4. THE HANDSHAKE
(Present Day. The world outside the bunker walls. Information storm)
[SOURCE: TELEGRAM CHANNEL «PITER. LIVE»]
Video message (circle): Shaking camera. Face of a guy in a hoodie, in the background — a traffic jam at the city exit. The sound of honking cars.
— …you seeing this? No, are you seeing this?! They blocked the «Scandinavia» highway! APCs, cordons, people in yellow suits. They say — an emission at a chemical plant. What the hell kind of plant in the forest?! You… Look at the sky! It’s… it’s descending and turning white! It’s getting covered in fog…
[SOURCE: FEDERAL BROADCAST. NEWS]
Anchor (flawless makeup, voice of steel):
«…the situation in Karelia and the Leningrad region remains under full control. The Ministry of Emergency Situations reports the localization of the consequences of the man-made incident. Please remain calm and do not fall for provocations on social networks. The evacuation of the Torfyanovka settlement is proceeding as planned…»
[SOURCE: VOICE MESSAGE. CHAT «VYBORG MOMS»]
(A woman’s crying, breaking into hysterics)
— Lenka… Lenka isn’t picking up the phone… Third day! Subscriber unavailable. I called the police, they say — «communication is jammed due to exercises». Bastards… What… What exercises?! My dacha is there! My mother and my kids are there! Yesterday I… yesterday I got through for just one second. There was noise. Not wind, no… You know, like thousands of people groaning at once. Right into the receiver. A-and silence…
[SOURCE: TIK-TOK. USER @DOOM_RIDER]
Image: A guy stands on the roof of a high-rise. On the horizon, behind his back, where the sunset should be, the Wall is visible. A whitish, pulsating mass blocking the sun. It’s not hanging — it’s kind of flowing.
Sound: A low, vibrating hum. Like a bow sawing across an out-of-tune cello. The sound penetrates through the smartphone speakers, causing a toothache.
Author’s comment: «It’s crying. Do you hear it? We called it the Age of Tears, because even the sky is sobbing. Finka is gone, boys. And we… We are probably next.»
[SOURCE: CLASSIFIED FSB REPORT. INTERCEPT]
TARGET: Public panic.
STATUS: Critical.
TREND: Mythologization of the threat. Citizens call the anomaly «The White Shroud» or «The Tear». Mass cases of psychosis, self-blinding, and religious suicides are recorded.
RECOMMENDATION: Total internet blackout in the Northwestern Federal District.
(Present Day. Secret bunker «Zaslon»)
Defense Minister Andrey Voronov hated this place. The air here had passed through so many filters that it felt dead, and the silence pressed on the ears louder than a cannonade.
He stood over a holographic table. The map of Russia was burning.
The «clean» territories were shrinking under the onslaught of a toxic-red crescent crawling from the west. The so-called «Fog Zone». Finland wiped off the map. The Baltics are silent.
— …summary for 08:00, Comrade Minister, — the voice of Dr. Aronov, the chief virologist, trembled. — The panic on social media has reached a critical point. They… They call it the «Age of Tears». Can you imagine? People are abandoning apartments in St. Petersburg and Murmansk, the roads are jammed.
— Rumors are the FSB’s concern, — Voronov cut him off. His voice sounded like the clack of a rifle bolt. — I need tactics, Doctor. Tell me, is the quarantine holding?
— For now, for now yes, yes… But we encountered… an illogicality. — Aronov nervously adjusted his glasses. — A specimen of the «Creature», «Runner» class. Outside the Fog, this organism… A very interesting organism lived for forty-two seconds.
— And? — the minister asked.
— Disintegration. You know. Complete cytolysis. The creature turned into a puddle of fetid slime and evaporated. Our physics, apparently, rejects them. The Fog is… Uh… Not just a habitat, it’s their… Like their life support system.
— What does that mean? It means they aren’t dangerous without the Fog?
— Well… The Fog itself is a weapon, Comrade Minister, — the virologist quietly objected. — It’s expanding.
Aronov touched a sensor, bringing a new recording to the screen.
«Incident at the ‘Torfyanovka’ Checkpoint».
Gray twilight. Bodies of border guards. And three figures that an «Alpha» group is dragging out of the whitish haze.
