//------------------------------//
// Anomalous Entry 
// Story: A Different Kind of STALKER 
// by WTF_Am_I_Doing 
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Grygoriy did not like the look of this. The once stable and frequently visited anomaly field, known as the Iron Forest, had changed after the most recent Emission. Word back at the Skadovsk was that the last Emission had not been a normal one, apparently it had carried another type of storm in its wake, a Psi-Storm or something similar. The Stalker did not know much about either of these strange occurrences. In truth, nobody really knew anything about the various emissions other than that they were lethal. For this reason, himself and many other stalkers in Zaton take shelter in the Skadovsk for any of these unnatural phenomenon and wait for them to pass. The grounded icebreakers steel hull prevented the ionising radiation from turning your body to ash. The most recent Emission was significantly potent, the usual static of the radio was replaced by some… disturbing sounds to say the least. Grygoriy shuddered at the recent memories of the bloodcurdling screams of something that was no longer human. The Stalker had just made his way to the anomaly field and was looking at it from a distance. To get a better view he had scaled a pine tree. Like many things in the Zone, the tree was almost dead and Grygoriy didn't have to worry about leaves obscuring his view. The patch of dead woodland he was in made no sound, the only thing breaking the silence was the occasional sound of distant gunfire and the wind.

Keen to return to the relative safety of the trading post, he raised his rifle to peer down the telescopic sight. His suit visor made it difficult to use, but closing his left eye he looked past the reticle at the piles of twisted metal. The tall pylons and antennae that stood reasonably undamaged before were now bent, leaning over and threatening to collapse. The crumbling brick buildings that flanked behind it looked a little worse for wear, he could see only two windows that weren't completely shattered. The perimeter fence looked the same, several openings in the concrete panels and the chain link fence allowed anything in or out. The train cars and various other bits of junk metal were unchanged. Focusing back on the steel towers, he saw that they weren't all bent in the same direction like trees in the wind, but instead they were leaning towards a point near the centre of the complex. He looked to see the cause of such strange activity and saw an unrecognisable anomaly, about halfway between the field of known electrostatic anomalies and the crashed military helicopter. The anomalous sphere glowed a pure white and seemed to cut away at the duller palette the Zone possessed, brightening colours that passed through its aura. Grygoriy decided to investigate this new anomaly, realising the potential gain outweighed the possible drawbacks. He scouted the complex again, this time looking for hostile mutants that may object to his presence. Occasionally a group of bloodsuckers would patrol here which made his job impossible, but they are either still hiding from the Emission or dead. He would kill them himself, but going one on three against these monsters was unadvisable, even for a hardy veteran such as himself. He chuckled at the thought, perhaps if he had an automatic weapon he may consider not just sprinting away like a chicken. No, he would need at least 5 experienced Stalkers so no back would be left unwatched. Either way, Grygoriy was going to investigate. With a quick check of the path ahead, as well as the surrounding area below him, he climbed down the tree he was perched in and began the short walk to the complex.

Grygoriy’s job was not an easy one. He is one of many Stalkers that prowl the Zone, a radioactive hell on earth produced by the infamous explosion in reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Since the Zones creation, people have fought tooth and nail against the Zone and its various horrors to claim the fruits of this unnatural world. They are known as Artefacts, and like everything in the Zone, they are radioactive. But that is just a side effect. Artefacts vary in form, but all of them have useful and well sought-after properties, ranging from advanced health regeneration to infinite stamina. They usually come at a trade off too, despite the obvious weight and radiation. For example, Grygoriy carried two Moonlight artefacts. These  increase resistance to Psi, which is a mysterious and evil force wielded only by mutants and the Zone itself, but at the cost of resistance to electricity as they conduct it well - even attracting it in some cases. Grygoriy also carried a Bubble artefact which cleanses radiation from the body with no other notable benefits, other that an almost uncomfortable heat output. As much as he has come to hate artefacts, they constantly save him from horrible deaths at the hand, claw, or telepathic grasp of mutants. He hunts these artefacts and sells them to Beard, the local friendly trader. They are his income and only feasible way of survival.

