“Kill the fifth columnist”. Those words are burned into your brain. Everyone were hoping he would make a change, finally stopping the war between the expedition crews and the different armed militias. Everyone grew tired of it, but no one wanted to stop first, as you both wanted to reach Nizhniy, the biggest city in the region, before the opposing team could. You were with one of such militias, calling themselves “The Renegades”, who made a mad dash towards the Volga in hopes of reaching the city, but were stopped in a small town by one of the expedition crews. Many men, women and children died in countless battles and raids, your group lost some of the most experienced fighters. But then…everything went silent. A member of the expedition crew proposed with a truce in order for everyone to reach Nizhniy safely. But “Post Office skirmish” happened, taking the life of Katerina. No one dared to speak about a truce after that. You pushed the expedition crew to the outskirts of town, hoping for a quick victory. But they fought back. They raided your homebase at the railroad station, killing your leader, forcing you to retreat. In the midst of battle you saw HIM with your own eyes, shooting down your people with his shotgun. He did not hesitate to kill, stomping the wounded with his boot, if they still tried to resist, while on the ground. You saw his eyes, and they were full of nothing, but primal rage.
When you were exhausted, laying on the floor, covered in blood of people who fought together with you, he came up to you, and you were ready to meet your fate. But he spared you, moved you into the corner of the room, away from the corpses, and went away. A lot of time passed since then. It is time to prove the “columnist” one thing.

He should have pulled the trigger

>>6225510 (OP)
INFORMATION:
Art by: MelancholyVal (kinda wish she was here to see this :( )
Previous thread: >>6204293

CONTACT ME:
https://discord.gg/caHVgeJ2

“Vigmund? Vigmund, wake up, your turn for the outpost run” - you hear the voice, as someone is shaking you with their hand

You open your eyes and see Lisa’s face before you.

“Good morning! Get up, we need someone to check on the outposts” - she says

“The are other people to do that”

“We did not hear a word from one of them since the last storm. We are hoping for the best, but…” - she looks away. - “You understand. Jukka picked you as a new replacement”

You both stay silent for a moment. It’s not rare for people to get lost during the violent snowstorm, that happens here regularly, and die. They not always die, but sometimes, they do.

“Okay…I’ll make a run around” - you break the silence

“Great. I you want me to help, I’m ready” - Lisa says as she goes out of the room

You get up. Most of the people in the assembly hall, which currently serves as a giant bedroom for the main base, are still sleeping. Looks like Lisa woke you up really early in the morning. You quietly exit the hall and go down the set of stairs, reaching the main hall. There, you are greeted with a colourful painting of Lenin on the wall. Bright red and and yellow don’t really come in contrast with the gray wall, especially now, that everything outside is completely white due to the snow. It amazes you how this painting is still there, despite more than a decade since the Union collapsed.

“I guess they really like him” - you think to yourself

You go down the hallway into the planning room. When you enter, you see that Aleksei and Jukka are already here.

“So Lisa finally got you mobilized for the outpost run, Nordmann?” - Jukka chuckles

“Don’t worry Vigmund, it’s not really that hard as you think. Make a quick run to the outposts, check on them and report back. We needed one more group, because…”

“One of them got lost, I know. Where do I go”

Aleksei points at the map on the table. It looks old and overly simplified, with notes of different color making it look like a kindergarten drawing. Notes seem to be added by the group members.

“Where did you find that?” - you ask

“The map? In one of the school cabinets, what about it?”- Aleksei answers

“Nothing. Go on”

“You can go towards the outskirts and check on the outpost there. There is also an outpost at school, at the end of this country road” - he points at the brown line on the map. - “but its not like you’ll see it right now. You can go to the station, see how they’ve done rebuilding it. Or you can visit the centre and see what are our snipers doing”

“That’s all?”

“No, you’ll have to pick someone to come with you. You know, hard times to do a patrol alone, right?” - Aleksei glances at Jukka

“Right. Traders are up to something. Something very bad”

“Call it, Vigmund”

>[I’ll check on our outskirts outpost]
>[School is my pick]
>[I’ll see if the station changed, for the better or worse]
>[Snipers at the centre might be worth to check]

“I see. And the person to go with you?”

>[Lisa said she could help first, so I’ll go with her]
>[Aleksei, you could lend me a hand. You know the places well]
>[I’ll go with Jukka. He’s quite experienced]

>>6225517
Forgot pic

>>6225517
>[I’ll check on our outskirts outpost]
>[Aleksei, you could lend me a hand. You know the places well]

Did you draw the OP?

>>6226092

I dont have such skills. I credited the original artist in >>6225512

>>6226023
+1

>>6226482
>>6226023
Writing now

Aleksei puts on his leather jacket and takes the double barrel shotgun. He nods to you and you both go out of the room and go down the hallway. At the end, you can see a person sitting on a chair near a door that says “Musical equipment”. Aleksei waves to the man, and the man gets up, taking the keys out of his pocket. The man unlocks the door, and as you are about to step inside, Aleksei stops you.

“You stay here” - he tells you

He goes inside the room, and some time later steps outside with an assault rifle in his hands. He hands it over to you.

