I           

 

          The warning they had received about this place flickered briefly across Jim’s mind. Still, he brushed it away and tried to focus on his job.

          “Smile,” the producer mouthed from behind the camera.

          Jim smiled. He hated live television.

          “Yes, at least try to act like you want to be here,” said Luke, his cohost and friend. Truth be told, it was the warning that Luke had gotten about this place that had him a bit unnerved tonight. It wasn’t normal.

          Jim ignored the thought and began his introduction, just as he had every episode. “Hello and welcome to a special live Halloween episode of Paranormal Investigators! We’re live in Prypiat, Ukraine, site of the infamous 1986 Chernobyl meltdown. Now, you might be wondering what Paranormal Investigators is doing in an abandoned area where no one has lived for decades instead of our typical castle or inn.”

          Secretly, Jim thought the same thing, but there was no way for him to come out and say that. He had to play the part of the intrigued every time his producer came up with another brainstorm idea. The network had promised another terrifying episode to the viewers. So, investigate he had to.

          “Well, in fact, this is a much different place from what the P.I. team has typically investigated,” Jim continued. “Scientists have spent decades studying the radiation and the wildlife in this area and learning about what happens when civilization suddenly disappears. But alongside the science came stranger reports – unexplained sounds, moving objects, and strange phenomena no one has ever fully explained.” He paused and looked around for dramatic effect. “This is truly a strange and awe-inspiring place indeed.”

          That was good bullshit, Jimmy. But of course I have to bullshit the viewers for this stupid assignment, he thought. What do they really expect us to find here? Just another haunted castle that’s not really haunted. Only this one comes with radiation. He smiled for the camera anyway.

            “That’s right, Jim,” Luke added as the two of them started walking through the abandoned city. Where Jim was very doubtful about finding anything paranormal in this city, Luke was every bit the opposite. “The city and surrounding region were abandoned by the Soviet government’s evacuation shortly after one of the power plant’s reactors exploded. However, by the time the evacuation began, people had already begun to die, dozens of others had to be hospitalized, and many others would die in the following months. As quickly as scientists were brought in to examine the effects of the meltdown on the city, the reports of strange events were as quick to follow.”  They passed a child’s bicycle, rusted into the very sidewalk and choked with weeds.

          He’s giddy as a schoolgirl, thought Jim. Well at least one of us believes there’s something to be found here in this radioactive hellhole. 

            Luke continued, “Perhaps the residents of Prypiat have come back to the city that the world considers to be abandoned. Maybe it’s all just reports from nervous scientists that were too worried about the effects the radiation would have on them to focus on studying. We do know the mind can play tricks on you when you want to think you see something. Either way, you will notice we are not wearing suits, as the radiation has subsided, and the Ukrainian government has granted us a rare permission into what’s known as the Zone of Alienation. We have been given access to the power plant itself, the rec center, and some of the apartment buildings.” They continued past a classroom visible through broken windows. Thirty empty desks sat in the dark room. Thirty gas masks remained.

           The two of them approached the rest of the team. Jim looked around the immediate surroundings, remembering what the physicists he had spoken with had pointed out as the major areas of activity. He looked up at an apartment building and saw a curtain shift in a window, just slightly. Just the wind, he thought.

          Jim looked at the team. “Alright, Ryan and Sarah will be examining the recreation center and the outer plant area. While they’re doing that, Joe and Sean, you two do a thermal sweep of the housing structures and maybe do some sound recording as well. Luke and I will walk through the power plant.” 

          The team nodded in agreement and broke off into their respective groups. At least it’s a nice night, thought Jim. Clear skies, nice bright moonlight, crisp, cool temperature. A perfect evening. Strange that there was no sound anywhere here. No owls, no insects. Not even the wind.

          Apprehensive about Prypiat or not, getting an opportunity to enter the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was certainly an honor, and had shown how far he and Luke had brought their television show. With numerous competitors in the genre of paranormal investigation, Jim and Luke had built a cult following and had garnered the highest ratings amongst their competition. Jim was sure it was due to the professional approach each member of the team brought to each shoot, as well as the excellent contrast of personalities he and Luke brought to the show.

          The walky-talky crackled. “Sean and Joe, 10:15 PM, entering the housing structures.”      

