The antiquated helicopter zoomed across the barren landscape. It was carrying a squad of Special Forces Rangers; the United States was just as curious about the Zone as Russia was, albeit the Zone was nowhere near American soil.
«Pilot to Leader, we are within five minutes of the LZ, make sure your squad is ready!»
«Roger that!» The sound of the helicopter's blades cutting the air was deafening. They were forced to communicate using comm. devices built into their helmets. «Blue Squad, report!»
«Titan, ready!»
«Doom, ready!»
«Victory, ready!»
«Crazy, ready!»
«Savage, ready!»
They were using code names because the United States government did not officially order them to enter the Zone. They did not officially exist. Officially, they were just Stalkers with some nice equipment.
«Ranger Leader to Pilot, Blue Squad is ready!»
«Roger that. Two minutes to LZ!» The Ranger Leader was busy checking his weapons. He loaded his assault rifle, then his two
«Pilot to Leader, ten seconds to LZ!» The Leader prepared the ropes on his side of the helicopter. The
The soldiers grabbed their ropes, and slid down them into a cloud of dust and debris being kicked up by the helicopter. «Squad, move out!» The soldiers scrambled through the blinding dust. They wiped their gas mask helmets clean of dirt and grime and the cloud of debris cleared. «Blue Squad, report!» Each squad member sounded off his code name. «Blue Squad, listen up! Report any anomaly you encounter, and stay the hell away from it! Our mission is to discover what happened to Red Squad, and if possible, rescue any survivors! Savage, take Crazy and Doom, head to Parishev. Titan and Victory will accompany me to Strizhev. These two towns were the last known locations of Red Squad. Savage! Your Squad is now designated Black Squad. Move out!»
*****
The Rangers didn't have much intelligence on the zone. They knew there was anomalies, they knew there was radiation, and they knew there were mutations. They didn't know much else. They didn't even know what to be looking for.
Black Squad was approaching the wrecked shell of Parishev. Many buildings were still intact, others were dilapidated and falling apart, and some had already been reduced completely to rubble. «Crazy, move out to the right. Doom, go left. We'll meet in the center of the town!» Both soldiers gave a nod and moved out. Each man was now alone in this foreboding wrecked land. Everything they had encountered so far in the Zone was dead. The air was dead; the land was dead. Black Squad had been lucky enough to not encounter any anomalies as of yet.
«Savage to Leader. Come in Leader!» Silence ensued. «I repeat, Savage to Leader. Come in Leader!» Their radios had been working perfectly when they had entered the Zone, and as far as Savage could tell, they were still working. «Savage to Black Squad!»
«Crazy to Savage. Go ahead!»
«Doom to Savage. Go ahead!»
«I can't establish radio contact with Blue Squad. Current situation deemed to be highly dangerous. Proceed with extreme caution. Do not, I repeat, do not engage in combat with any hostiles. Radio the Squad and attempt to regroup. Fire only if regrouping is not possible, over!»
«Acknowledged, Crazy out!»
«Doom out!»
Savage entered the perimeter of Parishev. The entire city was layered in a dark
Savage began to notice a pattern in the destruction. Most of the buildings on the outer rim of town were as if they were crushed. He also had noticed dents and craters in the ground. But the further into the town he went, the more intact buildings were. The soldier didn't know what to make of it, and kept on moving.
Then he felt a tug at his shoulder. He turned instantly to his right, but there was no one there. There was nothing there. Only desolate silence. Dismissing this disturbance like he dismissed the odd pattern in destruction, he just kept on moving. Then the tug became very strong. And then it kept pulling. Savage knew he was about to be in a world of pain. The unseen force ripped him off his feet, and brought him in. Savage grabbed desperately for what he could. He was able to get a hold on a road sign. Then it was uprooted, and went flying along with him. He grabbed again, and this time he caught the curb, with one hand. He desperately clung to life, putting all of his strength to self-preservation. Objects flew past Savage, and some of the debris hit him, threatening to end it all in moments. His arm felt like it was about to be ripped from it's socket. He diverted his effort to his other arm, and was able to grab on to the curb with it as well. Savage wouldn't be able to stand much longer.
Then his strength gave up on him, and his arms gave out. As did the gravity well itself. He was flung into the debris and devastation caused by the well. The Ranger considered himself luckier than a leprechaun with all the four leaf clovers, rabbit's feet, and horseshoes in the world.
He slowly got to his feet, having been drained of his strength. Savage was dazed, but still in one piece. The once building around him was not. He could do nothing but continue to the center of the town.
*****
Crazy and Doom had been waiting at the center of the town for only a few minutes. They were surprised by how intact it was. Savage looked at them both; they seemed to have arrived unscathed. «Anything!»
«Not a thing. Pretty quiet around here. Not even an anomaly!»
«Same here. You find anything Savage!»
«Yeah, I almost was crushed by a gravity well. Have you seen any animals!»
«A few. A lot of rats!» Crazy commented. «Crap, more rats then I've ever seen before in my entire life!»
