One Hundred Roentgens for Luck

ATRI — the Anomalous Territory of Radioactive Emission. A layer between our world and a parallel one. The most closely guarded state secret.
Surviving in this taiga wilderness seems impossible at first glance. Natural anomalies are always ready to tear you apart, freeze you in an instant, or turn you into a bloody pancake. Mutant predators try to devour anything that moves. Rational and not-so-rational creatures from the parallel world roam here. Nothing is what it seems. A partner may suddenly stab you in the back; an enemy may shield you from a bullet.
People manage to survive even in such a godforsaken place as ATRI. Among them is Bedouin — a former reconnaissance saboteur, then a ranger, then a free wanderer. He is one of those for whom ATRI has become home, who cannot imagine life without roaming the taiga expanses, without skirmishes with hugies, zombies, and mutants, without searching for all those "feathers," "rattles," "lollipops," and "stickies."
In ATRI, Bedouin is both respected and feared. And earning respect in ATRI — well, that's worth a great deal…