Sanguine Snow

The landscape was beautiful, she realized. It broke her heart, when she came to terms with what exactly that meant. She stood on top of a hill, snow stretching out in every direction. The snowstorm had lessened, on this night, as she stood in a practical eye of the storm. Down the length of the hill, footsteps and tracks in the snow, that she knew simply turned to mud once you got far enough down. They had been partly filled in while the storm raged, leaving the chaotic traces of the people she had been traveling alongside, and in bitter combat with, even harder to interpret.

Her head still ached, from the blow she had taken. A gust of wind had knocked her off her feet, and she hadn’t seen the tree coming. Her military gear was heavy on her, though that might just be the bruises talking. She had no idea where her gun was, but the sidearm and knife at her hip would just have to be enough. She still had a few stakes on her back, worst come to worst.

She was lost in thought, as she wandered down the hill, trying to make sense of what had happened. She had been amongst the storm, and she had been in the thick of battle. They had surrounded all of them on all sides, mere minutes after they had arrived in this inhospitable place. Miles from their target, they had been little more then cattle in those dark, icy woods.

And now, as she walked down this snowy hillside, she realized that there was some safety to be found, even if she was abandoned and all alone. The sun was shining, which meant she was safe from those wretched things, if only for a little while. Which gave her time. If only she could think clearly, through the constant complaining and heaving of her body. She was lucky that neither hunger nor thirst had the time to process through her just yet, because otherwise, she’d simply be completely trapped, by her own body no less. But, that ultimately meant that she didn’t have much time to get out of here. The sunlight, and her current state of bodily purgatory, wouldn’t last forever.

So, she quickened the pace. She moved down, towards an outcropping of rocks, where she hoped she could look for any sign of her comrades. That would be a first step. However, something brought her pause, first. It was only barely visible, through the rolling hills, and tall trees which scraped higher then even the deepest snowdrift, yet stained in white all the same. It was a sight of grey stone, poured together into a structure which stood out against the horizon like a sore thumb. A castle, it’s four towers intact and strong, and a distant instinct flag flying from it’s highest points. It was raised, likely the highest thing all around it, and it brought in her an almost unexplainable dread. She took a long look at it, as she kept walking through the snow, and didn’t even notice the person beneath her, until it was far too late.

She tripped over his pack, which she had foolishly thought was a stone she could slide her foot over in her small and muted awareness of the ground beneath her. Instead, she slipped on a sh sifting object and was sent tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, down and through the snowdrift. Reaching for a handhold, anything, she found something stiff beneath the snow, and prevented herself from rolling the rest of the way down. She was horrified when she looked up, and saw the face of the boy, blue with frost, fearing that rigor mortis had set in, with his strangely slack jaw.

And instead, the upturned boy, in the same uniform and load as she, began to cough and breath, sharply.

There was a moment of stunned staring from her, before she quickly scrambled up the incline, as the boy continued to furiously cough and hack. She reached him without falling, and reaching both her hands down, gripped the shoulder straps of his back, and heaved him to his feet.

He couldn’t be older then eighteen. Babyfaced on top of that, his facial hair was unshaved, but there wasn’t much to begin with. A small scar ran across his lip, but otherwise he was unmarked. He was average height, not scrawny, but not big enough to be a true threat anyways. His white skin, in most places, had either a raw pink or blue tint, from frigid cold. His black hair had flecks of ice running through it. Rather then a rifle, he had a bulky supply pack, and otherwise a sidearm. He looked frazzled, though everything was muted through the chill. The frozen blood on the side of his head meant that he’d likely met a similar fate to her, swept off her feet during the storm. And with that bag, even if he did awaken, he’d have likely not been able to stand. That’s why, step one, she unhooked it, sending it into the snow. Kneeling down, she rummaged through it, until she found the few items she was looking for. Leaving it there for now, she plucked up the boy, who was a bit heavier then expected, but still nothing to her current adrenaline fueled state. She took off down the hill, watching where she was going this time. She just hoped she wouldn’t be too late.

