“Do you like risk?”

“Only justified and within reasonable limits. I will not put my own or someone else's life in danger for the sake of thrills. But for the sake of my own or someone else's salvation, I'm ready to jump off the bridge at least.”

(from Rina’s interview for the Constellation portal)

With a loud snort, the bus moved off, and Rina clutched the cold handrail in horror.

“Come on, sit down,” the conductor giggled nastily, exposing sharp fangs and sniffing. “Sweet, lively girl…”

Rina pressed her shoulder blades against the door, but the creature, although it did not take its carnivorous gaze off her and grinned predatorily, kept at a distance.

Cutting through the twilight with the dim light of the headlights, the bus drove forward, taking Rina from one terrible place to another. Her mouth was dry from fear. It seemed that all the words stuck to the larynx. However, don't shout, who will help her here? Here is such an inglorious ending to her short life – as a reckoning for what she has done.

The conductor did not take his eyes off Rina all the way, but he was no longer grinning, but for some reason worried: he moved his nose and fiddled with his long yellow fingers with a pot-bellied bag made of cracked dermatin.

“Sweet girl. Sweet. The grapes are green,” he muttered rapidly, fidgeting in the seat, then trying to get up, then leaning back in the seat again. Rina didn’t understand what was happening, it seemed that some force was not letting the conductor to her. He began to get angry and no longer just glared at her, but also growled like an animal.

“Amusement park!” the driver announced in a squeaky voice, like unoiled hinges. The bus braked with a loud groan. Rina barely had time to recoil from the doors as they swung open with a bang.

“Have fun, girl. Take a ride,” the conductor growled goodbye when she had already jumped to the ground. The doors slammed shut, the terrible bus started moving, and Rina exhaled noisily.

However, the hope of salvation was not justified. As soon as she stepped into the park, the gates slammed shut by themselves. And no matter how Rina pulled them, they never gave in. She had no choice but to go to the place where the rides worked, laughter and music sounded.

Rina walked along the dimly lit paths and couldn’t get rid of the feeling that someone was sneaking behind her. But looking around, she didn't see anyone. It was as cold here as in the town. The darkness hiding the lawns seemed alive. Rina, shivering not so much from the cold as from fear, walked forward along the path, afraid to get off it and be dragged by invisible monsters. Out of the fire and into the flames! Besides, the wrong world, like a vampire, pulled the remnants of her strength out of her.

The path led to the center of the park, and Rina seemed to be on a brightly lit stage. At her appearance, the crowd of idlers suddenly parted, laughter and voices stopped at once. The eyes of adults and children were directed at Rina. Hunger was clearly visible in their sparkling eyes. But no one dared to approach her, on the contrary, when she walked through the parted crowd, they recoiled from her. And even though these creatures were muttering, sniffing and grinning, Rina realized that they wouldn’t touch her. She got the feeling they thought she was dangerous.

She reached the Ferris wheel, which, at her appearance, suddenly trembled and began to move. Rina went behind the fence and climbed into one of the booths. The creatures remained below, no one followed her, and Rina, closing her eyes, exhaled with relief. It seems she got a little break and time to try to open a new portal. She had almost no strength left, so she had to act for sure. The booth was slowly rising, and Rina, looking down at the park from a height, imagined it to be different: deserted, silent, with signs destroyed by bad weather and attractions frozen forever. The way he was in reality. If she gets out into that deceptively terrifying abandoned park from this-scary-festive, inhabited by the undead, she will be saved. The wheel made almost a full turn when Rina finally gathered the courage for the last jerk and imagined how she took off the safety chain and stepped out of the cabin onto the cracked asphalt, through the cracks of which tree sprouts were making their way. She imagined that there was no one behind the rusted fence, the wind nearby was fluttering a half-torn signboard, and a sparrow was jumping on a broken bench. Rina visualized the park so clearly in its unsightly real form that she really saw it that way – through the gap that appeared between the parallels. But at the same second, the wheel suddenly shuddered and froze, as if it had been abruptly stopped. Rina looked down in fright and saw that it was several meters to the ground - there was no way to jump off. The crowd of undead below became excited. Realizing that she had lost her only chance of salvation, Rina moaned in despair.

