I have no clue if anyone is even reading this… 
I gotta fill my spare moments with something, when I have no time for playing the actual game, so here’s another chapter. 
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Chapter 4.
One cautious step at a time, we walked deeper into the bunker. Every potential source of light appeared to be powered down in the outer halls. Total blackness engulfed us. Not dark like the night, but as dark as it only gets under ground. The air in here was raw, and as cold as it was outside. The only sounds to be heard were those we made ourselves. I kept a firm grip on the SMG in my right hand, and the flashlight in my left. Frida followed closely behind me. We were soaking wet from our swim. Our short run through the woods had warmed us up, but we were getting cold fast. We both shivered violently and any attempt to even breathe quietly proved impossible. Frida sobbed, she couldn’t contain it. I didn’t have the heart to tell her to be quiet, instead I figured this would just have to go whatever way it went. With some luck, we might stumble over a safe place unnoticed. By the very least we hoped to find some place warmer, somewhere deeper inside the complex. Even an office or a storeroom would do if nothing else, but we were running short on time.
Frida’s flashlight soon died out. I handed her mine, allowing me better control of my weapon. We navigated the blacked out bunker for a while. For the most part, we passed through empty halls and garages containing some stored materials and locked freight containers, until we finally entered a long, narrow tunnel. The rough walls were bare, black rock, and the floor was of concrete. A thick cluster of pipes and cables ran along the ceiling. In the far end was a large, red steel door, dimly illuminated by a green light. With a quick gesture I signaled Frida to keep up. Carelessly, I let my guard down and jogged toward the door. My eyesight was blurry, but I could see that the green light was emitted by an indicator reading “OPEN”.
A terrifying, mechanical screech cut through the darkness. Just as Frida lifted her flashlight, a small machine launched itself from the shadows and came flying at me. I instinctively sidestepped, but one of the machine’s sharp legs cut through my jacket at the shoulder. It flew past me and landed on the floor a couple meters behind us. Frida jumped aside but managed to keep the light on the machine. I fired two bursts at it with the SMG. A small explosion followed, and the machine lay still on the floor. The shots echoed through the tunnel, and a high pitched noise rang through my ears. I could feel my heart pounding.
“Shit! Here I thought we’d seen it all. Look at that disgusting thing, it looks like a huge tick or something!” I yelled to Frida, all worked up.
She didn’t answer. I could see she was in no mood for making fun of anything. Her face was turning blue from freezing.
“Sorry about that.” I apologized, “Let’s see what’s behind this door. Let’s hope it’s not just another garage or empty hall.” I continued, as I gripped the large door handle.
With a firm push, the heavy door slowly swung halfway open. I carefully stuck my head through the opening. Inside was a dark hallway, going both left and right. The temperature inside was considerably higher. In both directions there were multiple doors, all of them closed except for one. A gleam of light shone through a door that had been left slightly open. Frida stepped up beside me to get a look.
“What’s in there?” She whispered.
“I have no idea, but it might be just what we’re looking for.” I answered.
We carefully closed the steel door behind us and proceeded down the hallway, anxious to find out where we had ended up. The smooth walls were painted in a simple fashion with orange and white. The doors were of the regular kind that you see inside most houses. We approached the pale stream of light. I pointed the SMG through the door first, and carefully opened it.
Inside was a military fashioned dormitory with several bunk beds and personal storage cabinets along the left wall. In the middle was a coffee table and two brown, leather couches, same as everyone has in their home these days. Several storage shelves stood along the opposite wall. There was working power for sure. The lights were on, and a computer monitor flickered from a desk in the back of the room.
Frida collapsed on the floor against the wall and wept. I got on my knees in front of her and hugged her.
“I think we’re safe for now. Just let it out.” I said calmly.
She grabbed a firm hold around my neck and cried loudly. I could almost feel her pain.
"Erik!" she sulked, "We just left him lying out there."
“I know. I’m so sorry, but we would have died out there too if we hadn’t gotten away.” I tried to comfort her and rationalize the situation, but I knew that she understood, and that she would need time to process it.
Her hands on my shoulders felt like ice. The warmth in her eyes was gone, and she looked as pale as a corpse in the cold glow of the fluorescent lamps. I got an idea. I took Frida’s arm and helped her up.
"Take off all your wet clothes, and get in one of the beds." I almost commanded her.
She gave me a surprised look. I heard how it sounded completely wrong under normal circumstances.
“Don’t worry, I won’t look.” I assured her.
Frida got my idea, and agreed to it. She sat down on a bed and threw the wet clothes on the floor, then she wrapped one of the thick, blue wool blankets around her. Meanwhile, I had walked over to a cabinet to look for something she could dry her hair with. I found a small towel and threw it to her. She quickly made use of it before she laid down and curled up on the bed. I fetched some more blankets from the other beds and packed them over her. Soon I could hear her breath calming down.
"Thank you." She whispered from under the blankets.
I had to help myself as well. I rummaged through the cabinets by the beds, and found quite a lot of civilian belongings inside them. I found a set of clothes that would fit and got changed. My feet tingled as I pulled on a warm pair of socks. I picked up all of our wet clothes and hung them up to dry over the empty beds. I jumped up and down on the floor, and swung my arms back and forth in an attempt to get warm. Frida poked her head out and gave me a questioning look.
“I’m gonna continue searching the rest of the rooms. I need to see what else I can find in here, and make sure we really have our backs clear.” I told her.
"Sounds good. Just… Be careful." She answered, and pulled the blankets back over her head.
It took me about thirty minutes to thoroughly search the rooms in both directions of the hallway. What I found was almost too good to be true. Once done, I hurried back to Frida, and called her name as I opened the door.
