"Thin World". The final

    The finale of a fantastic story. Thanks to everyone who waited and supported!

    Marina and Lisa reached the reserved lake. Other participants of the events - people, and not only - are attached to it.




    Illustration Anatoly Sazanova

    Uuuum-OMMM.

    The buzz coming from the depths of the old oak was more and more like music. A strange, strange, slow tune. Anxious singing. It was why worry.

    The remains of the yellow leaves had long since broken off from the branches and covered the clearing around the cracked trunk. The tree was getting ready for bed. But Paul was not ready for bed.

    Cora broke up and he appeared outside. This time not sitting, not chained. He stood and carefully looked around, sniffed, listened.

    “We should have time,” he said to someone unknown and took a step forward.

    A carpet of leaves started up, as if invisible snakes had crawled from the feet of Paul to the neighboring trees and bushes. He stepped with the other foot - and pulled away from the tree.

    “I'll be back soon,” he promised the tree, “and everything will be fine.” We will live. Just to be in time ...

    Step by step, slowly but surely, unraveling the webs of micromachines like a tangle, he moved to the lake.

    * * *

    - Where, you say, the second entrance? - Marina asked, peering into the water column. Liza stood beside her, compared the terrain with the map in her head, and pointed with a finger:

    “Over there.” It is necessary to plunge to ten zero seven meters.

    Marina sighed. Behind us were joyful hugs, listening to the inconsistent Lysine story, feigned mourning for the father. Timur galloped away for Sasha, but he said honestly: he didn’t know if he could break back. Column with technology close. And what kind of technique was prepared by the father, only God knows.

    “It would be better to hurry,” Marina told herself. And then, for no reason at all, Lisa said:

    - And there is the entrance to the mine under the water. Dad told me.

    And it all changed. It was a success that Marina could not have dreamed of.

    “Let him show me the way, and there ... And then we'll see. Send it up, away, and finish the job itself. ”

    - We will sail together? - asked Lisa, as if reading her thoughts. Marina sighed.

    - I, darling, no way without you. I swim like an ax.

    “The axes don't swim,” Lisa objected.

    - Here I am as well. You have to drag me in tow.

    Lisa nodded.

    - Got it. Then I scout first.

    Lisa threw off her shoes and socks and touched the water with her foot.

    - Cold, - she shivered, - It will be necessary to move quickly. And you can not dive in clothes. We were so taught.

    “I know,” Marina sighed, and slowly began to unbutton her jacket. The wind, as if gloating, blew out hard and frosty.

    “Thanks at least not winter,”

    Liza has already undressed to her underpants and undershirts, and has been briskly warming up, as if in a physical education class. Slim, flexible, angular, like all teenagers. On the neck behind, from under the hair, the slits of the gills peep out.

    - I went!

    She jumped from the shore into the water, entered quietly, without splashing, scaring away the fussy water striders, and disappeared out of sight in muddy water. Marina, already ready to dive after her, gently folded her and her clothes in the roots, covering them with some branches, and she wrapped herself back in her jacket and began to wait, shivering from the cold.

    "Now jump out of an ambush denovy fighters, and we're such a beauty," - shyly she thought, and then herself protested angrily - "By the way, I'm for them, and for them then to take the rap."

    Lisa emerged, tossed her wet hair and Tina from the face, and happily reported:

    - There is a passage! Yele opened.

    Marina sighed to herself.

    “It's time.”

    She got up, threw off her jacket, straightened the bag that was worn obliquely over her shoulder and, typing more air, jumped into the cold water. Blindly groped Lizkin's ankle, grabbed her tightly - and she, a blind clot of despair and fear, dragged to the bottom.

    * * *

    The water left the airlock and Marina was finally able to take a breath of air. Dilapidated, musty, but still air. She could not breathe and breathe. Lisa seemed to be jumping on one leg, shaking the water out of her ear, and squeezing her hair — the water falling from them was booming on the metal floor, and the echo echoed somewhere far, far away.

    Marina got up from the floor - it was cold to sit - and lit a lantern in her left hand. Lit weakly lit, dim light - but at least something. A bunch of some boxes, lockers, with notes and abbreviations, Marina unfamiliar. And at the far end is a metal door with a lock. And Lisa is already near this lock, put her left hand in the form of a key into the hole to the left of the door. There was a clang.

    “Marina, help me open it,” she asked. Marina approached almost blindly, pacing carefully, and trembling every time something rolled with a crash from under her feet. Grabbing the two of them, their bare feet resting on the floor, the sisters pulled the heavy door, and she finally yielded.

    “Staircase,” Lisa said, looking down. She saw in the dark like a cat, and Marina had to highlight herself with a weak flashlight. Indeed, the metal vertical ladder, without any railings. And where it ends - who knows.

