Finally got Heather out to the park or whatever you want to call it. And we finally got an encounter with this thing.
I'm going to make this short but detailed enough.
We kept Lyosha on point, far enough away from Heather for their headaches to subside. I'm not sure who gives who the heavier headache. In any case, we had the cops sweep the park before nightfall. No drunks. We should be clear. We hoped to catch this thing prowling. It's not been active lately; probably eating too much.
We had a helicopter overhead with IR going, keeping a distance. It's hard to be stealthy with a chopper whirling over head. Then Lyosha stopped us. He'd picked something up but had not made any sort of visual contact yet. He moved his way up a bit, talking to the helicopter pilot.
I asked my team to speak in English for Heather's sake. The chopper pilot claimed to speak only Russian.
And then I heard "Oh fuck!" and gun fire; it was Lyosha. The pilot was chattering in Russian something but I couldn't hear it over the shooting. Sasha jumped passed me, grabbing me by the shoulder. "Come on!" he shouted. I put Roma and Natasha on Heather duty. Vlad took midfield.
But by the time I arrived near Lyosha, "Where is it?!" I heard Lyosha ask in English. And the pilot responded, "Gone."
"What do you mean gone?" I asked.
"Just like that," Lyosha said. We came back together.
"What'd you see?" Natasha asked.
Lyosha answered, "Yea, it's bipedal, definitely cat-like supernasty. Moves faster than I could keep up, too. Like I said, one moment it's 3 meters in front of me, the next nowhere to be seen."
"Sasha, did you get it?"
"Yea."
"Stay close to Heather, then." Easiest assignment in the world, I know.
I talked to the chopper guys and they didn't have anything to add, but they did back Lyosha up. Not that it helped Heather any, but, oh well.
"Well it knows a little more about us now, and we still don't know shit about it." It's OK. I'm used to it by now. "Alright, let's move out," I said.
We made our way deeper into the park, further away from the city. We could no longer hear the buses and cars driving along the road. Then something came cross my nose. It smelled like rotten meat. It's too smart for this to be pure coincidence. I indicated to Lyosha who was again on point the direction and alerted the chopper pilot. I decided to park here for a few minutes to see what would happen. Natasha came to me and said something in private. I nodded. "Carry on," I told her.
After three minutes the chopper pilot got on the radio again and said that something was stalking up on us from the opposite direction of the smell. My nose was overwhelmed with the smell of the rotting meat. Lyosha started concentrating. Something was coming down the pipe; I didn't have to be psychic to know that much.
"It's running," the pilot added.
"Eyes open!" I said, moving towards Lyosha. We seem to have seen it at the same time. And then we really saw it; it went from 30 meters out to less than a meter in the blink of an eye. We hadn't even shot our guns. Instinct, fortunately, saved my ass. It lept towards me with a growl and all I saw was teeth coming at me, but I managed to get ahold of something that felt like a horn and turn the creature harmlessly to the side as I let me gun drop on its tactical sling. I flung the fucking thing as hard as I could but it was heavy and strong like a bull. Lyosha was already shooting as I brought my gun up. And then it disappeared again from my sight.
I heard Sasha say, "get behind me," and I heard that Heather sort of yelped; I guess he shoved her or something. Both he and Roma opened up as the monster went after them. But before anything could really happen, it was gone again. Gone for real. Just like last time.
Snow witch came immediately to mind. But this thing is bigger, tougher, and meaner.
"Let's have a look at that, Kolya," Vlad said to me, stepping towards.
"What?" I said. He pointed at my arm and when I straighted my arm I felt the blood running down my forearm, dripping off my fingertips.
Vlad's one of those guys, well, when he says, "better that we get you to a hospital," he absolutely means it.
"Do what you can," I told him.
"It won't be enough," he said.
I know Vladik and he only says "no" once. I nodded. "Understood. Do what you can."
And he did. And once I became aware of the wound to my upper arm it started to hurt like someone had jammed a smoking red hot poker into my bicep.
