This quest starts with flashbacks triggering at some certain locations at first (abandoned house, coffee shops, even random locations) but markers also appear in the quest
Searching for Galya and Sasha
The player need to go to certain locations in order to trigger flashbacks, detailing the protagonist's previous life and family.
First marked location is in an apartment in the city of Gorky.
Note No.1:
At the bus stop, I saw something unusual nestled in a reap of rags. It was a tarnished veteran' s medal for the World War II. I picked it up and a memory surfaced from somewhere deep in my mind...
I get up and examine the medal. A little old lady is looking at the medal with me.
"It was my husband's" she explains, "He even fought in the battle for Berlin, he was in the front ranks against the Fascists! He only lived for a year after the war, he died of pneumonia."
"Thank you for the tea, Anna Sergeyevna, we'll come back to see you next week." said the girl with the dark blonde hair holding my hand.
"Thank you, my dear, for coming to visit and for always thinking of me. I would have died of despair long ago without you... My own son has completely forgotten about me, he hasn't called me in a year...". The old woman leads us to the door. The girl whispers to me:
"I'm going away for the summer. But you'll visit her, won't you? She's got nobody left."
"I will. Since it's so important to you."
The girl smiles warmly and kisses me on the nose.
I shivered and opened my eyes. The same dead city lay around me.
What happened here? Who was the girl?
Target: No destination
Note No 2:
(Go to riverbank for it, riverbanks are very small water bodies near each forest).
I went out to the riverbank. I put both my hands into the cool water. Flowing between my fingers, the water awoke a new memory in me...
Hey jump up here! What are you waiting for?' the familiar girl calls to me, standing at full height on the bank parapet. Behind her the water of the river flowed past. 'There's nothing to be afraid of!'
'Sweetheart, I already said I don't want to,' I say, moving back a little. 'And you, come down from there.'
'So you're not afraid then?' the girl laughs playfully. 'Oh my god! So you're too afraid to climb up here, but you're not afraid to love me?'
'I'm not afraid. I love you'
'So prove it!' the girl started jumping on the spot. 'Get up here! Come on!'
Fragments are coming back to me... a girl falling down into the water... I rush to the parapet I'm already climbing over, but... the water, the black, cold water... I hate myself, but I can't make myself move.
A worker brought the girl out. Luckily, she was fine. But we made our journey home in complete silence.
Target: No destination
Note No 3:
I looked around the apartment on the second-floor of the residential building. There were belongings strewn all over the bedroom, and there was a large suitcase on the floor. It seemed like the inhabitants had been packing their things when something compelled them to abandon everything and flee the apartment. The only thing they had put in the open suitcase was a wedding dress. I laid it on the bed and ran my hand over it. Another memory...
...We came out of the restaurant to get some air. She looked stunning in her wedding dress!
'It's my mom's dress,' the girl said, examining the sleeve carefully. 'It was a little roomy on me, but my sister and I worked on it. Do you think it hangs all right on me?'
'Galya, you're beautiful,' I said, putting my arm around her. 'The wedding was great, wasn't it?'
'Careful, there's a loose stitch there!' Galya warned me jokingly, 'Our daughter's going to get married in this dress too, you know!'
'Why are she so convinced that it's a girl?'
'It would be a waste of a gorgeous dress if it weren't!' Galya laughed. Then she was serious all of a sudden.
'Everything's going to be good for us, isn't it? Happily ever after?'
'Happily ever after,' I agreed confidently...
Now I remembered a name. Galya. We got married, she was pregnant. God, I can't remember anything else. Where is she? What happened to her? I need to find her!
Target: No destination
Note No 4:
Note No 5:
Note No.6:
A piece of ceramic mug is lying on the asphalt. Another memory...
"Galya, I've had it with the silent treatment!" I roam around the apartment like a wounded animal. "The only thing I do these days is try to figure out what I've done to upset you this time!"
I try to grab Galya's arms.
"Don't touch me!" Galya rasps. "Let me go."
"You're not going anywhere!" I block the door with my body, "Tell me what's wrong!"
Galya falls onto the chair limply.
"Come on!" I'm not talking now, I'm yelling.
"Don't give a damn about me, I've known that for a long time" Galya snaps, "But what's Sasha done to you? Don't you see that she's growing up without a father! When's the last time you took her anywhere? When was the last time you had a conversation with her? Did you know that I get called into school every week? And I go along after my shift and I have to hear how she's out of control and failing all her classes. Then I come home and try to talk some sense into her. Do you even have a clue what's going on?"