    “I wouldn’t like to fall from this,” said Marina. And for some reason I remembered a similar staircase. She led from Minas-Morgul to Kirit-Ungol, Frodo, Sam and their guide Gollum climbed along it. “And I, then, have to go down. And who among us who would like to know? ”

    “Let me be the first,” she said, and pushing Lisa back, she felt the first step. It made a wrinkle: a rough iron bracket dug into the bare foot with its edge. Dropped the other leg - even worse. I clenched my teeth and crawled down. The flashlight, with her hand, then went down, then went up - and occasionally flashed her sister's face. Now and then it was a drop of water from her hair that was falling through her.

    Finally, the right foot felt a hard flat surface. Marina highlighted herself - so it is, a small technical floor that goes around the wall of the mine, and on the other hand - the continuation of the stairs.

    Marina waved a flashlight, and Lisa quickly and deftly went down to her. Her modified legs didn’t care.

    “A rocket,” Lisa said, looking around. Marina raised a flashlight above her head, made it brighter.

    "Oh my God…"

    A huge metal column, the size of Rostral on Vasilyevsky Island, with its upper end towered above the girls, and the lower edge was lost somewhere below, in the dark. In the depths of this steel cocoon, the Dragonfly rocket was waiting for its time to be sent. Marina seemed to feel her breath through the metal, her wicked and terrifying real power.

    Marina's hands are down.

    “It won't work,” she whined, sat down on the metal floor and clutched at her head.

    - What will not work? - asked Lisa. “My father talked about her,” she thought to herself.

    - It must be destroyed, - Marina shook her head, - I thought ... And, however, I did not think anything. I did not expect to get here at all. I just wanted to do something ...

    “Nothing of the kind,” Liza objected. “Dad said she had to start it. And then it will all end.

    Marina looked at her anxiously.

    - What will end?

    - The war will end. And we will live as before.

    - Liza, Liza, what are you, - Marina was horrified, - don't you remember? The war is over, already over. If you ... someone launches a rocket, people will die. You and I will perish. All will die! Do you understand?

    Lisa nodded, biting her lip. She did not understand anything.

    - No, no, it must be destroyed. Only ... only I understand nothing. Where is she, where are those damn ... fuses. And whether they have it at all.

    Lisa was silent, overwhelmed with doubts, and then, wanting to console her sister, she decided and blurted out:

    - Yes. I know where they are.

    Marina looked at her in surprise.

    “Don't tell me your father told you that.”

    “Daddy told me,” Lisa pouted. “He trusted me.” Only me alone. And I ... - she sniffed, - let him down.

    - Lizka, - Marina jumped to her feet and took Lisa by the shoulders, - I beg you very much. Help me.

    Lisa was silent for a long time and then nodded. She was completely taken aback, but she did not want to upset anyone. Especially Marina.

    “We need to go down five tiers,” Liza flipped through the diagrams and plans in her head, comparing with reality. Marina kissed her sister on the forehead, took her hand and they went to the stairs.

    One tier, another, third. And all this in the darkness and silence, eerie silence. Only the screeching of the stairs, and the slapping of bare, frozen feet on the floor. And the rocket is hanging higher and higher over them.

    “Now something will happen and it will take off,” thought Marina, and the soul went to the heels. But nothing happened, and it was even worse.

    “Now there’s another ladder, it's longer,” said Lisa.

    “Long, you say.”

    The staircase really turned out to be long and treacherously wobbling. Marina mentally said good-bye to life several times, preparing to collapse from a height of several meters and break her head. But finally descended. Turned on the flashlight brighter and dared to finally look the enemy in the face.

    Lisa came down after her, approached, without being in any way afraid, to the outer wall of the launch canister and began to feel it with her gaze.

    “Here,” she pointed to her finger. Her finger turned into a point and left a cross scratch, weak, but still noticeable - Half a meter in the direction of the center. There is the first.

    - They are not one? - fallen voice asked Marina.

    - Three fuses. I'm running now, I’ll mark everything. What are you going to do with them?

    Marina sighed.

    - I do not know. What a nonsense. Maybe I'll knock my head, maybe I'll break it. That's what you are, buddy. I can handle myself. Run upstairs, okay?

    “And don't wait for me,” she wanted to add, but she could not, “My God, how can I tell her that?”

    Lisa obediently nodded, and ran to put marks. While Marina examined the impregnable fortress of the rocket, the girl managed to return and now crawled up the stairs.

    Marina sighed. She hooked the bag from her shoulder and took out the ammunition from him. A pistol, four cartridges with acid, and another tube. I laid it all out in front of me, like tools before an operation, and thought about it.

    The gel from the tube smeared on the metal, without causing him any harm. And this is not surprising - because the case was not covered with micromachines.

    And Marina knew who was covered with micromachines.

    She walked away half a meter in confusion and looked at her right hand.

    "Why not?"

    She gave the command, and she willingly turned into a rifle. She readily stamped another bullet - from her own Marinine body - and was awaiting orders.

    Marina went another meter, aimed in the dim light of her flashlight right at the center of the smeared gel. And shot.

