Денис Седов – One step into Tomorrow (страница 9)

No sounds.

Just a different world.

I rose from the bench located about five meters from the transition zone entrance.

I took one last look around—as if saying goodbye to this entire world forever.

"Wait! Hold on!" came a shout from behind.

Semyon and an accompanying soldier were running across the lawn, breathing heavily. Each held two avoskas—yes, the most ordinary string bags from the Soviet era. And inside them—sealed "spam cans" of ammunition.

"Forgot these!" the winded handler shouted. "Two cans each! As we agreed!"

"Are you serious? How am I supposed to carry that? That’s forty-five kilograms right there," I grunted, looking at the string bags. "I’m already loaded like a packhorse, and now I have to lug four more cans!"

"This is payment for the locals," Semyon replied in a calm, didactic tone, not stopping his work. He was already wrapping the string bag handles with duct tape to make them easier to hold. "You just carry them over the threshold. After that, it’s not your concern."

"Remembered at the last second," he added apologetically, looking more at Makar than at me. "You have to pay for Nikolai. For the treatment. And for escorting you to the Nest, too. They’re serious people over there, you know, and they don’t like exerting themselves for free."

At the same time, he stuffed a pack of pryaniki into one of the bags.

"We’ll talk later," Makar interrupted him grimly.

I nodded, though my back already ached at the mere sight of the load.

"Just grab them like this and carry them over the threshold," Semyon repeated. "They’ll meet you there."

Meanwhile, Semyon continued to demonstrate exactly how I was supposed to carry these four cans of ammunition in string bags.

I felt as if I had walked into a theater of the absurd; the scene was so ridiculous and surreal that I couldn’t help it—I laughed out loud.

"Where on earth did you find string bags?" I managed through the laughter. "Was there really nothing better? Like… bags, or something?"

"Good thing the Americans have flown off and don’t see this," Makar smirked, clearing his throat. "Oh, Semyon, I’ll remember this…"

He threatened him with a clenched fist, though his face still showed traces of laughter.

"Only a human can pass through the threshold," Makar continued more calmly. "We tried sending a drone, a rover—nothing worked. Useless. Like hitting a wall. We even tried a dog once—it just resisted as if there was simply nothing there. The Threshold only lets a human through—and whatever is on them."

"Well, Godspeed, Kostya," Semyon said quietly, hugging me goodbye. "Don’t be sore; I’m buying the drinks when you get back!"

"Fine, I won’t forget," I smiled and clapped him on the shoulder.

I said goodbye to Makar.

He squeezed my hand firmly, man to man, without a word. Just a nod.

In that gesture was everything I needed.

I approached the entrance.

Took a deep breath.

And stepped through the opening doors.

Chapter 5

Beyond the Threshold: Serious People

It all happened in a fraction of a second.

I took a step, and… the sound vanished. The smell of damp earth, the sky, the wind—everything dissolved as if I had been torn out of the familiar world. There was no light, no darkness, just nothing. And in that void, I suddenly felt something collapse behind my back. Like a door I had passed through had slammed shut silently, but forever.

And then—a sharp blow to the senses. Heat, the smell of burning earth, a metallic taste in the air. I was standing in the middle of a street buried in debris. The sky was grey, murky, as if blanketed by ash. The city around me resembled a war zone: shattered facades, twisted storefronts, riddled walls, and a strange, viscous silence.

One step—and you're in hell. But hell wasn't fiery. It was dusty, dead, and oppressive.

I moved. The body armor squeezed my shoulders, the backpack pressed against my lower back, the string bags pulled at my hands, the rifle was held to my chest—everything was in place. Only my heart was beating as if it were trying to break free. And not from fear, no. From a wild, animal sensation: you are on the other side now. That’s it. There is no way back.

A metallic screech came from a nearby alley. I froze, instinctively crouched, and shifted my gaze to the nearest cover—an overturned concrete slab. I carefully set the string bags with the ammo cans on the ground. My fingers settled on the safety. My body was already living its own life, falling back on instinct, while my mind was still trying to accept what was happening.

Then, a wave of realization hit me: I am in "Tomorrow"!

This was no longer our world. Everything I had seen in clips, everything I had been told, seemed like distant theory. And now… now every breath, every step was part of a new reality.

And yet, I was alive. That was the main thing for now.

Now I had to move. Find cover. Orient myself by the map. Get to the point. To the Nest, where Nikolai was waiting.

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