I feel all my strength leave me. I feel an ache somewhere in my chest. I move away from the door. Galya stands and puts on an old coat.
"Do you know what she said to me yesterday? 'Mom, can we get a different dad?' "
My ears are ringing. Galya leaves. I look down and see the pieces of Galya's favorite mug.
Target: No Location
Note No.7:
Where I was going through the things, something scratched my palm. I shone a light into the bag and pulled out a wolf fang. Why am I carrying this crap with me? The fang was yellowed and smelled of mold, but it was still sharp...
I stand in the doorway to our apartment with a suitcase in my hand and a heavy backpack on my back. Galya holds out an old wolf fang talisman. I shake my head.'It's better if you keep it. You know I don't believe in those things.'Galya sighs sadly.'Are you going to say goodbye to Sasha?''She's still asleep. There's no point waking her. We talked over everything yesterday anyway.''Are you coming back?' I don't reply. I don't need to, she understands.'You know it'll be better this way,'I say, looking at the floor. 'Probably,'Galya replies. I raise my head and see a tiny teardrop. 'I'd better go' I choke out, turning to the door. 'Can... can I kiss you goodbye?' 'I... yeah... you can...' That was our last kiss. I go out into the hallway and shut the door behind me. I look at the plaque on the door, the apartment number framed in metal daisies. I won't see it again. I go down the stairs and out into Bakinsky Street and the fresh April sunshine.
I feel it like an electric shock. Gorky, 10 Bakinsky Street, Apartment 3! I've got it! The address for our old apartment!
My heart is racing. Now I know where to begin my search.
Target: Intact house - Entrance 2
Experience: +100
- Reaching it will trigger the next scene.
- Town Gorky is about 300 km from Moscow and reachable via the river on motorized raft.
Note No.8:
Looking at building number 10 on Bakinsky Street, a storm of feelings rose up inside me. The building had escaped the bombing virtually unscathed: the broken windows and the layer of garbage on the path to the door were the only signs of the catastrophe that had taken place here. And the quiet. And the half-light. Everything else was just as it had appeared in my last memory... I stood in front of the door to apartment. I could help pressing the doorbell. For a second, I even though I heard footsteps approaching on the other side. But no. I grasped the door handle and the door opened with a gentle creak. What I saw made me clench my fists in anger. The apartment, our apartment, had been ransacked!
Items required: 1 old doll
Reward Experience: +25
Target: Intact house - Entrance 2
- Search the place
Note No.9:
Looters had been here. All of our things had been pulled out of the dressers and closets, the kitchen was covered in food scraps and jars with tiny amounts of jam left in them. The bedroom floor was strewn with the fragments of our old tea service. The pillows had been ripped open and the bookcase cleaned out. There were hardly any books left on it - what remained was a large tin basin filled with ashes. Cigarette butts and empty bottles lay around it. In Sasha's old room, her bed was still there. I automatically slipped my hand beneath the pillow and pulled out a rag doll. The one her mother had made her. Sasha used to hide her doll there, away from the boogeyman. Where are they? Where are Galya and Sasha? Did they survive the epidemic? If one of them got sick, there might be a record of it in the local hospital. I need to go there.
Reward Experience: +25
Target: Hospital - Main building
- Reaching it will trigger the next scene
Note No.10:
As I made my way to the hospital, I thought about my wife and daughter. No matter how slim my chances of seeing them again, I forced myself to believe that one day we would be reunited. But what will I say to them? If they are alive, Sasha is not a child, and Galya might be with another man. What will I do if she is? At least I will have the strength to live. All I want to know is that they're alive. I forced myself to hope, over and over again. If I lose hope, I lose my reason for living.
Items required: List of patients 0/12
Reward Experience: +10
- Search the place
Note No.11:
I found a folder containing lists of the dead in the desk drawer in the hospital chief's office. The lists were compiled until it became obvious that the disease would take everyone eventually. I'd better read through them.
Items required: List of patients (read) 0/4
Reward Experience: +10
- Read four times list of patients
Note No.12:
A lot of names and surnames... Every Galya or Sasha makes my heart palpitate. But it's not them. I have to read on.
