Journey to another world in the subway

Chapter 40 Hanging
It turned out that the cage didn't go all the way to the end of the hall, it was partitioned off in the middle, where the elevator to the lower floor was housed.

There seemed to be torches burning deep in that position, and crimson lights reflected ominously on the ceiling, and from below came cries of pain.

Su Mengfan suddenly thought of hell, and when they took him past the elevator, he suddenly felt relieved.

In the last cage, someone shouted to him: "Goodbye, my friend!" But Su Mengfan didn't care, he could only see a glass of water flickering in front of his eyes.

On the opposite wall was a guard's lookout, a rough patchwork nailed-up table and two chairs, and a sign that said no Negroes allowed.

He didn't see the gallows along the way, and Su Mengfan had been feverishly hoping that they were just trying to scare him, rather than really take him to be hanged.

Just take him to the end of the station and let him go so no one else can see it.

The man with the mustache in the black uniform walked ahead. He turned at the last archway and walked towards the passage. At this time, Su Mengfan began to believe more firmly that he was rescued.

There is a small platform above the track with pulleys underneath, arranged so that its base is level with the station floor.

A stocky fellow in a speckled uniform inspecting a loop of rope hanging from a screwed hook in the ceiling, the executioner differed from the others only in that his sleeves were rolled up to reveal his muscular forearms .

"Is everything ready?" asked the man in the black uniform.

The executioner nodded to him and said, "I don't like this construction."

He pounded his fist into the palm of his other hand: "Why can't we use that solid stool? That would- bang! Break his neck!"
But this thing...although he's suffocated, he'll wriggle around like a hooked worm for a long time, and after they suffocate, there's so much stuff I have to clean up!Like, viscera everywhere..."

"Enough!" said the man in the black uniform, calling the executioner aside and growling something at him angrily.

As soon as their chief left, the two soldiers dragging Su Mengfan quickly returned to their interrupted conversation.

The one on the left asked the one on the right impatiently: "What happened next?"

The one on the right said loudly into his ear: "Then I pushed her against the column and scratched and fumbled under her skirt, and she said to me very gently..."

Since his chief was back, he could not finish.

The Nagamiya encouraged the executioner: "Never mind that he is Russian - he broke the law...Traitor, traitor, depraved, traitor deserves severe punishment!"

They untied the ropes around his wrists and took off his coat, and now Su Mengfan was standing there wearing only his low-necked shirt.

Then, they tore off the bullet case tied around Su Mengfan's neck, which was specially used for storing photos.

The executioner asked: "Amulet? I will put it in your pocket, where you can find it."

There was nothing evil about his voice, and it had a strangely soothing effect.

They then pulled Su Mengfan's hands behind his back and pushed him onto the gallows.The soldiers were still standing on the platform, and their help was not needed.

He couldn't break free, because it required strength. When the executioner put the noose on his head, Su Mengfan could only stand there. He had to stand, don't fall down, don't make a sound, and having something to drink was all he could think of. --water!water!

He moaned hoarsely: "Water..."

The executioner spread his hands helplessly and said, "Water? Where can I get water for you now? Honey, it's impossible. We've lost time now—just be patient now, it won't be long..." He Hopped down the passage and clapped his hands before the rope tied to the gallows.

The soldiers lined up, and their commanders looked solemn, even solemn.

He began: "As an enemy spy, you have criminally betrayed your own people."

Some fragments of thoughts danced in Su Mengfan's mind, they told him it was too early to stop, he hadn't finished what he had to do.

Then the commander's stern face appeared before his eyes, and disappeared in the crimson twilight of the station.

Then Mom's tender gaze flickered for a second, then faded away.

Mikhail Porfilevich ... "You must die" ... dim things ... they can't ... wait!
All these interrupted his memory, the voices of other people and his demands scattered randomly in the dull haze, the great desire suppressed Su Mengfan—something to drink...

The officer's voice continued to mutter: "...degenerate, discrediting your own country..."

Suddenly, there were shouts in the tunnel, flames from machine guns, and then a loud noise, and everything was silent again.

