Unsettled
Chet flicked the camera lens with his index finger and thumb playfully.
"Hey man, cut that out!" Wayne muttered as he fumbled with the camera and pulled it out of Chet's reach. He produced a handkerchief out of his army green canvas satchel and obsessively wiped the lens clean of non-existent dust.
"What's going on back there?' The driver asked.
Wayne looked up suddenly, and leaned over to the window barrier to the vans driving cab and the back storage/seating area. "Nothing sir, just my friend being an idiot."
The driver chuckled. "Get your hands off each other."
We eventually reached our destination in around half an hour. The van stopped, and the door slid open. Chet and Wayne hopped out, Wayne with his satchel and Chet with his backpack.
They both got out and faced the driver. He pointed a meaty finger heavily at the two. The jokes apparently stopped here. "You paid extra for a free walk, that's what you're going to get. I'm going to pretend that it's all butterflies and mosquitos from here on in. You guys come back by sundown, or I'm leaving without you. This area is highly dangerous, and you're responsible for yourselves. Remember, you don't bring back any shit, not even a good porno mag someone might've left behind."
Chet smothered a giggle behind Wayne.
The driver craned his thick neck a little to eye Chet. "Am I clear?" He finished.
"As a whistle." Chet saluted.
"Good," The driver beamed. "Just don't do anything stupid and you won't get hurt. You know where I am, just a kilometre west and past the abandoned village, which is actually 350 metres from here. Within shouting distance, if needed."
"We get it sir, we'll be on our own way now."
The driver nodded. "I'll leave you to it."
The driver turned on his heel and walked swiftly back to the van, and sped off. The mass collection of dry leaves and foliage rustled and blew in the gust of wind as the van rumbled down the dirt road that was barely traceable. Trees lined up everywhere, long since dead but still standing.
Wane turned back to the site. "We'd better get inside. This place is giving me the creeps already."
Chet ran towards the concrete block fencing, and found the gateway. "This is it man, the Jupiter factory!"
Wayne shuffled towards it, still nervous and yet buzzing with titillation. "Hardly anyone even knows of this places existence. "
Chet and Wayne sauntered in like they were foremen to the desolate factory. Chet turned to Wayne and grinned. "Man, this place is awesome! We're going to find so much stuff here."
Wayne stopped. "He said we can't take anything remember, it's all contaminated. Hell, we're beginning to be contaminated ourselves. Let's get out of here quickly."
"Yeah, yeah." Chet murmured as he walked down the concrete path inside the factory walls.
"Remember what we're doing here? Covering a special interest story for our travel magazine. The big gig, don't lose it." Wayne reminded him.
Chet ignored the reminder. "I always wanted to come here."
They were walking around the Jupiter factory area, there was the administration building, a canteen, and the factory itself, which was massive. It would take hours to check out every inch and map it out.
"What a history!" Chet suddenly burst out. "Let's check out the canteen first to get that over with."
"Why, you hungry?" Wayne snorted.
They walked up to one of the doors that gave the entrance to the canteen. It looked rusted shut, but fragile at the same time.
Wayne dug out his camcorder and turned it on. It was just a commercial one, costing him around $250. Nothing special, but it boasted a high resolution, good optics, high capacity and even night vision. A feature that had Wayne practically sold on it alone. He switched it on, and checked the settings. It was set on "dark indoors" and indicated a full battery.
"Alright, I'm going to record most of this, so don't say anything stupid."
"Why didn't you just take a regular camera? We just need pictures."
"I dunno, a video might be nice too."
Chet shrugged, and kicked in the door. It clattered to the ground, bent in on the side Chet kicked it in.
Chet lifted his finger up. "Before I forget,"
He took off his backpack, rested it on his knee and dug out something. It was a gas mask. Obviously one of the tell-tale soviet ones that were dubious at best. But Chet seemed to think that it would help him a great deal for protection against noxious chemicals and radioactive dust.
"Is that really necessary?" Wayne said dryly.
Chet gave a look of bewilderment beneath the gas mask. Even though the only thing visible was his eyes, you could make out his expression. "Of course! Why, you wanna get cancer I guess?"
"Activated carbon is no better…." Wayne muttered under his breath. He decided to loosely follow Chet's style and covered his mouth and nose with a dark green bandana.
"You saw that driver guy, he was breathing it in like the morning air!" Wayne shrilled.