Russian Visit
Logan wrote:Well, if you can ruskie, get me some pictures of the tracks. I have been on the trail of various lycanthopes more than just a couple times, and have picked up pretty well on estemating height/weight, as well as stance and speed based on tracks.
Hope to be able to meet up with you Caliburn, might be on the hill soon, one of my leads takes me up to Penn. Ave.
No tracks of yet. At least no good ones; where it's muddy footprints sort of fade away real quick. If we get any, I'll let you know; thanks for the help, Logan.
С волками жить, по-волчьи выть.
-
Ron Caliburn
- Posts: 6915
- Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:09 pm
- Location: Best if you don't know.
We gave her goggles but I don't know how comfy she actually was using them or what she actually saw. Sasha gave her a pretty good shove when jumped in front of her.Ron Caliburn wrote:I'm sure Heather had something to say for the description if she didn't lay eyes on it herself.
С волками жить, по-волчьи выть.
-
Ron Caliburn
- Posts: 6915
- Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:09 pm
- Location: Best if you don't know.
-
Ron Caliburn
- Posts: 6915
- Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:09 pm
- Location: Best if you don't know.
-
Ron Caliburn
- Posts: 6915
- Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:09 pm
- Location: Best if you don't know.
Ron Caliburn wrote:What did it record?
Pretty much everything.
Those teleports the creature was pulling off come off looking like glitches in the video. Supernasties can sometimes fuck with electronics, of course. But for Heather it's just shoddy Russian hardware taping a cat.
She is right about one thing though; it wasn't a productive night. We stayed on that thing until the matinal hours.
"I can't see shit," I yelled. I was quite aware of my injury; we couldn't let up though. We had been working for a couple hours already. We had plenty of ammo and the sun wouldn't be up for a bit. Working on the assumption that this creature is some sort of creature of the night like a hell hound or something meant that we couldn't stop until we killed it, lost it, or were all dead. I was getting exhausted faster than normal. I'm not a quitter but not stupid either (despite what you may hear); if I'm not effective, then I'm endangering more than just my life. Vlad's words were ringing truer and truer. I almost pulled myself, but a little pep talk from Lyosh got my head back in the game.
At the same time as the call from the chopper came in the damn thing was right on me again but Roma's strength of mind gave the fucker a hard knock. It hit the ground, sort of stunned, as I pulled the trigger the damn thing faded from sight and came back, just in time for Roma's shotgun slugs to find a new home. It let out a guttural growl that caused me to take a step back and hesitate while it got to its feet. As it leapt through the air, I saw Sasha's katana rip through the monster's underside. It hit the ground, stiff as wood.
Of course I knew better than to think we might have been on the winning side of this encounter.
Natasha emerged from the darkness (I still don't know how she does that) and I saw her tuck a ward in a pocket as we turned to unload on the monster. But before I could get Heather up to have a look before that happened, the god damn creature disappeared.
The chopper pilot radioed it had appeared about 30 meters from our position. It was not moving still. I just wanted to sit down and catch my breath at this point. I was spent. I shook off the pain as best I could as the others were already moving. My blood-soaked battle fatigues were saturated with blood which had turned cold in the night.
Lyosha managed to get two shots from his SVD off.
"It's gone," the pilot reported.
We waited.
We patrolled.
We waited.
At 0800 the mission was called and we returned. We decided to back that night. I had to stay in the hospital, however; so they had to go without me (Sasha to make that report). Not even Svetlana the nurse could make that pain go away.
С волками жить, по-волчьи выть.
-
Ron Caliburn
- Posts: 6915
- Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:09 pm
- Location: Best if you don't know.
-
Ron Caliburn
- Posts: 6915
- Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:09 pm
- Location: Best if you don't know.
Hey, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, I am more than willing to assume that it's a duck untill some egghead can show me the body that says I'm wrong.
