Escape

[Karcentric]

Day 4 after the emission.

Karc sat quietly in an old shed, rusted and creaky it swayed slightly in the wind. Making it the perfect spot to pick off Monolith members that strayed into his line of sight, he had remained in the zone until the last of the survivors had been moved out and were safely away from the grasp of the Monolith, Karc however had been tasked with destroying the tunnel that had been used by many to escape the zone.

Thinking back to how it had started, as he stayed hidden. He thought about the way the settler he’d been in at the time had shook so hard that one stalker was flung against the wall and broke his arm. Karc thought he’d heard something, a sort of wailing over the top of the usual sounds made by a blowout. That and it lasted much long and had multiple aftershocks. It wasn’t until they’d left the confines of their underground safe area and checked in with the Merc HQ, was the scale of the blowout clear, reports were coming in from all around Europe, even as far as the United States was afflicted with The Zone’s touch. Shortly after, the Monolith began pushing forward forcing faction to retreat, until it became clear there was no stopping the faction.

After that the factions banded together for maybe the first time in the Zone’s history to work on escaping since the Monolith’s tidal wave had already expanded into the outside world. And old facility in Red Forest proved most useful having an old tunnel leading well away from the zone out into the country side coming back up at an old processing centre, the monorail that connected the two was still working and was used to ship countless stalkers away the from the grasp of the Monolith.

Blinking several times Karc’s mind came back to reality. He would wait till sundown to make his move, when that happened he’d make his way to the facility they had used and activate the monorail one last time before detonating the charges that had been set around the tunnel.

All in all it wasn’t going to be difficult, but the waiting was what had Karc on edge, he’d had little to no sleep in the last few days, and now it was beginning to have an effect. Fighting off another wave tiredness, he opened a can of energy drink and sip on it, waiting for the effects of the drink to kick in.

---

Night was finally beginning to break, Karc shook his head, it seemed like an eternity from earlier in the day. Pushing himself up and groaned, his joints clicked as he stretched and snuck out of his hiding place. Looking about, the still night was silent, a good or the very worst sign. Deciding to side with optimism Karc made his way to the underground facility to complete his final mission in Chernobyl before venturing out into the world, not the world he’d left behind but a new dangerous, changed place.

Forcing the old, rusted door open enough he squeezed through, only to hear a cry and the sound of a weapon cocking before a hail of fire slammed into the heavy door and area around it.

“Shit, why now!?” Karc spat as shouldered the door shut and kicked the locking mechanism shut, it wouldn’t hold since it was so rusty but it would do to block the troops out for a little while, turning and sprinting for the monorail he spied a fire extinguisher, snatching it up he kept running, coming to a large room with several paths leading out, he pulled the tag off, turned the extinguisher upside down and stomped the lever on the top, jamming it on filling the room with dry chemical creating a smoke wall. Further back he heard the sound of boots running up the hall towards the room.

Picking up the device he flung at the troops who moved to the side to avoid it, but what they didn’t see was the grenade he’d rolled in after it. Not waiting to see the aftermath of this tactic, Karc turned and sprinted again, the blast’s thud echoed through out the facility, taking down four of the pursuers and injuring another three.

As he got the steps down to the station below he took them in leaps and bounds, landing hard on a platform before taking off again he could see the tracks to the monorail and the car waiting to take him far from the clutches of the Monolith.

Landing on the clearing at the bottom of the stairs he looked back to see more fanatics chasing him, making their down the stairs, taking up his assault rifle he fired single shots up the stairs hitting each pursuer and dropping them, their single minded urge to catch him, negated the fact they were running down a long thin corridor with no other means of getting to the bottom.

With five or six bodies limply tumbling down the stair, Karc turned and jogged to the train car and stepped in, hitting the power and flicking a switch the car moved smoothly away, when without warning more gunfire, shattering the window and tearing up the upholstery of the train car. Throwing himself down and crawling to remain in cover, Karc waited several seconds until the car had gained some momentum before holding up a white piece of fabric gingerly. The firing cessed and he stood, taking his helmet off and with a feral smile he lifted the remote trigger for the explosives that were in crates all around the station and the facility, before squeezing it and dropping again to avoid the fireball that shot up the tunnel and the shock wave, bucking the car but not derailing it, putting his helmet back on he watched the tunnel behind him collapse and lights from the fiery explosion died out and the lights on the car lit the way ahead.

