After the soon to be infamous raid on the Freedom stalkers, the team reconvened in an old house just outside the battered concrete walls of the warehouses.
The majority of the team sat at an old dinner table that had all but fallen to termites when Tomo and Kagura walked in with arm loads of ammunition.
"That's the last of it," Kagura said heaving the fresh rounds onto the table. "What's next?"
Nikolai sat up. "Well we forgot one very important piece of equipment."
Yomi looked at the veteran stalker with borderline disgust. "What?"
"Yup we have to get all the way back to Yantar and pick up a psy-emission protection helmet."
Yomi leaned forward. "Why do we need that?"
"Well if we wanna get to Pripiyat we need to go straight past something called the Brain Scorcher. And before you ask they're an antennae array that turns stalkers like us into hideous shambling zombies."
Osaka slammed her palm on the table. "So that's what happened in the UFO!"
All anyone could do was sit and stare before silently agreeing not to ask about her story.
"So we need to go all the way back to the ecologist bunker?" Chiyo started.
"Looks like." Nikolai said standing up.
They all stood up and filed back into the truck.
"We're gonna sell some of this crap to the barkeep and pickup some less moldy rations before we take off for Yantar." Nikolai said before starting the beast of an engine.
They pulled into the Duty base and followed the familiar route to the subterranean bar.
Rather than a miserable, dank environment fit only for the scum of earth, they found a packed room with hurried stalkers spending their last Ruble to get ammo and guns.
"The fuck?" Nikolai said before muscling through the crowd and up to the barkeep.
"Hey whats going on here? It looks like all hells broken loose!"
The barkeep stepped away from the riot to address Nikolai.
"Haven't you heard ? A stalker called Marked One just shut down the brain scorcher and every stalker with a gun is on his way to the Power Plant.
Nikolai stepped back and then slammed down 10000 Rubles. "Gimme however many grenades and however much diesel gas I can get with this!"
The barkeep rang up the goods and Nikolai took off to the others.
"What's the story?" Tomo asked.
"We're going. Now! Let's move!"
Sakaki looked at him. "Whats happening?"
Nikolai didn't even stop moving. "I'll explain in the truck lets get!"
They piled in and peeled out of the bar.
"What's going on? Don't we need to stop at the ecologist bunker?
"Not anymore! Some guy shut the brain scorcher down and now we have a straight shot to the stash."
They flew down the road and quickly made it to the place known as the "Red forest".
Almost instantly the overall feeling fell from hurried celebration to ominous caution.
The sun had fallen beneath the cliffs to the west and the headlights where weak leaving only the first few meters in front of the truck visible.
Nikolai took a deep breath and shouted to the back. "Hey! There should be a pair of compact night vision goggle in your packs."
At once they reached into the packs and grabbed the devices.
Yomi looked the goggles over. "I don't remember picking these up."
"Just another donation from your friendly friend Nikolai."
"Thanks!" Yomi finally shouted back as she put the gear on her head.
"Wait to put em' on though. We need to save the batteries in those things."
--
Ten minutes of driving and the engine noise had almost disappeared, disregarded as nothing but white noise.
A low growl and the truck started to slow down.
Chiyo looked around to see if something was wrong or had changed. "Whats going on?"
"I'm not sure." Nikolai said a little uneasily. He simply pushed on the gas pedal harder and kept moving.
The vehicle still chugged.
Kagura leaned in the window. "What's happening?"
"We're slowing down obviously."
"Check the gas tank."
"No it's still a quarter tank. What the hell?
As the truck slowed to a stop a dark figure in a tattered trench coat stood in the road at the edge of the lights range. Holding his red, swollen hand he started to groan as though he was pushing something.
"What's that?" Osaka asked, peering over the truck cab.
Suddenly the figure lifted it's head to reveal a disfigured red face with glowing yellow eyes.
Nikolai forced his back deep into the seat and shook for a moment.
He shook his head and took a breath. "Get out! Get out of the fucking truck!"
Everybody leaped from the truck and hit the ground awkwardly leaving them to recover.
The figure shunted his alien arms forward as the truck crumpled into the shear rock walls of the forest.
"Kill him!"Nikolai shouted, reaching for his weapon.
"What the?" He went on as he realized his gun was still in the cab of the truck.
His befuddlement was quickly overcome with surprise as lead showered from behind him.
A painful groan and the figure fell to the tar.
"Where'd my gun go?" Osaka said.
"Mine too!" Exclaimed Tomo.
Yomi looked to the others. "You guys don't have your stuff?"
Nikolai brushed himself off. "You guys left em' in the truck."
"Are you sure?" Yomi said standing up.
"Yeah I left my gun in there too. I guess we're boned."
"So let's go get some more." Osaka suggested.
Nikolai pointed to the wreckage and cocked one eyebrow.
"Oh."
"Well let's get walking." Kagura said.
They didn't get far before a few 3 bandits can arrogantly waltzing down the road.
Nikolai started towards the brush to the side of the road. "Guys find a hiding place were gonna take their guns."
As the to-be victims approached Nikolai popped from the bushes and skulked behind the bandit in the center.
The man shuddered as Nikolai grasped him and held a knife to his throat. Other bandits immediately aimed their weapons at the stalker.
"Hold it!."
"Why should I?" Nikolai said.
"Cuz if you don't we'll stomp on your ass."
Yomis voice came seemingly from nowhere. "No. You won't."
The bandits put their weapons at their sides. "What do you want?"
Nikolai pulled one of the bandits closer to him. "Your guns. We need 'em if we're gonna get to Pripyat."
"Can't we cut a deal?"
Nikolai stopped for a moment. "How about this? We show you the same mercy you would show us. So we'll..." He paused to think. "Take your shit and leave you in a tree somewhere. You know... so you the dogs don't get to ya."
Just as he finished he planted his fist in the base of the mans neck.
He then moved to the others and did the same.
"Well we have some guns now. So we can head to the stash right?" Kagura said.
"Yup lets go."
Before long they had reached the city limits of Pripyat. They took one last moment to check the map.
"Alright. If this is the market... that's over there... we should be here." He said pointing.
"So we just head up this street cut through this building and we should right in front of the apartment structure." Yomi entered.
"Right but that place is probably crawling military. They got here way before us. So we just head into city pump station and take some of the maintenance tunnels straight to the apartment. That way we can avoid anyone who's here."
Tomo yawned and stretched as if trying to get in the way of the meeting. "I'm so tired we haven't slept since we got to the bunker in Yantar."
Nikolai shook his head slightly. "Here take one of these." He said pulling out a small white pill.
"What's this?"
"A caffeine pill. It should keep you going until we make it to the pump station."
Yomi stopped Nikolai's hand short. "You know what kind of a dumbass she is. If she takes a caffeine pill she'll be goin' berserk."
"It's better than her falling asleep in the middle of the road."
"I guess your right."