(gestures to Garo) Point it at this piece of shit, I don't give a fuck. Never me. Two, if you hit an animal and they don't die, you keep shooting until they do.
(gets in Pavel's face) Don't let them suffer-- or I'll kill you. Understand? I mean it. I've killed a lot of people.
Pavel glances at Garo, who gives a tiny nod. It's true. Bacho has killed a lot of people.
Pavel looks back at Bacho. Yes. Understood.
BACHO (friendly pat) Then we're ready.
434 EXT. VILLAGE - MAIN STREET - MOMENTS LATER 434
Eerily quiet. A few cars are where their owners left them. Some clothing hangs on a line, swaying in the breeze.
THE THREE MEN walk down the street. Rifles at the ready. Bacho turns to Pavel.
BACHO
Watch.
Bacho gives a WHISTLE. The kind you might give to a dog.
And sure enough... there's a BARK. And another. And now, tentatively emerging from alleys and empty buildings...
DOGS. And CATS. Hungry. But clearly domesticated. Tails wagging. Hopeful eyes.
Bacho turns to Pavel.
BACHO
When we start, they'll run where they feel safe. Always inside. So we go door to door, okay? Okay.
And without warning, Bacho raises his rifle and FIRES. We hear a YELP, and he FIRES again.
We don't see it. We just hear BARKING and HOWLING as Bacho and Garo keep walking, right out of frame, FIRING. Gunshots. Sliding bolts. Shells hitting the ground. Gunshots.
PAVEL - stands in horror, blinking every time a GUNSHOT rips through the air. He hasn't even raised his rifle.
PAVEL'S POV - Bacho turns back to him. In the B.G., we see some scattered corpses of dogs.
BACHO
HEY!
Pavel snaps out of it.
BACHO (points to an alley) Door to door. Do your job.
Pavel nods, frightened, and moves toward the alley.
435 EXT. ALLEY - CONTINUOUS 435
Pavel walks slowly down the alley. Forcing himself to breathe. Trying not to throw up.
A SHEPHERD MUTT lifts its head from a pile of RUBBISH. Sniffs the air. Even in the bedlam, desperate to be fed.
Pavel stops. Raises his rifle. Shaky hands. Finger on the trigger. But... can't. Lowers the gun. Then: the dog TURNS TO HIM. And BARES its TEETH.
Pavel backs up. The dog stalks forward. Starvation and time have turned it feral. The dog growls, protecting its rubbish pile, and what little food is in it. Snaps and barks.
Pavel waves his rifle at it, as if the animal might understand.
PAVEL
Go!
The dog keeps advancing. Faster. Pavel keeps backing up.
PAVEL
GET AWAY. The dog BARKS... CHARGES, and: CLOSE ON PAVEL - panicked - he SHOOTS...
We HEAR BUT DO NOT SEE - the dog YELP in pain and thud to the ground. And now the sound of rapid, wheezing breaths.
We stay on Pavel, who moves closer to where the dog fell. Shock on his face. At what he did. Agonizing seconds tick by. A scared man. The sound of a dying animal. Heavy breathing. Pain. And then:
BOOM. A bit of BLOOD spatters up into Pavel's face. No more sound from the dog.
BACHO - stands there. Angrily EJECTS the shell from his rifle, chambers another one, and then gets in Pavel's face. Nose to nose. Dead serious.
BACHO
Don't let them suffer.
PAVEL
I'm sorry.
Bacho glares into Pavel's face— then points down.
BACHO
You're dragging that on the truck.
Bacho marches off, and Pavel stands there, staring down in shock at the dead dog. In the background, steady gunfire.
436 EXT. VILLAGE SQUARE - LATER 436
THUNK. A vodka bottle is slammed down on a table. Now wedges of cheese. Salami. A loaf of bread. Bacho and Garo sit at a table outside an abandoned cafe. They use their knives to cut the loaf, stab at the meat and cheese. Big mouthfuls. Deep swigs of vodka.
Bacho looks over at PAVEL - who sits apart. Shellshocked.
BACHO (mouth full) You going to eat or what?
Pavel stares at the street. Streaks of blood and tracks in the dirt where the animals died... and were dragged away.
BACHO
Hey.
Pavel shakes his head. No. Bacho shrugs. Takes Pavel's food, adds it to his pile. Then realizes... Pavel is wiping at his eyes. Fighting off tears.
Ah, shit. Bacho and Garo share a glance. Garo nods at him. "Do something." So Bacho pours vodka into Pavel's cup, who shakes his head no.
BACHO (gentle, but firm)
Drink.
(he does)
Again.
Pavel takes another swig.
BACHO
Look... this happens to everyone their first time. Normally when they kill a man, but for you-- a dog. Eh, so what? There's no shame in it.
This isn't going well. Pavel takes another drink. Wants to get numb. Bacho tries again.
BACHO
Garo, you remember your first time? As per usual, he doesn't wait for an answer.
BACHO
My first time-- Afghanistan-- we were moving through a house-- a man was suddenly there-- and I shot him in the stomach. That's a real war story. They're never good stories, like in movies. They're shit. Man is there, boom, stomach.
(what can you do?) I was so scared, I didn't pull the trigger again for the rest of the day. I thought, well— that's it, Bacho. You put a bullet in someone. You're not you anymore. You'll never be you again. But then you wake up the next morning, and... you're still you. And you realize— that was you all along. You just didn't know.
A long pause. Then:
GARO
The happiness of all mankind. The first words we've heard him speak.
BACHO
What?
Garo points across the street at:
A PROPAGANDA BANNER - slung between two buildings over the main street. A picture of Lenin on one side, and a proud Soviet worker on the other.
And in between, Cyrillic lettering.
GARO
"Our goal is the happiness of all mankind."
The three men stare at the absurd sign hanging over the blood-stained street in a dead town.
Then Bacho gets up. Oddly chipper. No cracks in his dam.
BACHO
I'm happy. I'm happy every day. He grabs his gun. Then:
BACHO Back to work.
Bacho marches off. Pavel looks at his rifle. Then picks it up. Vodka in his veins. Takes a breath.
Yes. Back to work. He gets up, and follows.
EXT. REACTOR ROOF - "KATYA" - DAY 437
Seemingly empty, but for the debris. Less, though, than we saw before.
And then: a LUNAR ROVER enters frame, PUSHING DEBRIS along with its small bulldozer blade... moving toward the edge...
EXT. LOOKING UP AT THE EDGE - CONTINUOUS 438
We're twenty feet below the roofline here, pointing straight up at the edge of Katya.
The ROVER slowly appears, and pushes GRAPHITE off the edge. It cascades down toward us...
EXT. THE REACTOR - MIDAIR - CONTINUOUS 439
WIDE - from this distance, we can see it all. The tiny rover. The falling graphite.
The debris plummets from the roof and down into THE GAPING CRATER where the reactor used to be.
Then we swing around slowly to find the larger section of roof. MASHA - the deadliest place on Earth. Still covered in debris. Still untouched.
Still waiting. TITLE:
SEPTEMBER, 1986
440 INT. REMOTE COMMAND CENTER - DAY 440
Multiple rover camera POVs are visible on the monitors. Jughashvili and the other operators drive them with their joysticks.
There are more computers now. More control modules. All of the lights are green.
Shcherbina watches them work. Behind him, Legasov sketches cleanup paths on the photos of the roof.
They turn in unison TARAKANOV enters.
TARAKANOV
It's here.
441 EXT. REACTOR SITE - MOMENTS LATER 441
TRUCK DOORS OPEN
Legasov and Shcherbina watch as Tarakanov organizes the offloading of the truck's sole cargo.