Stalker Page #2

The jerry can!

Give it to me!

Get rid of your knapsack,

it's hampering you.

You may travel light, if you wish,

as if going for a stroll.

If someone gets hit,

don't shout or rush about.

If they see you, they'll kill you.

When everything settles down,

crawl back to the outpost.

They'll pick you up in the morning.

Can they catch up with us?

They fear it like the plague.

Fear what?

Here we are... home, at last.

How quiet it is.

This is the quietest place in

the world. You'll see for yourselves.

So beautiful here.

Not a single soul here.

What about us?

Three men can't spoil the place

in one day.

Why? They can.

It's strange that flowers don't

smell. Or have I...

Do you feel anything?

I feel the stench of the bog.

No, that's the river. There's a river

here.

There was a flower-bed nearby,

but Porcupine had trampled it down.

The smell lingered

for many years though.

Why did he do it?

I don't know.

I asked him why, too.

And he said:

"You'll understand later."

I think he just came to hate the Zone.

Porcupine, that's his name?

A nickname, like yours.

He had been taking people to the Zone

for years, and no one could stop him.

He was my teacher.

He opened my eyes.

He was called Teacher then,

not Porcupine.

Then something happened to him,

something broke in him.

Though I think

he was punished.

Will you help me? Tie those strips

of bandage to the nuts.

And I... will go for a walk.

I need to do something...

Don't go anywhere.

Where's he going?

He wants to be alone, I guess.

Why? Even with the three of us

together, I feel weird.

A date with the Zone.

He's a stalker.

And what does that mean?

You see, being a stalker

is some sort of calling.

- I thought he'd be different.

- Like what?

Well, you know, the Leather Stockings,

Chingachgook sort of things...

His background is even more frightful.

Several times in prison,

then he was harmed here.

He has a mutant daughter,

"a victim of the Zone" as they call it.

They say she's got no legs.

And what about this Porcupine?

What does it mean, "was punished"?

Or was it just a figure of speech?

One day Porcupine returned from here

and got rich overnight.

Fabulously rich.

You call it punishment?

A week later he hanged himself.

Why?

Quiet!

What was that?

Presumably a meteorite fell down

here about twenty years ago.

It had burned down the settlement.

They searched for this meteorite,

but never found it, of course.

Why "of course"?

Then people began disappearing here.

They came here and never returned.

So it was concluded...

that this meteorite

was not really a meteorite.

At first...

they circled the place with barbed

wire to scare off the inquisitive.

All this gave rise to rumours

that there's a place in the Zone...

where wishes come true.

Naturally, they began to guard

the Zone like the apple of their eye.

Who knows what kind of wish

someone might cherish.

What was it if not a meteorite?

I told you, no one knows.

And what do you think?

Nothing.

Or anything.

A message to mankind,

as one of my colleagues says.

Or a gift.

Some gift.

Why on earth would they do it?

To make us happy.

The flowers are blooming again,

but they don't smell for some reason.

Sorry for leaving you two here,

but it was too early to go anyway.

Did you hear it?

Maybe someone lives here?

Who?

You told me yourself

about some tourists camped here

when the Zone originated.

There's no one in the Zone and

there can't be.

Well, it's time.

How are we going to return?

- They don't return here.

- What do you mean?

We'll go as we agreed.

I'll show the direction.

Any deviation from it is dangerous.

The first landmark is that last pole.

You go first, Professor.

Now you.

Try to follow in his footsteps.

Oh, my God! And where are...

Did they remain here like that?

Those people?

Who knows.

I remember them packing at the station,

getting ready to come here.

I was just a boy.

We all thought then

that somebody wanted to conquer us.

You first, Professor.

Now you, Writer.

Your room is over there.

We'll go this way.

Why were you hiking up the price?

It's so close at hand.

Yes, but the hand

has to be very long.

We don't have such a hand.

Don't! Leave it alone!

Don't touch it!

Don't touch it, I said!

Are you crazy? What's the matter

with you?

It's not the place for leisurely

strolls.

The Zone wants to be respected.

Otherwise it will punish.

Don't you ever try it again...

Have you no tongue or what?

I warned you, didn't I?

Are we to go there?

Yes. Up, enter it and to the left.

Only we are not going this way.

We'll go around.

Why?

People don't go this way.

In the Zone, the longer way,

the less risk.

And to go straight ahead is fatal?

He told you it's dangerous.

- And making a detour's not dangerous?

- It is. But they don't go this way.

What do I care that they don't?

What if I take a chance...

Listen, what's the matter with you...

To go all the way around!

When everything's so close.

Here a risk, there a risk.

What the hell!

You're being very flippant

about this.

I'm fed up with all those nuts

and bandages.

You may do as you wish,

but I'm going.

- You're insane.

- It's you who are...

May I?

The wind is coming up...

Can you feel it? The grass...

All the more so.

What do you mean?

Wait!

Keep your hands off!

Professor be my witness,

I didn't sent you there.

You go of your own will.

Of my own will. What else?

Nothing. Go.

God help you to be lucky.

Listen!

Should you notice something,

or just feel something,

go back at once, or...

Just don't throw iron poles at me.

Stop! Don't move!

- Why did you do it?

- Why did I do what?

- Why did you stop him?

- I thought it was you...

What's up?

Why did you stop me?

I didn't stop you.

Who did it then? You?

Who the hell knows...

You're smart, Mister Shakespeare.

To go straight ahead is scary,

to go back is embarrassing.

So you gave yourself a command.

Fear has made you come to your senses.

- What?

- Stop it.

- Why have you emptied the bottle?

- Stop it, I said!

The Zone is a very complicated system...

of traps,

and they're all deadly.

I don't know what's going on here

in the absence of people,

but the moment someone shows up,

everything comes into motion.

Old traps disappear

and new ones emerge.

Safe spots

become impassable.

Now your path is easy,

now it's hopelessly involved.

That's the Zone.

It may even seem capricious.

But it is what we've made it

with our condition.

It happened that people had

to stop halfway and go back.

Some of them even died

on the very threshold of the room.

But everything that's going on here

depends not on the Zone, but on us!

So it lets the good ones pass

and kills the bad ones?

I don't know.

I think

it lets those pass who...

have lost all hope.

Not good or bad,

but wretched people.

But even the most wretched will die

if they don't know how to behave.

You have been lucky,

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