//------------------------------// // The Split // Story: My Little S.T.A.L.K.E.R // by Fanskapet //------------------------------// They had walked mostly in silence the only word really uttered were between the flesh and Fluttershy, constantly chatting away about their lives. Getting odd looks from everyone except Yuri who chimed in once in a while with a chuckle. “Uh Alopeci you might wanna see this.” Alexander said holding up his PDA, the group had let him take the point for a bit before they regrouped after a few minutes. “What you got there?” Alopeci asked as he leaned in to see what the PDA was showing. “Well, you know when we took this mission and I carried the case first?” “Yeah, you even opened in front of Owl pissing him off.” Alopeci smirked. “Well look here, I put a small tracker in it and look where it is.” Alexander said, pointing to a small blip on the map not far from their position. “Wait those mercs have barely moved at all.” Alopeci said. seeing the blip barely even a kilometer from where they had their transaction. “What?” Viper asked as he walked over to look at the map. “This can’t be right, that memory stick I gave to the other one shows the location far away from here.” Alopeci continued pulling up his own PDA next to Alexanders “So, both of you tagged some stuff and gave it to mercenaries?” Viper asked letting his eyes wander between the two PDAs seeing Alopecis blip moving slowly northwards and Alexanders being still only a few hundred meters away from them. “…… wait so does this mean the leader survived and ran off somewhere and the merc carrying the suitcase is still nearby?” Alopeci asked, meeting the eyes of the other two for a moment before all three faces suddenly grinned at each other. “Guess we can afford ourselves a little detour.” Viper said, looking back at the duo of Yuri and Fluttershy standing a few meters away and watching them with raised eyebrows. “Hey Yuri you can head towards the army base we will meet you there in an hour.” Alopeci said, as he walked over to him and explaining the whole thing to the duo, pulling out a PMM and handing it to him. “Just so you don’t have to rely on that old shotgun of yours.” “Do all three of you need to go? I mean I know the safe ways and we got Vladimir here helping with the girl but still.” Yuri said taking the gun and putting it in his pocket. “Well, there’s a lot to get and going at it with only me and Viper would mean one of us would have to carry the suitcase and we would be down to one guy ready to fire.” Alopeci nodded glancing back at Alexander and Viper checking their equipment, before turning his attention back to Yuri. “Also you gave the flesh a name?” “Well actually Fluttershy did, but I get what you are saying it’s a damn heavy case.” Yuri nodded, unholstering his radio and turning a small knob on its side. “So, use 102.6?” “Yup if shits go south or when we’re getting close, I give a call.” Alopeci continued taking the radio and turning the small knob for his old friend before handing it over, leaning close to him and whispering. “Remember don’t waste your life for hers, she is an unknown you are worth a lot more to me here in the zone.” “Can’t promise you anything.” He smirked watching Alopeci walking back over to the others, speaking to each other for a moment before waving Yuri goodbye as they began their hunt. “Uhm what’s going on?” Fluttershy asked as she rode up next to him watching the trio walking away. “Ah the boys are going for a trip we meet up in an hour.” Yuri said as he waved the question away with a hand as he walked past her. “So how are you feeling?” “Uhm I think I got a small fever and well I’m lost in a world where I’m apparently insane.” She said putting her hand against her head like Yuri had before, frowning a bit as he coughed in his hand and tried to look innocent. “Hey now, we never said you were insane only had a bit of zone madness.” He said turning around towards her and continued walking backwards holding up his hands. “And that is better?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. “Well, uh one you are born with the other is something you get?” He answered with a shrug. “I…uh are you asking me?” She blinked. “Uh no you see zone madness comes from the psi emissions conflicting with the the eh noosphere burning out parts of the brain…. temporarily and uh it uh dammit should’ve brought Viper he knows these kinds of stuff.” He said doing his best to recall the specifics but eventually giving up with a sigh. “Oh, sounds almost like the magical theorem of a friend of mine.” Fluttershy said thinking through the words trying to find anything that made sense. “Oh yes sure magical diorama.” He nodded as they continued walking for a moment before he turned back to her. “So, uh Fluttershy where exactly are you from? I mean what kind of name is Fluttershy anyway? French? Japanese?” “I don’t know those words.” She said, pausing for a moment listening to the grunts from Vladimir before continuing. “Oh, the answer is no, I’m Equestrian and more specific from a town called Ponyville.” “…. Huh well I at least am from Prague a lovely little town.” He smiled sighing with a content smile as he thought back to it, only getting interrupted as his detector begun to beep, stopping in his track and holding up a hand to stop Fluttershy as he took it out. “What is that beeping thing?” She asked as she leaned over to see what he was doing. “Oh, this is a detector a bear detector to be precise actually a modified bear detector to be extra precise.” He said showing the little metal box to her. “You see this here little thing shows if an artifact is nearby, but it also beeps if there’s an anomaly nearby.” “Oh, and what is an anomaly then?” She asked as she watched where he was pointing on the little box. “An anomaly is hmm lemme see.” He said bending over to pick up a small rock from the ground, looking around the area for a moment before narrowing his eyes as he finally spotted what he was searching for and tossed the stone towards it. “Wha-“ Fluttershy asked mid throw wondering what he was doing that could explain an anomaly, flinching in surprise as it suddenly seemed to trigger a harsh updraft sucking in both the stone and several other loose things into the air for a couple of seconds before with a loud whoosh flinging it all away. “Now that is an anomaly.” He laughed as he turned back to her staring in amazement, tossing another pebble behind himself getting another loud whoosh as it activated again. “And that is why no stalker ever goes without a detector.” “I-I think I saw something like that yesterday but it was electrical, was that the same thing?” “Uh yes there’s several others like burners, electric and even acidic ones.” Yuri nodded as he waved her to follow him around the anomaly. “So just keep close and we should both be safe.” “Uhm Yuri?” Fluttershy asked after they had walked a bit changing course every once in a while, as the detector beeped. “Yeah?” He said without turning around as they made another turn. “Why are there so many broken iron carts everywhere and why is everything so well ruined?” Fluttershy asked as they passed some rusting pieces of metal and a horribly worn-down steel barrel. “Iron carts?” He frowned as he turned back to give her a confused look, wondering what she meant as he didn’t see a single cart around. “Yeah, those weird ones with glass and some rubbery looking wheels.” She said glancing back from where they came. “You know like in the tunnel.” “You mean cars? Well, those broke down some time after the accident and the following accident and well the wear and tear of weather radiation same with almost everything in the zone.” He said scratching his head a bit before taking off the balaclava to scratch better ending it with a loud sniff, suddenly pausing and giving her a look over. “What? do I have something on me?” She asked looking down at herself, seeing nothing has changed worried at first that there was something on her. “no, no I …. I think I’m starting to believe you aren’t from around here, I mean I have met weirdos in the zone mad ones from the monoliths and even had a lengthy talk with Noah but none of them are confused about regular stuff.” He said shaking his head and holding up his hands about to say something more before sighing and turning around to continue walking. “So, you accept that I’m from Equestria?” She said suddenly hopeful at his words. “Whoawhoawhoa I said I’m starting to, nothing else.” He said waving a finger in the air. “Guess it’s better than nothing.” She sighed, happy at least that she made some progress. “We only need to pass that place a helicopter and then we should see the army base.” He said after a while pointing at a walled area ahead of them, pausing for a moment and holding up a hand to stop her. “Actually, let me go ahead here you never know who might’ve set up shop.”