Chapter One

Fedir shivered as the evening wind beat against his face, stinging him with pain. Snow fell in large flakes all around him and left a thick layer of powder on the earth. Icicles collected on the branches of birch trees that stretched to the sky. He remained quiet despite the uncomfortable situation. Fedir didn’t want to spook his game after all. His eyes slowly followed the movements of the small deer in front of him. The doe was in a clearing about ten yards away.  Slowly raising his rifle as the doe turned away to investigate a squirrel, he took a deep breath in and held it. Trees swayed against the breeze and bushes rustled. A loud crack could be heard for kilometers. The small doe dropped after stumbling a few steps and let out a cry. 

Fedir exhaled the lump of air in his lungs and watched a cloud of carbon dioxide release in front of him. He lowered the rifle and stood up from his crouching position before setting his gun against the tree next to him.

Damn, Fedir thought as he watched it struggle on the ground. He had hit high, missing the lungs and hitting right below its spine. Withdrawing his knife, Fedir lowered himself to the doe’s level. It let out a weak, high pitched bleat. Avoiding eye contact with the animal, he pressed the knife above its front clavicle, which would send the blade into the vital organs of the deer. 

“You will not go to waste, my friend.” Fedir said to the deer, just above a whisper.

Fedir took a deep breath, and with slight hesitation, plunged the knife into the animal. The deer shouted in pain and kicked at Fedir, then went silent after a moment of struggle.

Fedir sheathed his blade and wiped the snow off of his legs. He sat there for a few minutes, blankly staring at the body of the deer and thinking. He had a soft spot for animals. Fedir finally stood up and walked toward his spot where he was previously holed up, a small patch of grass with a large birch tree to lean against. At the tree, he had a sled made of plywood, with a rope tied through a hole in the wood he had carved out.

Fedir picked up the rope and heaved the sled over his shoulder. He grunted and made his way back to the doe, still shivering from the cold. Reaching the deer and admiring a small bird perched atop the doe’s snout, Fedir dropped the sled, frightening the bird, causing it to fly away.

Fedir walked around to the deer’s back and positioned himself so that he could roll the deer over onto the sled. He braced his foot against a rock behind him and pushed with all the strength he had left, despite being utterly exhausted. 

Fedir could feel the deer move and start to roll over. He continued pushing until he felt physics do it for him, the doe falling over directly onto the center 

of the sled. Fedir just fell forward where he was and layed in the snow for what felt like hours, even though it was only a few moments. He finally stood and scooped up the rope from under a layer of snow. Fedir walked to his patch of grass for the final time to grab his rifle.

Fedir walked in the wind and snow until the sun began to set. According to his map and orienteering skills, the nearest road was around half a kilometer west. He had been hunting up north in the birch forest with the nearest settlement a day's travel away. He didn’t live in a settlement though. He never had. Didn’t trust them. Word spread throughout the Пустой fairly quickly about a settlement that had fell apart into cannibalism and chaos after losing half their population to a radiation spike in the city district. 

Fedir could see the road as the sun was creeping its way beneath the horizon. It wasn’t far ahead. The snow was light at this point, small flakes every now and then, allowing him to see past the road for a good bit. Not like there was anything to see. He continued towards the road, trekking through ten inches of snow and ice. His boots had finally reached their soaking point after walking for so long. He felt the ice cold water sting his feet, almost instantly numbing his toes.

“Damnit.” he said out loud, just above a whisper. 

Fedir continued cursing and muttering complaints as he approached the edge of the road, growing tired from dragging the sled with the deer.

He reached the pavement, still grumbling, and stopped just before the pavement. He looked up, and unsurprisingly, saw nothing but fields of snow. He glanced left and right, still nothing but the road stretching for kilometers. Fedir let out one last murmur about his freezing extremities before stepping onto the road. He looked left and right once again, and decided to go right, as it was less packed with ruined and banged up vehicles. Each step he took on the pavement brought a different sound, whether it be broken glass, or a can being crushed. The evening turned to dusk as the sun set behind the hills and painted the Earth with orange.

Fedir had spotted a potential spot to set up a fire for the night. Two cars covering his back, and another to the left at an angle, creating an L-shape cove. Fedir decided it was best to stay here, as it was getting dark and he would have trouble getting a fire up if he kept traveling. He set his deer sled down by the far left car, then went off the road to collect kindling and sticks. Not many sticks were able to be used, since they were buried in snow, but he managed to find a couple twigs and dead leaves to burn. 

He wandered in the near area for the last sliver of light he had left, before giving up and returning to his place of rest. He used his gloved hands to wipe away the snow in a small circle to place his fire. Fedir gathered all his wood and kindling and built it up in a tipi in the small area of asphalt he had. 

An owl hooted off in the distance, catching Fedir’s curiousness for a second, before he returned his attention to his fire he still needed to light. Fedir removed his bag from his back and set it on the ground in front of him. It wasn’t too great of a backpack, but it worked. It was a small bag, an olive-drab color. Splotched mud covered the outside. A small split in the fabric had started to form at one of the backpacks straps. 

