The man didn’t talk much. And Andy wasn’t much of an interpreter. All Ramses got to know about him was that he had an unpronounceable name, Arkady Gennadyevich.
Ramses sat by the fire, the soup warming him up. Then he fell into an untroubled sleep for the first time in days.
FORTY-TWO
Behind the gigantic windows, the night had set in. A guard stood by a wide window, looking through binoculars. He saw something or somebody in the distance and pointed toward the window. Two lonely figures were barely visible in the storm.
According to the rules, the new people had to stay behind the glass doors of the shopping mall main entrance for a quarter of an hour. The little boy, about five years old, was trembling with cold. His eyes were half closed as he pressed his face to his father’s chest who was sitting on the floor.
“Why don’t we let them in?” Ksenia said. “They’re freezing.”
A tall security guard clad in a black uniform said, “It is Arkady’s rule to wait for thirty minutes. We have to make sure the newcomers are not infected.”
“They are okay, can’t you see?” Ksenia said. “They are not infected.”
The guard shrugged his shoulders, looking at his wristwatch. “They’ve been outside in the cold for God knows how much time. Another quarter of an hour won’t do them harm.”
In exactly fifteen minutes, the doors were slid open, and the man and the boy staggered in.
***
The man introduced himself. His name was Alexei Litvakov. The boy’s name was Misha.
The boy didn’t want to talk. He was in a kind of trance, having put his thumb in his mouth. He had black rings around his eyes suggesting lack of sleep. He drank his cup of hot tea and barely touched his plate of warm spaghetti. Then he fell asleep right away, the thumb in his mouth.
“He’s too exhausted,” Litvakov said.
“I bet he’s been through a lot today,” Andy said.
Litvakov said nothing. He carried his son Misha to a bed, laid him down and wrapped him in a blanket.
Andy was sitting in an armchair ripped out from the shopping mall movie theater, sipping at a hot black coffee. No cream or sugar. Just the way he liked it.
Andy smiled. “How old is he?”
“He will turn five in two months,” Litvakov said and sat beside him. “How long have you been here?”
“Oh, we arrived here this afternoon,” Andy said. “We had to have our share of freezing our ass out there, too. But any way you’re lucky to be here.”
Litvakov put a cigarette between his lips and lit it. “Is this a good place?”
Andy nodded. “It’s pretty safe here. But we’re moving out tomorrow.”
“Where are you heading?”
“To the North-West emergency camp,” Andy said. “Perhaps the final bastion of sanity in this city.”
He took a crumpled leaflet out of his breast pocket and showed it to Litvakov. “Why don’t you come with us?”
Litvakov didn’t even bother to look at the piece of paper. He puffed out a cloud of smoke, which mixed with Andy’s breath cloud. He looked at Andy and narrowed his eyes because of the pungent cigarette smoke. “Forget it. We’ve just come from there. The place is overrun. Nobody survived. Nobody. Except us.”
“Fuck!” Andy said and slapped his fist against his knee. He cringed at his own profanity and looked around. Everyone was asleep.
“So I guess we’ll have to stick around here for a while,” Andy said.
Litvakov shook the ash off his cigarette tip into a soft drink can and said, “No, we don’t.”
Ivan said, “How so?” He had just come back from his new duty—patrolling around the shopping mall.
Litvakov exhaled a stream of cigarette smoke and gave the man a tired look. “You’d better call your leader because I’m too exhausted to tell the story twice. And what I have to tell you will make you really, really sad.”
Ivan exchanged glances with Andy and called a guard from the corridor.
“Arkady’s sleeping now,” the guard said. “He’s got a busy day ahead of him tomorrow.”
“Well, then wake him up right now,” Litvakov said, “because I promise you that when he hears my story he’ll change his plans dramatically.”
He put out his cigarette and added, “And do you have a video camera?”
***
Arkady’s face showed irritation but nevertheless, he sat in front of the newcomer and prepared to listen to him carefully.