“Hmm? …oh, I’d fallen asleep.” She drowsily replied.
“Yeah, sorry about that, but you need to hear this.” I eagerly explained, “The steel door is in fact the only entrance to this section of the bunker, so I dare say we’re safe. Most of the rooms in the opposite end of the hall are storage rooms. There are a couple other bedrooms like this one down the hall, and also a few offices. But listen to this, in the end of the hallway is a kitchen with a full freezer and a well-stocked pantry. Frida, there’s food and supplies here to last for months! And I saved the best for last. We have bathrooms with working showers! There’s hot water!”
Frida’s eyes widened. She jumped out of bed with the blanket wrapped around her.
"Show me, now!" She commanded.
I walked her to the bathroom down the hall. She took a quick look inside, walked over to the shower and turned the water on. It was warm after a few seconds. She loosened the blanket around her shoulders and dropped it on the floor by my feet, before she walked into the shower.
“Oh! Right… I’ll just leave!” I stuttered, totally embarrassed.
I went into the kitchen and decided to prepare some dinner. I hadn’t noticed until now how hungry I was. I had eaten properly back in the apartment in Klinte, but Frida probably hadn’t eaten a real meal in days or weeks. I found some sausages in the fridge, and frozen vegetables. Fresh potatoes too. I fried the sausages in butter, and boiled the potatoes and vegetables. Soon, a delicious smell filled the room. After a while, Frida appeared in the doorway. She had found some new clothes as well, by the looks of it.
"I thought I smelled food! Wondered if I was dreaming. First a warm bed and a shower, and now this!" She said.
"Nice, right? This was a lot more than I had dared to hope for." I answered.
“Don’t know what I hoped for, but I didn’t imagine this.” She replied, “I can barely wait to eat! And hey, thanks for doing the cooking.” She complimented me.
“It’s the least I could do. Why don’t you have a seat over there?” I replied.
Frida smiled and walked over to a table by the wall. She grabbed some dishes from a shelf and placed them on the table, before she sat down.
“Anyway… I didn’t mean to make you embarrassed back there.” She said.
I swallowed a lump in my throat. I couldn’t find the fitting words to answer.
“I’ve spent all my worries on the world going completely to shit, and us barely getting here alive… So I really don’t care if you saw me.” She continued. Her tone was more cheerful now.
"Yeah, that makes sense I guess." I said and laughed.
To my joy she laughed back. It felt good to start breaking the tension from our fatal encounter earlier that day, and our narrow escape.
"What about you? Have you gotten warm yet?" She asked me.
“Not quite, I’m still thawing out. I’m gonna take a shower too when we’re done eating.” I answered.
“Yeah? I can recommend that. I think I’m going right back to bed.” She replied.
We talked more while we ate. Mostly about everyday stuff, and things to help getting to know each other. Frida was usually the talkative one, not me, and I could tell she was beginning to deal with her grief by trying to keep other things as normal as possible. Every now and then she would go quiet, and I could see her eyes tearing up. I did my best to be supportive, and to listen when she needed to talk.
My first shower in over two weeks was amazing. For the first time since the machines had appeared, I felt like I could finally relax. I closed my eyes as the warm water ran down my face. Hidden in a cloud of hot steam, I let myself disappear from the apocalypse for a while. When I got back to the dormitory, Frida was already asleep. I turned off the lights and picked a bed for myself. My head barely touched the pillow before I drifted into a deep slumber.
Six days passed. It seemed like a lot more. We lost all concept of time inside the bunker. We tried to stick to the clock as best we could, and keep regular hours for sleep and meals, but it wasn’t easy. We strived to be productive during daytime. We sorted clothes and equipment that we could use. We prepared various rations of food that we could grab in a hurry if the need arose. Our backpacks were prepared, and careful maintenance done on our weapons. Mostly though, time went by slowly. Luckily, we had each other as company. I grew more and more fond of Frida for each day that passed, but even here at what could be the end of the world, I couldn’t muster the courage to tell her that directly. I shamefully hoped my affection would show, and that she would notice. After a while though, she also began showing signs that the feelings might perhaps be mutual. I desperately hoped it wasn’t just my imagination. A couple nights back, she had pushed her bed up against mine. We could lie there for hours and just talk. We had much in common. She was easy to converse with, and always interested in what I said. Frida herself was gradually softening up again, and the trauma she suffered from losing her cousin, was gradually starting to lose it’s grip on her.
One day, I had fallen asleep on a couch around mid-day. Suddenly, loud music blasted through the door and pulled me out of a dream. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I immediately recognized the song. Sandra’s “Maria Magdalena”. The sharp, synthesized beats echoed down the hallway. I got up and walked over to the room where it came from, an officer’s room with some couches, a table and a huge stereo standing in the corner. I peeked inside. Frida was dancing in the middle of the room. She was an impressive dancer too. She was mimicking the lyrics while the song played. She saw me standing in the doorway. She pointed at me and signaled me with her finger to come join her. I hesitated. Frida came over and grabbed both my hands firmly. She tried to lead me into some kind of dance, but I had no clue what the hell I was doing. I couldn’t help but laugh nervously at myself. I was way out of my comfort zone. She looked like she was having fun none the less.
“I’m… I’m not much of a dancer!” I tried to say, but the music drowned out my words.
Frida placed her arms around my neck, looked me in the eyes and shook her head gently. Then she kissed me. My pulse skyrocketed. I froze up and shut my eyes, and it felt like my mind was leaving my numb body. Her eyes met mine again, and with just a look she let me know that it was all right. I took a deep breath and relaxed a bit, then I gently placed my arms around her lower back. We kissed again. Time stood still.
"You are amazing." I whispered into her ear.
