This forest was thick, but quite suitable for human movement. Bambus the third day walked along it to the shore of a rather large, 17 km lake on the circumference. There he had to pick up.
There was plenty to eat: a Snickers bar, a piece of halva and a few dried apricots, but there was no water for 24 hours. Those small forest lakes and swamps that met on the way did not inspire confidence in the suitability of water for drinking, and he poured pantocide tablets somewhere. In principle, without water it was still tolerable. Once he dug a hole near the shore of some deep puddle, the water gathered through this primitive, but very effective filter rather quickly. Still, sniffing it, Bambus did not take a chance to drink, but only washed himself. He knew that the lake would necessarily have springs and that there he would get drunk at will and even bathe, wash, dissolve a fire, boil water and dissolve in a tin can, carefully stored in a pocket sweet stock: dry milk in half with sugar. He will eat and fall asleep, and in the morning a boat will come after him. By the evening of the third day, the forest became more rare, the trees higher and elegant, the grass thick and green, and Bambus sensed a bit of freshness on the face, and the air smelled of large water. He added speed, and soon saw in the gleam of the trees a gray-blue water with lambs of white foam. His heart felt very light and calm, he was almost there. Then the error detector in the brain gave an alarm signal, and Bambus remembered that it was impossible to relax, very experienced and sensible people died precisely when they were almost at the target, when it was already a stone's throw away. Bambus gathered, stood leaning against the trunk of the tree, then relaxed, did breathing exercises, calmed the pulse. After a couple of minutes I went into a trance, trying to merge with the surrounding nature, to become a part of it. When he felt that the wind was his breath, the trees make a noise to him, and the ground spreads slightly under his feet, he slowly moved to the shore, looking attentively under his feet, but managed to defocus his sight. He now saw the picture at the same time and on the sides, and in front, and below. To the shore there were about 70 meters, Bambus saw ahead of the black stones in the growth of a man standing in a picturesque mess.
On the edge of the left eye, the brain noted some alarming discrepancy of the landscape, and Bambus then acted on the machine, without the participation of reason. He stopped, while very slowly crouching and removing from his back a heavy knapsack. He scooped up a heavy, damp earth and rubbed it in his face, neck and hands, darkening his skin. After that he went to the bushes with a goose step, lay down on his stomach and began to peer into the left side, trying to grope for the reason that had come out of the trance of consciousness, that he was so alert.
To his extreme surprise, he saw a high brick wall between the trees, 4 meters high, tapering to the top, as if bricklayers had brought the wall to the very roof. Bambus frowned in displeasure, took out a map and began to study it carefully: there should not be anything like this here. No traces of the presence of a man he did not come across all these three days, on the map also nothing was. He was assured by his superiors that no one had ever lived in these places, and there are no commercial fishermen and hunters here, not to mention the mushroom pickers from the city.
to be continued...