“Whoever leaves the city last—turn off the lights at the station.” Do they say that about your city? Then they say it about Zavodsk too. There are fewer and fewer people. Each goes their own way. Without saying goodbye—that’s the way it’s done. One after another… Or maybe there’s already nobody left at all, and one day, dashing out for bread for dinner, you’ll find no one on the streets—neither the living nor the dead.
From Balbesovka, where old village houses crumble and vegetable gardens overgrow with weeds, a wave of mournful dog howling rises. The wind will nudge open the door of an abandoned little shop by the road—burned down back in the early 2000s. Once, homeless people slept there—but now… there’s nobody. And in the ravine behind the park, lights will dance cheerfully all night.