The soldiers grabbed their machine guns one after another.

Their black-clad officer was frightened and said hastily: "Execution. Begin!" He gave the order.

The executioner grumbled, pulled the rope, and put his feet on the sleepers.

Despite Su Mengfan's efforts to press down, the board slipped from under his feet, leaving him standing on the gallows.

But they moved the gallows outward again, and Su Mengfan felt that it was becoming more and more difficult to stand up. The rope dragged him backwards, dragging him to death, and he didn't want to die like this...

Then the floor slid out from under him and the noose tightened even more under his weight, snapping into his neck, cutting into his windpipe and rattling from his throat.

His vision gradually blurred, and everything twisted in his body.

Now his body was begging for air, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't breathe in, his body began to curl up, like a spasm, and he had a terrible feeling of being grasped in his abdomen.

The station was now filled with noxious yellow smoke and gunfire roared in his ears before he fell unconscious.

…………

Someone was patting his cheek, trying to wake him up: "Hey, hangman! Wake up, wake up, don't pretend to be dead, we have felt your pulse, you can't fool us."

Another said: "I'm not going to give you artificial respiration again!"

At this time, Su Mengfan came back to life in the last few seconds before his death.

He was sure it wasn't a dream, death brushed past him.

There can be no doubt that death had strangled him just as the floor was being pulled away from under his feet, and he was suspended above the rails.

The first voice insisted, "The time is short, you'll be all right! We got you off the noose, you're saved, and now you're rolling all over the floor with your face on the floor!"

Someone was shaking him vigorously, Su Mengfan timidly opened one eye, then closed it again, thinking that now he may have completed the process of death once, and the next life has begun.

An object leaned towards him. It looked a bit like a human, but had a strange appearance. This reminded Su Mengfan of the visions rumored among subway residents, and that he would be hesitant about where to go in the short term.

The thing's skin was yellow and not smooth, and you could see him by the light of a nearby lantern.

He has no eyes, but there are two thin cuts in the eyes, just like the face of a statue that the sculptor is about to complete. He just made the outline of the eyes and forgot to cut out the eyes.

So that it can see the outside world, the round face has high cheekbones, Su Mengfan has never seen anything like it.

Someone up there said firmly, "No, this won't work." They sprayed him in the face.

Su Mengfan swallowed convulsively, and reached out to reach for the bottle.

At first, he just grabbed hold of the neck of the bottle, then he leaned up and looked around for the mouth of the bottle and the water inside.

His eyes quickly searched around, and finally landed on the nearly two-meter-long rail car he was on.

There was a faint burning smell in the air, and Su Mengfan wondered that it might be burning gasoline.

In addition to himself, there were four other people sitting on this rail car, and beside him was a brown dog whose black fluff hadn't faded, and one of them was the one who patted Su Mengfan's cheek.

There is also a bearded man, wearing a hat with red stars sewn on the earflaps, and his padded jacket also has red stars.

He carried a long machine gun on his back, just like the old machine gun Su Mengfan used to use, but this man had a bayonet screwed to the barrel.

The third person was a big man, Su Mengfan didn't see his face at first, but when he saw it, he almost jumped out of the car in fright, his skin was very dark.

Su Mengfan looked at it carefully for a while before he calmed down. His skin color was a little darker, and the tone was different from theirs.

His normal face had slightly turned lips and a flat boxer nose.

The last one looked relatively normal, with a handsome, taut-skinned face and a strong chin—this reminded Su Mengfan of a figure on a poster he saw at Pushkin Station.

The fellow wore a smart leather coat with a double-holed belt and an officer's sword belt, from which hung a huge holster.

The back of the rail car has a Jackkin Love machine gun and a flag fluttering.

When the light of the lantern happened to shine on the flag, Su Mengfanmu realized that it was not a flag, but a tattered thing with the red and black face of a man with a big beard painted on it.

All this looked more like a horrific delusion than a rescue by the Commander—the Commander in the dream had grimly jumped off the rails, leaving him and running.

(End of this chapter)