Hidden in a building held up by only its frames and nothing else for the time being, Anya's wound received treatment by Paul and Taylor while Wilhelm kept watch for anything untoward.
Edgar stayed to the side, his milky eyes fixated to the skies above, Wilhelm commenting that he risked more damage to the corneas if he continued staring, but Edgar kept insisting that all was right, the Zone told him so.
"Hold still," Paul tenderly wrapped the gunshot wound with a clean gauze as Taylor collected everything they used.
Wilhelm instructed her to put them all in a neat pile, upon doing so, he set them on fire, telling her that they've been dealing with packs of feral dogs that can hunt for miles on scent alone.
Last thing they wanted to deal with.
He then had Taylor and Paul wash their hands of the blood with bleach, better safe than sorry.
Sitting on the ground, the pain numbed by some of the painkillers Wilhelm kept on his person for a situation like this, Anya rubbed her eyes, she heard Paul near her as he inquired, "How'd you get here?"
Couldn't shrug on account of her wound, so Anya coughed that she took a rental here.
Foolish, she knows, but she didn't have any other way of getting here, and no one in their right mind would want to come here much less bring her here.
"You've no one that might wonder where you gone?" Paul asks if there was anyone who might grow curious at Anya's extended absence and she admits that when the nightmares started, she pushed everyone away from her.
At this point, she doesn't know if it was the stress or some plot that she hadn't figured out, yet, but Edgar provided no answer to this, remaining vague about what purpose she's to serve now that she's here.
"I doubt they'll stage a rescue," Anya frowns as she wouldn't be surprised if that was the reaction of everyone in her life learning where she went, if they ever learnt where she went, at all.
Curiosity in her emerald eyes, Taylor attempted to ask Edgar about Anya's perceived purpose, and he explained that the Zone was waiting for Anya for years, now that she is here…
He won't say more.
The Zone won't let him.
Rather than risk his link with the Zone breaking, he wouldn't tell Taylor anything more.
"Do people know about the Zone?" Paul inquiries what the public knows about the mysterious, but dangerous, Zone, and Wilhelm answered that the public didn't know anything more than the nuclear accident.
All they know from what their government told them is that the area's restricted and there's high radioactivity in certain spots. Anything more, Wilhelm can't say for sure, he only knows what his government said.
People who were forced out of their homes in the greater area knew more, obviously, especially when they noticed people going into the Zone almost never came back.
If they did, they don't come back right.
"Screws knocked out of their heads. Probably one of those freaks roaming out there, those ones, they love screwin' with people," Wilhelm gave his thoughts on the possibility that people who managed to leave the Zone as completely different individuals accidentally ran into one of the lab creations that took to the topside.
Dangerous, Wilhelm stressed.
He summed up that if they're in the area, Paul and Taylor will know it before they find the source.
If they find the source.
"Crafty sons of bitches, them, only reason I never had the luxury of getting my head thumbed 'cause of Edgar here," Wilhelm tells them that because of Edgar, the men never had to worry about encountering the creatures.
Unfortunately, they're not the only ones that can cause screws to get loose in people's heads.
"Damn Soviets!" Wilhelm cursed them under his breath in contempt.
Turning her head with worry in her emerald eyes, Taylor touched Paul's arm.
"We'll be fine," Paul smiles as he touched her chin with his finger, comforting her as he held her close.
Curious, Paul turned his head towards Wilhelm again, asking if anyone asked questions, considering what some people found and brought out of the Zone, much to it and Edgar's chagrin.
"Government has secret ops, any idiot who finds something they can use brings it to them, either gets his sentencing knocked off a few years or a lofty sum of money, but nobody brain dead would let that get out into the public," Wilhelm explained.
And for what purposes the government has for whatever stalkers bring out of the Zone, that depends, all Wilhelm knew that they're making break throughs like no tomorrow, but at a price nobody would know.
"She would help, if they'd understand her," Edgar expressed that if the world would understand the Zone, she will willingly give them her gifts, they wouldn't have to resort to stealing from her.
If they did, she wouldn't attack them the way she does.
Acknowledging her troubles with a nod, Paul assures her that they'll figure it out.
Curiosity in her emerald eyes, Taylor attempted to ask Edgar about Anya's perceived purpose, and he explained that the Zone was waiting for Anya for years, now that she is here…
He won't say more.
The Zone won't let him.
Rather than risk his link with the Zone breaking, he wouldn't tell Taylor anything more.
"Do people know about the Zone?" Paul inquiries what the general public knows about the mysterious, but dangerous, Zone, and Wilhelm answered that the public didn't know anything more than the nuclear accident.
People who were forced out of their homes in the greater area knew more, though, especially when they noticed people going into the Zone almost never came back.
If they did, they don't come back right.
"Screws knocked out of their heads. Probably one of those freaks roaming out there, those ones, they love screwin' with people," Wilhelm gave his thoughts on the possibility that people who managed to leave the Zone as completely different individuals accidentally ran into one of the lab creations that took to the topside.
Dangerous, Wilhelm stressed.
He summed that if they're in the area, Paul and Taylor will know it before they find the source.
If they find the source.
"Crafty sons of bitches, them, only reason I never had the luxury of getting my head thumbed 'cause of Edgar here," Wilhelm tells them that because of Edgar, the men never had to worry about encountering the creatures.
Unfortunately, they're not the only ones that can cause screws to get loose in people's heads.
"Damn Soviets!" Wilhelm cursed them under his breath in contempt.
Turning her head with worry in her emerald eyes, Taylor touched Paul's arm.
"We'll be fine," Paul smiles as he touched her chin with his finger, comforting her as he held her close.
Edgar then tells them they needed to move on from the building, that they follow him, urging them that the Zone's waging active combat against the trespassers, that there's a chance the sunlight will dwindle into pure darkness.
Paul and Taylor helped Anya up from the ground, though waddling from the effects of the pain medication, she can somewhat walk, though relied on being righted as she does.
Taking point once again, Wilhelm held his rifle outright as Edgar staggered behind him.
To Be Continued... Darkness
