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			   (The story, a fragment) 


                           PROLOGUE 

                  DUEL ON THE ICE CEMETERY 

     It was the ritual place fenced with hummocks and iced over 
Rocks. Two here have come, and one will leave only — differently what for in general 
Duels are necessary. 
     The folding metal container has already been prepared and filled by water. 
From it there was steam; water filtered through cracks and flew down on ice. Around 
The container fussed suggestory from a funeral command. Water cooled down quickly, 
And nobody wished to tighten time. 
     Both duelists understood, in what place are also that one will find 
Here eternal rest. Despite haste from which worked improvised, 
The event gave gloomy solemnity. Men were equally ready 
To die or live. On their severe persons nothing could be read. 
     Solving second has not come yet, younger indifferently looked on 
Invariably dark horizon. It was going to to go further on the West if remains 
It is live. Anything, except death, could not interrupt its travel. Here was another's 
Territory on which it has intruded, and all came to an end how should 
Was to end. 
     The senior has hung a head, looking downwards — there where under ice laid 
The frozen bared dead persons from its sort. Their persons have been turned to the sky. 
Hands still held the weapon. Someone showed the fallen asleep smile. At 
Some eyes have been opened... They were not bad saved, though a cemetery 
Was old enough and as if observed of an event from the depth 
Transparent tomb. He could not disappoint those who passed a code from the father to 
To the son. The destiny pursued all of them, and now has overtaken the last. 
     Ice parallelepipeds adjoined sides, forming the multilayered 
Burial place. Floors alternated according to age of generations. Such 
In the image the past got vertical extent. 

                        *    *    *

     ... After the shots have thundered, mortally wounded old man has managed 
To say only one phrase. He has thanked the enemy that the pupil 
Has surpassed the teacher. The continuity chain has not torn. Its desire also has come true 
To die here. It has easy passed the soul to the following. 
     Suggestory at once have undressed a corpse and have shipped it in water together with 
The weapon. The master of ceremony has fixed exact execution of the will. Later 
Even two hours have disassembled the container, and the next ice block has occupied 
The place intended to it in a permafrost. 
     The single who made the way on the West, was already far by then. 

                        1. RUINS 

     It all the same has found this city mislaid in the middle of the cooled down underworld. 
Now here vegetated no more hundreds people, and millions once lived. 
Looking majestic ruins, Loki contemptiously smiled. Among buildings, 
Burnt out from within and turned to monuments to horror, he was convinced of that, 
That personally to it has devilishly carried. The little honour to live after that has dropped out, 
As the Lord has started general cleaning. Generally the old man rather late 
Has thought suddenly — planetka it has appeared dirtied to impossibility. It was necessary 
To invite kompashku professional cleaners from a hell. Those knew the 
Business also have consulted quickly. Someone considered, that they even have slightly overdone, 
But was late. 
     And the epoch such, as Loki has then come. 
     Did not exist any more uncountable and rubbles. Everyone was 
It is swept up. Much depended on everyone — if, of course, not to hide a head in 
Ashes and not to wait, while will come superanimaly or suggestory and will select 
The last. 
     Loki itself time and again selected the last and knew, that an overwhelming part of people 
Never will change. In darkness, in a drink of eternal winter, mity still will be 
To dream of warm houses, a roof over a head, nourishing food; men — about 
Women, and women — about men and children. Supramentaly dreamt about more 
The distracted: a peace life, democracy, justice, music, free 
Laughter, the pure rivers, live trees and — to think only! — about the sun. 
Such simple and clear dreams. Naive and absolutely unrealizable... 
     But not all divide them. And if you select the last it is necessary to be 
Ready to desperate resistance. Sometimes planned a victim showed 
Rare courage, resourcefulness and speed. Loki it did not surprise and even 
The pleasure gave. One more hidden superanimal vylupljalsja from 
Rudimentary shell of civilisation also followed the road wars. Henceforth 
And up to the end — the single. 

