"Zach? Zach?! Where are you? Zach? I'm really scared! Zach!"

***

A small blonde, who's hand was gripping the middle of her hair, holding it up behind her head, pushed forwards and dived into the front of the vehicle.
"There! Turn there!" She exclaimed, leaning over the front seats and pointing towards the turning on their left. "The map says the turn off is there." She dropped back into her seat once the driver, her brother, had turned down onto the road that lead to their destination. The place was famous enough and what would beat a holiday scrap book than a few pictures in the abandoned city of Chernobyl? Emilie pulled her head up into a bobble and pulled the camera from her bag. One leg climbed over the front seat and she dropped into the empty space beside her brother. Perhaps her choice of shorts and a two vest top combination wasn't the best choice for the adventure they head ahead.

Zach drove them down the road that lead directly into the heart of dead town. Leaves covered the entire pathway, clearly indicating a lack of travel down this road. The only things that looked new were several metal signs that had been hammered into the dead soil by the side of the road.

Небезпека. Зберігати в

Emilie snapped up a few photos, enjoying the sight that loomed up the edge of the road. The two twins sat quietly for some time, one driving, the other taking photos wherever she could. Of the trees, of the empty road, of her friends behind her. It wasn't until the reactor appeared on her right that she made a noise.
"Oh my god! There it is!" She squealed, lifting her camera once more.

It grew gradually bigger in size as they drove up the road. One side appeared to have melted, collapsing even now. However, the smaller blonde was equally surprised that the larger tower structure hadn't fallen down over the years. The van pushed further down the road, exposing more and more of the decaying building that had greyed and withered, burnt and utterly destroyed. The road however was entirely different. The streets were covered in weeds, with houses so empty it looked frighting. Nothing moved on the streets, nothing even trembled with life. Zach turned them left and followed the road for some time. Eventually, another famous structure came into view.

It was tall, empty and completely lost. The tall ferris wheel didn't even creak. Emilie urged Zach to stop and dived out the front seats, hurrying out the car and towards the wheel. She snapped up more photos.
"Maddie!" She turned and waved her best friend over. "Iron, take a photo." She smiled, hurrying over to the lowest cart. She brushed away some of the leaves and stepped into the Ferris Wheel seat. Immediately however, her head turned. She looked down into the street beyond, staring at the doorway for one housing block. Her heart pounded for a moment. She had seen something. Something running into that building. Surely. She had. She couldn't have made it up. She turned her eyes to Maddison and moved up to allow space.

Zach slowly dropped out of the van and pocketed the keys.
"Be careful." He shouted. Of course he was uncomfortable with his sister hanging around on the creaky, decrepit, and uncared for machine that may topple at any moment. He walked over and looked around, his eyes tracing up to the large and dead looking apartments that scattered the area.

Getting out of the van Iron pulled his own camera out of his pocket. "Kay" he callead back to Emilie, wondering to himself at how he had let Dominik convince him to come on this trip. Still, despite not wanting to be here, he had to admit that the trip had been enjoyable thus far and that it really was a once in a lifetime kind of thing. If the others had been paying attention they would have seen for the briefest of seconds a small smile flicker across Iron's face, a phenomenon that since Rebeccah had become a rare sight indeed, almost as rare of a sight as the ferris wheel that he was now focusing his lens on.

Just as he clicked the button to take the picture Emilie turned to face the streets, her eyes widening. "Damn it Em, I'm gonna have to take another. You looked away at the last second."

Hearing Zach warn his sister to be careful, Iron turned his focus to the brother. "Dude you worry too much, that thing has been standing for nearly 30 years. It's fine," And there it was again, while he teased Zach another faint smile flickered across his lips. 'Maybe,' he thought to himself 'I'm actually starting to enjoy myself'

Heath got out of van and walked next to zach saying " well it looks like we are in for one hell of a trip". Heath put his hand his in pockets and then quickly blurted out and said " i want you to come work at the company in london zach you have been a good friend of mine and i want to you to be my second in command". Heath was nervous for zach's response becuase he was so close with zach.

As everyone else was emptying the vehicle, Alexander impishly glanced over at the sleeping form of Aldric leaning against one of the doors. Silenty slipping his arm past the sleeping form he pulled the handle and watched Aldric tumble out and land on the ground.

"What the-" Aldric stated as he looked at the world from his new perspective on the cracked ground. From inside the vehicle he heard.

