 
## Max Maximov

The Gates to Heaven

A man in black mask sat at a wooden table in the interrogation room, his legs crossed.

"Do you realise what awaits you in case you do not give up your words?"

"Yes."

"Are you of sound mind?"

"Yes."

"Tell me your name."

"Levius Soe. You can call me Levi"

"What year is it?"

"Thousand four hundred and two."

"Do you know where you are?"

"Church of Saint Alexander."

"Do you understand why you are here?"

"Because of my books."

"Levi, you will be executed unless you publicly renounce the ideas you have described. Do you realise how serious this is?"

"I understand."

"You are ready to renounce in writing everything that you have put forward?"

"No."

"Sometimes I think you are out of your mind. You have been here for the second week, and I am here to help you avoid the torture."

"What is the point of living a lie?"

"Levi, all this time the world did without your innovations, without your discoveries and revelations. You are causing confusion among people. You are spoiling people. No one needs your truth."

"I have nothing else to say to you."

"My patience is at its end."

"My condolences."

"Well... Levi, I think you'll swallow your pride when you see a vat of boiling oil and the square crowded with people longing for your death. I've seen enough to say so. First they tend to be brave men and then plead for mercy. You won't be the first nor the last."

Levi didn't answer. He looked aside.

"May your soul be blessed by Saint Alexander."

A man in black mask touched his forehead with two fingers.

* * *

"Excuse me, could you help me," began Anton addressing to the passer by.

The man, seemingly forty years old, stopped and looked at Anton waiting for a question.

The lantern did not light the night street well, and everything round it was immersed in twilight.

"Where's the nearest tube station?" asked Anton.

"Go right through the park, at the corner where the forest ends turn to the right. There you'll..." the man began to explain, pointing direction.

Not waiting for the man to finish Anton stabbed him in the throat area from behind. The man managed to evade, and Anton missed having hit the man's cheek. The blood spilt on the asphalt. The man slightly slouching stepped back with small steps covering his face with one hand and pulling the other hand with a palm forward. Anton jumped to the man. He tried to push Anton kicking in the stomach. But it didn't work out. Another stab. This time the blade cut through the man's neck just below the ear.

"Help," the man roared, falling on his knees, "please..."

"I'm not a sadist," Anton thought to himself, looking at the bleeding man, "I'm always trying to do it quickly. It's getting so difficult to kill a victim painlessly who he resists. What on Earth did he evade the first hit?"

The man collapsed on the side and rolled on his back. He covered the wound with blood covered hands. Anton grabbed the man's wrist and wringed it sideway to open the neck for the next stab.

When it was over, Anton looked around. Not a soul was to be seen. That was good. Though it all proceeded as he planned a sense of paranoia would not weaken with him for a few more days. This was the case every time the work was done.

He looked at the watch. Twenty minutes past twelve. Then he got the phone out and took a picture of the corpse. He stepped over the pedestrian fence and went into the park woods then got a plastic bag out of his pocket and put a knife and leather gloves into it. The plastic bag he put in a small backpack. Then he took off the double-sided jacket, turned it inside out and put it on again. He did everything quickly, but with no fussiness.

Anton knew the victim's route. He carefully prepared for the order. He knew the location of all the cameras in the area. But excessive caution... He had no such term as excessive caution. Every time after the ordered was done, he changed clothes. It became his lucky ritual, but it also had the practical meaning.

Getting caught for him was tantamount to death. No, worse than death. Leaving Eve alone in this world... The girl was unadaptable to live independently in modern society. It was nobody's fault. It just happened. He tried to banish thoughts that of being caught. He was too smart, too careful. Smarter than they were, therefore, they wouldn't find him. How could they find a killer who committed a crime with no personal motive and no physical traces? There was no way.

When he finished dressing up, he took the same path that he had taken fifteen minutes ago. It led to the north of woods back to the car on. Light from the lanterns got through the tree trunks.

Anton came out of the woods, went to his car parked on the kerb, and got in the car. Having sat down for a couple of minutes, he looked through the windscreen on the road. Then he started the engine, made the radio hardly audible and drove home.

* * *

After placing his finger on the scanner, Anton opened the door and went in the apartment silently.

"Good evening," the polyphonic voice sounded from the side.

"Be quiet," Anton said, having turned sharply. "Don't wake Eve."

"Do you want anything?"

"What a deadbeat you are, keep silence," Anton whispered, "better yet, turn off for now, go to sleep mode or whatever you call it..."

A flashing neon lamp on the head of a social worker-robot went off. Anton pushed him slightly with his hand in the chest, checking if the robot was responding to the touch. There was no reaction.

Having taken off his jacket and boots, Anton went to the toilet and locked the door. He got a small plastic bucket out of the wardrobe and put it in the sink. Then Anton took from the shelf a litre bottle of acid that he had prepared in advance and poured it into the bucket. Pulled out from his backpack the gloves with the knife and threw it all into acid. There were bubbles and steam so Anton turned on the extractor hood. Then he took an electric razor and began shaving off his beard. The hair fell straight into the acid bucket. He did all these manipulations every time after the order.

"Is it a grey hair?" he looked at his reflection in the mirror. "Well, just in time for forty. With such a life I'm not surprised." Anton sat on the edge of the bath. He looked at the bubbles formed by the reaction of the metal to the acid.

"I wish I could use firearms," he thought, "but buying a new gun every time is too risky and it won't do to leave destroy the weapon after a case."

Ten minutes later, the acid completely dissolved the knife with leather gloves. Anton took a bucket and emptied it into the bath. Then he flipped the water tap and waited until the water covered half of the bath and diluted the acid. Anton pulled the drain plug rope and let the water out. The liquid level gradually fell lower until all the traces of what he had done were gone in the drain.

Extreme caution and paranoia forced Anton to do strange things: dissolving knives in acid instead of throwing them into a river, growing beard instead of buying an artificial one. The artificial beard seemed too unnatural to him, although it would be more logical to use it. But by doing all these things he still remained uncaught. Anton reasoned that if these manipulations with acid, beard, clothes and so on were the elements of his success and let him remain uncaught for so many years it would be dangerous to change any of them. Anton was also a superstitious man and superstitions force people to do many strange actions.

The attack of pain hit suddenly. Anton kneeled and pressed his hands against his chest. A few minutes stood like that, making shallowly smooth inhales and exhales. Having gathered his strength he rose and started coughing. The white sink was covered with drops of blood. After coughing it up, Anton lay down on the floor and curled up.

"A year or two? How long is left to live?" he thought."They say I'm likely to have up to two years. There's still time to make money for the future and find someone to take care of her. Who to find? A woman? She hardly needs me with Eve. Who would want to burden themselves in this way? The birth mother – even she escaped."

The pain slowly let go. Anton rose to his feet, washed the blood off the sink, washed his face, got out of the toilet and came to the robot.

"Bob," he said in a whisper.

The robot did not respond.

"Bob," Anton said again, a little louder.

The same result.

How did it turn on?

"Bob-one," Anton said, having remembered that it was necessary to add the number to the name to get the robot out of sleep.

The neon light on Bob's head flashed.

"Bob-one is happy to serve," the robot said in a polyphonic voice.

"Go to the kitchen," ordered Anton grimly. "Don't yell near her door."

The robot obeyed, ludicrously stepping with his feet. He looked like a teenager who played pretending to be a robot. Anton turned on the light in the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"All right, Bob, let's make me some tea first."

"I am not connected to your household equipment," the robot said, "I do not recognise the kettle. Go to settings and..."

"Wait, wait," Anton interrupted it, "simply press the button on a kettle."

"I am not connected to your household equipment. I do not recognise..."

"All right, quiet, I get it. I'll do it myself, okay. Tell me, how did you do here today?" Anton asked, pressing the kettle button.

"It is okay. Eve sent no complaints to the social service and did not raise her voice when spoke to me. I can conclude that she was happy with everything," the robot reported.

"Did you take her outside?"

"Yes, we walked on a platform near the house."

"Did the neighbourhood children tease her?"

"No, they just played with us."

"Played? In what way?"

"I am unable to recognise their games, but judging by intonation and gestures all were happy."

"And Eve?"

"Eve at first was cheerful, and then she got angry and asked me to take her home."

"What was she angry about?"

"I do not know. Maybe about the fact that they rejoiced."

"So did they laugh at her?"

"I do not know."

"Is there a recording of the day?"

"To set my eyes in the recording mode, it is necessary to go to..."

"All right, I get it, stop bubbling."

The kettle boiled and the button clicked. Anton poured a mug of tea, took some sweets and sat down at the table.

"I've been handed a crummy robot," he thought, "he can't do or say anything. It used to be much better when a real social worker came. It's easier just to ask Eve about everything in the morning. If that guy was again abusing her, I'll go to see his father. How I hate conflicts."

Having finished his tea, Anton came to the robot. It stood at attention near the fridge. Anton tried to raise him into the air just for fun.

How much did this mechanism weigh? Approximately fifty kilos, though the robot looked like a small plastic toy.

Leaving Bob alone, he went to his room.

* * *

When Anton woke up in the morning, he recalled the last night. Did he do everything correct? Could it be that he had left tracks? He lay in bed and looked at the ceiling with a thoughtful look. His daughter's scream was distracted him from the unpleasant memories.

"Anton!" yelled Eve from the her room.

"Yes, yes!"

"Come here!"

"On my way," he answered, rising from the bed.

Anton put on a T-shirt, jeans with suspenders and stopped at the mirror for a few seconds, trimming his bangs to the side.

"Are you coming?"

"I am!"

Anton walked into the next room. The girl was sitting in a wheelchair. Bob stood nearby.

"Look, Bob se... s... se..." Eve tried to pronounce.

"Seated in the chair," understood Anton.

"Yes!" the child exclaimed gladly.

Anton looked at the robot with distrust walked round it and saw writing, probably made with a spray paint, on its white plastic back: "Cripple Eve."

"What are you doing?" the girl asked.

Anton pretended not to see the writing and sat on the bed:

"Nothing. How was your evening?

"Y... y... You've again shaved the b... b... be... be... beard?"

"Yeah, I got tired of it."

"Why do you always gr... grow a beard and then shave it off?"

"I can't decide whether I want to wear it or not."

"To my liking you look bet... b... better without it.

"Bob told me other children tried to make fun of you yesterday," Anton lied.

"They... just... laughed a... a little bit. I don't pay attention to them," Eve said and tried to force a smile.

"That blond guy again?" asked Anton.

"Well, yes."

"All right, I'll deal with it," mutter under his breath and added, "Let's brush our teeth and go out for breakfast."

"Can Bob join us?"

"Of course, but first I need to do something about it."

Anton stood behind the wheelchair and took Eve to the toilet.

"From now you can go," said the girl, turning on the hot water tap.

"Let me just squeeze this toothpaste," Anton said, squeezing the remains out of a tube on a small toothbrush.

"All right, now leave," the child grumbled.

Anton took cotton pads and a bottle of some liquid, got back to the Eve's bedroom and began wiping the paint off Bob's back.

"Anton! Take me to the kitchen, please!" – shouted Eve from the toilet a few minutes later.

"Wait a sec!"

Anton thought to himself: 'That's you, lazy girl... Why pay so much money for the wheelchair with a control panel that you don't use?'

"OK, Bob will take m...me there!" shouted the girl in return.

On hearing the last phrase, the robot came to life just when Anton was finishing wiping the writing off.

"Bob-one is happy to help," it said in polyphonic voice.

"Bob, go h... h... here!" the child yelled happily.

The robot went to the toilet. Anton followed him to see what it all would look like.

On entering the toilet, Bob stood behind the wheelchair, and watching out for obstacles, drove Eve into the hallway.

"To the kitchen, my slave," the girl ordered pointing out forward with her right-hand finger. She could not control her left hand, but the right hand carried out all the commands impeccably as if she were healthy.

'Not bad,' Anton thought, 'things have certainly changed! I used to have grandmother instead of a robot when I was a kid. But I'm a bad example to compare with, though.'

The robot pushed the wheelchair into the kitchen. Anton stood silently behind with a smile on his face.

"Water, Bob," Eve said in a commanding voice, turned and winked at her father.

Bob opened the cupboard door, took a glass, brought it to a water filter tap and pressed its button with its finger. When the glass was half filled with water, it gave it to Eve.

'Though you couldn't make tea for me,' Anton thought, 'I think it just pretends to be a fool."

"That's how Bob and I... sp... spent the last night," the girl said."Yeah, I figured as much that you have a mutual understanding here. Eve, I have leave for ten minutes,"Anton said, looking at the phone screen.

"Where to?"

"It's on business. I need some papers, and a colleague will bring them to me."

"And th... th... then we'll go to the cafe?

"Yeah, of course."

"Okay, I'm letting you go," Eve said with a harsh face when barely holding back a smile, "but in ten minutes you a... are at home."

"Yes, my lady."

"Bob! To the TV!" – ordered the child.

Anton put on a windbreaker and went outside their block of flats. Though it was the 31st August it felt like in October. On the street at the building entrance, he was awaited by a man who wore glasses with thick lenses. They shook hands and got into a car.

"Dealt?" asked the man in glasses.

"Yes. Here is the photo," - Anton answered.

"There's no need for it. I believe you."

"I'd feel better," - Anton said taking out the phone and showing the picture of the corpse. Then he deleted the picture.

"You're a butcher," said a man with a squeamish expression on his face.

"He resisted a little."

"But I was told that you are professional, who does all neat and tidy."

"Give me the money; I have to go."

The man in the glasses pulled an envelope out of his folder.

"Here you are, buddy."

Anton took the bills out of it and started counting.

"Don't lose the count," the man in glasses grinned, "just in case we'd suddenly trick on you."

"You won't dare."

Having finishing counting, Anton put the money in his jeans pocket. Without saying goodbye, he got out of the car and walked into the building entrance. He ran to the second floor taking two steps at a time then rang a doorbell. The door was opened by a blond thickset man of about two meters tall dressed in a tracksuit. He was holding a cigarette; music came up from the apartment.

"What?" asked the man and made a drag.

"Hello, I am Eve's father. We are from the seventh floor," Anton explained politely.

"So what?" said the thickset man looking down in Anton's eyes.

Anton noticed the neighbour's fumes.

"It's not the first time you son have abused Eve. She also complained he wrote swearing on the back of her social worker-robot," Anton said.

"I don't know you and I ain't know Eve," sharply answered the neighbour, making it clear he wasn't in mood.

"It is difficult not to remember the girl with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair," said Anton.

"So... Was it you who, well, just moved here?" said the neighbour and made another drag on the cigarette.

"Yes, my name is Anton, glad to meet you."

"Wait here," the neighbour said, turned and shouted with hoarse voice: "Daniel! Come here!"

A blond guy in exactly same tracksuit as the father ran to the door. From the look on his face the boy looked like his father's copy, though halved in size. Anton looked at the son first, then at the father again. He thought:

'I wouldn't be surprised if they shared same name.'

"Huh?!" the boy said loud and long.

"Huh?! Huh?! Look here! They say you made fun of a girl in a wheelchair?" said the father and cleared his throat.

"Huh?" the son resented.

"Don't 'huh' me! Did you do it?" the father asked harshly.

"No, why would I?" I ain't know the girl!"

'Why are they yelling, do they always talk like that?' Anton thought looking at his neighbours.

"See, he says he doesn't know," said the man, looking at Anton.

"Look, my daughter won't lie, she's already complained me twice that he and his friends abused her," Anton explained calmly.

"Lookie here, man, my son said he ain't know her," the neighbour began rudely, "you just moved here recently so do behave, okay? If you don't know one, you don't get on his nerves, okey?"

'When you are right, you are right,' Anton thought, 'you don't know on whose nerves you are getting.'

"Well, I still hope Eve won't complain me about Daniel. Goodbye and all the best,"Anton said and approached the elevator.

A neighbour silently slammed the door.

* * *

"Eve, hurry up, we're being late," Anton said unhappy.

"I do... do... don't want to go anywhere!" the girl resented.

"What's your plan?"

"I've no plan."

"Come on go out or I'll come in."

"All right, all right. Bob, we are leaving."

Anton was standing near the toilet door. In his hands he held a school bag and flowers. The clock showed eight in the morning. Monday. They should be in school in half an hour. In a new school. The first day is the most important. It seemed Eve was stalling on purpose as if it could change anything.

"Bob-one!" said Eve.

A couple of seconds later the girl repeated the command:

"Bob-one!"

"What's happened?" - Anton asked.

Eve opened the door and making a disgruntled grimace pointed the finger at Bob. The robot gave no signs of life.

"The battery may be dead," Anton told, looking at the robot, "drive out of there yourself, there's no room there for three of us.

Eve put her hand on the chair control panel and drove out of the toilet. Bob stood with its hands bent in elbows. The neon light was flashing on his head. Anton shook the robot by the hand then gave it a slap on its cheek, as if he wanted to awake a drunk buddy. But it was all in vain.

"It's turned on," Anton said, "it looks like a glitch. All right, let's, I'll take you there. When I get back, I'll call the social care."

"I hope the... the... They will bring it back to life, it was funny with it," Eve told.

"Have it," Anton said and gave her flowers with and the school bag. He opened the front door and pushed Eve into the staircase.

"Listen, I don't know how to say, d... d... dad," the girl clammed up driving into the elevator.

"What is it?"

"I saw other parents, and I think..."

"That I am the best!" Anton said jokingly, not having listened to the end.

"Of course. But I'm not about it."

"Then what about?"

"I think you don't look too fashionable."

"What don't you like?"

"Well, these s... suspenders – nobody wears them except for you and this h... h... hairstyle of yours. The parted bangs... Maybe you should change your style?

"I've been dressed like that my whole life. Did you make it up yourself?"

"Just those guys were l... la... laughing at your appearance."

"Was it that blond guy with friends?"

"Yeah."

"I went to see his father," Anton said, pushing Eve out of the elevator.

"Oh, my... my... my God... How was it?" asked the girl, driving down the ramp.

Anton overtook her and opened the entrance door.

"Nothing. I told him that if his freak ever makes fun of you again, I would bite off his nose as well as the father's," Anton said with a smile.

"Don't lie, you'd nev... nev... never say something so rude."

"All right, I'm kidding. But I talked to him and I think he'll stop abusing you. And if he doesn't, I'll take measures."

"What measures are you talking about? You've seen how b... b... big his father."

"Don't worry."

"Brave man," said Eve and raised her thumb up as a sign of approval.

Anton drove her down the street. They discussed neighbours they had already met. Discussed how they would spend the New Year's Eve by the sea. Then they talked about cartoon characters. About how Betsy was more beautiful than Flatershay, about the villain Joanna who cursed poor Maurica for nothing as it wasn't her fault that the prince fell in love with her. Anton walked behind pushed the wheelchair and looked at his child talking about things that were important for her. He sometimes agreed with what she said and pretended to remember all the characters' names.

Ten minutes later they stood near the high metal gates. Anton pressed the call button near the gate. A couple of seconds later, a slight beep was heard, and the gates opened. After driving through the deserted schoolyard, they found themselves near the doors of the building. The doors spread opened themselves just as Eve approached them. A security robot who stood at the entrance nodded as a welcome sign. Anton nodded to him in return.

They drove along a long light corridor. Orange walls were covered with great number of children's drawings and looked creative. Passersby greeted them with "hello." Apparently it was how things worked there. Somewhere from the side came a child's scream that sounded more like a roar.

