... in which Pyotr Petrovich forms a new scientific team, organizes research work, and entertains himself with numerous references
The sparrow-yellow Zhiguli smoothly rolled out of the institute parking lot and sped down the empty road toward the gas station. On the icy road, the overloaded rear-wheel drive car swerved heavily from side to side, but Pyotr Petrovich, confidently working the steering wheel, seemed to pay no attention to such trifles. Although now it was completely unclear whether there was anything that could throw this strange man off balance. The corpses lying on the road, which he calmly drove around? Or perhaps the bodies now lying in abundance on the side of the road and further on in the forest? Asking herself these questions, Valentina involuntarily began to peer into the faces of the dead. Who were they? Most likely residents of the houses adjacent to the avenue. Men and women... Old people and teenagers... Children... Torn apart, fallen in the snow or leaning against trees, often in the most unnatural positions, like puppets whose strings had been unexpectedly cut. Realizing that she was looking at the dead bodies one by one, the girl immediately looked away, afraid that she would see someone she knew.
A few minutes later, after skidding across the frosty asphalt on bald tires, the car stopped at a gas station. Staying inside, Valya silently watched the guys filling plastic five-liter containers with gasoline. Dressed in warm overalls that Pyotr Petrovich had taken from the institute's old storerooms, they no longer resembled yesterday's students.
Lyonya, who had seemed more reserved to Valya, was now completely focused and even gloomy. Without saying a word and glancing warily at the bodies scattered around, he filled another bottle with gasoline and screwed the cap on tightly. His friend, who even now did not part with his circular saw attached to his belt, was clearly experiencing stress in a different way.
"I love Rosneft gas stations," Tolik smiled, breathing out steam in the cold, clearly happy that they had managed to turn on the pump without having to break into the attendant's booth. "Really! I forgot my discount card, but for the first time I'm not worried about gas prices!
Valya understood what was behind this outward cheerfulness. But she didn't know how to deal with her own feelings, so when the car started moving again, she preferred to sit quietly in the back seat, staring blankly at the bulky suitcase at her feet. Her former life was somewhere in the past. And for some reason, it had now faded into the background. It no longer mattered in the sense that it usually did. All that remained was what was happening here and now. What had happened to her friends and relatives? Why had they all seemingly disappeared? Perhaps they had already turned into zombies... And what had they themselves turned into over the past few days?
"Since you have practically become my colleagues," Pyotr Petrovich broke the silence, continuing to drive intently, "it's worth getting to know each other better. Let's say, introduce ourselves more formally. You must agree that it would be unfair to ask you to call me Pyotr Petrovich, while I call you "Vasya," "Vanya," "Masha"... You, for example, Anatoly, what is your first and patronymic name?
"My name is Anatoly Efremovich," replied Tolik, sitting in the passenger seat next to the driver's seat, with a slight discontent in his voice.
Pyotr Petrovich laughed:
"I'll remember that! That's a reference, isn't it?"
"An homage," muttered the student.
"Wonderful! Wonderful! I think we'll get along well, colleague," the scientist said, clearly out of habit, driving up to the traffic light so as not to break the rules by crossing the double solid line, smoothly turning the car around, and driving straight back to the institute. "And what about you, dear lady?"
"Huh? What?" Valya snapped out of her reverie.
"What's your father's name?"
"Valentina Vitalievna, I..."
"Very nice to meet you," smiled Pyotr Petrovich, glancing briefly at the girl through the rearview mirror.
"Leonid Ilyich," said Lyonya, introducing himself in a formal tone without waiting for the question to be repeated.
There was a silent pause in the car, broken only by the shrill sound of the old Zhiguli's engine. Tolya snorted without opening his lips and looked at his friend slyly.
"Ilyich is just what we needed right now..." muttered the scientist.
The car sped past a long gray building and turned off the avenue toward a residential area.
"You know," Tolik began enthusiastically, "when we were all worried at school that our mustaches were growing too sparsely, he was concerned that his eyebrows were growing too thickly."
Pyotr Petrovich burst out laughing. Valya smiled slightly and glanced out of the corner of her eye at Lyony, who was sitting next to her and, as it seemed to her, frowned even more.
"How far did you leave your car?" the scientist asked.
"No. Not far. It'll be right on the road," replied Tolyan, already feeling like a navigator.
"Pyotr Petrovich," said Lyony seriously, "we're not against being on the same team as you, but we'd like to know your plan."
"Don't worry, Leonid Ilyich, I'll explain it to you in a moment. Just let us refuel your car," the scientist replied ironically. "You've already become a team without me, and I'll turn you into a collective. Do you feel the difference, colleagues?"
"Not really..." replied Valentina.
"That's unfortunate. You see, the point is... A team is made up of diverse individuals to solve a small situational problem. A collective is more organized, more cohesive, so it acts as a single organism and is capable of successfully solving a wide range of larger-scale problems," Petr Petrovich sighed. "Well, it looks like we're here..."
The SUV was indeed standing in the middle of the road, in the very spot where the guys had left it. Except that over the past day and a half, the roof and hood had been noticeably covered with fine snow.
However, there was nothing strange about that, unlike what Lyonya and Tolik saw when they approached the car more closely. An unknown man was sitting behind the wheel, clutching the steering wheel with frozen fingers. And judging by the blackened blood caked on his face, which had leaked from his broken skull, he had been dead for a very long time. His companion, with her arm torn off, lying next to him, was obviously also dead for a long time.
"Do you think they got in themselves?" Lyonya asked thoughtfully, looking at the dead couple.
"Yeah... They decided to warm up," replied Tolik, freeing the steering wheel from the cold fingers of the deceased. "Well, themselves, of course... How else? They didn't put them there for us, did they?"
