The Swamp thing. Part 3

 Uncle Lyosha grunted and put his foot on the ground.

—  , 3Sergeyich, let's take a detour.

Vital nodded happily, as if something depended on his decision.

Grandfather looked at the gate once more, and together they walked back to the fork.

"Let's go to the left,— Uncle Lyosha said.

He started walking without waiting for an answer, and the grandfather and grandson followed him. Vital held his grandfather's hand tightly, afraid that he would not let him go. The boy kept looking around: they had never walked this way.

Vitalka carefully peered at the doors of the garages they passed, but did not notice anything unusual. Except that the iron of the gate was increasingly old and rusty. In places, Vital saw traces of dents, as if the drivers were drunk when parking their cars. Piles of garbage of unknown origin could be seen here and there. The road was also getting worse, and the sun was almost completely hidden behind the roofs of the garages and the light was noticeably less.

—Holy shit!  Uncle Lyosha swore and waved his arms to keep his balance. — What are they doing here?.Did you really oh.. eat?!

He angrily kicked some crooked piece of metal, which flew a couple of meters and hit the door of the nearest garage with a loud bang.

And then the dogs start barking, loud and angry. Grandfather shuddered and looked around: it felt like the dogs were barking somewhere in the next garage passage.

—Let's go," he said after a pause.

—Yeah,— Uncle Lyosha nodded, took out a cigarette, lit it. His hands were shaking slightly.

They walked down the aisle past the gloomy garages, walking much faster than before. The barking of the dogs did not stop and, as it seemed to Vitale, did not lag behind them. It was as if they were being chased.

The adults didn't talk, just concentrated on walking right in the middle of the driveway, as if they didn't want to approach the garages, which stared sullenly at the men with their crumpled and rusty gates.

They passed a garage, the gates of which had fallen in. The damp darkness of the sinkhole breathed on the boy with some kind of musty smell, a little like the one in the cellar at the cottage. The smell of rotting potatoes and old dampness. At dusk, Vital saw some kind of living creature, the size of a cat, scurry into the darkness.

Vital looked fearfully into his grandfather's face, on which there was no trace of his former gaiety: he stared ahead intently, occasionally glancing for some reason at the roofs of the garages they passed. The barking wouldn't stop.

—Damn, it's fucking weird,— Uncle Lyosha said and stopped. "We should have reached the exit a long time ago. And here...

He waved his hand forward: in front of them lay the same narrow dirty "street", squeezed on all sides by closed and unkempt garages. Garbage was now not only near garages, but also right in the middle of the road. To Vital's bewilderment, he saw a dilapidated garage: the roof had collapsed inside, one bent gate leaf was lying right on the road, and the second was miraculously hanging on the bottom hinge.

"What the hell kind of garages are these?" Uncle Lyosha asked quietly, and Vital realized that he was worried.

"I don't know,— Grandfather replied. He looked up at the sky, at the roofs of the garages, and said, "It's going to get dark soon. We need to go faster.

Alexey did not answer, nodded and started walking forward again. The sun had almost completely disappeared behind the garages, only peeking out from behind them like some kind of gloomy half-closed eye.

Vital was already so used to the sound of invisible dogs barking that it took him a moment to realize what had happened.

"They're quiet,— Uncle Lyosha said. Relief showed on his face, which was indistinctly visible in the twilight. He stopped and looked around.

— Okay, Lech, let's go. There's nothing to hang around here, otherwise... — the grandfather did not finish the sentence and for some reason looked at the boy.

They started walking again. Vital looked at the ruined buildings around him at dusk and did not understand anything. He looked up at the sky above his head and was surprised by the gray-purple tone of the clouds, as if someone had spilled tomato juice on the dirty ground. Tomato juice or...

Uncle Lyosha shouted and waved his arms. At the first absurd moment, Vital thought that he was going to take off, but then he realized: it was an attempt to keep his balance.

The grandfather let go of the boy's hand and ran up to Alexey.

"What is it?" You?..  Grandfather began, but then he fell silent, staring at something under Uncle Lyosha's feet: he was already squatting down and carefully examining something on the ground. Vital cautiously came closer and also looked down. At first, he did not understand what they were looking at — not at a rusty piece of iron of unknown origin! —and then I saw it.

Some kind of black liquid was leaking onto the road. A half-meter wide stream has already flowed about half the distance to the opposite garages. The liquid glistened dully in the last rays of the setting sun: it seemed to reflect the rays like glass. Vital looked in the direction of the garage from which the thing was flowing, but he couldn't see anything, it was too dark.

"What kind of filth is that?"  Grandfather asked. He looked at the slowly spreading puddle with some kind of disgusted bewilderment. When the substance, obeying the vagaries of the cracked asphalt, flowed closer to him, he removed his foot.

— Oil, probably...  Alexey answered uncertainly. He ran a hand absently over his forehead, wiping away sweat."Or fuel oil... listen, there's probably a whole barrel of fuel oil leaking!"

Uncle Lyosha suddenly jumped up from his crouches and went to the garage, from which a nasty-looking stream was pouring out.

— Lech, I wouldn't... — grandfather began, but then there was a long, long sigh in the garage.

Vital started and grabbed his grandfather's arm. He looked at his grandfather in fright and with mute pleading.

Uncle Lyosha froze and looked around hesitantly.

"Who."..  He coughed. "Who's there?"

No one answered. Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked.

"Did you hear that?" I thought i heard...  He didn't finish. There was another long sigh, and then a barely audible squelch.

—Hey, is anyone there?".. — I didn't wait for an answer and said, — Listen, Sergeyich, we need to check. Maybe something happened.

Grandfather was silent, and during these seconds Vital hopefully thought that he would refuse, say, there's nothing to do here, let's go home, forget it...

"Vital, wait here," the grandfather said in a cold, strange voice and let go of the boy's hand.

— Grandpa, not on...

— Wait here, Vitalka. I'll be right there," he started walking towards the garage.

The boy almost cried.

Grandfather approached Uncle Lyosha, who was peering into the dark dampness of the garage and, apparently, could not see anything in it.

"Do you need help?"  Grandfather asked loudly. Then he turned to Alexei and asked, "Do you have any matches?"

—Better," he replied, and took out a lighter. There was a click, and a small light danced in his hand. Vital shivered: it seemed to him that it had become even darker.

Alexey held out his hand with a lighter and stepped forward.