... in which Tolya and Lyonya discuss female psychology, and Valya confesses that she wears orange socks, after which everyone experiences a slight shock
Crossing the snow-covered asphalt road, on which yesterday's abandoned car was still visible through the haze, the guys stopped under the power lines.
The straight-as-an-arrow clearing cut through the forest as if someone had placed a ruler against it and shaved it with a huge hair clipper. At equal distances, resembling figures of fantastic giants lost in the fog, were set up delicate towers with stretched wires, like the frets of an invisible guitar suspended in the sky between dense walls of trees.
Footprints of numerous people, visible here and there on the road and among the trees, did not actually lead under the power lines. On the contrary, the entire clearing appeared as a smooth, undisturbed white expanse.
"Well, what? Are we going already?" Valentina asked impatiently, looking at her companions.
"Rushing, elephant?" Tolyan asked sarcastically, pulling his three-color cap deeper over his gas mask. "Go ahead! Ladies first."
The girl looked at Leonid, hoping he would stand up for her against his friend, but he didn't react to this remark at all. Valya adjusted the backpack with a cartoon cat on her shoulder, which she had prudently taken from the shopping mall, and resolutely stepped forward onto the crunchy white surface. After waiting a moment, the guys followed her. In the morning forest silence, only their footsteps, the occasional crackle of branches breaking under the snow, and the monotonous electric hum of the power lines could be heard.
"Professor turned out to be right," Lyonya remarked when the group had already ventured quite deep into the woods. "They don't walk around here."
"Do you think it's really because of the wires?" Tolyan asked, once again tucking the ever-falling end of his Spartak scarf under his jacket.
"I don't know," shrugged the student. "Remember that guy at the parking lot? He fell when the lamp shorted out. It seems everything is really somehow connected to electricity..."
"I don't know either... Personally, my head hurts from all these theories," muttered his friend. "And I could also use some food... For example, I'm starving after that professor's tea. We should have grabbed something from the car before leaving."
"No, that wasn't safe," Leonid shook his head negatively. "Who knows when the dead will crawl back onto the road. Right now, our top priority is getting gasoline. Once we refuel, we'll go, and then you can eat."
"Okay, commander... I'll get something at the gas station. But I won't give it to you."
"Don't whine... Look at the girl over there. She's holding up fine. Good job."
"But the little elephant? She gorged herself on pastries yesterday."
"Well, that doesn't spoil her appearance. I mean, from a figure perspective," replied Lyonya, once again unintentionally glancing at the girl, whose dark silhouette swayed in the mist against the backdrop of white snow about sixty feet away.
"Hmm, you've already managed to appreciate her figure..." Tolyan said ironically, nudging his friend. "Have you taken a liking to her or something? I thought you were still messing around with Kristinka."
"No," Leonid hesitated slightly. "Not anymore. What do you mean? Does it matter?"
"What? You mean the little elephant?— noticing his friend's unusually serious tone, Tolyan snorted under his gas mask.— Dude, you're totally into her, aren't you? No, I don't mind. First of all, pasta isn't my type, and second..."
"What?"
"What? Our relationship matters more to me, dear..."
Tolyan mockingly stroked Leonid's shoulder with his hand and burst into loud laughter under his gas mask again, so much so that Valentina, walking ahead, even turned around for a second.
"Alright, enough... I'm serious," frowned Lyonya. "What do you think?"
"I think you're unlikely to find anyone worse than Kristinka, so it's your choice, man. Well, she's your classic type of moderately crazy girls. They attract you with their pseudo-intellectualism and shared tastes. The fact that they read Shakespeare alone, discuss astronomy, and watch your favorite old TV shows."
"And what's wrong with that?"
"There's nothing wrong with it. But soon you realize they have a bunch of unexpected quirks. For example, they wear anime ears, love collars, and dream of an anal plug with a tail. But you try not to notice the oddities, you reassure yourself... And you miss the moment when a strap-on dildo ends up in your bed."
"You idiot," Leonid stated dryly and quickened his pace.
"I just warned you," Tolik replied, still laughing under his gas mask, and followed his friend.
Meanwhile, Valentina tripped over something and almost fell into the snow, but managed to keep her balance. Curious, she stopped and began carefully digging through the snow. Her fingers were freezing, but she quickly unearthed her find and stared at it.
