"And you guys," I say, turning to my companions. "Stay here for now, just don't wander too far."
After receiving their nods, I turn to Pale, and we walk together to the central building. We pass through the open gates and find ourselves in a spacious room with dilapidated walls, cracked paint, and floor tiles. The stalker immediately heads for the stairs, hidden between two columns, and I linger for a moment, taking in the first floor. Wooden window frames right under the ceiling, with pipes running along its entire perimeter and long since lost their glass, and on the floor, a pile of food waste from glass bottles, tin cans, and other things. About five meters from the stairs lie abandoned mattresses, laid out around a cut-off barrel in which local stalkers make a fire. In the room, besides Pale and me, there were several other people; one stalker was sleeping on a mattress in the corner by the wall opposite me, a couple more wanderers were not far from him and kept nervously glancing to the right. As far as I remember from the game, there should be captured bandits there.
I turn my head and meet Pale's puzzled gaze. Shaking my head and giving him a sign that everything is fine, I climb the stairs after him to the second floor. To the left of the stairs is a technician, who is currently engrossed in a disassembled assault rifle, and in the right part of the room is a merchant with a makeshift warehouse right behind his back.
"Oh, Pale, you're just in time," hearing our footsteps, he looks up from the "Maxim" magazine and immediately hides it under the table. "I'm busy right now, uh... with business, you know. Couldn't you go to... And who are you?"
"Looking at your smut again, Drozd?" Pale grins. "And this is our savior from the Garbage Dump. By the way, I never got around to asking your name? I'm even a little ashamed after what you did for my group."
"Executioner," I introduce myself briefly, while examining the assortment behind the merchant. However, there was nothing particularly interesting there.
"Hah, a fitting nickname!" Pale laughs briefly, smiling contentedly, and then turns to the merchant. "Listen, Drozd. We're going to Orest now, can your business wait?"
"No problem, just tell your brother that his order is ready," the stalker replies. "And you, Executioner, if you need anything, come by. I'll give you a nice discount on goods."
"And won't you give me such a discount?" Pale says, resting his palms on the tabletop.
"Won't your face crack?"
"Give me a discount first, then we'll see."
"Go, go, you still need to see Orest."
"I'll go, but you think about the discount," Pale replies, then turns to me. "Alright, let's go. I'm sorry if anything, I didn't want to delay you."
"It's okay."
"Good then, we're going to the third floor," the stalker says, heading towards a small concrete staircase located in the middle of the room.
I slowly climb the steps, finding myself between the second and third floors, in a small corridor connecting the two buildings. Broken windows, remnants of glass, rusty pipes, and long-broken crates, the wood from which stalkers had taken for their fires, and directly opposite me, just a dozen meters away, a closed white door leading deeper into the factory premises was visible. It would be interesting to wander there, maybe I would find something interesting.
I go through the last steps and finally find myself in Orest's office. To my right is an open door to the fire escape and several worn cabinets with broken doors, similar to those in Sidorovich's bunker, and a couple of small benches. Apparently, this was a locker room, which is quite strange at first glance. However, this agro-complex itself raises many questions. To my left, in the middle of the room, stood a large table, opposite it was a dusty sofa that had long lost its luster, and besides that, there were also three empty cabinets in the corners.
"And why should we share such information with you, mercenary?" a stalker standing by the table with red burn scars on his right cheek asks menacingly and crosses his arms over his chest.
"Quiet, Burn," another stalker, who was looking out the window, replies softly; apparently, this is Orest. "There's no special secret here, mercenary. We only know that the dungeons under Agroprom really exist. But the extent of this underground passage, as well as possible passages, is not reliably known to us. At the moment, there is only one lead..."
"What is it?" Scar, who was sitting at the table with his back to us, asks impatiently and at the same moment turns at the noise of our footsteps. "Executioner?"
"Your acquaintance, mercenary?" Burn snorts contemptuously, looking me up and down, and I notice a suspicious resemblance to my escort. The same pale skin, long nose, and almost identical eyes. Is this the brother they talked about at the Flea Market? Mentally bathing me in filth, the stalker addresses Pale. "Why did you bring him here?"
"This is the stalker who saved us," his brother replies firmly, ignoring Burn. "And he, Orest, has business with you."
"You're rushing again, Burn, as always, hah," the stalker leader says with a slight chuckle, turning to face me. And before me stood a well-built man of about thirty with a kind gaze. "How many stalkers have had business with me lately. You know each other, right? You don't mind if we talk about everything together?"
"We don't mind," Scar and I say almost in unison.
"Well, well, how coordinated you are," Orest says with a smile on his tired face. "Sit down, Executioner, and make yourself at home. We are always happy to welcome good travelers, especially those who have helped us greatly. And about the lead... I'll start from afar. Currently, our base is being terrorized by two groups of bandits; one is located in a collapsed railway tunnel to the east of here, but there's nothing special there. But the second group, which is holed up on the outskirts of the swamps, might interest you, mercenary."
"And why?" the mercenary raises his left eyebrow, leaning back in his chair.
"According to the assumption of many of my guys, they somehow managed to discover underground passages leading here from the Garbage Dump," the leader of the local stalkers continues. "But the only supposed entrance to the underground is a sewer manhole to the west of us with a ladder torn from the wall. And, as you can already guess, the second group is most likely helping other bandits to get to the surface. We have no other clear assumptions why this peculiar siege from their side is still going on."
