Alarm was ringing. a coworker ran up to me and said "MAKSIM! STALIN WILL BE PISSED OFF ABOUT THIS." "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU CAUSED CHERNOBYL" i don't know what say. everybody running out of building. there is screaming. a woman fall on ground and die. i run and run past helmetheads. the exit is blocked! there is wood and metal in front of it blocking it. it fell? i don't know what to do. i spot a little crack where there is a fire (is okay i didn't get burnt). i run for it and begin to squeeze through it! i get stuck. i can't get through. then, i see that there is wood which is tearing off the patch with hammer and sickle on my arm. the patch is tearing off as i squeeze through the crack. it becomes torn off and my heart is heavy. i turn back and see as the patch is burning in the radiation flame. i will mourn you forever. my dear. i decide to keep running. i must find Nikolay! he is my friend here in this shit town. i decide to go to sector 12. i running against crowds of people who were just working. i shout into crowd "NIKOLAY!" but nikolay is not answer. there is a door to sector 12 and i run through it. there is fire and my hat falls off and i watch in despair as the hammer and sickle pin on rabbit fur hat burns in the flame. i am sad to see this. i killed that rabbit too…i feel naked now. the lack of communist clothes on me makes me uncomfortable and i am vulnerable. it is almost as if chernobyl was attacking and cannibalizing the idea of marx. i hear a voice. it is nikolay! i run across room and to his voice. he is trapped underneath a radioactive beam. i try to pull him out but radiation got to him. he is almost ded. he say to me "maksim, it was so nice to drink with you and play durak. even though you lost many of the games, i am the durak for not telling you how i feel. he then leaned in and kissed me passionately on the lips. i don't know what to say. i am stun. he say to me "maksim, i will love you like i love my fellow comrade and the hammer and sickle and marx." after he say those words, he took off his own hammer and sickle pin which was on his fur hat (which was made of squirrel he told me) and he gave it to me into my hand and squeezed it. i couldn't leave him, but he insisted that i run. i had tears in my eyes. i could not believe he loved me this whole time. i passed the burning factory of radiation and thought of all the time that nikolay and i played durak and drank vodka. but did it mean something more to him? i never knew, and now he was ded. ded like chenobyl shit town. i followed the crowd of screaming comrades and finally reached entrance of factory. i ran ouside and saw evacuation happening. there were sirens and announcements playing to inform the audience to get out. i was scared. i could not believe i caused chernobyl. i could not believe that nikolay was dead. i did not know whether i was going to return to katya or if i wanted to. i wanted to die with nikolay. but nikolay's kiss ignited a comrade in all of us. i knew i had to live. i ran and ran and ran. eventually, i was alone. i don't know where all people went, but i ended up in the forest next to power plant it was called the red forest. i learned many years later that nuclear radiation had spread to these woods and had mutated animals. animals looked deformed and to be frank kind of uncomfortable. it was in these woods that i stood and watched the factory smoke and then eventually calm. nikolay's words rang inside my ear. i could not help but remind me of a quote by stalin "a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic." i wasn't sure which one it was (see i wasn't very good at math) but i knew that in the end, nikolay would live in my heart and i would stay up playing durak and drinking vodka and wishing that he was here.