A verst is an old Russian measure, a little over a kilometre. Out here it is not a distance so much as a price. You take a loaded six-by-six down a forest track that was already failing before you reached it, and the track is worse behind you than it was in front. Nothing about the ground resets. The ruts you cut on the way out are the ruts you come back through, filled with water and deeper than you left them.

Built as a study in one idea: that terrain should be state, not scenery.