"Stop laughing at me, you lazy dogs," she said to the approaching guys. "Look at this instead."
Now all three of them were staring at the gruesome discovery. A human foot was trapped in a massive trap, wearing an orange sock and fashionable leather boots with pointed toes. From the sinister device, a chain led under the snow to the nearest tree.
"Someone's leg. Wow!" Valya repeated, expecting a reaction from her companions.
"Well, what did you expect to see here?" Tolyan smirked. "A horse hoof?"
"Yeah... Looks like we need to be more careful walking here," Leonid said calmly, crouching down near the trap. "But overall, this is interesting..."
"What? Interesting who wears orange socks?" Tolik persisted.
"Well, I wear orange socks," Valentina replied.
"Why am I not surprised?!"
"Would you both shut up already?" Leonid stopped them. "Look closer. The leg has been neatly sawed off. With something like a grinder."
"And?" Tolyan didn't understand.
"Well, if you get caught in a trap with a grinder in your hand, would you saw the trap, the chain, or your own leg?" Leonid surveyed his companions and, pausing, voiced his assumption. "Unless the person with the saw didn't need the leg..."
"Alright. We need to move on. Just watch where you step," he concluded.
Taking several cautious steps toward the edge of the clearing, Leonid broke off a couple of thick branches from a sprawling hazel bush, giving one to Valya. The group continued their journey at a much slower pace, carefully probing the snow ahead with their sticks.
The sky on one side had become noticeably lighter. The sun shone as a blurry spot between the treetops, but couldn't break through the yellowish-gray haze. Ahead, the highway appeared, dotted with rows of lampposts, and a bright blue-and-white gas station, resembling a milk carton.
"What happens next?" Valentina asked thoughtfully.
"We'll get there, fill up with fuel, and that's it," Leonid answered, lightly tapping two five-liter plastic containers as he walked.
"I mean, later..."
"Well, I don't think we can count on the cops," Tolyan replied. "So I suggest heading to my country house. My parents built a small house made of foam blocks there last year. Closer to nature, you know... Unless the horses went crazy like everyone else."
— How can you even say that?— the girl exclaimed indignantly.— These are your parents!
The guy shrugged silently.
— Are you worried about them?— Leonid asked to keep the conversation going.
— Very much. Although they're in another city... Maybe there's nothing like that there. But my old grandmother lives with them. Who knows what's happening there? Usually, I at least correspond with them... And where are yours?
— I have no one,— Leonid replied dryly.
— I'm sorry,— Valya said, embarrassed, and to change the subject, she added:— We still need to stop by the institute.
Leonid turned around and saw through the trees a four-story brick building hidden in the forest slightly off the road. He wanted to answer something, but his friend beat him to it.
— What for? Did you believe this old man's stories?
— He's a very smart guy and a good teacher,— Valentina replied, frowning.— And he helped us. I promised him...
— Well, go ahead then, if you promised! The old man obviously got scared of walking through the woods, so he came up with a story to make us run around like free couriers. Now we'll have to pay for it because of him?
— Quiet down,— Leonid stopped his friends again.
— What? I'm just saying...
— Quiet! Do you hear?
— What?
— Nothing. The wires aren't buzzing anymore.
Tolyan finally fell silent and listened carefully. The faint buzzing sound of electricity had indeed disappeared. Instead, the entire space around them was once again filled with unnatural silence, gradually intensifying as if someone were forcefully stuffing more and more tightly packed cotton wool into their ears.
Without saying a word, Valentina grabbed her friends by the sleeves, firmly squeezing the fabric of their jackets between her thin fingers. But they had already noticed themselves what frightened her. Someone was running from the parking lot toward them along the deserted highway. The figure moved very nimbly and quickly in their direction. So much so that they probably could have decided it was an ordinary person, just very agitated. A perfectly ordinary, slightly stout man with a belly, a traffic police officer in a formal gray puffer jacket with patches, over which he wore a typical bright lime-green vest. An ordinary officer, except for one detail... He had no head at all.
