Sydney Baker's Story

As Caroline sat on the full bus she listened to the tour guide ramble on. She stifled a yawn as she flipped the device over in her hand before staring out the window. She listened carefully to make sure she knew everything she needed to but she really had no interest in it. Besides she ended up here out of spite of her parents and the fact that she really only had enough money for a cheap flight to this place. She sighed, pulled out her phone and scanned through a view pictures that she had picked up about this place. The amusement park looked like the coolest thing here so she hoped they would spend the most time there. She finally took the time to scan the other people in the bus, almost everyone looked her age which made her feel better about the fact that she ended up on this crappy tour.

She made sure to memorize a few faces just in case she got wandered away from the tour and had to find her way back.
She noted three girls, one blonde, one red head and one strange haired girl. She then scanned the people that were in front of her and memorized an older gentlemen's face, there was someone else in the seat with him but she couldn't see him clear enough to get a good enough picture. Once she was satisfied that she could pick these people out she turned her focus to back out the window.

~~~

Sydney checked off and repeated all the things that the tour guide told her, she noted all the things that the device would do and everything that she had to do. She made sure to look out the window once they grew closer to their destination and picked out objects that would act as landmarks in case things went wrong. Wrong? Nothing would go wrong, she was on a safe and totally planned tour. Sydney forced herself to erase any uneasy feelings from her brain and allowed safer, more peaceful thoughts to fill her mind. She looked up at the tour guide and cocked a small grin before snickering quietly to herself.
"Yea this tiny tour guide can protect us if anything freaky happens." She thought to herself as she shook her head and looked around the bus.

As they started to pull into the parking lot of the amusement park she became all eyes and started to take in everything that was outside her window. old run down rides, rusted and long forgotten with trees and other greenery growing over it. Graffiti lined a lot of the stone walls, some old and some new from other tourists who dared to stumble into the city. She grinned as her body became giddy with excitement but she soon calmed herself as the tour guide began talking again.

~~~

Katherine had spent most of the trip on her phone reading the article of this place over and over again. She was looking for flaws in this plan, in this tour and in her train of thought. This couldn't be just a simple trip in and out because nothing was ever this simple, Katherine wouldn't let it be. She was the type of girl that would pick apart a situation until she found any type of flaw or rip in the plan. This trip seemed strange in itself with so many people that were her age on the bus but little to no adults. No offence to the people on the bus but Katherine guessed that most of these kids planned this last minute like she did and are doing it for shits and giggles. She hummed quietly as she looked through another site until the tour guide cleared her throat and looked at Katherine. The red head paused and looked up from the light of her screen and gave her a questioning look which the tour guide shook her head to.
"Do you know how to use the device miss?" She asked.
"Yup." Katherine described each button function before grinning.
The tour guide, clearly satisfied, went back to her talking and ignored Katherine for the rest of the trip. Once Katherine knew the tour guide had stopped paying attention again she popped back open her phone and went back to work.

Ionna stumbled off the bus and looked around in awe. Everything was grown over and had a chilling vibe to it. The town felt darker than Ionna had imagined, and somehow pretty. Everything was still and the only life in the area was the people from the tour. Ionna liked this and breathed in deeply smelling the air; it was foul. The air was musty and polluted, which shouldn't have surprised Ionna but somehow she had imagined it differently.

"The Pripyat Amusement Park was to be opened on May 1, 1986 in time for the May Day celebrations, As you can see there are still decorations for this event around the city. But the grand opening plans were interrupted on April 26 when the Chernobyl disaster occurred a few kilometers away." The tour guide explained. Ionna listened closely while taking in the sight around her. The tour was in English as many of the people on it were not from the Ukraine. This hardly effected Ionna as she had studied English in school from the time she was a child. There were words her and there that she missed but she generally understood what was being said.

The Iconic Ferris Wheel, that appeared in most pictures of the city, was larger than she had expected and had stuffed animals placed in the seats. Ionna could only assume they were some kind of remembrance piece or tribute to the disaster.
"We ask that you stay on the concrete of this area and be weary of areas that moss is growing. The radiation levels in some areas have built up dangerously high. The devices I handed out will sound a warning if you get too close." The tour guide warned, Ionna stepped away from a mossy area when she heard about this.



