From the Zone with love

This one-shot is partially inspired by the art from cookieekun I’ve been seeing recently on tumblr, partially because I wanted to write something about Strelok’s group that wasn’t heavy with angst.

It was cold. Cold beyond words. His breath flared like a cloud of smoke, quickly freezing in the air, and Strelok looked at Ghost’s scarf with longing. It was tattered and it smelled like wet dog, but at least it was warm. And Fang had the gas mask protecting his face from the chilled winds, lucky bastard.

“Are you going to admit you’re lost?” Ghost asked him from behind his woolly scarf.

“For the last time, I’m not lost!” Strelok replied. “This is a shortcut.”

“It would be great if it was a shortcut to somewhere warm, my balls have turned into ice cubes.”

Strelok could believe that. He was pretty sure his own blood was slowly freezing inside his veins.

“Well I’m not gonna help you warm them.” His silly comment made Ghost snort and then start laughing.

“I feel like I’m walking inside a f-fridge guys,” Fang piped up after a long suffering sigh. “C-can we camp for the night?”

There was still a good hour of light, even with the dark clouds rolling by from the north. But they were all freezing, so the idea was received with enthusiasm. However, it’s not so easy to find shelter in the middle of the wilderness, unless you’re ready to settle for sleeping under a tree. So they grudgingly backtracked their steps until fifteen minutes later they reached their destination.

The building was literally lost in the woods, away from any reminder of civilization. It was similar to the farm in Cordon, but smaller. Most importantly, it would keep them safe from the cold.

“Gather everything that looks remotely flammable,” Fang asked them.

Invigorated at the prospect of a bonfire, Strelok started picking up all the twigs he saw, no matter how painfully thin they were. Ghost hollered in triumph and showed them a dented can that could be a gasoline container. And Fang disappeared behind the building, only to come back not much later empty handed.

“Hope that will be enough,” Fang sounded doubtful, which was no surprise since their bounty was ridiculously poor.

“It will suffice,” Ghost assured him.

Strelok agreed with Fang. Ghost was either over-confident in their ability to keep a fire going or delusional.

The inside of the building was pitch dark. Anything could be lurking there. Fang’s flashlight swiped across empty spaces and dirty floors. One high pitched squeal later, something bulky and running on all fours charged towards them. Strelok quickly jumped to the side, dropping the wood in the process, but the boar bowled over Ghost and threw him to the ground. Fang cursed and tried to get his weapon without dropping the flashlight, but he was still fumbling when the boar was already long gone.

Good riddance to it, although it was a shame they hadn’t killed it. Strelok could go for a dinner of roasted boar, much better than their sad and stale rations.

“Shit!” Ghost stood up, pressing his hand against his thigh. “The son of a bitch got me good.”

Both Strelok and Fang crowded him, worried by the bleeding. The wavering light of Fang’s flashlight was enough to see the rivulets of red flowing through Ghost’s fingers, and this was not a promising development. Ghost moved the hand away just a little bit, enough to see where the boar had gored him, and blood quickly gushed out and covered his whole hand.

“Punctured artery, most likely,” Fang commented. The slight trembling in his voice was most assuredly not from the cold.

Opening a medkit, a simple and fairly brief action, took Strelok several tries as the damned thing would. not. open. In the end he tore the package open with his teeth, spilling the contents of the medkit all over the floor.  The flashlight was shoved into Ghost’s free hand as Fang rushed to help Strelok gather back the scattered medical supplies. And when they got it all and were ready to treat his injury, Ghost put his and away revealing an already closing wound.

A chorus of “The fuck?” and “No way dude!” ensued. However, despite their collective disbelief, the flesh was mending right before their eyes, almost too slowly to see it clearly.

“That’s… kinda freaky,” Fang said with a pinched look.

Strelok made a noise of agreement and carefully poked the edges of the injury. Felt good as new.  “Freaky but cool. And useful!”

“This suit is like having superpowers,” Ghost said with a goofy grin. “I’m like the Zone’s Superman now!”

Fang snorted in amusement and soon they all were laughing, letting go of the tension of just a minute ago. It felt good.

Afterwards, Fang managed to start a fire with the remnants of gasoline left on the salvaged can and the wood twigs. It was a small fire, but to them it was Heaven on earth, warm and cosy in the dark building. Huddled together around the flames they ate their rations, hard bread and sausages so could they could be frozen.

“Do you think the suit only works when worn?” Ghost asked absently. “Or could I heal someone by touching them? How much contact would be needed?”

“I have an idea to know if –”

“NO!” both of Strelok’s friends cut him off.

“I’m vetoing the idea,” Fang told him, “if it’s like your ideas to test artifact properties surely it will involve jumping off of a bridge or something like that.”

Strelok stared at them with a devilish smirk. Not all of his ideas were crazy like that, he could come up with something reasonable if he wanted. It was just that it was fun to watch their horrified faces when he pitched forward his most wild plans.

“I think it’s snowing,” Ghost announced just then, looking at the quickly darkening strip of sky visible from the broken window in front of them.

Strelok groaned in dismay. He hoped it wouldn’t snow much, marching through the woods in the snow was a nightmare. Last time his feet had become so numb he was sure he’d have to amputate one of the fingers.

“Remember last year, when it snowed for New Year and Doc’s hellish puppy was like a shark under the snow attacking everyone’s ankles?”

Strelok pointed an accusing finger at Fang. “You only remember it fondly because that monster beast didn’t bite you.”

“Perks of wearing an exo-suit.” Like that was an achievement! He just was tall enough to look imposing instead of ridiculous with it.

“Don’t worry Strelok, if Doc’s pseudo-dog bites you this year we’ll test if I can cure you with a hug.” He wasn’t very sure if Ghost was joking or not. It sounded like a joke but that was something he could see Ghost doing with no problem.

The conversation soon shifted towards planning how drunk they would get this New Year and what their resolutions for the upcoming year were, each one more ridiculous than the other. And when the fire eventually died down, they were already asleep, clustered together for warmth as the snow blanketed the whole Zone.