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Zofia had a penchant for surviving the unsurvivable. The world had crumbled at her feet, opening up the maws of the unknown to her, and yet she held on, and lived. She fought against her colleagues possessed by an alien fungus, and lived. The skies opened up, and hell rained down on her, and yet she lived, persevering through sheer will and stubbornness, as if Zofia herself disallowed her very spirit to leave her body, keeping it on a tight leash. Or maybe, maybe it’s just luck.
Of course, Ash and the others didn’t consider ‘seemingly immortal’ as one of the prerequisites of joining REACT, not really, but when other operators go into stasis, sometimes having someone capable of crawling their way out of hell was more than convenient. Many operators see Zofia as a lifeline and a bastion, a shield even when there were none. But of course, the Bosak Anchor was still human, and lifelines can snap, leaving you floating in the deep, vast emptiness of space.
This fog was nothing like that though. For what Zofia couldn’t see with her eyes, her tech more than made up for. The deep purple curtains over her eyes were nothing more than just a distraction. Zofia had a mission and she and her squad, Ela and Doc, would steadily carve their way through aliens and endless nests to complete it. An infallible group on paper, with Doc’s expertise in keeping the two tacticians alive, nothing should go wrong.
“Does the air taste bitter to you, or is it just me?” Ela looked at her sister and Doc, not quite so worried yet.
“Mmm… might be another version of the Chimera Fog. Stay alert though, tell me if you need medical assistance, oui?” Doc reassured Ela, giving her a firm shoulder pat.
Zofia didn’t say anything, quietly assessing the situation in her head, before quietly slipping to the front, the two other operators falling into formation like a well-oiled machine.
“More talk makes more anxious. Don’t do it.” Zofia commented offhandedly, earning an exasperated sigh from Ela, though she says nothing else.
Visibility was bad, as was expected, but the air really tasted off. Zofia tapped on her wrist, trying to bring up her life support equipment, but everything seemed to be in order, with the air filters doing what they’re supposed to. Her hand returns to her rifle, looking down the scope absentmindedly, her thoughts drifting off elsewhere as she runs on autopilot, doing the typical triangulation stations, running around the back alleys of Tenderloin after Ela and Doc activate their own stations.
“Found it yet, Zo? We’ll wait for you at the airlock, yeah?” Ela’s voice came over the communications relay, as Zofia nodded and replied with a typical affirmative. The squad had already cleared most of the area of nests, and parasite activity was low overall, but something just didn’t feel right.
A grunt appeared in the peripherals of her sight, and Zofia twirled her blade up to meet it, only to have it dissipate in a cloud of more purple gas. Weird. She rubbed at her goggles. Maybe she needs more sleep. Really should ask Doc for those sleeping pills she wanted to get since her days at Rainbow.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Zofia turned and fired, the bullets embedding themselves into an old mattress and nothing else. This was quickly becoming concerning. Her vision began to pulsate, like putting a vignette on a picture, as Zofia’s head began to pound, feeling as if it were physically hacking away at her skull. She doesn’t ask for help though. Gritting her teeth, she moved on forward towards the station’s location, watching the timer on her wrist.
She looked up from her device, and nearly threw herself backwards as an illusion of a breacher lunged at her, Zofia swinging her blade around wildly. Her breathing got heavier, and her mask felt like a constraint, her hands going up to them, letting her rifle hang from its strap.
The warnings blare out in Zofia’s communication relay, the station’s timer having elapsed a while ago. Eliza’s voice came up over her comms, reassuring them that it wasn’t the end of the world, but for Zofia, it sure felt like it was closing in on her. The aliens just kept coming, and Zofia just swung her blade desperately, her eyes wide in horror as her knees buckled, bringing her to the floor as she clutched her head in pain.
“Zofia? Commander Bosak, can you hear me?” Doc tried to reach his teammate, but all he is met with is silence from the other woman. The airlock was clear of any fog, and the headache that the both of them had felt was quickly alleviated with a few stims. Gustave looked over at Ela, looking down at her wrist device and tapping away, trying to capture any information, but everything seemed fine, other than an elevated heart rate and breathing.
“I don’t understand,” Ela growled at her device, her taps getting frustrated as she swore at the tech.
“Language, Bosak.” Doc chides, but is only met with more swears from Ela.