Upset, she didn’t immediately notice that she was no longer alone in the booth. Therefore, when she heard a muffled voice, she screamed in fright and stared in horror at the man sitting opposite.

“Who are you?” she asked abruptly.

“Friend,” the stranger said and grinned, revealing sharp teeth.

“Rina?” Nikolai called, not taking his eyes off the Ferris wheel. The booth hanging a few meters from the ground was empty, but he recognized Rina, even though he had only seen her for a moment. Stas gave the right hint. How Rina got here is a secondary question, it remains to figure out how to get her out from the wrong side, where there is no way for Nikolai.

He measured the distance with his eyes: it was high, but it was possible, as if on a rope, to climb up the curved ‘pipe’ to which the ‘cradles’ were attached.

Nikolai calculated the distance once again and mentally imagined each of his actions. The plus was that he was in good physical shape. In the negative - wounds and strong wind. Won't he stumble, won't the bandages on his arm interfere? It's very easy to fall off. One wrong move and he won't collect the bones later. But Nikolai didn’t doubt for long. Rina obviously tried to open the portal, but couldn’t. Either she didn't have enough strength, or something happened. It was this unknown ‘something’ that pushed Nikolai to a desperate act. Maybe if he somehow makes it clear that she is not alone here, it will help her find a way out?

“One in the field is not a warrior. And together we are a force,” Nikolai muttered, pulled off his jacket and grabbed the handrail of the booth closest to the ground.

He climbed onto the roof without difficulty. He quickly grabbed the metal pipe and carefully straightened up, trying to keep his balance. The main thing is not to look down.

He needs to imagine that he is just pulling up on a home horizontal bar or climbing a rope. And everything will work out! He once climbed a tall tree with a smooth trunk, so that later he could crawl along a branch bending under his weight to the high fence of the academy. The fact that one day this branch still broke off, Nikolai decided not to remember: the wrong moment and the wrong situation.

He got to the second booth quickly, climbed over the railing and rested for a while. A strong wind was beating in his chest and face, but Nikolai again clung to the handrail and stood on the fence to climb to the roof.

He made a mistake at the moment when he almost reached the goal. From the erroneous movement, the booth went to the side, and Nikolai almost fell off. At the last moment, he grabbed the pipe and hung on, realizing with horror that the ‘cradle’ returning to its place would throw him to the ground. Instantly imagining the consequences of the fall, Nikolai

jerked his legs up and threw them over the railing, immediately released his hands and sprawled on the floor of the booth. Saved! He leaned his left hand on the seat, carefully straightened up and only then felt the pain. Doctor-who-doesn't-ask-about-anything prescribed him rest. And it is unlikely that the rest meant acrobatic sketches on the ‘devil's’ wheel.

Nikolai sat down heavily on the seat next to the place where he saw Rina. From the pain, consciousness was confused, everything blurred before my eyes, blood appeared on the bandage again. He got there, and then what? Portals, like Rina, he doesn’t know how to open. How to let her know that she is not alone? Don't shout, don't call, don't call - Rina won't hear. How to save her if the danger is not visible this time? And yet Nikolai quietly called:

“Rina? I know you're here. You're not alone, do you hear? I'll take you out of there because…”

He took a breath, but he could not admit that she had become his vulnerable point, a sore point. Instead, he said what he had to:

“You need to come back because they are waiting for you. Because your place is not there, in the dark, but under the spotlights, on stage.”

Nikolai fell silent again, not knowing how to say that Rina is the sun in itself, which is not afraid of any darkness. That without her, without her voice, it would be dark for too many people. And, especially, one person…

“...Who ate your candy,” Nikolai finished aloud a strange monologue, part of which he uttered in his mind.

