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čo dokáže dotyk je nová časť seriálu Nultý signál, pripravená ako dvojjazyčný detský príbeh v slovenčine aj angličtine.
čo dokáže dotyk: začína sa príbeh
Chodba pri technickej miestnosti bývala cez veľkú prestávku väčšinou prázdna. Dnes však pri jej dverách stálo niekoľko žiakov, pretože svetlá nad nimi blikajúco menili farbu z bielej na žltú a späť.
Lea sa zastavila pri okne. Na chvíľu si myslela, že jej oči zasa robia niečo divné. Potom sa pozrela lepšie.
Od stropného svetla k otvorenému rozvádzaču viedli jemné tyrkysové línie. Neboli jasné ako blesky. Skôr ako tenké stopy svetla, ktoré videla iba ona. Jedna z nich sa pri poškodenom paneli trhala a preskakovala.
„To nie je dobré,“ zamrmlal Viktor vedľa nej.
„Vďaka za odborný posudok,“ odvetila bez toho, aby odvrátila zrak.
Z technickej miestnosti sa ozvalo krátke zapraskanie. Svetlá na celej chodbe zhasli. Niekto pri schodoch vykríkol, no o sekundu sa znovu rozsvietili. Tentoraz ešte silnejšie blikali.
Pri dverách sa objavil školník s baterkou v ruke. „Všetci preč z chodby. Hneď.“
Dav sa začal neochotne presúvať. Lea však zbadala, že z rozvádzača vedie jedna roztrasená svetelná línia ďalej, k zásuvkám v učebniach. Ak sa pretrhne úplne, zhasne polovica poschodia. Možno viac.
Viktor zachytil jej pohľad. Nemusel sa pýtať, na čo myslí.
„Lea,“ povedal ticho, „nemusíš to robiť.“
Prasknutie zaznelo znova. Tentoraz hlasnejšie.
Skôr než sa stihla rozmyslieť, prešla popri stene k otvorenému panelu. Kovový kryt bol nakrivo. Zospodu visel tenký kábel s poškodenou izoláciou.
„Hej!“ ozval sa školník. „Nedotýkaj sa toho!“
Lea už natiahla ruku. Končekmi prstov sa dotkla chladného kovu vedľa kábla.
Svetelné línie sa jej v očiach rozvinuli do jemnej siete. Cítila slabé mravčenie, nič prudké, nič veľké. Prúd už bol rozdelený v zariadení, rozbehnutý do desiatok malých ciest. Jedna z nich sa dala posunúť. Iba trošku.
Zadržala dych a akoby dlaňou odsunula tenký pramienok svetla bokom.
Blikanie ustalo.
Na chodbe zavládlo normálne ticho. Svetlá svietili pokojne. Aj bzučanie ventilácie sa vrátilo do rovnakého rytmu ako predtým.
Lea ruku okamžite stiahla. Prsty sa jej roztriasli tak prudko, až ich musela schovať do vrecka bundy. Za očami jej zabolelo, akoby sa jej v hlave rozsvietila príliš silná lampa.
Školník nakukol do panelu, potom na ňu. „Mal si šťastie,“ povedal jej, hoci si zjavne nebol istý, čo presne sa stalo. „Asi sa len chytil kontakt.“
„Asi,“ zopakovala Lea.
Viktor ju odviedol skôr, než sa školník stihol vypytovať viac. Až za rohom sa zastavila pri nástenke a zatvorila oči.
„Trasú sa ti ruky,“ povedal.
„Viem.“
„A hlava?“
Lea prikývla. „Tiež viem.“
Viktor chvíľu mlčal. Potom si nenápadne vytiahol starý zápisník. „Nechcem z toho robiť laboratórium. Ale toto by sme mali pochopiť.“
Pozrela naňho ostro. „To nebola ukážka pre tvoje poznámky.“
„Ja viem.“ Zápisník zavrel. „Práve preto.“
Po vyučovaní sa stretli v starej skladovej miestnosti za telocvičňou. Kedysi tam zrejme bývala klubovňa, no teraz v nej stáli len zaprášené stoličky, krabice s vyblednutými nápismi a pokazený ventilátor bez vrtule. Malé okno pri strope púšťalo dnu sivé popoludňajšie svetlo.
