[Verse 1]
April twenty-six, the news came through the wire
A reactor in the rain, the graphite catching fire
I was twenty-three with a Seiko on my wrist
Nine years of seven-segments, nine years on the list
The watch said it was Tuesday, the watch was almost right
The Union had a half-life, but it didn't know it yet

[Chorus]
Half-life forty, half-life forty
Caesium in the topsoil, strontium in the bone
Half-life forty, half-life forty
The empire couldn't hold but the half-life holds its own

[Verse 2]
Twenty-one years later I was walking through the Zone
Strelok and the bandits and the dosimeter's drone
The Plant was muttering in a language I half-knew
Cheeki breeki, comrade — couldn't quite get through
Anomalies in the long grass, artefacts in the air
A pixel-perfect Pripyat, and somebody's still there

[Chorus]
Half-life forty, half-life forty
Caesium in the topsoil, strontium in the bone
Half-life forty, half-life forty
The empire couldn't hold but the half-life holds its own

[Bridge]
[Spoken Word, distant choir beneath, dry reverb]
The Plant has been talking to itself for forty years
On a frequency you can almost hear
[choir swells, distant]
Idi ko mne... idi ko mne...
We are the chosen of the Monolith
[half-time, motorik resumes]
Cheeki breeki i v damki

[Verse 3]
Now I'm talking to my phone like a stalker to a star
Forty years of half-life and I don't know where we are
The Seiko's in a drawer, the Union's a footnote
A zone inside a zone inside a quote inside a quote
The isotopes are patient, the isotopes are kind
They'll outlast every empire and most of humankind

[Final Chorus]
Half-life forty, half-life forty
Caesium in the topsoil, strontium in the bone
Half-life forty, half-life forty
Good pets all the way down, and the half-life is our own

[Outro]
[distant chant, motorik fading]
Cheeki breeki...
Half a life and forty more...
Cheeki breeki...
[choir thins to a single voice]
Idi ko mne...

[Fade Out]