Metro 2034

His long knife hadn’t been able to resist the weight of the falling down beast and had broken exactly over the handle. The blade had penetrated deep into the chest of the creature so that they hadn’t even tried to get it back out of it.

The bold one who had been scared by the claws of the beast had been unconscious for almost three days.

Sasha couldn’t help him but she still had to see him.

At least to think about him, even though he couldn’t hear her.

But the doctors didn’t let her to him. They said the injured man needed rest before all.

She didn’t know exactly why the bold one had killed the people on the railcar. But if he had shot to save her then that was enough of a reason to her. She tried to believe in it but she couldn’t. Probably there was a different explanation: Instead of asking, he rather killed.

At the Pavelezkaya it had been different: He had followed Sasha and had been ready to die for her. Was there actually a connection between them?

Like back then, at the Kolomenskaya when he had yelled after her, she had waited for a bullet not the question to come with them. But when she had turned around she had recognized a change in him, even though his scary face hadn’t moved a bit. It had been his eyes: Suddenly she had seen somebody else through the black pupils and looked at her.

Somebody who was interested in her.

Somebody who she had to be thankful for her live.

Should she give him a silver ring, the same gesture like back then from her mother? What if the bold one didn’t understand a gesture like that? But how should she thank him instead?

To give him a knife, as a replacement for the one which he had lost because of her, at that was least something.

When she had been totally illuminated by this simple thought, standing in front of the weapons-smith and imagining how she would give him the blade, how he would look at her, what he would say, she totally forget that she would buy a murderer another tool with it he would slit throats and stomachs. No, in this moment he wasn’t a bandit for her but a hero, no killer but a warrior and before all – a man. And there was another, obscure thought in her head: Since his blade had broken, he hadn’t awoken. Maybe he would be a whole blade again… Like an amulet… So she had bought it for him.

And now that she was standing in front of his bed and hid the present behind her back Sasha hoped that he reacted to it or at least feel the presence of the blade. the bold one twitched from one sided to the other , made croaking sounds, started single words, moaned but didn’t awoke.

Darkness had him strongly in its grasp.

Up until now Sasha hadn’t said his name one single time, neither loud or to herself. No she whispered it to him.

“Hunter!”

The bold one went silent, he seemed to listen as if he was unimaginably far away and her voice was only an almost inaudible echo to his ear, but he didn’t answer. Sasha repeated it again, loader. She wouldn’t stop until he would open his eyes. She would be his tunnel light.

From the hallway she heard she a surprised scream, boots started to hammer on the ground. She kneeled down fast and put the knife on the small table at the head end of his stretcher. “That’s for you.”

She said.

Suddenly the iron hard fingers held on to her hand, so strong that they could have broken all of her bones in her hand. The eyes of the injured man were open, his look wandered around without any goal. “Thanks.” He mumbled.

The girl had no intentions to free herself.

“What are you doing here?” A thin boy with a dirty white coat put a needle in the bold mans arm which brought him to sleep immediately again. Then the nurse grabbed Sasha by her shoulders and he said with closed teeth: “Don’t you understand? In his condition… The doctor has forbidden…”

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand! He needs something that he can hold on to. From your needles he is just getting weaker…” The nurse tried to push Sasha into the direction of the exit, but she had already taken the steps and looked at him with angry eyes.

“I don’t want to see you in here again! And what is this here?” He had found the knife.

“That’s… His.” Mumbled Sasha. “I brought it with me. If he hadn’t been there… Those things would have torn me to pieces.”

“And the doctor is going to tear me to pieces when he is going to find out.” Growled the nurse.

“Now go!”

Sasha hesitated for a moment and then she turned to Hunter again who was still sleeping heavily sedated and ended what she had wanted to say: “Thank you, you saved me”

When she was leaving the room she suddenly heard his croaky voice: “I just wanted to kill it… That beast…”

The door was shut right in front of her face and the key fell into the lock.

The knife had been for something else. That had Homer realized immediately when he had heard how she called the name of the fevering brigadier, asking soft and sorrowful at the same time. At first he hadn’t wanted to get involved but then he thought about it differently and turned way, here was nobody that needed to be protected from something. All he could do was to retreat as fast as possible so he wouldn’t scare Sasha off.

Maybe she was right. At the Nagatinskya Hunter had totally forgotten about his companions. He had thrown them in front of the ghostly zyklops as a meal. But in this fight…

Maybe the girl meant something to him?

Sunken in thoughts homer strolled along the hallway and went to his room at the hospital. A nurse bumped into him, but the old man didn’t even realize it.

It was time to give Sasha what he had bought for her.

It seemed she would need it very soon.

Out of the desks drawer he brought a package to the light and turned it in his hands. After a few minutes the girl stormed into the room, nervous, confused and angry. She sat onto the bed, pulled her legs up and stared into the corner.

Homer waited until the storm would start or pass him. Sasha was silent and started to gnaw on her fingernails.

It was time to intervene.

“I got a gift for you.” The old man came forth from behind the table and put the package next to the girl on the blanket.

“For what?” She said, without coming out of her snail house.

“Why do people give gifts to each other?”

“To repay good things.” She said convinced. “For what you have gotten or for what you hope to get”

“Then let’s say that I am repaying for all the good things that you have already given me. For I don’t need anything else”

“I didn’t give you anything.” Answered Sasha

“And what about my book?” He made a jokingly, offended face. “You’re already in it. I don’t like owing something to somebody. Now come on, open it”

“I don’t like to owing something as well.” Said Sasha and ripped open the wrappings of the package. “What’s this? Oh!”

In her hand was a red disk of plastic, a small box that could be opened from both sides. Back then it had been a cheap makeup box for when you were traveling, but both compartments for powder and rouge were already empty. But the mirror on the inside had survived.

“Here you can see yourself better then in a puddle of water.” Sasha looked with her big eyes at her reflection. It looked strange. “Why did you give this to me?”

“Sometimes it is better to see yourself from the side.”

Homer was grinning. “You’ll understand more about yourself.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Sasha s voice had become more careful.