"Can never be too careful." Chet replied as he stepped inside.
Wayne shook his head and stepped inside. He pressed the record button on the camcorder and pointed it around the room. There were a few cracked windows lined some of the walls, but it was mostly dark down the halls and inside the rooms. The walls were a greyish blue, and the paint was peeling and chipped away in most places. Half the tables were overturned and faded from the bleaching sun that relentlessly beamed on it every day for the past 30 years. Chairs were overturned, scattered leaves, trash and junk littered the floor. You could barely take 3 steps without having to lurch over something.
"So, here we are." Chet said slowly.
"Chet, there's shit all here. As fascinating as this place is, could we get to the meat and potatoes?" Wayne snapped.
Chet grinned at Wayne's sudden outburst. "I like your style man. Right to the action. But before we head off, let's check out the kitchen."
Chet leaped over a table and grabbed the doorknob to the kitchen door. It was slightly ajar.
He yanked it open, and began to speak.
Before he could say anything, there was a rattle inside the kitchen, a cooking pot tumbled to the ground and clattered on the tile floor. A squeal emitted from the room, and something rushed out. Chet laughed. It was a baby pig, scouring around for food. It scuttled outside the front door and back into the forest.
"Haha, and you thought we were alone, look out man, we got some serious competition!" Chet ooed in mock fright.
Wayne closed the camcorder and followed Chet back outside. There was still the administrative building and actual factory to still explore.
Wayne dug out a small booklet that he put together that had information about the Jupiter factory and the general exclusion zone.
"The Jupiter plant was populated with workers that resided in Pripyat, although many were working at the Chernobyl NPP, some were also stationed here in this less than well-known facility. During the times of the Soviet Union, the factory was known for making cassettes and other various electronics, however it is speculated that the Jupiter factory also manufactured military grade radios, communication devices and other top secret gadgetry. It is even noted that the Jupiter factory was responsible for creating space voyage equipment and technology as well. After the Chernobyl incident however, it was immediately evacuated and has not been in use since, most of the assembly machines and storage and items are still inside the factory, however people do scavenge for rare equipment and souvenirs, but it is a bad decision since the equipment is either outdated or broken, and is heavily contaminated. The lower levels of the facility have been rumoured to contain a secret Soviet era laboratory, although it would be impossible to investigate because the lower levels were completely flooded and everything down below is soaked in heavily irradiated and dirty water. It is unknown whether this was done on purpose to protect and keep secret whatever was down in the lower levels." Wayne read aloud from his booklet.
"Thanks for the info Wayne, but I've been reading about this place for years now. Those lower levels still intrigue me." Chet responded after he had located a decent entrance to the administrative building. The door was also metal, but it didn't look to be locked. Chet opened it, and the main lobby was open to use. There was dirt on the floor, leaves and more trash. Windows lit up the room, but the further down corridors and offices would be almost completely bathed in darkness. The walls were concrete, painted half green and white. Chairs and tables were tossed around on the floor, the reception desk had a stack of blank papers in a tray, along with other office supplies.
"Let's see if we can find anything more interesting." Chet ushered me over to a corridor that led down to the offices.
Wayne already had his camera out and was recording. He was wearing gloves so whatever he touched his hands would remain clean. There were papers scattered all over the floor, loose documents. Most of which were probably no use to decipher.
Most of the office doors were locked, and didn't look like they'd budge if Chet tried ramming it down. They came across a security office down the musty hall that was unlocked.
Chet ran inside and rummaged through the drawers and cabinets. Wayne waited outside and filmed the area, occasionally looking back at Chet.
"Oh my God, check this out!"
Wayne whirled around to see what Chet discovered. Chet was holding in his hands a small pistol, Decades old, but still functional.
"It was inside a desk drawer, completely clean and safe!"
"Safe? It's a loaded gun Chet. We don't need that, we aren't monster hunters." Wayne protested.
"You saw that pig from the canteen. What if papa boar tries to maul us down? I'm taking it for our safety, I'll just keep it tucked back in my jeans." Chet retorted.
Before Wayne could say anything else, Chet lifted up his hoodie and tucked the pistol inside the back of his pants.
"Ready when we need it." Chet reassured Wayne.
"Yeah whatever, just don't blow your ass cheeks off." Wayne grumbled.