———————————————————————————–

She had been trained to work quickly. Matches, combined with one of the rags from the pack, and some of the drier wood she could find, made for a fire that she could keep going. Moving over a large stone, she set the boy onto it, using his own uniform and a wedged knife to keep him in place, hovering near the fire. She’d gone back for the pack, and retrieved the other supplies within. A bit of survival food, and water that, once it thawed, would satiate her human needs.

The boy had been given similar courtesy, but hadn’t spoken yet. His uniform read “J. Mendyk” on the front, and she had recalled seeing him in transit over. The secondary unit had him assigned to carry their supplies. Which meant during the attack, they’d likely shielded him from the worst…until the storm got the best of him.

While he recovered, she set out into the snow. It turns out, the beasts hadn’t bothered to pick up after themselves. With a flashlight, she was able to find a lot of the objects that had been lost in a scuffle. The bodies they belonged to were gone…and the objects themselves were often staining the snow a brilliant crimson.

All the same, it was a task to perform, while her only other comrade recovered. She’d worry about him recovering unattended, but she knew that her enemy would not attack again during the daylight.

It wasn’t long before she returned to the fire, still burning, and J, who had sat up at this point, and was nibbling on a field ration. She splayed out her haul in front of the fire and began taking stock, wordlessly.

Control Rifle, to replace the one she’d lost. Control Pistol, for the kid-by the looks of things, they’d given him army issue, which wouldn’t do shit for this. A few more field rations, a canteen, a pair of knives, and her holy grail-her commanding officer’s flare gun. And three flares. Two reds, one blue. Red for emergencies, blue for mission complete. She fired the red into the sky right off. It went all the way up, before sparkling in a wave of red. If anyone was watching the exclusion zone…they’d know the signal.

And nobody came. At least not yet. She sighed. Turning over to J.

“…Good morning.” She said, in Russian.

He responded to her in a different language. Polish? Hard to tell. Before he clocked the language she spoke in, and switched, speaking in a harsher tone.

“…Thank you. You didn’t have to pull me out.” He was staring at the fire.

“I don’t let comrades die.” She said in return, flatly.

He nodded. Looking to her uniform.

“…What’s your name? Unless you want me to call you A. Savin.” He seemed to resent that notion. She chuckled a bit, despite circumstances.

“Anna. And you, J. Mendyk?” She asked, tilting her head slightly curiously.

“Jan.” He said, swiftly and without delay.

She gave Jan a nod, and took a step back from her spoils of war.

“Why didn’t they give you a real weapon. Jan.” She asked, but without the inflection of a question, really. Her voice was flat.

“Because this was a proving mission. Captain said if I killed one of the things I could get a Control.”

Anna leaned down, and picked up the Control Pistol she’d salvaged. She’d checked, it had about six rounds. She tossed it to Jan. He, despite his current state, caught it out of the air.

“I don’t do that proving stuff. Not here, not now. You know how to shoot?”

He nodded.

“Best in my class. It’s why I’m here.”

“Good. You know what to look for. If we don’t get picked up by nightfall, you’re watching my back.”

The boy didn’t seem all that surprised by that. If anything, he raised his head a little higher.

“I will. Did anyone else survive?” There wasn’t a shred of hope in his voice, she realized.

She hadn’t found any bodies. That, somehow, was worse, in her eyes. She shook her head.

“Not that I saw. You were in the second group, weren’t you? What happened?” She asked, with grave curiosity clinging to her voice.

“We got attacked in the midst of the storm. We didn’t even realize it was the enemy until it was too late. I was supposed to deliver a message to your group, but…I fell.”

Despite the blue chilly sheen on his face, his cheeks still flushed slightly.

She grimaced, and held back any urge to laugh.

“Not used to Siberian snow, yet?” She said, only sounding a little amused.

“No. I’m not. I thought home had a lot…this is…” He was trying to still sound tough, and by all accounts, he probably thought he was succeeding. Anna tried to respect the effort.