If were a natural solitary predator it would be unlikely to attack prey traveling in a group. Upon failing to bring down prey on the first attack, a solitary predator very rarely targets the same prey a second time, the risk of having a second attack come up empty as well is simply too high.
Now Dawes, you claim to be the rational mind there, have you gotten good pictures of the prints, or possibly molds, or any other empirical evidence? Species misidentification happens, the more information is collected the more accurate the ID becomes. Am I certain it is a paranatural being? No, I am not. Do I believe that the available evidence points in that direction? Yes, I do.
If were a natural solitary predator it would be unlikely to attack prey traveling in a group. Upon failing to bring down prey on the first attack, a solitary predator very rarely targets the same prey a second time, the risk of having a second attack come up empty as well is simply too high.
Now Dawes, you claim to be the rational mind there, have you gotten good pictures of the prints, or possibly molds, or any other empirical evidence? Species misidentification happens, the more information is collected the more accurate the ID becomes. Am I certain it is a paranatural being? No, I am not. Do I believe that the available evidence points in that direction? Yes, I do.
True nough, Shaytan, true nough. At least far enough to cover the first attack, but if they winged it, I don't know of any normal nasties who stick around once the lead starts to fly.
Dawes, I have an unlikely, although "rational" explaination just for you. Several species of cat and ursinoids get terribly protective near their young, check for caves and dens in the area, you may find your "normal creature" that you want soo badly.
Oh and Dawes, what kind of reporter relies on government agents and military personell to provide evidence to a case she is workin on, hmmm? I just find it odd that the governmental specialists are looking for and coalating what physical evidence they can find, while you, a reporter, seems to have her eyes closed to even the possibility of a solution that you don't fully understand.
Oh and, Dawes, are you the same Dawes that used to write the weekly debunk column for the Times?
(Just asking because a remember working a case with a Dawes in NYC, a bit on "supernatural Vs. supermedicated" regarding the growing reports of legitimate boogeyman activity in the underground areas of NYC. I particularly liked how "these people are so high on everything they can get their hands on, that even being in the same room can cause hallucinations in normal persons.") If it was you, it was an excellent sweep job, we couldn't have done better writing it ourselves. If that's not you, well you remind me of her - alot.
Dawes, I have an unlikely, although "rational" explaination just for you. Several species of cat and ursinoids get terribly protective near their young, check for caves and dens in the area, you may find your "normal creature" that you want soo badly.
Oh and Dawes, what kind of reporter relies on government agents and military personell to provide evidence to a case she is workin on, hmmm? I just find it odd that the governmental specialists are looking for and coalating what physical evidence they can find, while you, a reporter, seems to have her eyes closed to even the possibility of a solution that you don't fully understand.
Oh and, Dawes, are you the same Dawes that used to write the weekly debunk column for the Times?
(Just asking because a remember working a case with a Dawes in NYC, a bit on "supernatural Vs. supermedicated" regarding the growing reports of legitimate boogeyman activity in the underground areas of NYC. I particularly liked how "these people are so high on everything they can get their hands on, that even being in the same room can cause hallucinations in normal persons.") If it was you, it was an excellent sweep job, we couldn't have done better writing it ourselves. If that's not you, well you remind me of her - alot.
Heather's safety is my priority. It's getting in the way of her story. I know. That's why I've been trying my best to remain patient with her. She has a legitimate beef with me. But she needs to understand that Sasha was putting himself between her and seriously fatal shit. The only way to really make her understand is not to stand in the way. But what good is she dead to anyone? I already know the truth.
Well, this thing seems to stay away from her. But when she and Lyosha get close, they both get headaches. Sasha seems to be alright, relatively speaking, of course. Fuck it, if she wants to walk point, she can... but I'm still ordering Sasha to stick to her like white on rice.
I've made it a habit that no one but the supernasty fucktards die on my missions.
Maybe our next outing will be more productive. And no I don't consider this thing biting her head off productive.