Arriving at the perimeter, he walked through a missing section of concrete panelling and began to cautiously make his way to the new anomaly. From his first hand experience, anomalies often proved to be a great danger. He had countless near misses with them, and only once had he ever been harmed by them. He was lucky in the sense that most men do not return from an anomaly once its deadly grasp has touched you. He was still raked by its hand, leaving a large scar on his back. But he is a persistent man and has learned, learned to overcome his fears, the danger they spewed and most importantly, how to harvest them. Using an advanced piece of equipment created by the Ecologists he could scan anomaly fields and disrupt their electrical field and summon them in a burst of electricity. He had the second best piece of equipment available – a Veles detector. It had an internal catalog of all artefacts and can detect all that were previously discovered. As he approached the complex, he pulled out a brown burlap bag and fixed it to his belt. Slinging the rifle over his shoulder he pulled out the Veles and pointed it in front of himself. He heard the static crackle of the inbuilt Geiger counter steadily increase the number of counts. The anomaly detector however was silent. Good. With his left hand he reached into the bag he had equipped and pulled out a metal bolt. The bag was filled with various metal components such as these, as when they are thrown they react with anomalies, helping to identify their areas of influence and reveal any hidden ones. He had learned this trick from a progressive stalker who was rumoured to be a member of the Spetsnaz. As if to demonstrate the advanced technique, he threw one in between the train cars in front of him. As he had expected, nothing happened. The Stalker moved forwards until he came to the bolts new location. He picked it up and threw it again, attempting to identify unseen anomalies. He had realised that if one could just show up there may be more of them around. He repeated his actions, moving steadily forward, adjusting direction as the electrified anomalies sparked at the presence of the shrapnel. He stopped when a bolt struck an unseen sphere that rippled like water. It seemed like a dull rainbow coloured splash of a gravitational anomaly, but much more vibrant. He could now see that it was about four meters in diameter, and the white sphere inside was maybe two-thirds that. It rested on the ground like a partially deflated ball. The bolt he had used to find it had merely passed through the fog with no reaction, but the Ukrainian couldn't see whether it came out the opposite side. He scanned it with the Veles from where he stood and found no artefacts, no beeping to indicate its presence and it seemed to emit no radiation. He circled around the perimeter of the bright white sphere until he came to the opposite side, where he saw a curious sight. There was a small blood splatter on the ground, and right on the other side of the invisible border sat another detector. He recognised it as the newest, most powerful detector - known as the Svarog. He was currently amassing money to buy one from beard, but it was still far from his price range. It rested on its side, pointing harmlessly off into the distance, the screen displaying a small dot on the epicentre. It had a large crack down its casing as if it had been dropped.

“What the fuck?” muttered the Ukrainian.

Something didn't add up, and he wanted to know what had transpired here. However, even though he betrayed no emotion under his helmet, he was very excited. This was the big break he had been looking for, the detector before him was worth easily ten times as much as any artefact, but invaluable to him. He gently threw another bolt at the sphere, trying to land it next to the detector. The perimeter of the anomaly did its rainbow ripple, but otherwise remained calm. he poked a small corner of his detector into the anomaly, an action other stalkers wouldn’t advise. But, almost to his disappointment, nothing happened. The corner of plastic passed through easily, and it constantly pulsed the translucent technicoloured splash around the sphere. He put his detector back on his belt and considered his next crazy idea. Slowly, He then poked his leftmost finger through, ready to pull back at any sign of danger. Again, this time to his relief, nothing abnormal happened. He didn't even feel anything other than a pleasant cooling sensation. He figured he could grab the Svarog, as it would easily be worth the risk as it would be used to find an infinite number of other artefacts. Quickly, he plunged his hand back into the anomaly, grabbed the detector and snatched it back. The rainbow rippled much more intensely, as if a stone had been thrown in a pond. As he did so, the anomaly began to shrink. Grygoriy held his hands up, expecting it to explode or something equally harmful, but as he did so the ball returned to its original state only slightly smaller. He lowered his arms, and as he did so the anomaly shrank again. Thinking, he raised his right arm and nothing happened. He raised his left arm with the new detector in hand and it began to grow. It had something to do with this device, but what? He looked at it, trying to determine its unseen properties but he knew very little about it, other than its anomaly mapping feature. He pointed the Svarog directly at the anomaly and he immediately regretted it.