Sealing himself in the driver’s cabin he set a medium speed and lounged in the comfortable seat with a sigh of relief, he’d earned himself an eight hour rest and intended to sleep for most of it. Setting an alarm, closed his eyes and let sleep finally come…

[Karcentric]

Day 5 after the emission
Early morning.

The raising beeps of his alarm woke Karc up, he’d slept like the dead for the last 7 hours and now felt considerably better, his legs were a trifle stiff from the day before and all the crouching he’d done. Standing and looking into the dark passage that the monorail car was running along he turned the lights on to better see the station when it would finally come into view.

Digging into his pack he pulled out a can of basic rations and a bottle of water. Wolfing down his meal he saw the station come into view in the distance, and eased the speed down. When the monorail finally stopped he pulled his mask on and stepped out, his Geiger counter was silent but he wasn’t sure how badly affected the world was. In his mind he pictured cities laying in ruin and rubble everywhere with countless burnt out cars and piles of corpses.

Shaking his head he made his way up the stairs to the surface, into the sunlight. Blinking several times he let his eyes adjust to the bright sun and enjoyed soaking up a few rays. The old complex that had been their salvation out of the zone was abandoned.
Looking to his PDA he found that it was still working and the signal strength indicated that at least one satellite was working. The nearest city was Kiev, but he figured that it would be picked clean and infested with mutants anyway. He made a decision to travel west. As he could possibly come across more stalkers that way, figuring few would venture into the oriental lands.

Making his way out on the road he set a course in a general western direction, hoping not to encounter anything too dangerous. After about half an hour he could hear the sound of a motor rumbling towards him, looking back he saw a bus and two cars in the distance. Taking a deep breath and glancing about he quickly jogged to a patch of trees, giving him the higher ground and a good cover from gunfire. Pressing himself against the tree he waited, hoping the convoy hadn’t seen him. But the squeak of dusty brakes confirmed that they had obviously caught sight of him. Peering out from behind the tree he caught sight of at least five men armed with pistols, another 5 had clubs or knives. Looking down the scope of his assault rifle he glanced over the bus, it had other people huddled down, maybe women and children he surmised. Holding by the barrel he stepped out from behind the tree, his other hand held aloft. Hoping they would attack, not that an attack from the groups 9mm pistols would have much of an effect on Karc’s heavily armoured suit.

“There he is!” One of the men cried, pointing his pistol at Karc as did the others. “Nice and easy there fella, don’t want any trouble out you or that thing.” He continued waving his gun at Karc’s firearm.

“Well that makes two of us than.” Karc replied, picking his way through the thick scrubs to stand about 5 metres from the group. “What can you tell me about the area?” He asked hoping they might be able give him some pointers on areas that were a no-go.

“Huh, you don’t look like a regular type nor do you sound like one, you weren’t in that Zone of Alienation were you?” The man asked his eyes narrowed as he spoke of The Zone as did the others.

Karc paused for a second; clearly there was something about those who’d dwelt in The Zone that made others suspicious of them.

“As a matter of that I am, is that a problem?” Karc asked shifting his stance in case he needed to move quickly. “I would have thought those with knowledge of The Zone would be useful?” He continued, but clearly there was some superstition about stalkers that he’d not counted on encountering.

“You’d think that wouldn’t you, think you can stroll on out of that shithole and be the hero, well we’ve got news for you pal, we don’t want your help, and we can look after ourselves just fine.” The leader of the group said in a raised voice, levelling his pistol to point at Karc as did the others.

His eyes flicked to the bus and saw several children watching. Knowing their weakness he spoke.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you, my suit is designed to protect me from assault rifles, and of course you have a weakness that I don’t.” Karc said pointing to the bus with his free hand, they glanced at the bus, using that brief moment Karc raised his rifle and had it pointed at the man who had done all the speaking. “And now the table have turned in my fortune, I can kill you all and have no remorse, no sympathy for them.” He said making them look back to see him pointing his assault rifle at them.

Jumping back in shock, the man spoke again, his tone humbled and pleading with the tables now turned.

“Wait! Please wait.” He pleaded, lowering his weapon and motioned for the others to follow suit, while Karc remained passive still aiming at the man. “What do you want?”

“Information, what are the local towns like? Is there a chance of finding fresh supplies in them or is it a death trap? Possible safe areas allowing rest at night?” Karc said.