Well, this thing seems to stay away from her. But when she and Lyosha get close, they both get headaches. Sasha seems to be alright, relatively speaking, of course. Fuck it, if she wants to walk point, she can... but I'm still ordering Sasha to stick to her like white on rice.
I've made it a habit that no one but the supernasty fucktards die on my missions.
Maybe our next outing will be more productive. And no I don't consider this thing biting her head off productive.
С волками жить, по-волчьи выть.
Wipe a family off of the planet? For being a witness? Please, the group I was with specialized in protection and cover-up, not murder. Manipulate repoprters to not believe their own eyes (or convince them that printing will destroy their credibility), hire a few shrinks to come in and help the families adjust and deal with the memories of their "stress induces hallucinations".
And Dawes, you would not be suitable for some tasks. I have a feeling you don't let things drop, when the kill counts reported by witenesses don't match the bodies being wheeled out. You are actually perfect for the task of snapping up physical remenant evidence Ms, dawes, it's the only evidence you will be able to find, at least as long as that wonderfully strong will, and remarkably logical brain will not allow for the possibility of "unexplainable" phenomena. Don't change a thing Dawes, and I am sorry, but you are unlikely to get anything of higher quality than the Zapruder film. Just a peice of advice, look for tracks, bits of hair, and other physical trace evidence, that stuff does not vanish.
Tovarischt, (is it still tovarischt for the greeting?), if you have Dawes on point, make sure that who ever is on her relies only on physical training and skills, I have a feeling that is all that will work around her.
And Dawes, you would not be suitable for some tasks. I have a feeling you don't let things drop, when the kill counts reported by witenesses don't match the bodies being wheeled out. You are actually perfect for the task of snapping up physical remenant evidence Ms, dawes, it's the only evidence you will be able to find, at least as long as that wonderfully strong will, and remarkably logical brain will not allow for the possibility of "unexplainable" phenomena. Don't change a thing Dawes, and I am sorry, but you are unlikely to get anything of higher quality than the Zapruder film. Just a peice of advice, look for tracks, bits of hair, and other physical trace evidence, that stuff does not vanish.
Tovarischt, (is it still tovarischt for the greeting?), if you have Dawes on point, make sure that who ever is on her relies only on physical training and skills, I have a feeling that is all that will work around her.
-
Ron Caliburn
- Posts: 6915
- Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:09 pm
- Location: Best if you don't know.
(Kolya)
We went out again. Let me just try to keep this short as possible; I’m not really in the story telling mood.
We were walking through the area when it popped out of nowhere as usual and leapt on Sasha before he much time to react. The thing had gone for his head, its preference, and the intel I gathered from Heather’s interviews with the eye-witnesses. "Gah, fuck, aaaah!" I heard Sasha growl over the radio. But the monster didn’t spend a lot of time on Sasha; it leapt again at me and knocked me over. Pinning this god damn thing down is harder than kicking a whale along the beach. After that it continued on its way towards the street, but it’d have to get through Vlad, Lyosh, Roma, and Natasha first. Unfortunately, if they opened fire, they’d be shooting into our position. But Natasha could use her wards, which worked fairly well, but the sleepers and paralysers seems to have failed, but I heard that similar guttural growl as some of the wards went to work on the beast.
(Heather)
It was about here some wise ass had the unfortunate poor sense to give me another shove 'to avoid being hurt' by the supernatural beasties. Either that or someone getting knocked into me when everyone was getting bowled over. I was quick to get up due to the fact I wasn't wearing as much tactical gear as everyone else.
(Sasha)
I grabbed Heather by her arm, "let’s go," I grunted through the pain. "Don’t want to miss this," a slight dramatic pause for the pain to twist my face up, "again," I added. I felt some pain in upper leg where the creature’s claws had dug into me when pushing off to attack Kolya. It dug deep into the muscle and I could feel that I was gimping along somewhat, trying to keep the pain out as much as possible.
