The Fantastic Worlds of Yuri Vynnychuk

by Yuri Vynnychuk

  At the end of the corridor a man in a white waistcoat appeared.

  “Where are you going?!” He waved his arms. “You aren’t allowed to enter here. There are sick patients here!”

  “We’re allowed to!” The colonel cut him off. “Who are you?”

  “I’m the director.”

  “Are there rats here?”

  “Yes.”

  “A lot of them?”

  “Maybe fifty or so...”

  “Any of the doctors here?”

  “There’s nobody here. Today is Sunday... What’s on your mind? Is it you who caused the fire?”

  “Who else? Man! A revolution’s going on outside and you’re sitting here in your rat’s nest and don’t know anything. Release the prisoners!”

  “What prisoners? This is a hospital and not a prison,” the doctor got riled up.

  “There it is! Is it a real hospital?” The colonel winked at me. “Well, how ‘bout it, honorable doctor... Then release the patients.”

  “How dare you say this? These are really sick people! In any case, they can’t be released, they absolutely can’t control themselves! And finally, I’m responsible for them...”

  Suddenly I felt bad for him. A pitiful type. But he was simply doing his job conscientiously. He had been told “It’s forbidden,” so he told us “It’s forbidden.” But our situation also wasn’t a good one. If we didn’t get reinforcements—we’d be goners.

  “You can’t expect me to do something for which I’ll lose my head later.”

  “You mean to say that among the patients there isn’t a single one of sound mind?”

  “Not a single one. Here there are only madmen. And, in addition, they’re in very serious condition.”

  “And there aren’t any people here being forcibly treated?”

  “How can you suspect us doctors of such a crime?”

  “I don’t suspect you personally, but those who are in charge of you.”

  “I don’t know what you mean. There has always been order in my hospital.”

  “But I don’t believe you,” the colonel said firmly, placing the cock of the automatic in the doctor’s stomach. “Open up the cells immediately.”

  “You can shoot me! What difference does it make to me whether I die now by your hand or later by theirs?!”

  His decisiveness could not help but surprise us, and so I believed him, though this wasn’t particularly pleasant. However, the colonel had, evidently, his own idea, and no less decisively placed his finger on the trigger.

  “I’ll count to three... If you don’t open up the cells, I’ll make a sieve out of you. And then I’ll pull the keys out of your pocket and open them up myself. Well?!”

  The director was pale and perspiration glistened on his forehead. His hand was trembling as he took the keys out of his pocket and opened up the first door.

  Six uncared for, unshaven patients, with dark eyes, lost in themselves, lay in a row in the cell on six bunks. Their faces, devoid of the least amount of expression, resembled the masks of mannequins. Not one of them so much as turned his head toward the door. In the room it smelled of unwashed bodies and the sour taste of vomit.

  The colonel looked at me with such sadness, that only just now did I understand what kind of a hopeless situation we had come upon. But hope had not abandoned us yet.

  “What did you do to them?” I asked the director. “I don’t know what they did to them,” he responded insultingly. “I found them this way.”

  “But these aren’t real madmen. They were driven to such a horrifying state.”

  “Do you have proof of this?”

  “I once knew one of these patients... Just by sight though, but he was a completely healthy person.”

  “You and I are also completely healthy people. And what’ll become of us tomorrow?”

  Now the threatening screech of metal could be heard in his words. Or did it just seem that way to me?

  “Open up the next cell.”

  The director obediently opened up one more door.

  And again we saw the very same picture.

  “Now have you been convinced?” He asked.

  “No,” the colonel cut in. “Open up the rest of the doors.”

  We passed from cell to cell through the entire first floor without any results. We didn’t see a single person who would even slightly remind us of a normal person.

  This entire time the rats were scampering in the corners, but in such small numbers that it didn’t frighten us.

  “So of all the personnel you’re here alone?” I asked.

  “Well, how to put it... I’m alone... though the rats work together here with people. Among them there are also several... hmmm... doctors. They work without any days off. They are very hardworking, as opposed to...”

  Here he shut up and led his glance away.

  “As opposed to people? Yes?!”

  Suddenly the colonel got enraged.

  “I didn’t want to say it that way,” the director defended himself.

  “But you said it!”

  “I only said that their doctors are hardworking...”

  “Well, of course! Now I clearly see the success of their doctoring!.. And what’s on the second floor?”

  “On the second? It’s not enough for you to see what you’ve seen here?”

  For some reason he was really unhappy with our obtrusiveness. And he didn’t succeed in hiding this from us. But it was worth it to finish up this business.

  “Take us to the second floor,” the colonel grew stubborn.

  “But I’m warning you—the especially sick patients are up there. Unforeseen excesses might occur. You have an overly aggressive look, who knows how the patients will react to this. Because they’ve gotten used to seeing just pajamas and white robes around themselves.”

  “You forgot to mention the gray pelts of the rats. And maybe they see that most often.”

  “You can take the keys,” he said, offering us an entire bunch. “The number of the cell is engraved on each one. I won’t go with you.”

  “We don’t need you.”

