The road to the elevator was easy, and we reached it without problems. Upon arrival, I immediately looked into the one-story building where the fight with the bloodsucker had taken place, but nothing remained of it except bloody streaks on the ground. Then, leaving the guys on the ground, I climbed the stairs to the second floor of the gray building to get a better look. We were lucky.
A couple of small wild boars were peacefully settling down for a nap near the tunnel, a couple of hundred meters away. It was quite difficult to spot them from here due to the vegetation and scattered garbage, until one of them decided to roll over to the other side. I quickly go down, taking my rifle off my shoulder on the go and addressing the squad:
"I saw a couple of carcasses near the tunnel," I start talking, checking my weapon. "Pukh and Voron, stay here, cover us if anything happens. Byk and Kulak, follow me."
Stepping carefully, I head towards the mutants, but behind me, I hear Kulak and Byk puffing. This won't do. We get closer, stopping about a hundred meters from the sleeping beasts. I turn around, looking my partners up and down, and quietly say:
"You stay here, I'll try to approach quietly. If something goes wrong, I'll run here, and then you'll help. Just don't make noise."
"Understood," Byk replies in a whisper, Kulak just nods, gripping his shotgun tighter.
I turn towards the tunnel and walk forward cautiously, looking carefully at my feet. If it weren't for the skill, I would have woken these boars up right at the beginning. I get very close and peek out from behind a bush. A wide concrete tunnel, next to which lie several stone slabs stacked on top of each other. Near them, the remains of a campfire are visible, and a few meters away, the mutants are lounging freely.
I carefully walk around a rusty loaf of bread left here, God knows when, and come out right at the prey. The boars were peacefully snoring, occasionally grunting in their sleep. You wouldn't say now that these are extremely evil and bloodthirsty creations of the Zone. But I don't have time for that now. I raise my TOZ and press the trigger twice, killing the sleeping beasts one after another. I dropped one of them immediately, it didn't even flinch, and the second shot pierced its lung, and the animal had to suffer for some time before it bled out. The unfortunate boar wriggled on the grass, unable to get up from the pain. After a minute, its suffering ended.
First, I reload the rifle, and then, raising my hand up, I signal my partners to come to me. The stalkers didn't make me wait. Kulak comes first, looks at the killed animals and asks:
"Are you going to butcher them here?" he says, taking off his backpack and taking out an axe.
"No," I answer him, looking around the area. "It's too open, better to drag them to the elevator. Won't we break our backs?"
"We shouldn't," says Kulak, and then turns to Byk: "How about you, can you drag them?"
"If you take one, and Executioner helps drag the second, then yes," says Byk, stretching his shoulders. Despite his nickname, this stalker was not large in build, and Kulak looked much more massive.
"No problem," I pat him on the shoulder.
We quickly drag the carcasses of the killed boars to the elevator and arrange them on the concrete ramp near the two-story building. And, while the guys are making a small campfire, I start butchering the mutants. First, I cut the carotid artery, letting the blood flow, and leave the bodies alone until the blood drains.
I stretch, raising my hands up and yawning, and go to the campfire, where the stalkers have already started preparing something. Kulak was stirring something in the fire with a stick, and Voron was shaking canned stew into a pot, and Byk and Pukh were pouring vodka into several shot glasses. They also left me a place on a sturdy box.
"I thought you'd take longer," Pukh begins, handing me a shot glass as soon as I sit down.
"Thank you," I thank him. "First, you need to let the blood out, that takes some time. Then you have to skin it, and then you can butcher it into meat."
"And how long will that take?" asks Voron.
"A couple of hours for sure, maybe a little longer," I shrug and nod at the open bottle. "What's the celebration for, by the way?"
"And why not," Kulak replies in a deep voice. "A couple of shots won't hurt. We'll shoot the mutants, and only our people are walking around here. The military
don't stick their noses beyond the checkpoint, and the bandits are afraid of Father Valerian and don't come here either."
"Hmm, and what are we drinking to?"
"To the stalkers," says Byk.
"To the stalkers!" the others chime in, emptying their glasses.
For the next couple of hours, we just talked, told stories, and laughed. After two shots each, the half-empty bottle was hidden in Byk's backpack. Occasionally, I got up and checked if the boars were ready for butchering, but each time a little blood still remained.