Instantaneously, the anomaly exploded outwards as its intangible surface formed deadly looking spikes that shot outward. A static humming cut through the calmness and an arc of cold lightning flew from its centre and struck the device, causing him to drop it. The sphere had grown rapidly and completely covered his vision. Even in his sealed suit he could smell the air ionising, matter becoming unstable. He shouted in fear and regret as the bubble enveloped him, leaving him floating in whiteness. From an outsiders point of view, the anomaly had merely grown in size consuming the Stalker. The detector lay on its side just on the border as it was previously found, dropped by its previous user as he was killed by the swell of pure energy.

But Grygoriy was not dead. He was floating at great speed as the fog began to distort. It was slowly turning blue. He suddenly hit the ground with a jolt, and instantly the remaining whiteness dissipated. Feeling as if he had just fell backwards, he blinked in confusion at the orb that had thrown him back out, clear blue sky taking up the remainder of his view. He noticed that the anomaly was slowly shrinking and after several seconds it disappeared and the noise of arcing electricity suddenly stopped with it. Silence once again returned, but it was a different kind of silence. No distant gunfire, no growling mutants. Actual, pure silence.

“Am I dead?” His speech cut through the quietness like a knife. The zone never had a sky this clear, this clean. He sat upwards and looked through the worn plexiglass visor of his suit and saw that he was in a clearing of a forest. He hadn't seen a natural, unpolluted woodland  since he entered the wasteland he had been living in. The Stalker smiled, realising how much he had missed nature. To him, it looked like the Zone had grown tired of him taking its bounties and not dying to its mousetraps, and had created a new one specifically for him. He detached his helmet from the rest of the suit and pulled it into his large bag. Standing up and looking around in wonder at the alien sights, he stopped and frowned. Behind him, spotted a black boot resting on a dead log. He could see the sole of it, and saw an orange suit connected to it. He realised it was the body of another stalker, perhaps the previous owner of the Svarog. For a split second, he wondered what had happened to it as it was the most expensive thing he had ever briefly owned. Focusing back on the potential corpse, he approached. He sighed in relief when he realised whoever it was continued to breathe. As he stood next to it, he heard the person groaning, and whimpering. Scrutinising the body he noticed four lacerations on the right arm, just past the shoulder joint. It looked fairly mild and he gently kicked the humans side. “Wake up Stalker, the Zone bids you goodbye.” he joked. The person, perhaps not understanding Ukrainian too well, ignored him and continued his pitiful sounds. He tried again in Russian “come on man, get up. We need to talk.”

The body jerked “Are they dead!?” A male voice suddenly shouted, muffled by the orange hazard suit.

“What? Who should be dead? It's just us here.” He responded uncertainly. Looking around quickly, he saw nobody else around, not even any footprints.

“The bloodsuckers.” He whispered in fear.

Grygoriys’ blood turned to ice, he began to feel very afraid “Oh shit.”

He immediately swung his rifle from his back and raised the stock to his shoulder. He wheeled round, ready to make a large hole in anything that came too close. He swept the circular clearing with his gun and spoke in a raised voice “This better not be some fucking joke.”

Annoyed, the fallen man hastily responded “How do you think I got this scratch?”

The Ukrainian didn't respond, he continued to search for the white eyes the mutants possessed. They would stand out easily, and identify something to shoot at. He kept looking for motion for nearly a minute. With a final sweep, he lowered the rifle but kept it firmly in his grasp. As he searched he had been taking in his surroundings and didn't recognise anything. Understandable, considering he had spent a large portion of his life in a wasteland, but he could tell that these were not terrestrial. He pulled out his PDA to mark his position but couldn't access the map. Frowning, he noticed that there were no connected satellites. Perhaps the anomaly that was above them was interfering.

