UNDERGROUND

141

He flew. But it was not at all about such flights that he dreamed of in childhood. It was not like a breathtaking unhurried soaring to the admiring cries and glances of people who suddenly became ridiculous in their earthly bustle. It was like a sophisticated torture by a giant centrifuge gone berserk.

A monstrous force knocked him face down, awakening an animal fear of death from a collision with any solid object, but he felt only air resistance. It was as if someone tied him by the legs and spun him around like a ball. And unlike dreams, the sensations were quite natural - inside everything twisted, responding with fiery pain, escaping with a silent scream along with the insides.

However, somehow, despite the "cosmic" speed, he managed to notice the fiery hemispheres around, breathing and shooting fiery threads. The hemispheres were exaggeratedly huge, and he saw them very well, as if they were rotating with him. Hemispheres with a barely perceptible curvature could be mistaken for