked."

"Copy." Boris said calmly.

The chopper flew across the night landscape.

"Damn, what a night." Boris talked to himself as he watched the windshield wiper swept across the windscreen.

***

Anderson heard the rotors sound that flew across the sky. A helicopter. The Military. "What are they doing around here during this time of the night?" He mumbled to himself as his vehicle tried to get pass the mud.

Suddenly, he heard a chattering of gunshot coming from behind. He turned and looked with his tired eyes. The moment he saw the scene, his eyes widened in fear.

He saw a stalker, coming out from his car, shot at the chopper.

"Damnit, NO! Stop it now!" Anderson rushed out of the car and shouted to the man while jumped at the man. He landed on the man while pushing him onto the ground.

"What have you done?"

A newbie. They were in trouble.

"People, get out of the car! Now! Someone shot at the chopper!"

Instantly, all the cars stopped and its passenger ran out.

***

Boris heard two clings near the chopper. They were attacked. It was unmistakable.

"HQ, we are under attack. Hostiles. Proceed to attack as ordered."

"Copy that. Be advised that that is not your primary mission."

"Copy that, HQ."

Boris yanked his chopper left. The chopper did a steep turning as the chopper's nose now faced the convoy.

"Ivanoff, you're clear to attack."

"Roger. Switching on 122mm. Got it."

"Fire!"

Ivanoff pressed the red button on the console and felt the helicopter shuddered a bit as the weight of the missile lifted off from the rack. Boris watched as the streak of missile flew towards the convoy. He watched in satisfaction as the vehicle exploded. Then, he chose the rocket pods.

"Boris, they are all your." He said as he switched the weapon system to the guns.

5 minutes later, the chopper went back to their original vector as if everything was normal, save for a few bullet marks at their choppers hull. The convoy was completely engulfed in flames.

"HQ, threat disabled. Continuing mission. Out."

***

The stalkers gathered back to the vehicles. The Nivas were on flames now. The contents of the vehicles were too aflame.

"Look what you have done?" Anderson scolded the new stalker who had caused the trouble. Now, even the Dwarf Leader's body were lost

Suddenly, the unmistakable hissing sound of raptors could be heard. Raptors! Anderson couldn't help panicked by the thought of that. Raptors were fierce mutated bird, which had mutated into the shape of the medieval creature. Except this time, the Raptors could shoot sharp horns that could kill.

Without any doubt, Anderson commanded his men to run.

But it was too late. Raptors had already jumped from the forest nearby. Anderson watched in horror while he ran as one by one, his men tried to evade the beasts in vain as they slowly died.

A raptor had Anderson in its eyes. With a hiss, it flew through the air. Its calculated jump landed at the stalker. Its teeth quickly broke the 'Duty' Leader's neck. The leader slumped gently down, dead. The rest were in chaos as they shouted in fright. There was no one to take command. But it would not be long before all of them were dead on the ground, the Raptors feasting on their body, in the heavy torrents of rain.

***

Amid the warm and humid surroundings, I wanted to fall asleep. The warm feeling made me feel just like I was back in base. If only I were back at base, enjoying a hot coffee now.

Then, out of the blues, I heard a chopper's rotor sound. I must be dreaming. The sound would soon go away.

But the sound was unmistakable. It was getting louder and louder.

"Arkady, you heard it?"

"Yes sir. You do too? I thought I was dreaming!"

It was for real. Salvation was coming.

"Arkady, grab Alexei. I'll get Anatoly. Yuri and Dan, let's get out of here."

As we reached the muddy ground, our feet sank into the ground. We were forced to move slowly.

But the Thermal Image from our HUD was unmistakable: it was a chopper that looked like a Hind: long, though not as clumsy.

***

"Ivanoff, you saw those things?"

"Yes sir. But they walk too slowly. Couldn't be human."

"Possible mutants?"

"Yes. I don't think humans walked that slow."

"Dan, look into the pack!" I commanded the stalker to search Alexei's backpack. "Look for flares or the like."

"Sir, I don't see any!"

"What do you have?"

"I have… nothing." He searched his backpack frantically.

"Damn."

***

"Boris, they don't seem to move at all. Dwarfs?"

"Don't know. They are a little too tall."

