Freedom
Chapter 26
Duty. They were out there. Before, they'd been a name without a face, they hadn't affected us, hadn't mattered. That dream was over. They were real, and they were scary. The Biker hadn't been afraid of Ever, but there was no question that he took the Duty man seriously. That couldn't be a good sign; the Biker didn't seem the type to feel threatened by just anyone.
We had veered off course, and gotten closer to the trees. The bogs made for such slow going that Velvet preferred the risk of the forest. Once again, it felt different here. The Red Forest was two or three hundred meters off, but it felt closer. The trees were taller than I expected. It was dark, even though it was only afternoon. I felt a pull. I wanted to see what it was like in there.
"What?" Velvet's exclamation was so vehement, they probably heard it at the old cordon. Or even the new one. Everyone stopped and looked back. "Check your map," she ordered, pointing to the Biker. Frowning, he took out his PDA and powered it on. A moment later, his eyes widened. "What's going on?"
"They say satellite images don't work anymore." Velvet pulled off her earpiece. "That there's some kind of interference."
I took out my own PDA.
NO SIGNAL
I still had access to the airwaves, and the Stalker BBS. The network was a little sluggish, but everything seemed fine. Except for the map.
"Did it ever update after that last emission?" Sagaris asked. Now he had his out too.
"What does this mean?"
"It means that until it's back up, we're navigating by memory and compass," the Biker said. Licht had remained silent and expressionless. I would have liked to hear his take on the matter, but apparently that wasn't his style.
"It means we won't know about changes from emissions," Velvet pointed out. "Our route could be compromised. We need to slow down."
"We can almost see the channel from here," the Biker countered. He pointed west. "There's rain coming – what do we do if the water level rises?"
"Then we wait it out."
"We should go now."
"We shouldn't be rushing into anything."
"We don't have to rush, we just have to move. You can't linger by the forest like this."
"Fine."
They started walking, and I fell in beside Sagaris. "How big are the changes?" I asked.
"What?"
"After an emission. Can so much really change?"
He nodded. "Stay alive. You'll see."
That was uncharacteristically cryptic. I let it go.
We weren't as close to the channel as the Biker thought. Had he exaggerated, or had the Zone changed? There was no way for me to know, and I didn't think it was a good idea to ask. I imagined how it would feel to be second guessing myself every time something seemed out of the ordinary. Was my memory playing tricks on me? Or had it changed? Did I remember the way wrong? I shuddered, thinking about it. The Zone just never gets tired of finding ways to get to you. It's the ultimate troll.
The channel was lined with industry and civilization. All of it led, eventually, to Pripyat. Our route was through a residential sector, wide streets lined with the enormous tenement buildings that characterized this area before the Chernobyl incident. They were holding up pretty well, despite everything. They were still white, sort of. Still mostly intact.
Rusty metal squeaked. We were passing an old playground. There wasn't much left. A slide had rusted through. A swing hung from one chain, the swing itself dragging in the mud. A little horse on a spring had lost half its face, and its remaining eye gazed at the road. I looked up at the crows lining the power lines.
How long does it take to turn a city into a graveyard? Two years later, Velvet would be asking the same question. And this was nothing compared to what we would see in Pripyat, even sooner than we expected.
Now that we were among the buildings, no one seemed keen to talk. Even the sound of our boots on the debris covering the road seemed to echo.
"Does this ever change?" I asked. "I can imagine little things out in the wilderness, but what about these big buildings?"
"I don't know. I don't think so," Sagaris replied, turning to look over his shoulder. "You never hear about Pripyat changing. Or the plant."
"Don't be so sure of that," the Biker said.
Velvet groaned. "I don't know what you think you saw," she said, sounding irritated, "…but Chernobyl hasn't changed."
"You want to go there and make sure?"
"Not on your life."
"I wouldn't mind, though."
"What? Going back?"
"Not that. If it wasn't true."
Velvet shook her head in disgust. "I don't think you ever made it to the center at all. Some anomaly just got the best of you. You hallucinated."
Biker didn't bite. "I don't think so."
"Then where's the world peace?"
He smiled at that. "I wished for something else."
"Did it at least come true?" Velvet asked dryly.
A pause. "No."
"Great."
I'd never seen the channel. I'd never cared about the channel. It hadn't been part of the Zone until recently, and it hadn't been an issue long enough to get much discussion online. But now the cordon was well on the other side, and it was right in the thick of things. It was bigger than I expected. Wider, faster-moving, darker. It was a long, long way to the other side. It occurred to me I still didn't know why we'd come here. The sun was sinking, but it wasn't full dark yet, which meant we'd made pretty good time. You'd have thought that would have improved Velvet's mood, but it didn't.
"Still a ways to go," she announced over her shoulder, and set off north.
It was surreal. On one side, a dark expanse of water, and on the other, an even darker wall of industry. We stayed in the shadow of the flood wall; there was no sense being more exposed than we needed to be, and there were an awful lot of windows looking down on the channel. As we followed it north, I eyed the dark hulks in the water. Capsized and abandoned vessels, some of them quite large. Not far away, a line of half-sunken barges formed a sort of bridge that stretched almost halfway across. They were overgrown, which probably meant that when the water level was higher, they would be completely submerged.
"Are we going to cross?"
"Only about halfway," Velvet replied distractedly, taking out her binoculars and scanning the tenements looming on our left.
Halfway? What?
There were cracks in the seawall, and we had to climb down and wade through icy water. It was getting dark again. Never a break in the Zone; group or no group, no matter where you are, no matter how safe – you can't stop nightfall.
"What was that?"
Sagaris stood on a bit of rubble not far away, gazing out at the channel.
"What?"
He pointed. "There. There's something in the water."
"Let's climb up," Velvet said. I was surprised she took his word so seriously; it was easy to see things out here. But it was dark enough that we wouldn't be sniper bait in the open unless someone out there had some pretty fancy optics. Walking along the wall was easier than wading through the shallows, though it still felt exposed.
"I heard blood drinkers liked these urban areas," I said, fingering the light on my chest, but I didn't switch it on.
"They used to. Then Railgun happened. Now there aren't enough stalkers to keep them fed. They can't wait for us to come here anymore, they have to come to us." The Biker looked down at the dark waters. "But there have been stories of something in the channel."
I didn't want to know, so I didn't ask.
"No moon tonight."
"No, and there'll be rain before morning."
"Is the map back yet?"
"No."
"Damn it all."
I listened to their voices in the dark, keeping my eyes on the Merc's back. His collage of camouflages blended well in the dark, but it was hard to lose track of something as big as he was.
"We should be seeing it by now." Velvet sounded concerned.
"Maybe the lights are off."
"That would not be a good sign." She stopped, and I nearly bumped into her. "Should be around here."
"Yeah."
"What do you think?"
"I think we can't see it like this."
"Can we risk a flare?"
"If we move fast, it shouldn't be a problem."
"Do it. Everyone get ready – follow my lead," Velvet said. I heard her shift her MPL. The Biker snapped something shut and raised his arm. The flare was blinding. I should have known better than to look at it as it went up. The Biker had aimed it out over the channel, and now I saw why.
The ship was huge. It was an abandoned derelict, but still upright, likely caught on something. Now I knew what Velvet had meant when she said halfway.