Slim fingers brought the Styrofoam cup to faded red lips. She'd gotten ready for the day nearly twenty four hours ago so she didn't doubt that she looked a mess. That thought in mind, she absent mindedly ran a hand through her red hair in a halfhearted attempt to tame it.
Exhaustion hung on her face like a mask as she forced more caffeine past her lips, too tired to feel it burn down the path of her throat.
This was the first break she'd had in hours. Being a doctor in Moscow was hard enough on a "good" day, this was stifling.
"Natalia," a voice called, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Four more just came in."
Nurse Liya stood in the doorway of the small break room. Her graying hair was falling out of the once tight kept bun and her eyes mirrored the same tiredness the doctor felt.
"Are they still sick or have they entered the latent period?" Natalia asked, standing to throw away her cup before moving to follow the nurse.
"Three of them have entered the latency period claiming to have stopped vomiting or even feeling nauseas for a few hours now. The fourth, however, is still in the immediate stage. He hasn't stopped vomiting since he arrived." Liya explained.
"Keep him in a separate room until it passes. I'll check up on the other three." Natalia ordered. The nurse nodded before breaking off to aid the ailing soldier.
Natalia let out a tired sigh before making her way to the wing they've designated for these particular patients. Most the ones who were coming in today were soldiers who came to Moscow from the Chernobyl site. Apparently, one of the reactors exploded and these men spent hours in helicopters attempting to put out the flames.
Many who had come in, before falling into the illness stage of radiation sickness, told the doctors and nurses all about it. How the flames of the fires burning in the reactor are so hot thateven in the safety of their helicopters 200 meters in the air, they felt like they were fighting the gates of hell.
She shook her head as if to try and melt the thoughts from her mind. She needed to focus, to mask the aching tiredness she felt and tend to her patients. As she came to the room her eyes scanned the charts posted outside the door, spotting the only three names that hadn't been crossed out yet. Her heart clenched when she glanced up at the other names that had been written with a red line through them.
She took a deep breath through her mouth before releasing it through her nose. This part was always hard. Practiced muscles painted a smile on her face before she knocked twice and entered the room.
"Good evening sirs," she smiled. She needed to keep smiling. "Which of you is Peter, which is Ivan and which is Alexander?"
"Finally! They send us a pretty doctor in our hour of need!" The bigger of the three men called out. His brown eyes were bloodshot and his skin was paling, but a jovial smile seemed permanently plastered on his face. "I am Peter."
"Quiet you old bear." A dark haired younger man glared at the elder. He was clearly further along in the latency period than the other two. Blisters were forming on his skin in large purple patches and he winced every now and again when he moved, more likely than not this meant that his bone marrow was deteriorating. "I'm Ivan."
"Which would make you Alexander," she turned her smile to the third man. Barely a man at all really, he looked to be in his early twenties. He was in the earlier stages of the latent period than his friends were which meant no visible signs yet.
"Yes ma'am." The younger man nodded, barely making eye contact with her.
"Such a kind man stuck in a room with this brute," she waived a hand vaguely towards Peter. The words she spoke were insulting but her smile promised they were nothing but friendly jeers.
"Pretty and she bites." Peter laughed, turning to his young friends, "I like her much more than the other one."
"She needs to bite if she's stuck dealing with you for the rest of the day or however long it is until we leave." Ivan smirked at his friend, laughing when the other glared at him.
"All that radiation we flew through we will most likely be here for awhile." Alexander offered.
"Hey, maybe we'll get super powers like that uh… Spider-Man! Yeah. We'll be super heroes." Peter barked a laugh, pretending to shoot invisible webs at Ivan.
Natalia's eyes were attached to the charts and words sitting on the clipboard she had gripped in her hands but her ears never left the conversation. It was hard to believe these men were sitting around laughing, making jokes when in a few hours they--
She shook her head, not wanting to move on into the effects of the illness stage.
Glancing up from her papers she saw that Peter and Ivan were still laughing and joking, Alex adding in a jeer here and there.
The doctor's mind couldn't help but flash to the other cases she'd faced in the last two days alone. The blisters on Ivan's skin will fester and spread. The radiation will destroy the white blood cells, effectively eating away at him down to the bones. While they are not as far along, Peter and Alexander will most likely develop the same symptoms.
No one in Chernobyl seemed to understand the horrifying effects of radiation. As a doctor, it hurt, physically hurt, knowing that there was nothing she could do to save the three men, boys really, in front of her.
Here they were, laughing and joking as if it were just another day on the job. Completely unaware that they are fighting an invisible enemy that, appearing by most symptoms, is already winning.
"How long are we stuck here for Doc?" Peter asked, his words forcing her away from her own cryptic thoughts.
"We're going to be keeping you three at least over night in case anymore symptoms rise or, worse case you move into the illness stage of radiation sickness." She explained to them.
"So there's a chance that we will get worse before we get better?" Alexander asked.
"I am afraid so," she nodded. They had spent nearly twenty four hours in helicopters dowsing flames above the reactor. A lethal dose of radiation can come from being exposed to about 500 roentgen for a span of five hours. The charts and papers she'd been faxed from the military told her that these men spent an entire day exposed to anywhere from 1,000 to 3,500 roentgen. She was amazed they were still here to make jokes with one another.
The hard truth was they would be dead within hours and there really wasn't anything she could do for them except try to make their deaths a little more bearable.
"I need to go and grab a few things in order to run some tests," Natalia hoped to god they didn't hear the strain in her voice as she spoke. She moved the clip board so it blocked her face from view. She couldn't let them see the tears she knew were gathering in her eyes. "I will only be gone a minute."
"Good to make it fast doc," Peter laughed. "I'd hate to be stuck with these two ugly cods for too long."
"You're most likely why she's running off you old bag." Ivan glared, causing Peter to laugh even more.
The doctor quickly exited the room, closing the door and making her way down a good portion of the hall before she snapped. Her knees buckled and she fell against the wall, her back sliding down the sterile surface as tears carved wet canyons down her cheeks.
There was nothing she could do. It would be awhile before she could force that practiced smile back on her face and go back in there to tell those men they were dying.