"Don’t lose that thing!" I heard Kolya bark over the radio in Russia to the helicopter pilot. The pilot replied that the creature had disappeared inside a building on the island in the middle of the pond in the middle of the park where we were operating. I didn’t know what that building was; nor did anyone else. Probably some sort of storage unit. Funny that you don’t really think about some things you see all the time. "Stay alert," Kolya reminded us in English, "this thing moves faster than Spiderman." Perhaps not the best analogy but it’s Kolya after all.
There’s a small road that goes from the eastern shore of the pond to the eastern edge of the building. The approach gives a good view of the two-leveled building. We worked our way across the little bridge-road-thing. Slowly we approached. I could see some broken out windows. Of course, we didn’t have this thing cornered; it’s already demonstrated its ability to cover long distances in a matter of an eye-blink.
I had Lyosha and Natasha hang back to cover us. Roma and Vlad took another angle of cover, leaving Heather, Sasha, and me to enter the building. I was nervous. The shit was about to hit the fan. I felt it. I knew it without a doubt. There could be nothing other than shit hitting the fan. As we got closer to the building we saw the little trail of wetness from the pond and to the building right under where the shattered window was.
I was watching the window. To say that I was unease is something of an understatement. I really was sensing that this thing was close. I kept my gun on the window and Kolya gave the door a hefty kick with a vicious growl. I could hear the lock start to rip through the door jamb. He reset and gave it another kick and this time the lock ripped clean out of the door jamb. "Go!" I said to Heather as Kolya went into the building and I was right behind him. There was some wet tracks on the ground in the dust that went up the stairs.
Le sigh, getting left behind again.
My instincts were screaming, "trap!" Then again, when I’m on operations they’re always screaming something unpleasant. That’s just the nature of my job, I guess. Here’s how I saw it going down in my head. The beat lures us into the building and picks us off. If it gets the others then that’s a bonus for it. If not, well, the guerrilla war continues. And I really didn’t want that to happen. I made my way to the stairs and leaned around the corner looking up the stairs.
Kolya ordered the guys outside to insert from topside via the helicopter as we crept up the stairs. When we heard Roma’s breaching charge go off, Kolya went around the corner, "Go!" I said to Heather, and went right after Kolya. Roma and the others were coming in through the breach, shooting; the creature was hit in crossfire. The speed and aggression of our actions gave us the initiative. For the moment we had the initiative anyway.
The creature has this unique defense I’ve never seen where it fades from reality at the moment it’s attacked. It takes a lot of gunfire to hit the fucking thing. That’s pretty much the only option given the composition of the minds in the room. It also seems to be able to teleport at will over fairly long distances.
Let me interject: when he says 'go' he's already ahead of me blocking my view of whats going on. Attempts to get some video footage at this point was crappy due to the people ahead of me, muzzle flashes, and dust flying around from breach charges. I did see 'something' but it wasn't as dramatic as the supposed monster was made out to be.
It was right in front of me and by this time I’ve seen enough glimpses of the fucker to have a real good idea of what it actually looks like. I can say that it’s not a big cat. It’s more canine with stubby tusks (not horns like I previously thought). A large paw shot out and raked across my armour, digging in a little. The force of the attack sent me stumbling back. I tripped over something, or someone. I was on my ass and in the zone: I could hear the crisp crack of gunfire the smell of dust, gunpowder, and shitty smell of the monster all at the same time gracing my olfactory sensors. I brought up my AN-94 squeezed off a burst. The conscious look on the monster’s face turned to a grimace as the two slugs slammed into its chest. I saw Sasha go for decapitation of the damned thing but the blade cut into the shoulder as the monster dodged his attack. Sadly that didn’t seem to slow the monster down much.