Others followed the memories of sweets: how Rina fed him soup, how she charged his phone, washed his clothes and entertained him with stories. And now he himself began to poison out loud funny cases from cadet times.

Whether she heard him or not, Nikolai didn't know. But at some point, putting his hand on the ‘steering wheel’ in the center of the cabin, instead of the cold metal, he suddenly felt warm, as if he had touched someone's hand. The feeling was so real that Nikolai froze, afraid to believe that he had managed to ‘break through’ to Rina. But the next second the delusion was dispelled by a loud bell. Nikolai cursed softly and fished his phone out of his jeans pocket.

“Yes, Rubik?” he replied with annoyance.

“I found out about that guy,” the hacker said unexpectedly quickly, and without stretching the words. “He's not alive. He died. Or rather, he went missing while performing some kind of task. But almost no one survived there, so he has been considered dead for twenty years.”

Nikolai silently listened to Rubik’s report about Eugenie Sitsov and thanked him. And the hacker suddenly added:

“Listen, there are so many interesting things there! I'll do some more digging.”

“Just don't get caught,” Nikolai asked, even though he knew it was useless: Rubik has been walking on the edge for a long time and one day he will fall off. And by hacking the military network, he found a new form of entertainment.

“Even if I get caught, you're still the customer,” Rubik chuckled and disconnected.

Nikolai put the phone in his pocket and again thought irritably that the hacker had destroyed the delicate contact with an inappropriate call, which he barely managed to find. Touching the steering wheel again, he naturally felt only cold. What a pity that Rubik, this brilliant fellow, can't hack another parallel!

“I'm your friend,” the stranger sitting opposite repeated and bared his sharp teeth in a creepy grin. He was so thin that his khaki shirt hung on him like a raincoat, and his trousers were gathered like an accordion on his skinny hips.

“Friends don't grin like that,” Rina blurted out. She barely managed to keep herself in control: the undead were already scaring her to the point of fainting, and the military uniform unwittingly brought her back to the nightmare she had experienced on the island.

“I smile as much as I can,” the stranger said, leaning back impressively in his seat. “Everyone here is like that, see?”

“I see.”

The booth suddenly swayed violently, as if someone had pushed it. Rina screamed in fright and clung to the fence. The stranger jerked his head and lifted his lip, sniffing anxiously, but then turned back to Rina.

“What do you need?” she became emboldened, realizing that the undead were not going to attack.

“To talk. We have something in common: we are both marked by the world of the dead. That's why I can get close to you. But they don't.”

With these words, the undead nodded at the crowd gathered under the attraction, which buzzed, growled and scratched the air with clawed fingers. Rina shuddered and hurriedly turned away. A truly difficult choice of two evils: a crowd of monsters below or one monster, but within walking distance.

“They feel that you are alive, but they can't attack. If it wasn't for your peculiarity, you would have been torn to pieces long ago. Everything alive is a delicacy for them.”

“So I'm a poisonous delicacy,” Rina sneered.

“You can say that,” the stranger grinned in a grin.

“What do you need?” she repeated the question, because she never got an answer.

“Help.”

Rina involuntarily smiled: nothing strange. Now the undead will surely start crying, how they, the unfortunate inhabitants of the shadow world, want to return to the world of the living!

“I need help keeping them here. Something's going on. The boundary between the worlds has thinned. I'm patching it up, but it's still spreading. I can't do it alone anymore.”

“Wait,” Rina interrupted, touching the steering wheel with her hand. “I thought you were dreaming of returning to the world you once lived in!”

“They dream! Even as they dream! Because they're hungry. They haven't been human for a long time. This world changes everyone. But what happens if they break out into your world? Look at them! Take a good look! They will stop at nothing. There was nothing human left in them. Hunger has replaced all feelings!”

“Why aren't you like that? Why are you patching up the holes?”

“I have a duty. It doesn't let you turn into a monster. It's my duty to patch up the holes. You can do it too, right? Must be able to!”

