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From the Zone with love	By : deepsearuin Category: +S through Z > S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl Views: 943 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own S.T.A.L.K.E.R., nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Let me say it loud and clear THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH. That's right folks, I killed Strelok ;-;
If you wanna read something more cheerful, I posted two Scar/Strelok prompts on my writing tumblr a few days ago: deepseawritings (.) tumblr (.) com
Against all common sense, no one had expected the Monolith ambush. As if there hadn't been enough with the hordes of mutants and the psy emission from minutes earlier. Strelok spotted a Preacher on top of the Cinema, waving his arms in the air like a lunatic. Fuck, he detested those guys.
"There, on the Prometheus' roof! Keep your eyes and your snipers trained on that guy," Strelok advised to Major Degtyarev.
He was unsure if he heard him, as the last part of his sentence was drowned by gunfire. More Monolithians were coming, advancing up to their position and flanking them. Things were about to get ugly, he could tell. Especially since there was next to no cover in this godforsaken square.
"Shit, snipers over there!" One of the soldiers cried out in warning.
There was no time to react, though. A familiar hum filled the air and then the deadly beam of a Gauss rifle obliterated the poor man who just spoke. The rest of the stalkers and soldiers dispersed, trying to avoid being the next target. And then the snipers fired against them all.
Strelok felt something hot punch him on the back. He gasped in pain and his mouth was filled with the salty and metallic taste of blood. He blinked in shock as he fell to the ground, the noise of the fight suddenly drowned by his own frenzied heartbeat. He blinked again and the streets of Pripyat vanished around him as everything went dark.

A familiar smell of mildew and wet concrete hit him like a slap. He was in a small room that looked like it was part of a ventilation tunnel, with maps stuck on one of the walls and a perpetually half empty metallic shelf.
He'd spent so many hours here, in his hideout. It was the only place where he never felt alone, even after his amnesia. His friends left a permanent imprint here, he'd kept small bits and pieces of their lives in this place. Safe.
"Strelok, you can't be here for long."
Doc was sitting on one of the crates, looking at him with a smile. His eyes were sad, though. He felt guilty, for Strelok was convinced it was his fault.
"I didn't go to visit you. I'm sorry Doc."
The old stalker sighed deeply. "I always knew you'd end up badly."

Bright sunlight shone over the train tracks, making them gleam like they were new instead of a rusted wreck. A soft breeze gently rocked the tall grass, and birds sang in the distance like there weren't mutants waiting to eat them. It almost didn't look like the Zone. Too peaceful.
"How did I end up here?"
"I call this is the waiting place," Fang said.
His exosuit looked as patched up as he remembered. And he hadn't changed one bit either. Hard to change, when you are dead. All the elation he'd felt to see him quickly left Strelok when he realised that.
"You aren't really here, are you?" Fang gave him a pointed look, the same kind as when he thought Strelok was coming up with a bullshit plan.
"I'm here as much as you are," Fang told him with a clap on his back that rattled him. "Did you also feel the hot sting of the bullet when it hit you?"
He stumbled under the force of Fang's unexpected clap, and the sudden movement brought a surge of something hot and metallic in the back of his throat. He spit up blood.
"Fuck, I can't stop the bleeding!"
"Careful, they keep coming!"

"You always insisted to take the lead, even when you didn't know where you were going," Guide told him. Fang was nowhere to be seen now. Somehow he wasn't surprised by that.
Strelok thought about the last time he'd seen Guide. It was too long ago, it seemed like a whole life away. And yet he had no doubts that his old friend would help him, like he always did.
"Can you show me the way out of here?"
Guide shook his head slowly. "Can't lead you through a path I haven't taken yet."

A group of clouds rolled by, bold and dark. Strelok was shivering now. His chest felt heavy, like filled with lead. He couldn't breathe.
"You were always a bit of a reckless idiot." Strelok needn't turn around to see Guide was gone. He'd have recognized that voice anywhere, anytime.
"Ghost, I'm so cold."
"I know. It won't last."
He turned around now and saw his friend crouched by the train tracks, touching them almost with reverence. A lump settled on his throat at the sight.
"I saw you once, lying on the floor of that God-forsaken lab. But I didn't recognize you then. I'm sorry."
Ghost got up and nodded solemnly like he already knew. Perhaps he did. "You'll lie on the floor too, I think. You're running out of time mate."
"Out of time for what?"
"Going back," Ghost flashed him a sympathetic look. "But I think that choice has been taken away from you. That sucks."
Strelok snorted humourlessly. He felt like he had rarely had a choice in his life. "I didn't know there was a choice."
"Fall back, there are more snipers in the roof!"
"Someone kill that damn Preacher!"
"C'mon Degtyarev, he's dead!"

"There's always a choice, but sometimes it isn't yours." This time it was Guide who answered him.
All four of his friends were there with him. The group was together one last time. He wanted this moment to stretch forever, but that wasn't possible. All they had left were mere seconds, the last grains of sand slowly falling down the hourglass.
"I'm not going back." Strelok didn't know if it was a choice or not, he just knew it was the truth.
"I know," Doc sighed and put his hand on Strelok's shoulder. "I suspected it for a long time, my boy."
Everything went darker, his field of vision collapsed to a narrow beam and Doc and Guide vanished in the edges. Only Ghost and Fang remained with him. They and the still gleaming train tracks.
He tilted his head in the direction of the seemingly endless rails. "Where do they lead?"
"It's different for everyone," Fang told him.
"But you don't have to walk alone," Ghost said.
Strelok put his arms around both their shoulders and smiled for the first time in months.

Three men walk down the tracks, joking like old friends, and a stalker draws his last shuddering breath in the square between Pripyat's docks and the Prometheus Cinema.
Three men walk down the tracks, and one silent heartbeat later the evacuation helicopter finally shows up. The survivors of the ambush have to jump over their fallen comrades to get in the helicopter, to survive. They fly away, leaving the dead behind but carrying that weight back with them. Some nights Degytarev will wake up after midnight, feeling the blame for not saving enough of them, and a most curious ache for a friendship that never was.
Three men walk down the tracks and Strelok lies on the floor, among other stalkers, other soldiers. He will be another of the roaming spectres of Pripyat, one of many. His knowledge, the secrets of the Zone, will fade with him. But not his name. His story will never be truly forgotten.
- 15
- 16
- 17
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From the Zone with love