I woke up to the strong smell of ammonia and saw Valera standing over me, looking scared.
"My God, what were you thinking? Did you try to commit suicide?" he asked.
After explaining that it wasn't a suicide attempt but an attempt to save myself, I asked him to explain what happened.
He told me that he had barely managed to revive me and had even done a small blood transfusion to save my life. He was thankful that we had the same blood type.
Feeling ashamed, I lowered my head and noticed that my hand was tightly bound and I couldn't feel it. There was also a belt around my shoulder that was squeezing it and I couldn't move.
Apologizing for scaring him so much, I said, "I didn't mean to lose a hand. I just wanted to avoid losing a limb."
Valera sighed and softened his voice. "I'm sorry for scaring you. Amputation isn't as scary as you think. You can still live with one hand as long as it doesn't endanger your life. Let's move on. Once we reach the village, we can ask for help."Getting up from the pile of blankets and rags, he began to put things back into the bag with one hand. His faithful dog was spinning at his feet, whining in fright, and then it disappeared into the forest!
"Hass, stop! No!" he screamed in despair, watching his dog disappear into the thick fog. He quickly grabbed the bags with one hand and ran, with Valera following him, trying to put out the fire at the same time. He lost sight of the animal long ago, but he just kept running. Eventually, he started hearing strange signals in the distance, like the radio waves emitted by technology. A couple of satellite dishes were visible through the fog, and there were dilapidated houses on either side of the road. The only thing around was the forest, and an iron sign hung on a tree, reading "Garage."
It was like an exclusion zone, and he slowed down, thinking there might be high-tech mines. Who knew what to expect in such a place?A friend was walking behind me, shining a flashlight on the road. It was early in the morning, probably around four o'clock. Then, I noticed a dog in the distance and started running after it. After a few dozen meters, I saw some devices that I didn't recognize on tripods that were pointed in my direction.
"What is that?" my friend asked in surprise as he arrived. I looked around, and then I saw a light that blinded me for a second ahead of us. Were these people? I couldn't believe it! A couple of silhouettes of soldiers with rifles emerged from the fog and pointed them at us.
Valera ran forward, waving his arms in excitement, and at that moment, someone from the military opened fire. My friend clutched his stomach and fell to the ground. I screamed as loud as I could, "No, Valera, don't die! Please survive!"It seems that the people in uniform realized that we were not infected, but rather ordinary survivors. One of them tried to calm us down and took us to their camp, while others picked up Val's body and followed us.
The base was quite large, and their organization was working on studying and destroying the virus, developing a cure for this particular strain, and also gathering survivors. We were told that the virus was very persistent and not from our planet. Another civilization had invaded us and wanted to take over our planet for resources, and they had succeeded. Therefore, the organization was collecting people to evacuate them to a habitable planet, preferably outside the solar system, as the Earth would soon die out with humanity.
Meanwhile, Val was taken to the operating room where the bullet was removed from his stomach.- He will live, but it will take some time to recover. And you, young man, can help him. In a month or two, he will be back to his old self.
The surgeon concluded. "He will also fly with us."
"And where are we going?" I asked.
"A few hundred meters from here is our takeoff platform. There are special high-speed capsules on it that can accommodate several dozen people each. Unfortunately, that's the only way out. We can't destroy the virus."The main character lost his arm and survived, and many experiments were conducted on his rotten skin cells. Soon, several escape pods were launched into space and landed on a similar planet. The planet was full of plants, even in the water. Life had just begun, and scientists were trying to accelerate this process. Valera and Vitya remained best friends for the rest of their lives, supporting each other. The population was only a thousand people, and they were trying to revive humanity as soon as possible.