Chernobyl the ghost town: Some mysterious events later
We all know about the accident in Chernobyl, but I am going to narrate some incidents that happened later. Some disturbing events took place inside the Zone. The Zone as we know is the region surrounding Chernobyl. Previously, the region used to bustle with people just like any other beautiful city. One day there was an accident that caused a nuclear reactor to blow up. Many people died. Many were rescued and the town was evacuated.
The events that I talk about took place after the above mishap. We were a team of 5 hardened and sophisticated criminals: Vlad (I am Vlad), Lev, Serge, Ivan and Petro. We lived not far from the ghost town. We would take up missions to make money. The team got wind of some important documents left in the reactor. The agents would pay a lot of money for those documents. The radiations in the zone had decreased, but not much and we were not sure about that near the reactor. We were all set up for our mission. We packed our equipment, Geiger counter, medicines and suits to protect us from radiation.
It was evening when we left our car and decided to go ahead on legs. This was to avoid the guards that were installed to protect people from entering the zone. We entered from south and that day the gray clouds covered the damp and barren area. The roads were broken with vegetation taking over.
Our Geiger counter that would warn us about radiation level would start ticking rapidly in some places. There were many traps and the dangers were invisible in the form of radioactive clouds, radioactive animals and some unknown things. Even the breeze that spattered dust on our faces, rustled the overgrown grass and foliage, carried radioactive particles. The wind would lurch the branches of the trees as it blew. It swept away dust in small whirls. We were ready with our anti-radioactive suits.
The sight of the place was enough to chill anyone's heart. The forest hid some abandoned villages and isolated farmhouses. Later we saw many scrapyards with rusted and highly radioactive vehicles. Chernobyl lies in the south of the region and we took shelter in an abandoned school near it. All the five people sat in an abandoned classroom. Vodka not only calmed our nerves, but we believed it made us resistant to radioactive dangers. The talk shifted to the rumors that some genetically mutilated animals or things roamed in the ghost town.
Ivan said " Its all crap and some invented stories I don't believe in them".
Serge, who was our boss agreed with Ivan. Ivan and Serge were different personalities, but they would agree a lot sometimes. Serge, our boss, was strong built and was a very cunning guy devoid of emotions and ethics. He was a mad guy and sometimes he looked at me as if he wanted to kill me. He wouldn't hesitate to kill any one of us if something goes wrong. Ivan on the other hand was a family guy. He had got married recently and had a kid named Alek.
These days Ivan would mostly talk about his kid and his wife. He told me "Vlad, my kid likes you. You seem to care for him a lot".
He was right and in fact his kid reminded me of my friend Volod's beautiful daughter.
Lev and Petro made a pair of good friends. They would joke around and Lev would pull Petro's leg once in a while, but they were great buddies.
*****
There was yet some time for night to come. All of us except Serge, decided to look around the school building. Our plan was to move further when it was dark. The rooms were lying scrapped as looters had torn apart the furnitures in a bid to scavenge for items. Ivan got interested in a small classroom for small kids. Some decayed drawings made by kids hung on the walls that lay in tatters. He found a drawing that showed a rabbit wetting its feet in a lake. It reminded him of his small kid and when he had gone for a vacation with his wife and kid. The room had a broken wall with a big opening from which one could see the outside. The whispering wind from the opening carried the dampness from the lonely outdoor.
That smell...He could not be mistaken... Yes, it was the same smell of the lake at Buki...It felt the same.
"Alek! Come down and swim with your papa" he said standing in the water.
"No papa, I want to stay here!" pleaded Alek.
Ivan felt that there was someone else too in the room...he was sure he heard a noise... Must be his wife who has come to take him back for swimming...
He felt a leathery hand came from behind and started to suffocate him. He couldn't breath and tried to shout but he couldn't as the other hand strangled him. He was pushed near the broken wall. He tried to resist, but in an instant he was hurled outside from the opening in the wall. A loud cry emerged from his throat as he fell down from the 5th floor. There were rocks lying on the ground and he hit them hard.
There was commotion and all the people hurried to the ground outside. Ivan's dead body lay on the rocks present on the ground.
Serge shouted "What the hell!". All of us were shocked looking at the gruesome sight.
Petro looked at the broken wall on 5th floor just above the body and cried "Everyone come with me!".
