Сергей Жарковский – Creature of unknown kind (страница 8)
Having waited a moment, ensign Bashkalo licked the mustache, sticky with blood, lowered the barrel of the machine gun and said into space:
– And what now, bitch? Is that all, bitch?
Meanwhile, two hundred million years ago Vadim was smothered by an enormous sun, by overwhelming heavy, damp odors, making his knees weak, knocking him down and tossing at the same time. And he fell with his eyes shut, not painfully but heavily on the left side and left shoulder, as if somebody had snatched him back and thrown him to the left. He knew for sure that he had already fallen, struck the ground, but inside everything continued to fly, to churn, howling with cold in the lower abdomen… and a huge wet rough palm grabbed him in that place between the ears, where the balance control center of the brain is located, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it to another huge wet rough palm. And back. And
He waited. The panic of the five senses subsided with his eyes shut. Signals from the periphery appeared: “It's wet!”, they informed him. He opened one eye and immediately saw a prehistoric bennettite flower on its stalk, bent in front of his nose. Vadim shook himself up. With one eye open, somehow the head wasn't spinning.
He was sitting in the thickets of Wollemi, his last “flare” was giving off smoke in front of him, dirty gauze strips were hanging on a stems of strange grasses, including his own, the clean one with the ball, wet with drool. There were also a few rusty nuts thrown by Alex the Aspirant. The sun was pressing from above, it was sweltering, the air was bitter, and one had to literally drink it, rather than inhale, so dense it was.
– July 14, 64, 765, 563, 122 BC, – said Mumbler aloud, without hiding. Not two hundred million, but also nice. Please shave, like dad said.
Vadim looked around. Behind him was a pile of some kind of a fern, from which some kind of bamboo tree protruded. Not bamboo. Dinosaur-like, with scales. On the left, in an Ilex's embrasures, which was not focusing in the eyes, glistened either a hairy lake or a Savannah, simply flooded with water. Everything was sparkling unbearably, everything was wet, everywhere were rainbows. On the right there were impenetrable bushes. Not bushes. Something green and impenetrable. The Lost World, the “black” Conan Doyle in eight volumes. All this did not interest Vadim; he had already come to his senses. He was interested in the way out. From here, from this side nothing clearly indicated the time hole, but even in this heat there was a feeling of heavy chill on the sweaty back, cold from the Zone. The hole was there and the hole was open. Vadim was surprised: the temperature difference was very high, dozens of degrees, there must be steam, it should be steaming like bath doors in winter. But there was no steam. Vadim looked at his wet dirty hands. Seemed like he was sitting in the puddle. The ground under his ass was deeply slushy, saturated with wet humus; brown water flooded the dents from his palms right before his eyes. Something buzzed past his face like a slow bullet, Vadim twitched the head away. His vision still could not cope with the general focus, the huge green sunny world fell on its side every time he opened the second eye, the dizziness was still there, as strong as ever… Something in the stomach slurped loudly and gave a nasty taste in his mouth; but it pleased him. “Now I am going to vomit”, thought Vadim, “And it will become easier, as on the “neutral” with the first “kiss”. Yes, yes, it is already getting easier.”
Then it began. He did not have time. The hell knows why “Montana” on his hand started to play.
Tam-ta-tam-ta. Ta-ta-tam. Never let me go. Tam-tadam-tadam…
The first organized melody played on planet Earth, the Solar System, Milky Way, God's World, by the very first tune attracted to the confused, disoriented Vadim the keen attention of a young Triceratops, who had just left his group of hatchlings in the morning of this ancient day. The young Triceratops had gone into the jungle because it was now time for the heroic and dangerous adventure of searching for the mother of his offspring. He was equally scared and uncertain, but male pride was burning at his intimate parts and forcing him on, and he was ready to snack on flint and rape T-Rex females. So, is it possible to blame him for the fact that the squeaking of the watch, inaccurate in its electronic annoyance, and the general light-headedness of the melody infuriated him to the point of “kill immediately, bite!”? The young Torosaurus walked through the Jurassic, looking out for the moos of young females, and here we go – music by Poulton, words by Fosdick, performance by Elvis Presley. Who would not be furious? Everyone would be furious.
Vadim did not immediately distinguish the attacking horned hippo from the surrounding flora. And that actually saved his life, when he finally did, like a bunny on a mysterious picture, and realized that the tenth chapter of “The Lost World” had already begun.
PART ONE
1990. DIFFERENT OFFERS