Chapter 1

"Alright, shut the hell up, and listen, 'cause I'm only gonna explain this once." The fatigues-clad man standing before us punctuated his words with the click of a magazine being rammed into the grip of his pistol. I and the three others I was with stood in a thicket of brush. A couple hundred meters away, the army outpost at the border of the Zone was just visible over the crest of the hill to our right.

"My name is Cosmo. The four of you are here because you paid my friend and I to show you a way into the Chernobyl exclusion zone. We ain't here to ask questions. We're here to get the four of you safely to the rookie camp half a mile from here, and then be on our merry way." As he spoke, I glanced around at the others. Two men stood on my right. They appeared to be twins, but I wasn't sure. They hadn't said a single word on the truck ride here. To my left was a remarkably short woman. She at least had the friendliness to tell me her name was Stelayanava. She told me just to call her Stela. The four of us had been given rusted, worn handguns and a magazine of 9 millimeter rounds as part of our deal.

"For those of you who don't know, the Zone is the area surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. After the most recent nuclear disaster, the area has been changed. Mutated animals, criminals, mercenaries, and worse infest the area. You four are probably here to make a living finding and selling artifacts. These artifacts are the products of anomalies, locations where the laws of physics have been warped by the nuclear emissions from the center of the zone. But that isn't my business; you'll have to talk to the local trader at the rookie camp for work. Are the four of you ready to head out?" He paused and looked around at our meager party. The twins nodded their assent. I wasn't quite sure, though. For a moment, I thought back, recalling why I was even here in the first place.

I was running. Long story short, I pissed off some people I didn't want to face, and Cosmo and his friend Brian had promised that, for a pretty hefty fee, they could get us into the Zone, no questions asked. I had always loved adventure, and it seemed like a good way to avoid Gedeon. But that wasn't important now. The only thing important right now was how we were going to make it into the Zone of Alienation without getting shot full of holes.

"I'm ready," Stela said. "Let's hear the plan."

"I'm ready too," I found myself saying. "You're taking us around the military outpost, right? Won't they shoot us on sight?"

Cosmo turned to me. "Only if they're in a bad mood. Normally they give outsiders a warning, then open fire. There are two mounted machine guns at the outpost. If they see us, we're not turning back, so just be prepared to take cover. We'll wait about 15 minutes or so until the sun begins to set, then start our trek.

"Why not wait until it's dark? We'd be harder to see, right?" I asked.

"Two things. One, if the army starts shooting, we'll be silhouetted against the sun. That'll make us a lot harder to hit. Two, you don't want to be lost in the Zone at night." It sounded like he spoke from experience.

"We'll head around the west side of this hill, to put it between us and the army," he continued. "If they start firing, drop prone and find yourself some cover, then wait for my orders. This is only going to work if you agree to do exactly what I tell you, when I tell you to do it. The Zone isn't a place for cowards or the incompetent, so if you can't crawl under a little bit of machine gun fire, you're better off heading home. We'll give you half of a refund if any of you want to back out now." One of the twins looked around nervously, but kept quiet. I looked at Stela and gave a tiny, nervous grin. She didn't return it.

"Nobody? Alright, I guess. The sun is about to set. Everyone check your gear and get ready to go."