«I saw some kind of bigger rat. Didn't exactly see it very well, but it was huge still. It ran off before I could get a better look!»
«Alright. Looks like there's nothing in this town. We're moving out to Strizhev to reestablish contact with Blue Squad!»
*****
The town of Strizhev. It seemed as if the town had not changed. But it was barren and lifeless. The town did not even seem as if it had been once inhabited. More like some grand scale model. As the three rangers walked through the town, they began to notice that something was wrong. Savage held up his hand in a fist. «Hold up. Don't move. Don't make a sound!» Crazy and Doom did as ordered.
Then they noticed what was wrong — there was no sound. No background noise. No howl of the wind. Pure dead silence. Savage motioned for absolute silence, and to move in to inspect one of the houses. Almost as quietly as the town had managed to be, the soldiers made their way to a house. Savage opened the front door. It whined loudly in protest, the sound emanating throughout and enveloping the entire town, as it was the only sound. The Rangers entered the home. Abandoned like everything in the Zone. The door made no sound as he shut it.
Savage shattered the silence. «Just sit tight here!» Crazy had jumped at the sound of Savage's voice. «We'll attempt to reach Blue Squad by radio, and failing that, we'll search the entire town. We might find Red Squad as well!»
«Jesus man, don't freak me out like that. God damn. This place is off the wall!»
«It's the silence… I don't know why it's so quiet… but something's wrong. Savage, I think we should finish here as soon as possible!»
«Right. Six radio attempts, five minute intervals, we search the city, then we go!»
*****
«Nothing!» Savage threw his radio at the ground.
«What!»
«Absolutely nothing. There's no response on the radio. I don't even get static. They're not dead because our intercoms are still working. What the hell is wrong with this place!»
«I don't know. Let's just go find Red and Blue Squad, and get the hell out of here!»
Savage nodded. «Let's move out. We'll stay together. I don't want to risk anything to this town!» The squad left the house for the world outside.
It had begun to pour while they were inside. It had become dark. Lightning lit up the horizon on seemingly regular intervals. The rain and lightning provided sound to the townscape, but the town itself provided no noise. Crazy was the most visibly affected by the oddity of the town. He was nervous and jumpy, suspecting something to happen at any moment.
«Crazy, calm down. It's just because nothing lives here. Which is a good thing, no freak monsters to fight!» Savage attempted to reassure him.
«Yeah… yeah… alright… nothing here… that's all!» The three stepped out into the middle of the street. Water poured down all around them. «Hey… hey! Did you guys see that!»
Doom shook his head. Both him and Savage thought the paranoia was getting to him. «See what!»
«I swear. Over there. I saw something move!» It was difficult to make anything out a long distance in the rain. Visibility had been severely limited by the rain. «Look! Again!»
«Calm down, Crazy, or you'll go crazy!» Savage placed a hand on his shoulder.
«Just God damned look! Over there!» He shook Savage's hand off, determined to prove he wasn't going crazy. «God damn it! LOOK!»
Savage looked, and he saw nothing. «There's nothing there!» Crazy shook his head in disagreement. Savage took out his pistol, and shot in the direction of the supposed movement. «Look, now if there was something there, it'd have made a sound, or started to move again. There's nothing there!»
«Uuuaaagggh…"
Savage looked at Doom. «Was that you!»
«What? No. I thought it wa-" Doom's surprise caused him to shut up. A figure could be seen lumbering through the rain. «Savage… look!» Savage turned to look. Doom took out his handgun, and pointed it at the figure. He cocked the hammer back, and waited until he could see it better. The person coming at him looked like one who had suddenly aged hundreds of years without dying. Doom hesitated for a second, and then pulled the trigger. The zombie was hit square in the chest, and blown back.
«Watch out for more zombies! Where there's one, there's more!»
The town decided to give forth sound. Doors squeaked as they were open. Those who refused to accept death were pouring out onto the streets.
The squad scrambled, knowing themselves to be in great danger. They had no idea what they were up against. They ran. The kept running. Adrenaline lent them energy they shouldn't have had. But they knew if they could move fast enough, then maybe they'd get away.
The zombies instilled more fear in the Rangers than a Ranger should have fear. Even as easily as the one zombie they directly encountered was taken down, the encounter coupled with their current situation triggered immense latent terror. They should have just been running in the sense of 'tactical withdrawal!“ But they were running as if from death itself.
*****
They stopped running. Black Squad had chosen a church in the middle of town. They had barricaded themselves inside of it.
«S***!» Savage was having a fit. «We god damned ran the other way! We could've ran out of town! But we ran deeper in!» No one said anything. «Why the hell did we shove ourselves further into this mess!!»
Crazy offered Savage an answer. «We panicked!»
«Yeah, but we're Rangers. We're the best of the best. We're not supposed to panic!» Savage put his head in his hands. He punched the back of the pew in front of him, breaking the weakened wood. «The best in the world, and we blew it. We signed our death warrants!»
