Dimitri pushed aside a tree branch as he stopped low under a fallen metal support, holding the branch up for Yuri to follow. The cracking of the glass underfoot was quieter here, muffled by the trees and grass growing in and around the structure. While you once may have been able to see from one end of the greenhouse to the other, it was difficult to see more than a few yards in any direction due to the overgrown foliage.
Once inside the steel skeleton of the greenhouse, Yuri and Dimitri stopped to catch their breath. Wheezing heavily, the cousins leaned on each other, slowly calming their racing hearts and fighting to regain control of their breathing. The interior of the greenhouse was relatively well protected due to the density of the tree and brush cover around it, giving the pair some small measure of comfort that they might not be immediately spotted by whoever or whatever had been chasing after them.
Yuri abruptly collapsed to the ground next to Dimitri, still gasping as he fell. Tired and sore from their run, Yuri’s legs had simply given out and he sat on the rough gravel and patches of broken glass as he rubbed his calves. Dimitri wasn’t faring much better and knelt down next to Yuri, putting his hand on Yuri’s shoulder.
“Are you okay?” Dimitri’s voice was hoarse as he struggled to squeeze the words out. Yuri nodded in response, keeping his head tucked low as he spoke.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I feel like crap, though.”
Dimitri looked around the greenhouse, then stood up and dragged a broken table over to Yuri. “Come on, better to sit up here than on the ground. Probably less radiation that way.” Yuri nodded in thanks and pulled himself up on the table alongside his cousin. Dimitri pulled the Kalash off of his back and laid it alongside him on the table. He gingerly pulled back the sleeve of his coat, wincing at the sight of his arm under his flashlight. Bits of grit and gravel were visible in the wound that stretched from his wrist to his elbow on the underside of his arm. While the injury wasn’t serious, it was painful and Dimitri could already see some oozing around the edges and center of the wound.
When the boys had come into the city, they had left most of their belongings in the car, carrying only small shoulder bags with them that had enough food for two meals and the most basic medical supplies. A few antiseptic wipes, small bandages and a few feet of gauze was all that was available between the both of them. After Yuri saw Dimitri’s arm in the light, he insisted on helping cover it up to keep it from getting infected. Dimitri protested but eventually gave in to his cousin’s tenacity.
After wiping Dimitri’s arm down with an antiseptic wipe, Yuri used a second one to pick out as many pieces of grit and dirt from the wound as possible. Dimitri then held on to the gauze as Yuri wrapped it around the injury, securing it in place with the adhesive bandages at both ends. While the dressing wasn’t perfect, it was enough to protect Dimitri’s arm from getting irritated by his jacket and to — hopefully — keep it from getting infected.
Dimitri jumped down from the table and carefully slid his jacket sleeve down over his arm. He turned to his cousin to try and decide what to do next, but Yuri spoke first.
“We should leave tonight, Dimitri.” Yuri slid off the table, wobbling slightly as he moved his legs. “Something was after us and I don’t want to meet it again.”
Yuri was surprised to hear his cousin’s response. “You’re right. This is way too dangerous.” Dimitri started to walk toward the opposite end of the greenhouse from where they had entered. “Let’s get out here and get out into the fields. Then we can just go south and get back to the car before morning.”
Yuri followed Dimitri along through the greenhouse, doing his best to avoid touching the plants that had taken over the structure. As he and Dimitri neared the opposite end of the building, Yuri idly glanced down at his open jacket, spotting the radiation meter dangling from his chest. He stifled a yelp as he grabbed the meter and turned it upright, blinking several times to make sure he wasn’t imagining things.
“Dimitri!” Yuri whispered loudly, desperately calling his cousin over to return to him. Dimitri rushed back, looking at the radiation meter Yuri held aloft.
“What the hell?”
The meter was well within the yellow zone and rising, a level that wasn’t lethal to humans, but soon would be if they didn’t get out of the area quickly. Yuri ran back toward the section of the greenhouse they had entered, watching the meter as he went. With each step he took, the meter’s rise gradually began to slow until it stopped, halfway through the yellow section but still below the orange and red ones. Dimitri pulled his radiation meter off of his shirt as well, comparing it to Yuri’s.
“Mine’s doing the same thing. Damn!”
Yuri kept staring at the meter, wondering if it was going to spike upward again. A moment passed in silence as the cousins each watched their radiation meters until Yuri finally spoke again. “Why aren’t they moving anymore?”
Dimitri shook his head. “There must be a pocket of moss or something back there that we didn’t see. Damn!” Dimitri cursed several more times, angry at himself at the danger they had both just been placed in.
In Prip’Yat, one of the most dangerous spots to be was on or near a patch of moss. Moss, it turned out, had a nasty habit of absorbing extremely high doses of radiation from the soil, which turned it into a deathtrap if you stood on it for too long. There were other hotspots of radiation around the city, but surrounded by greenery, it made sense that a patch of moss would go unnoticed for long enough to irradiate them.
“Come on, Yuri, let’s get out of here.” Dimitri pushed through the side of the greenhouse, fighting with the tree limbs as he exited. When Yuri came through next, he nearly ran into the back of Dimitri, who was standing rigid outside the structure, not moving a single muscle on his body. Yuri began to move around Dimitri and tease him for his laziness when he looked up and saw what Dimitri was staring at.
Off in the distance, toward one edge of the city, red glowing eyes shone at them again as a dark shape stumbled along, alternating between moving slow and low to the ground and running along at a greater height. The shape wasn’t moving toward the cousins, but it was circling the edge of the city, cutting off their chances at escaping directly to their vehicle.
Yuri felt panic rise in his throat and he turned to run, pulling Dimitri along with him. “Come on! Move!” He hissed at his older cousin, dislodging Dimitri from his stare and causing him to break into a run as well.
Chapter Twelve
The interior of the building was quiet like the rest of the city, though the silence was more unnerving than it should have been. Every bootstep, every breath, and every aberrant noise from the soldiers’ equipment was more potential for their positions to be given away. Broken glass and rubble from the interior of the building blocked their paths, forcing them to go even slower than they had when they first entered the building.
The main floor of the building behind the desk was a labyrinth of rooms. Filled with everything from chairs to examination tables, it was disorienting in the darkness, even to the seasoned soldiers. After entering the building, Lucas switched from his SVD to a sawed-off shotgun that he kept strapped to his back. The weapon was light and versatile, capable of holding a total of six shells with a length of less than two feet. Although it lacked both night vision and thermal imaging devices, it was equipped with an under-barrel tactical light that shone in both white and red in varying degrees of brightness.
After several minutes of searching the upper floors, Lucas whispered into his microphone. “I’m going to check if there’s a basement level.”