“It can practically swallow you. Did you live in a city?” She asked, thinking that might explain it.

It only surprised her a little when he shook his head.

“A small town near the sea. It snowed there a lot during winter, but not…this much. They gave us a bit of training, but not enough.” He sounded grim, but he had softened slightly at the mention of home.

That surprised her a little more.

“How does someone from a small town in…Poland I assume?”

He nodded.

“End up here?”

An expression that was hard to read crossed his face. Slowly, he breathed in and out, as if preparing himself, before speaking properly.

“I was talented in the military back home. Natural talent, they said. I got recommended for this unit by a…friend” He didn’t look happy about that. She nodded in response, not pressing.

A bit of a silence fell between the pair, as Jan turned the Control Pistol over in his grasp. Getting a feel for the weapon as it was. She really couldn’t blame him, all things considered.

“How about you?” He said, breaking the silence. She gave half of a smile.

“Moscow. I saw one of the bastards drag my brother out a window. Reporting it got me pressed into the program. Turns out, I also have talent. Just took a few brushes with a death to get that talent to come to the surface.”

“…I see. I’m sorry” Jan said, before shutting up for longer this time. She didn’t make an effort to break the silence.

She slung the Control Rifle over her shoulder in the process. Three rounds in that. She had eleven left in her own Control Pistol, but she wasn’t sure if it still worked. One way to find out, she supposed. Slowly, she settled back down into a sitting position.

She looked to the sky again. The lingering light of the red flare dissipating against the harsh white light of day. There was a faint thought in her head, building slowly as the last of the red vanished into nothing, it’s scraps plummeting back to earth.

They would have to have someone watching the battle site for flares. That much was certain. Based on the distance from before, extraction could get here in under an hour if they wanted.

But, there was another chance that no one was coming. Why pick up disparate failures, so close to the fortress. In theory, the sun overhead meant there could be no mistake, but the briefing had said that even with that potential metric, the area around the castle still wasn’t safe, even if they didn’t know exactly what to expect.

…If that were the case…

The panic hadn’t consumed her yet, she’d been trained better. She broke her silence, as her eyes flicked to Jan.

“Jan. How do you feel?” She said, making a quick motion to his face, now pink rather then blue. He bristled, slightly, tensed.

“Not good. But…I could walk if I tried.”

She looked up at the sun. They probably had about four hours.

“…In about an hour, we should start moving. If they haven’t shown up, or we don’t see an attempt, we need to make our own escape.”

That got a nod from him.

So it was set.

———————————————————————————–

The hill wasn’t as daunting as she’d thought. The fire had been left to burn, because it would hopefully throw off anyone tailing, especially as the start of snowfall began to flurry down from the heavens. Their tracks would be covered. Which is what she wanted.

In the end, they managed to crest the hill, and reach the other segment of woods that had been across from them. Where they’d mostly passed through peaceably the prior night. She knew that likely wouldn’t be the case, by all accounts, this time. They would be expecting company. The surprise had elapsed. And botched.

The sun was starting to set, and they were in the thick of the woods. The storm was worsening, but it hadn’t been quite as bad as it had been the past night, where the winds had been intense enough to knock someone off their feet, even in full gear. At this point, it was just a sensory problem. Which was bad, but not quite that bad.

She was reminded of the winters when she was a girl. She had visited Germany, once, and saw that there, the snow barely piled higher then a meter at it’s worst, in some places. She had family outside of Moscow a ways, and you just couldn’t visit them during the winters, some years. It was just that bad, and just that deep.

She’d always wanted to move to Germany.

But she was far from there, and she had a job to do, as she trudged onward through the snow, Jan just behind her. As the storm worsened, and light began to fade, she reached to her belt, snapping out the flare gun, and firing the second red flare, trailing into the sky. She realized that it was a gamble, but this was their forest. They would already know they were here. High command, though, might change their minds. Shifts would have changed. Different people making different calls.

Or so she hoped. She and Jan picked up the pace slightly.