Denis sedel na stole a špičkou tenisky kopal do nohy stoličky. Tami si pohrávala so slúchadlami zavesenými na krku. Viktor stál pri dverách, akoby čakal, že niekto každú chvíľu vojde.
Lea ostala pri stene so založenými rukami.
„Takže,“ začala Tami, „ty si dnes opravila rozvádzač dotykom. Úplne nenápadne. To je dosť veľký level-up.“
„Neopravila som ho.“ Lea sa zamračila. „Len sa to na chvíľu prestalo kaziť.“
„To je skoro definícia opravy,“ poznamenal Denis.
„Nie, ak nevieš, prečo to fungovalo a čo sa pokazí potom,“ povedal Viktor.
Tami sa naňho pozrela. „Ty si sa narodil s poznámkovým blokom v hlave, však?“
„Nie. Len nechcem, aby niekto skončil pri pokazenom rozvádzači s horším problémom než blikajúce svetlo.“
Slová ostali visieť vo vzduchu. Lea si spomenula na tlak v hlave a na školníkov hlas. Keby sa prúd nepohol správnym smerom, čo by sa stalo? Nevedela. A práve to ju hnevalo najviac.
Keď sa veci začnú meniť
„Nebudem to skúšať znova,“ povedala.
Denis zoskočil zo stola. „Veď nemusíš hneď rozoberať elektráreň. Nájdeme niečo malé.“
„To si povedal človek, ktorý skočí dopredu, len aby zistil, či narazí do skrinky.“
„Raz to bola skrinka.“
„Dvakrát,“ opravila ho Tami.
Viktor prešiel ku krabici, na ktorej ležal starý predlžovací kábel. „Nemusíme robiť nič dnes. Ale ak budeme len čakať, kedy sa to stane samo, nebudeme mať žiadnu kontrolu.“
Lea sa nadýchla, no on zdvihol ruku.
„Nie je to tlak. Aspoň by nemal byť. Skôr dohoda.“ Pozrel na každého z nich. „Krátko. V bezpečí. A ten, kto skúša svoju schopnosť, môže kedykoľvek povedať stop. Bez debatovania.“
„A žiadne hrdinské finále so záchrankou,“ dodala Tami.
„To bol vždy môj plán,“ povedal Denis.
„To je presne problém,“ odsekla Lea, no v kútiku úst jej na okamih myklo.
Napokon prikývla. „Jeden pokus. Nie desať.“
Viktor opatrne zapojil starú stolnú lampu do predlžovačky. Žiarovka v nej bola slabá a trochu poblikávala. Kábel mal na jednom mieste poškodený ochranný obal, nie však odkryté drôty. Aj tak ho položili na drevený stôl a nikto sa ho nedotýkal, kým Viktor nevytiahol zástrčku.
„Keď to bude zapojené, len kovový kryt lampy,“ povedal. „Nie kábel. Ak sa ti to nebude páčiť, pustíš to.“
„Viem, ako funguje púšťanie vecí,“ zamrmlala Lea.
Keď Viktor lampu zapojil, v jej videní sa objavili tenké cyanové nite. Viedli zo zásuvky do predlžovačky a ďalej do lampy. Pri poškodenom mieste sa jedna línia chvela podobne ako ráno pri rozvádzači.
„Vidíš niečo?“ spýtala sa Tami tichšie než zvyčajne.
Lea prikývla. Položila dva prsty na kovovú základňu lampy.
Mravčenie jej prešlo až do zápästia. Jemná línia sa odklonila. Žiarovka sa na okamih rozsvietila jasnejšie a potom sa ustálila.
„Funguje to,“ vydýchol Denis.
„Len sekundu,“ povedala Lea.
Prsty odtiahla. Lampa zasa začala slabo blikať.
„Ešte raz?“ spýtal sa Viktor. Nebol v tom nátlak. Len otázka.
Lea sa na lampu zadívala. Potom krátko prikývla.
Druhý kontakt trval sotva dve sekundy. Svetelná línia sa opäť poslušne posunula, ale bolesť jej vystrelila z dlane do spánkov. Ruka sa jej zachvela. Odtiahla sa tak prudko, že zhodila zo stola skrutkovač.
Kov zacinkal o podlahu.
„Stop,“ povedala.