Chet continued to search the security office for anything useful. Wayne explored down the other side of the corner, and saw that there were more locked office doors. Obviously they had something to hide in here. There was a staircase that led up to the upper levels, but there was desks, filling cabinets and other furniture piled all the way up so it was impossible to access the next floor. Elevators were stationed across, but there was obviously no power. When the Chernobyl NPP failed, so did the Jupiter factory. The nuclear energy produced there was what powered the Jupiter plant.
"Oh, hey. I found a key ring! Maybe we can try the office doors." Chet exclaimed.
Wayne turned around, Chet held high and triumphantly an old set of keys. There was 5 in total, so that meant there was 5 keys to use on each and every door. Wayne knew Chet wanted to try them all. No one else had gone inside the administrative offices to their knowing, unless they locked up all the rooms, left all the documents inside and put everything back the way it was.
"Alright, let's go then."
Chet and Wayne tried almost every single office door. Eventually they found a staircase that wasn't obstructed and they reached the upper level. Similar doors barricaded them, but there was a different one at the end of the hall. Perhaps this was the head administrator's office. Chet tried the keys, and it actually worked. The door creaked open, and they were inside a pitch black room. Wayne switched on the camcorder light so they could see. It illuminated the tiny room well. There was a wooden desk, a filing cabinet in the corner, and an office chair. A sparsely furnished office for a sparse wasteland.
Chet yanked open the file cabinet drawers. They were empty, cleared out of all files.
"Dammit, they must've had something to hide." Chet snapped his fingers.
He tugged on the top filing cabinet drawer, but it wouldn't open. "Ugh, it's stuck." He strained.
Wayne had a puzzled look on his face. "It doesn't look broken, it's probably locked. See that keyhole?" Wayne pointed. There was in fact, a keyhole in the middle of the drawer that seemed to stare defiantly at them.
Chet tried the keys on it. "None of them fit, there has to be a way into it."
Wayne rummaged through the desk. Old, yellowed musky papers were littered inside, some fell apart in his hands when he roughed them too much. He dumped all the contents on the floor, and pulled out the rest of the drawers. He removed the bottoms of the drawers. One had a niche for a fore finger. He lifted it up, and a key fell to the floor. It was a small, brass one.
Chet clawed over and picked it up like it was Jesus's chalice. "Wayne, you genius!"
Chet shoved it in and turned the lock. They key fit, and the drawer slid open with ease. Inside was a sole document.
"Awesome! Quick, lay it out on the table." Chet gushed.
They spread the documents contents open and examined them. They were all in a scribbled Russian, so it was unintelligible to them.
"I'll take pictures, and we can translate it later." Wayne said. He held his camcorder above them and took still pictures of each paper.
"Why don't we just take it, it's just been sitting in the cabinet for ages."
"Are you nuts? The driver said not to take anything, no matter the appearance."
Chet shrugged and examined the other pieces of scrap paper on the ground. "Don't you think any of this stuff is good to look at?"
Wayne glanced over. Most of them should've been dumped in a trash bin long ago. "I don't think so, I think they burned everything and left whatever wasn't important. Some stuff was left behind, in case they weren't finished with it, like this document."
Chet nodded and looked around the room. "We should get going."
"Yeah, I've got enough pictures. We'll find out what this thing said in a week."
They cleared out of the room. Since they had no use for the keys anymore, Chet threw them into the trash bin so that nobody else could find them. After closely examining the key ring, a word was imprinted on it that resembled 'administrative', so there must be one of the actual factory.
A few minutes later they reached the factory. It was just as dark, foreboding and macabre as the other two buildings. The opening room had little wooden booths and turnstiles to let the factory workers go through, probably to punch in and out. They proceeded into one of the actual assembly rooms, there was debris, trash and old equipment all on the ground. Rubble was also piled up in some places. Wayne looked up. A little bit of the roof was falling apart, and he could see the interior. It must've broke away from decades of neglect "Let's hope the whole building doesn't cave in while we're here."
"You said it." Chet whispered.
After a minute of trudging through one of the factories rooms, Chet kicked over something. He bent to pick it up, and he retrieved a cassette tape. "Huh, they really did make these things. Here, record that."
Wayne got a shot of it on the camera. He had been recording most of what they were doing, from the pig that scurried out of the kitchen, to them finding the secret document. Chet dropped the cassette after a second and went on looking. They mostly just found warning posts, old papers, and more equipment and trash.
