The streets were wider, forming square-like places, part of which was fenced off from the road and turned into a park.

Dense, knobby trunks drag the canopy to the height of a five-story building, which stands at the back of the park.

Most likely, the stealth hero came to these parks to find firewood to heat and light the entire subway.

Strange shadows flickered between the trunks of the trees, and a faint glow of fire flickered somewhere in the distance.

If it weren't for its yellowish color, Su Mengfan would have seen it as the flame of a bonfire.

The building itself looks dangerous: it gives the impression of a battlefield that has experienced brutal and bloody encounters more than once.

Its upper level has collapsed, and there are black bullet holes in many places.

Only two walls were intact, and the dim night sky could be seen through the open windows.

The buildings split on the other side of the square, and a wide boulevard divides the streets.

Above him, the first high-rise buildings of the New Arbat emerge in the darkness, like watchtowers.

Judging by the map, the entrance to the Arbat station should be located nearby, somewhere to the left of him.

Su Mengfan looked at the gloomy park again.

The Commander was right: no one wanted to go too far into the labyrinth when trying to find the entrance to the subway that got into it.

The longer Su Mengfan stared at the black bushes near the foundations of his ruined structure, the larger the most mysterious figures seemed to him, and those images had been following him before, now moving at the base of the giant tree.

A strong wind shook the heavy branches, and the canopy creaked under the pull of the wind.

The wind came from afar with some kind of long wail.

The bush itself is calm, but not because it has withered.

Its silence was similar to the silence of Su Mengfan's mysterious followers, and it looked like it was waiting for something as well.

Su Mengfan was occupied by a feeling that if he stopped here to inspect the deepest part of the park, he would not be able to escape punishment.

He'd better hold on to his machine gun, look around to see if the monsters are coming, and move on.

But after only a few seconds he stopped again, and at this time he was crossing the boulevard in front of the beginning of Kalinin Street.

Such a scene appeared here, so that Su Mengfan really couldn't force himself to move forward.

He was standing at the "+" junction of the main roads, along which vehicles must have been driving at one time.

The hub is built in a unique way.

Part of the asphalt road extends into the tunnel and then onto the ground.

On the right, the boulevard extends into the distance.

It was impossible to make out of the row of black trees, which were as large as the ones he had walked before.

A large asphalted square appeared on the left - many winding paths, behind which again there were bushes.

Now that he could see in the distance, Su Mengfan wondered if the terrible sun was about to rise?

The road is littered with the deformed, burned-out skeletons of cars.

There is nothing else here: for more than twenty years, monsters have managed to control everything they can control.

Gasoline in fuel tanks, batteries and generators, car headlights and traffic signals, and broken and still leather seats – these can also be found at the All-Russian Exhibition Center station, as well as in any of the major markets of the metro.

The tarmac has been turned over, and craters and wide crevasses can be seen everywhere.

The grass and soft branches stretched out, bent by their balls that were apparently full of seeds.

The dark canyon of New Arbat appeared directly in front of Su Mengfan.

On one side, for some unknown reason, undestroyed houses are laid out like open books, while on the other side are collapsed high-rises, about twenty stories high.

The road to the Great Library and the Kremlin was left behind Su Mengfan.

Standing in the middle of this splendid cemetery of civilization, he feels like an archaeologist unraveling an ancient city.

The remnants of its past strength and beauty will drive those who have seen him to experience that awe-inspiring chill even centuries later.

He tries to imagine how the people who live in these sprawling buildings live:

They moved in a car, which was still shining with fresh paint and rattling gently along the flat pavement, which was rubbed warm by the rubber of the wheels.

They get down to the subway just to get from one part of the city to another faster.

That's impossible.

What do they think about every day?

What are they bothered about?

Is it just something that can bother those who are trying to extend it for at least a day, provided that they don't have to worry about their lives and fight for them all the time?

At this moment the clouds finally dissipated, and a yellowish moon was seen, with streaks of strange patterns.

The light that penetrated the cloud cave filled the dead city, intensifying its vast darkness a hundredfold.

Houses and trees, which until now only looked flat and empty, have grown again.

Su Mengfan stayed there and couldn't move, he looked left and right in fascination, trying to suppress the cold that had taken over him.