It tickled her. Frida twitched and laughed. I laughed with her. We held each other close and moved slowly to the music. She rested her head on my shoulder.
“What’s that?” She asked.
“What’s what?” I replied.
"That sound? You hear that?" She asked again.
She was right. There was another sound, blending in with the music. A faint knocking sound, echoing from somewhere in the distance. I walked over and turned off the stereo. We held our breaths and looked at each other. The knocking continued.
"Is someone banging on a pipe out there, or on the door?" Frida asked nervously.
“Not sure. Sounds like it’s further away, closer to outside.” I answered, “Come with me, let’s arm ourselves just in case.”
We ran back into the dormitory, put on our boots and grabbed our weapons. We cautiously approached the red, steel door, separating us from the outer bunker. We agreed to try getting a better sense of what was making the sound, and we slightly opened the door in order to listen.
Gunshots! They were coming from the last hall, outside the other end of the tunnel. I signaled Frida to stay in cover. I barely peeked out with one eye myself. An assault rifle barked as it sent out short bursts of fire. We could hear the whirring, mechanical sounds the machines made as they charged in, followed by several shots. An explosion echoed down the hallway. A second later, the gleam of a flashlight illuminated the walls, then the silhouette of a person appeared in the upper end of the tunnel. He crouched down by the corner of the opening, ready to take on any pursuers. A dog-machine came through. He fired a few well-placed rounds, and the machine was wrecked. Two more were approaching. The man got up and sprinted toward our door. I pulled the door halfway open.
"Get inside here!" Frida cried out to the man.
"Runners behind me! Shoot them!" He screamed back, as he ran the last few meters ferociously.
He smacked into the heavy steel door and pushed through the opening. Frida and I peeked out from each our side of the door and opened fire on the two so-called runners, coming down the tunnel like wild animals, she with her AG4 assault rifle, me with the SMG. The two machines exploded one after the other, and briefly lit up the dark tunnel as sparks rained down around them. Two light shockwaves was all that reached the door before we pulled it shut again.
The man stood inside the hallway, leaning his head and upper body against the wall while fighting to regain his breath. We noticed now that he was a soldier. He wore a dirty uniform and leather boots. Around his waist he had a bandolier with several magazine pouches. A standard issue AG5 hung in a strap over his shoulders, along with a backpack. His face was black with dirt and he had a green helmet with a headlamp on.
"Hey man, are you all right over there?" Frida asked him, astonished.
"What the hell does it look like? And just what are you two doing in here?" He growled back at us.
He looked up at us and shone his light right in my face. I squinted.
“Sorry. Thank you is what I should s…” He interrupted himself, “Wait! No, this can’t be true!” He looked at me and started laughing.
I was baffled and confused. The man turned off the light and removed his helmet. My jaw literally dropped.
"Anton!" I cried.
I threw myself at him and hugged him as hard as I could. He grabbed me by the shoulders and held me at arm’s length to get a good look at me. Tears were streaming down my face, and his as well.
"Really? Is this your brother?" Frida came up and asked. She looked as surprised as me.
"Yes! This is Anton, my older brother." I replied, still in disbelief.
Frida and Anton greeted each other. Anton then went over to the door and took a military ID card out from his jacket. With it, he locked the door so it could not be opened from the outside. He said he got it from someone who didn’t need it anymore, without explaining any further. He also said he wanted ten minutes in the bathroom to get cleaned up, and he asked if we could prepare some food before we sat down to catch up.
We prepared a simple meal and set the table inside the officer’s room. I sat down in a couch and took a few deep breaths. This was a lot to take in all at once. Frida sat down next to me and rested her head on my shoulder.
“I’m happy for you.” She said in a low voice.
In a way I couldn’t help but feel bad for finding my family, when she had been losing hers.
“I’m happy for us.” I answered, and held her hand.
Anton came in and sat down. He had cleaned off the dirt and put on the same pants and sweater he had worn the day we parted ways. It almost felt like I had reached back in time and brought him back.
"What happened Anton, on that day?" I asked him.
Anton ate heartily while he spoke.
“Chaos… The military was trying desperately to round up and evacuate the people of Klinte when I arrived there. I met a major who was impressed I’d come voluntarily. Said he needed every hand he could get. He gave a brief explanation on what we were up against, while I could see there was a lot he avoided telling. Nobody believed him until they saw for themselves, of course. They handed me a spare uniform and a weapon. I barely had time to change before I was sent to join a platoon who were already moving out, accompanied by a tank. We were to take up defensive positions in the woods just south of here. We had barely finished establishing a perimeter before some smaller machines began attacking us sporadically, but we fended them all off without casualties. The guys were joking at first, and speculating why the hell the soviets had sent these rustbuckets against us, and if they had put dog brains inside machines or whatever. We had no idea what to expect at any point, and later that evening, all hell broke loose.” Anton paused, and took a moment to drink.
"I saw distant fighting from the hill, back at our camp. Heavy fighting, all over the island." I answered, and I explained how I had tried to return home, but was forced to turn back in search for him.
“The runners, that’s what the guys called them, were probably just sent in to soften us up. As night fell, the real fighting force descended upon us. Large, black machines, walking on two legs. We only saw a single red light as the first one jumped out of the dark forest and cut down our perimeter guard with it’s blade. As we opened fire on it, more of them appeared behind us. It was pandemonium. Smoke grenades, bullet tracers, explosions… The enemy was everywhere. We were scattered in all directions. I ran for cover in the woods, but in the darkness right in front of me, something was moving toward us. It was as tall as the trees, and the ground trembled as it approached. It fired a barrage of rockets that flew over my head, and rained down over the other soldiers behind me. I crawled under a big root to stay hidden. The shooting eventually stopped, and the giant machine trampled by just a few meters beside me. I heard the smaller machines skulking around the battleground for a while, before they moved on. I was in shock, couldn’t even get myself to move.” Anton explained, while he stared into the table.
