TEN

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This time, I am the first to wake. I open my eyes to the morning light peeking through the gaps in our tarps, a tittling song sung by birds in the trees surrounding us. I check my phone, nine am; my internal clock must have kicked in. It was still a little early for how late we were up the night before though, and it’s quiet, so I sit in it for a while, listening to the boys as they keep snoring. 

When I turn to rest on my side, I have to resist the noise that bubbles in my throat; Lex’s mask has shifted in his sleep. Down, under his nose. It has a small bend to it, his nose, right at the bridge, and I wonder how it was broken in the past. Was he a scrapper, or just a clutz? A small septum ring peaks out, simple and silver, and I can’t help but smile at the secret I’ve unintentionally discovered. 

It’s only when I start making coffee on my burner that the others begin to stir in their sleep. Before even opening his eyes Mikey mumbles, “Me too,” and Nico moans in agreement, so I add some more water and instant coffee mix to my pot to share.

Lex also wakes, rubbing sleep from his eyes, but I keep myself from even glancing at him, pretending like I hardly took notice as he adjusts the mask back on his face. I delegate the coffee out to everyone once it’s boiled, including a cup for Lex, which I hold out for him to take, like a dare.

A knowing expression finds his eyes, calling me on my silent challenge, but he takes the cup like everyone else, and lets it sit to cool while waking up. I know if he does drink it, he’ll leave first, but right now I like the idea of making him squirm a little in the inevitable rudeness.

He packs up his bag, save the coffee and a protein bar, and leaves as the rest of us have our own breakfasts. I share a look with Mikey and Nico as he goes, but no further comments are exchanged. We just eat and allow ourselves to perk up before any conversation is had. 

Mikey finally gives a run down as we finish our food and start packing up also. We have about sixteen kilometers more to walk, a little less than the previous day, which I am thankful to hear. If I had done it once, I could do it again. 

Today would be a lot of field walking as we follow some main power line towers that are apparently still used by security and the guided tours. For a short while after, we would have to follow another main road that was used frequently by those coming in and out of the Exclusion Zone. Since it’ll be midday, we’ll have to be on alert in a way we didn’t have to be the night before. Mikey says we’ll likely have to hide at some point, and I make sure to nod so he knows I’m listening intently.

After that, we will follow some old train tracks, which will bring us to the outskirts of Pripyat, the part of the Zone we will be staying for the next three nights. If we make good time, we should get there by sunset. 

I’m already exhausted just hearing about the day we have ahead, but I once again keep my complaints to myself. Before we leave, I snap a picture of our sleeping room, now bare of any sign we were even there. And another, of the shack from outside, framing it between the overgrown trees taking over. I wonder while I photograph, how many other Stalkers had spent the night in this very house, and appreciate for a moment how it has stayed useful even after all these years. Dead and forgotten by most of civilization, but a home away from home for a special few. 

The weather is mildier as we start our trek, a bit overcast and cloudy, and I’m thankful, because the beating sun yesterday would not have been advantageous to our hike when we were out in the open, cornsilk colored fields. It’s not as easy as walking on the road, since we have to push through the tall grass with every step, but we still make decent time, and manage to get six kilometers before Mikey insists on stopping to eat.

I’m wishing for another lake swim as we stomp down some grass to flatten a clearing for our pit stop. I’m already sweating through my clothes and it’s noticeable when I sit and my body has a moment to recover. If I wasn’t so scared of ticks, I likely would have already shed some layers. I couldn’t bring myself to have exposed bare skin though, not when the fields were the perfect breeding grounds for the little pests. 

It’s during this break that I realize we’re all getting low on water. Each of us has enough for the rest of the day, if that. Maybe it was just wishful thinking when I ignored Lex’s previous comment about drinking the water in Chernobyl, but I couldn’t pretend any longer. So as we start hiking again, I have to ask.

“Where are we getting more water?” Maybe when was a better question, but I trusted the boys not to let themselves go thirsty so I could assume it would be at least soon.

Mikey answers, hanging back a few steps to hold pace with me. “There’s a place the Stalkers go. It’s a rainwater reservoir. We’ll go in the morning, once we get to Pripyat, and likely again before we leave.” 

“Is it safe?” I can’t help but press.

He smirks, and tilts his head to the side like he’s really not sure of the answer. “We’re all alive and healthy. And we’ve already drank a lot more than you’ll have to.” 

I hate this response because it just makes me dread using up the last bit of water I have left. But it was too late now, because I certainly wouldn’t be making it back the now twenty-plus kilometers we already walked without a refill. 