Chet stood with his hands on his hips. "Damn, I thought we'd find something more interesting."
"It would be cooler if the underground wasn't flooded." Wayne said.
They both looked over to their right. There was a staircase with metal rails waist high that led to a lower level.
"So close, yet so far." Chet muttered. He picked up a concrete block from the ground and hurled it at the across the room, down the staircase.
They had expected to hear a resounding splash of the rock hitting the water, but they didn't. Instead they heard the sharp, hard crash of the rock hitting tile. Wayne and Chet looked at each-other. Dumbfounded, they slowly crept to the railing. There was no water, the way downstairs was clear.
"Oh my God…" Chet stammered.
Wayne turned his head to Chet. "Someone's been here before us."
They went down the steps, and found the entrance to the lower level after two flights down. The walls were grimy, the atmosphere was musty and damp.
"It can't be good to be here…" Wayne cautioned.
Chet sighed heavily. Then coughed. "You're right. We'll have to split up, we'll cover more ground that way."
Wayne stood there shocked. "Are you crazy? Alone down here? Fuck that, we should get out of here."
Chet took a step forward, starting to get angry. "I didn't come all this way for nothing, nobody else knows about this place, it can be our chance to make millions, have it all!"
"Not if we end up dead from radiation sickness, or worse. Minutes are passing by when we get more exposed." Wayne hissed.
"I don't care, we're finding out what's down here, I take left, and you go right, we meet back here in 20 minutes."
Chet ran to the corner and ducked around. He produced a flashlight, and held the pistol he found in his other hand.
"Chet, Wait!" Wayne yelled.
But it was too late, Wayne was left alone in the Jupiter factory underground.
Wayne cursed loudly, and proceeded to the right.
He was immediately met with a door. It opened easily, and lazily swung on its hinges. Inside the room was a bunch of strange apparatuses, big empty tanks and consoles that belonged on a space station. Some hoses and machines were plugged into the tank. In the bottom, there was a crude bed that was shaped in a human figure.
"What the hell…" Wayne mumbled. He had his camera on, and recorded every second.
Wayne went into the next room. Massive wooden storage crates that were rotted by decade's water. All the contents were waterlogged and unrecognizable, so he moved on. There were more computers and desks set up, some other monitors and devices that seemed foreign. Wayne hoped that there could be someone on earth who can tell him what all this meant and what it was used for.
"Looks like the soviets had some sort of secret laboratory. But what was it used for?"
As Wayne walked through, there were more contraptions and gadgets that appeared only to get more and more sophisticated and bizarre. Stretchers, and tables were set up in various rooms, and some were set up to look like an operating theatre. Wayne racked his brain on how water could all the way up to the ceiling couldn't make any of these consoles and apparatuses budge or topple over, but he realized after close inspection many of them were bolted or secured to the floor. Looks like this place was supposed to be permanent, but when the Chernobyl accident back in 1986 happened, there was no time to destroy things, so the authorities must've flooded it and hoped no one could unearth it. But someone must've had the resources to drain it and restore the facility, for there wasn't much of a sign that the underground facility was completely submerged in water for 30 years, other than a few puddles and damaged equipment.
Suddenly, Wayne heard screams coming from the other side of the complex. Screams, following by the muffled crack of gun fire.
"CHET!" Wayne yelled. He tore after where he had come from, camera still by his side. In two minutes, he reached where they had started. At least he wasn't getting lost. He continued down to where Chet had left him, still recording and with his light on.
As soon as he entered one of the rooms Chet appeared to have entered, he was hit by the smell of something rotten and foul. He looked to the ground and nearly fainted. Bodies were sprawled on the ground, all in unnatural positions. He knelt down to examine them, they appeared to be a part of a special forces team. They wore special spec uniforms that looked like astronaut suits. Tinted face shields and visors, and closed circulation breathing systems. These guys were trained and equipped for a heavily contaminated area, Wayne wished he was bubbled up in one of those suits. However, immediately after, he wished he wasn't. Claw and scratch marks were all over their bodies and arms, some of the face visors had cracks and splits in them. Blood was sprayed all of the walls and ground, it pockmarked the entire room. Something had ripped in to these guys without hesitation. Bullet holes punched through all the walls floor and ceiling. Wayne noticed that each soldier had a tactical, modern Kalashnikov still gripped tightly in most of their hands. Wayne attempted to move the fingers wrapped around of the grips of the guns. Their fingers were cold and stiff with rigor mortis. Wayne got one free, and held it. It was cold, clammy, and difficult to hold with only one hand. He abandoned it, and opted out for a side arm that one of the soldiers still had holstered. It looked similar to the one that Chet had pilfered from the admin building, but much newer and slicker.
