Relying on her map, Anya discovered that areas had been irrevocably changed to the point that they didn't represent what the map said, she tried referencing different maps that she came across during her trek, but once again, the area that should have been on the map, wasn't.
What caused Anya to dismiss the maps outright was a sight that she could not believe with her own two eyes.
In the distance, she saw what looked like an unmarked lake, the perspective from where Anya stood, the lake looked unusually slanted, and as she tried finding a new spot to survey the lake, she found something else entirely.
The lake wasn't slanted, instead it covered a large hill, hence the appearance.
Somehow, water affixed itself to the hill, that it remained calm, not flowing downward like it normally would.
All suspended into one area.
Improbable to even consider happening in real life, yet Anya saw this from where she stood.
The unusual sights hadn't stopped, however, Anya discovered more things that changed her perspective on what was possible.
During her trek around a former used car lot, Anya stopped when she noticed something in the middle of the lot.
It looked like heat emitting from the centre, the waves, but it was ice cold in that part of the area that Anya mistook it as an underground gas leak, attempting to get away from it quickly, afraid of a spark sending her sky high.
That didn't last as Anya was then introduced to a residence of the Zone, a contorted hog with spider-like stubs for legs.
Four eyes like one, blotchy skin underneath the mange, one-half of the face bulged with another half-formed second face that didn't form completely.
Two sets of tusks, one set jutting out the side of the second face.
Squealing like a boar, charging like a beast, it came after Anya who escaped the tusks by jumping to the side as the boar couldn't stop itself in time.
It ended up running through the centre where Anya watched in horror as an unseen force gripped the boar, picking it up like it was nothing, amid the boar squealing in pain.
An unseen force began contorting the boar like a towel, stretching it, the squealing pained squealing turned shrilling as Anya's forced to watch the unseen force beginning to twist the boar until it exploded into blood and gore.
Cupping a hand over her mouth in horror, Anya sees the gore thrown by the unseen force, spraying abandoned vehicles on the car lot like a crazed maniac and then went silent, as if it wasn't there, again.
Turning around, Anya fled, fear in her eyes as she desperately tried to find some way out of this nightmare that her mind forced her into.
It was only going to get worse for her, as the unusual day continued.
Didn't know where she was going, only that she wanted to get away from the used car lot by any means necessary and in her panic, nearly ran into another one of those spots masked by the shade of the trees.
Oh god, the trees!
They're twisted in shapes considered impossible, their colours were vivid, but wrong.
Yet, the most unusual thing about them wasn't just their twisted shapes and colours, they were thriving!
Anya sees healthy growth on the trees as she uncomfortably passed by them.
Almost jumped into the air when she started hearing cawing noises coming from the trees.
While moving past them, Anya grew curious, trying to see through the twisted branches, but didn't see any bird nesting within the twisted trees.
It was as though the trees themselves were cawing at her.
"Why am I here?" Anya whispered to herself as she questioned why she went through with the plan.
Frowning, Anya was forced to recall the vivid nightmares that made her grow afraid to sleep so much as a wink out of fear of what she would see next.
Pushing forward while trying to find some semblance of normality in this bizarre world she was thrown into, Anya came across a school.
Seeing it decimated like this as she stepped through the destroyed fencing, glimpsing at the warped playground equipment, Anya's lost without words.
At one point, there were children playing here, playing with their toys, now all gone, and all that remained were their toys left to rot in the open.
Biting her lips, Anya noticed the chalk lines etched into the asphalt underneath her, stick figures, flowers, children drawing as they normally would, when they abruptly stopped.
Just the way the lines suddenly ceased was enough to push Anya to investigate somewhere else.
Going around the building to the front, Anya notices something most peculiar, that she had to go up to them to see clearly.
Four empty pedestals.
The statues that were on top of them weren't broken off, there was nothing indicating this as Anya checked the base for remnants of materials that broken off the statue.
Checking the plaque on one of the pedestals, Anya sees the Cyrillic for 'bear' on it.
But… where are their statues?
Jumping in the air once again, Anya heard something that she hadn't heard before, a raspy breathing that sent chills down her spine.
It sounded like it was coming from a broken window towards the school, but Anya didn't bother to glimpse towards the window, as she took off running, her boots slamming into the ground as she hurried off the school grounds.