“I can,” Rina didn’t hide, realizing how to act. To put pressure on the sense of duty! “Recently I also ‘patched’ one of the holes. But I'm not sure that forever. It can… spread out again. Something's going on, you're right.”

“Here! It's nice to deal with an understanding person.”

Rina smiled modestly and continued:

“I'm also… pleased that we understood each other. I need to get back as soon as possible to keep an eye on new holes.”

“No,” the undead suddenly snapped.

“What?”

“I said no! They are just waiting for the passage to open. You stay here and help me keep them here.”

“Damn you!” Rina was angry. And for a moment, her anger caused a small gap between the parallels, and Rina suddenly saw Nikolai. She saw him and couldn't believe her own eyes. Maybe it's a mirage? But at the same moment Nikolai covered her hand with his palm, and Rina clearly felt the warmth.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Who's here?” the creature jerked its nose, cast a tenacious glance to the side, and the gap was instantly covered with darkness. “You're not getting out of here. You won't get out! Drop your tricks. I won't let you open the portal!”

“I don't have the strength to do it,” Rina lied, feeling the strength awakening along with the hope that had been born.

“If you open the portal, they will break out! Is this what you want? Do you want to get into your world at such a price? At the cost of the death of innocent people? Children? The undead hissed, leaning towards her.”

Rina recoiled and shook her head in fright.

Time passed, but nothing happened. It didn't happen here, in his reality, although there, in another parallel, something clearly happened. Nikolai felt this and therefore could not find a place for himself from anxiety. Rina was near and, at the same time, far away. For some reason, she couldn't open the portal and exit. And Nikolai could no longer ‘reach out’ to her.

The stock of stories had run out, and now he was silent, intensely thinking what to do. Time passed, the morning blossomed with a timid light. It seemed like an eternity had already passed. Where is Yura? Why has he been gone so long?

Nikolai got to his feet, and the sudden movement caused the booth to sway again.

“Sit and calm down,” he ordered himself and pulled out the phone that rang again.

“Hello,” came Rubik’s lazy voice on the phone. “I found this here.”

Nikolai barely restrained himself from letting all the dogs loose on him. He's not up to hacker discoveries right now! But when Rubik spoke, he listened to him with increasing attention.

“Don't push yourself,” Nikolai warned. “And it's better not to touch anything else!”

“Calm. I'm not a fool.”

“I'm going to need your help again. And we will return to this case soon. Do you hear?”

Instead of answering, there were short beeps on the phone. Nikolai put the phone in his pocket and only then noticed that the booth was flooded with morning light, but a narrow strip of shadow remained nearby, as from a door ajar into a dark closet. Without wasting a second, he stepped into this shadow and seemed to plunge into the damp coolness of a stone basement.

Nikolai saw Rina first. She was sitting in the same place where he had noticed her earlier, shivering from the cold, but at the same time concentrating on looking at her feet. Hearing a rustle, Rina raised her head, and her eyes flashed with joy.

“And who is this?” a skinny creature in a frayed military uniform asked dully. Nikolai sat down on an empty seat and, copying the intonation of James Bond, introduced himself with an ironic smile:

“Melnik. Nikolai Melnik.”

Imperceptibly, he extended his left hand to Rina, and she firmly grasped his palm, betraying her fear.

“Melnik? Is it Sergey’s son?” the creature asked and wrinkled his gray-skinned forehead.

“That's the one.”

The undead stretched his mouth in a creepy grin, apparently expressing joy, and held his palm a meter from the floor:

“And I remember you like this! You were small, big-eyed and nimble! And what a handsome and heroic man he has grown into! The spitting image of Sergey!”

“I hope we won't look at photo albums?” Nikolai inquired and lightly squeezed Rina’s fingers, supporting her. She is a brave girl, since she bravely withstood the company of this monster. Looking at the creature was not just unpleasant, but scary. It's one thing to see such idiots in films, another is right in front of her.

‘Half-mummy’ appreciated the irony, laughed hoarsely and held out a bony hand to shake.

“I can't, alas!” Nikolai refused and showed a bandaged hand. “Don't take it as an insult, but the doctor recommended rest.”

