Chapter XI: Tunnelcrawlers

 Diary of Lance Corporal Dimka Torodov, day ten still continues on...

Sevka and I stepped inside the marketplace, where things looked like they had been hit by a hurricane. Mercs gazed out of the windows, weapons raised and prepared for anything. One of them looked at us and I nodded to him, encouraging him to ask what he clearly was thinking.

• The goliath is dead?, he asked.

• Yes, we got it killed. Same with some sort of two-headed monster that killed one of your men in the monoblock, Sevka replied.

• Chimera? Man, good job, those things are like the top predators of this cursed shithole.

• Really? The big-ass boar was more of a pain to kill. It killed one of your exoskeleton men and two regular guys before we could even react, I commented.

• Yuri Voldemort's squad? Damn, that's a shame, man was a proper urod but also one hell of a fighter. We survived many a mission together, but I left his squad when I was supposed to join Redemption... That plan went to shit though, the merc scoffed bitterly.

• I got his pistol and patch here, you want them? As a sort of memento?, I asked empathically.

• Thank you, I won't forget this soldat. Name's Mishenka Professor, if you ever need help, count me in. I know us mercs can seem bit untrustworthy at times, but I always look out for those that helped me, Mishenka said, shaking my hand and taking the things I gave him.

• I'll keep that in mind, merc, I said before the merc turned and headed upstairs.

We went to Dushman to gather our rewards for fulfilling our mission. The veteran gun-for-hire was not happy that an entire squad had been lost, but gave us our rewards. We also sold the mutant parts and all the loot "liberated" from the Speznaz squad. Once every little piece of gear had been sold and we were richer than ever, I remember one more thing.

• Say, Dushman, you wouldn't know a mercenary called Skull? Wears an exoskeleton and hangs out in Wild Territory?, I asked innocently.

• Do I? That man has caused me more grey hair than goddamn major Degtyarev and Strelok combined. First we ended up in conflict with Duty for taking him in, then he left us to become a freelancer and took a lot of good men with him, and to top it all of he kept raiding Duty, making it hard for us to salvage what little relations we had with them. I sent a bounty squad after him, but the bastard killed them in an ambush, Dushman raged, clearly agitated at the mere mention of Skull.

• Good news then. Here's his PDA, patch and some documents he had. I killed him not too long ago when working for Duty, I said with a smug grin.

• Really now? Hmmm... Some pretty good stuff you got here. Okay... How about I give you this Ruger Redhawk and plenty of ammo for it as a price?, he said, placing a brand-new revolver on the table.

• A revolver for all that? C'mon, Dushman, Dimka ain't that stu..., Sevka was about to say when I interjected.

• I'll take it!, I said and took the revolver, holster and four packs of Hydra-Shock ammunition

• Really? Do you have even the most basic understanding of economics, you baffoon?, Sevka asked aggressively.

• Duty already paid me a king's ransom for that, I wasn't expecting anything from old Dushku here.

• Wait what? Ah well, keep the revolver, but no freebies in the future! And if you try to give me a nickname in the future, I'll feed you to the blind dogs in the village nearby, Dushman said with a stern face, but I could see him being a bit amused for once.

After our chat with Dushman, Sevka went to buy some supplies from Aslan while I went to visit the local technician, Hog. He was a splendid guy, allowed me to use his vice as a one time offer free of charge and helped me fix up the suit in Army Warehouses. Apparently it was called a mercenary pathfinder suit, a faction down south called Clear Sky made them and had provided some to the soldiers of fortune as a sign of goodwill. Mercenaries in turn helped keep the mutant populations low in the swamps that Clear Sky inhabited. It was rather interesting to me, how there were more than just faction wars here. The suit wasn't too badly damaged, and with the tools I bought from Hog alongside some materials I had taken from dead enemies, it was soon as good as new.

With the suit fixed and Sevka's supplies fetched, I checked my PDA and noticed that Major Hernandez had sent me the coordinates for our next mission, reaching a place up north called Jupiter and finding the squad there. I showed the message to Sevka, who was of the opinion that we should start heading there as soon as possible. I agreed, and after asking around for a five minutes or so we stumbled upon the mercenary guide, Leopard, who told us that we had two options. One, going from a place called Limansk to Red Forest, a location I had heard of before coming here, and from there to Jupiter. Option two was to pay him a fee to lead us through the sewers and going to Zaton, where we could travel to Jupiter. Having overheard some of the campfire tales about Red Forest, we instantly agreed on a guided tour of the sewers.

