From The Zones: Images From An Abandoned Camera (2)

Designation: Brightleak
Status: Active, Peripheral, Erratic

Brightleaks are most often encountered along the perimeter of other more stable Zones and it has not yet been conclusively determined whether or not these phenomena are in fact Zones unto themselves or some sort of secondary effect. According to the reports of survivors certain wavelengths of light take on a fluidic sort of quality and behave somewhat like napalm as the fluidic light is incredibly sticky and builds up a tremendous amount of heat when in contact with organic matter. It is recommended that one avoid contact at all costs as there are no reliable means of counter-acting Brightleaks other than immediate amputation, but only in cases where contact is limited to extremities and the heat-effect has not yet reached full incandescence.

Designation: Slurry-Sludge
Status: Semi-Spontaneous, Erratic, Limited Duration

Another peripheral phenomena Slurry-Sludge has a tendency to be preceded by a trickle of foul-smelling fluid seeping through otherwise dry concrete. This trickle effect can persist for up to an hour before Slurry-Sludge floods across any horizontal concrete surface such as an alley-way, parking ramp or warehouse floor. The noxious sludge is most often a mixture of heavily-polluted water and/or untreated sewage, various industrial effluents and what appears to be medical waste. A typical episode of Slurry-Sludge tends to last for less than ten minutes on average, during which time the turgid waste water swirls and crashes through restricted spaces with a booming roar that can be heard for miles. Exposure to the sludge, or its residue, produces rampant infections and disease symptoms extremely resistant to all known pharmaceutical resources. In at least one instance the sludge proved to be extremely flammable and was responsible for the destruction of over eleven city blocks and the loss of three survey teams.

Designation: Winterwisp
Status: Unstable Secondary Phenomena

Relatively mild temporal inversion that only appears when ambient temperatures exceed 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21.1Celsius). When the Winterwisp effect is triggered, an area of up to a square mile is subjected to sudden blizzard conditions and the ambient temperature drops to 70 degrees below zero or even lower, with a recorded wind chill factor of 150 degrees. Winterwisps are not considered to be Zones in and of themselves, but are instead unstable peripheral effects of Zones with pronounced temporal distortion effects in play. Duration appears to be random. Snow produced by Winterwisp events has been determined to contain traces of mild hydrochloric acid.

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From the Zones is a community project hosted by John Till over at the FATEsf blog. This community project is inspired by the novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which was the basis for the movie Stalker.

There is a handy index of the current Field Reports from the Zones that features posts from across the Blog-o-sphere, as well as a nifty guide explaining how you can participate in this ongoing Community Project.