The second day of their official expedition started with a trip to the village for Ben, Vasily, and Sasha. They were all excited to see what, if anything, had been caught in the nets the first two set up the day before. Upon their arrival, they were pleasantly surprised to see various insects, as well as butterflies, hanging out in the net enjoying the sweet nectar of honey. Nearby they observed rabbits and a feral cat heading to a nearby house with her kittens. It felt like they had stepped into a nature preserve, and they were the trespassers. It didn't feel like an exclusion zone, and the house reminded Ben of the many marine biology editorials he had seen of man-made coral reefs, like ships, planes, and other objects stripped and sunk so life could continue. This was the same thing, only on land without the interference of humans.

Rahel joined them shortly thereafter as Alexei had left the day before upon completing his drone work. He would review the photographs and videos taken of the plant back in Kiev and would wait for the rest of the team to return in order to discuss what was to be kept and what not. She also took photos of the village and wildlife because that fascinated her more than the concrete slabs in the city proper. She was getting along with her teammates finally, and all three would exchange smiles upon new discovery of life. She followed Ben around and pointed the camera and everything he as much as blinked at. After a while, he didn't even have to ask, as soon as he stopped, she would point and shoot as the camera made a rat-a-tat-tat sound with the fierce frame fire. Rahel had that 6th sense of what to take photos of and many times she would show Ben, the things he missed or walked by, and he was taken aback that she noticed. She knew her craft well.

Sasha, meanwhile, was also carefully examining everything like the koi fish pond Ben had spoken about previously. The fish were just enormous and incredibly fascinating. Their mutation was their size. They didn't have two heads or an extra tail as was commonly thought of with the word 'mutation.' Aliens hadn't descended nor were there any multi-headed-burned-beyond-recognition humans hiding in the woods at night ready to pounce on tourists like those ridiculous Hollywood movies that used their ticket sales to cover horrendously piss pour makeup jobs. Just the thought of those, made Sasha roll her eyes and shake her head. She off-handedly mentioned one of these films that came out in 2012 to the group, and everyone pretty much had the same reaction; that it was unmitigated trash.

While investigating around the village that morning, Sasha came up with an idea in the main town that she wanted to try out. She said she wanted to take one room in one of the apartment buildings and take a photo of it first. Then using water from a nearby well, clean it out as best as possible and keeping everything as it was as well as taking an additional picture after the fact to show people the before and the after. She had a hunch that it would really be one of those things where one couldn't tell what came first, the chicken or the egg. It was definitely exciting and something to discuss with their trip handlers because permission needed to be given. Washing the surface with anything would increase the radioactivity and therefore had to be done in full protective suits to not contaminate anything or anyone.

After carefully discussing the plan and getting half-hearted and cautious permission, the team was anxious to get started. Even Vasily, who really had no background in history or such, was anticipating seeing his idol working in her element. The first picture of the room Sasha had chosen was taken by Rahel immediately after lunch; it was a small living room area with porcelain china, a table, a few chairs, sofa, and books scattered everywhere including a young child's school book. Afterwhich, they got busy washing and cleaning the room and ferrying buckets of clean water one way and dirty, radioactive water back. The radiation handlers sucked all of the dust out into individual containers which were then taken away and buried on the grounds far away from any humans. It took many hours to clean that one room after nearly 30 years of sitting and marinating in that toxic dust, but they managed to take the 'after' photo just as the sun set in the west which provided them with a stunning background shot.

Everyone was thrilled with both photos and what they had accomplished that day. They had essentially brought 1986 into 2015! It was both a celebratory and reflective moment for everyone; the sheer power of it all wasn't lost on anyone regardless of their part in the expedition. Even the drivers who had helped carry the large buckets of water back and forth were hugely affected by the event:

"This was historic moment!" One driver said in Russian, shaking his head. The other one nodded.

"We will tell our children and grandchildren about what happened here today. Those photographs are special. The second one looks like it belongs from 1986!"

"Even though we were both here for the washing of room, looking at pictures after, still I can't understand how that could be only hours and not 30 years apart." The first driver managed out in broken English as Vasily translated the rest.

The men were dumbfounded, to say the least even though as they explained and everyone understood; they were all there that day to witness this absolutely incredible historical moment that may not have been a big deal to most. And it all happened because of Sasha who in turn felt she was being guided by someone from above.

Before heading off to dinner, Sasha popped back into her tent at their campsite and took out Vasya's journal. That day was momentous enough that she wanted to share it with him in there. But before she could finish writing, it was dinner time, so she left the journal open, lying on her bag in plain view. After dinner, they all returned to the campsite and Rahel, whose own tent was between Sasha's and Ben's, saw the journal and quickly picked it up. She managed to read through the unfinished last entry and thumb through the rest, most of which she didn't understand when suddenly there was a scream.

"NO!!!"

Sasha, who had been in deep conversation with Ben, noticed too late that Rahel had Vasya's journal in her hand. Her heart stopped, and everything went into slow motion as after screaming, she yanked the journal away from Rahel and held it fast against her own heart. Ben and Rahel turned towards her expectantly than and Rahel asked the question that had been bugging her for over a day and really since both she and Ben first saw the journal at the beginning of the week back at their hotel in Kiev.

"Sasha, who is Vasya?"

Sasha's blood ran cold as she had no idea how either of them had understood the writing in Russian on the journal and that it stood for a name. He was no longer a part of her soul; her secret but now in the open in this place that had sentenced him and so many others to a gruesome death. She had nowhere left to run.