A little something that I kept thinking about for a while, and decided to make a story out of it. With some luck it will not be horrible, hope you like it.
Many kind of people come and go in The Zone of Alienation.
For every cunning genius you will also find the dumbest of idiots. For every trustworthy partner you will also find the lowest of scumbags. And for every desperate man, out of luck and money you will also find the silliest of thrill seekers, out for treasure and recognition.
Curiously, The Zone makes sure to punish or reward accordingly to their behavior.
The cautious remains hidden, and the careless gets discovered. The loyal sleeps peacefully at night, and the double-crosser has to watch his own back. The smart finds advantages everywhere, and the stupid can only hope for the best.
But at the end of the day, it always ends the same. The foolish die and the wise survive.
Even so, regardless of the harsh nature of this place, more and more people keep coming, for one reason or another, selfish or selfless. No matter how horrible a STALKER dies, someone outside The Zone is ready to take his place, thinking he knows better or that he will be the exception.
With that in mind, it makes the bar feel all the more empty today.
Sharp looked around the bar for the third time, hoping to find at least someone new, but to his growing disappointment the same 4 people were still there.
the Barkeep who kept watching the TV behind him and reading some messages he got. The trenchcoat creep Snitch glued to his corner. That drunk Duty who does nothing but sulk in that table day after day. And the bouncer who's only purpose in life seems to be reminding people that they can't enter the door he's guarding.
"I guess neither of those messages are about something I can do," Sharp said without moving form his table.
"You give accurate predictions, and for free no less," deadpanned the Barkeep. "You might want to start working as a seer."
"That's a very funny joke and you're a very funny man," Sharp responded nonchalantly. "This toast is dedicated to you." He raised a bottle of vodka and took a drink, the Barkeep chuckled a bit to his act.
A comfortable silence returned to the bar, it lasted all of 2 seconds before Snitch chimed in. "If you need money, I can give you the location of a hidden stash near Cordon... and for free I might add."
"Yeah sure!" Sharp turned to Snitch. "The last 'free sample' you gave me was an empty bag on the very top of a tree!"
"A free bag is a free bag," Snitch defended while pointing a finger at Sharp.
That bag was actually of rather good quality. In fact, it was the very bag Sharp was using right now, but he didn't want to give Snitch any kind of satisfaction, so he simply shrugged him off and turned back to his table.
"Goddamnit! this sucks," he thought, then grabbed the bottle and drank a mouthful.
He found that bottle with a good amount of vodka in an empty table and miraculously that Duty drunk didn't noticed it. The burning sensation and the aftermath it leaves are 2 feelings he always welcomes, but that pleasure is starting to turn bland.
He had hoped to earn some money here but the Barkeep was somehow out of jobs, and there were no other STALKERs here to chat with. Getting drunk with a leftover bottle of vodka was the only thing he could do to pass the time, and with no real amount of money with him, he couldn't even watch the arena, let alone bet in it.
And he's not crazy enough to actually fight in it! Definetly not after hearing they pitted someone with only a knife and no armor against an exoskeleton with a 200m.
To hell with this. If patience wouldn't give him an opportunity then he would go look for one.
Sharp got out of the table and made his way to the exit but quickly stopped. He didn't know where he should go, and for what.
Annoyed, he raised the bottle for a sip, and stopped halfway there. He got it! It was clear as the liquid inside of it; scavenging! Of course! If he could find a free bottle of vodka in a bar, he could find anything, anywhere!
Excited, Sharp adjusted his bag, made sure not forget anything, took a drink to congratulate himself, another one for good luck, and quickly left.
With bottle in hand and greed in his heart he went to the Wild Territory.
A rookie STALKER was making his way trough the Garbage Dump, walking along the road while gazing into the mountains of junk. He finally got a good enough weapon to go beyond Cordon; a Viper 5! And just recently he made a fine deal with a trader.
Things couldn't get better for this rookie. In his good mood he started humming a song.
He turned his head to the side to keep watching the rusted mountains when he noticed that someone was waving at him at the distance, it was another STALKER. The mysterious fellow realized he got his attention and started walking towards him.
The rookie stood still, and walked towards this STALKER, maybe he got something important to say? Like the warnings about those emissions he heard back in the village?
As the fellow grew closer the rookie could get a better view of him; this man was wearing a Sunrise suit yet didn't have any kind of weapons with him, not in his hands nor in his back, maybe he only uses pistols? He's either a good shot or just shamelessly cheap.
They both drew closer to each other and stopped once they were at a good distance to talk.
"Hello there, pal! What's your name?" The fellow questioned in a friendly tone
"My name's Tolik, brother," Answered the rookie.
"Pleased to meet you Tolik, I'm Jaska! Say, what are you doing here?" His friendly tone all the same.
"Just making my way to Rostok. I've got someone waiting for me there." This was starting to get a bit weird. But this fellow seemed friendly enough.
"Really?" Jaska said as he nodded. "Well in that case I wouldn't want to keep you waiting, but there is a problem here." His friendly tone began to dissapear.
"What... kind of problem?" Worry began to engulf Tolik, he felt his hands moving on their own towards the Viper in his back.