“I’m sorry. That must be hard, getting thrown into the fray like that, and even losing your whole platoon.” I replied, but I knew it was no comfort to him.
"Your tank, was it no use against the machines?" Frida asked Anton.
“Our tank? It got off one shot before it was taken out… That giant machine, now that’s a real tank! Slow moving targets stand no chance against it.” Anton replied.
"Tank, quite a fitting name for it!" I agreed.
“The next morning I was still lying under that root. I heard somebody else approaching, searching through the remains for survivors. I called out and he found me. Another soldier had managed to hide and survive. His name was Martin. He’s the reason I’m still here today. He got me on my feet again, both literally and figuratively. Him and I spent almost two weeks searching the farmlands and the south coast for any other survivors or even a way out of here.” Anton paused and thought for a bit, “Eventually we headed back this way. We returned to Klinte a little over a week ago, in cover of a heavy snowfall. The first thing we noticed was black smoke rising from somewhere down in the housing area. We figured it was just a fire and went down to have a look, and there lay the enormous tank, destroyed and crumbled against the side of a house. We couldn’t believe our eyes!” Anton exclaimed.
Frida and I looked at each other, "Yeah, that was us. Us and one other." I answered.
“Stop lying.” Anton said sternly, “That’s impossible!”
We explained what had happened up to that day. How I had hid in Klinte until I ran into Frida and Erik, and how we barely managed to take down the tank and escape. Anton was astonished. He had seen the machine as indestructible, and with good reason. We told him about the house we found on the island, and how we were surrounded and forced to escape. Frida fell silent. I laid my arm around her and explained how her cousin was killed after we swam back over. I told Anton about how we had to abandon his body on the beach. All three of us went quiet.
“I can hardly believe all you’ve been through, and how you’ve managed to fight back against these things… But I want you to hear this. Me and Martin were camped on top of a hill, a bit south of here when you came ashore. We heard the fighting, and how the seeker gave your position away. After things went quiet and the machines moved on, we went down to the shore to investigate. We found your cousins body.” Anton said.
Frida’s eyes teared up.
"Listen, Frida. Just south of where you came ashore, lies a house all by itself, on a peaceful little perch overlooking the sea. If you ever come back that way, look for a grave under a large tree in the garden, with a round, white stone at the head. We laid your cousin to rest there." Anton told her.
Frida covered her face with both her hands and cried. I held her close to me.
"Thank you so much." She eventually managed to say, "You have no idea how much this means to me."
“I actually do.” Anton replied, “We stayed at that house for a few days until we ran out of food. Martin knew about this complex and suggested we’d go here and stock up. We were spotted by several machines outside at the docking area. We ran inside the bunker and the machines followed. Once inside there was no cover. They opened fire, and Martin was gunned down. His body is lying out there now. Now I only hope I can get back out there somehow, and do the same favor for him.”
Frida wiped her tears and looked me in the eyes. We both knew what needed to be done.
"We have a score to settle with these bastards!" Frida exclaimed.
“We’re coming with you, Anton.” I said, “Let’s get you rested, then we’ll go out there together and find your friend.”
8 Likes
This is reeaallllyyy gooood. 
It is nice to see that you continue your story. Really nice. So I’
m looking forward for more.
Pherhaps the mods can create a Category for Storys because i saw more good storys.
And i think a story such like yours is a good bridge over the long time to the next DLC.
So please keep it on.
2 Likes
Thank you so much, @helldiver
A little feedback helps a lot on my motivation to write more. I really appreciate it. 
More chapters may come, one day.
3 Likes
Nice Job man I started a story then didn’t get any support so I dropped it, keep going with this!
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Hello Admiralgamer, writing a story isn’t so easy. I think it is the first story you do and what i saw in your’s it has no real direction.
So my help:
To write a story you must have three important things
1.) The most important thing is to have an idea (a theme) what you will write about.
2.) The next step after the idea is a storyboard. It is a raw draft of your story and the red line
what leads you through your story. Roughly said it is the Direction in what your story will go.
When i start a story then i think of a beginning a main part and a end. All other will develop during
writing.
3.) Endurance and a long breathe. Some storys are running well. Some are so tenacious as chewing
gum.
It took me three months to write Helldivers Diary in my native language 
and another two months to
translate it in English. I have one story that I’m writing since a couple of years. Because i laid it on
side while other Storys had run better. But that has nothing to mean.
The last point you need is a good Laptop or Desktop PC with a handsome keyboard. Good Music 
and some bottles of beer.
So sit on your four letters and write, so that I have something to read
3 Likes
Chapter 5.
The fight had gone horribly wrong. I was wounded, panicking, and now I found myself running desperately through the black forest. Tears and blood were streaming down my face. I could feel it’s metallic taste in my mouth. The end of my life seemed imminent. A seeker had picked up my trail and came flying after me. It’s siren wailed relentlessly and the maddening noise echoed back and forth among the surrounding hills. I could hear the hunting party following behind it, fixed on their prey and closing in for the kill. Night had fallen, and I could barely see where I was going. The lower branches ruthlessly smacked my face as I ran. I cried for help, cursed and shouted, but I knew no one could hear me.
Suddenly, it was as if the black curtain of the forest was drawn apart, and I arrived at the edge of a small town. Instinctively I ran for the nearest street and slipped around the corner of a large brick building. I quickly realized that I had ended up in a back yard. A dead end. An abandoned truck was backed up against a loading ramp behind a warehouse. Outside a back door lay seven or eight corpses on the ground, apparently gunned down as they had tried to escape. Hundreds of flies were stirred up and began swarming around me. Overwhelmed by the sight and smell, I vomited.
