[CONTAINS: Dead body. I don’t know about this one… I had an idea and it did not work out as well as I wanted it to. Not a canon event. "Shov" doesn't even really exsist anymore, we'll see how it goes...]
When Shov turned to the side he spotted something, deeper into the forest. A shoe? He stepped over to the object to get a closer look. It was indeed a shoe, a simple, very dirty, sneaker.
He looked further in between the tree trunks and saw something he never liked to see. The bloody body of a fellow stalker. He sighed. Death was the only thing he would never become used to.
The dead stalker still had his backpack on, which meant that he had not been raided and probably died from natural causes, or as natural as you can get in the Zone. That backpack was actually just what Shov needed. His had been stolen a few days ago and he wouldn’t survive only using the few supplies he kept in his pockets. He took a deep breath and started walking over to the dead body. Maybe the stalker had left Shov some canned tuna, matches or even a decent weapon in his death.
When he arrived at the stalker's limp body, he froze. His eyes were fixed on the young stalker's bloody face. Fuck. He turned away and felt panic rise in his throat. He couldn’t look at him any longer. He already knew that the image of the boy’s dirty hair, dark with blood, slicked against his forehead, the glassy, lifeless eyes and those round cheeks with small bruises over them would haunt him for months. He could feel tears burning in the corners of his eyes. Not him, not Zajats. He was far too young to die before Shov did.
[Shov finds Zajats’s dead body in the forest]