Creature of unknown kind

– So this is, must be, such a check, damn it, – said the Colonel, taking off his helmet (a simple combined arms helmet in case), putting it on its top at the feet and pulling out a large handkerchief from the pocket of the tactical vest. His Colonial irritation has already extinguished, only the human remained, which was not interfering with the work of the brain. A fright is necessary in the Zone. You can even pump in pants, it's not forbidden, the main thing is that the brain then starts to work.

– Most likely it's a ritual, – said Nabis. – Something took a look at you. And you rushed into the Zone in vain, comrade Colonel.

– So the old Colonel, the whole Commandment… was fucked over, that's how it turns out.

– You did not want to listen to anything… Yes you are not the first. And the circumstances.

– What circumstances? – asked Blinchuk unkindly.

Nabis was silent, looking at his stomach. Blinchuk blew his nose. Looked around.

– Ensind Glyzin! – he barked and, immediately lowering his voice, asked Nabis: – Is the screaming forbidden?

– Me! – Glyzin muffly responded from the booth. And banged something, apparently with a trunk, against the wall. – It's to blame, it's not over!

– All is allowed on the “neutral”, comrade Colonel, – answered Nabis. – For now. Only the Trouble knows what will happen in a week. But it's better not to scream. Everything should be quiet in the Zone. Hands should be bared, and ears should be opened.

– The Trouble – that is how you call it… – Blinchuk shook his head towards the housing estate “Kapustin” in particular and the Polygon in general. Towards the Zone. Nabis nodded. Blinchuk frowned and began to fold his handkerchief. The vomiting Ensign Shultsev finished etching, lay a bit in waiting, slid from the car almost to his puddle, but happily missed and, stepping unsteadily, headed for the washbasin. Blinchuk, Nabis and Korostylyov were watching as he was pottering with the tap.

– And you, comrade Nabis, are you local? Civilian under a contract? – asked Blinchuk.

– Yes, I lived in the Dog's. One street away from your tower.

Blinchuk chuckled. Hid the handkerchief.

– Where did you serve? Ah, yes…

– I worked at the Polygon, as the inspector of heating plants. And the main occupation was a poacher. Cathroughr.

Blinchuk raised the rare eyebrows.

– The past life, you mean, – he said. – Is it the way it works here? To confess?

– Yes. The Trouble wrote off.

– I don't like poachers, – remarked Blinchuk.

Nabis shrugged the shoulders.

– And I don't like fishermen, but what can I do?

– Well, ok. The Father, you say… I need to get him out and question him. A living child is with him! She’s alive, right? – he appealed to the Major. Kororstylyov nodded the head.

– She is, I clearly saw.

– Accordingly, – said Blinchuk. – This is our aim. To find and to bring out. What shall we do, comrade Nabis? How do we solve the task? What do you know about the Father? What will be your essential advice?

– Most likely, we do not need to move anywhere. We must sit right here and wait, – said Nabis. – Most likely, he is coming to us. Most likely, he got caught in your TV camera intentionally. He wants to meet you. He or the Zone… This I don't know. He can walk fast, but today he has nowhere to hurry. After all, because of him you rushed into the Trouble, without preparation, on personal orders, with only one guide. So that means you can also wait now, when the Trouble stooped you a little.

– Ding-dong, – said Blinchuk. – Stay down. Not ding-dong, but holy shit. And who the hell is he?!

Nabis shrugged the shoulders.

– He is local. I remember him before the Trouble. He was a doctor in a hospital.

– Military doctor? – Major Korostylyov asked after a pause.

– I have not seen him in military uniform, – Nabis answered. – I have seen him in a white coat.

The Colonel and the Major stared at each other. The Major fixed the machine gun on the knees. The fact that the Major took AK-47 on a mission Nabis also noted. Not a general “short” like a Colonel, not a fashionable “screwdriver”, like high society Ensigns, but the real 47th, the gun for aliens. Very interesting inspector Major Korostylyov. Don't you turn your back.

The washed wet vomiting Ensign returned to the car and took up the floor of the back, looking at the authorities from the bottom up.

– So who is he right now? – asked the Colonel. – Is he dangerous?

– Very, – said Nabis. – He lives inside the Trouble. There all are dangerous. Even I am dangerous there, and how dangerous you are, I cannot even imagine.

– Hey you, intelligence officer, – said Shultsev authoritatively, – enough chasing the darkness. Right, Sergey Borisovich?