“We should move.” the Stalker spoke in a low, cautious voice. “Get up, we move now”. If there were bloodsuckers, he didn't want to be in the open like he currently was. He needed a wall to put his back against.

The orange suited man rolled over, cursing as he pulled himself to his hands and knees. Grygoriy didn't look, too busy continuously staring at various points in  the much more sinister looking forest. The man behind him picked up the carbine he had been lying on and limply raised it to his waist. He could barely shoulder it and left the stock folded.

“Where to?” He asked uncertainly to the stranger.

“Follow me.”

The shorter, orange suited man was slightly intimidated by the others presence. He was 5’9” and the Stalker was easily 6’4”. He was currently stood several meters away, looking towards the treeline ahead. He saw that the Stalker before him was wearing a SEVA suit, the combat ready equivalent of the bright orange environmental suit he wore. He had his helmet detached and he could see the short, uneven mess of dark brown hair the man had. Under his hairline he could see the start of a broad scar that went below the neck of his suit. The man turned to face him. He looked serious yet serene, wearing a frown of concentration. His eyes betrayed his true emotion though, a hint of fear shimmered amongst his green iris.

“Come on. We can talk as we move.” He spoke commandingly, already walking away.

Silently, he followed. He was unsure of where he was leading him. Neither of them knew the area, and Grygoriy had simply began walking towards the sunset which he assumed would still be west. Both men were on full alert as the unseen threat of the bloodsuckers had certainly knocked the Ukrainian from his happy daze of escaping the zone, and the other man was still under pain from his injury inflicted by them. Much to Grygoriys’ disappointment it seemed that the mutants had simply followed him to this new land.

“So,” the orange suited man began, breaking the silence that had settled. “What do I call you?”

“I'm Grygoriy.” He responded after brief consideration. “And you?”

“My name is Zakhar, and as you can probably tell I am an ecologist”

“Really? You have come a long way from Russia to study the zone then?”

“I'm very dedicated” he chuckled. “As soon as I heard about the zone, I was entranced by it. I just had to go, so I finished university and applied to go there. I didn't expect much, but due to the low number of qualified scientists with the passion to study hell itself I was called on to come here. Been here since December 2015”

“Hm, almost a year? I was there for 4 years before we were rudely thrown out”

Zakhar stopped in confusion “Thrown out? We are still in the zone.”

The Ukrainian, hearing that his partner had stopped, turned to face the ignorant Russian “Open your eyes, does this look like the zone to you? Bright, colourful, the lack of radiation and anomalies make it clear we are somewhere else. Where we are, I couldn't tell you. But this is not the zone.”

“No, you don't understand. The anomaly that I was pushed in was a legendary Space Bubble anomaly, only one other instance has ever been recorded! When I was back in Yanov, the scientist team told me to go investigate the site as they predicted a new anomaly formation after the next Emission. I was given a crash course on the expected results, and a Svarog detector. They told me to report the results. I was doing just that, the Svarog pointed away to avoid agitating it but a bloodsucker pack had ambushed me! I thought I was dead as they began to attack, but the leader clawed my right shoulder. I fell back, the Svarog triggered the anomaly and it swelled to absorb everything. Next thing I knew you were kicking my side and the rest you know already. But my point is, because it is a Space Bubble, it can only appear in areas of intense Psi activity, and they only occur in the zone! We have to be here.”

Grygoriy took this information in. He knew the Russian wasn't telling him the whole truth, but he was occupied with formulating a timeline of events. “So, you say that you were pushed in and that the Svarog causes the anomaly to expand?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“Hm. I assume you were at the Iron Forest then?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Well, I have a story that ties into that”. The Ukrainian then described how he had got there as well, now with more information to connect the gaps he couldn't understand before. When he finished, he added “So you say we are still in the Zone then?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, so out GPS equipment should still work then?”

“Uh, of course. Unless the anomaly broke them.”

