Who are we? Thriller, short stories
Шрифт:
There was only one way to get to your destination, along a dirt road. For this purpose, he agreed with the companyof the taxi profile that he would be taken to a certain place and after three days they would pick him up from this place back. The main thing was that the car was cargo and passable, with an experienced driver and other requirements that Ruslan voiced to them through the dispatcher.
РRenan sat in the kitchen, drinking in the fragrant tea he'd bought the day before, but he couldn't quite remember the name. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see two large backpacks of different colors, brands, and materials lying in the hallway, waiting to be taken to the woods tomorrow.
"I have to go to bed, get up early tomorrow.
Opening the window in the kitchen halfway, Ruslan slowly wandered into the bedroom, as if reluctantly, under duress. On Monday morning, he woke up early and couldn't even immediately remember what time he fell asleep. He ate breakfast and, after looking through all the rooms of the apartment, put one backpack on his back, grabbed the other with his hands, went out into the courtyard of the house and sat down on a bench. There was a morning fog, but it was so thick that a person with a rich imagination would immediately imagine that the giant had put the kettle on and forgotten to boil it. The taxi car did not appear in the courtyard by the appointed time, but just two minutes later, with a delay, Ruslan saw two fog lights driving into the courtyard. He picked up his backpacks and walked towards the car.
– Hello, – said Ruslan very cheerfully, but the driver did not answer him anything. He got out of the car without a word, opened the trunk door, and lit a cigarette.
"I quit," said Ruslan, just as cheerfully, but still trying
– I agree, we should quit, but this job is difficult, constantly on my nerves, – said the thin driver in a very rough voice.
– I also thought so before, now I don't regret it, – said Ruslan and got into the car.
The car moved very smoothly, although it was very large in size. A couple of times Ruslan tried to start a conversation about something withvodafone, but remembering that he met him unfriendly, he changed his mind several times. Nor could he offer him a topic of conversation. On the road, two people were traveling in one car, one of them had driven and loved cars all his life, could fix almost any car, did repairs in his garage on the knee of the entire transmission and the engine itself. The second person never drove a car, he was even afraid of them. At work, although he always needed a car to install the air conditioners, he always had a partner who was also a driver.
One wanted to return to the city and sleep for a day, the second-to leave the city faster and not sleep for the first day.
At some point, Ruslan realized that he was sitting on the riverbank with a spinning rod in his hands. There was no bite, but it was so quiet that he wanted to go to sleep so badly that he put the fishing rod on the stand and began to throw himself in the backpacks, feelingout something that looked like a mug, coffee, matches, a pot, and so on. The list of things necessary for making coffee turned out to be so large that Ruslan at some point simply dumped out of both travel bags all the things on the grass, which was still wet with dew.
Looking around and not finding a can of coffee, Ruslan clenched his teeth and, taking a deep breath, exhaled slowly.
– How so?" Well, like, put it in a bag, how so? – said Ruslan very quietly, so that he would not be overheard by accident and the fish would not be scared off.
The fish had never pecked once in all the time he'd been ashore. It was very strange, because on the surface from time to time it appeared and playfully dived back.
– What kind of place is this?" On the map, everything was clear, here is a river, tut forest, here are small foothills. It's strange, because of the location, but I don't remember how we got here, maybe I fell asleep on the way, or rather, I dozed off. It's been so long since I've been out in nature that I'm not even used to it. "Half out loud, half to himself," thought Ruslan.
He rewound the spinning rod and placed it next to the tent he was going to put up and hadn't built yet. The idea of gathering some herbs in the nearby forest came to him immediately.
He didn't take anything with him, because he was going to walk two hundred meters in one direction and back. The edge of the forest was just visible. But after a while, Ruslan felt tired, although it was already close to the forest, but he did not reach it in any way. There was nothing to do, or rather, there was something, and this is without variations.
"Coffee, where did that jar go?" Maybe the taxi driver stole it while I was sleeping. Come on, would he bother with this jar if one trip in one direction cost me a salary for three days, – everything was spinning in Ruslan's head, and there was no answer.
Les began with a thicket that consisted of shrubs and grass as tall as an adult. Actions that Ruslan did not plan initially, completely took him out of rhythm and balance. He wanted to get back quickly, eat his breakfast, and go to sleep in the tent.
– Ruslan Viktorovich. At some point, the man who was barely walking through the forest stopped abruptly and even straightened up and stopped moving.
"Who's there?"
– Ruslan Viktorovich, you, of course, just now thought that you have a fever or you ate some berries in the forest. That's not so. You have an excellent state of the body, you can walk on your feet, you can breathe.
– What's going on?"
"Nothing happens until nothing happens," they answered, but Ruslan looked around and saw no one.
– I need to sit down, I'm sure I have a fever or something, I don't know, I don't know anything, I don't understand, I don't know…"
Ruslan felt a surge of strength at some point and quickly got up.
– Why did you come here?" – What is it? " the voice asked in a very low monotone.
"Well, that… Go fishing… Rest… From everyone… After making long pauses after each word, Ruslan uttered it as if during an interrogation, and fell silent, waiting for the answer from the voice.
"We've been waiting a long time, we've been informed," the voice said, and went on.
– You, Ruslan Viktorovich, of course, are puzzled about who I am and what is happening, you are tormented by doubts about the reality of what is happening. And what is reality? Do you know that?" Ruslan was silent.
– How do you distinguish your life from a dream?
–Mmm-yyy – aah, – Ruslan mumbled, trying to formulate something clever, starting to realize that he was facing some kind of superintelligence.