The Tuzla tunnel is one of the least used routes in the Zone. Even the Darkscape tunnel sees more travellers every week than Tuzla sees in months. This is mainly down to its treacherous nature, before the large emission caused by Sin, it was filled with anomalies. Some of these still linger, electricity crackling on railroad tracks from Electro anomalies, chemicals seeping onto the concrete from Fruit Punches and their green or blue glow filling the tunnel with eerie light. Those who had travelled the secret path did sometimes report bizarre or frightening shadows and movements up ahead, just out of the reach of flashlights. Nobody knew if these were just figments of weary wanderer's imagination or some unknown threat.

However, for those brave souls that do seek to conquer its depths, it may very well be a cornucopia of artifacts. Those few renegades and Black Slugs with detectors spotted many during their migration to Antechamber, lining the pockets of their bosses once the underling had made this life-threatening discovery and had "an accident" with an anomaly. For Boris' squad of Redeemed however, this was not important at the moment, as they trekked quickly in the tunnel. The mood was good, despite the setting, as Felka had looted two packs of Marlboro smokes from a dead UNISG trooper and was now sharing them with Dima. As such, Dima was too busy to share his "excellent wit", and everyone was pleased. Sevka had taken the lead, keeping his Saiga pointed into the dark with Boris' Svarog in the other hand. Dimka kept the rear, having dumped his massive new VSSK to Stepukha's graces.

Stepukha quietly whistled a folk tune from Eastern Ukraine, while Sanyok and Boris speculated on possible developments in the Swamps now that all threats to Clear Sky had been eliminated. Boris was sceptical if the faction would now expand beyond the borders of the marshes, while Sanyok theorized that Cold would lead his men to Agroprom to capture territory lost by the loners earlier. Boris shrugged, saying he did not expect the military to allow that, but to be frank, it was hard to know what the Military wanted these days.

"Boris, by the way. Have you heard anything new of Dimuha and Vityukha? It's been, what, month or more since they set sights to Chornobyl. Have we heard a peep since?", Dima asked.

"Nothing. But they did speculate that the area had some sort of signal jammer. Given that we haven't seen any brainwashed Freedomers, their mission was success.", Boris replied, but some gut feeling made him question whether he truly was as sure as he tried to sound like.

"Eh, knowing Dimuha, they're taking a break at some bar, waiting until the final moment to get back to Meadow and claim that they ran into million enemies.", Stepukha chuckled.

"Lads, slow down. I think I see something up ahead, weapons ready.", Sevka whispered from the front, and everyone sprung into action.

Squinting, Boris could see dim lights up ahead. It was not the glow of anomalies they had passed a dozen times already, it was the yellow artificial light of a lamp. The tunnel had been sheer simple concrete up to now, with very little changes in the walls, ceiling and floor, but up ahead, there was a side entrance. Two lights by both sides of the entrance, with a door deeper in. They closed in on it, guns pointed at the door, but the window on it was shut. Sevka tried the handle, and the door was, surprisingly, open. He pushed it slightly and peered inside. There was a small room, roughly the size of one-person apartment, with couple chairs, a table with two crates of vodka and Tourist's Delight, and a campfire roaring in the middle.

Sevka pushed the door in and with Dima, they checked the room quickly. Others followed, and soon guns were pointed at every part of it. There was another door in the other side of the room, and its handle turned, opening and revealing a Black Slug stepping into the room. When he entered, three guns had already trained on him, and the man went pale as a ghost. Dima's rifle barked once, bursting the man's forehead with blood. Before the man had even dropped to the ground, Felka was already past him in the corridor he had come from. He rushed into the next room and surprised two Black Slugs having a meal inside, his Vikhr firing thrice before they could draw their guns. That was as far as stealth got them, as another man entered the corridor around the corner, dressed in renegade SEVA, AK-74 firing at Felka.

His armour held, but the ex-renegade was staggered by the impacts. Dima hurried out from behind him and burst from his Val struck the assailant, finishing him off. Sanyok was right on his tracks and tossed a grenade past the dead renegade's body at the sound of more footsteps. Panicked "suka" could be heard before it exploded, showering the corridor with shrapnel. Dima helped Felka regain his composure as Boris and Stepukha pushes into the scene and rolled further into the corridor with machine guns ready. Three dead bodies lay there already, and last survivor was trying to escape. Two Soviet machine guns sang, and the last renegade dropped dead. He had just made it to the door, and his limp body pushed it open before crashing to the ground.

Boris had expected more snaking corridors and cramped rooms, so the daylight flooding in completely overwhelmed his senses. They slowly advanced to the door, and when no signs of further resistance showed itself, they stepped outside. The door quite literally led to a hillside. In front of it were some construction concrete plates, a lone spruce tree and bushes. The renegades had a small camp with a fire, few mattresses and jugs of moonshine, and the sound of gunfire had seemingly interrupted their lunch. Behind the camp, rolling meadows on very varying terrain spread in front of them. Far in the distance, a village appeared on yet another hillside, further from it Boris could see some sort of radar dish inside what appeared to be a military base. Stepukha nodded towards a couple large commieblocks very far in the distance. This hill seemed to continue onwards for quite long, ending only before the town.

