Early years: The date was 1980. It all began on a very cold winter night. In the town of Hallstatt, Austria, a small infant was being born on the second floor of the town's one and only bakery. At the time, the town was very small... and being the only bakery in town, it was sure a busy one. However, at this time of night the bakery was long closed, as it was around midnight. The baker's wife ended up giving birth to a boy in which they decided to name Achim. In Austria, they speak German... and yes infact Achim is a German name. However, these were bad times to have children. On this 1980 winter, there was a huge blizzard. It almost cut off the town from mostly all outside resources. There was no towns nearby, and no way for them to get help if something went wrong. Indeed something was wrong. The baker's wife, the mother of this newly born boy, had a bad fever at the time. The town was extremely low on medical supplies, and as said before... no way to get any. From here on... this boy would not have a mother. For about 3 years, the boy lived a casual infant's life. Achim dwelled on the second floor of the bakery, which consisted of a small apartment looking area. This second floor is where he and his father lived, and Achim almost never left. As an infant, he enjoyed playing with blocks and his ball. He also liked to watch the small T.V. that they had, even though he didn't understand any of the shows on. While he stayed up here, his father worked hard and alone without his wife to help down on the bottom floor. The bottom floor consisted of the bakery floor. This is where the clay ovens, wood stoves and other cooking appiances were. No, this village could not afford any fancy appliances, so it was more of an older style of cooking. These were 3 slow years in which Achim learned to speak and walk.
When Achim was 4, he was a healthy young boy who could speak and walk great. He attended the very small school in his village on week days. Since this school was so small, and had barely any children to teach, they got through lessons very quickly. This made it so that the school was only for half day. Achim built a strong relationship with his father, he really did not have any other friends. Although he was still young, he picked up cooking very quickly. By age 7, he was working side by side in the bakery with his father. Together they got much done, and buisness was booming. Achim became an excellent cook. His father did not want to lose Achim like he lost his wife, so he didn't allow Achim to go out of the bakery very much. You may think that keeping a kid in a bakery will get him into bad shape, but carrying huge quantities of dough around and such will keep you strong. Achim would most likely have never gone to college, because he would end up taking over his dad's buisness. Achim's father insisted that they saved up just incase. By this time, Achim was around 13... and his dad was planning a crazy budget. His dad told Achim that he would not buy supplies anymore for the bakery, instead... Achim was told he would have to go out and look for it. This is the day Achim's father introduced him to something he was hiding from Achim. By now it was 1993, and Achim's father trusted Achim very much from being so close to him over the years. Achim's father showed him the thing he hided for years... a .357 Magnum. His father said he used it for self defense over the years, but now that Achim would be going into the woods to gather supplies for the bakery, it was now his. Since it was hard to get ammo when you are in such a secluded village, Achim's dad showed him how to recycle the bullet caps. This way he could remake bullets. Gunpower was not hard to find, so Achim started making his own ammunition with the recycled caps. At first, the gun was very big and bulky for a kid like him, but he managed and grew larger over time.
Instead of Achim going out into the forest to scavenge alone, his father ended up coming with him too. This brought them even closer. For years they gathered materials and saved up money. Achim ended up learning English, because it was a common language and Europe is very compacted. Around age 15, most likely around 1995, Achim was not like normal kids at the time. He was still the son of the baker... however now he also hunted in the woods, gathered plants, and even spent some nights in the woods. He picked up valuable skills like fishing, making snares, and he was in excellent shape. His father was now a bit old, and preferred not to go into the woods with Achim anymore. They still were very close to eachother though. Achim still was armed with his dad's magnum in its holster by his side, and he had used it many times already. Every night, he would clean it properly, and store it. He knew the thing inside out, and took excellent care of it. It still looked brand new, and in the shape it did years ago.
