PART 1
You've been walking the Zone for a few years now. By this point, you've more than earned the title of stalker. While it would be a fool's errand to try and cover every inch of the Zone, you can confidently say that you've been "there and back", so to say. Most of that trekking has been in service as a guide, making sure newbies got around safely in lesser areas of the Zone. But every once in a while, you find yourself leading an experienced band of stalkers into territories less traveled, places like The Duga, Red Forest, and even as far as Pripyat. It was good money; you've earned more than your fair share of coupons as a guide. Enough to keep your hands clean of any other unscrupulous professions in the Zone.
You seemed to have a knack for safely traversing the Zone's many dangers. You liked to think of it as a sort of sixth sense; a particular feeling came over you whenever you were about to walk into an unseen anomaly, or when a mutant was skulking around just out of sight. It was more than just a hunch, it was something that you could reliably count on in just about every situation. Which is why you picked up the pace once you saw the clouds roll in.
To the average person, it looked as if a heavy storm was rolling in over the fields of Zaton, but you knew better. The Zone has a funny way of barely giving you any warning before disaster strikes. As the dark clouds drew closer and the lightning cracked around you, you could barely see the faint red glow of an emission brewing just over the horizon.
You knew you shouldn't have cut across this empty field. A cautious guide knows to stick to the paths, just in case you need to take cover for whatever reason, be that from gunfire, or to find shelter from a blowout. But you were in a hurry, there was a package that needed to be delivered to Beard as soon as possible. Same day delivery would have netted you a good chunk of coupons, and a deal like that was one of the few things in this world that could make you act unwise.
Suffice to say, you were out in the open and had nowhere to hide. The only things in the immediate vicinity were rolling hills and a few trees scattered about. You began to run. In the distance you could make out the remains of an industrial building long forgotten, but there was no way you were reaching it before the incoming storm fried your brain.
The sky had turned blood red in almost an instant, thunderclaps began to shake the ground beneath your feet.
you've been in sticky situations before, but a seasoned stalker knew that you were always one small mistake away from becoming worm food out here. And unfortunately for you, this could very well be your last mistake.
At this point, you've broken into a full sprint. Nothing gets a man moving like the threat of agonizing death. You almost trip over yourself as you run down a hill and into a small patch of trees. But after regaining your composure, you spot your salvation through scattered tree trunks: a large metal hatch situated right beside a small dirt road. You pray to the Zone that its unlocked.
The howling wind and thunderclaps are deafening at this point. With only a few moments to spare, you throw yourself on top of the hatch and immediately start turning the locking mechanism. You're no fanatic, but you praise the Monolith when the rusty old locking bolts retract with a thud. With no time to spare, you crack open the hatch, only to be met with a hole, about a single person's width in diameter, and a ladder leading downward into the dark depths below. You quickly grab onto the ladder to prevent yourself from hurtling 20 feet down towards the floor.
You use your legs to wedge yourself across the hole so you can grab the hatch and shut it behind you. The locking bolts clunk shut and before venturing further downwards, you let out a deep sigh. It seems like the Zone smiles upon you today.
But in your brief moment of peace, a sound came from the other side of the hatch.
Someone was frantically banging on the door.
"Hey bro," said the voice, "it's getting pretty bad out here! Let me in!"
You quickly grab onto the locking mechanism with the intent to open the hatch, but you hesitate. Your first thought was that it's another stalker seeking shelter from the storm. But what if it's not? It could be the emission playing tricks on you, filling your mind with hallucinations. Psi anomalies are common in the Zone, and stranger things have definitely happened to you. Or it could be a bandit, looking to stick you and take your loot while you bleed to death in this hole.
"C'mon bro, please," the voice pleaded, "I saw you climb down there! I don't wanna turn into a zombie out here by myself!"
Fuck it, you weren't someone to turn down a fellow stalker in need. If you open up and receive a face full of bullets, then at least you died with an honest heart, the Zone as your witness.
You crank open the hatch and push upwards.
You barely catch a glimpse of the stranger before you recede into the hole, making room for both of you on the small ladder.
The stranger quickly climbs inside and locks the hatch behind him.
"You're a real swell guy, bro! I thought I was done for," he says as he positions himself on the ladder right above you.
He must be a hunter with fresh game on his belt or something because you feel something soft and fuzzy brush the top of your head.
As you both climb down the ladder, you tell him that you almost kept the hatch shut. You never know who's out to rob you.
"Haha... about that," he says.
Fuck, this is what happens when you feel like being nice. You quickly slide down the ladder and give it a wide berth, just so he cant get a shot off at you from above. The ladder terminated in the middle of what looked to be a decent sized storage room. It was dark, but you could barely make out the shadowy shapes of shelves, tool cabinets, benches, and other utilitarian furnishings of an industrial facility.
You pull out your pistol from the chest holster underneath your jacket and aim it towards the hole in the ceiling where the stranger is still mounted on the ladder.
Maybe he knows that there's a gun aimed and ready to shoot at the first appendage that comes down from the ladder, because he slowly and deliberately climbs down the rest of the way and dismounts with his back towards you and his hands raised.
From behind, you can tell that he's donned in common stalker attire: an unmarked sunrise suit adorned with various trinkets and gadgets, as well as a few artifact containers and... a tail? Maybe its the storm outside affecting your vision, or maybe its the low light of this dingy basement, but right below the belt line, dead center above his cheeks, is what looks to be the spotted tail of a leopard.
"Woah bro, put the shooter down and let me explain myself. I won't hurt you, promise," he says calmly. His accent was pretty thick, obviously a local, although his English seemed pretty good.
Not a chance, you tell him. If you're going to be stuck in here for the next few hours with him then you've got to be sure that he's not gonna stick you as soon as you turn your back.
You take note of any weapons he has on him. Looks like he has a pistol on his hip, and an automatic carbine slung over his shoulder.
You tell him to place both his guns on the ground and kick them over to you.
"Sheesh man, whatever you say..."
He deliberately moves very slowly and you're just waiting for the moment he tries to pull a fast one on you. But that moment never comes. He simply places his weapons on the ground and kicks them back at you. With his weapons at your feet, you tell him to turn around.
Now facing each other, you can see that he's wearing some sort of modified gas mask. It looks like it's shape was modified to fit the head of an animal... at a glance, it looks to be a late soviet era gas mask, but it's mouthpiece is extended to fit a snout and the headpiece modified to house two triangle shaped ears at the top of one's head.
Who was this freak and why is he going around pretending to be an animal?
You tell him to lose the mask so you can see his face.
He complies and unfortunately his appearance raises more questions.
He's got the head of a cat. He's covered in light grey fur with spots littered all over, very similar to a snow leopard. He's got cat ears, whiskers, a snout, the whole shebang, but he also has short messy hair like a human. His eyes are like big ol' dinner plates and as blue as the summer sky.
You didn't think the zone could surprise you anymore, but yet it keeps throwing curveballs. you've seen all sorts of mutants before, but none like this. Psychic dogs, mutated deer, blood sucking tentacle faced monsters, little freaks with telekinetic powers, but yet out of all of those , you've never met any that could talk... or wear human clothes for that matter.
After staring at each other in silence, you finally ask him what kind of mutant he is.
He shrugs.
"I don't know... people call me all sorts of names," he says, "most of them arent very nice."
Yeah I bet, you think to yourself. You ask him to explain his comment earlier about robbing you.
"Oh right! So, you know Sultan? Head honcho over at the Sultansk? Well, Yesterday he told me that someone was supposed to be delivering a package to Beard today and that he'd pay me good money to snag it and take it to him instead," he explained
"Usually on jobs like these I just find the delivery guy and follow him around until he gets eaten by mutants or caught up in a whirligig. That way I can swoop in, grab the goods and bail, you feel me dude? Saves me from spending ammo!"
While he's busy yapping, you notice that he's a bit shorter than you, probably around 5'3. His tail swipes idly from side to side behind him, which you now realize must be what you felt on your head coming down the ladder.
"...Anyways," he continues, "I had been following you around for the last few hours but you managed not to get mauled by a bloodsucker OR imploded by an anomaly! You must be like, a really experienced stalker or something haha..."
He gives you a sheepish grin, but youre undeterred. You narrow your gaze and raise your weapon towards his face.
You ask him what happens next, considering his plan didn't pan out the way he expected it to.
"Woah woah woah bro, calm down!" he says as he covers his face with his hands (paws?) in an attempt to block the incoming bullet. "No way man! I'm not even gonna TRY and hurt you. Why would I? You saved my life back there!"
You say that you want to believe him, but that you've been burned before under the guise of friendship.
He drops to his knees and clasps his hands together.
"Please bro, how can I prove it to you? I'll do anything! Just dont shoot me," he begs. He looks up to you with those baby blue dinner plate-sized peepers. You can see the pleading in his eyes. Hell, you think you can even see some tears start to well up in the corners of them.
Fuck, you can't shoot him, he looks like a defenseless puppy. Or uh, kitty. Stalkers may be many things; liars, cheaters, thieves, killers, you name it. But the kind of stalker you are isn't a killer. You decide to holster your weapon. If this mutant cat dude kills you down in some long forgotten hole, then such is the will of the Zone.
As soon as he sees your resignation, a big bright smile beams across his little cat snout. He leaps from his knees and in one swift motion he sweeps you into a big bear hug. You didn't even have time to react; he's quicker than a bloodsucker in a triage camp.
"I knew you would share this hole with me, dude! I can tell a decent guy from a mile away, and believe me, I've been watching you from about that distance for a while now!"
O...k? That's not something normal people say to strangers but you suppose he's not really a normal guy. After the whiplash of that comment subsides, with this cat dude pressed up against you, you notice a few things. The first is that his fur is incredibly soft; possibly the softest material you've ever encountered in the zone. Honestly, you might think this dude has some sort of anomalous fur.
And the second is that you get a whiff of what smells like... flowers? Plants? Something like that. You haven't smelled something that nice since you left your girl back on the mainland. Honestly, most things in the Zone smell like dirt, rust, or cosmoline, but not this dude. This dude must really take care of himself, at least, more-so than most stalkers are willing to.
He must've noticed your reaction because he pulls away and looks at himself as if he has something stuck on his back.
"Oh man, did I roll around in something? Fuck, I hope it's nothing gross," he says, looking over himself.
You find yourself caught up in nostalgic memories of time spent with your girl, many years ago. Summer nights of you and her lounging around the apartment. You distinctly remember the smell of the floral shampoo she used as you run your hands through her soft hair. It's been a while since you were intimate like that with someone. Not many options here in the Zone for that kind of stuff.
You shake your head in an attempt to bring yourself back into reality. What the fuck was that? This isn't the time to be thinking of stuff like that, especially as a result of smelling this weird mutant stalker. That's just weird.
You tell him that he's fine, you just didn't expect him to not reek of mud and body odor like most other stalkers.
He looks back up to you and beams.
"Yeah bro! It's because of this product I get smuggled in for me. Floral shampoo, makes my fur really soft."
He runs a paw through his messy hair, attempting to comb it back to whatever shape it was in before donning the gas mask. His attempts were unsuccessful.
"Anyways, they call me Leo! I think it's short for leopard, like the snow cat. What's your name, stalker?"
You tell him your name. Not your real name, of course, but your new name. Birth names don't have any place in the Zone.
"Nice to meet you, Anon!" he says, hand paw outstretched, expecting a handshake.
You oblige. His grip is gentle for someone of his profession.
"Glad we're all buddy-buddy now," he says, "because it would've been a pretty agonizing next few hours if we were at each other's throats, haha."
You agree. You start looking around the room for a light switch or at least a lamp of some sort. You manage to find a light switch mounted on a nearby wall but, unfortunately, flipping it does nothing. However, you also spot an old oil lamp atop one of the workbenches with some fuel still left in it. You pull out a lighter and revive the lantern's flame, giving the two of you a better look at each other and the contents of this room.
Past all the shelves and cabinets, you see a metal door at the far end of the room. Other than that, it seems like this place has already been picked clean. The shelves are empty and just about all of the cabinets have been left open with nothing inside. Bummer. Your tech would've paid good money for a new set of tools. He would've liked the old soviet stuff too; he's into that kind of thing.
Leo walks over and picks up his two guns off the ground, holstering his pistol and slinging his carbine back over his shoulder. He then comes over next to you and plops himself up on the bench beside the lamp.
"So Anon, what's in that package you're supposed to be delivering anyways?" he asks.
You don't know. Rummaging through people's deliveries is bad business and a good way to catch a bullet.
"Oh c'mon," he says teasingly as he nudges your shoulder. "You gotta be at least a little curious?"
You look over to see him wearing a big, dopey, mischievous grin.
You raise an eyebrow. You know they say that curiosity killed the cat, you tell him.
He bursts into laughter.
"Hahaha! Good one bro! I love a good cat joke!"
You can't tell if he's being serious or not. He has to hear jokes like that pretty frequently, right? They're just too easy to make.
"Nah, I actually don't get to hang out with other stalkers that much. Loners are alright but I think most of them are a little nervous around me. They don't talk to me much. Most Duty members try to kill me on sight, but I'm just too quick for them," he boldly claims.
"Freedom at least lets me into their bars. They seem to like me a lot more than the other factions. I think the worst are the eggheads though. Always trying to poke and prod me for some sort of experiment."
That sounds rough. Friends are hard to come by in the zone, but company is one of the necessities out here. Otherwise the loneliness will drive you mad.
"It's all good, Freedom treats me pretty alright, but I think I'm more of a novelty to them, you feel me?"
Now you know why there's so many 'dudes' and 'bros' in his vocabulary. He's been hanging out with a bunch of stoners. But yeah, you kind of see where he's coming from. Honestly, you can't really blame them though, he's a pretty unique person. you've never seen anything quite like him anywhere else in the Zone. But speaking of which, what's his story?
"Honestly dude, I can't really remember. As much as I try, I can't seem to recall anything about myself beyond maybe a few years ago..."
Sounds like amnesia. Maybe similar to the memory wiping tech the Monolith used to use? Who knows. But it certainly adds to the mystery surrounding him.
"Yeah, I'd go and ask Monolith myself but those dudes give me the heebie jeebies."
His ears fold flat against his head and he looks away. He seems distressed when talking about them. Honestly, who can blame him? Those fanatics aren't exactly the friendliest group of brainwashed murderers you'll ever meet.
"Yeah, I can't even remember my own name. It's why everyone calls me Leo..." he says, with a bit of melancholy to his voice. "I don't know where I'm from, where I grew up, if I had any family, nothing."
Damn, that really brought the mood down. You feel bad for the guy. Truly an outcast among outcasts.
"What about you? What did you leave behind when you came to the zone?" he asks.
That's a loaded question. Typically you don't hear stalkers talk about their past lives. Everyone has their reasons for coming here, barely any of them good. You're no exception, but that's a long story. Really the only thing you had prior to coming here was your girlfriend, Sasha. She was too good for you, all things considered. Maybe that's why she left. You thought that, maybe, if you went into the zone, you could find some swag, make some money, and give her the life she deserves. But about a year after you left, you stopped hearing from her. Turns out she found another guy.