Don't know where she's going, but it's better than staying anywhere near the school.
Something out of a book, Anya found herself in a world like theirs, but reality wasn't like theirs.
Spots in the ground that destroys whatever stepped on them, trees that mimic birds, at one point Anya wished she found a rabbit wearing a coat!
Slowing down as she's in the middle of the road in a former town, Anya clutched her knees as she exhaled sharply.
It dawned on her that she can't escape this hell, if the maps were any indicator, there was no way for her to return to the road she took getting here, assuming whatever here let her.
Evident there were forces beyond her understanding, Anya felt like her was purposely targeted in her dreams, now that she is here, whatever purpose, she doesn't know, only that she wanted this nightmare to end!
Picking a direction, Anya went with it, her head on a swivel as she attempted to find a way out of here, somehow.
Suppose having sunlight at this hour helps, even bizarre as it is.
Helped watch out for those weird spots and the unusual animals that taken to their unnatural states.
From a distance, Anya witnessed more boars, herds of them, some with three faces, one on both sides of the main face, both malformed.
Thankfully, they weren't keen on her.
It was then, Anya's night… er… day gotten a lot more interesting, whether she liked it or not, as she went over a hill, below there was a heavily forested area, she learnt there were others here.
Immediately, Anya dove to the ground when she heard the first stray bullet whiz past her ear.
Struggling, she moved away from the ground when she heard more bullets whizzing in the air coming from the thickets ahead.
Overhead she heard men shouting orders to one another somewhere in the distance.
Their accents unfamiliar, but Anya wasn't sticking around, as she hurried away from whatever's happening.
Almost lost her footing as it felt like the ground was rumbling underneath her.
Screams and rapid gunfire erupted behind her.
Falling to the ground, Anya felt like she was on fire and pain so great she couldn't move from the ground.
Hesitantly, she moves her hand and nearly let out a scream as she felt her shoulder.
A stray bullet had shot through her shoulder.
Groaning, Anya forced herself to hurry away from whatever's happening, which proved difficult on account she didn't know where she was going, only that she needed to find something to clean her wound.
It would seem like the cosmos were at work, as help came for her, from an unusual source.
Having found her way out of the forest, finding a fence and locating the front gate, Anya escapes the hell, only to be besieged by a group of four.
Three men and a woman.
Two of the men spoke her tongue.
"You make a habit of getting yourself in trouble?" one of the men angrily asks her as he held his rifle.
The older man calmed him as he pointed at her, saying, "She wanted us to find her. She is the reason she's alive."
Scoffing, the man wielding his rifle puffs, "I'd relish your brand of ignorance, o' chum."
Turning her head, Anya sees the third man quizzically looking at her having noticed her injury.
When she heard the older man calling him a doctor, it eased Anya as she was led by the group to a safer area.
Wilhelm chewed her out for going through the forest, saying it was a dangerous spot, but Anya tells him that she didn't have a choice.
"So, you think going through the forest was a good idea?" Wilhelm balked at this before warning her that the forest had a habit of producing abnormally large creatures of unknown origins that get "quite irate" when someone disturbs them.
Which, Anya responded she got that, having heard and witnessed gunfire.
"They'll be dead," Edgar summed their fates.
Those men fighting in the forest made their choices and thus suffer the consequences of their actions.
Edgar seemed to know more than he let on, he didn't ask a whole lot of questions like Wilhelm did, about why "a girl like her" would risk her life coming to one of the most dangerous places in the world.
"You won't believe me," Anya frowned.
She heard the Doctor (Paul) ask her, "Why not?"
Shrugging, Anya says, "Who'd believe nightmares about this place would drive me here?"
She heard Taylor expressed, "You'd be surprised."
Having found a safe area, Anya was able to tell how her nightmares started affecting her.
She thought it was stress-induced and tried everything to alleviate the stresses in her life, but it did nothing.
Got to a point where she tried to medicate herself and that didn't work.
Suppress her dreams all she waned, she was having those nightmares one way or another.
Eventually, she felt she was at the end of her rope that she made the choice of coming here to find out why she was having nightmares.
Instead, she found nightmares.
"She called to you," Edgar tells her.
Recoiling, Anya echoed, "Called to me?"
Nodding, Edgar tells her that the Zone called to her and now that she is here, she can serve her purpose.
