"Thin World". Chapter 4
A bit belated continuation of the fantastic story. For those who have forgotten (or did not know) what was there before - links to the previous parts below.
Anatoly Sazanov illustration
Back in the spring, shortly before Marina passed biorefactoring, she and Vanya, a cousin on my mother's side, were sitting in a cafe and were warming their noses in mugs of steaming coffee. The weather was strange - neither warm nor cold, but somehow all at the same time. Speaking about tomorrow's walk, they were distracted by a TV mumbling in the corner, which seemed to be talking about the weather. So, at least, it seemed to them at first glance.
On the screen, a beautiful girl in a green dress (“Nice color”, Marina thought) with a smile on her face drove a pointer on the map.
- And now about the weather in the world. A strong cyclone is raging above the central states, the wind drives clouds from the west coast to the east coast up to ten meters per second. This means that at tomorrow's UN Assembly, our partners should refrain from harsh statements. As we all know, the flight time of the Dragonfly ballistic missile is only five minutes, and a strong wind will easily spread a cloud with radioactive fallout across the continent. Heavy rains in the eastern part will only aggravate the situation.
')
“Well, this forecast will not help us much,” Vanya concluded. Marina winced:
- Disgusting it somehow. I would not be able to talk like that, with a smile. Imagine that there is a certain Mary sitting in a cafe somewhere, just like me.
“And cousin John,” Vanya put in.
- Yes. And cousin John.
- And they watch the same thing, only from their side.
- That's it. And they are also unpleasant, disgusting. Then why do we watch it, why do we show it? Who is good for this?
Vanya took a sip of coffee, soaked his rare mustache with a napkin and answered:
“You're taking it too seriously.” You understand what to say and do - different things. In hearts or in a temper, one can slander everyone, and then it seems like one has to adhere to what has been said - but only in words.
“I don’t think that they are there,” Marina nodded toward the TV, who enthusiastically spoke about the Dragonfly guidance system, they say in a temper.
- Then another option. You say, before the exam, you usually say to yourself - “I will surely surrender everything tomorrow”. It's kind of not quite true, and you can't have any confidence, but you say the same. And someone says "that would be a teacher broke his leg." It doesn’t mean that a person really goes to break a teacher’s leg. He will probably not be too happy to hear that his wish has come true. This is a protective reaction to stress. And that, ”he nodded at the television,“ as well. Like auto-training before the fight, “we will definitely win” and so on.
- Yes, but I do not want to fight with anyone, - Marina was indignant.
“Well,” Vanya drawled, “it's not us and you who decide whether there will be a fight or not.”
- But, - Marina objected, - we decide whether we want.
Later in the evening, finishing the walk, Vanya asked her thoughtfully.
- You know, maybe you are right. You do not want a fight, Mary, for example, too. And everything would be fine, but then why did you give a club to the hands of someone who wants?
* * *
Now they walked three together, back to the railway. Then they will follow the paths - the father told them not to fear anything while he was with them. He confidently walked forward, holding the machine gun on his belt with his right hand. He walked quickly, and the sisters quickly tired of his pace. Then he generously stayed to rest, making fun of them.
- Are you in a hurry somewhere? - Marina snapped, - I do not hold you.
Lisa looked at her in surprise.
- Chasing away? - the father shook his head reproachfully, - No, how can I leave you now. Come on, take a look at your doctor, then we will go away.
- You think we won't get there without you?
- I think. And you would do well to start. Maybe you can stop trying to break devices against a tree.
“What was I supposed to do with him?” - Marina was boiling.
- Turn it off, - the father calmly answered, - There are such switches. Or de-energize. Army quadcopter is designed to explode a grenade nearby. You could not break it, and activate. And what would I do with two of you fighting then?
Lisa, looking from sister to father, said quietly:
- Do not quarrel, please.
Marina kept silent and looked at her guiltily. Father in surprise said, rising:
- Do we really fight? So, we talk. All right, rest, go.
And they went further. Marina walked, tightly holding Lisa by the hand, and looked around. Autumn came inexorably, and the places where they went a day ago, have changed. More foliage on the road, less on the trees. And the wind is colder. “We went there on this road, - Marina thought, - now we are going back. Only there was one little girl, and back - two.
