I returned home almost alive, the nervous tension and the most massive confrontation with the undead and mutants of my entire stay in the new world had taken its toll. I only had the strength to take the blue blood canisters out and put them in the refrigerator in the basement, dug close to the house. The refrigerator is homemade: a large box made of boards, with foil and sheets of foam ten centimeters thick. The bottom was double and separated by a false bottom in the form of a lattice of thin slats. Under it there were bags with ice, and on top I put food and blood (for the sake of the latter the refrigerator was divided into two sections).
I barely made it to the shower, where I spent five minutes, no more. The hope that the water would wash away not only the dirt, but also the fatigue, was not justified.
I don't remember how I made it to bed.
In the morning, however, I felt so invigorated that I felt like a helium balloon - I would jump up and fly high.
- Hi, girls, how are you? - I greeted my lodgers, finding myself in the kitchen, a small room with two windows from those that I brought from the Cossack ambush.
- Hi, Alex!
They rewarded me with two happy smiles, immediately seated me at the table and placed two plates of pilaf and stewed vegetables. The latter were canned, true, but very tasty nonetheless.
- How was the trip? The guys said that you saved someone? - Karen asked. - And they are strange, from what I hear.
- Let him eat first, - said Anna angrily.
- Mm-mm ...
- Chew! - In one voice the girls said.
I was not allowed to eat properly. In just five minutes the door downstairs slammed and creaked stairs under the stranger's footsteps, at the same time sounded the voice of our village magician-healer:
- Alex, are you home?
- Here you are," - hissed Karen like a snake. - Yesterday all hanging around, today is the second time he came.
- Here, here! - I shouted, and then looked at the girl. - What did he want?
- I do not know, he did not tell us.
Somehow I immediately realized that she was more pissed at the healer for not revealing the secret of his visit, than his visits.
- Hey," - he said, waving his hand as soon as he appeared in the doorway. - How are you? I heard you were pretty tired yesterday and you were asleep. And you slept today, too.
- Yep, that's right," - I nodded. - Are you hungry?
He looked at the girls, or rather at the disgruntled Karen, as Anna kept a sphinx expression on her face.