Their first and only miracle was found soon after. She felt something firm beneath her feel, after descending a little ways. Packed dirt, mixed with a bit of stone.

A road. She motioned for Jan to follow her up that way. The kid had good endurance at least. He hadn’t needed to stop and break like she thought he might, and he’d insisted on carrying the pack again. It was slightly lighter now, but still. Impressive stuff.

She was worried she wouldn’t be able to find the road they came down. If they kept following it, eventually they’d be back in safer territory. Granted, it would probably be dawn by then.

As darkness finally engulfed the world, and the snow began to swirl, she knew that prospect was tenuous at best. She had the Control Pistol out. And steeled onward.

She kept her senses sharp, and made a motion to her ears, so that Jan would know to do the same. He moved to be within her peripheral, while still watching where she couldn’t see. It wasn’t quite a perfect formation, there were still blind spots, but it would have to do.

They got maybe thirty minutes down the road before they started stalking them. She had been trained to notice the signs, even in low viability. The sound of quick movement, the kind that sent snow flying, but not the kind of a person who would trip. Faint, blurring light. And…

Growling. She drew out the mundane pistol Jan had been carrying, and fired it into the storm. A loud bang cut through the wind for a moment.

Even if it connected, it wouldn’t do much. Jan whispered.

“Protocol is stay still, and let the-“

Anna took off running, up the road. Jan stayed still, exactly as he should. She heard the footsteps, now, rapid, getting close.

She saw it lunge out of the snow, and into her limited field of view. In her split second vision, it had red eyes which pierced the dark, and a body bigger then your average person.

It was with great relief, that she angled the Control Pistol around, and fired it straight ahead towards the creature. She didn’t even watch it fall, but spun around as fast as she could, quick enough to see the massive one looming just above her. The Control Pistol discharging gave it pause, even with it’s massive claws that dribbled with something that could be generously called poison, which bought her just enough time to discharge it into the neck. The head of the creature popped off, even as the pistol barely recoiled in her hands.

Both bodies fell to the snow. Ahead of her, more movement, she clocked it, and took a gamble. Third bullet. Third body.

Jan hurried up behind her, pistol ready to fire. She held up a hand.

Three bodies, two in view. One, the one which had lunged, was about the size of a lanky human, just taller, with grey skin, and red eyes slowly fading with light. Only clad in rags, she could see that this was likely once a man. Once. It had fallen to the ground, like a puppet with a strings cut. The Control pistol had done it’s job, evidently. The other one, simpler. A neck shot that took off the head. Even these fuckers couldn’t live without a head. It was further mutated, giant and bulky, with those claws she figured she shouldn’t touch. No eyes, no light behind the skull. It must have been able to see without seeing…and didn’t make any noise when it moved. Her experience had served her well.

Jan looked at her, worried. Confused. She motioned for him to keep moving, stepping over a body similar to the first lanky one.

“…They expect us to stand our ground. By breaking, it seems like I’m scared…and the freaks normally send the dogs first. The ones who don’t know what a trick is and fall for them easily. I bet on that, and it paid off. They normally try that tactic, distract from the front, jump from behind.”

Jan was in awe slightly, eyes wide, but he nodded.

“That bought us a little bit of travel time. We gotta move.”

And so they moved. The vampires not all that far behind.
———————————————————————————-

It was too quiet out here. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it had been too long since an attack. They’d gotten jumped by a few more hounds, but none of them had tried anything tricky. Probing the defenses, but for what. One of them had gotten away, the storm causing the Control round to go off course. Maybe they had reported that they had meant business, and they shouldn’t be fucked with.

Wishful thinking, as she saw the large dark shapes start to circle them. Beasts of some kind, meant very literally, as these things looked like four legged creatures. They weren’t stalking, she realized they were watching. She whispered to Jan, best she could.

“Company soon. Stay on guard.”

He nodded, as she gripped the Control Rifle close, and walked, not far.

