Metro 2034

“No I didn’t lie to you! Should I swear again? You’ll see! You’re going to tell me that you’re sorry! Embarrassed you’re going to say: Leonid! I was wr-o-ng…”

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going, till we no longer can… To the emerald city… La-la, taram-tam-tam… It isn’t an easy way.”

Sang Leonid and was giving instructions to an invisible orchestra with his fingers. Suddenly his flute box fell down, he cursed and almost fell down himself.

“Hey you drunk! Can you even make it to the Kievskaya?” Yelled one of the guards behind him.

“If you pray for us!” The musician bowed before them. “Elli is coming back.” He continued the song. “And Elli is coming back… With totoschka… Back home…”

Homer had never believed the legends about the Polyanka, but he had learnt that they were true the hard way.

There were people who called it “the station of fate” and some looked at it as some kind of oracle. Some believed that if you made a pilgrimage to it your life would change and the curtain that had been in front of your future would be lifted, giving them insight on what was waiting for them at the end their journey.

Some… But everybody who still had common sense knew that from the station from time to time toxic gas came out of the ground. It created fantasies and brought forth hallucinations. But to the devil with the skeptics! What could that vision have meant? Homer seemed that he was just one step away from solving it and every time his thoughts turned around. In front of his eyes hunter appeared again, stabbing the air with his blade. Homer would have given much to find out which vision the brigadier had seen, had tried to fight and which duel had brought his defeat and yes, his death.

“What are you thinking about?”

Homers inners got cramped. Hunter had never said anything to him without good reason. A barked order, an unwillingly growled answer… How should you talk about a soul with somebody who had none?

“Just… Nothing special.” Stuttered Homer.

“No I can hear it.” Said Hunter calm.”You were thinking about me. Are you afraid?”

“Not at the moment.” Lied the old man.

“You don’t need to be afraid. I am going to leave you in peace. You remind me of…”

Half a minute later Homer asked carefully: “Of whom?”

“A part of me. I’ve forgotten that something like that is still in me. You remind me of that” While he struggled to say those heavy words Hunter continued to stare to what was in front of him. Darkness.

“That’s why you took me with you?”

The brigadier answered: “It’s important for me to keep that in my head. Very important. And for others it is important, that I… Pr it could be like… It was before.”

“It’s about your memory?” Homer felt like he was crawling over a minefield. “Has something happened to you?”

“I remember everything!” Answered hunter sharp.

“I only forget myself sometimes. And I’m afraid to forget myself forever. You’re going to remind me of it, yes?”

“Ok.” Homer nodded his head even though Hunter wasn’t looking at him.

“Back then it all made sense.” Said the brigadier tired. “Everything I did. To protect the metro. The people. My orders were clear: Eliminate all dangers. Destroy. It made sense, yes it did!”

“But now it makes sense too…”

“Now? I don’t know what now is. I want that everything is like back then. I don’t do this just because I feel like it. I’m no bandit and no murderer! I do it for the people. I’ve tried to live without the people, to keep them save. But it was too horrible. I couldn’t forget. I had to get back to the people. To protect. To help. To remember. And there was the Sevastopolskaya. They took me in. The station had to be saved, needed help. At all costs. It seems like when I do… When I eliminated a threat… That there is something important, a big thing. Maybe then I can remember. I just have to remember. That’s why I have to get as fast as possible… It’s turning faster and faster. I have to make it in 24 hours at all costs. I have to make it: Reach polis, form a unit and go back… Keep reminding me until then, alright?”

Homer nodded his head cramped. Even the thought about what would happen if the brigadier would forget who he was completely scared him. Who would remain in the body when the real Hunter fell asleep? But not the one… against he had lost the illusionary fight?

The Polyanka was now far behind them. Hunter stormed to polis like a guard dog that had been let loose from its chain and had smelled the trace of its prey. Or a wolf fleeing from its hunters?

It got bright at the end of the tunnel.

Finally they reached Park Kultury. Leonid tried to get on the good side of the guards again through inviting them to a “very wonderful restaurant.” But the two men were suspicious. Even when he went to the restroom they only let him go after a long discussion.

While the guards waited at the door, he asked the musician: “You still got money left?”

“Not much.” Leonid left the restroom and gave him five bullets.

“Give them to me! Crutch wants money for you two.

He thinks you’re a provocateur from the reds. When he is right, here is the passage to your line.

You already know. If not you can wait here until the police is coming to get you. You’re going to have to barter with them on your own though.”

Leonid tried to keep his hiccup under control.

“So you’ve found out, yes? Of course… We will see us again. Many thanks!” He raised his hand for a strange greeting. “Listen… To the devil with the passage way! Get us to the tunnel, mhm?” The musician took Sasha’s hand and stumbled on a bit faster. “That one was good.” He mumbled.

“There is the passage to your line… maybe you want to get up there too? Forty meters deep. As if he didn’t know that it was already full of mines…”

Sasha realized. “Where are we going?”

“Where?” Groaned Leonid. “To the red line! You’ve heard it yourself: I’m a provocateur and they got me, uncovered my true intentions…”

“You’re a red?”

“My dear girl! Don’t ask anything now! I can’t think and walk at the same time at the moment.

And running is more important. It won’t be long until our friend go on full alert. And they’re even going to arrest us. Money alone isn’t enough for him, he wants a medal!”

They dove into the tunnel and let the guards behind them. Pressed themselves against the wall and ran into the direction of the Kievskaya. Sasha realized that they wouldn’t make it to the station.

When the musician was right and the second guard would show up they would pursue them…

Suddenly Leonid went to his left into a bright side tunnel, like out of routine, as if he was going home. A few minutes later she could see flags, grids and sandbags in the distance, machine gun nests and she heard barking of dogs. A border post? Did they already know of their escape? How could they have come from? And what territory was behind those barracks?

“I work for Albert Michailovitsch.” Leonid put a strange document under the guard’s nose. “I had to get to the other shore.”

The guard looked at the documents and said: “The usual tariff. And where are the papers of the lady?”

“I pay double.” He was searching his pockets and scrapped his last bullets together. “And you didn’t see her, ok?”

“Nothing is ok. ” Said the border guard strict. “This is a state with laws and not some kind of bazaar!”