Chapter Ninth

Lambda is the alpha, And tau is twice pi, And gamma rays, happy gamma rays Penetrated all over me.

***

— So what was that spectacle with the present about? — i asked Sasha who was starting the car.

— Ah, that? Remember i said i’m a fanfic writer? Well, i don’t only write text-only stories, i’ve been participating in a few indie game circles, — Sasha finally fired up the engine and inspected me, — All set? Then forward we go!

Our old sedan started unexpectedly sharp, forcing me into the back of my seat.

— So, as i was saying, i was involved with making a few small scale games. One of them we were making with Orpheus. Actually, it was he who introduced me to gaming and gamedev in the first place.

After bouncing on a few holes, the car finally broke onto a relatively good road. It was still bumpy and i could imagine i would have felt dizzy if my vestibular system wouldn’t have improved since my youth.

— And that first game we were making was pretty much sheer parody. So, that phrase Orpheus said was one of the lines by an early NPC. I was really quite surprised he still remembers it that well. But then again, he spent a lot of time rehearsing it.

Sasha abruptly stopped talking to take care of a sudden problem on the road. We were driving through the relatively small forest belt separating (as i learned some time later) the town into “old” and “new” parts; and on this narrow forest road a car was abandoned perpendicularly, so we had to bypass it on the opposite line.

As we passed by it, i kept staring at this strange situation that appeared out of nowhere and was probably going to return there a couple turns later. The car wasn’t damaged or even all that old by local standards. The most peculiar thing about it was that its windows were wide open.

Despite all that Sasha seemed to not treat the car as anything but an obstacle.

— Huh, so that’s how it is, — i finally replied to her explanation after we ended that maneuver.

— Yeah. Honestly, i have no idea why am i even telling you this. It would probably have been better preserved as inner joke.

Our conversation died at that and next five or so minutes we drove on in silence.

***

Spectacle of spectacles was truly spectacular. It could have won any possible award humanity could create. It could have changed human destiny forever.

It could have, but nobody watched it. Nobody. Ever.

***

Watching winter dawn from the pedestrian bridge over railway station wasn’t something i had been doing very often. As a matter of fact, that day it was the first time i did so. The scenery was impressive to say the least.

It wasn’t the stereotypical “first sun rays emerged from the red horizon and lit the surroundings” thing, or whatever is usually said about such occasions. We did not see neither sun nor its rays at all: the eastern sky was filled with clouds. They weren’t too thick though; and the change from dark grey to yellowish grey to pink to bright yellow was beautiful.

And yet another thing was the ghost-looking town awakening. Old multi-storey apartment buildings first looked like simple black shadows, with only few lit windows. Then they started to turn grey, light in windows flipping on and off. And as they turned grey, their true state started to show.

I wouldn’t have been surprised if i would be told that town had been hit by war. Buildings were visibly disintegrating, some apparently abandoned, with empty windowless frames; some still inhabited, despite half of the roof being collapsed. But as far as i knew, there had been no war in these parts for quite some time.

Then, the cars. Of those few we could see, all were either old or covered in a brown dirt, or both. Some were just empty car skeletons. I imagined most of them will turn into car-shaped snow mountains later in the winter.

Then, there were trees. Dead-looking, weirdly shaped trees, which Sasha described as “our mutant trees”.

This may sound depressive, but to me the whole picture, especially in its dynamic, was beautiful. Perhaps, it was a certain harmony between ever-changing ever-lasting sky and slowly dying human dwelling. Perhaps it was my deeply hidden hatred towards all human. It doesn’t really matter.

— Train’s coming, — said Sasha returning me back to reality.

I refrained from a bad pun and instead gazed into direction she pointed at. There was a train there alright. Or at least something that looked and sounded like a train. But compared to modern train we rode in a day before, this was a relic of the past. Even from that distance i could see its weird angled shapes, its old pantographs, its driver seats.

Slowly we started descending to the platform. We had no need to haste for the train wasn’t in a hurry either.

Only when it arrived did i realize that Sasha was still with me despite my supposedly secret meeting with Blue. I looked at her. She stared back.

— There’s no need to worry about such details, — she said, as if answering to my unspoken thoughts.

***

Dark static was spreading through the veins of the city. Someone’s terror was feeling its lungs. Soon there will be no more.

***

Only one person left the train on the platform and for a moment i thought that maybe the whole train was riding only to get him here. Of course, it was Blue; of course, he was still wearing black leather. And apparently he was neither surprised nor alarmed to see me in a company.

While he was walking towards us, the train left the station.

— Morning, ladies, — Blue said, still hopelessly trying to sound british.

— Hello, Синий, — Sasha answered first. Her voice betrayed mix of excitement and confidence in her superiority.

I mumbled something for a greeting.

— The job is done, the pay is due, — he then cut straight to business, never-minding Sasha’s present.

— But of course, — i replied. And then, after a pause, added, — What were his words?

— Didn’t say nothing dramatic. Asked me to return a rooster that he owed to a neighbour.

— So that’s how it was, huh?.. Did you return the rooster?

— Oh yeah, i did. Had a few troubles with that damn bird.

I put right hand into the inner pocket of my jacket and after a bit of search took a piece of paper out of it that looked like an old school shop cheque. A few pencil marks were made on top of it. I took extra effort to make them readable, so instead of my usual free-flowing cursive it contained a bad parody of regular typed script.

— Inferno, nineteen one-fifteen, — i pronounced missing part of the message.

Blue took the paper and inspected it curiously.

— Interesting way of doing business you have indeed, — he said, pocketing the precious thing, — Do you always use such old ones?

— I only use those whose authors had been dead for at least seventy years.

— The rumors about your humor were certainly unexaggerated.

All the while Sasha stood silently, few steps away from us.

— So are you two acquainted or what? — i finally asked question that had been bothering me for a while.

— Hmm, how should i put it?.. — Blue considered this a bit and finally added, — Everybody knows Sasha in these parts. And as much as i don’t like trusting famous people, i have no doubts about her.

— And, — Sasha added, — despite Синий is not as famous as me, i’m informed well enough to know him.

And so the pieces of puzzle started to fall in place.

***

There was a knock on the door, then two more. Then, nothing.

Five minutes later air conditioner turned on, relieving the room from various scents which were the last evidence of events which perhaps never happened.