    The bullet, at a huge speed, flew into the very center of a nizaryabanny Liza target and even slightly pushed through the container wall, reacted with acid and with a threatening hiss, began to seethe, biting like a worm into the very depths of the metal cocoon. When, after a minute, the reaction stopped, Marina dared to come closer and look into the hole that had formed. “Twenty centimeters, no less,” - she was surprised, and not without gloating, quoted: - “Aw, cream!”

    “The main thing for me is to burn out the fuses, or the wires that go to them. And then at least they won't launch it. ”

    She squeezed another gel into the hole and sent another bullet there. And then another.

    - Hey, what are you doing there? - suddenly heard Lizin voice over his head. Marina shuddered and shone herself upstairs. So it is, sticking tier above.

    - Lizka, I told you what?

    - I'm worried about you!

    - March up. Although wait! Look, I got to the goal or not.

    Lizka instantly appeared next to her and looked at the hole with interest.

    - Do not touch your hands! - Marina punished severely. The girl drew back the outstretched finger and concluded:

    - Burned. Fuse there is no more. How did you do it?

    * * *

    Everything went smoothly with the second fuse, and Marina finally persuaded Lisa to leave upstairs. With the third, everything went well until it went bad. The rifle ran out of bullets, and Marina refused to produce new organism.

    Marina looked at her as a traitor.

    “This is an infection,” she said frustratedly. “When it is not necessary, it means that you are right there, but how it should be ...

    She tried again, but to no avail.” Returning her hand back to the old one, she stared at the hole, as if trying to drill it with her gaze.

    “What to do, wait?”. She shook her head inwardly. “No, you can't wait. And then what? ”

    She began to look around, highlighting herself with her left hand. She looked around, hastily running her eyes and hoping to see something that would help her complete what she had begun.

    And then she saw.

    Marina picked up the Danish pistol from the floor. "Heavy". She took off the fuse as he taught, and tried to aim. But it was not her own rifle, she could not keep the sight - the pistol was going from side to side.

    Came to the unfinished hole. With disgust and fear, she looked at the acid-charred edges.

    Breathed in deeply several times.

    Turned on “Anesthesia”.

    “It's just a piece of metal,” she told herself, “Very good, but still a piece of metal.” Come on!

    She leaned her left hand against the gap and felt acid sizzle. Marina literally stuck the barrel of a pistol into the back of her hand, feeling neither cold nor touching, and with a fierce frenzy pulled the trigger.

    A bullet pierced her palm, and acid spurted out into the hole, flowed out of the hole and, like an ulcer, spread across Marinina’s arm. The already weak lantern went out, and it was impossible to understand anymore - whether she still had her hand or not. And most importantly - did it work out?

    The recoil turned her right hand out. She fired the gun in surprise, and he rumbled across the ceiling somewhere down.

    “That's it,” she thought, trying to bend the fingers on her left hand, but not feeling them completely, “It worked out or not, you have to get out.”

    She touched the palm of her right hand to the outer wall and walked in a circle until she came across the stairs . She grabbed the rail with her right hand and gently laid her left hand on the step. She managed to grasp, somehow clumsily and uncomfortable, as if not all fingers were in place.

    “At least, hisses nothing. The reaction is over. ”

    Marina put her foot on the bottom step and sighed. It was much harder to climb than she supposed. Frozen, wounded, under “Anesthesia”, she did not feel her arms and legs, she did not feel any strength in them.

    She just knew that there, upstairs, she was waiting for a small little man who still needed her protection.

    - Where are you, Marina? Said a loud voice, alarmed.

    - I crawl, - Marina answered honestly, having climbed onto the next tier. She sat down to catch her breath, and looked where the rocket should be. Yes, in general, there she stood, where would she go.

    “You will stay here,” Marina thought vengefully, rose to her feet and crawled on.

    The higher she rose, the more she worried what she would meet on the surface. “Dan? He will not be happy with me. He would be very suspicious of what I was doing here. Fatherly soldiers? Horseradish radish is not sweeter, they will have no less questions, especially when it turns out that their favorite rocket has its wings clipped. ” She shook her head, chasing away the unpleasant thought that a misfire could have come out with the last fuse. She was replaced by an idea no less disgusting:

    “Or it may happen that we crawl out right in the hands of our father. Because Dan would send me to kill him if he knew he was dead? And who then leads the column here? I feel early Lisa mourned our parent. And I ... I — I already buried him a long time ago. ”

    She reached for the next step when she stumbled upon a small Lysina handle. She grabbed her with a steel grip and helped her out.

    - Marina, you have a hole in your hand! - Lisa was surprised, looking at her sister. Marina tried to bring her left hand to her eyes, and suddenly realized that she also clearly saw a hole that was level like a compass, as if it were burned at the edges. The fingers were all intact, but the tendons of the middle and unnamed were cut, so that they could not move.

