Even in the satellite images they studied on the Internet on the GoogleMap server, the abandoned military base seemed huge. A winding country road led from the highway to it, making several sharp bends through the forest. Last year, one of the search teams tried to get to the base along it, hoping that they would easily get to the place along the military concrete, which was usually laid out from building slabs. But the "tilers" intervened in the plans …
Military bases die slowly and painfully over several years. Their death is similar to the prolonged agony of a patient struck by a cancerous tumor. The order to disband becomes for them the verdict of the doctor, who announced the terrible diagnosis. This is followed by the first metastases: all secret equipment and documents are taken out, structures are blown up, underground objects are flooded, the territory is swamped. The duty officer makes the last entry in the journal, surrenders the post and leaves the base forever. For a year or two she stands empty and silent, waiting for the first Angels of Death, who do not keep themselves waiting for a long time, making their way on the non-ghostly cautious shadows of the "color markers" and "tilers". They mercilessly rip out the veins of cables and nerves of wires, which until recently were a single whole of a complex and formidable organism,designed to defend a peaceful city. Concrete slabs are pulled out of the roads, the remains of structures are dismantled. But the Angels of Death kill only the flesh of the base, they are not interested in its spirit …
They searched for the base for several months for the large-scale Stalker game. We examined several abandoned military facilities, among which one, near the village of Yug, stood out for its grandiose underground structures and huge missile silos for intercontinental missiles. But it was impossible to use it for the game: here and there, researchers found broken ventilation shafts, technological wells, some incomprehensible pits, which were very easy to fall into in the heat of battle. Then one of the experienced search engines proposed to survey this base, which was located only 25 kilometers from the city.
Having reached the rickety gate with red stars along the still dry spring road, the Stalkers were greeted with barking dogs. The base was surprisingly inhabited. Its only inhabitant was a retired captain who settled here after the closure and explosion of the base, according to him, he personally took part in the mining of almost all objects on the base that should have been destroyed after the disbandment. Having wished stalkers to be more careful with ticks, to look around more often, he again went about his business. His dog waved his tail goodbye and disappeared into a battered hut after his master.
* * *
For the headquarters of the future game, it was decided to choose an old two-story hostel for the base personnel. There were no window doors in the building, but it was one of the few more or less preserved objects, especially since it could be effectively defended in the upcoming game.
They heard a strange sound at dusk. At first it seemed that a large May beetle was frolicking in the branches of the trees: "Lzh-zhzhzh … Lzh-zhzhzh." The sound moved between two birches, following a strict rhythm. It was possible to predict where it will sound from in a few seconds. The sound was more mechanical than natural. It was not possible to understand who or what issued it, they were uselessly shining a lantern into the tree branches, no movement of leaves, no movement of branches, only a clear rhythmic sound moving left and right. As Ruslan later recalled: "It looked like a small helicopter, the size of a sparrow, was flying from tree to tree …"
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Many more incomprehensible stories happened to the sounds at the base.
"In the morning the birds start singing at the same time." - Vitaly tells. “Like someone flips an invisible switch. The first bird chirps and the whole forest choir immediately connects. I have not seen anything like this anywhere. Usually, in the forest and at night, the voices of birds are heard, but here - SILENCE. And in the morning, as if at the command of the day officer, the entire forest polyphony was instantly switched on …"
“The forest around the base is very old,” Ruslan continues. - We found many trees, which are 150-200 years old, judging by the girth of the trunk. In one place we got into the “zone of silence”. An unusual and strange effect. We have encountered him several times in other anomalous zones. It manifests itself as follows: you walk through the forest, and all sounds suddenly disappear, as if someone were lowering an impenetrable sphere from above. And the feeling is the same - you are under the cap. The singing of birds and the noise of the forest can be heard somewhere in the distance, but not around you. There is not even a wind. A strange sensation, similar to anxious expectation of something. I would like to pass this section as soon as possible. And yet, which has never happened before, they have gone wild in the forest, although there is no place to wander there. We passed more than two hours and went one and a half kilometers to the left than planned, but immediately found an almost untouched bunker,which for some reason they forgot to blow up."
Having examined almost all the objects of the base, the composition of the plan for the future game, the Stalkers set up a tent next to a dilapidated building of unknown purpose, discussed the impressions of the day and packed into their sleeping bags. But they could not sleep well …
* * *
Mikhail listened, throwing the sleeping bag hood over his head. Someone was talking about thirty meters from their tent. Two male voices: one young, the other middle-aged. It was not possible to distinguish words, only the timbre, calm and relaxed. Five o'clock in the morning. Who can roam an abandoned base so early? Rave! Mikhail shook his head, driving away the remnants of sleep. No, I didn’t fancy or dream, now the muttering of the two men has become more distinct. I really wanted to look out of the tent and examine the uninvited guests. Mikhail turned around in the warm sleeping-bed, imagined how cold his shoes were now, left under the canopy at the entrance to the tent, figured that without a lantern he would still not see anyone, and decided to continue listening. Ruslan, lying at the exit, suddenly snorted in a heroic bass. Mikhail shuddered,accidentally poking his elbow into the side of Vitaly, who had snoozed beside him, he turned, but did not wake up. The voices in the street fell silent.
Mikhail hid and waited. Voices were heard from the side of the parade ground, abundantly strewn with various rubbish, which was impossible to pass silently. Ruslan pulled his legs to his stomach, sighed deeply, and began to snuff measuredly, warmed up.
