Short Story - Half Life (No relation to game)

A Half-Life

By Ethan Frank

It is eight a.m., April 27th, 1986 in Belarus when I first realize I am lost. My new trench coat is wet from heavy rain. The streets are deserted. Televisions cast an eerie glow from neighbors’ windows. I start walking up my driveway and step on something soft; the body of a squirrel. It does not appear hurt, but I am not a veterinarian so I do not think much of the odd death. I kick it to the side and make my way up the steps to my house.
As I open the door, my wife yells something about an explosion in Ukraine. It annoys me. I hear her gasp and realize I have just yelled something unpleasant at her. It is very uncharacteristic of me to curse, but something is irritating me; an itch beneath the skin, impossible to scratch. So I remove the skin of my dilemma and suddenly feel unwelcome. I must leave. I feel a yearning for something unknown. I do not want it to be unknown. The last two and a half minutes without it are two and a half minutes too long.
My wife asks where I am going, and I tell her I do not know. Our baby – her baby, now – cries in the other room. She rushes to console it and I use the opportunity to sneak out the door. I do not think to bring my belongings; they seem insignificant in comparison to the desire I feel for it.

I walk along the side of the road for what seems like days. My trench coat feels like a damp tissue in the incessant downpour. A song quote pushes into my head. I feel as if it is invading so I push back. But the music is determined, and I hear echoing in my head, ‘What makes the water holy is that it’s the closest thing to the rain… When Jesus comes-a callin’, he’ll be coming ‘round the mountain on a train.’ It echoes for a moment and then is gone.
The moon passes over for the seventeenth time, and I still am walking. It is still raining. My need for it is stronger than ever. The sun now rises, so bright I need to shield my eyes. As I reach up to block the morning rays, the sun disappears behind something. I look up to see a pillar, outlined in shadow, glowing from the sun behind it. It appears majestic; holy. If I was a praying man I would drop to my knees, but God has never noticed me, or I Him.

The need overpowers me. The edge of my vision starts to fade. The world has gone blurry, like it would when I used to try on Grandpa’s glasses. I see – I think I see – two men approaching me, although they look strange; disproportionate, with large craniums and lumps in odd places. I feel a gentle finger on my neck as the world disappears. I hear shouting, sense footsteps, feel warm breath, and smell mould and then – nothing.

Water splashes on my face and I no longer feel the need for the touch of a woman: what I feel right now is the height of pleasure. My heart almost jumps from my chest as everything once again drips from my field of vision.

I am sitting around a large fire with two men named Thy and Zir. They tell me they live here. They tell me they were ordered to leave but could not. They tell me this place is called Chernobyl. They explain to me their disfigurement is caused by radiation. They tell me of government men that come and try to force them to leave; tell me of killing the men with their own guns. ‘Here,’ they say, ‘you may need this.’ The revolver is cold and hard in my hand.
A girl called Prip joins us. I take an immediate liking to her. We talk. She asks me where I am from but I cannot remember. We walk together and come to a building. I recognize it as the building I first saw upon arrival at Chernobyl, the one with the pillar protruding from it. This time, however, I am close enough to see a large hole filled with debris in its center. I start to shake. I am overcome by a sense of ecstasy. Prip takes my writhing hand and gently kisses it. We have sex in the rubble beneath the pillar. I am happy.

Six and a half months later Prip births our child. I see myself in it and I love it. I never saw myself in my first baby. This one may not be breathing, but it is mine, and I will take care of it. I wash it in a puddle and wrap my trench coat around it. It appears content, so I feel content as well.
I take my child to its place of conception beneath the pillar. I lay down the trench coat and place my baby on top of it. As I start to lie down beside it I hear someone yelling. I run and hide behind a piece of debris, ten feet behind where I had put down my baby. A man approaches my coat on the ground and starts as he sees my child lying upon it. I feel in my pocket for my revolver. He reaches to his belt. I realize he is going to hurt it, so I sneak up behind him, put the barrel to his head, and pull the trigger.
I can now be at peace with my baby. I lie beside it, in the shadow of the pillar. I realize have found that something, what ever it is. As my heart beats for the last time I smile at the accomplishment that is my life.


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Analysis:

The protagonist’s journey represents his continuous alienation from society as cancer spreads through his body and mind, a result of nuclear fallout that fell in Belarus as a result of the Chernobyl explosion on April 26th, 1986. His humanity sheds bit by bit as his addiction to radiation further penetrates his body, leading him to Chernobyl, to find others like him; to end the feeling of alienation from his former life; from society. His irradiated, dead child with Prip symbolizes his final state, a being that could not be considered human by modern society’s standards. He can only feel complete my melding himself with his creator, the source of the radiation: the wreckage of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

History:

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. It is considered to be the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history and the only level 7 instance on the International Nuclear Event Scale. It resulted in a severe release of radioactivity into the environment following a massive power excursion which destroyed the reactor. Two people died in the initial steam explosion, but most deaths from the accident were attributed to radiation.
On 26 April 1986 01:23:45 a.m. (UTC+3) reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant, near Pripyat in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, exploded. Further explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area. Four hundred times more fallout was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The plume drifted over extensive parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and eastern North America, with light nuclear rain falling as far as Ireland. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus.
The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, slowing its expansion for a number of years, while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive. The now-independent countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. It is difficult to accurately quantify the number of deaths caused by the events at Chernobyl, as the Soviet-era cover-up made it difficult to track down victims. Lists were incomplete, and Soviet authorities later forbade doctors to cite "radiation" on death certificates.
The overall cost of the disaster is estimated at $200 billion USD, taking inflation into account. This places the Chernobyl disaster as the most costly disaster in modern history.

 

that was utterly long.

 

Well, im sure you haven't read it, I posted it a minute ago.

I'll cut down the BG info, hold on.

 

Better?

Now read it, I think it is quite good.

 

tl;dr

 

tl;dr