They set a tripod, which they had brought from one of the electronics stores, and mounted Ingvar’s video camera on it.
As the camera light turned green, Litvakov began his story. He told about his FSB background and what he had done before the meteor crash. Ivan became impatient and tried to speed him up but Arkady raised his right hand to silence him, and Ivan shut his mouth. Litvakov told about his family and how they had survived in the emergency camp. When he started to talk about the nuclear strike, Ivan stood up in rage.
“This is total bullshit,” he said. “The Russian government is going to drop a nuclear bomb on Russian people? I don’t know about you, guys, but this man is crazy.”
The loud voices woke Ramses up. He asked Ksenia to tell him what was going on. After she whispered the explanation for Ramses, his eyes were wide with awe.
“Well, I don’t believe a word of what that man is saying, all right?” Ivan said with a raised tone. “I’m off to hit the sack now. Adios and good night.”
Arkady said nothing. He just munched his mustache.
“You may believe me, or you may not,” Litvakov said, “but Operation Clear Morning, which is what it is called, is planned for the morning of March 2. According to the weather forecast, it won’t be so windy that day, and the nuclear cloud won’t be carried too far.”
“But it’s madness,” Ksenia said.
Arkady took a smoking pipe out of his jacket. He didn’t light it but started cleaning it with a special brush. He was deep in thoughts.
“I believe him,” he said finally. “But I just don’t know what to do about it. For the first time in my life, I don’t have a plan.”
“There always has to be a solution,” Andy said.
“We can’t leave the city, can we?” Arkady said.
Litvakov shook his head. “They shoot everything within the radius of fifty miles around the city. They have snipers, helicopters and battle drones.”
“Then we have to find a shelter within the boundaries of the city,” Arkady said.
“Huh,” Ivan said. “Simpler said than done.”
“Somewhere deep underground,” Ramses said.
“I can think of a couple bomb shelters,” Ivan said, “but they won’t protect us against radiation.”
“We’re dead men,” Ramses said.
“Do you know a really safe place?” Ksenia asked Litvakov.
Litvakov said. “The only place where we can hide from the nuclear blast and radioactive fallout is the Chelyabinsk Metro.”
“Best of luck to you, man!” Ivan said. “That project has been abandoned since the beginning of the ‘90s.”
“It is still under construction as far as I know,” Andy said. “Was under construction.”
“Yes,” Ivan said. “Forty million dollars a year down the drain. But now it will never get finished because of all these deadheads walking around the city.”
Litvakov looked patiently at him. “I know for sure that Torgovy Tsentr station is 70 percent complete. There’s a brand new train down there. With a dozen cars attached to it. I saw it with my own eyes. This is our only chance.”
The agitation this piece of news caused rose, and the room filled with noise and disputes.
Goran opened his eyes and yawned. “Hey, guys, what’s up?”
“We’re fucked up, bro,” Ramses said. “But we have a solution as usual.”
“No shit.”
FORTY-THREE
Andy spent all night discussing the terrible situatio
n with his people. Zhang Wei just sat silent. Mimi was asleep, and he was afraid to tell her about it. Alyona broke into hysterics, and they had to give her a sedative.
For a brief period of time, Andy had been relaxed and felt relieved at not having to be the leader of the group. Everyone looked up to Arkady now. He made all the decisions here, and his decisions were mostly right. After all, he had managed to keep more than fifty survivors alive in this camp. Andy felt his people would be safer under this man’s command. He envied Arkady’s deliberateness and the ability to take meaningful actions. Andy had to improvise, and his improvisations had resulted in the loss of so many lives. He was a failure, and this burden would be forever his.
“Friends,” he said as he gathered his little group, “I’m still thinking of an alternative solution. But I’ll have to go alone that way because it’s dangerous. You must follow Arkady now.”
“What are you up to, man?” Ramses said. “What’s going on? You’re leaving us?”
“That hot-air balloon station, remember?” Andy said. “I’ll go for it.”
“That’s a suicide mission,” Ramses said.
