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Post by blackpapermoon on Dec 15, 2010 23:50:46 GMT -5
Morak seeing his only way to get to Rostok felt that it would be best if he joined the two younger stalker on their track.
“Your not the only one who needs to meet someone in Rostok,” said Vadik hiding his reluctance behind his stone cold expression, “However before we hand out why don’t we introduce ourselves…not wise to head out without even know each other’s names.”
[THANK YOU]
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Post by Basil on Dec 17, 2010 7:15:05 GMT -5
Spinner shivered as the first few snowflakes began to fall. The stalkers who weren't on watch soon sought shelter the ruined buildings and the basements of the rookie village. As the snow began to fall in earnest, steadily blanketing the ground like a white mantel, Spinner thought about Sidorovich sitting comfortably in his bunker behind the village. He felt a pang of envy towards the fat trader, who was probably eating chicken right now. Ever since Spinner had arrived here and had started repairing suits for the rookies, Sidorovich had branded him as a competitor, sapping his profitable business in overpriced Sunrise suits.
Spinner sighed and headed for one of the village's houses. He had no place in the Cordon. Not with Sidorovich in the area. If he stayed here, he would either have to abandon his trade, or run the risk of having the fat trader send someone to shoot him. He might as well go North, to the next centre of "civilisation" in the Zone: Rostok. He had heard that most of the area up there was controlled by Duty and was a thriving outpost in the Zone's hostile environment.
As Spinner entered the house, rubbing his hands together and shivering, he saw that it was already occupied by several stalkers, one of which was the man who had stumbled into the village some time before.
"Hello there", said Spinner, nodding at the group. "Any room for another stalker in here?"
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Post by Διμι on Dec 17, 2010 17:09:03 GMT -5
"Come on in," Peregrine answered, recognizing the man who had come to his side when he fell earlier. "We were moving out anyway, so you'll have this place all to yourself if you want. Or you could come with us. It looked as if you're less than happy with the way things were going here."
He turned back to the taller stalker. "Interesting that you would ask everyone's name without introducing yourself first." he said, staring the man in the face. "They call me Peregrine. I suppose there's no need to ask what everyone's looking for up there."
Slotting a new magazine into his Walther P99, he walked over to the doorway. The snow was slowly petering out, but the road was now blanketed with a moderately thick coating of the soft crystals.
"Not entirely good..." the loner muttered "if any bandits catch sight of us, there'll be no getting away from them. That snow will make our path clearer than a trail of arrows. I assume everyone has a weapon on them, just in case?"
Peregine looked around the room, receiving various nods of affirmation. Having introduced himself to the motley crew that had suddenly assembled in the old house, he stood back by the doorway, waiting for the rest to do the same.
They were moving north... he thought, a step, even if a small one, closer to finding his brother, alive or dead. There was still Sidorovich's request to attend to, and if Peregrine's gut instincts were correct, it wouldn't be a very pleasant task.
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Post by Basil on Dec 17, 2010 18:38:27 GMT -5
"Moving out?", asked Spinner before sitting down. Even inside the house it was still cold, and he felt glad that he had insulated his Sunrise suit before entering the Zone. That way, he had slightly lower chances of dying of hypothermia, a vaguely comforting thought.
"I was thinking of leaving this place and going to Rostok" he added. "Sidorovich has not taken kindly to me trying to earn a few rubles by patching up the rookies' suits, and since I doubt he'd offer me a partnership, I'd probably have to either give up or end up dead. So if you are going there, I suppose I'll go with you people."
Evidently, leaving the Cordon in this weather would be dangerous. Their mobility would be greatly reduced by the snow, and their tracks would also be clearly visible to any roving predators or ill intentioned men. If the snow kept on falling, they would also have to deal with reduced visibility, not to mention the cold and exhaustion.
It would be a risky journey.
"I'm Vladek by the way, but everyone calls me Spinner", said Spinner as a quick introduction.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Dec 19, 2010 13:19:58 GMT -5
"Interesting that you would ask everyone's name without introducing yourself first." Said the loner with the advanced winter suit. "They call me Peregrine. I suppose there's no need to ask what everyone's looking for up there."