                        *    *    *

     ... Loki went on chained in ice and prisypannoj snow to the earth. It it is excellent 
Saw in darkness. Tremendous beauty of a summer lightning of far thunder-storms flashed and 
Were poured over the dying world. The festoon lightings senselessly flickering under 
The fallen curtain from clouds. On their background the broken silhouette of a city seemed 
Absolutely alien and hostile education, colony of phantoms, place 
Gloomy miracles, which are necessary for overcoming to declare itself the owner 
Territories. The city threw down a challenge only one fact of the existence. 
     Loki went, not paying special attention to a gusty ice wind, 
Blowing towards. Blizzards were carried by by, throwing ldinki in the person. 
It was similar to game which was started by the mad child. So Loki 
Perceived the nature: the defective child who already never becomes 
The adult because radiation has destroyed a brain. The winter never will come to an end. Ice 
Never will thaw. The wool never will thin on body Loki — unless 
Will turn grey, as at all those who has managed to live till an old age. 
     The cold dominating outside, did not get deeply. Loki felt, 
As under a rough skin hot blood rages. The best seasoning to fresh meat. 
The big animal needs a lot of pair meat. It gave energy and force, but it 
Does not mean, that it could not manage without it. There were hungry periods, 
When Loki months forcedly sat on a poor diet, eating corned beef and 
Canned food. In the end he felt itself(himself) transparent to sanctity. Interest to 
Lives died away, and the woman would put it before a difficult choice: what 
In the image it to use. 
     In process of its advancement blind ruins grew, covering the most part 
The sky. In chaos of blockages a certain artificiality was looked through. On either side of 
The cars fallen down in three floor were piled up. Loki has estimated this huge 
Work. Someone used bodies to leave for strangers the unique 
Narrow and rather passable track. Judging by absence of smells, already 
The thrown. While Loki did not feel direct danger. Traps and mines 
Was not. It has drawn a conclusion, that for a long time nobody visited a city; on the extreme 
To measure, nobody tried to enter from the southeast. 
     The better. It without effort overcame obstacles. Hunger, which it 
Tested in last hours, was such as it is necessary: a whip of the kind 
The owner, forcing lazy cattle to move to a name of its rescue. 
On a place of the broken left canine was not in time yet grow new, but at Loki was 
Something is better: Gromoboj in a holster and Silent Fried in a sheath. That still a couple... 
     So, it is ready to all. During heavy times all"represented 
Long enough list. But at many in this list did not suffice only one, 
But the main point. Loki has received the major lesson in shestnadtsatiletnem 
Age when by miracle has survived after heavy wound. In delirium to it has opened 
Something which have considerably changed his life. And the life has got an unknown sharpness. 
     Since then every second Loki prepared for death. It became it 
Religion. He saw set of its masks: to a thicket — spiteful and disgusting, 
But sometimes — tender and indulgent. He knew, that at death long 
Hands and range of shooting from a sniper rifle at all a limit. 
     Except that which was sent each other by people, the death had one more, 
Mystical ipostas — That, That Comes In itself. It was most 
Terrible version — in any way it was impossible to affect it. From the person 
Depended nothing — at least at those levels of a reality, in which 
It could get and supervise. 
     Loki three levels were accessible. He heard about superanimale on a nickname 
Dragon who has mastered movings to time for the fourth and partial 
Transformations on the fifth. It was difficult even to present displays of the such 
Properties... But all it could be and fairy tales mitov of which those frightened 
Itself and the silly cubs in the ferro-concrete caves lighted up by fires. 
     Loki time and again was present on similar concourses. He pretended to be 
The exile, the wanderer, the lost the way governmental (!) courier — 
Also received a place near fire, food and water in the form of the kindled ice. Mity 
Were so are trustful and, apparently, a horse-radish did not feel! The death breathing in 
Nape to everyone, to anything them has not learnt. They sat round fire and listened 
Fairy tales. Night lasted long, vaguely long — people did not move with 
Place until hunger did not say the weighty word. Then 
Not numerous and badly armed small groups mitov, shivering with a cold and 
Fear, left refuges on searches of food and that, than it would be possible 
To feed up withering fire. 
     Loki left after them, but did not come back. Sometimes it collected a tribute. 
Sometimes injected a seed superanimala into any female who has liked it, 
More often the virgin. Hardly the posterity will appear viable, but Loki 
Counted on that laws of probability sooner or later will work and 
The quantity will pass in quality. It was one of the main tasks of its males 
Kind — to impregnate it is as much as possible females in almost hopeless search 
Ideal Nositelnitsy Programs. Queens. 
     But if once it all the same finds such becomes the most faithful 
The bodyguard near its bed-cradle, at any moment ready on 
Self-sacrifice. Their posterity will reach an evolutionary ceiling. And then 
The Earth will seem only an old crypt in which beings were created 
New race. For these any more there will be no barriers. Time, distances, gravitation, 
Energy — all will obey them. They can create a matter from vacuum and change 
Bodies with the same ease from what now change clothes. And then will reach 
Full clearing, definitively having destroyed flesh fetters... 
     Loki approximately knew, that the PROGRAM represents. However, and it 
It could appear the beautiful myth, thought up to support 
The hope which has run whom. 
     Young gods of the future instead of grown decrepit and svergnutyh gods of the past? 
To spit it wanted both on those, and on others. Blind belief in another's firm 
The superiority offended it. He believed only in itself(himself) — as in one of 
The owners who have divided this world on zones of influence. And sometime someone's influence 
Becomes total... 
     The most ridiculous about itself Loki has heard somehow from lips of one dying 
supramentala. That what for has handed over to the murderer an amulet — silver 
The cross — also has told, that Loki reminds it the ancient knight errant, 
Which worships to an ideal, but has lost soul, having made all mortal sins. 
To the lost soul are unknown ugryzenija. And time is not present them, means, there are no also regrets. 
     Lucky beggar Loki did not know really, that such a sin, wines and 
Expiation. It were abstraction for which it did not have emotions. 
Therefore he laughed, when others cried, and rose on the unattainable 
Height. 

