//------------------------------// // Abrupt Violence // Story: A Different Kind of STALKER // by WTF_Am_I_Doing //------------------------------// Fluttershy woke with a startled gasp. She was about to stand up when her injuries reminded her that they still existed, though much more suppressed than before. She looked at the wound on her side and saw that the binding had been swapped for a clean one, the red stain gone. She then looked around and saw that she had been lying on green grass under the shade of a large tree. In front of her was a large meadow with tall grass obscuring the ground. “Hey there sleepy head!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie who jumped out of said grass. “Omygosh Pinkie! You startled me! Said the startled pegasus. “Oh silly me, sorry!” “Where are we? I don't recognise this bit of the forest. What happened to the m-monsters?” “Monsters? What monsters?” “The tall, two-legged, g-green and orange ones!” “Ooooh you mean Whiskey and Marmalade? They aren't monsters silly! They’re our friends! Although they haven't said that-“ “Pinkie” “ -but that's only because they can't speak equestrian! If they could they would be all like ‘Hey pinkie lets go-“ “Pinkie!” “-hang out together, since we are good friends.’ In fact, I think that- “PINKIE!” “Oh, sorry!” “What do you mean they are our friends? They kidnapped me and they were going to eat me!” “WHAT! No, don't be silly. They saved you! They bandaged you after scaring off the monster that attacked you!” Pinkie looked a little annoyed “And they made a fire to keep you warm! Whiskey even kept comforting you when you were crying! You can't call them monsters!” Fluttershy didn't know what to say. Has she really been so scared that she misinterpreted their actions that badly? They hadn't hurt her, but that's because she was already incapacitated, right? “But they attacked our friends! They put Rainbow Dash in hospital!” She spoke in frustration. “They do want to hurt us! They even captured you too!” “I'm not captured silly! I came along to make sure you were OK! I did try to convince them to leave you back there but they don't understand us and Whiskey started drinking. And they only defended themselves from Dashie! She should be more careful! And after that they didn't hurt anyone!” Fluttershy thought back, and concluded that she was right. “Y’know now that I'm thinking, it hasn't actually stopped drinking since it took it’s helmet off. Maybe we should go check! It will be happy to see you up and walking!” Flutttershy’s face screwed up at the memory. It looked less scary, but at the time it seemed like it was tearing its own head off. She wasn't keen on meeting the not-monster. “But I can't walk!” “No, but you can fly! These bandage thingys have healed you up! You can take them off!” Fluttershy did so, afraid that the wound wouldn't be healed like her friend said. But to her surprise, they had. “H-how did they heal me so fast?” “They had some kinda cream on the bandages. Not like cream on a cake cream, but cream like a cream you get from a doctor to cure a rash kinda cream. But this cream-“ “It's ok pinkie, I get it” laughed Fluttershy. She was glad her friend had come with her. “Okey-dokey-lokey! Let's go say ‘hi’ to our new friends!” With that, pinkie began bouncing up and down while Fluttershy slowly stood up and gently flapped her wings a few times. They didn't hurt her, only a small ache from being tied a bit too tightly. She took off and hovered next to pinkie who bounded off into the forest, heading for a glow just beyond a short row of bushes. She could hear one of the creatures growling, and the other sounded… drunk? She gulped, and flew over the wall whilst pinkie just jumped through it. “…So then I said ‘That sounds like a job for Freedom’!” Shouted Grygoriy, who couldn't stand it any longer. Both humans burst into laughter, Grygoriy doubling over and slapping his knee. Zakhar, nowhere near as drunk as the Stalker, was on the floor in fits of giggles. They had sat down in the clearing and made a medium sized campfire in front of a log. Grygoriy had suggested they drink the vodka now, claiming that they may not get another chance. The Ecologist had been reluctant at first, not a huge fan of alcohol. They had traded a few stories and soon he was giggling and rambling like the Ukrainian, only he had well over half his first bottle left whereas Grygoriy was finishing his second. “Oh man, your stories are too good! We should go on a… an adventure and make our own stories!” The Russian slurred. “Hey, we should! We really should! When we get back we will go for, go on our first adventure! We need a name though, a group name. Hmm…” “What about: the stalkologists!” “Hm. Nah, it's too nerdy” “Alright… what about...