"Vorona," said the woman after Peregrine had introduced himself and Spinner had joined the ever growing team, "My brother is Morak…he can be a social nitwit sometimes."
With every one introduced the group began to make its way out of the house, the snow had stopped for now and a setting sun had poked out from behind cloud cover, the night was going to be a cold nasty one. The soldier turned stalker was sure that the BDUs that he wore under his field jacket and light snow pants would keep him warm enough on the trip even if they got wet. However he was not sure how his sister would hold up on the journey. Despite having many layers on, none of the items that she was dressed in with the exception to the leather jacket where water proof. Once they got to the bar he would have to make sure Yeva got outfitted with proper some winter gear.
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Post by Karcentric on Dec 19, 2010 14:16:47 GMT -5
Looking at the newcomer as he introduced himself and his intentions to go north also, Renegade glanced at Morak, noticing the man's reaction as another stalker joined the group. He really hates stalkers despite being one himself. Make's it all the more likely that he was in the army. He thought.
As they all moved away from the house and down the road, Renegade looked out at a patch of anomalies noticing how the snow sat over them hovering on top of the increased gravity field. "Look at that, the snow seems to make anomalies easier to see." Renegade said. The cold didn't seem to bother him, he could feel the crisp bite in his feet and hands.
Looking back to the group occasionally they stopped at the broken railway bridge briefly, the zone had changed again, the once green and warm, now the land was blanketed in a chilling, white finish.
Gripping his pistol firmly he took another backwards glance, before moving closer to Peregrine and asking, "If I may, what brought you to the zone?" He asked as they began to move again.
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Post by Διμι on Dec 20, 2010 0:42:33 GMT -5
"If I may, what brought you to the zone?" Peregrine heard as the group slowly began to move again. He turned to see Renegade beside him.
"I'm looking for someone." he answered after a moment's pause "I was told by the trader that someone in Rostok might know that someone's whereabouts. It's someone very dear to me, and I know that I've got something to make up for with him. He's been in the Zone for years, so I reckon I'll find him by word of mouth alone."
Unless, Peregrine thought, his brother was dead. He pushed the thought out of his mind. He could worry about it later, and the most important goal, even if temporary, was getting to Rostok alive.
The team was interrupted in their trek as a long and bloodcurdling scream faintly rang out ahead, followed by an echoing, snarling roar that seemed to resonate for miles. A flock of crows lifted from a nearby oak, and flew off in the direction the group of stalkers had come from.
"Wouldn't want to find out what the hell that was." muttered Peregrine as he continued walking. Something about the nature of the monstrous cry seemed familiar, yet distorted, as the Zone had a habit of doing to nature. They had passed the bridge checkpoint, the loner thought, and this was in every way enemy territory the inhabitants of which would do their very best to kill them, given the chance.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Dec 20, 2010 18:03:37 GMT -5
A faint scream from the north met Skomorokh's ears, immediately followed by a slightly more worrying roar. Poorly equipped as he was, running into one of the Zone's more sinister denizens would be very detrimental to his health.
As the last echoes of the roar faded away, Skomorokh heard voices through the open door of his train car. "Wouldn't want to find out what the hell that was.", the unknown person said. Poking his head out of the door, Skomorokh saw a group of five stalkers walking away from the ruined railway bridge. "Neither would I!" He shouted at them, then jumped from the train car, slid down the hillside and walked casually over to them.
"The farther north you go, the worse the critters will get." He said, "So what harm would one more in your little group do? The name's Skomorokh." He put out his hand to one in a fancy winter suit, his insanity glinting slightly in his eyes.
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Post by Διμι on Dec 20, 2010 21:26:23 GMT -5
"The farther north you go, the worse the critters will get." the stalker said, leaping from the train car on the ridge to approach the group "So what harm would one more in your little group do? The name's Skomorokh."
Something about the stalker seemed off, Peregrine thought. His already suspicious frayed black trench coat, and his eyes radiated a sort of mad fervor that was atypical of a seasoned hunter. Something about Skomorokh seemed to immediately ignite a flaming sense of caution in the young loner. But this was, after all, the Zone, and all sorts of things were to be expected.