In the evening, when it began to get dark, they turned off the railway into the forest and, in the words of their father, “set up camp”. Liza immediately declared that she did not break anything like that and generally went for brushwood.
Meticulously evaluating the branches brought by the daughters, he expressed his approval and began to spread the fire. Then he held up a finger, click - and the branches flashed.
“Strange,” Marina thought, “for some reason I just now realized that he, too, has modifications. Somehow it was not conspicuous. "
- Watch the fire, I'll go bring something bigger.
He disappeared behind the trees, and Marina took his place. Lisa joined up next. “Now she will be sawing or chopping,” Marina thought frustratedly, “and everything I said to Lizka will go down the drain.” To her amazement, her father soon returned with neatly cut wood. How he got them completely silently - this is a mystery.
Putting logs in the fire, he took a crumpled pack of cigarettes out of his pocket — a green price tag was stuck on it — took out one, took it with his teeth. And then he stretched out his hand to the fire, pulled out a red ember and lit it from him. The sisters did not believe their eyes. The father noticed this and asked in surprise, without releasing cigarettes.
- Why are you staring at me?
- He's hot! - Lisa exclaimed.
“Oh well,” he inhaled and blew smoke, “and I thought it was cold.”
- You are not burned?
- I, like you, have almost no cloth left in my right hand. What is there to burn, glands?
Lisa realized faster, and launched into the fire palm, picking up a handful of coals.
- Wow!
- Do not hold for a long time - her father instructed. - The metal will heat up - it will start to give off heat to the body.
“It hurts to cuts,” said Marina thoughtfully, looking at her hand.
“If you cut your arm yourself, there will be no pain,” the father explained.
Then the three of them sat around the blazing fire. And around the wall was a forest. And silence. And darkness. The brighter the flame, the thicker the darkness around. “Why is that?” Marina wondered. She looked at her father. Koster cast freakish shadows on his face. A middle-aged already, and such an unusual, only resembling the face of a person she knew as a child. Marina shivered and suddenly, from the influx of feelings, pressed against his father's shoulder. “I can't be strong all the time. Let me rest from this, please. ” Not immediately, with a dozen flashes of flame later, he hugged her with his free hand and ... smiled?
“So glorious,” thought Marina, “And so strange. I never really knew him. Could it happen that he really loves us? ". Lisa sat down on the other side, and laid her head on his knees. Pulling on the hood, she seemed to be dozing. So they sat for a while, and it was so unexpectedly warm.
* * *
Marina returned home after midnight, not even trying to count the hours before the upcoming climb. Carefully turned the key in the lock, quietly went into the dark hallway. A light was burning in my mother's room, making her way from under the door. There was witchcraft.
Mom thoughtfully walked around the desktop - a giant screen with a holographic projector - and brewed the potion of the next country residence. She thoughtfully added ingredients — a pinch of flower beds, a handful of Christmas trees, a bundle of tracks — and mixed well. Evaluated, watched. Twisted the lamp over the table - this is her local sun. Then she frowned and waved everything away with a wave of her hand. The house, garden, fence dissipated like smoke. And it all started again.
- Knock knock - Marina opened the door.
- Hi, Gulena, - my mother thoughtfully looked at the empty while the landscape. Then she smiled - I still do not think, let's drink tea.
- Come on, - Marina was delighted, - now I’ll heat the teapot and bring everything.
Fifteen minutes later they were sitting at a small table by the window and blowing on the cups. The city outside the window either fell asleep, or was already waking up, the windows of the houses then lit up then they went out. Whether tomorrow, or today.
- Lately there are few orders, - mother complained, - And everything was monotonous to horror. High fence, with barbed wire, brick house. Or even concrete. And then another fashion went - "shelter". We looked at some official at the cottage, and that was all - give everyone a shelter. Or a bunker. The main thing that there should be, from which it is - no one can really say. And I somehow never got involved in building bomb shelters. This is not a cellar with potatoes. Dissuading - offended. Here, look.
She turned to the desktop and started flipping through the projects one by one with gestures.
- That's what it looks like?