Items required: List of patients (read) 4/8
Reward Experience: +10
- Read another four more list of patients
Note No.13:
8 Pages... There is a lot of 'Jane Doe,' but I hope Galya would have prepared all the documents required for hospitalization. She also signed all the labels on Sasha's clothes in her typical scrupulous fashion. I have to read on.
Items required: List of patients (read) 8/12
Reward Experience: +10
- Read the last few pages
Note No.14:
I read for several hours. The list is over, and I'm sitting here in a stupor. My head aches, but I don't know where to go. I need more memories! I should go for a walk around the town, that will spark a memory!
Reward Experience: +25
Target: Cafe
- Reaching it will trigger the next scene
Note No.15:
...staring at the smashed windows of the old cafe, I turned my attention inwards. Something prickled at the back of my mind, but I couldn't bring it to the surface. Suddenly, I recalled an argument. A loud, nasty argument with Marina, Galya's older sister. We had never got on well, but on this occasion, Marina had tried to pick at me in front of Sasha. I said something harsh to Marina in response, grabbed Sasha's hand angrily, got up from the table a, and went home. I was raging inside. It doesn't matter, I reassured myself, you just have to put up with her for one more day, then tomorrow that idiot Marina will be going home to Perm... Perm! Marina's apartment is in Perm! Galya and Sasha could have gone there.
Reward Experience: +150
Target: Intact house
- Town Perm is 758 km away from Gorky
Note No.16:
To my surprise, I found Marina's apartment right away. I had only been there twice before, by my memory didn't let me down. The apartment look as though Marina and her husband Arthur had unhurriedly packed up their things and left. There was no mess, even the bed was neatly made, and the dresser was decorated with silly figures made of colored glass. I found an old pencil drawing on the coffee table in the second room. I immediately knew it was Sasha's. My daughter had true artistic talent, but she didn't draw very often. She didn't have the patience for it. The drawing was of a meadow. Three people were sitting and happily eating sandwiches on a beige picnic blanket. Galya, Sasha, and... me. I need to search every inch of the apartment.
Items required: Sasha's diary (page 1) (read) 0/1
Reward Experience: +25
- Search the place
Sasha's diary (page 1)
We only encountered other people once. They shouted something and started running towards us. Mom grabbed my hand and dragged me into a building entryway. We sat there and waited for the people to leave. Two of them didn't. They stood there, asking us for food. Coughing the whole time. We met a little girl in the stairwell of our building. She said her name was Nika, that she was four years old and that her parents had left and not come back. Three days ago. Mom asked Nika where she lived and took her there. Mom told me to go wait in my aunt's apartment. Mom came back, made pasta, gave one portion to me and took the second one away. To Nika probably. She told me to go to sleep. ...Mom was gone a long time, so I went to find her in Nika's apartment. I peered through the keyhole and saw Mom sitting by Nika's bed, reading her a story. Then she stroked Nika's hair and said she'd be back in the morning. But Nika started to cry and asked Mom not to go. Mom stayed. In the morning, Mom woke me at dawn. Her eyes were puffy, probably from lack of sleep or from crying. She said we were leaving for Kurgan, for Grandpa's old apartment. I started packing up. I asked her about Nika, if she was coming with us. Mom shook her head. I looked out and saw the door to Nika's apartment was shut.
Note No.17:
Beside the table, on the floor, I noticed two small crumpled pages, covered in my daughter's slightly crooked handwriting. I read both pages and felt my spirits life. Galya and Sasha, whole and unharmed, had been here, in this very apartment! Better yet, I knew where they had gone afterwards! Buoyed up, I reread my daughter's diary entries. Huh, that's some chicken scratch handwriting! Maybe she's destined to be a doctor. And Galya, it was just like her to take in and feed an abandoned child! But when I sat the pages aside, I started wondering. What happened to the little girl? Did her parents come back in the night, guilt-ridden, and take their daughter away? Why would they leave her on her own? And why didn't Galya take her with them, and what did that locked door mean? Whatever it means, I have to go to Kurgan.
