Anomaly

Exhaustion, that was probably the best way to describe how she felt.

After leaving the boat it was another ten minutes of trudging through the marshland until they reached the edge of the swamp, the walk itself was a rather simple task, such exercise rarely tired her out. It was when they had made to the edge of said marsh and had to climb up a rather steep cliff face that she truly felt the lack of sleep begin to hit her.

How much she would give to have her futon back.

Thankfully their destination was at the top of the hill meaning that it was only a short few steps before their mentor told them to stop.

That was where the positives ended.

It was clear that what she stood in front of was the anomaly just by the way it looked. It was certainly something worthy of that name, she couldn't quite comprehend what she was looking at.

The earth was torn apart, at the center of which was a crater with various pillars of dirt and rock hoisted up into the air around it in a claw shape around some none existent orb in the center. It was as if the ground itself was reaching out to grab something.

The man spat as he walked over to a seemingly vibrating pocket of air on the edge of the crater. "Watch carefully." He told them, as he plucked a screw from his pocket and tossed it into the air.

The pair watched in horror as the bolt was instantly stopped in its tracks. It began to spin faster and faster as the sound of rushing wind grew louder and louder until in a flash of light, and a loud bang. The bolt no more.

"That. Would that happen to a person?" Mako asked eyes still fixed on where the bolt had been.

Their mentor turned to face them. "Yes, it would, which is why it's important to make sure you have enough bolts to find a path towards the artifacts that are formed in such anomalies."

"Wait." Saori started. "These artifacts. They're in there?" she asked pointing to the claw. Too which the man nodded. The look on Saori's face in response was a mixture of dread and hopelessness. Falling onto her rear she shook her head. "I can't do this." She muttered.

"I'm sorry but you don't have a choice." The man said without a shred of sympathy. "Would you rather die far away from home cold and alone?"

"Rabid animals, these anomalies. We were just regular teenagers going to high school. We never planned for this. We were never given a choice!" Saori retorted.

"So what are you going to do?" The man asked stepping closer. "Just curl in die. Perhaps feed yourselves to the local mutants to get back at us for pushing you? Or maybe just turn your guns on yourselves and pull the trigger?"

"No!" She shouted.

The man crouched down getting uncomfortably close to the girl. "Then what are you going to do?" He started. "Like I said before you don't have any choice, its either fight or die. So what are you going to do? Are you going to be like the two I taught before and die? Or are you going to fight."

"I... I don't want to die but. This is too dangerous."

"So what? Are you going to make your friend here do all the dangerous work while you sit on the boat hoping to one day get home?"

"Stop," Mako said interrupting the argument. "Give me what I need and I'll do it." Saori staired at her unsure as to what to say. Mako looked to her, staring into her eyes telling her without words not to worry. "I'm... smaller, I can get into the hard to reach places."

The man let out a huff and stood up. "Do you have all of your equipment on you?" Mako nodded. "Take out your devices."

She did. The man pointed to each of them explaining their purpose as he did. "This is your Geiger counter. It monitors the radiation in the area, and emits a clicking sound which gets faster the more there is. Keep an ear on the noise, if it gets close to sounding like a consistent beep, you need to leave."

Mako looked over the device. 'It would be good to keep it close to my head then.' Sticking it in her chest pocket she looked to the other device that wasn't her PDA.

"That, is your artifact detector, an echo model if I'm correct. Unlike more modern detectors these will only guide to the location of artifacts via a simple beep and a light that gets progressively faster the closer you are to it."

"Couldn't I simply look for them with my eyes?" Mako asked.

He shook his head. "I don't understand it, but artifacts are usually impossible to see with your naked eye, only junk that no one would pay for is visible."

She couldn't help but purse her lips. 'Great.' The device in her hand had a small blue tube light protected by a small piece of metal that acted as a guard hooked up to a hinge at the top of the device. Turning it over onto its side revealed it's on switch.