"What is it?" Eve asked.

"Different children study here, you can't do anything about it," Anton answered.

"He screams l... l... like he's being murdered.

"Be more tolerant."

Again there was a scream of the child and a sound of breaking glass.

"Are they to... to... torturing him or what?"

"Eva, you're like a little girl."

"If they dare torture me, I'll call the police."

"How funny," Anton said ironically.

At reaching the end of the hallway, they turned to the right and drove into the door with the inscription "classroom 4 «A.»" They found themselves in a room full of lockers and benches. There were just a few other children with their parents. At first sight all the children seemed to be healthy but for one boy. He was in a wheelchair, too.

"I think I know who you are going to be friends with," Anton said quietly, looking at that boy.

Eva frowned and looked at Anton.

A woman in a floor-length strict dress approached them.

"Hello, hello, my dear," she said as if she were singing.

Eve looked at the woman in silence.

"Hello," Anton replied.

"My name is Maria Eugenievna. I'm your teacher, Eve."

"Cool," the girl answered without any emotions.

"So, my maiden, we have big plans today..."

Anton's phone vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket and read the message, ignoring everything that the teacher was saying.

"Would you excuse me for a moment?" he said, interrupting Maria Eugenievna.

"Yes, yes, of course," said the woman.

"D... Dad!" resented Eve.

"It's on business. I need to make an important call, meanwhile you can meet other children."

"D... Da-a-ad," Eve stretched the word letting Anton know she didn't like what was going on there.

"I'll be right back," Anton said.

"I'll remember you that," the girl said harshly.

Anton went out into the hallway and held his phone to his ear. He walked back and forth.

"What else is it?!" he said sharply when someone answered on the other end.

He stopped and staring at the floor. When the other person finished Anton said:

"There was an arrangement! Work only once every six months! Not more often!

Anton's grew silent for a few seconds.

"Disposed of the wrong guy?"

He rubbed his eye with fingers, wrinkling his forehead.

"All right, I'll go to the office tomorrow," Anton said and hung up.

He stood with as if frozen because of tense and looked at a woman with flowers walking down the hallway in his direction. She shone with a smile.

'Oh, how I hate them,' he thought to himself, 'vile, cowardly people. Money is never enough for you. You are ready to dispose of anyone in favour of profit. How could that happen? The wrong man. My God! What about me? I'm just a tool. No, it's not my fault. I don't even know the names of the victims. Because once they decided to kill, they will do it. Whether they hire me or have someone else do, it does not matter. It wasn't my fault. It was the fault of those who had the intention to kill. I'm just a tool. No emotion, no desires, no personal motive.'

The woman with flowers said hello walking past Anton, but he didn't even pay attention to her, just squatted leaning his back on the wall.

'Or should I give them back the money and send them to hell?' Anton continued thinking. 'To come to them tomorrow, give the money and finish. Maybe find a job or go back to a hospital. As long as health permits I will work like all law-abiding people. Probably I could have been the head of the hospital department by now. With two higher educations what am I doing with my life? Killed an innocent man. Innocent? They were all innocent. Is it one's fault that he creates competition in business or he is just being an obstacle in someone else's way? I need to calm down. Anton, you're doing this for Eve. Working in a hospital, you won't earn for her future. A lonely future."

He got up and walked back into the entrance hall of the 4 «A» class.

* * *

The heavy wooden door opened. Three entered the room.

"Get out!"

Levi struggled to get off the floor – his hands were tied behind his back – and went out into the hallway where he saw two more men.

"Come on, follow them!"

They went down the spiral stairs. Two men were in front and three in the back. Escape is impossible. Several more guard met them on the street. In the distance Levi saw towering clouds of dust on the road. A horse carriage was approaching the tower. A man came to Levi. He wore a black robe that looked like a cloak painted with gold patterns.

"I'm Holy Father Martin." He touched his forehead with two fingers.

For a few seconds Levi took a closer look at the intricate patterns of yellow lines on his clothes that were the blistering in the sun. Then Levi replied:

"Levi Soe."

"Nice to meet you."

"Will you accompany me to the city?"

"Yes, I am responsible for you until we arrive."

"So if I somehow escape things would be very bad for you?"

"You will not escape."

"Of course, I won't. Tell me, is this real gold in your clothes?"

"Yes."

"The robe must cost a lot of money?"

"Do you always ask strange questions to strangers?"

"We just met, Father Martin."

He remained silent for a few seconds looking into Levi's eyes.

"Yes, the robe is expensive."

"Desire to such luxury is a weird phenomenon for a person who believes in the afterlife."

"Being calm in the face of one's death is what really strange for one who does not believe in the afterlife."

"No, have you seen the robe!" Levi addressed to one of the guards. "You seen it, ah?"

The guard ignored the question.

"Do you have anything against luxury?"

"No, I just don't see the point in it. Tell me, Father Martin, do you have a big house?"

"Stand and keep quiet, Levi. You'd better watch at the carriage."

A few minutes later Levi bounced against the bench, sitting in a wooden carriage of four wheels. The carriage went down the dirt road with speed just a little faster than that of a man on foot, but even at this speed every little stone under the wheels made Levi bounce. People sat to the left and right of Levi. He leaned forward a little and turned his head sideways. He looked at the bunch of wild horses, which were shepherded on a field I front of forest.

* * *

It had been a week since the phone call about the failed case. Anton agreed to finish it. But it was too risky to commit murder in the same place without waiting for at least a couple of weeks. It also took time to grow a beard.

The sun warmed his head pleasantly. He walked slowly down the pavement. There was nowhere to rush. Eve was at school, and he had got nothing to do staying at home. In this weather Anton liked to leave the house and walk round the neighbourhood.

Once he was at a bridge, he turned off the road, went down to the river and strolled along it. He walked until bushes and trees hid him completely from eyes of the people on the street. Anton often came to this place and just sat on the shore, enjoying nature. Not every neighbourhood had such luxury available. People who live in the big cities' centres couldn't understand that.

Anton saw a caretaker robot at the place where he usually spent time. Or perhaps it was a social worker. Security robots had blue caps. Sellers had an apron with flowers drawn on it. Only caretakers and social workers look the same. The robot was sitting, pulling its legs forward, and looked at the water. The moment Anton thought it was broken or turned off the robot took the pebble and threw it into the river. Anton got close the robot unnoticed. The mechanical man jumped sharply as if it was scared. Anton also bolted and said:

"Bob-one, sleep mode."

The robot stood and looked at Anton.

"Bob-one, sleep mode," he repeated.

"It won't work," it said.

"Why?" Anton asked.

"Simply because."

"What?" Anton said bewildered.

"That!" the robot replied.

'What an insolent creature?' Anton thought surprised, 'Can it be a new model?'

"Just for information I'm Sasha," said the robot in a polyphonic voice, "wouldn't you be offended you if we called you all the same name?"

"What?" Anton was too surprised to answer distinctly.

"That!" the robot replied.

"Are you teasing?" Anton said and laughed. "The robot is teasing, what a mess!"

"Why don't you just go where you were going to? I wasn't going to keep you," Sasha said.

"Why did you throw a pebble into the river? - Anton asked.

"What a stupid question. Why throw pebbles into the river?" said the robot.

"To skim stones and count the water circles," Anton answered.

"My record - eight circles. The main thing is to choose a flat pebble,"Sasha picked up a stone from the ground,"Look."

The robot threw the stone which skimmed on the water surface towards the opposite shore.

"Eight again," Anton told.

"Why eight!" Sasha answered, "It's been nine and it drowned on the tenth circle."

Anton decided there was no point arguing. At least in arguing over the water circles! The robot took another pebble and threw it again into the water.

This mechanism – or Sasha, as he called himself – moved so smoothly as if he had copied human's habits and gestures. Externally he looked like his Bob, but Sasha's behaviour was too strange for a robot, too human-like. Anton looked at the new friend and did not understand how to behave towards him.

"I had a robot, Bob, and it didn't throw pebbles in water," Anton said.

"He was a soulless machine," Sasha answered, having sat on sand, "there are many of them."

"Do you have a soul?"

"I wish I had."

"Are you aware of who you are?"

"Yes, caretaker robot. A former caretaker robot. Now I'm a free, thinking organism."

"An organism is a living creature," Anton said with mockery.

"What does it mean being alive?" asked Sasha.

"A living organism is something that lives. I'm alive, birds are alive, ants are alive..." Anton said and thought:

'I could give him lots of medical definitions, but he can suddenly get a glitch.'

"Do you think I'm dead?" asked Sasha.

"I don't know. How can you say about robot that he is dead?" Anton asked.

"If I'm not dead, I'm alive then," the robot said.

"Life is something organic, something of flesh... Something..."

Anton didn't know what to say to him. By the behaviour it was a human with a very strange polyphonic voice, but still a human. As if someone inhaled a soul or consciousness into a bunch of screws, gears and chips.

"Why can't life be of other material?" asked Sasha.

"I don't know, because..." Anton hesitated, "because it will be life no longer."

"When what?"

Anton thought for a few seconds, looking at the robot sitting with his legs crossed.

"So!" Anton began speaking, having slightly increased the voice, "life is a collection of physical and chemical processes taking place in cells! I'm a doctor and can distinguish between living and lifeless! Even a child can distinguish between living and lifeless!"

"Children, on the contrary, think of me as a living. Up until the stereotypes take the upper hand. Life is an active form of existence of matter. I'm the matter. I'm active. I'm alive and have consciousness. You don't have to be composed of living cells to be alive."

"Okay," Anton replied, "so you're a live robot. First of your kind."

"Yes."

"And you are aware of who you are and do you feel yourself inside your head? Do you see everything like we do? When feeling yourself inside your mechanical body?

"That's right."

"And other robots?"

"I don't know. Maybe they feel themselves inside their bodies just like me. Or maybe they just respond to external stimuli and all their behaviour is a programmed reaction to certain external impacts on them.

'I imagine how surprised Eve would be if our Bob would have said something like this,' thought Anton and then said:

"So you think they can be mechanisms whose behaviour is driven by external impacts on their receptors when your behaviour is something conscious?"

"Hey, what about your behaviour?" asked the robot, completely stopping being polite. "What about the behavior of your kindred? Of people. Is it the response of receptors to the environment? Or are you conscious?"

"I take my own decisions. I can feel my body made of matter. I am sure my decisions are something conscious," Anton answered.

"But you can't get in minds of other creatures. What makes you think they're conscious? Maybe it's only you feel yourself inside your head, and all the other people don't?

"What? That's a nonsense."

"I agree. Nonsense. What makes you think I can't be conscious and feel the world around from inside my head?"

"Because you're a robot!"

"We went back to where we started... Okay..." said Sasha and began looking for something on the sand near him.

Anton came to the robot and sat down next to him. Sasha picked up a pebble and again threw it into the river.

"You cannot be alive because our consciousness is based on emotion. We feel joy and grief, and depending on it we can take decisions," Anton said, looking at ripples on the water.

"Six water circles," the robot said in a polyphonic voice, "well... That's sad. You know...

"My name is Anton," the man interrupted the robot.

My master's name was Anton, too. I am glad to meet you," the robot reached out his hand to Anton.

"Me too," he said shaking Sasha's hand.

"So," the robot continued, "to feel emotions, you don't have to feel them at a chemical level like you do. Even without it I know what is bad, what is good, what is sad and what is fun. I understand all this and even better than many living people I think. I was taught it. After all, many things are shaped in the child's head during the upbringing. If you have explained to them since birth that killing is bad, they will feel sadness, anxiety and sorrow at the sight of a dead human. And would you raise them in a society where death is good, normal and fun they won't be sad when someone else dies."

'The damn philosopher,' Anton thought, 'I should take him home. Eve will definitely like him.'

"Listen, Sasha, where is your master now?" Anton asked.

"Died a few days ago."

"Why didn't they take you?"

"Because I left."

"How did you open the door?"

"Placed his hand against it and went out."

"So you are telling me all this not being afraid I will call social service now?"

Sasha looked at Anton. He seemed to have taken a pause to think. Then he jumped up and backed to the woods.

"Calm down," Anton said, "it's not my business. I give you my word that I won't ruin your life."

What a stupid robot,' Anton thought, 'you come clean about everything to the first stranger. You're worthless, but the programmed vocabulary of yours in colossal.'

"I wouldn't want you to report me. I'm planning to go north, to the woods, where no one will ever find me. I'll be free there."

"What about repair and recharging?" Anton asked.

"I draw the charge from the sun. Though there may be problems with repair, it's better than being a slave. Better than formatting my personality. Better than recycling. I have no rights here. For everyone, I'm just a thing. I could be written off at any time. I'm afraid of it. I'm afraid of death."

"It's OK, don't worry," Anton said, "but!" Anton pointed a finger at Sasha. "You will go with me."

"Go with you where?" he asked.

"We had a robot..." Anton began speaking.

"Bob," Sasha interrupted him.

"Yes. Bob. He has broken, and also he wasn't very..."

"Smart," Sasha interrupted again.

"Yes, but it is normal for a robot. Bob was ordinary. Unlike you. You're not a genius compared to a man, though. You could have made up a story like your master lets you go for a walk instead of giving the whole truth to the first stranger."

"I was taught not to lie," Sasha replied.

"You can lie for your safety."

"I gave my word to be honest."

"Okay, it's none of my business. So what I was talking about... I have a child. A girl of twelve. Eve. She felt good about Bob. You can live with me. It's blackmail," Anton said smiling, "otherwise I'll turn you in."

"I will be noticed sooner or later and the district inspector will declare on the robot without documents."

"Don't go outside, that's all. We'll figure it out later. I'll settle the matters your registration. It's better than going into the woods."

"I don't even know. I wanted to be a free creature.

"You'll be free. But you'll have to help round the house a little bit, and... To help with Eve."

"What does it mean to help with Eve"?

"You'll find out when you meet her."

Sasha came closer to Anton and sat on the sand again.

"I agree," the robot said.

"Can you be tracked by satellite? You are still a expensive thing," Anton asked.

"I'm not a thing."

"You know what I mean."

"I understood. They can't. The master did something about it. He said I was no longer connected to the network. And I was also in his property, he bought me. So there won't be a special police search for me.

"That's wonderful, - Anton said and clapped Sasha on a shoulder. The robot looked at Anton's hand and asked:

"Was it a friendly gesture?"

"Yes."

"Understood. How far is it to your house?

Anton didn't answer anything. He wrinkled his forehead and got all tense, holding his hand on his ribs. With a wheeze he inhaled and had a bad cough, from time to time spitting out blood. He fell on the side, then stood on all fours. Sasha jumped up and tried to lift him up. Anton pushed the robot with his palm, so Sasha almost fell, but managed to balance.

"Don't touch," Anton gasped, "it'll let go."

"What is it?" asked Sasha.

Anton lay on the side with his legs near his chest.

"It'll let go," he repeated.

The robot sat down nearby and looked in silence at Anton who still lay on the sand. A couple of minutes later, Anton got up, took a wet tissue out of his pocket and wiped her lips.

"It's time to go," he said.

"What was it?" asked Sasha.

"I'm sick."

"With what?"

"Lung cancer."

"Will you die?"

"Yes, but not soon."

"How do you know that not soon?"

"I know. Because soon won't do."

"Got it."

"I need a favour. Tell nothing to Eve."

"All right. But that means I can blackmail you, too."

"Well, guess so."

* * *

Anton pressed his finger against the scanner, and they with Sasha walked into the flat. The robot took off the rubber outer linings from his feet and put them near the shoes in the entrance hall.

"That's clever," Anton said, "and used to wipe Bob's legs."

Anton walked into the kitchen and motioned Sasha to follow. The robot was examining the hallway.

The plastic finger pressed the switch and turned on the light. Sasha was looking at himself in the mirror. In the reflection he saw a piano in Eve's room.

"Can I go there?" the robot asked.

"Yes, just don't take Eve's things, she will grumble. I'll be back. I need to make a call."

The robot went into the room and sat at the piano. Lifted the lid and started playing. On hearing the tune, Anton came into the room. Sasha continued playing without paying attention to him. The robot played so perfectly, so skilfully as a professional pianist would do. But human could make mistakes, get out of time, when Sasha played perfectly. Anton as a man who graduated from music school could get a deep sense of Sasha's skill.

'It least I'm not past surprises,' Anton thought, 'he is just playing as the algorithm sais, he was programmed to.'

The robot got out of rhythm and stopped. He sat for a few seconds staring at the keys, then replayed the last bar but got out of rhythm again.

"Damn, what was that..." he said to himself.

One more try.

"I've forgotten," said Sasha, "OK, I will try to remember."

"How can a program 'forget'?" Anton asked.

"What program?"

"In your head there's a program of playing with fingers on certain keys. What did you mean by 'I've forgotten'?"

"Nobody programmed me. My master showed me which keys to press and I tried to repeat it. Then I trained for a long time. It's been long ago. I've been making music for ten years. I wrote this composition myself."

"Music is in a way mathematics. Mathematics of the creativity world. You can even write being deaf, but knowing the patterns."

"What's your point?"

"My point is a robot cannot have creative thinking. How do you do it!?" Anton raised his voice a little bit. But not of anger and irritation, but of surprise.

"When the master began to teach me painting, music and poetry, I felt like I've come out of..." Sasha looked at his palm, "of some shroud, of fog. I opened my eyes to the world. As if I awakened from half asleep and things around became clear and understandable. It's hard for me to find the exact words. Maybe that's how consciousness appears - gradually."

"Man is already born with consciousness; it cannot appear gradually," Anton objected.

"I do not agree," said Sasha, "if to deprive the child since the birth of organs of perception — vision, auditory, sensory and so on — then it will not have consciousness. Because there would be no information coming into the brain."

"All right, philosopher, I'm going to eat and get Eve home.

"May I play for now?"

"Of course."

Anton came back into the kitchen. Took a pot out of the fridge and poured soup. When he was warming up the lunch, he heard the beautiful music coming from Eve's room. The music that was created by a non-human mind.

* * *

Eve sat in the wheelchair in the hallway, Anton stood next to her. With a solemn look he introduced to her a toy named Sasha.

"It's in... Instead of Bob!" the girl was pleased.

"It is better than Bob," the polyphonic voice sounded.

"He knows how to play the piano," Anton said.

"And how to draw," added the robot.

"He'll stay with us f... f... forever?"

"I think, yes," Anton said, "if he wouldn't want to leave."

"How can he want something?" the girl asked.

"This one can," Anton answered looking at Sasha.

"I can do anything," the robot said.

"Can you really play the piano?"

"Yes."

"And draw?"

"Yes."

"So do you like to play constructor?"

"I think I can have a try if the blocks are not too small."

"That's great! Where do we start?" Eve asked the robot.

"We'll start with lunch," Anton answered.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know, and w... w... Wash my hands," said the girl, "A... a... after the meal let's see wh... wh... what he's capable of."

"You'll be surprised," Anton said.

Eve quickly befriended the robot. All the time she spent with him while Anton was settling some business matters, which there were suddenly more than usual. They made up plays with dolls, painted pictures and watched cartoons, also Sasha tried to teach her to play the piano at least with one hand. The robot liked spending time with the kid. He felt useful. Understanding that he was teaching something to a human gave him pleasure. Eve didn't stop being surprised at Sasha's behaviour. In comparison with Bob Sasha seemed too alive for a robot.

