See the Zone and Survive

by RoadRunneR

Chapter 2: Playing the Babysitter

Chapter 2
Playing the Babysitter

'Help me. Help. Me.'

It talked. It. Just. Talked. In perfect English. It is intelligent. It asked for help. It is sapient.

While my brain struggled to assimilate the onslaught of illogical information, my body acted on instinct. I quickly bandaged the creature’s bleeding wounds -apparently it’s a female- picked her up and ran for the hideout.

Why do I always leave my artifacts there?

I knew that moving an injured individual is dangerous and outright stupid but a life was at stake here. A sapient, intelligent life. I had to hurry if I wanted to save her, blood was still pouring out of her numerous open wounds. I did not know how much of it the Bloodsuckers had drained already, I did not even know how much she was supposed to have in the first place!

I felt her heartbeat becoming weaker as I ran. I had to hurry. Fortunately, she was quite light.

After a couple minutes of running, I arrived at the office building of the Jupiter factory complex. I entered the tall, derelict building and climbed the stairs literally four steps at a time. Once on the last floor I ran to the far door on the right of the hallway. Upon entering the camp, I noticed that Vano was already there, sleeping on one of the couches.

At least I won’t have to carry him up the stairs.

I set the still bleeding equine on the mattress on the floor and frantically searched among my artifacts.

My Firefly and Beads, come one, that is all I need!

I finally found the healing artifacts and began with the Beads first, passing it all over her body, stopping the blood loss and sanitizing her wounds. I then picked up the Firefly and attended to her worst injuries.

I started with her foreleg, resetting the open fracture with a crack, then applying the artifact after a rough surgical operation to remove the damaged flesh. The bone mended back into one piece; torn down blood vessels, nerves, muscles, tendons and skin simply grew back and a pristine looking leg was all what was left.

The Zone’s magic never gets old.

I moved on to the twisted wing. I had next to no knowledge about wings and birds in general, but I managed to get it back into what looked like an acceptable position. Once again, I used the artifact, healing the wing almost instantly

There. Nobody can tell it have ever been injured.

After that, I treated her numerous cuts, bruises and other non lethal wounds, each of them leaving nothing but a faint scar after I had used the Firefly. Strangely, her horn took longer to reform, seemingly absorbing the effects of the artifact like a sponge.

Yet another strange thing to add to today’s list.

All that was left was her right ear and eye. While the eye healed perfectly, the ear did not heal fully, and a bit of it was still missing after treatment.

I then used the Beads on her entire body, preventing any infection and finally sat down with a sigh.

Something felt wrong however. A horrible doubt overcame me as I noticed that her chest was not moving: she was not breathing anymore. I pressed an ear to her chest. I heard nothing good. Her heartbeat was way too fast and too weak.

Ugh. fuck.

I had irresponsibly saved this unknown being from the claws of two bloodsuckers, carried her all the way to my camp, healed all of her wounds... all of this to fail in the end... what a waste of time.

...wait.

An insane idea germinated in my mind. Putting two and two together, I remembered what I had heard about artifact interactions. I grabbed my Flash and Vano’s Battery, held them in my hands and brought them down together on the chest of the creature. It resulted in nothing but a small electric spark, not enough to stabilize a heart.

Looking back and forth between the two artifacts, I tried to think of another way.

It should work. One of these artifacts is acts like a cathode, the other is an anode... both are charged. What am I missing?

Then it clicked. I rubbed the artifacts against each other, causing a fountain of electrical sparks and held them in the air.

“YOU ARE NOT DYING ON MY WATCH!” I shouted, before I pressed the artifacts against her chest once more.

BZRT

There was a big flash of electricity accompanied by a short buzzing sound. Every muscle in the creature’s body tensed under the massive discharge of electricity. Including the most important one: her heart.

I listened to her chest again and heard the reassuring, regular if a bit fast thumping of a healthy heart. I smirked at the small victory.

Thank you Noah.

But now my makeshift defibrillator had turned into two heavy, ivory stones.

What in the Zone...?

So there I was, having saved an unknown, possibly dangerous creature from the claws of two deadly mutants. On my own. Destroying two valuable artifacts in the process. So far I had acknowledged that the creature was an intelligent, sapient, equine-ish being, no doubt about that. If I was one to make analogies, I would have called her a mare.

A mare?

I laughed. The ridiculousness of that statement actually made me laugh. I wiped off a tear of laughter before taking a deep breath and relieve myself of the tension I had endured.

This is ridiculous. But then again, it is not every time you come across a sapient being from another world.

