At 5:00 p.m., Maria Protsenko folded her map, flagged down one last bus, and, climbing aboard, rode it down Lenina Prospekt, a lone passenger entering a deserted city. She directed the driver from one side of Pripyat to the other, stopping in each district to check on the results of her work. At six thirty, Protsenko returned to the ispolkom to tell the mayor that her task was complete. “Vladimir Pavlovich, that’s it. Everybody has been evacuated,” she said.