«Hey-"
Savage cut off Doom before he could say anything. «You know just as well as I how screwed we are. Listen!»
Crazy didn't listen to Savage. «C'mon Savage, we can sti-"
«Listen!» Everyone became quiet. They could hear the pounding of the zombies on the doors. They could hear the grunts of those who wouldn't give up on life, but weren't even alive. The pounding was as constant as the rain on the tin roof of the church. «We're fucked, and you both know it!» Nobody said anything.
*****
Hours had passed. Neither the rain nor the zombies had relented. Crazy was growing impatient. «So what do we do? Sit here and wait to die!» No one answered him. «I'd rather go down killing as many of those inhuman creature as I can, than die in here like some coward!»
«No!» Savage, as weak as he was in his current state of mind, still did his best to retain control.
«So you'd rather us just sit here and die!»
«We're going to die, might as well not die being eaten alive!»
«I'd rather kill something than just sit here!»
«No! We're not going out there!»
Doom had been sitting quietly in a pew further away from Crazy and Savage. «That doesn't matter!»
«What? What doesn't matter!»
«It doesn't matter if we go out there. They'll be in here all the same!»
«They haven't made any progress in hours. What makes you think they'll get in!»
«They can get in using other ways than the door. All they have to do is realize that. Even as incoherent in thought as they may be, they'll figure it out eventually!»
Savage didn't like having to face the fact that he would die, less even that he knew that there was nothing he could do about it. «Fine. Crazy can have his way. Rather go out in a blaze of glory, eh!»
*****
Savage stood up from his prayer. «You boys ready!» Crazy and Doom nodded. «We'll move the barricades from the main entrance, and move back to the side entrance. We'll let 'em pour in, lay 'em to waste, and then make a mad dash out the side door. Sound good? Good!» Crazy and Doom again nodded. Savage and Doom moved the pews blocking the main entrance aside while Crazy moved the pew blocking the side door.
Savage and Doom quickly moved to the center of the church, while Crazy held the side door against the lesser amount of zombies hammering away on it. The main door was starting to give. It had not been designed to keep anyone out, and without the support of the pews, flew open. Dozens of zombies poured in. The first rank was trampled by the press of the other zombies trying to get into the church.
Doom opened fire first, and then Savage. Their assault rifles chattered as their bullets tore into the rotting flesh of the zombies. Doom quickly ran out of ammunition on fully automatic, and pulled out one of his submachine guns. More and more zombies fell under the wall of lead. More zombies poured into the chamber.
Crazy kicked open the side door, knocking down a few zombies. The next zombie to show itself met
They realized that they wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. Savage screamed out above the din of gunfire. «Make a run for it! We have to find a vehicle to get out of here!» They ran as fast as they could, frantically searching for a vehicle.
They fired at any zombie that attempted to put itself in their way. Many of their bodies littered the ground. They kept running, but the number of zombies did not thin. The number of bullets they had left did. Crazy spotted a car. «Over there! Let-" He wasn't able to finish his sentence. A zombie he thought to be dead on the ground grabbed his leg. He tripped, and his guns went flying, landing several meters away. He kicked at the zombie and freed himself from its grip when he was assailed by three more zombies. Crazy screamed in pain as they bit him. He punched and struggled to get free, but more zombies crowded around him. Savage and Doom did not fire, afraid to hit Crazy. «JUST GO! Run to the car!»
They hesitated. But when they realized there was nothing they could do for their friend except for die along with him, they ran.
*****
Savage was out of ammo, and Doom had only one clip left. They were at the car, and there were fewer zombies around. Savage slit the throat of one zombie, and then knocked another back with a powerful kick to the abdomen. Three more zombies moved in on Savage, but he held his own against them.
Doom opened the door to the car. Rats poured out of it; one of them leaped onto Doom, startling him and causing him to jump back. He fell into the arms of a zombie. It bit his neck, and ripped off a large chunk of his neck. Blood poured profusely from his exposed jugular. He was dead within seconds.
Savage knew his situation was impossible. His chances of surviving were lower than his chances of surviving in the Fog without protective gear. But still he fought on. His skill with the knife was extraordinary, and he had already taken down six zombies with it. Savage cleared his way to the car. It was an old diesel engine coupe with several dents in it and copious amounts of rust. He jumped into the driver's seat and jammed his knife into the ignition, and ripped it out. Savage closed the door, and worked against time to connect the right wires before the zombies could start beating at the car.
The final wires were crossed, and the engine wailed as it was brought to life. There was little fuel left, but still enough to get him out of the Zone. Savage put the car into drive and stabbed the gas pedal with his foot. Soot shot out of the tailpipe, and the car sped off, running over several zombies.
Savage was free now, but he was a failure. His team had failed, and he had failed. He was not even officially there, nor had the United States even sent him. He had no one to contact to get him out of Russia. He would be stuck, forced to live off the Zone to make a living, forever living with the knowledge of his dead comrades and his failure.