Before Alex could figure out how to sneak past those Monolith soldiers, he realised—
Even leaving the building would be something of a challenge.
Everything was dark. Not that he could afford to turn on a light and give his position away. But with debris littering every floor, the best he could do was inch his way to the stairwell, and—
Find it collapsed and fallen to the bottom, leaving nothing behind.
"The elevator shaft," he muttered, feeling his way around the derelict building. All while hoping the elevator itself wouldn't block his path. And while it did not, well—
That deep and narrow shaft had to be the darkest spot in the entire housing complex.
But at least no light could escape to the streets.
Not that he had a flashlight, but—
"The PDA's screen will do," he grunted, turning the brightness to the max.
Now he only needed a third hand to hold that thing while descending.
Or, well, use his teeth.
Too bad, that old device tasted like shit. And that was the least of his problems. The handles were often loose, plaster falling on his head, and the range of his light—
He almost fell into the lift itself.
The door above him was stuck.
Had he got something to pry it open as he did on the top floor—
But no. In this peculiar position? Hanging on the rusted bars and holding a PDA in his mouth, he wouldn't have a chance either way. The best he could do was to descend further, and—
Hope that the elevator wouldn't fall the moment he put his weight on it.
"So far so good," Alex muttered, his voice echoing in the narrow space.
These things always had a service hatch somewhere, and prying that open—
"Gotcha," he sighed, putting down the PDA and propping it against the cables holding the lift.
He needed both hands and a firm stance to open that thing.
Once the cabin below was finally open, it gave him access to the floor beyond.
Not the bottom one, but he made some progress, inching his way along the corridor.
"Third floor, huh?" he muttered at a faded sign. "And if I'm not mistaken—"
Above him, the stairwell was a collapsed mess.
And yeah, not exactly stable below, either.
But if he squeezed through the rubble and tested each step before committing his weight—
By the time he finally reached the ground, trying to figure out what next, the patrols were all gone. That included the tank, the BTRs, everything and everyone.
Well, at least the stuff he could see with his naked eyes.
Even in the dead of the night, the city had its own light sources.
Anomalies he hadn't seen before, sparkling, burning, or flying high overhead.
And one such light illuminated the wreck he came to investigate from the start.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to fly an Mi-24 inside a ghost town should have been shot.
But from the signs he uncovered, he actually was, too. And while he couldn't see people nearby, he decided against recording his thoughts. He still conducted a thorough investigation, though.
Despite his expectations, this wreck might have been in the best shape so far.
Almost flyable, even, although the instrumentation seemed fried for some reason.
Which Anomaly did it? He didn't want to guess, but one thing was obvious.
The aircrew got out alive, only for one of them to catch a bullet and leave a trail of blood behind. Given the heavy wheel marks, a BTR must have come to investigate, too.
And below a manhole, he could still see the corpses—
One in a regular green uniform, and three in an early winter camo.
"This was the commander," he muttered, checking the dog tags and taking mental notes for later. "But where are your men? Did they get out? Captured? Died?"
He could have explored the sewers, but which way?
It was dark, the tracks disturbed, and either way, they must have been gone for a long time.
As was the Monolith, which wouldn't give him a rest.
Where did they go, and why?
When he found himself in that room, they were almost parading on the street below, and now?
Not even a soul.
"Not that it's hard to follow these tracks," the Major grunted. "And most likely, they have the aircrew, too, so my best bet is to go after them."
Oh, and hope that they didn't leave him any surprises, lie in ambush, or worse—
He could have run into an Anomaly or a mutant.
The fact that he didn't was the most surprising thing so far.
Following the BTR—and later the T-72—tracks made him feel as if he were on a safe trail. The only one in the entire Zone so far, unless he counted the Bar.
But that area was a misshapen pocket of relative calm, while here—
On either side of this trail, he could hear the crackling or whooshing of invisible Anomalies.
Had he reached out with his arms, he would have been touching them.
And the trails, whether left by wheels or boots, never strayed from this narrowing path, either.
They left the city, following an almost straight line towards the main Power Plant.
Or rather, the huge Dome that has been covering it for a few years by now.
Not a soul left behind, no signs of splitting up or turning back—
And Alex knew better than to try anything stupid, too.
He didn't want to end up teleported somewhere random again.
Because, yes. This must have been deep inside the Teleportation Field by now. Even if he couldn't see the bubbles this time, he could almost feel their presence.
The tracks continued, and as he followed them—
He finally spotted that tank, and the BTRs, too.
They formed a wedge-shaped roadblock in front of the Dome as if to shield its entrance, but—
There should have been no entrance in the first place.
And with no sign of the soldiers—
That many couldn't fit inside those troop carriers, so were they staying behind?
The visibility from these things was so bad, they should have left some forward observers.
And all he saw was two silhouettes lying low.
Not in uniform.
So they were not with the Monolith, and realising who they might have been made his heart beat faster. He'd been chasing them for a while now, and if he got a little closer—
"I wouldn't do that, Major," a warning came out of the blue.
And while the voice sounded familiar, it still made him jump and spin around.
Corporal Sokolov.
And he wasn't alone.
"Unless you can turn invisible, like Konrad, I wouldn't move any closer to those BTRs," he said. Pointing out the two on the flanks, he even added, "They have night-vision, and that one—"
"Yeah, looks like the newest thermal," another soldier nodded along.
One of the four new faces that he hadn't seen so far.
"W-wait," the Major muttered. "Are these—"
"The lost aircrew you've been looking for?" one of the strangers asked. "Yes. And I heard you've been after me, too, Major Degtyarev. Nice to meet you, I guess. The name is Captain Bandera."