The machines had caught up with me. I could hear them approaching just around the corner. The siren had stopped, but now the unbearable stench of death blended in with a faint smell of exhaust, oil and burnt gunpowder. It was an unmistakable sign of what was coming. Just then, two hunters followed me into the yard. The warm glow of the streetlights reflected in their black paint, and their ominous eyes bathed the dark pavement in a blood red light. This was it. I was about to faint, and I could feel all my senses leaving my body. My feet could not bear me anymore. I sat down and fell over on my back. Far up there in the black skies, the clouds had parted and revealed a few shimmering stars. They comforted me as I lay there and prepared for the end. I closed my eyes and pictured Frida and Anton’s lifeless bodies that I had left behind in the forest. The next moment, one of the machines stood over me. Without mercy or hesitation it extended the long blade from it’s arm, and with brute force it thrusted it through my stomach and deep into the ground.
I woke up with a gasp! Frida was sitting on my bedside with a firm hold on both my wrists. My whole body was shaking, and my heart was hammering in my chest.
"My god! I thought you were having a seizure or something!" Frida exclaimed.
In my confusion, it took me a minute to realize where I was, and that it had all been a dream.
"I…" I struggled to find my words, "I had a nightmare… Just not like an ordinary one." I said.
Frida lay down beside me and rested her arm across my chest.
"I have them too." She whispered.
I closed my eyes for a minute and focused on controlling my breath. I felt my pulse going down, and my connection to reality returning to me. I opened my eyes again and looked around the dimly lit room.
“Hey, where’s Anton?” I asked her.
“He saw me lay down next to you last night, after you’d fallen asleep. I could tell he got the picture, so to speak. He said he’d pick a bed in the other dormitory.” Frida explained.
I smiled. Anton had always been an attentive and caring person. He wasn’t very talkative, but he rarely needed any explanation to understand what was going on around him.
"What time is it?" I asked Frida.
"About half past three, I think." She answered.
After a while we both fell asleep again, this time without nightmares. In the morning, Anton entered the room and woke us up. Despite my awful experience during the night, I felt well rested.
"Good morning. Have you two slept well?" Anton asked, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.
I felt no desire to share what I had dreamt with them. I knew we were going outside and possibly encountering machines. We needed to preserve any leftover morale, if there was any.
"Well enough. How about you?" I replied.
“I was completely out! This is the first time I’ve slept in a place where I don’t need to worry about being ambushed or surrounded during the night.” Anton answered cheerfully.
Anton checked his watch and cleared his throat.
“I was up early. I’ve gone over all my gear, and I’m good to go. If you’re still serious about coming along, I want you to get ready. Check your guns, fill all your magazines, and pack your backpacks for any scenario where we might not be able to return here. This is important. We’ll pack food for a couple days each.” Anton commanded.
Frida and I nodded, we knew what to do.
“Please get started. I’ll prepare breakfast and food rations for us in the meantime. It will be daylight outside in a couple hours.” Anton said, before he turned around and proceeded down the hallway.
"Do as the boss says." Frida said, and gave me a wink.
"I fully trust him to order us around a bit." I answered reassuringly.
“Sure, he seems solid. You know, Erik was military too, but he wasn’t a leader. He was more… Volatile. In the end, this was too much for his psyche. I tried to help him out in making decisions, but it just pissed him off even more. I sometimes pretended to agree with him just to keep him from acting up. I feel sorry for that, now that he’s gone.” Frida paused, “Your brother seems to handle it quite well on the other hand, so we’ll follow him. I owe him that trust for what he and his friend did for Erik.” She said.
We got up and got dressed. In addition to what we had, we had found a lot of decent outdoor clothing in various lockers around the bunker. We filled our backpacks with a spare set, along with extra ammunition and other necessities. Anton supplied us with water bottles, food cans and some other non-degradable treats he had picked out to maximize the number of calories we could fit in our backpacks.
When all three of us were ready, we lined up our gear by the door and sat down in the kitchen where Anton had prepared a good breakfast. We didn’t talk much while we ate. Anton explained where Martin’s body was lying, and the easiest way to get back there. Twenty minutes later we were good to go. We geared up and assembled at the red steel door in the hallway.
"Thank you for doing this." Anton turned and said to us, as he gripped the heavy lever on the door and pulled it down firmly.
The heavy door creaked as it slowly swung open. Anton turned on a flashlight that he had taped to his AG5. It illuminated the wrecked runners lying in the tunnel. We held our breaths and listened. Dead silence.
“Listen. We do this carefully and we’ll be back here before nightfall. We go as a pair in front, weapons ready at all times. Last one follows closely and keeps an eye out behind us.” Anton whispered, “And remember, be quiet and stay alert.”
I had every confidence in Frida, but I insisted that she’d take the rear this time. Slowly we retraced our steps toward the outer bunker. The way seemed longer now than last time, but we met no resistance. Whatever machines had followed Anton inside had now probably retreated outside. Finally we entered the large outer hall. The air was freezing. The temperature had dropped considerably since we entered the bunker. In the far end of the hall, the first light of day crept through the huge steel doors, and revealed a body lying face down on the concrete floor. Anton stopped and turned off his light.
"There he is." He sighed.
We approached the body. Anton knelt down beside the friend he had lost, and I could hear him quietly speak a few words. Frida kept watch behind us. I walked carefully toward the tunnel entrance to see if the coast was clear. Through the snowfall, I spotted a sudden movement that made me freeze up. I crouched down and slowly backed up toward Anton and Frida. With a gesture I signaled them to stay still.
"What?" Anton whispered.