Kasper was the last person to get off the bus as he was not in any hurry. He was hesitant to take even a step off, although the ground looked normal enough it was somehow dirtier to him. The air smelt and felt unclean to him and everything looked out.
"Wasn't this place only built in the 70's, what the hell happened to it?" He said rudely and ignorantly, not noticing if anyone had heard him or given him a dirty look for it. He did not care what happened here, nor the history of anything. The small device on his hand let out an annoyingly high-pitch sound as he followed the group. Not listening to the tour guide, he ignored it and search for the off switch to the stupid device.

He looked around at the rides, there were only four. The Ferris wheel, bumper cars, swing boats, and a paratrooper ride. Kasper scoffed at this and made a mocking face.
"What a shitty amusement park, it doesn't even have a roller coaster."



Dominik slowly strolled through the streets of the city, stopping to take a picture of everything he found remotely interesting. He was in a more residential area, which didn't interest him as much as other places would. He explored through one of the apartment buildings and took pictures inside. These were not areas that had been photographed before as tours did not generally go through old apartments.

Outside he could smell the same air but it was refreshing to him and caused him to grow more excited. He opened an old map of the city he had brought with him and found his bearings. It looked like the nearest most interesting building to him was an old school. Dominik quickly made his way to his destination, taking in the sights around him.

When he arrived at the school he took note of the unstable door frames. Inside where tables that had long been neglected but were not in terrible shape. Several gas masks had been abandoned in a pile and Dominik could not guess why. He photographed many unique objects and found himself quite satisfied.
Hearing an unusual noise outside, Dominik glanced to the window quickly. He could only see the still trees outside and assumed he had imagined the noise. There was nothing in the city but him and that pesky tour group, but they were likely only just getting off the bus.

Caroline followed everyone off the bus and immediately almost tripped, letting out a squeak of surprise she caught herself and recollected herself. She ignored everyone in case anyone was looking and just force herself to stay focused on the tour guide. The device in her hand beeped a few times until the group finally left the main area and began to wander. She looked around the broken down amusement park in awe and wondered how cool this place would have been had it not come to this. Would there be more rides or would they have kept it the same?

In her zoned out state she found herself staggering into the back of the red hair and quickly backed up.
“désolé, désolé, sorry, sorry.” She said, her thick French accent ringing out clear in her words. The red head waved her off and told her to shush as the tour guide told them more about the park.
Caroline bit her tongue but nodded before turning back to the front. She hoped that the whole trip wouldn’t be this or she was going to get very bored very quickly.

~~~

Sydney, annoyed that the French girl had bumped into her and made her miss part of the talk, made her way farther to the front of the crowd. She didn’t mean to be so harsh to her but she had no intention of paying for this trip and then missing out on details. She already snapped pictures of a few things when they first arrived and now she took the time to take a few more while the tour guide explained their surroundings.

She noted that a lot of people on this trip seemed disinterested with anything that was going on and seemed more itching to break from the group and explore for themselves.
“Foolish kids, clearly they don’t know the dangers of this place.” Sydney huffed under her breathe with a roll of her eyes.
She had no intention of wandering far because she didn’t wish to find the places that would stop her heart in a second.

~~~

The second Katherine stepped off the bus she was ready to go. She paused for a few minutes to listen to the tour guide spew some more crap as she mouthed the words ‘blah blah blah’ before yawning and looking around. She then wasted no time to slip behind the back of the bus and put distance between her and the group. After finding a way to shush the device enough that it wouldn’t be heard she made her way into an overgrown area and pulled out her phone. She brought up the original site that she was using and figured out she was by the Ferris wheel, she knew she was hidden enough that the group couldn’t see her but she did hope she was quick enough that no one saw her disappear.


“No one even knows I’m here.” She thought to herself with amusement as she took a few pictures of the Ferris wheel, making sure to zoom in and pick up all the small details. She faintly heard her device beeping but she quickly brushed it off as she began to scan through the pictures she took to make sure she was satisfied.
“This is a load of crap, I know it and I’m going to find a flaw.” She thought out loud with a puff of her chest.