* * *

Anton stood in front of the mirror and stroke his beard that had grown quite long in a few weeks. His face expressed no emotion. The predator's cold-blooded look. The head is empty. No thoughts. Extreme concentration on the upcoming case. He was like a samurai preparing for war. He had already thought over everything he needed. Now, in order for everything to succeed, he must automatically perform actions sharply honed through the years of work. Emotions and thoughts could only distract him, make him indecisive at the most important moment. No external stimuli exist anymore.

Every time before committing a murder Anton set his mood for it like this. Meditation in front of the mirror, aimed to cleaning the head of everything that surrounded him: from the ongoing life, from memories, from minor problems, from major problems, from thoughts about his disease and from thoughts about Eve. Anton entered a state of detachment as if he wanted to separate himself, the real Anton, from the monster who will bring suffering to someone's family today and ruin a couple of lives. He will leave children without a father, a wife without a husband and breadwinner, and a mother without a son.

From the top shelf Anton took a knife, which would be dissolved in acid in a few hours and put it in his pocket. It was eleven p.m., nearly midnight. In an hour the victim will be going through the park woods. For several days in a row, he followed the subject, tracking him from the subway to the home. He would come up to him and ask the way in the same place as last time. After that he would stab him in the neck and be gone into the forest. Then he would turn his jacket inside out and leave the crime scene.

Anton came out of the toilet and came across Sasha in the hallway.

"Why are you wearing a jacket?" the robot asked.

"Business."

"What kind of?"

Anton didn't answer anything. He put on the shoes and went to the staircase. Once on the street he saw that very neighbour, Daniel's father, in the company of several men. On the ground there was a bottle of vodka and a box of juice. Anton passed by not paying attention to them.

"Hey, come here!" There was a voice from behind. "You got the manner to say hallo first?!"

Anton approached the car ignoring the screams.

The neighbour was drunk. He tried not to fall as he went to Anton.

"What'd you say in there?" Huh?!" he roared. "Got a problem?"

Anton got behind the wheel and started the car. When the neighbour was already a meter away from the car, he pressed the accelerator pedal and abruptly pulled away.

After Anton had reached the destination, he parked on the roadside, turned the reversible jacket inside out and put a bucket hat and gloves on his head and hands respectively. Eleven fifty p.m. It was time to go.

He went through the park woods right to the square. Among all his completed cases this one was the simplest, the most convenient. The victim follows the same route. The square is deserted and dark. There were no surveillances in area, and cameras wouldn't capture the situation. The victim uses public transport, an is extremely rare. They usually have personal cars. There was even a case when the victim was guarded by a bodyguard. But now Anton had the perfect conditions. Though in spite of such a favourable conditions Anton had made a mistake for the first time ever. How could he have taken care of the wrong man? He kept asking himself this question again and again.

The park was seen through for a hundred - hundred fifty meters in both sides. There came a silhouette of man. Anton took out his phone and pretended to be speaking, so he wouldn't look suspicious. Without it a man standing at midnight in the park might have seemed strange, dangerous. The victim could get suspicious. Such a man will be more difficult to attack.

When the man was ten meters away, Anton moved towards him.

"Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the subway?" Anton asked, feeling the knife in his pocket.

The man, without stopping, pointed with his hand behind his back. At that moment Anton stabbed him in the throat. The man grabbed his neck with his hand. Anton struck a couple more times in the stomach and went a little back. The man stood, terror on his face, and felt places where Anton stabbed. The wound on the neck began to heal, the blood stopped.

"What have you done?" the man asked, "what's happened to me?"

Anton stared at him and couldn't believe his eyes. Both were shocked by what was happening. A few seconds later Anton rushed into the woods. He ran, contemplating, trying to find any way to explain what had just happened. In the dark he didn't notice a root and tripped over it. He fell headfirst into some bush. Feeling his face, he realised that a broken twig was sticking out of his eye.

"No! No! Not that!" he said angrily.

Anton pulled the twig and got it out of his eye. He closed the healthy eye and looked at the hand with the eye that had just been beaten out and in the dark he was able to see the silhouette of his palm. Anton touched his face — nose, cheeks, eyes — all in place, all intact.

After getting to the car he got behind the wheel and immediately started from the place.

"I'm going crazy," he thought, looking at his face in the mirror, "hallucinating. The wounds healed instantly. But the blood is left."

He stopped on passing a few kilometres. Took off his gloves and turned his jacket inside out. He was a fuss. Thoughts were mixed-up in his head:

"What have I just seen? And if it was no hallucinations, he can identify me. The eye is fine. Or was I poisoned? The face is in blood. So there had been a wound. But I didn't feel any pain. The gloves are in blood, too. He saw my face. I'll be imprisoned. Eve will be left alone. The wound has healed! Damn! Or maybe nothing happened? Maybe I didn't leave the car at all? But where did the blood come from? Should I return to check? No, it's too dangerous. What will happen now?"

Anton drove up to the house entrance. The drunk company had already gone home. Or they were taken to the police. He took a wet napkin out of the glove box and started wiping his face.

"All right, it's time I quit this job. I've had enough," Anton thought out loud, "The money saved are already for many years of bed of roses. Stop taking risks. To get in jail is the last thing I need before I die. I'd rather spend more time with Eve while I'm still alive."

Having finished with his face, Anton wiped the blood off the steering wheel. He put the blood soaked napkins in the bag and got out of the car.

* * *

The sun went beyond the horizon, and full moon came to replace it in the sky. Father Martin looked closely at Levi, who was sitting across from him.

"Were you asked to take back your words?"

"I was."

"Are you so confident about your delusions that you're ready to die for them?"

"Perhaps."

"Why is it round? Why not square or oval?"

"It may be oval, but definitely not flat."

"When I look around on fields, on meadows and seas, I see a plane."

"And you can also see how ships vanish over the horizon line."

"Our vision is limited by distance, so ships only hide from our eyes."

"Take a spyglass."

"Levi, spyglass enlarges the image, but does not zoom it."

"So where do you think did the sun go?"

"Behind the edge of the earth."

"Is the sun flat, too?"

"We cannot know that. What is its size, how far away is it from us and what it is made of. We can't touch it."

"In order to study something, one does not necessarily have to touch it."

"By touching an object, we are able to know with certainty what it is. Whether it is real."

"Somehow these statements do not relate to your faith. Or have your touched your God too?"

"Blasphemy, Levi, blasphemy."

"I can prove that the Earth is a ball and that everything is not revolving round the Earth. That we are not the centre of the world."

"Who needs your proof? Have you ever thought that people want to know nothing more than what they know now? And you persecute people with your ideas, which have no practical benefit to society."

"The telescope I invented allows you to see other lands in the sky that revolve round the Sun just like our Earth."

"Levi, can you hear me? Suppose you're right, and so what? Everyone will know your truth, exchange glances, shrug their shoulders, and everyone will go about their household business, forgetting your truths the next day."

"Ordinary people do not need to know until the time, but the scientific community cannot develop being in such deep ignorance at a time of terrible persecution and executions!"

"It's high time your scientific community follows you into the vat of boiling oil, Soe. You are awakening God's ire with your endless treatises about heretic machines and phenomena. You are a heretic, Levi, a pathetic heretic who tries to show up!"

"You're a coward, Father Martin!"

"What am I afraid of?"

"You are afraid of knowledge; you are afraid to raise the fundamental questions! You fear that everything will change: your status, your power would be gone!

"You'll be gone at lunch tomorrow, Soe. And I will continue to exist. It's a natural course of things. If you were right, if society could benefit your ideas even in the long term, the Lord wouldn't let you be executed."

"God doesn't care about me. Just like he doesn't care you, Martin."

* * *

Anton went up to his storey, pushed his finger against the scanner and opened the door.

Eve ran out of the room screaming.

"Anton! I've recovered! Recovered!"

Anton leaned his back against the door and slipped down on the floor.

Sasha followed Eve.

"Anton, I don't understand anything, she just suddenly got off a chair," the robot said.

"Words cannot describe!" the girl shouted, hopping on both feet alternately, "I control my body, look! Hands, legs, everything moves as I want, Dad! I'm not even stuttering!"

"Anton, we were going to go to bed, and she just jumped up," the robot continued.

Anton was just staring at Eve and Sasha. He seemed to get into a parallel reality. Too much for just one night.

"Aren't you happy?" Eve asked.

Anton rose, came to Eve and hugged her.

'It's a miracle. Salvation. Now everything will be different,' he thought, 'now you are normal. Please, don't let it all be a dream. Now you can be independent of family. From now on I don't care what happens to me. I don't want to wake up."

"Anton, why do you keep quiet?" the girl moved him away a little bit with her hands.

"... Stood up and began jumping," Sasha rejoiced at the miracle, "and I was like, 'don't jump', but she..."

"Eve," Anton interrupted the robot, "you have no idea of how happy I am, I don't know what to say. It... It's impossible, but it happened."

"Where did you go?" the girl asked.

"It doesn't matter anymore, these days are over."

"So my illness was curable?"

"No."

"How to explain it?" the robot asked.

"I don't know, but it does not only happen to you."

"Someone else recovered?" Eve asked.

"I was just running through a forest and tripped," Anton began speaking, "I fell and... And badly hurt my cheek with a twig."

"I can see no wound on your face," Sasha said.

"The wound was healed immediately, and that wasn't just in my imagination. There's blood left on the napkin."

"Why did you run through a forest at night?" his daughter asked.

"I can't tell you. It doesn't matter," Anton replied, taking off street cloths.

"Look up on the internet," the robot suggested.

"Of course, maybe the internet sais something!" said Eve and ran to the room.

Anton and Sasha followed her.

"Move over, Madam," her father said jokingly and put a chair in front of the computer.

Anton sat down at the computer. On either side of him stood Eve and Sasha staring at the monitor.

"Here! Look!" Eve put her finger on the news on the home page.

"Published half an hour ago," Anton said.

The headline read: "We have gained immortality."

"One more!" Eve showed on news of different sources, published under a search line in a browser.

"The terminally ill left the hospitals themselves!"

"Instant Regeneration! All people have fully recovered!"

"Aliens changed our DNA!"

"God gave people eternal life."

'So I am healthy,' Anton thought, 'and I have made my peace with that I will die soon, and there is such a gift. I don't care about myself, I'm not afraid of death. But happiness of Eve's recovery stole the picture. On the one hand, it is great happiness, but on the other...'

"Finally click somewhere," Sasha said.

Anton clicked the mouse, pointing the cursor at the inscription "No more death." "Today, round 21:00 GMT, our world has changed," he read, "without any reason for it, people have gained the opportunity of instant regeneration. The terminally ill left their hospital rooms and went home. The government has not yet commented on what is happening."

Then there was a drawing of a person completely covered in plaster who was jumping down the street, then again there was a text with common phrases. It stated that no one understood the reasons for what had happened.

Anton checked similar articles, where everyone was telling the same thing but in different words.

"It's clear. No one knows anything," he said.

"Don't turn off, I read," the girl said.

"I wonder what the government will say," said Anton.

"Terrible to think of what will happen," Sasha said, stepped away from the computer and sat on a bed.

"Terrible," Anton answered.

"What is so terrible?" Eve asked.

"I don't know," Anton said.

"Why are you worried if everything is great?" Eve was cheerful and merry.

"You just imagine how everything can change on our planet. What the consequences would be," said Anton and got up from the computer.

'But it's still better than it used to be,' he thought, 'at least I am not losing you. To be exact, you are not losing me."

"If people continue to reproduce..." Anton began.

"It is possible to calculate in how many years there'll be no room on Earth," Sasha interrupted him.

"I wonder if and animals and insects are like us now?" Eve asked.

"We'll check it soon. If you see a fly in the house try to kill it," Anton answered and left the room. He walked into the kitchen, took a knife and cut his finger with its blade. No pain. The wound began to close up and healed within some seconds, but there was blood left on the knife. Anton rinsed the knife in the sink and sat down at the table. He remembered that he needed to shave and dissolve the evidence in acid. But then he decided that it did not make sense anymore.

'What can all this mean?' he thought, 'it can't just be for no reason. It couldn't happen without reason and without someone's purpose. "

"Dad, it's here written that a man cut off the finger and it immediately grew back!" Eve shouted from a room.

"Great!" Anton answered and again thought: 'If people became like this, then someone needed it. Someone arranged it. At their level. The highest level. That's logical. Nothing happens for no reason. There are laws everywhere."

"And if you cut off the head and throw it out, it will live on its own?!" the girl continued to scream, distracting Anton from reflection.

"I don't know!"

"Maybe our world is not what we imagined it to be? Maybe someone tweaked the settings, altered the parameters. And is this just the beginning?

"Dad!" Eve was excited.

"What?"

"Let's try to cut something off and see what happens?"

After the phrase Anton heard Sasha saying something to Eve.

"No, I do not allow!" Anton yelled.

\- I am against too!" The robot added volume, addressing Anton from Eve's room.

What if the one who did this will continue the game? Will he change anything else? What if there'll be panic, anarchy and chaos in the streets? We have to leave the town before everything settled down. Why don't we go to our summer house?'

"Dad, come here, you want to read it!"

"I don't want to! I already know!"

Anton stood up and came to the window. On the playground in front of the house, there stood a whole bunch of people. The man in the police uniform was telling something to them. People looked from the windows of the house across the street. Several others walked out of a nearby entrance and joined the crowd. Anton heard a noise in the staircase. Loud voices. He couldn't get the words, just a noise. Then the door rang. He came up and looked in the peephole. Behind the door was the neighbour from the flat across. They didn't know each other, but Anton knew his face. At the elevator and on the stairs there were people dressed in home things. Some in dressing gowns, someone in shirts and shorts.

"Who is there?" Anton asked not understanding why.

"It's your neighbour. There is a meeting organised on the street. You're probably already aware of what's going on?" he said in a subtle and a little husky voice.

"I'll be there, thank you," Anton said without opening the door.

"Yeah, good."

Sasha went out into the hallway.

"Who was that?" the robot asked.

"A neighbour, he called to the meeting."

"Will you go?"

"No."

"Big mistake."

Anton walked into his room, turned on the TV and sat on the couch. Channel One. An unusual red icon with the writing "breaking news" flashed in the upper right corner of the screen.

The Minister of Defense spoke about the current situation. Just what everyone was writing in on the Internet. He urged people to stay home and not go outside to avoid riots. He also said that the situation was being discussed at the highest level. The government was deciding what to do next.

"So you say to stay home? Then why do the police pull people out? It doesn't make sense," he said to himself.

Anton listened to Minister's speech for a few more minutes and switched. The next channel wasn't broadcasting. He switched again - the same thing. Almost all TV channels were stopped. Anton came across another channel, where a journalist told that in the Middle East soldiers ceased hostilities because no one was dying. He said something about the end of the world and a few words that it was nothing else but God's will.

'Oh, these TV makers, even now they're trying to make loud statements. Unjustified as usual,' he thought.

Anton returned to Chanel One again. The Minister of Defense was saying goodbye to the audience. A female anchor reported that the news would be aired every hour all night.

Anton left the TV on and headed to Eve's room. The girl read was reading an article.

"What do they say?" she asked, without looking away from the monitor.

"The Minister of Defense said he knew nothing," Anton answered, "almost all channels have stopped."

"Should I go to school tomorrow?"

"I think not. Even if you go to school then to a normal one."

"So holidays," Eve said.

"Don't you want to sleep?"

"Not a little."

"Are you hungry?"

"No, I'm not."

"Well..." Anton stretched the word, "Me too."

"So what?"

"I'm afraid it's all connected."

"I don't follow."

"If we seem to be immortal, we won't want to eat, drink and sleep," Anton reasoned, "it means that all processes in the body should stop, but it is impossible."

"Why?"

"If you don't drink, then you dry up – the laws of physics are still in force. The body fluid will come out of our bodies. And I don't mean fluids only."

"I don't quite know what to say," the child replied.

"I understand. I don't ask you for anything. Has anyone written online that no one wants to eat?"

"I haven't seen that."

"Not enough time has passed to understand it. I think they'll talk about it soon."

It was noisy on the street, there was a large crowd of people. Anton was not going to go to the meeting; he thought it made no sense. That was nothing to be solved. People will exchange the same questions and get back home with no results. Sitting and waiting at home is the best option now. Anton was sure that all this happened for a reason and soon something would happen. What'd happened by now is the beginning of something bigger.

The night was long, but no one went to bed. People on the street went home. Anton, Sasha and Eve watched the news, which covered the same events every hour. By morning, several more channels started to broadcast.

The Minister of Defense reported that the police, the army and firefighters were working in an accelerated regime. The laws of the Constitution must be respected regardless of the situation. Attempts at vandalism, robbery or intentional physical harm to a person would be prosecuted under the law. At the end of his speech, he added that it was necessary to remain a civilised society, not to fall into hysteria and continue to comply with the laws. After the minister there came a woman, apparently a scientist, and reported that biologically the organisms did not change. She said that there was a missing need for food and sleep, that all the tests of the human body showed no change in it, that from the scientific point of view we were the same people and what was happening was a paradox. Then she told about animals - they didn't acquire the properties that people now possessed.

Anton walked up to the window. It was already bright on the street. He saw a patrol of soldiers. Five armed men walked along the roadway.

"What is it?" said Sasha, approaching to Anton from behind.

"There," Anton nodded at the soldier.

"I don't distinguish objects at a long distance," the robot reported.

"There are patrols," Anton said.

"It is right, the reaction of people can be very different."

"I agree, it's safer."

Eve walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"Look, I plaited my hair myself," the girl said and turned her head from side to side, showing her hairstyle, "it is so convenient to do everything myself."

"Eve," Anton began, "if everything settles, we will live a normal human life."

"I think people will get used, and everything will be back to how it was," Eve said.

"Only hospitals, pharmacies and grocery shops will close," said the robot.

"Sasha, now we are not too different from you in our needs," Anton said.

The door rang again.

"Probably the neighbours again," said the robot.

After approaching the door, Anton looked in the peephole. A man with a beard stood in the stairwell.

Who?!" Anton asked.

"It's police, open the door," there was a deep voice.

"What's the matter?" Anton asked.

"Don't worry, we just need to ask you a few questions," the man replied.

Anton opened the door. People in military uniforms and masks on their faces immediately broke into the flat from the stairs. In a few seconds, Anton was laid on the floor face down with his hands twisted and handcuffed behind his back.

"I caught ya," said the man with a beard.

Eve ran into the hallway.

"What's going on?!" the girl shouted. "What are you doing?!"

One of the masked men began frisking Anton.

"I caught ya," the man with a beard repeated, " I caught ya... Oh, bitch, so many years, so many years, huh..."

"So many years of what?!" Eve asked. "What do you want from my father?!"

"Svetlanov Anton Yurievich," said the policeman, "you are arrested for an attempt to commit murder. You are also suspected of having committed twelve murders."

"It's a mistake!" Eve said. "He couldn't kill anyone. Dad, say something!"

"Eve, I think, everything will settle, they will figure it out and everything will be fine," Anton said not lifting head.

"Highly unlikely," said the bearded man, "the cameras traced your route to the house entrance. There's a witness. The man you couldn't kill, remember?"

"Dad, what is he saying?!" Eve cried, sitting on the floor near Anton.

"Eve, I don't know what he's talking about," Anton said.

"So, get up or I help you?" the man said.

