Chapter CXXXVII: Treasure of the Forgotten Dunes

 In the old and rustic room of Yanov station a lamp swung drowzily from the ceiling. The small cramped space was lit well by it, its yellowish glow illuminating the long-time tenant of Yanov, its most trusted doctor Bonesetter. The medic scratched his head in puzzlement, as he inspected the mortally wounded man in front of him. Or well, he should have been mortally wounded, but instead the man was in the prime of his life, all wounds healed in a matter of day. Bonesetter finished his examination and his bemusement grew.

• I do not understand. When they brought you in here, you had lost far too much blood, had been riddled with bullets and I could not even count the amount of fractures in your bones. Yet two days have passed, and you're up on your feet again, no signs of damage. Spade, the guy you came here with, in turn is still healing downstairs, Bonesetter thought out loud.

• I do not remember how, but in some way, my body differs from that of my old self. I regained my former thoughts, but my body never returned to normal. I never asked for this, Psoglav sighed.

Before Bonesetter could ask more questions, another man in the colours of Redemption entered the room. It was Reefer, the former bandit underling. He nodded to Bonesetter and Psoglav before asking the latter to follow him to the tower nearby. Ascending the staircase, the two stalkers entered a room filled with other Redeemed. Boris, Dima and Sanyok sat around the table filled with empty vodka bottles, Toha was keeping watch over the trainyard with his sniper rifle and Leva was finishing up a bottle of Chornobyl moonshine. When the gathered men saw Psoglav enter the room, they cheered in a mix of relief and confusion. The reception took Psoglav by surprise.

• Ah, my favourite former Sinner! Welcome back to the land of the living, Dima quipped.

• I second that! Good to see you alive and well, friend, Leva greeted and shook Psoglav's hand.

• Uh, thanks, Dima, thanks Leva, Psoglav managed to stutter, dumbfounded by the warm welcome.

As Reefer and Psoglav sat down, Boris commenced the meeting by explaining the UNISG threat in as great a detail as he could. Leva and Reefer in turn described their run-in with mercs from the checkpoint and the military ambush. Leva revealed that after interviewing the Digger squadleader, he had learned that the mercs were indeed Dimka and Sevka, Redemption's old travel companions. Psoglav joined the conversation by demanding that they hunt down these assanssins, and Boris agreed.

Considering that the pair had made it all the way to the heart of Monolith's power, they seemed like pros, and sooner the UNISG lost them, the better. Leva, Redemption's top tracker, agreed to find them, and both Psoglav and Toha volunteered to help him. Reefer in turn would return to Meadow and begin searching for possible infiltrator cells there. Boris' squad would begin looking for possible UNISG cells in Jupiter, as the evidence pointed to them having a base there. They also wanted to examine Kopachy, which seemed to be the source of Zombified stalker attacks. With the major details dealt with, the meeting was finished and everyone set off to their tasks. Leva led his squad towards Zaton, Psoglav eagerly following to get his revenge for the checkpoint attack.

Before Boris and his companions could leave Yanov station, they were approached by Professor Zhuk again. He proposed that the squad would fetch him some artefacts, as the samples he had identified were new and particularly troublesome ones. Boris tacitly agreed when the professor mentioned Kopachy, and the scientist in his snow-white SSP suit seemed to glow with excitement. As the heavy cloud cover crept over the irradiated soil of the Zone, the squad marched by the pier of Kopachy. Dima stopped them for second as he spotted a long-lost rucksack. It was empty save for a single rusty spoon, and Dima cursed as he had hoped for some good loot or an artefact.

The radiation warning sign had almost been buried in the sand dunes, but the important part still remained. Sanyok took out his dosimeter and led his comrades through the least affected areas. The half-buried rubble buildings of Kopachy rotted away in their fallout-covered graves, the few everyday items and evidence of human life sunk in the tides of time. Bones of stalkers and mutants dotted the desolate landscape here and there, and a few gravitational anomalies pulsed on the dunes. Wind picked up dust and radiation from the dirt, forcing the three Redeemed to check their filters and gasmasks. Ahead, the wrecked town hall loomed, the excavator on its yard emerging from the dust like a mechanical monster left to rust.

