... in which Peter Petrovich conducts another visual demonstration, develops his scientific theories and gives everyone hope for success
Behind the battered metal door, which seemed to block the usual passage to the basement, the same concrete staircase with standard flights continued. Only without windows. Pyotr Petrovich flipped a switch on the wall and began to descend casually. The boys followed him.
Stairs, flight, stairs again. Dimly flickering lamps under the ceiling. The legacy of the Soviet past. Probably secret labs. Or bomb shelters in case of an atomic war. Now it was all littered with some crates, boxes, and old furniture. But maybe there was something else hidden under the junk. It was really mysterious and unexplored. And who knows how many floors down these institute basements went. Valya counted five or six.
— Are you sure that we won't catch some kind of infection? Tolik asked, cautiously glancing at the mildewed walls.
— Absolutely,— the scientist replied, fumbling with another door.— These so-called "zombies" of yours have nothing to do with biological nature at all.
— But they're moving.— And they eat... Valya said skeptically.
— Purely mechanically. They move only because they have moved before and are well adapted to it. As a system of levers and hinges.
— You promised to explain everything, but you're just confusing me,— the girl sighed.
— Well, I'm sorry,— Pyotr Petrovich chuckled.— We are dealing with a new, rather large-scale and fundamental phenomenon. It's hard to get to his explanation right away. But I have a theory. Let's go...
the scientist finally opened the door and let the guys into a wide underground corridor.
— And what is your theory? Leonid asked, inhaling the humid air with the smell of mold.
— I believe that at the heart of all the phenomena we observe is the effect of some previously unknown field. It is so insignificant at the macro level that we do not feel it. It may be possible to capture it at ultra-low frequencies, but you'll have to try to filter out the noise...— the scientist hesitated — Yes, I digress. It seems that this field is changing the very structure of the space. It somehow regulates the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum, making the process self-sustaining. How a random grain of sand causes supercooled water to instantly crystallize. A hypothetical model. Everything is purely speculative so far. But in the end, at our macro level, we see what we see. Lowering the temperature. Yellow glow. Time is reversed... In a thermodynamic sense...
— Well, what about zombies, damn it? Tolyan interrupted the scientist impatiently.
Pyotr Petrovich pushed back the massive desk propping up the most ordinary door, opened the padlock and turned on the light in the office. In a small square room without any furniture, a powerful incandescent lamp flashed brightly and a terrifying picture appeared before the children.
A headless body was sprawled in the middle of a concrete floor with bulging linoleum. A bloodstained lab coat, an unremarkable sweater in a small mottled check, and gray rumpled trousers clearly indicated that this man had once been a colleague of the scientist. However, a couple of details immediately caught the guys' eye. The dead man's left leg had been sawn off at the ankle, and an orange sock was burning brightly on the other.
— Who's that?— Valya was the first to recover.
— Georgy Vitalievich. At least, that's what I'm used to calling him. Although, of course, it hasn't been him for a long time...
— What have you done with him?
— I've done some experiments...
— Hey! He's got an orange sock! Tolyan voiced what his friends had already noticed.
— Gosha has never had good taste,— Pyotr Petrovich replied confusedly and, picking up some kind of long armature from the floor, unceremoniously poked the headless body in the back.— Gosha, get up! Was it really an electronic outburst again? It looks like the overlap should be shielded...
As if heeding the exhortations of his colleague, the dead man stirred. He put his bluish hands under his torso, got up on all fours and even made an attempt to move forward, but he hung powerlessly on two chains that clanked in the air, securely fastened to the battery.
— He's so lively today,— the scientist stated, not without pleasure, and looked at the young people.— I have conducted a number of experiments and, as I have already said, I have become convinced that they do not relate to any biological life. Rather, we have a spontaneous movement of particles caused by, let's say, a design. They don't need any food. As you can see, Georgiy Vitalievich doesn't even need a head to function... However, something similar happened to him during his lifetime... It doesn't matter. The molecules inside them arrange themselves and synchronously fly in the same direction. This consumes the energy of neighboring molecules that are not yet ordered. Thanks to this principle, they can move by extracting energy directly from the environment. Under normal conditions, this would be impossible, but in the presence of a reversing field, let's call it that, this is a completely realistic model.
— What about the second law of thermodynamics? Leonid asked, looking at the thin frost almost covering the floor around the revived dead man.
— They're bypassing him. However, without violating the first one. The quantum world has its own laws,— the scientist grinned.— Although energy still does not arise from nothing. Therefore, we can consider the bodies of these... creatures... as macroscopic quantum systems, which are "charged" in a certain way to a certain ordered oscillatory process resonant to an external field. It is impossible to kill them in the usual ways. Unless it is completely mechanically destroyed. But even earlier, their subtle quantum state will collapse due to the fact that you will transfer energy to them beyond a certain threshold. Mechanical damage, intense heat, and electrical exposure disrupt their quantum connectivity for a while. They bring everything back to normal. But after about a day, the external field "charges" them again. I couldn't passively screen it. The field literally permeates the entire space. As you can see, Gosha was able to come to life even in the basement.
— Then why haven't we started yet.— .. the same? Valya asked.
— You are not dead as long as you are alive,— Pyotr Petrovich uttered a phrase that was startling in its obviousness.— The warmth of your bodies prevents the field from taking control of you...
— But it attracts the dead,— Lyonya continued his thoughts aloud.— They are instinctively attracted to our energy.
— I do not know that,— the scientist shrugged his shoulders.— I'm not a psychologist, I'm a physicist. But I know for sure, you can feed them so that they choke.
Pyotr Petrovich flipped another switch, and the dead man convulsed. Wires running down the wall from the disassembled lamp directly to the severed leg of the headless body became visible. After a few seconds, it flopped listlessly to the floor, as if it had never risen from it.
— A small demonstration, — said the scientist, turning off the current. — Now there will be absolutely nothing to look at here until tomorrow morning. So far, this is just a visual experiment. I wanted to show you how everything works... Just like the Tesla spark gap that you've experienced for yourself.
— Yeah, it's impressive,— Tolyan muttered unhappily.
— But that's for now!— without noticing his remark, the scientist continued enthusiastically, getting more and more excited.— I feel the power to command their nature... To return everything as it was. I think you can help me with this.
— I think so,— Leonid nodded decisively, despite the questioning glances of his friends.
— Great! So now we're together!
— You're the only one who has to help us,— the student continued seriously.— We know that you have an "NKVD patron" here...
— What? Pyotr Petrovich was genuinely surprised.— This is the first time I've heard of this...
— Well! I told you that your crazy grandfather is making it up! Tolyan flared up.
— Indeed... The scientist nodded, —You shouldn't take the words of crazy old people too seriously. They make things up... "Product 47". A multilayer piezoelectric core... some kind of nonsense! Barely able to contain his grin, he handed a bunch of keys to Leonid.— But it's a good idea. Try to search on the minus second floor.