“Okay, uh a lot of the local towns, the small ones have been evacuated and picked clean, or so they say, its unlikely robbers have gone door to door and taken everything. I hear Zhytomyr has a fair sized community, with some military set up and a lot of homeless folk. From there you can ask someone else for more information?”

Looking at his PDA Karc saw that the monorail had left him near Malyn, it would be a long walk probably more than a day before he could reach Zhytomyr if he used the roads rather than taking the direct path.

“Okay well thanks for that,” Karc said lowering his weapon but not engaging the safety or storing it away. “I guess you aren’t heading that way though are you?” He asked already knowing the answer.

“Not directly, we are going as far as Lenine however, that should cut quite a chunk from your trip if you want a ride.” The man offered, “You can ride in the sentry post on top of the bus if you’d like, you can see the effects of that infernal eruption five nights ago.”

“Very well,” Karc said nodding, walking towards the bus and climbing the ladder to take up his position, in the welded half cage on top of the bus, crouching as he waited for the convoy to move out. “Should be most interesting.” He mused.

“Bang the roof twice if you want us to stop.” One of the men said as they piled into their vehicles.

“Understood” Karc said.

With that the convoy finally rolled on slowly, standing to get a better look at the woods and country as they moved on. Spotting the occasional flesh or blind dog darting between the trees Karc felt a wave of relief knowing he was safely passing it.

Further along they passed several large fields that had been burnt, one of them had a crater in it with several burner anomalies and what may have been some sort of mutated one, instead of sending up a jet of fire and spat out a nova of fire, the ground around it glistened, having been scorched to glass. The woods nearby had several burning patches as well. Karc watched on, a sense of remorse sparked watching the forest burning. He wondered how many other places were like this and what other things that were in this changed world.

As they neared the town of Lenine, Karc saw several small bands of people gather nearby, clearly small groups had settled here and they were able to defend from most hazards. A lot of the building had fortifications crudely built onto them.

Jumping down from the look out position, Karc stood, looking around the small town, he noted a lot of the barricades were riddled with bullet holes.

“Are attacks common?” He asked one the people clambering off the bus, a youngish female; she stopped looking at Karc’s attire more closely before answering.

“They aren’t that common, it’s a group of skinhead assholes. They ride through the town firing shots and attacking anyone out in the open. We learned the hard way that it’s better to sit and keep out heads down than fight back.” She said, pointing towards a fenced area someway away, but was clearly a makeshift cemetery. “They’ve gotten a lot bolder now that there isn’t any police here.”

Karc nodded, it had taken five days for a gang of petty thugs to start bullying a little community, and he wondered what would happen with factions like the Bandits when there was minimal law enforcement.

“When do they come?” Karc asked looking over the area again, beginning to form some method of engaging the group.

“A couple of hours after sundown, it’s dark normally, I guess they worry we’ll recognise them maybe?” The reply came, before the woman went off after the others from the convoy.

“Huh, well… What are you going to do?” Do you stay and be a good person and wait another day, or leave and hope they sort their own mess out?” Karc muttered to himself, these people weren’t incapable of defending themselves, but they had no military training or any weapons with exception of a few pistols and the odd rifle.

Walking slowly towards the group gathering outside a large building Karc was still deciding when he glanced to his left and saw a group of children walking some distance away from him, starring at the unusually dressed man. Sighing he knew it would be better to stay and help, it may even improve these people’s opinion of stalkers.

As he reached the group he spoke slightly louder than the general drone of the others.

“I’ll deal with these skinheads for you. But I’ll need a few things, and we’ll need to make some changes to your barricades.” Karc said, awaiting their reply.

[Karcentric]

Day 5 after the emission
Mid-morning

The group of men turned, with mixed looks of surprise and astonishment.

“You want to face those punks who are picking on us? Alone, are you out of your mind?” The reply came, “They’ll tear you apart.”

“No, they won’t as soon as they arrive I’ll strike, they won’t expect it, how many are there roughly?” Karc replied, he wasn’t really sure he was suited for in an unknown area, in The Zone he’d always had a plan, or a place he knew well. A new challenge for ya. He thought to himself as the others discussed his question.

“There’s been as many as 15 of them, mostly armed with pistols and fire bombs. Some have bikes, you can hear them coming, and hence why we can hide in time, you can see the skids they do over there, they always come from that direction. They’ll ride up and down firing shots at the building and leave after a few hours.” They replied.

