Epilogue
We Leave Tomorrow at Dawn
A bump on the road caused the BTR we were riding in to jerk up and down, making me hit my head on the ceiling of the cabin. I glared at the offending metal surface, as if it had caused my turmoil in purpose, before I realised the stupidity of the act.
Rubbing my head, I gave the inside of the APC a panoramic glance. The pilots were busy… piloting, the gunner kept scanning the surrounding environment with its remote-controlled turret while my other companions were all seated as comfortably as they could.
“Soooo yeah. That’s basically it,” Vano summed up.
“Huh. The scientists. Should have seen that one coming,” I commented, shifting my grip on my rifle.
Vano managed to shrug, despite being nearly bent in half to fit in the cramped space of the BTR cabin.
“This is real life, there are no epic quests to save the world,” deadpanned Strider. “We were fairly normal stalkers who made an incredible encounter,” he added, gently stroking Celestia’s mane, “and we got lucky.”
“Well, you got the most important parts, I doubt you would be very interested in a faction’s treasury and administration,” Vano laughed.
“Maybe not,” I admitted, “but I’m curious to know how you managed to become that big in so little time. And I’d like to know what happened to that head.”
“You’ll know soon enough, it shall be a story for another time,” Celestia started. “We’re almost at our destination. Besides, we have a long helicopter ride ahead of us, should you decide to follow. We will have all the time in the world.”
I shifted my grip on my carbine, placing its butt on the floor. “If you have nothing against a passenger, I’m game,” I said.
The alicorn smiled. “Then it’s settled. Runner, you’ll have the honor to be one of the first humans in Equestria!”
I let out a laugh.
Strider smiled, stroking his lover’s mane, before he took a serious expression. “I have to warn you though: all the supplies you need, you’ll have to buy. We do not take freeloaders. You are welcome to join the faction, in which case you would have to obey orders. If that does not sit well with you, you could always ask Hermann and work for him. They are used to deal with stalkers.”
“Seems fair to me,” I replied with a shrug. “I don’t like the idea of sitting on my ass all day. anyway. Guess I could help with… whatever Hermann needs to get done,” I awkwardly concluded.
“Spoken like a true orator,” Vano sarcastically noted.
“Oh har har,” I deadpanned. “As if you could have done-”
“Vragom zametil!” suddenly yelled our gunner, interrupting me.
A split second later, the cabin was drowned into machine gun reports coming from the turret above, completely overpowering the gentle growl of the diesel engine. The ear-shattering roar only lasted a few seconds, before it suddenly stopped, as fast as it had begun.
“What was that?” authoritatively asked Strider.
“Nichego ser'yeznogo, polkovnik,” the gunner dismissed. “Just a few Bandits. Morons started actually shooting at us with light arms fire,” he added with a laugh.
The driver began laughing uncontrollably, causing the BTR to swerve on the road. “Kucha debilov,” he swore, “I mean, really? Against an armored fighting vehicle?”
Vano chuckled. “Cordon is home to more Military personnel and Dawn soldiers than ever right now, and they have the gall to show up in the area? Either they are extremely courageous or completely stupid.
“Bandits are not known to be the brightest of the bunch,” recalled Celestia. “And they’re even more disorganized now that they lost their leaders.”
“What puzzles me is that they still have not got a new leader,” shook Strider, scratching his stubble. “It has been nearly a year that we got rid of Jack and Sultan.”
Vano shrugged once more. “They’re too busy fighting each other for power, I suppose.”
“We’re here!” our driver interrupted.
Vano let out a long sigh. “Oh thank fuck! I can’t bear it anymore! Let me out of here!” he yelled.
With that, the massive, power-armored stalker jerked up, hitting his head on the ceiling. Ignoring it, he crawled towards the exit on the side of the cabin, opened the hatch and forced himself outside, head first, taking a deep breath of fresh air.
“Oh, divine fresh atmosphere, how I’ve missed you!” the bearded man exclaimed, before he tipped over and fell head first onto the ground outside.
Strider let out a snicker and exited the BTR, followed by Celestia who was giggling to herself, while a fit of laughter could be heard coming from the outside. With a chuckle, I followed the others outside.
I was not prepared for what I saw there.
The Cordon had always been renowned to be a relatively peaceful place, its tranquility only disturbed by the occasional Bandit raid or a blissful rookie walking into one of the many gravitational anomalies that surrounded the edge of the area. Even mutants were pretty tame there, with a few pack of dogs and a boar den as the only threats.
Even the military had stopped shooting stalkers on sight a few months ago when they found out that selling them surplus gear and extort money from them would be more profitable than just shooting at them.
The place was usually peaceful and empty, save for what us stalkers had nicknamed the ‘Rookie Village’. Even then, there never was more than a few dozen people on site. The record was of about fifty people, and that dated from back when the way to the North and to Pripyat was closed, a couple years ago. The Cordon was a much more popular place for rookies coming in and veterans getting out of the Zone by then. It was a hub of sorts.
As I stared at the massive gathering down the hill, I could only think that the record had been pulverized. Hundreds of stalkers were walking about, some patrolling the area, some entering or exiting the two mobile bunkers that were sitting in the middle of the fray, others attending to the many vehicles which were neatly parked in rows and columns organized by vehicle types. There were several BTR’s, not counting the one I had just disembarked from, several BMP’s, even two motherfucking tanks, with their armament and all. Many MI-24’s were aligned on the East edge of the rally, along with several MI-26’s, the massive cargo helicopters dwarfing the not so little gunships.
Nearly all the ground vehicles were painted in a digital woodland camo pattern and bore the insignia of the Dawn faction: a shield depicting a blazing sun peaking over a hill. Their helicopters however, while bearing the same logo, had their bellies painted sky blue and the rest of their hull was olive-colored.
Only four vehicles stood out: one BTR and one MI-24, both of which bore the olive colors of the Ukrainian military, and two bright white MI-26’s with the words ‘Utair’ painted blue on their sides.
I opened my mouth. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah, that’s about right,” laughed Vano, walking down the hill, followed by Strider and Celestia.
The alicorn turned around. “Get some rest, stalker. We leave tomorrow at dawn,” she advised.