He accepted the man's hand, shaking it before answering. "Good to see we aren't the only ones around here trying to get by." he looked into the mysterious stalker's eyes briefly, attempting to decipher something behind the twitching greenish irises. "Strange place for a stalker like you to rest up." Peregrine said finally "With all of these tons of mutants, and, God forbid, bandits." the loner stressed the final word slightly before looking up again.
He was interrupted by a noise in the distance. As he looked up, Peregrine could see something gray move into the trees almost a kilometer away, making them shake heavily as it passed. Just from the way the creature moved, the loner could tell it was absolutely huge. Before Peregrine could pull out his binoculars and get a closer look, the monster disappeared into the woods with a series of loud cracks of breaking limbs that could be heard from the group's position.
"Anyone else see that shit?" he whispered quietly. Several members of the group nodded in response. "Let's get the hell out of here before that thing decides to give us a clearer view." he said, as he began to move. "You can tag along, Skomorokh," he tossed aside to the trench coated man "I wouldn't envy anyone who gets left in the wilderness alone with that thing."
As they walked, Peregrine began to notice tracks on the ground, as they neared the boundary of the forest and the checkpoint. He recognized several of the prints as wolf tracks, but larger than that of any wolf he could see. One set of prints, nearly as wide as his chest, was almost completely unidentifiable - long, deep, and with five massive, drawn-out claw marks that seemed to gouge inch-deep grooves into the earth even beneath the thick snow cover.
"We've got some sort of local wolf equivalent, and something that I've never even seen before." he said quietly. "Wouldn't want to find out what."
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Post by blackpapermoon on Dec 21, 2010 18:51:59 GMT -5
Morak didn't say anything as his eyes scanned the snow covered area, his finger never leaving the trigger until they where safe. His posture was stiff and professional, despite being nervous he did not show it in any way nor did he let it get the best of him. His two years of service in the Zone had given him a general knowledge of the fauna that roamed the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and the beast that they had just glimpse was not among them and was not something one would normally see in the Cordon. It seemed that this evil land had given birth to a new predator for humanity to contend with.
"What ever that thing was," said Vadik once he was sure that they where far enough away from the creature, "it was sure as hell not a Blind dog or a Pseudodog…We need to inform Duty about it so they can send out a team to take it out."
"Duty?" questioned Vorona nervously still trying to shake off the almost encounter "who are they?"
"They are one of the factions, they work to protect the rest of the world from the zone," said Morak eyeing the newest addition to the group with a sour stare, "they hunt down mutants and other Zone scum."
Renegade and the older man where harmless and a non threat, however if he stuck with them long enough they would no doubt sniff him out. Peregrine was more perceptive then the others; the young brown haired stalker probably already knew of his past military status, however the kid seemed to have more to worry about then a soldier masquerading as a Loner. Skomorokh he was something else, there was something about him that made Morak's intuition scream danger. Out of all the others in the group the Balalaika toting stalker was not to be trusted.
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Post by Karcentric on Dec 21, 2010 20:07:06 GMT -5
Looking at the newcomer with some suspicion before turning back to the monstrous print. "I believe Morak is correct, whatever made this track is probably well beyond our capacity to handle. But we'll give it something to think about if it finds us." Renegade said, not entirely sure they would have a chance in hell against this unknown beast.
Walking with caution the group moved from the bridge passing the farm and the small house he'd stayed in the night before. The checkpoint eventually came into view.
Ahead on the side of the road a pack of boars and a pack of blinddogs were fighting, it wasn't clear which pack was superior they seemed to be even, the creatures were to distracted to notice the small group.
Evidence of the unknown beast was clear as they continued forward, trees had been toppled, lesser mutants, and the odd stalker lay sprawled around the area, kneeling to examine the tracks which were still fresh in the recently fallen snow, Renegade placed his own hand in the print.
"I've heard of a mutant known as a chimera they are said to be very large, but I've never seen one and from what I've heard I don't want to either. But I have a feeling if it was one of them we would of heard about from someone by now." Renegade said.
Looking up at the checkpoint ahead and then up to the clouds, "We should hurry, I think more snow is coming." Renegade said, another bellow from the unknown mutant echoed around the area.