    “Although why do you need tendons, you are machines,” thought Marina. And, as if having obeyed, all her fingers bent, straightened, and then clenched into a fist. And only now she noticed how a line of light was breaking through from the far door.

    - Lisa, are you the boss there?

    Liza somehow looked guiltily toward the door.

    - There's a control room down the hall. Only there is nothing in it.

    - Where did the light come from?

    “Yes, I pressed something there ... by chance,” Lisa said in an innocent voice.

    Marina sighed and rose to her feet.

    “Okay, Liz, it doesn't matter anymore.” It's time to float. Just listen: to no one, not a word to anyone at all, what have we been doing here with you.

    “Too many people left behind who do not like it,” she added gloomily to herself.

    * * *

    Of all the possible options, the worst always works. Even if you were ready for it, it does not get much easier.

    Coast repainted in khaki. An armored personnel carrier, a dozen soldiers with weapons around the perimeter, and three healthy waggons, one of which was just unloaded.

    And of course he was here.

    The father stood just at the water's edge when the sisters emerged and rubbed their eyes. The two soldiers standing next to the father were taken aback a little and reached for the weapon, and then they were embarrassed and turned away after an eloquent paternal gaze.

    “Well, hello,” he grinned, as if nothing had happened. Lisa happily rushed to him, and, probably, would have rushed to her neck, if he had not stopped her with a gesture.

    - Wait, you're all wet. You'll catch a cold. Semyon, give me a jacket.

    The soldier on the left handed him a jacket. Father wrapped Lisa in her and asked, smiling.

    - Well, my clever, did everything?

    “I just found where the backup power is turned on,” the girl looked down. The father, however, beamed and turned to the soldier on the left.

    - Have you heard, Semyon? You do not have to dive, my girl has already done everything. Hey there, cook the equipment, there is a connection! He shouted toward the wagon.

    Marina by that time got to the shore, took out her clothes from the secret and began to dress herself in the wet. The soldier on the right sidedly watched her, but did not offer a jacket. Not ordered. Then his gaze slid over the mutilated left hand, he started and began to examine the far shore on the subject of enemies.

    “You're doing great,” her father patted Lisa on the head, and she lit up with happiness. Apparently, noticing her blue lips and bare feet buried in the sand next to his boots, he deigned to let her go to dress. Lisa happily ran to Marina and took her clothes from her.

    Marina of the last strength smiled at her.

    - Well, why did you climb, stupid? - the father finally noticed her - Couldn't you wait where I told you to stay?

    “I decided to look after her,” Marina replied calmly, “Once the rumor has passed that you died.”

    - Nothing I died. And why look after? Lisa, our girl is already adult, smart and independent. Maybe she can figure out what's what, eh?

    Marina did not answer, and her father changed his wrath to mercy.

    - Correctly shut up. The thing is, if the mind is not enough. And there is nothing to sulk, I tell you the truth in the family. And do not sit on the cold, you still have children.

    Marina barely suppressed a rage. I waited until my father turned with a smile to Lisa to cast a look at him full of hatred. "Does not know? Or knows, but scoffs? ”.

    Father and daughter went straight to the unloaded instruments. Nobody called Marina, but she dragged along behind them. My father snapped something, and the remote in front of him buzzed and welcomingly blinked with lights.

    - With a hand what? - as if by chance my father asked, conjuring over the buttons, and, without waiting for an answer, nodded to the side, - Go to that car, there our doctor will help you. This is a small surprise to you.

    Marina silently obeyed. And my father and Liza were left with the buzzing devices. My father talked enthusiastically, and Lisa listened. Something about backup lines that can only be activated from the mine, and used outside - in case the bunker is captured by the enemy. Marina was no longer listening. This was all not important. It only remained to wait for the start, and then one way or another, it would all end.

    "It will be a little sad if my own father shoots me."

    With such thoughts, she went to the SUV. And therefore she was not much touched by the fact that Sasha was in the car, for the sake of which she dragged Lisa into such an unfortunate distance.

    She said nothing. And Sasha said nothing. What to say? "Hello"? How ridiculous it would be.

    He silently extended her hand in a medical glove. She silently put in her own holed palm.

    “Sorry,” said Sasha, “that I didn't wait.” I could not refuse the guys with guns.

    Marina nervously laughed.

    “Yes, these are irresistible guys,” she replied a little louder than she should have, and caught on herself several surprised and suspicious glances, “Again we are in different camps,” she continued a little more calmly, shaking her head, “Why is that?

    “We are in the same camp,” Sasha replied seriously, rewinding her palm with a bandage, “Those who were persuaded to do mean things and who didn’t do them anyway.”

    He finished the dressing and looked at the father and daughter fiddling around the equipment of his father.

    - You are not angry at her? - he asked Marina.

    - No, - Marina shook her head, - Why should you be angry here? She just wanted her father to praise her.

    “Hey,” cried his father, “readiness number one!” Finally, we will fulfill the duty to the motherland and the command!

