Dyatlov Pass [7/12]

[x-carnivale-x.livejournal.com]

Title: Dyatlov Pass.
Author: x_carnivale_x
Pairing: Chip/Jeff.
Rating: R/NC17 [violence, homosexuality, graphic description of gore]
Summary: The causes of the accident are still unknown. Neither the official inquest, nor attempts by enthusiastic unofficial investigations have solved the mystery.
Author's Notes: This one is a bit longer, there was a lot to include. The bit about the radiation is entirely true, it was part of all the reports and files. Crazy, right? Um. But I only have so much information to go by, so I'm kind of. creatively interpreting. So. Yeah. Enjoy!
Previous Chapters: Chapter One // Chapter Two // Chapter Three // Chapter Four // Chapter Five // Chapter Six




"Let me take him home."

"Mr. Esten, we have been over this. I cannot, in any good conscience, release him."

Chip felt his face flush. He turned his head and looked at Jeff, who still sat inside the cell-like room alone on his bed drawing tiny figures in the air. X's and god knew what else. His lips moved, but from the hallway, Chip could hear nothing. With a thick gulp he returned his stare straight into the doctor's eyes.

"Look at him, for christ's sake." He threw his arm towards Jeff's room for emphasis. He saw the doctor turn his head and look at Jeff as well; Chip pursed his lips.

"I see how he is, Charles, but honestly that's only all the more reason for me to keep him here. He's in no state to return home."

"He's in no state to stay here! I've been here for three days and I can see him getting worse. Keeping him here is only going to exacerbate the situation. If he's going to get better, it's going to be in his home, or at least away from this place."

For a moment, the doctor said nothing. He turned his head and stared at Jeff again who now was standing, facing the wall, his fingers tracing the lines of caulk in between the tiles. But he only traced them vertically.

"Charles, I,"

"Chip, my name is Chip."

"...Chip. I need to discuss a rather important issue with you. Come with me to my office, Jeff will be alright for a couple minutes."

Chip merely nodded, and followed the doctor, who walked at his side rather than in front of him. Chip felt slightly more comfortable, but something still felt very wrong and sat poorly in the bottom of his stomach. He knew that any time a doctor wanted to discuss 'something important', it was usually always bad news. But despite the imminent possibility of horrid news, Chip walked along side the doctor calmly and entered with him into his office. He didn't sit down at his desk, as Chip had expected him to do, but rather he leaned against it and offered Chip a seat. Chip declined and stood as well.

"So what's going on?"

"I discussed this already with your friends, and they are well aware of the situation. They haven't talked to you about it at my request, simply because I wanted to delay informing you of this issue, and perhaps leave you with Jeff to see if you could bring him out on your own. But since there has been little to no progress, some results have become a little too apparent to keep quiet."

"Short version, please."

"There is no short version, Charles."

"Chip."

"Chip." the doctor paused. "I'm concerned that Jeff's mental state is being worsened by his physical state."

"You said everything was fine."

"I realize that. And he did check out fine. Blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, no apparent sign of illness, he wasn't hypothermic, and everything else seemed okay. He did check out fine. But that's not why I feel this way. Uh, as soon as Jeff was brought into the hospital, we immediately changed him into hospital issued shirt and pants, and the police took his clothing to their forensics lab, which is fine, that's very standard procedure. What wasn't standard about it was that when results came back, there was an... immensely high level of radioactive contamination in his clothes. And we're concerned that he, well, no, we know that he was somehow exposed to severely high levels of radiation. Why and how, we don't know, and we aren't even sure if it has affected him. Those are answers that I don't have for you, nor do the police. The other two hikers found, they were clean. But because of this exposure I'm very worried that Jeff may be sick or may develop something later on. As I said, he isn't showing any detrimental signs at the moment, but I am worried that maybe his behavior is possibly due to or being worsened by contamination. Aside from the fact that whatever it is that happened in the mountains obviously shook him, radioactive exposure can lead to a lot of defects in the human body, brain activity being one of them. We have him scheduled tomorrow for cancer tests, and I want you to be aware that there could very well be something wrong."

Chip said nothing; he couldn't find anything worthwhile to say to the man in front of him. Instead he stared at the ground and forced the newly formed lump in his throat downwards toward his stomach. He ran his hands over his face and pressed his eyes shut. With a bite of his lip he forced his eyes open and forced back tears. He knew that there could be other ailments, aside from, if not in addition to, cancers. He wanted to know more, but when he went to ask, his voice was a mere squeak.

"You said there are a lot of different effects. Like what?"

