Such Is Life In The Zone

The Dead City


Listen to this beast in 720.

Zero looked to Dusty as they came upon the square, "I think this is it, chuvak. We've got to cross the square, and then we'll be there." Dusty nodded, slowly sliding his finger onto the trigger of his assault rifle. The two got up from their crouched position, slowly beginning to inch their way forward, step by step across the open square. It was cloudy out, and pouring rain. Dusty let out a shiver as the cold rain continued to bounce off of his jacket, he let out a raspy breath, "Shit - Zero, my lenses are fogging up a bit."

The Guide nodded, breaking into a light jog. His partner followed him closely, looking all around at the building tops - the city was quiet, save for the rain. Dead, one could say - or was it? The two stopped once they crossed the street, crouching behind a small bush. Zero pushed down onto the receiver clipped to his right clavicle, "Griggs, Niko, we're in position. Where the hell are you guys?" A voice responded not long after, something was fucking with the Stalkers' frequencies, it was static-y, but still understandable. "We can see you, we're coming out from behind the big statue now. This place gives me the creeps, man, can we hurry up and do what we gotta' do?" From behind a large horse statue, two Stalkers appeared. Two other guys from their Stalker clan; Griggs and Nikodim. They hurried over to their companions behind the bush, crouching down. "Fuck, man. Why didn't we just go with you guys? I'm freezing my ass off in this rain, what the flying fuckeroni were you doing? You took for-fucking-ever."

After little further debate, the four slowly made their way towards the entrance of the old cinema when a shot ran out, striking Nikodim in the stomach. He dropped almost immediately. Griggs and Zero grabbed him and began to haul him inside while Dusty shot towards the adjacent rooftop where the shot came from, "Fuck! Hurry up, get inside! Come on!"


We've Got Contacts


"Jesus Christ - I've got eyes on eight plus Monolith fighters, Zee - What the fuck are we gonna' do?" Dusty asked as he fired a few more shots down range, taking cover by a pillar as the other two dragged Nikodim inside. Griggs began to tear through his medkit to assist Nikodim's wound, while Zero made his way back out, taking his Vintorez in hand. "Shoot back at 'em! That's what!" he shouted, clicking down his talk button once again, "Smiles, Vinny was right, there's Monomen all over the goddamn place. Light 'em up big-boy." A few moments passed before a gruff replique was heard, "Got it, boss."

A few drawn out moments passed as the Monomen began to surround the front of the cinema. Dusty blindfired a few shots from the masterkey attached to gun rifle, hitting one in the leg. He cried out in pain as he dropped to one knee. Dusty was then surpressed by both the rooftop shooter and the hail of automatic gunfire hitting the pillar. He screamed into his radio, "Ess! There's a fuckin' rooftop shooter! Be careful dammit!" The gruff replique returned, "Love you too, boo-boo."



The shooting stopped for a few moments, before what sounded like an explosion was heard. Then five or six more happened. Zero recognized the sound - it was an AA12. He peeked around the corner towards the wooden house next to the cinema to see a bunch of holes in the wall - that's when it happened.

Smiley came smashing through the wall of the wooden house in his exosuit, AA12 in hand. To Zero, he looked kind of like the Kool-Aid man, if the Kool-Aid man were skinny, wearing an exosuit and toting around a fully automatic shotgun. He began to fire a series of Dragon's-Breath rounds towards the Monomen, quite literally lighting them up. Zero and Dusty peeked out, shooting as well. The small squad was killed off in a matter of moments, as Smiley slowly hauled his way over as the two lighter armed men suppressed the sniper. "Let's get inside, boys. There's bad out here, and there's more on the way."

The crew made their way into the theatre, to find Nikodim sitting there smoking, with Griggs crouched beside him, "He good to go?" Zero asked, "As good as he's gonna' get until we can get him back to Enya." Griggs stood up and helped Zero bar the door - it was just them and the unknown now, or simply, them and whatever was lurking inside of the theatre...


Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire



Smiley took point further into the theatre. Griggs helped Niko walk, while Dusty and Zero made their way along as well. The theatre was old and eerie - each Stalker had their headlamps on. "I don't like this." "Yeah, Niko doesn't like this shit either. Or maybe because he has -A FUCKING HOLE IN HIS TORSO-!" "Shhh - shhhh, shutthefuckup. I think I heard something moving around in here."

The group stopped for a moment, a low click was heard which caused everyone to get down into a crouched position, "Shit - what the hell was that?" "Badness." Zero shook his head after Smiley spoke, grinning a little bit. He looked up as something - almost angelic appeared. It took a few moments to come into focus, and the clicking sounded as if someone had put a card on a bicycle wheel, it was like a rattle - an old projecter had come on, producing a film. " - The fuck? Is that - holy shit, that's Pripyat."



The group simply stood there in shock for a little while, simply watching the old video which was presented on the screen. It was almost mesmerizing. Finally, Zero got up from his crouched position, "We need to move." he said, beginning to push forward. Smiley followed not too terribly far behind him, while Dusty and Griggs both supported Nikodim, who's situation was getting worse by the minute, "We gotta' hurry, dog. Niko's not lookin' so hot." Griggs said, to which Zero simply nodded, "I know, I know. We've just gotta' -" A shot rang out and cut Zero's speech off. A .338 Lapua struck Griggs in the hip, completely shattering his bone inside before it came out the other side.

Smiley shot up towards the window next to the projector where the shot had come from, "Go! I've got him suppressed!" he shouted. Zero pulled Griggs into a fireman's carry, while Dusty dragged Niko into the next room. Smiley backpeddled, still shooting up at the hole. They closed the next door. Some psycho-babble chanting came from the next room as the Monomen began to shoot up the door. The singing of the children on-screen could still be heard, a strange twist to all of the chaos going on. "This is fucked up, bro!" Griggs practically screamed, as Zero continued to trek down the hallway with him over his shoulder. "St - stop, stop, set me down here. I don't wanna' go out like this, Zero. I'm never gonna' walk again, put me down next to the door, and toss me my spas. You guys keep goin'."

Zero hesitantly complied, setting his friend down. "You're sure?" "Get the fuck out of here." he said, pumping his shotgun as he sat propped up against the wall. Zero looked back over his shoulder as the rest of them made their way into the darkness, leaving their bleeding friend propped against the wall, shotgun trained on the door. They proceeded into the next room, closing the door. They didn't hear anything for quite a while. "I feel bad - I want to go back for him. He's our buddy -""He'd have wanted us to go on without him."

Everyone remained quiet for a few moments, pondering their next move. Nothing was heard, save for the faint singing of the children in the other room, as the movie continued to play. Zero let his gasmask hang around his neck as he kneaded his temples. The music suddenly stopped. Zero looked around, before he heard three shotgun shots, followed by some automatic fire, a yell was heard coming from the doorway they just came through. The group turned to train their rifles on the door, while Smiley watched the other doorway they hadn't yet gone through - they were in a small boiler room. Some faint yelling was heard, "Get - get the hell off me you son of a bitch!" was heard. Zero got up and kicked open the double doors, rushing down the hallway. There was a blood trail, but no Griggs(?). Zero rounded the corner to come back into the theatre viewing area to see Griggs being hauled off in a fireman's carry by one of the Monomen - there were two others with him. Three lay dead on the floor with pellets in their chest. Griggs reached for the Monoman's suicide belt, yelling out, "I'm not going out like this!" before an explosion happened, juicing the Monoman's lower torso, along with Griggs' right arm. He fell to the floor, coughing a few times before he simply rolled over - the choking stopped, as did the man's suffering. Zero knew all too well what had happened to his friend, so he slowly backed away, closing the doors and returning to his friends.

To be continued. I'll probably write some more in a bit.