  “Just what you see there might ruin your state of mind for a long time.”

  “Well, it’s not worth getting upset over our state of mind. It’s been ruined for a long time, from the time when people like you began to work for the rats.”

  “And what was I supposed to do—die from hunger? Or turn myself into one of those?”

  The colonel didn’t say anything in response, he just nodded to me to follow him to the second floor.

  We stopped in front of the door that was painted bright red.

  The key turned completely soundlessly in the lock. In exactly the same way the door opened soundlessly and the colonel entered. At first I heard his cry and then random swearing. He was thunderstruck in the doorway, barring passage to me, and I was forced to push him slightly, in order to look into the cell.

  What I saw provoked a spasm in my throat.

  Three creatures were sitting on the floor that had human muscles but large rat heads. These monsters bared their sharp teeth and glared fiercely. For a minute or so they looked at us guardedly and indecisively, but suddenly, as though a current penetrated them, they shuddered and bolted to their feet. This looked as though they had just received someone’s signal. Someone had ordered them to attack us, and they threw themselves at the door, roaring threateningly and gurgling saliva.

  “Ah, abomination!” The colonel shouted and pulled the trigger.

  The automatic round ripped through their chests and stomachs, threw them backward and knocked them over onto the floor.

  “If we find similar monsters, we have to destroy every trace of them immediately,” he looked at me. “Do you understand me? We have to at least manage to do that.”

  “It seems that we won’t be able to do anything more.”

  “Are you sorry you’ve gone in with me?”

  “No. All the same, somebody had to brave this.”
>
  We saw two people in the next cell who were tied to steel beds with wide straps. One was lying motionless. The other turned his head to us, and these were the first eyes in which we saw traces of intelligence. Their mouths were taped shut.

  “This... this is my colleague!” The colonel shouted out. “Captain Kolyada! I recognize him!”

  The man had long locks and a beard. On hearing his name, he joyfully nodded his head.

  We released both of them from their straps in a second.

  “Captain! How did you get here?”

  “Mmmm... mmmm... ooh...” The one getting up from the bed mumbled something.

  His comrade, though, lay there without stirring, and I, having untaped his mouth, realized that he was dead.

  The captain rolled up the sleeves of his pajamas and stretched out his emaciated white arms to us. The entire inside surface of his arms had needle punctures. Then he showed us his chest in bluish spots and once again tried to explain something, but managed only an unintelligible cackling.

  “They obviously tried some experiments on him,” I guessed.

  The captain nodded his head. He suddenly got scared and began to point his hand at the neighboring cell. He also understood that we had very little time.

  The colonel opened it and an even more horrifying picture opened up before our eyes.

  Four completely naked women were sitting on the beds and each one was playing with at least ten tiny rat-people. These abominable fidgeting creatures scurried along the women’s legs. They crawled to their breasts to suckle milk.

  I couldn’t look at this. I was sick to my stomach. The captain clenched his fists and shook them in the air, imitating fire from an automatic. Then the colonel slowed down.

  The women did not react to our visit at all. You could sense a certain confusion just among their children, who, seeing someone unfamiliar, began to scurry and tried to hide between the legs and under the arms of the women, the entire time squealing in fright.

  The captain drew the colonel’s automatic toward himself and the latter, without offering any opposition, gave up the weapon.

  I stepped out into the corridor and leaning my hand against the wall, just vomited on the shining, varnished floor.

  Behind my back automatic rounds, a piercing squeal and a convulsive shriek reverberated.

  When they exited from the cell, I was surprised at how different their faces were. The colonel carried his cold stone expression harshly, but a happy smile was playing on the captain’s lips. He was pleased that he had gotten the opportunity for revenge.

  “Three more doors are left,” said the colonel, fingering the keys. “ They have an entire research institute here.”

  “I won’t go there,” I responded. “I’ve had enough.”

  “He’ll go...”

  We waited in the corridor until the captain finished his business. The same thing could be heard from every cell—first gunshots, then the despairing squeals of the tiny rat-people and the screams of the half-crazed women.

  “Let’s go back,” the colonel commanded when everything was already done.

  “Mmmm...” The captain began to mumble and ran ahead, leading us downstairs.

  When will all this end, I thought. We passed the first floor and began to descend into the cellar when a loud growling unexpectedly echoed and six stout rat-people jumped out to meet us with metal rods in their hands. Their appearance was so unexpected that we barely managed to stop. Happily the captain distinguished himself with a reaction worthy of astonishment, for covering us with his back, he suddenly began to shoot from the automatic continually. And even then the bullets didn’t stop these monsters, they continued their assault, waving their rods. Their wounds evoked an even stronger appearance of ferocity, and we had to move back.

  Then I let loose a flame from the flame-thrower right into their grinning maws. A shout of mortal terror echoed in the basement. Four of the attackers fell on the steps, two of them lurched to escape and disappeared around the bend.

  The captain, having taken possession of the automatic, didn’t release it from his hands. Now he was our leader and this time set off in front, taking the greatest danger on himself.

