Christmas Eve. Gray morning with gloomy clouds. "Windy" snow, violating traffic rules, runs across an empty intersection. The steel cold city has spread out on the bank of the fateful river, calm as ice, its straight streets blown by all winds. On the other side, a huge metallurgical plant, like a tamed fire-breathing dragon, rattles every day, clanging with its steel rolls and gears, releasing clouds of smoke and steam, and sometimes at night shaking the entire neighborhood with a piercing hiss. With stubborn constancy and patience, simple and solid residents of the city cope with it, who know firsthand that only time and labor melt, empty poor rock and any rusty rubbish into carbon steel. This union is a strong forged link in the chain of the Ural metallurgical ridge, which bears the entire burden of a huge swaying country.
An unusual announcement appeared in one of the local newspapers, which was one of the first to open a WAP site for mobile phones. "Sensation! For the first time in the world! The latest developments of Russian scientists in the field of medicine. The embodiment of your dream in a new reality. Volunteers are invited" Only the phone number and time for the call were indicated.
Stormy New Year holidays died down, and many did not pay attention to this message. But there are always observant people among us who carefully and tenaciously look through all kinds of announcements, prices and assortment of various goods, people's clothes, numbers and brands of cars, etc.Some of them, no doubt, were distinguished by increased curiosity, when caution and prudence go by the wayside.
A little time has passed, and incredible rumors, one more absurd than the other, are spreading around the city, like a steel wind. They said that one young housewife applied THERE!!! after which strange mysterious things began to happen to her. As if she suddenly turned off, fell asleep on the street, at a party, and at the same time said that she could see spirits. The woman was placed in a local "house with soft walls", where at night her inhuman cries cut through the sleepy silence, so that the inhabitants of neighboring houses ran cold blood in their veins, and stray dogs left the area forever. Then some suspicious people arrived and took her away in an unknown direction. What can you do - rumors.
Curiosity, as well as the constant boredom of the evening, took up and over me. At one fine moment, I also decided to find out better, and maybe offer myself as a volunteer. There were fears, like any person sending into the unknown. But what happened next was in no way comparable to my wildest assumptions.
After calling ahead, I went to the specified address. Along the way, a sense of uneasiness came over me. As best he could, he tried to calm himself. "Throw all nonsense out of your head. You are not catching up on yourself all that ...".
So, talking to myself and not noticing those around me and deep snow, I found myself at a new gray high-rise building with the same eyes-windows and clean entrances.The institution was located in the basement and occupied, as it turned out later, the entire semi-basement of this building. The weather was very cold, but I finally took out a cigarette. As always, the wind and the last match. It's good that double-sided matches have recently appeared. Damn, again the cigarette filter stuck to the lip. Jerk. Pain. There is a small blood stain on the white paper. After taking a few puffs and taking a deep breath, as before jumping into the water, I confidently pressed the white bell. It was located above a heavy massive door lined with dark wood. The lock clicked softly. The door opened, and a beautiful girl with red hair with a dazzling smile, like a bright spring sun and with a soft velvety voice, invited me to go inside. From the white light it was dark in my eyes, but after a while I saw that I found myself in a dimly lit hall. I was politely asked to wait and given the opportunity to look around. Here, they inquired:
- Tea? Coffee?
"Let's dance" almost flew off the tongue.
- No, no thanks - somehow quickly and modestly muttered under his breath.
Everything spoke of a recent, good repair. It smelled of fresh wood, paint, and new plastic. The floors are laid with cold marble tiles. The light green pistachio walls were soothing with their cleanliness and smoothness. The matte white ceiling radiated untouched purity, and small lamps radiated soft light.