Alexi and the rest of his group were interviewed extensively about what they had done, seen and heard. The interviews were conducted in what had been the mayor’s house, but it had now been turned into a military post of some sort since the supposed meltdown had begun. Alexi, sensing the direction this was all going, minimized his knowledge and participation in the hunting parties and denied ever seeing or hearing anything strange himself.

He was allowed to return home and see Alena. He described the strange love he felt for this girl that he had just met and the desperate fear growing in him that she needed to get away as soon as she could, even if it meant sneaking past the quarantine. She refused to leave him behind, however, and he worried that if he went with her it would just guarantee that they would get caught, as he had every idea they weren’t done with him yet.

He was right. The next morning they loaded him along with two dozen others into a bus and began heading toward the plant. When some of his coworkers asked about the radiation, one of the guards just chuckled, telling them there was nothing to worry about. Brian wanted to ask more questions—how could radiation not be a problem? how could it be safe to go up there at all if the plant was still burning?—but they had assault rifles and he didn’t want to test their good humor. Besides, he had realized something as they were slowing to a stop at the gate of the plant.

None of the guards were wearing radiation protection either.

****

The bus parked underground in Staff Lot B. We were all taken out of the bus and made to line up as a severe-looking officer approached. He said that we had been chosen for a very important task. That all of the details of the reactor accident had not been made public, and in fact, large portions of the plant were still operational. People had been brought in to maintain the plant temporarily, but it was a short-term solution to a longer-term problem. They now needed us to go back to work for the next few weeks until a more permanent resolution was found.

There were many confused looks and fearful murmurs at this. What the man was saying made little sense. If there truly had been a meltdown at Reactor 4, the proper protocols were to evacuate, stop any outlying fires or electrical issues from spreading to the core cooling systems of the other reactors, and then look at further containing and extinguishing the fire in Reactor 4. There would be no talk of running the other reactors normally at this point, or having more than the handful of crew needed to keep the emergency systems running so there was no further problems during the full shutdown.