The Start of a New Life: All was well for Achim and his father. Achim was about 23, and obviously showing no wanting to go to college. He stayed in his hometown bringing supplies from the woods to his father. They had enough money, and were living good, healthy lives. Untill strange things began happening. They heard (Delayed of course) about the Black Mesa Incident in America. They also not only heard about, but witnessed the portal storms. Panic filled the town of Hallstatt, and Achim, knowing the woods very well, took his father with him into the woods. Achim and his father knew something bad was happening, and they knew it was best to stay away from other humans. Achim and his father, gathered everything they would need, including his revolver, a large amount of ammo, and plenty of gun powder. They rushed out towards the woods, Achim helped his father and at the end of the day they had done about 7 miles. They had taken shelter in a small cave. They made a campfire outside and talked to eachother. Achim had his survival skills and at the moment wasn't worried about surviving, but what was going on... Then all the sudden, after feeling the shake of another portal storm, he heard ruffling outside. Then right after, he heard flapping wings. Suddently all around them, strange creatures flew right near him. These were antlions, but they obviously did not know. The antlions, seeing that Achim's father was an easier meal, they jumped on top of him. Achim pulled out his .357 quickly finding that even being a little off target could result in him hitting his father. He picked up a log out of the fire, which was burning on the tip only. He walked towards the strange creatures. Suddently, he waved the stick back and forth, fire rustled through the air. The creatures backed off. They were afraid of fire! Then, he quickly took aim once again, shooting each of the creatures dead. He quickly holstered his weapon and ran to his father who was now bloody on the ground. His father said nothing, all he did was motion his hand for Achim to come close. He did... and they hugged. Achim's shirt got bloody, but he held on to his father untill his father's hands fell to the ground from Achim's back. That night Achim cried, he was confused. The next morning, he awoke to see his dad's bloodied body still lying there. He spent the whole morning digging a hole and buried his father. After cleaning off his magnum he remembered to pick up the bullet caps off the ground so he could recycle them into new rounds.
Achim now felt very hungry, and he decided to experiment. He dragged one of the antlion corpses over to a fire he made. Then the air filled with a hideous smell. He thought he could have eaten this creature, but if it smelled this bad... it was probably bad for you. Then it came to him. If there is a pack of these creatures, there is probably more... and if they smell this, they are probably angry... Just then Achim heard another rustling noise, without hesitation he was scared beyond death, he gathered all he could and ran. He ran for hours it seemed. He ran untill he couldn't go any longer. He did not want to risk confronting one of those creatures again. For years, well... he didn't have any ways of keeping track of time, Achim spent his life on the run. Everyday, he would find a camping spot, and rest. Then he would continue moving, hoping someday he would find something. One day, he was walking up a large hill. When he got to the top of the hill he looked up into the sky seeing a giant building going high, even above the clouds. It had wires coming down from it, and below it... a wide stretch of city. He had seen nothing like it. He knew it was not human, and he went no further. He looked around and North of the large building seemed a wide expanse of land going on untill he couldn't see anymore. He traveled this way... forever it seemed. A few months later of traveling every day, he came to an abandoned campsite. It was long abandoned and in the area, he found a newspaper... infact there was whole collections of newspaper. Then he saw the title "Earth Surrenders!". He immediately reads through all of the papers finding out everything that he has missed from being out in the wilderness for so long. That night, he just stays at the old campsite... not even wanting to travel. Now knowing so much about what had happened... it was just too much. He got the rest he needed that night.
