Metro 2034

Leonid started laughing. “You’re a rebel. I am an opportunist.”

Sasha shook her head. “That’s not true. You think that you can change people as well.”

“I would like to believe in it.”

Sasha passed the post that apparently had been abandoned in all haste: Some pieces of wood were still smoking, next to them old, almost fallen apart magazine with pictures of naked women were laying around. On the wall was an abandoned and half shredded standard. Around ten minutes later they found the first body.

It was hard to recognize it as a human being. Arms and legs were spread and swollen so much so that its clothes had fallen off. Its face was more monstrous then everything Sasha had ever seen at any monster.

“Be careful!” Leonid pulled away the corpse.

“That one is contagious.”

“And? There is a cure. There were we’re going everyone is contagious.”

Suddenly they heard shots and distant screams.

“We made it just in time.” Said Leonid. “It seems that they no longer want to wait for your friend…”

Sasha looked at him scared, but then she said: “Doesn’t matter! We just have to tell him. They think that all are sentenced to death. We just have to give them hope!”

The security gate of the station was completely open. Another corpse was laying there, face down but at least it still looked human. Next to him was a metal box that hissed in, as if the radio was trying to wake up the dead guard.

At the end of the tunnel a few men had bunkered down hastily behind a few sandbags. One heavy machine gunner and a few soldiers with assault rifles. That was the entire barricade. In front of them were the narrow tunnel walls ended and the platform of the Tulskaya started a terrible crowd was cooking and enclosed the besieged. It were infected and healthy, hideous monsters and human silhouettes, some had flashlights in front of them and others didn’t need light anymore.

The soldiers who were in front of them defended the tunnel. Their bullets were going to an end and the shots sounded sparsely and even more sparsely. The crowd got closer and closer.

One of the Soldiers turned to Sasha. “Are you the reserves? Boys, they’ve reached the Dobryninskaya! The reserves are here!”

The monster with its many heads reacted as well and moved forward worried.

“People!” Yelled Sasha. “There is a cure! We found it! You won’t die! Patience! Just have a little patience!”

But the crowd swallowed up her words, yelled unsatisfied and moved on. The machine gunner shot angry another salve at them so that some fell to the ground moaning, while others answered with a few gunshots. Not stopping the mass moved forward, ready to trample anything in their path, defenders and Sasha and Leonid alike.

Then something happened.

At first hesitating, but then more and more self-confident the sound of the flute sounded through the tunnel.

Nothing seemed more unfitting, yes even stupider, but the crowd growled surprised at first and then moved forward laughing.

But Leonid didn’t mind. Probably he didn’t play for them but for himself. It was the same melody that had put a spell over Sasha and attracted dozens of listeners.

It was an unfitting method to stop the riot when you thought about it. Maybe it was just the touching naivety of this desperate step and not the magic of the flute that slowed down the march of the crowd. Or had the musician been able to remind those who were around them and already ready to tear them to shreds of something. Something that…

The shots stopped and Leonid stepped forward without taking the flute from his lips. It acted like this was his usual audience who would applaud every second now and threw bullets at him.

For a fracture of a second Sasha thought that under the listeners was her father who was smiling softly. He had waited for her… She thought about what Leonid had said:

This melody was able to take away the pain.

Behind the hermetic door it started to rumble all of a sudden. Actually too soon. Had the search party gotten through faster than expected? So the situation at the Tulskaya wasn’t as complicated? Yes, maybe the occupants had left the station already without opening the doors?

The troop spread out and the soldiers took cover behind the tunnel segments. Only four men remained next to Denis Michailovitsch directly next to the gate. All readied their rifles. It was time. Soon the door would open and after a few minutes the forty heavy armed men from the Sevastopolskaya would get into the Tulskaya, break down any resistance and occupy the station in a few moments. It had been easier then the colonel had thought.

Denis Michailovitsch took a deep breath to order his man to put on his gasmask.

He didn’t get any further.

The group formed again, spread out so that six men created one row and filled the entire width of the tunnel. The front line held the flamethrowers in front of them and the second row their automatic rifles. Like black lava it crawled forward, gradually and unstoppable.

Homer looked past the broad backs of the men. In the white rays of their search lights they could see the entire scenario: The handful of soldiers who were still manning their station and two small silhouettes, Sasha and Leonid and the horde of terrible creatures that enclosed on them. He starred at them horrified.

Leonid was still playing. Wonderful.

Unbelievable. Encouraged as never before. The terrible horde swallowed up the music and the defenders of the tunnel had risen to get a better look at him. His melody divided the two enemy factions as if an invisible wall was erected between them. It was the only thing, the melody, that stopped them from running at each other in a final and deadly fight.

“Ready!”

The order had come from one in the black group.

But from whom? The first row went to their knees immediately and the second row aimed over them.

“Sasha!” screamed Homer.

The girl turned around, closed her eyes a bit and put her hand in front of them because she was fighting against an ocean of light.

The crowd growled and moaned under the burning rays. They walked closer and closer.

The fighters remained still.

Sasha was standing almost in front of the black formation. “Where are you?” She yelled. “I need to talk to you. Please!”

Nobody answered.

“We found a cure! You can cure the disease! You don’t have to kill anybody!”

The dark phalanx remained silent.

“I beg you! I know that you don’t want to do this. You’re just trying to save them… and yourself—”

Suddenly out of one of the rows of fighters you could hear the husky voice: “Go away. I don’t want to kill you.”

“You don’t have to kill anyone! There is a cure!”

Repeated Sasha desperate and walked from one side of the masked humans to the other.

Searching for the one who would listen.

“There is no cure.”

“Radiation! Radiation helps against it!”

“I don’t believe you!”

“Please!”

“The station has to be cleaned.”

“Don’t you want that something to change? Why are you repeating what you’ve done already? Back then with the dark ones! Why aren’t you searching for salvation?”