Kneeling beside him with her soft hands cradling his face, Taylor heard the droning noises as the storm came over the area, terror in her emerald eyes, she haphazardly asks Wilhelm if Paul and Edgar will be alright.
She exhaled sharply as Wilhelm assures her that the men will be fine, it's happened enough that he knew that Edgar will be right as rain after the storms pass.
"What storms are these?" Taylor inquired about the unnatural storms and Wilhelm gestures that ever since the military came into the area, wild storms of a deadly quality started happening, and anyone unfortunate caught in them don't typically survive.
Catching that, Taylor asks more about what happens, and gesturing once again, Wilhelm explained that those that somehow survived the storms without their brains "popping like summer cherries" are never the same.
He likened them to zombies, the way their mental faculties become nonexistent and their movements suffering extensively that they shuffle like zombies.
It's a sad sight, Wilhelm admits that it's protocol for them to euthanize the sorry bastards.
At that point, they're fodder for the Zone, and it's a disservice having dead people's corpses parade themselves everywhere.
Better to put them down, find their badges, let their loved ones know what happened.
The creatures that made the Zone their home will do the rest.
"But people like Edgar and your friend, well, if anything that old coot says hold any water, the storms don't affect them the same way," Wilhelm shrugged as he took his spot.
Don't know more than that, but Wilhelm warns Taylor that if they ever see the clouds suddenly forming and they hear the droning noise, they typically only have a few minutes to find safety, and it's a gamble there's safety everywhere in the Zone.
Not everything stays topside.
"How long do these storms go on?" Taylor soothingly stroked Paul's face as she had his head in her lap.
Wilhelm summed, "Not long, they come in bursts. Then the rain comes after. We went a week without one popping up, but it's been happening regularly lately. You never know what fear is when you're outside in the dark trying to find something to eat when the skies turn bright like it's morning for a few seconds."
The warnings noted, Taylor waited for the storm to cease, by then Paul and Edgar would wake from their forced slumber.
Thinking quietly to herself, Taylor listens to the storm as it started wavering, like Wilhelm said it would, as she continued stroking Paul's face.
Wilhelm comments that Taylor shouldn't get lost on her own in the Zone, cautioning her that there weren't just creatures that made it their home.
Whenever there's a prison break, the first thing the escapees try was getting to the Zone, since everyone and their mother knows no one willingly goes there, and none of the wardens worth their gold wanted to risk retrieving them from the Zone.
Probably thinks the Zone will just kill them.
Which is true, most prisoners who come through the Zone don't last very long.
The ones that do, however, Taylor would be very wise to stick close to Wilhelm and Edgar if she ever gets separated from Paul.
"Trust me luv, you don't want to accidentally run in to 'em," Wilhelm summed with fear in his walnut eyes as he warns Taylor of the consequences.
Taking this to heart, Taylor nods in the darkness as she started hearing rain pattering against the bunker.
She felt Paul stirring in her hands, his angel eyes staring up at her, as he gently pushed himself up, confusion washed over him as Taylor held him close.
Adjacent they see Edgar waking up, blinking slowly as he adjusted himself in his spot as Wilhelm asks how he felt.
"Right as rain," Edgar says as he then asked Paul how he felt.
Truthfully, it was like a forced nap, but otherwise, Paul felt fine.
Moving around, Edgar muttered to himself as he looked around, he pushed himself up from the ground as he proceeded to tell the three that there was someone else in the Zone they needed to find.
"She is like us," Edgar gestured towards himself and Paul, "inexperienced like you, but the Zone whispers to me. She needs to be found."
Somehow, the Zone communicated with him during his unconscious state, where he saw flashes of a woman, the Zone whispering in his ear, telling him that she was to be found and protected.
"How are we supposed to find her?" Wilhelm questioned this as Edgar then said that the Zone told him where to look.
She will be safe until they catch up to her, however there was trouble looming.
"Long ago, they wanted to make super soldiers, capable of receiving commands anywhere in the world. Unflinching, strong, the image of the USSR. They could be commanded to do anything on the whim of the Kremlin. Anything. A group of scientists were tasked creating them," Edgar explained what the Zone whispered to him as he moved around the bunker while the three listened to him. "They did the unthinkable: they turned on the Kremlin and stole the research for themselves. Stole away in the Zone where the Kremlin couldn't find them."
Epically, Edgar described how scientists turned on their government, not because they disagreed with the orders they were given, but because they wanted the power gained from experimenting for themselves.
It sounded outlandish that Wilhelm brought up that if the Zone knew about this, why it couldn't have destroyed them when she could, and Edgar gave a reason.
"She has been trying to eradicate them, but they grow in numbers daily, they kidnap the loners, decimate camps and take the survivors, that is why she tries to dissuade people coming here, so they grow thin, but power is too intoxicating," Edgar shook his head disapprovingly.
Speaking up as he hears this epic, Paul expressed what the scientists intended with the research if they weren't aligned with the USSR.
"They want to control her, weaponize her," Edgar summed what the scientists were planning since they stole away in the Zone.
Gesturing, Edgar ushered the three to collect themselves, they needed to find the newest visitor to the Zone before the soldiers do, but Wilhelm protests as it's night, now, they been in the bunker for a while, and there's no way all of them can handle the nightmares that lurk in the darkness.
It didn't dissuade Edgar as he gone to the door to the bunker and opened it.
To their amazement, it was sunny out, as it was when the storm came through.
Checking his watch that was hidden under his wool sleeve, Wilhelm mustered, "Blimey! It's nearly 8PM!"
Chuckling, Edgar swats the air as he tells Wilhelm that the Zone decides what time is and isn't.
She knows the darkness brings out the worst mutants and man-made horrors.
Holding Paul's arm as she stood beside him, Taylor sees the bright light seemingly beckoning them to step out of the bunker.
Having no choice, Paul led her out of the bunker with the men walking ahead, Wilhelm at the front with his rifle.
Sensing there's more to this epic than Edgar let on, Paul wanted to covertly speak with Taylor via his telepathy, but as the idea came across, he felt as though someone was listening to him.
Likely, the Zone's listening to their minds, exerting its power over them.
With Taylor close to him, he decided to fall back to a tactic his grandfather and uncles taught him.
Tapping in Morse on Taylor's arm.
Quietly, he talked to Taylor as his angel eyes watched for movement as they came up to unnatural twisted trees of unnatural colours.
