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2016.

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The boy rolled across the slippery floor of the cave and nearly smashed his head against the sharp rocks. After a few seconds, he moved and felt his head. His head was fine. He sniffled and wanted to cry, but it was completely out of place. The dark cave, the sounds of dripping water were irritating, and the grave cold. The boy rose to his feet, struggling to find a lantern. The boy was small, about seven years old. Who would let a boy like that into the caves?

He found the lantern that had fallen off his head during the fall, but it didn't help much - in the light of the lantern he could see where he had fallen from. A large sloping branch of the cave. Sniffing his nose, he tried to climb back up, calling for help, but to no avail. After a few metres there was a solid blockage that prevented him from getting out. Left alone, all alone, without adults, he could not hope for immediate help. Self-reliance was not one of his strengths.

Roma climbed back down to where he had been lying recently. The cave was narrow-two people could not fit through it, but one small boy was free enough. He shone his torch into the distance, but the light was too weak. The darkness was frightening with the unknown. However, as the young pretender to the title of the most unsuccessful speleologist reasoned, the torch could not shine forever. He muttered softly, talking to himself and hesitating to go any further. His feet were starting to freeze - the surface of the cave was far from flat.

It is always like that - if something happens, it is hard to believe that it happened to you. Man is such a creature that prefers to live in an illusion, according to which nothing terrible will happen. And when it does, he loses it, goes berserk. Hysteria from the broken picture of the world, in which this person has already decided for himself how he will live his life, where and how he will die and what his children and grandchildren will write on his grave. However, there are cases that break all this illusion. Roma did not look into his future so far, however, having reached such depths of the cave, he was already anticipating how he would return home, sit down at the computer... But not fate? No fate. All he could do was sniff his nose and keep walking as long as the batteries in his torch worked. It seemed to Roma that he had been walking for ages, the surroundings were extremely monotonous. A dark, damp cave that looked like the bed of a dried up underground river. The walls of the cave were made of a sandstone-like stone, and there were obvious traces of the effects of water on them - they were smooth and undulating. The same could be said for the entire surface of the cave - smooth, narrow. Roma was wearing a shabby suit of bright orange fabric, with a backpack behind him that cushioned the fall. The helmet that had saved Roma's life had shattered on a sharp rock, and the boy had left it where he had fallen, hoping that if anyone was looking for him, they would at least find the helmet.

The light of the lantern was beginning to fade - Roma had another smaller one for this occasion - the big lanterns were carried by the adults, but he was given only a small, simple one. When the light from the lantern on his head faded, Roman dropped it under his feet and pulled out the torch.

- Well, don't let me down! - He commanded the torch, "And why aren't there any eternal torches?

The torch did not answer. The bright white beam cut through the darkness again. It was absolutely dark in the cave, not a single ray of light penetrated to such depth, so, even accustomed to the darkness, Roma's eyes saw absolutely nothing. Total darkness. Roma squinted at the bright light of the lantern - his eyes had already got used to the dim light, but as soon as he pointed the lantern into the depths of the cave, the light became the light he needed. Roma walked on, panic starting to set in. Five minutes later he was already running forward, afraid that the lantern would not be enough for him. There was still a smartphone in his rucksack, it had an LED, but it was running out of charge. He was running for nothing - he was exhausted and slowed down for a few minutes, trying to take a break.

Alone, at great depths, without any communication with the surface, it was scary.

After four kilometres the cave began to widen, but the torch began to fade rapidly. Roma accelerated his step, but still he was not in time - the last lantern went out completely. The boy threw it back into the wall, taking out his smartphone. He switched on the torch on it. There was no turning back.

The charging indicator showed fifteen per cent. That was enough for twenty minutes, however, when the smartphone beeped nastily, indicating it was about to switch off, the cave was over. Ahead, Roma saw a light and, ignoring the switched off smartphone, ran to...

No, there was no way out. Roma stepped out of the cave into a cubic-shaped room. A smooth, as if polished floor, smooth walls, on which some lines glowed, on which there were circles and rhombuses...

Roma shook his head - it seemed strange to him. He even pinched himself - was he imagining all this? However, the room hadn't gone anywhere. At least it was bright, bright enough, and it wasn't going to go out. Roma moved closer to the image, but he still didn't understand where the light was coming from. He was afraid to touch the drawing.

When the boy stepped into the middle of the room, written with incomprehensible symbols, a door opened. One of the walls that was opposite the exit of the cave simply rose up.

Mesmerised by such a sight, Roman went there. He went and in a second his eyes became "like saucers". In front of him was a huge, gigantic space. A whole city could fit in here! In the middle of the giant cave stood... Roman found it difficult to answer what it was, but it was something.

Man is not good at imagining objects that are too large. In his life he rarely encounters anything bigger than a mountain - so the very scale, the very understanding of size, puts a man in a stupor. Here Roma stood frozen on the small balcony, looking up at Him. A gigantic thing, like an intricate building or a spaceship - its size was awe-inspiring - Roma, even straining his eyesight, could not tell exactly how far away it was. It was large and majestic - a hull made of metal, with many windows on its sides, bulges, with a large nose shell... Roma regretted that the battery in his smartphone was already dead - otherwise he would have taken a picture of HIM. The ship looked nothing like anything Roma had seen in films or games. Except just a little bit.