"...and he begs pitifully: 'water, water to drink'," Pukh tells another stalker joke. "And then a hand sticks out of the tent and grabs him by the throat - snap. And a hoarse voice quietly asks: 'And why do you need my water?'"
"Heh," I say, laughing a little, and get up from the box. "I'm going to relieve myself, guys."
"Go, go," Pukh quickly says. "There's another joke, a funny one, damn it. So, listen..."
I chuckle, thinking for a moment, and still leave my rifle by the campfire, and go around the corner of the brick building. A few minutes later, having done my business and washed my hands with a wet wipe, I was about to return to the campfire, but I heard some strange sounds. I step forward cautiously, not sticking my head out from around the corner, and listen to what's happening behind it.
"O-o-oh," a hoarse voice says, then there's some rustling, a quiet groan, and the sound of a body falling. "We're screwed, suckers."
"Father Valerian will quarter you if he finds out," says Voron.
I slowly peek around the corner and see a surprising sight. My partners stand unarmed along the wall, only Pukh is lying on the ground, holding his stomach. Opposite them stand three men, one of whom is dressed in a long black leather coat, down to his boots. On his shoulder, a patch in the shape of a broken skull is visible. The other two are holding my guys at gunpoint. They are poorly armed, with sawn-off shotguns. Bandits. I take out my pistol, releasing the safety.
"I don't give a damn about your Valerian, tell him that," the bandit in the coat chuckles. "But first, you'll work for our boss. And he has a lot of work. You'll tear your asses off. Am I right, guys?"
"And why don't you and your boss go screw yourselves?" says Kulak, while the other bandits cackle.
"I might," the thug grins. "But you won't like it, pretty boy. And you're wrong about the boss..."
Without waiting for the outcome, I suddenly jump out from around the corner, attracting the bandits' attention to myself. They try to aim and shoot at me, but I'm faster. I raise my pistol and quickly fire three shots, dropping the thugs to the ground. I jump up to them and fire a few more control shots. Just in case.
"Couldn't you have come out sooner, huh, Executioner?" Pukh asks hoarsely, slowly getting up from the ground. "I even started to think you ran away."
"Well, I'm sorry, but the conversations you were having were very interesting," I help him up, and then turn to the others. "How are you guys?"
"Yeah, fine," Voron replies, taking a step and angrily kicking the corpse of the bandit in the coat. "It's just a shame we were caught like kids. You just stepped away, and footsteps were heard from the side. We didn't look back, I thought you were going to go around the building. They came out from around the corner and immediately had us at gunpoint, we didn't even have time to squeak."
"We were lucky," Byk continues. "That you don't abandon your own, otherwise you could have gotten scared and run away."
"Heh," Kulak chuckles, clapping me on the shoulder. "He's not afraid to go after a bloodsucker with his bare hands, and here it's just some petty thugs. I didn't doubt you, Executioner."
"It's nice to hear your praises, of course," I stop them and crouch down, starting to search the leader's corpse. "But why did they decide to show up here at all? Kulak said they wouldn't risk going against Valerian. Search those two and don't forget to cut off the patches."
"And what are the patches for?" asks Pukh, rubbing his stomach.
"To prove that they were definitely from the bandit brotherhood and not just random visitors," I say, pulling out the bandit's PDA from his inner pocket, but it turns out to be password-protected. "Okay, I don't like this at all, let's finish here and run to the village."
"Yes, sir, boss," Voron grins, playing with his pistol in his hand.
Wanting to leave here as soon as possible, I quickly start butchering the carcasses. First, I skin them, putting the hides into the bandits' bags, then I start butchering the meat, filling pre-prepared plastic bags with it. Last of all, I cut off the hooves, which I wrap in another bag and throw into my backpack.
Half an hour later, we were standing at Wolf's doorstep, who was accepting the meat. He paid me a full five thousand, and settled with the guys with a couple of kilograms of meat. And considering the loot from the bandits, I earned a little over seven thousand. I could have earned more, but I decided to take only money from them, leaving the weapons, ammunition, and other loot to my partners.
"We need to talk," I say to Wolf when the stalkers leave. "Something bad happened."
