Chapter Six - Lada Ride

Alice half-turned in the Lada's passenger seat so that she could take in the group moving by. It looked, at first glance, like a military convoy.

The lead trucks were army-green flatbeds carrying large shipping crates at the back held down by thick straps. The trucks rumbled by, and Alice caught a few of the passengers in the trucks glancing out at them.

Young men, wearing green uniforms and occasionally metal helmets. The one in the third truck had a rifle next to him. The drivers wore uniforms too, though they didn't seem as orderly and pristine.

They didn't seem overly interested, not that she could sense. There was fear in them, but it was calm, restrained for the moment.

These were people doing something they were worried about, but not afraid of. She'd felt the same kind of fear in police officers on patrol in dangerous neighbourhoods. It was subdued but present.

The first few trucks rumbled by, then they were followed by a pair of troop transports, and finally a few semi-trailers. These were a little more modern, the typical kind of truck she'd seen her entire life carrying all sorts of shipping around.

They rumbled past too, and were soon followed by a small cadre of far more ordinary cars. Coups and minivans and a few more Lada's like mister Nikolai's, though they were noticeably rustier and dirtier, as if they'd been on the road for a very long time.

Finally, taking up the rear, were a pair of APCs, armoured personnel carriers, with young men standing behind machine guns that were facing backwards.

"Strange," Alice said.

"This ain't the Pripyat I remember," Nikolai said as he watched the convoy rumble on. He kicked his car into gear and they rode off the embarkment. The old man kept a fair bit of distance between them and the rear-most of the trucks. Alice decided that that was probably wise.

"It's people," Crystal said. "None of those I saw looked weird."

"A bit thin, maybe," Alice said. "But you're right, not strange. Should we be expecting anything like that?"

"Are... are you asking me?" Crystal asked.

"You have more experience with this than I do," Alice said.

"Oh... well, on Rending World--"

"We're not calling it that."

"On magic brain monster world, the locals were normal humans for the most part. Only a few of them were kinda-mutated. Those that could use magic," Crystal said.

Alice felt a spike of fear mingling with curiosity from Nikolai. She didn't reprimand Crystal for the slip, however. It didn't matter.

The convoy continued on ahead until, after another ten minutes of travelling at a pace she could outmatch without sweating, they arrived at a wall.

Above and behind it rose a... modern-enough city. It had tall buildings, a couple of skyscrapers, and plenty of what looked like brick and mortar apartment complexes with their sides covered in large, faded posters. The wall, however, was newer and yet shoddier than all of that.

It was three stories tall, more or less. All cement, with what looked like a catwalk on the other side. Guard towers sprang up along its length, and it looked like the people that had built it didn't care much for any buildings in their way, because demolished ruins lined the exterior of the wall.

"Was that always there?" Crystal asked.

"No," Nikolai said. "No, this was never here before." He pointed to the right a little, and Alice followed his finger towards an apartment building some ways into the city. It was only visible because of how tall it was. She guessed seven floors, more or less. "That's my home. It was brand new."

"Looks a little weather-beaten now," Crystal said. "Uh, no offence."

"Hmm, none taken," he muttered.

The convoy ahead was slowed down at a large gate, and a few people in army uniforms stepped out and checked each vehicle as it passed. They had some mirrors on long sticks, and a few dogs that sniffed at tires and trucks. They weren't being entirely professional about it, however. It looked very perfunctory, as if they were doing this for a while without seeing much action.

Alice squinted at one of the guards. He wasn't afraid, just bored. Pushing deeper, she could tell that he had some lingering worries, of being eaten, or swallowed by a storm, or of being deployed for longer, but it was all thin. More worry than she'd felt in the average person, but not by too much.

They came up behind the last APC, and weren't even questioned. A guard looked into the car, but Alice was quick to meet his eyes. He had a ping of fear and worry on seeing both her and Crystal. They were foreign, bizarrely dressed, out of place.

She grabbed that fear and suffocated it.

The man stepped back and waved them on. The dog sniffing at the car backed away to beg for a treat from its handler, and the man with the mirror found nothing strange under Nikolai's Lada.

"Easy enough," the man next to her said as he loosened his deathgrip on the steering wheel.

The city beyond the wall was... normal enough.

The streets had cars parked up next to them, people walking on the sidewalks. There was some music in the air and ads on walls. Nikolai took the first right, and soon they were driving down less busy roads that nonetheless had people around.

The city wasn't dead, but Alice could feel the oppressive weight of long standing fears lingering in the air here. This place was gripped, and had been gripped, by a constant foreboding for what must have been months, maybe years.

It was the same taste she'd discovered in wartorn countries, in places that had been shelled just days prior and now had citizens waiting for things to either clear, or for more death to rain down atop them. It was the delicious taste of uncertainty, and she hated how satisfying it was to drink it in.

Nikolai seemed to know where he was going, at least. They pulled to a stop in front of an apartment building, the same one he'd pointed at from outside of the wall. There were slots for parking along the side of the road and Nikolai slipped into one, put his car in park, then leaned back in his seat and stared ahead.

She wasn't blind to the fear radiating off of him, nor was did she miss the look in his eyes.

"Do you want us to go with you?" Crystal asked softly.

She was always somehow really charismatic, more so than Alice was, at least when it came to natural talent.

Alice blamed her Golden Retriever-ness.

"We have the time, if you want," Alice said.

Nikolai pulled out a cigarette from an inner pocket, then lit it with a match from a small hotel-style matchbook. "No," he said after exhaling. "If my family's here, I'll see them myself. If not, then it'll be my job to track them down. Just gonna hope my old wife didn't get herself married to a bigger, tougher man." He swiped at his nose with the back of his palm, then looked to Alice and Crystal. "I don't know what kind of craziness you two are up to, but I know that I don't want it near my family."

"Bit rude," Crystal muttered.

"But true enough. That's how we do things here," he grumbled. "Now get outta my car too."

Crystal harrumphed, but she got out of the car all the same. "Well, thanks for the ride, I guess," she said. "Do you, uh, have any clue where to go from here?"

Nikolai stepped out of the car, closing the door with a bang, then he stomped off, not caring that he'd left the car unlocked. "Centre of the city," he said over his shoulder. "Go to City Hall, that's where all the nosy folk are."

Alice shrugged and stepped out, it was better than nothing.

"Wait, where's the city hall?" Crystal called out after him.

"Next to the amusement park!" were his last words before he tugged the door of the apartment complex open and stepped in.

Crystal turned to Alice. Her eyes were literally sparkling.

"We're here to save our friend," Alice said.

Crystal's eyes continued to sparkle.

Alice sighed. "Fine. We'll check out the amusement part. No, that doesn't mean we're going there, stop bouncing around."

Alice looked about. The few people around this part of town all wore... perhaps not the same clothes, but there was definitely a type to their fashion. Browns and drab colours. Lots of muted tones. Overcoats and outfits that covered everything. She saw hoods on the younger folk, and brimmed hats on the older.

"We're standing out a lot," she said.

"I think we're supposed to, no?" Crystal asked.

"I have a feeling that maybe we should strive not to," Alice admitted.

Finding Meagan was going to be hard enough without being the centre of everyone's attention.

***