Young Writers Society

Hello everybody, this is a rough preview of a story I might write if enough people like it. It's called The Zone, and you'll have to read it to find out more.

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I turned back and waved as the jeep drove off into the distance, before looking at my brother who had his eyes set on the complex in the distance.

In the distance, stood the place we would make our fortunes - Pripyat, Ukraine. You see, around a month ago a Russian Patrol Chopper had spotted some strange heat signatures inside the abandoned city. The Russian's wanted it investigated but wouldn't go themselves because of the radiation risk so they decided to turn to mercenaries like my brother and I. When we heard they where paying five hundred thousand to whoever completed the mission, my brother and I decided to take the job and split the money.

We had never done jobs like this however, all our other missions where really the dirty work that the governments wanted to be kept quiet, or freelance work for various militia like arms dealing. Although it wasn't all honest, legal work, it brought in the money and thats all that matters in end.

"Should we go in loud, or take a more quiet approach?" questioned my brother, James. Holding out two silencers. I thought about it for a second, then decided it would be better to go in silent to avoid attracting attention if anybody was there.

"Silent" he handed me the length of circular steel. I slung my new assault rifle I'd been issued with by the Russians. A G36C painted with red and black striped camouflage, it didn't fit the Russian environment, but it's appearance was pleasing and that was all I was bothered about. I placed the silencer over the barrel and twisted into place, James did the same.

We continued our trek towards the city in silence, we where hoping for a direct drop off but the Russian's refused to go any further. Around twenty minutes past and the city grew larger and larger.

We pushed through several bushes and came into a clearing, the ghost of an old amusement park. James and I split up to look around the amusement park, the large Ferris Wheel that stood still through the years, never used.

We progressed through the city when something in one of the windows caught my eye, a blurry figure seemed to pass the window, as it past it looked seemed to look directly at me. I tried to scream but I made no sound, I begun to sweat as fear washed over me.

"J-James" I finally managed to speak. He looked at me and I pointed towards the window I had seen the figure.

"What, what did you see" he asked, unaware of how I was feeling.

"Something at the -" my sentence was cut short by a blood curdling cry, it didn't sound human. James looked at me, pulling his G36C around and flicking the safety off. I mirrored his actions, before we took off without thinking of where we were going.

The adrenalin rushed through my veins as we sprinted towards a building that looked like we could loose whatever had seen us. I followed James up the nearest staircase, where he stopped to look out the window. Doubled over trying to catch my breath, I looked up to see James staring out of the window.

"We've gotta get out of here" I trembled, I didn't care about the money anymore. Whatever was in that building wasn't...human.

"I didn't see anything. Maybe it was just some furniture or something like that, and the howl was probably just a dog. Lets search more thoroughly" James always seemed overconfident, but I knew what I saw wasn't furniture, it looked at me, straight at me.

"It wasn't a dog and I saw that thing move past the window, James. We have to leave"

I straightened back up again, peering out of the window, my rifle lifted so I was ready to fire if need be. Nothing could be seen, then a pale white figure emerged from some bushes just outside of the building. I couldn't see it to well because we were on a different floor, but it was hunched over slightly so I couldn't see it's head. At first I thought it was human, but then my stomach twisted. What had first been an easy way to thousands of dollars had turned into a living nightmare...and it would only get worse.