“How are you so calm? Kurwa, I’ll try again.” Ela stood at the door, squinting her eyes and trying to get any visual on Zofia, but nothing was coming through the fog.
“Zosia? If you can hear me, answer me! Czy mnie słyszysz? Zofia?”
“Zo, where the fuck are you!?”
Zofia wanted to answer her sister, she really did, but she couldn’t. She was drowning, and her body only had one thing that it wanted to do right now, kneeling on the brick roads behind a house.
Oddychać. Breathe.
Zofia practically tore off her respirator, throwing it aside as she took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she felt the bitter air fill her lungs, a weird kind of comfort washing over her. Ela’s pleading voice washed away into nothing, Zofia momentarily swept away into an unexplainable feeling of bliss, taking off her goggles before she opened her eyes, the purple fog still hanging heavily over her.
The ground beneath her felt almost plush, as she stood up, feeling her way around, putting her hand on a scanner, the door opening with a beep as she walked into the room. It slammed shut behind her, but the door is… different now? Zofia looks at the door, confused, but is soon snapped out of it, a voice calling out to her from behind her. She turned around, and a dead man emerged from the fog.
“Zofia Bosak, you’re running late!” Jan shouted at his oldest daughter, walking back into the purple fog, beckoning for her to follow. “Good soldiers follow orders.”
Kurwa mać, what the hell is going on here?
By all rational means, Zofia knew this wasn’t real. Her father was dead. She buried Jan. Saw his casket go into the ground. She had buried herself with him, so why the hell was he here? And why did he feel so… real?
The logic didn’t make sense, but her father’s commands echoed in her head, and soon she was running towards him, never stopping even when her legs started to burn. The fog seemed endless, and it felt like she was running after nothing, but Jan held out his hand when Zofia was nearing her limit, and when she took it, the curtains were drawn from her eyes.
There she stood, in front of a post, her service pistol in hand as the barking of dogs shifted her attention upwards, Zofia’s eyes widening. This must be a bad dream.
Zofia feels Jan’s hand on her shoulder, and she already knew her orders before it even came out of his mouth.
“One of the dogs is sick. It is up to you to decide which one is sick and put it down.” Jan put his hand over Zofia’s, turning the safety of her pistol off, facing the muzzle towards the dogs leashed on the target post.
“Kill the sick dog, and you relieve it of its suffering. Kill the other one and you will be ending a life early. But the sick dog will not have anyone to spread its illness to.” He said with his typical stern voice, fishing his pocket watch out of his shirt pocket and putting it on the fence post in front of Zofia.
“Two minutes.”
Zofia heard the dogs bark, and the grip she had on her pistol began to shake. She had done this before. But the ticking of Jan’s pocket watch, it was getting to her, and her confidence began to wane even further. She stared at the dogs through the reflex sight, and her breathing began to quicken again, anxiety crushing her chest.
“One minute.”
Both dogs looked well. Zofia didn’t understand the meaning of this, but she knew she had to make a decision. Good soldiers follow orders. She takes her finger off the guard, putting it on the trigger, ready to squeeze it.
“Twenty seconds, Zofia.”
She took aim, jaw clenched. Zofia said a silent prayer, hoping someone would listen, before aiming for the head, and squeezing the trigger, feeling the recoil and seeing the dog on the left fall dead on the grass, blood pooling around it. The other dog whined, tail between its legs, trying to pull away from the post.
Zofia’s hands were shaking, but she managed to turn on the safety of her pistol, unloading it as Jan took it away from her with a white cloth in his hands, handling it as if it were a sacred thing. He put a hand on Zofia’s shoulder, giving her a smile and a small nod when she turned to look at her.
Zofia couldn’t help it but smile at her father. She grinned at him, and only now noticed that she was slightly taller than him.
“You did well, Zosia.” Jan said, Zofia feeling her heart soften at the use of that nickname from her father.
The moment doesn’t last long though, as Jan grabs Zofia’s chin, turning it back to the post. The dogs weren’t there anymore, but the forms of people had taken their place. Zofia blinked, and her heart sank as she realised what she had done.
“Their blood is on your hands.”
Zofia tore away from her father, running towards the post, vaulting over the fence. She rushed towards the body, cradling it in her lap as she tried to stem the bleeding.
“Fuck, nie, nonono- I’m sorry! Ela! Elkta, please, wake up! I didn’t mean to, fuck, please!” Zofia tried to shake Ela awake, but her body lies limp in her lap, blood flowing endlessly as her hands are painted a deathly crimson.
