Wild Girl of Chernobyl

by Thomas Porter

  “Whoa,” Bradford said and he grabbed the mouse. He zoomed in on the Y axis just below the spikes. “This top window is the far motion detector, the one I put on the other side of the field. This small spike here, this is when I put out it out. See the time? Then just a couple minutes later, same detector, this huge spike. I mean, that's a huge movement. Look at this, Irwin.”

  “That's not you, too?” Irwin asked.

  “No way. Not me.”

  “What about the bottom line then?” Janice asked.

  On that lower window, a single small spike was recorded near the left. Bradford zoomed in on the Y axis and read the time stamp. Just a few minutes after the large spike on the top window.

  “That's the detector closer to us, right over there. Check out the time. This movement happened just after the big spike on the far detector,” he said.

  “So this big spike, this big movement, happened on the far side of the field, then whatever made it moved over to the other detector and made this small spike?”

  “Apparently so,” Bradford said.

  “Cool,” Irwin said.

  “More like creepy,” Bradford replied.

  Chapter 8

  Janice and Irwin huddled in the back of the van and Irwin hit the play button on the screen. Minutes before, he had retrieved the camera from outside the double doors and transferred its memory into the laptop.

  After watching several minutes of darkness, four shadows in quick succession appeared. Irwin reversed the video and played the four shadows at actual speed. Janice, who stood behind him, leaned closer to the screen.

  “Can you play it slower?” she asked.

  Without a word, Irwin reversed the video again and played it at half speed. The shadows moved quickly from left to right. The first filled the screen for about half a second. The other three moved across the bottom third only, leaving the top two-thirds of the screen unobstructed. Irwin played the video again, slower still, but no details emerged.

  “Can you tell what time that happened? I mean, was it before or after those spikes on the motion detectors?”

  “They start 45 minutes and 37 seconds from when I hit record, but I don’t know exactly when I did that,” Irwin said.

  “Well, can’t you figure it out?”

  “Not really, Janice. We’ll have to sync the time I hit record to some time on the motion detectors, but I didn’t think of that last night,” Irwin said.

  “Well, think of it tonight then, okay?”

  “Definitely,” Irwin said and the back of the van swung open. Outside, Bradford held the motion detector from the far side of the field. The lens was smeared with mud and pieces of grass stuck to the rim.

  “Check this out, guys,” he said and placed it on the floor of the van.

  “I found it face down in the dirt. But it definitely didn’t fall. It couldn’t have fallen. The tripod was screwed into the ground. Something definitely knocked it over. That big spike? Had to be that.”

  Irwin slid out from behind the laptop, picked up the motion detector, and examined it closely. He turned it on and held it to his ear, returned to the laptop and started the program that records the detector’s movements. As he moved it in his hands, the motion was recorded on the program as a green line.

  “Still works,” he said. “We need to get that infrared camera.”

  Janice watched silently and thought, "How could this girl know what to knock over?"

  ~ - ~ - ~

  The camera lay on the yellow-green floor tiles near a dusty desk scattered with pens, empty binders, and a heavy metal stapler. A small mirror, an eye liner pencil, and lipstick were arranged neatly on the top right side of the desk, which had been pushed back to its original position and realigned with the dust-free rectangle under it on the floor. The faded pink coat hung again on the free standing coat rack.

  Janice squinted into the rising sun that streamed into the windows overlooking the main square.

  "Nice view anyway. I can see why you put the camera here," she said. "Or should I say, 'I can see why you threw the camera through the door and ran out like a scared little girl.'"

  Irwin stepped over the dusty detritus on the floor, taking care to avoid a large, open expanse covered with scuff marks just inside the door to the right. "I set that tripod up right, on the desk next to the window."

  With her right hand, Janice balanced herself on the windowsill. She turned around and said, "Doesn't look like it."

  "That makes no sense. I pushed the desk over because the tripod's too short," Irwin said and pointed to the tracks the desk legs had made in the dust. “And I accidentally knocked that coat rack over, too. I remember because it scared the hell out of me when it fell.”

