Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
OUTCAST 32
Three dozen women sat in two rows on chairs on the stage, playing some local stringed instruments like harps. Something soft and vibrant. The acoustics in the hall were not bad, the sound hung well under the spherical vaults, where hot sunbeams played among the blue windows. Beautiful maidens with amphoras of wine, bunches of grapes, and fruit trays were painted on the walls. And also snow-white birds, fluffy lions, huge kind elephants.The "virgins" on the stage were dressed somehow - some in torn rags, some in jeans, a T-shirt, sneakers, some in a local long dark dress. The performers were of all ages - young, adults and old. Everyone diligently pulled the strings and rejoiced at the sound of some kind of light melody.In the hall, children were sitting on tattered red seats, frightened, obviously hungry. The boys looked around anxiously, looking incredulously at the film crew. The girls jumped up from their seats and rushed to the journalists in a noisy crowd. They asked for sweets
OUTCAST 33
One shell hit the water and gave only a tall gray tight fountain, and the second turned the edge of the swamp and solid earth, raising a cloud of mud and slurry, groaning deafly in the ears and falling asleep with small branches, foliage, sticky pieces of soil. Breaking branches, a hopelessly dirty schmuck fell out of the bushes onto Ratmir. The face, streamlined with brown strokes, was recognizable as a lieutenant - the platoon commander, in whose stronghold it all happened. There was always almost nothing to see here because of dense shrubs and a solid wall of treetops above, which did not let in sunlight. But now, in the clouds of dirt raised by the explosions and fine suspension of water, plucked leaves and small branches, it was now completely impossible even to determine where anyone was. Instead of all landmarks, the only noticeable points were bright short erratic flashes of breaks. The sound was also not clear - it was impossible to determine the range and strength of the cla
OUTCAST 34
A cold autumn wind was blowing on Cathedral Square, the October sun did not warm the whole space, but roasted it pointwise, economically - aiming with a beam who you like, and giving a hot, tender kiss. The leader of the political opposition, Hammer, tall, relatively young, broad-shouldered and broad-browed, stood with me, hiding behind a bus, one of those with which we fenced off the square from the avenue. In general, we have frayed everything that is needed. He brings his supporters (three thousand were already here), all the time of the confrontation around the Cathedral, his people follow my orders regarding the defense. He takes all the political consequences and, if any, the benefits for himself. I don’t need anything further than the Council, he will speak to the press and then apply for the presidency.His people - young people, half under 20 years old, stood in a loose line along the line of buses and trucks, from which we made the first barrier against possible assault atte
OUTCAST 35
The filmmakers, all five of them, were sitting not far from Kloss's tent. It was amazing to feel with your asses how quickly the sand cools in the evening. Just hot, frying, and after fifteen minutes it is pleasantly warm, and after another fifteen minutes - chilling, drawing heat from the body, like a pump. The sun in these parts was setting quickly and it was getting dark just as quickly around. Crimson reflections on the horizon were already in a completely black sky, and in the battalion camp, lighting lanterns burned with juicy balls, searchlights searched the surroundings from the towers with tight white beams.There was an unusual bustle in the camp for this hour. Dinner was crumpled, the soldiers quickly choked on porridge and bread from plastic bowls right on the street, without going inside the dining room. They quickly washed down with tea, lined up and fled, another platoon ran in their place, huddled at the delivery window. The weapons hung on everyone's shoulder, or stuc
OUTCAST 36
Heavy trucks of the Guards hooked several of our buses and jerked them away, tearing them out of the chain. Two hundred equipped soldiers of the city guard went into the resulting rather wide passage, covering themselves with shields, rhythmically rattling rubber sticks against these shields. Rushed!The political, together with the ardat drug addicts, showed themselves steadfastly, not moving under the onslaught of the armored detachment. Clasping hands, they held the chain, the back ones held the front ones, the whole crowd yelled “Down with!”. The guards used sticks, the first blood flashed on someone's face, the chain broke, the people retreated a little, leaving five meters of empty space between themselves and the shields. The ultras of the blue-whites ripened to the place of the breakthrough, a cloud of cobblestones and bricks rained down on the soldiers. Stones banged against helmets with a clatter of bones, clinking loudly against shields. The guards backed a little, fans, po
OUTCAST 37
"Keep the line!" the politicals roared at each other in the crowd. "Hold the chain," the officers of the city guard yelled at their men. The formation of the police and the crowd of opposition put pressure on each other. Those who were in the first ranks already had a fright in their eyes, which were crawling from the effort on their foreheads, the back ones crushed with all heroism. Smoky streams of tear gas sprayed from behind the shields, people in the crowd bent over, hiding their faces with their hands, receded. The crowd slowly backed away, the guards poured into the vacated patch, in contrast to the gray mass of the guards, these in black were awesomely equipped. It seems that they will have a breakthrough direction here - they will cut the crowd, then they will cut it into pieces. They need to be distracted. I chatted Muscle to attack.On the right, Zartak's ultras were hurriedly lining up in a column of eight people opposite a loose chain of police, apparently hastily assembl
OUTCAST 38
Three minivans turned from the night highway into the forest to a country road, shook a little on the bumps and, turning off the headlights, drove into a moonlit clearing, and then carefully rolled between the trees, hiding among the darkness between the trunks and branches. Dismounted.Hot, and with him 12 fighters from the capture group of the Central Directorate of the Anti-Drug Committee of Krum, clubfoot, so as not to make noise with brushwood on the grass, silently went through the forest to where the lights of the estate were barely guessed. We went out to the edge of the trees, seeing a cottage in front of us, more precisely, almost a castle - three-story, with towers, surrounded by utility yards, a bathhouse, a swimming pool, garages and a long one-story house for servants.They cut off a couple of coils of barbed wire, dashed across the treadmill and pressed against the wall of the warehouse. In a squat, in single file so as not to stick out in the light from the windows, we
OUTCAST 39
Ratmir looked at the thickets around him and was surprised. He remembered the swamps as trees, but he had never had a chance to lie down like this, without being distracted by anything with his muzzle in the ground. The captain was waiting for the appearance of lavenders on the road and was amazed that he did not know about the existence of a whole separate universe of life from nature on this floor. Dozens of different forms of small insects swarmed among the roots, busy with pressing matters. It suddenly seemed to him that he did not see the difference between the flies, which he had previously considered disgusting and charming butterflies. Everyone here had a legal residence permit, friends and enemies, a mission.All these little bits of life climbed through the mud and grass stalks - also colorful and varied. Some stems stuck out powerfully, like a power line pylon, or a pillar of stability, firmly and solidly. Others - thin, shaking in even a small wind, intricately making thei