Kyiv Green Cross Office
_____The Green Cross was Gorbachev's creation, a legacy of Chernobyl much like the zone. For many years it had acted mostly to lend humanitarian aid, but with the increasing interest in the zone, Green Cross International had to respond to disasters of a different kind. The Kyiv branch had been built just a few years ago. Brick red instead of the Soviet concrete slate, it was struck in an awkward place between the rustic Ukranian architecture, and the ultra-modern glass-and-steel buildings that were becoming just as common in Kyiv. Even then a
line of young men had formed outside.
_____According to the men, it was a good place to find some
Anti-Rad, maybe a
Dosimeter if one was lucky. Through the windows, a person from the street could see neatly stacked crates loaded with medical supplies, several expensive-looking scanners and a standing radiation detector just like the ones posted at the Chernobyl checkpoints. It was clean, if plain on the inside, white tile where there was no longer brick. Two bored-looking soldiers stood with stubby AKs slung across their chests, flanking double doors that constantly flapped with every new arrival.
_____A handful of
uniformed nurses worked alongside others in civilian clothing, some of them shawl-wearing babushkas. Most of the bunks seemed occupied by men and women in various states of disrobement, and an ambulance was idling not far from the entrance.
Zone Explorer's Club
_____Neat. Tidy. Corporate. It was a small white building set in front of a lot with a crushed-grey building called the
Loner Club. It seemed the two places worked together to some extent. There was a single
Security Guard in black outside with a holstered pistol, and a small throng of boys and girls were talking and playing on the street nearby. There was a short line of teens going in and out of the place, where a tired-looking man with short, slick black hair and a suit hammered their words into a computer rapid-fire. A sign proudly declared "
Stalker Registry!" alongside "
Rifle Registration!"
_____The interior was blanched white with blue accents, all the half-dozen or so staff wearing the same blue radiation symbols on their suit lapels. Numerous color televisions played back
Instructional Videos, while a man in a
green, thickly padded Anomaly Protection Suit had to beat away the crowd of young men and women harassing him for questions inside the air-conditioned lobby.
Loner Club
_____It was dingy outside, and the windows mostly dusted over. The entire thing was grey, crushed ash roof tiles and slate concrete for decoration. The door stuck until it was given a hard nudge, the air filled with the scents of baking bread, liquour, and well-worn leather. It was dim, even walking in from evening. The walls were packed with picture frames, lanterns and brass fixtures, and the sound of clinking glasses carried from inside.
_____Moving from the lobby and past the empty receptionist's counter, a framed picture of some sort of animal was the most prominent thing in view. There was a small, but well-stocked bar where a pair of men were dining, chatting in hushed tones over kvass and a bottle of strong-smelling liquour. A map of the Zone hung behind the bar, under a Mosin-Nagant rifle on metal hooks. A scarecrow of a man, balding, and with a face like well creased leather polished a glass with a towel, raising a hand in greeting at the new arrivals. A raven-haired woman, probably a teenaged grand-daughter moved a case of bottles to the bar before departing toward the other end of the club.
_____A bookish blond with a rumpled coat sat beside an overflowing ashtray, cradling a sheaf of papers and underlining
a list of names. Her desk wasn't far from a
glass gun cabinet filled with a dozen wood-stocked rifles, a cash register and a locked box sitting atop a countertop filled with knives. A few thick bookshelves separated that half of the club from a long, simple dining table with folding chairs, another few maps splayed around. There was a stuffed dog of some kind in the corner, below a number of tarnished medals. All the seats were taken by young men smoking cigarettes, looking solemnly at charts and pieces of rifle scattered across the table.
_____Part tavern, part gunshop and hunting club, the Loner Club was a quiet place a this hour, though packed with people. A bulletin board by a wall opposite the entrance was bristling with advertisements for tour groups, private sales and services.
Ukranian National Chornobyl Museum
_____Not far from the Kontravtova Ploscha metro station, the museum for Chernobyl and the fateful disaster thirty years prior was still open for business, though not for long. The building was plain and parking limited. Inside it was cool, lit up by colored lights with equipment hanging from the ceiling like long discarded marionettes.
Reconstructing post one moment please
