"Fifty thousand people used to live here. Now it's a ghost town"
On April 26th 1986 in the early hours the Number Four reactor at Chernobyl Power Plant, Ukraine suffered a catastrophic accident. During an experiment to test the reactor’s ability to safely run in the event of an external electrical supply outage, a tragic oversight resulted in the extreme overheating of the reactor core. A deadly steam explosion followed by a second explosion two minutes later and ensuing fire released a cloud of toxic radiation 100 times more potent than the first atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
The town of Pripyat, Ukraine lies just a kilometre North West of the Chernobyl power plant. Many of the people who lived in the town were workers at the nearby Nuclear plant and lived within sight of the world's biggest nuclear disaster. When the reactor core erupted people watched the fire from the rooftops of the many housing blocks unaware of the massive doses of radiation pouring across the surrounding area.
It was 36 hours before authorities even began to evacuate the residents of this now doomed town. The massive radiation cloud drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and eastern North America. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus.
In Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4 one of the most notable missions involves a 'flashback' with Cpt. Price as a sniper undertaking a shoot to kill mission on the ficticious Russian ultra-nationalist Imran Zakhaev. Along with his superior Cpt. Macmillan the sniper mission involves an infiltration to reach the sniper firing point and then, following the seemingly successful shot, your efforts to evade capture and reach the extraction point in the town of Pripyat.
Much of the mission takes place amongst abandoned housing blocks where wild packs of dogs roam the streets. An encounter with a pursuing helicopter leaves Macmillan unable to walk and the tension of the mission heightens as you are forced to carry him to the safety of the extraction point whilst still taking out the troops searching amongst the desolate crumbling facades of the apartments. As you pass silently through the buildings you'll make your way out through the crumbling remains of a public swimming baths whilst ignoring a pack of hungry dogs to make the final push to safety.
As you reach the extraction point and set Macmillan down behind a giant disused Ferris Wheel you have a few precious seconds to lay claymores and C4 charges around the vicinity of the amusement park and then dig in to await the enemy assault. Ground troops are soon re-inforced by two helicopters and the area quickly becomes the most frantic mission of the game so far. Dodging around the Ferris Wheel you pick off the troops who are attempting to flank you whilst trying to lay down fire on the oncoming enemies who attack through the remains of the bumper car ride. A brief stop for shelter in one of the Ferris Wheel cars is fruitless and the wave of enemies continues until the helicopter finally arrives and you can carry the injured Macmillan aboard.
Playing this level of Call of Duty 4 on 'Veteran' difficulty is surely one of the more challenging portions of the entire game and will demand you become familiar with all the hiding spots in the amusement park area. The primary focus is of course the Ferris Wheel. Brand new in April 1986 the wheel itself was due to open in just one weeks time when the explosion at Chernobyl changed the course of history for the people of Pripyat. The ruins of the bumper car ride are still evidence today of the hasty evacuation of the people and lie dormant, rusting away gently over 20 years after the accident.
Today the town is still shrouded by an exclusion zone and within its close confines deadly pockets of radiation can still be found. Low-level radiation permates the entire area, buildings, trees, water, all of them carry toxic levels of pollution. The town now lies empty as a monument to the nuclear disaster, buildings cannot be demolished as doing so would release yet more radiation into the surrounding area so they are simply left to be consumed by the passing of time.
So, as you line up your next enemy for that headshot or detonate your carefully laid C4 charges spare a thought for the people of Pripyat and the history of events surrounding that Ferris Wheel. Just make it a quick one though as you evade the inevitable hail of grenades landing all around as you're cowering helpless in the draughty ticket booth praying for that extraction helicopter to land.......
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