"The hell was that for?!" Dmitry complained once back on his feet. "And what on Earth did you do with all those dogs? Or where did the rest of them go?!"
"The rest?" Konrad asked, confused. "I got them all."
At least, he thought. But looking around—
"Did you disintegrate them, or something?"
He counted, but only got to a dozen.
No sign of the hairy dogs, either.
Twelve burned, hairless dogs with eyes seemed to fuse shut, skin irritated and red.
"What the hell?" Konrad muttered.
He didn't miss or go overboard. Still, those dogs had no chance of getting away, either.
Unless—
"I ran straight into that one," he sighed, giving himself a refreshing bump in the head with the bottom of his palm. "Okay, I take it right back. These little bastards are smart."
Dmitry looked confused, holding his rifle ready to shoot.
But there was nothing to aim for.
"Don't worry, they didn't resurrect," Konrad noted, pressing the barrel of the gun down. "There weren't that many of them to begin with. It was an illusion. Copies of the same few dogs."
And if he had to guess, the missing hairy dog must have been the culprit.
If they lived in this place for all their lives, who said only humans could learn magic?
His consciousness became lighter, though a lot more concerned, too.
"Okay, what's next, then?" Dmitry asked, looking over the now-empty area.
What indeed? Should they have done something with the corpses?
Or were they dangerous to approach? They seemed irradiated through and through, so—
"Leave these for now and let's head to the Garbage," Konrad decided. "We're to meet some Stalkers there, anyway. We'll ask them what to do, or whether my theory was correct."
About the hairy dog's illusion, that is.
He still couldn't see it, but could almost feel a pair of invisible eyes follow their every move.
Like an experienced hunter, having found out its prey was tougher than it looked. But now he was eager to take them down anyway, making plans while biding his time.
Or, again, Konrad could have overthought it.
But Dmitry worked his PDA, consulting the map.
"So 'bout a mile ahead, there's a checkpoint. The place they marked Garbage is right beyond. I don't know what Checkpoint B means, though. Where is the legend on this thing?"
Yeah, that would have been useful.
"Could it be a military checkpoint?"
Because soldiers wouldn't show up on their PDAs, and would start shooting immediately.
"Might be something the Stalkers set up?" Dmitry pondered. "It's an important area for the rookies, after all. Right? That's what Sidorovich said."
Either way, they had only one way to find out.
"Let's head that way and stay out of sight until we know more," Konrad suggested.
"Fine," the Captain nodded. "But let me reload first."
Konrad nodded. How long could that take, anyway?
In movies, or in the few shooter games he ever tried in his previous life, it should have been a second. Pop out the magazine, throw it away, and stick in the next one.
Except Dmitry only had two of those, and some extra bullets. He wouldn't be so wasteful.
He didn't throw away a magazine with only a few rounds missing.
Once he fished out his ammo box from his backpack, he inserted each round.
By hand. One by one.
"You're not a speedloader extraordinaire," Konrad grunted, eyebrows raised.
"Gee, thanks. But I'd rather keep my extra mag for sticky situations," the Captain groaned. "Ugh, even if this kills my thumb. I should've requisited an actual speedloader and more magazines."
Then, avoiding the corpses scattered around, they finally set out towards that checkpoint.
Konrad focused on potential anomalies, while Dmitry scanned the distance.
With his PDA and AK in hand.
"Oh, the counter went up," he whispered, freezing in place.
Konrad stopped, too, letting out a sigh of relief.
"Must mean it's a Stalker checkpoint, then," he concluded.
But the Captain shook his head.
"No dots on my map, though. Only the counter changed. Two. Three. Down to two again."
"Oh."
And the note said Checkpoint B? Did B stand for bandits?!
"Wish they'd leave more obvious markings," Konrad grunted again. "They hid their exact position from that app, but they can't hide their presence. Counter goes up but—"
"No dots appear," Dmitry nodded along, grabbing his gun tighter.
"Any way around them? I don't intend to fight," Konrad asked.
But he was out of luck.
"This seems to be the only safe bottleneck. Anomalies marked left, radiation spike on the right."
Which was exactly what Sidorovich said about the bandits. They controlled the few safe roads to shake down the Stalkers, killing those who won't play by their rules.
"Well, we don't have artifacts or money they could steal, but—"
He had his guitar on his back, with gemstone-looking mana crystals to make it worse.
"I'll turn us invisible," Konrad decided. "Might be best to hold hands, so we don't drift apart—"
"Wait," Dmitry protested, holding up his PDA. "Won't this give us away anyway?"
Right. Damn that stupid thing.
"Hmm, then I could open a portal to the other side to skip them."
Which would have been a huge waste of mana, although—
He could still feel the trickle as it recharged his pool from the ambient essence.
It was definitely not the work of radiation, and while he was here to find Strelok—
The Zone began to fascinate him more and more.
"A portal?" the Captain asked, furrowing his brows. "You can even teleport now?!"
"It's not—I'm not on that level yet," he said. "But I can open a gate to take us somewhere nearby. As long as there is no interference. But with the bandits here, this place should be safe for that."
"Well, better than assaulting a well-defended position," Dmitry nodded. "Do your thing, I guess."
And Konrad did.
It wasn't the first portal he opened, though the last one sent them way off target.
From Earth, to the heavens through Midori-kun's time anomaly—
Good thing he didn't have to invoke that this time. But other anomalies were abundant.
"Give me a safe landing spot, then," Konrad said, organising the runes in his head. "Make sure we won't land on an anomaly or deadly radiation. Or people. It'd be hard to explain—"
"Gotcha," Dmitry scrolled through the map, zooming in and out. "How far can you go?"
Interesting question.
If they knew where to find Strelok, they could have gone straight to him. The whole Zone was well within his range. But the unclear destination, anomalies, and radiation made it difficult.
"Anywhere's fine," Konrad offered, while focusing on the syntax.
No cutting corners this time. He wanted to optimize his mana usage to the best of his abilities.
"Okay, then how about this?"
The Captain flipped his PDA around and zoomed in on something like a rail depot. No obvious anomaly markings nearby, and it was right on the other side of the Garbage, too.
"That'll do. Zoom out so I can see the bigger picture."
And as he finished the spell, the portal opened to the new destination without a hitch.
Not counting the fact that he remembered too late, this map was not updated in real time.