Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
OUTCAST Epilogue
We were again alone on the same sidewalk of a narrow street in a seaside town. Indistinct music was heard from the cafes along the coast, and there was a wall of cypresses and tall yellow grass all around. We ended up at that point and second at which we parted many, many lives ago, in that August, when the local sea is the hottest, and the nights are warm, like fresh milk, and the smell of flowers is dense, like a wall.It was us, but not us. She had visibly matured, it was no longer the same young girl with electric sparks in her black eyes. Wrinkles, bitterness and memories of many years and destinies were written on her face. I, too, felt like an old doll taken out of the closet, faded and dusty.- I love you, I've been looking for you all these years, I could not calm down, I've been looking for you century after century - in all galaxies. I can't live without you, I traded everything for this moment to bring you back. I can't be happy without you, let me come back to you.I spok
OUTCAST 1
I do it sometimes. I'm crazy, what do you think? - may be. Not often, but sometimes I want to - and I do it. If you turn everything off and turn nothing on. I mean turn everything off. And then there is silence and darkness. At first, it's stressful. I can’t believe that, really, nothing will now burst through some sense organs into your brain. You need to sit in this for a couple of minutes to believe, to make sure that in fact absolutely nothing is seen or heard, nothing touches you, does not impose itself and does not take your attention.The clock is turned off and it is impossible to understand how long the buzz of emptiness lasts. But it feels like it's short. Then the fear begins. No need to be afraid, you need to continue to sit and listen to yourself. The fierce horror from the emptiness grows quickly and suddenly it already seems that something is about to burst from animal fear. From that momentary joy of freedom nothing remains, nothing frightens as much as nothing. It doe
OUTCAST 2
Realizing that the program would now be buggy for about five minutes, I was distracted by the news bulletin on the air. An hour ago, Argun fighter aircraft took off from the airfields in Urga and Morabon. Despite the expectation of a strike, 30 "hawks" caught the Horde by surprise. They suppressed part of the air defense, lost 5 vehicles and retreated to the east, meeting the Horde fighters, who raised the alarm and flew to rescue Kaulnin. After 30 minutes, 10 heavy bombers approached Kaulnin, at the same time strategic silo-based complexes reached the target. The air defense of the Horde shot down 2 complexes out of 4. The surviving 2 hit the power plant and the communications center, cutting down the light below and, accordingly, communications. 5 bomb carriers plowed the airfield, turning the runways, all ground buildings, planes and helicopters standing on the ground into a mess. Another five bombers marched west of the city on the location of the 22nd division, covering Kaulnin,
OUTCAST 3
Do you think he was able to pass 20 wagons like that? - could. From the third car, he simply stopped distinguishing people in front of him - he walked, as if pushing through thickets or swam through some kind of viscous muck. This was not invented in any computer shooter. Three soldiers who were with him this march, having left the last car, collapsed exhausted into the mud. Ratmir came across a wooden pallet and lay down on it. An electric locomotive whistled ahead, Ratmir waved his hand, and 600 lucky evacuees slowly crawled eastward in a cheerful string of lights. Their savior got up from the pieces of wood to meet the next echelon, surprised that for some reason his lower jaw and eyes were tired the most. He didn't feel his arms or legs at all.Yesterday, almost simultaneously with the air raid on Kaulnin, the Argunians went on the offensive with their ground units, surprisingly and shamefully easily, using the surprise factor, crushing the Horde troops covering the border. The Ur
OUTCAST 4
I have several rules for playing the stock market.First, I am a classic conservative player. So I play slowly and carefully. Of course, those who do not take risks do not drink champagne, but I do not like champagne either. I saw risky guys - they very quickly switch to vodka, and then disappear, leaving debts and suicidal remarks in the chat.Second, my personal. I don't play the stock market where I do something else.Therefore, I am now immediately looking for something to play away from the Apollo Z system, although there are now jumping rates because of the war, like announced ones, and you can earn money. There's a reason I'm not going into Zera's system right now.First, I looked at the interest rates on time deposits. The dictatorship in system X Harpies on the 7th planet gets government loans at 5(!)%. It's a well-known fact, this is not good, the budget there, most likely, will collapse soon, their business smells like a revolution, a civil war or the collapse of the empire
OUTCAST 5
She and her friends were sitting, as usual, at the reception, the three of us at a wide table that stood on the stairs on the landing between the floors. Along a wide corridor, emerging from a painted green door, walking along a gray carpeted path, people sometimes approached them. They walked for 10 meters along a windowless passage, lit by a soft, matte gray light from long lamps in the ceiling and walls, in silence. Most were focused and businesslike, some were solemn or even pretentious. Most hid their anxiety, or maybe didn't feel it, and looked rather casual, as if nothing extraordinary was happening, as if what was happening was just a small everyday necessity. It's like going to the bath or something...Approaching the table, trying not to look the girls in the eyes, the guests showed their tickets. The girls smiled sweetly and said where to go next - to the upper or lower floor. Most walked down the stairs and there they disappeared into the brown doors. At those doors stood
OUTCAST 6
Above to remember a woman, for example, that conductor ... He scrupulously restored her eyes, knees, ankles, palms before his eyes. Slowly I walked my memory along my back, along the bed of a hollow along my spine. In the groin it became heavy, nervous electrical discharges moved from the lower back to the pubis. And then Ratmir remembered - right behind her coccyx she has a hole. No, not “that one”, but between it and the falcon there is a small hole. Ratmir was stuck on this memory - the gray morning light from the compartment window cast clear shadows, and the hole was visible like a small crater on the moon - clear, with sharp outlines.Did he think this morning that he would remember this hole before he died? Ratmir felt his shoulders trembling at this thought, and his lips stretched out in hard-to-control laughter. The fear is gone. The captain knew that now his eyes were shining bravely and cheerfully, and his face had acquired the cheerful confidence of a predatory beast, and
OUTCAST 7
Sent to the news agency marked URGENT!:“The 5th battalion of the international brigade, with the forces of one company of tanks and infantry, occupies Lindach at these hours. According to the battalion commander Erich Kloss, who personally heads the operation, the capture of the city passed without losses. The resistance of the militants is broken. More details from our correspondent in Lindach soon.” And I attached a video and photo to a text file.Then I went into the program, where a satellite panorama of Vastu was given, went down to the streets of Lindach, looking around what was where. On the outskirts along Awakening Street, they dug a trench and dragged corpses there. In the western part of the city, something burned and smoked. Tanks spread across the main squares. The infantry combed the houses, herding someone in crowds to the trenches, and someone to the central square.“In the western part of Lindach, the militants put up desperate resistance to the soldiers of Kloss, bu