chapter 4 "Shadows of the Survivor"
:
The military van rumbled along the broken highway, its engine echoing through the ruins of Kopergaon. Inside, the tension was heavy—Crist sat quietly cleaning a pistol, Lisa was humming to herself while flipping through a torn medical file, and Yuri, hands on the wheel, stared forward.
No one spoke for ten minutes.
Then Crist finally broke the silence.
"We need shelter for the night. Check the map."
Yuri nodded.
"There's an abandoned school compound ahead. Might be clear."
Lisa raised an eyebrow.
"Or crawling with soldiers."
"Either way," Crist muttered, **"we move."
---
The school was half-collapsed, its playground filled with rusted swings and vines growing over broken desks. The walls were riddled with bullet holes. Everything smelled of burnt paper and blood.
Yuri scouted the perimeter. Crist checked every corridor, gun drawn. Lisa walked toward what used to be the infirmary, running her fingers along bloodstained walls.
Inside a classroom, they set up base.
Yuri sat near a cracked window, loading bullets into a rifle.
Crist looked at the whiteboard—someone had scribbled "Help us" in dry blood.
Lisa leaned against the wall, looking up at the ceiling.
> "I stayed in a place like this once," she said, quietly.
"Before the war. Before... everything."
Crist glanced at her.
"Did you survive alone?"
Lisa smirked.
"There were five of us. Only I made it out."
---
Suddenly—footsteps.
Yuri raised his hand. Silence fell.
Crist signaled with two fingers—enemies approaching.
They hid quickly.
Three armed men entered the building, dressed in scavenger gear—not soldiers, but hunters. Ruthless survivors who killed for supplies.
> "I saw smoke from the school," one said.
"Someone's here. Check everything."
They split.
Crist whispered,
"We take them quietly. No gunfire."
---
Yuri crept behind one, gripping a metal pipe.
WHAM!
One down.
Lisa slid a syringe from her coat and jabbed it into another man's neck. He dropped, twitching.
Crist faced the third.
"You have two seconds to run."
> "Who the hell—?"
CRACK!
Crist snapped his wrist and knocked him out cold.
---
Later, the three intruders were tied up.
Yuri stood over them.
"We need answers. Where's the nearest outpost?"
One of them chuckled.
"You don't want to go there. You'll all die."
Lisa leaned in, smiling with her surgical scalpel.
"Then talk. Or I'll make sure you're useful in pieces."
---
🩸 That night…
The wind howled. Fire crackled in a barrel beside them.
Yuri stared at the flames, haunted by flashes—his brother's face, the grenade, Argon's scream.
Lisa looked at him and asked softly,
"Do you still see him?"
Yuri nodded slowly.
"Every time I close my eyes."
Crist, watching them both, spoke for the first time in hours.
"Then don't close them. Not until it's over."
---
: The Raid on the Choki
The sun hadn't risen yet.
Thick fog coated the ground like spilled smoke. In the distance stood a small military choki, heavily guarded—five concrete posts, sandbagged corners, two sniper towers, floodlights sweeping the broken highway, and a large red flag flapping in the wind.
Yuri stared through the binoculars from a rooftop.
"Ten guards. Two snipers. One communication officer. One van."
Crist crouched beside him, loading magazines.
"We don't need to kill them all. Just silence the comms and take the vehicle."
Lisa was already laying traps—glass shards tied to wire, a syringe loaded with muscle-freezing serum, and a grenade with a twisted smiley face painted on it.
"So what's the plan?" Lisa asked, tying her hair back.
Yuri tightened the grip on his rifle.
"Crist takes left tower. I go through the south gate. Lisa… chaos control."
She smiled.
"My specialty."
---
🎯 Phase 1 – Infiltration
Crist moved like a shadow, scaling the wall with a knife in his teeth.
The sniper never heard him coming.
Slice. One down.
He used the fallen sniper's scope to mark two guards near the armory.
Bang. Bang.
Silenced shots. Clean.
---
Yuri sprinted low under the south wall, cut the chain lock, and slipped inside.
He grabbed a guard by the mouth and snapped his neck in the dark.
Inside the choki building, he planted a jammer on the radio system.
"No one's calling for help tonight." he whispered.
---
🔥 Phase 2 – Chaos
Lisa walked straight toward the gate in full view.
She threw a flare high into the air.
"BOYS! Come get me!" she screamed.
Three guards rushed out, guns up.
Boom—they tripped the wire.
Glass tore into their legs, and Lisa ran past them, tossing her signature grenade.
BOOM!!
A loud, flaming explosion lit up the yard.
---
⚔️ Phase 3 – Final Sweep
Yuri kicked the armory door open, took two rifles and a stun grenade.
Crist cleared the watchtower with a flash and brutal takedown.
Lisa, bruised but grinning, slid behind cover and shot a syringe into the commander's neck.
He fell, gasping.
---
Five minutes later… silence.
The checkpoint was theirs.
Crist opened the van, checking supplies:
"Ammo. Maps. Food. Gas. Jackpot."
Lisa wiped blood off her cheek.
"Told you. One-man army, remember?"
Yuri didn't smile. He stared at the flag burning behind them.
"We'll burn more than flags before this is over."
---
🔻 Cut Scene – Unknown Location
A surveillance feed flickered in a cold underground base.
A figure in a black trench coat, face hidden in shadow, watched the raid from a cracked monitor.
"He's getting stronger… Yuri."
A gloved hand slammed a button.
"Send in the execution unit.
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