The Initiation

Ian had only been two and his sister a baby when their parents had vanished in the disaster at Chernobyl. Then, they had lived with their grandmother until the zone grew, and the army forced them to evacuate. There were no jobs and little money. Everything was the zone now. The army, scientists, stalkers, and dealers, everything centered on the zone. The zone owed them. The zone was Ian’s only chance to make a better life for himself and for his sister. He had spoken to Ivor, who had dealings with the scientists and the stalkers, about his determination to go into the zone. They had given him the bare necessities, probably thinking he would never come back, but he was going to prove them wrong. He had slipped passed the army patrol, and now, he was there in the zone, in the place of both his dreams and nightmares.

The first couple of hours were deceptively calm. He watched the early morning mist climb up the hills and clear, as the sun burned it away. But, he noticed there was no bird song and it was unnaturally silent. He had been walking downhill without realizing it, just because it was easier. He decided it might be smarter to stick to higher ground and began climbing up the nearest hill. He could see farther, and it felt better to be looking down at things, rather than wondering what might be looking down at him.

From up on the hill, he noticed a wave of movement in the tall grass in the field at the end of the valley. As Ian watched, a swarm of thousands of rats moved silently through the grass and emerged down in the hollow. They were mottled brown, scruffy, and diseased looking. Many of them were bigger than cats. His skin crawled at the thought of encountering them at close range. Suddenly, the air was filled with squeaks from the throats of hundreds of rodents, and the swarm veered sharply away from the direction of their original path. He grabbed his binoculars to see what was happening. The rats on the inside edge of the swarm were exploding into small lumps of bloody flesh. An anomaly, he thought. As he watched the swarm skirting the area of the disturbance, he saw that the rats on the inside, forced inward by the pressure of the rats on the outside, were continually being pushed over the edge of the boundary and torn apart by the force of the anomaly. Looking up at the opposing hill, he noticed a large circular indentation carved out of the hillside that extended down to where the rats were passing. A weathered old building seemed to be at the center of the disturbance. Looking at his watch, he decided to wait ten minutes to make sure that the rats were far, far away, before he went down.

At the bottom of the hill, he crossed the beaten down path left by the rats but stopped well before the bloody boundary of the anomaly. He studied the broken down building on the hillside. Through his binoculars he could see pipes twisted up like pretzels. Debris had slid down far to the right of where the rats had passed and, he could see the glint of metal in the sunlight. Climbing up through the tree line to the right of the debris slide, he wondered how far out the anomaly extended. There must be a way to tell. Would there be any warning if he got too close, a feeling in the air, anything? He picked up a small stone and flung it in the direction of the anomaly. The stone traveled about fifteen feet and suddenly veered off to the right accelerating like a shot. His heart was beating like a hammer. Thank God, it had not come back at him. It would have been like a bullet.

The gleam of metal lured him on, and he slowly crept out to the edge of the tree line. He wiped away the sweat pouring into his eyes. He dared go no closer. Looking around he found a long, skinny, dead branch. Stretching out slowly, his hands shaking, the branch reached the edge of the debris. Nothing happened, and so, he began trying to draw the debris towards him, but it was slow work. He spotted what appeared to once have been a fork, now stretched into a circular pattern. He hooked it with the end of his branch and brought it in. Some things appeared unaffected, nails, a large bolt. He didn’t know if it made a difference. Unsure if it was safe to handle anything, he put on his gloves and stored it all in one of the containers they had given him. He hadn’t found anything special, but they had to be worth something, if only as curiosities.

Ian suddenly realized that he had lost track of time. It was late afternoon, and there was not enough time to get out of the zone before dark. He had to find shelter.. At the top of the hill, he could see the rapidly sinking sun and the gathering of dark clouds. In the distance, lightening streaked across the sky. The air felt charged with the energy of an oncoming storm. He had less time than he had thought. Looking around, he saw a dirt road that ran down the back of the hill and into a paved highway. About a half a mile down the paved road he saw what looked like a vehicle. Looking through his binoculars, he saw an abandoned car that had been armored. Its owners must have left quickly because the doors were opened.

There was no time for caution. Ian, grasping his weapon tightly, took off, jogging down the road. When he got near to the vehicle he fired a shot prepared for anything that might emerge, but nothing did. Nonetheless, he approached slowly, anxiously peering into the vehicle. A sudden blast of thunder spurred him into the car. He slammed the doors and punched the locks down. There was a crack of lightening and rain began to pelt the car. Relieved, he studied the interior. Someone had put a lot of work into making the car over into a secure vehicle. He would be safe here for the night. There was even a metal shade to pull down behind the windshield. No one or no thing could get in. There was no key. The car had been set up with a toggle switch for ignition. The gas gauge was on empty, which explained why they had left it. Too exhausted to even think about eating, he curled up on the back seat and fell asleep to the sounds of the storm raging outside.

Towards dawn Ian was awakened by the sound of something clawing at the outside of the vehicle. He heard snarls and doglike whines. He didn’t know what dogs looked like here, but he was sure they did not have smiley dog faces and wagging tails. Eventually, they gave up and left. He was not worried. He had survived his first day in the zone, and who knew what he might find tomorrow.