"Okay...Okay, I am sorry, but I have always wanted to do that and it was hilarious!" Alex managed to state before completely being consumed by his laughter.

Standing and brushing himself off, Aldric just shook his head and walked quietly away. He stopped next to Iron, looking at the camera in his hand.

"Trying to get a good picture with those two is going to be pretty hard," Alex stated as though it was the most common known fact, while peering at the camera from Iron's other shoulder. With that he bounded away singing quietly to himself, letting his gaze fall over the broken city.

Dominik had been staring out the window during their drive hoping to see something interesting. He was enjoying this trip very much but they had yet to come across anywhere he was extremely interested in. When they approached the town next to where Chernobyl happened he felt a little excitement inside. This was it, the abandoned town of Pripyat. Dominik had always wanted to explore this city, it was on his list of things to do before he died. He wasn’t sure if he should say anything, his friends may not have wanted to go wandering through an abandoned, dark area like this. Dominik was at the edge of his seat until Emilie told her brother to turn. Relief fell over Dominik as he stared out the window intently.

A small smile slid across Dominik’s face as they approached the Ferris wheel and the car stopped. He got out quickly taking a look around. Camera in hand, he snapped a few of his own photos, giving Iron a quick pat on the shoulder as he walked by.
“The abandoned city of Pripyat. This amusement park was only open for a few hours the day after the disaster to keep people entertained before the evacuation announcement was made. Other than that, it was unused.” He explained barely loud enough to be heard. “We should explore,” he mumbled even more quietly as he walked around. He wanted to see inside every building, although he doubted they would have time for that. He slowly walked further away from the group, but staying close enough to have his friends in view.

~~~

Madison pulled herself out of the car, stretching, as she looked around the area.
“This place is creepy.” She mumbled looking at the Ferris wheel. It was still, but looked dangerous to Madison. She couldn’t help but get the feeling she wasn’t going to like this particular stop.
Looking down at her feet she noticed she was standing in damp moss. Making a disgusted face she hopped onto drier ground, and was called over Emilie only moments later. Madison smiled at her friend and skipped happily over. Madison went to climb on onto the Ferris wheel cart after her friend and giving the seats a quick glance determined this was not a place she wanted to sit down. Madison paused when she noticed her friend staring off in another direction, but it was only briefly.
“What are you looking at?” Madison questioned climbing onto the cart as Emilie moved aside.

"It's creaking. How exactly can it be safe?" Zach watched the two of them, his stomach in knots. "You know how clumsy she is." How they were from the same family, he'd never know. The blonde male turned his eyes as their friend Heath, a man who knew full well he hadn't a clue what he wanted to do with his life. No one was sure. Well, at least himself. He'd already done a Computing Degree completely different to his sister who'd gone ahead and done French with Psychology.** "Yeah, I'll think about it." He added. Of course the topic of future employment terrified him. There wasn't a thing he wanted to do with his life, he'd already spent most of university wondering just why he was there. If it hadn't been for his friends, he'd have dropped out immediately after Freshers. "That's my sister." Zach warned, glancing over at Alex. Perhaps it had been harmless banter, but regardless, he was overprotective and he knew one day it would completely wreck him.

Emilie passed her friend a smile and shook her head.
"Nothing. I just thought I recognized a building." She waved back to Iron and smiled, pulling Maddie into a hug for the sake of a photo. Perhaps the excitement of being here had blurred her vision for a second or two. The smaller twin hopped out of the fairground ride and turned her attention to everyone else. Obviously this was a little off route for their road trip but regardless, they'd have fun. "We should find somewhere to eat. Have a cute picnic or something."

"What in the middle of a completely deserted town?" Zach asked heading back over to the van. He grabbed his own bag and took out his sister's, passing it over once she rejoined the others. She briefly thanked him and headed over to Iron to look at the photo. Most likely she'd ask him to delete the image and get him to take another somewhere else.

"Hey, Dom! Where's the hospital that all the photo's are taken in?"

**I don't speak French so I'll use google translate should it ever come up.

Heath patted him on the back and said " take your time mate you will always have a place there man." he then turrned to zach and said when one was near him and said " mate i know you are protective of you sister and all but there is something i have been keeping from both of you and i didnt think it would be proper if i didnt tell you first" heath was so nervous he couldnt stand still. " like mate i really like your sister ever since we started the university, I plan on telling her but i only want to know if its okay with you mate, i wouldnt want to lose a good friend of mine". He smiled at zach and then quickly looked over at emille and smiled again as butterflies hit his stomach.

Madison gave a large smile for the camera as she was pulled into a hug. Maybe this stop wouldn’t be so bad after all. They could get a few pictures, look around, and be on their way. Maddie stepped out of the ride after her friend, dusting herself off just in case something had gotten on her, and followed Emilie over to see the picture.
“A picnic? Here? But won’t dirt get in our food? Or mold or something?” Maddie asked Emilie while peering over Irons arm to look at the photo. She didn’t like the idea of staying here too long. “Couldn’t we just eat in the car? Or find a less abandoned place to eat?” She smiled at the picture of the two girls hugging but paused for a moment after giving it some thought.
“Show me the first picture you took with Emilie looking the other way. I want to see if I am in it.” She liked to see herself in photos; it was like looking at another person who looked just like you.

