stirring like snakes from the electrical discharges of the enraged giant. Ray was so angry that he even levitated slightly above the ground! He looked straight into Zina's eyes, sending his deadly blue rays to her. And suddenly she just returned his own charge with her eyes… and killed him.
Now, looking at the angry bear, Zina mentally sent him a “shot with her eyes” that she was Zina the hybridomorph, and she was not afraid of him, she was smarter and stronger than him!
“GET OUT OF MY FOREST!”
Suddenly, the bear stopped roaring, ran its front paws along the muzzle from eyes to nose several times, shook its head, howled pitifully, then dropped to his four paws and disappeared into the thicket of the forest, loudly breaking branches.
Zina continued to stand motionless alone in the sunlit clearing, her powerful legs spread wide apart, her steep sides propped up with her hands. The basket lay in the tall grass, the bright red strawberries were scattered everywhere like drops of blood…
There was an unprecedented tranquility. Or got Zina just disconnected from everything around her?
Yes, right now she could concentrate only on one thing, what she refused to remember for a long time – that the blue blood of aliens flows in her.
She found out this by accident a couple of months ago, when the Frenchwoman Josie-Anne took blood samples from mutants to prove an alien impurity in their genes, and took of Zina's blood for a test… Just for the purity of the experiment, to show that one and the same red blood in mutants turns into blue under the influence of silver salts, while in humans it remains red.
And Zina's blood, to everyone's amazement, changed color to blue! Zina’s only, of all the people present!
Soon, everyone except Zina lost their memory during the tragic farewell visit of the mutant Ray. And Zina did not help anyone remember anything then!
Zina simply did not know how to live on with this knowledge that she was a hybridomorph. Therefore, she decided not to remind others of her blue blood as well – she hastily left the Island of Golden Zandolie, returning to Russia.
And she didn't just return home then. She went to the very outback, to the abandoned village of her great-grandmother, to live alone and try to understand herself. But instead, she kept walking through the woods, re-reading old books from her childhood and kept driving away any thoughts about aliens, mutants and her friends – Denis, Julia, Scott and others…
How did the life of all these people, once dear to Zina, go on? She cut the connection with everyone. She felt different, new. Life has changed forever. But how exactly, Zina did not yet know herself…
Today's incident with the bear knocked over not only the basket of strawberries, but also the whole temporary inner peace of Zina, which she had been building so carefully for several months! She needed time to think, to learn to live with her new, extraterrestrial talents.
Then on the Island, Zina killed the huge mutant Ray, although she did not want to. Now she stopped the giant bear! This means she can send signals just by a glance.
What else can she do? Levitate like Ray? Throw lightning? To invent unprecedented devices like flying submarines, as Ray did together with Denis and Scott?
Denis assured her that, most likely, Ray had something like the memory of generations, that the knowledge of his late alien father, the Golden Zandolie, was passed on to him. Maybe she, Zina, too received some sacred knowledge from her distant alien ancestors?…
A basket of strawberries remained in the forest. And in a small wooden great-grandmother's house, Zina pulled out her laptop from her backpack, which she had never taken out since she arrived into this long-extinct village… Of course, the laptop could not be turned on. The cell phone was also completely discharged.
Zina seemed to wake up from a deep, lethargic sleep. What was she doing here, without electricity and communication?! Why did she need this stack of children's books with scattering pages? Why does she need these stubs of candles, a smoked stove with a pot, bunches of dried flowers and mushrooms? What did she hope to find here, burying herself alive in the wilderness?
True, Zina has noticeably lost weight. Long walks in the woods and a diet “whatever God has sent”, healthy sleep in the same schedule with the sun and in general “life without the Internet” gave their beneficial results. Zina became healthier, stronger… and even more confident in herself.
Quickly collecting her simple belongings, she went on foot towards the nearest road to catch a bus or a ride to the city.
… Finally, Zina was at home. She carefully stowed the hunting rifle in the safe, hastily pulled out the laptop and put it on the charger. Then she stood in the shower for a very long time!
And then for a while Zina stared at herself in the mirror, which was unusual for her. Too tall for a woman, broad shoulders, large breasts, brown eyes, long very curly dark hair, straight nose, small mouth and high forehead. Not a beauty, of course, but not a freak either!
Zina had a husband quite recently, a programmer, just like her – Denis. But that was already in another life.
Ever since she found out that she has blue blood, Denis and the rest of her friends seemed to have moved to a parallel world for her, lost their significance… Why? Zina had no answer…
Now she was waiting for her laptop to finally work and thinking about her ex-husband and ex-friends. She didn't help them remember everything.
Then on the Island that old pirate Roger remembered everything, but easily agreed with Zina not to remind anyone of anything… She wondered, if he let himself to blab during all this time… and where and how the fates of Denis, Julia, Scott, Olga, Vladimir, Jean-Paul developed…
Jean-Paul! Did he manage to prove the existence of hybridomorphic creatures on the Island of Golden Zandolie? He had his notes, photographs sent by Denis, reagents with blue blood of mutants… and Zina's… Was this enough to make a revolution in anthropology? Did Jean-Paul manage to remember based on all these sources? It was imperative to find out about everything and help him, if possible!
Was Zina under such severe stress that she fell out of real life for such a long period of time? Maybe she felt like a monster after killing of mutant Ray?
…Suddenly, another memory from life on the Island knocked her from her feet. Here she is in the dungeon of Scott's fort house with two machine guns at once, chaotically shooting a huge solid door to the maze of lava tubes and yelling strong obscenities, frightened by the approach of black mutants… Yes, she was very scared then, on the island.
…And here were even more ancient flashes in memory, also creepy ones, when she looked directly into the orange eyes with a vertical pupil – the eyes of the alien, Golden Zandolie…
She didn't lose her memory… that's probably why she almost lost herself!
… Now she managed to rest, improve her health, recover. The laptop finally logged on, updated all apps.
And finally, Zinа's mailbox opened up. There were so many letters, but mainly of work correspondence, some orders for new IT projects!
Zina also found some personal letters. And all from Denis, her ex-husband and colleague! It's funny! Ah, well, of course, he sends her the new work…
And here is one letter from Denis, very heavy in weight. Photos? Yes! This one was of Zina sitting at a table in a restaurant on the waterfront “Fort Charles”.