Fedir unzipped the backpack and dug around. After moving a few stale granola bars and a ziploc bag of cartridges for his rifle out of the way, he grabbed a box of cardboard matches from the bottom of his bag. He opened the box of matches and took one out. He only had a few left, twelve at most. Fedir struck the match and held it against the small bundle of dead grass and weeds at the base of his fireplace. The flame flickered as a gust of wind blew snow around and into Fedir’s face. The match was snuffed out before it could light the kindling. Fedir struck another and tried again. Success. The grass caught, and he tossed the rest of the match into the fire. He blew lightly onto the blaze to help it grow. 

Once the fire got large enough to sustain itself, Fedir stood and walked to the corpse of the deer. It was slightly frozen now, but he could still skin the animal. As he approached the deer, he noticed something. The tongue had blue spots speckled on the surface. Oh no… Fedir thought to himself. He turned, going back to his backpack. He unzipped the front pocket and took out his flashlight. Fedir flicked the switch to “власть” and walked back to the doe. He crouched down next to the doe’s body and shined his flashlight in its mouth, hanging open as if it was in a constant, silent scream. 

Sure enough, the doe’s tongue was covered in blue. 

“Damnit!” Fedir said loudly. Not quite a shout, but just below. 

The blue was a clear sign of lyme disease in a deer. Fedir was angry, not just on the fact he wouldn’t eat tonight, but that he killed an animal for no reason. He reminded himself he had probably mercied that deer, as it would die a horrific death from the disease later. Despite the fact, he would still be going to bed hungry. 

Fedir sat by the fire for a while before stomping the flame out with his boot.  He gathered his belongings and turned to the ruined car behind him. He couldn’t see much in the dark, but he noticed the moonlight glinting on the car windows. A car with windows intact was a rare sight these days. He attempted to open the door that led to the backseat, but it was locked. 

Well, that’s curious. Fedir thought to himself. He took his flashlight from his pocket and flicked it on once again. Shining the beam into the car, he noticed a duffle bag on the floor. Multiple bags actually. Oddly. . . organized. Stacked on one another in a jenga pattern. Fedir moved up to the driver's seat window and peered in. A cardboard box sat on the seat, wide open. It was ripped on the top, so Fedir could see the inside. He fixed his gaze through the tear in the box, and saw cans. Cans upon cans, stacked to the brim. Cans of food. This wasn’t a random find, this was a stash. 

Fedir’s mind started racing, before he heard the distinct sound of boots on snow to his left. Multiple pairs. Two at least. Fedir acted fast, turning off his flashlight and dropping to the ground. The footsteps were close, almost to the road. They had to have seen his light. He rolled under the car, it was a tight fit, the underside of the car compressing his chest into the asphalt. Better than getting killed. He didn’t rule out that chance though.

“Just up here, that’s where I saw it.” a gruff voice said, right next to the road. Fedir could tell it was to his left, about ten meters.

“Saw the light?” this voice was higher, a woman, Fedir deduced.

“Yeah, the light.” the gruff one said.

“No one’s gonna be out here this late. Everyone’s sheltering. Don’t want any run-ins with anomalies.” the woman sounded sure. Well, she was wrong.

“We are, so someone else might be too.” came a third voice, this one was lower, probably mid-twenties.

“Well we’re supposed to be.”

Supposed to be? What the hell does that mean?

The group was definitely on the road now, Fedir could hear the crunching of loose rocks on pavement. It wasn’t long before he could see their feet around the car. They all had a patch on their boots that he could barely make out. A sparrow, wings extended, blade held in its beak. 

Sh*t. New Hope. , but he grew nervous. New Hope was a large faction formed from the ashes of the apocalypse. They believed in reviving society, but not in a good method. They killed and tortured people all for their “cause”. “Hopefuls”, what everyone called them, believed they could remove evil from the wasteland, yet that’s all they were. Fedir had but one experience with them in the past, and he lost his left index finger in the process. 

“There’s a dead deer on that sled.” the gruff voice said.

“No sh*t?” the woman stated, shocked.

The gruff voice spoke again.

“Ryan, Check the cars. They might have hid. Just spread out and look.” 

“Yeah, I’m already on it.” the low voice spoke, Fedir guessed this was Ryan.

They panned out around the road

Fedir could see the beam of a flashlight sweep across the ground where his sled was. Fedir shifted as quiet as possible so he could see who was holding the light. He figured it was Ryan with the flashlight, but he noticed a second beacon to his right, looking into a car off the road. The car must have broken through the railing when sh*t hit the fan. The railing busted open through the inside, the car crashed into a thick bush.

“Вот дерьмо! Come look at this!” Ryan spoke. Fedir knew he had a flashlight now, as Ryan was the one right, his beam shining in the car. The light was wide enough that a sliver reached under the car, hitting Fedir’s arm. He shifted ever so slightly to remove his limb from the beam. As soon as he lifted his arm, it dragged a glass shard along with it, sending an ear splitting scraping through the night. 

“Что, черт побери это было?”

Oh f*ck.