Zofia looked around, tears in her eyes as she noticed Iana tied up to the post as well, looking at her in fear, hands still bound and gagged. Crawling over to her, Zofia’s hand slips on blood as she tries to untie Nienke’s bindings, wiping away her tears with blood stained hands.
“I get you out, nie? Hold on, please.” Zofia pleads with Nienke, sweet Nienke, the woman she held with so much love in her heart. She tore away at Iana’s gag, but the other woman didn't thank her.
“What did you do, Zofia!?” Nienke yelled at her, voice shaking, getting up and backpedalling away from Zofia, who has gone back to cradling Ela’s body in her arms, trying to keep her body warm.
“I DIDN’T MEAN IT!” Zofia yelled at the top of her lungs, putting her forehead against Ela’s, her entire uniform now a bloody mess. She looked up, trying to find Jan, wanting to ask him for help, but she instead finds him with her pistol, gunning Iana down.
“NIE!” Zofia screams at the top of her lungs, running over to Nienke and shielding her body with her own, looking back at her father with fury in her eyes, silently glaring at him, demanding for answers.
“Personal relationships only compromise a soldier, Zofia. I’m making you the best soldier you can ever be.”
Zofia let out a deep growl, getting up off the ground and launching herself at Jan, fists ready to pummel, but they meet nothing but purple fog, throwing her off balance as she screamed out into the emptiness, pleading for help.
Nothing ever greets her, the silence only being filled by an old song. One of Jan’s favourite American songs, something that he puts on the record player every weekend morning.
Only you…
The song seemed to be mocking Zofia now, sobbing over two bodies that were rapidly losing their warmth. She’d never felt so empty in her life.
“Hallucinations?” Mira looked at Ela and Doc as if they had gone mad, other REACT medics scrambling around Zofia on the stretcher, strapping her down to the bed. Elena winced as Zofia screams again.
“I’m serious, Elena.” Gustave knotted his eyebrows in stress. “When we got to Commander Bosak, she was already having an anxiety attack and she wasn’t responsive. Epinephrine won’t help at all, it will just make her worse. This must be a neurotoxin of some kind.”
Mira looked at Zofia, the Polish woman’s body convulsing as the REACT medics struggled to keep her under control. She shakes her head, almost at a loss. Ela grabbed Mira by the shoulders, shaking her.
“You whitecoats better save my sister, or you’re going to answer to me, got it? GOT IT!?” Ela shouted at them, Thermite having to pull her away from Mira as she stands back in shock, before frowning.
“I- Mierda, patético parásito.” Elena cussed under her breath, before she looked at Ela with a determined look. “Doc, call Finka. We’ll make a stabiliser now. We’ll save your sister Ela, I promise. Wheel Zofia into the OR, now!” Mira began giving orders, as Ash and Thermite helped Ela to a seat.
“Who taught you this kind of behaviour? No daughter of mine will be so disobedient as to question their father’s orders.” Jan’s voice taunted Zofia as she threw punch after punch at a mirage, her arms rechambering as she prepared for another punch.
“Is it Elżbieta? Did I not do a good enough job to separate the two of you?” Jan appeared behind Zofia, throwing a punch to her gut, missing narrowly as she ducked away quickly. Zofia didn’t want to give him the luxury of an answer. She had always known it in her gut though. She never liked how Jan treated Ela. She just never had the courage to speak against him in fear of punishment.
“Ah, I know.” Jan materialised in front of Zofia, way too close for comfort. “You think yourself a hero. A protector. What was the word? Lifeline. You think you have a say in the world. Snap out of it, girl. You will never have a say in life.” He headbutted her, sending her reeling as Zofia shakes off the impact.
Her head is grabbed from behind, as Jan whispers into Zofia’s ear. “You only have a say in how people die.”
Zofia is pulled helplessly, wincing for the impact against hard concrete, but instead water is splashed in her face as she is pulled underwater. Her eyes wrenched open, screams ending up as bubbles as she struggled against the hand pulling her deeper beneath the waves. Choking on water, Zofia tried to gasp for air, but fluid filled her lungs, the flames of every death she escaped finally catching up to her as she felt hands all over her body, dragging her deeper into the abyssal depths.
Her vision fizzled, cutting into black like a horror film left on a cliffhanger. Or a film waiting to start.