A few weeks later of traveling, Achim came to an area full of canals. He still kept his .357 magnum handy with him. He walked through the desolate area, finally finding a place near the side of a canal to rest. Suddently, he was awoken... being grabbed at. A male and a female were attacking him. They punched at him and kicked, they did not see he was armed. He pulled out his weapon taking aim. Startled, the attackers jumped back, but he had already pulled the trigger. A .357 round went straight into the male's neck, immediately he fell onto the ground. All Achim heard was gurgling and the female screaming, he got up and looked towards the female who was now crying and about to run off. He thought of his father, and became angry, he pulled the trigger and a shot rang out at the female. She got hit in the stomach area, and fell right off the side of the canal. Quickly, her head slammed into a pipe in the canal. The crying and screaming stopped. Achim was tired after this, and he was not thinking. He just fell to the ground in shock and fell asleep. What seemed like two days later, he woke up once again. This time a crow was pecking at his body. He got very scared thinking it was another antlion, and he quickly grabbed his pack and backed up. After only seeing it was a crow, he started to laugh. While laughing he took another step back and fell right into the canal area, the water broke his fall, but he still hit the canal floor and right into some debris. Luckily, the water was not deep, and he only got one side of his clothing wet. And it did not touch his weapon, or pack. He got up, bruised and bloody. His clothing had scratches and he was limping. His nose was crooked, but he didn't know this yet. He knew that if he was going to stay in this place, he would have to find a place to stay. As he continued through this strange place, he met up with a woman who had one of the weapons in which he saw in the newspapers. She called herself Skyler Rematon. She was in some kind of group, but he could of cared less. He really wasn't wanting to make friends, but he was in need of help. She offered him beans, and he gladly took them. He set up a small camp outside her area. But very soon, it wasn't looking good for friendship between the two, he stopped seeing her, and ended up leaving. Since there was not any ground on this area to hunt, he found snares were his best way to find food. He traveled around to this area for weeks, surviving.
'The Junker': Achim had gotten word that The Alliance was going to escort refugees to "a safer place". Although he wanted nothing to do with The Alliance, being in the situation he was in, he wanted to get out more than anything. Achim had always hated the smells that came out of those canals anyways. Later on that day, Achim arrived at the small compound in which they were loading refugees onto carts being pulled by vehicles, working vehicles! Achim stared at them for a while, he hadn't seen a working vehicle since... since this whole thing started. That seemed like hundreds of years ago. An Alliance member walked up to him and asked him to get into one of the carts. Right when Achim made eye contact, he had to act like an Achim and insulted the man. Immediately it sparked an argument, Achim made some people go berserk it seemed, after he verbally beated them. He was kicked out of the compound, and while everyone else would go to "a safer place", he would once again be alone in this mudhole canal area. As he walked further away from the compound, he began to hear the engines of The Alliance's vehicles roar. They faded away slowly... they had left. Achim kept following a road that looked as if it went on forever. He just prayed that he could find something, anything! As he walked the straight road he suddently heard a noise. It came from far down, it did not sound human. He immediately froze and started running off the road into a forest. He got deeper and deeper into the forest. That evening he set up a small camp. He was sitting near his campfire when suddently he heard a humming noise, the humming turned into a roar. He could smell gasoline. Suddently a redish rusty vehicle came speeding over the small pathway running through the forest. The car looked like it was just pulled out of a junkyard and it had gas tanks strapped to the side of it. There was two men in the vehicle, a black male who was driving the thing (he was doing a terrible job at it), and a bald white male in the passenger seat. The bald male had a bolt action rifle pointing out of the crude iron of the car. The bald male fired a shot which ripped right into Achim's tent. The car was still moving, and it was heading right towards Achim. Suddently, Achim held his gun up and fired. The shot zoomed by driver's head. The driver out of instinct ducked down, and couldn't see where he was going. Achim quickly jumped out of the way. The car flew out of control. Both of the men who weren't wearing seat belts flew out of the car and were killed instantly. The bolt action rifle seemed like it turned into a bullet as it flew out of the bald man's hands and went right into a cliff which bent it in half! The car itself actually had a nice landing and went right into Achim's tent, and the bushes around it which absorbed the impact. The whole forest seemed to be dead quiet now. Achim just plumped down on his butt, and he started to laugh.