"Machines, outside in the docking area. I saw at least one hunter." I whispered back, my eyes fixed on the entrance. "Stay in the shadows." I urged them.
“What’s your plan, Anton?” Frida asked nervously.
Without answering, Anton quickly dragged the body away from the light’s reach. He knelt down again and thought for a moment.
"I had hoped the docks would be clear, and that we could carry him back to the villa where we buried your cousin." He finally said.
"We could take out that hunter, but who knows how many more might be close by?" I replied.
"No, absolutely not. There is an alternative. You see those railroad tracks back there? They lead upward trough the mountain and exit into the valley south of Klinte. We can carry him up there and bury him in the forest under the railroad bridge." Anton explained.
I made eye contact with Frida in the gloom, but neither of us had anything better to suggest.
“Ok? That’s my plan then.” Anton said.
The halls were loaded with military supplies and surplus equipment. Anton quickly found a stretcher that we could use to carry the body. I found a couple shovels and tied them to our backpacks. Anton lit his headlamp and we began ascending the railway tunnel. It was a heavy job, and we had to pause quite a few times to rest our arms. No machines followed us. Finally, after half an hour’s walk, a pale light could be seen up ahead. The railway exited onto a bridge, crossing over the southbound road and leading into a fenced in complex. A wrecked train was blocking the bridge. The snowfall had lightened up a bit, and the forest below us seemed eerily quiet. The temperature outside was severely low.
"Down there, behind that thicket. Looks like a good place." Anton said, and pointed to a spot in the woods below us.
We climbed down from the elevated railway and found the place Anton had picked. We put the stretcher down and I readied the shovels. Without thinking I plunged my shovel into the ground. A loud noise rang out as it hit the top of a stone under the layer of snow.
"Shh! What the hell are you doing?" Anton hissed to me.
I bit my teeth together in an embarrassed grimace. Anton shook his head. We stood still and listened for a while for anything that might be coming to investigate. Nothing happened. Anton took the other shovel, and a bit more discretely, he put his foot on it and tried to stick it into the ground. No result. The ground was frozen solid.
“What the f… Why didn’t I think of this?” Anton said to himself and tilted his head toward the sky. “I’m sorry, Martin.” He whispered into the air.
I laid my hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. He was struggling to hold back the tears. He took a firm hold of the shovel again and thrusted it into the ground a couple times, as hard as he could. I grabbed hold of his arm.
“Anton, stop. Stop! It won’t work. The ground could be frozen half a meter down for all we know.” I said to him.
He was seething with frustration. Behind us, Frida was beginning to look very nervous.
"Can we please just go back inside?" She begged.
On the hill behind us, two crows were scared out of their tree. With a loud flapping of wings they took to the air and flew out right above us. Far up there, through the snow, we saw a single yellow light looking at us from in between the dark trees. The light suddenly shifted to bright red, followed by a familiar, mechanical howl. Then, gunfire. We crouched down among the thicket and looked around. We were cut off from the tunnel entrance.
"Run!" Anton cried.
We sprinted out of the woods, onto the road. Down the hill was a bridge spanning the river, and an intersection where the road split off toward Klinte, and up a valley leading into the mountains. We instinctively ran toward it. We could see the outskirts of the town through a thin haze of fog and snow. As we crossed the bridge a pair of runners opened fire at us from further down the road.
“Let’s go up the valley instead!” I yelled to the others.
Along the right side of the road leading up, ran a deep ditch. We huddled over as low as we could while we ran through it. The high banks provided some concealment, but not for much longer. A little further up, the ditch flattened out and we were forced to cross the road to find better cover. I took a quick look back. The hunter had apparently lost sight of us, and was searching around the intersection by the bridge.
"Go now, into the woods, and stay low." I whispered to the others.
We made our way up the valley, through the forest but close enough to the road to keep an eye on it. Soon, we passed by a small farm, but two runners were patrolling around the house. No choice but to continue. Soon, the distinctive sound of moving mechanical joints could be heard from the road. Close by lay a large, uprooted fir tree that could provide concealment. We crept underneath it. The hunter that was chasing us came running up the road. It didn’t see us, and it passed right by. Anton was about to break cover when suddenly two more runners came dashing up the road as well. They too passed right by us.
We lay still for a moment and listened. Far away, low concussions could be heard. The branches concealing us began shaking gently. Soon, heavy stomps could be heard from further down the road. Then another set of stomps accompanied them. Another tank was coming up the road out of Klinte, and one more up the southern road, by the sounds of it. It was the most frightening thing I had ever heard, and I could see it weighed heavily on the others as well. There was no choice now but to press on.
"Are you okay?" I asked Frida and Anton.
“No, I’m not ok dammit… But I’m not hurt.” A quick reply came from Anton.
Frida had been very quiet since we came outside. I could see her chin was trembling as she tried to form an answer.
“I don’t want to die.” She barely managed to say, as she burst into tears.
I quickly crept over and put my arms around her.
“Frida, we’re allright. You’re not gonna die. We’re gonna continue very carefully, and I promise we’re gonna find a place to stay. We just need to keep quiet.” I tried to comfort her.
She nodded and took a few deep breaths. She quickly managed to contain her emotions. I felt terrible for her. I wanted to just let it all out myself. Anton too, by the looks of it. He had crept out from under the tree and was scouting the forest ahead. If we didn’t move out soon, we would be buried in snow. My toes were getting so cold I could barely feel them.
"Looks clear. Get on your feet now." Anton said, as he gave us a hand up. "Looks like we have good cover up ahead. We should be able to move unseen." He added.
