Chapter 4

2009 - 08 - 24

Ukraine - The Perimeter

The Gates of Hell. Kyiv Forward Base of Operations. The husk of what was left from once a beautiful city. Golden church domes, symbols of bright future and promise of happy lives were now bleak and uncared for. Cracked asphalt of the streets has seen more tanks and soldiers filling its space rather than happy families and busy pedestrians since that tragic day.

The whole city that just a decade ago was a home for 2 million people now became a military base for Ukrainians, Russians, Americans, British, French, Germans and Chinese.

Politics divided the habitable part of the city into the seven parts giving each country one sector in their control. Kyiv was one of many bases out there but being the biggest military base on the outskirts of the Zone, it was coveted. A spot among those 7 was a highly debated and contested topic of politicians, the goal of countless negotiations and business deals and the trophy that stood at the end of unending conflicts.

Ukraine has been facing a lot of outside pressure ever since The Zone came into being and it became obvious how lucrative and important control over it was. The original owners of the land had to somehow resist the outside influence so that was how numerous ‘freelancers’ found a way inside the Exclusion Zone. That’s how Nikolai found business opportunities and a way inside. And that’s why I am not being arrested and incarcerated right this very moment.

Our party consisted of 7 people: Me, Nikolai, Ivan and Andrei and 3 new people who joined us.

2 of them were ‘scientists’ who we are supposed to protect, Zhores and David. In reality, they are Nikolai’s hired facade used to keep the pretense. The last one of the new guys was a guide who lived in the Zone for the last couple of years. His name was Petlya (Loop). It wasn’t really a name but that was how he was introduced and everyone else was fine with it.

We didn’t get to spend much time getting to know each other as every second of our presence in the military base brought risk, so even if we faced the perspective of spending the night in The Zone it was a better alternative.

We checked all our equipment once again and moved out. We didn't use trucks or any other transport, because 8 years of experience, taught people that haste inside of the Zone will be met with quick demise. You will be lucky to traverse 10 kilometres in a straight line in a day. What's worse, the distance means nothing in here as I was about to find out.

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Here I am. The Zone. The nightmare and the dream of many and my new home, no matter how short my presence will be here.

The everpresent greyness now hung over our heads. The light mist surrounding us felt like the threatening giant finally made its move and was closing in us. Ashen surroundings and wilting and discoloured greenery made it clear that we are on its territory and we are not welcome.

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We kept moving together as a group following each other in a column with Petlya in the lead and Andrei at the back. I was right in the middle behind the scientists, Zhores and David, who looked too comfortable with their weapons for someone with the profession so detached from the battlefield.

It was doubtful that I was put in the middle so that they could protect me better, a more believable explanation would be that the position for the first two in the front and the last two in the back was more important. Petlya was our guide, the one who would take it upon his shoulders not to get us lost or end up in an anomaly. Ivan’s purpose was to pay attention to our surroundings and shoot whatever was in the front. Andrei and Nikolai who were at the back were our cover and first point of contact in case of an ambush. People knew their roles and followed them accordingly. My role was not to screw things up if we end up in a mess.

After the first kilometre or so, we got off the road and started following the trail that ran somewhat parallel to it. Petlya explained that without expensive sensors it is almost impossible to find some anomalies on the flat surface of the asphalt but dust and dirt of the trail would become our indicators instead. Another point in favour of the side-road is that some very dangerous mutants like to hunt on the roads.

After walking for a while Nikolai decided to strike a conversation with me. After he found out that I could speak Russian he completely abandoned the use of English.

"So you are finally here, nutcase. Does this place look like your nightmares?”

“No, it doesn’t. I don’t remember much about them but this isn’t what I dreamt about. My dreams were much scarier,” I answered. The real Zone didn’t have that bone piercing terror and smell of death I woke up from at night.

“Hah, say it again when we get deeper! Anyway, how come you Russian so well?” he asked.

“My mother is Russian and dad knew the language, so I took Russian as easy credits in university. Ended up learning it.”

“You are lucky then, because without Russian here you would end up dead sooner or later. Here there are more Russians than everyone else combined,” said Nikolai.

That was quite interesting because as far as I knew Ukrainians had very contradicting views on Russia. It ranged from brother-like love to deep-seated hatred and as far as I knew Chernobyl didn’t have anything to do with Russia since 1991.

“And why is that?” was my question.

“Who else is desperate enough to volunteer? We smell the future here even if it is traded with lives. Besides, now that the Chechen War is over, where do you think thousands of ex-soldiers would be?” said Nikolai. He is right, during the Chechen War people had a choice between fighting for the country and fighting for the fortunes. Now that the first option is closed even more Russians ran here. The close proximity of The Zone made it as easy as buying a train ticket for them.

Out of boredom, I decided to continue the conversation with the first thing that came to my mind.

“And how did you end up with business in here?” I asked.

“Aren’t you curious? My brother used to be a ‘politikan’ in Russia. Was doing quite well for himself until they caught a whiff that he was selling artifacts to the wrong people. So he ended up running. I, on the other hand, decided that it would be a shame to let all of his connections to dry up and that’s how it was,” he answered.

And so we continued to talk about other inconsequential things. Discussions with serious topics weren’t meant for our current circumstances. “Alright, it’s time to start looking around. Too dangerous to chit-chat so late,” said Nikolai.

We continued our trek for about 2 hours and was getting too dark to safely move forward. Petlya found us a spot on the top of the hill free of trees and shrubbery that was otherwise all around this place. To get there we moved even further away from the road but it would be easy to find the trail from there in the morning.

While we were unpacking things and putting up tents Petlya said:

“Put up only one tent, maximum two just enough for 4-5 of us at the same time. Extra tents will block vision so don’t bother. And don’t think of using your sleeping bags. We sleep in gear on top of bags and keep the tents always open. Is it clear? We also need firewood enough to last us the whole night. Whoever is free needs to gather it, just don’t go too far and without back up.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to keep a fire at night, aren’t we gonna attract attention?” asked Andrei.

“Whatever is dangerous enough is gonna find you anyway even without fire. At least you will see what you gonna be shooting in the dark with it.” said our guide.

Andrei and Ivan left to gather firewood while the rest of us started to put up a camp and decide the order of night shifts. Me and the two bodyguards who didn’t get a chance to vote ended up in the first shift, which I was glad for as I had no desire to sleep yet.