What the hell just happened? Achim slowly rose up, turning to the tangled mess in his camp. He jogged excitingly over to the vehicle. Without hesitating, he got into the drivers seat of the car. The motor was still running. The only thing close to a car Achim had drove was a tractor, he was up for a big suprise. Achim looked down at the controls of the car. It looked very similar to the tractors around his hometown. He put the car in reverse. Since he was used to a slow tractor, he slammed down on the gas pedal which squeaked. Suddently, the wheels shred up a bunch of dirt and brush. Tons of dust filled the air. Achim laughed to himself. He slammed the pedal again and the motor roared, the smell of gas once again filled the air. One last time, he slammed the pedal and the car shot back nearly hitting a boulder. "For an ol' junker, you got some power!" Achim said happily to himself. This is when he started to call the car 'The Junker'. He loaded all of his supplies (That hadn't been destroyed from the crash) onto the car. He though how nice it would be to not have to carry anything or walk! He quickly drove off, retracing his steps from coming into the forest. At first, Achim was a bit out of control, but soon he started to get used to driving. Finally he returned to the long road that he walked earlier that day, it would soon be night. He drove down the road back towards the smelly canals. The wind hit is face like it never had before. He was finally alive! This was one of the best days of his life since the Earth got caught in his mess. Infact, he didn't really have any other good days. Finally he reached the empty compound that he walked away from earlier that day. He saw tire tracks on the mud on the ground and drove 'The Junker'. As he followed the bumpy road that The Alliance took, the gas tanks on the side began to jiggle. He became relieved, he had tons of gas on this thing! As he drove in the night, cool winds hit the noisy piece of junk. He ended up stopping once because the engine started to smoke. But after letting it cool down a bit, he drove off again. Finally he started to reach a lush area, with lots of ridges and valleys. He then spotted people! They were walking, and he started to worry to himself. He knew how bad it was to walk, and he knew people would kill for machines. So he promised himself the next day he would hide the vehicle. That is what he did, he found a nice and secluded area, it had a small inlet going into a cliff. He drove the vehicle into here, and covered the entrance with rocks. He was protective of the vehicle now, and he was not going to take it out unless he needed to. Plus, he couldn't risk it breaking... he had no idea how to repair it. This is when he forgot about the vehicle he had basically buried.
A "Safer" Place: So for the first few days in this new land, he explored... ignoring all the other humans he saw. Most of them, he saw going into some large bunker. He later found out this was the Alliance's bunker. He never went near it after that. Up on a cliff, he made his own campsite. It was very secluded, just how he liked it. He finally was at a safe place, he looked around seeing lots of valleys and waterfalls. Below him was a river... perfect, he could fish in it! It seemed he could stay here for a while. His campsite grew larger. Although, he promised never to go near the Alliance base, he did very soon. He ended up stealing a small electric hot plate and some other appliances. This was when they were setting up still, after this, they locked up all their supplies. On his way out of the base, he found a man named Devin. Devin was wearing some kind of vest which looked like the ones "The Alliance" was wearing. Immediately Achim asked "Are you one of those Alliance scum bags?" Immediately after he responded "Hell no!" That is when Achim became friends with this man. A little bit later that day, he invited Devin and a Russian man they had met up with for dinner. Speaking of dinner, Achim's campsite looked much like a kitchen and no one would think that he was hiding a magnum in it. He still loved cooking and it was perfect for him because he was in a place with supplies all around. Right in the middle of a forest! Anyways back to the point, Achim and Devin became very good friends. Achim who didn't want friends, actually had made one. And Devin soon lived with Achim in the camp.