Viktor okamžite vytiahol zástrčku. Tami pristúpila k Lee, no nezachytila ju za ruku, iba pri nej ostala.
„Máš farbu steny,“ skonštatovala.
„To je trend,“ odvetila Lea cez zuby.
Po chvíli sa jej dýchanie spomalilo. Tras však neustával hneď. Hlava jej pulzovala pri každom zvuku v miestnosti.
Denis sa prestal tváriť pobavene. „Dobre. Dva pokusy sú očividne strop. Možno aj jeden a pol.“
„Nie strop,“ opravila Lea. „Dnešný strop.“
Viktor si to nezapísal. Iba prikývol.
Tami si odkašľala. „Takže, kým tu všetci vyzeráme ako pokazené príslušenstvo… môžem skúsiť ja?“
Vybrala si roh miestnosti pri dverách. Vonku na chodbe niekto ťahal vozík a kolesá nepríjemne drnčali po dlažbe.
„Iba ten zvuk,“ povedala. „Stiahnem ho sem. Do malého priestoru.“
Zdvihla dlaň. Najprv sa nič nezmenilo. Potom drnčanie stíchlo. Nie úplne, ale akoby niekto zatvoril hrubé dvere medzi nimi a chodbou. Zmizlo aj bzučanie lampy, šuchot Denisovej bundy, vzdialené hlasy.
Ticho bolo náhle príliš husté.
Tami sa zamračila. Priestor okolo jej dlane akoby pohltil všetky drobné zvuky. Lea videla, ako jej pery niečo hovoria, no nepočula ani slabiku.
O chvíľu Tami ruku spustila.
Zvuky sa vrátili naraz. Vozík zadnelo zahrkotal, niekde buchli dvere a Denisovo prudké vydýchnutie znelo nepríjemne nahlas.
Tami si chytila obe uši. „Super. Teraz mám v hlave koncert komárov.“
„Počuješ nás?“ spýtala sa Lea.
Dievča naklonilo hlavu. „Ak hovoríš cez akvárium, tak hej.“ Skúsila sa usmiať, ale nepodarilo sa jej to celkom. „To ticho bolo… príliš. Neviem, kde som ho prestala držať a začala tlačiť.“
„Tak to už netlač,“ povedal Denis.
Dôležitý okamih
„Ďakujem, tréner životných rozhodnutí.“
Napriek vtipu si Tami nechala slúchadlá na krku a pár minút hovorila menej než obyčajne.
Denisovi to zjavne nestačilo. Postavil sa na koniec úzkej voľnej časti miestnosti medzi krabicami. „Teraz ja. Krátka dráha, žiadne skrinky. Som dospelý človek, čo môže pokaziť?“
„Veľa vecí,“ povedali Lea a Tami naraz.
Rozbehol sa. Po dvoch krokoch sa jeho pohyb zvláštne preskočil. Nebol to zmiznutie. Skôr akoby niekto vystrihol dve sekundy z videa. Denis sa ocitol o pár metrov ďalej, stále v pohybe, a zabrzdil pri stene.
„Vidíte?“ otočil sa s úsmevom. „Čisté.“
Skúsil to znova. A potom ešte raz.
Pri treťom skoku sa po pristátí netrafil pohľadom na dvere. Chvíľu civiel do rohu, akoby tam čakal niečo iné. Nohy sa mu podlomili len nepatrne, ale Lea to zbadala.
„Dosť,“ povedala.
„Som v pohode.“
„Nie si.“
Denis spravil krok k stolu a ramenom narazil do krabice, ktorá tam stála celý čas. Prekvapene sa na ňu pozrel.
„Tá bola bližšie,“ vyhlásil.
„Nie,“ odvetil Viktor. „Len si zle odhaduješ vzdialenosť.“
Chlapec sa oprel o stenu a zatvoril oči. „Môj mozog má očividne slabý signál.“
Tami sa pousmiala, ale hneď nato sa dotkla ucha a prestala. Všetci štyria zrazu vyzerali menej ako ľudia s výnimočnými schopnosťami a viac ako partia, ktorá sa pokúsila hrať hru bez návodu.
Práve vtedy sa na chodbe ozvali kroky.
Viktor zhasol lampu a stiahol kábel zo stola. Denis, stále trochu neistý, kopol skrutkovač pod krabicu. Tami zdvihla ruku a na pár sekúnd stlmila zvuk v priestore pri dverách.
