Александр Конторович - Predator - Escape from Tarkov

I look around. I’m in a small room. Judging by the shelves and cupboards, it’s some kind of closet. That’s confirmed when I see mops and brooms in the corner. The door’s not locked, and opens quite easily. I glance down the corridor. It’s empty and there’s no one around.

I have only the vaguest idea about the layout of the building. I have, of course, had to pay the police a visit before. There’s normally an officer on duty at the entrance. You can’t get past them as there’s always a second set of doors, either solid metal or a grille. If the duty officer doesn’t open them, then there’s really no easy way in, as you’re facing thick bars that it’s pretty difficult to break.

Where should I go, left or right? There’s no obvious difference, so I go right. I have to say that here fate smiles on me almost immediately. Turning a corner, I find myself right by the duty officer’s post, or at least at the end of the corridor that leads to it. The door at this end is wide open, and I can see the expected metal grille.

Holding my shotgun at the ready, I peek around the door. It looks like there’s nobody here to make a noise. On the floor are several bodies close together, both in uniform and in civvies. Judging by the bullet marks on the walls, the smashed glass, and the crumbled plaster, there was quite a fight here. There’s a huge number of empty shell cases on the floor, but I don’t see any guns. The pockets of all the dead bodies have been turned out, and two of the policemen are lying in nothing but their shirts. The entrance door is also wide open, but the smell is something else. The stench of death fills the whole space – the bodies have been here for a while.

Trying not to disturb a single corpse, I make for the door. Shell casings crunch under my feet. Stepping inside, I head towards the room where the duty officer would have been sitting. According to Ivan, this is where they normally keep all the weapons and armour. I can see that they did. Standing in the doorway, I look at the wide-open doors of the safes and metal cupboards. I doubt there’s anything to look for here anymore. The place has been stripped bare. After a fleeting glance at the shot-up telephone switchboard, I head for the stairs to the first floor.

Everywhere the doors are wide open, cupboards smashed in, and drawers tipped out. Thankfully, I find fewer dead bodies upstairs. Four altogether, and only one in police uniform. The other three were in civilian clothes.

When I get to the top of the building, I take a seat on a step. I need to rest for a few minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many dead bodies in one place. No, that’s a lie. There were probably just as many in my old house. But there wasn’t this smell there, except in the flat where I was hiding. Here it’s everywhere, soaked into the walls.

There’s no one alive here, that’s absolutely obvious. As is the fact the building was systematically searched from top to bottom. They took everything that might be of any interest. They even turned out their own comrades’ pockets, assuming that’s who the men in civvies are. It’s a spectacle that’ll haunt my dreams for a long time.

More calmly now, not jumping at every sound, I head downstairs. On the way, I take a small crowbar from one of the offices. I noticed it straight away. Clearly, I’m not planning to take it with me. I’ve got a much better one in my rucksack. However, I need the crowbar here and now, and I’ve no real desire to run back to my kit to get a tool. I could of course get into the boot of the car through the cabin. All you have to do is take out the back seat. I remember helping a friend do the same thing when he broke the lock on his boot. Here, however, there’s a corpse on the backseat, and I really don’t want to spend much time in a confined space right next to it. It’s easier just to break the lock on the boot. It’s not like that car’s ever going anywhere again.

Turns out my companion was right! After a few minutes’ work, I manage to bend the metal of the boot lid enough to take a look inside. I see metal glinting in the light of day. I continue to wield the crowbar and bend the car panel mercilessly. Eventually, something clicks and the mangled boot lid rises up. Inside there’s an assault rifle. Not as big as the ones we have, with a short barrel and a folding stock. Underneath it is a heavy waistcoat. That would appear to be a bulletproof vest. I’ve seen the police wearing them. If that’s here, then there should also be a helmet somewhere, but try as I might I can’t find it. Ah, well, we’ll have to be content with what we’ve got.

The bulletproof vest turns out to be horribly uncomfortable and extremely heavy. How they manage to walk around with them for hours on end I’ve no idea. I manage to put it on somehow, and promise to get the weight off me as soon as I get back to Ivan. He’s used to this sort of gear, so let him carry it. The gun I’ll keep, on the other hand. It’s not as big as the one I have, but the bullets are exactly the same. The less you carry, the further you go.

My companion must have been on tenterhooks. When I appear in the doorway, he jumps out to meet me.

“So, what’s going on over there?”

“It’s a fucking mess. The building’s full of corpses. There’s a Lada 110 in the yard that you could thread spaghetti through. It’s got two corpses in it. I found all this in the boot, just like you said.”

“Did you get the number.”

“Errr… 1148, I think.”

“That’s Petrovich, head of our platoon. That was his car. Did you see the epaulets on the dead men?”

“Listen, that was more than I could manage. You wouldn’t believe the smell in there. If you want, go and take a look yourself. There’s no one there to shoot at you. The buildings been turned inside out, and I’d say they even took the light bulbs. All that’s left inside is a dozen or so corpses.”

Ivan sits down right there on the floor.

“Fuck… My boys, my poor boys… Where am I going to go now? What am I going to do?”

“I can’t help you there. How many of you were there altogether?”

He thinks for a while, then raises his head.

“You’re right, aren’t you? There’s more than two dozen just of our lot. Plus, several cars, and you only saw one. Petrovich left first, he was called in on the radio. After that strange flash some of the cars suddenly stopped working. Only the ones where the engines weren’t running when it happened were able to start, and only then on the tenth try. That was when he left. On his own with his driver. He didn’t wait for anyone. You say they’re both in the car, right?”

“Yes. They didn’t even have time to get out.”

“That means the headquarters was captured before that. I mean, before our lot came here. If their cars aren’t in the yard, that means they never drove in there.”

He gets to his feet and starts to pace in circles around the room. Then he stops and turns to me.

“Listen, there’s one more possibility, really close to here. A kilometre and a half. Let’s go there, OK?”

I don’t even have time to answer anything before a rasping sound comes from the direction of the headquarters. Ivan jumps to the window and grabs his assault rifle. I run quickly over to my stuff and pull on my backpack and the looted bag. Ivan told me that this type of kitbag’s called a haversack. I grab the assault rifle I found in the car and head back into the room. My companion stands pressed against the wall, carefully peeking out of the window. He’s already put on the bulletproof vest I collected and tightened all the straps. When did he manage that? Basically, he’s a man of action and he knows a lot, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise.

“Someone’s moving around over there. I just saw people.”