“The castle,” answered Marina without thinking.
- And this?
- Castle with a moat.
- And this?
- High castle. By the way, he will not collapse?
- Insult. But the last order, went to work already.
The one-story structure seemed to be pressed into the ground, hid, looked timidly. And around - a stone fence. Well, the path from the gate to the house. And - all?
- Is there a crypt inside?
- That's not it. The usual situation. Kitchen, living room, bedroom. Baby, by the way. Sewerage, heating. In the basement boiler and generator. Thank God at least there is no bunker.
“And the gates are heavy.” They used to put shields of defeated enemies on these.
Mom brought the image.
- Oh, - Marina was amazed and began to count the flags hung on the wall and gates, - Either megalomania, or he really is so offended by everyone.
“Master is the master,” Mom spread her hands. Marina once again examined the unsightly house and asked.
- Mom, do you like these projects yourself?
- I would have erased it without thinking, - my mother waved her hand, and the project fell apart.
“So maybe ...”
- quit? Ah, Marish, it would be so simple, - she smiled sadly, - I don’t know anything else. I hope this is all temporary. And on my projects there will again be flowerbeds, playgrounds.
She spoke more and more quietly, as if she herself did not believe in what she was saying. Then she shook herself off her gloomy thoughts and gaily suggested.
- Okay, let's sleep. The morning is wiser than the evening.
* * *
There was no doctor at the station. Marina and Lisa searched in vain for some news from Sasha, but found nothing. Her father asked three hundred times if Marina was confused. Marina habitually replied that she was not such a fool. To which the father, in turn, expressed humorous doubts.
They stayed at the station all day and spent the night nearby. Father was not at all embarrassed, he hacked the locked shop near the station and replenished supplies. The next morning, he did not want to hear any objections.
“No,” he said, “we leave now.” I still have things to do, and I'm not going to leave you here. You want to write him a note.
“And we will write,” answered Marina, “but can you at least tell us where we are going?”
- Write "Parikanjarvi". If your doctor is not completely stupid, he knows what it is. However, if he is not a fool, he will not go there.
- Well. And why do we go there then?
“Everything has its time,” the father replied mysteriously, “get ready and go.”
They went straight west, through abandoned and empty summer cottages. My father walked completely hidden, as if he knew that they would not meet anyone. Somewhere far away, straight ahead, something rumbled along the bumpy road. The father did not even lead his ear.
- How do you choose the direction? Do you also have a "Young Naturalist"? - Lisa asked him.
“I walk by the sun,” he answered, “It never deceives.”
“The Young Naturalist is also not deceiving,” Lisa objected.
- Yah? What are these mushrooms? - he jabbed his finger at the stump, from which grew a family of low light pink mushrooms. Lisa squinted:
- This is honey agaric.
“So your system has lied,” her father snapped, “these are false honey agarics.”
Marina stared at the mushrooms in disbelief. There was no mushroom picker out of her, she did not know at all how one differed from the others. "Oh, my grandfather told me, and I clapped my ears"
“I haven't lied to anything,” Lisa said outraged. “They even recommend him at school.”
- Yeah, and who was your “Naturalist”? We? Or are they? How do you know that they did not crack it and did not confuse edible and poisonous mushrooms?
- Oh, you already say something stupid, - Marina intervened.
- Yes? - the father turned on her and stopped, - maybe we will carry out the test? Come on. Who will try - you? Or Lizka?
Marina was slightly taken aback and could not find something to say. Father, after waiting a pause, hemmed and continued moving. The sisters timidly followed him. With every step their journey Marina enjoyed less and less. She was anxious about what lay ahead of them. Someone kind inside her said to her soothingly, “You remember last night. It was still good. ” And someone angry told her, “You remember the previous twenty-five years. Yet it was not good at all. ”
“You didn’t answer me yesterday,” she began firmly, “why did you kill that man?”
“I saw the enemy next to my daughter, on my land,” my father calmly answered, “What else should I have done?”
- He could change color. If he told how, we could become one color and stop shooting at each other.
- First, there is no “color.” There is a country code. The peer-to-peer system knows with whom we are at war, and marks targets. You can't just change and change the code.
