Wild Girl of Chernobyl

by Thomas Porter

  Chapter 4

  The following morning, the three students met in the lobby as arranged. Irwin was the first to arrive. He was 6'2” and skinny with long uncombed hair, a four-day beard, and wore an untucked plaid shirt. The businessmen and tourists glanced at him in the upscale lobby and the desk clerk wondered whether he was a new hire. Bradford arrived 5 minutes after him, still wearing the jeans and embroidered golf shirt he had traveled in. They sat on one of the plush couches in the lobby until Janice, wearing new REI Sahara pants and shirt under her new Marmot jacket, arrived 30 minutes later. Before retrieving the van they ate breakfast in the hotel's Comme Il Faut restaurant, marveling at the tiny portions on huge plates. Janice drove again and she followed the GPS's directions to Park Slavi in the city. They found no parking so they unloaded the equipment on the wide sidewalk outside one of the park's walking entrances. Irwin and Bradford stood next to the seven large boxes, set side by side on the sidewalk, as Janice drove off in search of parking. It was mid-morning Tuesday and people on their way to work bustled past the two LSU students. Forty five minutes later, Janice returned and immediately began telling Irwin and Bradford what to do with the boxes, how to carry them, where to put them. She was almost giddy as the three of them walked between 10-foot square pillars and into the park. Her voice was too loud, her eyebrows were raised slightly, and she squeezed her left hand as if squeezing a stress ball.

  They opened the two largest boxes, set a long narrow box aside, and assembled the aluminum cage. Two other boxes contained large video cameras and another contained two spare batteries, various cables for the camera, and several memory cards. Irwin unpacked the cameras, deftly assembled them, and turned both on. They still worked.

  Bradford unpacked a small folding table, a laptop, two motion detectors, an infrared camera, tripods, and yet more cables. He set up the motion detectors and Janice enthusiastically ran and jumped in their range while Bradford checked the readouts and Irwin filmed.

  Next, Janice tipped a long narrow box down and three long, thin steel poles fell out. Each pole, about 50” long, was wide on one end, became thinner in the center, and then thinner still at the end. The thin ends were tipped with syringes containing 12 cc each of tranquilizer protected by a clear plastic cap. A smaller box contained twelve more syringes, six with 3cc and six with 12cc of tranquilizer.

  At lunchtime they were finished. Janice, carrying the box with the tranquilizer jab sticks, left to retrieve the van while the two men disassembled the cage and repacked the electronics. When she returned several minutes later, Irwin and Bradford stood on the sidewalk next to the equipment and a pile of cardboard and extra packing material.

  “Just leave it,” Janice said as she idled the van next to the curb.

  Irwin said, “We can't just leave it.”

  “Do we need it anymore?” Janice asked.

  “We're gonna need it when we're done,” Irwin said.

  “When we're done, we're not gonna care about this stuff anymore. We'll just ship it back in the cases or something. I'm sure FedEx will sell us more boxes.”

  Irwin glanced at Bradford, who stood next to him and shrugged.

  “Alright, but who's gonna clean it up?” Irwin asked.

  These guys must think a woman doesn't know what she's doing, Janice thought. “Don't you think the city has people for that?” she said through the window opening.

  “I can't believe we're just gonna leave that crap there,” Irwin said as he got in the van after packing the equipment. “We haven't even been here a day and we're leaving boxes and crap like we own the place. Incredible.”

  “Chill, Irwin. I'm here to study Wild Girl, not foster relations with the natives. They'll pick that crap up. They'll have to. They probably burn garbage for electricity here. Think of that. We're probably doing them a favor.”

  “They'll burn it if we throw it away, too,” Irwin said from the passenger seat. He was slumped over and spoke sheepishly. He knew he would lose this argument, even if he won it.

  Janice ignored him and yelled to Bradford, who still stood on the sidewalk, “Get in. It's an hour drive.” Then, under her breath, she said to herself, “You men probably don't want to let me drive, either.”