***

"Sir, I had an idea!" Ian shouted as he reached for his pack.

"What are you doing?"

He reached for a smoke grenade. He pulled the pin, and put it onto the ground.

"What do you think that would do?" I said as I watched the rain dampened the smokes. In a clear night, the chopper might spot the smoke, but not now.

He thought, and then said. "Well, practically nothing." Just then the helicopter started to turn. It was as if they were giving up on us.

I had no choice. I raised my FN2000 and fired into the air. The muzzle flash should attract them.

***

"HQ, those red signal are mutants. No a threat." Suddenly, Boris's eyes caught a flash. "HQ, it is a threat. Weapon flash detected. Must be the mutants B-17 took with them." He said as he yanked his flight stick.

I saw the chopper turned back to us again, this time focusing on us. Yuri and Ian waved frantically at them.

"Why the hell are they waving at us?" Ivanoff asked curiously.

"I don't know. A signal that we are not welcome?" Boris replied.

Suddenly, from his NVG, the pilot could see one of the 'things' raised a rifle and fired into the air.

"HQ, confirmed. It is the mutants that B-17 met."

"Copy that. Permission to Fire at will granted."

"Well, boys, this is for you!" Ivanoff said, in remembrance of the B-17 group members while activating the weapon system. He chose a rocket pod, and fired.

***

Suddenly, I saw rockets flew towards us. They thought we were enemies!

"Scatter!" I shouted as the rest instinctively got out of the rockets' way. The rocket blew up near us.

Suddenly, I heard Yuri started to make gurgling sound. It was the rabies again!

As Yuri collapsed onto the ground, I saw Ian automatically carried him onto his shoulders. Those had were bitten by the Dogs were infected now.

"People, get into the drain again!" I shouted amid the heavy rainfall and rotor sound. We had to get out of the chopper 's sight.

***

"How sweet. Those mutants knew how to save their own kind." Boris joked as he tried to reposition the chopper.

"Sir, rockets don't work well. I will be using the gun." Ivanoff said through his microphone as he chose the 2 30mm chain gun. " Done! I'll take control."

The moment he got one of the targets into his sight roughly, he fired.

"I am hit! My legs" Daniel screamed as he collapsed into the mud puddle on the ground. Most of us were inside the sewage pipe now.

Without any doubt, Arkady and I ran towards the two.

***

"Sir, I had a hit. Two more coming out now. Make a strafing run, sir."

"Got it."

***

I steadied Daniel and help him to run while Arkady got Yuri and pressed him onto our shoulder while we tried to run as fast as possible in mud. It was a tiring job, but we had to make it.

Then, from the back, I heard the loud chattering of the cannon of the chopper.

"Arkady, duck!" I said as I jinxed to my right, landing on the puddle.

***

"Sir, miss them!" Ivanoff said as if he was disappointed.

"Never mind. We could try that again." Boris said as they swept through the ground at a low attitude.

"Not quite, sir. They went into the hole."

"Ivanoff, get the 80mm ready." Boris said as he turned his chopper. “They are fried this time. Payback time.”

***

The rotors sound got louder and louder as we tried to attend to Daniel's wound in front of the sewage pipe.

Then, the chopper appeared in front of the hole.

From my view, I could see two pilots looking at us through their NVG. The chopper was not a Hind, as I previously had thought. It was Hokum chopper.

Without doubt, Daniel's LR-300, Arkady and my FN2000 locked on the pilot.

***

"I can't believe it. They are humans!" Boris said astonished at the sight.

The looks of those men were familiar, but he had forgot who they were. He tried to remember hard, but he just couldn't recall.

"Think, Boris, think!" he said to himself as he took off his NVG to have a better look as he kept hitting his head with his head.

The men were using FN2000 and were in soldier's BDU, except for one on the floor who had a NBC suit. Spetnatz used FN 2000. Then, he studied the face. They were too familiar, but the face was covered with mud and dirt.

"Ivanoff, I am going down."

"Sir, are you crazy?"

"No. Feel free to dive away the chopper if I am dead." Boris said as he took his AKS-74U and left the cockpit. "They couldn't kill you with the windshield."

He opened the chopper's door and closed it as he stepped onto the solid ground.