Nodding his head to the answer, Karc walked to where they had indicated, the road had many marks indicating where they gang came from; they clearly had no fear of being tracked. A sign post was a few feet from Karc; looking across the road another was on the other side.

“This is going to be too easy.” Karc scoffed. Putting his pack down, taking off most of his armour leaving his tattered old clothes, he pulled out a several lengths of high tensile wire, unravelling it he made sure he had enough before looping one end around the far post and trailed it back to the other side, leaving it there walked over to a pile of scrap metal selected several lengths of steel rebar.

Once back at the untied cable he wrapped it around the post and used one of the rebar’s to tighten the cable until it was highly tout. The wire was hard to see in the growing daylight, it would be nigh impossible to see while riding a motorcycle at night. Going back to his pack he pulled out an old camera he’d found in The Zone, the flash was still working and he knew it could be modified to work in his favour, setting it down and pulling apart the old device he had the flash wired through his PDA to flicker wildly, and thus blind his targets or at least stun them. Connecting it to an old battery pack he left it for later.

Looking around some more he looked for a good place to hide when the group would initially attacked. He decided he’d wait inside a building a few meters from the clothesline he’d setup, stepping over the barricade that was around the building he heard the sound of scampering feet.

Looking up he saw several children watching him.

“What are you doing sir?” One of the children asked, not sure how long they’d been watching, or if they would understand the reason for setting the trap.

“I’m planning on waiting in this building for the men who come and attack here.” Karc said, it had been a long time since he’d talked to a child.

“It’s not just men; there’s women too, are you going to kill them?” Came the question almost instantly,

“Am I planning on killing them?” Karc repeated, “Yes I guess I do intend to do that, I don’t negotiate, nor do I parley. If they want to terrorise a community they can try doing so at a military controlled town.”

“Do you need any help? We could spy on them or something?” The child asked a look of enthusiasm lite up on their faces.

Karc chuckled. “While I’d like the help I’m not going to put you in harms way, I think it’s best if you avoid the conflict, my gun is more than capable of piercing the walls of these buildings.” He said, he was exaggerating slightly but he genuinely didn’t want them in harms way.

He wasn’t ready for the looks they gave him, disappointment, it made him soften a little. He really wasn’t used to dealing children.

The teenager he’d talk to when they first arrived had wandered over along with several other younger members of the community; the younger children looked to the new group and left. Karc wasn’t sure if there was a hierarchy amongst the younger members or was it a plot method used by the more mature people living here.

Without looking up at the new arrivals Karc spoke, “Are you here to offer your assistance as well? I’m not about to endanger anyone who lives here. I can handle a couple of skinheads with pistols.”

“That’s not what I had in mind; can you teach us to shoot?” The teenager told him, “We want to be able to defend ourselves. Not that we aren’t grateful, but the others think you’ll die. That we should just wait for them to move on. Which we both know isn’t going to happen.”

His shoulders slumped slightly; Karc stood and looked each of the young adults in the eye.

“With what weapons do you purpose we practice with?” Karc asked, he wasn’t really in the mood to deal with them and it was obviously something they hadn’t considered judging by the looks on their faces.

“Where would we get them? You don’t have any spares?” A young man asked.

“My guns aren’t leaving my side.” Karc said, with a hint of venom his voice, “Once these arseholes a dealt with you can take whatever they had. After that we’ll see, deal?” He said, extending his hand for someone to shake.

“That sounds like a deal.” The teen girl said shaking Karc’s hand, before turning to leave Karc called out to them.

“One thing you can do for me, reinforce those barricades with metal, I saw some sheets of steel over there.” He said, pointing in the direction of the metal scrap heap he’d visited earlier.

By this time it was early afternoon, sitting down he had a little lunch, much the same as his breakfast, basic rations and the rest of his bottle of water, before continuing to prepare for that night.

---

Evening

Karc had checked his weapons and was ready to attack, he’d cleaned his armour and put it back on, and now sat waiting in the building across from the trip wire, and the camera’s flash was ready to go off once Karc triggered it.

In the distance he could see lights approaching and the sounds of several dirt bikes approaching. Taking several slow, deep breathes he shut his eyes until the sound was very close, he could see the lead bike now, pressing a button on his PDA a bright flash exposed the area, making the first two on bikes swerve and crash, a third rode into the wire, sending the rider and their passenger off the bike landing with a heavy thud.

