Chapter XXIX: Hunting Burers and Bizons

 A crack of lightning split the sky and illuminated the pitiful land ahead. Through the downpour of rain and the booming of thunder, Cordon looked nothing like it used to. On sunny days one could almost forget the misery of the Zone and call it beautiful, but now? It embodied the wrath and simultaneously, the indifference the Zone felt for stalkers. Two figures appeared through the massive raindrops, being slowly beaten up by the masses of water striking across their faces. Yet they seemed determined to get through with their missions.

Leading the duo was Boris Unforgiven, wearing the behemoth Nosorog armour of his, his earlier good mood swept away by the rain. Behind him, an ex-Freedomer Hip was struggling to keep up with her determined guide. Boris had given his shotgun for Hip to hold on to, but Hip seemed to not be enjoying the turn the weather had taken. At least the rain kept the mutants away, even those poor bastards did not like drowning in the rain.

In the distance, Boris could see the silhouette of their target. The military outpost guarding entrance to Garbage seemed much smaller and even less hospitable than usual in this absolute horror of a weather. In his year in the Zone, Boris had never seen this much rain. It could be useful to them however. The outpost was possibly manned by soldiers, and if that was the case, they could strike the soldiers quickly. Normally a campfire would give the soldiers away, but they would have to be madmen to sit by one in this weather. Even Monolith probably stayed indoors right now.

They arrived to the gate, and Boris leaned from behind the gate to check the yard. He signaled for Hip to stay here, and then started moving towards the outpost door, crouched to be as quiet as possible. Boris peered inside through the door, and could see a group of three soldiers sitting inside. They were chatting about things outside the Zone, and for a second Boris felt bad for them. They probably wanted out of here quite bad. But he had no choice. They'd have to be removed, and Boris knew how.

Pulling a pin of his grenade, he threw it as hard inside as he could and leaped to cover. He heard the panicked cries of the soldiers and the groans of pain as an explosion occured. One of the soldiers was calling for their mother, his voice weakening. Boris stepped inside and seeing the state of the soldier, pulled out his pistol. Boris whispered a prayer and saw the soldier nod to him, clearly in pain but his eyes telling him to pull the trigger. Boris did so, and the soldier left the Zone for good. Hip appeared behind him, and Boris holstered his pistol. She looked questioningly at Boris and he nodded at the door. They stepped onto the road to Garbage as the rain started to calm down.

On the road to Garbage, they exchanged their stories, both clearly leaving things out. Boris was not sure if to trust this woman yet, and thus said no words about the Redeemed. Hip had not done anything to earn that trust yet either, although Boris knew he had not given her the chance to do so either. By the time they reached Garbage, it had completely stopped raining. The air was fresh around them, and while Boris' thoughts still lingered elsewhere, some part of him remained alert. It was good too, as Hip yelled to him to take cover. A blastwave hit him partially, throwing his leap to cover off course and planting him face down to the ground.

Hip was already in cover, blasting the attacker with the shotgun. Boris crawled behind a wrecked UAZ, and raised his head to check the enemy. It was two burers, as Boris had predicted. Great, he thought to himself exasperated, these goddamn things again, if one of them flings a can of tomatoes at me I'll go berserk. He raised his AKMN and started firing, but an invisible force ripped his gun of his hands. The gun hovered above his head and he janked it back. Hip kept firing unimpeded, firing buckshot after buckshot at the dwarf-like mutants. Boris turned his AKMN at them once again, fired a round and his gun was once again janked off.

This time they threw it fifteen metres away. Boris growled between his teeth at the things and pulled out another grenade. He threw it while yelling:

• Here, since you like throwing shit around, let's see how much you like having it be chucked at you!

Despite the battle going on, he could hear Hip chuckle at this. She had managed to kill one of the burers with buckshot, and the grenade landed at the feet of the other. It looked at it, confused, and was about to raise it to throw it at the pair when it exploded and shredded the monster. Fitting death you ugly bugger, Boris thought, as he saw the monster collapse down. Hip handed him his AKMN, and said:

• Here you go, and thanks for accompanying me here. Those things would have twisted me to a bloody pulp had you not been here to help with them.

• Thanks to you for killing one of them, I absolutely despise them. Me and my friend Dima had an encounter with them where they just pelted us with all sorts of stuff for hours. I can tell you, those things are absolute jerks on purpose, Boris replied, still a bit out of breath by the encounter.

Hip let out a small laugh at the thought and they continued their journey. They encountered some dogs which Hip managed to drive off with clouds of buckshot, but nothing more dangerous than that did not try to hamper their progress. The weather was getting nicer by the minute, and the Zone seemed to have vented it anger for now. They arrived at the Flea Market, the place bringing back bad memories from the time Boris had been a renegade, but Boris pushed those memories aside. He was a new man now, and the bitterness had thankfully left him.

Boris went to discuss the purchase of the shotgun with the trader, and found out that the Bizon was about as expensive as all the guns he owned put together. Baffled, he tried to bargain with the trader but to no avail. Hip kept saying that he would get his money back soon enough, and Boris agreed to pay, if only after heavy complaining. When Boris got his hands on the shotgun he had to admit it was a beautiful piece. The scope on it was magnificent, and the weapon displayed greater workmanship than he had ever seen before in a shotgun. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age. He handed it to Hip, who seemed very pleased to get a hold of it.

After she had gotten the shotgun, she started going on about how her client had suddenly died and she needed to bury him. Boris was confused, but followed along out of interest. Apparently Hip needed a can of tuna to bury the client, and Boris, growing increasingly confused, gave her one from his backpack. Hip emptied it all in seconds and seeing the by now very stupefied face Boris was making, burst out laughing. She told Boris to lower his eyebrows or they'd soon turn into his hair, as she was merely messing with the merc. Hip handed Boris some things from her backpack, a Nomad suit and hunting kit.

Boris looked at the things and decided it was good enough reward even if she had been a clown. Especially the hunting kit would come in handy. Hip told him that there were still some missions she needed to do for Sidorovich, and if Boris wanted, she could stick around until those were completed. Boris shrugged, more firepower was always welcome, especially where Boris and Dima were heading, so why not.

As if summoned by the mentioning of his name, Dima appeared to the market, panting and his SEVA in shreds. He glanced around him like a hunted man and his face brightened when he saw Boris.

• Thank the Zone you're here. We've got a problem, the negotiations with Sultan did not go exactly to plan, he managed to say through the exhausted gasps for air.

Boris opened his mouth to ask what the hell had happened. Just as the first letter left his mouth, the shooting started.