continued to go forward. The city was left far behind. The Kruglovs were shocked by everything that had happened to them during these days. They all thought about the same thing as the world they knew could collapse in just a few days. And Igor only realized now that the hotel was completely empty. But why? He immediately shared his thoughts with his family. Father did not answer, he looked at the road, not looking up and saying a word. Mother shrugged her shoulders, and Sergei answered:
“It seems that there was an evacuation, only not everyone was notified, besides, the hotel is mostly stopped by the rich. They could be notified in the first place”.
"It's logical," Igor agreed. And he added:
“Now I understand who was addressed to the soldier's phrase in the alley” (these bitches left us here).
"To the city government," Sergei guessed.
At that time a black BMW flew past their car. It started to rain, and the sun was almost gone, my father had to turn on the lights. On the road it was somehow deserted, but after the next turn there was a traffic jam, because not a single Kruglovs leave. There were at least twenty cars ahead, but there was not a black BMW anywhere. Apparently had time to somehow slip through. Some drove around the cork along the roadside, the benefit was there were only fields. Father for a long time, without thinking, also decided to go round, the truth is that he did not have a car complicated the task. But he did not hesitate to turn off the road without uttering a word. After that incident in the hotel, he did not speak, it already began to frighten. After driving around the cork, they realized what was stopping the movement. A terrible drama unfolded on the road. Right along the road lay the turned side KAMAZ, and on the side of the road there was a little black BMW with a completely smashed and crumpled front, Kruglov recognized in it the car that had overtaken their car a few minutes earlier. Suddenly, the BMW opened the back door and out of it came a young girl with a bloody face. After standing a second, she slowly slid down onto the grass. Father first hesitated, but then turned a little closer to the black car and stopped the "Gazelle" (The Kruglovs had such education to help their neighbors). Cars rushed past, but no one stopped. "Now, you do not get out of the car," his father finally said, but he said it somehow dryly. With these words, he got out of the car and went to the girl. As luck would have it, the rain increased, the wind rose, it became very cold. The girl opened her eyes for a second and lost consciousness again.
"Live," thought Vitaliy Andreyevich with relief. Without thinking twice, he picked up the victim and carried it into the minibus. The girl was put on the seat far away from the door. Drenched to the skin, his father returned to the cabin. At this time, the mother, Sergei and Igor were engaged in mysterious guests, wiped the blood from their faces, as there were many minor abrasions and cuts, they bit a head, sealed the cuts with plaster, but the girl did not come to herself, even after they gave her a sniff ammonia.
"And now what?" asked Sergei, flopping down on the seat.
"I do not know," Igor answered, sitting down next to the girl next door. And he added:
“I think we can only wait; we did everything we could”.
The others agreed with him. And her mother only now realized that she was not afraid anymore of the type of blood, and even honored herself somehow more confidently than before. At this time, "Gazelle" returned to the track. Cork, accident and noise of cars were far behind, and in general cars came across less and less. The fields were replaced by a dense forest. The sun had set, it was night. His father turned on the light and asked:
"How's our stranger?"
"No change," Igor answered, ahead of his mother, who had already opened her mouth.
He looked at the girl, she was somehow nice and beautiful even in this state and more and more liked by Igor. She was wearing jeans, sneakers and a beautiful black jacket, which was now stained with blood. At this time on the road from somewhere out of the woods came "Alive". The minibus almost fell on him. The father managed to react, only in the light of headlights flashed the face of the dead man and his lifeless eyes. After an hour and a half Kruglovs finally reached the village. But there was another surprise waiting for them.
Chapter 2
The minibus stopped near the place where there used to be a pillar and an index with the name and direction to the village, but there was not any sign and pillar in it. And if you do not know that there is a village here, you can easily drive past. The Kruglovs had a bad apprehension, besides, the mysterious girl never recovered. Kruglov senior turned left and pulled out of the road (the village was located two kilometers from the road). It was already completely dark, the rain whipped like a bucket, it's good that the road was asphalt. After some time, the asphalt was over, the dirt road was on, it was more difficult to go along it, since it was already beginning to blur the rain. Began to come across at home, but no one could see any lights, it looked pretty eerie. As if the whole village was extinct. Finally, the minibus drove up to the right house and stopped. The headlights lit up the house. The windows were tightly hung, on the first and second floor (Kruglov still built up another floor in the summer), the gates are closed. The father muffled the engine, there was a silence, it was heard only how the rain drummed on the roof of the car.
"I'll go and look around, and you're not a step away from the car," his father broke the silence and with these words left the van.
On the street, a thunderstorm was already raging, lightning flashed and thunder was heard.
Vitaly Andreevich drummed on the small door to the left of the gate, but in response there was only silence. Then he repeated the attempt, suddenly the thunder of the storm blocked the dog barking. Mukhtar, "his father guessed, at that moment the light of the lantern flashed through the crack of the wooden door and a senile, slightly hoarse voice asked:
“Who is there?”
The owner of the voice was clearly very frightened.
"Father, open it," Vitalii Andreevich choked out. And then I felt such joy and relief.
“Vitali is you”!?
The voice of Grandfather Andrey was not trusting.
“Yes, yes, it's me”.
For a moment silence reigned, then there was a squeak and the door opened, in the opening appeared a terribly thin old man in a black twist with a hood. In one hand he would have a lantern with which he shone in Vitalii Andreevich's face, in the other there was an old rubbed rifle, his hands trembled noticeably.
"Jesus, is it really you, are you all here?" Andrei Prokhorovitch spoke again.
It can be seen that he hardly believes in it.
Vitaly Andreevich also could not believe that he saw his father alive and well, but quickly took himself in hand and said:
“I'll tell you later, now help me”.
For about fifteen minutes everyone was in the house and warmed themselves by the "round" stove. The girl was transferred to the bed near the window in the gorenka (not a large bedroom), after removing her wet sack from her. Themselves are located in the gornitsa (which is like a living room), as almost half of the already small kitchen was occupied by a large Russian stove. In the room was darkness, it was lit only by the light from the open furnace and the candle, which melted on a small table between the two armchairs. Grandmother was able to calm her strength when she saw the Kruglovs, she burst into tears, and everyone began to embrace, because she thought she could never see them again. It was a small fat woman with neatly folded into a bump already gray hair and gray big eyes. The Kruglovs also had difficulty in restraining emotions, because in fact they had no idea what was waiting for them, and seeing that everything was
