Without a word, we sat around the campfire staring at its flames, once again enveloped by the mist. It like a cocoon wrapped itself around us and obscured our sight, leaving only creepy silhouettes. The fire would crackle from time to time giving some comfort with its familiar sound.

Moon shrouded by the clouds didn’t share a lot of light for us, only further distorted the shadows and made our eyes doubt whether it was a tree in the distance or a quiet observer. We silently sat there carefully listening to the whispers of The Zone brought by a whistling wind.

We all turned our heads towards the new sound that suddenly came right behind us. It was Petlya coming out of the tent.

“I can’t sleep. I’ll stand the first shift, you guys can go back into the tent and take my shift afterwards if you want,” he said.

Both Andrei and Ivan started getting up and with a look passed between each other Ivan sat back down, while Andrei got up to leave.

Petlya sat on the freed seat and laid his rifle next to him. Taking out a flask from his outer pockets he started chugging down its contents staring down the campfire just like we were a minute ago.

“Are you guys brothers?” he asked Ivan.

“Yeah, how did you guess?”

“Just got a feeling that it might be the case. And you? You are not with them, are you?” said Petlya.

“Was it that obvious?” I asked.

“No, not really. Just the usual feeling. As long you stay here long enough you will learn to listen to it and trust it.” said Ivan looking deep into my eyes. That was a lesson, from someone who lived long enough and was kind enough to share it for free.

After that our conversation died down and we went back deep into our own thoughts looking for their reflecting the flames.

The wind has slowly picked up its speed sending the grey and stifling mist into a bizarre dance, creating fleeting, broken images in the light and smoke of the campfire.

“Heard, recently more and more new faces started appearing in The Zone. Is there some sort of rumour on the Outside that makes people rush in here?” said Petlya, breaking the silence.

“No clue, we are here for business. Ask him though, this dude spent a fortune to get here,” said Ivan, motioning towards me.

“People come here to get rich and you spend money to get inside. How come?” came in the obvious question.

“I had insomnia, people told me sleeping in The Zone is more relaxing” I joked.

“Heh, no doubt. Hard to wake up when your head is missing. For real though. What brought you here?” Petlya insisted on his questioning.

“I had nightmares, I don’t remember much of them but they were all about The Zone. I felt that I either get here or suffer from them till the day I die.” keeping my eyes on fire I said the same thing I said to Nikolai before.

Ivan chuckled, but Petlya had a serious look on his face.

Taking a branch to move the logs around he looked into my eyes and solemnly said:

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“It seems like Zone has called for you, brother. You heard that locals can’t get outside, right? Because they can’t survive outside for long. They are all driven insane by visions, nightmares, voices if they don’t come back.”

“And now I somehow became a local? I haven’t even seen The Zone before,” I didn’t take his words seriously, as such my reply was dismissive as well.

“I don’t know why. But I know you are not the only one like that. I heard that Materyy (Seasoned) was the same. Got almost blown up in Chechnya. They had to put him together like a jigsaw puzzle, piece by piece. So after he got discharged he started having nightmares. At first, he thought that they were about the war, you know, like usual, nothing to worry about, everyone has them. But he quickly figured out that they were about this damned place. Few years forward and he is a proud owner of a bar in Chernobyl. Who knows maybe you’ll also end up like him, a big figure. That is if you don’t die.” he glanced at me and seeing that he still had my attention, continued: “There are no Chosen One’s here, brother, so don’t go thinking that you are Zone’s favourite bastard just because she broke you a few screws loose even before you got in here.”

________________

Petlya continued telling us stories, mostly about the Zone, some recent rumours and tall tales of some braggart who wanted to be in the spotlight.

I sat there letting his stories become a background noise while I immersed myself in my thoughts.