Zofia emerged from the water, an oxygen mask on her face as she found herself facing forward with her trusted rifle, leading an assault on a drug lord’s yacht. It was no secret that the man was a cancer in society. It was up to Zofia and her squad to be the precise scalpel that cuts it out.
Well placed and silenced shots made short work of the ship’s captain, and there was barely a fight as the better trained GROM operatives dispatched of the drug lord’s bodyguards, with only a few shots fired.
“Last room. Honour’s all yours, Lieutenant.” The officer on her side nodded, as the sound of a breaching shotgun rang out across the entire ocean, the muzzle flash illuminated the night for just a moment as Zofia kicked open the door, checking the immediate left corner before taking aim at her target. He was right there. The fugitive that had escaped punishment, living a lavish life while he left people to rot in the alleys of Warsaw.
“Wait!” The officer said, getting Zofia’s attention as he pointed towards a small girl in the corner of the room, sitting on the sofa as she stared at the operatives with a curious eye.
Her finger lifted off the trigger, watching the little girl intensely, her focus split between the child and the fugitive.
“You have to kill the sick dog, lieutenant.” The officer said, and Zofia looked over at him, eyebrows furrowed. She couldn’t. She can’t kill this man. Not when a child was watching.
“Ten seconds, Zofia.” He said again, and time almost seemed to slow as the sound of ticking filled her ears, the fugitive pulling a pistol from his back and firing a shot into Zofia, as she returned fire of her own, her bullet finding the fugitive’s neck as blood sprayed over the interior of the yacht. His bullet only grazes Zofia’s ear, as she clutches onto it, the blood dripping past her hand. She looked up at the little girl, and all curiosity was gone, only replaced with fear, and with rage.
“You’re not fit to be Commander, Zofia.” It was Jan again, echoing in her ears as she tried to cover them, yelling to drown him out. It doesn’t work however, his deep chuckle rumbling.
“You are a horseman of the apocalypse, Zofia. You are Death, and Hell follows you.” The purple flooded her vision again, as she found herself in a twisted version of Tenderloin, a subway train hanging above her, hung by carapace. The ruins of a building sprawl in front of her, as a blinding ball of light accumulates, before exploding and deafening Zofia for just a moment.
“See for yourself, girl. You are the one who drove yourself to this madness. Did you forget? You were the one who drove me to my grave. My blood is on your hands, Zofia. You shouldn’t have tried to take justice into your own hands.” Jan’s humming of the song fades, as a low rumble erupted from within the ruins. "You're no hero, child. You're a villain."
An explosion shattered the wall separating them, and Zofia almost threw up into her mask.
She was face to face with a Protean. Not the ones of her colleagues, their faces turned into a perverted copy of their own, no.
This Protean is Zofia. Body encased in protective carapace, her hands holding onto a hefty LMG, facial features twisted with sludge and more carapace, but still recognisable as herself. Suddenly, her gun didn’t seem quite so adequate.
The creature's dark gaze locked with Zofia's, feral growls ripped through the silence as it sprinted to cover the distance between them. Zofia fired an entire magazine into the Protean, but the glow of its armour doesn't wane and its hand morphs into a ball of sludge, then into a device. It let out a mighty roar, a war cry made out of Zofia's stolen voice, launching a ball of something at her.
It explodes, the object letting out a deafening whine as sprawl latched onto Zofia's visor, blinding her for a few moments. She backed up, trying to distance herself from the creature, her back hitting a wall as breath was knocked out of her chest. Her vision cleared, and the Protean was towering in front of her, the void of its eyes scrutinising every breath that she took. It puts its device against Zofia's chest, tilting its head as it presses it in, before firing off an impact charge, throwing Zofia backwards and through the soft wall as she was sent to the ground, handgun pointing at the Protean as an unexplainable pain began to bloom across her chest.
"Her body is going into cardiac arrest, intubate her! Zofia? Bosak, can you hear me? I got no response, starting CPR!" Doc fired command after command as Finka rushed down into the OR, putting on her equipment and stepping into the sanitisation shower as he followed the stretcher, hands over Zofia's chest and trying to resuscitate her. "Come on Zofia! Aspirer! Breathe!"