After another few hours of following the power lines through the open field, most of which I’d spent watching my feet to keep myself from stumbling, I finally take a moment to assess our surroundings. The sun has come out a bit more, and I have to squint past my tired vision to make out that the treeline ahead of us is no longer just trees. 

“Is that Pripyat?” I ask, to nobody in particular, but Lex has taken his spot at the back of the group again like the prior day, and stops behind me when I linger a moment. The buildings are still pretty far, so, from behind me, Lex takes my elbow in one hand, and places the other on my shoulder, shifting my body to point me to where he gestures. 

“These buildings, Pripyat apartments, is where we’re going.” He speaks almost to my ear, moving my pointing arm to the right, along the treeline, to another tall, square structure. “Reactor Five.” Then last, further to the right, way off into the distance. A huge, white dome enveloped in greenery. “The Sarcophagus.” 

My exhale is weighty, finding myself a bit breathless. From the hike and the sights, of course. We’d been relatively close to the Sarcophagus on our tour, but something about seeing it like this was different. To see how these buildings made up the skyline of this once prosperous place, how significant they were to the everyday life of people; now tucked away in the trees, hidden under concrete. Haunting, like a tomb. The nickname made all the more sense. 

I raise my camera and photograph the treeline, including Mikey and Nico walking up ahead in the shot, then let Lex encourage me forward again with the hand still on my shoulder. 

It’s masks on, hair up again when we reach the main road. No more conversation, not that there was much of it to begin with. Following the road will cut down on our walk time, but as Mikey previously said, it was dangerous because we were completely exposed. Mikey uses his watch to keep careful track of the time; the tours are scheduled and he’s able to know when we need to step off the road to let buses pass. Security though, was always patrolling, and he couldn’t know when they might show up just down the road. 

Things seem to be going rather smoothly, as we are only directed by him to stray from the road a couple times, ducking into the thick brush to let tour buses pass, just like the ones I had been on just a few days ago. In fact, walking the road has been so pleasant that I allow my guard down for a moment and stop to take another picture, framing the boys perfectly along the straight road, the trees towering tall and symmetrical on each side. 

I love the picture too much, so I call out to Mikey and Nico for another one, the boys turning to face the camera this time. Mikey offers another V with his fingers, and Nico, a little wave. As I snap the shot, there’s a flash of movement in the distance, up the road, in the direction we’re headed. My heart stops, and I lower my camera to confirm, the muscle in my chest pumping again with a hard, thick pulse of adrenaline. 

The hood of a black van, distinctly different from the tour buses we’d seen so far, peeks over the hump in the road on the horizon. 

Lex has my arm immediately, and I’m being dragged into the forest as he shouts ahead. “Mikey! Securitate!”

The other boys are right after us, and we race far deeper into the forest than previously, discarding our bags and collapsing into a thick undergrowth of ferns, flat on our backs to be as low to the ground as possible. Lex is right next to me when I turn to look, and he puts a finger to his mask, an urgency in his gaze that says everything. I didn’t dare even breathe, despite being desperate for oxygen after the sprint.

Even deep in the forest, we can hear the vehicle as it crawls along the road, far slower than any of the buses were driving. Had they seen us and were now looking? Mikey said the security sometimes had dogs… I close my eyes to banish the thought. Surely we had seen them first, they were so far away still when we’d managed to get off the road. 

The boys are also holding their breath, stretching our ears to listen. The van drives by slowly, tires peeling up from the pavement. It starts on our right, then slowly passes, until we can’t hear it anymore. Even then, we stay silent for a long while after. We wait until Mikey finally moves, peeking a head up out of the ferns, then collapses back down and whispers, “I think we’re clear.”

The adrenaline dissipating feels like jumping into the lake again, and I can’t help myself after staying silent for so long. A laugh bubbles in my throat and before I can stop it, it’s on my lips and I’m clutching at my chest with how wild my heart is pounding. 

I’d reacted the same way with my father when we had a run in with a mother moose and her calf, only narrowly avoiding her detection. 

Lex muffles my laughter with a gloved hand tight over my mouth, but I keep giggling under his fingers and when I look at him, he’s suppressing a laugh also. “Are you crazy?” He scolds, but he can’t make it very sharp when I can tell he’s grinning under his mask.

Mikey, who’s still recovering his breath, adds teasingly, “Maybe we should stay here and eat, clearly someone is getting delirious.”