But perhaps enough to pour some more FMJs on the thing. Roma slipped in some of the blood, bits of flesh, and gore on the floor and the monster jumped on top of him and tried to bit off his head but only got a mouthful of shoulder as Roma rolled to the side. It popped immediately after that and was right in front of me as I got to my feet. It jammed me, I couldn’t fire, and I tried to dodge its claw swipe but it managed to hit me anyway. I fell to the ground as pain ripped through my body starting at the hip the monster had gouged some flesh and muscle out of. The next thing I remember is hearing some more shooting and scrambling around. I rolled to my good side to see Lyosh and Sasha running for the stairs. Vlad was going to work on Roma while I saw Natasha kneeling over me appearing from nowhere. The look on her face told me everything I needed to know. I think I felt her hand tapping my helmet which she didn’t take off. And then the sound of a grenade rang through the building. She shuddered and looked towards the stairs.
I had brought Heather with me as Lyosh tossed a grenade down the stairs after the monster that was making a break for it. "Until further notice whatever comes out isn’t friendly," I said in Russia to the pilot.
"I got nothing," the pilot replied after some seconds.
"Shit!" I yelled, defeated. As we made our way down the stairs and around the corner we just caught a handful of little black birds flying around and out the window and door. And nothing else. The helicopter pilot never saw anything but the little birds, too.
I finally did manage to get a few clear pictures of the birds. By then my camcorder was a wreck from having dropped it when the grenade went off. Luckily I was able to salvage the memory from it. Not that it helps on this occasion.
I haven’t seen Heather since this operation so I don’t know what she’s got going on. Last minute shopping, perhaps. No matter how much egg I have on my face and no matter how incorrect her conclusions, I consider my job well done. The beast was destroyed and we’re all still alive to talk about it, with our branding of the truth of course. Still.
As I finish typing this, Svetlana the Nurse turned on the radio and informed me that it’s stuck on some shitty pop music station. I told her that I could get that fixed. She said it’d still be broken. I said I could get it replaced. She said that would just break, too. She sauntered over towards me with her vial and needle and that sort of half smile I still haven’t figured out. I smiled at her, best I can smile that is, and said, "You’re a genius, Lana, you know that?" and she replied, "how’s that?" She jammed the needle in my arm. "You making me listen to non-stop bullshit has sped up the healing process a great deal. I should be ready to go by tomorrow; if not, then," I couldn’t finish, the morphine numbing my lips and face. She laughed out loud and put her hand in front of her mouth and I think she said, "oh the healing power of Zhanna Friske," as I prompted began drooling all over myself like most guys do over her; however, I had a ironclad excuse: morphine.
Natasha’s preparing a report on the monster should anyone come across it in their work they’ll have at least a marginal head start understanding what’s going on.
Actually I was in the process of packing up to leave back for New York. I have a article to write when I get back. Over all it had been an interesting experience from my perspective. Sure, no one got me to believe any more in he supernatural then I did before I came to this country. As Koyla said, the cat was stopped. What happen to it after the grenade had gone off still falls into the unexplainable category. No doubt it found a way out of the room and stole away from the view of others. It does happen even in our hyper-technological advance world we leave in. Koyla team has been kind but I do want to get home and relax after this arduous assignment.
I reassure Koyla gave it his best shot to prove the other side to me and I respect that.
We went out again. Let me just try to keep this short as possible; I’m not really in the story telling mood.
We were walking through the area when it popped out of nowhere as usual and leapt on Sasha before he much time to react. The thing had gone for his head, its preference, and the intel I gathered from Heather’s interviews with the eye-witnesses. "Gah, fuck, aaaah!" I heard Sasha growl over the radio. But the monster didn’t spend a lot of time on Sasha; it leapt again at me and knocked me over. Pinning this god damn thing down is harder than kicking a whale along the beach. After that it continued on its way towards the street, but it’d have to get through Vlad, Lyosh, Roma, and Natasha first. Unfortunately, if they opened fire, they’d be shooting into our position. But Natasha could use her wards, which worked fairly well, but the sleepers and paralysers seems to have failed, but I heard that similar guttural growl as some of the wards went to work on the beast.