~~~

Examining the very few rides, Dominik climbed over a short fence into the area with bumper carts. They were rusted and the area grown over, and in Dominik’s eyes wonderful. The look of being suddenly abandoned could be seen as they were all parked in different spots and in no orderly fashion. He noticed one of the carts was on its side, probably due to a storm of some kind, or a person destroying the historical factor of the area.

Dominik was about to flip the cart upside right when he heard his name and looked up from his peaceful moment.
Dominik had studied Pripyat and Chernobyl intensely, as a hobby. He had looked at several maps in the past and had a bit of an idea about the area, although his memory map was not perfect. He climbed back over the short fence out of the bumper carts and span around, trying to get his bearings. He had an idea of where the hospital should be; it was after all one of his favorite places when he was studying Pripyat. There were indeed many pictures taken there and exploring it would certainly be rewarding. The way that building had decayed and been left was incredible.
“It should be, that way,” Dominik called back, pointing. “The north east side,” He mumbled to himself staring off in that direction. It would be a walk well worth it.

Alex caught sight of Zach's look, but chose to ignore as he continued to bound about. He stopped every now and then to look at buildings. Some how the deteriorating buildings had an eerily beautiful look to them. His natural explorer instinct told him to enter them and look about, yet something told him his presence would only taint their exquiste beauty.
Turning back towards the group at the mention of a picnic, he skipped over to them. Alexander placed his hand on Zach's shoulder. "Of course a picnic is in order, even if this place is deserted. In fact that means we are it's RULERS!" he let the last part out with a yell, leaning his head back to listen to the sound reverberate through the desolate city.

---

"So you seem to be enjoying yourself for someone who apparently didn't want to come," Aldric said teasingly to Iron. For the most part he himself was actually enjoying the trip, though their newest stop had his mind racing. Aldric's apathetic nature worked quite well with numbers and statistics, and at the moment his mind was racing with the chances of each indiviual structure collasping at the given moment. A picnic in this place sounded oh so 'wonderful' to him. Yet the moment he heard it mentioned he knew he would cave. "Well lead the way to the hospital, food sounds good at the moment," Aldric begrudgingly said.

Iron saved the most recent picture of the two girls hugging onto the camera, following that he went back to the picture where Emilie looked away at the last second. "See," he said tilting the camera so that Madison could see it, "she totally just looked away from the camera. No way is this picture worth keeping, although... it is a pretty good shot of you," Iron said teasingly as the picture only showed the backside of Madison as she was approaching the ferris wheel.

”Yeah, I guess you could call this enjoying myself,” Iron said turning to face Aldric, ”though I think of it more as sympathy. Pripyat is a reflection of my heart, still intact but completely abandoned.” It was hard to tell if Iron was being serious or not, he spoke with a straight face but his eyes hinted at a smile that he wasn’t showing. ”Regardless though of my so called enjoyment or not I think Emilie is right, we should have a picnic, food sounds pretty good right about now.”

Perhaps Zach was too protective over his sister. Part of him wanted to pummel Heath into the ground and remind him just who his sister was. However, for the sake of their day out and the rest of the trip, Zach stayed quiet.
"You realise, if you even considered hurting her, I'd kill you." He then went silent for a short while. Thinking and considering, weighing things out. "I'm not stopping you expressing your feelings, I'm just here to remind you what'll happen if you fuck things up." Zach then returned to the group and seemed almost to place himself between his sister and everyone else in the group. Subconsciously of course.