And with the dust came the inhabitants of the ghost town as well. Unfortunate souls of stalkers left to wander the lands of Chornobyl, brains fried and reduced to an animalistic patterns of thought. Only two things remained from the past as humans, the ability to kill with a gun and the few incoherent ramblings they still remembered. There were roughly ten of them, slowly streaming out of the town hall. Boris ordered his men to take cover behind ruined walls of a brick house as he slid a grenade down his M16's launcher. The human husks noticed them now, and five muzzle flashes bloomed from up ahead.

Their aim was off, as it often is with Zombified stalkers. This gave Boris enough time to flip his M203's auxiliary sight and take aim. The dry thump was all that he heard when the trigger was pressed, and the projectile flew in the midst of the scorched. The grenade detonated and flung its targets towards east, west and south, the few survivors staggering back inside. Dima and Sanyok followed them in as Boris laid down suppressive fire, and with three bursts from their weapons, the last two former stalkers finished their deathless wandering. Boris followed his comrades inside the ancient building, and with the opposition silenced, they set out to search for the artefact.

• How about we make it a race on who finds it first?, Sanyok proposed.

• Ah yes, me with my damn Echo detector is going to beat you two with your Veles and Svarogs, Dima complained.

• If you didn't spend all your cash on covering your lungs with tar, you could have a proper detector by now, Boris intervened.

• Whatever, you're just nerds, Dima said with a scowl and begun tuning his Echo detector.

When he finished turning the knobs on the machine, Boris and Sanyok had already located the artefact on their screens. It was located upstairs, and the squad had to dodge treacherous Burnt Fuzz anomalies on the way up. Sanyok kicked in one hearth's door looking for stashes, but his troubles only revealed ash and long dead embers alongside a burnt piece of paper. On it was presumably some stalker's letter to his wife, sister or daughter, but it was hard to make anything out beyond "Dear Yekaterina". Perhaps he had been writing it before joining the pitiful crew now cold and lifeless outside.

While Sanyok explored the fireplace, Boris managed to locate the artefact. Dima worked as his bagger, taking out a lead-lined container while Boris worked with his artefact clamp. Avoiding the radiation burn caused by the artefact, Boris lifted the irradiated wonder rock into Dima's box and released the clamps. Now they could observe the Zone's gift more. It was a ring of sorts, a ebon-coloured rock with a hole in the middle.

• Huh. Looks like a liquorice-topped donut, Dima chuckled and closed the box.

• I believe it is called a Magnet. Zakarov showed me some of the rarer artefacts from his PDA when we were at North Hills. I think he mentioned that it is attracting the Zombified somehow?, Sanyok wondered, scratching his chin.

• Preferable option to a controller. But what is an artefact doing here? There's no anomaly fields or even anomalies here beyond the Burnt Fuzz, Dima asked.

• Perhaps it was placed here? To deliberately lure in husks towards Yanov?, Boris suggested.

• Could be. But by who?, Sanyok returned a question.

Dima shrugged, Sanyok shook his head. There were no traces here beyond the junk left behind by Zombified stalkers. The squad explored the sand dunes and rubble piles for an hour. There was little more beyond some old ammuntion and foodstuffs however, and they departed the ruined hamlet as sun begun to creep beyond the horizon. The night was descending upon the Zone, and getting caught in the village at night was a death sentence even for experienced stalkers. They found the professor examining some artefact in the partially collapsed building near Yanov. Upon setting his eyes on the Magnet, Zhuk became visibly energized.

• Excellent, excellent. This is a breakthrough for our expedition, unlike all the junk artefacts the local stalkers have carried to us. You see, we are observing artefact effects on the surrounding environment, and this particular object is theorized to emit a signal that draws in psi-lobotomized stalkers. Hence the name. Of course, now we can put the theory in action. Shall you help me see if it is true? I do not wish to draw more Zombified here, so we need to choose a secluded but easily defendable spot, Zhuk explained, and despite the dangerous suggestion he made, the man seemed to be radiating with determination.

• May I suggest the concrete factory? The road is often used by Zombified, and we can snipe them from its tower or roof. May very well be an useful spot to test the theory out, Boris proposed, and the professor nodded.

• We shall go with haste. The progress of mankind depends on it!, Zhuk proclaimed triumphantly.

• One small suicide mission for a man, one giant leap for mankind, Dima scoffed.