It was a little before dawn when I woke up. I popped open the garage and did a few final checks on my weapons, ammo and food.
A few minutes later, I was ready to go and stood outside the garage and looked around, I could see a few guys walking to the garage and the main workshop.
Then the door for Garage Two opened and I could see Yaromir and Borislav getting ready to head out.
I could see one of the scrappers coming over to me, he was going to ride with me so the GAZ's wouldn't be too crowded. He had the magazines strapped to his chest and the AK slung over his shoulder. He had a knapsack on his back.
As he approached he nodded at me and stuck out his hand, "My name is Faddei, I guess I'll be riding with you, you're Bratan, right?"
I just smiled "Yeah, that's what they call me, everything is packed into the Volga. Put your stuff in the trunk and I'll head over to Yaromir and fo some final checks."
He just grunted and went around to the back.
I walked out and could see Yaromir talking with two other people. I looked to my right and saw Borislav doing some final checks.
I walked towards Yaromir, "Everything good Yaromir, when are we leaving?"
Yaromir and the other two turned to look at me, "We were just talking, they are going to pull up the trucks."
I nodded at him, "Alright I'll pull the Volga up to the gate, have the trucks pull up behind me. We will head to the place. I'll be waiting." I turned around and put my hands in my pants pockets.
As I approached my Garage I could see Fiddei standing around looking at the skull on the hood of my car. "Fiddei, get in or walk to the gate, your pick the trucks are warming up."
He snapped around and got into the passenger seat as I opened the door.
Pulling the keys out of my pockets, I stuck them into the ignition. Starting the car, we pulled out of the garage, I put it in neutral and he hopped out to close the door to garage one. I waited for about twenty seconds before he hopped back in.
Putting her in drive. I slightly pressed on the gas. My beautiful car slowly lurched forward as I turned right to go down the road. As I moved along, I glanced at Fiddei. He was looking out the window, at his home. As I reached main street, I checked to make sure no one was in the road or going to be crossing before turning south to head towards the gate.
A minute later, I turned off the Volga and took the keys out of the ignition and turned towards my partner.
"Fiddei, when was the last time you have gone outside the walls?"
Fiddei just continued staring out the window as he responded, "I haven't gone outside since I started working at the shop." He sounded distant as he continued talking, "When I first got here, they had just finished the walls, new guys were told to stand guard duty for a month to give the guards time to relax after the stressful situation. I remember the first night, two boars attacked my first day. It had been a week since the wall was created and I had just arrived, they decked me out in some gear, and I was in-charge of the Southwest corner, I was the closest person to Petrozavadosk, so I had the most responsibility. If someone came in the night I would have to alert the gate. It was also the most dangerous. You need to know something, the towers weren't the most structurally sound, it would creak and even begin to tilt if I leaned over the railing."
I leaned forward and looked where Fiddei was, he was zoned in on the southwest tower, like an unhealthy addiction, an obsession that forced him to look at it.
"I couldn't really complain, I was new, and anyone would defend the builders saying it was good enough. It was not good enough. I was checking and one of my duties was to check the base of the wall, this was when it would be the most dangerous. During one of these checks I heard a boar, the noise was deafening, I froze with terror, wide-eyed as I saw a group of boars charge towards me, they were, what looked like hundred meters away. They had broken the tree line when I unfroze, the tree line was 70 meters away. The guard boss had told me that the tree line was 50 meters away, but it seemed farther. Time slowed as I raised my gun, painstakingly slow, at 40 meters I had my rifle raised. At 35 I pulled the trigger, the guard boss had told us to use caution, there hadn't been to many incidents and the settlements rating was still being assessed." He took a long breath and just let out a long sigh before continuing. "So when I pulled the trigger, I wouldn't learn about this until a few hours later, the entire settlement, went into lockdown. The guards ran, they had been permanently assigned their gear as that was their fulltime job, not a part-time like mine. Within seconds everyone was off the new muddy roads and inside some house, no one cared, what was important was to be inside. The fulltime guards ran towards my tower, they were about 50 meters away as I fired off my rounds. I sprayed the boars, and one of them stopped and turned away. I ran out of ammo as the boars were within 10 meters of the wall. I ran and leaned the other way. I didn't know that this would make the structure even weaker, and then the boars rammed the wall. My tower shifted forward and I was thrown against the forward railing as it began to fall, I was 20 feet over the ground. A fall from that height would have killed me, I leaned and held onto the back rail as the whole structure, and I fell with it. Then it went black."
When Fiddei said that, I could see him shudder, he continued on, "I woke up to light pouring into my face. I blinked and could see a silhouette of a person as I tried to move my arm, all I could manage was 'Please', I was going to say Please help me, but I never got to say it, I could hear screaming envelope around me. The rubble was taken away. I was taken to a hospital."
Fiddei looked sad as he recounted his story.