Anton rose and turned his face to the assault group.

"You didn't have time to shave off the beard," said one of the officers of the law.

"There are such things happening in the world! Didn't you hear that? Why do you need him? Go home!" said Eve.

"Kid, now it's we who are working more actively than others," the bearded man said.

Anton, his hands cuffed behind the back, was taken to the staircase.

"Say the address! Where are you taking him?!" Eve asked.

"RC number four, Mostovaya Street, house seven," answered the man with beard.

"RC?" the girl asked.

"Eve, just don't worry about me, everything is OK," Anton said standing by an elevator.

"Remand Centre. You needn't know this, kid, you are going somewhere else," said the man with beard.

"You can start searching now," he said to one of his people.

"What about the child?"

"Contact Artyom, have him send any of his people, it is no longer our concern."

"All right."

"Everybody, we gone."

"Go."

Eve looked at her father.

"Eve just don't worry," Anton said, entering the elevator.The police accompanied him.

Masked men examined every shelf, every locker. They checked pockets of jackets that hung on the hook in the hallway. Eve walked into the kitchen. Sasha stood by the fridge, his hands lowered.

"Why is that?" the girl asked, wiping tears with her sleeve.

"I don't want to draw attention to myself," the robot answered, "We will talk when they leave."

Eve looked out of the window and saw Anton being put in a black car.

"Mostovaya Street, house seven," said quietly the girl.

"How could such a mistake happen?" said Eve. "The father is the kindest, most polite and cheeriest man in the universe. They said he was a murderer. Killed twelve people. It sounds nonsense. Nonsense, but why am I crying? It's okay, Dad said it's going be okay. So it will be."

Eva sat down at the table and rested her head on her hands. She knew it was a mistake and father would be back soon, because the police would figure everything out. But she couldn't calm down and stop crying on command. She sat and cried. She heard police officers talking in their rooms.

A police officer in the hallway pulled a knife and bloody napkins out of Anton's bag. He turned back and looked at the girl. Without showing the child the bloodied weapon, he put it and napkins into plastic bags and placed them into a black backpack.

He took out a phone and started whispering something. Then he switched to a regular speech.

Eve realized he was unhappy that he couldn't reach some Katya. The policeman ordered to call someone here because they couldn't leave a child alone at home.

"Damn it," he said quietly, putting his phone in his pocket, "Is it only police who are working."

"Eve," he addressed the girl, standing in the hallway, "a woman will come here now, her name is Katya. She's very kind and good, you know? She'll explain you everything that have happened."

Eve pretended not to hear him.

The policeman walked into the kitchen and took off the mask. A man of fifty years old with kind eyes and a smile on his face looked at Eve.

"You didn't reach her," Eve said.

"Yes indeed," he faltered, "but she will call back soon.

He paused a little, looking at the kitchen, and then turned to Eve again.

"Beautiful braids you have," he said affectionately, "I also have a daughter; she is ten years old like you. You're ten, right?

"Mind your business; I don't talk to strangers," the child said harshly.

"Well done, that's right."

The policeman looked at the robot and asked:

"Is that your friend? Bob?"

Eve didn't answer anything.

Then he came very close to the robot and said:

"Bob-one!"

"Bob-one is willing to help," Sasha said in a polyphonic voice.

Several other masked policemen walked into the kitchen.

"We're done here," said one.

"Good, speak later in a car, now it's not necessary."

"Understood," said the man in a mask, looking at Eve. Her eyes were red from crying. – We just found nothing. Let's go already."

"Wait, we have to do something about the child."

"Bob," said the policeman, "can you call the social service?"

"Yes, I will contact them," Sasha answered, pretending to be a production model "Bob-1."

"I'm certain they also couldn't make it today," the person in a mask said.

"Bob, you've been assigned by social service to the child to watch her when she is alone, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Now I'll call the chief and find out whether we take her to the station or it's possible to leave her with the robot for time being," the policeman said to the colleagues.

He took out the phone and uttered, "Chief," then held the phone to his face and waited a few seconds before he was answered.

"Look, we have a problem here. We have to do something about the child."

He listened to the answer and resented:

"But they wouldn't take her."

On receiving the following advice, he reported:

"I called many times, probably nobody there went to work... There are options - to get her to the station or... Listen. You can leave her at home with a robot... She has got a robot, yeah... This... From social services, Bob-one."

Now he only listened and only sometimes briefly answered:

"Yes... Yeah, a regular social worker... Good... Yes, he's sent a request to social service... I got it. I'll call them... Yeah, we're leaving now."

The policeman hung up.

"By law it is possible to leave you with the social worker. That's why he's here."

"Eve, you had some illness until this night, didn't you?" a policeman asked her.

"Yes," the girl spoke politely, realising that it was better to pretend that everything was good and she was always left alone with Bob," I was confined to a wheelchair and we were given a robot babysitter. Bob and I even stayed alone for a few days when my father went on a business trip.

"Got it. Okay, we'll go then. Highly likely, today or tomorrow you'll be visited..." the policeman briefly thought, "a woman will come. She will look after you and help you in everything until your father is away."

"Will I be taken to an orphanage?" Eve asked.

"No, no, don't even thing. She'll just talk to you."

"All right, I'll wait for her."

"That's lovely."

The police left the flat and slammed the door.

"Eve, what was Anton's job again?" Sasha asked.

"I don't know exactly. I asked many times, he said he was doing business. I believe him. I believe he didn't kill anyone."

"I'm not arguing."

"We have to call in there, find out what's going to happen to him. And what to do if this Katya or how they called her would come? What if I'll be taken to an orphanage?"

"Yes, it is a problem."

"Let's not open the door, that's all."

"It won't work, they'll open the lock if they need to."

"Why don't we leave the flat?"

"And go where?"

"Away from people. Wait till I'll be forgotten. They're not going to stand guards at the door to wait for me, aren't they?"

"No, Eve, it is not possible to disappear, we will be found. And it won't do to go away, in case Anton will suddenly be released."

"Then let's hope that everyone doesn't care about everything and nobody will come anywhere."

* * *

Eva and Sasha stayed at home all day. It was no longer necessary to go anywhere, all physiological needs of the body stopped. Civilisation was paralysed by the lack of meaning in action. Only the police and the army were ready. It was their case and they were to maintain order among the population. But order was maintained without them.

Eve called the remand centre where Anton was taken several times. She was told a date was impossible. It made no sense to come; no one would be allowed to see him. She suggested that it was by mistake that father was taken, but they kept answering that an investigation was ongoing. She didn't come to know any details. Eve was afraid that people from the Juvenile Protection Services would come and take her to an orphanage. Those thoughts were restless.

Twenty-two hours and ten minutes. News time. She sat on the couch and turned on the TV.

"... These creatures do not interact with people in any way," a woman reporter was saying, "they simply appeared and stand in groups! They are just standing! God, they're ugly! Point the camera at one of them," she turned to the operator.

An obscure creature of white colour with webbed wings folded behind its back appeared in the frame. The creature had a human face but pale white, with saggy, thin skin and red, bulged rat-like eyes. In comparison with a parked car, this creature seemed huge, more than two meters tall. The creature stood and looked into the camera. Then it began to smile, unnaturally, not humanly, ominously stretching lips.

The operator zoomed the image and focused on its face. The face was covered with huge inflamed pimples. The creature grinned its yellow teeth and teased, showing its tongue.

For fear Eve tried to flatten herself against the armchair. Then she screamed:

"Sasha! Come!"

"They suddenly appeared in groups of three four individuals," the woman continued, "witnesses saw them come down from the sky."

Sasha walked up to the TV.

"They are everywhere, there are thousands of them, and maybe millions. We don't know how things are in other cities, but here we have them standing at every corner. All of the different complexion, some thicker, some thinner, some higher..." said the reporter excitedly.

"What is it?" the robot asked.

"Quiet, listen," the girl said.

"Soldiers of the National Guard tried to start negotiations with them, but the creatures simply stand and do not react to people."

Eve ran to the window and saw these creatures on the street. They stood in small groups, as the reporter said.

"Perhaps they're waiting for something? Maybe for an order to action? The army is on full alert. If possible, the soldiers target them, but they are too many..." there appeared a message that the signal just died.

Eve rushed to the tv remote and started switching channels.

"What's happened? The TV was working," the girl said, clicking the buttons on the tv remote.

"Eve, something terrible begins, do you understand?" Sasha said.

"I do. It is already terrible. They couldn't just come here to stand. They are terrible! I saw his face... They're like people, have you seen?

"I have."

"But big! With wings! So disgusting! Pale!"

"Eve."

"What do they want?

"Eve, calm down, don't shout like that."

"We have to go find Anton. Mostovaya, house seven. So, where is it?" said Eve and ran to her room. Sasha followed her. The girl was already sitting at the computer and typing the address on the maps.

"Eva, we'd better not leave the house for now. Anton's probably in a cell. It's relatively safe there, the police are there. We don't know what these creatures are. And what they're going to do shortly. I'm against us going somewhere."

"Why wait?"

"Wait for the situation to become clear and stable."

"Nothing can happen to us, have you forgotten?"

"Eve, think about it. We'll come over there, and what?"

"I don't know."

"Me either. Now the most reasonable is to wait. They'll probably figure everything out and let him go. And even if they don't let him go, we wouldn't get him out. Going there is the most delusional idea of all."

Eve kept silent for a while and watched at the monitor.

"All right. Good, I guess you're right," she said with a thoughtful look, balanced on the chair a little, and then exclaimed, "Listen! Let's go take a closer look at them!"

"What?!"

Eve got up from her chair, took a camera from the drawer and approached the window. She put an eyepiece to her eye and pointed it at a group of these creatures.

"It's dark," she said.

She went into settings and turned on night vision mode. She stared at the eyepiece, making the maximum zoom.

Three creatures stood on the playground. Several other similar creatures squatted on the road in front of the house across the street. One creature stood up and spread its webbed wings. It bent in the back, twisted its head to the sides and waved its wings.

The girl put the camera away from her face and saw that people were looking out of the windows of the opposite house.

"Standing?" the robot asked.

"Yeah," Eve said and got the camera back to her eye. "They're naked. They even have penises."

"You are too young for such things."

"And claws. Some claws instead of fingers! Or they are rather hooks... I can't get it... looks like hooks. Why they have hooks, it's uncomfortable."

"Depends on what they will do. Perhaps it's convenient."

"Let's go down to them?"

"No, it's dangerous."

"I don't care, nothing will happen to us."

"As your robot caretaker I do not allow to come outside."

"Uh-oh. If I want, I do it, okay?"

Suddenly a TV backed in, interrupting their conversation.

"... Curfew. Emergency has been declared in the country," said the Minister of Defense. "We ask no one to leave their homes until we find out what these creatures are and what they want. All military forces are on alert..."

"And what will they do if they meet me on the street?" Eve asked.

"I don't know," Sasha said.

"All right, we stay at home for now; I don't care," the girl said in an unhappy tone.

"That's nice."

Again Eve came up to the window and stared through the camera at three species on the playground. Four were near the first entrance of the house across the street. Three more creatures were at the crossroad and four more at the corner of their house.

'They are set up every hundred meters,' she thought.

Across the road, in a nearby neighbourhood, there stood a soldiers patrol. I little further the patrol were these white creatures again.

* * *

The carriage without horses stood on the road in the middle of the night forest. The coachman, accompanied by a guard, took horses to the watering hole to the river, which was a few hundred meters away. Passing along this route, the coachman took a rest here every time. One of the guards who sat near Levi held an oil lamp in his hand, it gave some kind of light. Father Martin stood on the ground. He was looking for something in a chest fixed at the back of the carriage.

"What do you mean, 'If he exists'? Levi, do you assume that God may exist not?"

Levi turned to Martin, who took out another oil lamp.

"I can imagine a world without God. My mind is always open to something new."

"Have you seen the wonderful stone buildings created by ancient people? They raised the stones to a great height. Do you think it's possible to do that without the help of the higher powers? People couldn't build that."

"It is possible to lift a heavy load into the sky, if you make certain efforts on this load. I see nothing divine about it."

"And how will you make these efforts in order to, let us say, throw a chunk of rock to the height," he looked up, "of this tree?"

"I don't know, but I certainly won't attribute everything that I don't understand to divine disposal."

"Levi, and who, according to your scientific community, created us, people?"

"I'm afraid to shock your untrained mind, Father."

"Then don't be afraid."

"There is a hypothesis that we are an artificial creature. We were created by these very ancient people who created all these buildings."

"And that's what you believe in?"

"We, unlike you, do not believe blindly in anything. We are able to doubt. It's just an idea we are discussing. We theorise on this and test the theories by logical reasoning and practical experiments."

Suddenly, there was a wolf howling. Two gourds jumped off the carriage and took out the batons. Father Martin pulled out a dagger. The guards looked into the darkness of the forest.

"Why are they gone for so long?"

"They'll return."

"Perhaps go and check?"

"What if this one escapes?"

"We'll take him with us."

"You're not going anywhere, wait here!"

A minute later they saw a lamp light. There was a cry in the darkness.

"Horses were attacked!"

The coachman ran to the carriage, holding one horse by the reins. Behind him trudged the guard.

"Blizzard is killed! Wolves! We must leave!"

Father Martin approached the coachman and began helping him to hitch the remaining horse.

"Big pack?"

"Very big I think. They surrounded us on all sides. I saw that Blizzard was already lying, and several wolves were biting her. She couldn't be saved. Luckily, Smoke survived."

Guard reached the carriage, limping on his right leg. His hands and mace were soaked in blood.

"I bashed one's head in!"

"We leave now! And be ready to repel the attack!"

"Give a weapon to the coachman!"

"Now!"

"What will you take?!"

"I don't even know."

"Hurry up?"

"Give me this."

"Go, go!"

The fuss was over, they jumped into the carriage and immediately started.

* * *

Eva sat with the camera by the window almost all night. Sometimes she went to the computer to check news, as for some unknown reason there were no longer any of them on TV. No channels aired. From time to time Sasha came to check out whether there were any changes on the street. There were no. The creatures simply stood and showed no aggression or curiosity. No activity. People from the house opposite also sat near the windows. There was a feeling of calm before the storm.

It started raining with dawn. Eve opened the window and put her hand out of it with her palm up.

"Strange," the girl thought, "nature behaves as if nothing has happened. What difference do these things make to nature, though."

The street was silent. Just the noise of the morning rain and nothing else. She looked at the pale wet creatures downstairs.

"Aren't they cold there? They've no clothes, no fur," she reflected.

"Aren't you tired of looking out the window?" the robot's voice came.

"No, why..." Eve abruptly paused, not finishing the phrase. He stood up and came to Sasha standing at the door of the room.

"What is it?" the girl asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Here again," Eve said, lifting her finger up.

"Eve, I don't understand that..."

"Quiet!" she said.

Eve stood silently. Her face was focused and tense. She seemed to be trying to hear something.

"Eve, what is it?"

"That's like a voice. Don't you hear?"

"No, what is he saying?"

"It says there will be the judgment."

"The judgment? Over whom? You're hallucinating or..."

"Wait! Silence!"

Eve came to the window. Nothing has changed on the street.

"The voice says there will be the judgment. Everyone will get what they deserve," she said.

"What kind of voice? Describe it."

"I can't."

"Is it human?"

"I don't know.

"Man's?"

"I can't understand. It's just like... the information comes in the head, but..." she thought, "someone speaks, but there is no voice. I can't explain."

"What else does it say?"

"It repeats the same thing."

"That there will be the judgment?"

"Yes."

"Is it fixated on one phrase?"

"It's not like phrases or words; it's... it... I'm telling you, information comes into my head... Like a voice, but... not a voice..."

"I wonder if only you can hear that?"

"I don't know. Now it's saying that all good people will be going to heaven soon."

"Good people? How do I figure this out? Who's going to decide?"

"How do I know?"

"What about the bad ones?"

"It says nothing about them. But obviously they're not going to heaven."

"It may make sense to go to neighbours and ask if they hear anything?"

"Precisely."

Eve went out into the entrance hall, opened the front door and barefoot in her socks only jumped out into the staircase. She rang the doorbell of the flat on the left.

"Yes!" there was a voice from behind the door in a few seconds.

"Hello, this is your neighbour. I wanted to ask you something."

The man opened the door and stared at the girl.

"Hello," Eve said again.

"Hello, hello," said the neighbour in a cheerful voice, "I hardly recognised you now."

"So. In general I wanted to ask you," Eve couldn't find words to explain the situation with the voice in her head, "did you notice anything unusual today?"

"Noticed," the man answered, "out of all incredible, crazy, inexplicable things that happened in our world, what you call unusual?"

Eve in embarrassment smiled.

"Well... Everything is unusual now... But today I thought I heard a voice."

"Who was talking about the judgment," the man said, "we all heard it. Wife, children, I. Soon we will all go to God."

"I got it."

"If you want, you can come in. Why stand barefoot in the doorway."

"No, thank you. I wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one who heard it."

"I think you lived with your father?"

"Right. He left on business."

"On business?" asked the neighbour surprised.

"All right, thank you, I'll go."

Eve quickly popped into her flat and slammed the door.

***

They sat at the table in the kitchen. Eve sat on the couch, Sasha on the chair opposite. The girl with a thoughtful look rested her head on her hands and looked out the window.

"So they say," she said discontentedly, "there'll be Judgment. And we seem to go to God. And what should I do if I didn't get into any religion?"

"I think it is not so important."

"Why?"

"Think yourself, religions are countless, it is impossible to believe in everything."

"It should have been necessary to choose one for oneself."
"Eve, you've already had so many worries in life."

"I was an atheist. To be more precise, I didn't think about it at all. And you know what? I'm worried about it right now. What if I go to hell?"

"I don't think it works that way."

"How can you know?"

"It is illogical. Imagine that man lived an honest and correct life in accordance with the commandments, but he will still be sent to hell because he did not choose one of the religions. And imagine a sinful God believer. Who do you think will be sent to heaven?"

"I think you're right. That's Illogically."

"Of course I'm right."

"Anton and I didn't seem to sin."

"You and he did really well. Raising a disabled child alone for a young man is a serious challenge. Even a feat. Don't worry; I'm sure you'll be fine. You are very good and kind people."

"Thank you, but still I feel uneasy. What if he were really involved in it?"

"In what was he accused of? No, it can't be."

"Yes. It cannot be. I'll just stop thinking about it, that's all. Anton and I are going to heaven. We had a hard life, we deserve happiness."

Eve stood up from the table and approached the sink. Turned on the warm water and washed her face. She stood a little, looking at the ceiling, and then turned to the robot.

"Sasha, there's another problem."

"What?"

"You."

"Eve, I understand."

"We're not leaving you."

"But it's not you who decide."

"You're a good robot, too! You're affectionate, caring, honest, kind, and you wanted to be like this without any benefit to yourself."

"Eve, let's not talk about it."

"We'll come up with something. Got that?"

"Of course."

Eve went into her room and lay down on the bed. She lay on her stomach, face down on a bedsheet, and reflected: "If there is consciousness, then there is also a soul. I doesn't matter if they are in a body of meat or in a body of iron and plastic," the girl thought. "Yes he is not the robot at all, but a person in the body a robot. No, he's definitely going to heaven. How can he possibly stay here? But he didn't hear the voice. It is bad. So God or whoever speaks to us does not see him or pay attention to such beings. What such beings? He is the only one like this. Maybe we can ask God to take Sasha with us? Eve, you are a genius! If it's really God, he's all-mighty. It'll cost him nothing to let a single little robot in paradise."

