Prip'Yat: The Beast of Chernobyl

Chapter Three

The silence of the city of Prip’Yat was unique and deafening, a constant reminder of the emptiness of the area. Once a bustling metropolis, home to fifty thousand residents, it was but a ghost town now, one of the only true ghost towns still left in the world. Completely abandoned with naught but a few hours’ notice, the residents of the city had only enough time to carry themselves out during the evacuation. There was no time to grab anything beyond a few personal possessions, but most of the residents — believing they would only be evacuated for a few days — didn’t even take those. Apartment buildings that once held thousands of people were now empty, towering into the sky, their windows and doors broken from the vandals and looters who were foolish enough to enter the city.

Although there were still pockets of high-level radiation, the more insidious danger came from a slightly different avenue. Tiny radioactive particles still clung to every surface of the buildings and the ground in and around the city. Brushing up against the particles would contaminate your skin and clothing, which merely meant that you had to dispose of your clothing and scrub yourself before returning to your home.

The worse threat from the particles was getting them inside your body where they wouldn’t have to contend with going through layers of cloth and skin before reaching vital organs. Inhaling or eating radioactive particles could be devastating to your body, depending on the quantity consumed. For the residents and tourists of Kiev, dealing with radiation had become a normal part of life, and their guard sometimes dropped. Someone would walk through the Exclusion Zone and not wash their hands before eating. Someone would go through a building and not rinse their shoes off before reentering their vehicle. Little things like this contributed to the slow relaxing of safety precautions by those who visited the Zone, despite the best warnings from the Ukrainian government and the more cautious individuals.

Though aware of the dangers of radiation, Dimitri and Yuri were two victims of this growing laxness about safety precautions. They walked directly through tall grasses in the fields around Prip’Yat, brushing it with their hands and then touching their faces as they adjusted their balaclavas. Though the radiation was invisible, odorless and tasteless, it was still present.

“Are you sure this is the right way, Dimitri?” The pair had been walking for nearly an hour, watching as the twilight gave way to the darkness that enveloped them in the landscape, rendering them nearly invisible in their dark clothing.

“Yes, cousin, for the hundredth time, I’m sure! We are almost there, just on the other side of these trees.”

Once they were clear of the checkpoints and well into the Exclusion Zone, Dimitri pulled out a map that was printed on several pieces of paper held together with paperclips. He studied it under his flashlight as they walked, trying to find landmarks in the darkness. He was as sure as he could be that they were on the right path, but he was starting to wonder himself if they had taken the wrong route and walked past the city altogether.

“There, up ahead!” Yuri tapped Dimitri on the shoulder, pointing in front of them.

Through the trees, dark square shadows rose up, solidifying into buildings, windows and doorways. The cousins walked in silence out of the forest, standing before an enormous apartment building. The paint on the outside had long since cracked and faded, scattered to the winds by time and nature. Balconies stood out on each floor of the apartment building even in the dim light of the dusk, offset by rows upon rows of matching windows, two per apartment. The cousins walked around the building, giving it a wide berth as they stared up at it towering over them.

Around the apartment, more buildings stretched up, rising into view as they contrasted with the rising moon. Ahead through the maze of apartments stretched a long clear path, the main road into and out of Prip’Yat. Here in the heart of the city there were no guardhouses and no residents, only animals, trees and grass. Dimitri and Yuri walked in silence and awe of the city that surrounded them, taken aback by the serenity. Miles away, back in their homes, the sound of traffic was a constant and ever-present background noise. Here, though, the only sound was an occasional insect, chirping or buzzing in the distance.

The cousins walked on to the main road, standing on the blacktop. They pulled off their balaclavas, turning around in wonder, shining their flashlights up at the buildings that surrounded them.

Dimitri grinned at his younger companion. “Welcome to Prip’Yat, cousin.”