Survivor

Sustentata

[I.Pov, Adnamir's internal thoughts.]

[A/N: Perspectives may switch without warning throughout the story as a whole.]

Adnamir sat perched atop of the tall 10 story building carelessly, his short legs dangling off the roof without a care in the world, humming a small lullaby to himself to occupy the empty silence around him, speaking of around him, there sat an old Mosin Nagant with what appeared to be a rail for scopes, currently there sat a boring 6-12.7x adjustable zoom scope atop said rail and a long tube that made the rifle fire quieter- He calls it a quietener, since it doesn't make that loud of a sound with the tube attached, near it there was a small backpack half emptied and full of mostly clothing along with spare rounds in-case he ran out of the rounds in his vest, or magazines for his TT-30 in a makeshift holster.

Adnamir drew carelessly, drawing what he could see from atop the old practically derelict building, he'd like to say that, if he wasn't in Pripyat, he'd be a world class artist or painter, though he didn't know whether he would like to be outside of Pripyat any more from what he has heard from foreign tourists that like to look around the C.E.Z, despite how naive they are with coming into the Zone, with the mutants running amok, they made great sources of information- He heard that Africa, where-ever that is, was taken over by aliens in a year, and he didn't know all that well whether or not that was close or if he should be worried, his mother unfortunately didn't manage to teach him all that much about geography, since she was shot by a Loner too high and too drunk to realise she was merely requesting where she was, he's glad he managed to get revenge after that, killing the Loner with his own rifle- but he didn't keep it, it'd be rude to his mother.

As Adnamir drew, he noticed a large group of people walking down a side road the apartment building was facing, quickly, he put the notepad to the side and pulled out a pair of binocular's, a gift from his mother he kept, to look at them, and to double check it wasn't those radiation fetishists that get hard ons looking at the melted puddle of slag in the basement of that power plant, his fumbling made him almost drop his binoculars, barely catching them by their strap before he held them up to his eyes and adjusted their zoom, his vision blurring suddenly from the change of focus and lens.

He almost couldn't believe what he was seeing, almost even dropping his binoculars twice again- Those were... they were not humans, they looked like mammals, from the books his mother gave him, but they weren't right, they were tall and bipedal, some looked like they shouldn't be in the climate at all, behind them he could barely make out a smaller group of humans, all younger than him, stalkers if he was right, likely thought poorly and made their way here thinking it'd be... safer? here?

Behind them trailed an old barely functioning BTR, a BTR-50 far outdated, with a turret his mosin couldn't penetrate, the turret looked to be focused on the group of young humans in front of them- His mother taught him about war before, told him about the laws made, these... mutants? were clearly violating them, they were even treating them like inferior beings.

Adnamir slowly got off the edge of the balcony and grabbed his PDA from besides him to post an open transmission for nearby stalkers, taking a photo of the mutants for proof, "What are these? Aliens?", he typed and linked the photo, crouching behind the concrete half-wall with his head barely peeking out, his binoculars focused upon the mutants.

The mutants moved at a snail's space, carefree as if they were superior to everything around them and that nothing would dare to harm them, talking to one another without care, now, he might not have the best hearing in the world but he could very faintly hear them discussing "why are we even here in this shitdump, these furless meat bags behind us are all we have found and all we will find!", they... didn't sound very kind to the prisoners, some of the... mutants pushing the ones falling behind.

"Look- I know we are to... find humans and bring them to base for safe keeping and shit but, think of the paperwork, and look at them, they are weak and furless, probably won't survive the night, why don't we just, leave them here, it'd be less paperwork!" Adnamir saw the one infront speak, they were... slowly making their way towards his position when the one in charge halted them and moved to speak to his subordinate, the other soldiers under his charge leading the humans with them to line up against a cold wall overgrown with moss, he barely noticed one lizard thing that looked a mix of a snake and a... the snake with legs take a younger female human away before the other mutants noticed, said mutant taking them behind the building- or atleast, behind the building for the other mutants, Adnamir still saw the secluded mutant and he likewise saw an opportunity for his Mosin Nagant to come into use. 

As quickly as he could, he grabbed his mosin and adjusted the scope's zoom-level to a comfortable distance, so he could, well, attempt, to calculate the bullet drop he would face, already the alone mutant was... unzipping their uniform, which gave Adnamir all the more reason to kill them and hopefully let the fellow human escape.

*THWIP*

He pulled the trigger, his scope zeroed in on the attempting rapist's head, he felt a moment of glee as a scene of his mother's killer entered his mind, the mutant was akin to that, in his opinion anyways, if he saw an opportunity to kill a vile thing, whether it be human or mutant, he would take it.

The girl on the other side of the scope jumped back in fear as the mutant's head rocked to the side, his body collapsing immediately as his brain ceases to function, looking to the sides of her trying to pinpoint the would-be rapist's killer, she couldn't find anything but ruined buildings- She rushed forward and grabbed the corpse's rifle and a magazine, glad she still had her clothes on, she didn't even attempt to take it's plate carrier off as she knew it wouldn't fit, instead she grabbed a grenade to throw into the armored vehicle, it was a M-67 if she heard them right.

'Oh sweet mother of God what is she doing-?!' Adnamir thought to himself, frowning as he watched the girl climb into a window of the building that the mutants were directly opposite to, with the humans lined up to that fact, with a rifle and a grenade they picked off the dead mutant she left behind, he lost sight of her after she entered the building but could only hope she wasn't going to try and do what he thought she would-

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*

a series of cracks sounded out, clearly being gunfire directed towards the mutants from above, already 2 of them dropped dead with the others returning rapid fire, the armored vehicle behind them turning it's turret towards the origin before a grenade landed on it's chassis and exploded atop of it, the BTR-50's thin armor for it's top hull couldn't take it and shrapnel tore through it from above, the shrapnel immediately executing the few crew members and the gunner.

The gunfire ceased with it, one lucky mutant having scored a headshot on the little girl but it was too late, their vehicle destroyed and other mutants are probably already on the way- there is a reason explosives don't last long in the zone.

The mutants on the other side of his scope looked infuriated, with 2 breaching the building and moving to secure the little girl, the one that looks like a commander barked out an order in a foreign language and pointed towards the humans lined up, looking immensely scared and terrified, one being pale all of a sudden.

the unit's machinegunner opened fire on the humans, committing a warcrime directly in his eyes, the line of people slumping immediately as the few who tried to run or play dead got shot by the squad leader's pistol, Adnamir felt bad he didn't record it on his PDA- to show to other's of the C.E.Z, that these new mutants were smart and possibly had vehicles, but it wouldn't matter.

He grabbed his things and walked towards the staircase, unaware that a specific anthromorph spotted him and what he did, already they were moving towards his building with a group of their own.