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Post by Διμι on Dec 21, 2010 20:58:45 GMT -5
Peregrine knelt down by a carcass of a large wolf-like creature with an oddly misshapen face and frame. This must be one of the things the loners called pseudodogs, he thought, former wolves that had never left the area after the second catastrophe. The creature was completely mangled, lying in its own pool of blood and entrails, almost torn in half by what seemed to be a single swing of a claw the diameter of a small car tire. Peregrine shuddered slightly at the thought of the kind of damage an appendage of that size could inflict on the human body before looking around. Another roar rang out far in the distance.
"If that thing finds us," he said gravely "we're going to need some bigger guns."
The team continued on its way. The man named Skomorokh was unusually silent despite the radiantly manic attitude he seemed to display earlier. But despite his suspicions, Peregrine felt that the small group would have bigger problems soon.
The door of the checkpoint was nonexistent, along with a good portion of the frame around it, which had been smashed and clawed through. Massive gouge marks peppered the walls around the entry, as if something had tried to force its way into the building before finally pulling out. A large, lone rat scurried out, its snout bloody for a reason Peregrine knew all too well.
He walked through the building silently. The entire place had been deserted.
The loner's radio buzzed suddenly, making him stop in his tracks. "You, stalker." a voice crackled "yes you, we know you're by the checkpoint along with your little group. Get to the train depot if you don't want to lose your way in this place. Some stalkers kicked the bandits out a little while ago, but the bastards are getting restless again. If you want to keep your head and gear in the night, I suggest you come around."
Peregrine stared at the communicator as the channel disconnected. Evidently someone had seen them, and there was quite the chance that whoever was calling them to the hangar was actually a bandit himself.
"Cryptic much." he remarked finally, looking at the group. "Any ideas on who the hell that could have been?" he looked up at the sky. It was indeed getting dark, and staying in the open with a creature the size of a car wasn't exactly an ideal way to spend the night.
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Post by Basil on Dec 21, 2010 22:00:34 GMT -5
Well that newcomer did not look trustworthy. Spinner eyed Skomorokh suspiciously all the way to the Northernmost checkpoint of the Cordon area; but once they reached that place, something a lot more worrisome than Skomorokh made its appearance. Spinner did not see the beast, but he heard it, and its terrible cries were enough to put fear in his heart.
The checkpoint building also bore the scars of a vicious mutant attack, and Spinner found himself checking the barrels of his shotgun to see if they were both loaded. However, he doubted the weapon would do much good against whatever was stalking the woods in this area.
"Cryptic much", he heard Peregrine say. "Any ideas on who the hell that could have been?"
Spinner, who had not been paying attention to what the group was doing, had no idea what the younger stalker was talking about. Right now, the rational part of his mind was trying to keep the irrational and easily frightened part of his mind under control as some of the more frightening fireside tales he had heard back at the village came back. Tales concerning bloodsuckers, small, hooded creatures capable of wrenching a stalker's gun out of his hands with the power of thought, and other terrible demons and monsters of the Zone's darkest reaches. One such tale had stuck in his mind more than the others: the Zone Witch, or the Queen of Fear. It was a relatively new story, brought back by stalkers coming back from the Northern parts of the Zone, and it spoke of a woman neither governed by reason or loyalty, and who supposedly had the power to make one's worst fears reality.
The idea was frightening, but Spinner was not sure whether it was true. He had also heard tales of Freedom having a snake-eyed woman as its commandant, and a man who was supposedly immune to psychic emissions. Stories and rumours were abundant in the Zone, and Spinner was pretty sure most of the were false.
"Hmm...are we going to continue walking North?", inquired Spinner. "The snow fall seems to be getting worse, but I'd rather not stay in a place where a mutant has struck already. It might come back."
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Dec 21, 2010 23:59:48 GMT -5
"If you had been paying attention, comrade," Skomorokh said flatly to the older stalker, "An unknown party has offered us refuge in the train depot just up the road from here."
Another echoing roar met the group's ears and Skomorokh drew his machine pistol. "And regardless of who it was," he said, "I suggest we accept their offer and get the hell out of here before whatever it was that tore this place up comes back to make a nice little snack out of us."
