Pripyat. Abandoned laboratory of the Jupiter factory

– Heck! – Max decided on his own to try to push it away. He crawled under a concrete slab and pushed it with his shoulder, which moved slightly. “Lex, help me move her.”

Lex laid his lantern and lantern on Max, lying on a tire lying nearby, so that light fell on the door and on Max.

He stood next to Max and also rested, pulled into a concrete slab and began to push. Pain pierced his shoulder and forearm, a soft rattle of concrete was heard on the floor.

“Uh… I’ll all take a little rest,” Lex said.

“Yes, it’s not so easy to move it,” Max said, and took his flashlight. He jerked the door handle, and she gave in a little. From the gap formed a musty breath that indicated that there was water. Having shone inside, he didn’t see anything, a ray of light illuminated the wall with

cracked paint.

“I hope our work will not be in vain, and the basement will not be completely flooded,” said Max. – If everything is flooded there, then we don’t have scuba gear with us. There was an echo of a crunch in the workshop again, and then a shuffling sound. Lex was suddenly panicked, her heart pounding in her chest.

“What the hell is going on here?” A strange thought haunted Lex. “Who’s that noise?” Are they already spying on them?”

– Hush! Do not panic! Let’s finally push this piece of the plate and go down, “said Max and started pushing again, Lex immediately joined him. This time everything went easier. Tightening up, they sharply pushed the concrete structure, and it fell to the floor with a roar, in some places the concrete broke off from the edges a little.

“Uhh… finally, I thought we wouldn’t move her,” Lex said. Max went to the door and pulled the handle, the door opened a little, and then it didn’t open anymore. He jerked harder, the door creaked and began to open slowly. Due to the hole formed, it was damp and musty. Lex shone inside. A ray of light fell on a staircase leading down, and the iron door, which most likely led to the lower tier.

– What do you see there? Asked Max, still jerking the door so that it would open at least a little wider.

“A staircase and an open door,” he answered. “And a bunch of garbage and… water.”

– What? – Max asked displeased. – There, that everything is flooded?

– I don’t know, like not. It is entirely possible that water simply flowed from the rains, “Lex said, and once again lit the room.

The door could not be fully opened, but it opened halfway. Lex was the first to go; he somehow squeezed into the hole that had formed. Max picked up his flashlight from the tire and followed Lex. Gently lighting his path, he began to descend the stairs, holding on to a rotten wooden railing. Flaking paint and plaster crunched underfoot. Lex had already gone down and stepped to the floor, half of the sole of the boot went under the water.

“Not deep here,” he answered and disappeared into the doorway. Behind the door began a long corridor with ventilation pipes not yet dismantled. Lex lit up the walls and saw the doors closed. Water squelched underfoot, to his surprise the corridor was not completely flooded. He went to the first open door and looked inside, inside were heaps of magazines and books swollen with moisture. Cabinets and drawers were all overturned, as if someone here were looking for something. Lex heard Max’s footsteps and scolding behind him.

“There are a lot of classrooms,” he said. “We won’t be able to inspect everything, too little time.”

“We’ll examine what interests you,” answered Max. “Or something suspicious.”

“Not only rooms here, but also workshops, only smaller ones,” Lex said, and went into one of them. Having lit the floor, he saw computer monitors standing on the floor, and a computer keyboard was piled up in a heap against the wall.

“It seems that military computers were manufactured here,” Max said and went to the monitors and lit them, and then the whole workshop. In addition to monitors, on the floor were still piles of magazines and folders of papers darkened with moisture.

“The strange thing is that the screens at the monitors are intact,” said Max and went into the shop. He picked up one of the magazines, which was wet but not damp and began to leaf through. Fragile pages turned over with difficulty, the ink was already faded, and Max hardly distinguished the notes.

Computer M-136. DATE OF PRODUCTION -1989 YEAR.

Computer B -150. DATE OF PRODUCTION -1989 YEAR.

I-46 computer. DATE OF PRODUCTION -1989 YEAR.

Max turned over a couple of pages, then went on to other computer names.

Computer KST-89-01. N.K. LOW. 10.29.1991 YEAR.

Computer AST-49-05. N.K. LOW. 10.30.1991 YEAR.

Computer PST-31-09. N.K. LOW. 10/31. 1991 YEAR.

“What are you studying there like that?” Asked interested Lex.

