Wishes - #1

Kirill slumped against a tree and ripped off his respirator. He took a deep breath, the cold, sweet, and slightly radioactive Chornobyl air filling his lungs as he looked up at the starry night sky. He exhaled slowly, and repeated this cycle for a few moments before lighting a cigarette in his mouth and mentally chastising himself.

You thought coming to the Zone would give you a fresh start?, Kirill thought. Sure it did, but look where it got you. Straight into the jaws of that scammer Sidoroivch. You could have just stayed in Zaporizhia, maybe got a cushy office job somewhere in Berlin, but no! You just had to go to the damned Zone, become a stalker, of all things! You′re lucky that anomaly only gave you a scare and a damaged pride instead of a slow death.

Kirill opened the lead-lined metal container in his hands and looked down at the glowing artifact inside. At least you got the goods, he thought. Maybe you′ll be able to scrounge up enough money to get out of this place some day.

Kirill stayed in that position for a few minutes before putting out what was left of his cigarette. He slowly got up and reluctantly put his respirator back on, mourning the replacement of the fresh air (no matter how radioactive it was) with the stale, filtered air coming through his mask. He began the walk south, back to the Rookie Village.

A few minutes later, he arrived at the western edge of the village. He gave a wave to Fanatic and began heading down the stairs into a cramped concrete bunker. He opened the bulkhead at the end of the winding stairs and was greeted by a fat, balding middle-aged man sat on the other side of a desk.

″Stalker! You come here with more artifacts for me?″ Sidorovich′s eyes lit up, practically smelling the money he could flip from selling these priceless artifacts to the outside world.

″I have, and you better be thankful. Damn Springboard nearly got me. This better be worth it.″ Kirill opened all five of the lead-lined metal containers and showed the glowing artifacts to Sidorovich.

Sidorovich let out a low hum as he inspected the artifacts. ″…Sixteen thousand rubles.″

Kirill nearly let out a low growl but stopped himself last second. He knew perfectly well he was being lowballed to an absurd amount, but he also knew that getting to Yantar and selling the artifacts to the Ecologists would be suicide when he had only a leather jacket, PM, and Mosin Nagant M44 to his name (but how he longed to sell these boons of the Zone to the ones who would do good with them!). ″Fine.″

Sidorovich gave a toothy grin as Kirill collected the now empty artifact containers. ″Pleasure doing business with you, stalker.″

Kirill turned around wordlessly and walked out of the bunker.

He walked into the village and approached a campfire with three other stalkers. One he didn′t recognize was playing a tune on his guitar, while the other two swapped stories. ″Hey, Kirill, come over here! Take a seat.″ The stalker he recognized as Yuri beckoned him over. Kirill obliged and took a seat by the fire.

Yuri continues recounting his story. ″So anyways, I′m at the old farm up north, you know, the one with Lorris and Xenotech? Anyways, he′s repairing my gear when a squad of Bandits showed up in the yard out the door. Bandits being Bandits and all, they′re knocking at the door shouting about skinning us alive and all that if we don′t open up. Those must have been some real greenhorns, because they only had some leather jackets and rusty old single shotguns. So, Xenotech gets up off of his chair and tells me to just watch. I've never even seen him get his ass of of that chair before. Anyways, me not being someone to mess with the mechanic, I comply. This madman, he-″ Yuri abruptly stops and laughs a bit before calming down. ″He opens the door with a bowl of candy in his hands, and asks why kids are dressing up as Bandits for Halloween now. The Bandits get pretty predictably pissed off, but the mad lad Xenotech throws the damn bowl at them. All that loose candy obscures their vision, and he guns them down with his Saiga like shitty some b-roll action movie you′d see in a back-alley theater. The guy just walked away and went back to work on my guns after that. And there′s an important life lesson for you; do not make your mechanics angry.″

The other stalker, Grisha, waves his hand dismissively. ″You know, I would have believed you, but then you had to put in the whole part with the candy. Really? There′s no way that happened. You′re just making up stories to get clout when you can finally be bothered to get out of the Cordon and head north.″

″You′ve never met Xenotech before! Come on, tell me when you need anything repaired, and I′ll take you up north to go see him. Then you′ll know that I′m telling the truth.″

″It sounds like something he would do if he got pissed that Bandits kept showing up. Most of the time when there's Bandits he just lounges around, lazy bastard. Where′d he get a Saiga, though? I haven′t seen it around the building.″ Kirill responds in support of Yuri.

Yuri shrugs. ″Beats me. Maybe he used to go on trips up north before he became the mechanic for all the glorious rookies doing mule jobs for Sidorovich.″

″If you ask me, your story is as fake as the Wish Granter.″ Grisha responds almost immediately.

″Ah, but if you asked me, I′d tell you that the Wish Granter is quite real…″ A new voice suddenly cut in.