The creature was not offended, because it laughed hollowly and shook its head:

“Bold and audacious! Just like Sergey. Eh, Sergey… I'm Sitsov Eugenie. Don't you remember me, kid?”

“I can't say that I found out. Time, alas, has not done you any good.”

Sitsov. So that's how it is. That's what happened to him. For a second, Nikolai had a blasphemous thought: maybe it's for the best that his father died, and did not turn into this…

“You could have lied or kept silent,” Sitsov grinned. “As straightforward as Sergey. So what are you doing here? Did she let you in here?”

Sitsov shifted his gaze to Rina and shook his head ruefully.

“You lied, then? She has no strength… I warned you! You shouldn't have dragged him in here. He won't survive! They won't touch you, you're special: marked by this and that world. But they will tear him apart for his sweet soul. Is that what you want?”

Rina drooped, and Nikolai stroked her palm with his thumb, trying to calm her down.

“So you came for her? I see that you are holding hands. Only in vain did you, Kolya, get in here! I won't let her go. So you're staying here, too. Fortunately or unfortunately, not for long. Look down. Haven't you noticed yet? See what they are: angry, hungry, they can't wait to break into your world.”

Nikolai looked down and involuntarily shuddered when he saw a crowd of scary creatures below - thin, with burning eyes and sharp teeth.

“If they smell you, and they do, they'll get in here,” Sitsov finished.

“So let us go. We will pass so that they will not have time to slip behind us.”

“You don't understand. I need her! To restrain them. I can't do it alone anymore! I patch up these ‘holes’, and they all spread out! New ones appear! I can't do it alone! Imagine what will happen if they come to you! Introduced? That's the same thing! I managed to keep everything under control for a long time, I got used to it and became like a general or even a president for them. But I will not keep them here by any orders if they find ‘gaps’! And those gaps are getting bigger. I mend one, the other appears.”

“I know,” Nikolai replied calmly. “Gennadiy Sergeevich gave me this task - to find and…”

“Gennadiy Sergeevich? Gennadiy Koshelev? Alive?”

“No. He died the other day.”

“Well, it serves him right, a coward and a traitor! He tucked his tail between his legs and ran away,” Sitsov suddenly got angry. “Your father died on duty. I'm here… doing my duty. And Gennadiy, then, lived a quiet and carefree life.”

“What happened there?” Nikolai asked quietly. “I know there were trials, but something went wrong. A recruit who was returned has disappeared…”

“Vitaly. I returned him,” Sitsov said and cast a worried glance down. “They smelled it. You shouldn't have gotten in here… Now try to calm them down! See what these experiments have led to… there is, of course, my fault. But then I tried to warn you, only who started listening to me!”

Sitsov leaned over the railing again and loudly chuckled at the crowd, and then turned back to Nikolai.

“It was an order ‘from above’. We were assigned to test a new development. Part of us was quiet, inconspicuous – there is no better place for secret assignments…”

Sitsov said that a special training ground was equipped in the forest behind the garrison. Everything was hidden and disguised. Coils, antennas, and radiators were installed. But something went wrong, and the tests failed. While studying the result and looking for who screwed up - engineers or those who conducted the tests, Sitsov got a call from an old friend - a scientist. He went to Asia for some kind of program and lived in Korea for many years. This scientist told Sitsov that he had been engaged in an important project for a long time. Eugenie found the story interesting and… in the subject! He shared his thoughts with Merinov, the curator of the experiment. Two engineers and Sitsov were sent to South Korea. The conversation between the specialists turned out to be interesting. But in a private conversation, a friend told Eugenie that there was more harm from new technologies than good, so they were eventually abandoned. In confirmation of his words, the scientist took Sitsov to the village where the new antennas were installed, and demonstrated empty streets. Radiation disabled equipment, affected the health of residents, destroyed animals and birds…