"Oh man, that's rough bro, I'm sorry to hear," Leo says. He looks so sympathetic, looking at you with those baby blues. It reminds you of the look Sasha used to give you after coming home from a shitty day at work.
You didn't really think about it before, but Leo has a very soft, friendly face. Much more attractive than any guy should be
honestly. Between that and his soft fur and floral smell, you'd almost mistake him for a girl.
Oops. That last part was supposed to be an inside thought, but without thinking you turned it into a comment. A comment he very much heard.
"Thanks bro! It's kind of embarrassing, and I don't talk about this with any of the other stalkers, but I actually put a lot of effort and money into my looks."
He seemed to have taken your slip of the tongue in stride. That's good, honestly, because the only thing worse than sharing a bunker with someone out to rob you is sharing a bunker with a person you've made things awkward with.
But anyways, you tell him that it shows. His fur seems really well taken care of.
"You know it! I actually commissioned this suit to be custom made, too. It's got a softer lining to keep my fur from getting damaged as well as a hermetically sealed recirculation system to keep out any airborne particles. On top of that, it's got its own temperature regulation system to keep me warm or cool so I don't get all gross and sticky while I'm out there hunting for artifacts and stuff!"
Damn, aside from the obvious hygienic benefits, that actually sounds like a pretty useful suit.
He hops off the bench and puts on a show; he turns around, giving me a good view of the extra craftsmanship that went into producing this custom-made suit. At first glance, it looks like just the average sunrise outfit, but anybody who's spent a long time in the Zone could make out the subtle differences. The material is much more high quality, the hoses are reinforced with some sort of flexible composite and there appears to be special seals around the neck, wrist and ankle cuffs. A small electromechanical unit hangs off of his belt; presumably being the temperature regulating device. Aside from that though, the bulletproof vest seems to be the standard one found on most other sunrises.
Aside from all the interesting improvements, there's something... off about it. Doesn't it seem a little... tight around the waist?
Leo turns back around to face you but averts his eyes. You can see a little bit of crimson start to flush his face.
"Haha, yeah about that... this is actually a woman's fit. The regular suit was just too loose around the lower half, no matter what size! So the tech thought it would be easier and cheaper to just put me in a woman's suit, as opposed to making a tailored one. It fits way better around the waist and hips."
You give him a look, but say nothing.
"Hey, don't look at me like that! I'm not some weirdo, I swear. I just... my proportions are a little weird, ok?"
He twists his lower body to the side and looks at his ass.
"Along with all the cat features, it looks like the Zone also bestowed me the fattest ass south of the NPP," he says jokingly.
Goddamn, he was right. Did he even have a license to operate that dump truck!? This is absolutely insane. You were surprised he even fit down the hole into this bunker at all. Guess you were too preoccupied to notice it earlier.
"Hey man, life is tough as is, you don't gotta make fun of my ass now..." he says dejectedly.
You tell him that you're not making fun of him at all, you just have never seen assets that big on a guy before.
Wait, that was kind of gay. You never really thought about guys like that before but then again, you've never really met any cat guys in the past. Maybe this emission is beaming gay thoughts into your head.
"Wait, really?" asked Leo. "Nobody's ever told me that they liked my ass before... usually they just call me a freak."
Leo hops back up onto the nearby workbench. He looks at you and smiles warmly.
You tell him that he's not a freak. He's way more attractive than any stalker you've met in the zone so far, and a nice dude too.
Man, those gay thoughts being beamed into your head are getting pretty intense.
"Haha, that's pretty gay bro, but thanks. I... It feels pretty nice to hear someone say that," he says as he nervously rubs the back of his neck.
You pull a pack of cigarettes out of your pocket and dig one out. You bring it up to your lips and give it a light. In between flicks of your lighter, you can still hear the intense thunderclaps of the storm raging outside.
You walk over to the bench Leo is sitting on and take up a spot right next to him. You take a drag of your cig, and then offer it to him with a gesture.
He takes it and gives it a few puffs.
You and him talk for the better part of an hour, sharing stories of your adventures throughout the zone and telling terrible jokes. You tell him about your last visit to Pripyat and how you tried to ride the ferris wheel, and in turn he told you about a strange anomaly he encountered once during his hunt for an extremely rare artifact.
Not a single drop of alcohol had been consumed by either of you but yet you couldn't help but notice how easy it was to get along with him. It was as if you were speaking to an old childhood friend. He was a great listener and an even better storyteller. You had no idea how he could make stories about walking through anomaly fields entertaining.
You were enjoying your time with him so much, in fact, that you almost entirely forgot the fact that you were hiding out in some dingy basement, waiting for an emission to pass.
"...Yeah bro, there was even this one time...", Leo had gotten into a story about his time at a bar in old Freedom territory where he met a drunk stalker who wouldn't stop rambling on about his ex.
"Dude. As he's crying to me about this chick, I'm thinking to myself, 'there's no way this guy is actually in love with her'. She sounds like a total bitch!"
You remind him that sometimes people are willing to put up with all sorts of craziness just for a good lay.
"Bro, no way, the way the guy was describing his sex life made it seem like they fucked maybe once a year."
You see an opportunity for a playful jab and of course the devilish voice on my shoulder gets the better of you. You sarcastically state that you're sure he gets laid way more often. Hell, you suspect a handsome young cat like him probably pulls all the ladies in the Zone.
He blushes and pouts, crossing his arms before stammering out a response.
"Pffft, whatever man. I bet I could have all sorts of fun if I was just a little more confident."
Confidence? Who needs confidence when you have looks like that!
"Oh yeah right dude, who would want to make out with a weird cat guy?"
Cat dude with a fat ass, you add.
Leo blushes and responds, "that's the second time you've mentioned my ass dude. You got like, an obsession or something?"
You apologize but let him know that it's a pretty wild anomaly.
"Oh so you're saying that if you saw me in a bar, you'd hit on me?"
that's a no brainer, you tell him.
"Hahaha, no way dude! What would your pickup line be?" he asks.
You give him the cheesiest pickup line you can remember and it causes him to laugh hysterically. You can't help but laugh along with him at the horrible attempt at romance.
You try and get a word out in between your fits of laughter but it's futile. Once you gather the strength to form full sentences again, you ask him if it would work on him.
He ponders for a moment, wiping a tear away from his eye.
"Oh yeah dude, definitely," he says sarcastically.
You're serious, you say. If you had walked up to him and tried to break the ice with that one liner, how would he react?
"Damn, um, if you want the truth? Yeah probably, haha."
He smiles sheepishly, but doesn't break eye contact, almost if he's waiting for your response. At this point, he's now sitting cross legged on top of the bench, giving you his full attention.
Damn. If that seriously would've worked then he must be really desperate.
"Aw, fuck you dude!" he says as he playfully punches you on the shoulder.
"Low blow," he says. He's still smiling but for some reason you thought you heard a tinge of disappointment in that comment.
You're just kidding. you'd feel pretty lucky if you managed to score a baddy like him with such a shitty pickup line.
"Wow, nobody's ever called me a 'baddy' before, haha... wait, that's good, right?" he asks with a frown, seemingly unsure if that was another jab or an actual compliment.
You explain to him what it means to be a baddy as if you were explaining modern lingo to an old man. He seems to catch on pretty quick.
"Oh I get it, youre just calling me hot," he concludes with another mischievous grin.
You admit that yes, that's essentially what you are doing.
"Hey man, I'll take anything I can get!" He says. "You know, you're not half bad looking yourself," he says, following up with a wink.
You've never been hit on by a guy before, but you have to admit that this isn't the worst feeling ever. He's definitely more attractive than a lot of women you've met in the past. That definitely makes it less gay, right? Yeah, the math checks out.
You thank him, but can't think of anything to follow up with. You could do playful banter, but you weren't the best at flirting. Your mind drew blank. Seems like that one super cheesy pickup line was all you could come up with. Honestly, it was kinda sad. Come to think of it, it's kind of a miracle you ended up with your ex back on the mainland.
You didn't notice, perhaps because you had gotten so absorbed in your own head, that Leo had been staring at you. He was waiting for some sort of comment other than a simple thanks, but that never came. Instead, he just sat and watched as your eyes turned towards the floor and your expression became sullen and melancholic.
"Hey dude, you good?" He asks.
You tell him yeah, you're good, but don't really elaborate further. He just stares back at you with that same concerned expression from earlier.
Ok, maybe you're not so good. You've got a lot on your chest, but you don't want to burden Leo with all of it. Lord knows that everyone in the Zone has their own problems to deal with.
"Not me, bro! No memories means no problems," He said, tapping the side of his head. "Let's have a heart to heart. We definitely have some time to kill, haha."
You weren't sure if that's how that worked, but... sure. You guess it had to be true to some extent, right? Well, whatever. If this poor leopard guy wants to be your therapist for the next few hours then who are you to say no?
You start at why you came to the Zone, probably because that reason can summarize a sizable portion of your life, which would save everyone from having to hear your whole life story. You tell him about the shitty dead end jobs you worked back on the mainland, how you never made it through school for one reason or another, and how your life was a miserable existence of running the rat race until your ex, Sasha, came along.
It's been years since she left you, and you've made more money in the Zone than you've ever made on the mainland, but now that you have nobody to return to, you can't help but feel empty. So extremely empty. What's the point of any of this if you can't share it with anyone, you know? All the places you've been, things you've seen, the miracles you experienced, all for what? A couple of stories to be shared with a few loners that you'll later either find dead in some anomaly or find them sticking you in the back for a can of beans?
Throughout your tangent, Leo just listens, never once taking his eyes off of you or interrupting.
You finish your sob story by saying that sometimes you wish you had the courage to venture into the heart of the Zone to find the wish granter.
"...What would you wish for?" Leo asks.
You don't know. To be happy? To feel fulfilled? Maybe for a chance to start over, even. You've thought about it a lot, actually. What you would do once you got there. If you got there.
But the Zone has a way of weeding out the people who don't deserve its most precious gifts. Only one man has ever made it to the center of the Zone and lived to tell the tale, and he was practically a living legend. If that's what it took to make it there, what chance did you have? It's hopeless.
Just when you reach the crescendo of your self loathing, Leo takes a seat right next to you on the table and drapes one little fuzzy arm around your shoulder while pulling you into a half hug.
You look over at him and are met with the most sympathetic look you've seen in... quite a while, along with that big dopey smile from before.
"Hey buddy, say no more, I understand," he says sympathetically.
He does?
"Yeah! I mean, feeling hopeless and all that? Sometimes I come across things in the Zone and, I don't know how to describe it but... when I see them, I get this feeling in my stomach, like the world is about to end..."
Without taking his arm from around your shoulder, he looks across the room at nothing in particular.
"It's mostly places, but sometimes I'll hear someone say something or see someone that I think looks familiar and I'll just... I don't know man, I just get this sudden urge to fall to my knees and cry, you know?"
Not really? But it sounds awful, and you genuinely feel sorry for the poor dude. It must have something to do with his memory loss.
"Tell you what," he continues, "you want to find the wish granter? Let's do it, pal. You and me!"
If you were talking to anyone else, you'd assume that this was some sort of joke or the insane ramblings of a stalker that had too many encounters with a controller. But as you look into Leo's sky blue eyes and look at that dopey smile of his, you can't help but feel as if he's telling the truth. But you had to ask: Why? Why risk his life for some random stalker he met during an emission?
"I dunno bro, sounds like one hell of an adventure to me!" He says.
"I mean, that's ultimately why people come here, right? For adventure? And, hey, maybe along the way we'll make some wishes! I'd be lying if I didn't have a wish or two of my own."
You suppose that everyone must have something to wish for. You ask Leo what his wish would be.
"I can't tell you that, bro! If I tell you now, it won't come true!" He says, full of enthusiasm and vigor.
For some reason, you can't help but smile. As you look at this strange snow leopard guy sitting next to you, and you take in the absurdity of the situation, you can't help but laugh a little. As if on queue, Leo takes that as a sign to burst into laughter too, which causes a cascading effect on the both of you.
Soon enough, the both of you are laughing like you just heard the funniest joke in the world, Leo's arm still wrapped around your shoulder.
You've always been too much of a chicken to go off and find the wish granter yourself. It was a fool's errand; the dangers of such a journey were seemingly insurmountable.
But for some reason, at this moment in time, it didn't seem like such a bad idea.
PART 2
You climb up the ladder with Leo in tow and slowly open the steel hatch thats been keeping the two of you safe for the past few hours.
As you pull yourself out of the hole, you take note of your surroundings. As usual, nothing seems to be out of place. The sky has returned to its normal, gloomy state with substantially less red and substantially more depressing greys. Other than that, despite the seemingly apocalyptic weather from earlier, the Zone is largely the same as it ever was.
As Leo pulls himself out of the hole from behind you, you take out your PDA and check the time. It's roughly 5pm. Plenty of time to deliver Beard’s package and still get the bonus.
Leo wanders up next to you while you're busy plotting the route over to Beard’s ship, the Shevchenko.
Leo peers over your shoulder to get a better look at whatever you’re doing, having to stand on his tippy toes to properly see, and practically presses his cheek up to yours.
The brief brush of his soft fur on your cheek makes you jump.
It seems like he’s got the prowess of a cat as well as the looks, because you weren’t even aware of his proximity until he touched you.
“Oh, sorry dude, I was just curious,” he says, seeing your frightened reaction.
Jeez, does personal space mean anything to this guy?
He just smiles sheepishly and shrugs.
Whatever, you pocket your PDA and tell him to follow you. You start walking off. Leo picks up his pace and settles by your side.
You figure that, since you have some time to kill before you get to Beard, that you might as well address the elephant in the room; what happens once we complete our delivery mission?
“What do you mean?” Asks Leo
You mean, are we REALLY going to try and find the wish granter?
“I was serious if you were serious, bro.”
Well… there’s some planning that will have to go into this journey. We can't just walk up to the NPP and ask Monolith where they keep the thing.
“Definitely,” Leo responds. “Plus, we’ll have to get you some real stalker gear, Mr. Guide.”
You look over to see him sticking his tongue out at you. You roll your eyes. He counters with a wink.
He’s right, though. While your trusty jacket has kept you warm, dry, and arguably protected throughout your journey in lesser areas of the Zone, you were going to need some serious protection if you were to venture this deep. You’ve talked with various merc groups in the past about their operations in Yantar, as well as their raids into the Pripyat underground, and most of them were equipped with exosuits and other heavily armored outfits. You’ve made good money so far in your career, but there was no way you were affording any of those. Unless maybe Leo has some funds to spare?
“Hey bro, don’t look at me, I’m wearing any life’s savings right here,” he says tapping his chest.
You tell him that he’s going to need some fancy firepower to match that fancy suit of his.
“Look who’s talking! How have you even made it this far with just a pistol, anyways?”
You tell him that since most of your time is spent walking long distances, you’d rather pack light. Ounces turn to pounds, and all that. Plus, it’s not like this pistol you have is just some pea-shooter. Just like his special sunrise, this gun is where most of your money has been invested.
