It was an average spring day in Kiev, Ukraine, the birds were chirping, the air was crisp as the sun rose to start the day. For Tyler, Jack, and Sam, the day started like any other, they met up in their favorite spot to ride their bikes to school. They rode without a care in the world but little did they know their lives were about to be flipped upside down and changed forever.

Tyler was the tallest boy in the group, even though he was only 17, he was often mistaken for a grown man. Tyler’s hair was brown and he had a mullet, he was tall and had an athletic build. He was not a very popular kid but he didn’t mind, he had Sam and Jack and that’s all that mattered to him. Sam and Jack looked like they were 17, Sam was a redhead with bright green eyes and Jack was a blonde but all of his hair was shaved off. The boys kept to each other for the most part, they had been best friends since they were little because their dads all worked together at Chernobyl. Chernobyl was the power plant in their town and their dads had worked there together for many years. 

The boys met in the same spot every morning before school and rode together, they passed the power plant as they went. After ten minutes of riding, the boys arrived at the school and parked their bikes. Tyler was wearing a denim jacket with his favorite orange shirt, he had his jeans and white Chuck’s on. Sam was also wearing jeans but he had a neon green long sleeve shirt and his Chuck’s on, as well. Jack wore a baggy red shirt with his black windbreaker, jeans, and Chuck Taylor’s. The boys walked into school still discussing what they did the night before, “My dad said that the plant is doing a shutdown tomorrow to see how long turbines would spin and supply power to the main circulating pumps following a loss of main electrical power supply” Tyler said. “Yeah my dad was talking about that too, my mom is pretty nervous about it but it’s not like they haven’t done it before” Sam replied. “ I don't think that there is going to be anything wrong with it because it's just like every other day and it's probably fine, '' said Jack. 

The three boys had their first hour together and they had a big test that none of them were ready for but that’s nothing new because none of them studied anyways because it was math class and all you needed was a calculator. They went on with their day as if nothing was wrong which it wasn’t. Tyler and the 2 best friends all have lunch together and they get a text from Tyler’s parents saying that something might have happened at the power plant but she didn’t know for sure. “ What do you think your mom is fine about? Why would there be something wrong at the power plant that has never happened before in a long time?” says Sam. Tyler replied, “ I haven’t got a clue what could have gone wrong but I hope that my dad is okay and he will be home when we get out of school”.  Little did the boys know something bad has happened and this is going to change a lot of things in their little town. 

It was near the end of the school day and the boys were eager to get home and see their fathers because they all worked at the power plant and they wanted to make sure that their fathers were okay and they were hurt. When Tyler got home he showed up to his mom on the couch and she was crying and she said that the reactor at the plant blew up and there were some deaths and even though his father was there he made it out alive but he is in critical health due to all of the radiation that the plant gave off. Tyler was so shocked that he called his friends Sam and Jack to tell them the news and to ask if their parents were okay and alive because their parents may have been the ones that got killed after the explosion at work. Sam was the first one to answer his phone and he said: “ my dad is fine but he may have got radiation poisoning and he might be sick for a while but we don’t know yet and we are waiting to see what the doctors say." Jack called Tyler back 10 minutes later to see if Tyler’s dad was okay and just to see how he was taking the news. All of a sudden the TV starts going off that they have to evacuate the city because of the explosion at the reactors and this could cause many deaths because of the high amounts of radioactivity. 

The next thing the boys knew was they were packing up all of their closet belongings because they needed to get out of town as fast as they could because they could be in danger. Tyler’s father was safe at a faraway hospital being treated because he wasn’t doing well and Tyler didn’t think that his dad was going to make it and this made him very upset. It all happened so fast and they didn’t think that they were going to have to evacuate the city so fast but they had to do what they had to do because it was the safest thing they could do. By the time Jack and all their families got in their cars and left the town was completely empty because it was so dangerous just to be within miles of the town. Two weeks have passed and they are in a whole new town with a safe place to live but Tyler was devastated because his father didn’t make it in the hospital. All of the boys ended up sticking together and all living in the same new town because they couldn’t bear to be apart especially with all of the things they have gone through.