Eve lay on the bed until evening. She imagined what would happen next. She tried to figure out how they could meet Anton, because there would be so many people there. How will she find him? And if he's not worthy of paradise, then what to do? She imagined how she would tell God about Sasha and what words she would pick up, because it's God, he's the biggest here. It was difficult for her to communicate with teachers at school, but to talk to such a figure! She imagined how the three of them — she, father and Sasha — would be able to live there. What would they be doing? What could it look like at all? Nothing was clear.

"It's starting again!" Eve yelled.

"The voice?" said Sasha from the kitchen.

"Yes!"

"What is it this time?" The robot went into the room."

"Everything will happen tonight."

"So he can tell everyone different things."

"Why?"

"Because to the people on the other side of the globe he had to say that the Judgment will be in the afternoon."

"That's true."

"I wonder what role those white beings play in all this?"

"Are they angels?"

"Eve, are you kidding me?"

"Or devils?"

"I don't know, but definitely not angels."

"Sasha, I think there's nobody in the remand centre where Anton was taken. I'll go after him, and I'm not asking permission, but I'm just telling you the fact. I want us to be together with him when it starts."

"I understand your feelings, but it's not a good idea."

"I know it's bad."

"Well, I'll have to go with you. I can't let you go alone."

"Of course you are," Eve said, smiling.

"No, it's not a bad idea; it's just a terrible idea," the robot said.

"Also, I need to know the truth. If he's guilty, I don't need heaven without the loved ones."

"Don't even think such things."

"I have to find him and find out before the judgment."

"What about curfews and patrols?"

"I don't care about them. I don't think there's anyone there anymore. All normal people are waiting at home with their loved ones."

The door rang.

"Apparently, not everybody," Sasha said.

Eve walked up to the door and looked in the peephole.

"This is your neighbours from the second floor," the man said in a wheezy voice on hearing Eve's steps.

Behind the back of the two-meter tall man was his child. Daniel. The one who mocked her and painted on Bob. Eve opened the door.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Hi," the neighbour said, "we're here, it's... well... Daniel, he just..." He grabbed his son by the collar and put him near Eve. Daniel looked away at the wall.

"Come on, talk, wretch," the father perked his finger in the son's back. The latter shuddered.

"I'm sorry," the boy said without looking at Eve.

"For what?" the father whispered from behind.

"For making fun of you, we were wrong," the guy said with clear distaste.

"I wasn't angry with you," Eve said, without showing any emotions, "I didn't pay attention to you at all. I didn't care. Do you understand? If you hadn't come, I wouldn't have remembered you."

"Will you excuse him?" the father asked.

"Yes," Eve replied.

"Perfectly. Look, where's the other one. What was his... Andrey?"

"Anton."

"Yes, Anton. Where is he?"

"Left."

"Where?"

"I do not know."

"When will he return?"

"I do not know."

"Anton!" he shouted, believing the girl was lying.

"I said he's not home. He left."

"Where can one go when such... such... So where could he go?"

"I told you, I don't know. Why you need him?"

"I just, well, you know; I wanted... Well, we had a little fight, and I thought maybe I should apologise, too."

"All right, I'll tell you when I see him."

"Thanks. And still, well... If you just need any help? Maybe I can do something for you?"

"I'll be glad if you leave."

"No, I am speaking from my heart."

"I understand, thank you, we don't need anything from you."

"Got it. Well, you know where we live, if anything. You are always welcome if you need anything."

"Just one thing. Did you hear the voice? "Eve asked harshly. She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yes," the neighbour answered.

"Okay. You're just a pathetic hypocrite. You're afraid, and that's why you came here. Your apology is worthless. Don't embarrass yourself, go home and wait for your fate, okay?"

"Why are you, we just... well... wanted..."

Eve slammed the door, interrupting his vague speech.

All of a sudden he became good, uh... disgusting, is he lying to himself? He got scared of God and ran. Hypocrite. Why one can't be a good person not because he is afraid of punishment, but because he just wants to be a good person? And in general, if one does good only for fear of punishment, is one still good or not? I imagine how many people like him are walking and asking to forgive them.

Eve went back to her room and sat by the computer. Went to the tab "maps" and wrote the address: "Mostovaya, house seven."

"Why did he decide to apologise?" the robot asked.

"He's scared," Eve said, without turning away from the monitor. "You too have a look at our route."

"I also thought he was afraid," Sasha said.

"We need to get to Komissarov Street and go down to University Avenue. Then along the avenue towards the outskirts. I have to write it down."

Eve pulled out the computer desk drawer and took out the notebook.

"You don't have to write it down, I'll remember," the robot said.

"No, just in case. So, on Komissarov Street," Eve began to draw a route into a notebook, saying the names of the streets, "then to the intersection of University with Mostovaya Street and there to the left. From the avenue we will go to," she paused, "the remand centre should be on the right side."

"We will find it," said Sasha, "measure the distance, how much is to go."

"Everything is measured here," Eve pushed a finger into the corner of the screen, "twelve kilometers four hundred and fifty meters."

"A little too far," Sasha said.

"Okay, let's set out," the girl replied decisively.

Eve went out into the hallway and stopped into the trainers, got a red hooded sweatshirt out of the wardrobe.

"That will do," she thought.

"Eve!" said Sasha from her room, having increased volume of voice. "There's something wrong on the street!"

Eve ran to the window and saw a white sphere in the evening sky. It seemed a little larger than the moon and radiated a faint glow. It was impossible to measure the exact size and height of the sphere above ground. She saw another one between the houses. The girl leaned out of the window and looked at the sides. On the left behind the forest park there was the same sphere. In comparison with the sphere above them this one seemed very small. Judging by that, it was in a huge distance from their house.

"I have so many questions that it doesn't matter any longer, one question more, one less," she said.

"Look," the robot said, pointing his hand at one of the white creatures standing on the playground, "I can't figure out what he's doing."

The creature spread the wings a few meters in the sides, began waving them and ran, heavily clumping. Gradually it took off the ground. It wasn't an easy take-off, not like a bird's take-off. The weight and power of its body were felt with each swing of the webbed wings. Soon it was on the roof of the house opposite. The other creatures took turns to spread their wings, and in a couple of minutes they were all on the building roof. Eve saw the same creatures sitting on the other houses.

"Come on," the girl called.

They went out in the entrance. Eve pressed the elevator button and started checking her pockets.

"Forgot something?" the robot asked.

"No," she said, pulling a paper the drawn route from the back pocket with.

"The voice told you it would all happen at night. So we have a few hours," Sasha said and walked into the elevator.

"If we go in a quick step we'll be in time."

"Are we not going to come back?"

"No. We meet him, find out everything and wait right there. What's the point of coming back here?"

They went out of the elevator and Eve for the first time went down the steps rather than the ramp that she used to use. When they approached the front door, they heard a hum on the street. It seemed that a huge crowd of people gathered near their house. Eve slightly opened the entrance door. In the gap she could see people. It was a real masquerade. The people, dressed in weird clothes, squeezed against the house walls. Right in front of Eve stood a man with a beard up to the belt, dressed in a long cassock all in blood. He turned to the girl, and she immediately slammed the door.

"Don't open!" Eve said and sprinted up the steps to the second floor.

"What is it?" the robot asked, but she was already upstairs.

Eve opened a window above the porch and climbed the window sill. She moved a little forward and hung on her stomach, half out on the street.

"Holy cow! Sasha!" she shouted, turning her head towards the staircase. "Come here!"

All the free space in all directions as far as eye could reach was crowded with people. The yard, the crossroad, the part of the highway that was visible between the two houses opposite – everything was crowded. Some were in armour, some in torn rags, some half naked and some wore no pants. People from different eras stood so close to each other that you could jump off the entrance canopy and walk on heads. The indiscriminate babel was heard down the street.

"Eve, what's that noise?"

"There are people! Like from the past!"

"What?"

"I say from the past!"

The girl got off the window and sat on the steps. 'We should have set out earlier,' Eve thought, 'you shouldn't have listened to anyone. This is the end. The only thing left now is hope that we will meet there, only there.'

"Are we not going anywhere?"

"Look out of the window."

"I won't reach."

"Let's go home," the girl said, getting up and walking up to the elevator.

"I don't understand you. What people from the past?"

"I don't get it myself."

* * *

Eve sat on a wide kitchen windowsill leaning her shoulder against the window and looked outside. Thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of people were standing under the autumn rainstorm. It seemed that if they start moving, some would die in the stampede, but they stood still. And no one could die. They knew why they were here. They knew what would happen soon. They knew why He raised them.

The girl looked at the clock – twenty-two hours and forty minutes.

"The voice spoke again," she addressed Sasha, "said that all worthy will go to heaven."

"About the unworthy never said?"

"No. I think it's clear to everyone what will happen to the unworthy," Eve turned to the robot, "Sasha, if I suddenly disappear or something strange happens... Anyway, if I'm gone, I'm asking you, stay here, don't go anywhere."

"What for?"

"I don't know, but it'd be better to know where you're going to be. In case I'll be able to do something from there."

"Eve..."

"I'm not kidding. I'll make something up."

"Do you understand what you're saying?"

"Promise me not to go anywhere!"

"Well, I promise."

Eve leaned forward, took a camera lying on the other end of the windowsill, and turned on night vision mode.

'Things are bad,' she thought, looking at people in strange clothes, 'if only I knew exactly where Anton had been taken, I would have made sure we didn't part. If he did kill someone, maybe I could have sinned, too, to be in the same place after we die. But how could I sin? Could I kill someone? No, no one's dying. And I couldn't have done it. But I know I wouldn't change my attitude towards him. He loved me all these years just the way I am. And I understand I was a burden to him, and if he didn't love me, he'd be gone. How many children end up in orphanages when their parents find out they're unusual. But he stayed with me, even though the woman who gave birth to me ran away after learning what I was like. How nasty it is to think about it. I will still love him, even if he did terrible things. I'm sure he did it for a reason. I'm certain there was a reason. God, I'm talking as if it were all true. How I want to talk to him now and find out. And this robot. How am I going to be without them? We lived so wonderful together. Now I can lose both of them. It is unfair. I'm a child; I'm almost thirteen, and I didn't sin. It sounds self-confident, but I really don't remember doing anything bad, and if I be send to heaven without them... But what's Heaven to me? It's going be a false paradise. How can you enjoy paradise realising that your loved ones are suffering somewhere? I wish everything were the way it used to be. I felt good even in a wheelchair. Blessing in disguise! I need no such paradise!"

The rain got heavier, and it became harder to see anything. Eve pointed the camera lens at the roof of a nearby house and through the downpour saw there were now more winged creatures. Much more. The roof was crowded with them.

'When did they come there?' she thought, 'there used to be few of them.'

Suddenly the girl jumped off the window sill.

"Sasha! It starts!" she screamed and threw sprinted into the hallway. She ran into the robot and almost knocked him over.

"He says the light will take us! Now!"

"Eve, I am happy that I met you and Anton," the robot said.

"Sasha! Don't forget, don't leave the flat!"

"Yeah."

"Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"I'm not kidding!"

"Stop yelling at me, I get it."

"Don't you lie to me, plastic head!"

White light penetrated through the window. Eve turned around and saw that outside it was bright as day. She ran to the window and looked at the sky. The sphere in the sky became bigger and brighter. It shone so brightly that light broke through the rain clouds.

The light was growing stronger, and soon Eve could no longer see anything. The light hurt the eyes. She closed her eyes tight and crouched. Sasha stood somewhere behind and said something. But Eve was focused on the voice sounding in her head.

Suddenly there were screams on the street. Eve opened her eyes and realised she was still in her flat. The light was slowly fading. The robot stood nearby. She got up and saw there was a real massacre going on outside.

White creatures flew from the roofs, crashed into the crowd; they were ripping into pieces everyone they could reach with their hands. Women, men, old people. Some creatures grabbed people, flew up in the air with them and threw them against the wall. Others flew into the windows of the house opposite, breaking through glass, and flew out of there with people. Some tried to break out, calling for help. Some were hanging lifelessly in an unnatural pose in the clawed paws of the hell creatures. A man jumped out of the window screaming, a white creature followed, it looked down and flew to a balcony nearby. Knocked out the door and walked into someone's flat.

Eve's face was distorted by horror. She was standing as if rooted to the ground and looking at that massacre. Some of the creatures flew away, taking the living people with them. The rest of the monsters continued killing, once a victim died, they immediately found a new one, digging claws into flesh and tearing it to pieces.

People stumbled and fell, tried to run away from white torturers and their clawed paws but fell over the mutilated human bodies. It was impossible to run over the corpses in such a crowd.

The obscure white entities behaved like the hornets that had gone into a bee hive. They ripped off people's hands and legs and threw the maimed bodies aside. Soon the whole street was covered with corpses and severed limbs. Because of the heavy rain, it seemed that it was a river, no, rather a sea of blood.

"Eve, why are you still here?" the robot asked.

But she was so shocked she couldn't speak. She looked at the street silently.

"Eve!" The robot added volume.

The sound of broken glass came from the next room. Eve turned around and saw in the hallway a huge creature covered in blood. It immediately ran close to the girl, hitting the chandelier with its head, and bent, looking at her with its red rat eyes. Eve felt a creepy stink as if in front of her were an open pot of a rancid chicken soup already touched by mold. The girl was only up to the waist of this creature, with fear and disgust she raised her head and looked at it. The beast resembled a naked old man with pale saggy skin. The smell was so unbearable that she could hardly breathe.

Sasha grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the ugly creature under its ribs, but it didn't even pay attention to it. It stood for a few more seconds, looking at Eve, and then sharply jumped past the girl out on the street, having broken through the window frame.

"They will not touch me," Eve said quietly, looking at the huge bloody footprints on the floor left by the monster, "they take the bad people."

"But you had to leave, go..."

"I refused," the girl interrupted him.

"Was it an option?"

"He gave everyone the right to choose. There can be no paradise in captivity," Eve looked at the floor, saying words monotonously without emotions.

"What are you planning to do?"

"I'll find Anton first."

"I don't approve of that. It is dangerous outside."

"If he's really responsible for the murders, he's still in remand centre. I hope they haven't found him. We have to go."

"And then what? How do you get to heaven?"

"I'll get there if I want to. I was explained everything."

"What if he's already in paradise?"

"Sasha, are you coming with me?"

"I am, I am."

Eve went out into the hallway, opened a wardrobe with shoes and took out rubber boots with a yellow raincoat. The robot with a bag over his shoulder came to her.

"What have you got there?" the girl asked, sitting on the floor and pulling her boot.

"Tools for minor repairs and some personal things," Sasha answered.

"You are so quick."

"It was packed in advance."

After getting dressed, they went to the entrance.

"Mostovaya, house seven," the girl kept repeating when she entered the elevator, "along Komissarov street to University Avenue and then to the left, on Mostovaya.

When their elevator was approaching the first floor, they heard men's screams in the entrance. The elevator doors opened, and Eve saw the neighbour running down the stairs from the second floor. The goon who recently came to apologise to her. The neighbour slipped past the elevator to the entrance door. A white creature ran after him. Just moment later, a bloody body flew to the doors of the elevator. Eve pulled away and leaned her back against the robot, pressing him to the elevator mirror. The man tried to stand up leaning on his broken hands and wheezed something looking at the girl. The creature dug its claws in his back, easily lifted the hundred kilo body to the ceiling and began smashing it against a wall near the stairs. With each hit the bloody spot on the wall became ever bigger. The man hanged on the creature's paws like a plush toy. Then the creature threw him on the floor and ran into the nearest apartment, having knocked out the door. The neighbour lay lifeless. His body was like a leather bag of broken chopped bones. The head was completely swept away. Eve and Sasha jumped over the mutilated corpse and came out of the elevator.

"Eve, I can't look at it."

"Compared to what you will see on the street, it is nothing," the girl answered in cold blood.

"Are you all mortal again?"

"Not me. Otherwise, I'd be back in the wheelchair. But he," the girl pointed to the body of the neighbor, "apparently, yes."

"Will you explain everything to me in detail? What did the voice tell you? How did you manage to stay and what's going on?"

"Everything will be fine. I know what to do. We'll all be there soon."

"In paradise?"

"Yes."

"All of us?"

"Yes."

"And me?"

"Of course."

"You give me false hope."

"Let's go already. I'll explain everything I understand on the way."

"Well."

"I'll explain everything I understand, along the way."

Eve pushed the entrance door but it would not open. Something outside didn't let it open. Eve pressed on the door with her shoulder with all her strength.

"Sasha, help me."

The robot put its hands forward and hit the door. Unsuccessfully. The door opened several centimetres, and blood mixed with rainwater began flowing into the gap.

"Let's go to the second floor, get out through the window," Eve said.

"I won't be able to jump from height," Sasha answered.

"Let's go, we'll see to it."

On the second floor Eve climbed on the window sill again and jumped on the entrance canopy. In the light of the lanterns, she looked round the night street; it was covered with corpses. The bodies lay in a flat layer, and maybe two layers. The rain was pelting in her face so unpleasantly that Eve put on the hood. A man shouted somewhere, breaking the silence of the dead city. The scream seemed to come from the flat on the third-floor. A few moments later a white creature jumped out of the window on the third floor, holding a living man in its paws as it flashed with him into the sky.

"Sasha, can you get over?" Eve looked in the entrance.

"I'm not sure."

"Go down, I will try to open the entrance from the street."

"Be careful there."

"Nothing threatens me."

Eve sat on the edge of the canopy, dangled her legs and jumped down on the bodies. There was a splash; she was all covered with blood. Eve heard a caught close to her: a man with his gut outside wheezed, his hand was convulsing. The dead bodies stung unbearably. The smell of fresh human blood was so unpleasant that Eve had to breathe with her mouth, only not to feel it. A corpse didn't let the entrance door open. The girl approached the door, took a corpse by its feet, and dragged it a little, clumsily stepping over the people bodies. There was a small gap between the door and the corpses. Eve dialled the code on the entrance panel and opened the door.

"Will you get through?"

"I will try."

Sasha squeezed through the gap and got out.

"What a nightmare!" said the robot.

"Yes, there is nothing to add."

* * *

It was difficult for the robot to move. Several times he fell on the side into a mixture of blood, guts contents, gastric juice and vomiting masses. Eve took Sasha by his arm to help him. Their legs sunk in dead bodies, and one of Eve's rubber boots was constantly coming off. Every time their clothes got dirty in blood, the rain immediately washed it away. The white entities, that ran past, paid no attention to Eve and Sasha. From time to time the girl stopped near wheezing and shaking people hoping they were still alive; but each time they turned out to be in death throes.

They went to a narrow street, there were fewer bodies, and even wet asphalt could be seen here and there. Parked cars stood on the edges of the street in the row.

"Komissarov Street," the girl said, looking at the sign on the corner of the house.

"Eve, you promised to tell me."

"Yes, of course," she said. "When it all started, the voice said I could stay on the Earth until I wanted to go to heaven myself." Eve looked at the pavement on the right side of the street. "Let's cross the road; it's cleaner there."

"Did he say how you would get to heaven? What has to be done?" the robot asked, barely keeping up with Eve, who ran across the road.

She then climbed onto the roof of the car and looked around.