Leo gives you an inquisitive look. “Oh yeah? Well, spill the beans! I've shown you mine, now let me see yours,” he says with a wink.
You roll your eyes again, but you can’t help but feel a smile tug at the ends of your mouth. The emission had ended but it seems like those gay thoughts were still lingering around in your head.
You pull your pistol out from its holster, drop the magazine and clear the chamber before handing it to Leo.
Leo takes the pistol and fiddles around with it for a bit.
“Woah, bro! This thing is heavy! Why didn’t you tell me you were packing heat like this?”
You tell him that it’s all steel with a special anti-corrosive finish concocted by your tech. Perfect for when you’re wading up to your hips in the dirty waters of the Swamp.
You tell him the story of how you got it. Essentially, you refused to get weighed down by carrying around a different gun for each situation. Some stalkers swear by shotguns, because they say it’s the most effective weapon for clearing out a group of mutants. Others tell you that it's wise to keep a rifle on you for when you’re caught out in the open during a long range engagement. But fuck that, you dont want to carry around 15 different guns for every situation. So instead, you asked your tech to get you a gun that can do everything!
At first your tech laughed at you and said a gun like that doesn’t exist, because if it did, every stalker would be carrying one right now. But you insisted. You told him you’d pay good money to get you a gun that was as close to a Jack of all trades as possible.
It took many months of searching, but eventually he had something smuggled in that he thought would satisfy your pipe dream.
It was a Czech pistol, heavily modified to use a proprietary cartridge that claimed to be accurate well past 100 meters, deliver stopping power equivalent to a round fired out of a magnum revolver, and carry over 15 rounds per magazine.
The result was an expensive gun, with expensive ammo, and extremely expensive maintenance. But so far, it's kept you alive, so you’d say that your tech did pretty good.
After he finished finger-fucking your piece, Leo hands it back to you.
“So, between my expensive suit and your expensive gun, we have enough equipment to make one well prepared stalker,” he jokes.
You tell him that when we get paid, we’ll pool our money together and see what it’ll get us.
The trek over to the Shevchenko was, surprisingly, uneventful. The emission from earlier must have cleared the area. Although, unfortunately, a recent emission meant that most anomalies have been reset or changed location. The paths you normally took around Zaton have been littered with various electrical, spatial and gravitational anomalies. However, a good guide always keeps his pockets full of bolts, just in case they needed to map a new route at a moment's notice. Before you knew it, you and Leo were standing in front of Beard’s dilapidated ship with all your limbs intact.
As you two walked into the remains of this once-great freighter, you couldn’t help but notice that all eyes were on you. Well, not you specifically but more so on Leo. Most Loners had a reputation for speaking their mind, and, as you walked by the idle stalkers perched up on bar stools or leaning against the rusty walls of the ship, you can hear that the reputation is well earned.
“Ohohoho, look what the cat dragged in!”
“I thought you were shitting me bro, a cat stalker….”
“What, we’re letting mutants in our camps now? Take that shit over to Freedom territory!”
You ignore all their smart ass remarks as best you can. You look over to Leo to find that his ears are pressed flat against his head.
The two of you quickly make your way over to Beard, who had taken a seat at the makeshift bar towards the end of the room. He was hard to miss; a bald, heavy man with a beard. Without announcing your presence, you plop the package on the counter next to him.
Beard takes a large swig of whatever alcohol was in his mug before settling it gently back on the table and grabbing the package.
“Great work, stalker. You managed to deliver this thing the same day, and in the aftermath of an emission. I’ll add a little bonus on top of the bonus I already promised, just for the trouble,” he says, pulling out his PDA and giving it a few taps.
With that, you feel your own PDA vibrate in your backpack, signaling the successful transfer of coupons.
You ask Beard if he has anyone around here that's selling equipment.
He scoffs, taking another swig from his drink.
“If you’re looking for more than just dry bread and stale sausage, then unfortunately for you, stalker, you’ll have to look elsewhere. The only trader in the area stayed behind at the Skadovsk with that parasite, Sultan, after they kicked us Loners to the curb.”
He pivots on his barstool to get a better look at the both of you.
“Unless you feel like spending some quality time with the local Bandits, I’d recommend heading up to Rostok…”
Perhaps he wasn’t expecting to see Leo there next to you, because he stops mid sentence.
“Stalker, it looks like you have a stray following you around...”
You look over to Leo, who’s giving Beard a sheepish grin.
You tell Beard that you found him in a basement during the emission and that you decided to keep him. Your parents never let you keep a cat while you were growing up.
Beard lets out a hearty chuckle, while Leo looks at you with a glare.
Oh c’mon, you were just joking. You give him a playful nudge, and you can barely make out the start of a smile pulling at the edges of his mouth.
You thank Beard for the advice, and turn to Leo. You ask him if he would want to stay the night and head out first thing tomorrow morning, considering it’s getting pretty late in the day.
“Hm? Oh, sure man, yeah. Whatever works for you,” he says, rather distractedly.
You ask Beard if you could rent a room, if he's got any available. Sure enough, he's got one spare room on the second floor.
“For loners, it's rent free, mutant or not,” he says, looking at the both of us. “It may not be the Skadovsk, but you’ll be in decent company.”
You thank him and head up to the room with Leo in tow.
The room is small, only big enough to fit a single bed, some shelves, and a desk. You imagine that it probably used to be the crew quarters, back when this ship was sailing water and not mud. Guess you and Leo will have to flip a coin to see who gets the bed. You don't mind sleeping on the floor, Zone knows you’ve had to do it plenty of times in the past. But you wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to sleep in an actual bed, especially if the almighty coin determines you won it fair and square.
You take off your backpack, jacket, and chest holster and place them on the desk. Leo wordlessly drops his backpack at the foot of the bed and takes a seat on the creaky spring mattress.
You look over at him, and his ears are still pressed flat against his head. Maybe you should apologize for the joke earlier. It seems like he’s been in a sour mood ever since you got here.
You're not very good at apologies but you manage to vomit one out. Leo looks up at you.
“You’re good, bro. It's not so much the jokes that bother me. I just… some of the shit the other stalkers said while we were coming in got to me, I guess.”
Well, he knows how stalkers are. Always talking shit and making asses of themselves. You tell him to not let it bother him.
“Ugh, I know dude, it’s just that I can tell the difference between friendly shit talking and when people are like, actually bothered by my presence, you know? Sometimes it feels like I’m a damn… Monolithian, or something.”
You tell him to forget about those losers. He's not a freak and he's definitely no Monolithian. It's their loss if they don't want to take the time to know the most unique stalker in the Zone.
His ears peek up a little and he switches from staring out the port window to looking at you.
“You really think so?” He asks
Of course. And, you tell him, that once we make it to the wish granter, he’ll be known all over the Zone as a legendary stalker. Everyone will think he's the coolest cat there ever was.
For the first time since the two of you arrived, Leo actually smiles.
“You're so right bro, these losers aren’t even ready for the epic stories they’ll tell about our journey!” He says, enthusiastically.
You can't help but let his infectious enthusiasm take hold of you. Soon you find yourself smiling along with him.
You say screw em, when they’re stuck out here crawling in the dirt looking for Empties and shooting each other for coupons, we’ll be up north having the adventure of a lifetime.
Leo laughs. “Damn right, bro!”
As your vigor dies down, you decide to address the elephant in the room. Who’s gonna be sleeping on the floor? You have your trusty decision-making coin at the ready.
“Huh? Why would either of us sleep on the floor? It's a double bed, bro, it’ll fit the both of us,” he says nonchalantly.
Isn't that a little… weird?
“It's only weird if you make it weird, dude.”
You can't help but feel heat rise to your cheeks. You've never slept in the same bed as another dude before. Well, outside of your childhood sleepovers that is. The Zone is no longer beaming those gay thoughts into your head, so why is this such a big deal to you now? You're not gay, and this isn’t gay at all. Just two dudes sharing a bed, nothing weird about that. Why are you making this weird, it’s not weir-
As you get caught up in the argument with yourself in your head, you're quickly brought back to reality when you hear the clicks of Leo’s suit pieces decoupling. He's standing up at this point and removing the pieces of his fancy sunrise suit.
First is the gloves, which he slips off and puts in the pocket of one of his chest pouches. Then he unlaces his boots, kicking those off towards the foot of his bed. You don't know why, but watching him undress is making your face burn. If it weren’t for the dingy amount of light in here, you’d probably look like a turnip right now.
He unvelcroes his ballistic vest, tossing that aside too, and then begins to unfasten all of the fancy doodads stuck to his belt. Once those are all gone, he tries to unzip his bodysuit.
You feel a lump catch in your throat. You can't believe you’re just staring at Leo while he undresses. Does he even notice? Why isn’t he saying anything!? You almost want him to tell you to look away in an attempt to knock you out of the trance you're in right now.
But he doesn’t. He turns around and finally speaks up.
“Hey bro, I can’t reach this zipper on my back, you think you can get it for me?”
Jesus Christ, why.
You stammer out a response and walk over to him. You pull the zipper downwards and feel your heart skip a beat.
He doesn't have an undershirt or anything, just a pair of boxer briefs keeping him decent. With the zipper down, he shimmies out of the bodysuit and flops it over the end of the bed railing.
Freed from his sunrise prison, he flops himself onto the bed with a sigh.
“Thanks, dude. That suit is nice but nothing beats the feeling of soft fur on fresh sheets, you feel me?” He says, stretching out on the bed.
You doubt these sheets are fresh, which is something you wanted to say if your brain wasn’t preoccupied with trying to figure out what to do with the half naked snow leopard guy in front of you.
Even in the low light, you could make out the rough details of his body. He was covered from head to toe in seemingly soft leopard fur. Black spots and rings littered his fur all over, even down to his strange foot paws, which seemed to be a hybrid of human and animal anatomy. In this state, his girlish figure was on full display. His smooth upper body gave way to an astonishingly curvy set of hips with sizable thighs that really tested the elasticity of those boxer briefs. The only indications that you were looking at a guy was the lack of breasts, and the bulge in his underwear.
You were at your mind's limit. You were trying your hardest to settle this raging battle in your head between your gay thoughts and straight thoughts. So far, the gay was winning.
“Heh, dude, are you just gonna stare at me all night or are you gonna catch some sleep? I don't want to have to carry your sleepy ass all the way to Rostok tomorrow.”
Fuck. It's decision time. Do you get in this bed with your strangely attractive new friend? Or sleep on the floor, destroying your back, and making it weird for the both of you.
Man, what kinda shitty catch 22 is this? Weird if you sleep on the floor, weird if you sleep in the bed. Fuck it, this is what Leo wants, so this is what he’s gonna get. He can’t blame you if things get extra homosexual.
You take off your olive drab turtleneck sweater and kick off your pants, leaving you in just about the same state Leo is in. You climb into bed next to him without saying anything.
Perhaps you were putting too much faith in these crusty old bedsheets but, damn, you should’ve kept your turtleneck on, it's getting pretty cold in here. Autumn is right around the corner, you suppose.
“Hey, you good dude?”
You roll over and see Leo on his side, leisurely resting his head on his pillow, looking at you with those beauti- uh, REGULAR blue eyes of his.
You nervously clear your throat and tell him that you’re fine, just a little chilly.
“Chilly? Bro, you're shaking like a leaf.”
You roll over with your back facing him in an attempt to hide your flustered face. You tell him that he’s just feeling the vibrations from the commotion below, nothing more.
For a moment, Leo said nothing. It was silent, save for the creaks and rattles of this old barge, and the footsteps of stalkers coming to and from the quarters portion of the ship.
You pulled your limbs closer to the center of your body in an attempt to keep warm, but to no avail. Goddamnit, you're gonna have to put your sweater back on. You hate sleeping with that thing on, it's always so itch-
Mid thought, you’re interrupted by two fuzzy arms wrapping around your midsection, followed by the warm embrace of Leo’s fuzzy chest pressed up against your back.
Your eyes widen in shock, and you almost jump out of the bed… but you don’t. Leo is just sooooo waaaaarm…
“Feel better, dude?” He coos into your ear, sending shivers down your spine.
At this point, you’re probably glowing red in the face. You stammer out a response. Yeah, it actually does feel nice. Although there's a problem. Considering Leo is over half a foot shorter than you, he's not able to offer full body coverage like this. Your chest is still woefully chilly in this state.
The homosexuality worm invading your brain produces a devilish thought. A thought you think you might act upon, seeing as how the boundaries between you two are all but obliterated at this point.
You slip out of Leo’s grasp and turn to face him. You're met with a catboy with a very guilty expression on his face.
“S-Sorry bro, that was inappropriate, I wasn't thinking and-“
Without saying anything, you cut him off by grabbing him and flipping him over, facing him away from you. He’s surprisingly easy to manhandle.
You then take up your position as big spoon and pull him into a warm embrace, the top of his head resting comfortably right below your chin. You position your arm across his chest and snuggle the ever living fuck out of this catboy.
Leo doesn’t say anything and neither do you.
Between the warmth of his body heat and his soft fur, you quickly find yourself dozing off.
You can't really be sure, but before completely knocking out, you swear you felt a soft, gentle rumbling coming from Leo.
Part 3
You wake up to the sound of rain pitter-pattering on the rusty old hull of the Shevchenko. Mid morning light was bleeding through the small porthole window on the wall above the desk, and a quick glance out the window revealed that it was to be another gloomy overcast day in the Zone.
You weren’t in the same position you were when you fell asleep. In fact, in stark contrast to the cuddle ball you had formed with Leo last night, he was now sprawled out diagonally on top of you. His whole body was draped over your chest, pinning you on your back.
You have zero recollection of how you two ended up like this, but it must be comfortable for Leo because despite his contorted position, he seems dead asleep, snoring and all.
Despite having the weight of a whole ass dude on top of you (albeit, Leo is pretty light) and a mouth full of his fluffy messy hair, you can’t help but feel pretty relaxed. You kind of want to stay like this a little longer…
Just as you were about to entertain that thought, Leo’s snoring hiccups as if he just inhaled something by accident.
He quickly bolts up into a sitting position, proclaiming something in Ukrainian that you could barely understand.
In his sleepy stupor, he looks down at you with lazy, half lidded eyes.
“Oh, hey dude. Sorry, did I wake you?” He asks, rubbing one eye.
You tell him no, you were about to get out of bed yourself but didn’t want to have to throw him off your chest.
“So considerate! You were way comfier than this lumpy old mattress,” he says with a warm smile.
Seeing him look at you like that made your heart flutter. It's been a long time since anyone’s looked at you like that.
You drag yourself out of bed and check your PDA. Ten past nine. Not too bad, honestly. You were kind of expecting to sleep half the day away.
You grab your olive drab turtleneck and throw it on, along with your old cargo pants. You turn around to see Leo attempting to control his unkempt fur with a brush he must’ve had in his backpack.
“Bleh, my fur is getting all crazy, bro. You think they have a shower on this rig?” He asks.
