chapter 1
SUMMER, 2011.
CHELYABINSK REGION. ZLATOUST.
A heavy rain is pouring. A passenger train arrives on the track. The train stops, the doors of the train cars open, and the conductors step out. The conductors stand by the doors, and passengers start disembarking in unison. In a close-up shot, a young man named Vanya (30) with a small wheeled suitcase is prominently featured, walking with his young wife Ksyusha (26) and holding the hand of a little boy, Danilka (7).
The entrance doors open and VANYA, KSYUSHA, and Danilka enter noisily. IGOR BYKOV (82) struggles to get up from the chair and turns towards the doorway leading to the corridor. Danilka appears in the doorway and rushes into the arms of his grandfather. Then VANYA and KSYUSHA enter.
DANILKA
(laughing)
Grandpa, grandpa, hello!
IGOR BYKOV (82)
(laughing)
Oh, my great-grandson, Danilka. How you've grown in this past year? You've really become a man.
VANYA
Hello, grandpa. How are you doing?
IGOR BYKOV (82)
Oh, grandson, don't even ask. Old age is no fun. My joints are really giving me trouble lately.
KSYUSHA
Hello, grandpa. We brought you some ointment from Thailand. The local monks assured us that it restores joints.
Ksyusha takes out a tube with hieroglyphs from her purse and hands it to Igor Bykov.
KSYUSHA
Here, take it.
IGOR BYKOV (82)
(crying)
Oh, Ksyushenka, my dear granddaughter, thank you. You are so caring. Vanka is lucky.
KSYUSHA seats Igor Bykov in his armchair, which is facing the television.
KSYUSHA
You guys sit down, I'm off to the kitchen.
Ksyusha runs off to the kitchen. Igor Bykov wipes away his tears and reads the inscriptions on the tube.
IGOR BYKOV (82)
Why not, I'll just apply some now.
VANYA
What are you watching on TV?
IGOR BYKOV (82)
Yes, all sorts of nonsense. Son, have you heard about the accident at Fukushima?
VANYA
Yes, I caught a glimpse of it. In March, I think, it happened.
IGOR BYKOV (82)
Yes. And there was a program about it now. In general, the radiation accident reached the maximum level of 7 on the International Nuclear Events Scale, and at our 'Mayak' in 1957, it was unofficially assigned a level of 6 out of 7, second only to Chernobyl's nuclear power plant accidents. And now there's Fukushima-1.
VANYA
Grandpa, you always bring up that, about your Kyshtym?!
IGOR BYKOV (82)
It's interesting, the authorities say that natural disasters, in particular, the strongest earthquake in Japan's history and the subsequent tsunami, were the cause. But another source on the internet, the Japanese engineering company Tepco, reports that a Rat may have caused the power grid failure at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.
Vanya and Ksyusha laugh.
IGOR BYKOV (82)
(Seriously)
What are you laughing at?!
VANYA
Grandpa, think for yourself, what rat? What does a rat have to do with it? Have you completely lost your mind, started believing in fairy tales.
Ksyusha enters the hall wearing an apron and places plates of salads on the table.
KSYUSHA
(In a whisper)
Sweetheart, calm down. He's old, 82 years old, after all. Let's see what you'll be like at his age.
IGOR BYKOV (82)
(Indignantly)
Well, I'm not old. I can hear everything just fine, although my vision is starting to deteriorate.
KSYUSHA
(Tenderly)
You misunderstood, grandpa, I meant that you shouldn't get nervous, and Vanya doesn't understand that and starts arguing.
IGOR BYKOV (82)
(Calm down)
To be honest, truth is born in disputes?!
Vanya looks out the window.
VANYA
So what is the truth then?
IGOR BYKOV (82)
The truth is that the Kyshtym nuclear disaster, which no one knew about for a long time, also occurred due to a power grid failure, leading to the failure of the cooling system and resulting in the explosion of a 'tank' or a container with a volume of 300 cubic meters, containing by that time, about 80 cubic meters of dried high-level radioactive waste. And the cause was once again a rat, which gnawed the insulation and thus triggered a short circuit. And this is a fact.