          Luke grabbed for his walky-talky. “Roger that, Sean. Remember, the third floor is the area we want to focus on.”

          “Third floor… got it.  Thanks, Luke. Looks like we’ve got a staircase up ahead,” Sean responded.

          “Keep us updated,” said Luke. “How are you guys doing out there, Sarah?”

          “Approaching the recreation area now. Everyone… please stay in contact,” said Sarah.  She was always insistent on keeping communication steady with the team. Jim didn’t think that she really got overly scared, but he also knew she wasn’t completely confident with what they did either. She normally preferred to stay with the producers in the trucks, watching the monitors and keeping everyone updated on what was happening. 

           This, however, was a totally different show than they had ever shot before, as the Ukrainian government would only allow the team itself access inside the Zone of Alienation. The government wanted to know more about the area for their own good, but cooperating with an American television show was not something they really wanted to do. As far as Jim could see, that put the team at a distinct disadvantage for this investigation. Each group had to do their own filming. And this – their special Halloween “live” episode, would be airing in just a few hours back in the U.S. There would be very little chance to edit much of anything, but the technicians were in their cozy editing rooms back in New York, watching the live feeds, and doing their best to make this experience work out. All of this added up to an extremely difficult night ahead for everyone.  Sarah’s nerves could simply make this whole shoot impossible.

          Jim waived his hand at Luke for the walky-talky. He felt a need to comfort Sarah.  He understood that he was more emotionally detached than most when it came to this business.  “Sarah, just relax,” he told her. “Ryan’s with you, and nothing’s gonna happen tonight. If you get scared, just remember that we’re the only ones here in this city, okay?”

          The walky-talky crackled with Sarah’s voice, “Okay, yeah, you’re right Jimmy. Just… keep in touch.” 

          “Will do, Sarah,” he said, switching off the walky-talky. He looked at Luke. “She’s jumpy tonight.”

          “Well, it is a strange place,” noted Luke. Despite their professionalism, the warning that Luke was given about Prypiat was still painted on his face tonight. “It’s… so quiet. So strange to see this whole city just totally abandoned.” Unnatural feedback came from the walky-talky just then, high-pitched and discomforting.

          “Yeah, it’s a little weird,” allowed Jim, eyeing the walky-talky and wondering what would have made the strange noise.

           Prypiat had been one of the crown jewels of the Soviet Union when Chernobyl was up and running. Every modern convenience that 1986 could afford found its way to the Chernobyl workers in Prypiat, and in the blink of an eye, the city and its inhabitants were no more. The city remained. The modern conveniences remained.  The people, however, were long gone. As if to emphasize the point, a television set remained on the pavement up ahead. Smashed now, it was most likely the remains of a forced evacuation with the workers trying to keep their luxury goods in an era of communism. 

           “That’s it, there,” said Luke, pointing at the building up ahead. “Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.” He stopped walking for a moment to take it in. “Wow.”

           The walky-talky crackled, “Guys, this is Sean. I think we’ve got something in here.  We’re hearing something in some of these apartments.” Sean and Joe were always a dependable team. Sean was the historical expert on every place the team was assigned to, and Joe always brought calm scientific rationality to the team. If they were hearing things, Jim knew it was probably credible.

          Jim responded, “Roger that, Sean. What are you hearing?”

          “I don’t know. Light banging, something else that sounds like… a hiss,” responded Sean. 

          “A hiss?  Like a snake?” asked Jim.

          Silence followed for a few seconds before Sean’s steady voice came out of the walky-talky. “No, it sounds more like a cat.”

          Jim thought for a few seconds. “A cat? Alright, just be careful up there. We don’t know what you’re dealing with. It might be rabid; it might be some sort of wild animal. Remember, there’s been next to no human activity to clear animals out of this city for a very long time. Are you guys using the thermal camera?” 

          “Roger that, Jimmy, yeah, we’re using it, but not seeing anything showing up,” Sean responded. “Maybe it is cold-blooded after all.”

          “Yeah, probably a snake hiding in the dark. But keep us informed, Sean,” said Jim as he put the walky-talky back on his belt.

          Luke stared at Jim with a puzzling look on his face. “What’s wrong with you?” Jim asked him.