Andy sighed. “It is. But at least I’ll die trying.”
He looked at his friends. He never looked so sad.
“I’ll go with you,” Goran said.
“You’re a liability, Goran,” Andy said. “Look at yourself. Your leg is still very bad.”
“But I’m the only one here who got the certificate,” Goran said with a smile. “And you failed the flying test, stupid.”
“I was going to repeat the test this spring,” Andy said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Goran said. “Those walking blockheads would have passed the test better than you.”
Ksenia said, “Stop fooling around. You’re acting like two kids. If I didn’t know you, I would think you’re two brothers arguing over whose turn it is to play at the PlayStation or something stupid like that.”
Goran looked at her as if her words had some impact on him and fell silent. Suddenly, he was sad. He wanted to say something, but he held himself back. The smart aleck and the arrogant lady-killer Andy used to know had vanished in a flash.
Goran chewed his lip. “Don’t leave me here, brother.”
“You think I can’t live without your blanquette de veau?” Andy said, poking Goran in the shoulder.
But Goran paid no heed to Andy’s joke. He was dead serious. “The key word here is brother.”
“Of course,” Andy said. “You’re my friend. Like a brother. We wanted to build a hotel empire together, remember? You were the first employee I had hired.”
Goran shook his head. “It’s not that. But let me tell you. I guess it’s time to tell you.”
Goran stopped, and Andy made him continue. “In the early ‘80s, your father, Henry Thomas, was in Yugoslavia. He managed a small hotel in Belgrade.”
Andy looked at the others. “Guys, will you leave us for a minute?”
***
It took Goran more than a minute to tell his story. Henry Thomas had met Radmila Pavic, Goran’s mother who had been a cook at his hotel. They had had a brief love affair before they had a big quarrel. Afterward, Radmila had disappeared from his life forever. Heartbroken, Henry Thomas returned to England and married. It was in 1998, during the Kosovo War, that he heard from Radmila again. She wrote him a letter saying that she was in a monastery hospital, heavily wounded during a bombardment. She was sure she was going to die, and she was asking him to take care of her fourteen-year-old son, Goran. By that time, Henry Thomas was a prosperous hotel mogul who could afford charity, and he agreed to help his old flame without thinking twice. He wasn’t even angry with Radmila anymore. As he arrived in the Balkans, Radmila had died. The boy was still in the monastery. In the Parents section of little Goran’s birth certificate, Henry saw his own name. He asked Goran and his notary to keep this a secret from his wife. Henry saw that the boy had experienced a lot in his life and was independent. In half a year he sent him to a French boarding school as the boy spoke French better than English. Goran didn’t mind. In Paris, Goran fell in love with culinary arts and went to a cooking school.
Henry had helped his illegitimate son in all sorts of ways all his life.
“Tell me just one thing, Goran,” Andy said. “Did my father ever cheat with your mother while he was married to my mother?”
“No, he and my mother lost contact with each other years ago.”
“Holy Jesus, man!” Andy said. “This is heavy shit.”
He shook Goran’s hand and hugged him. “Bloody hell! I’ve always wanted to have a brother or a sister, and you two basket cases have been keeping it away from me.”
Goran looked Andy in the eyes. “So let’s get out of here and go to our father together.”
FORTY-FOUR
The morning came fast. With the first sun rays on the horizon, Andy was up to get ready for departure. Everyone was busy. Dozens of Yamaha Grizzly snowmobiles were taken out of the shopping mall on the river ice.
The roads were jammed but the ice in the river was still strong this time of the year. Arkady decided it was best to drive on the frozen river, a wide natural highway, which was mostly free of the undead. Andy and Goran agreed that it was a great idea.
Arkady assured everyone that their new shelter would be stocked with provisions for many months. And the subway station was not very far from the river. All they had to do was to get to it safely.