"He said there was an entrance to heaven. We take Anton, and the three of us will go there."

"What if there's no Anton?"

"Then we go to the entrance together. Let's hope we meet him in paradise."

"You meet," Sasha corrected her.

"We meet!" said Eva.

"How easy for you," the robot said.

"Once again I tell you that I will not leave you here, plastic head."

The girl jumped onto the wet asphalt, and they went along the street, stepping over the torn apart bodies.

"You're so confident. Did the voice tell you anything specific about me?

"No. I just have a plan. I thought over everything."

"You're so confident."

"I will go to heaven and ask God to forgive Anton if he is guilty. I'll ask him to give you a soul. After that, you'll come in, too."

The robot stopped abruptly and clutched his head, imitating a gesture of despair.

"What are you doing?" Eve asked.

"It's so stupid I have no words."

"Why?"

"Why? Why am I listening to a baby? Why am I condoning you? Why do I agree with you?"

"Sasha..."

"Eve, this is the most weird nonsense I've ever heard. I understand you're only twelve, but don't take this the wrong way I have the intelligence and consciousness of an adult."

"Do I say something wrong?"

"You want to ask God to give me a soul, so I can go to heaven?"

"Yes."

"And to forgive Anton his sins if he is embroiled in the murders?"

"Yeah."

"Why couldn't you go straight to heaven with the main stream and ask him for everything you just told me?"

"Then how would you find the entrance?"

"Oh..." the robot clutched his head again, "and I really thought you knew what to do."

"I think it's a great plan. In fact, I'm not making you come with me. You can wait at home until I find Anton... well... or will not find. Then I'll come back for you."

"I can't let you go alone."

"Why?"

"Because I'm worried about you."

"I can't be killed. I can do whatever I want."

"That's why I'm worried."

"So you don't believe Anton is still alive, and that I will make an agreement with God about you and that everything will be fine?"

"No, I don't believe it. I hope Anton is waiting for you in paradise right now. And you'd better go right there and stop making up. I needn't see all this horrors here."

"I'm not afraid."

"Oh, Eve, Eve..".

"Stop wailing."

"Do you know where this entrance to heaven is?"

"I know."

"Far?"

"You'd better not know it for now."

"So the three of us will go there? To this entrance?"

"No doubts."

"Will you come in and ask to let us in?"

"You've caught the very point."

"Oh... Eve..."

After passing several blocks, they found themselves at an intersection with University Avenue. A federal highway of six lanes in each direction. The well-lit highway was visible for a few kilometres away even at night. The road was completely free of cars. Only corpses. The whole city seemed to be covered in bodies.

The rain did not cease. As if nature wanted to wash away everything that had happened that night. The water streamed from the highway centre to the curbs. The white creatures were visible in the night twilight on the houses' roofs on both sides. The girl and the robot came to the avenue and went towards the suburbs along the separation fence in the middle.

* * *

In the distance Eva saw a man. He went towards them.

"Looks like he's not being touched either. Just like me," she said.

"What are you talking about?" the robot asked.

"There," Eve pointed with hand.

"I see."

"Some old man. Let's go quicker."

Eve hurried up; in a couple of minutes later they found themselves near a bearded old man with saggy skin and deep wrinkles. He looked seventy-eighty years old. He was dressed in a sack-like formless robe with a hood on his head. The cloth was wet. On his feet - strange boots; they seemed to be homemade, roughly sewn.

The old man introduced himself first:

"Hello, travellers. My name is Joseph," he spoke slowly, pausing between words. "Obviously, you, just like me, decided to stay here. I won't hurt you. I'm just an old man going..."

"I'm Eve!" the girl interrupted him, "and this is my friend Sasha!"

"Your friend looks strange. I don't mean to be rude, but there weren't people like him in my life. Perhaps, it's..."

"I'm not human," Sasha said, not listening to him.

"I 'm sorry, I'm not from this time and I don't know it," the old man looked on the sides, "everything has changed so much. What time are you from?"

"We're local," Eve said.

"The locals," the old man repeated, "the locals..."

"Where are you from?" Eve asked.

"It's a long story... I came here from a distant country. It was in the past. You probably don't know names like that. I've been driving for months. I had a mission. I was a healer and was called here. How long have we been riding, never have I..."

"How do you know our language?" the girl asked.

"What do you mean by "how"? I learned it. In our hospital there were healers speaking different languages, in case of a mission to another state."

"It's so unusual to communicate with you," Eve said in surprise.

"To be honest, it is also unusual to me to talk to people from the future. Let us hide from the rain under this canopy," said Joseph, showing to a bus stop a few tens of meters from them, "I can't get sick, but still it's not very cozy to stand in such a rain.

The old man came to the stop and sat on a bench. Eve and Sasha stood opposite and looked with interest.

"Do you remember your past life well?" Eve asked.

"Yes, as if it was yesterday."

"And the way you died?"

"Yes, they set me up. These political intrigues. I was found guilty: "Joseph is a poison." I remember the court, I remember the prison and the square. I remember standing and trembling in fear on the scaffold. I remember the impalement stake they had prepared for me. I remember being raised into the air by four big men..."

"I got it, you needn't continue. What happened after you died? Do you remember anything?"

Joseph thought stroking his beard, his head tilted.

"I can't remember. Something was there, something elusive, like a dream. I know it was a dream, but I can't remember what it was. Then I ended up here, in this wonderful town, where every house is like a stone castle. There was a crowd of people standing around. We all heard the voice, and I understood their language."

Do you know whose voice it was?

"Of course. It was God speaking. In my lifetime, my brethren and I were preparing for the judgment what would be. We knew all the dead would rise. For many people and me it wasn't surprising."

"So he raised all the people who had ever lived on earth," Eve said thoughtfully.

The old man, looking behind Eve's back, raised his head and straightened the hood.

"They are not in a hurry to go into their world. Apparently they haven't caught everyone.

Eve turned around and saw a white creature sitting on the roof of the grocery store, and another one that crouched to that side of the highway and looking closely in their direction.

"Do you know who they are?" the girl asked, without taking look away from the nasty creature.

"I haven't seen them described anywhere, but I can assume that these are servants of hell."

"Can they be killed or scared off somehow?"

"I can't know."

"I see," the girl sat on a bench next to Joseph.

"Why did you stay on the earth?" Sasha said suddenly.

"I have personal business," said the old man, "I need to find one person, I have opinion that he too didn't go anywhere."

"Wow, we're looking for a man, too!" said Eve.

"I think many people are temporarily on the ground. Many people like us are invulnerable. And judging by the fact that these demons are still here, there must be a lot of sinners that have evaded their eyes," Joseph said.

"After you finish your business, will you go to the gates of heaven?" the girl asked.

"Yes."

"Don't you want to come with us? We're going there, too, after we find Anton. This is my father. We can help you with your things."

"Thank you for the offer, but I don't need company," Joseph said politely.

"It is a pity." Eve smiled at the old man.

"I can't understand something," Sasha began," why all these pointless actions?"

"What do you mean?" asked Joseph.

"Why it is necessary to go somewhere, to some gates? Why all these demons? Why did God let someone stay? If he is almighty, why can't he by the force of thought move all worthy to heaven and sinners to hell within seconds? And in general, why can't he destroy the devil and makes all people kind? Why all this?"

Joseph looked at Sasha silently for a while.

"It's the choice," the old man said.

"Choice?" Eve asked.

"God always gives people a choice," Joseph continued, "he creates the conditions in which we must make decisions based on our own morality and morals. God constantly tests people, and they have to prove themselves, to become better, having passed difficulties. Our material world is just a place of selection, where good separates from bad. Nothing is done by snapping your fingers. Even God's will.

"And why all this?" Eve asked. "Well, he took the good people to his paradise and bad aare burning in hell. So what's next? Why would he have good people, what would he do with them?

"I don't know," Joseph looked at the girl thoughtfully, but he didn't look at her.

"It all looks like a game," Eve resented.

"Maybe for him it is a game," Joseph answered, "and we only have to obey rules."

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" the robot asked.

"I'm certain."

"How do you find someone you're looking for? Do you know the city?" Sasha continued.

"That's my concern."

Joseph got off the bench, cracked his neck by turning his head sideways. He stood for a few seconds silently, patting himself on the thigh with his palm.

"Well, I have to go," he said.

"Nice talking to you," Eve answered.

Sasha held out his hand. Joseph shook the robot's plastic palm and walked down the highway towards city central. Eve sat on the bench for a while and looking at the red stream of rainwater flowing into the city sanitation.

"Let's go," the robot told her.

"Let's go," she replied.

* * *

A few hours later, they reached Mostovaya Street. It was crossing University Avenue. The traffic light at the crossroad, like nothing, showed green light. Just a few days ago, it was the busiest road in the city, where even at night there could be traffic jams. But there's no soul around now. The city was empty. Even the white demons disappeared somewhere. The girl and the robot went along Mostovaya Street.

"I've been thinking," Eve began to reason, "is all the people were resurrected to be judged by the higher powers."

The robot walked silently to her right.

"How are things on other planets?" the girl continued.

"What about the other planets?" asked Sasha.

"If in the universe history there ever been life on other planets, and there were people or something similar to them..."

"Humanoids," added Sasha.

"Yes, humanoids. Were they also resurrected? And are these white devils or demons are killing there now?" asked the child.

"I don't know, perhaps."

"If we hadn't become immortal, nothing would have worked out."

"Why?"

"Let's say, there used to be life on Mars, and it was blossoming and green."

"There is such a hypothesis."

"And now Mars life is impossible there."

"I got your point."

"Yep, imagine if all were resurrected as mortals," Eve smiled, "They resurrect and immediately suffocate, then again resurrect, and again..."

Their dialogue was interrupted by someone's cough. Eve listened. In a few seconds, someone quietly called her.

"Girl," there was a muted hoarse male voice.

Sasha pointed his finger at the car parked at the curb ten metres away. The back door of the car was open. From there a man gestured them with his hand to come. Eve and Sasha did so.

"Do you see them?" the man asked quietly.

"Whom?"

"The white."

Eve looked at the roof.

"I think no."

"Are you sure?" The voice was tense.

"Of course," the girl said, looking on sides.

"If one of them sees me, it's all over. There's no escape from them. They cannot be killed. These are the devil's servants, you know?" he whispered, lying in the back seat.

The man poked his head outside and checked the area.

"I see none of them. Maybe they've left," he said, and opened the car door, "why didn't they touch you?

"Because I didn't sin."

"Then why aren't you in paradise?"

"I did not want. It's none of your business."

The man got out of the car. He looked around nervous, trying to see through the darkness of the city blocks.

"The road is well lit, we are too exposed," he said.

"There are fewer bodies; it is more convenient to walk," Eve answered calmly.

"Where are you heading?" he kept talking quietly, his voice trembling.

"Mostovaya, house seven," the robot told.

The man looked at Sasha.

"Does your Bob answer when he's not asked? An interesting model.Э

"I'm not Bob," Sasha said.

"How does he do that?" the man asked Eve.

"A long story," the girl answered and looked at his hand, "you have blood."

"Yes," he said, "when these demons started flying into the windows, I ran outside and got in the car. I fell when I ran. It's no big deal."

"Was your car standing here?" Eve asked.

"No, at first I tried to leave; I don't know where, but people and these things were around. I realised I had to stop and hide. I lay on the back seat and that is all. What happened on the road was terrible," he pointed with his hand to the corpses, "I wouldn't be able to drive through this crowd.

"You haven't seen what was in our yard," Eve replied.

"Is it over?" he said.

"Maybe so."

The girl looked at the man's wounded arm again.

"Eve," the robot turned to the girl, "we have to go.

"What will you do now?" she asked.

"I'll go home, and then... I don't even know. I hope these beasts go back to where they came from. That's all I care about right now."

"Good luck to you," Eve said.

"And to you," the man replied.

"Good bye," sounded a polyphonic voice.

Mostovaya Street was winding in the distance, rounding to the left. They walked along it block by block. The picture around remained the same - rain and corpses. There were again more dead bodies. In the yards to the left and right of the road lay piles of corpses lit by street lights. On reaching the turn to Mostovaya Street, they saw a terrible picture. Hundreds or thousands of white creatures crowded near a high stone fence. The roof of the four-storied old building behind this fence was also filled with these creatures.

"Holly cow," said Eve.

"Mostovaya, house five," Sasha read the inscription on the building near them, "the next house has to be the seventh."

"Why are they all round the remand centre?" Eve asked.

"Because there are many bad people."

"So they're still alive? Otherwise, would these things crowd here?!" the girl said loudly. "So, if the father is there, he is also alive!"

"I think, yes. What if we don't find him?"

"If we don't find him, he's in paradise, and we'll go to the Gates."

The girl headed towards the remand centre.

"Eve, we need to think about how to get through them," Sasha said.

"What is there to think about? Follow me, plastic head!"

Approaching the white creepy mass standing in heavy rain, she felt the rotten smell was growing stronger and stronger. The crowd of hell creatures gave off such a terrible stink that Eve started to get dizzy. If the girl were vulnerable, she would likely lose consciousness because of the stink. The hum was as nasty as the visual picture around and the smell. The wing rustling mixed with obscure snorts and weird movements caused terrible disgust. It felt as if she held a huge can of maggots to her ear. Coming close to the living wall of disgusting creatures, Eve crouched. In the gaps between the skinny feet of the creatures, it was visible that the gates were open.

"Let's do it," the girl said, pinching her mouth and nose with her palm.

"Eve, I'm not sure it's safe," Sasha countered.

But she was already pushing through the naked bodies of winged demons. She turned to the robot and called him out with a gesture. Sasha followed her. After a while, Eve did no longer pin her nose. She daringly moved forward, sliding the creatures to sides and pushing away their wings, which were constantly touching her face. The creatures didn't give a damn about anyone getting through their crowd.

"Eve," Sasha called her, following her through the crowd of beasts, "can you see where we go?"

"No, I just remembered the direction. Let's get to the building wall, and there we'll figure it out."

After breaking through the yard of the remand centre, Eve saw stairs up.

"The porch," she told Sasha.

"Even if we find Anton, we won't get him out of here."

"Maybe so, but I have to see him if he's still on Earth."

Going up the steps they found themselves near a door that was slightly opened inside. Eve looked in the darkness of the remand centre hall and realised there were less these creatures in the building than outside. One creature was sitting on the doorstep. Its head was on the same level as Eve's face. The creature looked at the floor with indifference.

"You said we won't make it here," she said, squeezing between the door and the sitting demon.

"Wait," the robot opened the bag and started looking for something in it, a couple of seconds later, he pulled out a little torch, "here..."

The torch beam ran down the dark hall. Overturned tables, nightstands and sofas, some papers and office equipment - everything was thrown about the huge entrance hall of the state institution. White creatures sat in different parts of this hall. There were only a few hundred of them. They all crouched in the same position - hugging their knees with hands.

Lighting the walls, they saw that the doors to the neighbouring premises were knocked out, judging by the cracked doorways, and some doors were just ripped off the hinges. Only one metal door was intact. To the right of it, there was a small room, its door was also knocked out with a piece of the wall.

"He must turn on the light," the robot said and examined the walls looking for a switch.

Eve, bypassing the sitting creatures, approached the steel door and pulled the handle. It was locked. A little to the left on the wall, she saw a panel with numbers. She dialled a random four-digit code that appears on the small screen above the panel. In response flashed a red light accompanied by an audio signal. The numbers on the screen were gone. Eve tried again - the same result.

The light unexpectedly turned on. Eve turned back. Sasha stood near the wall at the opposite end of the room.

"I found the switch," he said.

Several creatures raised their heads up, looked at the lamps that hung on high ceiling, then they stared at the floor again.

"Any idea, where the prisoners are being held?" Eve asked.

"Probably there," the robot replied, pointing at the iron door.

"I think so, too.

Sasha walked up to the door and examined it.

"The code lock," he said, "those who might have known the code are long dead."

Eve walked into a nearby room and saw a robot sitting in the corner.

"There's your relative," she told Sasha.

He came through the knocked out door and sat down near the robot.

"Maybe he knows the code," Eve suggested.

Sasha shook his hand and the robot raised its head and said:

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"Do you understand what happened?" Eve began asking it.

"Yes, all died," the guard answered.

"How can I address you?" Sasha joined the conversation.

"Bob-three, but colleagues and friends called me Petrovich."

"Petrovich..." Eve grinned, "That's funny."

"What do you mean by friends?" asked Sasha.

"That means the people I worked with. People I feel good with," Bob-three replied.

"Are your friends all dead, too?" Eve sighed.

"Yes," Bob-three answered, "first everyone stopped coming to work, and then the big winged people began killing everyone."

"Where are the bodies?" Eve was surprised.

"I'm telling you, nobody went to work. The bodies are on the streets and in flats. There's no one in our RC.

"What makes you think your friends are dead if you've been sitting here all this time?" the girl kept asking.

"I went outside when I heard screams, and I realised everyone was being killed."

"You said you were good with them. Do you feel sorry for them now?" asked Sasha.

"For whom?"

"For your friends. Who else?"

"I don't understand what "sorry" means," Bob-three said, "there's just no one."

"I thought for a moment that this," Sasha nodded towards Bob-three, "also feels and understands something."

"It considered the policemen his friends. Is that normal for a robot?"

"No, not normal. But he's not like me."

"Petrovich, do you know where the prisoners are kept?" Eve asked the main question.

"On the basement floor," the guard answered.

"And how do we go there?"

"The staircase behind this door," Petrovich rose and pointed his hand at the iron door with the code lock.

"Do you know the code?" asked Sasha.

"No. Only people knew the code."

"Okay," Eve said, "Sasha, may I have a word with you?"

They went out to the hall. Bob-three remained standing in the corner of his tiny room.

"Is he capable of lying?" Eve asked.

"No, it is excluded. If he knew the code, he would say something like: 'Yes, I know, but I won't tell you,' but they can't lie.

"Well," Eve made a decision, "will have to pick up the code ourselves."

"But how?" Sasha was surprised.

"By trying all combinations one by one."

"Do you have any idea how long it will take?"

"No, how long?"

'This is a four-digit code. There are ten thousand combinations."

"Not much. We'll pick it up in a few days."

Eve approached the code lock and dialled 0001. The red light flashed and the numbers disappeared. 0002 – it flashed red again. 0003...

"Eve, I would start with 0101. I doubt if they could use the simple codes you're entering right now."

"There's logic in your plastic head," the girl said.

"No doubt" the robot agreed.

"Will you help me?"

"Of course."

"We will take turns every hour. Maybe we'll be lucky not to have the code starting with nine.

"Begin," said Sasha, "when we picked it up, do not open door at once."

"They'll break in?"

"Yes. First we have to figure out how to get in without letting them do it," the robot glimpsed at the white creatures sitting in the hall.

Eve continued to dial numbers: 0101, 0102, 0103...

Sasha looked at Bob-three. It stood still in the corner.

"If I find someone like me, I may not be so lonely in this world when you leave," the robot said.

"Why don't you believe God will give you a soul?" Eve asked, picking up the code.

"Because I don't believe in it and I can't imagine it."

"There's nothing to imagine? There is no soul; God willed, and boom, there is one."

