World War: Unity

Chapter 5: Sticks And Stones (Unedited)

Nine Hours Earlier...

There are 3 hostages lined up in front of a man they call Grigory Matveev as an unknown U.N.K soldier threatens to kill them, this soldier is Death. After a speech from Grigory, he shoots one of the male hostages and then gets shot himself. Shortly after this incident, the Marines let the last two hostages go, they gave them a car and a tank of gas.

"So, where do you live? I'll drop you off to your family." the man said in Russian.

"My family is gone, those men who found me... they found me on the streets fighting to survive." the woman responded in Russian. The man looked sorrowful at her for a moment before examining that she was pregnant, "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to them?"

The woman looked at the man as tears came down her eyes, "Airstrikes from the U.N.K, they bombed my entire town."

The man held her hand before saying, "It's okay, you can stay with me for a while, I have a place far out from the warzone."

The woman smiled, "Thank you," she said.

"What's your name if you don't mind me asking?" 

"Lidiya, and you?"

"Semyon."

"What do you do for a living, Semyon?"

"I'm an artist, I used to sell in the street corners of Saratov before companies started hiring me to do their logos."

"Wow," Lidiya responded, "sounds like you must make quite a fortune."

"Well, enough to enjoy a little luxury, that's all. I don't own a mansion or anything but I own a pretty nice house, and a decent car as well."

They sat in silence as they recapped what they had just gone through, "So, how'd they take you?" Semyon asked. The woman looked over before replying with, "I work at a bookstore, I was on break when a group of soldiers showed up in our town. I was on my way to get some coffee when all of sudden this man walked up to me" she said as she began to tear up, "My vision went dark and I realized they placed a hood over my head. When I took it off, there I was, in the back of a truck with a bunch of other hostages that I didn't know."

The man patted her on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, "I was in my house when they came, they broke down my door and held me at gunpoint."

They fell back into silence as they continued to drive, eventually, they ended up in front of a nice-looking house.

"Welcome," Semyon said as he got out of the car. The woman admired the house before getting out as well.

As they walked up to the house the man opened the door for Lidiya and allowed her to walk in first, "Nice place, I really like it," Lidiya said with a smile. 

"Thank you, I've worked hard on it."

Semyon observed the living room, he then looked up and noticed the window was open before taking a step back. 

"So, where will I sle-" Lidiya was cut off by Semyon's hand covering her mouth.

"We need to leave," whispered Semyon, "go to the car."

She did as instructed and Semyon slowly backed out of the house, another man came from one of the rooms with a gun.

"Please stop walking sir," a man said. He was in a U.N.K uniform.

Semyon then shut the door as quickly as he could and began running. The man quickly opened the door and ordered his men to fire. Soon after, riflemen from the upstairs windows began firing upon the man's car as Semyon and Lidiya took cover behind it.