                        2. THE FLOWER FROM THE BOOK 

     Poured sat near a fire and looked, how small Kesha plays with 
The dried flower. Shortly before it it has pulled out a flower from the old book. 
Both subjects by miracle were saved and passed from the person to the person, 
As if the greatest relics. As photos of the dead. As creeds. 
As fire. 
     Fire, the book, the dried flower... These things supported a life ready 
To die away at any moment. Such simple, fragile and short-lived things. They 
Became invaluable only due to a misunderstanding. The book and a flower could burn down in 
Flame. A paper once did of wood. Fire too devoured a tree. So 
Eternal circulation in which one perishes was made, and another is born and 
Comes in the stead of the dead. 
     Poured yet has not realised the place on this terrifying ruthless 
Roundabouts. And Kesha especially. It reminded it amusing, concentrated and 
A little a clumsy bear cub. But a flower it took carefully chubby 
Fingers — that is, something is absorbed with milk of mother. Nobody 
Explained it values of a flower. Actually, it was at all game. More likely 
Something like comprehension of the lost world. The kid did not see green glades, 
Natural flowers and butterflies flitting over them. He did not see also many other things. 
At the best there were mummies or the spoilt certificates of the past 
Magnificence which allowed to PRESENT something. 
     But that the four-year-old boy could imagine, looking on a bone, 
The dry flowers, the melted off buttons?. 
     Kesha held a flower and was afraid even to breathe on it. And so almost all 
Petals have flown. Book pages were saved little bit better. It was called 
"The collector of bones". Poured did not read it Keshe. Instead she 
Thought out histories with the happy end which told to the child 
Before a dream. 
     Poured was not present mother of the boy. That was lost about a year 
Back — has frozen, having got to a snow storm. It have found only on the fourth 
Days — a statue for which it was not necessary to hollow out a tomb in eternal at all 
To frozen ground... 
     Kesha itself has chosen to itself new mum. It has especially become attached to Poured, 
Which sometimes left to be nursed with four another's kids, though to it hardly 
It was executed sixteen. And now she felt, that cannot, has no 
The rights it to throw. 
     She absent-mindedly looked through the book which knew almost by heart. 
It is no wonder — after all there was nothing to read more. In the absence of the new 
Impressions Poured it was close familiar with not children's melancholy. Its imaginations 
Brightened up long hours of the compelled expectation. The uncle has learnt the Plenty to its reading and writing, 
When it hardly was more senior Keshi. But the boy is more capable and quickly develops. 
At times it seemed to it, what even too quickly... Soon and she will be engaged it 
Education is will allow to break off still a slice from a dark block of time, 
Pressed down it. 
     Kesha differed fair ingenuity and nimble mind, but at times 
Ran into a strange stupor, plunged into itself and long sat with the absent 
Kind as if stayed somewhere very far. Such minutes Poured outright 
It was frightened. It seemed to it, that in the opinion of the boy it is possible to see a shade of another, 
Much more adult, but dumb beings. Beings, with which 
It is impossible to find common language because such language simply does not exist... 
     By the way, the book too was about a doomsday. More correctly, about the person, 
Standing at the end of times. But how much there was a reality! 
The young Poured already has understood, that so always and happens. 
     The book and flower have replaced seven owners. Now they belonged to the old 
Leo. It still remembered a former life. Then it was morozhenshchikom. To think 
Only: sold to kiddies the frozen milk and fruit juice! Stood 
Hot denechki, and couples rolled on a grass. To park came bukolicheskie 
Grannies also fed the swans floating in a pond, and pigeons had a seat on a back 
Old horse whom called Ben. The life flew the turn, and at Leo affairs 
Went not bad. He sold ice-cream, and is frequent towards evening on all interested persons not 
Portions sufficed. This small, but very malicious joke of destiny has imposed on it 
Memoirs an indelible print. 
     But generally Leo was the kind old man and gave the book with a flower to any, 
Who wished to touch olden time and was not afraid to be upset. He hinted, that 
The book conceals in itself magic and once a flower WILL revive. 
     Poured the fairy tale for despaired knew, what is it, but her is sometimes valid 
Dreamt, as the flower revives... She woke up with tears on eyes and not 
Could recollect dream shades; there was only a sensation of heat, 
Light, the silent gentle music which were not existing in reality, and the love shining as if 
The small sun. Its beams concerned the closed eyes — and blind began to see clearly, and 
Black hearts started to bleed, and the earth thawed, setting free 
Green sprouts... 
     As to fire it belonged to all. It burnt in the Cave how much 
Poured itself remembered. Sometimes absolutely dimly, running across from luchiny to luchine; 
Sometimes — on holidays — so it is bright, that became distinguishable most 
Distant back streets of shelter. 