“But he is ...”
- Do not interrupt. He had a spy module. This is a military module, you can not just take it and put it to another soldier. Not to mention civilians. This traitor would not help you.
“Traitor, you say yes?” - Marina got angry, - Why didn't you shoot me at the same time?
“And my relatives and friends are added to the exceptions,” he retorted, “Right to volunteer.”
- Here, thanks, took care.
- Exactly what took care. And you - no. Now you are hiding from drones, like from a plague.
“He was not going to hurt me,” Marina bent down, “You killed a man just because he was not highlighted in that color.”
My father stopped and turned toward her, looking at her with some ... pity?
“You, daughter, for some reason, stuck in color,” he began to instruct her in a mentor tone. “Why do you think that hacking only changes the country code, only the color?” Maybe the wires in your head are confused, and you also do not know where the mushrooms are false, and where are the real ones? Where are your, where are strangers? Have they put it in your head that your father is bad, and instead of trusting you, are you bothering me with some sort of suspicion?
He came close - so that the barrel of the machine accidentally pressed her hand.
“So what should I do, daughter?” - He asked, - I least want to expose my guys.
- What other guys?
“These ones,” the father extended his hand upward, and a signal rocket flew into the air. In less than a minute, a response light rose from somewhere in the forest. The engine roared and something heavy was scraping the wheels away, slowly approaching.
“Sorry, I can't take you to the camp,” he shook his head. “I’m afraid you will kill someone there by accident.”
- I? - Marina was completely confused, looking helplessly at her father, now at the approaching armored personnel carrier. Liza stood nearby, her mouth open, until her father grabbed her hand and pulled at herself.
“Lisa will go with me,” he said, “sleep and eat in normal conditions.” I don’t leave you either - I’ll bring you a tent and dinner. But with us you can not.
“Do you have a military camp here?”
“Yes,” he smiled.
- War is over.
- It seems so to your cracked little head. But nothing. I will finish it, then we will deal with your treatment.
- Has Marina got sick? - Lisa did not understand anything.
“A little,” said the father. He raised his hand - and the conveyor stopped a hundred meters away from them, - I'm afraid the closer they can open fire without understanding. Wait here. And do not go anywhere if life is expensive. Will be back soon.
And they went away from her. Marina stood in the middle of the road and looked after them, not believing that this was really happening. “Brad, a bad dream. I am sleeping. We are still walking with Liza together, and I just see a nightmare. ”
Three fighters jumped out of the armored personnel carrier and, having built up on the stand "at attention", saluted the father. Lisa looked at them curiously and also put a hand to her head, but her father pulled it up. They climbed onto the car, and she began to take it back.
When she came to herself, Marina rushed after them, but thought about it in time. All the fighters, and the car itself, had bright red silhouettes. “I don’t think they’ll regret me.” She staggered off the road and crouched beside a stump with incomprehensible mushrooms. She was shaking and shivering, the autumn sun was not warm and did not give comfort. “What should I do ... Wait, what else? Where should I go? And how can I throw Lizka? ”
* * *
In the evening, Lisa came to her. She diligently dragged the army tent and kettle with the cooled rice.
“It's great there,” she said, helping to set up a tent. “Everyone is good, smiling. Chocolates squeezed full pocket. Here, hold half.
- Will you stay? - Marina asked hopefully.
“I promised my father that I would return,” Lisa looked down. “And Uncle Renat is standing there waiting for me.”
Marina sighed.
“Did your father not tell you what they were doing there?”
“He said he wants to end the war.” He gave me just such a thing, - she stretched out her hand, and her index finger turned into a complex pattern of projections and depressions. Marina understood - it was the key, - He said that the Dragonfly Mine is located under the bottom of the lake. We will go down there and both will turn the keys. He laughed when he spoke.I think he wants to turn off the rocket so that nobody launches it. Really?
Marina closed her eyes.
“Yes,” she answered with difficulty, “of course turn it off.” Sit with me a little more. You are welcome.
Go to chapter 5
As usual, I will be glad to any comments - here or Vkontakte. Remember: the more comments, the faster the next chapter appears :)
Thank you for your attention and have a nice holiday.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/369351/
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