The tools that are expendable - survivor mini-stories of my Stalker experiences

[Mroz4k]

Welcome, to my survival story miniseries. As many of you may know, I rarely ever leave the comforts of the Voyager type of games, but recently I have been motivated by the one and only @CoffeePilferer into trying my luck at the Stalker mode. Since my fears of this mode go back almost 4 years when the game was virtually completely different and far more brutal, I am going to give this mode another try, to see how well will my extensive Voyager experience aid me in this unwelcoming mode.

For the purposes of these series of mini-stories, I shall call my survivors "Expendable tools". Because why not. They do my bidding, and I can dispose of them at whim if I want to. Besides, they are not particularly bright.

Some more information: 
I will be using feats. Cold fusion, Sprinter, Walker. 
I will try my best to survive as longest as possible - desperately clinging to life if I have to. 
That said - I will be more dare-devilish then I would be otherwise. Gotta keep taking risks to keep it spicy.
I am going to start these off with a random location unless specified otherwise.
I don't have a lot of experience writing stories. We will see how they go. I might end the series if they become dull

I think that is all for the first kind of info. "The Tool no. 1" story coming in soon.

[Mroz4k]

Are you all ready? Frankly, I am not sure I will be able to cut it - I have jack all experience with Stalker and am probably gonna get nailed real fast. Enough with the tool puns. 

Expendable Tool No. 1
 

I have awoken to a chilling cold of what I presume is the hostile weather of the Great Bear - a paranormal island somewhere along the Canadian shoreline, behind the polar circle. I have been sent here because I am expendable, and my master wishes to use me to test out my ability to survive in this scenario. Despite extensive study of the area, I have no idea where I am.



What is this place? Forlorn Muskeg? Timberwolf mountain? Mountain Town? Some other place?
I look around. Oh, I really am a tool... I have the trailer of Mountain Town right behind me. I head in there to arm myself with gear.

Nothing much. I now own a baseball cap, 2 cotton scarfs, and a cotton toque. I was also able to procure a little soda can and some minor other loot. 
I have no jacket or a vest of any sort, and I am cursing my owner. But, I did find a flare! Hopefully, it will be of use to me.

Considering I am expendable, I decided to start making my way towards the old church. As I am frolicking around, picking up sticks and flowers, I fully expect to see quadrillion wolves by that old church that will chew me up and later release in a form of a compressed, smelly matter. As I approach the old church, I caught a glimpse of movement - and the grey death that awaits me there if I approach. I tear up a couple of cattails and I stuff them in my pockets. A snack for later. I found a rock. I found another rock. I took the rocks and I hurled them in the direction of the previously seen movement - hopefully, that will distract the woofer. A quick peek from behind a tree trunk suggests the coast is clear. I bolt straight into the doors of the church.



This place is messy. I look around - nothing that exciting in here, either. Another baseball hat, great, I had too few of those. A crowbar! A tool I can defend myself with! I decide to light up a campfire - I need torches, a LOT of torches. The second try is the charm... and a book goes up in flames. I throw some torches on top of it all. I stuff some more literature in my backpack - a  kindling for later arson efforts. Got nice 4 pieces of low-grade torches, ready to be used. As I am leaving, I noticed a piece of a tablecloth, hanging on a coat hanger. I don't like it. I tore it to pieces with my bare hands.

Time to get a move on. I am cold, really cold, but I can't just sit around. I need better clothes. 

I embrace my meeting with the wolf guardian I peeked at earlier - but oddly, there is nothing there. I decide to risk it, and I take a peek at the contents of the cars. I found a matchbox of wooden matches! Great! Other than that, nothing exciting. A little bit of food, and a cloth. The wind is getting really, really windy. Maybe the woofers decided to book it for a less windy location. A plus for me!

As I loot cars on my way, I reach the point of what I can bear, temperature wise - now I am freezing. I cross the bridge, and the Town of Milton stands right in front of me, as I bravely hold my flare stick, ready to pop it.



No time to wait, there may be four-legged natives around - the houses seem to have their doors nailed in - so I book it towards a big house on a small hill. The door opens without an ease.



The house shows signs of struggle - which happened a long time ago. I turn to the kitchen - gotta grab everything worth grabbing. I found a plenty of loot, and an old rabbit steak in the fridge - quite decomposed. I turned my head on the prospect of eating THAT, and checked below the stove... where I found a book about cooking! 