Skomorokh walked back out through the ruined doorway, the snow was falling at a much more impressive rate than before and even as he stood there the snow was piling up around his feet. "At this rate the snow will cover our tracks on our way to the depot," he said over his shoulder to the rest of the group, "it should decrease the risk of anyone following us. C'mon, lets move before this thing turns into a blizzard."
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Post by Διμι on Dec 22, 2010 0:37:39 GMT -5
Peregrine nodded. Skomorokh may have been a shady character at best, but he had sense, and the loner doubted that any vagabond would put his own personal goals, monetary or otherwise, over escaping the predicament the group was in.
The snow fell at an increasing rate as the team sped up, trudging down the winding road north. Occasionally, Peregrine would turn and look back, scanning the treeline for any movement that would betray the massive form he had seen earlier. But he saw nothing in the still expanse of the tall evergreens. The road was still separated from the woods by a half-kilometer expanse of plain and marsh, so even if the creature chose to leave the cover of the forest, its mere presence would give off more than a fair warning from that distance.
The looming form of the hangar came into view, a rickety crane visible over the brick perimeter wall. A figure straddling the top of the rusted steel beam waved to the rag-tag crew of loners as they drew near. Peregrine drew his binoculars to take a clearer look at their mysterious greeter. To his surprise, the man seemed little like a bandit, and instead wore a black suit with a faded red trim. Before the loner could examine the man any further, the black-clad stalker slid down the beam and out of sight, before coming out of the front gate to greet the group personally.
"Boyar," he introduced himself, holding out his hand for the loner to shake "glad to see you made it." he looked over Peregrine and the rest of the stalkers standing behind him. "I'll say, I haven't seen a team of stalkers this... diverse, since I went with Lieutenant Rurik's team up to the Wild Territories." he commented, sizing up the stalkers as his gaze passed from one to the other.
"Dolg..." said Peregrine, staring at the faded emblem on the black suit's sleeve "You're a Dutier?" he asked, raising his eyebrows "Why didn't you tell us that when you made contact?"
"Got discharged." muttered the stalker "I used to be Sergeant Povarenko, but then I fucked up on a rather important mission. Lost an important captive and an assload of equipment to a bandit, and let them get away. Yeah, the general didn't give me much time to pack after that one." he gestured around himself, ushering the stalker squad inside "as you can see, I'm with the loners now. I try to keep this place under control, but it's getting harder with every passing day."
Several stalkers dressed in padded winter sunrise suits were seated around a campfire. A single loner shut the gate behind the team as they entered, securing it with a heavy steel beam.
"To keep unwanted guests out." Boyar explained "We don't want bandits getting in here. Not to mention we've been hearing stories about some nasty beast out there that we aren't exactly keen on inviting in here." he shut the gate to the inner hangar of the depot as he talked. "Don't worry." he reassured "You're safe here, at least for the night. Make yourselves comfortable."
"You said something about a mutant." Peregrine said, looking quietly out at the sealed gate and the snow falling heavily outside "Have you seen it yourselves?"
"Nope," answered Boyar, his eyes too, straying to the darkening sky outside "All we know is that it's big, and that not a whole lot of people came back from raids in the Garbage and the Dark Valley to tell us about it. Must be hella convenient for the bandits over there. That thing must be pretty tough, or those little rats would have put its head on a plaque a long time ago."
Peregrine nodded as the man continued "I doubt it'll try to break in here though." he reassured again "even if it does, it'll cause enough of a racket breaking down that gate to wake us all up. I'm sure we'll manage to pull it down somehow. I've led smaller teams on pseudogiant hunts, and those things were damn tough as they were. Now settle down, you've got a long night ahead of you, and Rostok's still a few kilometers away."
The young loner, already tired from the long journey, looked around the massive depot, searching for a niche to sleep in. After a few minutes, a small alcove housing a rather dingy old mattress presented itself. Peregrine's suit was, as always, radiating a much-welcome warmth from its artifact-laden lining, and the loner settled down on the makeshift bed. Like the ex-Dutier said. There was a long night ahead of them.
Little did he realize how long it would really be.
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