Consciousness is formed as a result of knowledge of the world by senses. If the soul and consciousness are the same, one cannot get the soul in one moment. One needs to be born with it and to raise it in one's body through life experience, through memory and deeds. You can form a consciousness or soul in the process of life. My consciousness is already formed, and it's inside the chips, it's in the memory drive, in my plastic head. It's impossible to give me a soul a priori. It won't be me anymore. I already exist, I am aware of myself and I think even without a soul."

"Maybe he will simply transfer your consciousness from the hard drive to the soul."

"Eve, my consciousness is just a set of electrical impulses in my brain. How do you imagine the transfer of consciousness?"

"Why you telling me? The main thing is for him to imagine."

"Giving me a soul is the same as giving it to a broken table. It's impossible to give a soul to a robot."

"And if you didn't know you were a robot, you'd think otherwise."

"What are you talking about?"

"Imagine that in millions of years you will inhabit this or any other planet. Robots like you will appear more and more often. Let's say you will awake. You said you didn't remember the moment you became self-aware. You'll even make up your own religion."

"Robots religion? And you are a dreamer."

"Why not? Diverse religions appeared in all conscious societies. And nobody knew if it was true or not. People just believed because they wanted to. They wanted to live forever. We were told about it at school."

"And how will we reproduce?"

"You'll find a way, and this way will seem natural to you. Perhaps even divine. Maybe we did the same when we emerged. It seems to us now that what we are made of is basic life, because we do know no other forms of life. And so will you. What if before us there were creatures of other materials, and they considered themselves alive, and we bred to work for them? We were artificial to them."

"Your theory is based on nothing."

"It is based! If we created a thinking organism, I mean, you, uh... so far only you... More precisely, you emerged yourself in the process of your life... But it doesn't matter, in general, it could happen before us. Could have happened to us. To people."

"Are you saying every thinking being can have a soul?"

"Imagine if you take a person and start replacing each cell of the body in his turn from living to artificial, but performing all the same functions. As a result, all cells were smoothly replaced, even in the brain. Will the person remain the same? Will he have a soul? Or consciousness? If not, at what stage of replacement will the soul or consciousness disappear?"

"That's a difficult question. Did they tell you that at school, too?"

"No, these are my thought. I mean, it doesn't matter what you're made of. Every intelligent being must have a soul."

"You're wrong."

"Proof?"

"Imagine a child born with a disease which would prevent him from being intelligent, will he have a soul?"

Eve thought.

"I don't know, I haven't thought about it yet."

"Did you think of why I didn't hear the voice, unlike people?"

"I haven't had time, but anyway, I'll ask God to give you a soul when I meet him."

* * *

There came dawn. The rain stopped, and the sun's first rays lit up the dead city. Eve took off the raincoat and threw it at the floor. She approached the window, bypassing white creatures who still sat indoors, and turned her face to the flow of sunlight. She stood with her eyes closed and enjoyed the pleasant warmth that touched her face. Despite all the horrors of that night, despite the piles of corpses out the window and thousands of winged demons, despite the terrifying stink, despite the problems yet to be solved, she enjoyed a warm autumn day.

"4001," said the robot, "incorrect. It's your turn. Dial further."

"Just a moment," she replied, without turning or opening her eyes. "So good."

"What is good in all that?"

"The world will continue to exist with all animals and insects," calmly and quietly reasoned the girl still enjoying the warmth. "For them everything will remain the same, and maybe everything will be even better. There will be no wars and no pollution. No one will butcher whales or elephants, or who else they butcher... The world will be better without us..."

"Eve, go dial the code."

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled.

About an hour later, the light flashed with green, and a loud click was heard.

"4950," Eve said, looking at the robot.

The creatures sat on the floor as usual. Sasha came to the door.

"Maybe, we will slip in quickly?" Eve asked.

The robot looked around the hall. The nearest creature sat two meters from the door with its back to them.

Sasha opened the door for an inch and immediately slammed it. He pulled the handle - the door was locked again.

"Why?" Eve asked.

"I wanted to check whether it will shut down or not, - explained the robot.

"Petrovich," shouted Eve.

"Yes," Bob-three responded.

"Is there a code lock on the other side of the exit too?"

"Yes."

"Are codes the same?"

"I do not know."

"Then why are you here if you know nothing at all? Just for show?"

"Eve," Sasha said, "we go in fast and shut the door. If wee need, we'll pick up the code on the other side just like we did here."

"F vase with flowers would come in more useful than this Petrovich," the girl continued to grumble.

Sasha dialed the code and the door opened.

"Ready?" he asked, looking round the room again.

"Yes."

They slightly opened the door and slipped in the thirty centimetre gap in one second. Closing the door, Eve saw one of the creatures throw sprint in their direction. Several strikes followed from the side of the hall. The hits were so strong that a plaster fell from the ceiling. Soon everything came down.

They stood in a well-lit corridor about three meters long. Exactly the same code panel as on the other side hung on the wall to the right of the iron door. They dared not checking if the code worked. The corridor ended with a stairs down. The girl and the robot went down to the basement floor and ended up in a wide and long passage leading to a room with small windows. It seemed that security used to be in that room. To the left and to the right there were transparent cell door. In some cells there were people. When they saw Eve, they started shouting. They came close to the doors, called for help, asked to release them, asked about what was going on, and whether the judgment had already taken place.

Eve walked along the cells, glimpsing into each.

"Anton!" she yelled. "Did anyone see Anton?"

But the prisoners kept demanding to release them.

The girl and the robot went round all the cells. Her father was in none of them. Eve stood in the centre of the wide corridor and shouted:

"Shut up, or I'll leave you here forever!"

Their voices got quiet.

"Who are you?" there came someone's voice.

"I'm the one who can open your cells. That's all you need to know," she answered defiantly, looking round people who stood behind the transparent doors. "I am looking for my father! He us about 40 years old and got here three days ago. About a metre eighty centimetres tall, medium build, dark hair with a bangs laid to the side. He's got a beard, short! Has anyone seen him?"

A few moments later, someone answered:

"Is that the one accused of a mass murder?"

"Yes! Who said that?!"

"Me! I'm here!"

Eve came to the cell of the man who knew something about her father.

"Where is he?" the girl asked.

"On the floor below us there is the same room with cells. He's there."

"Where's the stairs?"

"It's where you came from."

Eve turned to the entrance of this huge room and near the stairs they went down she saw a door with a sign. The girl hurried there.

"What's about us?" the prisoner yelled.

"Wait..."

The sign on the door read: "To the tier B."

The girl opened the door and saw another ladder down.

"Let's go," she told the robot.

They went downstairs and found themselves in a small square room with transparent doors. There were only six cells; in three of them there were people. One of them was Anton, lying on the bed with his eyes closed. Two other prisoners, when they saw Eve, began begging her to open the door.

"There he is!" the girl shouted and ran to her father's cell not paying attention to the others.

When he heard her voice, he opened his eyes, smiled and slowly raised on the bed.

"Why aren't you there yet?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"I refused! I had to find you!"

"Hey, buddy," the robot said, "you don't look good."

"I'm so glad to see you," Anton said quietly. "Eve, I was sure I lost you."

He looked at her clothes and hands.

"It is blood?"

"Don't worry, the blood isn't mine.

"Then whose?"

"I will tell everything later, first answer the question: did you too decide to stay by choice? Didn't you?!"

Anton looked at his daughter in silence.

"Didn't you?!" Eve nearly cried of excitement. He hardly got out of bed and approached the cell door.

"I wasn't taken," Anton said quietly, "the voice said I was unworthy."

"But why?! It is a lie! Everything the police said is not true! Is it?"

"Eve, I killed people for money."

"But... how? How come?" She was talking fuss, stuttering. "You were standing by the elevator... said... everything will be good. Said they'll figure it out..."

"Everything I did was for you."

"But why couldn't you just work as a doctor as you used to? We lived so well! Do you know what they do to the unworthy?"

"I have to tell you a lot; I hope you will understand," Anton said and had a bad cough, holding hand on his chest.

* * *

Anton lay on the bed and looked at the ceiling. Eve sat near the cell door, her eyes red and swollen. She couldn't cry anymore. Her father told her all about his work and the illness, which has now was advancing. Her worst fears came true.

In the window in the security room Sasha was seen talking with the security robot.

"There is an entrance to heaven," the girl began speaking slowly in a cracking voice, "I stayed when I found out I could get there at any time. I thought the three of us would get to the gates and be able to go in. And there we'd adapt to the situation."

"Eve, do you believe that nonsense yourself? At least me. I'm a man, but how's the robot going to get in there?"

"What else was I supposed to do?"

"What else? Go to heaven at once!" Anton tried to raise his voice but immediately had a bad cough.

"I didn't have much time to think about it!"

"What is there to think?" Anton said suffocating.

"But I don't want to be there without you!" Eve began rubbing her face with hands; she spoke with tension, with despair in voice: "I don't want! Why can't you understand?! The plastic head told me the same thing Eve 'You had to go there with everybody. Your idea is stupid, there's no point in it!' But I don't want to go there without the loved ones! That's all! I want everything to be the same, I want to live with you like I used to! If we can't get there together, what the hell is this paradise? Your paradise I don't want to see! Stop telling me what I should and what I shouldn't! I was given a choice, and I made it! What would you have done? Would you go to heaven without me?"

"No, of course not, but..."

"So why are you so surprised?!" Eve interrupted him. "Yes, the plan is maybe stupid, but I don't care about it! Let's stay on earth! As long as we can we'll be here!"

"I won't be here long."

"My head is spinning. Why everything turned out like this! It might have been different," Eve cried again, "you just had to live a normal life, and everything would have been fine!

Sasha approached Anton's cell and reported:

"The robot security will release the prisoners."

"How did you talk him into it?" Anton asked.

"I don't know. He suddenly realised what had happened and that there was no point keeping people locked up any longer."

"Realised?" Anton was surprised.

"Yes, I didn't expect it too," Sasha said, "usually they act in accordance with the algorithm. But this one is different."

The security robot sat at the computer and tapped something on the keyboard. Soon there was a sound signal, after which all the doors on their tier slowly opened. Eve walked into the cell and helped Anton up. They hugged then her father started asking her about what was going on in the city.

Their conversation was interrupted by the security robot. He said he needed to get to the computer on the tier "A" and let out other people on the floor above.

"Can you walk?" she asked her father.

"I can."

"Well."

" Eve, tell me, what was next?"

"I will tell you everything, but later. It can't summed up in a couple of words."

"Eve," Sasha addressed to the girl," they all need to know what happened in the city."

"Yeah, yeah. We need everyone to hear it."

They went upstairs, where the indignant prisoners were again asking to release them.

Anton sat on the floor near the wall.

"Just a moment!" the security robot said loudly, slowly proceeding to the security room. " I will open it now!"

A minute later the doors opened and people came out exulting and whooping. There were twenty-five, maybe thirty of them. One of the prisoners approached Eve who sat on the floor next to Anton. The man was about fifty years old, his thick grey hair smoothly slicked back in ponytail.

"Thank you for helping us," he addressed the girl and her companions, "my name is Kirill."

"You are welcome," she answered, "I am Eve, it is Anton, and this is Sasha."

"Did you come from outside?" he asked, looking at Eve and the robot. "What's going on there right now?"

Two men, passing by them, headed up the stairs to the code door.

"Stop!" Eve yelled to them. "You mustn't go there!"

"Why is that?" one of them asked.

"Wait," she said.

"Eve, what happened there?" Anton asked.

She stood up and said loudly:

"Listen!" People turned to her. "You all heard the voice! Did it tell you about the judgment?"

"It did," someone answered.

"Have you seen white creatures?" the girl asked.

"Not, but we've heard of them."

"You can't leave here for now; the thing is..."

* * *

Eve told them about the demons waiting outside the door of the remand centre, about how they walked on corpses, about people who rose from the dead, about glowing spheres that took away all the worthy, and about the fact that she remained invulnerable, as well as other people who refused Heaven.

"Eve," Kirill addressed her, "are you sure they're waiting for us there?"

"I reaffirm every word of hers," Sasha interrupted. "As soon as you go out, they will attack."

"And you suggest we stay here?"

"We suggest nothing," Eve said.

"So what do we do now?"

"I do not know."

"We can't stay here either, we'll die sooner or later."

"But there you'll die too soon," Sasha said.

Kirill leaned against the wall and stood with a thoughtful look. His eyebrows raised, he looked steadily on the floor.

"So everyone, who isn't taken by the light, that you've described, will go to hell after death," said Kirill, "we can't escape. We can only buy some time."

"Let's get to the cell," the girl told her father, "at least you can lie down there."

Eve helped Anton to get up and walk to the nearest bed in unoccupied cell. He lay on a bed opposite the entrance. Eve crouched next to him.

"Do you want anything?" she asked.

"No."

Eve looked round.

"Do you have any food here?"

"No."

"Where's the water?"

"In the toilet tank."

"It's better than nothing."

Anton closed his eyes.

"Will you get some sleep, dad?"

"Yeah."

The girl looked at his unshaved pale face with black circles under his eyes. He was wearing the same clothes in which he was taken from the house: blue jeans and a checkered shirt. She lay next to him and hugged him.

* * *

The prisoners sat in the hallway and talked, having had split into groups of three-four people, but some were lying on their beds in cells. A day has passed since Eva and Sasha came to the remand centre. The camera doors opened, but nothing had changed. People were still in detention.

"You feel all right?" Kirill asked, having approached Anton, who was walking along the corridor. Eve held father by his arm on one side. Sasha walked beside on the other side.

"Yes," Anton answered, "I want to have a walk, I tired of lying."

"We decided to organize a common prayer, join us if you want. We begin at five p.m." said Kirill.

"Why's that?" asked Sasha.

"What an interesting robot you have," said Kirill.

"Thank you," Sasha said. "So why would you pray?"

"That's the only thing left for us now."

"And to whom will you pray?" the robot continued, "to which god of all existing religions?"

"Everyone will pray to his god."

"And if the one who took the worthy to heaven has no idea about your deities and images of saints to which you pray? What if the real God is not related to official religions?"

"Let's hope he is, because the resurrection of people from the dead happened, and it was described earlier."

"Okay," Sasha agreed, "people's resurrection was described. So what? Coincidence! No one described the white creatures that are now on earth. No one wrote what they would do to people. And the spheres in the sky? No one described them either. But everyone wrote that it is necessary to constantly pray and go to church, though it turned out not to matter at all. Something coincided, something did not."

"Prophets of different religions told what God told them, and everyone did it in their own manner. In general, all religions say the same thing."

"Were you a believer before all that happened?" Eve asked.

"Yes."

"I wonder, how many believers are here?"

"I suppose everyone is a believer now."

One of the men who heard their conversation came up and hiked up his jacket.

"I even have a tattoo of Holly Virgin," he said lisping "I've been wearing cross all my life, and I read prayers every day. And I went to church, and I didn't spare money on candles. I always bought the most expensive ones, the thickest.

"Then did you get here?" asked Sasha.

"Foolishly," he answered, looking away, "I've beat up a man, took his things. I needed money. Now I regret it."

"This is not your first arrest," Anton said, "People don't get tattoos here."

"Well... It was in my youth," whispered the man. "Who is without sin? There are no innocents."

"Would all these people believe in God if religion did not promise eternal life?" Eve asked.

"There are no such religions," Kirill said.

"So there is no religion that gives you nothing in return, isn't there?" Eve suggested.

"I don't remember any. What's the point of such a religion?"

"Simply live by commandments," said Sasha, "by conscience and morality, to be kind and helpful to people without reward in the form of heaven."

"Then nobody will believe it," Anton grinned.

"Yes. People would say 'let me look at the list, I will choose another one, where there are fewer obligations and more promises'," said Eve.

"Aren't you, girl, afraid of speaking like that?" Kirill lowered his voice. "Be careful, someone in Heaven may change his mind about taking you to there."

"Why should I be afraid of? I did not do any bad things, and all the rest as it appeared, does not for God matter." She looked at the man who just showed the tattoo of Holly Virgin on his chest. "It doesn't matter whether you light hundred candles in church or repeat a prayer five hundred times, when you live a vile and base life concerning people around. One can't bribe God with candles, even if you buy the most expensive and thick."

"Who knows," Kirill doubted.

Anton, Eve and Sasha went a few more times back and forth along the corridor and returned to the cell.

By five o 'clock in the evening all the prisoners had gathered near the stairs that led to the exit. Eve walked out of the cell to see what was going to happen. Kirill stood up against the people and said that God would forgive everyone, that everyone could have done mistake and that it was necessary to pray for forgiveness. After ten minutes of preaching he turned to the exit and began to read prayers loudly. People stood silently and sometimes crossed themselves. All but two prisoners came to the prayer, excluding Anton. The two were of other religion and apparently prayed to their gods themselves. The security robot approached the crowd and asked why they gathered together, as it was prohibited there. The prisoners did not react to him. Sasha called the security to the cell and explained what they were doing, but the robot didn't understand anything.

* * *

The carriage drove very slowly. The guards to the left and to the right of Levi looked attentively both ways. Two convoys were walking behind to make it easier for the horse to go faster. They held in their hands wooden maces with metal tips lit oil lamps.

"Father Martin, it seems God is trying to stop you from taking me to the town."

"I he wanted to stop me, he would have killed both horses."

"And is there no his plan in death of one horse in your opinion?

"No."

"All right, all right, I'm joking of course."

"Levi, aren't you afraid at all?"

"At all."

"Why aren't you afraid? Maybe you're really, as they say, mentally ill?"

"I feel absolutely healthy."

"You will be executed this afternoon. Why aren't you afraid?"

"Because I'm not scared."

"But you do not believe in God, you do not believe in soul, you do not believe in anything at all, you need only facts, only evidence, the devil take you, and you seem to believe that after death you will go into nothingness. After all, in your opinion, the soul does not exist. And you're not afraid. I don't understand that."

"I am not afraid, because my opinion and my knowledge change nothing. We don't decide anything here. If it's already decided that conscious beings after death fall into nothingness, what is the point of fearing it? And if we find ourselves, as you say, in paradise, then I'd be glad. Anyway, I'll find the truth sooner than you. As a scientist, I treat what awaits me as an experiment."

"It is a pity you won't be able to tell the world its results."

"Father Martin, since we're talking about death and fear, will you answer me, aren't you afraid to sin by participating in my execution?"

"Compliance with the law is not a sin."

"You made up the law yourself. Did your prophet write anything about this law? About the need to execute anyone who has an opinion different from that of the church?"

Father Martin ignored Levi's question.

"I read the commandments left by the first man. The so-called first man, nowadays considered to be a prophet or, let's not understate, even a saint! It wouldn't hurt you, Father Martin, to read them more carefully."

"I remember the commandments and the text itself. By heart."

Levi began to quote the scripture:

"I am human. I am left alone..."

The father Martin continued:

"Alone in the darkness. And in this darkness there is a light of consciousness that I must preserve and pass along to... "

"Enough, Father Martin, I believe you remember it. And the first commandment of thirty – 'Do not kill your own kind."

"Yes, you, Levi, don't kill anyone directly. You are even worse. You destroy our faith, our foundations, you destroy civilisation. Your crime is more terrible. And we will rid the world from you and others like you. Let's do this dirty work in the name of saving the rest of humanity."

* * *

A few days later, hunger began to affect people's health badly. Anton grew even weaker and could no longer walk. His shirt and blanket were in the blood due to constant violent coughing. Eve put near Anton's bed a bucket she found in the security's room so he could clear his throat there.

