"Thin World". Chapter 5
The continuation of a fantastic story. For those who have forgotten (or did not know) what was there before - links to the previous parts below.
Anatoly Sazanov illustration
The prey was doomed. Hugging his ears, vainly confusing the trail, clear as a lunar path, the bunny ran out onto the trail. Tawny looked around, dived into the night air and swam. Gray light shadow, carefully hiding the shiny metal under a soft feather.
Silently hovering, the owl momentarily emerged from a reliable forest cover onto a clearing that divided the forest into two. She caught a glimpse of two: a soldier and a little girl. They burned dangerously scarlet, and walked, without hiding, into their noisy human flock. Something made the owl feel fear towards them.
The victim, obeying some feeling, abruptly went away. With a slight inclination of the wing, the owl changed course, inexorably approaching, glaring with yellow eyes at the red silhouette. Overtake, collapse, tear to pieces. Like a hundred rabbits before, like a hundred rabbits after. Inevitable triumph.
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Sensitive owl hearing caught the shot. He would have caught him if he happened to be miles away. And even then it would be too late: the bullet flies faster. The pain burned the welcoming wing, threw steel and flesh, spilled blood on the fallen yellow leaves. The little rabbit darted into the thicket, not even knowing what threatened her. Tawny instinctively twitched behind her, did not calculate and collapsed, clinging to splayed spruce branches. Heavy wet moss stuck to a gaping wound, the earth openly opened its arms to knotted roots, breathed a grave cold. The bird tried to rise and suddenly noticed two hungry eyes in the bushes. Shaggy and wet, with a fragment of a chain on an iron collar, the dog stood and dripped with saliva from lust. The owl tried to fluff and spread its wings wide, threateningly opened its beak and bulging yellow eyes. But the dog is not fooled, the dog has already smelled blood.
Suddenly, the beast looked up somewhere and gently wagged its tail in the old habit.
“Go away,” came the stern voice. The green silhouette rose above the owl. The dog shut his mouth and grunted. The hand jerked sharply - the dog dived into the bushes, cowardly. Then she pulled the muzzle out of there, quickly grabbed the abandoned bar, and disappeared into the darkness.
* * *
Marina stroked an owl on soft feathers. She slightly shuddered in her sleep. The girl shook off the crumb of nutritional bars, which the bird swallowed with wild greed, and leaned closer to the wound. Micromachines busily swagged, tightening the skin, like a curtain. Some sprouted feathers and quickly changed color, trying to find the right color.
The shot frightened her sleep away, and woke up completely with a resisting owl. Nervously biting her lip, she sat on a still warm sleeping bag, and then undid the tent and climbed out on a cold night.
Her eyes involuntarily whipped out the glowing camp. A bracelet with a compass, woven from a striped rope, sat tightly on his left wrist. Lisa boasted of what she had done herself and handed her sister before leaving. “Suddenly you will have to go without me, you don’t have a Young Naturalist,” she seriously explained.
Compass said that Lisa is in the west.
“She was taken there,” thought Marina to herself, and she corrected herself: “She herself went with her father.” Following the trembling blue arrow, she looked north. Somewhere, under the false bottom of a forest lake, death is slumbering. He sleeps in a tall tower, waiting for the beautiful prince to wake her with a kiss.
“Get well a bird. Get well and fly away from here, save yourself. And I? What should I do?"
Marina slapped herself on the shoulder - the mosquito had already pumped blood and blew unpleasantly under her palm. She shivered: the jacket remained in the tent under the owl. “Nothing, we will all get warm soon,” she thought sadly, nervously roving through dark crowns. On every tree she saw a sniper who would shoot her as soon as she took one wrong step towards her sister. But, no matter how she strained her eyes, she didn’t see any colored silhouettes.
Someone rustled in the bushes, and Marina frightened with a rifle. And silence. Whether the hungry dog ​​hung around, or some other beast. Marina cursed and hurriedly ordered the rifle to escape, but suddenly thought.