Items required: Sasha's diary (page 2) (read) 0/1
Reward experience: +500
- Go to Kurgan which is 621 km away
Target: Intact house - Entrance 1
Note No.18:
Sasha's Diary 2
...Mom cried almost the whole way to Kurgan. I asked her what had happened, but she wouldn't answer. She just told the driver to go faster. He called her a moron and told her she'd be the one to push the truck if it got stuck. Then Mom got all the money she had and gave it to him. He took the money, but within five minutes he slowed down again. He said, 'Shut up, or else you can walk.' There was still another 50 kilometers to go to Kurgan. He dropped us off at a pharmacy and drove away. It was raining. Mom told me to wait under the porch while she went to find Aunt Marina and Uncle Arthur. Thunder rumbled overhead, it was so scary. Then Mom and Uncle Arthur came back for me. I thought we were both going with him, but then Mom took hold of my hand and kissed me, saying that she loved me. She told me to take my bag and go with my uncle. I didn't understand. Then Uncle Arthur said that Mom had to go away for a little while, to see other relatives, but that she would come back to us soon. ...It's been two days already. My aunt and uncle are lying to my face, but I understand what's going on. And they know that I know but they still insist on lying, because it's easier for them. I hate them. They said it's dangerous to stay in Kurgan, so we're going to my grandpa's house outside Barnaul. And Mom would meet us there. I told them that I'm going to wait here for Mom. They can leave if they want, but I'm going to wait here. Until she comes back. Aunt Marina started crying and pleading with me to go with them. I left. Now I'm sitting and listening to them put their things in the car. Aunt Marina said to my uncle 'If her father wasn't such a bastard, her mother would still be alive.'
I had barely finished reading the last sentence when my strength left me and I collapsed to the floor. Now I know everything. Galya was gone... It would have been better to never have remembered her. The bitter irony of it! How nice it would be to not remember anything!
But... When did she get infected? And from whom? That little girl, Nika... That must be why her parents abandoned her. That's why Galya's eyes were puffy, why the door was locked.
Did Galya know that the little girl was close to death? She must have guessed. But my Galya would never have let a child die alone in a hallway.
Never.
Galya sacrificed her life for the sake of a stranger's child. And I... I abandoned my own child and my wife. Marina was right, if I had been there, Galya would still be alive. It's my fault. Only I... I'll go to Barnaul to look for Sasha. If she hasn't been infected, I have a chance of finding her. But will she ever forgive me for her mother's death? Will I ever forgive myself?
Reward experience: +25
Target: an old house
- Next destination is 1219 km away
Meeting Sasha
When you have beaten the bandits at Abakan with the ATMS Metis (the missile launching system) you will play a text-driven quest where you finally rejoin with your daughter
However, the reunion isn't exactly a heartwarming one, as she has become a major leader of the bandits' camp. She now tries to kill you, and the screen fades to black.
Luckily, Boris has saved you, so you are now in the Novokuznetsk camp (Stepnoy). You soon discover that Sasha has been apprehended and is in a "jail" of sorts. However, Boris plans to execute Sasha the next day, so you must save her, even if she isn't innocent.
Rewards for completing this part of the quest: (much of the below reward is outdated)
- RPK-74
- 300 pieces of assault rifle ammo
- 150 pieces of rifle ammo
- 5 pieces of PG-7 ammunition
- 500 firearms XP
- 1500 explosives XP
Rescuing Sasha
This is another text-driven mission, where the objective is to grab the key of Sasha's cell and flee the camp
No weapons are allowed during the quest, so you will have to drop them.
The quest starts with the player between the armory warehouse and the infirmary. The following walkthrough is not the only one, meaning that the player can make different choices (need more testing)
- Go the infirmary and exit thorough the back door
- Grab the crowbar
- Go to main parade ground and then to command unit
- Go around the command unit and then break the window with the crowbar
- Search everything in both rooms (to get the cigarette and keys)
- Go to the guard post and grab the rifle
- Go to garages and take gasoline
- Go the the smokers at the jail and have your cigarette lit
- Go back to the command unit and set fire to it
- Hide in shower room
- Knock out the jailer with the crowbar (results in injury or no) or shoot him (required Mosin-Nagant; better, no injury, no consequences), then search and hide his body
- Run to the canteen
- Knock the lieutenant out with the crowbar (Able to fail due I tried it before, he knock me out and Sasha saved me with her rifle by killing lieutenant, this is happened if you dare tell him about fire then knock him with it)
- Tell Sasha that you have a better idea
- Stay where you are and return fire (Return fire needs Mosin-Nagant for it)
- Reward: 500 experience
Treating Sasha
Sasha gets wounded during escape. For the next few days you will need to keep a fire burning and provide her with food and bandages. You need to heal her four times, each time giving a reward of 100 experience. After all four times are done, you get an additional 1,000 experience and Sasha will leave with her gang.