  Irwin squatted down next to the infrared camera, picked it up, and spun it in his hands. The metal ring around the lens was caved in on one side, as if someone purposely and repeatedly pounded it. He stood up and found several divots on the desktop.

  “I don't know what you think, Irwin, but if this camera were set up right it wouldn't have fallen over. What a waste,” Janice said.

  "Getting a huge grant doesn't make you an expert on everything. Like, you don't really know,” Irwin said.

  “Quit crying.”

  “I shoved the desk over to the window and put the tripod on it. Somebody was here, knocked it over and pushed the desk back." He leaned over and examined the divots on the desktop. “Look at this,” he said.

  "Look at what?"

  "This," Irwin said as he rubbed a spot on the desk clean.

  Janice walked to the desk. She held her long hair to the side as she leaned over for a closer look. "So this desk has dents on it. So what?"

  Irwin aligned the camera lens with the divots and mimicked beating the desktop with it.

  "I see what you mean," Janice said. "Who would do that?"

  "Maybe Wild Girl," Irwin said. He walked back to the door and squatted down again. He peered closely at the scuff marks on the floor, craning his neck down for a closer look. Another area in the corner of the room, next to the coat rack, was rubbed clean, as if some cloth material had been spread out and then picked up. Irwin turned and looked up at Janice.

  "If these are dog prints, what are these?" Irwin asked, pointing at a trample of bare foot prints in the dust.

  Chapter 9

  Janice remained unusually quiet as Irwin collected the camera and tripod and put them in the case. Her eyes jerked around the room, from the scuff marks to the camera to the desk to the windows. She paced the room, being careful to avoid the footprints. She went out the door, returned, looked out the windows, went back out the door, and then returned. For a full minute, she stared at the small mirror, eye liner pencil, and lipstick arranged neatly on the desk.

  "You can be smart, but I can be smarter," Janice said softly to herself.

  Irwin had returned the camera to the foam-lined hard shell case and was collapsing the tripod. Without a word, Janice pulled the camera from the case.

  “If you're gonna use that thing, at least let me see if it works first,” Irwin said.

  Without a word, Janice handed him the camera. He examined it for several minutes before pronouncing it a lost cause. “Powers up but the lens is shot.”

  Janice looked at Bradford, who stood near the doorway, and said, “We need the regular camera.”

  “The one we left in the van?”

  “Yup.”

  Bradford looked at Irwin and said, “Flip you for who gets it?”

  “Just get the other camera, Junior,” Janice said.

  She and Irwin watched Bradford make the long walk to and from the van. When he returned, Janice resumed pacing the room, this time filming the neatly arranged mirror and makeup, the divots in the desk, the footprints, and the detritus scattered about the floor and top of the chairs. She wordlessly handed the camera back to Irwin, who returned it to the case, and then she scooped up the mirror, eye li
ner, and lipstick from the desktop and dropped them in her jacket pocket. She went out the door again while Irwin and Bradford waited for her return. When they heard her footsteps on the stairway they glanced at each other and skittered out after her. They followed her down the stairs and across the field to the van.

  For the next several minutes, the three put their equipment haphazardly in the back. The folding desk went in last, dropped on top of the everything else. When they were done, Janice threw the keys to Irwin, sat in the passenger seat, and leaned her head against the window.

  Irwin followed the GPS directions and in a little over an hour he pulled into a spot in the hotel's underground parking lot. On their way up the elevator, the three stood silently and watched the numbers ascend. As they walked to their rooms, Janice arranged to meet the other two at 6 that evening.

  Chapter 10

  Helle stood over the bare desktop. Missing was the mirror, eye liner, and lipstick. The three wolves sat on the floor nearby, facing her.

  I think I want to stop these people, she thought. They shouldn't be here and I don't like what they're doing. At least they took away that thing they put in here. I hit it on my mother's desk. They took away those other three things they put outside but if they bring them back, I'll smash them too. They got here sundown yesterday. If they're coming back, they'll be here soon.