    All died away. Even the wind seemed to have subsided, the clouds froze in the sky, the sun stopped its turn to see what would happen. Stupid water striders and they hid, who where. But that did not escape the attention of Marina - the fir trees and pines on the eastern slope shook little. That one, then another. As if someone was walking through the forest. Slowly but firmly stepped, shaking the mighty trunks from the very roots.

    Whoever it is, he was late. Father turned the key. Lisa turned the key.

    The earth shook.

    A bell flared up from under the boiling water, and the hundred-toned lid fell to the side. The lake water swirled deep into the mine.

    And then she appeared .

    Fresh, untouched by time, shining in the rays of a stunned sun, decorated with the flag of his native country, pointed, impetuous and implacable. The rocket jumped out of the mine stately-slowly, jumped out of ambush, like a hungry tiger, ready to fall all its claws on an unsuspecting victim and tear its teeth from the throat.

    It hung in the air, at the top of its prelaunch jump - and Marina's heart sank.

    Thoughtfully tilted as if aiming.

    Slightly turned, as if showing off.

    And all its multi-ton deadly carcass collapsed.

    The rocket's tail, its still-launched engines, plunged into lake mud and raised billions of spray.

    Her nose crashed into the edge of the lake bowl, jumped, knocking over one of the waggons, and dropped all the weight on the armored personnel carrier, crushing it along with the crew. This mass rolled directly on them, sweeping away everything in its path, knocking down trees, crushing people who had failed. Marina and Sasha, clearly understanding what was going on, were as if paralyzed by the spectacle. Her father caught Lisa in his arms and rushed away from the lake. Yes, only a rocket, leaning on another hundred-year-old oak tree, knocked him over and finally froze. A branch of an oak, like a whip, whipped her father's legs. He dropped the girl, rolled a few meters, hit the fallen trunk and froze.

    Then only Marina came to her senses and rushed to her sister. Lisa, it seems, escaped with fright and was already rising to her feet, staring dumbly around.

    - Lizka, whole? - Marina quickly examined her, then took her hands over her head and focused on herself, - Liz, do you hear? Liz?

    - I hear, - she whispered, - What happened? Where is Dad?

    “It lies there,” Sasha answered in time, “Alive, it seems intact, but it seems unconscious.” Here you have ... yeah, I see. In the shirt were born. Both.

    - Aha, in one, - Marina joked off mechanically. Lisa tried to get up, but then she fell down - she was still dizzy and buzzed in her ears.

    The surviving soldiers, meanwhile, slowly rose and confusedly turned their heads.

    “Sasha,” one of the foremen called, “What about the commander?”

    - Alive, - responded Sasha, - Only in a trip.

    The foreman spat and examined the soldiers surrounding him.

    - Well, to hell with it. What are you staring at? I must have been here for two months with him to reel in the woods. And for what? - he jabbed his finger at the rocket, - Thanks right here, it didn’t jerk, that would be fun. As you wish, and I'm home.

    “Yes, he dragged us,” the pale soldier, who was darkly supported by Liza’s acquaintance, “And still cuddles how to drink.” Only without me.

    The soldiers exchanged glances - and slowly, yes, they spread apart. One by one, two by two, a whole crowd, losing shoulder straps and caps on the way. Sasha, meanwhile, brought a folding stretcher, and together with Marina, they brought the father closer to the SUV. Father never came around.

    “But she will come, she will surely come,” - Marina understood, - “And then ... What then?”

    Lisa sat down next to the stretcher and took his hand. Little beauty, so serenely loving monster.

    Marina came up and sat on the ground next to her sister.

    - Listen, - the words were hard for her. However, the hardest words were still ahead. She looked at Sasha in search of support, and he nodded, not even understanding what the matter was, - We should separate.

    “No,” Lisa shook her head.

    - Listen. It's still dangerous here. I can’t protect you and your father, do you understand? You will go with Sasha to Novozhilovo. “My father and I will arrive later,” she lied.

    “I won't go,” Lisa persisted.

    “Liza,” said Marina sternly, “Tell me what color I am.”

    “Red,” replied Lisa, in a fallen voice.

    - And the father?

    - Also. But there are no drones here!

    “There are people here,” Sasha suddenly inserted, “who have drones.” And they love to use them.

    Lisa looked helplessly at her father, but he lay motionless and knitted his eyebrows even in the blackout.

    She sighed and gave up.

    - Good. Just come quickly, okay? - she asked.

    “As fast as we can,” Marina promised. Lisa nodded, took Sasha by the hand and dragged.

    - Hey, wait, - he protested, - Novozhilovo in the other direction.

    So they left.

    Marina shivered. It was getting cold. She tried to look somewhere, but nothing around was pleasing to the eye. She herself will not have enough strength. Above the slope, a rocket-crushed vehicle. And the rocket itself lies nearby, helpless, like a beetle knocked over its back. On the glossy shiny side - stains of fresh blood. “I could not hold on anyway. I drank krovushki. ”

    It suddenly seemed to her that someone was approaching the rocket. I approached and stood still, as if listening. But she did not have time to make out, because Dan’s voice rang out from behind her.

