"Yeah, no," says the man, and shifts his balance; there's a shotgun holstered across his back, and it was starting to dig into his shoulder. "Go much past here and into the Zone itself, and you ain't comin' back. What dies in there stays where it falls- it don't even rot. Not a whole lot of call for folks to stay in the area, but if you know what you're lookin' for, you can still make some good finds in some of the buildings that ain't down yet."

One foot nudges at a heap of faded cardboard boxes. They've all got a child's manically grinning face on them; the words 'Sugar Bombs' are just about readable on the topmost one.