  Bradford climbed into the back and Janice pulled away from the curb, leaving the boxes and packing material in the shade of the tall trees.

  Chapter 5

  “Trust me, Janice. This is where these need to go,” Bradford said as he pushed one of the motion detector mounting posts into the ground as the sun lowered in the western sky.

  “I trust you to screw it up,” Janice said. She sat on a folding chair they purchased on their drive up to Pripyat from Kiev. It was pulled up to the folding table they shipped from Louisiana and a neat pile of papers and an Apple laptop rested in front of her. The sun was just descending behind the buildings that Janice saw four months ago on the internet video. The van was pulled to the curb nearby. They had claimed a spot along the eastern edge of a large central field overgrown with weeds and saplings. It was several acres in size and surrounded on all sides by buildings. At one time, before the meltdown, this field was a central city park. On sunny days, workers emptied the surrounding buildings at lunchtime, stripped off their outer layers of clothing, and sunned themselves.

  “Isn't that too far away?” Janice asked Bradford.

  “My theory is that Wild Girl won't want to come close at first. She'll stick to the far side of the field.”

  “Your theory?”

  “You know what Dr. Jameson says,” Bradford said. “Theory is an approximation of reality. In this case, I'm betting we'll find out soon enough it is reality.”

  “I've heard him say that. In a classroom. This is field research. We don't have time for theories.”

  “Don't worry, Janice. These things have a huge range. The other one's going on the other side of this field, over there,” he said, pointing to the road that lined the field on its western edge.

  “I don't think you're thinking this through,” Janice said.

  “You want to read the manual?” Bradford said to her, looking up from the motion detector.

  “No, that's why you're here.”

  “Then let me put this thing where I know it goes. You know so much sitting there, don't you?” Bradford said.

  “Where's Irwin?” Janice asked, ignoring Bradford's invitation to argue.

  “Probably in that building you were so excited about. Me, I value my life too much to go inside at night,” Bradford said.

  “It's twilight, not night. Anyway, the wolves are not going to hurt you. They probably don't even go inside. That was never on the video.”

  “Even so,” Bradford replied. He stood up, retrieved the second motion detector from the van, and walked toward the far end of the field.

  “You want me to go with you, in case you get scared?” Janice said from her seat.

  “Very funny,” Bradford said without turning around, once again questioning whether the 6 college credits he was earning was worth having to answer to someone so emotionally insecure.

  ~ - ~ - ~

  Irwin, holding the infrared camera connected to a tripod, nervously walked into the small foyer. A hallway to his right departed the small space and he stopped. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, a wall of glass several feet down the empty hall revealed itself. He walked through the thick layer of white dust until he reached the glass. Behind it was a room with several small desks. The wall across the room consisted of cubes, each about 18” square, stacked on top of each other. Some of the cubes contained what appeared to be children's jackets and bags. At one time they were brightly colored and decorated with cartoon animals, but were now severely faded. All the cubes were coated with thick dust except for one, three up from the floor and two over from the wall, which appeared to contain a small pair of scissors, some tape, several markers, and a cloth doll, all of which were neatly organized an
d free of dust. Irwin cupped his hands on the glass but the room was too dark to make out more details.

  With his face still just inches from the glass, he examined the room's wall on the left side. It was decorated with crudely drawn gorillas, giraffes, and puffy white clouds. The wall on the right side was light purple at one time but now nearly gray and peeling severely. There were no windows facing out of the building and Irwin decided it would be wasted effort to place the camera here. He retreated back to the foyer, walking with more confidence than he had when entering the hall.

  Once back in the foyer, he pulled on the handle of a large wooden door. Stairs. Although very dark, his eyes were completely adjusted and he passed into the staircase. It was lined with faded tin squares, each of which was stamped with an identical geometric pattern. He lightly brushed his left hand along the wall as he stepped onto each stone step, one after the other until he reached a door that was propped open on the fourth floor. He passed through the door and entered a long hallway that extended to his right. Several closed doors, spaced evenly apart from each other, were on the left side of the hallway. Irwin crossed the hall to the first one and pushed it open. His eyes immediately fell on the series of windows on the top half of the wall opposite the door. He crossed the room and looked out at the main square four floors down.