– Shut up, Shultsev, – said the Colonel thoughtfully. – And never leave the weapon.

– It's to blame! – exclaimed Shultsev, jumped into the vehicle body, picked up his rifle, sat down and, curving a little the slender body under the bulletproof vest, began to look as good as he could.

– Comrade Ensign, you need to clean up your vomit, – said Nabis. (Shultzev stared at him as an Ensign at a soldier.) – There is a mop and a bucket of water behind the toilet. Right for these purposes.

– Excuse me?! – said Shultzev.

– That's the way, – said Nabis. – Necessity. Internal order. Hide your shit from the Zone. Shit in the Zone can also bite.

– Comrade Colonel! – Shultsev turned to Comrade Colonel as to his own father.

Blinchuk sharply scratched the shaved head and looked toward the Earth. “Exactly now Chingachgook will notice that his tower had been screwed up”, thought Nabis. The most suitable moment. And the scandal at once will begin. And in the midst of hazing that occurred on the basis of personal animosity, the Father with his little Yana will approach us. But how does he not even notice that from the autumn we got in the summer?

– What is your name, comrade guide? – asked the Colonel. – I heard… Nabis?

– It is the nickname. This is the way it is here.

– The nickname. Good. So what is that?

“Now I will say my name and Shultsev will say “Fuck you, Sergey!” And I will kill him. And will go to live with the Father. And will live fast and long.”

– Okay, don't say if you don’t want to, – said Blinchuk, having decided something following Nabis' silence. – Shultsev, clean up after yourself. Then we will figure out what is the charter here and what is a jeer. At the double.

– Yes, sir, – said deadman Shultsev, also making himself some notch in the memory.

– If the Father had showed up himself, – Nabis said as if nothing had happened, – that means, comrade Colonel, that he needs to talk.

– So what's that? Did he show up directly for me? – asked Blinchuk unkindly. – Why are you twisting tales to me, comrade Colonel? How does he know personally about me? And what, is he a contacting party? Folk deputy? But of what kind of folks?

– In the Zone all the calculations are based on the result, – said Nabis. – And the result is obvious. The Father had showed up to you. You came. “Greeting” on the “neutral” is mandatory for beginners. It is minimum half an hour on the Stand, but usually an hour. (“The Stand” is this area.) And there is a time to look at you, there is a time to assess you. – Then he paused, looking at something in the distance. – And everyone knows that the new commandant is appointed and arrives today, Comrade Colonel. It's been known already for two weeks.

Here came Shultsev with “masha”261 at the ready, like death with a scythe. The clout dripped. He slapped the clout over the puddle and started to rub a slurry on the concrete in this and that directions, frowning his face.

– Glyzin, damn it, where are you?! – yelled the Colonel. He yelled again. Deadman.

Glyzin jumped out of the toilet, deftly maneuvering the barrel of the rifle in the doorway.

– Doesn't he need to clean up after himself? – Shultsev asked Nabis.

– He does not, – Nabis replied, and this answer angered Shultsev forever. But Korostylyov intervened.

– Ensigh Shultsev!

– Me! – automatically exclaimed Shultsev.

– Cut the crap! – the voice of a two-year-old girl pronounced what the Major intended to tell the Ensign very loudly, deafeningly, the clear bell-like.

And now the Colonel, Korostylyov and the Ensigns, – both jumped up in the truck's body, one, sharply turned around with a mop, so drops splashed from it into the space in a vane, and the other, quickly stood on his knee at the back wheel and put the rifle in the voice's direction – and simultaneously saw the Father.

(Nabis spotted him about three minutes ago, right during the utterance of the phrase “And there is a time to look at you”, and Kharon saw them (for sure) even earlier.)

If the current moment wasn't being described by me, Zharkovsky, but by the correspondent of the local newspaper “The Star”, Klyuvkin, it would look like this.

Courageous full face photo “the look into the distance” on a quarter of the page.

Heading “THE MAN IN HIS PLACE”.

The text: “Forty-six year old Colonel frontier Guard Blinchuk, Sergey Borisovich has seen a lot during his service. He also saw the death of his comrades, being the head of the outpost on the Afghanistan border in the late seventies. He saw the grief and misfortunes of people during his hard work in the area of liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. The experience has tempered Sergei Borisovich's will, his subordinates and colleagues in one voice speak of his ability not to lose his head at the most acute moments. Academician Velikhov spoke warmly about him. Sergei Borisovich was one of the first candidates for the permanent position of the military commandant of the special quarantine district around Kapustin, and his appointment was unanimously approved at a joint meeting of the Government and the Commission for Elimination of the consequences of the meteorite attack in the Astrakhan region.

