The moonlight reflected beautiful highlights from the Fox's fur. Karina was sleeping on her back, hanging her cast leg, and Belyana was walking next to her, with a small bag in her hand and a long case behind her back, from which a pair of sticks peeped out.

  “I’m thinking and I don’t understand why the hell I’m dragging her. Am I your donkey or what?” Fox asked in a creepy voice.

  “Not my problem. Why don't you complain to her instead of me?” asking, Belyana lifted the bag a little. “Moreover, I didn’t get a job as a porter. Do you want to drag your clothes in your teeth? Come on, open your mouth one more time, I'll try to catch the fang.”

  Either because of a spoiled mood, or Belyana's argument seemed convincing to her, but for the rest of the night she did not talk anymore.

  The rising sun woke Karina with its bright, eye-catching light. She carefully sat up and stretched sweetly.

  “Your spine is awfully stiff,” she said. “Everything hurts now.”

  “You're playing with fire,” Fox growled.

  “Just kidding,” Karina scratched her behind a huge ear, like a kitten. “I don't know what I would do without you.”

  “Learn that,” Fox said to Belyana. “It's called manners, not the bucket of shit you made up for yourself.”

  “I never heard your thanks for the exciting adventures.”

  “Are you talking about a hole instead of an eye and the vast majority of my scars?”

  “Why not?” Belyana laughed. “You're still alive. And if it comes to that, you lost your eye because of your own greed.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Fox muttered.

  A settlement appeared on the horizon. Black clouds hung directly above it, sparkling with electric discharges. The rest of the sky was clear.

  “Somehow I don't like it,” Belyana voiced everyone’s thoughts.

  “Never seen anything like this?” Fox clarified.

  “Saw, but magicians shouldn’t have enough power for such things,” she answered thoughtfully. “At least not yet.”

  “Somehow it’s not relieving.”

  Coming very close, they stopped near the edge of the shadow from the clouds, and Belyana began to pace around, peering at everything that could be seen. A small village, with fairly modern houses made of reinforced concrete blocks, was reduced to ruins. The iron pins that were visible here and there were either broken off or wrapped almost in knots.

  “Now I admit - never seen anything like this,” Belyana commented at last.

  Fox simply turned around and stomped in the opposite direction, along with Karina, still sitting on her back.

  “Bad time for clowning,” Belyana said irritably.

  “This is called - the instinct of self-preservation,” Fox calmly replied. “Why jump into the volcano crater, if the outcome is obvious?”

  “What if there are people there?” Karina asked.

  “I don’t give a fuck,” Fox snapped. “Get down, go yourself if you want - I’m staying here.”

  “The inscription in the photo album: ‘The big and strong polyanitsa is trembling with fear’,” Belyana laughed.

  “Haha very funny. Won't work. The smell of this place tells me to run the hell out of here, and advise you the same.”

  Belyana tilted her head in surprise as Karina jumped off Fox's back with a groan.

  “Okay, I'll consider it. Catch,” she threw a bag to her, which Fox had caught with an already human hand.”

  Belyana removed the case from her back, pulled out the crutches and handed them to Karina. And then, the two of them crossed the border.

  A monstrous noise hit the eardrums with an explosion. The clouds disappeared, and the sky itself turned red. The noise consisted of many different tonal sounds. Like millions of people are screaming without stopping even for a second.

  An even louder sound drowned out the screams. As if someone had fallen on the piano, only the sound lasted a little longer. The wave was so strong that it was even felt physically - Karina staggered.

  A few seconds later, the sound repeated. Blood flowed from one ear of Karina. Belyana noticed this.

  “I have to admit - Fox is right, she wouldn’t endure this,” her voice sounded right in Karina's head, not even blocking the screams. “Let's hurry.”

  “Huh? Why can I hear you?” Karina asked aloud, not even hearing herself, but Belyana replied anyway.

  “No talking just jump. And how do you manage to pick up the time for questions...”

  All the buildings, reflecting the red light of the sky, shone with some kind of moisture. The walls pulsated slightly, giving the surrounding scenery a sickening hue. Everywhere one could clearly see the brown mummified corpses scattered through the streets and sticking out of the pins of houses.

  The longer they walked, the harder it became to bear the blows of the piano waves. Karina was already bleeding not only from both ears, but also from her nose.

  In the end, they came to a strange rough egg, at least half a meter in height, which turned out to be the source of the noise. Karina looked inquiringly at Belyana, and she, in confirmation, only nodded.

  At the touch, instead of slowly sinking, Karina was simply sucked in, as if through a vacuum cleaner.

  She found herself on a light liquid viscous surface, which was slowly sucking her in. The dark space around was illuminated by an infinite number of blue eyes blinking at random.

  “Belyana?” she asked, starting to walk at least in some direction, so as not to drown in an incomprehensible substance.

  There was no answer. The longer she walked, the more liquid and viscous the floor became. As soon as she froze, the floor began to suck in even faster, leaving no options. Karina tried to emerge immediately, but suddenly realized that she did not even remember where. And how. And why. Eventually, the surface swallowed her up.

  What was her name? She walked through a labyrinth with damp walls, along which peristaltic waves ran from time to time. She touched one of the walls with her finger, and it lost a whole phalanx. Glancing at the stump with annoyance, Karina did not react in any way, but simply continued to walk forward.

  At some point, something was heard, and she went towards the source. The closer the source was, the more clearly heartrending cries were heard.

  It was coming from behind the wall. She just froze like an idol, and would have stood like that for eternity, if there had not appeared a semblance of a passage from which a thick slurry was flowing.

  Inside was a gigantic hall. All its walls, floor and ceiling were in constant swirling motion. Hundreds, maybe thousands of human-like bodies writhed in pain. From skin, to meat, to organs, along with bones, they slowly crumbled to dust and gathered back, in an endless cycle of decay.

  Through this cacophony, occasionally, the sounds of a piano could be heard, as if someone was trying to pick up a melody by ear. She searched for the source with her eyes, and nevertheless found in one of the corners an instrument assembled from the same screaming human carcasses. And behind it sat something amorphous, constantly changing, unable to hold any of the forms, but still managing to press the keys.

  She, staggering because of the sickly moving floor, approached the piano, but only frightened off the one who was sitting behind it. He jumped with great speed, and then flew up.

  The ceiling lifted, as if someone had just opened the lid on a dollhouse. Outside, wherever it was outside, there was only blackness, but at the same time, this blackness glowed, causing pain in the eyes. All the holes in Karina's head lit up with a white flame, as well as her eyes, but she continued to look, burning from the inside.