Creeping out of the house he watched as another 5 bikes rode into the town, a couple stopped and got off, running to the people who were slowly standing up, the two that had been thrown off by the trip wire were not moving, the others were riding up the street firing upon the building either side of the street. Once they were out of sight Karc lined up the individuals that were checking on the others who’d fallen off their bikes.

Firing in bursts that were barely heard he cut down three of the Neo-Nazis in seconds, the fourth brought up his pistol and fired several shots at the building Karc had lurked in, not bothering to duck out of the way he walked out into the open, the man stopped firing and took in Karc’s silhouette as it stalked closer.

“Stop, I’ll shoot!” He man called, aiming at Karc who was still moving closer. “I fucking mean it!” He shouted before firing, the round glanced off Karc’s ballistic mask, making Karc’s head jolt slightly. Firing twice more the rounds hit the chest armour not even slowing Karc.

Raising his assault rifle he fired a burst at the man as he turned and fled, dropping his pistol in the process. A round punched through his calf dropping the man who screamed in agony. Holding his calf he looked up to see Karc jog at him before kicking in the head, the plates in his suits armour knocked the man out with a sickening crack.

Returning to where the others were starting to raise clearly shocked by the violence that had befallen their comrades, two drew the pistols and fired, rounds ricocheted off Karc’s armour, raising his assault rifle he emptied the magazine mowing down those that were firing at him.

From behind he could hear the others returning, possibly confused why they hadn’t been followed or because they’d heard the shots. Changing magazines, Karc lined up the first bike firing in bursts, several rounds hit their mark, flattening the front tyre and hitting the rider, the passenger jumped off, landing hard and rolling several times but lay still.

The other two bikes flew past one of the passengers fired a shotgun, the impact made Karc lose balance and fell, though the shot hadn’t penetrated his armour but the impact still hurt. Wincing he pushed himself up and looked around one of the bikes was nearby, doing wheelies, when the rider saw Karc standing they turned their attention back to him and rode straight at him, missing as side stepped.

As he moved he drew the BFR and fired, the round smashed into the back of the passenger and continued into the rider, killing them both and sending the bike trailing off collapsing and skidding sending up sparks before crashing out of sight, shaking his head he looked around for the remaining attackers, but the only sound was the sound of the wind whistling through the area. Walking into the open some of the originally grounded Neo-Nazis were up, still dazed and partially blinded from the flash, swapping to one of his 1911s he picked them off with clean shots, mentally noting that there was still at least two hiding.

Turning off the flickering light the area went dark. Shutting his eyes Karc turned on his NV and slowly looked for the last two targets, a sound from one of the nearby buildings alerted Karc to at least one of the trouble makers, jogging as silently as he could he could see a man making his way along the wall clumsily, running into a bucket he stumbled and fell, pouncing on the fallen man, Karc spoke in a very clear voice.

“You’re going to call to your friend or I’m going to skin you, understood?” He asked, dragging the man up and locking his arm behind his back so that he couldn’t pull away.

Walking him into the clearing where several of the man’s comrades lay motionless, the ground was dark from their blood. Stopping by one of the motorcycles Karc, still holding the man’s arm firmly leant down and flicked on the lights of the bike.

Standing in the light, he yanked on the contorted arm, “Call out, now.” Karc said in a low, menacing voice.

“Fuck you!” The reply came.

“So disappointing…” Karc said trailing of and drew one of the 1911’s firing so the round hit right next to the man’s knee. “The next one is going in your knee, understood? Now call out.”

What felt like an eternity passed before the man, now whimpering feebly called out for help, the voice didn’t carry very far.

With a sigh of annoyance Karc pointed the 1911 at the man's leg, but before he fired a female voice cried out. Looking up he saw the man's companion walking forward shaking slightly.

"Stop, hands up." Karc said, pulling the man to his feet and pushing him away.

The two clutched hands and looked back at Karc, it was starting to rain lightly.

"Is that it?" Karc asked, but their expressions clearly expressed that they hadn't got the meaning of the question. "Is there anymore of you?"

"N-n-no, only what was here, please are you going to let us live?" The man answered looking pleadingly at Karc.

Karc thought it over agonising over the possibility they were lying before finally nodding.

"Fine, take a bike and leave everything else stays here." He said, the rain was increasing in intensity.

The couple picked up a bike and were gone in nearly no time. With a sigh Karc looked around, he'd have to deal with the bodies and collect the wet weapons and dry them off. With that went about it and got started on cleaning the area up.