"Well, sometimes the patients lose their hair, or the color of their hair changes. That's pretty common though with chemotherapy, since it's low forms of radiation. That sort of level isn't as much of a threat as I'm concerned about. If that were the case, he'd feel weak, have flu-like symptoms, and possibly suffer the hair loss, but that'd be about it. But radioactive contamination can affect anything really, depending on the amount of exposure. What it does is it kills the cells in the body that cause it to function properly. It can kill brain cells, nerve cells, blood vessels in the brain, which can lead to a lot of different mental states, and sometimes even lethal seizures. If the cells aren't killed, they can be mutated, and can even lose their ability to regulate their reproduction. Meaning essentially that bad cells won't be told when to stop replicating.

"Different radiation levels vary, really. Some can affect the brain as I said, some the thyroid, the stomach, intestines, all that gastrointestinal tract. It kills off essential cells and linings in the body. It can even affect the blood system and the heart. Those levels can lead to things such as leukemia and lymphoma. Which is why we want to check him thoroughly.

"Now this is all depending on the amount of radiation he was exposed to, how long he was exposed, among other factors, how good his immune system is and other things. We're mainly concerned about his brain activity, or even the presence of tumors caused by this radiation, because that could easily explain a lot of his behavior. It could just be that he was traumatized, or it could be that and something more. And we'd rather play on the safe side and check it out."

The doctor paused and looked at Chip. His face was once again buried in his hands. His ears hurt from every word the doctor had said and he could hear the unpleasant ringing resonating through his head. Ear cells dying. Once it's gone you'll never hear that frequency again.

"I still want to take him home."

"I know you do, Charles." There was a short pause. Chip thought about correcting the doctor about his name again, but he felt as if it'd be useless. "Let me make a deal with you."

Chip's ears perked up. "We're going to keep Jeff here through testing; we want to make sure he isn't able to contaminate others. Which means you can't be around him till we clear him. But-"

"Wait wait, I can't be around him? Why wouldn't you have told me this? I've already
been around him. If there's risk of contamination, I've probably already been contaminated..."

"I realize that and I apologize, it was an extremely careless move on our part. However, I doubt he currently contains levels of radiation that would cause him to contaminate other human beings, which is why it didn't concern me very much; you should be fine, please don't stress about that. But we want to get him cleared up and get his testing done. After that, I will let you take him out of the hospital, but I do request that you stay in Helsinki. We can arrange for a hotel suite or something for you two, something very comfortable, but I need him nearby, just in case."

"How long will it take?"

"No more than a few days."

"Would I be okay to see him before I take off? Since I obviously can't stay."

"Absolutely."

Chip stood and fixed his shirt sleeves that had been riding up throughout the entire discussion and quickly shook the doctor's hand. He expected the doctor to follow him when he left the office towards Jeff's room, but he didn't. The walk to Jeff was only a matter of thirteen steps, but it felt longer. And his feet felt heavy. He forced himself not to think about everything he'd just been told. It'd all sort itself out in due time. But then again, things never went the way we planned. He shook his head and told himself to go. He entered Jeff's room. The young brunette still stood facing the wall, his right fingers drawing invisible pictures in the tiles. When Chip entered, Jeff turned his head to stare, and that was all. Chip walked towards him and tried to say goodbye, but he found that it was pointless. Jeff's eyes didn't even bother to respond. Chip sighed and told Jeff that he'd be back in a couple days and would take him out of there. And before leaving, with a slight bit of hesitation, Chip leant up slightly and kissed Jeff's cheek. As he walked away, he turned and saw that Jeff's eyes had turned a slightly darker and livelier blue. And Chip smiled a tiny smile and left the room.

::

Jeff wasn't sure what was going on, but suddenly there were a bunch of tests being performed on him. They started taking him in for random x-rays, MRI's, CAT scans; they took his blood, they took a lot of it, and Jeff felt woozy on an hourly basis. There were a lot more doctors in his room, and a lot more nurses filtering in and out. After a full day of tests, they finally let him return to his room, and for once in a very long while, Jeff was tired. The doctor's sent him in, muttering something to him about having his tests returned to him by the next day. He wasn't sure what they were talking about and he could only hope that he would get a good grade. He shuffled to his bed and laid down gently. For a few moments he stared at the ceiling, letting his lips move and mumble; poistaa; but amidst his mutterings, his eyes drifted shut and he fell into a gentle sleep.