Flipping open the guard and turning it on, the light turned blue and a small distinct beep filled her ears. "Good there's one nearby." He said before bringing his backpack to the front and rummaging through it, soon producing a small metal case. He opened it and pulled out a bottle of thick pills and handed it to her. "This is Radioprotectant. It will reduce the amount of radiation your body will absorb. Not quite sure how it works but it does."

Looking over the pill case. She opened up and poured out a few of the dull grey pills into her hand. "Can I have some water?" The man said nothing handing her the same water bottle she had drank from during lunch.

Popping the pill into her mouth, she took a swig of water and struggled for a brief moment before it went down. Letting out a cough, she passed the items back to her mentor. "Shouldn't I have a gas mask or something along those lines?"

The man let out a small sigh. "That's more for chemicals then radiation. Now before I forget." Reaching over his shoulder, he pulled a strap over his head connected to a bag that hung at his hip. "This here is a lead-lined bag, the artifacts will more often than not give off radiation, so this will protect you during transport back to Skadovsk."

Taking it, Mako hung it from her shoulder. Looking back to her mentor he gave her a simple nod, as confirmation that it was her time to shine. Taking a deep breath to steady her heart. She reached into her pocket that contained the bolts and opened the box, making it easier to grab a replacement.

With detector in one hand and bolt in another, she walked over to the edge of the "claw". Her Gaiger counter began to tick as she drew closer, however, she also heard a different beep that didn't come from her detector.

"Your detector also detects anomalies, so if you're hearing it now, that means an anomaly is most likely in front of you."

Tossing the bolt in front of her confirmed what her mentor had just said. Biting the inside of her lip, she wiped the building sweat on her brow.

"Mako you don-"

"Enough Saori." Mako retorted cutting her off. Circling the crater, the blue light of her detector began to pulse faster and faster.

When she reached an opening where her detector was silent, she climbed up and hopped in. Her pulse was beating faster and faster keeping pace with her Geiger counter that had steadily increased in tone.

She developed a rather strict routine within moments of entering the crater. Toss a bolt. Move forward. Pick up the bolt. Check her detector. Rinse and repeat.

However, there was so much beeping it got to her rather fast, the Geiger counter tick, the anomaly detector and artifact detector were beeping. All of it ringing in her ear.

Tossing yet another bolt it landed without incident. Stepping forward she knocked a rock with her boot sending it into an anomaly that was just next to her. Causing her to take a step back in reaction to how close she had been.

"Stay calm!" Her mentor shouted. "The last thing you want is to stumble into one of these things." Against her better judgement, she took a deep breath and composed herself. She didn't know if it was a good idea with all this radiation around her, but at this point in time, she didn't care.

Following the detector was a hustle in and of itself. Without any clear direction as to where this artifact was, Mako was essentially stumbling around in the dark. Or rather stumbling around in the dark with boobie traps placed around every corner.

However, after what felt like hours, she soon found heading in the proper direction.

Step.

Bolt.

Step.

Bolt.

The detector's light was soon constantly on, its beep was no longer segmented by spans of silence. She was here, but where was it?

Taking another step, a blinding light, appeared on the ground in front of her which soon faded to reveal a strange-looking flat rock with crystals forming on the edge in small clusters.

Reaching down she picked it up, and looked it over, she couldn't quite tell what made this thing so valuable, it seemed like anything you could find down at an open-air market being sold by some foreigner with a strange accent.

Shacking herself awake, she opened up the bag and stuffed the artifact inside. Looking back to her detector she had found that it had gone silent.

"Good job. Now come back here." Her mentor shouted.

Letting out a sigh of relief. She followed the path she took to get to this point. Tossing bolts just to make sure she didn't mess up and end up a red smear on the ground.

Upon reaching the edge of the crater she was met by her mentor who offered a hand to aid her in the climb out of the anomaly. "Now that wasn't so bad." He said with a light smile before shooting a glare at the ginger. "So what did you get?"