Somehow you doubt they have any running water on this ship, let alone a whole shower. But it's alright, you tell him we’ll probably be at Rostok by this afternoon. They have showers there.
“Hell yeah bro, best showers in the whole Zone! I'll have to talk to my stylist about this mess, though,” he says as he pulls a knot out of his messy fur.
A stylist? You didn’t even know that was a thing in the Zone.
“Well duh, dude. Not everyone wants to walk around looking homeless.”
…You dont think you’ve ever met a stalker who DIDN'T look like they’ve been living out of a cardboard box for the past 10 years, honestly. Well, except for Leo, who might just be the most high-maintenance stalker you’ve ever met.
“Yeah, but that's why you keep me around, cuz I’m fancy, just like your fancy gun,” he says, sticking out his tongue.
You smile. Maybe he’s right. You seem to have an affinity for strange and exotic things. Maybe you should become a full time artifact hunter instead of a guide. You clearly have the eye for it.
“Bro, did you just imply that I'm as beautiful as an artifact? That's pretty gay,” he says with a big mischievous grin.
Pffft, whatever. You quickly grab a pillow off of the nearby mattress and throw it at Leo, aiming for the head. But alas, he's too quick, and deftly dodges your attack.
You continue equipping all your stuff, which includes buckling up your chest holster, donning your jacket, and swinging your backpack over your shoulders.
After you're done, you help Leo zip up his bodysuit and hand him his carbine and pistol.
As the two of you make your way through the common area of the ship, you notice a distinct lack of stalkers compared to when you arrived yesterday.
Seems like everyone either decided to start on their adventures early today or they’re still sleeping.
However, Beard, the head honcho himself, is wide awake, helping the bartender organize his stock.
As the two of you walk by, he calls out to the both of you.
“Stalkers! A word. I've got something to tell you.”
You follow him around the backside of the bar, out of sight behind the remnants of a crusty bulkhead.
Beard leans in close to you, and you two do the same. Seems like this info isn’t meant for all ears.
“Because your punctual delivery was so important to me,” he says in a hushed tone, “I feel like I owe you two this information.”
He looks over at Leo, locking him in with a serious gaze.
“I know your dealings with Sultan, cat. You were supposed to intercept this delivery. Why you changed your mind, I don't know, nor do I care. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I appreciate your decision, but Sultan does not.”
He turns back to you.
“He’s got his goons posted up around Zaton, looking for you two. And if I’m going to be honest, stalker, your friend here isn’t the most inconspicuous cat in the Zone.”
You look over at Leo, who seems rather unimpressed. He rolls his eyes.
“Thanks for the heads up mister,” Leo says, “But a couple of bandits aren’t gonna scare us.”
You nudge him in the ribs and tell him to take this seriously. Sultan isnt just some no name bandit goon, hes got the resources to fuck our day up if he wants.
Beard fixes his posture, pulling away from the both of us.
“Whatever you do with that information is up to you. Consider yourselves lucky that you even got it,” he says before going back around the bulkhead, leaving you two alone.
Great. You figured this was going to be a simple trip to Rostok, but not anymore. Honestly, you had completely forgotten about Leo’s original mission. Guess it came back to bite the both of you.
Whatever, no use crying over it now. You take out your PDA, pull up the map, and tell Leo to take a look.
You point up towards the north of Zaton, right around the old train maintenance facility. That's the only road in or out of Zaton, unless we want to stock up on vodka and try to head through the sand mine to the west of the depot. You're willing to bet that Sultan's goons are waiting for us on the road to the north.
Leo taps the screen of the PDA, moving the camera all around and fucking up your view of the road, and turns to you.
“So, you’re telling me that we gotta prepare for a fight?” He asks.
Not exactly. You readjust the PDA and zoom in on the railroad heading west out of the depot. The railroad stretched out over some fields, over a river, and into a tunnel. You tell him that if we can get past this river, we can take the tunnel into Cordon and take the long way to Rostok.
“Uh huh, and how do we know that Sultan doesn’t have goons waiting for us there too?”
You tell him that this route is rarely used. Nobody wants to wade through a river and crawl through a partially collapsed train tunnel just to get to Cordon. You say that you’ve used it yourself once in the past, but only under dire circumstances. It's a path only guides would know about.
“Well then good thing I’ve got you here, buddy!” He proclaims before giving your back a hefty smack.
You grin a little, despite the fact that he just smacked the fuck out of you. Guess it’s decided then. With Leo’s approval, the both of you head out.
The fields of Zaton are as empty as always. Trees sway at the touch of a gentle breeze, and you can see the grass making waves in the distance. As you walk along, you see the occasional electrical anomaly writhe along long forgotten power lines. Gravitational anomalies will occasionally gather up small tornadoes of dead leaves, giving an indication of where the two of you should avoid.
Knowing that you’ve got Bandits actively looking for you, you decide to take two spare magazines out of your backpack and stick them in between your belt and your pants.
Leo notices this and pipes up.
“Bro, we gotta get you some new threads. You can't just walk around with clips stuck in your pants like that.”
Ok, first of all, they're called magazines.
And second of all, you ask if he would rather have you dig through your backpack for spare mags in the middle of a fight.
Leo, now walking around with his carbine in his hands, nudges you in the side with his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Mr. guide! No need to fire a single shot, your fearless mutant body guard will protect you!”
Yeah, right. You haven’t even seen him shoot that thing yet. He’s lucky that thing is as small as him, otherwise the recoil might knock him over.
“Hey bro, I've got size where it matters, ok? And don't you worry about me. I know how to handle a rowdy piece.”
You look over at Leo to be met with that shit-eating grin again.
He's also doing that innuendo thing with his eyebrows, raising and lowering them in rapid succession.
What a fuckin goober.
After a bit of walking, the two of you finally make it to the depot. Now all you have to do is follow the tracks west.
You decide to walk next to the tracks, like a normal fucking human being, but your fearless bodyguard, with his carbine slung back over his shoulder, was trying his best to maintain his balance as he attempted to walk along the rail like it was a tightrope.
As goofy as it was, you honestly had to say he looked pretty cute.
Plus, not like you were staring or anything, but with him strutting along that thin rail like a model, you can't help but be reminded of how shapely his ass is.
It was almost hypnotizing, watching his tail sway back and forth, as if acting as a counterweight for his sizable rear.
As hard as it was to do so, you eventually rip your eyes away from your friend and see the remnants of a dilapidated railway bridge in the distance.
You tell Leo to hop off the tracks and follow you up a nearby berm to get a better view of the bridge and the river below.
Once you reach the top, you pull out your binoculars and scan the area around the bridge.
Fuck. You couldn’t believe it. Looks like Sultan was a little bit wiser than you gave him credit for, because posted up right in front of the bridge were three bandits, no doubt a part of his crew. You could make out the details of their neon blue jackets and adidas track suits from here. No seasoned stalker would be caught dead in outfits like those unless they were interested in a career of shaking people down.
You hand the binoculars to Leo so he could take a look.
“Looks like it’s going to be a fight after all…”
Well hold on now. Maybe we could talk your way out of this. They're bandits, right? We could bribe them pretty easily.
“Dude, I'm not giving what little money I have to some thugs,” he says with a frown. “Our pockets will be empty by the time we reach Rostok, bro.”
Ugh, he's right. We need these coupons. But maybe we could try sneaking around…?
“Why are you so opposed to just blasting these guys and moving on, dude? Looks like there’s only three of them anyways,” Leo says.
Fine. You suppose it’s inevitable then. But you tell Leo that you’re not the biggest fan of attacking people unprovoked, even if they are bandit scum.
“Oh don’t worry bro, I've got an idea. Hopefully it'll put your mind at ease,” he says with a smirk. “How good of a shot are you with that thing?”
With the two of you in position, Leo gives you a thumbs up before rounding the base of the berm and getting back on the train tracks. He has his rifle slung over his shoulder and his arms raised in surrender, walking towards the three bandits.
Once he gets close enough, the three bandits stop their impromptu game of cards and draw their weapons.
“Hey!” One of them calls out. “Who the fuck are you!?”
The one asking the question seems to be the guy in charge, based solely on his premium attire; a freshly smuggled adidas tracksuit.
The other two fall into place behind him, one in a trenchcoat and the other in a neon blue windbreaker.
With the group distracted, you use this opportunity to skulk around the base of the berm, utilizing the dip in terrain to get closer to the group without being seen.
You post yourself up behind the trunk of a nearby tree, about 30 meters or so from the group.
You hear Leo speak up.
“Woah guys, calm down! I'm just passing through…,” he says.
The bandit in the tracksuit scoffs, “passing through to where, pal? The bridge is out. Nah, the only place you’ll be going is back to the Sultansk, mutie.”
You peak out from behind the tree to get a better look at the commotion.
“Hey now,” Leo responds, “is this about that business with Beard’s package? What can I say, the delivery guy was too slippery! Can’t win ‘em all.”
The two bandits behind the tracksuit guy approached Leo, surrounding him in a semicircle.
“Nah, bro. Not only did you fuck up the interception, but you warned that fucker, Beard, that we were on to him. We like to call that a betrayal,” growled the tracksuit guy. He stepped closer to Leo and swiftly grabbed him by the ballistic vest, pulling him closer. “And Sultan doesn’t take kindly to slippery little rats like you.”
Even from 30 meters away, you could see the gleam of Leo’s pearly whites as he put on a big shit eating grin.
“Well if it's a rat you're looking for, I think you need to go back to kindergarten to brush up on your animal knowledge, bro.”
And with that smart ass comment, the tracksuit guy hooks Leo right in the stomach, causing him to lurch in pain.
You've seen plenty of people get smacked around before, especially in the local bars, and it never really bothered you in the past, but seeing that scum sucker punch Leo like that made you angry. Incredibly angry, actually.
Leo said to wait for his signal before firing, but fuck that, you’re not gonna stand around and let them kick him around like that.
You pop out from behind the tree, crouch, and take aim. You rest the elbow of your supporting arm on your knee in an attempt to stabilize your aim and drop your sights right over the fucker that socked Leo.
You pull the trigger three times, praying to the Zone that your shots hit their intended target.
Sure enough, the tracksuit guy drops like a sack of bricks on the railroad tracks.
It takes a moment for the other two bandits to realize what just happened, but once they do, one of them takes cover behind a nearby tree and the other turns and brings his gun up, pointing it at Leo.
Despite Leo’s injury, he manages to tackle the guy before he’s able to get a shot off, knocking his rifle a few meters away.
The two of them are grappling each other on top of the railroad tracks. Leo ends up on top and manages to get a few good punches off on the bandit, but it wasn't enough to knock him out.
The bandit pulls out a knife from under his trenchcoat and swings straight for Leo’s neck.
Thanks to his cat-like reflexes, Leo was able to catch the bandit's arm with both of his hands. Being at a size disadvantage, Leo had to use both hands just to keep the bandit from sticking him with that knife.
Seeing this, the bandit socks Leo in the snout with his free hand, knocking him off and onto the nearby grass.
With Leo clear of the bandit now, you line up a shot.
Unfortunately, you were so caught up in Leo’s brawl that you had forgotten about the second bandit.
Seeing you take aim at the first bandit, the second fires off a round from his double-barreled shotgun, aiming directly at you.
Luckily he missed, but you can hear the pellets rip the bark from the tree you were using as cover. He probably had you dialed in now and the followup shot was sure to land, so you returned to cover behind the tree.
The first bandit takes advantage of Leo’s disoriented state and grabs him by the vest, pulling him off the ground.
“You little shit!” The bandit exclaims. “You killed Crab! Now you’re really gonna get it!”
He punches Leo again right in the snout again, knocking him back downwards.
At this point, Leo is a bloody mess. His nose is practically leaking like a broken faucet.
You can't stand to see Leo get pummeled like this.
In your enraged state, you decide to do something really dumb. You know the rough location of the second bandit, so you take off in a sprint from behind your cover, firing off towards his direction in an attempt to keep him suppressed.
You sprint towards the first bandit, who’s still standing over Leo.
The first bandit sees you coming, and turns his attention to you, scrambling for the gun he dropped during his grapple earlier.
You were too slow and had too much ground to cover. The bandit retrieves his rifle and aims it right at your chest. You try to swing your pistol around to get the first shot off, but the sound of automatic fire comes first.
But it wasn't from the bandits rifle, it was from Leo’s carbine. He was sitting up, aiming right at the first bandit. After riddling the guy with holes, he drops down on his back and starts firing rapid shots towards the second guy.
“Anon, he's suppressed! Fuck him up!” He yells.
You circle around the tree to find the bandit gripping his shotgun tight to his chest, trying to lower his profile as much as possible so as to not get hit by Leo’s barrage.
From here, you have a clear shot. You fire off a few rounds and, just like the tracksuit guy, he crumbles into the dirt.
You don't wait for the ringing in your ears to die down. You immediately run over to Leo, who's sprawled out in the grass, breathing like he just ran a marathon.
You sit down on your knees beside him, holstering your pistol and pulling out your backpack.
You look each other in the eyes and, despite his obviously broken nose and mouth covered in blood, he smiles.
“Wow bro, you really botched the plan,” he says.
What!?
“You didn't wait for my signal.”
You tell him he must have suffered brain damage from those blows to the head because he's crazy if he thinks you were just gonna stand by and watch those bandits pummel him into the dirt.
“Aw, what, was Mr. Guide concerned about his bodyguard?” He teases.
You pull a clean rag out of your backpack and start wiping the blood from his snout. As soon as you make contact, though, he winces.
“Agh, careful Anon,” he hisses through gritted teeth.
After gently clearing some of the blood off, you tell him that his nose definitely looks broken on the account of it being ever-so-slightly crooked. Other than that, he has a pretty nasty laceration on the bridge of his snout, which is probably where most of the blood is coming from.
You support Leo’s back with your hand and gently usher him up into a sitting position. You take out a small first aid kit and get to work cleaning his wound.
“Hey Anon, can I ask you something?”
Hm, if he isn’t calling you “dude” or “bro”, he must be pretty serious. You ask him what’s up.
“…Do you think this scar will make me look hot?”
You let out a surprised laugh and dab your isopropyl-soaked rag onto his laceration.
“Ow, ow! What? This is my first scar, I wanna make sure it looks good on me.”
He looks up at you with a warm smile.
Man, you would’ve been pissed if he had gotten either of those gorgeous eyes damaged.
But yeah, you tell him that he still looks pretty good, despite his crooked nose.
“Hell yeah.”
After cleaning his wound, it’s pretty clear that he's going to need stitches. You pull out your shitty survival suture kit. The quality of the kit leaves much to be desired, as did your suture skills, but it'll at least keep the wound closed until you get him to a real doctor.
You start threading some stitching material through the crescent-shaped hook included in the kit. Leo doesn't look very happy about this.
You tell him it’s fine, it'll keep the wound from getting worse until we get to Rostok.
You manage to close up the wound, but as far as the broken nose goes, you don't want to make it worse so leaving it for a professional is probably your best bet.
“Fuck dude, do you at least carry around an ice pack in that bag? My nose hurts like crazy!”
