Shortly after the disaster in Chernobyl, a group of American rescuers (Alex, Michael, Emily, and Mark), *only first names were recorded* ventured into Chernobyl to find survivors. A journal from one of the rescuers, Mark, was found at the site two weeks later in a pile of rubble by Russian government officials. The journal remained hidden for 18 years before its information was leaked out to the public on a website called ispythetruth.com by a former government worker. Within twenty minutes, the website was taken down and the former government worker was sent to life in prison. However within those twenty minutes a handful of users had saved the documents. These are the entries of that journal:
May 1, 1986
Tomorrow I’m heading out to Chernobyl with a few other people to check out the damage and hopefully find survivors if there are any. This is pretty exciting since I usually don’t get to do that much normally. So until tomorrow it’s time for some sleep.
May 2, 1986
Its 8:10 and we are all in the air. In 4 hours we will be inside Chernobyl and ready to investigate. I’m already nervous since I did hear that the radiation levels in the area are still pretty bad in some areas but we’ll be wearing radiation suits so I'm not too worried.
May 2, 1986
Well its 12:37 right now and we have landed. We did experience some turbulence 20 minutes ago which caused us to arrive late. I’m not exactly sure in what specific area we are in but I could plainly see that it was hit hard by the blast. There are crumbling buildings everywhere. Visibility isn’t all that great either. Probably from all that dust and rubble spewed up into the air. I guess now we search.
May 2, 1986
After a full day of searching we could not find any survivors. All we could find was mountains of rubble and abandoned possessions. What was really creepy was that there were children’s toys everywhere I looked but no children. We could not find any bodies. Not even one. It’s almost like everyone in here just vanished. I guess we can search more tomorrow but I doubt that we will find anything even though we've barely covered everything.
May 3, 1986
Yesterday, at around midnight, I woke up to the sound of chewing. It was strange because everyone was sleeping. The chewing sounded very fast and loud. It was coming from right outside our campsite. Being issued weapons made me feel a bit better. Wild animals. When I went outside, the sound stopped and I had a strange feeling I was being watched. I looked around for five minutes trying to find what was making the noise. I didn't find anything so I went came back inside, and then the chewing started again.
May 3, 1986
After an entire morning of searching we still could not find anything. We searched the entire area. There was not a single soul to be found. We decided it was time to leave. Now I have to pack up all the things we set up while my team searches around a bit more before we leave.
I was done packing at around 2:00 pm and we were getting ready to leave when I noticed that one of our teammates (Alex) had not come back yet. We had to postpone our departure to look for him.
It’s currently 7:00 pm and we still can’t find him. I’m trying to use the helicopter radio to call for help but I’m not getting an answer back.
May 5, 1986
It’s 3 in the morning and I can’t sleep. Make the chewing STOP!!
May 7, 1986
After four days of consecutive searching we finally found him. We found him dismembered limb from limb inside a closet in a building fairly close to our campsite. I was surprised we didn’t find him earlier. His radiation suit was cut up and pretty much destroyed. The only reason I recognized him was because his head, even cut from his body, was left unscathed. As soon as we saw his dismembered body in that closet, my entire team panicked. I only stood there motionless. Frozen not by the shock of seeing Alex ripped up on the floor but knowing that whoever or whatever did this was still here with us.
May 7, 1986
No one will answer the radio. Alex was our pilot and now we can’t get out of this godforsaken wasteland. Even though I do have a limited knowledge of flying a helicopter, I don’t trust myself enough to get my team home safely.
May 8, 1986
Another night of the goddamn chewing. I don’t know how much longer I can take it.
May 9, 1986
Still no one is answering the radio. We are running low on food. We have plenty of water though, if it’s not radiated yet. Michael suggests to leave this place and try to find a place that we can get help. I know though that we cannot do that as we are not even supposed to be here since this mission was top secret after all or at least that’s what I was told.
May 10, 1986
I saw something! Whatever it was, it wasn’t human. Looking in the distance, I saw this thing move very quickly across my line of sight. It’s definitely not human. I don’t think it’s an animal either. It has the body of a human but the characteristics of a cheetah. It ran so goddamn fast! It was so big too. It was at least ten feet tall. I’m so scared. I can’t go out there anymore.
May 13, 1986
Another three days of pure hell. The chewing I hear during the night is keeping me awake. Food is running dangerously low, and the water is irradiated. Michael is suffering from radiation poisoning. He won’t stop vomiting. Good thing that I didn’t drink the water since I was already suspicious of it. I brought two bottles of bottled water just in case.
May 14, 1986
I think Emily is starting to hallucinate. She keeps talking to herself and reaching for things that aren’t there. Michael looks like he buffed up which is weird since the radiation poisoning would take away muscle.
May 14, 1986
I looked outside again and saw not one, not two, but three of those things just standing there. They were at least thirty feet away. I thought they were going to start running and rip me limb from limb just like they did to Alex. That’s when I noticed that they had no eyes.
May 15, 1986
Emily has officially gone crazy today. She ran outside without her suit screaming “HELP!” again and again and again. She had gone no more than one hundred feet before she was snatched by one of those creatures.One second she was there and the next she was gone. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I've found out the creatures rely on sound.
May 16, 1986
Well after another sleepless night because of the chewing sound I’m just about ready to do whatever it takes to get out of here. Michael went into a coma this morning. He looks very different now, almost like the creatures.
May 17, 1986
Michael died today. I shot him. He just got up and looked completely different. When he heard me say “Michael?” he lunged at me. Luckily I already had my gun ready. The sound attracted many of the creatures. There are tens of hundreds of these things outside right now. I’m getting out of here tomorrow. At least I hope so.
Mark was said to die because of radiation poisoning. His body was never found.
Michael and the rest of the crew were also said to have died of radiation poisoning. Their bodies were never found.
Also leaked by the former government worker was this text “Mark’s body was found and he did not die of radiation poisoning. He died of a brave act. He made it to the helicopter, and made sure that none of the mutants coul get to the rest of civilization.
This is the last journal entry:
May 18, 1986
There are a lot of creatures down there. This helicopter is pretty damn big too. What do I have to lose? If anyone finds this, tell my family I love them, and tell the world of these eyeless mutant bastards!