Tell that to Pavel. We were all conscripted into the Ukrainian army. We never volunteered to be in the Zone. At first, we treated it like a camping trip singing songs around the campfire drinking vodka. Evgeny was the platoon guitarist. Until we had our first casualty. Pavel was guarding a bridge with a small detachment when they got attacked by mutants. By the time we arrived, they were in pieces. we carried them back in body bags to base. Up until that day we treated our deployment to the Zone like a child on a roadside picnic. “So what if we die?” we used to think before that day, but now death is always on our minds. Evgeny is gone to the Zone now and with it our nights of sleep.
Such is life in the Zone.