Chapter 2: Guardian Angels
After about an hour of walking he finally was able to see the encampment. He climbed up into a nearby tree and pulled out his SVU. There were 3 bandits he could see through the scope of his rifle, two of them were human and the other was a drache. One human was leaning up against the wall keeping watch on the balcony of a small warehouse, while the other human and the drache were burying the bodies of two other bandits. Ja-Daar was puzzled by the fact that two of their companions were dead. He couldn't help but wonder why they were burying the bodies.
He lined up his crosshairs of his scope with the head of the bandit on the balcony. He gently squeezed the trigger. The bullet hit its mark and the bandit slid to the floor. The bandits burying their dead didn't notice that their watchman had been shot since Ja-Daar's rifle had a silencer attached to it. Ja-Daar then took aim at the drache. The drache stopped digging and looked up to where the watchman used to be. The drache was puzzled. He just looked at the other human and told him that the watchman was gone. The human bandit turned around to see what the drache was talking about. The human looked angry. He stuck his shovel in the ground and went to go and check on the watchman.
The drache just sat there on a pile of dirt waiting for the human to return. Ja-Daar focused his aim at the drache. He pulled the trigger and the drache fell forward into the pit he had just been digging, a fitting end. The human who went off to check the watchman appeared through the door. He looked down to see the corpse of the watchman. Ja-Daar quickly aimed his rifle at the last bandit and fired. The last bandit toppled over the railing of the balcony and hit the unforgiving pavement with a sickening crack.
Ja-Daar put his SVU away and dropped down onto the ground. He walked down to the encampment. Ja-Daar walked up and picked up the sawn-off shotgun off the dead drache had dropped. He slowly walked into the warehouse being careful of any possible threats. He rounded the corner to see a familiar face.
"Well look who it is!" Ja-Daar said with a grin across his face.
Ja-Daar just looked at her with a big grin across his face. Ja-Daar had stumbled across Du-Ja. She was tied to a post with just some ratty clothes on. Ja-Daar put the sawn-off down and pulled his knife out. He took the gag out of Du-Ja's mouth and was greeted by loud yelling.
"Ahh those motherfuckers! I'll rip their heads off!" Yelled Du-Ja.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down! I don't know if you'll be very pleased with doing that to dead bodies," Ja-Daar told her.
Du-Ja calmed down somewhat. She tried to stay still so Ja-Daar could cut the bonds holding her to the pole.
Ja-Daar finished cutting the bonds that held Du-Ja to the pole. She started rubbing her wrists and ankles.
"Thanks for stumbling across me. I don't know what they were planning to do with me."
"No problem."
Du-Ja looked around for the equipment that had been taken away from her. She found it on the second floor of the warehouse. She put her Kevlar suit back on and grabbed her Ak-74su. Once she had all her equipment she went back downstairs to see Ja-Daar sitting on a crate polishing the new sawn-off he'd acquired.
"So maybe you do need a partner," Ja-Daar said grinning to her.
"Just because I got caught one time doesn't mean I need a partner," she said back.
"Well, it would be nice to have company for where I'm going."
"And where might you be going?"
"I'll be going to a village just south of Lake Yantar. It's rumored to have a lot of artifacts."
Du-Ja's eyes widened. "Are you crazy?!? That area is full of death."
Ja-Daar just grinned back at her. "I got to make rubles somehow."
Du-Ja pondered the idea for a minute. "I'll go to the village with you since you rescued me. I at least owe you that much. We should head back to the Duty encampment and stock up on supplies for this trip."
After the hours of walking, they had finally got back to the Duty encampment. They went to the arms dealer at the camp and got ammo for their weapons. Du-Ja went to her employer and got the bounty that was placed on the bandit's heads. Du-Ja pocketed all of the rubles. Ja-Daar couldn't help but let out a small cough.
"Kay, you made your point load and clear."
Du-Ja let out a small sigh and took out the rubles. She gave half of the rubles to Ja-Daar. Once they took care of everything they found a good place to rest for the night at the encampment.