    - Well, you finish the job, or help me?

    Marina turned around. Dan, Oleg and two other fighters were nearby. Whole, unharmed, clean and tidy.

    “A rocket is no longer dangerous,” answered Marina. “You shouldn’t kill anyone anymore.”

    “The rocket is still very dangerous,” said Dan, “as if you can't blow it up right here.” But it's not a rocket. Your father is more dangerous than any rocket.

    - I'll follow him.

    - Sorry, but we agreed differently.

    “What a good rocket,” came a slow, smooth voice. Marina looked at the sharp nose of the rocket and saw someone standing nearby and stroking the metal case. Someone turned to face her, and she hardly recognized Paul.

    - Who are you? Asked a puzzled Dan, and just in case reached for a holster.

    Pavel ignored him and leaned his ear to the rocket. Marina suddenly realized that his hands did not just lie on the body. Black web, like roots, crawled from his hands on the shiny metal and bite into it. It seemed to her that even the withered grass at his feet rose and stretched up.

    “A lot of heat,” said Paul, unclear to whom. The grass carpet moved: a family of mice climbed up on the rocket, “We will survive this winter.”

    “You’d get away from the rocket, boy,” Dan ordered angrily, “We’ll use it ourselves.”

    Marina raised an eyebrow.

    “What,” she quipped, “without her no one will obey you?”

    Instead of answering, Dan pulled out a pistol, looked expressively at Marina and fired at Paul. A bullet burst into his chest and burned his chest with acid. But he seemed not to notice. He turned slightly to them and said a little sadly:

    “You cannot shoot a tree.”

    In his eyes, green and muddy, suddenly leaped a fighting naughty light. Pine, where Dan stood, dropped one of the heavy branches, knocked the weapon out of his hands, almost crushing him. Dan backed away in horror.

    “Conspired, damn bastards?” - he looked from Paul to Marina, - But you do not know how, right? Oleg, shoot the traitor.

    Clicked the lock holster.

    Marina met his eyes with Oleg. He looked away and looked at Paul with doubt and even pity. But then suddenly I remembered something similar - and the weapon returned to its place.

    “That's it, Dan,” he said, “home.”

    Dan threw up like a slap in the face. Two fighters looked at the commanders, not understanding anything, and then they sneaked their glances and lowered their weapons.

    - What? - hissed Dan, - Are you discussing orders?

    - Everything, Dan, - Oleg repeated, - The agreement was to hold the rocket. We kept the rocket. You are no longer the commander.

    - Where we kept her, look in whose hands it is now!

    - Hands are like hands, - Oleg shrugged, - not worse than yours. Come on, - he waved his hand to the fighters. Those did not force themselves to beg and smeared their skis without even turning around to Dan. He stood with clenched fists, and watched his former comrades in look. And when he turned to Marina, he found a rifle barrel aimed at himself.

    “Don't even come near me, my father or my sister,” Marina threatened.

    * * *

    She approached Paul. He looked at her without much interest and continued his work - whatever he was busy. Grass around has increased. To the rocket, as to the holy source, cling several hedgehogs, hares. An owl perched on top and hooted with disgust.

    “I didn’t bring you any water then,” Marina apologized. Her legs gently crawled over some of the vipers and crawled under the rocket, like a warm stone.

    “This is better than water,” said Pavel. “Don't worry. By the spring of her nothing left.

    - Thank.

    - For what? We just want to survive. We need heat, we need energy. Otherwise, our steel wings will pull us down.

    He paused and closed his eyes. Marina was about to leave, when he suddenly called her.

    - Say. Would you shoot if he did not obey?

    - No, - Marina answered without thinking, - I would not have shot.

    - I thought so. My tree is neither good nor evil. But if I leave him, there will be trouble. And this is now your tree.

    Marina looked at the stretcher. Father came to his senses. With naughty hands, he tried to rise. With the third attempt he succeeded.

    Marina returned to him. With a heavy heart, long-standing fear and deepest hatred.

    “Why should it be me.”

    She stood in front of him, and he stared at her uncomprehendingly, angrily. He looked around, as if seeking support. And suddenly he was blown away, cracked, realizing that there was no more support, that there was no one else to command. That all left him.

    Then he looked at her differently. With incredulous hope, he looked at the hand extended to him, as if a beaten mongrel once thought to himself "floated, we know how this ends."

    Marina smiled through the bubbling rage and said almost gently.

    - Dad, let's go home.

    He took her hand.

    And broke.

    She helped him to his feet. His father shook off pine needles, dust and sand from his uniform and was about to order something, but Marina was ahead of him.

    - Get in the car.

    Out of habit, my father squealed displeasure, but opened the door. I climbed inside, turned around - Marina was already sitting nearby, again ahead of him - and slammed the door with malice. He started the engine and passed it back to the road.

