On the opposite side of the hospital from Iosif, Lucas was finishing his thermal and infrared sweeps of the windows and roof of the building. After lowering his rifle, he turned to the side to readjust his face mask before conducting a final visual sweep. The mask was stifling even in the cold air, and he dearly wished he could remove it. His Geiger counter still showed slightly high radiation levels, though, so he kept the mask on, not wanting to have to be subjected to the intensive radiation poisoning treatment that was mandatory for soldiers when they returned from missions. Radiation contamination up to a certain level was tolerated, but anything beyond that got you a week in isolation, drinking gallons of chemicals designed to flush the radiation from your body. In Lucas’s mind, a few days with a mask was preferable to that type of experience.
Lucas turned back to check the hospital building one last time with his binoculars when movement at the edge of his field of view caught his eye. He whipped his head toward the movement, bringing his scope up to scan for it. The infrared scope was still in place and he squinted through it, trying to find the source of the movement again. Fifteen hundred yards away, in between several apartment buildings and countless trees, Lucas made out the faintest flicker of movement, a dark shadow darting behind the buildings. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he pushed his microphone button and spoke quickly to Iosif.
“Movement west, through the buildings, half a kilometer out. Looked like a big shadow moving fast.”
Iosif’s voice was hurried as he replied. “Move out. I’ll pick up and follow behind you.”
Lucas was already up and running before Iosif finished his reply. As he ran, he jabbed the microphone button once and then broke into a sprint, dodging low hanging branches and running around rubble, trees and bushes that grew throughout the city, heading in the direction of the shadow.
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.
Chapter Eight
Running alone through thick vegetation while simultaneously trying to pay attention to one’s surroundings in a dark environment was difficult enough. Doing so while in pursuit of a fleeting movement in the distance that could very well have just been the shadow from a cloud added an extra layer of complexity to the situation. Lucas stayed focused as he ran, regulating his breathing through the face mask and stopping every few seconds to scan the area ahead with his scope. Behind him, Iosif brought up the rear, performing the same series of actions as he ran to catch up.
With the hospital left unexplored, the soldiers still considered it a potential danger zone, and both of them periodically checked behind them as they ran forward, quickly closing the half kilometer distance to their target location. Lucas’s breathing was loud in his ear, a symptom of the full face mask that covered the front half of his head, including his ears. As a single piece of polymer-matrix composite, the mask didn’t restrict the user’s view at all, which was a far cry from the older protective gear that soldiers used to wear.