Only silence in the zone greeted the two as they've arrived, not even a bird in the trees, though Nikita, or N as she's called in these tours, heard stories that at night, the silence breaks with either echoes or specters roaming the area, capable of taking anyone unfortunate enough coming across them away into a realm that's incomprehensible to the human mind, breaking victims in ways that are better left unsaid.
No one ever agreed to a tour in the night, not even if it meant they didn't risk capture by authorities, or even a lavish amount of money, precisely because the zone becomes a dangerous force at night, unless reality alters and day swiftly becomes night, but otherwise, it's a dangerous place at night.
Oh, Nikita's heard stories of time ceasing in the zone, not only weather, but the very fabrics of reality becoming warped, to the point that unfortunate people ended up caught in the disturbances often don't return home, if they somehow managed, it wasn't because they're lucky, not when it breaks their minds and reduces them to blubbering sobs who witnessed things that nobody ever encountered before.
It's common finding hideaways around the zone, placed there by people who needed a safe spot for a time, when reality or time turn turbulent.
Even though there's hideaways, it's never wise blatantly going through them without thoroughly checking.
The zone gives, but she takes.
Sometimes, things seep in.
Safe hideaways becoming unusable in minutes because reality changed them, that when some sob enters, they're instantly disintegrated by a force that's akin to being flattened by walls of cement, a hideaway where people were known to turn into skeletons instantaneously because the air became improbably acidic that it ate away at their flesh before they even registered their flesh from their arms' missing.
With the threats of the liquid that gotten Hugo, everyone who spent time in the zone always checks puddles in the ground, even streams risks being the infamous liquid, were known to seep into the hideaways, consuming everyone who mistakingly gotten into them without checking first.
Scientists have come to the zone and taken samples of the liquid for their own uses, Nikita never hosted tours with them, but she heard from those in the profession that did, say that the liquid harvested ate through most containers the scientists used to house it.
Couldn't find out more, those scientists weren't keen on sharing all, but they know for sure that the liquid gave them more trouble than it's worth.
Vladimir, one of the seasoned hosts, said his marks ended up losing their arms when they hopelessly tried to prop up a door after the liquid broke down the hinges, as the liquid poured out of the containers, and seeped into the room, like a river.
It's a miracle, but a terrible one, as he said.
"Is it true there's even monsters?" V inquired as Nikita guided her through the area, cautiously observant to any sudden changes in the atmosphere, the moment so much as a tree moves, Nikita's prepared to flee with her mark.
She thinks it over before replying to V's question, that there are animals in the zone, those that weren't purged, that evolved in the unnatural world, not with benefits in mind.
Some die out because they're unable to cope with the unnatural changes, some survive, some simply mutate, and they mutate with horrifying effects.
Nikita had her share of encounters, due to the tourists causing them, otherwise, she's cautious, indiscriminately killing the animals, though they'd surely prefer death to the agonizing life they lead, isn't wise with the zone.
Those are just animals.
Many more things linger in the zone, perhaps echos of life that once was, the unfortunate humans that survived the initial exposures, becoming disturbing creatures themselves, possibly, even tourists that gotten trapped by the zone, no one knows for sure, but it wasn't wise going and finding out, they kill without prejudice.
Nikita honed her craft that she avoids any structures in her tours, where these creatures sometimes prowl, avoiding tall grasses, the thick trees, anywhere that they could've lingered around, and she hadn't encountered them, yet, but she wasn't stupid enough to remain hopeful that stays the same.
"What about those things that the military have, the things the scavengers find?" V continued her line of questioning as Nikita led her through a path leading them out to an open area, filled with abandoned tanks, overgrown with weeds, and pits in the ground from the tanks firing.
In the zone, sometimes a scavenger finds something that contains great power, but the variety of the power can either be something simple as avoiding death from radiation to becoming a human statue by mere touch.
Nikita never touches them, never leads her marks towards them, won't even let them try and take them out, even if they offer her triple.
She feels it's an insult to take things from the zone, unless the zone implicitly lets them take, which is rare of itself, and the thefts leads the zone to lash out in anger, at the expense of everyone still within it.
Yet, the scavengers, the military, they search for them, like impudent children on an egg hunt.
Nikita calls these objects of power so greatly sought after, fetishes, because of their nature, and as a reference to how people act when they think they've found a location with one inside.
The military and scavengers picked over plenty, but Nikita knows there's greater fetishes out there, but they weren't easily found on their own, the more powerful the fetish, the dangerous it reacts to trespassers.
Sometimes, the fetishes aren't alone, guardians made of energy protect them from trespassers, often with dire consequences.