    “Everybody has run away,” he grumbled in a loud voice, letting off steam, “Chilled. Nothing. Command order has not been canceled. Gather all back, I will drive and then we'll see. Let's fix, understand, and run. On arms across the ocean we will carry if need be.

    He fiercely twisted the wheel and burned more and more. Marina just sat there and did not even listen. This whole stream of hatred did not touch her, did not care.

    “Why me?”

    They swept along a country road to the east, towards villages and gardening, leaving the sun behind.

    - I have one house, we will hide there, - the father said, - Well done that remained. With me you will not be lost. I will teach you everything. Lizka is where?

    - She died, - Marina lied is absolutely indifferent. Father is not embarrassed.

    - That is a pity, then what. Good girl. A la ger com a la ger, as they say. Nothing, we'll pay for it. All repay.

    They broke into gardening, demolished a forgotten barrier by someone, trampled along broken curved paths, and finally braked at a high solid fence.

    “We arrived,” the father said, but again he was late. Marina was already outside. But instead of going straight to the gate, she went to the opposite side of the street and looked at the facade in amazement. On a high fence, as on a fortification, shields and flags of various countries and states hung.

    “It can’t be that,” Marina thought to herself, “Like on my mother’s mock up.”

    “Well ... Let's go inside,” my father suggested somehow conciliatoryly. Marina honored him with a scornful look, pushed the door of the gate and entered the station first.

    It was he. The same mother's layout. The fortress house, the impregnable fence, lacked perhaps a drawbridge. But the mother’s hand was felt in everything. In the beds left at the entrance, in small planted birch trees, in oddly paved paths around the house. All the little secrets hidden away are not for adults who have built a fortress for themselves, but for their children. So that those, when they grow up, demolish a tall fence and, instead of a stone freak, they would install a light and elegant house. In which you can live, and not hide.

    Marina walked along the path to the house and read this house like a letter from her mother. Father minced somewhere in the back and muttered something under his breath.

    Together they entered the house. My father, without taking off his shoes, went into the living room and collapsed into a chair.

    “Here we are at home,” Marina said instead.

    “You will stay here,” she added to herself.



    Epilogue


    A real bed, a real blanket, a real roof over your head were something that Marina already did not like to see. In the morning she woke up rested, refreshed. Let the whole body ache, ache slowly overgrowing hand, and late autumn clouds were gathering outside the window and threatened with a quick snow. It was a new day, the first day of the new era.

    My father has already managed to rush off somewhere in an SUV. Marina, meanwhile, was examining the house. He was inhabited, there was in it both a library, and stocks of food, and harvested firewood and fuel briquettes. She also found a dozen paternal caches of weapons and ammunition. She put all this in a cesspool and carefully fell asleep.

    In the evening, the father returned, tired and angry.

    “Like the ground,” he grumbled as he ate his lunch. True, Marina put him only half a dozen. Having finished, he expressively looked at her sitting in an armchair and reading in the dying light of the setting sun.

    “Go and put it on your own,” she commanded.

    He expressively looked at her and cleared his throat, but Marina did not even lift her eyebrows. He had to rise from the table and deliberately loudly booming pans.

    - About Lizka you lied to me, of course? - icy tone he asked.

    - Aha, - Marina nodded, - Do not bother to read.

    The next morning, Marina got up before her father and was already waiting for him in the car. He went out and, seeing her, hesitated. Then he pretended not to lose his head at all, and got behind the wheel.

    In fact, he did not understand what was happening.

    On the way, he suddenly felt a grateful listener in her and boasted about how talented he was organizing everything. He traveled and checked all his caches - with medicines, fuel, weapons. If a week later he decided to check them again, he would have found them already empty. And if he had the idea to roll up in Novozhilovo, he would find all his supplies there.

    The next day it started to rain and my father stayed at home. Half a day he sat at the radio and twisted the handle. But besides cod, nothing was heard. By evening, Marina is tired.

    Under the guise of washing, Marina took his dress uniform and inadvertently ruined it. Gathering water from the well, she “accidentally” wiped the rope and her father had to go under the rain and repair everything. She “forgot” to open the valve at the stove and let smoke into the hut until her father came and did not fix everything. She came up with a bunch of different small things, just to distract him from waiting orders.

    The next morning, my father slept through his usual rise time. Having got up with difficulty, he suddenly found that the SUV was gone. A broken rear headlamp remained at the gate - Marina gave in to driving for a long time and had already forgotten everything.

    On the map from the library she got to Novozhilov in an hour and a little. Her arrival caused a great stir, since Sasha and Lisa had already been able to trumpet everything that had happened - including what she had asked not to tell.

    Greetings, smiles and wishes of good luck embarrassed her. Marina grabbed Lisa by the hand, being ashamed to even embrace her with everyone, and hid from everyone at school.

    - Didn't dad come? - asked Lisa.