“ “The Drunkmen!” “What, you want to recruit the whole zone!?” Both burst into even harder laughter, hardly noticing the two ponies enter their camp. “Oh shit, the guests are here!” yelled Zakhar, once he had recovered from laughing. “Shhh! Don't swear! They are too innocent! Look at that face! Innocent as fuck!” The stalker urged, gesturing to the Pegasus’s confused face. Not that they could see it well since it was hiding behind a large pink bit of hair. “Oh, sorry er… wait, what's their names?” The Ukrainian suddenly thought aloud. “Well, I think this one” he gestured to the pink smiling pony “should be called Bubblegum!” He finished, beaming at his own genius. “You should name the yellow one” ‘Naming it after its colour?’ He thought. He was confident that he could do better. “Ok… what about…” He stared at the custard-coloured pegasus. He studied it. It looked really uncomfortable, hiding behind its own mane. Shy, almost. It had a butterfly tattoo on its ass. “I know!” He suddenly stood up and shouted, taking a swig of vodka. “It should be called ‘Butter-‘” he stopped abruptly and started coughing on the strong alcohol. “Butter? Well ok, I guess it's good enough” muttered the Stalker. “Bubblegum and Butter” he mused. ‘I wonder if they have named us’ he thought. He looked back at Zakhar. He was lying face down on the floor, snoring quietly. He was probably called ‘Idiot’ to them. Butter had moved closer to the slumbering drunk and was inspecting him now that he was de-helmeted. It sniffed the bottle that he was holding limply. It's face screwed up and it backed off, obviously not a fan of vodka. He was almost offended. While he thought about it, he hadn't actually seen Zakhars face properly yet. He walked over to the Russian and gently kicked him over and stared at his face. He had short brown hair in a terrible, self-done haircut. His eyes were closed and he considered opening them to see but he didn't feel like violating the sleeping man. He wore thin, rectangular glasses. Butter had moved to stand next to him, continuing to silently observe his friend. So silently in fact, that he hadn't noticed the pegasus sneak next to him, and as he walked away he tripped over it. Butter squeaked in surprise and fell over too, pushed to the floor by the tall human. “What the fu-“ Was all he could say in surprise before landing and smacking the back of his head on the soft dirt. He was out like a light, and had trapped Butter under his legs. “EEP!” squeaked Fluttershy as she was forced the ground. “Uh, mister mon- er, mister Whiskey? Could you get off me please?” She begged, almost brought to tears. “Please! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to trip you! Please just let me out!” “Silly Fluttershy, it’s asleep!” “Wh-what? But it just fell over!” she stated in disbelief. “Hey, I don't know why, but it is asleep. He was pretty drunk so that may have helped… Anyway! You were getting along great! It was happy to see you, it pointed at you and you didn't run off or anything! You even stood next to it!” “Y-yeah, I just don't get why he fell asleep on me!” “Well, you didn’t make very good conversation, and you are very cuddly.” Mused the mare. “And you didn't laugh at his great jokes!” Fluttershy had been wondering about that. Pinkie had been laughing along with the monst- aliens and seemed to understand when they had said something funny, if their synchronised laughing was any indication. She nearly asked how she knew but just decided that it was just a case of ‘classic Pinkie Pie’. “Uh, not to be a bother but could you get it’s legs off me? “Huh? Oh, sure!” Princess Luna was rather concerned. She held the letter Twilight Sparkle had written to Celestia just half an hour ago, regarding a new species of animal spotted in the everfree. The scholar inside her was excited, but the more concerning part was that one of the two had hospitalised Rainbow Dash and captured Fluttershy, both bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Pinkemena Pie had also gone missing, but wasn't considered related to the monsters actions. There were more details that she wanted to read again, but the time to act was now. It was an hour before midnight and she had assembled her Lunar Warriors to locate and rescue the elements and potentially capture the monsters. She turned to the guards as they crossed the palace hall to the middle of the lobby. “Are you and your soldiers ready, Dusk Watcher?” “Yes princess. Give the word and we will prepare for long range teleportation.” Spoke a confident earth pony. Luna looked at