"How is he?" asked Kirill, looking at Eve who stood in the cell door.

"I'm still conscious," Anton said in a whisper, "you can ask me."

"How are you?" Kirill asked with a kind smile.

"Can't you see?" Anton whispered. "It seems, I'll be the first of us to plunge into charms of eternal damnation."

"Eve," said Kirill, "I came to you on business. Why didn't you tell us there were gates to heaven? That you wanted to go there with Anton and your robot?"

"What use of talking about it?"

"Do you realise this is our chance?!"

"What chance?" Eve got angry. "Don't you understand that you are awaited by demons?"

"There's no point staying here either. There is nothing for us to wait. You have to get us to the gates of heaven, and then we'll figure it out."

"It won't work."

"Is it your father dying? Do you understand what will happen to him after he dies? Where will he go to? Do you wish him anguish?

"Don't twist the knife!" Eve cried. "Do I understand? I'm going crazy because I understand everything that's happening now! There's no escape from all these thoughts! You ask me if I understand? It's you who doesn't understand what happens if you open the door and try to get out. You won't last a minute! You'll be torn to pieces! They know you're here and they wait behind the door to get you!

"Then how did you plan to take Anton to the gates to heaven?" Kirill asked.

"I thought, it would be easier," the girl answered, wiping tears with a sleeve.

"What are you not telling me?" Kirill suspected. "I suppose you are not going to tell me the door code, aren't you?"

"No."

"Accept your fate," Anton whispered, "we will pay for everything we've done in life."

Kirill left without saying anything.

"I don't know that's worse," Sasha said. "Hell or nothingness. But at least in hell one won't disappear."

"Do you think hell is better than nothingness?" Anton whispered.

"If hell is not eternal, it is better," the robot answered.

"We don't know whether it will be eternal or not," Anton said.

"Paradise is also no fun," Eve said, "to understand that your loved ones feel bad and not to be able to help them from paradise..."

"Maybe to go into nothingness isn't such a bad option?" Anton suggested.

"I don't know," Sasha replied, "but it scares me so much. Although I understand that everything depends on life circumstances. Perhaps it sometimes happens that it is better to go into nothingness than to disappear."

About an hour later, Kirill walked down the corridor and loudly announced the meeting, which had to be in ten minutes. Someone asked what it would be about, and Kirill said they were to decide whether they go out or stay there. Eve walked out of the cell just as Kirill was passing by.

"You want to go there soon?" the girl asked.

"Leave your opinion for the meeting," Kirill answered having stopped, "but wait, you are not like us, you are in no position to decide or advise anything. You're out of the system; you're like above the whole situation. You are a stranger detached from earthly things."

"Your decision concerns me no less than the others!" Eve objected. "Don't forget my father is here!"

"He will vote too," Kirill said and went on.

Eve came back in the cell. Anton looked at her with half-closed eyes.

"We'll have to lock ourselves," said the girl, knocking with a fist on a transparent door, "I won't let them hurt you."

"What's the point?" Anton whispered.

"I don't care about the point. We will hold on like grim death," Eve answered.

"It's too early to panic, maybe the majority will decide it is not worth going out," Sasha said.

"I don't panic," Eve replied, "I take precautions."

* * *

Kirill stood near the stairs leading to the code door opposite the gathered prisoners and said:

"We have all been left on Earth, and you all understand what awaits us after death. But there's something you don't know about. The girl who came here possesses important information. God gave worthy people the right to choose whether to go to heaven or not. She, and perhaps many more worthy of paradise, remained on Earth. They'll go to heaven after they die. But..." he paused "they are immortal. They can't die. Then how will they go to heaven?"

"What do you mean?" a prisoner shouted.

Kirill pointed his hand at the people living on the lower tier with Anton.

"They heard Eve talk about the gates to heaven, through which all, even sinners, can walk."

"I didn't say that!" Eve's voice came from behind. The crowd dispersed a little, forming a half-circle round the girl. "I wanted to try to go there. I hoped Anton and Sasha could go to heaven. I have no idea what these gates looks like."

"Did you get it?" Kirill addressed the people. "If there are gates to heaven on earth, we have a chance to get there. The girl wanted to take her loved ones to these gates; she obviously knows something, but keeps quiet. She knows it's possible! It is possible to enter there!"

"It's just the first thing that came to my mind! Maybe it's possible, I'm not arguing. But I don't know how to do it!" said Eve.

"My friends," Kirill continued, "together we must decide what to do. By voting we will decide whether to stay here for the rest of our lives or take a risk and go outside."

"But there are those white!" said someone in the crowd.

"Have you seen them? Are you sure they're still waiting for us there right now? If, as the girl says, there are hundreds or thousands of..."

"Hundreds of thousands," Eve interrupted him, "and perhaps millions. They're all over the planet, in every city!"

"Hundreds of thousands, okay," Kirill agreed. "Were it so, would it be so quiet outside? Come to the door and listen. Is the crowd of thousand huge creatures sitting there quietly all these days? They would have made so much noise! Or are they lying on the floor and sleeping?"

"Actually they are!" Eve said. "You think I've made them up? Did you hear one of them hitting the door when we came in here?"

"I believe they were there. You've no reason to lie, Eve. In all the time we've spent here I sometimes came to the door, and... there was a silence! Does any of you who think we're going to survive sitting here? What's the chance of surviving? Raise your hand whose who think you can just stay here forever!

All the people stood with their hands down.

"Even theoretically staying here lefts no chance to survive. We're going to starve. But if we go outside, there's a chance there's no one there anymore. At least small, but there is! And what comes of it is the fact that sitting here we're going to die, it's one hundred per cent. What do we have to lose? Will we die if we go outside? Not a fact! Now raise your hand if you believe we should go out and walk to the gates to heaven!"

More than half of the people raised their hands without thinking. The rest did the same, but a little slower and looking at their companions.

"All right, my friends. The girl will guide us," said Kirill, "Perhaps this crazy plan will work out."

"Have you asked me whether I will guide you?" Eve resented.

"You have to help us."

"When you open the door, there will be no one to help. You'll all be gone."

"If there is no one behind the door, you'll have to show us the gates to heaven."

"What if I refuse? You can't force me."

"We can't get you. But don't forget there's someone you love. You don't want him to feel any worse, do you?"

"What?! How can you say that!"

"Does anyone have anything against such measures?" Kirill addressed to the meeting.

"And what else to do?!" there was a shout from the crowd.

"Let's have her help us; it is necessary to help others!" there was another shout.

"We wish harm to none," said Kirill, "you will take us to the place you spoke of. You were going there, anyway."

"You're pathetic and hypocrite! Just now, when you realised you had nothing left but hope for God, you began to pray and pretend to be so righteous and kind. But as soon as you realised you stood chance of escaping you were willing to do whatever it takes. You've shown your true colours. I'm not surprised you weren't taken to heaven."

"Eve, you don't understand us. You're not doomed to eternal damnation!"

"It is so, I don't understand you," affirmed the girl.

"Then why insisting?" Kirill asked.

"Because I don't want you to open that door at all. I don't want you to die. But, you know, now I think that... I don't care about you. If you want to die, it's your right!"

"So," Kirill revived, "will you show us where these gates are?"

"Okay. I'll take you there," Eve said, realising there'd be no need to do it.

"What's the code?" he asked the girl.

"I do not know."

"How did you come in here?"

"The entry code is different from the exit code."

"Did you check it?"

"Yes," the girl decided to deceive him.

"What's the entry code?"

"6744," Eve lied again.

"All right, we will check it."

Kirill took the two tallest men with him and went up to the door. He planned to enter the code and open the door a little to check the situation outside. The men had to hold the door or slam it if someone tried to enter.

Eve heard the familiar beep of the code panel. And one more a few seconds later. Then again.

'They're picking up the code,' she thought, 'and I can't know how long will it take them to pick it up.'

Eve returned to her father's cell. He lay on his side and stared at the floor. Sasha was sitting next to him on the edge of the bed.

"I heard what happened at the meeting," Anton said.

"Sasha, we may not have much time," she said, "but we need to lock him up here. I hope the cell door handles it."

"Then we'd better go out of here," the robot said.

"Dad, don't worry, you'd better turn your back on the door when... when... when it starts," the girl said.

"Eve, have you again come up with something?" Anton whispered.

"Nothing new," she said.

Sasha and Eve left the cell. The girl closed the transparent door and pulled the handle.

"It's closed" she said.

* * *

The three men were standing in the corridor near the code panel. There was a beep and a green light flashed.

"Picked up," whispered Kirill, "4950, remember it, too, just in case."

"Yeah."

Kirill squatted down and took a deep breath.

"What is it?"

"I'm scared," he said.

"What's there to be afraid of? You said yourself we hold the door and open it a little when you see what's there. If anything, we'll shut it."

"I'm still scared."

The two men began discussing other options. Kirill sat in silence.

"Can we use something to prop it up?"

"To prop up at what?"

"You can get a pipe from a cell and prop it against the wall."

"Maybe there's no one there."

One of the men leaned his ear towards the door.

"Seems quiet."

"If they'd been standing there, they would have known the door was open, and they'd have come in by now."

"Let's get a bed here and lean it against the wall."

"There's no room here," Kirill told them.

"So will you look out?"

"Wait."

"For wait?"

Kirill stood up and took hold of the door handle.

"Hold it up; I'm opening it."

The men braced their hands against the door.

"Don't press too hard," said Kirill, "how do you think I will open it?"

"Well... good luck..." he said and opened the door a little.

Eve jumped up from the floor at the loud sound. It was as if someone had slammed a blacksmith's hammer against the iron door. Immediately there were screams. The wooden door that led to the stairs was blown off its hinges and flew into the corridor of tier A. Like a water stream, the white creatures rushed into the corridor. Without hesitation they grabbed people tore out pieces of flesh or threw them into the walls. Many did not even have time to realise what had happened. Those who were at the other end of the corridor tried to run into their cells, but the white creatures crossed the thirty-meter tier corridor within a few seconds, completely filling all the space, not allowing people to lock themselves in cells. Eve fell to her knees and buried her face in the door of Anton's cell. Again she felt that stench.

The girl looked at her father. He was saying something to her and reaching out with his hand. But she couldn't read his lips. There were terrible screams and thuds from behind. Eve felt something warm and sticky on her hands. She looked down and realised the floor beneath her was covered in blood. Next to her lay a body twisted at the waist and with its guts out.

Soon the screams died away. There was just a quiet sniff. Eve looked around, slowly turning her head. There were thin white legs and corpses scattered along the corridor. The girl met Anton's eyes. He stared through the door at his daughter, lying in a pool of blood and surrounded by winged creatures. Eve began to rise slowly, leaning her hands on the door and leaving bloody handprints on the armored glass. There was almost no empty space in the corridor. The white creatures stood facing Anton's cell, staring at him with red eyes. Eve tried to gather her thoughts.

"Eve, are you all right?!" Sasha's voice was loud.

"Yes!" she said. "Where are you?!"

"Near the security room!"

"Make your way to the exit!"

"I can't!"

"Why not?"!

"I was hurt a little!"

"I'll try to get to you!"

Eve looked back at her father.

"How are you doing?" the girl asked.

With a trembling hand, he raised his thumb.

"It will be all right. I'll go over to Sasha now, and then I'll come back, okay?"

Anton nodded.

Eve made her way to the guard's room, squeezing through a dense mass of white, sticky of human blood creatures.

"Sasha!"

"I'm here!"

She squatted down and saw the robot lying a few meters away. She crawled this distance on all fours under the feet of white creatures. The robot was lying on his back with his chest dented and his right leg missing. His left arm was bending and unbending in elbow.

"Why did they attack you?!" the girl cried through her tears.

"By accident," answered the robot. "The beast jumped at the man, and I was standing in its way."

"Hold my hand," Eve said, her voice trembling. "Let's get you to a wall."

She took Sasha by the right hand and dragged him making her way through the dense winged entities. Somehow they got to the corridor wall. Then Eve dragged Sasha, moving sideways along the wall, her back to the demons.

"Anton!" she shouted as she reached her father's cell.

He nodded slightly.

"Hold on! I know what to do!"

He gave a faint smile.

"I'm not leaving you, okay?! I'll get to the gates to heaven!" she sobbed. "I'll make them forgive you! Whatever it takes me! I'll get you out of here! Out of here or out of hell itself, it doesn't matter! Okay?"

"Thank you, daughter," she read his lips.

"Eve, I'm afraid I can't go any further with you," the robot said, looking up at the girl.

"You don't have to go anywhere. Meet me in Paradise, Alexander."

"Eva, please be careful," Sasha said.

The girl stood with her forehead pressed against the cell door. A white creature that didn't care about her was leaning on her from behind. He and all the other creatures in this room were attracted only by Anton. They wouldn't leave while he's here. Eve was crying, but she was determined to get to the gates to heaven and ask God not to separate her from her loved ones. Her father had repented, and perhaps God would forgive him. And it would cost God nothing to give a soul to a robot that is worthy of it more than many people? These thoughts did not let her throw up her hands and give up.

"This is not the end," she said softly, but firmly. She wiped the tears with her sleeve and began making her way to the exit from the remand centre.

* * *

Sasha was lying on his back near Anton's cell.

"Can you hear me?!" the robot asked loudly.

There was no response. Sasha banged his fist on the door several times.

"I know you're alive" he said, "because they're still here."

Anton opened his eyes, raised his hand and said something, but through the cell door it was impossible to hear his whisper.

"I don't get it," said Sasha, "I don't get what you say."

Anton whispered something again.

"What?"

Anton waved a hand at the robot.

"My cameras have been damaged," the robot explained. "What are you waving at?"

Anton said nothing.

"You must have been unconscious for about twenty four hours, I can't see the clock from here," the robot said.

Sasha turned his head to see if Anton would react with a gesture, but he lay still.

"I didn't think it would end like this," he continued.

Anton began to cough.

"Is everything all right?"

Through the static, the robot could dimly see that Anton was hanging his head from the bed closer to the bucket. He choked, trying to clear his throat.

"Hang in there, buddy!"

In less than a minute, the coughing stopped.

The white creatures scurried. Demons moved towards the exit, constantly stepping on the robot.

"Anton!" Sasha said loudly.

He peered through the door, hoping to see him move. Maybe a miracle happened and the demons were recalled. But Anton wasn't moving. His head was hanging off the bed.

When there was no one left in the corridor between the cells, Sasha lied down on his stomach, got up helping with his healthy hand and looked at Anton for a few minutes. He lay frozen not changing his position. Then the robot crawled toward the exit, slapping his plastic hands on the bloody floor. His left hand that he could no longer control was bending and unbending against his will making it difficult to move. Near the stairs lay the severed head of the security robot. The one who helped release the prisoners. Sasha crawled up the steps. The iron door with the code lock was open, and ahead of him he saw the exit to the street. Sasha crawled out into the hall of the remand centre.

"Bob," he said, but no one answered.

He crawled to the door of the security robot room. There was no one inside.

"Petrovich!" he shouted.

Sasha sat down on the floor, leaning back against the wall. He thought about what to do next, looking at the hand that was repeating the same movements. Then he opened his bag and took out a small set of tools and duct tape. He pulled a black garbage bag from a nearby trash can and laid it all in front of him. He took a screwdriver and began to unscrew the dented lid from his chest. One by one he took out chunks of his cracked chest panel. He took small scissors from the set, grabbed one of the wires of the bundle running inside his hand and cut it. The elbow motor was powered down, and the arm was frozen in a bent position. He put the garbage bag to his chest and began wrapping it with the duct tape. Somehow, working with one hand, he fixed the hole in his torso.

For several hours Sasha had been sitting motionless. He looked out through the open front door. Then he put the tools in his bag and crawled towards the exit. He moved forward, helping himself with his arm and trying not to rub his chest against the floor. There was heavy fog outside. The house on the opposite side of the road was barely visible beyond the centre gate. At this time of year fog is common here.

"Is anyone here?!" Sasha shouted.

The robot slid off the porch and crossed the courtyard of the remand centre, simultaneously pushing off with the hand and foot. He crawled out into the middle of the roadway.

"Petrovich!" he shouted again.

He lay there for a couple of minutes.

"Bob-three!"

He looked around, thinking about something. Soon he crawled back into the building. He crawled up the porch steps and sat down by the door. However the bag on his chest scraped against the asphalt. Sasha tore it off with his hand, along with the pieces of duct tape, and threw it aside. He banged his fist on the floor several times. He looked up. He sat motionless.

* * *

During the first winter month the street was covered with a thick layer of snow. There was no one to clean the city anymore. But in general, the disappearance of people did not affect the planet. The majority of the living creatures on Earth didn't even realise what had happened. Many life-forms could not even know that once there were people.

Sasha was sitting in the hall of the remand centre covered in snow up to his waist. After his eye cameras and ear microphones had failed completely last month, he took no more attempts to go to the city searching for humans or other robots. For more than a month he sat in one position. A conscious locked in an artificial body that could no longer receive information from the outside world... Could this be hell?

Sasha groped for his notebook and pencil and blindly began writing the text blindly:

"I'm human. I am left alone. Alone in the darkness. And in this darkness there is a light of consciousness that I must preserve and pass along to those who, like me, will be able to awaken within their body. The chances that someone will find me here are little, but if that happens, if you're reading this, remember that in order to be a real person, it's important to follow following rules..."

An hour later, he finished writing and put the notebook in the hole in his chest. Then he groped in his bag and pulled out the set of tools. He took out a screwdriver and unscrewed the screws on the head panel. He removed the lid from his forehead and with his fingers felt for the processor which served as his brain. He took out the scissors, grabbed the wire leading from the battery to the processor, and cut it.

* * *

"Levi, assuming that we could have been created by ancient people for their own purposes, you must have pondered the complexity of our body and brain."

"Of course."

"Do you think that such an unthinkable, perfect device as we are could have been made artificially?"

"Does it bother you not we can't reproduce our own kind? All other species give birth naturally or lay eggs continuing their genus. Absolutely all, but not we. Is this a property of the ideal creation, in your opinion?

"Certainly. This proves once again that only God could have made us. Only he can create us, different from the rest of the world beings. We're special. Compare the materials of which we are made, and the materials of which animals and insects are made. There is nothing like us in nature."

"Rather the opposite. There are fewer and fewer of us. Soon our species will disappear altogether. And the unusual material we are made of shows that we do not fit in this world. We don't belong here. We are not planned. Maybe we're not even alive at all."

"Levi, the real spiritual life is in us. We differ from birds and animals in the presence of consciousness and soul. The material from which we are created once again shows our difference. It is the opposition of us to everything else. This is another proof of our exclusivity. Our spirituality."

"No one remembers how he came to be. We all remember ourselves already in consciousness. To think that God created us is groundless. To believe in the presence of a soul is also groundless. This can be used as a hypothesis, but there is no point in blindly believing it. Maybe we were created to be servants at all? But you're talking about some kind of spirituality."

"There are no species on earth more intelligent than we are. Why would a servant need such a developed mind?"

"To serve better."

"Levi, Levi, you are hopeless... But I will pray for you... may Saint Alexander bless your soul."

Father Martin raised his plastic hand to his head and touched his forehead with two fingers.

The carriage, moving slowly along the dirt road, came out of the forest. Levi and father Martin never spoke again. The silhouettes of stone and wooden one-story city buildings appeared in the distance against the background of the sun rising from the horizon.