(Heather)
It was about here some wise ass had the unfortunate poor sense to give me another shove 'to avoid being hurt' by the supernatural beasties. Either that or someone getting knocked into me when everyone was getting bowled over. I was quick to get up due to the fact I wasn't wearing as much tactical gear as everyone else.
(Sasha)
I grabbed Heather by her arm, "let’s go," I grunted through the pain. "Don’t want to miss this," a slight dramatic pause for the pain to twist my face up, "again," I added. I felt some pain in upper leg where the creature’s claws had dug into me when pushing off to attack Kolya. It dug deep into the muscle and I could feel that I was gimping along somewhat, trying to keep the pain out as much as possible.
"Don’t lose that thing!" I heard Kolya bark over the radio in Russia to the helicopter pilot. The pilot replied that the creature had disappeared inside a building on the island in the middle of the pond in the middle of the park where we were operating. I didn’t know what that building was; nor did anyone else. Probably some sort of storage unit. Funny that you don’t really think about some things you see all the time. "Stay alert," Kolya reminded us in English, "this thing moves faster than Spiderman." Perhaps not the best analogy but it’s Kolya after all.
There’s a small road that goes from the eastern shore of the pond to the eastern edge of the building. The approach gives a good view of the two-leveled building. We worked our way across the little bridge-road-thing. Slowly we approached. I could see some broken out windows. Of course, we didn’t have this thing cornered; it’s already demonstrated its ability to cover long distances in a matter of an eye-blink.
I had Lyosha and Natasha hang back to cover us. Roma and Vlad took another angle of cover, leaving Heather, Sasha, and me to enter the building. I was nervous. The shit was about to hit the fan. I felt it. I knew it without a doubt. There could be nothing other than shit hitting the fan. As we got closer to the building we saw the little trail of wetness from the pond and to the building right under where the shattered window was.
I was watching the window. To say that I was unease is something of an understatement. I really was sensing that this thing was close. I kept my gun on the window and Kolya gave the door a hefty kick with a vicious growl. I could hear the lock start to rip through the door jamb. He reset and gave it another kick and this time the lock ripped clean out of the door jamb. "Go!" I said to Heather as Kolya went into the building and I was right behind him. There was some wet tracks on the ground in the dust that went up the stairs.
Le sigh, getting left behind again.
My instincts were screaming, "trap!" Then again, when I’m on operations they’re always screaming something unpleasant. That’s just the nature of my job, I guess. Here’s how I saw it going down in my head. The beat lures us into the building and picks us off. If it gets the others then that’s a bonus for it. If not, well, the guerrilla war continues. And I really didn’t want that to happen. I made my way to the stairs and leaned around the corner looking up the stairs.
Kolya ordered the guys outside to insert from topside via the helicopter as we crept up the stairs. When we heard Roma’s breaching charge go off, Kolya went around the corner, "Go!" I said to Heather, and went right after Kolya. Roma and the others were coming in through the breach, shooting; the creature was hit in crossfire. The speed and aggression of our actions gave us the initiative. For the moment we had the initiative anyway.
The creature has this unique defense I’ve never seen where it fades from reality at the moment it’s attacked. It takes a lot of gunfire to hit the fucking thing. That’s pretty much the only option given the composition of the minds in the room. It also seems to be able to teleport at will over fairly long distances.
Let me interject: when he says 'go' he's already ahead of me blocking my view of whats going on. Attempts to get some video footage at this point was crappy due to the people ahead of me, muzzle flashes, and dust flying around from breach charges. I did see 'something' but it wasn't as dramatic as the supposed monster was made out to be.