Ivan was eager to follow Arkady and was supporting his new team in every way, but he still insisted Litvakov was either out of his mind, or he was setting up a trap for all of them. Ramses believed what the ex-FSB colonel had told about the advancing nuclear holocaust. This new danger was nothing in comparison with the rampaging hordes of the living dead and the Russian cold. But the idea of bunkering somewhere deep underground was abhorrent to him. So he decided to join Andy and Goran.
“I have some business out there,” Ramses said. “And I still have a daughter to take care of. I guess I’m not ready to spend the rest of the year underground, eating rats by candlelight.”
Ramses, Andy, and Goran packed their backpacks and put them on the floor near the main entrance of the shopping mall. They saw Arkady coming toward them. He was in charge of his men hauling out large bags full of food and warm clothes and loading them on the snowmobiles.
Andy said, “We’re good to go.”
Arkady nodded and asked Goran. “How is your leg?”
“It hurts to stand on it,” Goran said. “But I’ll manage. Your doc said I will be limping for another week.”
“Sorry, it’s too bad,” Arkady said. “Are you sure you are not coming with us? We could always use a good cook.”
“One of the best, mind you,” Andy said.
Goran looked at Andy. “I think I will stick to my family. Our father is ill back in New York. We have to pay him a visit.” He patted his pocket where he had put the video camera memory card. “And besides, we must tell the world about what is going on here.”
Arkady cracked up. “Going to New York, are you? One has to be an optimist to survive in this world. Anyway, I wish you a safe trip. Take care.”
He shook the men’s hands. “Sorry, we can’t give you any firearms. But we can give you lots of provisions. And something else.”
He put his walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Mark, is it ready? Over.”
There was a static noise and whoever was on the other end of the signal by the name of Mark gave an affirmative answer.
“Then bring it in,” Arkady said with a broad smile. “My friends are waiting.”
For a while, nothing was happening. Then there was the revving of a huge vehicle engine, echoing off the mall walls like the roaring of a big monster in a cave.
Then he heard slight skidding of tires on the floor, and a silver-colored Toyota Land Cruiser turned around the corner. The car was fast approaching them, its surfaces gleaming in the sun rays pouring through the skylight.
&nbs
p; Arkady said, “It’s a full-size SUV. A six-seater. Durable. Reliable. Very popular among militant groups in Iraq and Afghanistan. The best I could find for you.”
The car stopped in front of them, and the driver stepped out and threw Arkady the keys.
Arkady handed the keys to Andy. “You drive on the river. The ice is still strong. Keep to the shore, and you’ll be fine.”
Andy took the keys. “Thanks, friend. Can I ask you a question? Always wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure,” Arkady said. “Fire away.”
“What did you do before—,” Andy said and stopped, “before the times got worse. People say you used to be a philosophy professor.”
Arkady smiled and touched his beret on his head. “A philosopher professor wouldn’t survive a single day in a world like this. No, I am a car mechanic. I just like reading and talking a lot.”
***
Andy, Ramses, and Goran sat in the car, which was on the river shore.
Zhang Wei was preparing his snowmobile. He had decided to go to the subway station. He believed it was safer for Mimi there. He trusted the new people. They had medicine for Mimi. They had good doctors. Their leader was surefooted. Alyona had been crying all night long, but she finally decided to go with Arkady’s group, too.
Andy’s own group had split. Maybe it was for the better. He was a talented hotel manager, but he was worthless as a leader in life circumstances. So many lives had been lost so that he could see the sunrise this morning.
Andy rolled up the side window and put his head on the steering wheel. Outside, he had nothing left. His world had been reduced to this trio of men, sitting in a brand-new car, stocked with food and gardening tools for weapons. Heading nowhere. Though, it was unfair of him to think he had nothing left. Last night he found out he had a brother.
Ksenia and Ivan were speaking, their breath clouds of steam in the cold air. They had been close recently. Ramses liked Ksenia, and he envied the guy. In other circumstances, Ramses would have hooked up with her. But these were not the suitable circumstances for a romance. Not for him. He had faults, and he would only bring emotional baggage into a relationship.
The Living & The Dead (Book 1): Zombiegrad Page 40