“I am studying the computer brands that the workshop produced,” he answered. – And judging by the name written here, Malko was the chief engineer in the production. It seems to me that the EMV from the lists is not here, these are ordinary computers for some calculations. EMVs used to be more bulky, and some were even mobile. And the military used to warn of a missile attack.

“Most likely, computers for the military are hidden in some workshop,” said Lex.

– On the wall, I saw a plan to evacuate the basement, there are continuous labyrinths with workshops and corridors. It’s easy to get lost here, “answered Max.

“Let’s go straight without turning anywhere,” Lex said and added. “If something goes wrong, we’ll have time to run away and get out.”

“Yes, Yuri, you are right,” Max agreed (Max nicknamed Yura Lex because of his last name, and the last name of Yura was Alekseev). – Okay, let’s go and look at other workshops. They went out into the corridor, and went straight along the open cabinets, but the cabinets did not arouse much interest in them. In addition to folders with papers and magazines, there was no longer anything interesting in the classrooms, the workshops attracted them more. The next workshop was, as Max understood, the production of electrolyte for batteries. Small glass bathtubs were strewn on the floor, and in the corner were dumped, as he suggested empty batteries. Lighting up the workshop better, he saw a table with empty test tubes and burners.

– I wonder what was produced here? Lex asked interestedly and lit up around him.

“It looks like batteries,” Max answered and went to the test tube table. The light from his lantern danced across the table, and at the very end of the table he saw a recording journal. He went up to him and opened. The ink has not faded yet.

By hand, information was written about the production of the SC-25 battery.

“Here we made silver-zinc batteries” SC-25, “he said, and began to read the parameters and advantages of the battery to himself.

– And where they were used there is not written? – Lex asked.

“Just a moment,” he turned over a couple of pages and found their use. – Aviation, space and military industry.

“It looks like we’ll find even more interesting finds in the next workshops,” Lex summed up and aimed a beam of light at the cabinets standing against the wall. Through the transparent glass of the door, he saw chemicals bottles, empty test tubes and flasks. Then the beam of the lantern passed to the next cabinet, in which there were many books. He came over to take a closer look at what kind of books they were. On the roots of the books, one could still read their name, these were practical textbooks on chemistry and nuclear physics.

Lex was about to reach out to the doorknob to open the door and get out a book, when he suddenly heard a clang of iron on a stone floor in the hallway. He turned off the flashlight, in the darkness only one flashlight burned Max, but he also decided to turn it off. They are clearly not alone here.

Listening to silence, they discerned the subtle voices of a man talking among themselves.

“Who the hell is this yet?” Lex whispered.

“I don’t know, I need to hide,” Max said, and quickly turned on the lamp, lit the walls and saw a reception between the cabinets. – Faster in that opening. He pushed Lex into the opening, and hid himself there. Now it was only to wait. He looked at the door of the workshop, expecting those who were here to immediately find them. A faint glow appeared on the wall of the corridor, and then white unnatural light ran across the wall. Lex pressed into the wall, Max into it, both looked at the approaching light. There was the sound of footsteps and two unnaturally tall figures passed the entrance to the workshop where Max and Lex were hiding. With a sigh of relief, Max was about to leave his hiding place as a beam of the same white light illuminated the opposite wall. Max had to squeeze into the opening again, Lex hissed in pain. They could not make out the words, it was some kind of incomprehensible language, Max could hardly even guess what it looked like. One of the figures entered the workshop, walked along the wall and… disappeared, but then reappeared. Max barely restrained himself from curiosity to turn on the flashlight and shine on the figure. It became painfully interesting to him who was this? Five more figures have already appeared in the workshop. Now Max was really scared, the figures crowded around the monitors. The head was accustomed to the dark, and now he could see them better. These were not people, they were some creatures, about two meters tall and had long limbs. Sometimes Max saw red flashes where their faces should be. He suggested that it was most likely the eyes, but why were they like flashes? Maybe it was their language of communication, these outbreaks were the receipt and sending of an answer among themselves. Lex could not see what was happening there, and he asked Max:

– What is happening there?

At this moment, all the figures turned in their direction.

– Yura, what the hell!

The pieces came together and headed for the closets where Max and Lex were hiding. Panic swept over Max, and he had no choice but to turn on the flashlight. A ray of light hit one of the figures, and Max saw a black dense substance that vibrated. Then, as if frightened, she vanished and disappeared. Max wildly looked around, but more than this substance, he did not see.

– What the hell?