“It is a Good Day to Die”

From “Truth of the Other Side”

By Bradley Cox

He finaly made it. The Chernobyl Power Plant. He could scarcely believe his eyes. In front of him stood the largest nuclear power plant in the world, and the cause of all the troubles in the world. He had lived through so much. Blind dogs, giant bats, even a large clan of dwarves who had captured him and almost eaten him had he not tossed a flash bang grenade into the middle of their squabbling over what to do with him. He had even survived being arrested by the military and going through a heavy interrogation process over the suspicion that he planed to steal military weaponry. Of course he had, but he convinced them otherwise. His trip to Chernobyl had been a rough one. He covered all the territory that he knew thinking that it would be the same, but he should have known that the Zone changes always. After several attempts to get through old territory and running into different anomalies, he finally decided to steal a helicopter for his special trip. He wasn’t going to Chernobyl for money though, the only things of value in Chernobyl were the old power rods, and of value they were. For one-quarter of a power rod you could get at least one thousand rubles. But he wasn’t there for power rods, there was something more important there, a controller that lived in the plant had run into the STALKER outside the city of Pripyat. They had a short hand-to-hand fight before the controller ran away. He seemed to be the smartest controller in the zone, almost the leader of them all, but that would be impossible because the controllers don’t work together. This controller had out right challenged the STALKER though. That was why he was there, he was there to hunt down and kill the Über Controller. He stepped through the main gate looking for the entrance to the controller’s lair. He could smell the stench of the Controller which always followed a controller around. He had tracked controllers before; it would not be difficult to find his lair which was most likely around the cooling pond. And then he saw it. Just a glimpse, he was running so fast. The STALKER took off after him immediately, just barley catching him. The controller ran through a hole in a wall and the STALKER followed. The STALKER found himself in a large room with sweltering heat and could almost feel the radiation eating at his insides. The controller sensing the STALKER’S weakening stopped running and turned around. Not watching where he was going, the STALKER ran straight into the controller and fell down. With blurred vision he looked into the evil face of the controller. Fear spread, but disappeared as the controller came down upon him. The two rolled on the floor for an eternity fighting for life. The controller, weakening from the oddly strong mentality of the STALKER, and the STALKER, weakening from the radiation, continued to fight throughout the entire facility all night and into the next day. The STALKER was attacked by numerous zombies but escaped somehow. As a final plan to kill the STALKER, the controller waited by a boiling vat of contaminated water. It was the final place that they had not fought, and the STALKER could easily fall in with his sight gone. But the plan did not work so well, the STALKER jumped the controller from behind and knocked him into an old elevator. The controller bumped the up button and the elevator rose to a catwalk directly above the vat. The catwalk was old and rusty and as the two fought they each could feel the danger that befell them. During the fight, the controller dove at the STALKER trying to knock him off but missed and caused a large wait to pull against the old supports. The STALKER, unable to see by now, jumped on top of the controller with his knife drawn and placed in the back of his neck. Had the STALKER lived through the event he would have remembered the controller’s final words before they fell into the vat, his high, raspy voice whispering into his ear, “Kill me if you must, but you will die also.” And to this the STALKER responded, “If it means the death of a menacing demon, then the honor is mine.” And with that the catwalk fell and crashed into the boiling vat of contaminated water, both died instantly.