25

We started bringing grenades here, of which there seemed to be a lot in Dariusz's car.

Darek paused for a second at the counter with some flasks.

— We can't detonate grenades and leave here right away!—Cornelius said.—Do you have any options about this, Darek?—

The youngest of the Kaminsky brothers just smiled.

— Now.— he said, going to the car.

He returned with a large time bomb.

— We'll leave this here, and the grenades will amplify the blast wave very well.— He said.

— It seems to me that your brain is out of place, brother...—Cornelius sighs.— And how long will we set the timer for?—

— I'll choose for how long, but it's very important to leave those last two boxes... Heck! I'll explain later, they're already running here!—

A bullet hits Darek's shoulder.

— Hurry up!— He said.

— Darek!— Cornelius pushes his younger brother into the car - he almost got shot again.

— I'm fine!— Dariusz groans in a strangled voice, he no longer sits down at the machine gun.— Come on up! We need to get out of here! —

It turned out that it was much harder to go up.

We controlled two machine guns, which now seemed heavier and seemed to be dragging the car away.

Darek writhed in pain, but sat down at the second machine gun.

— Maybe I'll go back to this place?—Ryan asked.

— No!!— Dariusz grimaces in pain.— Kirby, do you have a flashlight?—

— Yes, you do, now!—

It seems that my brother even understood what was wanted of him.

— Damn it, where is Mariusz?—I asked myself softly.

When we were a man's height away from the exit, a bullet still pierced the glass...

the car rolled over and the tree braked it.

Getting out, I immediately grabbed my weapon - in such an environment, they can kill us the fastest.

The shot whistled past my foot.

Not a pistol or a submachine gun. A shot from a giant machine gun on a military helicopter.

I crawled back into the car.

— Guys, who's alive?— I flinched when the shot went through the roof.

— That's it.—Dariusz rubbed his shoulder.— No one died... But it was scary... Who is above us?—

— Mariusz. He's on a military helicopter. And how do we get out of here now?— another shot. The metal bends right through. We can see how it got hot.

— I need someone to cover for me.—Cornelius grimaced, touching his bruised temple.—If I can do what I'm thinking now, we'll all get out from here. And who's got my back now...—Cornelius sighed.— Ryan, here you go.—

He held out the joystick from the shotgun and his shotgun, which he had been using to defend himself.

— No, Cornelius, my eyesight is bad. And everyone here is a better shot than me.—Ryan said.

— Stop it! I've noticed for a long time that you're not like everyone else... You are not what you say about yourself...—Cornelius slid lower and moved away from me.— When I put it into action my antimatter, run to the Sapphire. Adrianna, you know the code!—

He jumped out so quickly that I didn't have time to say that I didn't know.

— Run to the cruiser!—Ryan sat down at the edge of the torn—off door and aimed at the helicopter.

No complaints about his eyesight, pain in his legs...

when he started shooting, we jumped out and ran to the Sapphire.

The shot almost hit Lukasz, I picked up a branch on the run and threw it along the trajectory of Ryan's shot.

It's a pity that the branch didn't reach the helicopter after all...

I took out my gun and aimed at the helicopter window.

— Lower...—Dariusz said from behind.

— Okay, if that's what you think...— I fired.

The bullet hit the cloud of antimatter that Cornelius had created and took off, driven by a black cloud.

The bullets that hit the Sapphire bounced off and flew into the ground, the ship was indeed a great cover.

I saw from behind our cover how Cornelius's eyeballs were completely blackened.

When I saw that soldiers were arriving from the direction of the forest, I turned around and started shooting in that direction.

A triple charge pierced my shoulder.

Damn... A three-barrelled shotgun! What a freak this Mariusz is!

Kirby grabs my other gun and helps me.

A bullet flies over our heads, almost stunning us.

— Damn it!—Kirby shakes his head.

Ryan runs towards us with a gun.

He barely had time to run in, as the black field began to grow.

— I'll cover you, open the door!— He said.

The black field shuddered, for some reason I felt in my heart that Cornelia had been hit.

So! The code... the code...

— On your bracelet!— Darek got shot in the stomach.

I turned over the insert with the small stones.

— Damn, I'm such an idiot...—I said out loud.

Darek threw out an empty magazine and the black antimatter decomposed it into atoms.

It's like a huge black cloud behind us.

The tail propeller crumbles to the ground, the helicopter begins to spin.

I open the door and we all fly in, falling on top of each other.

There was a loud explosion of night-black color outside.

We all started.

Dariusz even wanted to jump up, I held him back with one hand:

— Don't! It's still unstable outside, you'll burn up! —

The antimatter explosion was cold and did not affect the Sapphire.

— You need to wait for the air outside the windows to become clean. Darek, you have a serious wound...I said softly, but Dariusz waved me off:

— Yes, I know, we need to wait for the smoke to settle... We need to know if Cornelius is okay...—

***

The smoke settled down and we froze in front of the door.

— Darek, how do I open the door?—I ask quietly.

— Now.—Dariusz pushed me aside and dialed the combination on the door.

He almost lost his way when a scream rang out on the street.

We did not immediately realize that it was a cry of joy.

I ran out when the door opened.

