Vadim Simbarskiy – Cubes (страница 2)

thesis on World War I. He lived in a small town

near London, working evenings at a construction

site. Yes, dear reader, some things never change.

Does this remind you of your student years? Forms

may evolve, but the essence remains. Students,

just as they did 100 or 200 years ago, still work

construction jobs. Our Ben was no exception.

And it was at this very construction site that

everything began. It started like this: An ordinary

day. Ben returned from college, grabbed a quick

bite, and prepared for work. On his way to the

site, he encountered an engineer who directed him

to a new area, section four. Ben had never been

there before, and his path wound through a labyrinth

of building materials, bricks, and assorted

construction debris.

No one was around, and for a moment, Ben felt a

wave of disorientation and unease, as if he’d

stumbled into some cosmic maze. Suddenly, he tripped

over a piece of debris. His head spun, and Ben

began to fall. Just when he thought he should have

hit the ground, he realized he was still falling.

It was like a dream where you fall and fall, then

land with impossible softness.

Ben came to, utterly bewildered. It felt as though

he’d been falling for an eternity, yet he knew

logically that only moments could have passed. He

shook his head, as one does in such situations,

stood up, and began dusting himself off. Only then

did he notice he wasn’t standing on the dusty,

dirty floor of the construction site, but on

something perfectly smooth and clean.

Standing up straight and looking around, he uttered

in bewilderment: “Wow.” Again, as one does in such

situations.

Everything around him gleamed with cleanliness,

and somehow everything seemed extraordinarily

precise. Sharp geometric lines, strictly vertical

and horizontal, were present in everything his

gaze fell upon. The structures surrounding Ben

were crisp – square and rectangular. Some towered

above others. Ben couldn’t comprehend what this

was. It seemed like a street in some fantastical

city from 20th-century science fiction stories.

At least, that’s how it appeared to him.

“But wait! What the hell is going on?!” Ben seemed

to be shouting at himself. “Am I dreaming? Did I

hit my head while falling? Am I unconscious now?

What am I? Where am I? How did I get here?” But

soon, regaining his composure and overcoming his

momentary hysteria, he thought, “It doesn’t matter

how I got here, the main thing is to get out of

here as soon as possible. So, the street, if it

is a street, is perfectly straight. The buildings

resemble huge cubes and rectangles without windows

or doors. And it feels as if I’m very small and

in the middle of a child’s building block set.

There are no people, no cars, nothing on this

street.” But despite all this emptiness, there

was a strange hum.

Ben looked at his watch: it was 05:59. “Six in

the evening or morning?” Ben caught himself

wondering. After all, when he arrived at the

construction site and fell, it was morning. Ben

looked at the sky, and it was unclear. The sun