But here he freaked out“.

That would sound bitingly blunt, in perestroyka style, in the spirit of a new times, i.e. new trends, non-trithroughl words; and the old editor-in-chief of “The Star” Martysheva, with a heavy heart would approve it for publishing, and then would suffer, waiting for destructive phone call in the night, and then herself would call to the printing house in the morning, would torment the proofreaders all the next day… But Klyuvkin, as usual, would be wrong. After Chernobyl Blinchuk couldn't be freaked by anything to the extent of making a reckless decision twice a day.

– Glyzin, don't you shoot!

The highway (if counted on the left bank of the Volga) Volzhsky-Astrakhan (about two and a half rows in width, the asphalt is from medium-poor to almost-good, indistinct roadsides with deep ditches, a good Soviet road of of the Union significance) runs almost parallel to the Volga's arm, Akhtuba, and dissects in half the secret city of Kapustin (postal address “Leninsk-1” until recently) and the adjacent ancient village Kapustino. If you go from Volzhsky, there will be the actual city, marked Volgogradskiy check point (in fifty-seventy meters from the highway through a faded, well-shot wasteland) on your left. Further the highway gnaws into the private sector, once or twice, the 85th kilometer, and you are on wide Russian operational space, and ahead you have freedom, the Caspian, Persia, massacre without restrictions, pearls, and carts and canoes full of mysterious princesses. There are are two fences between the checkpoint and the outer street of Kapustin (Enthuziastov): the first is right at the checkpoint, barbed wire on a concrete pillars, however, quickly coming to naught, – and the barrier of concrete slabs right aside Enthuziastov stretches along five-story buildings and Komsomoltsev park to the north-east corner of the city. A year ago, during evacuation (panic escaping) of people away the sparkling, burning, exploding in the night Kapustin, this barrier was destroyed in many places. It has been rammed by buses, by boards and by personal “zhiguli” cars as well. And even one brave armored vehicle broke and brought down a rather long piece of this fence behind the hospital, and drowned in asphalt at the nearest intersection right after that. At the Volgogradsky check point, the distance between the outer fence of the wire and the concrete fence is minimal, two dozen meters, here was the main flow of the refugees, and there is only one concrete section left in the working condition, that means standing upright, – the constituent part of the Stand perimeter. Right out of it, just in a few steps from “shishiga”, the Father appeared in front of them. Appeared, arose as a character of a magic TV-show of David Copperfield, an American Kio, broadcast before and after midnight by Channel One of the central television. As if the Father was sitting there since night, waiting for the moment, most effective for “Abracadabra” and “voila”. It was impossible to believe that he, such as he was, could sneak in some other way up to Blinchuk group, even if it was stricken with diarrhea, stomach colic, and diplopia. Moreover, Nabis, who had trodden the Dog's Curve of the “neutral” in every way, knew for certain: near the Stand there is not a single, even the most wasteful, even wiped, air mirror. It's impossible to hide here. Hocus-pocus.

“Such as he was” – and the Father looked like from American trick, but more precisely – as in American action movie from a video salon in Sheremetyevo, where Colonel Blinchuk recently waited for the flight. “Blade Runner” came to Blinchuk’s mind. But suddenly Korostylyov distinctly muttered: “The Uryupinsk theater of the young spectator” – and instantly the grandeur and brilliance of manner and clothes of the mysterious alien in the eyes (aching, by the way, brutally rubbed) of the Colonel Blinchuk was suddenly shedding to the image of some robot Werther from our TV show.

– Ha. Ha. Ha, – the Colonel said aloud unexpectedly to himself.

– And what the evil beautiful man Seryozha is doing here? – from behind the Father's hood asked his strange daughter, or who she is to him. This time, with the voice of a fully mature, young, but mature, ripe high school girl. She looked exactly like one as well. Very small, plump, ripe round schoolgirl. In the cradle behind the monster’s back. Do not sit on the stump, do not eat the patty.

– I am in the squad, Father, – Nabis said because he was the subject of conversation. – Bad luck for you.

– Or bad luck for you, – the Sitting on the Back remarked. And accompanying gesture was made by the Father.

