Chapter Nineteen - Sleep/Dream

Alice was aware that some of her friends didn't sleep because they didn't need to sleep. Phantom Mist was like that, refusing to sleep for months at a time. She was too much of a worrywort for it. Hypertense as well, but her issue was rooted more in her constant desire to work. Why spend time asleep when she could be neck-deep in paperwork that no one really cared that much about?

Alice herself... enjoyed sleeping, actually.

If she took a step back and observed her personality, the way she acted and did things, then she might have expected herself to be one of those magical girls that put off sleeping forever. But the truth was that her magic was intrinsically linked to nightmares and dreams. She gained something real and useful from time spent sleeping.

That, and when she slept, her power felt... warmer, more solid and protective. It swaddled her like a warm blanket of nightmares, ready to lash out at the world and anything that might interrupt her rest.

The rooms that Koschei had shown them were rather awful. Small apartments that stank of mould, with no light except what came from the moon outside. The walls were mostly covered in peeling wallpaper and the furniture was all presswood that wasn't handling the high humidity and lack of care well.

Alice found the least dirty bed in the place and gave it a push. The spring could be felt through the top of the mattress, and they squealed uncomfortably loud.

She grimaced and summoned a layer of nightmares and darkness over the top.

"Are you planning on sleeping?" Crystal asked.

"I was thinking about it. We can do two shifts," Alice said.

Crystal considered it, then nodded. "Okay. I can distract myself, don't worry! I'm easily entertained."

Alice nodded. "You can have the bed when I'm done," she replied before collapsing onto the surface. The darkness puffed out, like roiling stormclouds as she crashed down, then the dark rumbled back into place, covering her from the neck down.

One of the nice things about having powers over dreams and nightmares was that the moment she wanted to be asleep, she was out.

Almost immediately, she was plunged into a dreamscape that was entirely unfamiliar to her. This world's dreams... no, they weren't entirely unfamiliar. What she felt and saw all around was cast in different shades and styles. The people of this world thought differently, their fears weren't the same, but the underlying world of dreams? That was much closer to what she was used to.

Yes, people had fears that didn't exist back on her own Earth, and that cast a certain shade across the dreams she saw, but beneath that? Beneath that, they were as human as human could be.

People were worried about bills, about their health, the health of friends and family. Yes, there were worries about the Zone, especially since the majority of those sleeping at the moment were those on this side of the world, where night had just set in.

The nightmares of monsters leaping from the dark and of twisted creatures were more common, but there were just as many from students worried over exams and soldiers dreaming of wives and young hopefuls imagining themselves as great heroes and proud Stalkers.

Alice pulled away from the dreamscape. There was... something off about it, and it took her trying to pull away to notice it.

Someone had created a sphere over the planet.

She knew that it was artificial the moment her dreaming mind found it. A metaphysical object was uncommon. One that wrapped itself around the world? One that seemed to be held up by pillars like a great construct designed to hold up the sky?

Those who dreamed closest to the pillars had their dreams warped and shifted, and as Alice examined them, she realized that those few dreamers were looping through the same nightmares, over and over and over again.

Something was very wrong here.

She traced over the world, moving at the speed of thought, and quickly found the nearest of these pillars. It was planted right in the middle of the zone.

Alice felt something touching her arm, and she woke up with a groggy blink.

Crystal was leaning over head, worried face just inches from Alice's. "Heya, sleepyhead," Crystal said. "It's time to wake up."

Alice stifled a yawn, then pushed herself so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed. "Wait... it's morning?" she asked as she glanced out of the window. The sun hadn't risen yet, but it was on its way there.

"Yup! You were snoozing real hard, so I decided to let you sleep through the night," Crystal said with a smile.

Alice frowned at her, but... she couldn't deny that it might have been useful. Strange, that the night had passed so quickly. Was that Meagan's magic seeping into the world of dreams?

"What is it?" Crystal asked, and Alice sighed.

"What's what?"

"You either really need to poop," Crystal said with a giggle. "Or you found something you're not happy about. You had that same look when you did the whole definitely-not-spying thing that one time and discovered the Americans were plotting to nuke us."

"It's... complicated," Alice said.

"Mhm," Crystal replied. "Small words then?"

"Not that complicated," Alice said. What she was trying to say was that she didn't want to go over it all so casually, but... she supposed there was no harm in sharing. "There's a weird construct in the dreams of... everyone, really. A sort of barrier over the entire planet. Or at least this region of it. I found a pillar holding it up."

"Nearer to the Zone?" Crystal asked.

"How did you know?" Alice asked in return.

Crystal shrugged. "A guess. Oh, Mister Koschei is awake. Let's get some breakfast and then we can chat more about it. Maybe next time you take a snooze you can give it a poke?"

"Hmm, I'll consider it," Alice said.

Breakfast, as it turned out, wasn't a complex thing. Koschei had sandwiches packed in a small paper bag. They were squished a little, but edible enough. "Bread lasts a while without refrigeration, so it's good for some time. Meat doesn't. It's hard to have a balanced, healthy diet in the Zone."

"Is that a big concern?" Crystal asked as she munched on her sandwich.

"It is for longer stays," the man said. "Deeper trips, longer ones, they can take a couple of weeks. You can live a long life off of nothing but canned beans and fish, but eventually that takes its toll. Best to have varied food while you can out here."

"Wow," Crystal said. "Are you like, a Zone nutritionist?"

Koschei huffed a laugh. "No. I don't think such a thing exists. But I have been here for a while. The more you learn about this place, the more you learn that the key to surviving it is both determination and preparation. The problem is that preparation is an endless pit. Every piece of gear you bring in can be improved. That's not just about guns and ammo, like some people who are new to the Zone think. It's everything."

"Doesn't that become too much?" Alice asked.

Koschei was almost done preparing himself. At some point he'd removed his boots to sleep, and he was putting them back on now. "Yes," he admitted, then he tapped the sides of his boots. "These are good boots. Not cheap. But they're a little worn. No holes, and they're still comfortable and warm, but I've had them for two years and the sole is getting thin. If I was too zealous, I would never leave the city with these. Only new boots. Only a new gun. Only new everything. But that isn't good either. There's being prepared for everything, and then there's knowing what you have."

"Ah," Alice said. "Because no matter how prepared you are, life will throw you things you're not ready for. But if you know what you have and how to use it, you can find a way past that."

Koschei glanced up and met her eyes for a moment before nodding. "That's right," he said before donning his mask. "You might have the makings of a good Stalker. At least, the mind part. Seen too many young idiots run in and die out here. We might see some this morning."

"Huh?" Crystal asked.

"Because that's when the young fools who ventured out into the night are found, usually dead."

"Are there so many Stalkers that they can be found just like that?" Alice asked.

"There are more than you might think. The world never has a shortage of young men with too few brains and balls that just dropped."

"Ew," Crystal said. "You didn't have to put it like that."

Koschei chuckled as he walked towards the exit.

***