Unfortunately you don't, however you do have some magic liquid on you.
You pull out one of your AI-1 kits and remove a small plastic bottle of clear liquid. As per instructions, you insert it into some soft tissue on Leo’s leg and squeeze. You tell him that this should help with the pain.
With that, you help Leo up onto his feet, supporting him with your arm around his back.
“Heheh, thanks for the help bro but I can stand. They messed up my face, not my legs.”
Oh right. You release him, only to see him wobble a little before balancing himself.
“Woah,” he says, putting his hand up to his head. “I guess they really knocked me good…”
You ask him if he can make the walk up to Rostok.
“Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll be good. Just had to let my brain reset, haha.”
With that being said, you pack up all your shit and sift through the bandits for any loot. Unfortunately you didn't find much. Some extra ammo for Leo’s carbine, some stale bread, and some PDAs. You kept the PDAs. There's always people looking to wipe and resell those things.
You two approach the dilapidated bridge. It looks as if it was destroyed a long time ago; chopped right down the middle. Pieces of jagged metal and ruined concrete littered the waterway.There was, seemingly, no way across, aside from wading straight through the frigid river waters.
Well, that’s what it looked like anyways.
Most people didn’t know about the anomaly underneath the bridge.
Down by the bank of the river, behind one of the bridge's giant concrete foundations, was a teleport anomaly that spat you out right on the other side of the river.
It was hard to see with the naked eye, and didn’t show up on your average detector, but if you happen to be down there on a bright day, you’ll notice that the air around it seems to bend, like light in water.
You and Leo carefully descend down to the river bank and come up on the foundation. Years of neglect have left the concrete cracked and brittle. Chunks are missing all over, with pieces of rebar exposed as if each chunk missing was a gaping wound exposing the bone underneath.
As the two of you round the backside of the structure, you don't see anything. But just because you don’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there. It wasn't a sunny day so you couldn’t count on the contrast of the sunlight to reveal the anomaly. You pull a bolt out of your jacket pocket and toss it into the air in front of you.
Sure enough, the bolt disappears without a sound.
Leo’s ear twitches, and both of you look towards the opposite end of the river where the other half of the bridge ends. You hear the plop of a small, heavy object hitting the water.
You take out another bolt, but this time you tie a small white piece of cloth to it and throw it at the same spot, but this time you keep your eyes fixed across the river.
In almost an instant, you see a white streak roll off of the broken end of the bridge and plunge into the river below.
You tell Leo to follow you.
The two of you step into the anomaly. Your vision stretches and distorts for just a moment; the river and rusty remains of the bridge contort into elongated caricatures of their actual form. This only lasts for a moment, however. You feel your stomach lurch forward as if someone had suddenly strapped you to the back of a moving vehicle.
In the blink of an eye, the two of you are standing on the opposite side of the ruined bridge, looking back towards the spot where the two of you were just standing near the foundation.
Satisfied with your expertise, you turn around to face Leo, smug and content with your knowledge of the Zone.
You see Leo bent over, puking his guts out.
“What the FUCK bro!? It feels like I just got hit by a train!” He says through labored breaths.
Oh god. Maybe you shouldn’t have used the shortcut right after Leo had the snot beaten out of him…
Leo stands up straight, but seems to be extremely disoriented.
“Wooooah fu- dude, the whole world is spinning…” he says, trying to wipe excess spit from his mouth.
Alright, he can’t go on like this, he needs some rest. But you already lost some good time due to the scrap with the bandits earlier. You two have to keep moving if you’re to make it to Rostok before nightfall.
You tell Leo that he needs rest, so you’ll carry him.
“H-huh? Sorry bro, I can't uh… I wasn't really paying attention…”
You turn around and crouch down a little, telling him to get on your back.
“W-whatever you say, Mr. Guide. My legs are feeling a little wobbly anyways…”
He puts his hands on your shoulders, and you reach around behind you to support his legs. You knew Leo was pretty light. The guy had to weigh 110 pounds soaking wet, and most of that weight was in the lower half of his body. The added weight of his suit and equipment made it a little tough, but you were by no means a weak man. Years of walking the Zone had honed your legs into muscular load-bearing machines. you jostled Leo around to find the most comfortable and efficient position and headed off towards the tunnel to the Cordon.
Leo was resting his cheek on your shoulder, and you could tell that he was starting to doze off. You didn't think of it until now, but you're worried that he might have a concussion…
You tell him not to doze off. You don't wanna be stuck on this trek without someone to talk to, you joke.
“Haha, I’ll try my best bro, but I’m really tired,” he says.
You think of a conversation starter to keep him lucid.
Before you say something, Leo beats you to the punch.
“Hey, Anon… thanks for saving my ass back there.”
You tell him that it was the least you could do.
“You looked pretty mad after the fight… I'm sorry. I should have come up with a better plan.”
Well, yeah, you didn't wanna lie and say that it was the best idea you’ve ever heard. But you weren’t mad at him. Even if he did offer himself up for a free beat down.
You tell him that seeing that asshole hit him just pissed you off. You couldn’t let him get away with that.
“Aw. You care about me…” he says, each word getting quieter and quieter.
Fuck. You might not make it to Rostok with him like this. You pick up the pace, going from a brisk walk to a moderate jog.
Hopefully you can find someone in the Cordon who can help.
PART 4
You and Leo make it to the tunnel. On the other side is the Cordon, and hopefully a doctor. You had been jostling the snep on your back every few yards in an attempt to keep him awake. Aside from preventing his concussion from causing more damage, you also need him awake in order to crawl through the rubble of the partially collapsed tunnel.
Once inside, you travel as far as you could with him on your back, but eventually you reach a section with large slabs of concrete and piles of earth blocking your path. Luckily, the pieces of concrete, which presumably were pieces of the tunnel ceiling at some point, were piled up in such a way which it prevented dirt from forming an impassable barrier, leaving gaps for you two to crawl through.
You tell Leo that you’re going to have to put him down so he could crawl with you.
“Ugh, why? I was so comfortable on your back…” he says, affectionately rubbing his cheek on the back of your neck.
You tell him that if he gets too comfortable and falls asleep, he’ll probably get permanent brain damage from his concussion.
“Hey, this is your fault bro. You and your shortcuts…”
You put him down and brace yourself, just in case you need to catch him if he falls over.
Luckily, he seems a bit more oriented than before, but not by much.
You get down on your belly and start to crawl through a small opening of rubble, with Leo following close behind. You cautiously watch where your feet are moving, the last thing you want is to accidentally kick him in the face.
It was a tight fit, and you're pretty sure you managed to rip a new hole in your jacket after it got snagged on a loose piece of rebar, but the both of you made it out unscathed. You were grateful that the Zone hadn’t decided to fill the tunnel with any horrible anomalies.
The tunnel spits the two of you out near another broken bridge, seemingly dividing the north and south sides of the Cordon. You know that in the past the military used the area underneath the bridge to shake down any amateur stalkers going to and from Rookie Village. It's been years since the military has launched any serious campaigns into the Zone, however, so that little post of theirs has been long since abandoned.
Speaking of Rookie Village, that's where the two of you were headed. It's been a while since you’ve been back to the village, and last time you were here they didn't have much in the way of an actual doctor. You hope for Leo’s sake that that’s changed.
It was a short walk from the train tracks over to the village. Since Leo seemed to be a little bit better on his feet, you decided to let him walk on his own. Speaking of which, you ask Leo how he’s holding up.
“My head is killing me… you wouldn’t happen to have some more of those pain meds, would you dude?” He says.
You tell him that help is only a few minutes away and that if we manage to find an actual doctor then you'll get something better than pain meds.
Leo rubs the sides of his head as if he was trying to massage the headache away.
“I don't know bro, there's not many things in this world that'll make you feel better than a shot of morphine.”
When the two of you reach the town, you’re glad to see that it hasn’t changed much. It's not so much a town as it is a neighborhood, with maybe seven or so old houses littered about. At the entrance to the village stood a trio of three rookies, presumably keeping watch.
“Halt! Who goes there?” Asks one of the rookies. He’s dressed in a leather jacket with the finest pea-shooter his pitiful pockets could afford.
You tell him to calm down, and that you’re just two loners looking for help.
He looks past you to see Leo at your rear, looking pretty miserable.
The loner readies his pea-shooter and shouts.
“Mutant! This stalker is trying to bring a mutant in here!”
The other rookies follow in his paranoia and ready their weapons as well.
Leo covers his ears and winces. “Could you guys keep it down? I've got one hell of a headache…”
“I-It speaks!?” Says one of the loners. “What kind of mutant talks like a person!?”
You tell him to put his gun down and that he’s with you. He's not dangerous and he just needs a doctor. He’s hurt.
The group of rookies look hesitant but ultimately lower their weapons.
“O-Ok, stalker, if you say so… go see Whale, he's the doctor in these parts. He’s in that house,” he says pointing to a nondescript house within the village. “I don't know if he fixes mutants but…”
You abruptly thank him and walk past with Leo in tow. Fuckin rookies.
Sure enough, within the house was a man who looked to be in his 30s. A bushy mustache sat above his upper lip and he was sporting an olive drab beanie that matched his olive drab turtleneck sweater.
Whoever is supplying the Zone with those sweaters must be making a killing.
Anyways, you caught him as he was organizing his medical equipment. Cabinets littered the walls of the small room he was in and he was moving back and forth between them rearranging various vials, first aid kits, splints, bandages, and other tools useful for keeping stalkers alive.
You ask him if he’s the town medic.
He turns to face the two of you.
“Yeah, that would be me…” He pauses as he catches a good look at the cat boy behind you.
“Oh, you must be the mutant stalker everyone is talking about,” he says to your companion.
“Uh, yessir, that would be me, I guess,” responds Leo.
“I’ve heard about you, but never guessed you would end up in my little clinic. What can I do for you?”
You tell him that Leo got into a scrap with some bandits earlier and one of them really roughed him up.
“Alright, hop up on the bench here and let me take a look at you,” he says, gesturing to a makeshift examination table along the wall.
Leo hops up on the bench, all his various trinkets rustling and jingling as his plush rear plops on the fabric cover of the bench.
The doctor takes out a small examination light and gives Leo the once-over.
He takes a look at his eyes and hums in thought.
“Did you take some blows to the head?” He asks.
“Yeah… one of them socked me pretty good. But my fearless guide saved my ass,” he says, looking over to you with a warm smile.
You roll your eyes and smile back.
“Looks like you’ve got a concussion… and did you suture this wound up yourself?” He asks, referring to the laceration on Leo’s snout.
You tell him that you did that.
“It's a pretty shit job, but A for effort I suppose. I'll have to redo this if you don't want an infection.”
Whale opens up a nearby cabinet and takes out a very professional-looking suture kit.
“As for your concussion, since you don’t have any severe external damage to your head, I'm just going to give you some pain medication and tell you to take it easy for the rest of the day. Try to stay awake but keep the mental and physical stimuli to a minimum…”
He approaches Leo with the suture equipment.
“Oh and about the broken nose…”
Whale gently places his hands up around Leo’s snout, eliciting a wince from the cat boy.
In one swift motion, Whale applies pressure to one side of the snout while expertly supporting the other side. A soft pop resounds throughout the quiet room.
Leo recoils in a mixture of shock and pain.
“AGH, WHAT THE FUCK BRO!?” He exclaims.
“Looks like you have some cartilage damage. I'm not familiar with your anatomy but if it's anything like a humans, it’ll heal on its own in a few weeks. Granted you don't get into any more fights, that is.”
Leo is too busy rubbing his snout to follow anything the medic says. You can see tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.
“You could have warned me before you did that…” Leo says with a whimper.
“Would you have let me do that if I had warned you? Now come closer, I need to fix your stitches…”
You take a seat in a nearby chair and let Whale do his work.
His hands worked with the finesse of someone who’s been doing this type of service every single day for the past 10 years.
Leo’s injury was stitched up in no time at all, and before you knew it he had sent the two of you on your way.
Whale even gave you a discount for his services, his reason being that it's not everyday that he got to treat a talking mutant stalker. The spectacle on its own was worth the meds he had expended.
Considering Leo was still recovering from his concussion, you figured that it would be best if you two stayed in Rookie Village for the rest of the day.
It sucks that you would lose an entire day of travel but you didn’t want to risk Leo suffering further injury.
Plus, the both of you were starving and you wanted to take a moment to grab a bite to eat. There weren’t any bars in the village, but luckily there was a group of rookies around a makeshift campfire who were roasting up various meats. You've got a few assorted cans of food in your bag, so you ask Leo if he wanted to join them for a bite.
“Uh… do we have to, dude? Can't we just, like, make our own campfire?” He asks. You look over to see him looking up at you with a very timid expression.
What, is he afraid of a few rookies?
“Yeah right dude, I just uh…” he looks away, obviously thinking of an excuse.
He then turns back to you.
“I just thought we could share a nice romantic dinner together, bro,” he says sarcastically, grinning from ear to ear.
You just stare at him for a moment. He’s been teasing you like this for the past two days straight. You don't mind it at this point honestly, but it sort of feels like the two of you have been wrapped up in a weird game of homosexual chicken.
You're not really good at flirting seriously, but you always loved a good game of chicken. Maybe it would be fun seeing how much you could make Leo squirm, if at all.
You decide to give it a try.
You wrap your arm around Leo’s waste and pull him close, pressing him up against your side.
He's easily manipulated, and he lets out a quiet “eep” as he’s pulled close.
You lean down and tell him that it’s a great idea, you’d be more than happy to have your bodyguard treat you to a nice campfire dinner.
He obviously wasn’t expecting this level of directness from you, if his wide eyed expression was anything to go off of.
“U-Uh… O-Ok! Hell yeah dude!” He stammers out.
The two of you make your way to a yard on the opposite side of the road, across from the yard where all the other rookies were set up in. This one was a bit more private; the scattered remains of a waist-high wooden picket fence lined the perimeter of the yard. Off to the side, in a small patch of overgrown grass, was a fire pit. A few large tree trunks, cut and arranged on their sides, circled the pit.
You walk over, offload your backpack next to one of the logs and take a seat.
Leo remained standing, seemingly unsure of what to do next.
You ask him if he’s gonna start the fire for his date or what.
“Uh, yeah! Definitely! I was totally gonna do that…” he says as he takes a seat next to you and rummages through his backpack.
You tell him that you’ll help him out and get some firewood.
You rummage around the yard and pick up a few pieces of dry sticks, twigs, pieces of bark and large chunks of wood.
When you come back, you find that Leo has successfully started a small fire using the leftover fuel in the pit.
You place the pile of kindling next to the pit and take a seat.
Leo adds some small pieces to help grow the flame, and once it's a decent size he adds the larger chunks.
Soon a sizable flame is coming from the pit, bringing a pleasant warmth to this little yard.
You take some canned food out from your backpack, along with a small pot and small metal cooking fixture for suspending the pot above the campfire.
You tell Leo that he’s got his choice of soup. You produce a trio of cans for him to choose. He gets the first pick since he’ll be the one cooking.
