As the vans trundled from main roads and highways onto older, gravel-laden, and pot marked stretches into Northern Ukraine, chatter within them was random in spirts of both Russian and heavy accented English. Everyone, it seemed wanted to say or remark upon something, except Sasha. When asked a question, she would reply thoroughly and politely in whichever language asked with a small smile but would never offer up anything during the duration of the five-hour long trek. Ben found that very out of character with how Sasha was because though she wasn't a chatterbox by any means, she was always cheerful and friendly with the locals wherever they went.

          Meanwhile, here she just gazed out the window, as if she wasn't even in that van with them but somewhere in the past. And he was partly right. Sasha's thoughts were ping-ponging between her own experiences and what she was going to see. She was extremely nervous to be going into a place that was known yet unknown. Would she even get the answers illuding her all of these years? Would she gain closure for herself, her parents, other survivors, even for Vasya? She absentmindedly patted her backpack with the journal inside.

          What Sasha didn't realize was that both Ben and Rahel noticed her take the journal out of her bag before they left the hotel and both had been sitting wondering what it was because they hadn't seen it before and Ben knew that it wasn't her usual notebook for projects. Now, he wasn't the nosy one and figured if Sasha wanted to tell them, she would. Rahel, on the other hand, was all but itching to find out. She had been buried in conversation with Alexei, the drone expert to whom she had apologized for the day after her lateness debacle formally, and they were getting on very well. Ultimately, it was going to be up to Rahel to pick out the best shots of the power plant to send to Sasha for the final article, so they had to work together. For the first two hours at least they were talking about photography and videography as well as the best equipment for both.

          Despite, being a flake Rahel knew her craft and was well versed in everything that had to do with being an artist of images. She knew the entire history of photography and could recite facts at the speed of a semi-automatic. She and Ben exchanged small smiles as he watched her in her element. Sasha had briefly teased him lightly about pursuing Rahel, but Ben knew women like her were dangerous and ultimately untrustworthy and therefore not at all his cup of tea. When Alexei became briefly distracted by someone asking him a question, it gave Rahel the opportunity to ask Sasha what had been in the back of both her and Ben's minds.

"Hey, Sasha. What was that blue journal that Ben and I saw you take out briefly and hide back in your backpack?" The question took Sasha entirely off guard. She glanced both at Ben and Rahel before replying.

"It's nothing important; just something I brought along."

          Sasha brushed it aside but inside she was shaking. She knew she would have to be on her guard and extremely careful with the journal. She wasn't ready to share Vasya with anyone and doubted that she ever would. This journal was her talisman, her secret and it was going to remain as such. Ben shrugged, but Rahel could smell something was off, and her curiosity was peaked about the forbidden journal. Somehow she knew it was an essential part of this trip for Sasha and perhaps could contain photographs. She wasn't going to pursue it until the coast was clear. After all, what could their team leader be hiding?

          Finally, they reached the first of the three checkpoints. All paperwork was checked from everyone in both vans. It was a bit time consuming but they didn't foresee any danger of being turned away. They passed through the second one just as quickly. By the time they reached the third one, they were told by the guards stationed there that they had to stop by the cafeteria for the workers immediately after clearing that last checkpoint to get their iodine drops. Just the thought of drinking that made Sasha sick to her stomach. Not because of the possible harm to her system with her hypothyroidism because she had spoken to her endocrinologist before the trip and gotten the all clear as long as she didn't stay in Pripyat proper for longer than her allotted half hour. Her nausea stemmed from the understanding that this was it, she was staring reality in the face 29 years after everything happened. But that was why she had come in the first place. To face the nuclear power plant that took so much from so many including essentially her childhood innocence.

          After returning their paperwork, the guards waved them through to the small pavilion and parking lot. There was a village outside the exclusion zone where they would make camp but first as they still had a lot of daylight left, they went into the cafeteria, had a very stale lunch, and their iodine came in small paper cups. Sasha held her breath as she swallowed hers as Ben and Rahel followed suit. They then got back into their vans and headed into Pripyat proper. Finally, after nearly three decades, she was about to lay her eyes on it all.