THE BEGINNING Book Two (THE EVENT)

by Marshall Huffman

  “You brought two tents?” Matryona asked

  “Yes.”

  “One for each of us?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why? Are you afraid of me?”

  “Yes.”

  “We had better go before I really do hurt you,” she said getting in the car.

  “I must make one more stop before I leave.”

  “I know,” Matryona replied.

  Yegor drove to his mother-in-law's house and parked the car.

  “I will be right back,” he said.

  “I will be right here.”

  Yegor nodded and walked into the building. The stairs were creaky and much of the plaster was pockmarked. The building was worn and tattered. He stopped at the wooden door with 2-C on it. The C was missing a nail, so the ‘C’ was upside down. He had promised to fix that the last time he was here. The door was unlocked and he opened it and entered. He found what he was expecting.

  He found Lirisa’s wedding ring in one of the globs of human remains. A small wooden truck was covered partly in the same material. It was all that was left of his family. He wondered why he didn’t feel more sorrow. Was he a monster? Didn’t he care about his family? No, he was sure it was neither of those. He knew that he was doing what he had to do to survive. Nothing he could do would change what had happened. He would never see his children or wife again but how would hysterical grieving help?

  He started to say a quick prayer but suddenly stopped. Where were you God? Why kill millions of people? What had his child ever done wrong? Most of all, why wasn’t I taken? I have shot and even killed men before but these people were innocent. Are you listening God?

  He suddenly realized he was yelling out loud at the ceiling. This was just so wrong. Finally he finished the prayer and went back to the car. He said nothing and neither did Matryona as he drove out of the city. Matryona had drifted off to sleep and did not realize the car had even stopped. She shook her head and looked around startled. Yegor was nowhere in sight. She sat up quickly and climbed out of the car. There was still daylight but she could not see him anywhere.

  “Yegor,” she yelled but got no reply.

  “Yegor. Where are you?” she yelled, cupping her mouth with her hands.

  “I am here,” he said crawling out from under the car.

  She jumped, not expecting a voice to come from below her.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Taking a nap.”

  “Under the car?”

  “Matryona,” he said.

  “Sorry. Did something break?”

  “I am afraid so. I smelled gas for several miles and noticed the gas gauge was registering almost empty. The gas hose is old and cracked and finally gave out. I am trying to replace it,” he said, standing up and dusting off his clothes.

  “Where will you ever get another gas thing?”

  “Gas thing? You mean a hose?”

  “Yes, yes. Whatever it is called. Where will you get one?”

  “I already have. I walked back a mile or so where I passed the last car and pulled a piece off of it. Getting the clamps on without a screwdriver was the difficult part. Fortunately a five roubles coin works very well as a screwdriver.”

  “What about gas?”

  “I am hoping we have enough to get back to the car down the road so I can siphon some.”

  “How much longer will it take?”

  “That depends on how much longer I stand here answering your questions,” Yegor replied.

  “Then get back under there and fix it.”

  “Actually, I already have,” he said and got into the car, “Are you coming?”

  “You know the part about being afraid I might hurt you. It just might come true,” she said as she shut the door.

  They made it back to the abandoned car without incident and were soon on their way once again. Yegor drove until it started getting dark and they stopped once again for the night. It was a totally moonless night and Matryona was visibly nervous.

  “It will be alright,” Yegor assured her.

  “No sound is bad enough but no light? I really don’t care for this.”

  “To tell the truth, I’m not overly fond of it myself but it will be daylight soon and you will see. Everything will be just fine.”

  “Where are we going to stay?”

  “How about that house over there. We have to climb that fence but it is the only thing I see.”

  “Yegor..”

  “It will be fine. Come on, it is getting dark rather quickly.”

  “I need some clothes.”

  “Matryona, it will be hard enough just getting to the farm house without dragging along a bunch of clothes.”

  “I just want a change of underwear, if you must know, General Nosy.”

  He pursed his lips and shrugged. She quickly grabbed a pair of panties out of a sack, stuffed them in her pocket and they started for the house. It was almost totally dark by the time they reached the farm house. It was further than it had looked from the road.

  “I can hardly see my hand in front of my face,” Matryona said as she tripped over a child’s toy in the yard. She was startled when Yegor switched on a flashlight.

  “Oh! You scared the pee out of me,” she said.

  “You have a change of underwear,” he replied.

  “You are a regular comic.”

  They entered the house and she never let go of Yegor as he went from room to room. Upstairs were two bedrooms.

  “See, this should do. His and her bedrooms just across the hall. It is as good as a hotel and about the same price.”

  “You are a big spender, General Nitikin.”

  “I try.”

  “Look, I know I am being a big baby but would you mind pulling your mattress in here by the bed?”

  “I’m afraid of you, remember?”

  “Well, try to be a big strong boy and do it anyway.”

  “I guess,” he said, sagging his shoulders and slumping off to grab the mattress. He pulled it over to the other room and flopped it on the floor.