Mako in the process of shutting off the various devices could only shrug. "I don't know, it was this weird flat rock with clusters of crystals circling around the center."

"Ah, a stone flower. That should go for a good eight thousand rubles if you're lucky." He replied. Both her and Saori's eyes went wide at the amount they could make. Eight thousand must have been quite a bit of money, and if they made that only off of this. They could get home in no time. "Now, you're probably still irradiated even with those pills I gave you. So you're going to have to detox the way we do it here in the zone. But that's going to need to wait until we get back to the Skadovsk so let's get going."

The man said nothing more and simple walked off back in the direction of the old ship. Jogging to catch up to him, Mako couldn't help but wonder what he meant by detox the zone way.

xXXXx

Before she knew it, they were back on the Skadovsk, they had sold their artifact for around seven thousand rubles. It seemed like a lot until she learned the price of food. A single can of beans went for around eight hundred and that was just a single meal, water was cheaper than that, a bottle going for around five hundred, but as she did the calculation it only pointed to them spending most of their money on just surviving.

That didn't even take into account ammunition.

Perhaps that was the reason why her stomach was churning over. Or perhaps it was the smell of the liquid placed before her on a makeshift table in the common room of the ship.

"This is what you meant by detox the zone way?" She asked, looking at the small glass before her filled with the clear liquid. She wasn't sure what this liquid was, but the fact it smelled of rubbing alcohol gave a clear indication that this was some sort of alcohol "You do know I'm sixteen, right?

The man showed no indication of care. "There's been a rumour that has been around since the first Chernobyl disaster that alcohol such as this or red wine, helped the body deal with radiation. Something about increasing your metabolism. So practically everyone around her practices taking a few shots of vodka after trudging through a radioactive area."

"Then, uh why do I have a shot in front of me?" Saori asked from her seat beside Mako.

The man looked to her annoyed. "Because it's to get you used to the taste.

The pair looked at their drinks, uneased by the smell. Glancing around the room, she found most of the stalkers that had been chatting when they had arrived, had taken a keen interest in watching their first taste of alcohol. No doubt expecting a volatile reaction.

Mako looked back to the drink and swallowed her fear. It smelt awful but it looked like water. So it must be at least somewhat good.

Grabbing the small glass, she raised it up to her mouth and in a single motion, slammed it back.

And immediately regretted it.

Not only did it smell of rubbing alcohol, but it tasted just as bad as it smelt. And the burn that followed suit, it felt as if she had just sanitized her entire mouth throat and esophagus. Tear filled eyes shot wide as she slammed the glass back onto the makeshift table, coughing all the while.

But the burning did it not end. For what felt like hours everything burned and showed no signs of stopping.

The best she could do was focus on other things. Such as the fit of laughter that had taken the bar by storm. She couldn't blame them for laughing at her suffering, seeing a young girl try whatever devil water this was would be funny to people that had to do what she had just done for a living.

A hand on her back sent a jolt up her spine. "Mako... are you alright?" Saori asked, receiving only a glare in return. "I... uh sorry."

"Come on ginger, it's your turn." He said putting the spotlight on her. The ginger pursed her lips and took hold of the glass with both of her trembling hands and slowly brought it up to her mouth, sipping it for a brief moment before her eyes shot wide.

"Bu" *cough* "rns" She muttered struggling to get it out.

Their mentor let out an annoyed sigh, "your friend had the right idea, you need to drink it all in one go."

Saori looked to the smaller girl for encouragement but only a shrug in response. Mimicking what Mako had done, Saori brought the glass back up to her mouth and just like Mako had done, drank the rest of it in a single go. Her reaction rather similar, the coughing, the grabbing at the throat. It was almost like looking in a mirror for Mako.

Laughter once again erupted from the spectators, all of which were having a good time watching the pair suffer.