Deep in thought, I observed the sleeping creature. Curiously, her mane and tail were rainbow-ish by then. Both looked translucent, immaterial and were waving as if there was wind in the room.

Definitely not from this world. This is insane.

I examined her a last time. She was breathing steadily, her heart rate seemed normal for her size and she was not bleeding anymore, all her wounds had been healed. Blood and gore still caked her fur though: mostly from her, but also from the Bloosuckers too. Some kind of cleaning was in order but that would have to wait. She was unconscious still, its was nighttime and I was exhausted. This episode really had taken its toll on me: carrying Vano all the way from Yanov, then her appearance... I really needed some rest.

I draped the sleeping creature with a blanket and produced a Bubble from my artifact belt before putting it next to her. That way all the residual radiation from the healing artifacts would be absorbed overnight.

Before I went to sleep, I decided to make a note for Vano so he did not freak out at the sight of the creature when he would wake up. I tore a sheet of paper off my notebook and wrote the message, before putting it in his pack of smokes. I put everything back in place and walked back to the sleeping creature.

I made sure she was comfortably installed, then laid down on the second couch and instantly fell into a deep, dreamless slumber, finally succombing to exhaustion. Knowing what to do with the creature could wait until the next day.

---

I woke up and stretched my legs, before slowly unfolding my wings.

No pain... what a relief! That was a horrible dream.

I noticed the coldness of the air. I opened my eyes. All I saw was a grey, dirty ceiling over me, and sun rays coming from the window, their warm light announcing a beautiful day.

Wait... sun rays? Grey ceiling? I’m not in my chambers!

I shot up and looked around me. There was a broken desk in a corner, an overturned cardboard box in the middle of the room and a lot of equipment which purpose was lost to me.

Where am I?

I looked around again. On each side of the mattress to the dirty mattress I had been laying on, there was a couch. I froze at what I saw on each of them. Bipedal beings, very similar to the beasts in my dream.

I gulped.

It wasn’t a dream. Better get out of here fast.

I slowly backed off towards the door, my eyes locked with the two sleeping creatures, careful not to make any noise.

One of the creatures grunted and slowly sat up.

I froze.

It produced a little cardboard box and a small metal contraption from one of its pockets. It opened the cardboard box and pulled a cylindrical thing from it, before noticing a piece of paper in the box. The creature took the paper and unfolded it, before examining it, as if it was reading.

Then it looked at me.

---

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”

I woke up, startled by loud screams and instantly pulled out my pistol, whipping it around. The equine creature was staring at a wide eyed, slack jawed Vano. Strangely, her mane and tail both had gone back to being entirely cyan and normal looking.

Oh, and she was screaming.

I sat up, pinching my nose and looked at the screaming creature.

“Please, would you calm down?!” I asked in English.

The creature stopped screaming, turned around and took off, running out the front door.

Should have seen that one coming.

I sighed. “I think you frightened her Vano,” I said.

My bearded friend looked at me with a scowl. “You've got some explaining to do.”

“That will wait. Follow me,” I said, grabbing my sniper rifle and my spare shotgun, walking out the door. “Let’s catch up to her before she gets into trouble again.”

Vano stood up, stirred and picked up his machine gun and shotgun before following me. I was already climbing down the stairs when he caught up.

“Why would you bring some kind of evolved mutant in here?” he asked.

“She’s not a mutant... she actually spoke to me in English,” I explained.

“So what? Some mutants are known to ‘talk’, like Snorks or Controllers,” replied my friend, shrugging.

I stopped in my tracks and looked at Vano. “That was not unintelligible garble, but real, understandable English,” I said, making wide gestures for emphasis. “My best guess? We may have just made First Contact,” I added, climbing down the stairs again.

Vano followed me, wide eyed. “What? First Contact? Aliens are here to destroy us? As in Mars Attack? Independence Day? The War of the Worlds? The Day the Earth Stood Still?”

I chuckled. “No. She just seems lost. When I first found her she was almost dead, half eaten by Bloodsuckers,” I said, cringing as I remembered the dire condition the poor thing had been in.

“So more like E.T. then,” said my friend with a grin. "Like, flying unicorn phone home," he added with a laugh.

---

I ran as fast as I could.

I’m not letting myself captured and tortured again by these foul creatures!

I ran past a few dogs. They followed me, barking madly. Not even bothering to stop, I tried to cast a sleep spell on them.

It didn’t work.

What’s going on? Why can’t I use my magic?

I kept running. I had to outrun the dogs if I wanted to live.

---

I looked around. We were on the decrepit road between the two main buildings of the Jupiter factory. Clouds were seen high up in the sky, obscuring the light of the early sunrise... and the creature was nowhere to be seen.