“Hmmm… this one sounds good,” he says as he picks up and inspects a can. “Which one do you want?”
You pick out yours and hand it to him.
He prepares the pot, cooking yours first of course, and then takes a seat next to you again.
For a moment, the two of you just sit in silence. As you gaze into the dancing flame of the campfire, you think back to all the previous times you’ve been sitting around a fire pit just like this.
You think about all of the stalkers who you’ve met. All of the stalkers who trusted your guidance. Most of the time, your guidance just involved getting them through anomaly fields or taking stalkers to and from settlements.
But every once in a while, a stalker, or a group of stalkers, would ask you to take them on a one way trip to the northern regions of the Zone.
You never asked what those trips were for, nor did you follow them after you took them where they needed to go.
You wonder if they found what they were looking for, out past the depths of the Red Forest or in the deep underground tunnels of Pripyat.
You've never run into any of them after your guidance services were concluded.
It's easy to think that they got their faces sucked off by some mutant or got a little bit too close to a grav anomaly and that's why you’ve never seen them again. Honestly, that's likely what happened.
But a small part of you hoped that they found what they were searching for.
A small part of you even wished that you could die in search of something that mattered to you. Or for something that mattered in general. You don't think that would be such a bad way to go.
“Hey…”
You look over and you see Leo staring at you. The flames of your campfire flickering in the reflection of his beautiful blue eyes.
You smile.
“You ok?” He asks.
Yeah. Yeah, you think you are.
PART 5
The two of you spent the rest of your day around the campfire, enjoying the finest food the Zone had to offer.
None of the other stalkers joined the two of you, which was honestly no surprise. Every once in a while you glanced over the fence and saw the other group of rookies staring at you from a distance.
Leo didn't seem to notice, perhaps maybe because he was used to the weird comments and strange looks.
You didn’t let it bother you. You wanted to enjoy your afternoon with Leo. The two of you spent hours talking and joking with each other, just like you did when you two were waiting out the emission a few days ago.
The two of you had been talking so much that you didn’t even notice the sun setting over the horizon.
The clouds from earlier in the day had partially cleared, giving you a good look at the sunset.
In a rare display of beauty, the quaint little village was bathed in a pallet of orange, red, and yellow light.
You look over at Leo and see that he's watching the sunset too, albeit with quite the somber expression.
It's not everyday that you get to watch the sunset in peace.
“Yeah…” Leo says. “Hey Anon, what's it called when, like, you see something and it feels familiar but you can’t really remember why?”
Deja vu?
“Yeah. This feels… familiar, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to this town before…”
Oh right, memory loss. Maybe he HAS been here before, in a past life.
“I wish I could remember…”
You ask Leo what his earliest memory is.
He turns away from the sunset and faces you. You can see the longing in his eyes, a pretty stark contrast from his normal silly and playful demeanor.
“I… My memory is pretty hazy, but I remember waking up in a mobile lab in Yantar…”
His ears folded flat against his head and he averted his eyes, looking towards the ground.
“I was on some sort of table… it was cold metal, I could feel it through my fur. I was being poked by some guys in lab coats. They were using needles, knives, and uh… other things that I can't really remember. They were taking blood, fluids, fur, and other samples…”
He was starting to get distressed. His leg was getting restless, bobbing up and down anxiously.
“I’m pretty sure they had me sedated, because there was no way I would’ve willingly let them do any of that… but it must’ve been some pretty shitty stuff because I was in and out of consciousness. Anyways, once they got what they wanted from me, I guess they just… let me go. I couldn’t tell them my name or anything because I couldn’t remember… They gave me some drugs to try and get me to remember but nothing helped.”
You rested your hand on his back. He looked back up at you and you offered him a sympathetic look.
His restlessness subsided a bit and he smiled back.
“At some point, I decided to leave,” he continued.
“I wandered around for a little bit and eventually made it to Rostok. This was… maybe a few years ago. Duty had just handed the place over to Freedom and I ran into a Duty patrol who thought they had stumbled across a new kind of mutant. They knocked me around for a bit…”
Those Duty bastards were always a thorn in the Zone’s side. If it were up to them, they’d go full scorched earth on the Zone. You can understand the sentiment, but sometimes you think that being a part of Duty just gave stalkers an excuse to push people around.
“Luckily a group of Freedom guys heard the commotion and saved my ass, chased those Duty assholes off. They took me over to their new place in Rostok and taught me how to be a stalker. Ever since then, I kinda just wandered the Zone, collecting artifacts mainly.”
Come to think of it, Leo was probably great at navigating Anomaly fields, Thanks to his finesse and cat-like reflexes.
So his earliest memory is waking up in a mobile lab in Yantar, huh? You’re familiar with that lab, but you’ve never been inside. Apparently it was headed by a well known Ecologist. You suppose that if you wanted to know more about Leo’s past, that's a good place to start.
That whole area is home to a bunch of old labs and military bunkers that were established before the Zone came into existence. They say that those ancient underground facilities house some of the Zones darkest secrets. Some of the factions pay good money to anyone who’s willing to plunge into those cursed depths to retrieve any documents that still may be remaining. The rumors of what purpose those facilities served mostly revolve around top secret government activities. Unfortunately, it's hard to know for sure what really went on in those places because they’re long since abandoned and also crawling with mutants. On top of that, until a few years ago, a protective mechanism known as the Brain Scorcher kept any stalkers from getting too far north into these facilities, among other places. That was before your time, though.
If you guys are gonna head up north anyways, it wouldn’t hurt to stop by Yantar and ask around the mobile lab, see if any of the Ecologists have anything to say about Leo’s past.
If he’s up for it, that is.
“I've… thought about going back there and asking myself,” Leo says. “But I guess I just… never had the balls, haha.”
You pat him on the back. You don't wanna make him open up any old wounds, but you tell him that you’d be there with him if he wanted to open up that can of worms.
“Really? I don't know man… I mean, there’s nothing in it for you…”
Do you really have to get something out of it? Isn't it important to him?
“…Yeah. I think about it a lot. I feel like a part of myself is missing, and… I'd really like to find it.”
You ask him if that was the wish he’d make at the wish granter, to remember his past.
“Yeah. That was one of them at least… aw fuck, you tricked me, dude! Now it wont come true,” Leo says with a chuckle.
Fuck it, he doesn’t need the wish granter to get him that wish. The two of you can find it yourselves. It's only fair, since he said he’d help you make it to the wish granter.
Leo sits up and looks into your eyes and smiles.
You don't say anything either. You instead decide to just bask in the moment.
It's a calm afternoon in the Zone. Over in the other yard you can hear the other stalkers laugh at each other's shitty jokes. You can hear the wind blow around the dead autumn leaves. Every once in a while the wind will gust through your little campsite and you can see Leo’s fur rustle under the late afternoon light.
And amidst it all, your friend sits beside you, sharing this moment.
You think about what Leo asked you the other day, what you would wish for if you ever made it to the center of the Zone. Happiness? Purpose?
Nah, you’re starting to think you picked those things up in the past couple of days.
You scoot a little closer next to him and wrap an arm around his waist.
He willingly accepts the embrace and rests his head on your shoulder.
The two of you spend the rest of the evening watching the sunset.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t any space available in any of the houses in the village. There are a couple of underground cellars in the village with a few beds, but those were claimed too. There must have been a new batch of rookies that came through recently.
So the two of you slept in the yard.
Luckily it hadn’t rained overnight so you two woke up mostly dry.
The morning dew left your clothes slightly damp, but nothing soaked through.
Unlike the previous day, the clouds are sparse and the morning sun hangs vibrantly amongst the backdrop of a pale blue sky. Crickets and cicadas chirp away in the distance and the sound of rustling leaves blown about by stray wind fills the yard.
Leo is the first to rise. He stands up and breaks the silence with a stretch.
“Morning bro,” he says, looking down at you with half lidded eyes. “We really need to make it to Rostok soon, my guy. If I have to go one more day without a shower, I'm gonna lose it.”
Your friend sure has some strange priorities.
“Yup. And since you’re now my travel buddy, that means you have an obligation to help me maintain my good looks,” he says with a wink.
What the hell does that mean?
He pulls an arm over his head, stretching once more.
“It means that when we get to Rostok, you're gonna help your fearless bodyguard groom himself, right?” He says with a mischievous grin.
You feel your cheeks flush with color. Grooming? What, like brushing his fur or whatever?
“Not just grooming, bro. I'm gonna need the full body treatment. Shampoo, conditioner, the whole nine yards,” he says, walking over and wrapping an arm around your shoulder. You had to bend down slightly to allow him to fully grip your shoulder.
When he’s only a few inches away from your face, he says in a hushed voice: “hope the shower is big enough to fit both of us…”
You pull away with a jolt, your cheeks beet red.
He's not serious, is he!?
He releases you, shrugs, and struts over to the campfire to pick up his backpack.
“Up to you, bro! The invitation is always open. Now c'mon dude, let's make some tracks!”
You snuff out some remaining embers in the fire pit before picking up your gear and leaving the yard.
The two of you head off towards Rostok. Because the weather is actually pretty decent today, you predict that the Zone will be relatively active. A sunny day means that mutant, artifact, and people hunters alike will be prowling the Zone in search of their respective quarries. You hope that Sultan's boys will give up the search and stay over in Zaton, but honestly you’re not entirely sure what the limits of his tenacity are.
The two of you decided to give the Garbage a wide berth for obvious reasons. There was a good chance that the bandits there are in cahoots with Sultan.
It was a long and grueling trek but, between your expertise and Leo’s unending enthusiasm keeping you motivated, the two of you managed to make it within eyesight of Rostok.
It was a huge industrial park littered with gargantuan factory buildings and logistics ports. Towards the west end of the park, you could barely make out the silhouette of an old train yard still littered with box cars and locomotives. Large pipes, rafters, and catwalks snake around the park like giant arteries.
As you approach the park, you start to see various Freedom members moving about their patrols. Their green camo armor serves as a stark contrast from their dull concrete surroundings. Honestly, you think Rostok looks better in green camo anyways.
You and Leo approach a break in the parameter wall, guarded by a few Freedomers from behind some stacked sandbags.
“Yo, Leo! Long time no see bro!” Shouts one of the guards.
Leo perks up and offers a wave in return.
“Dimitri! I can't believe you haven’t been mauled by a pseudodog yet,” he says playfully. “How have things been, dude?”
The two of you approach the Freedomer and get a better look at the guy. He's wearing a full ballistics uniform, complete with a ballistic helmet and gas mask. His weapon of choice seems to be a full-length Kalashnikov rifle sporting the same green camo as his suit. Seems like Freedom takes security very seriously around here.
The mask muffles his voice, but you can tell that the person behind it is on the younger side.
“Great, bro. Business is booming, we got all new merchants setting up shop, and the 100 Rads has never been so packed! All this place needed was a new flag to really make it shine, haha,” said the Freedomer.
“Fuck dude, with all these new bodies, please tell me Ragman is still here?” Asks Leo.
“Ragman? Yeah that sleazy old bastard is still here. What do you want with him, bro? Wait, don’t tell me you owe him money…”
“No way, dude! I just get my products from him, that’s all.”
“You should find someone else, that guys' prices are crazy…”
“I would if I could! Anyways, it was good seein’ you dude but I gotta hit the showers. It's been a loooong couple of days,” Leo says as he walks past.
“You too, bro! Welcome back!” The Freedomer calls out from behind you two.
Guess it would make sense that Leo would have some connections here. You're just glad to see other stalkers not treat him like shit for once.
Even though you’ve been to Rostok multiple times in the past, you spent most of your time at the 100 Rads bar. In this particular situation, Leo was your guide.
Speaking of which, you have no idea where he was taking you. You were following him in between various buildings and alleyways with no indication of what your destination was.
“Ah, here we are!” Leo exclaims.
After rounding a few buildings, the two of you arrive at… yet another nondescript building. However, once inside, you can tell that it’s been converted into a makeshift barracks. Multiple bunk beds line the room, which itself extends quite a distance.
You follow Leo over to one such bunk bed.
“Man, it's great to be back,” he says as he crouches down.
He pulls out a large suitcase from underneath the bed, which you can only guess is his.
He opens and rummages through the suitcase before pulling out a few plastic bottles, some towels, and underwear. He places all of the items on the mattress before starting to undress.
You feel your cheeks getting flush again, a feeling that you've gotten fairly familiar with in the past couple of days.
You sputter out a nervous cough and tell him that you’re gonna head down to the market and see what we can get for our coupons… but before you could slip away, Leo catches you by your wrist.
“Nice try bro, but you gotta help me out here! My little arms are too short to wash my back…” he says teasingly.
You give him a look. You're not sure what kind of look it is, but if you could see your own face you would probably say it’s a mix of embarrassment and surprise.
“Aw c'mon dude, I just need a hand. You're not gonna leave your bodyguard hangin’, will you?”
You take a moment to think about it. You haven't had a shower in a few days either…
Alright, fine. Hopefully you’ll be the only ones in the room.
“Sweet. I didn’t wanna say anything dude, but you were starting to smell like a wet dog,” he says as he continues to slip out of his suit.
Pffft, like he's one to talk, Mr. Feline over here. You go over and unzip his jumpsuit from the rear. Once that’s done, you start stripping down as well, leaving your jacket, holster, and sweater in his suitcase. You think you’d rather wear at least your pants down to the showers.
Leo didn’t share the same sentiment. He was already down to his boxer briefs and strutting down to the end of the barracks with a towel slung over his shoulder.
As you follow behind him, you get a good view of Leo’s… well, everything. He walks with the grace and finesse of a runway model, and he’s got the body to match. His lithe upper body forms into a shapely set of thighs and a supple rear. The more you stare, the more you’re floored with how great this dude looks.
Which isn't a sentence you ever thought you’d say about another guy, but whatever. You’re starting to care less and less about that. Honestly, if you knew guys could look this good then maybe your teenage years would’ve been a lot different.
Anyways, you follow Leo down a set of stairs into the basement. The room looks like the shower room of a prison. Shower stalls line both sides of the room and stretch all the way to the back wall. But despite the very industrial and brutalist look of this place, someone must have put a lot of effort into maintaining it because the tiling on the floor and the walls of this room are in surprisingly good condition. Not too grimy or grungy, this is actually the nicest bathroom you’ve ever seen in the Zone. Not only that, but each of the shower stalls have full sized walls on both sides as well as a rigid stall door for maximum privacy.
And lucky you, it seems like you two are the only ones in there at the moment.
Leo chooses a random stall and you follow him over. He hangs his towels up on a rack within the stall, places his bottles down and turns on the water.
It takes a moment for the shower head to start sputtering out water but sure enough it eventually flows to life with adequate pressure.
“It takes a bit for the water to get hot, so unless you wanna stand under cold water you may wanna give it a moment,” he says.
He stands there for a moment, staring at you. You stare back.
“So… you gonna lose the pants, bro?”
…you suppose that they have to come off eventually.
You kick your cargo pants off and hang them up and then look over at Leo.