    - Dad was unwell, - answered Marina, - That will be cured, and I will bring you to visit us.

    Lisa told about her successes - she, as the eldest, took patronage over the kids, drove them to the forest and told about mushrooms and berries. Having spoken and pitying Marinin’s hand, she rushed off to play with the guys. Calling, funny - what Marina wanted to see her.

    - Do you have to sit with him? - Sasha asked her, being alone.

    - I do not know. I have a feeling that I leave him alone - and he will take up the old again.

    - Do you think it will not take?

    - I think he just wanted to be someone needed. So that someone praised him, gave him a medal ... An apple from an apple tree. How is it now, calm? - she translated the topic of conversation.

    “Well, I don’t know how it was,” Sasha smiled, “ask Nastya how she will return.” She is now on a farm, digging Kirilovo heritage.

    - And what happened to him?

    - Gone. With him, and Dan, and others especially committed to the ideals of purity. I feel, not the last time we hear about them.

    Marina nodded. "Not last. But they have already lost the battle for the children. ”

    Before leaving, Lisa led the children, her students. They all vied for her to come back and continue drawing lessons.

    “Sure,” she promised, “From Monday and continue.” Every day I will come.

    She kept her word.

    * * *

    Back they rode together. Sasha asked to throw him in the direction of the lake.

    - Is Pavel still there? - Marina asked, tensely following the road.

    - And Paul, and Timur, and others.

    - They told you something?

    - chatted incessantly. Just to understand them is difficult. We with Nikolay Nikolaevich listened in turn and, it seems, understood something.

    - And what? - Marina smiled.

    “If it’s very rude,” Sasha began picking up the words, “Such as Pasha are intermediaries.”

    - Between us and ... by whom? - Marina asked. Sasha grinned.

    - Not. Not between us. Between nature and micromachines. While we were here figuring out who owns a nuclear missile, they had their own struggle for resources. We seem to have noticed its manifestations - all these modified animals, plants, even trees - but we did not imagine the scale. It was a real war. Nature did not want to let micromachines into its ecosystem, and micromachines did everything to ensure that their carriers survived.

    “But then they ... how to say it ... realized that something,” continued Sasha, “They realized that this extermination would not lead to anything.” Living creatures are not opponents of the modified, but the modified cannot reproduce except by devouring each other. And ahead loomed winter. To survive in the cold of energy and heat micromachines need a lot ... In general, they made peace. Live cats do not catch steel rats, steel cats do not catch live rats. The nuclear warhead acted as a guarantor of the fact that micromachines can permeate themselves.

    For some time they rode in silence.

    - Of course, they did not sit at the negotiating table. It all went in a language that is not available to us. Chemical reactions, nothing more.

    - And about us, people, they did not speak?

    - It's a shame somehow, huh? - Sasha sadly smiled, - No. They are already big guys, and we no longer need them.

    At the fork, he jumped off the car and, turning, asked casually.

    - I will visit sometime? Parents will not mind?

    - No, they will not do.

    - Just come on this time without an ax.

    - I'll think about it, - Marina smiled.

    And he went to the west, and she went to the east.

    * * * The

    radio was silent. This Marina has already surprised and alerted. Passing the living room, she suddenly heard a joyous squeal and barking from the kitchen. She came up, opened the door and could not believe her eyes.

    My father sat on the bench and held his leather holster by the strap. On the other hand, a husky puppy clung to her with her teeth and ruffled with all her might, shaking her head amicably and resting her thick little paws.

    “Look, what kind of anguish has brought to us,” said his father excitedly, joyfully, “He came out on the threshold, and here he is sitting, waving his tail.” Handsome man, huh? Volchara.

    He took the holster from the puppy and put it on the table. Puppy indignantly yelled and began to jump, gritting his teeth, demanding the continuation of the game.

    “Well, well, calm down,” said the father sternly, “There's nothing to bite.” Sit down, he ordered. The puppy, apparently remembering something, sat down obediently.

    “That's it,” the father said rather, and extended his hand to the puppy, “Everything, the world?

    Marina quietly closed the door.

    A minute later, she went out into the courtyard and sat down on the steps, placing a candle next to her. In the darkening sky the growing month timidly loomed. Marina sat and watched the stars light up one by one. For the first time in the past few weeks, her soul was calm. Calm, quiet and serene.

    “If you think about it, then something else is up to you. This war will long be hauled to us. And then a new one will certainly come, in a new guise and with new excuses. But it is not today. ”

    “Time, stand still,” she whispered out loud, “The clock struck a thin world.”

    I am very grateful to all of you who read, waited, commented, sent typos and shared thoughts and impressions. I am glad if this story appealed to someone, if she answered some questions, or vice versa - she asked questions.

    Special thanks to the editors for the opportunity to post non-core texts.

    As always, I will be glad to hear from you opinions, criticism or impressions - here, on VKontakte or in a blog (there are links in the profile).

    Thank!

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