  Perfect, Irwin thought and smiled.

  He stood the infrared camera tripod on the floor but it was too short to extend above the bottom half of the gray-tiled wall. He went to the far side of a desk and pushed it toward the window, revealing a rectangle of dust-free floor tile underneath. He tipped a free-standing metal coat rack in the process and the weight of a faded pink coat with fake pink fur trim pulled it to the floor. Irwin jumped at the sound but continued to push the desk until it bumped against the wall. He brushed a small mirror, eye liner pencil and lipstick out of the way and onto the floor, lifted the infrared camera onto the desk, pointed it out the window, and looked through its viewfinder. It had a sweeping view of the main square and Irwin pushed the record button.

  ~ - ~ - ~

  Janice sat in the increasing darkness, now alone. Her insides were still fluttering from the rush of excitement she felt when the van pulled to a stop two hours earlier. She shut the laptop to extinguish its artificial light, paused a second, and stood up. She took a deep breath through her nose and slowly took in the scene. The group of trees, which she studied frame by frame on the video, were very familiar to her. She turned slowly to her right and watched Bradford shrink into the darkness as he walked across the field toward the field's western edge. Behind him, on the opposite side of the field, was a two lane road. Across the road were three eight story beige buildings with large, dark windows. She followed the buildings as she spun again to her right. Vegetation had fully taken root in the road as it turned 90 degrees at the next intersection. She continued to spin until she looked at the closer buildings on her side of the field, the eastern side. These cookie cutter communist buildings all look alike, she thought.

  Janice gasped when a vivid picture of her mother's face appeared on the side of the building, as if projected onto a giant screen with windows. Where did that come from, she thought. As she stared at the image, she thought of the day her kindergarten teacher led her from the classroom to the school office, 20 years ago. Her father was there and she remembered the feeling of excitement when she learned he was taking her out of school early. He led her to the car, where Aunt Mary, her mom's sister, was waiting. She got in the back and they drove off. She remembered being excited at this special occasion and talking to the adults in the front seat, but she also remembered her aunt, who she loved, being unusually quiet. She remembered the one-way conversation she had as they drove, and she remembered the red and white parking lot gate arm swing up. She remembered walking through the parking lot into the hospital, through the maze of hallways, and into her mother's room. It was painted light green and there was one ugly chair in the corner. Janice smiled as she remembered her Aunt Mary explain they were going to the “Icy You”. “Why is Mom in an 'Icy You'?”, she remembered asking. She remembered being bored hour after hour in the hospital, and the feeling of relief when her dad woke her up as she slept on the waiting room couch and told her they're taking her home. She remembered being confused because her mom was not coming with them, but mostly she remembers being relieved and happy that she was finally getting out of there.

  The face on the building faded and Janice continued to spin until she turned toward the familiar group of trees and saw Irwin walking through them.

  “What'd I say about walking through the trees?” she yelled to him.

  “To watch for footprints. I mean, to not step on any tracks,” Irwin said as he approached her.

  “I said you guys shouldn't do it,” Janice said.

  “Sorry. What's the big deal, anyway?”

  “What if she's around here? You're scaring her off, dumb ass.”

  “She probably bolted the second we pulled the van up,” Irwin said.

  “Maybe so. Did you get the cameras set up?”

  “Yeah. Over at those double doors but pointing this way, about three feet off the ground. Should catch anything, person or otherwise,” Irwin said.

  “What about the other one?”

  “See that window on the fourth floor?”

  “No, but anyway,” Janice said.

  “It has the other camera,” Irwin said. “I put the infrared there. A really nice spot. It can see everything.”

  Janice wrapped her arms around herself, retrieved her coat from the van, and returned to her seat.