Antechamber. Truly uncharted territory. The Zone hid many wonders, and this was only one of them. What surprised Boris was the scarcity of anomalies, usually wherever one looked in the Zone, anomalies were as abundant as trees. Here however, only a few occupied spots among the bushes and meadows, sometimes in clumps of three to five, sometimes as solitary spots of reality-bending energies. It was clear that this area had only recently come under the influence of the Zone, and the grip of it was still feeble.

"It's almost like my home village. Well, outside of the anomalies and military base. And lack of angry babushkas chasing after you with a double-barrel.", Stepukha commented.

"What the-? Eh, nevermind, I don't want babushka mafia after me. But it does look beautiful. You would almost think we were out of the Zone.", Boris pondered out loud.

"How was it, by the way? Big Land, I mean? You visited it earlier with Mark and Anton, if I remember correct.", Stepukha asked.

"We wete only out there for a few minutes... But it felt, I dunno, normal. You know, how the Zone always lingers in your mind and body, there is just something unnerving every hour of your time here, something reminding you that it is not quite how world should be. We stepped out of the Zone, and everything just felt... richer. The air felt like it should feel, the grass looked more vivid, the terrible feeling in your gut was gone.", Boris reminisced.

"Sounds like paradise.", Stepukha said quietly, and Boris nodded.

"Makes you wonder if Duty is onto something.", Boris replied.

"They could be less of an asshat about it.", Stepukha chuckled, and Boris snorted too.

The others began pouring out of the tunnel entrance now, and each one by one took a moment to take in the new scene. Dima even removed his helmet after checking the Geiger counter, and took two lungfulls of air, letting it out with a pleased sigh. Felka proposed that they would take a break here for a moment, the long battles of the night and dawn clearly having taken their toll on the men. The others agreed, and they set up camp, clearing out the corpses from the bunker and tossing them into some bushes nearby. Sevka and Felka remained to dig a grave for them, mostly to not attract predators to the spot.

"Makes me wonder what this place was for. This feels so out of place, just few rooms by railroad tracks.", Dima pondered as they cleaned out the room.

"Possibly built by the Group to bring supplies to the Zone in a more clandestine manner? We really know nothing of how they operated.", Sanyok suggested, sitting on a creaky chair by the fire.

"Good point. Well, it is ours now, for the night at least. What's the plan next, Boris?", Dima asked, sitting down as well and grabbing one of the vodka bottles.

"I think we need to send a scout out, and I think Dimka may be our best man for the job. If he agrees, that is.", Boris proposed, turning towards Dimka who was sitting on the table, legs crossed.

"Absolutely. I'd get bored sitting here all day, and besides, unlike you paramilitary goofs, thanks to my military training I can go all day, all night.", Dimka proclaimed, and Dima promptly tossed the now empty vodka bottle at him.

"People with that much confidence were the first ones to lose their feet in Myanmar.", Sanyok said in a dead-serious tone.

Dimka scoffed and tossed the DVL rifle on his back before stepping out of the room and into the wilds of Antechamber. Stepukha decided to follow, taking the first watch over the meadows. Boris sat on the last available chair and for a moment, the three men simply sat in silence, watching the flames crackle.

"You know, it's rare these days that it's just us three in one spot. Not to sound like a softie, but you two dragging me along to build Redemption has been the most meaningful time of my life.", Sanyok said quietly.

"Dragging you along? Sanyok, I may joke at your expense every now and then, but blyat, it's great to have someone with us who actually uses his noggin from time to time.", Dima laughed.

"Absolutely agree. Dima may be one sneaky bastard with plenty of combat experience, and I may be pretty good with diplomacy from time to time, but your thinking has gotten us out of trouble many times. When things calm down a bit, hopefully, I'd like Redemption to have someone who can figure out things about the Zone, for the benefit of the faction. And I'd like you to be our head researcher, if you accept that post.", Boris commented too, and Sanyok looked absolutely flabbergasted at the news.

"Seriously? I'm no egghead though, just have my experience with figuring out puzzles and traps. Don't know what good I would do in that post.", Sanyok replied.

"I asked Zakarov to tutor you in that, and early on help with setting things up. I want us to be able to research mutants and artefacts like Duty and Freedom do, and to find applications for our combat gear with those. It doesn't need to be psi-helmet stuff like the eggheads do, but not some "poke glowy rock with stick and see what happens" stuff the bandits do either. I know you'd be good at that.", Boris explained.

"Sounds great. I'll get to work once we deal with these UNISG agents once and for all.", Sanyok said cheerily.

Boris nodded, leaning back in his chair. He thought back to a conversation he had had with Felka while they travelled in the Tuzla tunnel, and wondered if he should share another plan of his with his two most loyal companions. But it was not time for it yet. And nonetheless, it was a more personal matter, it was not important quite yet, only when it was sure that he would need to nominate a successor. Dima handed him a bottle of Nemiroff and a can of Tourist's Delight from the crates on the table nearby, and Boris took them with a faint smile. Eating the disgusting contents of the can, he thought back to the memory of the Big Land Stepukha had prodded out of him. A paradise indeed, but not without its snakes.

"Boris, come in. This is Dimka, I have located the Black Slugs headquarters, over.", Dimka's voice crackled from the short-range radio on Boris' chest.

"Read you loud and clear. What's happening out there, over?", Boris asked, hearing some concern in Dimka's voice.

"It's at the village... You better come see this yourself, there's not a single soul alive here. This... I've never seen such a scene.", Dimka replied quietly.