the assembled squad. There were a mix of earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns all dressed in the enchanted lunar armour she had assigned to all her personal military staff, which amounted to this squad and her 4 guards who were not joining them on this mission. Like the Solar Guard’s armour, the various enchantments included the increased strength and survivability of the wearer. What differed was a camouflaging spell that distorted the guards to look like Thestrals, a legendary bat kind of pony that had leathery wings and sharp fangs and wide, predatory eyes. It was, of course, just a legend but a fearsome one at that. She hardly got to use it and she was excited to say the least. “The word is given” she smiled. “Squad! Form up! Prepare for teleportation!” The light chatter stopped and the guards formed a tight circle around Luna so she would have to expend as little magical energy as possible. After a brief second of closing her eyes to find the rough location of the unconscious Fluttershy a bright flash enveloped them, and they disappeared. Fluttershy awoke groggily. She felt like something had just flicked the back of her head. The campfire everyone was resting around had long since died down, giving only the faintest glow. Both mo- aliens had woken briefly to put their helmets back on and growl apologetically at the ponies. They then went back to sleep. Looking at the sky, she could tell it was close to midnight, so they had been asleep for almost six hours now. A bright flash briefly lit up the grassland just beyond the woodland, near to her waking point. Fluttershy, not feeling remotely brave, opted to stay up and wake everyone if it was trouble. About 5 minutes later, there was a rustling of leaves directly in front of her. Then to her left. Then all around her. She saw nothing and it left her positively terrified, about to start crying and wake the others. But she stopped when she recognised a key figure that had appeared from the shadows. “Princess Luna! What are you doing here?” She whispered, walking towards the royal deity. “Rescuing you from these monsters.” she responded coolly. “They have put you, and by extension, the entire world at danger.” “Oh, er, thanks… but the-“ “It's ok Fluttershy, you are safe now.” She then motioned to the bushes and two Thestrals appeared and escorted Fluttershy away. “Ohh m-my…” she muttered at the scary appearance of the guards. Luna then used her magic to levitate the still sleeping Pinkamena Pie in the same direction as Fluttershy. “Princess, we are all in position for capture and the civilians have been retrieved. Cast Heart is currently looking over them for injuries, though they don't appear hurt.” Reported Dusk Watcher “We will attack at your command, eight warriors have been assigned to this including me. “Of course, Dusk. You have done well to organise this without a hiccup. But for the moment I will attempt to dream watch them to get a better understanding of their place in this world, and their intentions towards these and other ponies.” With that, she stepped closer to the sleeping creatures and let her magic feel their presence. With this extra information she could view their dreams directly with little effort. The orange creatures signature was found immediately as expected, but the green ones was not found. She tried again, focusing solely on it. Nothing. She frowned, not having come across this problem before. No magic has ever stopped her from dream walking and she couldn't even sense any. Shaking her head, she returned focus to the orange one, and entered his dream. “Congratulations Zakhar, you have received this Nobel prize for your work on Biology in the inhospitable Zone of Alienation. Your selfless work has saved countless lives and changed the world, and our very understanding of it.” Said an enthusiastic, disembodied voice. An applause filled the air and the two men on the stage grasped each other's limbs and firmly shook them. Luna was sat in an audience of bipedal creatures. As per usual with dreams, she couldn't really look at the features surrounding her as they were not in the focus of it. The men on the stage were, however. She stood up and began walking towards the aliens ahead, the applause dying down. “Thank you, thank you all. I would like to firstly thank my comrade…” it stopped as its eyes landed on the princess. The audience, stage and everything else faded like it was smoke, leaving only blackness. This usually signified distress or discomfort due to her appearances, causing the dreams engineer to lose focus. “What the fuck are you?” It spoke angrily. She hardly recognised the creature, its