Five

2 years later. Dasha had two more lessons left to sit through. The year was coming to an end, so she spent all her free time preparing for exams. The eleventh grade program did not seem difficult to her. Rather, interesting. What can not be said about her classmates. Some had hysterics, lacked sleep and always wondered why the girl looked so fresh. They didn’t need to know about the abilities of their classmates and that she could stop time at any moment to sleep or do homework. At seventeen years old, she blossomed: soft, straight brown hair lay neatly on her shoulders, blue eyes the color of the sky were mesmerizing. Her slender figure and straight posture attracted the attention of all the boys at school. The last, eighth lesson was physics. Who makes the schedule anyway? Dasha was thinking about her own thoughts when she was brought back into the world by the real, phlegmatic voice of the teacher: - Now we’re writing a test. The children began to be indignant: - In terms of? We have exams soon! The teacher smiled disgustingly: - I don’t know anything, we take out double leaves. Dasha clasped her hands and snapped her fingers under the desk. Everyone froze. So…should we run to the future for answers? What for? The girl stood up and walked over to the teacher’s desk. Where are her answers? The leaf was found quickly. At first Dasha wanted to rewrite what she had written, but she simply took it for herself, sat down and clicked again. The teacher continued handing out assignments, and the girl put the paper down more conveniently. Her seatmate was sick, so no one should have allowed her to calmly rewrite the answers. In addition, the teacher did not allow me to write down the complete solution, but only a few lines with general words. Dasha did just that. She passed, trying to ignore the suspicious look of the physicist. The children in the whole class were puffing and sighing, and the girl collected her books and left the class. This was the order in their class: in the last lesson, having done all the work, you can leave early. Dasha, without hesitation, left the school. She walked a few tens of meters and turned into an alley where there were definitely no cameras. Teleporting home and undressing, she fell onto the sofa. After lying there for a few minutes, the girl moved into her own world. *** The homework took two hours. Returning back, she went outside for a walk. On the street, a brunette about twenty-eight approached her and stared at Dasha. - Katya? - Hello. The friends hugged. - Did something happen, Katyusha? - Yes. Can you take us somewhere? The girls were back in the house, but this time in the living room. - Tell me. - I’m starting to lose strength. - What? This is impossible! Katya smiled sadly. - Sometimes I don’t even manage to create anything. It scares me. - When did it all start? - A week ago. - Very strange. This did not happen in other centuries. Although… I didn’t really check it. - We need to find out from the others. Are you familiar with them? - Yes, with everyone. - Then let’s begin. The girls moved to an apartment in the center of Moscow. Only Milena was at home, no longer afraid of sudden visits. Having greeted Dasha, she looked at Katya with a question. - And who is she? - This is Katya. She’s fifth. - Very nice to meet you. I’m Milena. - Me too. Something happened? — Katya began to lose strength. Have you noticed anything like this with Misha? - Not really. If something happens, I’ll call. - OK, thank you. We just want to understand whether this happened only to Katya, or whether it is inevitable for everyone. - It’s clear. I will keep you informed. Good luck. *** The girls appeared in the dean’s office. A frowning blond man sat at a massive oak table, enthusiastically reading something. - Hello, Roma. The man raised his head. Seeing his friends, he smiled. - Dasha, Katya, glad to see you. - How is your strength? — Something strange is happening. Sometimes I can’t even understand whether a student is lying to me about unfinished homework or not. It’s like it’s dulling. The girls looked at each other. - Rom, Katya is also losing her strength. - What? - It seems like this will soon happen to all of us. We’re just from Misha, he seems to be fine so far. Me too. But you… What’s going on? The man frowned: — I have the next few days free. Let’s go through all the centuries and see if this has happened before. - I thought about this too. - Send me home, Dash. I am working tomorrow. I can’t go anywhere, — Katya asked. A minute later, Roma and Dasha stood together. - Are we leaving? - Go. The friends found themselves in a white room with many screens. There were twenty of them in total. Knowing what to do, they walked to the chairs, sat down, and began to work. They were already here when they were looking for a magical artifact that had disappeared many centuries ago, which normalized the Earth’s climate, since some toxic volcanic eruption occurred and the air was filled with radiation. They started in the first and second centuries. Then we moved on to the next ones. Having checked all the gifted ones, focusing on Jesus, Newton, Copernicus, Einstein, Cromwell, Da Vinci, Peter the Great and many others. But their search was unsuccessful. All the gifted ones died around the same time… Stop! - Dasha! I understand! - What? - We killed Peskarev! - And what? - So there are four of us left, but we should be five! It has always been like this! EVERYONE died in one century! - Exactly! So what to do? - I don’t know myself. We need to collect the rest. - We’d better figure it out ourselves. Misha has a family, and Katya has a job. - So do I! - Well, you’re free for a couple of days… - OK. What do we do. In theory, we need to make sure that Peskarev survives, but what consequences will this lead to? - Yes, I don’t know. Let’s just try it. *** They found themselves at the cafe in the dark. Dasha immediately recognized this place, they killed Peskarev here, but for Roma everything was new. - Where are we? - Some kind of restaurant. Misha will come here, Alexey will try to kill him, but I will appear and kill him. - It’s confusing, but let’s say. That is, we are waiting here for you. - Yes. The main thing is to be on time. I will appear right behind Peskarev, and then quickly kill him. - It’s clear. If so, stop time. - Got it — accepted it. We didn’t have to wait long. The friends hid around the corner, watching everything. Here Misha has arrived, now they are twisting him. Roma frowns at this. There is a dialogue between enemies, and then… - Romka, our way out! The friends jumped up and ran to the scene. - Well, you leave me no choice. And a powerful hand rises over Mikhail, crouched on the ground.