My name is Vincent, born in California. My childhood was relatively peaceful, with no fights, although I did have to endure the nights when my father came home drunk to beat up my mother.
I ran away from home when I was 16, going from one job to another, no matter how badly paid or unpleasant, with the sole intention of living another day.
By the time I was 20 I had heard a lot of strange stories about "The Zone", a place in Russia where a poor devil like me could become a rich man from day tonight. Although the risk of dying in that place was assured, living on the street the way I was would sooner or later give me the same result.
With only $100 in my pocket, determination, and a bit of luck I found someone who had actively gone to "The Zone", supposedly a "Driver or Guide".
The fact that he agreed to take me to Russia along with a group of 7 other guys, was because if we lived long enough, our profit was his. A fucking mafia guy. If we could not pay after being in the area for at least a month, the local bandits would take care of the "Envoys", that is, us.
The trip from Colorado, to Chernobyl, was strangely pleasant. Food, drink, a warm bed, and a hot shower made my body feel like heaven, unfortunately, I did not know that after that heaven, hell was waiting for me.
2 days of travel. 1 Day of flight in economy class, my first time flying a plane and possibly the last one too, when we arrived they gave us passes to a private hotel where we could rest, the other guys in the group did not introduce themselves at any time, neither did I.
In the hotel, they showed us our only objective of being in "the zone", a strange and phosphorescent blue fragment, the appearance of a diamond that it possessed hid its true power. The radiation on it was so high that the small crystal container in which it was kept, could hardly contain.
"This is a piece of the "Wish Granter" Gentlemen and your only task is to bring us more of it and with it, you will become incredibly rich, so much so that you will be able to live the way you please for the rest of your lives.
That's what the Guide said. It sounded easy, it seemed to be, but no one told us that this "Wish Granter" was in the center of "the zone". guarded and protected jealously by countless people who were brainwashed by radiation called the monolith.
"Gentlemen. This is your weapon and I hope you will respect it, care for it, and appreciate it. Imagine that this is a lady in "The Zone" who will protect and feed you or if you want to use it as a last resort before you die at the hands of someone who may torture you to death.
"This Soviet legacy was the most common gun in the Zone and is one of the best compact self-defense guns available. It is small, highly reliable, easy to use, and easy to maintain in operation.
"It also suffers from several drawbacks, including poor firing accuracy, low range, and stopping power making it inefficient in prolonged combat. Consider this our "Gift" to you, gentlemen."
My opinion was neutral at that time, the other guys in the group showed their discomfort and disapproval of using such a piece of "trash".
"Gentlemen, this is only your standard weapon, in the Zone, you will be able to arm yourself to the teeth if you do your job well, so I advise you to keep quiet and pay attention.
The guide then placed a silencer on the gun and the face of the group had changed, mine simply continued as before.
"We are offering you an incredibly simple job, I don't need to tell you what will happen if you refuse after we have invested time and money in you.
We were all tied hands and feet, eating from your table and accepting your beds, we became your slaves, I didn't mind in the least, I just wanted to live another day or at least try to live better, that was and always was my only reason.
The guide simply put the gun away and left the room. Not before telling us, "Tomorrow we leave for Chernobyl, I advise you to prepare yourselves".
Entering the zone was incredibly fast, the military let the truck we could pass without any resistance, which indicated that this group of Mafia had more power than they showed or that money really opened any door.
The trip after arriving at the military checkpoint was turned on foot, the group stayed together and we were indicated on our maps in the PDAs that we were crashed, "rookie camp" was our first objective to arrive.
"The location marked on your PDA is your new 'Home'. From now on, gentlemen, I bid you farewell and wish you good luck, don't let us down.
Arriving at the camp was relatively easy, a small village was abandoned in 1986, when the Chernobyl disaster occurred and its inhabitants were evacuated.
In 2006 shortly after the second broadcast, Sidorovich settled down as a trader, negotiating with Stalkers and Military alike.
A few months later Wolf took over the leadership of the site by training the newcomers.
The rookie village was a strategic position and the closest place to a home for all Stalkers.
In the destroyed houses there were some barrels with fire in them and "Stalkers" warming their hands, playing guitar, or just warming a piece of meat, the place had a good amount of people living there.
When we arrived a guy called "Fanatic" received us, although the group quickly left the camp without listening to any kind of advice I, on the other hand, being alone, refused to move and so 3 days passed quickly in which I practically just sat, turned around, checked the interior of the houses and talked to every Stalker in the camp.