appearance drastically different to the orange form she was just looking at. “That is no way to greet royalty.” She said in an amused tone. “And I could ask you that very same question.” “Yeah? Well I asked first.” She smiled. “Fair enough. I am Princess Luna, and I am the co-ruler of equestria.” “Of where?” “The land you are sleeping in.” “The land…” he muttered to himself “Ohhhh I get it, this is a dream” he laughed. “None of this is real then, damn. I really wanted that award.” “Not quite creature, I am very much real. I am simply visiting your mind, your dreams.” “M-my mind? What? You are in my dream. And you are real?” “Yes.” “What the fuck!? Get out!” He shouted, willing himself to wake up. Luna sensed this, but she hadn't finished yet and fought back the dreams collapse. “Hold on I've-” “NO! GET THE FUCK OUT NOW!” Panic joined the forces that opposed her resistance. “Calm yourse-” “YOU ARE A CONTROLLER! OH FUCK! CONTROLLER! SHIT! WAKE UP!” Desperation and fear joined the war against her control. She was going to lose grip on the dream. This creature obviously hated ‘Comtrollers’ whatever they were. “JUST CAL-“ “YOU WILL NOT CONTROL MY MIND!” The dream began to collapse, the blackness slowly becoming whiteness. “CONTROLLER! CONTROLLER! Контроллер!” His screams turned to animalistic growls and roars, Luna sighed and gave up with the poor interrogation. With that the dream shattered, the dream speak broken and un-translated and everything exploded to white. Luna recovered quickly and saw that the orange creature was stirring and about to sit up, and she was nearly face to face with it. Its head turned to see her stood a meter from where he slept. “Oh for the love of- But once again she was drowned out by the desperate and fearful roar the creature made, and it sounded all to familiar to the blue Alicorn. “CONTROLLER!” Grygoriy sat up and was just in time to see Zakhar blast a blue multipony in the face with both barrels of his shotgun. It sailed backwards, a small splatter of blood following its parabolic path until it landed on its back, limp but somehow head still intact. He didn't have time to dwell on it though as several bat-winged horses jumped out from above the treetops, and more horned and non-horned ones came from the bushes. He grabbed his machete from his belt and jumped up, taking the attention of 6 intruders. He wasted no time and faced the one charging at him, booting it in the face. It's shiny blue horn took the blow, its glow fading. The force (and intense pain) behind the kick knocked out the target after it neighed in defeat. He spun to his left and struck out with his machete at an approaching shadow, catching the body armour of a bat-pegasus. He shifted the machete down it, slicing the leathery wing from behind and causing brown feathers to fall to the ground. He didn't question it, but threw the whinnying creature to the floor, down but not out. He took this moment to quickly turn on his nightvision device. It activated just in time to see a regular pony try to kick him with its hind legs. He dodged to the left and noticed that the rear hooves had spiky looking boots on, It would likely puncture straight through his SEVA suit if it hit him anywhere but the head, neck, shoulders or chest. With two enemies down he was a little more confident but the next attack came in a team of two, the first pony charged at him, head butting him in the chest and knocking him back. He regained his footing and kneed it in the face then left hooked it, sending it to the ground. The second one had flanked behind to try to attack from two sides, but he had already dispatched that attacker. It took this opportunity to kick at him. It's front legs caught his knee, sending a spasm of pain up his leg. It then kicked his chest with it’s powerful back legs, sending him sprawling over the grounded bat-pegasi Fortunately, the attack didn't go through his armour as he had suspected. He definitely felt the impact, and it would be badly bruised if not fractured. The three remaining creatures were each one of the three varieties, lead by the smirking regular pony. He realised that without his guns, they would wear him down. As he felt now, he could get one of them maybe but any of the remaining ones could finish him. He wouldn't last much more without seriously harming his enemies, he had little energy to waste in non-life threatening attacks. but anything was better than death. Even if it meant killing. “COME ON THEN!” he roared and charged at the now scared looking group. The pony was the first to recover, it met his charge and reared up to kick him in the head with its front legs. This left his soft