When the sun appeared above the horizon, they started their walk to the village. The walk was eerie because of all the fog and outlandish sounds that were in the area. After about 2 hours of walking they finally made it to the village just before noon.
They laid down at the top of the hill looking down at the village. Ja-Daar pulled his SVU out and scoped out the area.
"Great, the zombies have weapons like axes and shovels. At least it's better than guns," Ja-Daar said while looking through his scope.
"Just stop your bitchin' and complaining. Let's just go down there and get the artifacts," she said jokingly to Ja-Daar.
Ja-Daar took out as many zombies he could see with his rifle. Du-Ja watched them fall through her binoculars.
Du-Ja was impressed with his shooting skills. "With shooting like that, I'm surprised the military hasn't offered you a contract."
"They actually have. I refused the offer and almost died getting away from the contractors."
Once there were no more zombies to shoot, Ja-Daar swapped his SVU for his sawn-off and stood up.
"I'm ready to go Du-Ja."
He started to walk down the hill. Du-Ja was right behind him with her Ak-74su out. They walked down into the village dispatching any zombie they encountered. It was completely silent except for the occasional shotgun and AK gunfire. They searched each shack they came across for artifacts. The pair found some artifacts that they could get good money for.
Du-Ja laughed at how the place was. "This place is barren. Not even the zombies like it here."
"I like it this way though. Means less stuff to worry about."
Night was approaching and they didn't want to try and go back to the Duty encampment. The group found a good shack that they could stay the night in. They blocked the door and windows with furniture and made a little fire. Du-Ja sat-up against the wall trying to relax with a book she found on one of the bookcases while Ja-Daar cooked up some sausages. Ja-Daar got distracted from cooking by staring at Du-Ja who was reading the book she found.
Ja-Daar started to smell that something was a bit off. "Oh crap!"
Du-Ja was slightly startled by Ja-Daar. "What?"
"I umm. . . nothing. Do you like your sausages regular or extra crispy as in a bit charred?" Ja-Daar had a nervous grin on his face.
Du-Ja couldn't help but laugh a bit. "You're definitely not a five-star cook. I was wondering, how did you become a Stalker?"
"Well. . . my parents always told me about their tales of being a Stalker. When I grew old enough, my dad gave me my first gun. That first gun in a matter of fact is this SVU. I've had it since I was 14, so. . . that means its been about 6 years now. He used it a lot when he was a Stalker. He always told me that the greater the distance between my enemy and I, the better. What about you Du-Ja? How'd you become a Stalker."
"My parents were members of Duty. Hmm. . . I'm 19 now and they started taking me on patrols when I was about 13. Those trips were quite interesting you know. It's pretty cool watching a coordinated attack on a bandit encampment. I also still remember my first kill. We had come across a couple of bandits. My dad decided to have me take his Spas shotgun and sneak up behind one of the bandits sitting on an overturned barrel. My dad had his SVD sniper rifle and took aim at the other bandit. Once my dad shot, I was supposed to shot the bandit from behind. [Grins] The thing was, I wasn't that great at sneaking so when I tried to go up behind the bandit, I stepped on some dry leaves and startled him. Before he could turn around, I had already shot him in the side of his stomach. The other bandit was alerted as well but my dad was able to take him out before anything else happened. Do you remember your first kill?"
I sort of feel ashamed to tell you this but. . . my first kills were when I saved you.
Du-Ja stared a Ja-Daar for a few seconds. "Really?!?"
Ja-Daar started laughing. "Nah, I'm just screwing with ya. My actual first kill was when I was out hunting mutants with my dad. The thing we were hunting was a bloodsucker. I really hate those things. Their cloaking abilities make hunting them hard and very scary. I had a sub-machinegun. I think it was a. . . Mp5. My dad and I were in the middle of a forest. It was sometime late in the afternoon so it was a bit hard to see in the darkness. My dad was in front of me leading us through the forest. Without warning, something grabbed my leg from behind. I was on my stomach on the ground and quickly flipped myself onto my back so I could try and see what was grabbing me. I knew that something was still holding onto my leg but I couldn't see anything. I panicked a little and pulled out my Mp5 and started shooting at where I thought the thing might have been. I saw sprays of blood and something flickering. After shooting a whole clip of ammo into whatever was there, the thing went limp. It, to no surprise, was a bloodsucker. My dad helped me up and made sure that the bloodsucker was dead by shooting it with his pistols a couple of times. You've seen a bloodsucker right? With its humanoid body and tentacle instead of a jaw."