Those were worth fortunes because of the powers they possessed, but Nikita won't attempt such a feat, not even for millions.
The zone gives, but she takes, and she won't let anyone steal from her, if she gives you something, there's a purpose for it, and it's only her nature that determines if it's a danger to you.
Good or bad, you won't know, but it's rude not taking the zone's gift, even if it's detrimental.
V knew this going in when she agreed to the terms of the tour and Nikita won't budge, not even for double the money.
Looking at the tanks closely, her curious eyes glistened under the sunlight, V commented, "Are there any bodies in them?"
Her blue eyes moved towards the tanks as they passed by them, seeing how they're sinking into the earth below, consumed by nature, memories of fighting lost to the ages of time, Nikita replied that she wouldn't be surprised if there are bodies in the tanks, and it won't do anyone good trying to take them out.
What's left behind, stays that way.
"What do you think happened?" V inquired what happened that resulted in the destruction of the tanks, from what it looked, they've been there for over twenty years!
Finding the next path they're taking, Nikita answered with a dull, "They tried to fight what they couldn't understand. She won."
When the incident happened, nobody truly knew the extent how fundamentally changed the area became.
It happened gradually, small things that happened months at a time, until it became what they know and feared.
A group of children sneaked into the zone, back before the fencing gone up, when the search party formed, they found the remains of the children somewhere near the old school only two hours after it started.
To describe the sight from memory, Nikita says they were only heaps of flesh, no one could know for sure what happened to their bones, if they liquified into a goop mixed with blood, something ate them without pricking the flesh, or they were simply taken out of the children without cutting them open.
She was only ten when this happened, one of the victims was a friend of hers, and she was as mortified as the others when the news broke.
One of the major reasons the fencing went up, the patrols started, and the realization that the zone wasn't benign like they originally thought.
Nikita says they'll see the school on the hill coming up, it was an elementary school, complete with colourful playgrounds, and painted murals.
Sometimes, they'll hear phantom laughter of children near it, close to sunset, they're said to be the ghosts of the deceased children, having become part of the distorted fabric of reality.
As with everything else, there rumours of something living in the school, that killed the children, since no one went into the school, nobody knew it existed.
Maybe, even the school itself, spurred alive by the radioactivity, killed the children for a slight, no one knows for sure, but people stayed away from the school.
Her eyes cautiously scanning the area, Nikita walks with V, towards the hill in the distance that'll give them a look at the school from a safe distance.
Towards the knoll leading up, Nikita abruptly stops the tourist, telling her to stand where she is, and don't move unless Nikita tells her.
Pulling her backpack off, Nikita reached in, grabbing a lug nut tied to a long beige cloth from one of the sacks, and positioned herself.
Unseen to the naked eye, sometimes there are areas that crop up every now again, that if encountered, can flatten someone like a tin can.
Like throwing a dart, Nikita tossed the lug nut in the air, the cloth slithering in the breeze, as it went towards a spot adjacent to them.
Her blue eyes narrowing, Nikita listened as it reached the ground, before affirming her suspicion.
"Follow me, do not go off the path unless I say so," Nikita warns V to stay close to her and don't wander off the path, even for a moment.
The gravity in a patch of the area's become dangerous.
If V accidentally stumbles into it, she'll be flattened like a piece of paper.
Worse, she'll float upright, alive, until she suffocates in the stratosphere.
Assuming the gravity doesn't change again and she falls to her death with only a thud.
Very fickle, the nature of the zone.
Sticking close to her, V's eyes narrowed on the patch where Nikita threw her lug nut, she didn't initially see it, but she followed the cloth up to where the lug nut would've been.
Flattened, like a washboard.
Guiding them away from the patch, Nikita safely brought them up the hill, with a flattened top that once had a tree, overlooking the school from a safe distance.
Pointing, Nikita showed V where the search party found the bodies.
Right outside the doors.
It wasn't until they found the coats under the mounds of flesh did they realize it was the children, they initially thought animals brought their killings there.
"No blood trails, nothing suggesting it was the work of an animal or creature, of course, then we didn't know much as we do now," Nikita explained that nobody knew what killed the children, that it became an urban legend for their village, a spook story that kept children from breaking away from their parents.
To this day, nobody knew what happened to the children, how they lost their bones, why only their bones, and likely never.
Was it the work of the zone?
Nikita doesn't know.
The brutality of the deaths, par course, however cruel it sounds, as the zone's indiscriminate when it lashes out, or one of the creatures that call it home.
"What's with the bear statues?" V pointed towards the playground, her eyes fell on the sight of bear statues on podiums.
They weren't traditional bear statues, a mix of tradition aesthetics but more kid-friendly, without the cartoony bit, in this area, bears are a symbol for many things, and for schools they embodied things such as strength and maternal instincts.