Cornelius was screaming triumphantly, smeared with blood and black stuff that looked like tar.

I ran over and hugged him.

— I'm so exhausted...—Cornelius said softly.— But he's not here. There's what's left of the helicopter over there. Let's go!—

We headed for the Sapphire.

— How are you? Where did he get to?—Dariusz asked anxiously.

— Think about yourself better, Darek!—Cornelius groaned loudly.— My ribs hurt...—

There is a loud tremor under the ground.

— What is it?—Lukasz shuddered.

— Explosives!—Dariusz's eyes bulged.— Let's run!—

The earth began to sink under our feet.

The Sapphire failed the fastest. It was also impossible to get a car.

Mariusz's place was like a house of cards.

A slight delay, a glance back almost cost me my life - I feel myself sinking waist-deep into the falling earth.

Cornelius picks me up, almost falling himself.

— Don't move around, Adrianna!—he shouted.—I will try to lift us all up!—

Black smoke envelops all of us and we slide down. I can feel my hand already starting to slip out.

But we are not falling, our devil squad is flying up on antimatter.

— Damn it!—Lukasz looks around in fright.— Cornelius, how do you keep all of us?—

A loud and bright explosion broke out not far below us.

Cornelius is already sweating all over, holding us back.

Time seemed to drag on and on and on... Although it was only seconds...

we fell not far from the explosion.

Cornelius looks up at the sky.

— Is it finally over?—he asked. It seems, he asked himself...

— Kirby, do you still have the forceps that you used to pull the bullet out of Darek?—I asked when I felt my fatigue slipping.

— Darek has them. Or rather, they are in Darek.—My brother sighed.

— So get them out!— I sat down on the grass.— We really need to get the bullets out.—

— No, not now...— Cornelius stood up and helped each of us to stand up.—If we remove the bullets right now, we'll bleed out. We need to get to the house, there is something to treat the wounds.—He walked with a limp.

— Let's go that way.—Ryan said.

— What's in there?—Darek asks.

— There's the car they brought us here in.— said our stepfather.

— I see that you do not forget old knowledge, no matter what planet and how long you have been taught, you have a good memory...— Cornelius exhales noisily when walking.

Ryan didn't object to him ...

***

When we got to the car and sat inside, everything that hung on us, all this emotional burden became many times heavier.

Ryan tore the plastic box off the wires, cut and cleaned a couple.

— No one is falling asleep!— He said loudly, striking a spark.— None of us can switch off! It is unknown if you will wake up after! —

The engine is noisy. It starts up quickly.

I'm looking out the window. We're leaving a place where there's so much pain left...

— Are you tired?—I ask my beloved softly, stroking his pale unshaven cheek.

— No. Conversely... I finally feel a lot of strength in myself...—

***

What happened in the woods far outside the city very often comes to me in nightmares.

Although almost a year and a half has passed since that event.

Everything is usually quiet... Boring... But this has its own charm.

The club brings in good income, and even more importantly, we really like working here.

Kirby goes away from time to time, he's probably trying to get his life back on track.

We have now completely changed our place of residence, now we live above our club, and this building itself is guarded millions of times better than Fort Knox.

Yes, I know, the example is extremely stupid. But I can't find any others.

This morning I get up a little earlier than Cornelius, admire his beautiful sleeping face for a while and go to cook breakfast.

Ryan is sitting by the kitchen window and smoking. Smoke envelops him from all sides, he has not worn glasses for a long time and has stopped pretending that he sees poorly.

— How are you?—I ask, walking up to him.

— It's all right... But I'll go crazy if I spend another day doing nothing...—Ryan sighed.

— We'll find you a job. Considering you're an excellent marksman, you could be a security guard... If you want it yourself...—Cornelius came out into the kitchen disheveled and a little sleepy.— If you still want to work with us, I'll show you a list of who we need...—

He stretched and yawned.

— I would prefer to work next to you so that I don't accidentally end up in bad company... I don't want to open all the cards so as not to scare any of you, but it's better for fewer people to know who I really am.—

— At least tell us about it...—I said.— Ryan, I'm not a stranger to you, Kirby and I are not strangers to you. You're our father. Kirby and I have a right to know who our

father...—

— I'm from a planet that I hope Earthlings won't find. But they got very close, they found the planet farthest from us and named it Gliese. Unfortunately,

I don't remember the number... I think it's in the Paradise system...—Ryan's voice faltered, and he took his glasses out of his breast pocket and began twirling them in his fingers by the shackle.— In the Paradise system knows about a planet with big yellow mountains with stony fuel for space cruisers that explodes if you throw it into a fire...—

— Tyrant...— Cornelius's mug almost fell out of his hands.— We call the yellow planet Tyrant. They train hired killers there... Someone calls them the yellow warriors, someone else calls them blood hunters...—

— Yes. The destroyers.—Ryan walked around the table and patted Cornelius on the shoulder with his huge hand.— Don't be afraid, I'm one of those who chose to give up this essence. But the skills, as you correctly pointed out, I have some left. I've always had the best memory of anyone else...—

Cornelius drank half a cup of coffee in almost one gulp.

— Don't be afraid, Cornelius.—Ryan said again.— I told you, I'm different... —