  “Now that wasn’t so bad.”

  “So far,” Yegor replied.

  For the first time they slept without tossing and turning all night.

  Yegor woke just as the sun came up. He was confused at first but realized that Matryona had climbed into his bed sometime during the night. She was snuggled up against his back and lightly snoring. He decided to just lay there and think about what they really needed to be doing. Was going to Yamantaw even the best thing to do? Why not simply stay in Moscow and wait and see what happens? The Ural Mountains were so far away from Moscow.

  A thousand thoughts raced through his head and he struggled to decide the best course of action. Finally he decided that they had come this far, he might as well finish the trip and see what Yamantaw is really all about. All he knew was that it was hundreds of feet under the ground and much larger than any underground war shelter. It was many times the size of NORAD’s complex. It was rumored to be able to hold as many as ten thousand people. It seemed a probable exaggeration but he had heard that number several times. He had even heard that tens of thousands of workers, some prisoners, were working on the massive underground complex. According to one General, it had the capacity to even produce nuclear bombs on site.

  Yegor could not imagine such an undertaking. Why now? During the cold war maybe but with the economy in the condition it was in, why would they spend so much money? Who are we afraid of?

  Matryona stirred and quickly moved away from him. He rolled over and she was blushing.

  “You attacked me,” Yegor said smiling and she hit him on the arm.

  “I was frightened, cold, and I did not attack you,” she said, still blushing.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “I want to brush my teeth more than anything,” she said. She was wearing only her underpants and a bra.

  “Are you staring at me General?”

  “Yes. Yes I am.”

  S
he didn’t say another word but went down the hall looking for the bathroom. Yegor went down to the kitchen to see if he could find anything for them to eat. There was little that was still edible. They would have to eat in the car or find someplace later.

  “Find anything good?” she asked, dressed in her jeans and sweater.

  “Not really. I will go wash up and then we can see about finding some food.”

  Yegor went upstairs, washed his face in cold water and spread a dab of grainy toothpaste on his finger and brushed his teeth. Matryona was sitting in a swing on the front porch when he came down.

  “This kind of reminds me of home,” she said.

  “Me too. When I was little I thought I could see for a thousand miles. The fields seemed to stretch out forever.”

  “It was so much simpler then. Stay out of trouble, profess your hatred for all Westerners and swear by Lenin. That is pretty much all there was to it.”

  “We may see that all over again. Except I hope swearing by Lenin and hating Westerners can be left out of the picture this time.”

  “Unless they did this,” Matryona said.

  “They did not. Neither did the Chinese. I don’t know how it was done or who did it but I am sure it was neither of them.”

  “Why? What makes you so sure?”

  “Just a feeling,” Yegor told her.

  After stopping twice more, they could see the Ural Mountains in the distance.

  “I have only seen them once before and that was from the air,” Matryona said.

  “They can be quite beautiful at times but they can also be deadly. When the weather turns bad, you do not want to be up in them.”

  “It seems strange that we were posted so close to them but could never see them from the town or the base.”

  “And yet you were only a few hundred miles from them.”

  “Life is like that sometimes. You don’t always see what is right in front of you,” she said.

  “Speaking of which, you have said nothing about wanting to check on your husband,” Yegor said.

  “No, I have not. We have not been husband and wife for many years. When we first got married he seemed genuinely in love with me. Within a few years I realized I was no longer important to him.”

  “Then why stay with him?”

  “I honestly don’t know. Fear of being on my own again. I have never worked and I have no real skills. What would I do? He left me alone. He never hit me or mistreated me physically. I don’t really know. I just did. If we said ten words to each other while we were home, it was a good night. I thought at some point he would leave me but I guess having a wife had its advantages. The poor misunderstood husband line I’m sure he used to his advantage.”

  “But you knew he was, you know.”

  “Sleeping with other women?”

  “Yes.”

  “I knew. I couldn’t help but know. Everyone knew. To tell the truth it no longer bothered me. He was a roommate by that time and nothing more. I did not care whether he came or went.”

  “I must say, I don’t think I could have done that. I know I would have left. I would have done something else but I know I would have never stood for that,” Yegor said.

  “You are a man. You have many more options. You know how it is for women in Russia. We are married or belong to some fat old man trying to keep his youth by having a young wife. I certainly did not want to do that.”

  “I can’t believe you have no training. You surely could have gotten a job. A fashion model or something along those lines.”

  “No Yegor. I am certainly not model material.”

  “You know something Matryona?”

  “What is that?”

  “I think that is what makes you so beautiful. You don’t see yourself as beautiful and to me that makes you just as beautiful inside as out. Women that think they are beautiful are seldom as nice on the inside where it really matters. Looks are for here and now, but what is inside is forever.”

  “I can hardly believe you said that. Your wife was a very lucky woman. Most men are only concerned with what we look like not what we feel on the inside. I have to say, you are the first man who has ever said something like that to me.”