– We have one and the same Trouble, – Nabis countered. – And that's enough, Father. Get off me. Speak to the one with whom you came for. I'm doing my work here. Sitting and not glowing.

The Colonel suddenly realized: he, the Colonel, is sitting on a chair on the floor of “GAZ-66” body, in more than two meters above the ground. And the Father is trampling on the ground with his huge rubber boots. But his face is above the face of the Colonel… It turns out that he's two and a half meters tall! And the girl on top. A young woman.

However, the Father's face was hidden behind a helmet-mask of the insulating gas mask IP-5, new sets of which, by the way, literally filled up all the rooms of the Headquarters and pile of which collapsed right on Blinchuk not long ago when he tried to open documents' cabinet in his new office… The pipe wasn't connected to the mask, there was no respiratory bag. Flickering in the sun of the “neutral” with the PVC edges, a large hood visor blocked the masked face from above. And lower, the thick, damned leather at first glance, the blackest black coat was falling down. Fakely sparkling in different places too.

Obviously, the clothes have been hand-made. And it was less than a half of the damned leather in it. The braided wire coarsely sewed the parts of the pattern and in the most important places we could see the fasteners with self-made brackets made of thick copper wire. The cloak looked strong but homespun, not brand design. This significantly reduced the greatness of the huge figure, behind the Hollywood superman, freely walking through the world's most dangerous territory, you could see the diligent, inept Soviet man, the direct descendant of Ellie the Cannibal from that hysterical movie by Mark Zakharov271. Major Korostylyov – Blinchuk remembered him as a Lieutenant on the 16th outpost – had a sharp eye and a quick mind. He also was well-read. An intelligent officer. That is if you did not know how many people he had put in a battle. But further on, it is about the Father.

The sense of provincial dress was sustained by the kind of weapon hanging on the grand cloak like decorations hanging on the Christmas tree. Out of the dozen of guns, strapped, tied, taped and almost nailed to leather in different ways, was the only one real – a shabby KHM with a box store, hanging on the Father's chest like a “schmeisser”. All the rest were the toys. There was plastic bazooka shooting balls and the green barrel of plastic “maxim”282, and white and grey ugly with a grenade spring-loaded rocket carrier, with which Blinchuk's son once flatly refused to go into the yard to play war. Moreover, there were obviously self-made guns made of wood. Even the ignite, the size of a sawed-off shotgun from the movie about Pavka Korchagin293, was there. Knock-knock on the glass… “Who's there?” Bach!

The basis for the girl's seat was also self-made. They were a couple of bicycle frames, a basket from a baby carriage, a pile of wire and a massage attachments to the car seats. (Blinchuk could not see the girl fully: plump naked arms were hugging the shoulders of a gigantic coat, a short bare neck, a round, attentive face over a bald of the mask, several rich strands of hair flowing down the cheeks from under the ski cap. Suddenly, Blinchuk remembered that now it is the middle of November, and felt how hot he was, and realized that it was strange, that this was also a special effect…)

– In appearance, my father and I are nothing but clowns, right, comrade Colonel? – Said the lass-girl in the voice of the old witch. Father stepped from foot to foot. – Club props, folk festivals organization. Profession – a master entertainer! But do not be upset. Hello! As an old resident, I welcome you on our planet!

Blinchuk cleared his throat, removed the SKAR's304 belt from his shoulder and rose to his feet. The seat beneath him slammed, lifting. And it seemed to him that the Father grew taller at the same time as it slammed. Blinchuk was looking at him from the bottom up again.

– Good day to both of you, – he said. – May I come closer to greet you?

– Why not? – The lass asked. The girl. – You are much more radioactive than we are.

At this moment, Blinchuk jumping out of the track's body landed wrong and sprained the leg, the ankle. Kept the cursing to himself. Limping, he approached the alien couple. Somehow, while he was walking the Father suddenly diminished. Blinchuk wanted to rub his eyes, especially since it had just become a habit. Father was not two and a half meters tall, of course, not even two. He was only half a head taller than Blinchuk. An illusion, or what? And with this heat… What the hell is happening to me?!

The Father was stretching the hand to meet him. The only thing Blinchuck had time to notice was an engagement ring, deeply rooted in the thick ring finger, and a deafening handshake followed, which, incidentally, was easily met by Blinchuk, his hand was like a shovel too.