Great.

I could hear multiple dogs barking madly in the distance however. I gestured Vano to follow me as I walked off to investigate what had startled the dogs. The noise seemed to come from the inside of the main factory building. I entered it, double-barrel at the ready, Vano watching my back.

Inside, everything was in ruins: rubble, parts of machinery and broken pipes were scattered everywhere. Old, rusted machines were still at their original place and there was a catwalk leading to the next room above our heads.

We took the catwalk and entered the adjacent room. The scenery was similar to the previous room, except there was a crashed military MI-24 in the middle, sitting in a pile of rubble.

The winged creature was on top of the derelict helicopter, desperately trying to get away from what looked like a very large pack of Pseudodogs. The mutated beasts were jumping at her, barking madly at their prey out of reach.

I raised my shotgun and fired a round in the air.

BANG

That got the attention of the equine creature. Unfortunately, the dogs were looking at me too.

“Uh Vano?” I asked, not looking away from the horde of mutants.

“Yes?”

“Fire at will.”

Vano smirked and squeezed the trigger. His machine gun came to life, its monstrous roaring overpowering the screams of the pack of mutants. I sprayed my shotgun into the fray, reloading every two shots and dropping some dogs but Vano and his machine gun proved much more efficient than me.

Then I noticed that some of the Pseudodogs seemed to just disappear as they were hit by the bullets.

“Psy Dogs!” called Vano. “The three in the back!”

“Got it,” I replied.

I jumped into the melee, ignoring the illusionary mutants created by the Psy Dogs. One of them jumped at me and bit my arm. I headbutted the beast, my steel and Kevlar helmet easily shattering skull of the construct and making it disappear in a flash of light.

Without losing time, I rushed at the helicopter and glided under its tail. Three dogs were there, between the chopper and the wall. Their ragged fur was clearer than one of a normal Pseudodog.

Yep. Psy Dogs indeed.

One of them leapt at me. I sidestepped it and let it fly past me. It hit the body of the downed helicopter and slid down to the ground. Not letting the beast time to recover, I turned around and obliterated it with a volley of lead from my shotgun.

The second one bit my leg, drawing blood. I ignored it and aimed at the third Psy Dog, which was preparing to pounce.

BANG

One more down.

I stomped on the dog that had bitten my leg, breaking its neck and killing it instantly. Taking a deep breath, I emerged from behind the helicopter and looked how Vano was doing.

He was sitting down, smoking a cigarette while curiously observing the creature perched on the helicopter. Upon noticing me, he smiled.

“Glad to see you’re still alive,” he joked.

I chuckled. “Yeah, you too my friend,” I replied, sitting down next to him.

---

They had slaughtered the dogs with their loud weapons, and now they were observing me. They were tall, taller than I was. Both of them seemed to be clad in garments I didn’t know the utility. I didn’t know what they were, what they were going to do with me …

… I gulped.

Oh, dear sister, where am I?

The silence was interrupted by the creatures talking to each other in a language I didn’t understand. The shortest stood up and walked towards me, then put its weapon down on the ground.

With what little remained of my magic, I tried to defend myself.

---

We stayed there, silently observing the creature perched on the helicopter.

“So, what do we do?” Vano asked me.

“I do not know,” I admitted, thinking.

She does speak English though... establishing contact should be easy enough.

“I will speak to her,” I finally said, standing up.

Vano chuckled. “Good luck with that pal.”

I approached the helicopter and stopped a few meters away, before laying my weapon down on the ground.

Let’s hope she sees it as a sign of peace.

The winged equine was still on top of it, staring at me... Only this time, her horn was alight. A few fist sized rocks floated in the air, surrounded by a glow similar to that coming from the creature’s horn. I stopped in my tracks in wonder.

Fascinating... some sort of innate telekinesis power. Truly this creature is amazin-

bunk

Something hit my armored head.

Did she just thr-

bunk

Yes. Yes she did.

She was throwing rocks at me, as if trying to drive me away from her. I took my helmet off, unfazed.

“Would you cut it out, please?” I asked in English.

That seemed to break the creature’s concentration. she opened her eyes and all of the rocks fell down to the ground. At this point, she was staring wide eyed. Not in fear, but in total surprise and bewilderment.

“Come over here, we have to talk,” I added, gesturing her to approach.

The creature looked like she was going to faint.

…

Vano grunted. “Do we really have to keep it?” he asked.

I looked at him with a scowl. “We cannot let her get by herself in the Zone!”

“Ugh. I hate playing the babysitter.”