Until I had this conversation with Petlya I didn’t feel this whole thing was real. The nightmares were figments of my imagination and stress, my jump in the Zone was my fear of death and tears of my friends. I did it all because I ran away. I was only glad to put the blame on those nightmares, they gave me an excuse. But now it’s real. I can’t deny it anymore. I had successfully run away from it all. I found a way here against all odds. I smell the night and the campfire, I see the mist and darkness, I feel the steel of an AK in my hands. It is real.

I feel lost.

So I ran away.

What's next?

Petlya said that Materyy “was called by The Zone” as well. He is the one I would need to find. I don’t need answers but I came here without a goal and purpose, simply running, so finding Materyy is as good of a goal as any.

It’s time to start my own plans and be damned the fact that I am on a timer. No! Let it be celebrated instead. I am not burdened by anything. I left everything of worth there. I left my family, my friends, my promises, my home, everything that was Alexander King behind.

If I die then it’s just a natural order of things…

“Hey, Alex. The shift has ended. Go to sleep.” said Petlya, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Nah, I’ll stay here for a minute. I don’t want to go to sleep yet.” I said, too immersed in my world to feel tired.

“Be sure to have enough rest, tomorrow will be a long day.” leaving for a tent said Petlya across his shoulder.

I kept looking in the fire still thinking about everything that happened to this day that I didn’t even notice Zhores and Andrei taking the empty seats.

I didn’t burn with desire to converse in the presence of Andrei as he was the one who searched me and roughed me up in the club. I stood up ready to leave when I heard Andrei say:

“Hey if you don’t want to sleep, nutcase, how about you take my shift, huh?”

Zhores looked up at this moment with a smile on his face, expecting some entertainment from the whole thing.

Slinging the rifle across my shoulders and turning around in the direction of the tent I said:

“Go fuck yourself”

Zhores exploded with laughter and while I didn’t see Andrei’s reaction I can’t imagine it being any good. I didn’t bother myself with him.

Instead of going straight into the tent, I changed my direction to get behind it. Nature was calling and I didn't want to have an audience. I grabbed a bunch of baby-wipes on my way there and got comfortable. My haphazard diet the last few days has let me know of itself so I took my time.

After I finished with my business, I stood up ready to go to bed and fall asleep when I felt something wrong. It was too quiet. When I was leaving, Zhores started preparing his lunch so there should have been some noises of activity coming from the campsite.

Deciding that it was better to err on the side of caution with the rifle in hand, I took a peek, still hiding behind the tent. There I saw them both lying on the ground, unmoving.

For a couple of seconds, I stood still, standing in the shadow, waiting. My heart was pounding.

Nothing has changed. They didn’t jump up and start laughing, culprits didn’t appear, mutants didn’t jump in to tear into their prey. I waited for another couple of seconds and seeing no changes I decided to take action.

Slowly and as quietly as possible crouched down to reach for a knife tucked inside of my boot. Deliberately and with caution I moved back behind the tent, making sure to keep my gun pointed in the direction of the campfire.

Holding a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, I started cutting into the back wall of the tent, trying to make as little noise as I can. Slashing through the fabric I glanced inside to see Petlya with his eyes already open, pointing a pistol at me. Looking down that barrel my heart that was roaring inside of my chest suddenly skipped a bit.

I slowly motioned to him to keep quiet and with a gesture of a slit throat pointed towards the entrance where Zhoraz and Andrei lay. As I went back to observe the situation around the campfire, Petlya already woke up others and crouched behind the tent entrance, keeping the nearest rucksack in front of himself.

Staying in the shadow of the tent I sprawled with my AK in front of me looking through iron sights at the other side of the camp.

There were no changes. The night was silent and only wind and campfire played their tunes just as before. Zhoras and Andrei’s bodies lay there without moving.

After a minute someone from the tent started shooting out flares around the from a flare-pistol. I immediately tightened my grip around the handle ready to open fire at a moment's notice. With a new light source, we now could see the bottom of the hill. The problem was, no one was there. No devious attackers, no bloodthirsty mutants, not even a wild animal was to be seen. We were alone with two from our party already dead. This is how The Zone welcomed us on our first night.