We entered into them through a manhole inside the marketplace. As expected, the place was a damp, stenching tunnel, filled with rotting corpses of "disposed" captives. Flies buzzed on the dead, and there was brown, stale water all the way to our ankles. Leopard didn't seem to mind, but armed only with his respirator, I could see De Luca suffer greatly. It got better once we passed the graveyard, with the tunnels still stinking like a bandit's ass, but with less morbid surroundings. Our flashlights passed over the rough walls, illuminating the tunnel slightly. I stared at the back of Leopard, enviously eyeing his Oracle night-vision device. Damn UN sending us here without proper gear, I thought to myself.

Time passed slowly, the walls around us didn't seem to change much. Through some miraculous sixth sense the mercenary guide navigated the tunnels, always knowing where to go without a second of hesitation. I gripped my Saiga firmly, a feeling of claustrophobia setting it slowly. I always felt more natural on the wide-open areas, this kind of cramped tunnels caused me severe anxiety. I was sure some monster, bloodsucker or zombie, would pop out as any second now. Still, on we went, until we did meet a mutant.

It all begun in a very sinister manner. Until now, all I had heard had been our steps, the splashing of water and the heavy breathing caused by our gasmasks. But slowly, a distant sound begun to amplify. A wheezing, like that of a late-stage lung cancer patient, came from down the tunnels, unnatural and terrifying. Leopard signaled for us to keep quiet and took out his Taurus Judge, loading in a set of 20-gauge. Sevka loaded his TOZ as well, keeping his Saiga holstered for now.

Then came splashing from ahead. The wheezing grew louder, followed by a growl of sorts, a tortured, eerily humanlike groan of pain. It bounced off the walls and grew stronger, and with every passing second I felt ice-cold drops of sweat drip down by back. Leopard raised his fist, a gesture that every soldier knew meant stopping. We took aim, and finally, the attack came. A shadowy creature lunged from the darkness, kicking Leopard in the chest. My shot struck it, and it recoiled, giving me a good look of it. A twisted, corrupted human form, with athrophied limbs and a gasmask fuzed into its head, leaving only a lipless mouth and broken teeth free. The fingernails had grown long and sharp, and the fingers themselves looked like they had been gnawed restlessly. The creature had a typical Ukrainian army t-shirt with stripes, long pants and boots.

I almost froze from sheer horror. Zombies were bad enough, but what the actual hell was this thing? Leopard thankfully didn't seem too startled by the thing, and his pistol shotgun roared once, smashing the human-mutants head apart. I retched at the sight, but thankfully didn't fully vomit, it would've made a nasty mess inside my screen helmet. The situation calming down, I looked questioningly at Leopard.

• A snork. Yes, I know, horrifying isn't it? One of the mercs figured out how to crack the documents the scientists always send us after, and one of those texts explained that while most of those abominations came from the First Emission fusing GP-5s to the faces of poor clean-up crews, some of these fucks come from stalkers who have previously died to emissions, the seasoned guide explained.

• The Zone really is horrifying thing, Sevka muttered, and I had to agree.

• There is a prize to its wonders, I replied quietly.

• Well said. Now, let's move, these tunnels are usually completely empty but after Sin decided to fuck us all up, I no longer trust them completely. Vector told me he met a pseudogeist here last week, and I do not want to see one of those here, not for the pittance you paid me, Leopard said and stepped over the corpse.

• What's a pseudogeist?, I asked, but the merc just smirked.

Hour or so later we emerged out of the tunnels into fresh Zaton air filled with swamp gas and radiation. Leopard told us to give a letter to his pal, Vector, and then left back into the sewers. We trekked to the nearby building complex, apparently a former waste management station.

• A waste management station? So, probably bandits here?, Sevka joked, and I had to chuckle at that.

But this time it was the mercs once more. We met the local trader, Vector, who seemed like a rather arrogant fellow, and gave him Leopard's message. He scoffed at it and told us to get lost as he had business to attend to. We asked the mercs around the base for directions and they pointed us to the road nearby which led to Jupiter. Knowing that time was of the essence, we set off to Jupiter, travelling down the dirt road. Little did we know that what awaited us there would test our abilities unlike anything either one of us had ever experienced.