Even their mentor was chuckling. "It may suck right now, but give it a few minutes and you'll start feeling warm and happy. Another perk of Vodka."

'Vodka?' Mako thought, 'That's what that was.'

"I should get going though, it's only four and I still have stuff that I need to get done." He said standing up and putting on his backpack. "I'll be back tomorrow around the same time and we'll continue do what we did today. Oh, and you can keep the bottle and glass. Think of it as a reward for a hard day's work."

Mako watched as the man picked up his gear and left, heading to the door, when a sudden question popped into her mind. "Wait!" The man stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. "If Momo and Yuzu were here in the zone, could that mean that some of our friends are out there?"

The man shrugged. "Who knows, they could very well be, but you would have to ask around. Best find a way to learn Ukrainian."

Pursing her lips, she looked back to the bottle. A hard day's work?

xXXXx

As the day wound down, Mako and Saori soon retired to their room with a single new backpack in hand. It wasn't anything special, a simple school backpack that was rather cheap costing just under a thousand rubles.

For supper, they bought two water bottles, a can of corn, a can of ravioli and two spoons. All of this came out to just under four thousand rubles, which left them with two thousand three hundred for breakfast the next day.

This, however, left Mako with a rather important question. Considering how expensive food was here, should they attempt to maintain the three meals a day that they were used to, or cut back to two?

Sighing, she shovelled another spoonful of cold corn into her mouth. She was too tired to think about this, the bed that she was currently sitting on was too comfy to ignore. Tilting her head back, she scooped the rest of the can's contents into her mouth, before placing it next to their new bottle of alcohol and their discarded jackets. If there was one good thing that came from that bottle it would be how warm and relaxed it made her feel even in this strange hell hole of a place.

"Hey, Mako." Looking towards Saori who had gotten to bed faster than her. Their eyes met, the ginger-haired girls were red, and visible tears filled their corners. "Why does that man hate me." The girl wiped away the tears. "I'm not... bad for acting the way I did, right? I've been attacked by a dog, had to fire a gun, learned of my fellow students' death. That justifies what I did right?"

Mako took in a deep breath, the first words she had said after their mentor had left and these were it? "I don't think he hates you."

"But the way he talked to me. He hates me."

Mako shook her head. "He was in charge of training, those student council girls and they ended up dead, he's probably just trying to make sure that doesn't happen to you. He just doesn't want another death on his hands." She told the girl. "Why are you bringing this up now and not when we were out in the field?"

The ginger said nothing in response only clenching the blankets harder. Moving off of the bed, Mako pulled the covers open and slipped inside. Before she could get comfortable the arms of her friend wrapped around her and pulled her close.

Surprised she attempted to look back at her childhood friend, only to be stopped when she felt the girl's forehead on the back of her neck. "Do you hate me?" She whispered.

"What?"

"Do you hate me?"

"Why would I hate you?"

"I forced you to go into that anomaly to grab that artifact."

Letting out a breath, she turned to face the wreak of a girl. "I couldn't hate you Saori. Just you being there, after..." Mako tailed off as the memories of that day slowly came back. "Just the fact you stayed by me was more than what I could ever do in return.

The arms around her tightened into a constrictive hug. Mako could feel the girls tears on her cheek. Unsure as to what to do. Mako only wrapped her one free arm around the girl. "There there." She muttered in a robotic tone, lifting the phrase from one of those movies her friend used to force her to watch.

Before long, her friend was fast asleep. Leaving her alone in the room, she quietly attempted to remove herself from the girl's grasp but it was impossible, her grip on her was as strong as a lion with a gazelle in its jaw.

Letting out a quiet groan, she simply attempted to get comfortable and reflected on the day.

Their first true day as stalkers were done, things were learned and danger had been avoided. What would tomorrow bring? She wasn't quite sure but resigned herself to trying to figure out that one in the morning.

Closing her eyes to the sound of her friend's soft breaths she soon found herself in the all too familiar void that had comforted her for countless years.