underside exposed. The Stalker ducked under the kick and sliced his machete across the belly of the animal. It screamed and fell on its side, blood oozing out of the deep wound. He hadn't meant to do that much damage, he had overestimated the toughness of the skin thanks to years of fighting mutants. Not that he particularly cared. He was suddenly lifted off the ground from behind by two arms under his armpits and thrown forward where he tumbled over his backpack, losing grip of the machete. He saw the pegasus fly over the top of him and realised the arms he felt were just legs of the animal. He saw the unicorn was charging up a spell, now that he was clear of its teammates. He grabbed a rock from where he landed and stood up, throwing it as hard as he could. He knew it stood little chance of doing any damage but needed to break its concentration as he had done before with the purple multipony. It worked, the small stone hit the pony in the face and the magic faded momentarily and it blinked in confusion, before its eyes widened at the charging alien. Unfortunately, he was pushed forwards again by the pegasus and he was shoved straight into the unicorn. he howled in pain as he impacted the creature, it's horn had stabbed him just below his left shoulder and buried itself about an inch and a half past his outer layer of protection. He was really angry at this, intense pain causing him to seek revenge. Mercilessly, he grabbed the horn and pulled it out, causing the animal to howl in pain. He didn't let go, instead looking for the pegasus. He saw it hovering several meters away, a concerned expression on its face. He took this opportunity of momentarily relenting attacks to retrieve the machete of the floor. He dragged his unwilling captor by his horn, picked up the machete and raised it to the unicorns head. He put the saw blade against the base of the horn and sawed once. The unicorn then screamed even louder, tears running down its face. He motioned to the pegasus to land. It complied with an angry scowl on its face. He motioned for it to come forwards. It complied, neighing something to the unicorn. As soon as it was close enough he kicked it as hard as he could in the… chin? Snout? He didn't know the anatomical name but it sure hurt the pegasus, it fell over howling in a horselike fashion. He used the base of the machete and bashed the forehead of the unicorn, just below the base of the horn. It went limp and he allowed it to fall. He then walked up to the downed pegasus and kicked it hard in the face again. It too went limp. Anger subsided, he surveyed the scene before him and saw that one pegasus, the second one to attack, wasn't harmed too badly, just a cut on its right wing. He strode to it and pulled it off the ground by its neck, a terrified expression on its face. He growled at it and deliberately placed it to the stabbed earth pony who was still bleeding out. He then left it, and it shouted some kind of neigh. He turned to look at Zakhar, expecting to see him standing before his defeated enemies. Instead, he had a cracked visor and was unconscious, a pony and a pegasus stood either side of him with his arms over their back, attempting to move him. Not in the mood to deal with this shit anymore, he picked up his AK from beside his resting point and pulled the bolt, a perfectly good bullet flying out, indicating it was loaded. It made a satisfying ‘cha-chack’ sound, and he internally grinned. He raised the carbine and fired it twice at the legs of the pegasus. His injuries prevented him from stopping the gun swaying and in consequence only one bullet hit, its left leg splattering a spray of blood and causing it to crumple, screaming the entire time. He turned to the remaining pony who looked absolutely terrified. He slung the gun on his back with the strap and grabbed the axe from the outside of his pack. It glistened in the moonlight and had the desired effect, the unicorn in dropping to the ground in tears. “NEIGH!” Boomed a commanding horse. He turned to see the Multipony had got up from the floor and had spread its wings in attempt to look intimidating, but it just looked defeated. It's head looked a bit worse for wear. It's right eye was swollen shut, a small trickle of blood leaked from the closed eyelids. It's snout had a tear on the left side, blood dripping onto the floor below. It's horn was missing its point and had two large chips in it and its left ear looked like an animal had torn the tip of it off. Out of respect, and a small bit of fear, he humoured the blue creature and stopped. He could only guess what it had said but it was probably something like ‘stop!’