“Your father and I tried to get the cancellation of these tests or at least their transfer to another place, away from populated areas,” continued Sitsov. “And we partially achieved our goal, because the first test was not held with us, but at one of the northern bases. It was successful: our fears were not justified. Therefore, after some time, it was decided to repeat the tests with us. Merinov then came to us more often, and visited almost daily. At least I wasn't personally present on day x. It seemed that everything went well. We didn't get the desired result, but nothing bad happened that day. Sergey and I decided that we had worried in vain and calmly exhaled. Later we found out that important information was hidden from us: after some time after the tests, people began to disappear from the northern base. Some of them were found torn apart, as if by a beast. And then something similar started in our garrison. With these experiments with the electromagnetic field, we have broken through the boundary between the parallels. The first recruit Vitaly disappeared. This idiot wandered into the epicenter. While your father was covering the blunder ‘from the outside’, I went after the soldier the same way he disappeared. That's when we realized that we had ‘punched’ a tunnel or, if you want, a portal to the northern base. We have returned the recruit. And no one knew how to ‘patch up’ the spreading ‘holes’ in which people disappeared. It remained only to try to find every missing person. But things got out of control. People disappeared en masse. I saw what they were starting to turn into. Yes, and I myself, spending a lot of time in another parallel and trying to get someone back, began to lose my usual appearance. But suddenly acquired another feature: ‘patch’ holes from the inside. By that time, too many people had already disappeared. Someone like your father managed to take the family away. Someone, like Gennadiy Koshelev, under the same pretext, and he himself fled. I don't know how he managed to turn the situation around and stay in the capital. And Sergey and I were left to take our breath away. He's on the other side, I'm on this side. That's the story, Kolya. You already know how it ended. Your father is dead. And I, so to speak, live here. For a long time everything was fine. But now the holes have started to appear again. I recently patched up one of them. A guy your age fell into it. Photographed everything here.”

“Yura.”

Now it became finally clear why the journalist saw the park from the ‘wrong side’, and Nikolai and Vika, who arrived later, didn’t. Sitsov managed to ‘close up’ the gap.

“Maybe Yura. Is he your friend or something? In general, the holes reappear, merge and stretch into a new tunnel. I can't handle that.”

“You can't do it,” Nikolai agreed. “Because there will be many such tunnels soon. Technologies are improving, goals are becoming more complicated. The current goal is a network of portals. What is planned now is nothing compared to what happened in the past. It's like trying to compare the test of a radio-controlled car with the launch of a new generation rocket. You patched the hole here, Rina - at another point, Vitaly - at the third. But these were just trial tests, ‘warming up’ before a large-scale action. And soon your efforts will become useless. Even if Rina stays here, there's nothing you can do.”

“How do you know?” Sitsov was alarmed.

“Gennadiy Sergeevich suggested something, I guessed something myself, a friend found something. No matter. Another thing is important: ‘manually’ you will not be able to cope. No way. And no matter how much you scold Gennadiy Sergeevich, it is he who is now worried about the consequences of… launching an entire network of portals. Unfortunately, he died. I suspect that it was removed. But we understood what he wanted to tell us.”

“We?”

“Me, Rina and someone else. If we become aware of the coordinates of the place from which the launch will be made, we will try to prevent a catastrophe. But for this we need to be there, not here.”

Sitsov silently drilled him with bleary eyes for a while, making a difficult decision. But Nikolai didn't look away.

“You won't cheat?”

“Would my father have cheated in that case?”

“Melnik’s son,” Sitsov grinned approvingly. “A nice son has grown up with Sergey!”

The wheel creaked into motion, and the cabin slowly crawled to the ground. Rina, who had not intervened in the negotiations before, could not restrain a victorious smile.

But the fact that they were in a new, more terrible trap, Nikolai realized only when he stepped on the ground.

The crowd waiting below perked up when they saw them with Rina. And someone even bared his sharp teeth and growled deep in his throat. Rina recoiled and tightened her grip on Nikolai’s palm.

“Jesus,” he muttered. “I feel like a ‘star’ who came out to the fans without protection. And what to do, sign autographs?”

