This is just one of those nights in The Zone, a group of strangers who consider each other friends, keep each other company around a fire as they spend the night keeping watching and swapping tales. Times like these are timeless, cherished, for none of them may see each other again, or survive until the next time. The stories they swap spread and take up residence in the collective folklore of that time and place. These are the legends of The Zone.

This story is a sequel to See the Zone and Survive

Fourteen Months Celestia has been in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s say that the Zone changes who you are... that's partially true. The truth is as horrific as it is simple: the weak die, the strong grow stronger.

Celestia wasn't weak to begin with. She became stronger, and she has changed. Can she still fit in her homeworld?

This story is a predecessor to Operation Homecoming

We are S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s: Scavengers Trespassers Adventurers Loners Killers Explorers Robbers. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the most dangerous place on Earth, is our home. Radiation, killer mutants and deadly anomalies are just another day at the office -just another day in the Zone, as we say. We get by, day after day, by scavenging gear, trespassing and exploring in forbidden areas, seeking for new adventures, all on our own; we kill for money, loot or survival and sometimes rob each other. Well, not everyone does the robbing part, that would be the Bandits' job.

I named myself Strider. I am a free stalker and I do not even know what I am doing here, not that I care anyway.
My name is Vano. I'm a free stalker and one of Strider's rare friends. It's a peculiar predicament, trust me.
My name is Celestia. I'm a free stalker and just want to get back home. Well, I wanted. Maybe I still do.

This is our story.

First time writing a story ever. Constructive criticism and comments are appreciated and encouraged, just don't kill me in the process. Romance is a sub-plot thrown in there for exercise and because it's popular, apparently. I made the cover art. I was bored and felt like drawing something.

Humanity has fallen.

After only a year of plague, savagery, and drought, the temple of humankind could sustain itself no longer and the world was plunged into the darkness of extinction.

But it was not the end, not truly. Far below the dirt and abandonment, humanity lingered. It was here, within sprawling concrete and steel, that the last remnants of mankind remained, locked away from a changing world.

It is here that two men awoke. It was here that a revolution began. And it is here that the fate of humanity will be decided. Because, here, there is no turning back. Here, there is only one direction to tread:

Forward.