"Yeah?" he raises an eyebrow, looking at me. "Come into my place, you can help me carry the meat."
A few minutes later, I was sitting at his kitchen table, and he was pouring me a full mug of tea. Settling opposite me and pushing a glass vase of cookies towards me, Wolf starts the conversation:
"Well, tell me what happened," and takes a sip of tea.
"Bandits happened, right at the elevator," I pop a cookie into my mouth and wash it down with the hot drink. "We were lucky they ran into us by chance, and not that they were deliberately hunting us."
"Bandits on the Cordon, and so close to the village?" the stalker raises his eyebrows in disbelief. "It's been a long time since that happened, maybe you're mistaken? They wouldn't dare show up now, when Valerian has them by the balls."
"Yeah," I say with a chuckle, throwing a few cut bandit patches on the table. "That's why they sent your Valerian to hell in front of me."
"Was there anything else?" the stalker asks tensely, carefully examining the patches.
"It didn't look like a simple mugging," I reply. "They talked about their boss and that he has a lot of work. As far as I understand, work specifically for stalkers. And this password-protected PDA. Do we have any specialists who can crack the password?"
"Not in the village, but in the camp across the bridge," Wolf begins to say, then hesitates and looks at me with a serious gaze. "So, you go for a walk around the village now, visit Hunter, go to the trader. In short, you understand." And I nod and head for the exit, leaving the patches and the PDA on the table. It seems something big is brewing. The Clear Sky guys are about to clash with the renegades, bandits are crawling into the Cordon, and the canon is not far off. With Shram, Strelok, frequent emissions, and faction wars. I sigh loudly and head to Sidorovich.
And at the entrance to the trader's basement, I bump into a tall stalker with a hood pulled over his head, causing him to drop a bundle of some parts on the ground. He curses and immediately rushes to pick them up from the ground. A good jumpsuit and a good assault rifle, clearly an experienced stalker.
"Sorry, brother," I say, starting to help him collect them. "I was too lost in thought, I didn't see you."
"Be more careful," the stalker replies sternly, looking at me with a strict gaze. A long face covered in stubble, gray eyes, and a long nose. "It's not kindergarten here, after all."
"I'm Executioner," I offer him my hand for introduction, getting up from the ground.
"Hmm," the stalker ignores the outstretched hand and, turning his back to me, leaves. Well, fine.
I go down to Sidorovich, greeting Stas as usual and leaving my weapon with him. The trader is sitting at the table, writing something in a notebook. Briefly tearing himself away from it, he looks up at me, and then returns to filling it out.
"Hello, stalker," he greets me. "What did you come for?"
"Here," I pull two boar skins and eight hooves onto the table. "I want to sell them."
"I'll take them for fifteen hundred, will that do?"
"Yes," I take the money from Sidorovich's hands and am about to leave when a sudden thought comes to mind. "Do you have any scoped rifles for sale?"
"Scoped rifles?" Sidorovich asks, thinking for a moment. "In principle, I have one. Wait a bit."
The trader gets up from the table, having previously hidden the notebook in a drawer, and goes somewhere through the back door. A couple of minutes later, he returns, holding a gun case. He places it on the tabletop, pulling out a Mosin rifle. The condition looks good at first glance, although several chips are visible. And a couple of seconds later, the scope appears on the table, which is immediately mounted on the rifle.
"And how much will this miracle cost?"
"Twelve thousand," Sidorovich states the price, sitting back in his place and looking at me with a slight smile.
"It's too cheap for a good scoped rifle," I say to him. "I thought it would be more expensive. Is there some catch?"
"No catches," he replies with a sigh. "An old-timer here sold it to me a long time ago when he went beyond the Perimeter. It was around the ninth year. I haven't been able to sell it since, no stalker needs such a weapon. It's too old, or not fast enough, or some other crap. Are you taking it? And don't look at me like that, I took care of it. The condition is excellent."
"I'll take it," I take out money from my breast pocket and count out the required amount. "How much will two boxes of ammunition cost?"
"Another thousand on top."
I hand over the bill and become the happy owner of a sniper rifle and forty more rounds for it. The assault rifle in my room
is good, but I have a feeling something big is brewing. And I need to be ready for it.