“Run!” Rina yelled and, pulling him after her, crashed into the crowd. At first, Nikolai decided that she did it out of shock, but the undead suddenly parted in front of her. And already rushing through the predatory sniffing crowd, he remembered Sitsov’s words that Rina wouldn’t be touched. The inhabitants of the wrong world sense a special power in it that does not allow them to approach it.

When the undead were left behind, Rina slowed down slightly, but not because, as Nikolai mistakenly decided, she was exhausted, but to cover the rear. The creatures followed them, but did not approach while Rina was running from behind.

“Run! Don't slow down! Even if it hurts!” She screamed, thinking he had slowed down because of his wounds. But Nikolai grabbed Rina by the hand to cut part of the way through the lawns. The abrupt change of trajectory gave them a head start: the undead ran forward by inertia, and then, bumping into each other, began to awkwardly turn around. But Nikolai and Rina were already rushing to the gate. There, in the living world, the day was already in full swing, and here a dull twilight was clouding. Nikolai only now noticed that there were no other colors except gray shades. In this way, the park looked more dead than in ordinary life. The underworld was inhabited by emaciated creatures with eyes burning with hungry fire and sharp teeth. What a terrible fate befell those who, through someone else's fault, became an inhabitant of this parallel! And how cruelly Sitsov was punished for his noble deed. A high goal for the good turned into trouble - an inverted world, wrong values…

They reached the gate. Nikolai pushed them with force, but the doors did not open even an inch, as if they were tightly soldered.

“Closed?! Damn! Fuck! Oh, my God! Heavenly angels!” Rina wailed, pushing the gate. From the gate, she darted to the fence, wondering if it was possible to climb over it. The undead immediately split into two streams.

“Rina, we are not splitting up!” Nikolai shouted, having figured out the plan of the creatures. But part of the crowd had already wedged between him and Rina. The undead trapped him, surrounded him, forcing him to press his back into the gate. Rina unsuccessfully tried to break through to him, because the creatures, though they parted, immediately closed the formation. Frightened, Rina was rapidly losing strength and, therefore, invulnerability.

“Damn it! Let me go!” she screamed, swearing, and panic prevented her from concentrating.

The creatures came close to Nikolai, someone smeared claws very close to his face. The fact that he did not have long to fight, Nikolai realized more clearly than clear: behind him - locked gates, in front of him - hungry undead. And Rina, terrified to death, is rushing around very close, screaming. It seems that Sitsov, despite his loud words about duty, has already become completely evil: he allegedly let them go, but in fact sent Nikolia to certain death, knowing that Rina wouldn’t be touched.

The icy metal of the gate chilled his back, his sense of smell caught the stench from the creatures that came close. Someone growled in Nikolai’s ear, his cheek was covered with stinking breath, something pricked his neck, as if a claw had been poked into his skin. That's all. Rina desperately shouted his name. Late. Nikolai involuntarily squeezed his eyes shut, preparing to meet death, but suddenly the gate behind him gave way. Having lost his footing, he began to fall, but someone supported him.

“My God, we barely had time,” Vika’s frightened voice rang out.

“On time!” Yura responded, who didn’t let Nikolai fall.

“Where is Rina?” Nikolai asked quickly, but he already saw her being carried out of the park by an unfamiliar man with a half-ray head. As soon as Rina got to her feet, she immediately rushed to Nikolai, ran into him from a running start, hugged him tightly and pressed her face into his chest.

“It's okay. We got out,” he whispered and touched the top of her head with a light kiss.

A warm blanket appeared from somewhere, which fell on her shoulders and covered Rina with her head. Vika was already hurriedly unscrewing the lid of the thermos, letting out a strong coffee spirit, which suddenly made her head spin. Only now did Nikolai realize how tired and weak he was.

