"Slow down, damn it," Corporal Sokolov breathed, "I'm too old for this shit."
And yeah, no kidding.
As much as Alex hated to admit it, he was at the end of his rope, too.
How long have they been running?
His anger drove him through the first few miles, but—
"Hurry up, old man," he panted. "If you're out, hand me your detector, and I'll go on alone."
"Like hell," Sokolov scoffed, collapsing to the ground. "I'm dying. And so are you."
Ugh. Busted.
But if he took a few more steps, the last wreck might've—
He got a soft ping instead.
They hadn't gotten those in a while.
But the PDA was still active, warning them of another Stalker nearby.
"Is it on the map?" Sokolov perked up, too, dragging himself closer. "Hmm. A green dot?"
"What?" the Major asked, struggling for air. "I see an orange one."
"Unsurprising," the Corporal forced a smirk. "Green means friend. Bet you've none."
Ugh. He'd let that pass.
But if it was a friendly Stalker to that guy—
"Wanna take a look?" he offered, desperate for a short rest, but he'd deny it until his death. "He could've seen something, I guess."
"Yeah," Sokolov nodded. "He must have seen us, too."
Except that when they finally found that lone dot from the map, it was a guy lying on his back.
Eyes closed, steady breathing—
And he slept inches away from the rails that sparkled like an electromagnetic storm.
This fucking place.
"So?" Alex demanded, still panting. "You know Mister Sleeping Beauty?"
"He's the leader of a friendly group," the Corporal said, eyes wide. "Hey, Yuri, you good?"
He knelt by his side, tapping his face, gentle, but still urgent.
"Is he even alive?" the Major asked, only to spite him.
Even he could hear his steady breathing, which was hilarious.
Sleeping out here?! In broad daylight?
The weather was getting cold, the forest crawled with monsters, and right next to him—
Okay, well, that Anomaly might have kept the worst of them away.
Not to mention—
Apart from the coppery ozone smell, it also emitted a cozy warmth.
"Of course, he's alive," Sokolov grunted, slapping the poor guy harder. "Yuri, wake the fuck up."
But when the guy finally opened his eyes, they both had to jump back.
Not because he was that scary—but when he leveled a hidden AK on them?!
"Sokolov?!" he scowled, rubbing his eyes as he let the gun down. "Did I overstay my welcome?"
He let out a long yawn, blinking for a while. And that was all they could do, too.
"What're you talking about?" the Corporal demanded, waving around. "Did you hit your head? We're not in the mobile lab. How did you even end up out here all by yourself?"
"Here?" the man repeated, finally realizing that something was off.
Then he almost jumped into the sizzling Electro Anomaly behind him, if not for his friend.
"The fuck? Where am I?" Yuri demanded, getting up to take a better look.
Tough question to answer, to be honest.
"About halfway between the Duga and Pripyat," Alex offered, but that earned him a scoff.
"More like two-thirds there," Sokolov corrected. "But what the hell are you here alone?"
"Alone?" the sleepy stranger asked, grabbing his PDA. "I don't know. Last thing I remember, I was showing some rookies how to find Crystals in the Garbage. Why would I be here?"
Yeah, that's what they wanted to know, too.
"Wait, if I'm here—what happened to the Brain Scorcher?!"
What the hell, did he live under a rock?
And now that the Major took a better look at him—
Was he a child?
He was bald and tiny, that Krinkov in his hands looking like a full-sized AK. But he had some decent Stalker gear as much as he could tell, complete with a wolf emblem on his jacket.
Wait. This little guy was the leader of the Wolves?!
"The Brain Scorcher is down," Sokolov explained, as his sparse breath allowed him. "It was our friend, the Hero of Kyiv, taking it out. And that weirdo with him, don't remember?"
"Oh, yeah, give him all the credit," Alex grumbled. "It's not like we had anything to do with it."
He hated when those propaganda guys took all the wins; meanwhile, his department—
"Hero of Kyiv?" Yuri scowled. "Why would he even come here? Are you drunk?"
The corporal seemed quite taken aback.
"Huh? We both met him. He was at our lab, remember? And you said you had already met earlier, too. That his friend was the Hero of the Garbage—"
"Oh, good to know he had a friend as well," the Major scoffed.
And Hero of the Garbage?!
Must have been quite the decent guy, ugh.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the leader of the Wolves claimed, shaking his head.
But the way his hand hovered over his AK—
Was he lying? Trying to cover for that bastard?!
He couldn't tell why, but Alex was almost sure he wasn't telling the truth.
"So you weren't out here for the reward? For reaching Pripyat first?" Sokolov kept trying, and the new guy's eyes had finally lit up.
"There's a reward?!" he repeated. "Why, of course, the Wolves are always up for the challenge."
But he still couldn't explain where they were or why he was alone.
Whatever. If he was this well-established veteran who knew the Captain—
"Why not tag along then?" the Major offered. "We're heading there to pick up some missing aircrew. I don't care about the reward, but if you come, you could claim it for yourself."
There was a greedy glint in those eyes, but only for a moment
"Aircrew?" Yuri repeated, watching him with suspicion.
Did he only notice his military uniform?!
"He's a soldier looking for some downed choppers," the Corporal announced. And when the guy asked if he meant the Russians or theirs, he had the gall to shrug it off. "Who knows?"
"Ukrainians, of course," Alex snapped back, but didn't want to reveal more.
"To be fair, I don't like those National Guard guys, either," Yuri scoffed. "They would shoot at my rookies without question, and we never did anything wrong to them."
Oh, yeah. Except trespassing into the Zone, stealing scientific and military equipment, and—
"I'm not with the National Guard," the Major sighed, trying to salvage the situation.
"He's a very secret agent," Sokolov blew his cover instead, giving him a smirk.
That fucker.
But it seemed to have worked.
"As long as he puts in a good word for the Wolves later," Yuri said with a shrug, finally getting up.
"I'm sure they'll nuke this fucking place once he evacuates his men," the Corporal snickered.
Nope. He won't even react to that.
Thank God, the leader of the Wolves didn't, either.
"And those choppers of yours," he asked instead. "When did they go down, and where?"
"About two days ago," he said. "And I have already found three out of the four. The last one should be near or in Pripyat, and any help would be—"
"You said we're already close, right?" Yuri interrupted. "Then how about that smoke stack?"
He pointed behind their backs, and—
"How did we miss that?!" Alex panted.
"Because you were running like a lunatic," Sokolov grunted, shaking off his legs. "Well, then. It's closer than expected, but it still won't investigate itself, right?"