Kitabı oku: «A moment before immortality», sayfa 3
Kindness is not at all what they need. Sometimes you feel, when entering a classroom, that you are in a cage with tigers who are directing their hungry gaze at you. If you turn away, miss something from your attention, they will immediately bite you, and at the most unexpected moment. But when they feel strong, they can be led on any adventures. I’m not sure that they will remember you in a couple of years, but these smiling «robbers» will remain a part of your life forever, and they will often be missed. Probably many of them perceive kindness as a sign of weakness?
– Sorry. Violetta Stepanovna! – crocodile tears flowed down Vasya Pukhlin’s cheeks.
«You shouldn’t be so categorical,» Isolda Viktorovna looked at her colleague over her glasses. – Ordinary youth. No worse and no better than us. They live in a different time, with different technical capabilities, but people are always the same.
Technological progress has touched every corner of the universe. Skyscrapers have mushroomed, even in small cities. But the school, built in the sixties of the last century, remained the same school. Every five years, major renovations are done here. But the light bulbs do not light up everywhere: only where they were purchased by parents or responsible teachers, since the state budget has no time for such small everyday problems, they think globally. During recess, most children are immersed in virtuality, and Technopolis, a network «city» of extended reality, is used in lessons. But if you face the truth, even before the invention of computers, not everyone carried out changes in libraries – pranks are always more interesting.
Many schools are the same, with minor differences. A light rain was falling. The wind pierced to the bones, but in March the hope for quick warmth and greenery did not fade. Eternal summer is not bad at all. But remember the sunny countries of Africa – would you like to live like this – in endless stuffiness, where there is no escape from mosquitoes and numerous diseases? Spring is twice beautiful after prolonged frosts and snows. And the light rain, even though it contained snow that melted before reaching the asphalt, did not spoil the mood. Spring! Her scent is in every first blade of grass, it is dispersed in the air. The children are smiling and waving their briefcases. Remembering the tests, they begin to frown. But then they agree on an evening walk, and the sadness disappears!
The school yard has been swept. Hardworking janitor bees have no time for sleep early in the morning: they are preparing for the arrival of the younger generation. The cleaning robots didn’t get into the Temple of Science: let them clean the corridors of the Centrum. Children need to be led by example, and isn’t a clean schoolyard worth a thousand words about cleaning and cleanliness? A flag flutters above the entrance, and next to it is an electronic board with the name of the school. Around the corner, high school students are eating the first forbidden fruits of the gray serpent. Some time ago, young people dabbled with electronic devices, but doctors proved that vaping is more dangerous than a regular cigarette. Although, what should we tell them about the danger: who among us did not break the rules during our school years? But this is the main right of youth – to make mistakes for which you are not ashamed later.
The cloakroom attendant smiles welcomingly. The high school students on duty have been on their feet since early morning. They meticulously check everyone’s shoes and demand that they put their jackets in the cloakroom. Children are running along the corridors, laughing. A couple of boys are playing table tennis. The dining room smells like cutlets. It’s morning, but there’s already a line at the window for rolls and pizza. Teenagers are constantly hungry. They grow and change beyond recognition every month. These very similar schools have completely different students. Each of them is a whole world, a universe, with its own experiences and problems. Hobbies. This short, smiling guy has been going to judo for seven years and earns medals. And this one seems to be a future cybersportsman. Here is a flock of guys huddled at the windowsill. Under the proud gaze of the excellent student, they copy something from her notebook.
«I’m thinking about leaving,» said Violetta Stepanovna. – I was offered a place at the Ideal school, and every day I want to agree to go there more and more.
Vasya and Seryozha looked at each other. There were various rumors about these very Ideal Ones. They said that the Government, through cloning, bred people who never got sick and could work at least twice as hard as any mortal. But the main thing: they were not bound by bonds of emotions. Even children are always cultured and courteous, and have never committed any offenses. The ideal couple now studied at this school. Too sweet, according to their classmates, but most of the teachers’ attention belonged to them. Their peers hated them.
– Please don’t leave! – Vaska burst into tears more than ever. – We won’t do this again. True true! It was the last time. Don’t change us or them!
