Andrey Prudkovskii - Trilogy of Dhana and the Earth. Book one. End of the world

“That’s it,” he said, handing the bag to me, “goodbye, son! Go to Aunt Valya, give all these letters to her too and she will figure out where to hide them.” After that, he got into the car, quickly drove off and took mother’s body away.

I went to aunt Valya’s house. There was only Lyubochka. I said that we have trouble and that dad sent me to aunt Valya. Lyuba quickly contacted her mother mentally, even though her mother was many kilometers from home. Then she said that aunt Valya ordered me to go to bed and give letters to her. That’s exactly what I did.

I woke up because of the noise of motors outside the window. The street was full of soldiers; especially a lot of them were around the house of aunt Masha.

“If they come to us,” said Lyubochka, “crawl under the table and be silent. I will talk as my mother will tell me. Do not forget to put up protection, as in the game of hide and seek.”

Heavy steps were heard on the porch and who do you think came in? Semen Andreevich. In horror, I darted under the table.

“Hello, Lyubochka,” he said gently, “and who is it under your table?”

“This is my little brother,” Lyuba answered, “he is afraid of all strangers!”

“Where’s mom?”

“Mom is in the city. She passes the exam to become a doctor. She is a whole week there. And by the end of the week she asked us to go to her for the holidays. My brother has never seen a city.”

“Hm, it will be difficult for you to leave now, the whole village is cordoned off. However, I will give you a letter and an accompanying person; he will lead you to your mother.”

“Oh thank you! How kind you are! Mom always said that you are the most wonderful person in the world!” Semen Andreevich smiled:

“Well, see you!.. Hey Fedka! Here’s a pass for you, you will lead tomorrow these children to their mother, she in the city.”

Fedka saluted, looked indifferently at us and left after Semen Andreyevich.

“Now,” said Lyubochka, “we will save aunt Masha. Let’s join hands and try to make sure that no one receives a single reasonable word from aunt Masha, let everyone think that she is a complete fool. Then she will not be touched.”

That’s what we did. This turned out to be much easier than we thought. Aunt Masha was tired and really wanted to sleep, so it was very easy to get her to answer irrelevantly.

“Yesterday I was very tired. The calf was born. Spotty and funny like Pestruska. And then, at night, I dreamed of my little sister, as if she had come to me… Why are there so many dirty dishes on the table? I don’t have time to wash the dishes, at the weekend I’ll immediately wash everything… The shoes under the bed are sister’s, but if she actually was here at night, why did she leave the shoes? So she went barefoot or what?.. If you visit our farm, I’ll show you a calf, it is so funny!..”

Eventually, the interrogator spat:

“What can you expect of the fool!”

But events on the street continued to unfold. Three small cars skidded right through the meadow with great speed and sped off into the distance. These cars had no wheels; they seemed to fly above the ground.

“These are my beaters!” Semеn Andreevich said with pride.

He was sitting almost under our window in an open black car, and next to him was a general who answered:

“I prefer helicopters. Just in case, I called one. A volley of missiles is the end of all problems.”

“I want to take her alive. They say that she has a very unusual assistant, so the main thing is to get to him. Have you heard about the possibilities of a mental attack?”

“Well, that’s all fairy tales.”

“Not really, not really… A criminal who knows these methods is doubly dangerous. He can put into your head that he is not he at all, he can make you perform an action that you were not going to perform, and then forget about it. So don’t stop me from taking them alive. Now, if he mentally strikes me down, haha, then you can act by your own methods.”

Lyubochka and I nestled against the window and listened attentively to this whole conversation.

“Now he will be catching my dad,” I whispered softly to Lyubochka.

“Let’s unite, like you and dad,” Lyubochka suggested, “and come up with something.”

We connected. Lyubochka held our common defense, and I sent a thin ray to search for my father. I saw with his eyes a country road rushing madly at me. The car was flinging in different directions, but dad did not slow down. I said that he was chased by three cars without wheels, which are much faster than his own.

“Then,” Papa said, “help me create a ghostly copy of my car. We will put on the road, let them hunt after. And we ourselves will turn into the forest.”

So they did. And on time! Five minutes later, I heard Semen Andreevich talking on the walkie-talkie with his hunters.

“Well,” he told the general, “they’ve already caught him up, in five minutes they will immobilize him and brought here to us. The guys are persistent and protected from mental attacks.”

Five minutes passed, then another ten, Semen Andreevich began to lose patience. He was shouting into the phone:

“How can you not catch up with him?! Shoot the wheels!..”

“How can’t you shoot?!”

“Well, some kind of nonsense turns out. They can’t catch up with an old clunker!”

“Not otherwise than psychology pulled the rug out,” the general smiled. “Well, that is a thought.” Semen Andreevich closed his eyes and concentrated. “But it is true, there is no car there. They are chasing a ghost. But where is the car? Half a moment and I’ll feel, I’ll feel… Here is the necessary trace!.. 45th square.”

“Dad, he felt for you!” I shouted desperately.

“I can’t do anything with him,” Papa said, “his defense is impenetrable. Could you somehow distract him? At least make a small bonfire in his car.”

“Good! I will try!”

I focused towards the sun and thought about where to make a fire. And suddenly the nose of Semen Andreevich caught my eye. It was bulbous nose and I wanted to decorate it with something… After a minute his nose was fuming! I felt that both Lyuba and even her mother mentally support and help me. Semen Andreevich grabbed his nose in horror. And then all four of us (along with dad) dealt a mental blow. Semen Andreevich swayed and fell to the bottom of the car. Soldiers and doctors wererunning around. I heard someone say:

“It seems like a stroke.”

Semen Andreevich was wheezing, the foam was coming from his mouth. He was quickly put on a stretcher and taken away.

The general commanded on the street. He spoke with a helicopter.

“A car, not far from the road in the 45th square. Find it and destroy! Square has to be cordoned off!

“Dad,” I shouted, “fast get out of the car. They will destroy it.”

“I’m trying to get mom out.”

“Quicker, quicker!”

High in the sky above the village, hung a helicopter, and a smoky stream went from it towards dad.

“Lie down!” I shouted to him mentally.

“Well,” the general said with satisfaction to his assistant, “the car is destroyed, the square is cordoned off. If they are still alive, we will find them.

I contacted dad again, he was alive.

“But mom’s body died,” he said.

“You couldn’t save it anyway. Your forest is cordoned off and you have nowhere to run.”

“Well, we’ll see about that,” Papa said and turned off.

“So,” the general said a little later, “only fragments left from the car, a criminal is killed, but her accomplice disappeared. What will we do?”

“What if he hid in a square or got through a cordon?..”

“It’s simple. Shoot the internal cordon! Fill the square with poisonous substances! You can do right now from the helicopter.