Kľučka sa pohla.
Lea zadržala dych.
Dvere sa otvorili len na šírku dlane. Dnu nakukol školník. Za ním bolo počuť vzdialené ruchy, no pri prahu vládlo vďaka Tami takmer neprirodzené ticho.
„Je tu niekto?“ spýtal sa.
Tami ruku rýchlo spustila. Zvuk sa vrátil tak náhle, že školník trochu mykol hlavou.
„Hľadáme stoličky na školský projekt,“ povedal Viktor pokojne.
Školník si ich podozrievavo premeral. Potom pozrel na nahromadené stoličky pri stene. „Tak si jednu zoberte a zamknite po sebe. Táto miestnosť nie je herňa.“
„Jasné,“ povedala Tami príliš hlasno.
Keď dvere znova zapadli, nikto sa nehýbal ešte niekoľko sekúnd.
„Herná miestnosť,“ zašepkal Denis. „To znelo podozrivejšie než všetko, čo sme robili.“
„Všetko, čo sme robili, bolo dosť podozrivé,“ povedala Lea.
Neskôr, keď sa Denisovi prestal krútiť priestor a Tami už počula o trochu jasnejšie, Viktor vytiahol z vrecka malú baterku. „Chcem vám niečo ukázať. Ale len ak fakt nechcete ísť domov.“
Za skladom viedol úzky servisný koridor k starému rozvádzaču. Panel bol nízky, kovový a poškriabaný vrstvami starej farby. Na jeho dvierkach visel zažltnutý štítok s číslami, ktoré už takmer nebolo vidieť.
Viktor pri ňom zastal a zbledol.
„Čo je?“ spýtala sa Lea.
„Signály.“ Priložil dlaň tesne nad plech, no nedotkol sa ho. „Bežná školská sieť je ako tlak z viacerých strán. Wi-Fi, mobily, káble… toto je iné. Je to slabé, ale stále tam.“
Lea pristúpila bližšie. Z vnútra panelu videla známu jemnú žiaru. Nebola silná. Zato sa opakovala v pravidelných krátkych zábleskoch.
Viktor zavrel oči. „Skúsim stlmiť jednu blízku linku. Iba na sekundu.“
„Ak ti bude zle, končíme,“ povedala Lea.
Prikývol.
Vzduch okolo neho akoby zhustol. Viktor sa zamračil a dlaňou spravil krátky pohyb. Jeho telefón na stole vedľa panelu na okamih stratil sieť. Ikona signálu zmizla, potom sa hneď vrátila.
Chlapec sa zapotácal.
„Stop,“ povedala Lea.
Tentoraz ju poslúchol bez protestu. Oprel sa o stenu a niekoľko ráz sa pomaly nadýchol.
Tami posvietila baterkou na štítok. Pod prachom objavila malý rad bodiek a čiarok vyrazených priamo do kovu. Nebol to nápis. Skôr servisné označenie alebo starý kontrolný vzor.
Viktor vytiahol telefón a otvoril záznam, ktorý si nechal z noci mestského výpadku. Na obrazovke sa ukázal graf nultého signálu: krátky záblesk, dve medzery, dlhší záblesk, tri rýchle pulzy.
Čo sa ukáže neskôr
Lea sa pozrela na panel. Potom na displej.
„To je rovnaké,“ povedala.
Denis sa prestal opierať o stenu. „Nie podobné?“
„Rovnaké,“ zopakoval Viktor ticho.
Nikto sa už nesmial.
Vrátili sa do skladovej miestnosti a na zadnú stranu starej krabice napísali fixkou niekoľko pravidiel. Krátke testy. Nikto nepokračuje po slove stop. Žiadne skúšanie osamote. A keď niekomu začne byť zle, ostatní neriešia výsledok, ale jeho.
Lea držala fixku, no ruka sa jej stále jemne triasla. Chvíľu pozerala na napísané body.
„Bála som sa, že som dnes skoro niečo pokazila,“ povedala. „Alebo že nabudúce pokazím viac.“
„Možno aj pokazíme,“ odvetil Denis prekvapivo bez irónie. „Ale aspoň nebudeme robiť chaos každý zvlášť.“
Tami sa dotkla slúchadiel. „A nebudeme sa tváriť, že limit je len otravný bug.“
Viktor prikývol. „Nie sme problém, ktorý treba schovať. Len ešte nevieme, čo presne sa s nami stalo.“
Lea naňho pozrela. Potom dopísala posledný bod: Spolu.
