Apocalypse «Beginning of the End»

Карамзин Азизбек Набиевич

Jumping over the seats, I looked into the trunk – it was empty, but I remembered the second roof rack and began to get out into the street. Suddenly it dawned on me: “If the owner of the car shot herself, then what did she shoot from?”

Falling out into the street through the back door and climbing onto the roof, I easily opened the black autobox.

"Jackpot!" I exclaimed quietly when I saw its contents. There was a real set of a traveler fisherman: an easel backpack equipped with a tent and a fifteen-liter canister, a large hiking bag, a car first-aid kit, a fire extinguisher, large rubber boots, two spinning rods, a bowler hat, a tripod and a bunch of other small camping accessories.

Okay, now the girl's corpse. Having closed the autobox and descended from the roof, I began to examine the corpse, but, unfortunately, even turning it over, I did not find the suicide weapon. Well, then, only the contents of the autobox will become my prey, but how to take away all this goodness? Only with the car! How do you start a car with a dead battery? Another battery! I approached the second car in the parking lot. The alarm lamp did not blink – this is a bad sign. Most likely the battery is dead. I tried the driver's door, but it was locked. Looking around like a thief, I hit the driver's window with the tip of a fire ax, causing it to crumble into small pieces. Turning on the emergency gang through the broken window, I looked at the front of the car. The battery, as in the first case, was dead.

Returning to the SUV, I began to think that of the items presented in the trunk might be needed. Thinking and figuring, I was looking at the slope of the road, and suddenly a crazy idea came to my mind.

The road went down at a steep angle and, bending around the hill in an arc, led out into the city. The distance was about five kilometers, but before the first gentle turn about one and a half. “What if you start Kruzak from a pusher?” I thought. With manual transmission cars this trick works, with an automatic (the Land Cruiser was equipped with an automatic transmission) I wasn't sure nor had I ever heard of such an experience. In any case, there was nothing to lose. Need to try! After climbing into the car, and making sure that all appliances, including the stove and headlights, are turned off, and the key is turned to the ignition position. With difficulty pressing the brake pedal, shifted the gearbox to neutral. Then, turning the steering wheel to a U-turn, he released the brake. The car reluctantly rolled back and, having run over the leg of the suicide girl, rolled out onto the road with its front wheel.

The car began to pick up speed very slowly, and in the meantime I was trying to figure out at what speed it is better to shift the gearbox and in what position should I put it? Regarding speed, it was definitely worth accelerating as long as possible, the faster it is, the better.

Looking at the selector, I realized that the choice is small: there was only the “D” position, and then the possibility of lowering by switching down again. A special piquancy of the situation was given by rain flooding the windshield, reducing visibility to a minimum.

Firmly clutching the steering wheel with wet hands, I peered at the road, occasionally glancing at the dashboard:

Now the speedometer shows 3 km / h

To the end of the mountain slope is approximately 1139 meters

The car continued to pick up speed confidently, and the rain poured more and more intensively outside the window. The arrow on the dim instrument panel slowly crept up.

I was more and more doubtful. What if the wheels stop and I get skidded? How long is the flight from this mountain? With every second it became more and more dangerous …

– I'm lucky!

I pressed the gear selector button and with force abruptly switched it to the “D” position, depressing the gas pedal all the way. The SUV, almost without jerking, started up and roared the engine.

Not believing my luck, I let off the gas, stopped the car, turned on the wipers and once again examined the instrument panel – everything worked fine. Confused only by an orange light bulb, indicating that gasoline is coming to an end. This car must have brutal appetites, you should be puzzled on this topic in the first place.

The radio tape recorder started playing, and the mood immediately improved. To an unfamiliar cheerful tune, I directed the car down the serpentine towards the city, on the way thinking about my past life, and what to do now

PROLOGUE

Almost two months have already passed since the beginning of the epidemic, and maybe more. I couldn't be more precise because I didn't remember exactly when it all started. Until today, I have been hiding in a construction town where workers were working on building a cell tower on the outskirts of the city of Leninsk-Kuznetsky.

For me, as for others, the end of the world (if you can call it that) came unexpectedly, but I was much more fortunate than many, because he found me in a relatively safe place. From the top of the mountain, on which the construction town settled, which has now become my refuge, it was clearly visible that something terrible was happening in the city. Fires and shots, and sometimes even explosions, have now become commonplace.

It all started with disturbing news reports that I watched in the morning, waking up in my hotel room. Every day there were more and more reports, and the events described in them looked more and more like fantastic plots from a horror movie. News releases so excited and occupied me that I had to be late for work, inspecting the next emergency inclusion of live broadcast. Very soon, the events taking place became so large-scale that all channels stopped broadcasting anything but them.

Two weeks passed before the horrors of the news spread to the streets of Leninsko-Kuznetsky. I have not yet encountered them, but only heard about the first infected from people with whom I spoke at work. And then one day, none of my employees came to the shift, calling and finding various excuses for this. In the city, single shots and the roar of automatic bursts were heard. The sirens did not stop day or night.

As usual, I tried to call a taxi, but I could not get through to the dispatcher.

About a month later, cellular communication and the Internet disappeared, completely depriving me of information about the epidemic spreading in the world. However, the dynamics of past events and the way the connection was lost spoke very eloquently that nothing good was waiting for me, like other people.

The world as I knew it was dying. A terrible epidemic struck city after city, country after country with such swiftness that the hair stood on end.

According to the Internet, foci of infection were identified around the world in the first two weeks. The infected, maddened, rushed at people, trying to bite them and even eat them. After some time, the bitten ones also went crazy, and they themselves rushed at others, even if they were members of their family: an elderly mother or a defenseless baby huddled in a corner … It doesn’t matter … The infected turned into real animals, striving to plunge their dirty smelly teeth, thereby spreading a deadly infection.