It was right in front of me and by this time I’ve seen enough glimpses of the fucker to have a real good idea of what it actually looks like. I can say that it’s not a big cat. It’s more canine with stubby tusks (not horns like I previously thought). A large paw shot out and raked across my armour, digging in a little. The force of the attack sent me stumbling back. I tripped over something, or someone. I was on my ass and in the zone: I could hear the crisp crack of gunfire the smell of dust, gunpowder, and shitty smell of the monster all at the same time gracing my olfactory sensors. I brought up my AN-94 squeezed off a burst. The conscious look on the monster’s face turned to a grimace as the two slugs slammed into its chest. I saw Sasha go for decapitation of the damned thing but the blade cut into the shoulder as the monster dodged his attack. Sadly that didn’t seem to slow the monster down much.
But perhaps enough to pour some more FMJs on the thing. Roma slipped in some of the blood, bits of flesh, and gore on the floor and the monster jumped on top of him and tried to bit off his head but only got a mouthful of shoulder as Roma rolled to the side. It popped immediately after that and was right in front of me as I got to my feet. It jammed me, I couldn’t fire, and I tried to dodge its claw swipe but it managed to hit me anyway. I fell to the ground as pain ripped through my body starting at the hip the monster had gouged some flesh and muscle out of. The next thing I remember is hearing some more shooting and scrambling around. I rolled to my good side to see Lyosh and Sasha running for the stairs. Vlad was going to work on Roma while I saw Natasha kneeling over me appearing from nowhere. The look on her face told me everything I needed to know. I think I felt her hand tapping my helmet which she didn’t take off. And then the sound of a grenade rang through the building. She shuddered and looked towards the stairs.
I had brought Heather with me as Lyosh tossed a grenade down the stairs after the monster that was making a break for it. "Until further notice whatever comes out isn’t friendly," I said in Russia to the pilot.
"I got nothing," the pilot replied after some seconds.
"Shit!" I yelled, defeated. As we made our way down the stairs and around the corner we just caught a handful of little black birds flying around and out the window and door. And nothing else. The helicopter pilot never saw anything but the little birds, too.
I finally did manage to get a few clear pictures of the birds. By then my camcorder was a wreck from having dropped it when the grenade went off. Luckily I was able to salvage the memory from it. Not that it helps on this occasion.
I haven’t seen Heather since this operation so I don’t know what she’s got going on. Last minute shopping, perhaps. No matter how much egg I have on my face and no matter how incorrect her conclusions, I consider my job well done. The beast was destroyed and we’re all still alive to talk about it, with our branding of the truth of course. Still.
As I finish typing this, Svetlana the Nurse turned on the radio and informed me that it’s stuck on some shitty pop music station. I told her that I could get that fixed. She said it’d still be broken. I said I could get it replaced. She said that would just break, too. She sauntered over towards me with her vial and needle and that sort of half smile I still haven’t figured out. I smiled at her, best I can smile that is, and said, "You’re a genius, Lana, you know that?" and she replied, "how’s that?" She jammed the needle in my arm. "You making me listen to non-stop bullshit has sped up the healing process a great deal. I should be ready to go by tomorrow; if not, then," I couldn’t finish, the morphine numbing my lips and face. She laughed out loud and put her hand in front of her mouth and I think she said, "oh the healing power of Zhanna Friske," as I prompted began drooling all over myself like most guys do over her; however, I had a ironclad excuse: morphine.
Natasha’s preparing a report on the monster should anyone come across it in their work they’ll have at least a marginal head start understanding what’s going on.
Actually I was in the process of packing up to leave back for New York. I have a article to write when I get back. Over all it had been an interesting experience from my perspective. Sure, no one got me to believe any more in he supernatural then I did before I came to this country. As Koyla said, the cat was stopped. What happen to it after the grenade had gone off still falls into the unexplainable category. No doubt it found a way out of the room and stole away from the view of others. It does happen even in our hyper-technological advance world we leave in. Koyla team has been kind but I do want to get home and relax after this arduous assignment.
I reassure Koyla gave it his best shot to prove the other side to me and I respect that.
С волками жить, по-волчьи выть.
-
Ron Caliburn
- Posts: 6915
- Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:09 pm
- Location: Best if you don't know.