I walk towards the living room when I stumble over something like the tool I am. Nothing sprained, luckily. I investigate what I tripped over.



A rifle! Voala! Now that is what I am talking about! This .380 cal deathdealer is exactly what I need to win the arguments with the natives. I check the chamber - it is empty. Drats! However, it is in pristine condition. I get back to looting the house. Nothing worth mentioning, though I did take some tasty toilet water for later. I am about to leave the kid´s room when I notice something red, hiding behind a chair. A box with 5 rifle rounds, .380 caliber! Woohoo!

Time to go. Armed with Confidence (a nickname for my rifle) I walk outside the house like I mean business. I noticed a shed behind the house while I was entering the town, so I go over there to check it out. I am rewarded with a hatchet, and a grindstone. Things are looking up.

Took my attention to two houses that were not boarded up. I found more matches, and some food stuff - but nothing in the way of clothing. One of the houses had a case of old lighter fluid - I decided to take it as an accelerant. The other had a bit of lantern fuel, and an old t-shirt which I put on over my thin wool sweater.

Time to go send some mail!



To be continued shortly.
 

[Mroz4k]

Dire times have fallen upon the Milton postal services. The interior was in a pitiful state. I looted all worth taking and found a decently preserved magnifying glass.



The rest of the evening went along pretty quickly. I looted a couple of more houses, most of which had nothing of particular value, just food, caps and lots and lots of books. One of the houses had a set of simple tools (my colleagues!) and an old, rusty hacksaw - better than nothing! Just when I was about to lose my hope of acquiring a jacket, I finally found one - a decently preserved Ski jacket, neatly packed on the comfortable looking bed in the house I was in. I quickly put it on. It was snowing outside, and life didn't look so grim.



I decided to rob a bank, just so I can say I did it once. As the dusk was setting in, I took a torch and made a tiny campfire by the bank door. After obtaining a couple of more torches, I entered.



The bank was obviously a 24-hour service and didn't look much better than the post office. However, I did find quite a bit in terms of equipment! Coffee, tea, various other food, and a bunch of boots. I decided to take it all, despite my backpack already being quite full. The bank vault was already opened... so much for bank robbing, someone beat me to it... I decided to take a look into the deposit boxes anyways. The most "useful" item I found in one was a piece of cloth. What a waste of time. The previous room had a small safe by the bank vault which appeared unspoiled. I count my blessing and started cracking the combination lock... 26-58-48 - and with a loud creaking sound, the door opened. Another flare, and a flare round for Orion type Distress pistol. Could be worse.
As my torch died down, I took out my bedroll by the door and decided to sleep, after eating and drinking my full and tearing up those boots into nice stripes of leather. 

The first rays of sun woke me up as I crawled out of my bedroll, packed it up and decided to head out. Where to? I thought it might be a good idea to return where I came from - towards the trailer - and continue onwards to the Hushed River valley to really test out my skills! What can go wrong? I left the door to greet the new day!



When my blood froze, as I heard the terrifying howls and snarls of three different wolves all around me... Oh my god... One of them charged me as I bolted for the doors of the bank, barricading myself. Still, I was a bit too late... he bit me in the left cheek as I slammed the door behind me. Luckily, the jeans to the brunt of the assault, and there was no bleeding - just a bit of bruising. 

What am I going to do now? I am surrounded, barricaded in the bank. All around me are hungry natives that want to eat me... and I have a limited amount of bullets.

To be continued...
 

[CoffeePilferer]

@Mroz4k Great read mate and best of luck. I do like your plan... evil overlord in charge of expendable minions. It's the best way, no attachment, no consideration, if they die there's a whole legion of useless cretins to replace them. Also ignore all whining and only feed them leftovers. 

Not sure about you holding me responsible though... I guess you want to blame me if it all goes horribly wrong but the truth is you really wanted to play Stalker. Was Granny Grey Mother at home? She probably has chores for you to do.  

[Mroz4k]

25 minutes ago, CoffeePilferer said:

Was Granny Grey Mother at home? She probably has chores for you to do.

Nope, and the way that furniture was all trashed around and that pot at the campfire was positioned, I have a feeling that some horrible shiz had gone down there... well, I'm not complaining - the old witch kept her rifle in a tip-top shape and now I have that piece of hardware all to myself...