“Why, why” ... If it were not for you, none of this would have happened, Nadia whispered.

- What am I supposed to watch, as you crawl along the most dangerous path without the elementary skills of rock climbing, right? Watch and sit back, huh? You forgot that I am your teacher, right?

“Why do you keep getting me all the time?” What am I to blame? All the time you find fault with me, if I am not a person, but ... some kind of fascist ... Well, what is it?

- Nagy! ..

- I thought that there would be peace here from you, so you got me here ... And now I’m hanging around with you, God knows how much, and maybe you can die together ... well, what is it for me ...

Nadya, choking, was crying, and Neplyuev froze, then he took a step towards Nadia, but she fell like a wild beast, rushed off to a hut and there screamed a real Siberian woman - claws along nerves.

Neplyuev trampled and followed her. Nadya howled, sitting on the ground and stooping down. Her face was purple, like a turkey comb. Neplyuev stood in the doorway, but then he quickly approached her and slapped a slap in the face, and then another and a third.

The howl stopped. Nadya breathed in hoarsely ...

“I hate it,” she breathed in a bass, looking at Neplyuev. He recoiled, and she leaned against the plywood wall.

Biting his lips, Neplyuev came out of the hut. On the other side of the gorge, little men shouted and waved their hands. 10-B with Gopnik at the head. Neplyuev also shouted and waved his hands at them, depicting a helicopter, then turned away and began to wander around a small platform, fenced off from three sides by a precipice, and on the fourth - a plumb-line. The sun suddenly disappeared, and he, glancing at the sky, cursed: a cloud crawled on Kashtak. Immense and dense, like mother-darkness.

- Well, of course: "it is clear, without precipitation ..." - he thought, recalling the forecast. - While they return ... while they call, they will call the helicopter ... We'll have to sleep. Without a backpack, without fire, without everything ...

Neplyuev went up to the hut, heard a plaintive murmur, and stood at the entrance.

Having listened, he made out:

- Lord, why is it so all wrong ... It has managed to make me fall in love with this ... And he treats me like the last fool ... And now with him here ... Well, how can I, how do I talk to him, how to look at him? ... Lord ...

- Your mother! - either thought, or said Neplyuev. And nearly fell off the wind.

It was the first impulse, trial, training, one might say; but he was so icy that Neplyuev could not immediately inhale. Without waiting for the second, he entered the hut - but the second caught up with him, having screwed into the plywood walls, like a corkscrew.

Nadia started.

“A storm is coming,” said Neplyuev loudly. “Storm,” he repeated for some reason.

Nadia looked at him.

“So,” he continued just as loudly, “so.” Nadia. Come for us, you do not worry. That is, will arrive. That's just ...

He fell silent. Silent and Nadia.

- Are you warmly dressed? BUT? Heat?

Stupid question: it was perfectly clear how she was dressed. "What a fool I am," thought Neplyuev ...

“I don't know,” answered Nadya.

- So ... Nagy!

He came closer. And - both of them started: the plywood walls crunched in the wind that burned through the cracks.

“Since she was standing all this time, she will survive now,” Neplyuev said, and then, in response, a piece of plywood broke off and flew inside. Through the hole hit the wind like a fist. Nadya squeaked.

- So! - Neplyuev said for the tenth time, now decisively, for there was no time for jokes. - So, Nadia. Now I will speak, and you will do what I say. Clear? Because I am experienced in the mountains, but you are not. Is it clear or not?

Nadia looked at him, and Neplyuev continued:

- First. The hut will not stand. In ten minutes there will be such a flood that Noah never dreamed of. What is your portfolio? WHAT'S IN YOUR BACKPACK??? He shouted because she didn’t answer.

“Different,” Nadia murmured.

- Is there food? Drink?

- There are sandwiches ... and a thermos ...

- Clothing?

- No, only on me ...

- Matches? Lighter?

- Not...

- So. Eat a part now, we hide a part.Hear what I'm saying? Eat now

- But I dont want. A piece in the throat is not le ...

- YOU HEAR THAT I SPEAK? - shouted Neplyuev. - Eat now!

- I do not want!