They both pulled out their devices, and quickly came to the same conclusion. Grygoriy checked the time, and judging by the suns position it was somewhat accurate.

“They work fine Zakhar, but I cannot connect to any satellites.”

“W-well, maybe-“

The Stalker cut him off with a dismissive wave of his left arm. “We are not in the zone! Maybe not even on earth! Look around! I'm no botanist, but these fucking plants are not from earth!”

“That's a poppy. That is from earth!”

“What!?”

“Come on, you may not be a botanist but that is recognisable as anything!”

And it was indeed true, before them grew a lone poppy in the soil. Grygoriy picked it, and scrutinised every detail about it before concluding that it was.

“This place is fucking weird.” was all he could say, all he could think.

The Russian could see the truth in that. He too had been observing the surroundings and the vibrant greens of the flora didn't exactly scream ‘radioactive wasteland’. He was certain that they were in the zone as he knew that anomalies can only form in the area of the zone. However, he needed the Stalker to be awake and alert though. He had to snap him out of it.

“Well, I suppose it doesn't matter if we are or aren't in it. We are lost, out of contact and low on supplies and resources in either situation. I suggest we find somewhere to rest for the night before we start losing vision. And if we are in the zone, I expect an emission in a few days. The science team predicted an emission to occur four days after the latest one. That gives us a maximum of three days to find that shelter and have a good safety margin.”

“Yeah, you're right.” responded the Stalker, regaining his determination.

Zakhar internally smiled. He knew appealing to his survival side would get him out of his endless thought train. Letting him handle survival would probably be better as the Ukrainian had far more practical experience, whereas he had been sheltered by the ecologists bunker for almost all the time he had been in the zone.

“Where do we go then?”

Grygoriy paused and seemed to be in deep thought. He was formulating plans, devising the best plan of action. After half a minute he briefly explained his plan.

“We head east, and stop as soon as we find water. There we can make a temporary camp for the night. Whilst resting we should refill water and figure out what our combined supplies amount to. We are in this together, yeah?”

“Of course.”

Both men knew they wouldn't last long without the other. Grygoriy was great at survival, but lacked the knowledge to return back through the portal. On the other hand, Zakhar probably could devise a way home, but had no skill in extreme survival. If either of them died or became separated it would be unlikely the survivor would actually survive for long. Not to mention they potentially had three bloodsuckers to watch out for.

“you ready then?” The Ukrainian asked, already knowing the answer.

“Hell yeah!” Replied the excited Ecologist.

“Then let's move out”

The duo had been walking in silence for almost an hour, each reflecting on their current predicament. Conversation was short and to the point, mostly conferring about location. Whilst deep in thought, they kept an eye out for resources but had not found anything useful. Both were growing more tired and in need of rest. When Grygoriy saw that they had maybe half an hour of daylight left, he gave the command to stop.

“Alright, we will have to stop up ahead.” the Ukrainian spoke. “I believe we have walked almost 3 miles in the last hour, which is good progress.” The Stalker probably could've jogged that distance in half the time with little effort. He was held back by the Russian intellectual, though he was far from unfit but at the same time nowhere near the peak fitness of himself. “We must eat and rest. After all, a tired and hungry Stalker is a dead stalker. You don't want to be a dead stalker.”

“But there is no water here” Zakhar protested.

Grygoriy grinned. “No shitting you, is there?” he said with a chuckle.

“You know what I mean.” was the annoyed response.

“Yeah, I see. We have enough for a day more at least, maybe 2 if we ration it a bit. Don't worry too much. I'm sure we will find water before we run out”

The Ecologist hoped so. “So, what's the plan now?”

“Well, I would normally make a campfire but that would only attract predators, and we have no food that has to cook. I suggest we sleep in our suits and await morning, then we can carry on. We will rotate shifts, I'll sleep for an hour now then you get six hours sleep, then we switch again for two hours. I don't need much sleep, but when I do go I don't wake up at little noises. Shout up if something happens, ok?”

“Alright then.”