But this story is not about ideal people. Of course, we all strive for the ideal, but a monotonous life is gray and boring. Violetta Stepanovna will work at the Ideal School for some time, but then return to the regular school: once you set foot on its threshold, it is difficult to imagine yourself in another field. Fifth-graders who are taking their first steps into adulthood will also remain without our attention for now. But these two guys, who already look like adults, are head and shoulders above the teachers, or even more. But they are adults only in appearance, but at heart they are still the same tomboys. The games just got more serious, older
Dimka squinted one eye so that the cigarette smoke would not corrode the mucous membrane of the eye. Ask any smoker why he started smoking, and he is unlikely to tell the truth: «I just wanted to be like everyone else, I don’t have my own opinion.» A white cap hid a chip reader on the back of his head. Behind his back is a bottomless briefcase with many «treasures»: screwdrivers, knives, wires. Mitya is two heads taller than Dima.
– What did she tell you? – asked Mitya, a boy with a piercing in his left ear and a tattoo of a skeleton on his right hand.
– Yes, that’s what she said. Like, let’s just be friends. Is this why I carried her briefcase five years ago? And wrote essays on Shakespeare to stay in the «friend zone»? I drew flowers for March 8th. My mother is raising me alone: where can I get money for real flowers? Nowadays, plants are rare, almost a curiosity. They are worth a lot of money! Vasilko, he gets money from his father, he is a Guardian. Do I have to spend a thousand years looking for a girl? Or neither eat nor drink – save up for a flower?
A bone-chilling wind was blowing. The sun was hidden behind fluffy gray clouds. A fine nasty rain fell. But spring is even in the smells. And there was no question of hiding from nature under an umbrella: it was about to get warm. It’s anticipation in every second. There are no trees in megacities for a long time, but the first birds, obeying age-old reflexes, have already begun to return home to the roofs of skyscrapers.
– Let’s beat up Vaska? – Mitka suggested. – I will skin anyone for my brother!
– Thank you brother. I didn’t have a good relationship with my siblings, although I found a kindred spirit in you. But I tried yesterday. Do you see the bruise on his face? – Dimka turned around. There was a black bruise all over my cheek.
– Yeah!
– Same thing. He rarely walks alone, hanging out with his buddies. I told him: «Come on one on one, be a man!», and he set a mob on me. In the evening, my mother also told me that I wanted to fight. World is not fair!
– So let’s call our friends. I have many good friends. They won’t refuse me.
– And you, Mitka, are my only friend. I guess I’ve known you for ten years. We even went to the same kindergarten. You can’t have many friends: one, maximum two, and only if you’re lucky. The rest are like acquaintances, fellow travelers in the gravity car of life. Like a sieve, she will weed them out, leaving the most devoted ones. I don’t want to make such «temporary friends»
– So who are we going to call?
«No need,» Dima said confidently. – I’ll figure it out myself.
– Exactly?
– Yeah!
– You speak up if anything happens! – Mitka winked conspiratorially, and Dimka, sad until that moment, smiled for the first time during the break.
The bell rang. The children gravitated to the old school – the only stain of the past, pre-skyscraper era.
– Let’s go to? – Mitya stood up and hung his backpack over his shoulders. Backpacks have not gone out of fashion – every young man has one on his back. And what is convenient and practical. – There’s no need to be late. Otherwise Violetta Stepanovna will swear again.
«I won’t go to mathematics,» said Dima. – Why did she give in to me?
– But the test. And exams are just around the corner.
– Don’t care about exams! Why do I need a diploma? Should I get in line for mating? Not with anyone. Marinka made it clear that she would not be with me. I’d rather go to the Guardians.
The time for open relationships is long gone. The state took control of family planning. And now, in order to have a child, you need to stand in line for mating. After all, even the construction of skyscrapers did not solve the problem of overpopulation. But not everyone got this right: only the smartest, or the strongest, or in other ways superior to other people. An ordinary «C» student does not need to prolong the family line, according to the state.
– Mitya, you go to mathematics yourself.
– And you?
– And I’m going to rob Centrum Bank! Look, I can get Marinka this way too! – Dimka laughed hysterically. But Mitya knew his best friend too well: he rarely joked. And in general he had no sense of humor.
«I’ll go with you,» said the boy with a piercing in his ear, lowering his backpack onto the asphalt.
– But I was joking!
– I know your jokes.