- EAT !!! - He shouted a rumble of thunder, still not close, but terrible, like the end of the world. Nadia burst into tears again.

- Eat! ... It is necessary that the calories in the body ... for warmth, you know? - said Neplyuev, softening the tone. Nadya was crying. “Forgive me, Nagy,” he said suddenly.

Nadia opened her wet eyes.

- I'm sorry ... for everything, okay? And now, and before everything ... okay? - Neplyuev said patter. - Sorry, and ... let's hurry. Eat while dry, and while there is time to bury.

- What to bury?

- I'll tell you everything. Just go fast and ... eat. You are welcome!

Nadia took out sandwiches and, choking, began to stuff them into herself. The wind was growing stronger, plywood was fluttering like linen on a rope, and thunder beat from the sky - closer and more often and thicker, like a giant tractor, rumbling, ran into them to crush it. Fingers cramped from the cold.

- So ... everything! Sip from a thermos. More ... Everything! Everything! Sui back. Everything! Come on portfolio.

He went out with Nadin's briefcase from the hut. Nadia ran for him. The wind knocked her down, and she gasped and clung to the plywood wall, which, unable to withstand the double pressure, collapsed, pulling the roof and other walls behind her.

Nadia squealed, Neplyuev managed to pull her hand in time. The hut was like a house of cards, and only the black logs of the pillars protruded, aiming at the sky.

- What have I done! - squeal Nadia.

- Quiet! - again Neplyuev shouted, trying to shout it down and a thunderstorm. - Follow me!

He dragged her through the wind to a stone plumb hanging over their patch. - There is a notch, I remember ... Listen, let's plywood! Grab it! Drag! Come on!

- What for? - Shouted Nadia, meekly grabbing a dirty sheet.

- We will cover the briefcase and clothes. In the recess, and on top of plywood ...

- clothes?

- Yes. Need to undress.

- How to undress?

- Like this. Totally. No time to be shy, Nagy. Now undress, and then we need dry clothes. So they do, okay?

- I cant! She shouted, dragging a pile of plywood with him. - I will freeze! I'm already frozen! And generally speaking!

- No "can not"! I'm in charge here! I...

He was interrupted by a thunderbolt, so deafening that the screaming Nadia threw plywood and rushed straight to the abyss. Neplyuev barely managed to catch her by the hood.

- Where? Durrra! Debilka! - he shouted, looking at the skewed face of Nadino. - Sorry ... This is me a fool ...

- I ... I'm afraid of thunderstorms ... very ...

- To hell! Let her be afraid of us!

The first heavy drops of rain fell.

- Let's run ... over there ... now there will be such a flood here that ... here, give here a briefcase ... now take off your clothes. Take off your clothes, I said!

- I can not!

- PPP Divide !!!

Neplyuev began to tear off her jacket, then a sweater, jeans, and Nadya resisted like a beast, scratching his face and hands. Lightning illuminated their duel, snatching Nadia’s grinning teeth and a disheveled ghoul of hair, knocked to the side. Nadia suddenly began to scream, and Neplyuev bounced off.

- Fool! Fool stuffed! Dick with you! Mokni! Freeze - He yelled, pulling off his rags. The rain was already pouring with might and main, and he was in a hurry, like a nutcase, and still managed to roll up his clothes in his briefcase, hidden in a hollow, and fill it up with plywood, almost not thinking that he was naked, and Nadia sees his eggs - when the sky is above them a blue rift split, crashing down from above, and from below, and from everywhere, and then the air turned into water, into pillars of water that flowed from all sides at once.

- Aaaaaaaa! - screamed Nadia.

- Aaaaaaaa! - Neplyuev screamed at her, grabbing her hands. - Ahhh! Hey! Hey! Dance! Move! Come on! Come on! - He jumped in front of her naked satire, engaging her in the dance, and shouted to the beat: - Come on! Come on! Ka! Lin! Ka Ma Ling! Ka Ma Ling! Ka Mo I! In Sa Doo Yayayayayagoda Ma Lin! Ka Ma Ling! Ka Mo I! ..

Nadia succumbed, and soon they danced together - two dragon figures in the inky haze ... Read more →