  Helle thought stairs and the wolves leaped up and trotted out of the room. She followed them closely as they descended to the ground floor and left the building. Their long shadows stretched along the cobblestone walk and onto the street. Once outside, she ran in front of them and led them along the edges of the buildings until they were along the eastern edge of the field, near the place Janice, Irwin, and Bradford parked the van yesterday. Still crouched over, she ran across the street to the van's parking spot.

  We shouldn't stay here, but we shouldn't go too far away, either.

  She retraced her path across the street, entered the nearest building, and effortlessly ascended to the third floor. A classroom, filled with desks covered with white dust, overlooked the field and that is where Helle led the wolves. She pushed three desks to the edge of the room and they jumped onto them. From there, they could see out the window to the streets and field below.

  Less than one hour later, she thought, they're coming back. IThe wolves thumped their tails on the desktops in reply. A few minutes later, the van drove the same path it had yesterday and stopped. Silently, Helle watched as the back of the van was opened and the two young men carried the folded metal cage out. Some of the windows in the room were broken and Helle and the three wolves could hear the metallic clanking as they assembled it. As they worked, Janice set up the folding table and laptop. After several minutes, the cage was assembled.

  I think we have to smash that loud thing they put together.

  The wolves thumped their tails on the desktop.

  ~ - ~ - ~

  “Would you rather put the camera outside the doors like last night, or in that room upstairs?” Irwin asked as he pulled the camera's case from the back of the van.

  “Do what you did yesterday. The regular camera just outside on the sidewalk, the infrared one in that room upstairs, Wild Girl's room, just like you did last night,” Janice said. She was sitting at the laptop and didn't look up from the screen as she spoke.

  “The infrared is toast. I have no reason to lie to you about that,” Irwin said.

  “I know it's toast. You said already, and I said I'm having another shipped. But think about it,” she said.

  “Think about what? If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.”

  “She's obviously very smart, but Wild Girl doesn't know this, does she?” she said, looking up from the screen for the first time.

  Irwin thought about that for a few seconds and smiled. Yes, Wild Girl does NOT know that. “Good call, Janice. I'll set it up in there just like last night and we'll see what happens.” He hoisted the camera case onto his shoulders and asked, “Is that what we're calling that room now? 'Wild Girl's room'?” Without waiting for a reply, which Janice did not provide, Irwin turned and walked across the corner of the field, directly toward the double doors that opened into the building. “Wild Girl's building,” he thought as it drew closer.

  As Irwin crossed the street, Bradford, who had just placed a motion detector on the western edge of the field, followed the glow of the laptop screen back to Janice and the van. He shouldered Janice aside and checked the readout on the laptop screen.

  Several minutes later Irwin returned and the two young men followed Janice as she walked toward the trees.

  "Watch for footprints," Irwin said with a smile. Janice turned and wordlessly stared at him.

  They continued through the trees, crossed the street, and set the cage just inside the lobby of “Wild Girl's building”.

  ~ - ~ - ~

  They put that thing in mother's room again. That thing I smashed on her desk yesterday. I'll smash it again. First I want to smash that big loud thing.

  Silently, Helle slipped off the desk and padded out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the building. She turned left and hugged the building's exterior wall as she moved. The three wolves followed closely in single file. Seconds later they pulled even with the trees. Helle crouched even lower. She turned right, crossed the street, entered the trees and stopped behind a tree. The three wolves stopped near her and panted lightly. Then, suddenly, the four dashed silently across the street in unison and slipped into the lobby.

  Why are they putting these things around here? This big loud thing is different than that little thing. Heavier and bigger, Helle thought.

  She lifted one end off the floor and released it, letting it crash back down. She kicked the cage with the ball of her right foot. She grabbed the top bars and pounded it on the floor. She let it drop, kicked it again, lifted it again.

  Then she saw something and froze.