– Don’t be stupid, Mitya. Okay, I’m going: I have nothing to lose. And why do you need it?
– Why should I catch on the «tower» without you? It’s just boring, numbers, and that’s all!
The reasons for teenagers’ actions are to oppose themselves to the whole world, to show their uniqueness and difference. And for some, on the contrary, for company. For the sake of a friend, through fire and water. Mitya often followed Dimka’s lead and others. He made the piercing like the lead singer of the Rocker Stars. The tattoo is very similar to the symbolism of the Blackened group. And Mitka, of course, contracted the teenage addiction to nicotine from Dimka.
– Listen, Dim. Why are you friends with me?
– You’re cool, funny. But not only that. How do you like Kolka, new guy?
– Which one is Ideal? – asked Mitya.
– Yeah, he’s the one.
– Boring, like all clones.
«That’s the same,» said Dima. – They look alike. And you are wrong. You often infuriate me with your jokes and antics. Sometimes when you blurt out something, I want to kill you. But as soon as we part for an hour or two, it immediately becomes empty. If you were Ideal, I wouldn’t be friends with you. Okay, enough talk. Insert the chip into the back of your head and let’s go!
An electric discharge passed through the body. The world was filled with new colors and changed. It became lighter. Before your eyes is a navigation panel. Dima increased the subjective temperature and removed the wind.
– And I recommend it to you – otherwise you’ll be chilled to the bones!
Mitya smiled and repeated the procedure. The boys looked at the lifeless bodies of their avatars, who were sitting on the asphalt.
– I hope that while we are in the virtual world, no one will find us in real life? – asked Mitya.
«We won’t stay long,» Dima answered. – Taking out the «Gargoyle Wings» will not open a teleport to the Bank.
Behind the backs of the teenagers there are wings that look like bats. By the way, the appearance of the guys has changed considerably: both are muscular, tall, and 10 years older. Augmented reality made it possible to change the appearance to taste. They soared up and flew over the tops of skyscrapers, and sometimes flying through steel walls. And in every room there is a fragment of someone’s secret life. But the new era cannot keep secrets. Only the richest can afford to buy virtuality broadcast suppressors. Well, it’s the same in government facilities. And so, go into any apartment in virtual form and look into someone else’s, once private, life. A world without borders, a world without castles.
– Do you know where to fly? – asked Mitya.
– Let’s go down to this roof. The security system here is weaker.
– Listen, what if we get caught?
– Don’t whine like a woman! – Dimka grinned somehow ominously. – I suggested to you right away: go to mathematics. He himself wanted to go with me.
– I’m a boy, I’m not a woman!
– Don’t drift! You haven’t forgotten who you’re dealing with, have you? I took second place at the Young Programmer Olympiad
As soon as he landed on the roof, two huge stone troll statues came to life.
– This is what I understand – a security system! Nobody promised that it would be easy!
The troll hit the roof, sending a shock wave in all directions.
– Mitya, don’t step on these blue symbols. These are beacons: you can’t wash them off. And then the Guardians will quickly figure you out.
Dima issued some combination of commands, and a scarlet whip shone in his hand, sparkling with energy. The blow – and the troll shattered into fragments, turning into a pile of stones.
– Will you teach me to do this too? – Delight was visible in Mitka’s eyes.
– No need to skip computer science lessons, that’s the whole secret!
Dima entered another combination of commands, and a gap appeared in the wall (of course, only in virtuality, but this was enough to get inside)
Along the walls there were shelves with various information. But the most interesting thing is in the center of the hall, which ended the long corridor. A sphere glowing in various shades of blue, flowing with energy.
– What is this? – Mitka whispered spellbound.
– Looks like this is the Server Key! Mit, we are rich! Now, to get any information we are interested in, we don’t even need to wander around Technopolis! You need to grab it and make legs!
Dima extended his hands to the sphere, but then something grabbed his hand. He tried to pull his hand away, but tenacious black paws held him. Then their owner appeared, a huge black ghost, reaching to the ceiling. Dima tried to create a whip in his hand, but the program code crumbled from his fingers.
– Did you really think it was so easy to get into the Centrum? Statues are just decorations; any programmer can pass through them. But we will not give the sphere to anyone.