All of us ran upstairs to the room. We didn't find anything there except the skid marks near the broken wall. I suggested that we divide into two teams and search the building. Lev and Petro formed one team. Serge took me with him as we searched one room to another. I felt that someone else was also there in the building. However, in my mind I still ridiculed the ideas about mutilated beings present in the zone "It can't be true!". Serge on the other hand was getting mad and kept growling as we went through the room. Once he even shot at a desk in frenzy. We found nothing and neither did Lev or Petro. All of us were perturbed and tired. It was already night.
What could have happened?
After so much discussion, analyses and panic, we arrived at the conclusion that Ivan might have slipped himself near that wall opening. We were skeptical, but we were tired.
I asked them "We should dig a grave for Ivan".
Serge said some callous things. We dug a grave for Ivan and finished the task. After that we started moving towards the north. We all were in a shocked state.
*****
Like I had remarked earlier, the zone had Chernobyl city in the south and that was our initial location. The reactor was some 5 kms to the north with the city of Pripyat to its north-west. The cooling pond lake lay to the east of the reactor. The lake stretched over 4-5 kms to the south. Its shadowy and forgotten waters, that were dark and dead, hosted water life that absorbed the radioactivity. I wondered what kind of mutilated things moved below those waters.
Pripyat river was further to the east. To the west of that lake lay the wilderness of radioactivity that separated us from the reactor and the city of Pripyat. We moved towards Pripyat. The plan was to reach there, take rest and then make the final move to the reactor and complete our mission.
We could hear the sound of howling wind through the trees with occasional distant crying of hounds. Our steps made slushing sound as we moved hurriedly through the swampy ground. There was a damp musty odor that was present in the area. Occasionally we found abandoned villages and huts with sheeted memories of the past tattered with decay all around. As we moved closer to the reactor the vegetation became more and more pale and decayed. It must be the effect of radiation as we were moving closer to the source. In some places our Geiger counter would start ticking ominously and we would retract and go around that place.
The memories of Ivan came back to haunt us. I could see that Lev and Petro gave strange looks to Serge. Serge was becoming more and more mad. I didn't know if it was the effect of growing radiation or the shock and distress of the previous incident that made him growl more and more as we moved on. I was worried that he would shoot any of us at any moment. I was prepared with my gun if that happens.
After some time, the contaminated and decaying mazedness ended. We found ourselves in the deserted town of Pripyat. Rusted metal and vehicles lay abandoned and our Geiger counter would increase its ticking when we go near them. Houses were broken and looters had broke open the doors and scavenged whatever could have been taken. Roads were empty as no human life was to be found. The cancerous radiation had made vegetation scarce, but birch trees were shooting randomly from the ground and sometimes through the buildings. Inside the buildings, the metallic things lay rusted, the paint peeled off from every wall, furniture dismantled and torn and floors were broken with even the tiles looted. The homes were full of wastes and dirty mess. Occasional graffiti and scattered gas masks could also be found inside the buildings.
The reactor loomed 2 kms away in the horizon and it was our final destination for the mission. We decided to take shelter in one building overlooking the amusement park. That park was scheduled to open 5 days after the disaster. Its ferris wheel and rusted bumper cars still waited for the children that would never come. The shadowy ferris wheel looked desolate in the background.
Serge ordered "We can take rest here. Lev, you be on guard while others sleep. Later you can change with Petro". I opened my vodka bottles. After lighting a bonfire, we ate the food that we carried and washed it down with the vodka. All of us were tired and slept soon after. Lev was tired too. He didn't drink much of Vodka because he had to be on guard. I told him "Don't worry and change with any of us after some time."
*****
I slept for long and I remember having dreamt of playing with my friend Volod's daughter. Serge woke me up with a jolt. I realized that all of us had been sleeping for long. It was already afternoon.
Serge told me in an angry voice "Lev is missing!".
That was enough to shake me up and I gasped.
Petro was awoke too and he said in tears "we should find Lev and I won't go anywhere before we find him!" I tried to calm him and said that his friend Lev must be somewhere around and he need not to worry. We will find Lev. Serge was mad and he loaded his shotgun. He was ready to shoot anything in an instant. All of us took our guns and we searched the whole building, but found nothing. Petro wanted to search outside. Together, we searched near the rusted scrapyard and then the rusted amusement park.
Suddenly Petro uttered a cry and pointed towards a tree behind the rusted Ferris wheel. We all looked in horror as Lev was hung from the tree through a rope. The haunting sight full of rusted odor was chilling with Lev hanging with his head tilted to left and his body lurching. Petro sat their sobbing below his hanging dead friend. We brought Lev down.
