By: Hoaseng Thao

Note: This is a student generated work of short fiction based upon an online game

Hello my friends, if you are reading this, then this is a message to the outside world from within The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Why am I writing this? Well I wanted to show to the world what life is like in the Zone as a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

My name is Uni, I am a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and if you do not even know what a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is, then I will tell you. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Stalker, is an acronym containing the words, Scavenger, Traveller, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, and Robber, all of which describes the basic Stalker who of course, stalks The Zone.

I originally came to Ukraine to enter the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, or most widely known by all Stalkers as “The Zone”. The reasoning for my entrance into The Zone was of course, for the wonders of adventure and the money that I can get from it, but of course, all of that baloney was just to lure unprepared Stalkers into entering The Zone so they can feed it’s inhabitants.

Originally, I entered The Zone as a Mercenary Stalker, a faction that has its headquarters in the Dead City, just south of Limansk and north of Yantar. In the first few days in The Zone, I was inexperienced with the surreal wildlife and the anomalous creatures that made their home in such a terrible spot on the planet. My first few missions as a trainee Mercenary, was to help deliver packages from Mercs in Dead City, to members of either the Freedom faction or the Bandits, the latter I am not so fond of.

But as I gained more experience in The Zone, the better reputation I had with fellow Mercs and other Stalkers, and the better I was at fighting both The Zone’s wildlife alongside the countless brainwashed Monolith soldiers that scatter The Zone. If you don’t know already, the soldiers within the Monolith faction are essentially brainwashed into worshiping a shiny rock in the heart of the Chernobyl Power Plant, and I personally like to refer to them as the “Shiny Rock Lickers” because of that.

After a few weeks of surviving in, and doing tasks within, The Zone, I decided to head to Yantar to help pay for an ecologist that I already forgot the name of, for an exquisite piece of headwear known by many Stalkers as the Psi-Helmet. After paying the guy 20,000 roubles or something like that, he told me to wait two full days for the damn thing, but being a goodie two shoes of a Mercenary, I decided to sleep in his little research laboratory for a couple of days before receiving the headgear.

After receiving the Psi-Helmet, I was then told by the ecologist to turn off the Miracle Machine that could be found inside a laboratory known as Lab X-16 which couldn’t be turned off because of the Psi emissions that would fry the minds of any Stalker trying to enter that place. Knowing that I had the Psi-Helmet on me, I decided to enter the Lab as a favor for that Scientist. I’m not going to explain what happened in that lab as it was quite easy to get through besides the many Blood Suckers that somehow found their way into the lab.

After turning off the Miracle Machine, I was then ordered by the same ecologist, to turn off another machine known as the Brain Scorcher in order to stop the strong Psi Emission it blasted. Apparently, from what many Stalkers I came across told me, is that the Brain Scorcher was actually turned off at some point by Ukraine’s Chief Scientist Consultant, Strelok, but after a few years the Stalkers of the Monolith faction decided that they should turn it back on again.

In preparation for the mission, I decided to buy and upgrade a Mercenary Exosuit to prepare for the retaliation Monolith would already have for me when I finish the mission. Armed with a Rifle and Shotgun, and armored with one of the best equipment The Zone has to offer, and as I descended down to the labyrinth that held the Brain Scorcher, I could already feel the Psi-Emissions that the Brain Scorcher was blasting out.

With a limited amount of time before the Psi-Emissions would kill me, I bolted through the many Bloodsuckers that lived in that labyrinth and turned off the Brain Scorcher before the thing could kill me. After turning off the machine, I quickly exited the labyrinth as Monolith Stalkers began to rush my position, and as I exited the area, I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that it was finally over.

After some time, I decided to rest near a campsite as the moon began to shine down upon me, and there I was able to eat a can of Tuna before looking at my PDA for any new messages, and there was one that caught my attention: “Loners have declared a ceasefire with the Mercenaries” it said on my messages.

I made my way down to Rookie Village, the supposed headquarters of the Loner faction, a faction that was originally hostile to us Mercs but when I turned off the Brain Scorcher, they became more friendly to us. There in the Rookie Village, I met a trader named “Sidorovich” who scammed me of a few Artifacts and a female Stalker named “Hip”.

I was able to talk to Hip, who then asked me to find a TOZ-34 Bizon for her client, I accepted thinking that it would be easy but in reality I found myself running across The Zone, aimlessly looking for this weapon when I then asked other Mercenaries on the PDA where I can find a TOZ-34 Bizon.

Apparently, I had to go to the flea market to buy it, but when I went there, I had to pay around 90,000 roubles for the thing, and after paying for the damn thing and returning back to Hip, I later learned that her client died a few days ago, and knowing that, she decided to pay me back before asking me to help her with finding a couple artifacts for our good ol’ friend Sidorovich.

Hip needed help finding a Moonlight artifact, a Fireball artifact, and a Wrenched artifact, all of which I had to find as she watched me get sick from both radiation and a lethal dose of bullets. During our hunt for these artifacts, I decided to help a faction known as Clear Sky to help defend their pump station from an enemy faction, but as I entered the pump station and readied their defenses, I aimed my rifle scope at the enemy, and realized who we were fighting. We were fighting bandits, a friendly faction to us Mercs.

I can not describe what happened later but all I could say was that my reputation was ruined and the trust I had with fellow Mercs and Bandits was now faltering. I was left distraught and my morals seemed to be fleeting, but I knew that I had to move forward and rebuild my reputation from the ground up.

After that mission, me and Hip found the last remaining artifacts and we gave them to Sidorovich who gladly accepted and told me that the Freedom faction asked that Hip do another mission for them. After finishing Hip’s mission, she then told me to meet her at Rookie Village tomorrow night to which I told her about the mission from Freedom and she then told me her story of being a former Freedom member and how she doesn’t trust them as much as before.

After talking for a few bits, we decided to do a simple task of transporting medical supplies for Freedom before returning back to Rookie Village where we then parted ways. I returned back to Dead City, and looked at myself in the mirror and only saw a blood stained person across from me. I knew I couldn’t stand being a part of the Mercenaries any longer, so I returned to the Great Swamps to join the Clear Skies faction, to help their mission of healing The Zone.

Well, that is the story of my life as a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and if you are thinking about entering The Zone, then I highly recommend entering it via this link:

• https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi3jZDe-q7 _AhVYjYkEHVPqBjwQFnoECAEQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.moddb.com%2Fmods%2Fst alker-anomaly&usg=AOvVaw11tb4DZiBbSAmP-J_aijHA