The two giant creatures moved to the center of the road. The snow had cleared slightly, the storm giving reprieve on this dark night, allowing the moon to cast light down on a confusing scene.

A woman, beautiful beyond measure, stood under the pallid light. She wore a dress fit for a ball centuries ago, and was waving her hand, as if incarnating some kind of spell. She realized, in turn, that the storm was only exorcised from an area around them. It had been her, hadn’t it. Her grip tightened on the rifle. The woman, whose dark hair flowed like silk down to her shoulders, smiled brightly, her pale skin reflecting moonlight, along with her very obvious fangs. Her eyes were colored a faint crimson. She was a vampire.

The woman was escorted by two truly massive tigers. Double the size of the average one you might see in a zoo, with brilliant coats with brighter colors then one might expect. Useless for hiding. Because they weren’t meant two. Both stood a silent vigil at this woman’s side.

Before Anna or Jan could be impulsive, the woman spoke, in Russian, her voice smooth and clear.

“The Tsarina Eudoxia Lopukhina commends your survival, soldiers. You may stand down, and be taken to her wondrous home, where you will be crowned in lavish comforts. You have earned as much. Your lives need not end at the order of some foolish old men.”

She smiled. Anna almost believed it was genuine, for a moment. Anna shook her head, but it was Jan who spoke.

“Comforts at the cost of bearing your curse?”

His voice was level. Good kid.

The woman across from them shook her head.

“Curse? Is that what they’ve told you? My boy, it’s a simple act of transfusion. You’re far too useful for a transformation like the bloodwastes we threw at you before. You’ll be proper Ladies and Lords.”

Lies in part. It was more complicated. But the curse wasn’t exactly true either.

“…I’d like to go home to my husband, if you wouldn’t mind. I don’t think he’d like the fangs.”

Anna said this with as nonchalant of a smile as she could. She wasn’t married.

The woman slowly shook her head.

“I’m afraid that just isn’t an option. And you, boy? Do you wish to waste your life?”

Jan fired the Control Pistol. The woman appeared behind her tigers, shaking her head again, and flicking her wrist. The storm began to close in, and the tigers lunged across the snow. Jan was tackled, barely dodging the giant maw, but getting raked across the chest. Anna turned the Control Rifle towards the tiger that lunged towards her, and pulled the trigger when it was less then a meter away.

The tiger didn’t drop dead like the others. It fell, but it writhed, as if in pain, as if it were meeting a much slower death. That didn’t matter, as she spun the rifle around on the other tiger, pulling the trigger, just as Jan stabbed it in the gut with his knife.

The other tiger dropped, writhing, but dying shortly after, as blood gushed onto the snow, partially drenching Jan before he scrambled out of the way. He was also bleeding. But he’d live.

She turned around, to face the woman, but she’d been quicker. Appearing in her shadow, just as the snowstorm whirled back around her, obscuring most things from sight. The woman grabbed Anna by the throat, like it was nothing. Lifting her off the ground, and whispering in her ear.

“Perhaps you’ll make a nice pet. The Tsarina’s chosen man loves women who put up a fight, I hear.”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she tossed the Control Rifle to Jan, he grabbed it, aimed it, and-

The woman moved with her. For a moment, all Anna felt was the chill of the grave, before she appeared up the road, somewhere else in the storm.

“Naughty girl” The beast said, before tossing her into a tree, hard. Something broke, inside of her. One of her arms wasn’t moving right.

The woman moved towards her, casually.

“I suppose you’re worth less broken. The boy is intact, perhaps he’ll make a good dog…or something lesser, he doesn’t quite have much beat on his bones, does he?”

She spat in the woman’s face, and tried to draw out the mundane pistol with her bad arm. All she did was cause herself pain, and it sunk into the snow. The woman shook her head.

“Idiot girl. I am greater then the feeble gunpowder. Even your little antidote couldn’t kill me. Perhaps you weren’t good stock, after all, if you were that stupid.”

Anna let the woman talk. Just long enough, at least, to draw out something from her back.

