Yuri slowly pulled the memory chip out of the slot, rotating it in his fingers as he stared at it. It contained the entire video and audio log of Lucas’s mission, from the camera and microphone embedded in his mask. The only proof of what had occurred at Prip’Yat was contained on the chip, a fact he found difficult to comprehend.
Once he eventually got back home, he wasn’t sure what he would tell his parents or his aunt. His appearance was disheveled and he was covered in dirt and cuts, though that was the least of his worries. His sole focus was on getting the information on the memory chip out to the world, no matter the cost. If he couldn’t stay and help Lucas avenge Dimitri’s death, he would have to ensure that the world knew of Lucas’s sacrifice along with the atrocities committed by the shadowy beast.
Obeying Lucas’s instructions, Yuri hurled the mask as far away as he could, watching as it bounced down a hill into a group of trees and brush. He did the same with each of his shoes, doing his best to touch them as little as possible during the process. After retrieving a bottle of water from the trunk of the car and using it to rinse off his hands, Yuri climbed into the driver’s seat and gripped the wheel, taking a moment to catch his breath before he started the engine.
A bright light appeared in the sky and Yuri shaded his eyes, surprised that dawn had arrived so quickly. When he lowered his hand, though, he saw that the light was not from the sun, but from the spotlight of a helicopter, one of a dozen that were flying toward Prip’Yat and Chernobyl. One of the helicopters had broken off from the main group and was headed toward him and the sound of the rotors soon filled the air, along with a stern voice speaking through a bullhorn.
“Step out of the car now! Keep your hands high and do not reach for a weapon!”
Yuri gulped and slipped the memory chip under the rubber lining of his car’s cup holder before he stepped out of the car. Showtime, he thought. Obeying the order from the helicopter he slowly raised his hands above his head and did his best to put on the face of someone who was shocked to be faced with a military helicopter in the wee hours of the morning. The helicopter landed a short distance from Yuri’s car and two soldiers in standard camouflage gear stepped out and ran toward him, keeping their rifles low but at the ready.
One of the soldiers spoke harshly while the other circled his car with a Geiger counter. “Who are you? Why are you here? Were you in the city?”
Yuri stammered purposefully, blinking in the bright lights of the helicopter. “Wh-what? I’m Yuri! Please don’t hurt me! P-please! I’m just here to meet my girlfriend!”
The soldier rolled his eyes and stepped back to confer with his partner. “What do the readings show?”
The soldier with the Geiger counter pointed at the device. “Everything looks okay. He’s higher than he should be, though.”
The soldier who had been addressing Yuri approached him again, glancing down at his shoeless feet. “How long have you been out here? Where are your shoes?”
Yuri thought quickly and began stammering again. “Oh no, you’re going to kill me aren’t you? I just wanted to try a little bit of the stuff before she got here! I was walking out in the grass and took off my shoes and just wandered around some! Please don’t kill me!” Though Yuri had never used recreational drugs before, many of his schoolmates had, and he did his best to emulate their after-school behavior as he spoke.
The soldier addressing Yuri shook his head disapprovingly and was about to say something else when his radio squawked. “All units to the plant! Code red!” Upon hearing this message he looked at his companion who nodded at him and started to head for the helicopter. The soldier spoke to Yuri again as he backed away. “Get the hell out of here, junkie! And stop coming out here or the radiation will eat you alive!”
Yuri felt a wave of relief wash over him as he nodded in response. The soldier followed his partner back on board the helicopter which took off and banked steeply away toward the power plant. Yuri stood and stared at the helicopter until it was a speck in the distance before coming to his senses. He jumped back in the car, dug the keys out from underneath the seat where Dimitri had stored them and jammed them in the ignition. As he drove down the field and out toward the road back to his home, he pulled the memory chip out and held it aloft, clutching it in his hand like it was made of pure gold.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Epilogue
“New information is coming to us tonight from the ghost city of Prip’Yat which, as you may recall, suffered from a reported earthquake three days ago. Reports indicate that this tremor was not actually an earthquake, but was the result of the detonation of a high explosives device inside the sarcophagus at the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant. We are working to confirm this report with our journalists in the field.”
“Military-grade video footage provided to us from an anonymous source shows us the astonishing tale of an entire covert operations mission that took place inside Chernobyl and the neighboring town of Prip’Yat. Multiple independent analysts have confirmed that said video footage, which is widely available on the internet at this time, is not a forgery, though the contents of said video are both disturbing and gruesome. The video and audio shows a team of two Russian covert operations agents moving into the Ukrainian city of Prip’Yat on a mission to investigate reports of a disturbance in the area. We have compiled a series of clips from this video to give you a brief summary of the mission, but we must warn you that this footage is extremely graphic.”
“Thus far, attempts to find the only presumed survivor of the mission, a civilian youth known only as ‘Yuri’ have failed. Family members of Yuri have come forward to say that their son vanished in the middle of the night, and they are unsure whether he ran away to avoid media attention or whether he was taken in for interrogation by government officials. Attempts to get comments from officials within the Russian and Ukrainian governments have been met with silence. This is undoubtedly due in part to the strain both governments are feeling as they scramble to contain the public relations disaster and mass hysteria that has unfolded.”
“Independent research teams have been dispatched to Chernobyl in an attempt to study the environment of what is now being referred to as ‘The Beast of Chernobyl’ in an effort to understand the origin of this new species. Environmental groups have also seized upon the beast as a symbol for their movements, denouncing nuclear energy as the food source for what they call ‘an abomination on the earth.’ Said groups in countries across the globe are pushing for independent investigation of their country’s nuclear weapons stockpiles and power plants to determine whether the creature discovered at Chernobyl was an isolated case, or the beginning of a trend.”
“The BBC is working to investigate reports of disturbances at nuclear facilities throughout the UK and Western Europe. We have been working with colleagues and reporters in the field in several other countries who have experienced similar disturbances and we will bring you updates as soon as we have them. For now, we urge our viewers and listeners to remain calm, continue your routines and avoid panic.”