out, get out of there! Ah-ah-ah! I’m healing, – the guy said, retreating, inserting armor plates and reloading the weapon.
– They want to give us a nuclear strike! yelled the teammate.
– I’m not a rat, I’m a tactical mouse! – the guy shouted at the camera, playing to the audience, knowing that people love “bread and circuses.”
– It’s a cheater! – the voice of a teammate was heard, who was firing with the enemy. The boys were tensely silent. Nikita was also silent. He also knew what he was getting into. Nothing special. But each time, fear crept into the soul when the hand entered the numbers into the settings window. Nikita no longer noticed how he did it.
– Eat up! Finish it!! Finish it!!!
By joining forces, they diligently destroyed the enemy team and soon the coveted sign “Victory!” appeared.
– A Hachiko simulator, not a game, – a friend in headphones rejoiced. – Sweaty skating rink, tired of sitting out at home. Go find them.
Exhaling tiredly, Nikita chuckled.
– So guys, I’ll have a smoke and coffee, – and by pressing the button, I changed the splash screen on the stream with the news that the streamer will be back soon.
The smartphone vibrated quietly, reminding us of the time that had come – seven in the evening. Smiling, he grabbed the phone and went to the kitchen, dialed a message on the go: “Hello! How was your day?” and sent, along the way clicking the kettle button. After washing with cool water, the guy patiently looked at the screen of the smartphone, but at the same time nervously tapping his fingers on the tabletop. A painful half-minute passed, which seemed like an eternity, and soon a quiet sound of a message was heard. Breaking into a stupid smile, Nikita read:
– Tired a bit. Are you still playing?
He quickly typed: “Yes, we are getting ready for the tour. Will you cheer for my team? and sent. The answer came almost immediately: “Of course. I’ll be on the stream. By the way, I did my homework in physics, give me a copy? Smiling at all thirty-two norm, Nikita replied that he would be grateful for such an opportunity. She seemed wonderful to him, the most-most. Kind, beautiful, interesting. Hormones seethed, I wanted to spend all the time with her. But the intended goals did not allow them to behave imprudently, because only by reaching a certain height it was possible to secure a decent future for themselves and support a beloved girl who would sooner or later become a wife.
Sharply opening his eyes, Dimka looked around. An old abandoned house and suspiciously lively silence. That feeling when nature whispers something in your ear, frightening, more and more inflaming your imagination. Looking around, the guy jumped up from the cold floor. The boards creaked plaintively and buckled. Looking around the room, the student was convinced that he was alone. At first it seemed to him that the room turned over and he was hanging in the void. Ignoring the strange dizziness, the guy threw his former rookery on the floor, climbed onto the table and pulled the broken lamp towards him. A wave of trembling went through the wall. Puffs of dust rose to the ceiling. Laughing gloomily, Dmitry waited for his vision to recover, the dizziness to recede and the room to find its true face, after which he quickly jumped off the table and took a few steps, sat down behind the heavy door and looked through the keyhole. Behind the door was a strange room, a wall with long incomprehensible wires rippled anxiously and crawled to the side. Closing the door behind him, he instantly cleaned himself up and ran downstairs. Now he looked back very rarely, only when necessary. The obsession vanished, and the latch turned easily in the slots. The old photographs on the walls shook. Someone chuckled nearby. Dimitri cautiously walked down the dark corridor, cautiously peeking around the corners. The corridor led him to a large room, in the center of which stood a circle of television screens and bedside tables with spare parts for them. Nearby lay a dirty and rather large cockroach, and another one, fleeing away from the place where an unknown drama had just unfolded. And who gave the beast freedom? Out of the corner of his eye, Dimka noticed a suspicious object on the floor and looked up. There was a small duffel bag against the wall, obviously new, with a small emblem of a snake devouring its own tail – Ouroboros. He knew this logo – it was the one he saw on the website of the strange online project.
Blinking once more, he was completely rid of the hallucinations. He was in an abandoned house, dirty and uncomfortable. Not the worst place Dimka has been to. Having contacted a bad company for a couple of years, the guy often visited unfinished and abandoned buildings, tasting alcohol. But once again returning home and finding his parents drunk, he quit once and for all, not wanting to repeat the fate of the family. He had no friends, since Dmitry preferred that people listen to him and accept only his a priori correct point of view. Seeing an attractive advertisement, he applied without hesitation, wanting to get out of the house in the first place. Everything got him. Eternal quarrels, tears and fights. Relatives were coded several times, but again and again returned to their usual way of life, not wanting to change their lives. There was no money to study at the institute, and Dmitry did not even count on entering the budget. For a while, despair flooded him so much that he began to skip classes and, as a result, stayed for the second year. The company in which he hung out was sometimes engaged in petty theft, and Dimka quickly became addicted to easy money and things. Why work when you can take what lies badly? He understood that this path would sooner or later lead him to a tragic ending, but he could not stop. He delayed the moment of the inevitable denouement, hoping sooner, later or sooner… He was sure that he would never be caught, he would still be in one of his invincible holes, and no one would find him there. The lack of goals and motivation made him vulnerable to society, so Dmitry tried to look self-confident and arrogant in the eyes of others – he really was like that. But after all, this kind of his “impudence” gave him a chance that society lacked so much. Dima was not a slave to any idea. He had no illusions about the social order and the purpose of human existence. This was his half, and it was a pity that he did not have the other.
Now examining an ordinary non-residential house, Dimka wondered where he was and what he was doing here, but there was no one to give answers, as always. Opening the bag, he found a small flask of water, a dry ration, and a vial of dark purple, almost black, crystallized powder, slightly gleaming in the dark light. Opening the bottle, Dima gently sniffed, remembering chemistry lessons for the first time, as if directing the aroma with his palm in his direction, but did not detect any smell. Assuming that it was potassium permanganate, he put everything back into his pockets and, zipping it, threw the bag over his shoulder and left the house. Walking along a country road, Dmitry realized that he was in a small abandoned village. On the house in which he was found a small painted sign of the same Ouroboros. The neck hurt suspiciously. Touching it with his fingers, Dmitry discovered a strange contraption – round, more than a centimeter in diameter and smooth to the touch. But now there is no time for this, there are more serious problems. Going forward, the guy found another house with exactly the same sign.
“Whoever didn’t hide, it’s not my fault,” he concluded, and knocking out the flimsy door from his foot, he stepped forward.
– Chapter 3-
Thorns without roses
Opening her eyes with difficulty, in the first second the girl was frightened of pitch darkness. And only when I got used to the dim lighting did I realize that I was at the bottom of the well.
“I thought you wouldn’t wake up,” a voice said dryly in the darkness.
– Who is there? – the girl jumped in surprise