  “Don’t you think it is true?”

  “Yes, I do, but for a man to actually come out and say it? That is something else,” she said, looking at him intently.

  “I was just kidding. I only like the way women look,” he said and she slugged him on the shoulder once again.

  “See, I knew I should be afraid of you,” he said rubbing his arm.

  “You totally deserved that.”

  “I have to admit, you are right. You know I am kidding don’t you?”

  “Sure, but about which part?” she said.

  “Okay, I would hit you for that if I wasn’t such a gentleman.”

  “Officer and a gentleman. That was the name of an American show I saw once. It was very romantic.”

  “And I suppose you cried when Dr. Zhivago came to Russia.”

  “You would have to be a total insensitive slob not to cry during that movie,” she said.

  “Humm,” he replied.

  The car sputtered and stopped. He looked down at the gas gauge.

  “Now look what you made me do,” he said.

  “I made you do? You were the one jabbering about inner beauty and all that stuff.”

  “I haven’t seen another car for some time now. Walking back doesn’t seem like a good option. I knew we were getting low and I kept hoping we would pass another car, but nothing.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “I will walk on ahead and see if I can find a house or car, anything that has gas.”

  “Do you have something to put it in?”

  “In Russia? Of course. Everyone carries a gas can.”

  He got the can out of the trunk.

  “I will be back as soon as I can.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “I don’t think that is such a good idea. You can stay here and watch things. Here,” he said and handed her his pistol.

  “I don’t want that.”

  “Take it. Just in case.”

  “Yegor, I am not going to take it and I am coming with you,” she said and quickly jumped out of the car.

  “You are such a stubborn woman. It may be a long walk you know.”

  “No longer for me than for you. Let’s go,” she said and started off.

  “Are you always this stubborn?” Yegor asked.

  “Only when I need to be.”

  “And that would be when?”

  “Most of the time,” she said.

  They walked over two kilometers before Yegor spotted an old tractor with a plow attached.

  “Wait here,” he told her and climbed over the fence. A patch of goo was visible by the plow. Yegor climbed up and turned the key. A puff of black smoke came out of the exhaust. He was shocked that it started so easily. He jumped off and carefully removed the plow before driving over to the fence.

  “You got it started.”

  “You really are observant,” he shouted back.

  She put her fingers to her nose and waved them at him. He drove the tractor right through the fence.

  “Very subtle,” she said looking at part of the fence still attached to the tractor, “What now?”

  “We drive on up the road. This has some kind of oil in the gas. You can smell it. We will take this to a car and then drive back with the gas.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” she said.

  He leaned over and held his hand out to her. She grabbed it and he pulled her up so she could stand behind him.

  “Hang on,” he said and ground the gears.

  She leaned over and said in his ear, “Been driving tractors long?”

  It was a good thing Yegor had spotted the tractor because they did not find another vehicle for five more Kilometers. Yegor filled the gas can and they drove the tractor back to the car and put the gas in it.
<
br />   “That didn’t give us much,” Matryona said, looking at the fuel gauge.

  “It will get us back to the other car and then I will drain the rest of the gas in the tank.

  “I hope it has a lot,” she said.

  ~~

  It had a lot, almost a full tank. The gauge read just below the full mark.

  “This certainly should get us a ways down the road."

  Matryona made lunch as they drove along and they ate without stopping. The mountains were looming larger by the mile and they knew they were within a day’s drive of reaching them.

  “Do you know exactly where to go?”

  “Not exactly. I know it is near the city of Al’kino. Some place around a settlement called Beloretsk-16.”

  “Is it on the map?”

  “No. I looked. It is a top secret base so they don’t choose to put those on the map.”

  “Then it could be almost anyplace. We could look for days,” she said.

  “I don’t have anything better to do. What about you?”

  “I’m just saying..”

  “I know. Something will turn up. If it is as big as I have heard and takes as many workers then it shouldn’t be too hard to find.

  “You think we will soon be in...what was it called?”

  “Al’kino.”

  “Yes. In Al’kino by tomorrow?”

  “Unless something drastic happens we should easily make it.”

  “Good. I am getting a little tired of this car.”

  “I know what you mean. I think my butt has gone numb.”

  “You want me to drive some? You aren’t afraid of a woman driving are you? Careful how you answer that.”

  “Oh, heavens no. I have seen you drive twice now. I also noticed the fender and tail light.”

  “Someone hit me while the car was parked.”

  “Both front and back?”

  “At different times. That does it. I want to drive.”

  “If you insist.”

  “I do,” she said.

  Yegor stopped the car and went around to the other side and climbed in. Matryona slid over into the driver’s seat and adjusted the mirrors and seat position.

  “Whenever you are ready,” she said.

  “I didn’t bring a crash helmet so I guess I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be.”

  She let the clutch out and took off smoothly. She looked over at Yegor and wiggled her nose at him. He just laughed. When she looked over again, his head was against the window and he was starting to doze off. She could only grin.