Strelok was
never the same after his first attempt to reach the centre of the Zone. I still
remember when he returned.
Bloodied,
weary, as if he was under some sort of spell. He held out in his hand a glowing
orb. At first it looked like he was holding a ball of fire, until I
saw the edges. It was perfect, flawless beauty.
Most of us
think it was the first artifact ever found, and once news spread from the Zone
that these things were here, you couldn’t move for people sneaking in to
profit.
I patched him
up as best I could, but he spent days unconscious, reeling in his sleep from
terrifying things known only to him. What had he seen? He never said. I just
remember that his life became consumed by the need to get back to the centre.
Strelok
whipped Fang and Ghost into a frenzy of organisation for a trip I think even he
knew would fail. And it did. Despite getting to the centre, to the Power
Station, they found a door they couldn’t open, and that was the end of that.
They returned with injuries, and Strelok went out on his own again.
Aside from
one massive blowout, not much has happened since he left. The Zone remains,
Strelok is no where to be found, and the others all went their own ways. The
only thing I heard of recently was about a crashed Death Truck in the Cordon,
and talk of a Marked One, but who he is or what is actually going on...I don’t
know.
Knowing
Strelok, he’ll blow into my path again. But who knows when? I miss my friend.