While you were busy undressing, Leo had closed the stall door behind the both of you. The stall wasn’t exactly roomy; there was only a foot or two of space in between you and your friend and you were only a few inches from the shower head. The water had started to warm up though, so at least it wasn't freezing in there.
Leo smirked and hooked two of his thumbs underneath the elastic waistband of his briefs, all while keeping eye contact with you. He slipped them down and hung them up with the rest of his clothes.
You instinctively averted your eyes.
Now fully nude, Leo scoots past you and underneath the water stream.
“Aaaaaah~,” he moans. “Nothing better than this, bro…”
His bare ass is even better than you could’ve ever imagined. You can see that the grey fur that covers the rest of his body turns cream white between his thighs and over both of his cheeks. In an amazing display of aesthetics, the white fur curves into semicircles on each cheek and come together like a big heart right under the base of his tail.
Well, you better get naked too, unless you want to shower in soggy underwear. You follow suit and strip naked, putting your underwear on the same rack as your pants.
After you're done ogling over your friend's ass, you come to a realization. This stall was only meant for one person. How are you two gonna get clean without being pressed up against each other?
“Glad you asked, dude,” he says in a sultry low voice.
In one swift motion, he turns around and grabs you by the wrist, pulling you into a wet embrace.
If you weren’t so surprised, you probably would’ve been able to resist his pull.
But alas, he had the element of surprise, and before you knew it you were pressed up, stomach to stomach, against Leo with his arms wrapped loosely around your waist. He was a bit smaller than you, so he had to tilt his head slightly to look you in the eyes.
You stood there for a moment, your arms floating, seemingly unsure of where you were supposed to put them. The only sound was that of running water dripping onto the linoleum floor.
“Dude… you can touch me, you know. I don’t bite.”
You hesitate, but then slowly lower your arms around Leo’s waist. Even with all his fur matted and wet, he was still incredibly soft.
He chuckled a bit and then nuzzled his head into your chest.
“Anon, I never really got a chance to thank you…”
You're not quite sure what to say, so you just hum. He doesn’t need to thank you, you were just helping a friend.
He looks up at you again, but this time his face was just a few inches away from yours.
Normally, Leo moves swiftly and with precision. But what came next was very slow, but just as deliberate.
He began to close the gap between your lips and his. You did nothing to avert his advance.
His lips were soft and supple, just like you thought they would be. He was gentle and you just melted into his embrace, as he did yours.
Between the warmth of the running water, the softness of Leo pressed up against you and his gentle kiss, you were in heaven. It had been so long since you had been held by another person and it was a feeling you had been missing dearly.
When the two of you finally parted, Leo looked up at you with a dreamy smile. You smiled back.
“That… was really fuckin gay, dude.”
The ridiculousness of his statement elicited a chuckle from you. It was his idea, so that means he’s the gay one, not you.
“Oh fuck, youre right,” he says. “Well since you’re not gay, could you get my back for me? No homo, and all that.”
He releases you and turns around, presenting his backside.
You pick up one of the many bottles he brought with him, squirt a dollop into your hands and begin working it into his fur, starting with his upper back.
Now that you have a chance to really get intimate with Leo, you discover that despite his soft fur and supple areas, there was actually a decent amount of muscle hidden underneath. As you run your hands over his back, you find yourself tracing the subtle lines and creases of various honed muscles beneath his fur.
As you scrub away, you feel a subtle vibration emanating from Leo’s chest. It kinda sounds like purring…
You peer over his shoulder to see his eyes closed and an expression that you could only describe as bliss.
Knowing that you could make him feel this good fills you with satisfaction. You continue to work your way over his back and even extend your scrubbing to areas that he could easily reach himself. You rub your hands towards his sides, getting under his arms and over his ribs. He doesn't try to stop you. In fact, he only continues to purr.
You make your way down until your hands are on his hips. The lower half of his body was a stark contrast to his back. While you were sure that there had to be muscles in his legs, it was covered by a wonderful layer of thin fat and soft fur. Your fingers practically sunk into his thighs like you were trying to grab hold of a waterbed.
You could continue to go lower but… the only thing left was his ass. You didn't want to push things too far but something tells you that he wouldn’t mind.
You gently glide your hands over his supple rear, something you had been secretly thinking about ever since you first met him. It was a taboo thought. Something that you wrestled with for the past few days. But honestly you didn’t care anymore. Leo was cute, dare you say hot, and he obviously likes you. At this point in time, there was nothing you wanted more than to make him feel good.
You give his ass a squeeze, eliciting a surprised moan.
“Anon…” he says. “Taking advantage of your bodyguard? For shame…”
If the bleeding sarcasm wasn’t enough to reveal his true intent, the fact that he pushed his rear further into your touch definitely did.
You tell him that you can stop if he wants.
“Mmmmm… I think you missed a spot, actually,” he coos.
With his approval, you continue to massage his rear with your soapy hands. You dare say that you’re enjoying this as much as him. The feeling of running your hands through his soft fur is absolutely divine.
After a few moments, he stops pressing his rear into your hands and turns around, much to your disappointment.
Your disappointment was short lived because it was very quickly replaced with shock.
For Leo’s short and feminine stature, the guy was very well endowed.
You mean, in all reality, his cock wasn't freakishly large or anything, but it was definitely above average. If you had to guess, it was probably on the second half of 7 inches. And thanks to your sensual massaging, it was sitting at half chub.
He presses himself against you once again and coos into your ear, “you really know how to spoil your bodyguard… now let me return the favor…”
Leo lowers himself to his knees, dragging his hands down your chest and then onto your thighs.
Your heart felt like it was going to jump out of your chest at this point. You've definitely gotten blowjobs before but for some reason it feels like your first time. You guess it is, technically speaking. Well, from a guy at least.
Leo shoves his snout into your groin and takes a deep breath. From massaging your friends fat ass earlier, your cock is completely hard at this point and throbbing. His snout is resting underneath your balls as he takes in your scent.
You instinctively place a hand on his head and start massaging behind his ears. He stops investigating your crotch for a second to melt into your touch, his eyes half lidded and tongue hanging from his mouth.
At this point, you also noticed that Leo’s own dick was rock hard and throbbing with each scratch.
As cute as this was, you were kind of looking forward to getting your dick sucked.
You stop scratching and rest your hand on his head, hoping that Leo gets the hint.
He gives a little pout, but ultimately returns his snout to your crotch, except this time he wraps his tongue around your balls.
The sensation of his tongue on your balls elicits a gasp from you for two reasons. The first is that it seems like his tongue is a bit longer and more flexible than a regular humans. And the second is that his tongue feels like it has a rough texture to the top of it. It's not unpleasant, it doesn’t feel like sandpaper or anything. It just feels… weird. The sensation is slowly growing on you, however, because as his tongue snakes around your balls, cupping and massaging them with his signature finesse, you feel precum start to leak and drip onto his snout.
Without saying anything, Leo turns his attention to your shaft and slowly drags his tongue up the bottom of your manhood.
You throw your head back in ecstacy.
When he reaches the tip of your cock, he plunges his head down with zero warning. He expertly takes your entire length with zero struggle and you can feel it bottom out at the back of his throat.
You can’t hold back, you moan out his name.
He lets out a satisfied hum and begins working his mouth up and down your cock, all while using his flexible tongue to massage the head of your member.
The sensation is unlike anything you’ve ever felt before in your life. Honestly, this is what you assume heaven feels like.
Between the fact that you haven’t cum in literal years and the fact that Leo must be some sort of blowjob wizard, you find yourself quickly reaching your breaking point.
If Leo keeps this up, you won't last the next 30 seconds.
You lightly tap Leo on the head and say his name. If you were able to form any other words, you would.
Leo drags his mouth off your length and releases you with a pop. He rests his snout next to your cock and starts stroking it with his soft hand paws.
“You gonna cum, dude? Don't get it in my fur, it takes forever to clean out…,” he says teasingly.
He suddenly lets go and stands back up, but turns around, placing his hands on the shower walls in front of you.
He bends over and presents his ass to you.
“Here bro, cum in my ass.”
You can't believe what you just heard. Or what you're seeing. You’ve gone from first kiss, to first blowjob, and now he wants you to fuck his ass!?
“Duh, I don't want you ruining the fur you just cleaned. Plus, I wanna get off too dude.”
…Does he want a reach around or something?
He looks back at you and rolls his eyes.
“Nah bro, just fuck my ass. C'mon dude, I'm leaking like a broken faucet over her!”
You dont wanna ruin the mood or anything but.. this is your first time with a guy. Don't you have to use, like… lube or something?
“Oh shit, sorry my dude, I shoulda gave you a rundown. I brought some lube with me, it's one of the bottles over there…” he says, pointing to a nondescript plastic bottle on the ground.
You quickly pick it up and open it, dripping some on your throbbing cock. Are uh… you supposed to put some on his ass too?
“You can if you want dude! I'm not too tight, you're probably good as is,” he says, taking one hand and spreading a cheek.
You see possibly the prettiest butthole you’ve ever seen in your life. It's a cute shade of pink and EXTREMELY inviting.
You toss the bottle aside and press the head of your cock up to his bussy. Like a gentleman, you confirm that he’s ready before pushing in.
“Go for it,” he says.
With that, you enter his hole. You slide all the way down to the base of your cock with a little bit of resistance and realize something. First off, Leo is a dirty goddamn liar because holy fuck he is definitely tight. This might be the tightest hole you’ve ever stuck your penis in. And you’ve stuck your penis in at least a few holes.
As you slide balls deep into your friend, you both let out a moan, almost in sync.
You begin thrusting, slowly out of respect for Leo and his pretty hole. After a few thrusts, he must’ve gotten fed up because he looks back over his shoulder and pipes up.
“Dude… I know you’re stronger than that. Give it to me.”
You decide to oblige.
You grab onto his hips and give him all you got.
The sound of wet plapping fills the shower room. Every thrust sends ripples through Leo’s fat ass and within just a few moments you're pushed towards your limit.
In an attempt to not embarrass yourself by cumming too early, you pause for a second and try to get fancy.
You press your chest onto Leo’s back, wrap one arm around his chest, and pull him up until you're both standing up straight and his back is pressed against your stomach. You continue thrusting and now you can see his sizable cock slap against his own stomach, leaking profusely with precum.
In no time at all, you reach your breaking point. In your preorgasm frenzy, you reach up with one hand and turn Leo’s head to face you over his shoulder.
You press your lips against his and slip your tongue into his mouth and he matches your vigor with his own tongue.
As soon as your tongue meets his, you unload into his tight ass. With every pump, you let out a deep grunt, muffled by Leo’s snout. As soon as he feels the flood of hot cum in his bussy, he tenses up, unleashing a torrent of cum all over the shower wall.
Every spurt of his cock causes him to tense up, in turn squeezing more cum from you.
Soon though, after your balls empty at least a few years worth of cum into your friend's ass, your orgasm subsides, as does Leo’s.
The two of you eventually un-suck your faces and pull away with a long string of saliva connecting your lips.
In your post nut clarity, you look deep into Leo’s beautiful blue eyes and only one thought crosses your mind.
You can't believe you just came in another dude's ass.
But almost immediately, another thought crosses your mind. You can't help but notice how beautiful your friend is, and how happy you are to have met him.
You rest your head in between the crook of Leo’s neck and bask in the afterglow. You feel a soft purr coming from him as you wrap your arms around his waist.
Eventually, the hot water started running low and the two of you decided to finish cleaning up. You wash the cum off the wall, gather your stuff, and dry off.
Leo, of course, puffs up like a stuffed animal after drying off and says that you’ll have to help him comb his fur when the two of you get back to the bunk.
Of course you agree to help. That's what friends are for.
PART 6
The two of you make your way back to the barracks, the only thing keeping you two decent were the towels wrapped around your waists.
When you returned to the bunk, you grabbed a fresh pair of undies out of your backpack. After a few years in the Zone, You've come to find out that a fresh pair of underwear and dry socks are almost as valuable as bolts.
Leo slips into a new pair of underwear as well.
This new pair hugged his ample rear quite nicely. They also seem to have drawings of tiny cats all over them.
He puts all of his shower stuff and dirty clothes back in the suitcase and takes out a sizable hair brush. Honestly, it kind of reminds you of a pet brush.
He takes a seat on the lower bunk and looks up to you with a big dopey grin. You’ve come to learn that usually when he’s smiling like that, he’s up to something mischievous. So you ask him what he’s smiling about.
“Oh nothing. Just happy, is all.”
…Uh huh. Sure.
Anyways, you ask him to hand over the brush. Can’t have him going out in public with his fur looking all blown out and puffy.
He gives you the brush and you take a seat next to him.
You begin brushing his poofy fur, and, after a while of stroking, it actually starts to return to its normal, non-poofy state.
As you run the brush through his divinely soft fur, he begins to purr.
Hearing him make these noises causes your heart flutter. He’s so adorable.
After about 10 minutes worth of brushing, you finally get his fur under control. He stands up and looks over his body with satisfaction.
“Thanks, bro. That was one of the best showers I’ve had in a long time,” he says as he leans over and plants a little smooch on your head.
He then pulls out a pair of well worn jeans and attempts to put them on.
You say attempt because as he pulls them up, the waistband gets caught underneath his cheeks and it takes a substantial amount of effort to pull them all the way up.
“Ugh, these things are always a pain to put on…” he says as he struggles to zip up his jeans. “But man, do they make my ass look great.”
You tell him that his ass would probably look good no matter what.
“Thanks, my guy! Grew it myself,” he says with a wink.
He puts on an olive drab turtleneck sweater and as his head comes up through the neck hole, his little cat ears pop up as he tugs it into place.
You do the same, except instead of jeans you put on the same dirty pair of cargo pants. You don your chest holster, your jacket, and your boots.
You look over Leo and his new outfit. He looks way better now that he’s out of that stuffy sunrise suit. The jeans really accentuate his curves and his turtleneck just looks super cute on him. Speaking of which, he can't fit his sunrise suit in his suitcase, ironically, so he just stuffs it underneath the bed and attempts to cover it with the suitcase.
“We won't be out too long, I'm sure it'll be fine…” he says, trying to convince himself.
The two of you head back out into the courtyard of the park.
“Hey bro, after we hit up the market, let’s head over to 100 Rads to celebrate our new adventure!”
Heh, why not? Tonight seems like as good a night as any to get wasted.
But first you have to get geared up. The two of you head into a sizable warehouse where multiple vendors have set up shop. In one corner of the building, you spot a lady Freedomer manning a stall lined with various types of armor. It almost looks like she has every suit under the sun in there; from the humble sunrise and its various iterations, to the preferred outfit of the ecologists, the SP-99M, and even an exosuit!
You don't remember seeing her here a few months ago so she must be new.
“Woooooah dude, check out those threads! Surely we can get something for you there,” Leo says as he points to her stall.
You two head over and peruse her stock. You pull up your PDA and check your coupons. Between the job for Beard and all the coupons you’ve managed to save up in the past year or so, it seems you’ve saved up a sizable amount of funds.