Author's Note:

Escort missions SUUUUUUCK. It's a general rule.
The idea for the artifact defibrillator? Inspired by the pictures and the properties of the artifacts: in SoC, one of them enhances stamina at the cost of electricity resistance and the other simply absorbs electrical current. so yeah. Distorted logic. But who cares?

Mutants:
Pseudodog
Psy dog

Comments

[RoadRunneR]

This may be a little bit late because I've got a metric fuckton of paperwork to do atm. But hey, It's there, isn't it? So shut up and enjoy

[AlphaThroughZeta]

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”

I woke up, startled by loud screams and instantly pulled out my pistol, whipping it around. The equine creature was staring at a wide eyed, slack jawed Vano. And she was screaming.

I sat up, pinching my nose and looked at the screaming creature.

“Please, would you calm down?!” I asked in English.

The creature stopped screaming, turned around and took off, running out the front door.

Should have seen that one coming.

I sighed. “I think you frightened her Vano,” I said.

My bearded friend looked at me with a scowl. “No shit. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

“That will wait. Follow me,” I said, grabbing my sniper rifle and my spare shotgun, walking out the door. “Let’s catch up to her before she gets into trouble again.”

Vano stood up, stirred and picked up his machine gun and shotgun before following me. I was already climbing down the stairs when he catched up.

“Why would you bring some kind of evolved mutant in here?” he asked.

“She’s not a mutant... she actually spoke to me in English,” I explained.

“So what? Some mutants are known to ‘talk’, like Snorks or Controllers,” replied my friend, shrugging.

I stopped in my tracks and looked at Vano. “That was not unintelligible garble, but real, understandable English,” I said, making wide gestures for emphasis. “My best guess? We may have just made First Contact,” I added, climbing down the stairs again.

Vano followed me, wide eyed. “What? First Contact? Aliens are here to destroy us? As in Mars Attack? Independence Day? The War of the Worlds? The Day the Earth Stood Still?”

I chuckled. “No. She just seems lost. When I first found her she was almost dead, half eaten by Bloodsuckers,” i said, cringing at the thought.

“So more like E.T. then,” said my friend, smiling.

“Yeah. Flying Unicorn phone home.”

Flying unicorn phone home!!!

[RoadRunneR]

2254292
I really need a proof reader...

[Balnar]

Wow i wasn't expecting this chapter to be this interesting and the part with the artifacts was brilliant
Can't w8 for next chapter

[Cascadejackal]

bunk
Something hit my armored head.
Did she just thr-
bunk
Yes. Yes she did.
She was throwing rocks at me, as if trying to drive me away from her

The rest of the chapter was good, but this? This was pure gold!

[Lunae Lumen]

Electricity does not work like that. Cathodes and anodes are features of polarized electrical devices, meaning that a device will always have both. Placing one device's cathode in contact with another device's anode does nothing. Neither does touching both to a third object. You have to close the circuit. Try this with a battery - many devices stack batteries end to end to raise the voltage, but the batteries can't supply power until you close a circuit through the other ends. In real defibrillators, this is what the cords are for.

Rubbing them together, attempting to supply more power by friction will at best produce as much energy as you supply. By hand. Which is not enough to defibrillate a heart, unless you keep at it for a very long time.

Just call it magic and be done with it.

[RoadRunneR]

4057731
b-b-b-but static electricity...

I've been out of school for too long.

[The Serpent Mage]

I've had this on my Read Later for a couple months now, and I'm just getting to reading it. I can tell I'm probably going to like it already simply for

“YOU ARE NOT DYING ON MY WATCH!” I shouted, before I pressed the artifacts against her chest once more.

BZRT

^this. The things your soldier says when you Defib a dead ally in Battlefield...

[Anonymous Jackalope]

5069999

*BZZT*

*BZZT*

*BZZT*

DAMNIT WHY'D YOU HAVE TO DIE INSIDE A BUSH!

[Bronzer]

With what little remained of my magic, I tried to defend myself.

From what? He just put his weapon on the ground as a sign of peace.

I took my helmet off, unfazed.

Because when someone is throwing rocks at your head you should totally take off your helmet.

[SilverDiamond]

5136952 Your comment reminded me of that video.

It's in Russian, and about two friends swearing and joking about the situation.

[CommanderApplejack]

I knew that moving an injured individual is dangerous and outright stupid but a life was at stake here. A sapient, intelligent life. I had to hurry if I wanted to save her, blood was still pouring out of her numerous open wounds. I did not know how much of it the Bloodsuckers had drained already, I did not even know how much she was supposed to have in the first place!

Actually, outside of the civillian world after you stabilize a victim there's a good chance that you'll have to move them.