Chapter XL: Sordid Tales and Dangerous New Mutants

 Halls of the Agroprom underground echoed with steps and sounds as the four stalkers penetrated further into the godforsaken tunnels. Somewhere, much further down, some beast best left undiscovered kept groaning and wheezing, filling the underground itself with horrible noises and dread. Boris did not care however. He had soldiered through here once before, and anything this hellhole would throw at him, he would take on. His companions, Dima and Hip, looked a little more nervous, Hip especially, but they had survived enough on their travels with Boris to trust his judgement. Anton Anomaly, the veteran loner accompanying them down here, was instead far too drawn into the story Boris was telling to mind the sounds.

• And that pretty much covers it. We settled into Meadow, I left Dimuha and Vityukha to deal with the dead soldiers and we headed to meet different faction leaders. There were some complications with Sultan but I assume you've heard of those, that rat bastard killed one of my first new recruits so we made him pay for it. And now, I want to weaken him as much as possible while also helping bandits find the real path, thus I gave those documents to Reefer, Boris concluded his story.

• So you're making a gang of old criminals with the aim of becoming respectable stalkers once more? I mean I admit I admire that but isn't that a bit naive? Anton asked, his accented voice bouncing of the empty space, becoming hollower as it went on.

Boris' face darkened a bit. He seemed to think back to a time not too far into the past, trying to find the words to explain. Dima spoke before he could.

• Boris might have a better way of putting this, but let me tell you of my experience as a merc. It was supposed to be an easy job, Dushman wanted me to retrieve some artefact from some loner. He told me that the loner had robbed and murdered the original owner of the artefact. So I went there to get it, shot a bullet through the head of the man and went through his things while I looked for the artefact. All I found was some letters and no artefact.

Dima stopped for a moment to sigh loudly. The surroundings seemed as if they were made for this sordid tale, the gloomy, dusty hallways almost matching the pained face of Dima. He continued.

• I read the letters in case it was some sort of a note to his friends on the location of the artefact, but instead it was about the money he had got of it and sent home to his sick kid. He told with so much detail how he had gotten the artefact from an anomaly field, clearly to be read to his kid as an exciting tale of adventure. And now he lay there, a hole in his skull, and the kid would perhaps die not soon after.

Dima looked down to the cold concrete at his feet. Anton seemed a bit taken aback by the story. Death was a constant companion in the Zone, but something in Dima's voice moved them all.

• I hope you do not know this feeling of taking an innocent man's life. But I know that among mercs, loners, bandits, renegades, hell, all of the factions except maybe Monolith, there are people who cannot sleep at night as the memories haunt them. People who are slowly dying from the guilt. Boris knows this better than anyone, but instead of killing himself with guilt, he decided to use it. And that is why I will follow him and his example to hell and back. I can never repay what I did to that man, but perhaps I might help others some day and not be a worthless murderer for the rest of my days.

Silence fell upon the group. Boris nodded to Dima, they shared the same devils, and a simple nod told much between the two. After a long silent walk, Anton coughed and said in a conflicted voice:

• I think I understand now. I cannot imagine something like that, but I've got my own demons too and some day they may grow too large. For all our sakes Boris, I hope your faction succeeds in its goal.

• I wish so too. But enough talk now, we're here, Boris replied and climbed into a big ventilation shaft. Anton and the others glanced at each other, and Anton raised his eyebrow. Dima nodded for Anton to follow, he and Hip would guard the corridor for now.

While Boris was climbing upwards the grimy old shaft, he started hearing strange noises coming from ahead. No, not ahead, the noises were inside his head. But this was unlike a controller, he did not hear the strange whispering and mocking laughter of those abominations. Neither was this the odd presence he had felt in lab X-16, nor the unnatural chanting of burers. This was something new. He glanced at Anton, who looked at him confused. He heard it too. Boris murmured for him to be prepared and leaped inside.

He landed behind the large pipe inside the facility and was instantly bombarded by every piece of random items in the room. A burer still?, he thought to himself as Anton landed on top him, having also leaped into the room.

• Ayy mlyaa what the fuck is happening, Anton yelled as a metal box hit him in the head. Boris yelled as well, ordering him to get out from top of him, and the two tried to get out of the difficult position while all sorts of junk peppered them from all sides. Jesus, lab X-8 again, Boris thought. But then he managed to take a glance at the attacker and that thought proved to be wrong.

This was no burer. It resembled a gorilla in facial features, but it was somewhat humanoid. Long, muscular arms kept the creature standing, and it was covered in brown fur from head to toe. Except it had no toes. It was as if it had been cut apart at waist, as if nothing had ever even been there. It seemed to direct the items it attacked Boris and Anton with its brain, as the arms simply kept it lifted off the ground. It stared at Boris with immense hate, as if it hated all things human with burning passion.

It started directing all objects in the room towards one location, as if collecting them into a single heavy projectile. Boris saw what it was trying to do and ordered Anton to start shooting it. The pair opened fire with their assault rifles, but it was as if the creature could snatch the bullets off the air and join them into the ball of metal forming above its head.

• What the hell is that thing?, Anton exclaimed, but Boris had no response for it. It felt like nothing could be done, the pair had exhausted their magazines yet it just kept adding bullets into the trash ball.

A thundering blast surprised both the monster and the stalkers and before it could react, the strange creature was filled with 23 millimetre shrapnel, sending large chunks of grey meat and brain matter flying around the room. The earsplitting shot faded away, but the screeching created by the falling debris from the ball the mutant had made still continued when Dima entered the room, smoking KS-23 in hand.

• Now when I started hearing screaming and stuff bouncing off the walls I thought I'd get another round of revenge for the burers, but as ugly as those hobbits are, I don't think we have one here. Boris, any idea what that is?, Dima asked, his puzzlement easy to hear. Boris looked at the thing once more and shook his head. He had never seen anything like it.

• It had powers similar to burer and poltergeists, but I don't think it is that. We'd need an ecologists to come see it to figure out, Anton said and continued

• But honestly, I just got myself a hidey-hole, I don't want some egghead snooping around here. Let's just dispatch the carcass and be done with it.

• You still want to stay here? Boris asked and Anton nodded.

• This place just feels right like home. Besides, I can report to Wolf and Barkeep about military activity from here, and Grisha upstairs said that the bandits have left already. The underground seems safe enough, that big urod was the only mutant we saw, so I'm confident I can live here. Thanks for the help Dima, by the way, we would be flat as pancakes if you hadn't arrived.

Dima gave him a little grin and shook his head at the thought of staying here. Boris had to agree.

• So, new factions emerging, new mutants appearing. The Zone sure isn't what I remember it to be. Who knows, maybe your faction is just what we need right now Boris, Anton commented as Boris' squad started heading out. Boris nodded. Things certainly were changing. Perhaps it was the perfect time for the Redemption to appear then.