«Mitka, hit him from behind with something!» I’ll distract him, and you’ll hit him! I can’t press the exit button from virtuality. They blocked me!»
The beauty of virtuality is that you can send messages that no one except the recipient will see. The ghost had no idea yet that there was someone else in the building besides Dima. But Mitya shook his head. A tear ran down his cheek.
«Forgive me, Dim. I can’t»
«Why?»
«If I get caught now and my parents find out. I’m finished!
«Well, you and #%$#*, Dima! I didn’t expect it from you! You’re scum!
Mitya’s image flashed and disappeared into virtuality. He returned to the real world.
The ghost twisted Dima’s limbs, but he did not feel pain. Feelings were obscured by another pain that had no equal: the first betrayal, like the first love, remains forever in the heart. Tears flowed down my cheeks, which even in virtuality made my face wet. Probably, in the real world his avatar is crying.
– Do you know what I will do to you, sucker? – the ghost laughed creakingly.
– Yes to me #$%#$%, do what you want!
– Everyone said that before meeting people like me. But I will do something good with you. I will reeducate you. They say that you can educate for up to ten years. But we have found a way to educate at any age. Juvenile criminals like you are no longer sent to prison. There is little space under the sun, and every year there is less and less. Why spend money on places of detention when you can re-educate them forever and make people Ideal?
A white sphere shone between the ghost’s fingers, shimmering with rows of zeros and ones.
– What is this? – Dima asked scared, although deep down he already knew the answer to this question. He made another attempt to get out, but to no avail. He shouted several obscene phrases, but the ghost did not pay attention to them. He placed a white sphere between Dima’s eyebrows, and it shone blindingly. This light passed through the whole guy. At first it hurt. And then he, looking around. I could appreciate the perfectly even outlines of the hall.
And then there was a flash – and Dima opened his eyes on the wet cold asphalt. He hung his backpack on his back and trudged home.
The thirty-eighth floor, but for some reason the elevator was not working again. This happened often. It smelled like dog urine: many defenders let poor animals in to bask in the entrance, and laid out the bones on a piece of newspaper on the ground floor. The light was blinking while waiting for the wiring to be repaired. Swear words are written on the steel wall with a marker. Usually Dima ran out of breath on the fifth floor, but today he reached his floor without shortness of breath. The young man’s room was in «creative» chaos. The bed is not made. Dima corrected this misunderstanding. Swept and washed the floors. I washed the dishes. I replaced the outlet that I promised to fix more than a month ago. And he sat down to study. Isn’t this logical? Every teenager, when he comes home, should do nothing but study and help his mother around the house. This is the only way to please everyone.
«Well done, Dimka,» said Zinaida, returning home. She had not been so proud of her son for a long time.
– Mom, is there anything else you need help with?
– Take out the trash, son. I forgot to take it with me this morning. And now I’m very tired, I won’t be able to come down from the thirty-seventh floor.
Dima usually snapped after every attempt to force him to do something around the house. But what has changed now?
I packed my backpack in the evening so as not to forget a single textbook. I laid out screwdrivers and other items unnecessary in the educational process. At exactly nine-thirty the young man went to bed. At his age, he needs at least nine hours of sleep to stay healthy. And no games at night – they are harmful to the development of the psyche.
At the entrance to the school, Mitya grabbed Dima’s hand.
– Excuse me if you can. Dim, I don’t know what came over me yesterday. I didn’t do it on purpose. I… – Mitya burst into tears.
– Everything is fine. You did the logical thing. You still couldn’t save me. But he saved himself.
Mitya didn’t think so. The boy must fight to the last drop of blood for his brother.
– What happened to you yesterday? What did he do to you?
– He re-educated me.
– So are you really okay?
«Everything is perfect,» Dima said, and entered the school.
– Maybe it’s… let’s have a smoke before Isolda Viktorovna comes? Around the corner,» Mitya suggested.
– I stopped. Smoking is harmful to health. And I don’t recommend it to you.
Inside, as always, it smelled of cutlets and sweat. Dima greeted the cloakroom attendant warmly and changed his second shoes. Today he did not argue with the duty officers from the ninth «b».
Dima also greeted Marina. I said hello. And he moved on. And not a single word more. Marina almost choked: won’t she get some attention today? She took out her compact to look in the mirror: was there something wrong with her today? Is she not so beautiful now? Or did Dima notice this pimple on his face?