"Siege?" I ask involuntarily, leaning forward.
"Yeah," this time Burn answers without disdain and with a guilty look. "These devils attack us every night. Not fanatically, but they've drawn quite a bit of blood from us over these few weeks. And we can't do anything; on one side, bandits, on the second, and on
the third, increasingly frequent attacks by mutants. And if it's quite easy to shoot blind ones, then pseudodogs and snorks are much harder. You could say we're barely holding on... And... sigh, I'm not used to apologizing... forgive me, I'm very grateful to you for helping my brother, it's just..."
"No need for any excuses," I say with a smile, catching his grateful look and a sigh of relief. "You clearly had your reasons for such behavior, the main thing is that you apologized at all, so let's move on."
"It's good that this misunderstanding has been resolved successfully," Orest sums up, looking at everyone gathered here. "Returning to your topic, mercenary, I want to say that this is all I know, and I strongly advise against going there."
"Mmm-hmm," Scar draws out displeasantly, rubbing his forehead with his fingers. "A damn entrance, surrounded by a lot of guards, and one can only guess how many bandits are lurking in the underground..."
"It's quite possible that the Duty guys might have some remaining documents with maps of the underground passages, but I wouldn't count on them just giving away this information," the stalker leader shrugs. "But you'll have to ask them yourself. Well, since we've dealt with that, what did you come here for, Executioner?"
"In short, the free stalkers are going to get rid of Yogi and his gang," I begin to say. "But they are firmly entrenched in the Garbage Dump, and therefore Valerian is gathering as many fighters as he can under his wing. And your help in this matter would not be superfluous."
"Is that so," Orest draws out thoughtfully. "It's a good cause, but, as you can see for yourself, we are not in a state to help anyone right now. As soon as we have fewer people, the bandits will simply devour us."
"And what if I deal with them?"
"You, perhaps, are the only one who can do it. I heard from Pale how you saved them," he replies with a smile. "If you deal with them, we will come to your aid. And, forgive me, but don't count on my people right now. Many are too exhausted from the attacks to be of any use in an offensive, and I won't send them to slaughter."
"As you say, Orest," I reply, standing up from my chair and heading for the stairs. "Then I'll go. Where can one get to the roof around here to take a look?"
"I'll show you," Pale jumps up from his chair.
"I'll go take a look too," Scar suddenly says, slowly standing up.
In an awkward silence, we descend the concrete steps and continue along the covered passage between the buildings. To the left of that very locked door, a sturdy wooden ladder leads to a hatch on the roof. As soon as we reach it, the stalker stops.
"I won't disturb your conversations," he says, smiling awkwardly and ruffling the chestnut hair on the back of his head. "If you need any help, Palach, just ask, we'll help however we can, as they say."
"Alright, thank you," I reply, patting him lightly on the shoulder, and then, after watching Pale go, I turn to the mercenary. "Did you want to talk about something, or just go for a walk on the roof together?"
"Let's go up first."
Scar climbs the ladder first, I follow him. Once on top, I first feel the pleasant and light gusts of wind on my face, close my eyes for a moment in pleasure, and then open my eyes and survey the territory adjacent to the factory. The inner courtyard, the asphalt road beyond the fence, stretching to the west, a scattering of trees everywhere, and steep and gentle hills. It's quite difficult to see anything important with the naked eye from here, but I have binoculars for this purpose.
"So, what then?" I ask Scar, who was standing on the edge of the roof, looking somewhere into the distance, as I take the binoculars out of my backpack.
"I need your help," he replies curtly, turning around and coming closer to me.
"Help? And with what?"
"My next goal is to find the cache of the group called 'Strelok' – that's what they call themselves," he explains, starting to pace nervously on the roof. "And, according to the data from that PDA, it's somewhere in the Agroprom dungeons. But where exactly and how to get there remains unclear."
"But what do I have to do with it?"
"Help me find this stash, Palach," Scar says. "I'll give you everything valuable we find there; I only need the information. I can also pay you extra, though I don't have much money."
"Are you well?" I raise an eyebrow in surprise and place my palm on the mercenary's forehead. Strangely, the temperature is normal.
"So surprised, huh?" he grins crookedly, and then sighs deeply. "Let's just say I'm not happy about the prospect of going in there alone. And you're the only one here I can trust with my back."
"That's very flattering to hear, but I first need to deal with the bandits and secure help for my group."
"And I'll help you with that," the mercenary says firmly. "Just give me your stalker's word that you'll help me."
"I solemnly promise to help the mercenary Scar in his search," I say, placing my right fist over my heart. "Is that good enough?"
"Quite," he nods with satisfaction. "Where do we start?"
"By me taking a look."
I walk to the western part of the roof and bring the binoculars to my eyes, starting to search for the bandit camp. It's found about a kilometer away, maybe a little further, from the stalker base, hidden among the trees. A small clearing with a couple of tents and a fire between them, around which bandits were sitting. So, one, two, three... A total of five people, maybe more if some of them are sleeping in the tents. In principle, it would be a good idea to start the shelling from here. If my companions can sneak closer unnoticed, I'll open fire, and they'll finish off the rest, and we'll quickly deal with this camp.
"Let's go," I say to Scar, heading down towards the ladder. "I'll explain everything downstairs."