                        *    *    *

     ... Suddenly Poured has realised, that Kesha behaves too easy. 
Has turned a head — indeed. The same inexplicable condition of detachment, 
The same sight directed in internal space. The shades sliding in 
Pupils... The Wax person... The Slowed down, almost imperceptible breath... The Flower 
Motionlessly laid on its palm. 
     And suddenly the boy has told: 
     — It it is already close. 
     — Who? — Has asked Poured, at which has for some reason dried up in a throat. 
     — Babaj. Babaj it is already close, — has told Kesha it is surprisingly sad. 
     From its doomed kind at Poured has jammed heart. It has seized the boy 
On hands and the beginnings it to kiss, sentencing: 
     — Well you, foolish. Babaj will not come. Babaj comes only to 
To bad children, and Kesha the good... 
     Tear has rolled down on its cheek. It did not resist. Such warm and 
Tender mum... He has put to it a head on a shoulder. He did not wish it to afflict, 
Did not wish to see, how she cries. They were connected by a hidden stream. He felt 
Its accruing fear, as own. It was possible to be fenced off from 
Source of fear an impenetrable wall. To hide... For a while. 
     Kesha has closed eyes. But has at last whispered so silently, that Poured not 
Has heard: 
     — Babaj will come to all. 

                        3. DEAD ANGELA 

     Despite a youth, at Loki there was an extensive experience. He assumed, that 
Will tame natives uneasy. Usually on it days and left weeks. 
Happened, the truth, that it was released all in some minutes. A point in 
Unfortunate negotiations put Gromoboj. Definitively and irrevocably. After 
It seldom was job even for Silent Frieds. 
     But such episodes Loki considered as the frank failures. This city 
He searched too long, risked too many — and much has lost on 
Ways. So this time it was not going to to be mistaken. 
     Therefore he looked after in advance to itself(himself) a place where it would be possible 
To arrange a time haven. At first sight, problems with a living space 
Did not arise — the died out city gave a huge choice. But Loki 
Differed specific taste. It has not been spoilt, no. At the worst, 
It could spend the night and in snow, as made repeatedly. However 
mity with their primitive umishkami directly connected quality of a den and 
The status of its owner. Followed support this error, time it 
Wishes to achieve from them obedience and a worship. 
     On eyes long did not come across anything approaching. Having thought, it has rejected 
By miracle the escaped tower which stuck out of ruins as if the black risen 
The phallus punched by narrow loopholes. The terrible tower impressed with one 
In the height — it dominated over surrounding landscape, rising 
Metres on fifty and directly embodying idea of the superiority. But Loki 
Has correctly judged, that a construction, most likely, keeps on snivels, 
And each time to make dangerous and difficult ascensions for the sake of the doubtful 
Pleasures to observe of savages creeping below would be the silliest expenditure 
Time and vital energy. 
     Other extreme measure — gaping mouths of underground garages has soon turned up, 
Half brought by snow. Favourite places aged superanimalov, 
Which pulled on rest. Those suited to themselves reliable dens in the similar 
Holes, transforming them in catacombs convenient for defence with several it is good 
The disguised emergency exits. However, at sight Loki, it too 
Looked like voluntary premature funeral. No, it yet 
Hurried up to lie down under the earth. Night, open wherever one wishes, and 
Ice open spaces still suited it. He felt their silent call constantly, 
And movement could be the unique answer. Inactivity and stagnation 
Generated inexplicable painful melancholy. And if movement is impossible, 
Then there was one "medicine" — howl. Long lingering howl. Where 
More terrible, than melancholy songs mitov. And even wolves became silent... 

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