. He waited for the horse to say something but it just stared at him, its eyes had a pleading and terrified look to them. He turned his head away and dropped the axe back near his pack, walking towards his partner. The multipony had continued to neigh and whinny as he did so. He stopped in front of the cowering unicorn and leaned down. “Get the fuck away!” He snarled It paused for a moment, then slowly got up. He continued to stare at it, doing nor saying anything more until it bolted away in an arc, standing behind the much larger multipony. He hadn't realised how big it really was, its horn was almost level with his forehead. Most others came to slightly below his torso. “Zakhar get up you peice of shit” he said angrily, kicking the Stalker. The Russian jolted up, patting himself all over. “What happened?” He asked, concerned and confused. “Later. We have to leave” Zakhar looked at the carnage strewn about before him. A collapsed bloody bat-pegasus laid down to his right, its leg bloody just below its joint. Across from him, behind the embers of the campfire he saw about 5 motionless bodies. He guessed they weren't dead, at least not all of them as he likely would've shot them all instead of leaving a third of them alive. One body was being cared by another blue pony as well as Butter. “Jesus Christ.” he exclaimed quietly at the utter carnage. He looked to his left and saw the ‘controller’ that invaded his mind. “JESUS CHRIST!” he shouted again, louder. “Calm down, its n-“ “IT WAS IN MY MIND!” “Just fucking calm yourself!” He commanded, getting in his face. “Grab the bags and anything useful these horses have. They have a little pile of gear behind that multipony. I'll round up the conscious ones and move them over by the one I slashed” he said, no emotion other than exhaustion detectable. He then strode to the large blue leader and pointed his AK at it, then used his left hand to point to the mentioned victim. The multipony nodded and walked towards the destination, the terrified unicorn following closely behind. He grabbed some saddlebags off the pile of gear they left and quickly tied them round his waist, as he couldn't spare the hands to do it. Zakhar had grabbed all their gear and was walking towards him. “Lets go” he said, no emotion in his voice. “Yep” he responded, disheartened by his poor attempts at self preservation. Grygoriy set off, but stopped when Bubblegum appeared in their path, just as they had met. It looked sad, tears threatening to flow. He raised the gun slightly at the resistance, but stopped after remembering who this animal was. He walked up to it and patted it on the head, then pointed to the large blue winged unicorn. “Go.” He said, a small smile forming on his face. the horse returned him with a small smile of its own. It then trotted off, mane de-poofed. He paid no attention to its sadness or the slight tug on his chest at the happy connection snapping. “Lets go, these animals are nothing but trouble.” He began walking through the tall grass and was soon not visible to the ponies back in the clearing. The wound in his shoulder still leaked a small amount of blood, but it had mostly clotted. He checked the rest of his suit and saw it was much worse for wear, the environment isolation layer breached in many places, much less protective. He would have to repair the damage as soon as they stopped to rest. “What was that about a controller?” He suddenly asked. He saw the Multipony eat both barrels of the sawn-off, but he didn't understand why. “She was in my fucking head. She spoke to me, started questioning me. I freaked out. Fuck, I still am freaking out.” “She?” “Yeah, it sounded feminine, so ‘she’.” “But it spoke in your mind, and it had a voice?” “No, she appeared in a dream I had. I then woke up, realised it wasn't just a dream and shot the bitch.” “Fair enough. Mind-rape isn't exactly something to be encouraged. Hopefully it won't ‘visit’ you again, and I doubt they will be able to do it to me.” “Ah yeah, your anti-Psi artefacts. I need to get myself some of those. That's how they got me you know, the bitch just threw me against a tree with Psi, and I was pretty much KO’d. Whole suit is compromised now and I don't think there is any way to repair most of it.” “Damn. They looked really confused though when their telekinesis didn't directly work on me. I doubt they had that problem before which explains their confidence.” “What do you think that was about though? Was that a hostage rescue mission? Or did they come to kill us? Maybe capture and experiment…” the Russian shuddered. “I think they came as a hostage rescue and we were like a bonus. If you hadn't shot the blue thing who knows