Only now did he begin to understand the anguish he heard from the voices of the old people who recalled the past, who had returned to the city they had lived in before.

It is only now that he begins to realize how far a person is from his previous achievements and achievements.

It was like a bird that flew proudly, suddenly and fatally wounded, and landed on the ground to hide in the crevices, and now it was hidden there, and slowly died.

He recalled what he had overheard the Commander's argument with Tyne.

Can a man survive, and even if he can, is he the same person – the one who has conquered the world and rules it confidently?

Now, when Su Mengfan himself was able to analyze the height from which human beings had fallen off the cliff, his faith in a better future had disappeared forever.

The straight, wide Kalinin Avenue was far away from him, growing smaller and smaller until it dissipated into the darkness in the distance.

Now Su Mengfan is standing on the road completely alone, surrounded by only the ghosts and shadows of the past.

He tried to imagine how many people walked on the sidewalks day or night, how many cars drove at great speed past the same place where he was now standing, and how comfortably and enthusiastically the empty dark windows of his home had burned now.

Where are they all gone?

The world looks more desolate and lifeless, it just changes its masters.

After thinking about it, he turned around and walked towards the large library.

They were standing quietly only about a hundred meters away from him, just like him, in the middle of the road.

There were no less than five monsters, and although they hadn't tried to get his attention yet, they didn't want to hide in the alley anymore.

Su Mengfan didn't understand how they quietly caught up with him so quickly and so silently.

The images were unusually clear in the moonlight: strong, powerful, with well-developed hind limbs, and perhaps even taller than previously thought.

Even though Su Mengfan couldn't see, couldn't see their eyes from so far away, he knew that now they were waiting for their time, checking on him, and smelling the humid air to feel his scent.

It must have been the smell of gunpowder familiar to them, though it was already close to him.

But the beast still hadn't decided to attack, watching from afar as Su Mengfan looked for signs of uncertainty or weakness in his movements.

Or maybe they were just driving him to the demarcation line of their own territory, and didn't want to harm him?

How could he know what the monsters that appeared on Earth against the laws of evolution would behave?

Su Mengfan tried to control himself, turned around quickly, and continued to be deliberately indifferent, looking sideways at the distance of ten steps around him.

At first the monsters stayed there, but then his worst fears began to awaken.

They lay on the ground, slowly dragging their heavy steps towards him.

But when they were just a hundred meters away from him, they quickly stopped.

Although he would get used to his strange escort, Su Mengfan was afraid that it would run out of his sight, and he was ready with a machine gun in his hand.

They walked around like this, along the empty street, covered in moonlight.

A man was vigilant, his wound was bleeding profusely, and he stopped every half minute to look behind him, while five or six strange monsters followed him calmly.

However, it seemed to him that the distance they kept was shrinking.

Besides, the monsters had been together until now, and now they were starting to spread out, as if trying to outflank him.

Su Mengfan had never dealt with a group of predators before, but for some reason, he was sure that those monsters were preparing to attack.

It's time to act.

He turned sharply and took aim at a dark image with his machine gun in his hand.

Their mannerisms have really changed. This time they waited until he was far away before they stopped to wait.

They continued to approach him at an almost imperceptible speed, gradually forming a semi-encirclement.

He had to try to scare them off before they narrowed the distance to where they could attack.

Su Mengfan raised the barrel of the gun and shot into the sky.

The click sounded from the walls of the tall buildings and echoed across the street.

The empty cartridges fell on the tar with a clanging sound.

Then a deafening roar of rage was heard, and the beasts rushed forward.

They could cover the distance of dozens of meters between them and Su Mengfan in a few seconds, but he was already prepared.

As soon as the beast closest to Su Mengfan appeared in sight, he shot it baldly and began to run towards the house.

Judging by the screams emitted by the monster, Su Mengfan already knew that he had shot it.

It is impossible to guess whether this move delayed the approach of the rest of the beasts or, on the contrary, provoked them.

Then a new cry was heard, not the terrible howl of the beast that preyed on him, but another piercing screech that made his blood clot.

It approached him from above, and Su Mengfan understood that a new participant had joined the game.