The girl sat on a fallen tree and began to carefully examine her right hand. Smooth to the touch barrel rippled in his eyes. Micromachines were swarming up with ants, completing transformations, establishing connections, drawing final touches. Drawn handguard, which conveniently lay in his left hand. The right shoulder tore up an already long-suffering dress, arched, strengthened, became butt itself. Marina finally saw her rifle as an unknown creator intended it.
Her inner voice told her to sit down, her back against the fallen trunk. The world around has become a set of goals. Joking, as if in a dash, Marina aimed at a branch of tall pine - and she abruptly approached, crossed out with a red crosshair. Carefully, just not to bring down the sight, her body stamped a bullet and drove it into the barrel.
Shot rang out. Shots. Cannonade shots. Somewhere in the forest, far from the camp, but so distinctly and scary. Marina lowered the barrel, promptly returning the unshot bullet to the store, and looked around in dismay. Nothing was visible. No lights, no lights. Five more shots died down - clear, cold-blooded, one by one. Broke down and quickly flashed some frightened bird.
And then there was a groan. Marina shrank to hear him. Terrible rifle fluttered, blurred. Another shot in the distance, a scream - and with a trembling hand she closed her mouth to herself so as not to scream. Another shot - and she bent, curled up behind a fallen tree, as if for the last defense, fearing to give herself a beating of a frightened heart.
So she sat for a very long time. Listened to the darkness and waited for someone to come for her. She suddenly wanted to leave her place and run to the camp, to her father, under his protection. Fear decided that questions of justice were irrelevant right now, and he had forgotten, in a businesslike manner, both yesterday and the past twenty years. Oblique glance at the tent issued by the father reminded of the wounded owl. The days of the month spent on the road turned around like a tightly twisted spring, and fear was replaced by apathy. Marina suddenly didn’t care. She turned down the tent curtain, climbed inside, pushed the dormant owl aside and wrapped herself in a sleeping bag. The owl opened her yellow eyes, blinked several times and fell asleep again.
* * *
In the dream, Marina saw the Palace Square, glistening in the streams of rain, and heard the singing of the saxophone. Charming music echoed off the walls, and maybe from every drop of rain, and flowed everywhere. Only the annoying roar of the motor came from the embankment, getting closer. The headlights slit Marina across the face and she awkwardly woke up.
The rain poured, drumming on the stretched tarpaulin. Owls in the tent was gone. Outside it was light.
Rest did not bring sleep, yesterday was not over for the girl. She stretched out, crunching the sore vertebrae, and felt that something was wrong. Sitting in a tent, she unscrewed her eyesight to the maximum and looked intensely around.
The camp has disappeared.
Marina broke cold sweat.
“How?” - the heart beat once, “Where?” - another one struck.
“It’s like a lot of options!” She answered herself.
- Here you are! - She scolded herself, in a hurry collecting things in a backpack. Hastily pulled the jacket, not falling into the sleeves. His back was tickled uncomfortably by feathers stuck to stained blood. “I’ll have wings right now,” she thought sadly. Marina jumped out under the pouring rain, looked at the tent doubtfully, and with a wave of her hand, ran along the squishing moss to the north, into the thicket, without dismantling the road.
The wind, as if on purpose, whipped her with rain from all sides. The dress clung to each branch, and the shoes that were worn down to hell were trying to fly off. Very soon, she was soaked through and exhausted. Marina desperately tried to go further, but each step was more difficult and more difficult. Everything fell on her — rain, fatigue, and utter hopelessness. Almost a step, removing wet hair from the face, she went out on a dirt road. Then she found the first body. And having looked along the road, I saw several more, locked in mortal embraces.
Some kind of emptiness engulfed Marina. “I will not find them. I will not catch up. They are in cars, left a long time ago. The father must be there already. ” She didn’t even immediately notice how a blond short girl was waving to her because of the stones. Marina nodded in response and, having found a second wind, quickly reached the boulder covered with moss. Several huge stones brought here by a glacier, and the root of a fallen hundred-year-old pine formed reliable protection from rain and wind. Here, on a spruce branch, sat a girl in a sweatshirt, from under the hood of which unruly light strands were knocked out. Next to the girl lay a backpack and stood carrying with two mice. Mice wandered restlessly from corner to corner, stood on their hind legs and sniffed the air. They were surrounded by a little scarlet radiance. The girl had no shine.
