The shape of the collection
The Zone links the stories; there is no single continuing protagonist. One entry might follow a veteran, a bandit, a scientist, a frightened newcomer, or someone who barely has a name before the place closes around them.
I do not want the collection to become a list of gruesome deaths. The person beforehand matters more: what they believed, what they ignored, what they carried, and the last small choice that made the end unavoidable.
Planned kinds of ending
Anomalies
Deaths caused by a place that appeared empty until it was already too late.
Mutants
Encounters where poor preparation, bad terrain, panic, or simple bad luck matters as much as the creature.
Other stalkers
Betrayals, mistaken identity, faction grudges, robbery, and the ordinary violence people carry into the Zone.
The stalker themself
Greed, pride, exhaustion, addiction, obsession, or one last attempt to recover something that should have been left behind.
Publishing rule
Only finished stories will appear in the reading order. Drafts, abandoned versions, and research notes stay outside the public collection.