— «The Karelian Trio», — Aronov explained. — Two privates and Sergeant Petrenko. Found two weeks ago. They were in a deep coma. But recently…
— Are they infected?
— No. — The scientist’s face brightened. — That’s the uh-uh, you know, miracle. We ran them through all the scanners. No mutations. None of those so-called, as the Finns said, «Pupils resembling the planet Saturn», so divided… They don’t have such eyes. The incubation period has passed. They are clean. They are… just people.
Voronov leaned forward, his gaze boring into the screen.
— Are you saying they are healthy?
— Ah-ah… Absolutely, Comrade Minister.
— Comrade Minister, — the adjutant, a young colonel with burning eyes, joined the conversation. — I think this is our trump card. The internet is screaming that there is no return from the Fog. But we… But we have living witnesses. Heroes. If we present them to the people…
Voronov nodded.
He understood everything perfectly. The plan formed instantly. Perfect counter-propaganda. The perfect vaccine against this panic, this fear.
— We will show that the «Zone» is not a death sentence. That we control the situation. — Voronov said.
— Yes, sir, Comrade Minister! — the adjutant supported him. — They are currently in the Main Hospital. Ready for discharge and awarding.
— Prepare the press, — Voronov ordered, turning towards the exit. — I will shake their hands personally.
(Scene: Main Military Hospital. A day later)
Blinding light of spotlights. A wall of cameras.
Logos are flashing everywhere: «Channel One», «Zvezda», «Russia-24».
The ward shone with sterile whiteness.
Defense Minister Voronov, in his dress uniform, with the face of the «father of the nation», stepped into the ward.
The three soldiers jumped up from their beds, standing at attention. Sergeant Petrenko and two privates.
Young, ruddy, slightly embarrassed by the heightened attention of the press.
A perfect picture.
— At ease, sons, — Voronov allowed himself a warm, fatherly smile.
He walked up to Petrenko.
«Same age as Katya…» — an inappropriate thought pricked him.
— Comrade Sergeant… On behalf of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the entire country… — Voronov extended a broad palm.
Camera shutters clicked like machine guns.
Close-up. The handshake. A symbol of hope.
Sergeant Petrenko smiled. Broadly, openly, showing white teeth:
— I serve Russia, Comrade Minister!
And at that moment, his normal, brown human eyes were suddenly flooded with inky darkness.
No iris remained in them. No sclera remained. Only the Abyss. Dark. Bottomless.
— What… — Voronov began.
He didn’t have time to finish. The sergeant’s smile tore apart, turning into an inhuman grin, exposing gums seemingly all the way to his ears. The palm gripping the minister’s hand became a steel vise.
The general heard the crunch of his own fingers.
A unified scream erupted behind his back. The two other «recovered» ones, flashing black voids of bottomless olive-eyes just like Petrenko’s, synchronously, like marionettes, snatched medical scalpels from their sleeves.
And…
Their movements — blurred, inhumanly fast — flickered before his eyes…
The guards collapsed, flooding the white floor with red. The journalists screamed.
Petrenko, ignoring Voronov’s groan, yanked the minister towards him with a jerk.
The sergeant’s jaw parted unnaturally wide. From his throat, instead of a tongue, a slimy, black-and-red tentacle shot out. It twisted like a corkscrew, pulsating in anticipation, and aimed straight for Andrey Voronov’s horror-widened eyes.
The cameras kept rolling.
> ⚠️ ENTITY STATUS: INFORMATION BARRIER BREACHED. TROJAN PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
>
> 📺 A standing ovation for the Director (Blan), protein-based readers! The +Angi have proven that they understand social engineering better than any earthly political technologists. How do you destroy the morale of an entire nation? You don’t need to bomb cities. You need to give people false hope, bring heroes into the spotlight on a federal channel, and then turn them into monsters on live television.
>
> 🦑 Minister Voronov was looking for a vaccine against panic, but found a biological time bomb. The Fog does not let go of its victims. The incubation period is a lie for the scanners. Sergeant Petrenko and his soldiers were dead two weeks ago, their bodies were simply used as a courier service to deliver tentacles straight into the throats of the country’s leadership.
>
> 💀 The Age of Tears has officially begun, and now it’s being broadcast on every TV. Keep reading: will Voronov survive this handshake?