– It's nice, hello, – said the lass from above. – Here they call me the Father, and according to the passport, my name is Kalitin, Valentin Andreevich.

She also stretched a hand to Blinchuk. As a girl, palm down. Blinchuk gently squeezed the palm. The girl lowered her eyelashes, led her chin down, in a word, created an expression of a curtsy on her face.

– Hello, -she said in the same voice. – This is my daughter, Yana. She was born during the Lightning. She cannot walk on the ground, this will kill her.

During the last phrase, Blinchuk decided to play by their rules. According to the reports and the testimonies, what was happening during the Lightning was horrible, many and many refugees also needed psychiatric help. Those, who were lucky to get out of the Zone. And seems that this two stayed in. “How could I not hear that someone was not missing in the Lightning? How many more lies were in reports? We must evacuate them, of course”, he thought nevertheless.

“Now the Father will hit him with all his guns”, thought Nabis, who was listening attentively.

“Something is wrong here”, thought Korostylyov, “they are not lying and they are not crazy.”

Ensign Glyzin wasn't thinking anything, he was covering the chief, but Shultsev, who still had not decided where to put this damned mop, yes, he was thinking. And here is what he thought: “I'll throw it, say, under “shishiga”, while it's noisy and insane here. And I’ll find this poacher later.”

– Sergey Borisovich, it is a suicide to evacuate me and my daughter, – said the young lady, smiling kindly. There were dimples on her round cheeks with a curl near the nose. The word “evacuate” she denoted as a quote by intonation. – Because for you this is the abduction, and for us this is resistance and then certainly your untimely death. Why am I sure of that? Me and my daughter are not able to leave the Zone. And we will fight for our lives. – The girl hugged the Father by the neck and leaned her head on her shoulder. – The main thing is that it’s not about me and Yana. We just came to hand you an invitation. There is an opinion that you are going to be a commandant here for a long time. You will have a good nickname. I was asked to call you. So I strolled under your surveillance camera. – The Father thoughtfully nodded with the stump of the trunk on the gas mask, and the lady continued: – I was nearby, and this is not a big favor, here in the Zone we have plenty of time. On other days, even in buckets. Will you go to talk?

– With whom? – asked Blinchuk hoarsely.

– With responsible and knowledgeable people.

– Here, in the Zone?

– No-no, – said the Father through his daughter. – Sergey Borisovich, Comrade Colonel, personally you cannot go out into the Zone at all. You will perish, and your death will be very violent. You have it written on the face. Even one step into the Zone will kill you. And this will be a pity. A pity not even because of you: death is a girlfriend in the Trouble. But a pity because you seem to be the very useful man as the commandant of QZAI.

– How did you say? What is “QZAI”?

– Kapustin's Qarantine Zone of Abnormal Intensities. This is how it will be called… The Zone. And you will be called Pinya.

– Why – “Pinya”?.. – Blinchuk asked dumbfounded. – Where did you get all this…

– Here is what you have to understand right now… – the young lady continued very seriously, and the Father made a gesture, stopping and apologizing at the same time. – One second, – the lass said in a baritone. – Forgive me for interrupting. – The Father took up his trunk and lifted the mask on his forehead, revealing the face. Blinchuk jumped back, almost stumbling on his sprained leg. However, he would probably have stumbled also on the healthy one. – Here's my face as a sign of trust, – the girl said. – Even my daughter hasn't seen me. And will not see. In the Zone, everything that appears to you, according to personal observations or to the words of eyewitnesses or witnesses, any miracles, any wild assertions that you do not dare to repeat officially on the outside, on the Earth, in reports, at night in a bed to Lubov Antonovna, confidentially at the president's ear, is all true. This is real. Khrushchev's five-storey buildings fly, the dead live, the air is harder than steel, and there is only one step to the moon. Next year, on December 25th, President Gorbachev will resign on the eve of official collapse of the Union. Be prepared for this, by the way. You are now a politician. You have a great power, great influence. Big money. You will be hunted.

Blinchuk licked his lips.

– Are you mind readers, or what?

– Yes, – said the lass. The girl. Yana! – But not we are, I am. Yana is just a year old, she cannot even speak yet. And the future on your face is written in black and white.

– My future? – clarified Blinchuk, not believing that he's generally talking about clairvoyance. “As if Kashpirovsky hypnosis311 wasn't enough”, flashed in his head. “The chargers of water, the diggers of souls.”