“Now, lets see what we have…”

The pair then emptied their bags in front of them. They laid out everything; food, ammo, water, tools and materials. Grygoriy immediately noticed how ill-equipped his companion was. He had food and water in the form of canned and bottled goods, as he had expected, but after that things became less useful for the Zone. He had a gas camping stove with several bottles of fuel, a tent, a number of hardback books, a spare set of boots and a strange device with a glass folding top, almost like a mini table.

“It's a charger. It either opens out like this to gather sunlight or you wind this handle here” he explained as he extended the hidden crank. “I need it to keep my PDA and flashlight charged, and the Svarog needed it too.”

Grygoriy experimented with it and found that he could charge his Universal Power Device with it.

“What is that thing anyway?” The Ecologist had asked when he had connected it.

“This is a UPD. It's a Cold War pierce of technology that can interface with all common handheld electronics and provide a variable amount of power to it at different settings of voltage and amperage. I mainly use it for the night vision component of my helmet as the battery pack it came with was almost a kilogram in weight. In fact, I still have it and use it to top this up, just now it's not weighing my head down” he chuckled.

He continued to search through his things, resisting the urge to tell him what an idiot he was. He looked like he was going camping rather than traversing a hostile wasteland, and wondered how he had survived the journey from Yanov. However, he did have an impressive, if not excessive, collection of medical supplies. Two standard issue military first aid kits, anti-radiation drugs, sleep aids, Morphine and Metamizole, general painkillers and an epinephrine injector. The Ukrainian didn't doubt that the Ecologist knew how to use everything. Out of curiosity he opened the military kit to see what was inside. He found gauze in a wrapper; that indicated it was treated with some kind of healing gel, a scalpel, a small pair of metal tongs and some large adhesive plasters as well as a few other things he didn't recognise.

Meanwhile, Grygoriy’s pack had a much wider range of items and Zakhar was almost jealous. His pack weighed twice as much as his own but had at least 5 times as much useful items. He had a large looking weapon cleaning kit and several cleaning solvents, glue, tape, sewing equipment, pieces of tough fabric, a large hammer, spare electronics, a toolkit for said electronics, a handsaw, a large and powerful torch, an axe, an E-tool, waterproof matches, water purification tablets, a multitool, a survival machete and a simple first aid kit with painkillers and dry gauze. He also had several canteens and reusable bottles of water. He had very little food, only a single Ukrainian combat ration with 2 ‘days’ of food left. Like many stalkers, he had a decent supply of alcohol. two bottles of vodka and a half-full metal flask. They all claimed it helped remove radiation, but the Russian knew it was bullshit.

As for guns, Grygoriy had his Russian made SV-98 with 46 7.62x51 steel core bullets in a plastic waterproof box, and two 10 round magazines with one being empty, plus the loaded magazine that was in the gun. He also had a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun with buckshot loaded, with 4 of the same 12ga shells on an improvised cloth rack on the left barrel plus 12 shells in the box. There was also a small flashlight duct-taped to the underside. He also had a black Beretta 92FS with a screw on suppressor that wasn't currently attached. He had 3 full magazines and 12 loose 9mm hollow point bullets in the plastic box.

On the other hand, all Zakhar had was a ‘borrowed’ black AK74u with tactical flashlight and three full 30 round magazines and a ‘half full’ magazine currently loaded.

After a brief discussion they decided to swap weapons: Grygoriy kept his rifle and took the AK as well, while the inexperienced Ecologist took the sawn-off and the pistol. This way Grygoriy had more firepower while taking on more weapon weight, and Zakhar had much less weight and easier to use weapons. He also claimed to be experienced with pistols due to his use with them on expeditions with his Ecologist colleagues.

They agreed that they should each have a military first aid kit, and Zakhar split the two rolls of gauze from his Zone-made kit. They also split the food and drink evenly between them so they were carrying even amounts. Grygoriy had separated the tent canvas from its metal poles and gave the material to the Russian to carry, stating he could carry the poles but drop them if needs be as they could use sticks instead. The Russian also carried his equipment from before except they decided to leave the camping stove on the basis that they could make fires easily and had little use as they had no utensils to cook with. He also left behind all the books except one for identifying edible and medical plants. He almost took the book on first aid but he knew over two thirds of the book and Grygoriy knew the basics.