Emilie smiled and pulled out the chiller bag from the car.
"Lead the way then." The blonde female smiled, moving over towards Dominik. She set out in the direction he'd pointed, returning to take Maddie's hand. "It'll be fine. Seriously."

**Apologies, shattered**

Zach went serious and said " zach i promise you i would never hurt her i even swear on my life mate" he then walked and then whispered to emilie " he whenever you are free there is omething i gotta talk to you about and i dont want everyone hearing about it " as he smiled to her, hoping that he could have the courage to actually tell her the feelings he has had for her.

Madison lightly pushed Iron as he joked about the picture of her from behind. As Emilie grabbed her hand she turned and went willingly along, making sure she had her own bag on her. Even if there wasn’t anything to buy in an abandoned city, she knew better than to leave it behind unattended. As the two walked in the direction Dominik has pointed, Madison took note of the buildings nearby. She didn’t want to get lost if they were to walk too far into the city. Madison was aware that Dominik knew this city but didn’t trust that they would find their way out if they explored too deeply. She had often gotten lost in new areas and even familiar areas with her poor sense of direction. This was why she liked to pay close attention to the places she went and how she got there, just to be safe.

~~~

Dominik waited for the girls to catch up to him before he began walking towards the old hospital. He looked down at his camera noting it was low on battery and hoped it would last long enough to finish their journey through Pripyat. He too looked at the buildings surrounding them, but not for direction. He was interested in the detail of them, and wondering what he’d find inside. He wanted to stop and look in every single one but doubted that the others would agree to this. He didn’t want to stray from the group, although this place was abandoned, who knew what could be lurking around. There were always stories of people going into abandoned areas to destroy things and if Dominik saw that he couldn’t help but get involved, which he knew would dangerous. Furthermore, there could be wild animals around and he didn’t particularly like the idea of running into one.

Zach followed behind the group slowly, setting the alarm as he walked away. If they got lost, the car alarm was always going to be the loudest thing in the city apart from themselves. He caught up with Dominik and followed him, checking up on his sister every so often. Perhaps he was too protective. He gave a light sigh and looked around.
"When do you reckon the last time anyone came here is?" He asked, observing the occasional graffiti on walls.

"There it is!" Emilie shouted, pointing towards the looming shadow of the reactor and what appeared to be hard a dome. It didn't truly occur to Emilie precisely what the dome was for, aside from perhaps radiation. She'd heard about them building a dome to protect the surrounding areas. "We should go and look there later." Squeezing Maddison's hand, she passed the girl a smile and turned back to check on the others. Occasionally, her thoughts drifted back to what she'd thought she'd seen. It was probably an animal, running into the building or birds flying away.

As he set off behind the others Alex fell into a silence. His thoughts turning towards the former inhabitants of the city. Alex knew of the whole incident and that wasn't what he was thinking about, rather his mind was more on the impact of it all. Obviously many lives were uprooted, but he couldn't help to think that even then a place should never be as quiet as the slumbering city in which the walked.

Shaking the thoughts from his head Alexander thought of a new topic. "Hey guys, what do we have to eat? Oh, also what else are we going to do here? I mean yeah it is ghostly beautiful here, but its not like there are any places to really hang out at."

---

Aldric looked at Iron and rolled his eyes. "You are clearly mistaken this city is not abandoned, we are here after all, aren't we?" With that Aldric walked off following the rest of the group. The eye roll before may not have been appropriate, but hey it hopefully helped to get his point across.

When Alex let loose with his questions Aldric just sighed. He had no idea how he had actually come to be friends with him, yet he never regretted it and to be honest he was a bit curious about the plans for the rest of the day as well. For now though he was content to let his gaze wonder over the broken city as he followed the others.

Heath was following his friends and while loking at thehuge reactor he thought "this place used to hold life and now no one lives her" as he looks around he see's a building that that used to be a community pool as he looks at the open door way he saw something move from the door way he wasnt sure what it was maybe it was just the whole creepness of the town playing tricks on his mind but he was very curious and wanted to check it out, Heath then said " hey guys lets go check out that building" pointing to it.

Sighing a little at Aldric's statement Iron turned to follow. "Eight people being here hardly makes this place not abandoned" He muttered as he proceeded to jog a little to catch up to the rest of the group. His eyes like the others' roaming across the building taking it in, trying to come with terms how an entire city had been completely uprooted and abandoned. His deep melancholy thoughts were interrupted by Heath who it seemed wanted to go exploring. Looking at the building Heath pointed Iron sighed deeply before actually responding "Go ahead Heath, we'll go ahead to the hospital and eat and you can catch up with us later..." his voice hinted at a mild irritation but he seemed to keep the more hostile language restrained to his mind.

“Who could say,” Dominik replied. There was no way of him knowing when the last visitors had stopped by. He too observed the graffiti here and there, giving a slight scowl at it. “If we see anybody, we’ll know.” He tried to joke. Humor was not one of Dominik’s strong points. In fact, whenever Dominik tried to be funny he was either misunderstood or given an extremely skeptical look. As the group walked Dominik listened to the conversation around him. They had packed a small amount of food away in their bags but it really wasn’t much. As for places to eat, Dominik didn’t care if it was dark, dirty, or falling apart. It was unlikely he’d be able to sit still and eat when there was so much to explore.

Dominik’s attention quickly turned when Heath suggested exploring a nearby building. Iron had quickly made it clear he didn’t want to explore the building but Dominik liked the idea. “I’ll go with you,” Dominik grinned slightly for a moment before turning to walk down to the building without the others. He hoped he would find something interesting inside, objects abandoned in curious places or clues to the lives of people who once lived there. With Heath with him, he wouldn’t have to worry about any kind of danger either. Dominik briefly looked behind him at the others. “The hospital is a tall building, if you go straight for a while, you’ll eventually see it to your left. If you don’t want to come, we can meet you there.” He explained, looking back in the direction he was walking. “I think it’s that way,” He mumbled quietly hoping they would be able to find it if they didn’t want to come with him and Heath.