By the way, Marina only now noticed that there was no trace left of Dima’s acne.
– Listen, Dim, I was thinking: let’s meet? – Marina smiled radiantly. It didn’t work out with Vasya, so she looked for alternate ways. How will she look her friends in the face if she is alone, without a boyfriend?
– No, Marina, you don’t suit my genotype. We will not have perfectly healthy offspring. Sorry.
Marina turned green with anger, then burst into tears loudly. But the young man did not turn around at her trick. He had no emotions left.
Dima entered the office five minutes before the bell rang and went to the first desk. There was another Ideal sitting there.
Since today, Dima has not entered Technopolis. More precisely, now he was always in virtuality and never left it. The blond sitting next to him shone with white light in the expanded reality that Dima had always seen.
Dima forgave Mitya, and for some time they communicated with an old friend. But Mitya could not stand Ideal’s company for long.
– You’ve become boring. It’s not interesting with you,» Mitka once said.
Dima graduated from school with a gold medal. Graduated from the university with honors. And he lived an ordinary, ideal life. There is only one «gray» spot in his biography. When his child was born and he was offered a vaccine, Dima shook his head.
– But why? Dim, we are perfect, why don’t you want our son to grow up the same? – Dima’s wife asked.
– Yes, we live ideally. But let our son grow up happy. At least until the first mistake, let’s allow him this.
The years passed, and there were more and more Ideal ones. But among the skyscrapers stood the same school, built in the mid-sixties of the last century, in the corridors of which there was still the same smell of cutlets. And in this school, different people were welcome, even if they were not adults yet, even if they were not ideal.
Soul limit
Every year there are more and more people, but there is less and less humanity in them.
I’m sitting in a stuffy classroom. Humidity – 61% It would be nice to open the window, but Marina Velichko is allergic to the pollen of one of the plants. It seems irrational to me when 25 people suffer because of one. Moreover, one cannot call life full of life with such functional damage. Violetta Semyonovna in a dress that reflects light with a frequency of about 450 THz. People would call it red. The timbre of her voice constantly changes, and her pupils dilate slightly when she looks at the projection of world-famous paintings.
– And this is a landscape by the Russian artist Alexei Savrasov…
And then there are many epithets. No matter how hard I tried, I could not understand what the words «beautiful», «extraordinary skill», «winter splendor», «defenseless branches in their nakedness», «freshness» mean. Of course, I already remembered in what situation it is necessary open your mouth and show your teeth (they call it a smile), and when to lower your eyes to the floor (shame), but I don’t fully understand why they need this.
A signal with a frequency of about 1000 Hz, which means that you can get up from your seat and go to the next lesson. I love mathematics more than cultural studies. Mathematics is useful, but what is the use of looking at pictures drawn a hundred years ago? You won’t live in a painting, a painting won’t feed you. And it takes up a lot of information on the medium, not just numbers.
Vika Aksyonova and Yura Stepunov hold hands and look into each other’s eyes, and so on at every break. I don’t understand their logic: do you really want to touch someone when the room temperature is almost 27 degrees?
– Hey, voidman! What are you staring at? – Yura knitted his eyebrows and stared at me. – Do you have any problems? If you don’t get out of here, you’ll find them.
– Yuri, let him go his own way, where he was going. No need to touch it! – Vika whispers.
– I hate void people. Moral monsters. They have no place in our country. And let them get off the planet. There is a state program for space exploration. Let him fly to Mars. Or to Jupiter. The main thing is further from our school.
Yura thinks that his words should make me angry. Or maybe these people are jealous? We are better than them in many ways. We feel temperature and humidity better, and we can name the frequency of light and sound waves with great accuracy. And we also have no feelings. Although, sometimes I… I guess that’s what people call envy. People most often go in pairs, or find friends, and gather in huge groups. And void people are always alone. We communicate with someone when the interlocutor is useful to us. My mother was a human, and my hollow father communicated with her in order not to pay the tax for childlessness. It was more profitable for him to be with us than for himself.
Yes, I sometimes envy people. But we are a perfect race, and the future belongs to us. People’s ambitions have brought the planet to the brink of an apocalypse. If we had not appeared as a new target for persecution, then they would have continued to destroy their own kind, who simply live behind the fences of borders that the people themselves invented, for the pleasure of those in power.
