Babic, Serbin and Milcenko, the three great friends of the Obolon neighborhood... More brothers than anything else. Me, unemployed for so long. Another dead. And the third, missing for too long. The last time I heard from Serbin was the day he said "goodbye" before leaving for The Zone. I was one of the few who knew about it.

That's why today a tear escaped me when I saw a package with the name “Serbin” written on it: it means he's alive. When I opened it I found only a note and a key. The key is labeled “Lesser Zone North Gate”. The note, I would have preferred not to read it. “If you read this I will be dead. Just in case it happened, I paid a bandit to smuggle out of The Zone this box with the key and a message: with one artifact from The Zone you will earn more than you did in a year in that foundry. This key opens the way to a lot of money. Dangerous, but worth it all the same”.

On its reverse side, the text continues: “Here is the contact who passed me on to The Zone: a perimeter military man named Corporal Litvin. Get your savings ready and call him at this number. Be very careful and follow his directions strictly.”

I didn't want to go to The Zone, but on the 23rd day of photocopying resumes I said to myself, “Just as I got in, I'll be able to get out. One artifact and I'll be back”.
I pulled the package out from under the bed and called the number. “Litvin?”. After a brief conversation I received precise instructions: 20,000 rubles, dates and places. Surprisingly, Litvin offers a fairly comprehensive service.

A few days later, I was already boarding a bus. For four weeks I would sleep on a bunk bed in a small village, as close to the perimeter as possible and full of military men exercising their arms with vodka at the bar. Litvin greeted me almost as if I were a spy. Terse, rude but serious. Somehow reliable.

In addition to quasi-accommodation, Litvin's valuable and expensive service consisted many evenings of basic, terse, direct, no-holds-barred training on weapons, histories from "factions", survival and some tricks to combat dangers I couldn't even believe. Of course, money up front. There went all my savings. It was now or never.

Then one afternoon Litvin phone to me: “We won't see each other anymore and you don't know me. At 10 p.m. go to the station lockers and open No. 46. The code is 9621. Inside is all your equipment, the weapon you know well included. Don't be an idiot and hide it.”

Following his instructions strictly, I headed north through the forest, towards the great Perimeter Wall. At the star-shaped rock, I turned and walked for another hour. Hide, waiting for exactly 4 o'clock in the morning, until the changing of the guard. Litvin was right: no substitute today.

I ran to the small door and dialed on the pad the password he indicated by him: 1268. Fuck Litvin, for looking like the crudest scam it's the best service I've ever received. Faster still I passed a short tangle of corridors. And there it was, the last door.

When I opened it, I realized that it was already dawn. The tension had made the hours fly by. But there it was, The Zone. My senses, alert as never before, received stimuli I had never imagined: smells and sounds that could only be found on this piece of land.

I closed the door behind me and the pad sealed and changed your indicator to red. Alea jacta es. Let's see what The Zone has in store for me.

I knew this day would come, but that doesn't stop the sadness of seeing your father's coffin. A little very distant family that is left was here. Besides, my father made many friends during his lifetime. It didn't escape my notice that there was old Sinenko, yellow and red for bending his elbow too much.

After the funeral service was over, we forgot our sorrows and drank a toast at the bar. In the background, Sinenko called out to me. "Your father would have liked your crazy uncle to have been there. You look a lot like him". My uncle is long gone. It's no secret to anyone that he was one of those denizens of the strange Zone.

"You know, I was in The Zone, but I escaped quickly. I saw your uncle, even though it's not easy. He made a big name for himself, he's a myth. They call him Hermit." Hermit? My uncle was a character and he would certainly adapt to living anywhere. What's more, he would turn the place upside down with his reflections.

I think Sinenko saw something in my eyes. "Look, you're still young enough to go to The Zone, though I don't want to be the one to blame for your death, but if you find your uncle you could get him out of there. He's the only family you have left. And my only friend anymore. It's too long". He was right. And there was something, like a magnet, calling me to The Zone. I had nothing left to lose.

Some time later you would be surprised to see me in an old Lada driven by Sinenko on the way to Chernobyl. Our journey was short-lived: a military checkpoint on the perimeter. We stopped and fuck, the military formed up like springs in front of Colonel Sinenko.

After showing them papers, photos and trinkets, the barrier opened and we continued on our way to The Zone. One checkpoint after the other. Don't think I'm a madman: in the boot I had equipment and ‘gifts’ from my late father and his colonel friend. Since I was in the army of course I knew how to use a gun. And I was determined to find my uncle: Hermit, my last relative. I don't know whether to get him out of there or just have a drink and ramble on about humanity with him.

Not so far away the huge perimeter wall was already looming. Sinenko swerved and we crossed several very side roads, until he suddenly slowed down near a bridge, on a part in front of the wall.
"This is it". He opened my door and as I picked up my equipment he said, "I'm sorry this old man can't come with you. But if I were with you, I would search the Burnt Forest. It's the last clue I know: an abandoned village in the Burnt Forest. Fuck, the fucking Hermit is a legend, I'm sure someone knows something about what happened to him".

If I was fast, the way was clear. No idea how Sinenko knew the place, but I started running and the last thing I heard was "The Burnt Forest!". By the time I realised it had passed. I was already here, let's start the search, uncle.