The Stalker also carried all his equipment from before except he had his survival machete in its sheath on his belt, and the bolt bag went to the bottom of his backpack. The axe, handsaw and E-tool were secured to the outside so that the extra food could be kept safely inside away from animals and the weather. Whilst they weren't moving, Grygoriy quickly repaired the damage to his partners environmental suit. It was still a weak point and would require heavier work, but it was airtight and weather resistant which is all he could do for now. The Stalker wanted him to leave it as bright orange wasn't a concealing colour, but he never voiced his concerns. Once everything was put away and they had eaten the remaining portions of the ration pack, the Russian stood on watch whilst the Ukrainian went to sleep. He was bored fairly quickly and resorted to disassembling and reassembling the pistol to learn its internal structure so he could fix it later if needs be. Had the veteran stalker been awake he would've shouted something rude at him for intentionally disabling his own weapon while on guard duty. Soon enough an hour passed and they swapped positions.

Grygoriy quickly stood up and faced a seemingly random point in the forest. It was dark, about 3 hours into his rotation. a steady wind blew the leaves of the forest creating an eerie sound. Crickets chirped in the distance and every so often an owl hooted. But these were ignored, because the Stalker could see glowing yellow eyes staring at him through  some leafless shrubbery. He turned on his headlamp to get a better view. The bush was about 20 meters away and the light fell short. He wanted to shoot the creature, but he didn't want to draw attention to his position. Instead, he pulled out his axe and stood in a ready stance, staring at the animal ahead. No sooner had he done this that he realised his mistake. Behind him rapid, four legged footsteps powered through the forest floor, scattering plants and sticks. He turned to face it, catching a glimpse of a brown wolf with the same glowing eyes tackling him. It snarled and collided into his chest. He fell backwards, his vision a blur and dropping his axe. When he landed he threw the wolf off him and rapidly stood up. He got to his knees and shouted “ZakhUUFFF!” But was interrupted by the other wolf charging into his side. It growled and he felt it clawing at his ribcage, but the tough material didn't receive any damage. He, on the other hand, felt as though his bones had cracked from the multiple impacts. He reached for his machete and was about to stand up again when one of the animals jumped on him, pinning his torso. In the milliseconds that he studied the creature, he noted that it wasn't a brown coated wolf, but a wolf shaped thing made of sticks and branches. Hesitating no longer, he plunged the machete into the creatures head. It yelped, but didn't die. That really scared him. He used his other suited arm to keep the wolf from biting his own exposed neck, and this time he hacked away at the creatures. The wolf didn't like this and whimpered with every impact, and began to withdraw after the third cut. Instead of allowing it to escape, he rolled over on top of it and finished severing its head until it dissipated into a pile of damp sticks. He turned around to face the other, but it was too late. It was a meter away from his head, claws outstretched ready to tear his thr-

BLAMF!

The creature yelped before sailing into his right shoulder as a pile of damp firewood. Knocked around by the blow, he regained his footing and turned left towards the source of the noise. Zakhar was stood upright, replacing a spent cartridge from his shotgun.

“Thanks.” the grateful Ukrainian said. “I thought that might've been the end for me.”

“No problem.” was the shaky response.

“You OK there?”

“Y-yeah I'm just not used to k-killing things.”

“Well, they were just bundles of sticks. You could call them faggots if you want” he chuckled at his own joke, but the Russian didn't respond to his weak attempt at humour. “Anyway, that was loud so I think we should move on, don't you?”

“Yeah. Lead on, I'll follow.”

And with that, the dangerous duo walked off, the Stalker joking that it hadn't even been a day and they have already had to kill something. Ironic really, considering that the wolves were never really alive, and judging by the slowly reforming piles of  wood, they weren't quite dead yet either…