Serge ordered me to bring Vodka from our room to calm Petro down. I went to the building and had to go around it to enter through a door. As I entered the room running, to my horror, someone hit my hands and took away my gun. I was shocked to find mad Serge standing in front of me! While I was coming round the building he had entered through the window. He pointed his shotgun towards me and hurled some abuses. I might have been dead in an instant, but with a bang Petro shot down Serge from the window.
Petro came inside from the window told me sobbing "This mad person has killed my friend Lev!"
He shot the dead body of Serge multiple times.
I said to him "Mad Serge killed Ivan, Lev and was about to kill me too... Why?... In recent years he was becoming mad, but this much?..."
I calmed Petro and gave him my Vodka. He was very tired and was sobbing.
I told him "I don't feel like continuing this mission anyway...we both should go back..."
He looked outside the window in tears. I tried to soothe him "I can understand your pain Petro...You have lost your friend, who was dear to you, because of a mad man..."
"I suffered the same when you all killed my friend Volod and his family ..." I said from behind.
Petro looked back with his shocked face. I blew his face off with the shotgun of Serge that I had picked up by now.
*****
Volod was my only friend. They didn't know much about our friendship, but we had developed some silent liking and respect for each other when we used to go on some missions together. Volod fell in love with a girl names Nikita. She gave birth to their daughter Tanya. I was so happy for him and his family. I wished them ever lasting happiness. Tanya liked me a lot. All children like me. Volod had told me of his desire to leave the crime business. Serge had welcomed the idea with a smile. Only if I knew what lay behind that smile.
I had to go away for a work soon after. They all killed Volod and Nikita. They didn't even spare their small daughter. I came back and was shocked and depressed to hear the news, but I was serene like always. I never used to share my problems with anyone though rarely with Volod before. From inside, the feeling of revenge started to grow on me.
When Volod was gone, I suddenly felt alone. I realized that a man is alone in this world. He has to fend for himself. 'Friends' may help only to some extent, but they choose to look after their own interests when it comes to it, except for the rare ones like Volod. The reason I never shared my problems or secrets with anyone was because the misery of one only delights others. I never trusted anyone in my life except in case of Volod. No expectations meant no disappointment. I believed in taking things in my own hands when justice needed to be served. I had to take revenge. I had to ensure justice. Volod's friendship demanded it.
I saw opportunity in that Chernobyl mission. I doubted any documents would be there at all because some time had passed since that reactor accident, but I made my plan to take my revenge in the isolated town. It was me who followed Ivan in that room and pushed him off from the wall opening. When we reached Pripyat, I made them drink my Vodka in which I had dissolved sleep inducing pills. Lev was having difficulty opening his eyes when after 1 hour I got up. I told him that he can exchange with me and I will be on guard. In another instant, I told him that I heard a voice from the next room and asked him to check the next room with me. Serge and Petro were sleeping. I didn't know if pills were strong or not. I had dissolved only a few pills to not change the taste of Vodka much. Lev wanted to wake them up, but I told him that first lets check it ourselves as it could just be a dog or some other animal. When Lev and I reached the next room to check it out, I hit Lev on head with the Vodka bottle. Dragged him outside and hung him dead from a tree. I came back. I could have killed the two sleeping persons then and there, but Serge had locked the guns and key was with him. I didn't want to take risk hitting them with Vodka bottles or some other thing as they were two. Moreover, I wanted to see their horror stricken faces when they will wake up the next day and will find Lev. I waited for the next day and slept.
I should have taken my chances then and there because next day my plan almost foiled when Serge pointed his shotgun at me. I think Serge suspected me after he realized that all of them had slept for too long. He must have suspected something in the Vodka and thats why came through the window to question me. He was about to ask me about Vodka on the point of his shotgun. Petro saw him running after me, followed him and after seeing the inside scene suspected him to be the killer and shot him. Then I had to send Petro near to his friend Lev.
Tanya, I will keep this letter near your grave. Your dad was my great friend and now you would have grown to an 8 years old girl had these heartless people not killed you. However, now you can lay calm in your grave. I have done what was needed to be done.
THE END
Author's note:
This story is based on the following pics story: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/31174642
It is my personal favorite, but I am just submitting it as an unofficial entry and thus not for the contest because here people don't read long stories. I saw that Jettythegod was bored with love stories so I decided to write a thriller.
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/1414743?pn=6
Topic started by return_to_hades
Last replied by return_to_hades