  As Bradford returned from his trip to the opposite side of the field, Janice's face, lighted by the glow from the laptop screen, grew larger. When it had returned to its normal size, he said, “I'm crashing in the van. Both motion detectors are set up. Just watch your laptop.”

  “There's nothing to watch, bozo,” Janice said.

  Bradford shuffled to her laptop and looked at the screen. “You didn't activate them yet,” he said as he tilted the laptop screen back and moved the mouse. “There. Should be working now. No motion. See this line here? If that moves, there's movement. Just that simple.”

  Irwin walked toward the van and said, “You gonna crash in the van? I'm right behind you. Jet lag is kicking my ass.”

  “I'll wake you guys if anything happens,” Janice said as she returned to her table and the laptop's unnatural light turned her face yellow.

  Chapter 6

  Helle knelt near the base of the seven story green building. Her white skin was dirt-covered and her wavy black hair was cut short.

  Who is this walking toward me, Helle thought. He's carrying something and he's coming right at me. He's another one of those people who walk around waving their machines in the air. Just like that other one on the other side of the field, and that one who's at my building. Just like all the others who show up here for as long as I can remember. Sometimes they put those machines to their eyes, sometimes they just wave them around. They love walking around on my grass and through my buildings, walking and waving.

  The three wolves at her side raised their eyebrows, tilted their heads to her, and sniffed the air. Helle also froze in place.

  Quiet. Don't move.

  Bradford stopped at the edge of the grass just across the road from Helle. She mimicked the wolves, storing his scent in her memory.

  He's putting that thing on the ground and leaving it, she thought. That's different. They usually take those things when they leave. Wait until he's gone. Then we look at it.

  Okay, let's go.

  The wolves moved with her in unison as she ran across the road and stopped at the motion detector. The wolves smelled it and Helle joined them. She grabbed it with both hands, lifted it, and dropped it onto the ground. It landed on its face, lens pointing into the ground. At that moment, while the four crowded around the device, Janic
e stood up at the table across the field. In response, Helle and the wolves froze in place.

  Come on. Closer to that one.

  She glided along the edge of the grass. The wolves silently trotted at her side. Within seconds, the four ran the perimeter of the field until they were about 30 feet from Janice. They laid on the grass and silently listened and watched as Janice spun in a circle to her right, examining the buildings along the perimeter of the field. Helle stared at Janice's head until her eyes spun into view. As Janice stared at the side of the building, Helle stared into her eyes and felt an emotion she could not name.

  Helle's mind then reached into the van and searched. Bradford was sleeping. Helle found nothing, a black void filled with numbers and unconscious calculations. Irwin was just drifting off to sleep and his half-conscious mind thought of how clever, how very smart, how cunning, he was to place the infrared camera in that room on the fourth floor.

  That tall one put something in my mother's room.

  The three wolves sprung to their feet and silently padded out of the field, around the van, and turned toward the building then pervading Irwin's approaching dreams. Helle glided over the cobblestone like an ice skater. She stopped briefly to examine the camera outside the double doors. She put her face close to it and sniffed, putting Irwin's scent into her memory. The wolves did the same.

  Mother's room.

  The wolves' coiled muscles sprung to life. They passed into the building and padded up the stairs, followed closely by Helle.

  Chapter 7

  The rising sun glinted off the laptop screen and struck Janice on her closed eyelids, slowly waking her up. Afternoon in Louisiana, she thought. She lifted herself from the chair and stretched.

  Bang bang bang!

  She struck the side of the van with her open palm and Bradford, from inside, shouted, “We're up already!”

  “So what does this mean, then?” she asked.

  The back of the van opened and Irwin stumbled out. He turned toward the table, pressed a few keys on the laptop, and said, “It means your battery is dead.”

  Bradford emerged from the van, replaced the laptop battery, rebooted it, and the three watched the screen. Two black windows, one stacked above the other, opened on the screen. In the top window, a green line bisected a black background. It was flat except for two spikes at the left end. The first spike was small and jumped about a third of the way up the Y axis. The second was twice as tall and had several peaks before it dropped back to the flat line.