You introduce yourself to the vendor, who is casually sipping on a very large can of some brand of energy drink that you don't recognize.
“Nice to meet ya stalk-“
She stops mid sentence once she catches sight of Leo. Here we go again.
You wrap an arm around Leo’s shoulder and pull him close. He lets out a meek ‘eeep’ in surprise.
You tell the vendor that this is your good friend Leo and that you’re both headed to the NPP and that you’re gonna need some protection.
She just stares at the two of you for a moment, mouth agape. You can’t tell if she’s bewildered at Leo’s appearance or at your statement. Probably both.
“Uh… fuck dude,” she says as she picks up her energy drink and looks over the can. “I gotta lay off the energy drinks…”
You give her a moment to recombobulate her senses. She rubs her eyes, sets the can down and looks back up at you two.
“Nope. Cat is still here. Fucking Zone’s got me seeing mutants everywhere…”
You tell her that he is indeed real and that you’re here to buy some new armor.
“Alright stalkers, what kinda new digs are you looking for?” She asks.
You tell her that the two of you plan on heading up to the NPP. Maybe some old underground facilities as well.
She laughs.
“Oh, so you're lookin’ to go off and get killed by a horde of crazy Monolithians, huh? Well, who am I to judge,” she says, taking another sip of her drink.
“A mission like that requires some real protection. Luckily for you two, I've got some exos in stock.”
You tell her that an exo is a little bit out of your price range. You slide her your PDA and ask what your current amount of coupons can get you.
“Hmmm… I’ve worked with less,” she says with a shrug. “Actually, you guys are in luck. We just got a shipment from the Mainland of brand new SEVA suits, but wouldn’t you know it, they actually sent us a few extra! Must’ve been some sort of shipping error…”
Leo nudges you in the shoulder. “That's some serious suitage, bro! Waaaay better than that ratty old jacket you wear…”
Hey, that jacket has kept you dry for many a year. It’s served you valiantly in the line of duty.
“Now, of course,” the vendor continues, “this is a great suit for anomaly protection and all, but it's pretty lacking in the armor department…”
She chugs the last of her energy drink and tosses it in a nearby trash can. She then reaches underneath the counter, pulls out another one, pops it's tab and picks up right where she left off from the other can.
You both give her a concerned look. You have no idea how many of those she's drunk so far, but a quick peek in the trash confirms that it's more than three.
“…but I can kinda solve that. For some extra cash, I can have our tech swap out the ballistic vest for a better one. Take it from Kevlar to ceramic plates. It'll make it much heavier, sure, but if you two are REALLY headed up north, I’d say it’s worth the extra weight.”
That doesn't sound too bad, actually… but you want to make sure that you have enough to cover both the suits AND the mods.
“You’re short about a couple thousand coupons… got anything you could sell?” She asks, swirling the liquid in her drink with one hand.
You turn to Leo. Since he’s getting a whole new suit, he should sell his old one. Since it's so fancy, it’ll probably go for a decent amount, right?
He looks hesitant.
“I don't know dude… I spent good money on my sunrise… I’ve got so many good memories in that thing…”
Aw c'mon. This SEVA suit will be so much better, and plus, we’ll make new memories.
Leo gives you a little smile. “True, but… do they even have my size? You know my old suit was custom…”
Oh yeah, that's right. You lean over the vendor’s table and, in a low voice, ask her if any of those extra SEVAs happen to be in a woman’s size. Your friend here has some… wide proportions.
She looks at you with a blank expression for a moment before answering.
“…Yeah, probably. While I go and take a look, bring that sunrise suit your friend is talking about and I’ll see if we can make a deal,” she says.
The two of you head back to the bunk, retrieve the suit and return to the vendor. You come back to find that the vendor has returned and placed two SEVA suits on the stand's countertop.
The two sets seem to be complete and in great condition, which makes sense for a pair of newly manufactured suits. They seemed to be designed by someone intimately familiar with the Zones' various conditions. Unlike Leo’s modified suit, these came from the factory as a closed-cycle unit with environmental controls built in. Each section of the suit was designed to create an airtight seal when equipped. The helmet was made of clear, impact proof plexiglass with a high tech breathing apparatus containing various filters and air purification systems.
The body suit is made of an insulated synthetic material; great for traversing various anomaly fields. On top of the torso section of the body suit was a Kevlar vest, good for stopping low-power projectiles such as bullets from a pistol. Hopefully these will be replaced by stronger, integrated ceramic plates by the tech, should you strike a deal with the vendor.
While you were busy ogling over this high tech suit, the vendor was likewise busy looking over Leo’s modified sunrise suit. She gave it the once over and turned to Leo.
“You kept this thing in good condition,” she says. “Who made these mods? They're actually really nice…”
“An old tech named Yar made these mods for me, maybe, oh I don't know, two or three years ago now,” says Leo.
“No shit? Uncle Yar made these mods? I'm surprised… Usually he’s more of a gun guy,” she folds the suit up and places it on the countertop, along with the boots. “Well shit, I'll tell you what. I like this suit. It's got some really good mods. Honestly, I might even keep it for myself. For your coupons and the suit, I’ll trade you the two SEVAs with the mods. Deal?”
You look over at Leo. Leo just shrugs. You tell him not to worry, this new suit will keep his fur all nice and clean way better than his previous one.
“Mmmm…,” he hums in contemplation. “Alright, fine. But uh, miss? You think this one will fit me?” He says, pointing to the suits.
“It should,” the vendor says, taking another sip from her energy drink. “It’s the same measurements as your old one. It's a fairly common woman size. Same as me.”
Sweet, so that settles it. You tell the lady that you’ll take the suits. You tap away on your PDA and send her the coupons.
“Sweet. Come back tomorrow morning and I’ll have the SEVAs upgraded with those armor mods.”
You tell Leo to go grab his guns and follow you over to the firearms vendor.
While Leo is off retrieving his carbine, you head over to a vendor across from the armor lady. This one was similar in style to the armor lady, but instead of walls lined with armor, it was lined with, well, guns. He had a complete spread: from western firearms to eastern bloc weapons, ARs to kalashnikovs, semi auto pistols to revolvers. Surely you could find a fitting piece for Leo.
Leo returns with his carbine and pistol, ready to make a sale.
You talk with the vendor and give him the same rundown as you did with the armor lady. The weapons guy, of course, laughs just like the previous vendor did.
“Yup, you’ll need something more than that peashooter if you want to take down those Monolith freaks,” he says.
He turns around and pulls a large rifle off the wall behind him, setting it down on the countertop. Its full length, littered with picatinny rails and a composite adjustable stock.
“This here is a battle rifle,” he says, gesturing over the weapon. “7.62 NATO, select fire, detachable magazine. This thing can lay down some serious hurt. Load this bad boy up with 993 and it’ll punch clean through even the most advanced Monolith exo.”
Leo picks up the hefty rifle with a huff and attempts to shoulder the thing. You can very plainly see him struggling.
“Uh… this isn't really my style,” Leo says as he drops the rifle back on the counter. “I like the whole armor piercing thing though. Got anything more like my carbine here?”
The vendor picks the large rifle up and hangs it back up on the wall. He walks over to another section and picks a different, much smaller firearm and places it on the counter.
“Here, for someone of your… stature.”
Leo picks it up and shoulders it with ease. The whole gun seems to be made of polymer and is a bullpup configuration, with the magazine situated behind the trigger. It's got a picatinny rail on top of the rifle which is populated by a simple flip up set of iron sights. It must be eastern bloc, because the magazine is of Kalashnikov design.
“What the hell is this? I've never seen one of these things before…” says Leo.
“New rifle, imported fresh from the mainland. They say that it's supposed to be the new model adopted by the state military.”
Leo continues to fiddle with it, swinging it around to get a feeling of how it would feel to use. You can't help but chuckle, seeing him bebop around like some sort of tacticool cat operator.
After a bit, he lowers the gun and looks over to you with a big smile.
“I kinda like this thing, Anon! It's nice, light and compact like my old one,” he says, placing it back on the countertop. He then turns back to the vendor. “How much?”
“I’ll knock a couple of thousand coupons off of the price because of your trade-ins. That leaves… 5,000 coupons left.”
Leo gives an exaggerated display of shock and looks at you with wide eyes.
“5,000 k!? Holy moly, I don't have that kinda money, bro! Anon… you gotta help me out here!”
Huh!? Your brother in Christ, you just spent your entire life’s savings on those SEVA suits! You don't have a penny to your name at this point!
“Well neither do I! Did you forget who had to just sell his prized suit for those new digs!?” He exclaims.
The vendor just looks at the two of you as if a couple of bandits just walked into his shop and were offering their pants in exchange for a gun.
“Well,” the vendor interrupts, “if you don’t have the cash then come back another time…” he says as he retires the rifle back to its place on the wall.
Wait. You draw your pistol, drop the mag and clear the chamber before handing it to the vendor. You ask him how much he’d give you for this.
He takes the pistol and looks it over, at first seemingly unsure what to make of it. After inspecting the proof marks and inspecting the mechanism, he looks back up at you.
“Where did you get this?” He asks plainly.
You tell him that your tech got it for you. Apparently it was hard to get.
“Yeah, damn right. I've never seen one of these in the Zone before, they’re much too nice…”
He finishes investigating the piece and puts it down on the table.
“Tell you what,” he says. “I’ve got a crate of those army rifles in the back, in all honesty it didn't take me too long to get. They're standard issue now, which means they’ll be all over the place soon… but THIS,” he says gesturing to your pistol. “You don’t see this everyday.”
“I'll give you two of these rifles and three mags filled with AP for each of the guns, all for that pistol and your friends' peashooters. How's that?”
You look over at Leo, who's absolutely beaming.
You look back at your pistol. You REALLY like that pistol… it’s protected you for these past few years, and you’ve never been much of a rifle guy. But the vendor is right, you're gonna want some serious firepower if you and Leo are gonna make it to the NPP.
Well, they are pretty nice rifles. Whatever, fuck it. The pistol has served you well, time for something new. You tell the vendor you’ll take it.
“Great. Here you go, boys,” he says as he produces another rifle from under the table, along with three mags and a few boxes of ammo.
You grab your new shooters, along with the ammo, and head back to Leo’s stash back in the barracks.
When you get back, you take a moment to look over your new rifle. It doesn't have any of the pizazz of your old pistol… It actually looks kind of boring. You’re sure it's a fine gun, and you have no doubt that it’ll do a good job at protecting you, maybe even better than your pistol… but man, that pistol was cool as fuck.
Leo must’ve seen the regret on your face because he comes up besides you and pipes up.
“Hey, bro…”
You look over at him to see that he’s holding his hands in front of him with his ears folded flat.
“Thanks for selling your fancy gun, I know you really liked that thing…”
You tell him that yeah, you did.
Leo adverts his gaze, and looks towards the ground.
But you like Leo more, and his happiness and protection is worth more to you than some really cool pistol.
He perks up almost immediately and wraps you up in a hug. After nuzzling his head into your chest, he looks up to you and gives you a quick smooch.
You smile and ruffle his hair. You tell him that you have an investment in him now and you gotta make sure he’s safe.
“Awww, thanks bro! Don't worry, you cover my ass and I'll cover yours,” he says with a wink.
As you two were caught up in your gay little episode, another stalker had wandered into the barracks with a half empty vodka bottle in hand and stumbled upon you and Leo.
“Hey you two! Get a room!” He calls out from the doorway.
You look at each other and then back to him.
Yeah he’s probably right. You ask Leo if he wants to go get drunk at the 100 Rads.
“Fuck yeah, bro! Let's go celebrate!”
The two of you walk past the drunk stalker while he continues to take swigs from his vodka.
During your walk over to the bar, you notice that night has finally fallen over Rostok. The few working flood lights in the industrial park have activated and painted the old industrial walkways with the warm glow of incandescent bulbs.
While you're walking, you think of something that might be an issue.
You just spent all your money. The both of you are broke as fuck. How are you going to afford booze?
“Don’t worry bro, let me handle this.” Leo says confidently.
Oh no.
The two of you enter the underground bunker of the 100 Rads and after a few twists and turns through claustrophobic stairwells, you pop out into the main barroom.
The barkeep stands behind a large wooden countertop. He looks to be an older man whose hair has seen better days, if his shiny bald head was any indication.
The bar looks to be pretty full, with various different stalkers, belonging to various different factions, sitting around tables, standing in groups in corners, and perched up on barstools.
The barkeep had his back to the rest of the room and was messing around with a TV perched up in between some wooden cabinets mounted to the wall behind the bar.
Leo pulls up a stool and calls out to the barkeep. You follow him and take up a stool beside him.
“Heeeeyyy Barkeep! How've you been, bro? What’s the specialty on tap today? Me and my pal here need something for a special occasion!”
The barkeep turns around and hooks his eyes on Leo before coming over to talk.
“Leo, you sly cat! I can see you’ve finally decided to come in and pay your tab.” He says, leaning on the countertop and giving Leo a smug grin.
Leo offers a sheepish grin and rubs the back of his head.
“Weeeelll, not exactly. See, me and my pal here are heading up to the NPP and we need some motivation!”
The barkeep lets out a hearty laugh. You’re starting to think that maybe you two should stop telling people that.
“Moving onto bigger and better adventures, eh Leo? You know, there was a stalker who came in here sayin’ the same thing many years ago…” he says.
“Really? Did he make it?” Leo asks.
“Yeah, he sure did.”
“He made it to the wish granter!? What did he wish for?”
“Who knows? He didn’t even come to visit after he returned from the NPP. Guess he was too busy to stop by for a drink. Whatever he found must’ve warranted his immediate attention.” Said the barkeep, picking up a rag and wiping down the counter.
Leo looks at you for a second before nudging you and turning back to the barkeep.
“Well shit! How about a deal, barkeep?” Asks Leo.
The barkeep pauses his wiping and looks up at Leo inquisitively.
“A deal?” Asks the barkeep.
“Yeah! We’ll make it to the NPP and wish for your bar to be the most popular bar in the Zone! And in return, you consider my tab paid. Deal?”
The barkeep lets out another laugh. “Leo, my bar is already the most popular in the Zone. But you crack me up, cat, so you know what? If you make it back alive, bring me back a souvenir and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
“Deal! Now how about some booze, barkeep?” Says Leo, his tail swishing enthusiastically from side to side.
The barkeep doesn’t say anything and instead just smiles, turns around, and prepares two glasses of some alcohol he has on tap.
While he’s busy doing that, you look over at Leo and he looks at you with a big dopey smile.
He’s really excited about this, huh?
“Hell yeah bro! This is the adventure of a lifetime! Plus you heard the barkeep, only one other dude has made it to the NPP and lived. If we pull this off, we’ll be legendary!”
Yeah, you suppose you would be. But it's not just about becoming legends. You're also doing this for Leo, to get his memory back.
“True!” Exclaims Leo.
The barkeep returns with your drinks and sets them down in front of you.
Leo picks his drink up and raises it high.
“To memories! Old and new,” he says.
You do the same and clink your glass to his. To memories.