  The wolves, who had tucked their tails in and moved away, now slowly returned and sniffed the cage. The small objects that had captured Helle's attention had fallen to one end and the wolves smelled them. A small mirror, an eye liner pencil, and lipstick. She dropped the cage and moved through the door to retrieve them.

  Chapter 11

  “Get the van! Get the van!” Janice screamed at Bradford over the cacophony of howling and yipping. She was looking inside the cage at Wild Girl, who was staring at Bradford on the other side.

  Bradford did not respond.

  “Get the damn van!” she screamed again, mixing her voice with Wild Girl's wailing that filled the lobby.

  From behind her, Irwin yelled, “I'll go! Gimme the keys.”

  “You already have them,” Janice yelled.

  “What?”

  “You already have them,” she yelled again.

  Irwin reached into his pocket and pulled them out. He ran to the double doors but stopped just inside them. He looked back and saw Bradford staring blankly into the cage.

  Janice spun on the balls of her feet and ran past Irwin. She disappeared out the building. Several seconds later she reappeared holding the camera from the sidewalk just outside. It was still attached to its tripod. She slammed the tripod feet onto the floor and pointed the camera at the cage.

  Irwin moved slowly through the double doors to the sidewalk, turned to his right, and stopped. He heard howling. Howling from nowhere, but from everywhere. Howling surrounded him. To Irwin, it seemed to echo throughout the cavernous space outside. He pulled a pen-sized flashlight from his pocket and turned it on. A dim, small circle of light about a yard across appeared on the sidewalk. He scanned the darkness around him but saw nothing. He turned the light off and put it back into his pocket, useless.

  Inside the lobby, Wild Girl turned away from Bradford. She became motionless. Her eyes, shielded behind her dirty hair, stared into Janice's.

  I know about your mother, Helle thought.
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  Janice stared back, caught in the vice trap of Wild Girl's eyes. Her mouth opened and she said silently, “How do you know about my mother?”

  I know.

  “You know what?” Janice asked before she felt a pressure inside her head and her legs buckled.

  It was at that moment outside, just after Irwin had taken several tentative steps away from the building's entrance, that the howling of the wolves ceased. Silence seemed to fall over yard. Then Irwin heard the padding of feet, wolves' feet, on the sidewalk behind him, to the left of the entrance way. He turned his head but saw nothing. Then from his right, he heard more. Hundreds, thousands of nearly silent paws striking the cement. Together, in the dark, they sounded loud, like a room filled with thousands of bats circling for a way out.

  The sound of the wolves closed in and Irwin's mind hummed. He turned and ran back into the building, into the lobby, and skidded to a stop.

  Janice was lying on the floor next to the cage, in a fetal position but staring at Helle, her hands pressed against her ears. Three wolves stood several feet from her, tails down, front shoulders lowered, teeth exposed.

  Wild Girl was kneeling inside the cage, propping herself up by her left hand and staring out at Bradford, who stood motionless.

  Irwin turned back to the double doors and saw shadows, wolf-size shadows, just outside on the sidewalk. Too many to count. He turned back to Wild Girl and instantly her head spun from Bradford to him. Her left hand jumped off the floor of the cage, fingers spread, palm toward Irwin, and in unison the shadows outside began howling. The sound traveled through the double doors and filled the lobby. The three wolves staring at Janice turned their eyes to him.

  Irwin's eyes were caught by Wild Girl's. Her stare bore into his but he couldn't tear away. The shadow howling behind him inched closer. The wolves in front of him stepped forward. He couldn't move his feet and he felt urine trickle down his leg. He opened his mouth but couldn't remember how to speak, to yell.

  Bradford, as if emerging from a dream, turned his eyes from the cage to Irwin, to Janice on the floor, to the three wolves now between Janice and Irwin, then to Irwin again. A voice in his head screamed, “Let me out! Let me out!” He ran to the cage and opened the gate. Wild Girl pushed him over as she sprang from it. In a flash, she silently glided past Irwin and out the building, followed at the heels by her three wolves. The weight holding Irwin in place lifted. He turned back to the double doors but saw only silence.