>You are silent. You thought Cordon was just a made up location. This has to be a coincidence, hell it even looks like it, with the steep dirt hill and that abandoned blue bus. Dima waves his hand over your face, trying to get your attention. “You okay friend? Stunned with beauty of town eh? Let’s go quickly, I show you where you can stay” >You silently follow Dima, attracting attention as you go. What kind of a person shows up in the Zone with a duffel bag and a travel bag being wheeled along? The red glow of the fireplace casting elongated caricature shadow of you only makes the situation even more ridiculous. >After you pass several people, you can hearing whispering and snickers behind you. Probably talking about you, no doubt. You want to yell at them, but it’ll probably make your situation worse, again sensing nothing to be done but endure you hold your tongue. >You walk briefly, stopping at a bunker door… that can’t be what you think it is. Is it? “Wait here Tourist, I go and talk to someone about your ehh.. Lodging” >”I have a name you know” You say annoyed “It’s Ano-” “Yes, but it seems that you reply to me when I refer you ‘Tourist’ and I am already used to calling you that” >You can feel the condescending smugness emanating from the man as he turns around to speak to man underground. You grit your teeth and grab the handle of your travel bag harder, you didn’t deserve any of this! All you wanted was a nice visit and a story to tell, not as gullible and naive tourist, you know that is what you are right now but you don’t need to be reminded of that every single time. You boil and stew until you feel a hand on your shoulder. It’s the driver. “I know you think he is an asshole” >”He is an asshole” you spat “If it wasn’t the fact I can’t do jack shit in this situation, I’d probably-” “Punch him?” Boris finishes your sentence. “I wouldn’t bother, it’s not worth it.” >”Is anything from the website true?” you ask ”Technically? Yes, we’ve been bringing people and things in and out of the border for some time now” >”Then why the crap looking website?” ”It was first attempt to reach to internationals, honestly. It was only joke that came up during drinking.” He said slowly smirking “I didn’t believe someone would be so dumb enough to-” He stops himself midway, looking at you “Well…then you happened” >”Can you get me out then?” you say, steading yourself after being called dumb tourist for the second time. “Currently? No. Future? Not likely.” >”Why the hell not?!” you bark, turning some heads towards you and Boris from the camp. >”I agreed to be a tourist! Not some international trespasser!” “True, but you only said you wanted to see Pripyat in the Zone” >”I swear if you pull out that monkey’s paw bullshit one more time-” “And frankly, this is highly unusual.” >”What do you mean unusual” “Dima and I have been doing this for years and during that we make acquaintances, specifically border patrols like you saw. We know, who is on which post and when. Who is in charge at what time and day and who is bendable or who isn’t” “We make our runs when our people are on station and sit back for a while when they aren’t. Technically, today was Kapitan Barisov’s turn but we got a new officer in charge” >You slowly piece things together, “So you think your other entry and exits are also switched up without you knowing?” “Correct and until we’re certain we have our people on station, we’ll be here for sometime. Not much problem for you, you are on ‘vacation’ ” >You sigh and stare at the night sky. At least it’s nice out… what’s taking him so long? ______________________________________________________________________________ Meanwhile, in the bunker /We have someone that needs to stay for a while Sid/ /Then tell him to just pick wherever and sleep there Dima/ /Well problem is that he’s a tourist/ /Like every other kids in this village, tell him to pick wherever and watch for his stuff/ /no, I mean he’s an actual tourist/ >The old man turns his head /Your drunk plan actually worked?/ > he asks incredulously /How dumb is this.. Nevermind he won't last long then, maybe even shorter than the kids here/ > he laughs. /That's not all I'm here for though. You find out why the north got cut off again?/ /Well obviously someone turned on the Scorcher again/ /Thank you Sidorovich, for the enlightening information. I need to know if we can do something about it/ /Well if the crazy stalker can do it once, I'm sure the egg heads at the lake bed can cook up another psi device/ /Yantar then.../ > Dima sighs and rubs his chin in thought /Alright, I'll go see if the North Checkpoint is clear then. Your order is in the van you want me to bring it?/ >Sidorovich simple grunts and looks at his computer monitor waving away at Dima.