We made good progress up the valley. Between the treetops, the spire of a church came into sight as we approached the top of the hill. It was an unexpected and welcome sight, and we all agreed to investigate if the place was safe. The church would be a perfect place to seek shelter, at least temporarily. We readied our weapons and prepared to leave the cover of the forest and cross the open road. The church was perched on top of a small hill, encircled by low stone walls and hedgerows. Anton crept out of the treeline and scouted the road in both directions. He gave us a signal to follow. We sprinted across the road and up the final slope below the graveyard. Anton poked his head over the hedgerow and looked around, then he tried to vault over it, but got entangled and fell face down on the other side.
"Are you ok, Rambo?" I giggled.
"Terrific." He muttered.
Frida and I walked around the side and found a small wrought iron gate in the stone wall. Anton was waiting in the yard.
"Very clever." He said sarcastically.
"Yeah, who could have figured out?" I parried his comment.
"It seems awfully quiet up here. Shall we try the door?" Frida asked.
"Gladly." Anton replied, "Watch my back, will you?"
Anton grabbed the handle on the large, wooden door. It was locked firmly and didn’t budge.
"Back door then?" I asked, "Or shoot it open?"
"Please try before you shoot anything." Frida said.
Anton nodded. We walked around to the back side and found the other door. Naturally, it was locked as well.
"I think I can pick the lock on this one, or maybe pry it open." Anton said, "Keep guard while I work on it."
Frida and I stood by the stone wall and kept a lookout. She on the forest behind the church, and me on the road leading further north. The snowfall had let up. The air was clear and crisp, and the clouds were high. The view was phenomenal from up here. Far away to the northwest, I could see the coast of the mainland. Something inside me told me that was where we wanted to be, although I couldn’t know for sure if the mainland was safe. Leaving the bunker felt like a foolish mistake, but I knew that even the apparent abundance of supplies in there would only last for a finite number of days. I didn’t want to be on the run until the end of my days, or until the day the machines caught up with me and I could run no more. I suddenly remembered my dream.
"Machines!" Frida cried out, then she opened fire.
I was so startled my heart skipped a beat. Anton, who was fumbling with the lock, grabbed his rifle and ran over to the wall and began shooting. I crouched down and moved over to their side by the wall. A party of runners were coming through the forest toward the church. Frida and Anton had already taken out one of them. I found a good spot on the wall to shoot from. I placed the SMG on a flat stone and took out the hunting rifle that was strapped to my backpack. My crosshairs found the runner in front who was already shooting back. My first shot hit the fuel tank and the machine collapsed in a cloud of flames. Another runner blew up from Frida and Anton’s fire. A bullet ricocheted off the stone wall right beside my head. I flinched, but quickly found a new target. My shot bounced off the runner’s armor plate and left a rain of sparks as flew back into the woods. I quickly chambered a new round and again managed to send it right into it’s fuel tank. Another glorious fireball lit up the forest, quickly followed by another as the last runner fell to Frida’s AG4. The following adrenaline rush was sensational.
“That’s what you get, you bastards!” Frida screamed.
"Ha! That was awesome! You really do know how to handle yourselves." Anton exclaimed.
I made eye contact with Frida again. Her face was radiating with excitement and relief. It wasn’t funny being shot at, but I couldn’t help but share her expression. The relief however, was short lived. A seeker had picked up the commotion. It’s siren rang out through the forest. I quickly shouldered my rifle and scanned the forest for movement.
"Take that thing out!" Anton shouted.
“I don’t see it!” I yelled back.
I kept looking. Far back there in the forest, I caught a brief glimpse of the seeker as it passed between two trees. I instinctively pulled the trigger, but it was a hopeless shot. The siren kept on wailing.
"Reload your weapons, quickly!" Anton commanded.
I refilled the magazine on my rifle and made sure I hade the extra mags for the SMG reachable. Suddenly I spotted the seeker again. It had flown around to the side of the church and was about to cross a clearing in the forest. I sharpened my senses and focused. I had shot running deer before. This was no different, I thought to myself. I placed my crosshair half a meter in front of the flying seeker and followed it. Just as it entered the forest clearing I pulled the trigger. The seeker exploded in a hail of sparks and crash landed in the snow.
Then the bullets started flying again. More runners were approaching from behind the church. Frida and Anton barely peeked over the wall as they greeted the incoming machines with short, controlled bursts of fire. I lined up my aim on the rear guard, and quickly scrapped two runners as I made them share the last four rounds in my rifle. I placed it against the wall and readied the SMG instead. There were so many of them. Frida and Anton took out four runners on their side. One runner made it all the way up to the wall before I stopped it with a whole clip from the SMG. I felt the heat and the shockwave as it exploded a few meters in front of me.
Something flew in over our heads. It bounced off the church wall behind us and landed in the yard. I turned my head to look. The grenade popped open and spewed out a thick cloud of green smoke.
"Gas!" I yelled out.
Frida and Anton reacted quickly and ran along the stone wall to the southern side of the church, where we had come up. I grabbed my rifle with the other hand and ran after them. I inhaled some of the gas. It felt like my lungs were filled up with hot sand and my eyes burned like hell. Through a hazy veil of tears I could see the party of hunters that had flanked us, then I tumbled over against the wall, spitting and coughing. Frida knelt down beside me to see if I was ok. There wasn’t much she could do to help me. Anton took up a position and laid down fire on them. When he ran out and had to reload, Frida got up and tried to suppress them. The runners were close to breaching the wall on the back side. We were about to be surrounded.
"Get up! Up! We have to run!" Anton screamed.
"Run where?" Frida cried back.
"North, down the hillside!" Anton replied.
It was the only opening we had. They both gave me a hand up, and we dashed through a hail of bullets across the parking lot, over the edge and down through the forest. We had no idea where we were going to end up. My breath was returning to me but my eyes were still tearing up from the gas. I stumbled over something under the snow and fell. I landed on my side and hit my head. Frida and Anton stopped in their tracks, turned around and grabbed my arms again.