Marina huddled under a canopy and clasped herself with her hands - a chill began to beat her. The girl smiled pitifully and asked:
- In pours, huh?
Her voice was gruff, low. But Marina this human involvement suddenly touched, almost to tears. She wiped her eyes as if from the rain, smiled and introduced herself:
- Marina.
“And I am Diana,” the blond girl answered and shivered. “It’s good to sit in such a rain at home.” My dad loved to talk so much. I, however, drove out in any weather. Loved me very much.
She said it all somewhere in the backpack, referring to the Marina only occasionally. Then she came to her senses and stared at her suspiciously, pursing her lips.
- And what are you walking here?
“I'm looking for my sister,” Marina answered honestly, “They took her to the lake ... damn, the name flew out of her head.”
“To the ooozero,” Diana stretched contemptuously, a little down, as seventeen-year-olds know, “There’s one lake here that everyone needs.” Who do you say took?
Marina sighed.
- Our father.
Diana stared at the backpack again and grinned.
- Warrior?
- Something like that. I did not understand properly. Something quickly happened ...
“I see,” Diana interrupted her, “I took my beloved daughter with me, and then threw you away,” that is why it amused her, “Don't drift, we will find your sister.”
- Do you know where the lake is?
- Well, I know. Only they are not there. Dan is one of the buggy will not miss.
- Whom? - Marina did not understand.
“Freaks with modifications, anyone else,” Diana responded with disgust and corrected a lock that fell on her face, “Like my dad.” And yours too, huh?
Marina was a little confused and nodded.
“When I was a fool, I also wanted to put myself,” Diana decided to say, “Papa waited as usual. He put himself, my travel brothers, too, but I have no good for nothing. But when it began, oh, how they began to crush each other. You can not imagine what kind of circus was.
She spoke with passion, with enthusiasm, gestures showing how everything happened. Marina did not believe her ears. “If you plug your ears, you can imagine how she talks about a football match. So simple?"
To change the subject, Marina pointed her finger at the mice.
“Your pets?”
Diana frowned.
- I hate rats. This is for business. Look what Dan guys came up with.
She pulled out a tightly wrapped package from under her hoodies, carefully unwound it and pulled out something similar to a car key chain.
“Oops,” Diana flicked a switch. Mice are actively glowing red and froze. Marina felt anxiety, the drums started to play in her head, “It's like drones, only in rats.” Drones glitches have become accustomed to fear, but they do not immediately notice the rats. You release it, let it come closer, then rraz, ”she waved the key fob, and Marina started,“ and the plowing begins. There is a jerk on the road lying around, noticed? “Diana clearly remembered something funny,” when the rat jumped out, he leaned toward her, saying, “What are you sniffing out? Do you want to eat? ”. “Aha,” I thought, but how I cut it to the fullest, - she took a deep breath and dreamily summed up, “It’s good, when the group is multicolored, Dan doesn’t have to spend cartridges.
Marina convulsively swallowed. “It seems better to leave.” Diana seems to have read her mind.
- The rain seems to subside, you can move. Here, maybe someone else will go along the road - it’s better not to stand next to each other. Come on, I'll show you.
She somehow clumsily rose, stretched, wrinkled, and walked in the direction where the tip of the power transmission line protruded above the trees. She walked, limping on her right leg. Marina, who followed, was somewhat uncomfortable, but she could not help asking.
- You are not injured?
- BUT? No, it's old. On dad stumbled unsuccessfully. Before the wedding heals.
They entered the clearing, where silent empty wires ran in both directions, holding metal trees like garlands.
“Go on like this,” Diana waved her hand along the track, “Just don’t fold.” And the Dan guys might not think so. And me back. I have a task, do you understand? That dad drove back and forth, that Dan - bring-bring. Both freaks, if garlic.
With these words, she limped back. Marina waited until she was out of sight, walked a little along the track, and then sharply dived back into the forest.
Dived too soon to go unnoticed.
* * *
The rain was replaced by drizzle, and because of the clouds even the sun appeared, giving a false hope of warmth. Marina walked, but not along the clearing, but nearby, through the forest, trying not to lose the steel pillars of sight.
