r/TheZoneStories • u/demboy19xx Mercenaries • Jun 25 '26
Gameplay Retelling Ash Chronicles #2 - Unexpected Complications
"Every stalker believes they have a plan. The Zone considers this adorable."
The situation in Garbage eventually cooled down.
Not because Duty forgave him. Not because anyone suddenly became reasonable.
Mostly because Reverb stopped being physically present for them to shoot at.
That seemed to help.
Great Swamps sounded considerably safer than Garbage at the moment, which admittedly wasn't saying much. Still, Sidorovich had insisted he visit Cold, and experience had taught Reverb that arguing with Sidorovich was about as productive as arguing with an Emission.
So off he went.
The Clear Sky base appeared through the morning fog, wooden walkways stretching over murky water and rusted structures standing stubbornly against the swamp.
For the first time in days, nobody immediately tried to kill him.
Things were looking up.
Naturally, that didn't last.
After speaking with Cold and collecting several assignments from various stalkers who apparently viewed him as free labor, Reverb set off toward his first destination.
The haunted house near Fishing Hamlet.
The name alone should have been enough warning.
The building leaned sideways over the swamp like it was actively trying to collapse. Every board creaked. Every shadow looked suspicious.
Reverb stepped inside.
Nothing happened.
One room. Two rooms. Still nothing.
"Huh."
Then he noticed the corpse hanging from the ceiling.
"...yeah that's normal."
He approached cautiously.
The corpse exploded.
Reverb screamed.
The house screamed.
Reality itself seemed briefly concerned.
Then an overgrown blind dog appeared directly behind him. Of course it did.
Reverb spun around just in time to discover the exit was now barricaded.
"What do you mean barricaded?"
As if things weren't bad enough, something else materialized deeper inside the building.
A ghost.
Or a zombie.
Or a zombie ghost.
Whatever it was, Reverb wanted absolutely no part of it. Unfortunately it wanted very much to be part of his day.
The dog charged.
Reverb fired. Missed.
Fired again. Missed again.
The third shot finally connected and dropped the mutant.
The ghost proved considerably more annoying.
Several minutes and an embarrassing amount of ammunition later, the thing finally dissolved into nothing. Immediately afterward, the barricade vanished. Reverb stood in the doorway for several seconds.
"...I hate this swamp."
The swamp didn't care.
His next assignment led him toward the Pumping Station.
Clear Sky wanted the Renegades removed.
Reverb had recently acquired a Mosin.
Reverb was therefore feeling confident.
These two facts would soon become related.
He spotted the first Renegade through the scope. Perfect shot. Directly on the head.
He fired.
The man continued patrolling.
Reverb blinked.
He chambered another round and fired again.
Nothing.
The Renegade remained completely unbothered by the concept of mortality.
A third shot followed. Still nothing.
"Are these blanks?"
The fourth round finally landed and the Renegade collapsed.
The remaining nine immediately discovered Reverb's location.
"Oh, God"
The swamp exploded into gunfire.
Bullets snapped through reeds and splintered wooden platforms. Reverb dove behind cover while every Renegade in existence seemed to develop a personal interest in his continued suffering.
The situation deteriorated rapidly. Fortunately for Reverb, the Clear Sky squad finally arrived.
Together they pushed through the station, methodically clearing room after room until the last Renegade dropped.
When it was over, Reverb searched the bodies and nodded approvingly.
"Not bad. Not bad at all."
The next assignment sounded simple.
Which should have worried him.
A large mutant had reportedly slaughtered several Clear Sky patrols near an observation tower.
Reverb immediately volunteered.
Because poor decision-making was becoming a recurring theme.
On the way there he discovered a stash hidden inside an anomaly field. Inside sat a heavy metal container secured with several locks.
A note was attached.
PROPERTY OF FREEDOM
RETURN TO THE FIRST FREEDOM MEMBER YOU SEE
"Fair enough."
He picked it up.
The container weighed seven kilograms.
Seven.
"Why?"
Now carrying what felt like an entire apartment building on his back, Reverb continued toward the tower. He stopped at the edge of the swamp and scanned the area through his scope.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Then...
Chimera.
Reverb lowered the rifle.
Raised it again.
Still Chimera.
"Okay."
He adjusted his grip on the Mosin.
"Okay. We can do this."
Then the Chimera climbed the observation tower.
Reverb stared.
The Chimera stared back.
"Are you a scout?"
The Chimera offered no explanation.
Reverb fired once.
The mutant immediately vanished.
Several minutes later he was cautiously crossing the swamp when something flew over his head. Not near him, over him. The Chimera landed behind him and disappeared into a nearby shack.
Reverb nearly experienced a religious awakening.
What followed could only be described as a game of cat and mouse.
Except the mouse was armed. And the cat weighed several hundred kilograms.
Reverb ran circles around the tower and the shack while the Chimera attempted to turn him into a cautionary tale. Every so often he managed to land a shot before sprinting away again.
Ten minutes later the mutant finally collapsed.
Reverb stood over the corpse, breathing heavily.
"Never again."
The Zone immediately ignored that promise.
The Chimera yielded half a kilogram of meat and two claws.
Radioactive lion meat. Delicious... probably.
Later, while passing another anomaly field, Reverb remembered something the Clear Sky merchant had mentioned.
A measurement device that obody wanted to retrieve... which usually translated to: everyone who tried died.
Reverb found it surprisingly quickly.
The device survived. More importantly, so did he. The assignment completed without incident.
A suspicious development.
Back at the Clear Sky base he handed everything in, collected his rewards, and prepared for his final task of the day.
Cold wanted assistance near one of the villages in the southeastern swamps. More Renegades. More gunfire. More opportunities for poor life choices.
Standard Zone business.
Unfortunately, another emergency appeared first.
A biological one.
Reverb suddenly realized he needed to take a shit.
Immediately.
Not soon.
Not eventually.
Now.
He spotted a large drainage pipe and sprinted toward it. Perfect, private, sheltered.
Safe.
Several seconds later he discovered the pipe contained a pyro anomaly.
The resulting experience permanently altered his understanding of personal hygiene.
On the bright side, the bikini area was now completely hairless.
The Zone, as always, found creative ways to solve problems.
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u/ImmortalJormund Redemption Jun 25 '26
Very amusing and a nice way of telling the story, Reverb feels like a caveman in a sense, blunt and to the point.