''I think I'll take another card, Blanket. Hit me.'' Blanket expertly threw one card face-down to Porfiry, then after hearing him say that he'd stay, turned his face inquisitively towards Match. ''Uh.. I'll stay, mate.'' ''What about you, commander?'' ''Yeah, give me a card.'' ''You want more?'' ''I think I'm busted.'' ''Alright, now Blanket, pull yourself a card til you hit 17 or beyond. Time to reveal our cards, stalkers.'' Everyone put their cards on the table. Blanket summed up everyone's cards and then started to pull cards for himself. He already had a king and a five. Then he pulled another five. ''That's good, no?'' Blanket asked to Match. ''Yeah, it's fine.'' Porfiry had a sum of 17. The commander had busted at 27. Match had 19. Blanket had won. ''I think we're doing something wrong.'' Porfiry said as he looked at Commander Basarov's cards. He had an ace, a ten and a six. ''Match, you sure you remember how this game's played?'' ''Well, I haven't played it in a while, but I was real good at it.'' ''As I said, I think we're doing something wrong.'' ''That'd explain why it's no fun.'' The commander laughed at Blanket's statement. ''I'll have to go with Blanket here.'' He said as he started pouring vodka into the tin cups everyone had. Match took a sip and immediately spit it next to his stool. The buzzing sounds answered the group's questions. ''When the fuck did that get in the cup?'' Match asked as he started stomping on the pseudofly. Porfiry swatted a piece of bloody fly that had spattered on his cheek. ''I think you got it, Match. Cut the stomping.'' Match started coughing. ''I think I'm going to puke.'' The commander pointed towards a metal barrel outside. ''Start running.'' Match dashed off from his stool as Porfiry and the commander laughed. ''Damn rookies. Say, Smoke, you remember Lieutenant Kolya who had swallowed one of those?'' ''Yeah, he had to put wire mesh on his cup after that day. How's he doing?'' The commander smiled solemnly. ''Died in a Freedom ambush a few weeks ago. They've been getting aggressive lately.'' ''Shit, I didn't know that.'' ''Well, yeah. I've lost count of the casualties here. Freedomers don't want us in the Garbage, but we're not going to let go of the outpost.'' ''If that's what you want.'' The trio gulped down their vodka as Match kept puking in the background. An hour later, Porfiry left the outpost as the others were singing in a drunken stupor into the Rocky Pass. This place had earned its name after its abundance of gravitational anomalies that had given it a unique landscape. Some of these were harmless and merely caused the ground you walked on to crack, and some of them were able to mash you onto the ground with the force of an industrial crusher. Stalkers did not frequent this place often, but it was the best way for Porfiry to get to Yantar. Going through Agroprom meant you'd have to bother with all sorts of lowlifes and creatures. Here, all you needed to do was to watch your step. He walked on and on through the treelines (going by the road meant you were asking for anomaly-propelled rocks at the speed of sound in your face), avoiding the acidic vines that were hanging on the branches. Occassionally, he'd hear a boom and duck and hear the sound of a tree cracking apart. Bloody rookies had made the place a three-dimensional minefield game. But he had been through this place before, and he had a directional anomaly finder anyway- [b]BOOM-CRACK[/b] Porfiry immediately threw himself onto the ground as the tree next to him had one of its branches shot off. His visor was peppered with wood dust and some had gone through his mesh face covering. He could taste the wooddust in his mouth along with blood, having clenched his teeth far too hard. ''Bloody fucking hell,'' He started mumbling to himself as he slowly got up on his feet again- [b]BOOM-CRACK[/b] The side of the tree burst into pieces and onto Porfiry's face. Unable to see anything, he removed his hood-mask, revealing his mesh under-mask, which, along with his clothing, made him look like a fencer in an oversized suit. It was odd for an anomaly to go off like that in such a short period of time. He slowly took cover behind the tree and started peeking through the other side of the tree. His eyes were wide open, nearly unable to open his mouth from the stress. [b]RATATACRACKATATATACRACK[/b] The sound and the muzzle flash made Porfiry realize that this was not an unusual anomaly. The tree was peppered with bullets and yet Porfiry hadn't been shot yet. Not wanting to press his luck any further, he pulled out his pistol, threw himself onto the ground once more and started groaning. In just a minute, he could feel someone walking towards him. This was it. ''You think you got him?'' ''Don't you hear him? Of course I got him!'' Porfiry could see the man clearly now. Tracksuit, AKM, magazine pouch full of holes and old boots - lucky bandit. Obviously a rookie too, as he wasn't pointing his gun at Porfiry. Porfiry took this gesture of good intent to heart, filled him with bullets and watched him topple to the ground. ''Who's got who now, bitch?'' He grunted under his breath as he took a more favorable position and counted how many shots he had fired. Six or seven. Didn't matter. He still had enough for the other and he could hear the fellow moan in pain. ''Pole, fucking help! I'm dying over here! Stubborn fuck wanted to take me with him!'' Whoever Pole was, he was smarter than the bleeding man as Porfiry didn't see him go out of cover, nor did he hear any response. Porfiry was patient, however, and didn't have a bleeding friend lying on the ground. The odds were in his favor. ''Pole!'' ''You said you got him!'' ''I got him, just not enough!'' Pole was smarter than the bleeder maybe, but he wasn't smart enough to make sure Porfiry really was down. He slowly slid down the hill next to the bleeding man, into Porfiry's sights. Porfiry started shooting and watched his bullets enter through the guy's thigh, his elbow and then his shoulder, near his neck. ''Fucking faggots trying to get me.'' He started eyeing the equipment of the duo. Pole had a shortened AK, with the orange, steep magazine. AKs-74u. His pistol was a 1911. Not 9x19. Incompatible with the Hi-Power. All Bleeder had was an AKM. ''I was going to lose my teeth, you fucks.'' Realizing that the two were not worth the risk to go out of cover and try to loot them, Porfiry left the two for dead (killing them would be better for the duo and he didn't want that) and kept moving towards Yantar.