The Creator gave people a piece of himself, which became their soul. When a person died, this piece passed to the new owner. But murderers, drug addicts and other criminals left behind a rotten substance when they died, which crumbled to dust after their death. One day there were so many people that the limit of souls was reached. This is how the first voidman appeared. At first, people tried to beg their child’s soul so that he would become «just like everyone else.» Ironically, voidites, people without a soul, have become the best proof of the existence of this very soul! Soon a black market for souls emerged. Parents are ready to give up any wealth to make their child humane, while others are ready to even sell their souls to feed their child. By the way, total hunger and poverty are not such rare phenomena in our overpopulated world.
Vika grabbed my hand, snatching me out of the captivity of my thoughts.
– Don’t pay attention to him.
– What? – I asked.
– Well, I’m talking about Yura. And his trick.
– Oh, you mean that. It’s OK. I take no offence. I’m used to it.
– But I’ll never get used to it. But he has a reason. His family suffered from… sorry, I mean, from people like you. I’m trying to re-educate him, but to no avail.
– But I’m telling you, it’s okay…
She looked into my eyes the whole time. And I felt something… It seemed. Void dwellers are devoid of feelings.
«So cold,» said Vika.
– What?
– You have eyes. No emotions at all. You know, sometimes I think I would like you. If only the eyes were kinder.
– What about Yura? Are you, as it were, with him?
Vika lowered her eyes and blushed.
– You are right. I’d better go. Once again, I apologize for his behavior.
After class I decided to walk home. The three-dimensional stream of gravikars spread noise over a huge range of frequencies. It’s not so easy to list all the chemical compounds that they emit. We are evolving, and perhaps my children will already be able to conduct chemical analysis with their senses. The sky is covered with a veil of smog, gray, and behind it is a scarlet sun.
Luminescent sign «Souls for hire» A completely legal office, many of them opened after the era of the birth of the void people. When people realized that there weren’t enough free souls for everyone, and most couldn’t buy one for their child even on the black market, he came to people with an offer «that was impossible to refuse.» Usually the devil bought souls for money, careers and other contracts signed blood. But in an era of scarcity, he had competitors among people who were willing to pay several times more for someone’s soul. When one business failed, he found a new way to make money. Many demons are ready to give everything to leave the underworld. But for this you need a body, and such that you don’t need to share it with someone else. A communal apartment is too much even for a demon. This is how another race appeared – the demos. They are almost indistinguishable from people. But instead of a soul, they were inhabited by a creature from another world: a demon, a demon, a devil.
Tell me, who would voluntarily give up the functional benefits of a voidman in order to become a slave to a demon? But then I remembered Vicki’s words: «I would like you. If only the eyes were kinder» I’m an ordinary voidman. But I have something from my mother: sometimes it seems to me that I know how to feel. This happens to me when I look towards Vicky, and especially when I see her eyes.
I looked at the sign for ten minutes and decided to go in anyway.
The interior is lit with incandescent lamps. How wasteful! Although, what can you take from them – people… The man looks about twenty-five years old. Tattoos from head to toe: skull, Latin inscriptions, incomprehensible abstractions. Wanting to stand out, people sometimes do unflattering things with their bodies.
– Do you want to rent a soul? – the man asked me without even greeting me.
– Yes. I’ll take the risk.
– Do you know the conditions? For ten years you will not be able to give up the demon living inside. And then, by mutual agreement, you can renew the contract every ten years. Although, no one has yet given up almost human life.
– Go ahead. Do what needs to be done there.
He sat me down in a chair and began working with a needle. When the job was over, the skull on my left shoulder grinned. I ran my hand over the rough skin. My shoulder still hurt from the needle. The room smelled sharply… you wouldn’t immediately recognize what exactly it was – my sense of smell was dulled, I could not at all distinguish the chemical composition of the air. If the operation was successful, you should smell sulfur oxide. Apparently he is. I looked at the tattoo artist. How could I not immediately notice the blackness in his eyes and the bestial grin. And his tattoos, like mine, were constantly moving, seemingly trying to cling to me with their bony paws. Dems are not so easy to distinguish from people unless you have one of their kind inside you.
