Concrete Jungle

Chapter 15

The following morning, Sasha didn't wake up until the sun was almost entirely in the sky and the others had let her sleep in. The revelations of the night before had been exhausting so they decided to let her do what she wanted and needed. It was their last day in the exclusion zone before they were to head back to Kiev later that same evening. Once Sasha got up and stretched, rubbing her eyes; her mind cleared so she could think. As she got out of the tent, she saw that the others had pretty much all had either started collapsing camp and packing up or some decided to venture into Pripyat one last time. After pondering on what she should do and which team she should join, she decided to break up her own camping equipment and then go for a walk on her own.

Once done and given to their drivers to pack up, she waved and smiled at the men standing about. One gave her a breakfast bar from the mess hall so she wouldn't be starving and she thanked him as she took her backpack; which held the journal, her pencils, notebook, and own camera and started to walk towards the woods as they all watched her. She was an attractive woman though completely professional and never gave them any thought, especially considering some of them were old enough to be her father. As they watched her disappear into the trees, they compared her to photographer "bombshell" as they called Rahel.

"So, what do you think? Which one suits your needs?" Oleg asked Kirill, who rolled his eyes before answering.
"Needs? One is so arrogant, you would need a lot of money and prestige just to walk near her. While the other is so wrapped up in her work, she wouldn't know a good looking and interested man if he hit her with a bat."
"I heard Vasily say that Sasha and Benjamin have worked together so many times, they are like brother and sister. But boy do they make a good looking couple!" Oleg sighed just as Vasily walked by shaking his head.
"Don't you have anything better to do then gossip like a bunch of women on a park bench?"

The men quickly moved on as Vasily hid a small smile. Though he was a couple of decades younger then them, he was a lot more educated and worldly, therefore standing around gossiping wasn't what he considered entertaining. He had heard there was a commotion the night before from the NatGeo camp, but didn't go snooping. He respected his colleagues too much and figured it wasn't his business; if there was something he needed to know, they would tell him. Rahel was off with a guide one last time to Pripyat for pictures, while Ben decided to return to the village and Vasily was on his way to join him. He had seen Sasha disappear into the woods on her own but let her be. His curiosity got the best of him when he found Ben and he couldn't help but ask though did so discreetly.

"Ah Ben? I saw Sasha walking off into the woods on her own. Did she have another place in mind to investigate?"

Ben smiled at Vasily's innocent question. He knew the kid's admiration towards Sasha but unlike their drivers and tour guides who could be quite boorish, this young man had the utmost respect for Sasha. He thought on how best to answer him:

"I think she just needs some time alone with her thoughts. When she's ready to put the puzzle pieces together of a story, she always walks away from the group and does what she needs. I guess you can say, that's how she works her magic."

Ben finished mysteriously as Vasily listened with an awed expression. He wished so much that he could work on more stories with Sasha and maybe in the future they could. He had said as much to Ben who told the kid to officially apply at NatGeo and that he would put in a good word for him as he was sure Sasha would as well. They had enjoyed working with him very much these couple of days. Most likely, if he got a job at the company, he would have to move to the UK for a while to train under Ben before returning to Belarus or Ukraine because NatGeo didn't have an office in either country; unless he liked the UK and wanted to remain living there. Vasily nodded his head enthusiastically, not even wanting to dream about working with the two of them again. Ben had become a mentor of sorts and they got on quite well. They returned to their work as about two miles west of them, Sasha had finally stopped walking and found a comfortable rock to sit on.

The entire time she was walking, the events of the previous night were swirling around in her head. So she took out her blue journal and though in her heart of hearts knew that Vasya knew what happened and was leading her down this path, she still felt obligated to write everything that had transpired since coming to Pripyat and her ultimate decision about him. She was so lost in thought and her scribbling, she didn't see Ben and Vasily watching her from a distance. They had finished their portion in the village and decided to look for her just to make sure she hadn't wondered off too far. Once they saw her, they didn't want to scare her especially when Ben saw her writing in the blue journal again. Vasily came up with the idea of picking up a small rock and throwing it in her direction. Her head instantly snapped up and she instinctively covered the blue journal with her hands as she looked at Ben and Vasily. It was Ben who spoke to Vasily giving Sasha time to slip the journal back into her backpack unnoticed as she stood up and smiled, stretching.

"Good job, Vasily! That's the best way to get her attention and then approach slowly. Otherwise, she may pick up a stick and hit you." He winked as Sasha guffawed at him.
"What?? I would never do that!"
"Oh really? What about that time in Peru? How easily you've forgotten. All I did was say 'hey, Sasha' while you were writing and you jumped about 3 feet into the air and nearly speared me with a spiked log!" Ben tried to sound indignant as Vasily watched the back and forth with delighted amusement. They really were like brother and sister.
"Say? You didn't 'say' my name, you yelled it so loudly, you spooked half of the animals in the area! Spiked log, my ass! It was a 4 ft long twig! You're lucky it wasn't a log. Yeesh!" Sasha exclaimed smacking him on the arm and shaking her head. The three of them then laughed.

They continued to banter back and forth as they headed back to where the vehicles were. The sun was starting to set and they didn't want to get stuck in the woods at night. At one point, Sasha looked at Ben and mouthed 'thank you' gratefully; Ben understood and just smiled back with a kind look in his eyes as Vasily led the way. Nothing extra ever needed to be said between them, they knew each other that well. Once they had all reached their staging area, it was obviously time to head back to Kiev. Everyone got back into their respective vans. Rahel didn't ride with them this time as Vasily joined the other two.

Sasha stood outside for a sliver of a moment longer. In just 3 days, how much had changed for her, for the expedition, for the magazine, and even for the world though most didn't know it until the words hit the print. Her journey wasn't over yet; in fact in part another layer of it had just begun and oddly enough she had Rahel to thank for it.