::

In the nights after the incident with the bird, Jeff didn't sleep very much. If he hadn't been sure that something was awry when he'd first heard what he was sure was a laugh in the forest nights before, he was sure now. Two nights passed after he'd found the dead dove, and he hadn't slept much for either of them. He sat up, wary and restless, while Nicolas and Igor slept soundly. He sat with his legs crossed, his fingers threaded through his hair, attempting not to listen to the noises of the mountains. The group had made it back to the edge of the forest. They set up camp just a few kilometers into the trees and Jeff didn't like it. He felt trapped within them.

Though Jeff sat upright, he found himself dozing in and out of restless, uncomfortable sleep. In the middle of the night he swore he heard rustling, and though he tried to tell himself it was just an animal, he felt his breath hitching and was forced to take his asthma medication. By sunrise, he felt the circles under his eyes becoming apparent. Slowly he shook his friends awake, and they immediately told him how unrested he looked. He shook their comments off; he knew he didn't look well. But the nights were silently noisy, and he couldn't shake his feelings of discomfort and ill. He undid the flap on his tent and stood, stretching in the cold and then proceeding to wrap his coat more tightly around himself. He yawned, but when he reopened his eyes, he found he couldn't breath again.

Every tree surrounding their camp site had a thick, bold X carved deeply into the bark. He felt his heart begin to race as he stepped forward towards one of the trees. With a trembling hand, he reached forward and drug his fingers over the X. Upon closer inspection he saw that underneath each X was a small stick figure. There were nine X's total. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he jumped at the contact. He turned around and saw Nicolas staring at him and at the tree with a confused look on his face. The others were emerging from their tents. And without thinking, Jeff yelled.

"Who did this?"

"Jeff, what are you talking about?"

"Answer me, which one of you fucking did this?!" he shouted, unwilling to accept that it was entirely possible that none of them had actually made the scratches in the tree bark.

No one said anything, instead they looked around awkwardly. Everyone was silent and Jeff stood there staring at his team, panting unevenly.

"I'm not fucking joking, who did it?"

"Jeff, why would we have done it?!" Igor yelled back.

Jeff said nothing and merely fumed in irrational anger and fear. He paused and whispered an apology to Igor, who gently patted his shoulder and told him it was alright and to just calm down. He threaded his fingers through his hair and listened to his team members muttering about the trees.

"What the fuck is it?"

"Was that here when we stopped?"

Igor interrupted everyone's questioning loudly.

"Alright that's enough. I don't know what this is, or why it's here but I think we should just... pack up and go. Let's just get the fuck out of here, okay?"

Jeff didn't need any other instruction. While the others muttered agreements, he was already rushing to the tents and gathering his things, getting ready for a long hike that would hopefully take them far away from the circle of X's. The others were packing up too slowly, and Jeff could only inch his way out of the circle of trees as he waited. He felt his forehead beginning to bead up with sweat, despite the freezing cold. He let out a gentle breath that came out in a hazy puff. His lips and breath quivered, but he continued to sweat. He swallowed thickly as the others finally joined him and began to trek away from the site.

Although he'd been the first to want to get out of that circle, as they marched onward, their tents and belongings on their backs, he felt himself being drawn again to stare at the old site. He knew his eight companions were filing past him as his steps became slower. His neck craned as they marched and he let his eyes land on the X that had been directly across from his tent. His lips and mouth were suddenly dry, and he had to force himself to swallow.

He heard his team members yelling his name, and he snapped his head back and saw they were staring at him, and attempting to edge him onward. He nodded quickly and apologized and marched forward, attempting to forget everything he'd just seen. Denial was unhealthy, he knew it. But he knew he'd only give himself an asthma attack if he continued to focus on the tremors of fear wracking through his body.

Jeff woke up with a silent, gasping scream. And he clutched his chest and throat as he felt his lungs tightening. He couldn't breath and he had to flail momentarily for his inhaler that rested far away on the nightstand. As he inhaled the medicated puff, he felt his chest relaxing, along with his mind. He clenched his eyes shut and breathed uneven, shaky breaths. He thought about calling for a nurse, but he couldn't seem to form any sentences in his head. He knew he'd say absolutely nothing, and even if she did manage to get him to speak. The only word he could think to say would be poistaa.

[Chapter Seven Cut]

Reviews!

Also, just so everyone knows. The entire thing about the X's is my own creation, the radiation is NOT. That was an actual part of the report. Very very unsettling. But no, I'm adding a lot of my own creative input on the story, because there are only so many facts to go off of, and no one really knows what happened. Aside from some things, most of the things that Jeff recalls about the trip and the hike will be my own creativity. :D

Oh, and again. REVIEW. :) Thanks, pals.