Escape #01: Escape From Chernobyl

April 26, 1986

01:18 AM

Alina and Lev, two siblings living in Pripyat, one of the Soviet Union’s proud nuclear cities, are fast asleep in their beds.

Their cousin Yuri, a custodian at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, is hard at work, desperately trying to clean up a spill in the hallway.

Alina’s best friend, Sofiya, is sleeping just a few doors down, filled with pride that her father is an engineer at the plant.

In five minutes, Reactor No. 4 will erupt in a catastrophic explosion, releasing a torrent of radiation that will blanket their town for nine days before it’s finally contained. For the people of Pripyat, it will already be too late.

As the Chernobyl disaster unfolds, Alina and Lev flee the radioactive fallout with their parents, but the Communist party is close behind. Meanwhile, the friends and family they left behind are caught in a web of lies, as a disinformation campaign sweeps through the town, insisting that nothing is amiss—even as deadly radiation fills the air.