THE MILL

The fifth song in the series.

## Plot

Stalking has always been more of a side thing for Olya, her main job being the head of the Facility's Logistical Department. Her knowledge and sometimes deliberate changes in both transfer and patrol routes used by the Facility have been of invaluable help to the stalkers. Nonetheless, a lot of them harboured a certain distrust of her, especially when it came to her coming along for the Zone missions. First of all, it's pretty much unheard of for a woman to be a stalker (due to the dangerous and often physically straining nature of the job, as well as the effect the Zone may have on one's reproductive system) and, second of all, no matter how many missions she’d go on, Olga never seemed to develop any sort of "feel" for the Zone or its anomalies - the so-called Talent that every stalker possesses. They either saw her as a double agent or a bored rich girl trying to play around with something far beyond her.

Still, a few of them had a lot of respect for Olya - Sergei especially so. Him, Nikita (the glasses man) and Nikita's brother worked with her on a regular basis, though one of them never trusted Olya completely, seeing her as dead weight at best.

Nikita's dislike of her grew even more potent after Sergei failed to rescue his brother from the meat grinder. He got away with his side dissolved, while Olya lost her eye, but even so, Nikita believed that if Sergei wasn't playing favourites, his brother could have been saved (which isn't entirely untrue).

The real extent of the tension between them went unnoticed by Sergei, partially because of Olya's unwillingness to bother him with her problems and partially because of Nikita's unwillingness to confront the man about it - Sergei was already ridden with guilt after losing a friend, and pressuring him about Olga would neither bring the brother back, nor change his attitude towards her.

They kept being sent on missions together. While they would protect each other from walking into traps and such, there was a clear sense of bitterness between them, which sometimes escalated into passive confrontation.

Olya never thought of herself as guilty for the brother's death, but she'd be lying if she said Nikita's words never got to her. In any case, she'd never let her feelings of inadequacy slip, especially not to Sergei.

The video is about Olya and Nikita accompanying Yura on his first trip to the Zone. It's supposed to be a fairly easy mission to retrieve the big battery spotted in one of the overgrown safes not far from the entrance to the grinder tunnel.

Everything goes smoothly - Nikita gets along well with Yura and does most of the explaining, while Olya leads the way. They make a short stop in the hollow to eat and rest. The hollow is a small area (about 25 metres in radius), which seems to almost instantly dissolve any anomaly that crosses its border. It is not recommended to stay there for more than 20 minutes at a time, as one's flesh will begin to dissolve as well. It is located directly above the meat grinder.

When retrieving the battery Yura finds a little glowing trinket. After Olya and Nikita assess that it should be harmless (though of little value), he happily collects it.

Throughout the trip Olya is mostly lost in thought. She went into stalking to try to add some thrill and purpose to her life, but, as magical and exciting as it was in the beginning - even with all of the ugly aspects of that job - even that eventually devolved into something routine and meaningless. She has Sergei, but is too scared to open up about her problems for fear of being left alone. Nikita left his girlfriend after she got pregnant - who's to say Sergei wouldn't do the same?

On the way back, however, something unexpected happens. The border troops that were supposed to be patrolling the other route catch the gang by surprise. Any trespassers are shot on sight - Nikita is the first one to go down. The guard, however, halts as soon as he recognizes Olya, just before being shot by the panicked Yura.

The other guards rush in to arrest both him and her, not daring to kill their supervisor.