Keď odchádzali, Viktor ešte raz odfotil starý štítok pri rozvádzači. Na tmavej obrazovke telefónu sa medzi bodkami a čiarami na sekundu rozsvietil malý cyanový pulz.
Krátky. Dve medzery. Dlhší. Tri rýchle záblesky.
A potom zmizol.
Pokračovanie nabudúce…
The Zero Signal, part 3: What a Touch Can Do
The Story Begins
The corridor near the technical room was usually empty during the long break. Today, though, several students were standing by the door because the lights above them kept flashing, changing from white to yellow and back again.
Lea stopped by the window. For a moment she thought her eyes were doing something strange again. Then she looked more closely.
Thin cyan lines ran from the ceiling light to the open electrical panel. They were not bright like lightning. They were more like fine traces of light, visible only to her. One of them was breaking and jumping near the damaged panel.
"That doesn't look good," Viktor muttered beside her.
"Thanks for the expert report," she said without looking away.
A short crackling sound came from the technical room. The lights in the whole corridor went out. Someone near the stairs shouted, but a second later the lights came back on. This time they flashed even harder.
The janitor appeared at the door with a flashlight in his hand. "Everyone out of the corridor. Now."
The crowd started moving away, slowly and unwillingly. But Lea saw that one shaky light line from the panel was running farther, toward the sockets in the classrooms. If it broke completely, half the floor would go dark. Maybe more.
Viktor caught her look. He did not need to ask what she was thinking.
"Lea," he said quietly, "you don't have to do this."
The crackle came again. This time it was louder.
Before she could decide, she walked along the wall to the open panel. The metal cover was crooked. From below it hung a thin cable with damaged insulation.
"Hey!" the janitor called. "Don't touch that!"
Lea was already reaching out. She touched the cold metal next to the cable with her fingertips.
The light lines in her eyes spread into a soft web. She felt a weak tingling, nothing sharp, nothing big. The current was already divided inside the device, split into dozens of small paths. One of them could be moved. Just a little.
She held her breath and, as if by hand, pushed the thin stream of light to the side.
The flashing stopped.
A normal silence settled over the corridor. The lights shone steadily now. Even the hum of the ventilation returned to the same rhythm as before.
Lea pulled her hand back at once. Her fingers shook so hard that she had to hide them in her jacket pocket. Pain shot behind her eyes, as if a lamp too strong had switched on inside her head.
The janitor leaned into the panel, then looked at her. "You were lucky," he said, though he clearly was not sure what had happened. "Must have been a bad contact."
"Must have been," Lea repeated.
Viktor got her away before the janitor could ask more. Only around the corner did she stop by a notice board and close her eyes.
"Your hands are shaking," he said.
"I know."
"And your head?"
Lea nodded. "That too."
He stayed quiet for a moment. Then he pulled out an old notebook as if by accident. "I don't want to turn this into a lab. But we should understand it."
She looked at him sharply. "That was not a demo for your notes."
"I know." He closed the notebook. "That's exactly why."
After school they met in the old storage room behind the gym. It had probably once been a club room, but now it only held dusty chairs, boxes with faded labels, and a broken fan without blades. A small window near the ceiling let in grey afternoon light.
When Things Start to Change
Denis sat on a table and kicked the leg of a chair with the tip of his shoe. Tami played with the headphones hanging around her neck. Viktor stood by the door like he expected someone to walk in any second.
Lea stayed by the wall with her arms folded.
"So," Tami began, "you fixed a panel with a touch today. Very casual. That's a pretty big level-up."
"I didn't fix it." Lea frowned. "It just stopped breaking for a moment."
"That is almost the definition of fixing," Denis said.
"Not if you don't know why it worked and what will break later," Viktor said.
Tami looked at him. "You were born with a notebook in your head, weren't you?"
"No. I just don't want anyone ending up by a broken panel with a worse problem than flashing lights."
The words hung in the air. Lea remembered the pressure in her head and the janitor's voice. If the current had not moved the right way, what would have happened? She did not know. And that was what made her most angry.