what would've happened. Maybe they would've left? No point dwelling though, nothing to do but learn from it.” Zakhar reflected on this in silence. They had lost all leverage from their kind and without other humans they were fairly screwed in terms of getting platinum. Maybe if they went far away the equines would be more receptive of aliens. They may have been receptive of aliens too, but for whatever reason they thought we had harmed and kidnapped someone. The Stalker interrupted his internal thoughts. “Looks like it’s desert beyond here. I don't know how big it will be, but there is some kind of mountain over there towards the middle.” Zakhar looked down and the ground was no longer grass, but hard, sandy dirt. A few meters ahead and it was all sand. “This is a weird land border.” The abrupt change from grasslands to sandlands was not something that he had heard of, and doubted that there were any as abrupt as this on earth. “Zak, should we cross it?” He didn't know. He couldn't see if it ended. He couldn’t see much with the cracked visor. “Sure. I guess it will be a couple of days travel at least. How much water do we have?” The pair then once again pooled their resources. The four saddle packs they had looted had enough water for about two days in the desert, four or five if they stay out. Combined with what they already had, he guessed with a safe margarine that they had 6 days of water in the desert. But he had a plan to ensure they made it. “We can do this. But we have to do it this way. We travel only at night, as the sun will cook us. We ration the water, no more than two litres per day. If we stick to this, we will have about ten nights of water, plus one reserve. However, if we don't see the other side by the 5th day, we pull back unless we can replenish that water somehow, but we will need half the total water to make it back. You agree?” “Alright, you're the expert.” Zakhar nodded. He was the expert. He was very confident. “Right. It will be daylight in about two hours. We may as well sort through the rest of these packs, repair what we can and then sleep after. We will set off tomorrow at sundown.” With that, they sorted through the bags. They were largely the same, but had invaluable items. Some maps of the area, fresh fruit, basic first aid supplies and a lot of other items with weird text all over it. They left the written junk on the floor with the empty bags and ate the fruit and stored the first aid. The maps were useless as they weren't going to return, and they had no way to read them or figure out where they were as it was mostly green. “Ohhh man, I haven't had fresh fruit since I got to the zone! Four years of canned vegetables and radiation rich mutant meat! I thought I wasn't going to see fruit again! Well, unless you count fruit punch anomalies.” The Stalker chuckled, biting into his second apple. “I forgot how good they tasted!” “Heh, I've not had to deal with such hardships. The mobile lab gets supplies brought through the zone by some loners who want to make some easy money. Fruit comes every week.” He boasted, grinning at the Stalker. “Yeah, your cushy life let you get soft though. When we get back I want half your fruit for the rest of your life in return for me saving your ass!” He joked, laughing at his comrades deepening frown. Though his smile faded when he realised he was frowning seriously. “Do you think we will make it back?” Grygoriy thought for a moment. He didn't know, but he was expecting the worst. All they had to do was find platinum, it could be already refined somewhere in this world. They just needed to find it. “I'll put 10,000 Roubles on it” “Heh, you're on!” The Zoners finished their apples, the sun rising shortly after. In the light they worked on their suits, Zakhar decided to ditch his, beeping only the boots and belt. Grygoriy used some of the material to patch his shoulder and various other holes. It was suitably repaired and would do until they found better tools. Despite the potential danger and harsh light both of them went to sleep. In the past 48 hours they had very little and needed to catch up. The day passed without incident, and soon Grygoriy woke up to see the sun setting. He poked Zakhar in the chest with his foot. “Its, almost time. Get up.” Zakhar yawned at him and stood up. He grabbed his pack and slung it over his shoulder and ensured he had his weapons at hand. He took the pistol out of the pack and tucked it into his suits belt holster. The shotgun was held in his hand, ready to blast a new hole in any foe that came too close. He looked at the Stalker. “Lets go.” They then set off into the desert, not bothering to look back.