~~~

Madison had a bit of a jump in her step, feeling cheerful as the group walked. She agreed with Alex that there wasn’t anywhere to hang out at all.
“If we leave this place, I’ll buy us all food at the next restaurant we see.” She bribed, still wanting to go elsewhere. Madison had spent most of her life spending money wildly and using it to get what she wanted. When Heath suggested exploring a rundown building Madison let out a long sigh. “What if we catch some horrible disease inside or the roof collapse?” She protested mildly. She agreed with Iron, that they should continue to where they were going and let Heath explore alone. She didn’t hear Dominik when he expressed going with, but noticed him turning toward the building. “You’re our guide around the city,” She sighed again.

Zach gave an audible sigh and stopped as two of their group headed inside the old building.
"If the guide goes in, I guess we all are." He adjusted his bag and headed inside. He stopped by the doorway and looked at the others. "Maddison's right, half of us can't wander off. If something does happen, we need to be together." He held the door open for his sister, who was heading towards him, having let go of her friend's hand. "Well eat here." It was a fair plan. The smaller blonde glanced up at the sky as she walked.
"Looks like rain, probably best staying in here." She waved over to Maddison and stepped inside th building.

"Guys, it looks like it's going to rain." She shouted to Heath and Domonik. "Zach suggested we just eat here, get the rain out the way before we carry on exploring." She had a point. Exploring in the rain wasnt the best option, they'd Found that in Budapest. She waited by the doorway soon after, hoping to encourage the others to follow

"Yay! Food and exploring!" Alex jubilantly exclaimed as turned towards the building that Zach was standing at. With that he commenced skipping towards the others. The suggested building wasn't as appealing as some of the others, but hey Alex wasn't going to turn down a prospective adventure.

In fact Alex's curiosity was screaming to be released, to which he obliged. His way of doing so of course being to bombard his companions with rather pointless questions. "What do you guys think that building was? Do you really think it'll rain? What are we going to do if it it does?" While his mouth spurted the questions, his mind was busy on a different matter. Earlier when he was observing the buildings he could have sworn he saw something move about, it could have been his imagination, but then again Alex had been wrong before. "Oh, also, do you guys think there are animals around here, because I think I may have seen one earlier."

---

Looking at the building Aldric was reluctant to enter. As a matter of fact he was quite in agreement with Madison. The structural stability of the building was more than likely completly comprimised. Yet, he knew that he would enter, peer pressure was a horrible thing and to think he had always thought himself immune to it. Ha! What a joke that was.

Turning to look at Madison Aldric simply said, "I think that we are out voted in leaving. Domonik is clearly in love with this place, both Heath and Alex seem intent on exploring. As for Zach he'll stick around, because Emilie is so excited about this place, and as far as Iron goes I have no clue, either way though we're out voted. Might as well head in so we don't get wet if it does end up raining."