The PDA went crazy with pings.
Whenever the proximity counter increased or dropped, the thing would beep.
And, well, Stalkers kept passing them by in small groups by now, first thing in the morning.
Like, actual people. Unzombified.
Humans with functioning brains—
Although given the risks they were about to take, that last part was still questionable.
But it was a welcome change of pace anyway.
"Oh, some green dots," Dmitry noted as he finished packing up. That meant someone they knew. But even between friends, the PDA kept the Stalkers' anonymity. "You ready?"
"Yeah, let's go," Konrad grunted, securing his guitar case.
He couldn't sleep a wink.
Not only because their night shelter was no more than a glorified bus stop. And not even the noises kept him up. But the voice that only he could hear—the theories of his parallel brain.
'Going by your assumption, they must have a secret compound right below the CNPP.'
"You mean inside it," Konrad noted, yawning as he checked the PDA, too.
The green dots were only a few yards away.
Whomever they belonged to had been heading straight towards them.
'Either way. It must need power. Maintenance. And with that crew gone, they might have been the original zombies of the Zone,' the voice tried to prove a point. 'I might've had a predecessor.'
Yeah. And at least thirteen successors, too.
Was he trying to reunite with his family, or what?
"Look, it's the Heroes of Kyiv and the Garbage," a familiar voice greeted them a second later.
Yuri and his Wolves.
"Don't tell me you took the Brain Scorcher down as well," Walther scowled, poking his head inside. "When we heard the Barkeep's message, the boss was joking about you two."
"Well, more like we got caught up in it," Dmitry played the modest.
Which was fair, considering he remained on the surface while Konrad and Strelok did the rest.
He still got chills every time he remembered those Bloodsuckers.
And in general, too. He saw every breath in the air.
"So you had a huge head start and gave it up?" Yuri hollered. "Or were you waiting for backup?"
"No, but first there was a huge Blowout, then we realized how tired we got, and—yeah. Hungry, too," Konrad explained, fighting back another yawn. "By the way, do you guys have extra food?"
"Oh, right," the Captain opened his backpack to show off all the leftovers. "Wanna exchange?"
Though with this chilly weather, they no longer had to worry about it spoiling, but—
"Don't tell me," Yuri scowled, poking at the meat. "You killed a Flesh?!"
Huh? Wasn't it called Meat?
'That's what the researchers used,' the parallel brain noted. 'But they had no connection to these barbarians. They might have wanted to avoid a similar naming to the Meat Chunk artifact.'
Yeah. Konrad had to stop asking questions.
Or stop thinking about them altogether.
This annoying voice had overexplained and overtheorised everything.
Not that he was wrong.
"We saw two corpses and a half-eaten carcass, but—you are guys serious?!" Walther asked, too.
"It's actually pretty good," Dmitry defended their meal. "And we decontaminated it first."
"But I'd rather not get scurvy from eating questionable meat with more meat," Konrad said. Then, he even had a better idea. "We could team up and share a meal so you could see."
Yuri scratched his head at that for a while.
"I don't mind teaming up, but—we're aiming for the rewards, so you'd better keep up."
Right. He didn't care about Earth's money, but Stalkers were always here for the riches.
Which was fine, since Konrad has his own reasons to be in a hurry, too.
"You won't have to worry about that," he said with a confident smirk—
Only to regret it in thirty minutes.
The Wolves actually ran that entire time, without taking breaks.
No matter that their backpacks were also full of ammo and bandages. Nah.
Konrad was about to pass out, and even the tough soldier Dmitry was struggling to keep up.
And they only covered about a third of the distance.
"All right, it's time for that feast," Yuri finally announced.
Which felt like his mercy, rather than his men getting tired.
Even if the landscape had already changed.
They were about to reach a railway line that had been sparkling along most of its length.
Like in the Wild Territories. Electrical anomalies sure loved large steel surfaces.
At least he could justify the stop by saying it must have been a pain to cross it.
Even if not a single person was panting but them.
"You see, truth is," the leader of the Wolves noted. "We wanted to set out right after they made that announcement. But it took too long to gather the squad, and then it was already dark."
He reached inside his jacket, pulling out a bright blue artifact.
Oh. Of course. A Sparkler. Or was it a Flash?
The low and mid-grade electrifying artifact that lent the user extra endurance.
"So to make up for the lost time, we requisited every one of these the Wolves had," Yuri admitted with a smirk. "I guess you two won't be able to keep up with us after all."
Ugh. If he had any air in his lungs, Konrad would have scoffed at that.
"Were you trolling us?!" he breathed instead, watching the men heating the food.
"Gotta say, you didn't slow us down," Walther noted, settling down nearby. "But once we ate, we'd likely continue at the same pace, so—I guess this will be our goodbye for now."
"Wait," Konrad panted, turning towards the railway again. "Aren't these artifacts—"
Come on. Why was it so hard to speak after a little jog?
"They come from electrical anomalies like those, right?" he finally choked it out, pointing at the constant mini-storms over the rails. "Which means, there might be some right here as well, no?"
The tiny leader grinned, pulling a plastic container into his lap.
"Well, if you repeat the same miracle you did in the Garbage while we finish eating—"
Yeah. He did that before, so he should have been able to do it again.
Except he was drunk at the time, and didn't remember anything.
No. Even if he did, he no longer had his magic to search for the artifact's signatures.
'Is that everything you'd have to do?' the parallel brain snickered, since he was never out of breath. 'You know that I can do that, too, right? My range would be shorter than yours, but—'
Shit. Of course.
These things were trying to replicate magic using Psyonic waves.
"Um, can I hold that for a second?" Konrad asked, getting excited as he reached for the artifact.
Yuri's grin only widened as he offered it up.
The spark felt strong.
It had to be a mid-rank Flash at least, a single touch chasing away his exhaustion.
'Okay, got it,' the voice confirmed, and Konrad pulled his hand away. 'So I have to look for this exact signal, or would anything similar do as well?'
'Anything similar,' Konrad thought, walking closer to the rails. 'The stronger the better.'
To which the parallel brain remained quiet for a while.
And then, he could almost feel it smile.
'Guess I'll ignore the four weaker ones and go for the big prize right away.'
Aw, yeah.
He only hoped they would give him a better nickname after performing yet another miracle.