The Dogs of Chernobyl by Justin Morgan

Author:Justin Morgan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781739957018
Publisher: Paws On Publishing
Published: 2021-10-22T23:00:00+00:00

Ony awoke from a tormented dream in which the forest was aflame and he was trapped in its centre.

The food in his belly had rid him of the worst of his nausea, but his energy was still low enough to make his movements sluggish. He strained his eyes to take in Bed House.

Ball Boy was sat on the bed closest to him, making marks in a book. Now occupying each of the other beds, many other men were present.

His first instinct was to panic, but Ony steadied himself. The last thing he wanted was for them to trap him inside the room, and while they appeared unaware of him, he felt it better to stay as he was. Listening to them chattering away, his chief concern was that more of them might soon enter.

Even if he were not sickened, Ony would still have had trouble deciding whether the folk on their beds were arguing or simply conversing. Either way, they went on in a heated manner, occasionally giving their mouths a rest just long enough to allow him to settle. But always, they found something else to discuss.

‘Has anybody heard about this sarcophagus?’ asked a man at the back of the room.

Somebody near the door spoke up. ‘It’s ridiculous. Imagine how big such a thing would have to be to cover over the whole Chernobyl site. Those Party folk are off their heads.’

‘Well,’ replied the first man, ‘what else can they do? They’re saying the land here could be radioactive for 20,000 years.’

Ony felt Ball Boy bristle. The colour seemed to be draining from his face. ‘Why?’ the boy called out. ‘The Army General who came to my school said it was just a mishap.’

A man in the corner with floppy blond hair, who was scraping the fur from his face as though he believed it oughtn’t to be there, looked over at the boy with sympathetic eyes. ‘I’m not sure it’s wise to believe everything they tell you at school, young cadet.’

An older man in the next bed reached across and placed the palm of his hand on the boy’s leg. He, too, seemed suddenly sad. ‘Why do you think the mining teams haven’t started their work yet?’ he said. ‘How do you even start to tunnel beneath something as deadly as that?’

As if Ball Boy couldn’t stand to be part of their conversation anymore, he shimmied down to the edge of the bed and peered down where Ony lay. ‘Feeling better yet?’ he whispered, before the walls of the room began to suddenly shake: heavy footfall outside signalled the arrival of more people.

‘Better change the subject, boys,’ said the floppy-haired man, and the atmosphere in the room went instantly tense. Perhaps they, too, were afraid that the dog-mask men were about to show up with their violent sticks of steel.

But it wasn’t a dog man whose body swung around the door, just one of the ones the pets called soldier. Ony’s thundering heart calmed.

‘Alek Vann here?’

Ball Boy rose swiftly and held his hand beside his head in an oddly stiff pose.

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