UNDERGROUND

169

Pustovalov climbed deeper and deeper, ripping open the damp, viscous layer of last year's leaves with his feet. It became more difficult to move around, it darkened around, as if evening had come. Then he saw the mound and went to it, sure that it was there that he needed to. Having climbed onto it, from the side that resembled a gentle low hill, Pustovalov discovered that it was a building covered with soil, like a disguised entrance to a bomb shelter or a bunker.

At the top there was a small open hatch, no larger than a window, looking into which Pustovalov felt a painful prick in his heart. Bright electric light, uneven floors filled with cement, bare brickwork spattered with blood. The space below was significantly lower than the ground, and consisted of two full levels. The level immediately below it was plunged into darkness, and the lower one was visible through an open hatch in the floor of the first floor. It was larger in size and resembled an ordinary hole in the basement.