Prip'Yat: The Beast of Chernobyl

Chapter Seven

Walking along the main road, Dimitri and Yuri were quiet, soaking in the ambience of the city as they took in the sights. After leaving the Palace of Culture, they kept their lights off as they walked south, admiring the apartments and wide open spaces that surrounded them. Wandering aimlessly along, the cousins had no real plans of where to go next, so they continued to go from building to building, slowly winding their way around and through the area.

The interior of the apartment buildings were both surprising and intimidating to the cousins. Filled with trash and remnants of personal effects, nearly every room had been picked over by looters and vandals a dozen or more times. Thick layers of dust and dirt coated the floors, blown in by the wind through the broken windows. Footprints were scattered across the floor as well, and if you looked closely enough, you could discern how long ago they were made by how much they had been filled in by dirt and debris.

Dimitri and Yuri moved quickly through the apartments, not wanting to linger for too long in the dust they were stirring up for fear that it could be contaminated with radiation. They stuck to the ground and second stories of the buildings, being mindful of the condition of the floors which were sagging and rotting from years of water damage. The wood and laminate were broken clean through in more than a few spots, signs that someone had become an inadvertent victim of a poorly timed misstep.

As the pair walked through a hallway of one of the westernmost apartments, Yuri tugged on Dimitri’s shirt and motioned for him to stop. The darkness of the apartments had forced the boys to turn on their flashlights. They kept their hands pressed against the front of the lights, though, allowing only the smallest sliver of a beam to shine through the cracks in their fingers. In the luminescence of his flashlight, Yuri had caught sight of something shining on the floor and stopped, getting Dimitri to stop as well.

“What the hell?” Dimitri murmured as he knelt down next to Yuri, who was already squatting in front of the object on the floor.

“It looks like… piss?” Yuri looked up at his older cousin, then back down at the floor. He moved his hand to the side of his flashlight and kept the beam tight on the floor, fully illuminating the object. Under the light, the object shimmered as Yuri passed the flashlight back and forth over its surface. Unlike urine, the object on the floor was not flat, but looked more like a pile of gel, nearly crystal clear with the faintest hint of grey and yellow in it. Dimitri leaned in closer and sniffed deeply, then grimaced and backed up.

“It smells like petroleum. Maybe it’s a leak from something, or a tourist dropped it.”

Yuri shook his head slowly. “No, it couldn’t be.”

Dimitri looked up from the pile of goop on the floor, staring at Yuri questioningly. Yuri swallowed hard as he looked at the floor, shining his light back and forth. “No footprints. We’re the only ones who’ve been in here in a long time. This looks fresh.”

Dimitri felt a chill run up his spine as Yuri spoke. He stood up suddenly, shaking his arms and head as he tried to ignore the fear that was threatening to take hold. “Whatever it is, let’s just leave it alone and get out of here.”

Yuri nodded slowly and stood up to follow Dimitri, who was already halfway down the hall, heading for the doorway. Yuri backed slowly down the hall, keeping his light trained on the object, half expecting it to start moving when he wasn’t watching. Yuri finally switched his light off at the main door to the apartments and shuffled out the door, following Dimitri. The pair walked swiftly away from the apartments, heading back up the main road toward the square and the Palace of Culture.

After only a few paces, Dimitri felt another chill and he slowed down to allow Yuri to catch up, whispering to him as they strolled along.

“Something doesn’t feel right here. It’s like we’re being watched.”

Yuri felt his stomach turn at Dimitri’s words, distraught at hearing his cousin confirm the very thing he had feared ever since they first saw the object on the floor. As the two quickened their pace, a crackle sounded in the distance, along with a rustling in the trees. Both boys broke into a run without thinking about it, heading into the main square and dashing into the nearest building they could find. In a full blown panic, neither Yuri nor Dimitri had the presence of mind to pay attention to where they were going as they charged headlong down a flight of stairs into a darkened corridor.