"I'm not trying it again," she said.
Denis jumped down from the table. "You don't have to tear apart the whole electrical system. We can find something small."
"That's what the person said who jumps forward just to see if he'll hit a cupboard."
"It was one cupboard."
"Twice," Tami corrected him.
Viktor walked to a box with an old extension cord on top. "We don't have to do anything today. But if we just wait for it to happen on its own, we won't have any control."
Lea took a breath, but he raised a hand.
"It's not pressure. At least it shouldn't be. More like a deal." He looked at each of them. "Short. Safe. And the one trying their ability can say stop at any time. No arguing."
"And no heroic finale with an ambulance," Tami added.
"That was always my plan," Denis said.
"That's exactly the problem," Lea snapped, but the corner of her mouth moved for a second.
In the end, she nodded. "One try. Not ten."
Carefully, Viktor plugged an old desk lamp into the extension cord. The bulb was weak and flickered a little. One part of the cable had damaged covering, but no exposed wires. Still, they put it on the wooden table, and nobody touched it until Viktor pulled the plug back in.
"When it's on, only the metal cover of the lamp," he said. "Not the cable. If you don't like it, let go."
"I know how letting go works," Lea muttered.
When Viktor plugged the lamp in, thin cyan threads appeared in her sight. They ran from the socket into the extension cord and then into the lamp. At the damaged spot, one line shook in the same way as the panel that morning.
"Do you see anything?" Tami asked more quietly than usual.
Lea nodded. She put two fingers on the metal base of the lamp.
A tingling ran into her wrist. The thin line shifted away. The bulb flashed brighter for a second, then steadied.
"It works," Denis breathed.
"Just for a second," Lea said.
She pulled her fingers away. The lamp started flickering weakly again.
"Once more?" Viktor asked. There was no pressure in his voice. Just a question.
Lea stared at the lamp. Then she gave one short nod.
The second touch lasted barely two seconds. The light line moved again, obediently, but pain shot from her palm to her temples. Her hand shook. She jerked back so fast that she knocked a screwdriver off the table.
An Important Moment
Metal rang against the floor.
"Stop," she said.
Viktor pulled the plug at once. Tami stepped up to Lea, but she did not grab her hand. She just stayed close.
"You have the color of a wall," she said.
"That's the trend," Lea replied through clenched teeth.
After a while her breathing slowed. The shaking did not stop right away. Her head pulsed with every sound in the room.
Denis no longer looked amused. "Okay. Two tries are obviously the limit. Maybe one and a half."
"Not the limit," Lea corrected. "Today's limit."
Viktor did not write it down. He only nodded.
Tami cleared her throat. "So, while we all look like broken equipment… can I try?"
She chose the corner of the room near the door. Outside in the corridor, someone was pulling a cart, and the wheels rattled unpleasantly over the tiles.
"Just the sound," she said. "I'll pull it in here. Into a small space."
She raised her hand. At first nothing changed. Then the rattling faded. Not completely, but as if someone had closed thick doors between them and the corridor. The hum of the lamp disappeared too, along with the rustle of Denis's jacket and distant voices.
The silence was suddenly too heavy.
Tami frowned. The space around her hand seemed to swallow every small sound. Lea saw her lips moving, but she could not hear a single syllable.
After a moment, Tami lowered her hand.
The sounds came back all at once. The cart rattled loudly again, a door slammed somewhere, and Denis's sharp exhale sounded too loud.
Tami grabbed both ears. "Great. Now I've got a concert of mosquitoes in my head."
"Can you hear us?" Lea asked.
The girl tilted her head. "If you're speaking through an aquarium, then yes." She tried to smile, but it did not quite work. "That silence was… too much. I don't know where I stopped holding it and started pushing it."
"Then don't push it," Denis said.
"Thanks, coach of life choices."
Even with the joke, Tami kept the headphones around her neck, and for a few minutes she spoke less than usual.
That was not enough for Denis. He stood at the end of the narrow free space between the boxes. "My turn now. Short run, no cupboards. I'm a grown man. What could go wrong?"
"A lot of things," Lea and Tami said at the same time.
He ran. After two steps, his movement skipped in a strange way. It was not disappearing. It was more like two seconds had been cut out of a video. Denis was suddenly a few meters farther on, still moving, and then he stopped hard by the wall.
