My Dearest,

Turns out these rusty buckets were not exactly wrong. They didn't signaled close anomalies; they signalized an Emission. What's that, you ask? It's some sort of detonation from withing the Zone that shifts all the anomalies around and which does strange things to people caught too close in the open.

Hell, I remember boys saying all these zombies around the Research Institute are ex-Stalkers caught by something emission-like that dwells out there. Meh, probably yet another legend born out of anti-radiation stuff overuse.

So, good thing is - Emission means lots of new artifacts. Bad? A lot of anomalies changed place. So, I don't think we'll make it into the and out as fast as I though. But we'll manage, after all, we always did.

Huh, I feel my head tingling. Like someone freed a swarm of bees. Funny that, never felt like this. Still, I'm okay. More okay than the others, though, I caught them suddenly stopping a few times at random intervals. I wonder if they're sick?

Best of luck, and take good care of the kids.

Yours sincerely,

Mеченый

So, Day 1 has officially started. Everyone should got a role, I think. I even kept one as backup in case someone wanted to join after all. Though, I don't think that's likely. Everything should be good now.