The woman took a step forward, just as Anna fired the final flare, brilliant blue, into the heavens.

For a moment, the woman paused, a smirk crossing her face.

“We don’t fear fire. That’s just a fairy tale.”

Anna laughed, a sound which pierced the wind.

“You don’t. But he was top of his class.”

Her expression was confused, for a moment. And then she hit the snow. She didn’t writhe, like the tigers. She thrashed. She screamed. Tortuously singing to the heavens, as the Control round in her back did her work.

Jan hurried up to her, and helped her up, despite the blood he was dribbling into the snow. She smiled at him.

“…Knew it.” She said, simply.

“She talked too much.” He said, as he began helping her back to the road. Back into the night.

———————————————————————————–

It wasn’t long before the roles reversed. Victory was short lived, after all. She was the one carrying him, after they ran out of Control rounds to stem the tide, and bandages to stem the gushing wounds the tiger had left. There was something wrong about them, but she didn’t have the brainpower to figure out what. So when he’d passed out, she’d thrown him over her shoulders, and started running. If she stopped, she knew she wouldn’t start again. She didn’t know how much longer till dawn, outside that she would probably not see it.

They were just behind her. More of the hounds. No one else that could talk. She supposed they realized they only had so many Control rounds between them. To her credit, she had a count of twelve tonight. That was something. Wasn’t her record though.

She stumbled and fell. She didn’t know on what. It didn’t really matter. She heard the quick steps moving towards her, from all directions, and braced herself for the pain that would come as their claws and teeth sunk into her. She offered a prayer out to her mother, and friends back home. One more then the others.

Light drowned the entire road. Gunfire followed moments later. The sound of beasts hitting the snow occurred a few moments later. With one hand, she hazily propped herself up, seeing the lights and beating of rotors. A ladder was tossed down. With the last of her strength, she got herself and Jan into the helicopter, and onto one of the seats. People in tactical gear, with Control rifles and goggles, speaking indistinguishably, as her eyes rolled back into her head, and she couldn’t stay awake anymore.

———————————————————————————–

She awoke in a large grey room. Gurneys lined one wall, the side she was on. Her arm was in a cast, and her torso wrapped in bandages that felt cold. She was wearing a paper thin gown. There was a tray of terrible looking food, and a glass of water, nearby.

She had been awoken by voices. Turning her head over, she saw Jan, somehow in a better state then she was, speaking with a man in uniform. She recognized him as Captain Valentin. He’d helped with their training. He was an older man, salt and pepper beard, and shaved head. He and Jan were speaking in hushed tones.

After a moment, Jan got off his gurney, seemingly dressed in plainclothes, and walked out of the room…looking over his shoulder to her. She gave him a smile. He closed the door behind him.

The Captain took his time, walking down to her. He gave her a kindly smile.

“…Anna. I’m glad you survived.”

She gave him a weak nod.

“I’m tough.”

He sat down next to her, releasing a loud sigh. Not saying anything, for a moment. So Anna broke the silence.

“…How long till I’m back in the field.”

The Captain shook his head slowly.

“You won’t be.”

Anna paled. Had she been permanently injured? She couldn’t afford to be-

“The State Security Committee Special Affairs Group, at least as it pertains to you and your units, is being disbanded. International pressure and attention…or so I’m told.” He had a stern expression.

“So…where does that leave me? Leave him” She asked.

“Jan Mendyk is being sent home, on observation. He’s been told his training was a fluke by rogue actors put up by anti-party infiltrators. What he saw were mad mountain men, nothing more. Now, you, my dear, knows that not to be true.”

She gave him a wary nod.

“…As such, you are on trial for lying to a superior officer, by discharging an improper flare to be extracted early. Your trial is tomorrow.”

Her eyes widened, she sat up, nearly lunging for the man, but she felt sharp pain in her chest, a woozy dizziness setting over her.

“There’s no death sentence attached…”

The Captain said, rising, and moving for the door, pausing in it, as he looked back to her.

“But I am sorry.”

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