I talked and learned a little about Fanatic, he arrived in the Zone with the hope of riches, as every novice dreamed, but after experiencing the dangers of the zone and after going through many things he ended up settling in the novice's camp, teaching them where and to whom to shoot, where to go and not to go in the zone, watching the population of mutants and military that came very close to the camp to release some stress against the novices, basically a very strict teacher who maintained a healthy relationship with his students.
After the fanatic was " Wolf " who basically had the same role in the camp, but with many years of experience, his rough appearance and muscular figure showed clearly that the Zone had formed his character and given him experience.
Wold always stood guarding the entrance to the bunker where the merchant "Sidorovich" was located, who only cared about profits, a merchant, who no matter what group you belonged to, as long as you had money, he would receive you.
Fanatic gave me food the next day and decided to give me a special training, he gave me a couple of boxes of bullets for my gun, a first aid kit, bandages, and a tablet of anti-radiation pills, according to him, I seemed to be a promising rookie, my behavior had been different from the other rookies, I had collected information from people and surroundings, so Fanatic, thought that I could be a great Stalker if I was guided by the right path.
The task consisted of accompanying him to three different locations, the first one basically was to hunt a small group of mutants, two extremely aggressive wild boars, although I shot them a couple of times and they were of great size, I didn't manage to hit them with a shot that could kill them, Fanatic ended up with them using his AK-47 and mentioned that those boars despite receiving bullets in the head, with a PM would be very complicated to kill them, their skin and thickness of cranial bone had mutated in such a way that even 4 or 5 bullets from ak-47 were not enough to put them down.
The second task consisted in going to know an anomaly and to pick up my first "Artifact" of the Zone, Fanatic proceeded to give me an "Echo" detection which was similar to a cell phone which had a light in the middle, which began to blink being near an Artifact and increasing in frequency indicating the proximity of such object, The next item that I am fanatical about was an "AMM" an Artifact container which somehow scientifically nullified the radiation from the artifact, enabling a stalker to utilize the positive and negative effects of the artifact, This is very useful since there were even legends of stalkers that were immune to bullets due to a mysterious and rare artifact called "Full empty" which created a force field over the carrier, thus reducing the power of the projectiles, but making the user weaker in terms of other harmful elements such as radiation, electricity, fire, poison, according to many stories, most of the carriers of this artifact died from bleeding to death, since the artifact also made human tissue vulnerable, increasing the depth and severity of wounds received from slashing or mutant attacks.
My first artifact... a piece of irradiated bread.
Wolf, at that moment I just watch myself for a few seconds and simply put the artifact in his backpack without saying a word.
"It's your first time, but you started well and I must admit, I thought that the anomaly would destroy you as soon as you entered, it's good that you use sound and sight, many people simply use the locators to try to avoid the anomalies, it's not so efficient if you ask me".
A good reaction from the wolf, something unexpected, but it feels good to know I'm doing a good job.
The last task, basically consisted of guiding Wolf to the village, which would help to see if I could settle down inside the Zone if at some point, my PDA batteries died and I didn't have a spare change, a good emergence exercise to improve memory.
We arrived without problems, a little complicated not to see the village at 90 meters distance, but if someone does not pay attention it is more likely that he will meet creatures of the Zone and none of them were friendly.
"All right, newbie, a good job, and here you go from me, enjoy it and take care of yourself out there".
Wolf gave me a couple of extra boxes of bullets for the gun, a first aid kit, a couple of improvised stimpacks, two pieces of bread, and a can of tuna, I guess a reward, it felt like a video game somehow.
"The stimpacks function as a last resort, rookie, if you are badly hurt, they will save your life, don't forget.
A couple of homemade syringes, inside a black steel case and that served as a last resort, I assumed that they would be something very expensive, so I decided to really leave them as a last resort.
I left the village for the first time, I explored a little bit and I arrived at what seemed to be an old factory, inside this one there seemed to be a couple of green anomalies, something related to the acid, I decided not to take a risk and I moved away, unfortunately, the way forward was blocked, a group of men with military clothes prevented anyone from approaching.
I decided to go the way I came and explore a little more, I found what looked like someone's old hideout, there was a rolled-up mattress, a gas lamp, a wooden cable reel that was being used as a table, several boxes, and a hidden box, which had a generous amount of bullets, a shotgun, two cans of soda, and a wallet with five thousand rubles, a very good find, but I was not going to take any chances and decided to go back to the village. And so another day came to an end.