Achim and Devin came up with plans to make a very small group, they agreed that it would most likely be just the two of them. They called it "sopimuksen", which was Finnish for name, "The Pact". They mainly kept very secretive, not even revealing that it existed. They both fished together, and Achim showed Devin how to make snares. They had a lot of fun together. Soon the Russian was coming back daily, and Devin and Achim came up with a plan to kill him. They talked to him and he liked the Alliance. Devin was armed with a pistol, and had no idea that Achim was hiding one himself. So they both went to the Alliance Bunker where they thought they would find him. They found him there... soon they took him in a room to "talk". Then Devin held him at gunpoint while Achim gave a bit of an execution speech. Very quickly several Alliance members ran into the room. One of them which they later heard being called Zak Grant, fired at Devin's feet. He got hit, but Devin also started firing. He hit several Alliance Members, and also hit the Russian. No one was killed and they let both Achim and Devin go and healed Devin's foot. It was a bad day for them. Now they REALLY couldn't go back as the Alliance would probably shoot. That night, by the campfire... the Russian never showed up. Then Devin said "Damn, I dropped my pistol in the struggle. Now we are unarmed..." Then Achim replied, "Well you... are anarmed we should say. I have something... I will show you tomorrow... get some rest." They both went to bed, Devin wondering what it was didn't get much sleep. It was now time for Achim to reveal his weapon...
A Change of Plans: Or maybe not... the next morning Devin, Achim's only real friend, was gone. He had not taken anything, or left anything for that matter. He was gone in the blink of an eye. Achim knew Devin wouldn't just leave him like this, but the thought came. Maybe Devin was just trying to use Achim the whole time. Or maybe, something had happened. He wasn't ready to assume yet. He knew that he would have to go without Devin, but hopefully this was only temporarily. Eitherway, Achim was once again alone. He thought of those horrible days right after he had lost his father. He began to steal more and more. His camp slowly grew bigger with items that did not belong to him. Very soon, he was killing refugees for their supplies and such. He ended up meeting with a man named Jim, who had a sniper rifle and did aswell murder and loot. Every day people were becoming scared as people were being shot at and didn't know where it came from. Achim also aided a man who was the leader of a group that hated the Alliance. He went by the name of Artyom. Achim was becoming infamous. Some people enjoyed his sick sense of humor and games, as others were growing angry. Achim was already banned from going near the bunker, and added to that, he had had several violent confrontations with the Alliance. One day, Achim took two hostages... one by the name of Hrvoj and the other by the name of Grigory. One of them was a trusted Alliance member. Achim was quickly surrounded with Jim by the Alliance and their snipers. He was able to get the frequency out of Hrvoj. He began to speak with the leader of the Alliance. Leonard and Achim did not have the best relations at the time. Achim was slowly being turned into a killing machine. He made a deal with Leonard. He would hand over the hostages, give up his camp, and have to leave. However, Achim wanted something for himself too. He agreed to this, but he also wanted food, supplies, and what he called "One of those fancy Combine inventions", in other words an AR2. He did not want any ammo for it or anything like that, strangely just the weapon. Leonard took his time, but soon agreed. They met at the lake, but before hand... Achim had placed "bomb vests" on the hostages in which he "set" for 45 minutes. They met at the lake. Both sides thought it was some kind of trap... Leonard and Dave Woods knew Achim was clever, they believed he had something set up for them the whole time. The time ticked by.
After some nail biting minutes, they finally agreed. Dave emptied out and handed over his AR2. It was hard for him to do so and let go of it although there was plenty more in their armory. Achim had showed them the bomb vests earlier, and he agreed to defuse them after he recieved the weapon. Once the deal was done, the vests were taken off with a key Achim had, they threw them into the lake and took cover for them to explode... nothing happened. Not so much Leonard, but definitly Dave was angry. This whole time he was threatened by getting blown up to find out it was another one of Achim's tricks. He wanted the weapon back, but Achim refused and said how the deal was already done. Their argument was interrupted by 5 flechetts hitting the ground around them. "Hunter!" Leonard shouted, Dave got even more angry as he could not fight... where did his gun go? Oh that is right. Mysteriously... after a few minutes of diving behind rocks, the hunter went off and into a road tunnel. They did not dare follow it, for it was probably a trap. Leonard, Dave, and Hrvoj went off to the bunker to prepare, while Grigory went off somewhere. Achim however, took the chance to quickly run to his camp. He grabbed his cart. He loaded all his important supplies, and got ready. For some reason, he just had to go to the Alliance bunker one last time...