Throwing away the bottles, Leonid raised his shotgun and fired at the approaching zombie's chest. However, the creature only slowed down slightly but continued moving straight toward the guys, spreading its arms wide as if trying to catch someone in a childhood game of "blind man's bluff." Quickly racking the slide, Leonid was about to fire a second shot, but the magazine was empty. Mentally cursing himself for not loading the weapon while everyone was inside the apartment, he reached into his pocket. Whether from the cold or nervousness, his fingers didn't obey him. A couple of cartridges clattered onto the icy asphalt with a metallic ringing sound that seemed deafeningly loud to the young man. A moment later, there was a bang and a flash of light blinded him briefly. A flare rocket pierced the zombie's chest, spraying red smoke in all directions.
Valya and Tolyan rushed forward, pushing Leonid aside roughly, who was struggling with the shotgun. Grabbing a bat, Valentina swung it with all her might at the headless traffic cop's knees. Almost simultaneously, Tolyan hit him on the back with an axe and climbed on top of him. The massive body in the bright vest collapsed face-first onto the ground.
A circular saw began whirring. Sitting astride the struggling victim, Tolyan calmly started sawing off his arm, while Valentina held him down, preventing the undead from getting up.
— Faster!— the girl urged.— We need to dismember him quickly!
— The battery is dying, damn it...— Tolyan complained, managing to cut off the second arm as well.— Drag him over here! He's still kicking.
Forgetting about the cartridges, Leonid stood silently watching what was happening. After a couple of minutes, the quartered and torn-apart body lay motionless on the snowy asphalt. Tolyan wiped his hands on the bright lime-green fabric and stood up.
"Well, now praise me," Valentina said, looking at him and catching her breath.
"Yeah... Keep going."
"But you'll be even better if you deal with the rest," Tolyan replied, pointing toward the gas station, where against the backdrop of the bright sky, about fifteen dark, swaying figures could be seen.
"Retreat!" Leonid commanded, picking up scattered cartridges and discarded bottles, and all three of them ran off in the opposite direction.
Quickly leaving the gas station and the turnoff to the once-salvific clearing behind, the guys caught up with an old, peeling barrier welded together from long pipes heavily rusted by time. Beyond it, in the middle of the asphalt area, rising as if forced into the forest, stood an elongated rectangular building with barred windows on the first floor. All of them were plunged into darkness, but on the fourth floor, Leonid immediately noticed a corridor illuminated by fluorescent lamps. On the side wall of the building, at the end, a small service entrance door was fortunately unlocked.
"Hurry inside!" he ordered, opening it and letting Valya and Tolyan pass ahead of him. Out of the corner of his eye, Leonid already saw groups of zombies converging on the building from the forest.
Unable to think of anything to block the door with, the guys rushed up the dark staircase. Covering several flights of stairs in a hurry, tripping over boxes and old furniture left on the landings in the semi-darkness, they indeed saw bright lights shining from above. Meanwhile, the door downstairs slammed shut several times, and several pairs of feet began stomping down the concrete steps in the stairwell's gloom. Hoping to delay the pursuers even a little, Leonid creakily turned over some old heavy table made of lacquered wood and pushed it down the stairs. A second later, he caught up with his friends, who had stopped at the very beginning of the long corridor brightly lit by flickering lamps.
At the far end, in the open doorway of an office, stood a thin man with tightly pressed lips, staring intently at the kids. Valentina immediately noticed how elegantly, yet somewhat old-fashioned, the stranger was dressed. A white shirt with a casually unbuttoned collar and rolled-up sleeves to the elbows, a light beige waistcoat, and matching trousers with a fine vertical stripe. But what really caught the eye was the strange shiny device mounted on a tripod in front of the stranger. At the front of the device was something resembling a disc or a flattened hemisphere rotating at a frantic speed.
Leonid wanted to say something, but he managed only to raise his hand in front of him, shielding himself from the bright light, because the spinning device crackled and sparked. From the suddenly appearing dazzling sphere, small flashes of electric discharge spread out in different directions. Their twisting tendrils struck the heating batteries, door handles, window fittings, and the lamps, which burst from overload. Crushed glass fell from the ceiling. The air filled with the smell of ozone. One of the sparks knocked the circular saw out of Tolyan's hands and pushed him into the corner by the window. Also struck by the shock, Leonid slid down the wall opposite. Already lying on the floor and losing consciousness, Valentina noticed the sharp-toed greenish-brown boots of the unknown man. She definitely remembered seeing them somewhere before...