“Just because it has been quiet for several months, doesn’t mean anything. I don’t want any patrolmen dying several hundred meters away from the base, because they thought they’d do better without a gun”

You take the rifle and you both head for the exit. When you step outside, you understand that you should’ve put on something more warmer. The white sweater does not really help, but you still decide to run along with it.
Outside, there is nothing but white pale snow. The small brick building in front of you is almost ruined, snow covering its entrance. Aleksei gestures you to follow him and you both cross the road. Old wooden buildings to your left are almost ruined, with their windows shattered and walls sometimes having giant holes in them.

“God…This place still looks like it has been a warzone” - you say to- yourself

“In some way, it was one” - Aleksei overhears your mumbling. - “The fight with the fifth group was tough, to the point, that no one really wants to stay here anymore. People now just want to move on to another city”

“That makes sense. We need to get closer to big cities if we want to survive”

“Yes, but what if some other groups are already there? What if they wont be happy with us coming in? We surely wont survive if some militias will try to gang up on us”

“But I’m not planning on staying here and dying a slow death, because we can’t get our shit together and get a move on”

“People need someone to get their shit together for them” - Aleksei says angrily. - “They refuse to do anything now that Iosif is dead. We need a new leader”

That might just be your chance, you think to yourself. What if you’ll manage to become a leader? That would open a lot of possibilities. But you’ll have to see face a lot of obstacles, and Aleksei is one of them

“Yeah. Enough of the group being decentralized. Time for a change” - you say.

(1/3)

You and Aleksei keep walking past the many small wooden houses, going towards the outskirts of town. While walking, you hear a distant shouting.

“One…two! One…two!”

You eye the outpost. The thing that catches your attention is a huge wooden gate in the middle of the road, connecting two wooden houses, that are on different sides. There are several men standing on the scaffolding, observing whatever is on the other side of the gate.
As you keep walking, the shouting becomes louder and louder, until you are finally able to make out the person, who is shouting.
You see a man, with his left arm completely bandaged. He is wearing a dark-blue greatcoat with shoulder straps and a blue peaked cap. He is constantly raising his right hand, shouting at the three men, who are shoveling the snow in front of him. He looks very angry

“Who is this madman?” - you ask Aleksei, as you slowly get closer

“That’s the warden of our outpost here, Melnikov. He used to be one of our greatest fighters, but his arm got heavily wounded during the war with expedition crew. People say that the “columnist” did that to him”

“I haven’t really seen him a lot”

“Because he was on the frontlines, and you were guarding the station. Its that simple”

You walk closer to Melnikov, as he turns around, noticing the two of you.

“At ease!” - he shouts to the three men shoveling.

“Situation report?” - Aleksei asks, as he puts his hand forward to greet Melnikov

“All good, nothing usual” - Melnikov shakes Aleksei’s hand, but as you put your hand forward as well, he puts his into his pocket. - “As you see, we got plenty of time for some manual labor”

“That’s no good way of handling recruits” - Aleksei chuckles. - “This is no army, after all”

“I’m checking on how much time can it take to clear the road from snow”

Melnikov gestures you both to follow, as he starts climbing the scaffolding. After you all get to the top, you get a clear view of the road, leading out of town. It leads deep into the forest, disappearing, as it takes a left turn. The road is partly covered in snow, but at some places, you can still see the asphalt.

“It takes a pretty long time to remove all the snow” - Melnikov continues speaking. - “So if we want to leave this town, we might need to get our hands on a loader bucket”

“Who said that we are leaving” - Aleksei interrupts his speech. - “We still have thing to do in-”

“Will you let me fucking speak?!. Its one of the choices, and probably the best we have, so let me, at least think, on what we need to get out of here. But if you want to stay and get lynched by a horde of aggressive traders - that is your call”

(2/3)

You all go silent for a moment, waiting for Melnikov to continue. He sighs

“If you think that the cars we have may be able to take on the snow, you are making a mistake, my friend. There might just be parts of the road with snow a meter thick. It’s better safe than sorry”

Melnikov gets off the scaffolding and fixes his cap. He starts walking towards one of the shacks near the gate, but stops mid-way and turns around.

“Now that you’re here, mind doing me a favor?” - he says. - “One of our guards managed to spot something unusual deep in the forest. He said it looked like “a small window”, or something like that. I can’t send any of my men, as, firstly, they are fucking cretins, and secondly, we don’t have a lot of manpower on this outpost, and it would make us very, very vulnerable, if we would send even two of our men. I would have gone there myself, but, you see the complications”

Melnikov points at his bandaged arm and grins.

“We…uh” - Aleksei starts

“That’s great! I’ll wait for you in the shack” - Melnikov interrupts him and walks away

“Fuck, that’s just awesome” - Aleksei sighs. - “If we refuse his offer, he might as well have us lynched in front of the HQ”

“You think he’ll actually do that? I think he would back down, knowing that you are the one organizing patrols” - you say

“Believe me, that won’t stop him at all. He’s real tough and he’s respected by other Renegades”

“Lets just make some excuse, something more important than his forest run”

“Or we just run away. But he’ll be mad”

“Whatever man, lets pick it”

>[Agree to the offer]
>[Come up with an excuse (Roll)]
>[Make a run for it]

>>6227790
>>[Agree to the offer]