He left his cart at his camp and went up the hill to the bunker. He stopped at one of the ridges and looked out to the valley. This was the same place he had shot people at before. It felt strange to him to see what they saw as he killed them. He heard birds, which now interested him a lot. Then he saw Leonard and Hrvoj. He had to play a last trick on them, he waved to them to come and pulled out a small smoke grenade. He through it on the ground near all of them it poofed. As he laughed he coughed. As the smoke cleared, it was almost nightfall. He said goodbye to them in his way... "Goodbye you damn bastards. It was still nice to see you pieces of shit!" But they laughed strangely. Weren't they just enemies a few hours ago? Leonard wished Achim luck on his journey, and Hrvoj gave him some silk worms to chew on. Sure they were enemies, but isn't okay to talk to your enemies once in a while? Or maybe they weren't enemies no longer. Either way, they definitly weren't friends quite yet. Achim took off, traveling. He was once again alone. He abandoned all of his "bad" friends and became once again independent. He still disliked the Alliance, but he wasn't going to wage war... just yet. For now, he was slowly settling down, trying to find a nice place to dwell in peace and quiet. Maybe it's best that Achim is alone for a while... When he returned to where he packed up all of his things onto his cart, he had right then noticed that he could definitly not pull it. He thought now that he would have to just start over again... with nothing. Then something came to his mind, 'The Junker'!
Specific Entries:Sneaking Skill- Over the years of constantly hiding, Achim has developed a skill for sneak. He has learned the best ways and tactics to sneak. The fact that he does sneak so much gets him better... on a daily basis. This skill is mainly used when he steals, but he has used it for other reasons. This skill has saved him his life several times, he has become close to an expert at it.
Thievery and Stealing- In some of the desperate times of his life, Achim had to steal in order to survive. Soon, it started to become a regular thing. Achim has broken into many different places, with his sneaking skill he has become quite an elite thief. He is no doubt one of the best thiefs in the Outlands, however no one seems to know that he is a thief, and it is obvious as he is such a good one... he simply doesn't get caught.
Cleverness and Trickiness- This was something Achim had since he was a boy. He always had a brilliant mind. Although he didn't look like it, his brain held lots of secrets. He was very tricky and could get out of some of the most dangerous situations. This skill has also made a lot of people angry, as sometimes he uses it as jokes on people and as seen by many... outsmart them.
Survival Skills- If you are alone in the wild for years, you are obviously fit enough to survive. Doing so for years, Achim picked up lots of different skills. In addition to this, he started at an early age getting used to the wilderness. He has learned to make snares, hunt, fish, and stay alive. This is something he does very well, it is also why he is still alive.
Guerilla and Ambush Tactics- On the more violent side of Achim, he is very smart when it comes to picking a fight. He always sets up tactics and makes sure the enemy will have a horrible time trying to get to him. Not only this, he became famous for his ambushes on refugees when he overwhelmed them with firepower out of no where. He has also learned to use stealth combat, and it has given him a large advantage. Although he probably wont have to use this very much anymore, it will still be of good use...
Physically Steady and Strong- Achim does a lot of physicall work each day. To begin with, he hauls around a lot. He also spends a lot of time running from things, so he has mantained an excellent physical shape. His arms and legs have become very steady, as sometimes he was forced to stay still for hours. He can raise his large magnum and hold it dead still, as others would be wobbling it around.
Cooking Skills- Achim did not learn his cooking skills from the wilderness. He was the son of the baker, and simply by that... he became a skilled cook very quickly. Of course, when he was forced to survive, he adapted and turned his cooking skills into another advantage for survival.
'The Junker'- This vehicle gave Achim some hope. For a while he became paranoid of it being stolen, so he hid it away and over time forgot about it. This piece of junk is more of a death machine than a car, its engine takes a while to start, it emits horrible fumes, and the thing is slowly turning into a pile of rust. But, it still works and it will now definitly be of used to Achim finding a new place to live after he forgot about it for so long. (Read backstory chapter 'The Junker' for full information.
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