Somewhere in the Chernobyl Quarantine Zone, May 18th 2010, late afternoon
One, two, three he counted. Propably more of them in the forest.. Bazis instinctively knew he had nowhere near enough ammunition left to finish them off on his own, only 7 rounds for the AUG-A3 and a clip for the Sig228..
With luck that might be enough to stop the three first ones but if there were more of them waiting for their turn he was royally screwed.
Lining up the first of the things on his sights, he pulled the trigger – once, twice.
Before the already dead body of the boar-like beast had fallen to the ground he had already sent two more bullets flying at the next one in line and proceeded to remove the safety from his Sig while glancing at his anomaly detector.
Did the screen just blink? This far from the centre? Can't be.
He sent two more bullets at the third creature but they only scraped the monster's head, not even slowing its stampede. His last round hit the beast in the throat, spraying up a thick cloud of scarlet blood.
He dropped the rifle and pulled out his pistol, aiming at the rampaging creature.
”Just a little more.. Come closer you ugly fucker..” 50 metres, 40 metres, 30 metres, he opened fire hitting the beast twice in what he assumed was the shoulder.
The beast was now less than 20 metres away. He let off three more rounds in rapid succession, hitting it in the chest. The creature shuddered with the impacts but showed no signs of stopping so he shot it twice more, this time hitting it squarely in the head at almost point-blank range.
A loud thump followed as the creature slumped down and then silence.
Bazis grabbed his binoculars and scanned the forest edge for more of the beasts but to his surprise saw none.
Still not relieved, he continued towards the abandoned house he was using as an impromptu base of operations.
The house was located on the edge of a small ruined village and looked exactly like any other heap of shattered concrete.
Once inside he looked at the anomaly detector again, but it showed nothing but the ordinary. ”I must be losing it,” he thought to himself while eating some canned tuna and reading a book he had found the previous week.
Unlike most stalkers, he had the luxury of electricity in his little haven. After a year in the Zone he had finally been able to afford some small solar panels and a tiny power cell.
He had scavenged a few lamps and a radiator from the other houses in the village and had set them up in the basement of the house, making it habitable around the year and at some times almost comfortable.
It had taken him two months to clear the house of debris, and four more to barricade it so that all the windows were blocked and the view-holes he had left could be easily covered to prevent anyone or -thing from seeing inside his humble abode.
He had also fortified the support beams, walls and roof with whatever he could find from the village, making the floor above ground a jumbled mess of metal and wood.
Again unlike many of the other stalkers Bazis had no military background whatsoever, instead he had been an engineer before entering the Zone.
Upon entering the Zone he met a veteran stalker called ”Kit Tenshi” who for some unknown reason took him under his tutorage and taught him as much of the Zone as he could before succumbing to a well-planned ambush by a stalker clan he had crossed in the past.
What had caused this attack was as much a mystery as almost everything else about Tenshi and regardless of Bazis' efforts to find out more the answers still evaded him.
Haven, May 19th 2010, morning
He awoke with a jerk, suddenly aware of a loud noise but unable to recognize it through the thick cellar walls. He jumped up and ran for the stairs, only slowing down to grab his AUG and slowly opened the hatch, trying to be as silent as possible.
He snuck up to one of the sight-holes and opened it ajar. The sound was now easily recognizable as a chopper, and seemed to be closing in on his position.
For a moment Bazis was worried they might notice the modifications he had made to the house but then calmed down, knowing that it would take someone from MIT to recognize the solar panels as what they were after he had camouflaged them.
Next he thought of the possibility the helicopter might have thermal sights installed and began to move back to the cellar hatch where the density of support beams and concrete was the thickest. ”If they only have a basic thermal camera they won't see me through all the cold concrete and metal I've set up here.. If it's a top-grade version I'll have to get underground as fast as possible!”
He climbed down the stairs, thanking lady Fortuna that it was summertime and his heater was cold. After a while the sound was right over his hideout and soon it had faded into nothingness again. He was back asleep within minutes of the renewed silence.
Haven, May 19th 2010, late evening
Bazis woke up feeling groggy and hungry. He ate the rest of the can of tuna and drank a bit of the precious clean water he had stored in the cellar.
It was soon dark, the most dangerous time in the Zone. Time to go to work.
He removed a couple of boards from the cellar floor and reached in the hole to pull a certain string which unlocked the hidden cabinet in one of the walls.
From inside the cabinet he picked a Dragunov SVD sniper rifle, two .40 USP pistols, a few fragmentation grenades and some extra clips. It would be a long trip and if shit hit the fan he would need all he could carry without losing too much speed..
About fifteen miles southwest of Haven, May 20th, early morning
Bazis counted fifteen stalkers of the Nightcrow clan apparently camped out for the night.
Usually he would've avoided them and moved on but he was curious about the flyover the previous night so he decided to approach the stalkers carefully.
He walked closer until there was only a mere hundred metres between them, then shouted out ”I do not seek a fight, may I approach?”
The leader of the jolly campers answered ”Our snipers have you in their sights so don't try anything stupid now.. You can come.”
After a lengthy conversation and a few well-chosen small gifts he finds out the Nightcrows are on their way to find and destroy a den of the mutated boar-things.
Relieved that they will miss his hideout by miles he tells them he killed almost a dozen of the creatures a bit over a day ago, and marks the place on their map.
The Nightcrow leader asks Bazis what he wanted in return for the information - nothing is free in the zone.
”I heard a chopper fly by at a distance and would like to know if the group had any information on the reason, if that's not too much to ask..”
The leader told him they knew very little of the military's doings but that if he wanted to know more, the Dealer called Nettie would know, for a price.
Bazis thanked them for the info and left the camp, heading for the Dealer's den.
It was going to be a long, long day.