In playgrounds like this, they're maternal instincts.
Looking where V's pointing, Nikita's blue eyes narrowed as she sees the statues.
Reaching into her backpack once again, she retrieved a pair of binoculars, with them, Nikita peered at the statues.
Made of plaster or whatever material, they're not that detailed like others, purely to save on cost, and not frighten the children that once attended the elementary school.
Slowly, Nikita surveyed the statues, until one caught her eyes, there's something red shining around the mouth of the statue.
Something else caught her eyes, Nikita counted the statues, there's four, in each direction of the playground, but she only counted three.
V inquires about it and as Nikita lowered her binoculars, she says in a low voice, "Nobody goes to the school."
Taking it as a warning, V cautiously went with Nikita away from the school, though it caused V to turn her head multiple times, out of fear.
Nikita led them on another path that's shorter, going towards another part of the area, where the old middle school used to be, two blocks down from the elementary school.
Like Nikita said, nobody goes into the buildings out of fear of what's inside them, or what they turned into after the radiation permitted the bricked buildings.
She warns V not to take anything for granted, that if a building look unusually pristine in the rubbles, there's a reason for it, and to treat it as a death trap.
"Wh-what about the bear statue?" V hesitantly asks about the missing statue, but wasn't happy about Nikita's response.
Carefully leading them on the short path that'll take them behind the middle school, separated by fencing and a drainage ditch, Nikita said, "Follow her path and she will not send it."
If they keep to the designated paths, they won't find out where the statue went.
The middle school wasn't pronounced with colours like the elementary school, there's a playground, but it's lessened by the lack of slides, only swings and blacktops for jumping jacks.
Nikita doesn't recall any incidents happening near the middle school, but she wasn't taking chances, neither should V, and they passed by the middle school, while mindful of sudden changes in gravity or other.
They're making their way back onto solid road, where old cars remained where they were since they've been abandoned when they heard footsteps.
Nikita immediately stopped V as they listened to the footsteps coming towards them and V looked towards Nikita for guidance, asking if it's one of the creatures or maybe even another stalker.
"I don't know," Nikita tells her as she listened, there's two footsteps, they're not creatures that she's aware of, they're wearing shoes, but it's the zone, they're in.
Checking the closest area and finding it safe, Nikita ordered V to hide while she hid with her handgun, just in case.
Scavengers weren't their favourites, they don't respect anyone but themselves, and maybe while the zone didn't like people touring it, she sure as hell hated scavengers more.
Readying her handgun, Nikita waited, prepared to fire at scavengers that'll shoot her out of fear for their misbegotten loot.
There's no guessing, scavengers don't like sharing their loot or people who risk their lucrative work, they've fired at her before, and while Nikita didn't kill them, she made sure they learnt their lesson the last time they encountered each other.
The footsteps coming closer, there's outlines of figures walking on the path, one outline taller than the other, side by side.
Her eyes focused on them, Nikita hid among the thickets, shallowly breathing.
They're coming closer, one's wearing an oddly coloured scarf, a long coat, and has wild hair.
The other outline's wearing a long coat, also, a different coloured.
Their outfits, they're not distinctive like the scavengers, but Nikita knew better to lower her guard.
Closer now, she sees the tall one having bright blue eyes, a large nose, he's talking to the woman beside him, they're not Ukrainian, Russian, no one that Nikita's familiar with in the five years she worked.
The tall man stopped, as if he heard something, the woman beside him asked what was wrong, but he pulled her behind him, and he stepped forward, his bright blue eyes narrowing as he walked forward.
"Come out of hiding!" Nikita hears a booming voice coming from what sounded like behind her and she nearly jumped high in the air as she fled from her hiding spot, putting her in front of the tall man standing quizzically.
Her heart beating against her chest, she felt dread, until the tall man calmly asked her why she was hiding.
V slipped out of hiding, the commotion drew her out, and she stood beside Nikita as she held her handgun tightly in her hand.
"My, this is's getting interesting," V commented on the unusual appearance of the man and the woman.
Turning towards Nikita, V asks if she recognized them, and Nikita shook her head.
She knew everyone, even the scavengers that weren't dead, none looked like the two people in front of her.
"Why were you hiding?" Nikita heard the man asking her while she kept the handgun lowered, prepared to raise it if necessary.
Nikita dryly responded, "To shoot you."
Waving his large hand, the tall man insisted that they don't get carried away, no one needed to get shot, he and his companion mean no harm.
"Who're you?" V curiously asks him.
Showing her his pearly whites, the tall man introduced himself, "I'm the Doctor!"