Then, he walked towards the men, guns pointing at them. Such a stupid move, but it was necessary. Those men don't looked like stalkers to him, although he could be dead in a matter of milliseconds if they shot at him..

He stood in front of one of them. The rest were too staring at his face intently.

One of them spoke. "Hey, Boris! Why did you…"

"What? You know my name!" Boris was startled.

"Don't you know us? We are B-17! I am the Captain!"

"But I thought the bomb strike got you all!" Boris exclaimed.

The voice was the captain's all right. He couldn't believe it.

"The bomb got Trevor. We escaped. That’s why we’re here.”

Boris had no doubt now. It was the Spetnatz group he thought was dead. He ran towards the chopper and opened its door.

"Ivanoff, they were alive!" he shouted excitedly as he reached for the radio.

"Who were alive?" But Boris ignored him.

"HQ, this is H-12 assault group. Group B-17 is alive!" he screamed frantically.

"This is HQ. Please repeat."

"Group B-17 is alive! Group captain and several others are recovered. Will sent them back to base. I repeat. We will sent them back to base!" Boris said with emotion while turned to see the rest. He saw a few were on the ground. "They require immediate medical aid! Get the medics ready!"

5 minutes later, the chopper was crowded with the sick, the dead, and the weary. The chopper rose and flew towards the place it had come from.

***

I was in the chopper's cramped doorway. The tight walkway was not designed to carry us troops, but it was fast. We are going to be home soon, I thought.

I looked at Daniel and Arkady. Daniel was looking out of the chopper's window, staring at the night skies. Arkady was patting the paralysed troops forehead while whispering, "Hold on boys, we'll be there soon. We'll be there soon. Just hold on."

***

I awakened. I felt I was lying on somewhere soft. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was on a bed along with a female nurse on my right. I had fallen asleep during the ride. A closer look revealed a red arm-patch that marked them as military police. The 'nurse' had an AKS-74U in her arms. A military police trained in nursing.

I looked at the clock that was next to my bed. It was eight o'clock in the morning.

The MP spotted me and walked towards me. "Captain, how many fingers is this?" She pointed two fingers at me. I promptly replied.

"Good. You are fully recovered. No sign of trauma."

"Where am I?" I asked as I looked around. There were about ten more beds, but only four of them were filled and surrounded by military police again.

"You are in a MASH unit. Those are your comrades. The IA officer interrogated another one of the newly arrival since last night."

"A MASH unit?"

"There had been a situation at the Agroprom Military Research Facility." The military police was speaking with a flat tone. "You are there now." Then she motioned at me. "Come, you had a lot of debriefing to do."

Five minutes later, I was in a room with General Ivan, sitting on a metallic chair with a hotly brewed coffee in front. The usual Army Coffee, extra caffeine. There was nothing as welcoming at this.

"Amos, how did you survive all this? You are just incredible. A general is interrogating the stalker in the chopper now. You mind explanation what happened?"

"Well, I…"

Suddenly the door banged open, revealing another general. General Ivan quickly saluted. I knew this must be somebody important. They were only so few people whom a Lt. General can salute. I followed suit.

"Why is a civilian saluting at me? Isn't he the other civilian recovered last night?"

"Major General Burkarov, this is one of my men, a Spetnatz captain…."

"What? A foreigner in the Spetnatz? What is this? I expected that you are incorruptible, yet you can even let a civilian bribe his way in a Spetnatz? This is ridiculous!" The Major General stared at me long and hard.

"Sir, he didn't bribe me in. I let him in…"

"This is even worse! You have no honour for our country? You have no shame? For God shake, this is the Russian Spetnatz! Damnit!"

As General Ivan went on to do his explanations, I had a bad feeling about what was coming up. I was in the middle of a firestorm, a quarrel between two generals. It is not a pleasant place to be.

***

Somewhere deep in the facility, the Entity awakened from its deep sleep.

It stared at its hand. They were strong and powerful, bustling with muscle as it moved its fingers. Its photosensitive eyes could see that its skin was grey in colour. The Entity was in its new self after the second metamorphosis. He was getting more powerful then his previous self.

It was ready to storm out of the facility. The Russians would be no matches for him then.

***

(To be concluded)