“Kolya, sit down,” the assistant was alarmed, noticing that he swayed. Rina fumbled under the blanket, leaned out, but didn’t release her hands. She was shaking either from chills, or from the experience, so Nikolai took off his plaid, swaddled Rina in it, and then hugged her and led her to his car. Rina didn’t resist, silently climbed into the back seat, moved to make room for Nikolai, and picked up a plastic cup.

From the sweet strong coffee, strength gradually returned, and my head cleared up. Nikolai even hoped that he would be able to get to the capital. Vika, stopping in front of the open door of his car, hurriedly broke a chocolate bar into uneven pieces. A man with a half-gray head, who introduced himself as Vitaly, was silently smoking his second cigarette on the sidelines. And Yura, excitedly waving his arms, talked about the trip.

Vitaly immediately agreed to help and took a blanket, chocolate and a thermos of coffee with him. He also forced Yura and Vika to drink coffee and eat a sandwich before the trip. Vitaly drove the car to the park to give Yura a rest.

They arrived at the place when dawn began timidly to pull the veil of twilight from the surroundings. Nikolai’s car was parked near the gate, and Yura and Vika ran into the park. A little apart, Vitaly followed them. Sometimes he stopped to look around and listen to something.

They ran around the whole park more than once until they found a jacket abandoned near the Ferris wheel. Yura and Vika stopped in front of the attraction, looking at the empty booths, and Vitaly left with another detour. But he soon returned and announced that he saw the exit near the gate, so he should wait there.

“We stood and waited, probably, for an eternity, but nothing happened,” Yura said. “And then Vitaly suddenly pushed me away and pulled the door. You fell out of the gate backwards. While I was catching you, Vitaly took out Rina. What happened there?’

Nikolai’s story was brief. He kept silent about the meeting with Sitsov and what he learned from Rubik. Rina also didn’t add anything, silently drank coffee and wrapped herself in a blanket. Fortunately, Yura decided not to ask further: he saw how tired they were, and he himself could barely stand on his feet.

“We'll take Ilya back again,” Yura broke the silence that hung. “How are you? Maybe you'll look for a hotel to relax in?

“What kind of hotels are there?” Nikolai was surprised. “We'll get there. Thanks for the coffee and chocolate. In reality, this is the elixir of life.”

There was another long pause. Nikolai got out of the car to say goodbye. In the light of day, the bruise blooming on Yura’s swollen cheekbone looked particularly frightening.

“I'm sorry. I was wrong.”

“Never mind. Besides, most likely, it was I who ‘brought’ the tail.”

“Never mind,” Nikolai said in Yura’s words and smiled. “Thanks for everything.”

They hugged briefly, realizing that they were saying goodbye for good. Vika stared at Nikolai, but didn’t dare to speak first. He himself stepped up to her and hugged her tightly.

“Thank you very much. And take care of yourself. It's a pity that this is how it all… ends.”

“Kolya?” Vika began and stopped. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she didn't wipe them away.

“Take care of yourself,” Nikolai repeated, already addressing both Yura and Vika. “And you'd better go somewhere.”

Right now, without wasting time while there is an opportunity.

“I can't,” Vika shook her head. “I have a sister here.”

“Well, then I'll stay too,” Yura said suddenly. “And you?”

“And we… I still have some unfinished business. Duty, so to speak. Please don't dig any further. All. This is the end of the story, do you understand, journalist? And don't look for Rina anymore. No need.”

“Understood, boss,” Yura grinned sadly. “It's a pity we didn't eat shish kebab. Well… another time.”

“Another time,” Nikolai replied, knowing that there would be no other time.

Vitaly silently watched their farewell from the side. Nikolai thanked him, too. And he kept silent about what Sitsov saw. It's better that Vitaly doesn't know that his savior has become one of those predatory creatures. Albeit with its own code of honor.

Rina returned the blanket to Vitaly, wrapped herself in the jacket Nikolai offered and climbed into the front seat. Nikolai started the engine and blinked his headlights, saying goodbye to Vika, Yura and Vitaly standing near the second car.

The road rolled out flat under the wheels, the day promised to be clear, but their future with Rina remained hazy.