          Luke shot back, “Snakes? Reptiles? In Ukraine… in October?”

          Defensively, Jim admitted, “Hey, I don’t know. But it can’t be a cat because the thermal’s not picking it up.”

          Luke shrugged, looking not at all satisfied. But there was work to be done tonight.

          Continuing forward, they could see the doors to the plant up ahead. This one, however, was chained. “Door looks locked,” Luke pointed out. “Do you want to break in, or find another way in?” 

          Jim looked around the façade of the building. “This is where they told us to enter. Why the hell did they give us the keys and access to the plant if they kept the doors chained and locked?” He paused, rubbing his eyes with frustration. “I’m guessing all the doors are probably locked like this then. So this is as good a place to go in as anywhere. Besides, this chain’s all rusted out anyway, so it should be nice and easy to get in here.”

          Grabbing his large hunting knife from his belt, Jim swung it down on the chain a few times before the chain gave way. The door creaked open just a crack. Grabbing the walky-talky, Jim informed the team, “Jim and Luke, 10:27 PM, entering the power plant.”

          Luke poked his head in and looked around, waving his flashlight back and forth a few times. Shadows projected around the walls from the light. Luke took a step into the doorway just as a large boom filled the plant, off in the distance. Luke looked back at Jim, a terrified expression on his face. He eyed Jim with nervous energy, “What was that?”

          Confident, Jim entered the building and walked ahead of Luke. “It’s fine. Probably just a rat or something running away when it heard the door open, and it just knocked something over. No big deal, don’t be so jumpy. Come on.”

          No sooner had Jim said those words than he heard a whisper from behind him. He turned, but found no one there, yet the strange voice seemed to penetrate his brain. He felt it behind his eyes. He blinked hard, trying to force it away, but the feeling lingered like something was present just behind his thoughts.

          Luke’s voice was shaking now. “Jim, look down at your feet.”

          Jim pointed the camera down and saw a strange mist on the floor, swirling around. “What do you think that is?” he asked Luke.                  “Get a thermal on this.”

          “Right,” said Luke. Switching the thermal on, he pointed the camera at Jim, who was glowing red, indicating heat. Scanning down, all he saw were darker colors. The mist showed up green, indicating cool. “Nothing… it’s showing up as cool,” Luke told Jim. 

          “Probably some sort of chemical residue from the fallout,” Jim theorized as he crouched down and slowly reached his hand down through it. The mist recoiled slightly and moved away from his touch.

          “What the hell?” Luke said, more statement than question.

          Jim stared at the swirling mist, hesitating for a brief moment.

          The walky-talky crackled to life again. Sean’s voice, much shakier than usual, came out. “Guys, we’ve got some strange mist in the housing structure here. Showing up as green on the thermal, but it’s swirling around our feet, and it moves away when we move our hands down there near it.”

          Jim and Luke stared at each other in silence. Instinctively, Luke knelt down next to Jim and stuck his hand down near the mist, looking into Jim’s eyes the whole time. The mist seemed almost alive as it swirled around and away from Luke’s motions.

          There had to be an explanation they were overlooking. Chemical runoff. Escaping coolant. Some bizarre interaction with decades-old contamination. It wasn’t ghosts. It wasn’t monsters. It couldn’t be.

          Jim clicked the button on the walky-talky, “We’ve got some here too… we think it’s chemical residue of some sort. Did you find your snake, Sean?”

          Silence followed. Finally, after almost a minute, Sean responded in a low whisper, “No…the hissing stopped a few minutes ago. And Joe says he’s never heard of chemical residue swirling at ground level and moving away when you get close.” There was a pause, then another crackle of distortion before Sean continued. “What the hell is happening here?”

          Before Jim had a chance to respond, the walky-talky spoke up again. Sarah was on the other end this time, breathing very fast, “Guys can we get out of here? That weird mist is over here now too.” 

          Jim clicked the radio. “Alright, everyone, listen to me. Just take it easy. If you need to take a break, head back to the trucks and get some coffee.” He paused a moment. “We’re all perfectly fine here. This isn’t Lizzy Borden’s house or Dracula’s castle. We’ve been there. This is nothing - just a city and science hub.” 

