Shadows of JiangXi

[arvg]

Elias hated surprises.

To be fair, he hated a lot of things '€“ bureaucrats, inquisitive neighbors, domestic cats, warm cola and nerds all drew his ire reliably '€“ but most of them simply ceased to matter once he was in the Zone. Not so for surprises, however. It had been shaping up to be a really nice day, a quiet day when he could sit by the fire and enjoy a drink in peace... until they came over the hill and wandered into the derelict village that was his home away from home.

Of course that was before the bottom level of the small farmhouse erupted in front of him, the figure of a nugget bursting through the upper window, sprinting along the porch roof and flinging himself into what had once been a small vegetable garden.

Elias dived for cover behind an old Lada, keeping his rifle up trained on the farm house... what ever was in there had scared the dickens out of the Nugget, and since most things in the Zone were too big, too insane, or just plane immune to pain after the radiation had wrecked havoc on their nervous systems, that it could very well still be alive.

He decided to play it safe, shaking his head at the waste of ammunition, he sprayed the lower floor of the farm house with gunfire, standing from his cover and beckoning the nugget to get running, while he advanced slowly on the farm house, changing magazines for his last clip, cursing Nuggets and other things that were sent from above to give him a rotten day.

He was used to watching prospective Coalition Nuggets take their first steps. This was where the perimeter obstacles were thinnest, where men with nothing to loose crawled under barbed wire fences and through minefields. The lucky ones usually appeared at night or in the early morning, stumbling over the crest to the south with clothes and hopeful faces covered in grime, to be welcomed into the ranks of the Coalition Army.

Sighing he stopped at the body of a dead nugget, coldly dropping to a knee and removing the ammo pouch, feeling it clink reassuringly with full magazines.

At least one of his problems...

He'd spoke too soon as something moved in the wrecked lower floor of the farm house, and Elias didn't wait to figure out what it was, he ran for it, leaping what had once been a white picket fence, and running for all he was worth up the road.

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