Chapter LXV: Valley of Whispers

 East of the Army Warehouses and north of the Truck Cemetery, there is an area know as the Forest Highway, a desolate place long forgotten by most. For much of its history inside the Zone, it has been inaccessible to all but the most careful explorers, as anomaly fields as thick and deadly as those found in the Meat Grinder or Symbiot anomaly cover its borders. However, there are still those in the Zone who know the most hidden of paths, taking after the legendary guide. The inviduals who have seen the Forest Highway after the anomaly fields settled and returned alive can be counted with the fingers of two hands.

There is little to see in the Forest Highway at first glance. A winding road stretches across miles of open ground, both of its sides covered by lush forest and steep hills. In a way, it might remind a travelled stalker of Darkscape, and that indeed would be an apt comparison. Its main landmarks are a forgotten Freedom base, derelict now for years, a mine and a lonely village tucked away between two rolling hills. The road leads from Army Warehouses to Truck Cemetery, and a sidepath leads to yet another forgotten part of the Zone, the Old Road, so heavily overtaken by fallout that none have travelled there in years.

It was this isolated valley that Mark Garlic led his companions, Anton Anomaly and Hip, into. Their hunt in Truck Cemetery and the Warehouses had been largely fruitless, but they had found a few insane souls clearly driven to madness by the mysterious Alpha Karlik. All signs pointed towards it having a lair in the Forest Highway area. Anton and Hip had been sceptical, they had never even heard of the place, but Mark had brushed off their comments with his usual resolve. While he respected Anton and saw great potential in Hip, he was the experienced hunter of the group.

The squad painstakingly slipped into the derelict base in the north part of the forgotten forest, anomalies humming, buzzing and crackling all around them. It was never a pleasant experience for Mark, Theo had shown him this route and to be frank, it still gave him a massive hammering headache to get through so large a cluster of reality bending rifts. But the old route still matched, and only thing lost during the entry was around a hundred bolts. Still, all of them sighed of relief as the last anomaly was passed. No getting mangled or burned alive today.

A large grey wall emerged in the horizon, covering the entry into the valley. Mark commented to the others that it was the old Freedom base and readied his weapon. The others followed suit. It might've been abandoned years ago, but there was no telling what monsters could have settled in there now. Thankfully for the squad, it was empty. There was a BTR-80 clearly wrecked by pseudogiant resting by the road, and large quantities of mutant skeletons laying about. The main building had a lone skeleton sitting near a table, rusty pistol on the table and a single spent 9 millimetre cartridge on the floor. Someone had clearly missed the evacuation.

• What happened here?, Hip asked quietly, clearly to avoid breaking the eerie silence too much.

• Back when the Scorcher went down, Freedom pulled their assets back to rush north. They probably intended to return, but well, the emission caused by Strelok entering the power plant was rather massive, and it caused those anomaly barriers to emerge. The Freedom leadership had other things to worry about, and in time this place was forgotten. Not that it was never much use anyway, Old Road is still more radioactive than Reactor Four and Truck Cemetery only recently became open again, Mark explained, contrasting his usual quiet and withdrawn nature. Hip nodded in understanding.

The group continued on down the road. After passing a large gate, a large plateau opened up on their right. It was absolutely crawling with bloodsuckers, and Mark ordered the others to remain quiet and move silently. So many of the beast would rip them apart in seconds. They crouch-walked past the beasts, pre-occupied in sucking a flesh-corpse dry. Further east, large will-o-wisps danced between the trees. Pyrogeists most likely, Mark thought to himself, slightly worried about the mutant numbers here. This amount of abominations could easily flood into the Warehouses and absolutely decimate the defences.

They passed the vampiric creatures unharmed. There was a bus stop ahead, and next to it a broken Ural truck. Corpses in Ukrainian army uniforms littered the road, turned to skeletons. But the odd part was, they were not on the road, they floated above it. Anton glanced at Mark, who shrugged and told the other two to give the odd phenomenon a wide berth. They happily agreed. Yet more fires appeared ahead, and accompanying them were slightly audible whispers. Mark told the others to halt with a very small hand signal, and they stopped on their tracks.

The ghosts passed them by, their eerie wailing and whispering making each member of the squad uncomfortable. But Mark's tactic had worked. Like their poltergeist cousins, pyrogeists also hunted based on movement. Thus, if a stalker managed to stop right outside their aura of influence and stayed absolutely still, they could pass the spectres unnoticed. Once Mark felt it safe enough to move on, they continued down the road. The silence of the forest felt as heavy as holding a pseudogiant with a finger. Small clouds of mist drifted between the trees, giving the underbrush a supernatural shade. Only thing that broke the silence was the marching of the trios boots.

Suddenly, a chirp of PDA's message system echoed through the valley. Anton checked the message. Apparently a stalker was in trouble somewhere further down the road. Mark looked at the message in disbelief. It couldn't be true, not in a million years. A stalker happened here, the most secluded part of the Zone, the same day they did. It had to be a scam. Hip nodded, sounded very fishy, but Anton protested. If it was a fellow stalker, then he had to be quite desperate to use the public system. The least they could do was check the situation out.

• Need I remind you that we're on a mission? A mission to hunt an illusionist as well?, Mark asked aggressively. Anton raised his hands placatively.

• I know, I know. But it could be one of the few people who know how to get there. Or some of the anomaly fields have shifted. Last I checked, the Alpha didn't carry a PDA.

• Well, what do you think Hip? Should we check it out then?, Mark asked. Hip shrugged first, but then spoke.

• I guess we can check it, according to his location we're going there anyway. Just keep your guns ready and shoot it or him, if something funny happens, Hip replied and Mark nodded.

They practically ran towards the location of the SOS, no more mutants disturbing them as they went. Fleshes and boars grazed in the hills to the sides, but looked only quickly at the group passing by. There was clearly enough food for them here to not bother attacking heavily armed stalkers. The group arrived to a small bridge, finding a beat-up loner in a Bear suit there. He looked at them with relief.

• I'm so glad someone came, that distress call was my last resort. Please, go find my friend, he ran into the mines ahead. I'll be fine but he needs help desperately, the wounded stalker pleaded, anxiety in his voice and worry in his eyes. As he said this, his eyes turned white and he lost his conciousness. Hip checked his vitals and determined he was okay for the time being, just exhausted.

Mark glanced at his companions. He was still sceptical, but seeing a real human, flesh and blood in front of him, made him much less prone to leave him there.

• I think we should search the mines, Anton murmured.

• Even if we don't find the man's friend there, the karlik could lurk there. It seems like the perfect spot. Besides, that guy is clearly a real human being.

• I agree, Hip chimed in, and Mark nodded. They scaled the hill up to a mine facility and entered its walls. It was full of derelict Soviet era buildings, but a voice could be heard coming from the mines ahead, crying out in pain.

Hip managed to glance inside one of the buildings and saw an odd machine inside. The others had already raced inside the mine entrance, weapons held high and flashlights illuminating the dugout. Hip ran after them to warn them that there could be more to this place and entered the mine herself. She told them of the machine and Mark's eyes widened.

• It sounds like one of those cursed psi-lab test tubes. I think we might've been betrayed, partly by the stalker and partly by our own incompetence. Let's get the fuck out of here, Mark yelled and they raced towards the exit.

A flashing light appeared, enveloping them inside it, and they found themselves deeper inside the mine. Mark and Anton shared worried glances, Hip cursed. And as they started looking for a way out, the mine grew darker. Their flashlights failed and a ear-piercing screech erupted inside their heads and around them, making them fall to their knees. Figures appeared from the walls and ethereal laughter filled the air.