  We descended into the basement and saw the metal door. The rat-people hid themselves behind it and perhaps not only were they hiding, because from all the captain’s action, it was evident that there was something very important for us behind the door. But whether it would help us somehow, or on the other hand become a peril that must be destroyed, we didn’t know and just relied on our new comrade.

  “I’ll force open this door,” the colonel said, and hooked two grenades onto the doorknob.

  We barely managed to hide for cover around the corner as a mighty explosion shook the walls.

  The lock from the door jumped off.

  The captain nervously opened the door, and a chamber appeared before us with an endless number of various apparati, glass bottles, retorts, test glasses with rubber tubes into all of which something was being poured, something was being transfused: it gurgled, hissed and foamed.

  Four monsters stirred in the depth of the chamber next to the window with gratings. They were pulling the grates and howling from despair. Two of them still had iron rods in their hands, but remembering how their comrades had expired, they were more afraid than the others had been and didn’t even think about attacking us. Yet all the same we were forced to destroy them.

  They weren’t able to hide from the flames.

  At that very moment a shot echoed, and the colonel grabbed his shoulder. Somebody was firing from somewhere behind the apparatuses. The captain leapt onto the table like a cat, with his feet breaking all the glass devices. He saw someone behind the tables, for in the next second he jumped there with the battle cry of pre-historic tribes.

  A bustling shout was heard as well as a despairing shriek that evidently did not belong to the captain.

  I moved around the really long table and saw our beloved director on the floor. The captain stepped on his stomach with one foot and clicked the trigger ferociously. The clip was emptied in full sight.

  “Wait!” I stopped him. “Don’t kill him!”

  The captain looked at me with eyes that didn’t understand but took away his rifle.

  “Stand up!” I ordered.

  The doctor raised himself, trembling from fear.

  “Why were you shooting?” I asked, as calmly as possible.

  “I didn’t want to...,” the doctor began to howl. “Accidentally...”

  With a nervous movement the captain raked a pack of some kind of brochures from the table, and holding them for a second in front of my eyes so I could read the title, he shoved them into the doctor’s face.

  “Was it he who divulged this?” The voice of the colonel began to speak near me, behind my back.

  The captain shook his head contrarily.

  “What is it—he wrote this?”

  The captain nodded.

  “I didn’t write anything! He’s lying!” The doctor began to scream, first looking at the colonel hotly and then at the captain. He didn’t take heed of me.

  But on the table we found one more interesting thing. It was something like a radio. The captain, pointing at it, clipped his nose shut with his two fingers and gave a tug.

  “A rat?” The colonel asked.

  The captain nodded.

  “A signal transmitter for the rats?” He asked again.

  And once again he received an affirmative answer.

  “Aha. So all this is your work?! This is you and that rat Führer?” Screamed the colonel. “Now you’re gonna pay for everything!”

  “Nothing of the kind!” The doctor defended himself. “I don’t have anything to do with this!”

  Suddenly outside the grenade explosions reverberated. A couple of rats banged their bloody bodies into the windows. The attack had begun.

  “Time to go upstairs,” the colonel said, and passed the disk to the captain. “Fini
sh with him.”

  “Have mercy!” The doctor shrieked hysterically. “They forced me! I didn’t want to!”

  We tossed the “rat Führer” for the captain. There, upstairs, the automatic fired and grenades rattled ceaselessly. Amid this uproar I barely made out the sound of the short round of firing that echoed behind my back.

  “Viola!” The colonel suddenly shouted, and taking two to three steps at a time rushed upstairs.

  Now I heard her voice—she was calling for help.

  As it turned out, the girl had barely managed to drag the cart into the building and slam the door before the baring maws of thousands of rats, who, having waited until the fire in the park had settled down, threw themselves into the assault. You could hear them gnawing the door with zeal.

  “Is this Mr. Krupa?” We asked simultaneously.

  “Uh, uh, he’s there...,” the girl began to sob.

  “Open the door!” I said to the colonel and stuck out the flame-thrower.

  But the captain stopped us, raised himself up several steps and looked into the window. Making signals, he ordered us not to open the doors.

  I ran up to him and also looked out. Mr. Krupa had disappeared behind a thick blanket of gray bodies.

  “It’s too late,” I sighed.

  “He shielded the wagon with himself,” Viola explained. “He forcibly shoved me here...”

  Then she noticed blood on her father’s shoulder and rushed to wrap the wound.

  “It’s not too awful,” said the colonel. “But since my hand is quite weak, I won’t be able to hold the automatic...”

  “Poor Mr. Krupa,” I shook my head. “To die such an awful death...”

  “He died like a hero,” said the colonel. “He died saving the weapons. If we get out of this alive, then it’s only thanks to him.”

  The door shuddered from the rats’ assault.

  “Lord, is there any end in sight to them?” Viola asked.

  “This isn’t the most horrifying thing,” said the colonel. “The most horrifying thing is that we’re left alone... We don’t have anyone else to rely on... and the rats... Seems to me that they’re becoming depleted... These are the last forces they’ve thrown at us. You might say an all-national militarization.”