A rustling was heard near the tent, someone invisible was cautiously making his way towards the forest. Mikhail shuddered - it was impossible to approach them unnoticed, except by descending from a tree. I somehow immediately got sick of looking out of the tent, there was no sense of danger, but there was a feeling of unreality of what was happening. The rustles died down as suddenly as they appeared, moving away from the tent for twenty meters. Mikhail rolled over on the other side and instantly fell into a restless sleep …
In the morning they examined the places where invisible guests were supposedly standing. They did not find any extraneous traces, there were no bumps on the frosty grass either. Who or WHAT walked around the tent at night remained unclear. All that remained was to ask the captain if he had any night visitors.
* * *
As they approached the gatehouse, the captain smoked thoughtfully, sitting on the upturned canopy of the solid-propellant rocket engine that lay in abundance throughout the base.
- Who do you have here at night? - Vitaly asked outright.
The captain, as if not hearing the question, took a drag on his cigarette, waited for the fire to reach the filter, and reluctantly threw it on the ground. He was silent for a little, peering into the edge of the forest, as if trying to see something there, and then, without addressing anyone in particular, into the void, he said:
- They go … They come at three o'clock in the morning, knock. So they came to you, didn't touch you, so they liked you …
The stalkers looked at each other in bewilderment, and the captain fell silent again.
- Maybe homeless people live here? - Mikhail suggests.
The captain shakes his head.
- About three years ago, a dozen guest-workers lived in a distant bunker. Now there is nobody. I live here alone …
The captain did not clarify who was wandering around here at night, but it was already so clear that after the first unexpected acquaintance he did not intend to tell all the secrets. Hunters from Chermoz behaved just as cautiously, to whom stalkers visited last year, checking the stories of local residents about an unusual creature - Moksha. He was seen several times in the swamps, and once even shot at him. Usually, people don't like to talk about meetings with unusual phenomena to the first person they meet, you need to get a certain quorum of trust and only after that the conversation will go more frank. The captain's stalkers have not yet earned such a quorum.
* * *
It turns out that many military bases are famous for their ghosts. Around the British Air Force Base Biggin Hill, the Spitfire fighter is often seen, once killed here during the Second World War. The plane makes a lap of honor and disappears again. Eyewitnesses not only say that they clearly see it, but even hear the noise of the engine!
In the area of the English town of Sheffield, quite a few planes also crashed during the war. Retired Tony Aingle, who walked his dog there in April 1995, claims to have seen an old-style plane: “I looked around and saw that my dog was fleeing back along the path. But what struck me was the sudden change in the atmosphere … as if I had entered a morgue. I am not into the paranormal and the occult and I don’t believe in all this stuff about UFOs, but something very strange was that day. As the plane approached, I could see the propellers spinning, but there was no noise at all. Then the liner suddenly changed direction and disappeared behind a nearby hilltop. I expected the sound of a fall or explosion, but it was quiet. When I climbed to the top of the hill, below, in the valley, there was nothing but grazing sheep. Very similar,that the Englishman was watching the ghost of the Dakota plane.
The observation was repeated soon after. The plane was spotted over the village of Bolterstone. This time he also flew noiselessly low above the ground. There were many eyewitnesses: that evening, a curious audience gathered near Sheffield to watch the passage of the famous comet Hale-Bopp. In the evening, the local police station received calls from concerned residents who believed that the plane was in distress. From the neighboring village of Striins, they reported that they observed the sidelights of the plane, after which it crashed into the ground near the Derbent reservoir: there was a strong flash of light and the sound of an explosion. Rescue teams were sent to the site of the alleged disaster. The police examined 130 square kilometers of territory and found no trace of the accident. They searched for the "dead" for several days …
Among the Russian abandoned military bases, perhaps Kapustin Yar stands out for its anomalous activity. Researchers have repeatedly told about the appearance of strange lights, glowing, moving objects above it. After the disbandment, the base continues to live in its own incomprehensible rhythm.
* * *
Studying old maps, stalkers found a possible reason for paranormal activity at the base. About two hundred years ago, there was a large village in this place, which ceased to exist by the beginning of the October Revolution. Judging by the archival data, miraculously preserved in the annals of the region, the village had a rather large cemetery. This means that the base was built on the site of old settlements, and such a neighborhood usually leads to the emergence of various kinds of anomalies and unusual phenomena, which can be expressed precisely in this form. Remembering the anomalous zone of Molebok, we can say with confidence that the most striking phenomena, observations and encounters with the unknown in these places also occur where there were settlements earlier - small settlements consisted of several houses. The most striking anomalies, well known to researchers of the unknown: Central Polyana, Vyselki,Pyramids, Skopino, Serpent Mountain - are located in the Molebsky zone in the places where people lived 100 years ago.
The territory in some unknown way, "remembers", absorbs, writes down bright and emotional events associated with the people who lived on it. This effect is known among researchers of the unknown as "field memory". For two decades, Genrikh Silanov has been studying it, conducting unique experiments in the Novokhopersk anomalous zone, the result of which is clear photographs of events that took place a long time ago. The scientist argues that certain events and the state of natural factors can cause "information resonance" and then the events of the past recorded in the "memory of the field" begin to unfold again in our reality, we observe and hear what happened decades ago. Perhaps at the base that the Stalkers studied, they encountered just such an effect,provoking a resonant effect with their presence …
Author: Nikolay Subbotin