"You see, this is a private road, and there's a fee for people who want to go across," said Jaska, and in the hills a couple of STALKERs started to show up, 4 of them, all wearing trenchcoats and aiming their guns at Tolik. He realized what was happening, they were bandits! and they got him right were they wanted.
"Move even an inch and we will turn you into a colinder!" Jaska yelled, one of the bandits laughed with a sinister tone that made Tolik shiver. This was Cordon all over again! But now alone and outnumbered! He couldn't risk it, he had to play along.
Tolik slowly raised his hands above his head. "P-please... don't kill me, I just want to go to Rostok... I-I don't want any trouble..."
"That's good to hear, pal," Responded Jaska with smugness. "As long as you don't do anything stupid we won't kill you."
Tolik only nodded with fear.
"As I said, this road has a fee; a 1000 rubles per head, pay and we will let you go."
"I-I don't have a 1000 rubles!" Tolik yelled in desesperation.
"That's fine, you can also pay with any stuff you have," answered Jaska.
Tolik was hesitant. The only thing he got that wasn't considered basic equiment was the artifact he bought in that deal, and he didn't want to hand it over.
"I... i've got 400 rubles and an artifact! A-a Stone Flower! They're yours..."
A smile grew in Jaska's face, "that will do! Leave them in front of you and step back. And do it slowly!"
Tolik did as he said, slowly and carefully he got the artifact out of his bag alongside 400 rubles, leaved them on the ground and stepped back. Jaska walked towards the loot, picked it up, counted the rubles and inspected the artifact.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Tolik. And now get out of here," he said with the most serious of tones, while pointing at the road behind him.
True to his word, they allowed Tolik to pass trough. He walked without delay, not saying anything nor seeing anyone, his eyes looking firmly at the floor.
He walked a good distance away and the bandits dissapeared from the hills. With the danger gone Tolik felt his walking pace slow down, and his head weighting a ton more, he had no money and no artifact to sell now.
Maybe it could've gone worse, he could've lost all his stuff and get shot instead. Normally that grim kind of thoughts helped him deal with a bad outcome, but in this case it wasn't. His new plan for the day was once he reached Rostok he would go to one of the buildings and sleep the day away until he felt better.
Indeed; things couldn't get better for this rookie.
Somewhere in the hills a group of bandits where walking back to their headquarters, almost howling with happiness with such an easy payday. One of the bandits stopped his celebration and turned to Jaska.
"Seriously thought, 'turn you into a colinder?'" He covered his mouth as some laughs escaped from it. "C'mon! That sounds like something straight out of a B-movie, log!"
Another bandit joined in. "Hey man, you can't slander B-movies like that just because he sounds stupid!"
All of them laughed, then silence fell to the group.
"So," said the third bandit of the group, his voice a bit uneasy. "How are we going to split the money? I don't even know how much a Stone Flower is worth."
"Don't worry, I'll take care of that once we sell it," responded Jaska.
"The fuck you will," exclaimed the last bandit as he rushed to the front. "You always split the money and you always end with the biggest cut!" The other bandits looked at him, and then each other. It's always like this, they get much less in comparison.
"This again? Look, I already told you why," Jaska answered annoyed. "Yes, I get a bigger cut but remember; i'm the one who goes there unarmed and reels people in!" He turned around to face his grumpy friend, walking backwards as he talked. "If the target feels fighty or some boars attacked out of nowhere, then i'm dead!" He turned to the front once again. "Also, we got an even better job later, so stop whining."
The angered bandit stopped in his track. "That's bullshit!" All of them stopped after hearing that. "You say you could get hurt but not once has a target fought back and not once we were interrumped by something else. You keep getting more for a supposed risk that never happens!"
"Ruski's right," said one of the other bandits. "And besides, guns or no guns, we are just as likely to get killed! What if the next target felt like shooting at the one with the gun instead of the one with no guns?"
He stood firm and crossed his arms. "Once we reached the Dark Valley we will sell the artifact and split the money equally, if you don't like that then good luck working alone."
All of the bandits were now looking at Jaska, who stood there, arms crossed, thinking what to say. His face then showed something, something new; sympathy.
"You're right," he said. "I'm taking more than I should." That statement shocked them, they expected Jaska to double down or keep going with another excuse.
"How about this?" he resumed. "I stay with the 400 rubles and you split whatever money you get from the Stone Flower." He took the artifact out of his bag and handed it to them.
"This must be worth 2000 rubles or so. That's 500 for each of you, What do you say?"
"500 rubles!? Hell yes!" 2 of the bandits said at the same time. The other was thinking about it, "sounds good to me," he said shortly after. The only one who didn't say anything was Ruski, who was still looking straight at Jaska.
Jaska extended his hand. "C'mon man, i'm giving you this chance. We cool?"
Ruski looked at him, then the floor for a while, and him again. "Fine, but it better be worth a lot," grumbled as he walked past Jaska, ignoring the handshake offered to him.
With this little drama out of the way, they all resumed their travel back home. Jaska was happy with this. "They can be dumb as hell sometimes," he thought.