"Just a bruise. Up you go!" Frida said, as they helped me back on my feet.
We had broken the line of sight from the machines, but we could hear them running around the parking lot up by the church, looking for us.
"Stay low and keep moving. Get some more forest between us and them." Anton whispered.
We pressed on. The terrain was treacherous and the snow made it hard to find sure footing. At the bottom of the slope the forest grew denser. We stopped in a small clearing to get our bearings. There were steep cliffs to our left and below them, a small cove with shallow water. We could hear the gentle splashing of waves. Across the cove on a narrow, forested peninsula we could see a couple buildings along with what looked to be a shooting range.
“That house, let’s go for it.” Frida urged.
"Allright. Looks like we got cover all the way down there." Anton replied.
I struggled with the nauseating hangover from the gas while we pushed through the undergrowth of the snowed down forest. My eyesight was still blurry and I desperately craved for water. I couldn’t stop coughing. We passed by the shooting range and came to a small stone bridge, crossing onto the path that led up to the house.
"Nearly home now. Hang in there!" Frida said and laid her hand on my back.
I felt increasingly dizzy. Blood had run down my face and gotten into my mouth. Again I was reminded of my dream. Out of nowhere, something bit me in the back of my leg. I instinctively jerked my foot upward and turned around, almost expecting to see a huge, vicious dog ready to attack me. Instead I lost my balance and fell. I hit my head again. An excruciating pain started surging through my body like lightning bolts. I had been shot. Bullets were flying everywhere. A group of runners had caught up to us and were firing wildly from concealment in the bushes. Frida and Anton ran across and took cover behind the bridge’s stone walls. They returned fire but struggled to find their targets.
"Crawl over the bridge! Please, you gotta move!" Anton cried out to me in desperation.
I was lying in the middle of the bridge. I tried to roll over on my stomach but couldn’t muster the strength I needed. I tried to push myself but my arms felt like jelly. The deafening roars of Frida and Anton’s guns gradually faded into a distant, muffled crackling. I stared into the blue sky, it was dotted with black spots. They drifted across the sky, fluttering and growing in size until finally everything turned to black. I could feel two hands grabbing the collar of my jacket. Then I passed out.
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Hey, that’s a very good and tensing story. With that you have posted before it will be a very good and tensing GZ Story. I like it very much, so keep it up please. 
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The Music “Maria Magdalena” reminds me nice on my early days as we danced in the discotheks and wore the clothes of this time.
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Hey I didn’t notice a new one was done! Nice job dude.
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Thats some nice stuff right there
Solid
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Thank you, I appreciate it. 
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No thank you for writing such a nice story it was really good and I think you deserve more than just a thanks W A Y more
(Also if you get the chance write some more you left us on a really tense cliffhanger and I really want to see what’s next)
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To anyone who might read this.
This story is not finished, and I do not know if it ever will be. I’m no longer in a situation where I have the time I need to write. Maybe one day, I’ll have time to both play the game again, and finish the story, but I really don’t know. If I ever get there, it might even be that no one is left in here to read it.
Thanks to those of you who have given me feedback and encouraged me to write more.
Hope I see you again some time. 
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I’m sorry to hear that. Well I enjoyed your current ones alot and I hope you did to.
It was nice to read. If you ever get inspired to write again whoever reads it hopefully enjoys it the way I did and everyone else.
Have a good one my friend, we all loved your story. 
From this small amount I myself have learned that I am not the best writer . Although I have gotten better and better over this period of time that you have wrote this great story. And all jokes aside when I say it hurts me I really mean it.
I am happy though to have been able to read them and be a small part of this little story and ride along with you in this roller coaster of a story.
Once again have a great one and I loved your story down to the sad news of it ending.
Hi everyone.
Hard to believe, it’s been more than 2 years since I started writing this story, and over a year since I was forced to abandon it after chapter 5.
When I started writing, I didn’t have a plan for where the story would go. The road kind of built itself as my characters went along. My main goal here was to capture the original atmosphere of GZ.
Truth be told, I have started writing chapter 6 on my phone, quite a while ago actually. Problem is, I’m stuck. Really stuck. GZ is no longer the same game that it was at release. The in-game world has evolved so much and so fast, that my in-story characters have in a way been trapped. The vague plan I had in my head for ending the story will now need to be reconsidered due to the changes in the Marshlands. I’m gonna need a new plan. (And time, peace and quiet to write.)
Anyway, I’m not trying to make a point here. I’m just speaking my thoughts.
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I kind of understand what it feels like when you write a story. All the struggle to keep going, the insecurities, and feelings of getting stuck. Twelve years ago I also started to write a story and part way through I started doubting if I had the stamina to finish it. But in the end I finished it!
The story was actually also about teenagers, but living in the 22nd century and as writers most times do, lots of events and feelings about things happening in my own life were incorporated in the story. It was called “Arawit and the Serpent Ring”.
A short novel of 246 pages for young teenagers, involving a time-travel device. It had become a scifi-fantasy story, where a God-like entity and his Anti-self influence the lives of intelligent beings in the Universe as a sort of game to see what would happen. This time the entity went to Earth.
Because I am not a good writer, I made a free downloadable PDF-version in English of the novel. And I had 50 paperbacks in Dutch printed as give-away presents for my family and friends.
Writing was quite the adventure, and finishing the story felt really good. I think you will feel the same. And later you can read your story to your grandchildren.
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What I would like mostly to do, is finish the story in one or two more chapters, and then make a redux of the whole story. Rooting out grammatical errors, adding more screenshots in between text, and posting all chapters without comments in between.
Probably won’t happen!
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“Life will find a way”. 
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