"See?" He turned with a grin. "Clean."
He tried again. And then once more.
On the third skip, after landing, his eyes did not find the door right away. For a moment he stared at the corner as if he expected something else there. His knees gave way only a little, but Lea noticed.
"Enough," she said.
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
Denis took a step toward the table and hit the box that had been there the whole time with his shoulder. He looked at it in surprise.
"That was closer," he said.
"No," Viktor replied. "You just judge distance badly."
The boy leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. "My brain clearly has a weak signal."
Tami smiled, then touched her ear and stopped. All four of them suddenly looked less like people with special abilities and more like a group that had tried to play a game without reading the instructions.
What Comes Next
Just then, footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Viktor switched off the lamp and pulled the cable off the table. Denis, still a little unsteady, kicked the screwdriver under a box. Tami lifted her hand and for a few seconds dulled the sound near the door.
The handle moved.
Lea held her breath.
The door opened only the width of a hand. The janitor looked in. Behind him, distant noises could still be heard, but at the threshold there was almost unnatural silence because of Tami.
"Is someone in here?" he asked.
Tami lowered her hand quickly. The sound came back so suddenly that the janitor's head jerked a little.
"We're looking for chairs for a school project," Viktor said calmly.
The janitor studied them suspiciously. Then he looked at the pile of chairs by the wall. "Then take one and lock up after yourselves. This room isn't a playground."
"Sure," Tami said too loudly.
When the door shut again, nobody moved for several seconds.
"Playground," Denis whispered. "That sounded more suspicious than anything we did."
"Everything we did was pretty suspicious," Lea said.
Later, when Denis's head finally stopped spinning and Tami could hear a little more clearly, Viktor took a small flashlight from his pocket. "I want to show you something. But only if you really don't want to go home."
Behind the storage room, a narrow service corridor led to an old panel box. The box was low, metal, and scratched by layers of old paint. On its door hung a yellowed label with numbers that were almost impossible to read.
Viktor stopped in front of it and went pale.
"What is it?" Lea asked.
"Signals." He held his hand just above the metal sheet without touching it. "A normal school network feels like pressure from several sides. Wi-Fi, phones, cables… this is different. It's weak, but it's still there."
Lea stepped closer. From inside the panel she could see the same faint glow. It was not strong. But it repeated in regular short flashes.
Viktor closed his eyes. "I'll try to dim one nearby line. Just for a second."
"If you feel bad, we stop," Lea said.
He nodded.
The air around him seemed to grow heavier. Viktor frowned and made a short movement with his hand. His phone on the table beside the panel briefly lost its connection. The signal icon disappeared, then came back at once.
The boy staggered.
"Stop," Lea said.
This time he obeyed without protest. He leaned against the wall and took several slow breaths.
Tami shone her flashlight on the label. Under the dust she found a small row of dots and lines pressed directly into the metal. It was not writing. More like a service mark, or an old test pattern.
Viktor pulled out his phone and opened the recording he had saved from the night of the city blackout. On the screen, the graph of the zero signal appeared: a short flash, two gaps, a longer flash, three quick pulses.
Lea looked at the panel. Then at the screen.
"It's the same," she said.
Denis stopped leaning on the wall. "Not similar?"
"The same," Viktor said quietly.
Nobody laughed anymore.
They went back to the storage room and wrote several rules on the back of an old box with a marker. Short tests. Nobody continues after the word stop. No trying things alone. And if someone starts feeling bad, the others help the person, not the result.
Lea held the marker, but her hand still trembled a little. She stared at the list for a while.
The End of the Story
"I was scared I almost broke something today," she said. "Or that next time I'll break more."
"Maybe we will break something," Denis said, surprisingly without irony. "But at least we won't make chaos alone."
Tami touched the headphones around her neck. "And we won't act like the limit is just an annoying bug."
Viktor nodded. "We're not a problem that needs to be hidden. We just don't know yet what exactly happened to us."
Lea looked at him. Then she added the last word: Together.
When they left, Viktor took one more photo of the old label by the panel. On the dark screen of his phone, a small cyan pulse lit up for a second between the dots and lines.
Short. Two gaps. Longer. Three quick flashes.
And then it disappeared.
To be continued…