it looked more like a wide overgrown path leading into the forest.
“There is a sign of radiation,” the streamer noted looking closer. – So there are not so many places where we are.
– For example? Roman raised his eyebrows curiously.
– Ozersk in the Chelyabinsk region, Seversk in the Tomsk region, Aikhal or Udachny in Yakutia, or Totsk district in the Orenburg region. Are there many places?
“I didn’t think that the cyber-nerd knew such details,” the comrade clicked his tongue admiringly.
– So I learned a lot from the games, – Nikita chuckled. – But this is the only road, so we were either brought along it, or lowered into the catacombs through another entrance. Lucky they got out at all.
– Well let’s go. The sun has just risen, the whole day ahead.
They walked forward in unison, listening to extraneous sounds, but nothing but the sounds of wildlife sounded with the preservation of copyright. In a minute they reached the first trees and entered the forest.
– Come on!? – Nikita did not believe his eyes, looking around.
– What’s happened? Roma asked tensely, feeling a vague anxiety.
– We are in the exclusion zone, – and after a pause he added. – Maybe.
– Maybe? How did you understand it?
– Well, I’m a nerd, – a classmate smiled. “I played many games and I can say with confidence that I remember this location,” he stopped and checked his internal compass. If I’m right, then we should go there. Let’s go to Yanov, and from there I’ll take us out.
– Great plan, but what to do with it? Romka pointed to the chip on his neck.
– Let’s get up with an overnight stay on Yanov and try to pick it off there. It annoys me more that we have no matches, no knife.
– Well, at least they put it to eat, at least something.
– Yes, you are an optimist.
– I have to, – Romka smiled sadly and added encouragingly. – Lead, stalker.
He ran away from home again. Increasingly, my mother went from problems to alcohol and broke down, blaming everyone around her for her failures. Each new day did not inspire confidence, and hope for a better future faded away. There was a catastrophic lack of money, and it was annoying to walk around in tatters. Classmates always laughed at the appearance of Roman, considering him a rogue. He got a part-time job, but how many places do teenagers take?! Handing out flyers, mopping the supermarket floors, sometimes filling in for someone at the market stall…it all brought grains. Often they were driven out to all sorts of “subbotniks”, for which you can get mere pennies.
The last straw was that very evening – the mother who had drunk found the deferred money of her son and put it on alcohol, again accusing him of all mortal sins, they say, and stealing her son. Perhaps all due to the fact that the woman herself gave birth at sixteen, when she herself did not get on her feet, and dad, as usual, left for bread and did not return. Maybe said general immaturity. Children should not have children, and Romka was convinced of this. Out of resentment, he went outside and met with a friend who at that very moment was robbing a car for one radio. Someone called the police. The comrade managed to escape, but Roma did not. Friendship is a strange thing, and the student took the blame, not sparing being a “rat” and handing over the culprit with giblets. Sitting in the investigator’s office, he thought…could life even once give him a chance? He would not have missed him, would have clung to him with all his hands and feet, would have striven for his dream. And such a chance turned up. The Ouroboros project was discussed at every turn, and the student decided to fill out a questionnaire. And not just once. Every day he sent many messages, hoping to be noticed. The long wait for an answer was annoying and exhausting, but one fine day they called.
They turned off the road and went deeper into the woods. Walking became more difficult. Wet ground, as if it had rained not so long ago, which made the legs bogged down and slipped on the moss, and tall trees with half-naked crowns did not give a sufficient view. Nevertheless, they passed the forest and came to the bend of the stream. Schoolchildren entered the water and began to hastily step over the rapids. The murmuring water led them to a hollow, which they covered with bushes and stopped briefly to rest. But delay is death, and soon they were on their way again. Each step was given with difficulty, fatigue made itself felt.
– Listen, what happened between you and Lizka? The tale goes around a lot, I would like the original source, – Romka suddenly asked, feeling how the silence was starting to get on his nerves.
“She cheated on me,” Nikita replied dryly.
– As? – the classmate was taken aback.
– She wrote, asked to meet her from some party. I come, and she sucks with some guy. After she apologized, said that it was an accident, she was insane. Ugh, alcohol is evil.
“Alcohol is evil,” Roma confirmed, knowing firsthand about the consequences. – Did you love her?
“Yes,” he replied after a long pause. But now I don’t feel anything. Betrayal always hurts. I didn’t think we’d be like this.
– Sorry. Why did you join the project? You seem to have everything in ointment with streaming, and you are a top player.
– I have a startup, I want to create several websites, and then develop my own game. Everything needs money.
– Oh, cool! I would also like to participate in this, – the guy smiled. – I have mastered the graphics and design programs well. A computer scientist taught me after school, showed me new technologies. I even studied C++ and C# a little, as well as Java and Assembler.
– Listen, well, as we get out, I would work with you. It’s easier to break through together, – Nikita suggested. – We can stream jointly.
– I’m for, – Romka nodded, feeling a joyful anticipation. Finally, his life was getting better.
They walked in silence for some time, but soon Nikita asked:
– You are… sorry if I somehow offended you at school. Honestly, not out of malice
– So you didn’t hurt, – Romka grinned. – I was not spread rot only you, Lilia and Deniska-taffy. I wonder how they are doing there.
– I think if this is a project, then we were thrown to different points, after which they will somehow bring us together somewhere. I saw this in the movies.
Communication switched to lighter topics, memories of school, teachers and lessons. So quietly they went to the mysterious, drowning in dense forests and high levels of radiation, a closed railway station. A small brick building that all fans of Chernobyl-themed games would definitely recognize. The rusty plaque was poorly preserved, but even so, one could make out a short “Yanov” on it.
– You’re a fucking genius! Roman exclaimed softly.
Small shrubs seeped through the broken platform. The old wagons, with their paint tarnished, were still on the rails and would never run again. Who would have thought that one day this place would gain freedom from human oppression. Before the accident, the Yanov station belonged to the South-Western Railway. Passenger and cargo work was carried out at the station, access roads of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, ORS warehouses, oil depots and other enterprises of the city of Pripyat adjoined. The radiation background at the Yanov station today exceeds the norm by several times. Although immediately after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the background at this place was very high. In this regard, the village of Yanov was demolished and buried in the year 1987, exactly a year after the accident, in which about a hundred people lived. The station, by the way, was put into operation in 1925,