"…Chet? Are you there?" Wayne whispered hoarsely.
A clicking noise followed by a roar echoed from the next few rooms. Nothing more after that.
Wayne nearly sobbed in fear and terror. His hand holding the camera and the other with the pistol were trembling. Wayne felt an incessant need to document whatever was going on, so he could show the world the terrible things that were buried in the Jupiter factory.
Wayne suddenly got an idea, and he switched the camera to night vision mode. So if there was something there, he could not be discovered. He snapped shut the display, and instead looked through the eye port so that there was no light. He switched hands so the camera was held in his left, and the gun in his dominant right hand. It didn't take much effort to hold the camera that was pressed to his eye and face. If he needed to fight, his strong arm had to be ready.
Wayne crept quietly into the next room. It was flushed with the pink tint that the N/V offered, so it wasn't the classic green. There was either pink, or flushed out pools darkness so it looked even more disturbing than a regular N/V camera.
Inside the next room, there were similar devices and consoles that were on the other side. Some desks and monitors, file cabinets and such. It looked more like the office part of the lab. There was a shaft in the middle of the room, that connected the ceiling and floor, but halfway down it was snapped in half, and bent out so it was like a stick. Impaled on the top of the stick was Chet's gas mask, torn off his head, and the shaft pierced through the latex chin, and through one of the eye sockets.
Wayne started to cry and murmur incomprehensibly, and went slowly to the shaft. He grabbed the gas mask, there was no head inside, just the mask. He turned to the other side of the room, and saw a door was hanging ajar, off of one of its hinges and bent in halfway, like something charged at it and burst forth.
"Chet…?" Wayne muttered.
Wayne wasn't given a response by Chet. Instead, he heard the clicking noise again, only much closer this time, coming from the room ahead of him.
Wayne began to move out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough. Someone rushed forward right into Wayne. As it charged at him it roared and bellowed so loud that the room seemed to shake.
Wayne managed to get a good, albeit very brief look at the creature before it all went blurry. It resembled a human, only horribly disfigured. It was bald, naked, its eyes were pitch black like they were just empty sockets. Dangling from its mouth were bloodsuckers.
As it leaped toward him, Wayne managed to swing his arm, and knock the gun into the creatures head. It roared again as it was tossed into the wall. It got to its feet, and Wayne swiftly turned his gun on it. Before he could kill it with his pistol, the creature was blown away by superior firepower coming from the other side of the door, rapid firing machine guns completely dismembered the creature. It collapsed to the ground and blood started to pool from the holes ravaged on its body.
Blinding light lit up the room, and four people marched inside. Wayne shielded his eyes and brought the camera down, and dropped his gun. He eventually regained his sight a few seconds later, and realized that they wore the same spec suits that the dead soldiers in the other room wore.
"Rescuers…Please! You've got to help, my friend is somewhere down here dying, please, I beg you!" Wayne sobbed as his knees gave way and he kneeled to the ground in pray position.
The soldiers were still holding their guns, their faces invisible behind the tinted face visors. The only noise came from their regular breathing in their closed circulation air systems.
One of them lowered his gun and stared at Wayne. He noticed his camera. And that he was carrying a satchel.
The soldier eyeing Wayne gestured to him. "Стріляйте в нього." He solemnly commanded.
The other three men drew their machine guns to their shoulders and aimed down their sights.
Wayne's eyes widened with fear. "Please no, no!" Wayne began.
But Wayne was silenced with the rapid thunder of gunfire. The soldiers let loose a storm of bullets into Wayne mercilessly and didn't stop until their guns clicked empty.
Wayne's mutilated body lay shredded on the ground. He was nearly unrecognizable with all the gunshots that tore into him.
The soldier that spoke before turned to the other three. "Пошук його , знайти іншого чоловіка . Безпечний лабораторії." The soldier ordered.
The other three gave their consent and headed deeper into the lab. After a few hours, the soldiers evacuated the Jupiter factory. And it was once more, settled and silent.