"Yeah I've seen a couple."
"Well back to what I was saying. As proof that we had killed one, we cut off its largest tentacle from its mouth before heading back to out home."
Du-Ja was looking a bit tired. "Well. . . it's been an interesting night. I'm ready to go to bed."
They sat up against the wall nearest to the fire. Du-Ja laid her head on Ja-Daar's shoulder.
"Goodnight Ja-Daar. Sleep well."
Du-Ja closed her eyes and fell asleep while Ja-Daar just smiled and set his sawn-off on the ground next to him.
"Hope you sleep well Du-Ja. Goodnight," he quietly said to her.
"Come on, wake up. It's morning and we should start heading back to Duty's BoO." (Base of Operations)
Ja-Daar was gently being slapped on the cheeks by Du-Ja. "Huh? Mornin' already? Do we have to leave now?"
"Yes now. I sort of want to get out of here anyway."
"Alright. Just let me get ready Du-Ja."
Ja-Daar got himself organized and headed out of the shack with Du-Ja. Half-way through the village Ja-Daar stopped.
Du-Ja looked at Ja-Daar before calling to him "Come on Ja-Daar. What are you waiting for?"
Ja-Daar was staring straight forward. He looked like he had zoned out. Du-Ja walked up to him and waved her hand in front of his face.
Du-Ja was starting to get irritated. "Damn it Ja-Daar. Will you cut it out? What are you even staring at?"
Ja-Daar didn't respond to her. Without warning he fell backwards and hit the ground.
"Ohh shit! Ja-Daar are you alright?"
Still no response. All of a sudden Ja-Daar was screaming. He then started crying.
Ja-Daar's screaming and yelling made Du-Ja cover her ears. "Ohh god! Get it out of my head!"
Du-Ja was confused by what Ja-Daar was saying. "What?!? What's inside of your head?"
He still wasn't noticing her.
Du-Ja was starting to panic. "This is bad, very bad."
She took out her AK and started searching around for anything that might have been controlling Ja-Daar. Only after a couple minutes of searching she came to an alleyway between two shacks. She heard a slight moaning. The only thing was. . . it wasn't Ja-Daar creating the noise. She rounded the corner with her gun up.
"Holy shit! What the fuck is that thing?!?"
In front of her was a human like figure. That human like figure was a Controller. It didn't seem to recognize Du-Ja's presence. She was able to get her nerves back together and look at it. The Controller wore a green tank-top with many holes in it. It also had on blue jeans which were badly torn up. The Controller's face looked like it was sad and crying. It wasn't crying any tears though. Instead its eyes were crying blood. Du-Ja put the barrel of her AK to the side of the Controller's head and pulled the trigger. Blood came out the other side of its head and it dropped to the floor dead. Ja-Daar screaming had also subsided. She quickly ran back to him. He was staring into the sky.
Du-Ja was standing above Ja-Daar looking down at him. "Ja-Daar? Are you all right?"
"I'm alright. I'm. . . just very sad," Ja-Daar looked relieved to see her.
"Why?"
"Whatever was inside of me was having me relive its last moments before it became whatever it had become."
"I killed a Controller. . . that was probably what was controlling you."
Hearing that surprised Ja-Daar. "That would explain why there weren't many zombies. It either killed them all of just controlled them to go somewhere else."
Du-Ja helped Ja-Daar up onto his feet.
"Let's head back now. Could you tell me what you had to relive while we're walking back?"
Ja-Daar thought about what he had seen. "Yeah, I can tell ya, it was horrible. Here's what happened. . ."
End Chap.
My good friend Dragonman (Dragonman/Blackfeather) helped me edit my story and make it better. I hope you enjoy how it is.