          “We’ve never seen anything like this before, Jim,” Luke pointed out. “This isn’t like any other place we’ve been to. I’m not so sure we should be here…”

          The walky-talky beeped again, followed by Sean’s voice. “Jim, that mist is getting thicker…and higher. It’s moving up off the ground. Holy shit, what the fuck is that!?” The walky-talky made a bang, then a click, then came the sound of nothing.

          “Sean, talk to me,” said Jim. “Sean…”

          Silence.

          “Sean… over.” No response came from Sean.

          Sarah began screaming for Sean over the walky-talky too.

          “Sarah… take it easy. Let me speak to Ryan, ok?” Sarah was too busy screaming Sean’s name to notice Jim had spoken to her.

          After a slight shrug, Jim turned to Luke, “Let’s look around a little bit.” 

          “Are you serious? No, fuck you,” said Luke. “We have this weird mist all over the city, Sean’s walky-talky goes silent, he doesn’t respond to anyone asking him to check in, and you want to look through here instead of going to see if he’s alright? Fuck you!”

          “Alright, take it easy, Luke,” responded Jim, trying to calm him as a father would his son. “Until we know what’s happening, we don’t panic. The team looks at us for leadership, so let’s figure out what we’re dealing with first. They’re just scared. I know Sean’s usually not like that, but… come on. He found something he’s never seen before. We’ve all been there before with this job. This city’s been abandoned since 1986.”

          Before the last word left his mouth, a harrowing scream echoed from somewhere in the lower levels of the plant. Not a startled yell. Not panic. Agony, raw and human. Every hair on Jim’s arms and neck stood on end. Luke went pale white. He looked like he was about to vomit.

          Another scream. And another. This time several voices came up at once from below. They sounded like people in extreme pain, screams from someone suffering some terrible fate. The echoes bounced unnaturally through the corridors until they seemed to come from everywhere at once.

          “Let’s go get the group and get out of here, Jim. Come on… NOW!” said Luke.

          Jim was now also visibly shaken, but still managed to produce a slight nod in Luke’s direction. Frightened on a shoot for the first time in his career, he struggled to sound confident.  “Right. Follow me.”

          Pushing past Luke, all Jim could think of was getting out of this plant and away from those horrible screams that continued to fill the facility with dread. The terrible sound pursued them everywhere they went, now almost piercing their minds. Jim thought he saw a strange shadow appear ahead of him and disappear just as quickly. He quickened his pace as he reached for the walky-talky.

          “Sarah, this is Jim. Luke and I are coming to you and Ryan… stay where you are. We’ll find Sean and Joe once we meet up.” No response followed. “Sarah…do you copy?” Again silence. “Shit, Luke, she’s terrified and not responding. We need to figure out where she might be right now. Hold up.”

          Jim stopped and turned around to talk to Luke. Instead, he only heard a flashlight hit the ground. Luke was not there. Just his flashlight on the floor, rolling back and forth slightly, illuminating the swirling mist that now started thickening and rising around him.

          Frantically, Jim screamed, “Luke! Luke! Where are you? Talk to me!” No response came, except a new, more terrifying round of the anguished screams from below. They made the hairs on Jim’s arms rise again, and suddenly panic overtook him.  He began sprinting towards the doors. 

          Pushing the doors open as he ran, Jim entered the cool night air. The moon was shining over the city, but the clear sky was gone, replaced by thick mist and fog. Frantically, he reached for the walky-talky and screamed, “Sarah… Ryan… Sean… Joe… can anyone hear me?” No response followed. 

          He ran for the safety of the trucks, but found more thick fog surrounding him there.  Opening the truck’s door, Jim fumbled for the correct key. The radio came alive before the key entered the ignition, returning the same high-pitched feedback the walky-talky had earlier. His nerves frayed, he frantically inserted the key into the ignition and started the truck. Mist began to filter inside the truck, fogging the windows. “What the fuck is this!?” he yelled. 

          A low hiss rumbled from the back seat. Turning to look, he saw someone sitting in there in the dark, surrounded by the thickening mist. The face didn’t move, it didn’t breathe. It just watched him from far too close behind empty eyes. And then, Jim saw only blackness.