After some time, the clouds left completely. Verse wind. “If for a moment we forget about a nuclear rocket under the ground, then it will be a bit more fun to go. Oh, what an optimist I am today! ”. She consoled herself with the thought that her father would not give Lisa a grudge. Another thing is that the way of the recent offense against the father could take the most unexpected forms.
She quite cheerfully backed off an hour and a half, until the stomach treacherously cracked from hunger. It occurred to Marina that it was a good idea to move a little further into the forest and try to make a fire. “We must sit quietly, collect thoughts. Why run headlong if they are not there, ”she thought, and she herself objected:“ What, Diana could not lie? ”.
Stumbling upon a fallen dry spruce, Marina began to break the branches dry and thinner. Putting them in a neat pile, she suddenly stopped. Somewhat puzzled, she glanced at her right palm, as if thinking of a sudden thought. She returned to the spruce, took up the lower branch - with a hand thick. Holding the left hand, she took the right at the base, put her foot in the trunk and - broke. The crunch of a branch surrendered to the legs and the back, and she almost lost her balance by surprise.
“Wow,” she breathed, holding the branch like a cudgel.
“Wow,” agreed someone from afar. Marina twisted her head in search of the speaker, and he decided to help, - I'm on a hill. Sorry, I can not come to you myself.
She finally made out. A man, maybe even a young man, just overgrown and dirty, sat leaning against an old oak tree. The bark at the base cracked and spread, and sitting as if pressed into the wood. Hands, he hugged his knees, looked at her with a smile. Pleasant, kind smile.
“I'm a little tied up,” he apologized, “I thought, suddenly, you can break the chain.”
Approaching, Marina really saw the chain. She girdled a guy three times, leaving noticeable scuffs on a well-worn jacket. It seemed to her that something metallic gleamed behind him too.
- You do not have food? - he asked. Approaching, Marina pulled off a backpack and took out the last five bars.
- Hold on.
He carefully took one of them, very slowly unfolded it and, nodding gratefully, began to eat.
- How long have you been here?
The guy bit off the bar, chewed with pleasure, swallowed and only then answered.
- Honestly I do not know. I was tied back when it all began.
- God ... For what?
- For that.
He dropped the wrapper, clasped his hands in the lock, threw back his head - and began to change.
The transformation was long, slow. At first, the hands lost color, as if they had shed their skin. Then they merged into a swaying metallic mass, in which a machine gun barrel and a bipod began to form. Flimsy, fuzzy, like melted wax. And then it did not go. Something stuck in the debugged mechanism, a barely trembling weapon passed through. The trunk twisted oddly and aimed the guy in the mouth. Marina thought with horror that the cars would kill him, and stretched out her hand, stretched out with a plea in her eyes.
But something else happened. Butt suddenly pouted, like a soap bubble, and burst. The gilded flower has opened the bell. The young man caught the mouthpiece with his lips and the saxophone finally took shape, glittered, began to sing. Voiced, melodiously, unexpectedly joyfully.
Marina looked puzzled at him, then looked at her hand. That just in case there was a rifle.
“And now I have this,” she explained, “You're lucky.”
- Do you think? - he broke away from the instrument, - It looked utterly stupid. All run, fight, and I stand like a fool. There are drums in my head, and it’s also necessary to run and kill, but in my hands there’s no weapon.
He frowned, sternly glanced at the saxophone - he tried to turn into something else, but then gave up and returned his hands to the old form. The guy shook his head.
- No, no way. I have been playing it since I was ten. I almost merged with him. And six months ago - really merged. And he promised himself that I would not trade him for anything else. This promise worked very strangely.
He looked at Marina.
- Do not look that with a chain? Not that I'm complaining ...
The girl came to her senses, shamefully removed the weapon and went to the tree, standing on the side of the musician. The chain is sound, thick. “Maybe from a well,” thought Marina. She looked dubiously at her palms — still smooth, as if she had not lived a month in the forest — then at the chain. She took hold of the links and almost cried out in surprise.
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6
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Thanks for attention.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/397151/
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