This remark would have seemed absurd at another time, but now Leonid readily agreed with this version and silently began to help his friend. Meanwhile, Valya and Pyotr Petrovich approached the car, curious about the cause of the delay.
"Hmm... Interesting..." muttered the scientist, hiding his freezing hands in the pockets of his wool coat.
"How do you explain this?" the girl asked with a slight challenge.
"Who knows..." Pyotr Petrovich shrugged. "Maybe some residual brain activity... Or... Although that's unlikely, of course..."
The man didn't finish his sentence because at that moment, Lyonya finally managed to pull the dead man out from behind the wheel. With a dull thud, the body fell like a sack into the snow.
"It looks like they got stuck inside the car trying to start it without gas, and then got hit by an electromagnetic shock," the scientist suggested a possible chain of events. "Maybe..." Tolya agreed, pulling the one-armed girl out of the car, and immediately turned the conversation to practical matters. "Maybe we should saw off their heads?"
Pyotr Petrovich grimaced in disgust.
"Don't bother. Let's not waste time on these trifles. None of this will matter anymore... If we succeed, of course."
While Tolik carefully poured fuel into the tank, the other members of the newly formed scientific team moved three metal chests from the trunk of the Zhiguli to the back of the jeep. Glancing slyly at the guys gathered around him, Pyotr Petrovich pulled two smaller boxes closer to him, clicked the shiny locks, and said casually:
"Well, colleagues... You are now familiar with the theoretical basis of our project in general terms. We will work on the version that the observed phenomena are based on certain wave effects. Consequently, we assume that there is a source of waves," the scientist looked at his young colleagues with a squint again. "Do you understand what I'm getting at?
"Do you want to locate it?" Valya suggested.
"Very well observed," Pyotr Petrovich laughed with satisfaction and deftly removed the gray-painted covers. Underneath were two rather old-fashioned-looking instrument panels, except for a pair of displays, LEDs, and small circuit boards, clearly borrowed from mobile phones. After fiddling with the wires, the scientist quickly connected the two units, raised a thick telescopic antenna from one and pressed some buttons on the other. An electric motor hummed inside the metal box, pushing the cylindrical sections of the mast apart. His new colleagues watched spellbound as the shiny, swaying antenna needle rose five meters into the sky.
"Not very reliable, but compact," commented the physicist. "That's how we got the device up and running. Take note. All the settings are already done. All that remains is to press this button and the scan will begin. The digital scale shows how the device listens to different frequencies... This takes some time. And now...
There was another crackling sound from deep inside the device, but this time it was more unpleasant, and a small white paper strip emerged from a small slit on the side.
"The information, including GPS readings, is written to a memory card, just in case. Here..." Pyotr Petrovich tore off the paper strip with a sharp movement. "It records on tape. I borrowed it from a cash register printer. I would be grateful if you could double-check the coordinates. Your car, as I noticed, is equipped with a navigator, and they should also work in your newfangled smartphones. Two buttons. Everything else happens completely automatically.
As if confirming the words of its creator, the device hummed again and began to retract the antenna.
"Now for the lab assignment. You, dear Valentina Vitalievna, and you, dear Leonid Ilyich, will have to systematically repeat this operation two more times. Boobs, boobs," Pyotr Petrovich smiled, but instantly became serious again. "We'll consider this one a control. Drive ten kilometers in one direction, take a measurement, then turn around, drive about the same distance in the other direction, and take a second measurement. It will be a romantic trip for two...
"So-so..." Valya muttered and blushed slightly.
"For two?" asked Lyonya. "So, are we splitting up?"
"I think two people are enough for two buttons. You'll manage," the man nodded confidently. "Anatoly Efremovich and I will have a separate task. There's no other way to make it in time. In three or four hours, our friends, with or without heads, will start to wake up. By that time, it will be safer for all of us to be back at the institute. We'll meet there.
"Well... I see..." Valya muttered nervously, watching as Lyonya resolutely got behind the wheel of the SUV. "What's in it? In the third box? Spare batteries? Will we even need it?"
"I hope not. But if we do, you'll be able to figure it out even faster." There's only one button. It's a pulse electromagnetic emitter for emergencies. There are no spare batteries. It will only work once. It's similar to the discharge device you tested on yourself. Not as impressive, though. But it should work...
"It should?"
"I haven't checked," Pyotr Petrovich shrugged again and slammed the car door behind the girl. "Good luck, colleagues! Time is ticking."
Revived by a dose of fresh fuel, the jeep roared happily, threw clouds of icy grit from under its tires, and sped off into the distance along the snow-covered road. Noticing that Tolik was looking sadly at his departing friends, Pyotr Petrovich sighed deeply and asked:
"What's the matter, colleague?" Do you have any doubts about the success of our event?
"I think you're one of those people who are confident in what they're doing..."
The young man looked intently into the scientist's eyes, which now seemed particularly piercing.
"That's for sure."
"But the clock is ticking, and they," Tolik nodded toward the SUV that had disappeared, "took that secret Soviet pistol and your wonder weapon with them. So it's kind of creepy to stay here with two dead bodies with their heads still attached. So, if you have any other business here, let's get it done quickly and head to the institute as planned.
Pyotr Petrovich smiled, strode majestically to his provocatively bright red Zhiguli and carefully took an impressive suitcase with scuffed sides out of the passenger compartment.
"Don't worry, Anatoly Efremovich. I think we'll make the most of our time if we warm up and have some tea."
After a pause, the physicist smiled again and slowly walked toward the residential buildings. Tolik, who didn't understand anything, followed him.