Ela watched from a distance, squeezing Eliza's hand tightly as she tries to stop herself from running forward and giving Zofia CPR herself. "Can you… can you call Iana and Zofia's husband? Tell them this is happening." She put a hand on her forehead, passing her phone to Thermite.
He scrolled through the contact list, looking at one labelled "Szwagier" and pausing. "How about her daughter? Jana, right?"
Ela looked at Eliza, then at Jordan, lost in her thoughts. "I think… yeah. Tell her too, she's old enough."
Jordan nodded, dialling a number and bringing the phone up to his ear as he excuses himself to another corner. “Hey there Jana, hi. It’s Uncle Jordan. The one you met on the Pioneer? The ship? Yeah, yeah that one…”
Ela looked at Jordan, sighing as she went up closer to the glass separating her and Zofia. Ash followed close behind, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Is she going to be alright?”
Eliza paused, her jaw clenching and unclenching. “I… am not sure. All I know is that she’s in the best hands that Rainbow has to offer.”
The glass was thin, and the sounds of beeping from the monitors were easily heard, along with the bustle of people in the Operating Room.
“Doc, switch.” Finka said calmly, stepping in to replace Doc as he stepped away, breathing heavily as he got into a lab coat and sterilising himself, asking for more equipment as Mira worked silently from the sides, preparing syringes of medication.
“Come on, you’re made of tough stuff, don’t die on me yet.” Lera looked over at the monitor, yelling for the defibrillator as she tore off Zofia’s uniform. “Get ready for shock! Clear!”
Everyone, Ela and Eliza included, waited a few seconds as a rare silence hung over them, before the machine started up again, giving another prompt as Finka continued the compression. Ela watches on, silently willing for Zofia to just wake up somehow.
“We can’t keep doing this, administer emergency epinephrine.” Gustave walked briskly to the other side of the table, taking a syringe from Elena. “We also need blood samples once we get her stable, oui? Let’s go, no time to waste!”
Zofia threw a punch at the Protean, pushing it away as she got back up, her rifle in hand as she yelled and unloaded magazine after magazine, her hands feeling as if they’ve caught fire as she reloaded as fast as she could. The Protean groaned, its voice eerily similar to Zofia’s, dragging out as it uses its muscular forearm as a shield against its face. It was taking damage, she was sure of that, but how much damage, Zofia wasn’t sure.
She unslung her Lifeline from her shoulder, letting loose a barrage of impact grenades at the creature, managing to put a reasonable amount of distance between them. Zofia switched the barrel of her gadget, taking a deep breath.
“For Ela.”
Zofia launched the concussion grenade, gritting her teeth as she pushed through the effects, running straight at the Protean, knife drawn.
“Dla rodziny.”
“I’m telling you, I’m the cool uncle. Sure, your mom can teach you about explosives, but can they melt metal? See- wait, she’s awake? Oh f- I’ll go call Doc!”
Zofia blinked, waking up with a groan as she saw Jordan running out of the room. Jana smiled brightly at her mother, as Zofia struggled to return the enthusiasm, though she gave a small smile of her own. It quickly faded though, as Zofia abruptly sits up, holding her daughter’s hand.
“Where is Ela and Nienke?” Zofia whipped her head around, only to find Ela standing by the foot of her bed, Nienke and her husband beside her. She breathed a sigh of relief, resting back on the pillows.
“You scared the shit out of me, you know? You nearly died on the operating table.” Ela chided, as Iana put a hand on her shoulder. “Had me praying to the Virgin for the first time in 30 years.”
“Hey, at least you’re back. You really are a phoenix, my beloved, too stubborn for death to take you.” Iana smiled, sitting beside Jana and holding Zofia’s hand.
“I dreamt…” Zofia started, shuddering at the thought. “Of father. I thought I killed you both. Was… felt very real.” She nodded, frustrated that she couldn’t get the proper words out.
“So it was hallucinations.” Ela groaned.
“I think I cannot sleep tonight.” Zofia sighed, taking a cup of water with shaking hands, before Ela went over to help her.
“It’s alright. And also, please ask for help when you need it Zo. I don’t want to bury you.” She held the cup to her lips, putting it down after a moment, pulling a chair to sit next to her.
“Thank you. And… okay.”
Ela looked at her in confusion. “You’re actually agreeing and not fighting with me over this?”
Zofia nodded, shrugging. “No point.” She pointed to her family around the room. “I want to come back anyway.”
“You promise, Zo?”
“Promise.”