Disappearances

Beginning

I was running down a long dark corridor, the walls of which were made of old red brick, cobwebs everywhere, and a light bulb was blinking in the distance. Underfoot was an incomprehensible substance, the composition of which was similar to water mixed with excrement, on which huge rats crawled mixed with worms and maggots. There was a lump in the nose and throat from the stench and sensations when this viscous mucus penetrated between the toes, getting on the bloody wounds and causing burning and unbearable pain. Despite the dislocated shoulder and all the horror that I was experiencing, there was only one thing in my head-I needed to get out of this shit faster.

A week earlier…

A call came from my friend, we haven't called Alya for six months, work is family, there was no time, I answered: "Hello", in response, Alya began to say in an alarmed voice that her younger brother was missing, the search by the police and volunteers did not give any results. She also said that not only her brother was missing, but also people, many people. I replied that I was just going to my grandmother's and would definitely stop by her. The town where Alya lived is located in the Kaluga region, twenty thousand people, two schools and two kindergartens, it could be passed in twenty minutes on foot. The city was surrounded by a forest, a river flowed nearby, the nature here was amazing and mysterious.

I lived a thousand kilometers away, so I flew by plane, an hour and a half and I'm on the spot. In Moscow, Stas met me from the airport, he was a childhood friend, he had moved to Moscow for a long time, lived and worked as a dentist, and always went to his relatives in the region on weekends. We got there in a couple of hours, I wrote to Ale that I arrived and I'll see you in an hour. My grandmother lived in this town, she met me, as always, on the threshold of the apartment door, and in the kitchen there was already a meat pie on the table, her signature. After having lunch and talking a little, grandma told me that ten people had already disappeared and this was only in the last month. The first to go missing was an aged woman, she allegedly went into the forest and went missing, no trace so far. Young and mature people, everyone disappears. An hour later, we met with Alya and talked until late at night, when I was walking home, I noticed a very strange car, it was dark and completely tinted, but I was already practically at my house. Going up to the apartment, I didn't turn on the light, went into the kitchen and looked out the window, the car was gone. The next day we decided to take a walk, and it seemed to me that the city was empty, but Alya said that everyone was leaving for Moscow, who was working, who was studying there. For me, there was no reason for this-in another. And when we were walking along the alley, I heard from behind: "Rita!" -it was my classmate Ksyusha and Stas was walking next to her. We went into the nearest yard, settled down on the playground, as in childhood, and talked for a long time. Ksyusha had to go home in a couple of hours, and she went alone, her house was across the street, but we could not imagine that we saw her for the last time.

In the morning, Alya informed me that Ksyusha was missing, she had not spent the night at home. We ran to her mother, who was just talking to a policeman, they explained that they were waiting up to three days and were wanted, but promised to keep her informed. And then I realized that we need to start looking for ourselves. We came out of the Ksyusha house, a dark car was parked near her entrance. I got closer to this car, walked around it, it had no license plates, and only when I took out my phone and wanted to take a picture of it, the headlights turned on sharply, that my phone fell out of my hands, and the car abruptly left. We ran to my house and sat and thought about missing people until morning, but we didn't find a single clue. In the evening Stas came for us and said that there was one clue. We packed up and ran outside, the snow was falling hard, we ran into the bar, which was located next to Ksyusha's house, we sat down at a table, and Stas went to ask the bartender about everything, while they were talking, hot tea was brought to us. But then Alya did not feel well, and I felt sick, everything swam before my eyes and felt sick, I closed my eyes and fell into my consciousness.