Chernobyl

He has one ambition, and that is to avoid being sent to a punishment battalion before his time is up. Since Konov was in the summer 1984 intake, his term of service will expire exactly two years later, on June 12, 1986. He knows that date well. He has been looking forward to his demobilization date for exactly 684 days so far, and as he bumps along in the Army truck to his new assignment, he calculates that that date is (he looks at his watch) now just 66,240 minutes away.

Konov didn't know that Chernobyl was the name of the place they were going to on that Sunday afternoon in April, the one day in the week that should have been their precious own. Konov didn't know anything at all about where they were going or what they were supposed to do. Neither did any of the other twenty-odd soldiers in his truck, bouncing along a country road at a hundred and thirty kilometers an hour, until they stopped at a crossroads and were ordered out of the trucks.

They straggled down from the truck to relieve themselves, lined up along the edge of a field of winter wheat, exchanging with the soldiers from the other trucks the same guesses and denials they had been exchanging with their truckmates for the past two hours. No one had any facts. None of the units was even complete. The 461st Guards Rifle Division had been put on alert at two o'clock that afternoon and the units that were in camp ordered to be on board the trucks with full gear at fifteen minutes before three. 'It can't be the Americans attacking,' said one, 'because we'd be going east, not south.'

And another said, 'Americans your asshole. It's the fucking Ukrainians. They've found another Cossack bandit to lead them, so they're trying a revolt.' And another still was certain it was the Chinese, sneaking over the border from Iran — or the Afghans, bored with shooting down Soviet troops in their own country and now invading — or the Martians; and it wasn't until the sergeant came trotting up to shout at them that they got any information at all. Then it wasn't immediately helpful.

'Assholes,' he yelled. 'You should all piss on the east side of the road — the west is where you're sleeping tonight!'

'Sleeping here, Sergeant?' called one. 'You mean we're going to be staying in this place? What are we here for?'

And the sergeant waved a hand to the distant pillar of smoke on the southern horizon. 'You see that? That is what we're here for, and you'll all be damned lucky if you ever live to see anything else.'

It was just his way of talking, Konov's comrades reassured one another.

But an hour later, when they were in the town of Pripyat, Konov was no longer so sure. Some of the militiamen guarding the approaches had called to the soldiers, and the words they used were scary. Atomic explosion. Out of control. Worst of all, People are dying here! And no one seemed to think that was an exaggeration. And then they were all issued light little aluminum things that looked like fountain pens. The men turned them over curiously, and when they were told that these objects were called dosimeters and their purpose was to measure how much dangerous radiation each of them might receive, the mood of the soldiers became quite thoughtful.

Their job turned out to be getting the people out of the town of Pripyat. An endless creeping caterpillar of buses — city buses, highway buses, military buses; Konov had never seen so many buses in one place, eleven hundred of them someone said! — were snaking along the highway toward the town. The first task of the soldiers was to get the people out of their houses and onto the transport. Immediately. In pairs they were assigned blocks and buildings. And Konov found himself running up and down stairs, bawling to the occupants that the town of Pripyat was to be evacuated — simply temporarily, as a precaution — and everyone was to be ready to leave in half an hour. Meanwhile, were there any sick? Pregnant women? Old people, or people with a heart condition who would need special help?

It surprised Konov that the Pripyaters took his shouted orders so lightly. Of course, they had had ample warning that something was up. If somehow they had missed seeing that worrisome distant smoke cloud, then certainly the militia cars cruising every block with their loudspeakers blaring were letting them know. And yet there were people who didn't want to go, there were people who couldn't make up their minds to go and people — many, many people — who definitely wanted to be taken out of the threatened town as fast as possible, but first wanted to be given time to make decisions, help to pack up their food, their clothes, their pets, their children.

There was no time. 'In thirty minutes,' shouted Konov, 'you will be out of this building, or we will be back to drag you out! You must take food and necessities for three days, do you understand? And in thirty minutes there will be a bus at your door to take you!'

When he first saw Pripyat, Konov felt almost jealous. The eight-story concrete buildings of flats on the outskirts were quite like those that had swallowed all the green fields around Moscow — like, in fact, the ones Konov's parents still lived in just off the Leningradskaya Prospekt. But the ones farther into the town were something quite different. They were, in a word, beautiful. They were well kept, too, and surrounded by trees and parks. It was not just that someone with a bulldozer had sculptured a greensward here, a circular flower bed there; Pripyat's trees were native firs as well as chestnuts and fruit trees, and some of them were already in blossom. How fine it would be to live in a place like this, Konov thought. The only things that reminded him of home were cars drawn up on the sidewalk, some of them on blocks, nearly half of them still covered with the canvas shrouds that had protected them through the Ukrainian winter. And inside the buildings it was even more like home, for, new as they were, the hallways held that omnipresent Russian aroma of old cabbage.

For the first time in his Army career Konov felt he was doing a job that was worth his while.

It was frightening, at first — a nuclear accident! But it was obvious that the important thing was to get all these people to safety. Konov moved faster than he had moved in the last year and ten and a half months, and yet it didn't seem to him that it was fast enough. By the time they had made their first pass through the two buildings assigned to them, Konov was itching to get on with the job. Pripyat was a town of young, healthy people, it seemed. Hardly any had needed special attention because of age or illness. The men of Konov's platoon hunkered down and smoked, waiting for the orders to finish the job.

'Miklas,' Konov said to his partner, a dark-complected Armenian. 'We can do this faster if we split up.'

'Why do we want to do it faster?'

Konov hesitated. 'To help these people?' It had turned into a question as he said the words.

Miklas looked at him with curiosity. 'Seryozha,' he said reasonably, 'if we finish fast, they'll just find something else for us to do.'

'Even so.'

Miklas shook his head. 'Well, why not? All right. You take the tall building, I'll take the other one.'

Well, that served him right, Konov thought as he entered the second apartment house in the block. He had already figured out a new skill to meet the needs of the situation. It was better to start from the bottom of the building and to work his way up than to begin at the top. In his new system, he reasoned, you could double-check every flat on the way down because when the people were out of the top floor the ones lower down were already informed of what they had to do. Even, if you were lucky, many of them might already be in the street, trudging toward the loading zones on the sidewalks with their belongings in their arms and perhaps one child on their backs. He had to use threats at one of the first-floor apartments, but on the second floor he got unexpected help.

A tall, pale man with his arm in a sling was standing at the stairs, waiting for him.

Surprisingly, although the weather was warm in this late afternoon, the man was wearing a turtleneck sweater and a woolen cap. 'Let me help you,' he said, his tone oddly supplicatory. 'My name is Kalychenko. I am an engineer. I worked at Chernobyl.'

Konov frowned at him. 'And how can you help now?' he demanded.

The man said apologetically, 'At least I can explain to the people what they are facing! Many of them simply do not understand the danger of radiation.'

'But you are hurt,' Konov objected, eyeing the man's arm. It was not in a proper sling but a woman's shawl. 'If you go down now, there may still be some ambulances for the sick people.'

'I don't need an ambulance. I'll have it looked at later.'

'Come on then,' said Konov, turning away. He paused as the man tossed his own suitcase inside his apartment door. But he left the door open. 'Aren't you afraid that will be stolen?' he asked.

The man laughed. 'But that is impossible,' he said. 'There is not one person leaving Pripyat who can carry one more thing than he already has. Come on! The sooner we get these people moving, the sooner we all will be gone!'

Konov would not have believed it possible, but in less than ninety minutes from the time they entered Pripyat,