Chapter XLVI: The Broken Bastion

 The sawmill of Darkscape is the only real bastion of civilization in that unhospitable wilderness. Surrounded by incredibly tall trees and thick underbrush, the sawmill stands there like a defiant candle in the dark. But it seemed as the candle was quickly burning out, the darkness descending rapidly to fill the void left behind by the light.

Polymer, the technician of the sawmill, saw things in a far less poetic light. For days now, small packs of dogs had probed their defences, as if guided by some sapient force. When a weakness was spotted, a larger mutant, be it bloodsucker, snorks or those new wolfthings, would charge in.

Polymer wasn't much of a fighter, despite taking care of guns he wasn't thar adept with using them and only had a TOZ-194 for self-defence. The camp had had 5 guys defending it before. Only two, alongside Polymer and the local trader, Cutter, remained. Things looked more grim by the minute. A howl was heard, piercing the air and raising the hairs on Polymer's neck. Another wolf-creature, or volk, as he had heard them being called on the radio. He loaded up his shotgun and let out a long sigh.

One of the free stalker survivors, Vadim Stranger, hurried in, almost running into Polymer. The newcomer took a few breaths to calm his racing heart and started talking in a panicked voice:

• They're coming in bigger numbers than before! I was keeping watch on the tower up the hill and saw around 15-20 dogs and five volks. Oleg is setting up traps there but I'm not sure if it'll be enough!

Polymer glanced at Cutter, who had taken out an AK-74UN. It was his most priced property, kitted out with a PBS-4 suppressor and a Tulip sight, Polymer himself had tinkered with it to enhance the fire rate by a large margin. But it would not save them this time, they had survived long but if Vadim was right, this was too many.

• Well, it has been nice knowing you both. We can't outrun them, but we can at least try to kill them, right?, Polymer asked rhetorically, and Cutter nodded. They turned some tables and beds to form barricades, stopping only to let the last survivor, ecologist Oleg Zakarov, in. Now all they could do was to wait.

The silence was demoralizing. As if the monsters were sneaking up on them every second. Every small movement of grass or leaves, every whisper in the wind, all of those almost made one of them start firing. But their trigger discipline held on despite their rapidly tensing nerves. To fire a careless shot now would be invinting the Grim Reaper sooner, and if the Zone had taught these men one thing, it was that every second one could live was one that they should fight for to live.

The howls came first. More effective than any propaganda, Polymer could see them having an effect on Vadim. He was sweating, his trigger finger itching. But nothing was seen over the horizon, behind the barricades. Polymer was feeling his nerves being streched out like a thin piece of rope, and he saw the same happen in real time on the faces of the other survivors. They were all thinking of Yuri, one of the original five stalkers, who had gone mad in the mist and ran off. All that had remained of him was a bloodchilling wailing and tortured screaming, no one was stupid enough to follow him.

The sun reached its zenith as the first figure crossed the hill ahead. A volk, large and covered in brown shaggy fur, even at long distance one could see the rabid expression on its face. Bloodlust had taken over, and as others followed it, it was as if a horde of the beast of hell was descending on the sawmill. Vadim snapped first and fired his double-barreled shotgun to very little effect. Polymer sighed and joined in, letting loose with dart rounds. Cutter fired his AK with deadly precision and Oleg meanwhile was using his Dushman's Saiga to thin the herd.

Yet it was like throwing buckets of water into the Reactor 4 during the disaster of '86. Dogs fell, blood stained the ground, yet they did not stop. The volks kept leading the charge, their howls a tale of absolute bloodshed. A bullseye hit from Olegs Saiga blew the brains of one across the field, prompting a cheer from Vadim, but the monsters did not even seem to notice it. They were so close that Polymer decided to switch to buckshot. It did not look too good for them.

First volk lunged at them, but Oleg's excellent shotgun filled it with so many pellets it died midair and landed inside the sawmill, bleeding from multiple wounds. A set of explosions painted the hillside with warm yellow light, and the blastwave threw the rest of the volks off course. One of the dogs had hit them mines, setting them off and killing a dozen dogs at the same time. The survivors took this moment to fire like madmen at the remaining wolf creatures, and the confused canines were decimated, the last one limping away, bleeding heavily.

• We did it guys! We survived!, Vadim cheered, and for a second the others also cheered with him. It felt so good to be alive! But as the adrenaline left their systems, the grim reality started to set in. They had survived, yes, but more mutants would come. More would come until they were all dead or mad like Yuri.

The rest of the day was quiet. Some small lone mutants came to nibble on the dog carcasses, but left as soon as Vadim fired a couple shotgun shells at them. The night settled in, yet the usual howls and growls of mutants did not come with it. The forest was silent, only the crackling of fire and the wind were heard among the trees. Stars lit the sky and usually the men would have taken guard shifts while others slept, but this night none of them could do so.

Polymer had started feeling odd headaches after the fight. Vadim complained that he was suffering from them too. Oleg seemed highly irritable, and was agitated by the slightest of things. As the night arrived, Polymer's headache reached its height. It felt like two iron bars were pushing into his skull from both sides, and someone had decided to heat them up to almost melting point. Vadim was becoming shifty and was tapping his fingers on the table.

• Quit doing that, you piece of shit, or I'll stop it myself, Oleg yelled at Vadim, full of rage. Vadim glanced back, giving him a lethal look. Agitated even more by this, Oleg racked the bolt on his gun, chambering a slug. Polymer rose from his seat and was just about to tell them to cease their idiocy, when Cutter cut him off by saying:

• Hey guys, get ready, there's a group of bandits outside!

They all pulled out their weapons in seconds, and Polymer moved beside Cutter to see the archenemies of all loners. But there was no one there.

• You okay, Cutter? There's no one in there.

• Can't you see them? What the hell is wrong with you? They're right there, Cutter said and pointed his gun at thin air. Before Polymer could respond, Vadim screamed and fired his gun at the corner of the sawmill.

• Holy mother of God protect me, Satan himself is here with us, he kept screaming while loading his shotgun, utterly full of horror. Oleg looked at him, no longer angry but scared. Polymer was becoming increasingly worried. It was as if these two had lost their minds.

Cutter screamed as well, and collapsed to the floor, dropping his gun. Polymer glanced around nervously, pointing his gun at every shadow, looking for the enemy that was affecting these two. Oleg started laughing like a maniac, hysterically, as if unable to explain what he was seeing. Polymer kept searching the room for anything, when it appeared. The size of a child but with a face of an old man, it looked at Polymer and his headache became intolerable. He collapsed to the ground, panting, as if hit with a truck.

The dwarf-like thing closed in on him. Vadim was weeping, slouched over on the ground. Cutter pressed his AK under his chin, but his movements were slow and cumbersome, as if his body was fighting his shattered mind. Oleg was still laughing, like a man who had been broken completely. The thing looked down at Polymer, who was struggling to breathe, and Polymer fought to look back at it. This was a mistake. He looked the thing eye to eye, and all he could see was immense, burning hatred. So deep and destructive that Polymer had never seen anything like it. It was terrifying, so terrifying that the last ounce of strength left Polymer's arms and he smacked his face on the mud on the floor.

A series of gunshots was heard, and suddenly the weeping of Vadim and the hysterical laughter of Oleg ended. Silence fell upon Darkscape once more.