48 Hours a Day

The wheels of the bus rubbed against the asphalt surface, making a dull grinding, its roaring engine particularly clear in the silence of the night.

The players had obtained a watch from the unconscious bus driver, so they finally knew the exact time.

It was 1:44 a.m., and according to Zhang Heng’s calculations, the explosion should have happened 15 to 20 minutes ago.

There was still a long time before daybreak. For the town of Pripyat, three kilometers away from the nuclear power plant, most of the residents were still sleeping soundly, having none the explosion’s shockwave had already sent a portion of the core’s material into the sky, forming a large masses of strong radioactive particles.

At first, the mass only wrapped around the nuclear power plant, but it quickly began to expand and spread in all directions with the wind.

The residents of Pripyat who first noticed the explosion were probably a group of night anglers.

The nuclear power plant would drain the cold water from the steam turbine’s pre-heat exchanger into the Pripyat River on the side. Because the water was warm and attracted fish, it was an excellent fishing spot, not to mention that it was just in time for the spring fish spawning season, thus anglers came here one after another. Even at night, there were many people.

The people came as close to less than 300 meters from reactor No. 4. When the maintenance workers drove past them in a bus, the players saw some anglers looking up at the thick smoke in the direction of the reactor. Some were only beginning to pack up, but more people chose to stay where they were.

They seemed to believe that the fire would not spread to where they were, especially after a few fire trucks had just arrived, convincing the anglers that the fire would be brought under control soon. Some, thinking that witnessing the heroic firemen putting out the fire up close would be a fine tale they could brag to their friends about, continued to hold their fishing rods and stayed by the river.

In addition, a young couple was even secretly tasting the forbidden fruit by the river. They turned a blind eye to the explosion behind them and were tightly entangled together. Further away, several workers patrolling the railway bridge had also stopped to watch.

“Heh, it looks like we’re the only ones who are busy running for their lives within a hundred miles,” Master Kui said cynically.

“They’ll pay the price,” the Doctor droned as he put on a serious note. “The radioactive dust above the nuclear power plant has already drifted here and landed on their skin. With every breath they take, it enters their lungs. When they recall it in the future… if they still have a future, this will be the moment they will regret the most in their lives.”

“What exactly are these people thinking? How can you be indifferent to the explosion in the nuclear power plant when you are moving around it?!” Mouse’s face was filled with disbelief.

“I don’t know. I’m just a surgeon, not a psychiatrist.” the doctor shrugged.

“Will the radioactive dust drift into the town?” At this moment, Master Kui was concerned about another question.

“Without a doubt, this is already happening.”

“So, if we stay in the town, we’ll continue to be exposed to the radiation?” Mouse asked.

His words sank the hearts of all the players.

Moreover, unlike the anglers and lovey-dovey couples by the river, the players knew that to complete their quest, they had no to stay in the town even if they knew that there was a risk of radiation.

Thus, the carriage fell into silence. A moment later, coconut began to vomit again. However, because she had already vomited all her dinner before, she could only vomit non-stop now. It was the rats that were taking care of her.

“Sorry, I still feel a little carsick,” Coconut said.

“I’ll try to drive steadily, but this isn’t a very smooth section of the road,” the maintenance man said. As he spoke, he saw a few passing cars from the opposite side. There were fire engines that followed them, as well as private cars. One of them even honked at them, as if wanting them to stop.

However, the maintenance man would not listen obediently. He turned the direction, bypassed the car, and continued to drive forward. He looked at the rearview mirror and saw that the owner of the car had already walked down. Seeing that the bus was far away, he seemed a little helpless. He had no intention of continuing to chase after them, however.

After about five minutes, the ambulance and the bus drove past the safety zone near the nuclear power plant and finally entered the town one after the other.

Everyone’s impression of Pripyat was basically inseparable from the word “ghost city.” After the Chernobyl incident, the city became desolate and no longer had any people. In addition, Ukraine later launched an adventure tourism program, which basically confirmed Pripyat’s identity as a ghost city.

Tourists held radiators in their hands and wore protective clothing as they walked between the abandoned school and the stadium. Listening to the creaking of the counters, they seemed to be able to feel the terrible disaster that happened here decades ago, at the same time, they enjoyed a ghost city’s desolation.

However, at this time, Pripyat looked no different from other towns. In fact, it was more accurate to say that Pripyat looked more beautiful than most of the towns in this era.

The town was built before the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the east. After the plan for the nuclear power plant was approved, the dormitories of the workers and the office buildings of the administrators were built first. As the project progressed, the families of the workers also moved to the town. People named the new town after the Pripyat River.

As the number of residents in the town increased, there were more and more houses. There were shops, schools, stadiums, even buses and railways. When the No.1 reactor of the nuclear power plant was put into operation, the workers of the nuclear power plant and their families also moved into the town. After that, the construction of the reactor continued. After the No.4 reactor, the No.5 and No.6 reactors went into intense construction.

The number of residents in the town also increased. So far, there were more than 50,000 people. Moreover, unlike those compact and crowded old cities, Pripyat was a typical Brezhnev-like city. The streets were wide, neat, and geometrically distributed, and the houses were well-arranged. There was also a magnificent palace for teenagers and the 11th Cinema of the Soviet Union.

Whether it was the design or the planning of the city, everything was determined by top Soviet leadership. It also showed the bloc’s ambition for the use of atomic energy. Everyone who came to Pripyat was fascinated by its charm. In order to get a living witness here, people fought over it.

But now Pripyat was still in deep sleep. Only a few people noticed the light of the distant nuclear power station.