"Yeah a Stone Flower might be worth 2000 rubles but that's only if you sell it to those egghead Ecologists, nobody else would pay that much for a some shit that produces radiation! They'll likely get 1200, leaving me with the biggest cut once again as it should be!"
"But... what if they actually sell it at 2000?" He thought somewhat worried. "Whatever, that would shut them up for a while. No plan is without risk after all."
The Wild Territory is a testament to the decay The Zone creates, whatever that man brought here is now ruined beyond hope. Cars turned upside down and rusted to shit, bent railroads that lead to collapsed tunnels, half finished buildings rotting away in the distance and half demolished building rotting away in front of you.
Whatever you looked at, it was fucked.
"Maybe scavenging here wasn't such a great idea," Sharp thought.
The bravado from the vodka quickly dissapeared, he doubted he could find much of anything here. Even then, from what he heard of, he had to go through bandits, mercenaries if he was unlucky, or worst case scenario mutants like Bloodsuckers.
The moment he thought of that, Sharp turned around and walked away. Facing those things just to scavenge stuff wasn't worth it.
Maybe he could give it a careful try if he had better gear. His Sunrise suit had decent protection for this, but he had an AKM-2U as his main weapon, a sawed-off for the occasional wild animal and a rather humble PMm. He would feel safer doing this with a better gun, even an AKM-74 would be a good enough upgrade.
Sharp kept walking away to no direction in particular, the concrete and steel of the Wild Territory were replaced with the dirt and trees of the outside. Much nicer for the eyes, no doubt, but now Sharp was not sure where he was. He took out his PDA and looked at his location on a map, he was between Rostok and the Garbage Dump now.
That was better, maybe he could go to the Dump and try his luck there. Yes, there were bandits and even less stuff to look for, but also no mercenaries and no Bloodsuckers to worry about.
Sharp went south to the Dump. So far his day hasn't improved, but he thought this could be the turning point.
He walked for a good while, did not stopped once, and wasn't going to until he could see the mountains of metal that made the Dump so famous.
He then stopped.
There was someone else, at the distance, another STALKER, he looked a bit troubled, yet not in a serious way. Walking as he tilted his head from one side to the other, playfully tapping the front end of his AKM-74.
Sharp thought nothing of this, and was ready to keep going. The STALKER then noticed him, promply stopped his act and started waving at him.
Sharp waved back, and resumed his travel south. It is always nice to see a friendly STALKER but he had money to find right now.
He walked a couple steps, then stopped again, there was a noise coming from behind. He turned and found The STALKER running towards him, gesturing to stop.
Normally STALKERs minded their own business, doubly so if they are alone. Yet this one was quite concerned with meeting him. Sharp stopped and waited for him to come, might as well hear what he had to say.
The STALKER reached him breathing loudly. "Give... give me a second." He leaned on a tree, repositioning his balaclava. "I'm Tinker... pleased to meet you," said the STALKER taking breaths between words.
Sharp waited for Tinker to say something else, who stood there leaned on that tree. His breathing now starting to normalize.
"Hello Tinker," Sharp said, to alleviate the uncomfortable silence.
"Yes! Sorry for bothering you," Tinker responded, walking away from the tree with his posture much better. "Are you busy right now?"
This sounds good. "Actually no," Sharp answered. "I was hoping to find something to do, my name's Sharp by the way."
"Perfect!" Tinker smiled as he said that "Are you interested in a job, Sharp?"
Finally, what he wanted to hear. "Of course, what you need?"
Tinker took out his PDA, and showed it to Sharp, it had the image of what looked like an entrance underground. "There's a tunnel somewhere between Yantar and Agroprom, and I heard it leads to an abandoned army base not yet found," Tinker's eyes were filled with excitement. "If we find it, then we have an army's worth of weapons and ammo to loot!"
Sharp was shocked. An army base!? that was a gold mine! He tried to stay calm and cleaned his throat "S-so, does your job have something to do with that base, or you just trying to make me jealous?"
Tinker laughed "I knew you'll like this! Yes, my plan is to go search it, but you heard the stories of those places, they are full of treasures but also with dragons guarding them!"
"Yes, the more dangerous kind of mutants are underground." Said sharp, trying to hurry him up.
"Exactly," resumed Tinker. "I can't go there all by myself! So, my offer; we go inside with a team to check the place, and loot whatever that isn't nailed to the ground, your payment is whatever you find there!"
This was a golden opportunity, this was the golden opportunity Sharp was looking for. But only 2 of them? They still needed to find more STALKERs. "Wait," he then said, "If you're recruiting people why you're out here and not somewhere like Rostok?"
"Because I wasn't in Rostok when I heard of it," Answered Tinker.
"I've just learned this from some group I met a couple of minutes ago. They needed to take care of something first, and told me to wait for them at the coordinates, and if I can, bring as many people with me."
"So," Tinker straightened himself, and extended his hand. "We got ourselves a deal?"
Sharp, extended his own, and the both made a handshake. "We got ourselves a deal."
Well damn, the story became longer than I thought, this was supposed to be the first half of the chapter. Oh well, the real stuff of the story will have to start in the next chapter, apologies.