Metro 2034

With all his being Homer didn’t belong to the strict Sevastopolskaya, with all his thoughts and eternal incurable nostalgia. He belonged to polis which emitted the light of the past.

Fate had decided differently though.

Even now that he had reached it he didn’t want to go through the echoing halls and look at the stucco, cast sculptures and to fantasize. But he had to haste on as if was being chased. Hunter had accomplished to bind that horrible creature inside of him with enormous effort. He had to feed human flesh to it from time to time. But this monster inside of him just had to bent the bars of the old cell behind the brigadier was sitting to free itself. Homer had to hurry.

Hunter had asked him to find a man called Melnik.

Was it his cover name? A parole? When the guards had heard that name they transformed immediately: No talk about the tribunal which had threatened the brigadier and also the handcuffs around Homers wrists had disappeared into the cupboard again. And it was the fat leader of the guard that was escorting Homer personally.

They climbed the stairs, walked along the corridor and arrived at the Arbatskaya. There they stopped at a door that was guarded by to man in civilian clothes, killing was their job and you could see it in their faces.

Behind their broad backs a narrow hallway with many small offices on both sides stretched into the distance.

The fat man told Homer to wait and walked along the hallway. After three minutes he was back and studied the old man surprised and told him to come in.

At the end of the hallway was a surprisingly roomy chamber which walls were covered with maps, plans, between them were notes of cryptic radio messages, pictures and newspapers. Behind a broad oak desk sat a thin man in the middle of his life with uncommonly broad shoulders.

Homer saw that he was having his uniform hand over his shoulder and only his left arm came out his sleeves.

After one second Homer saw that his right arm had been almost amputated completely. The man was a giant, his eyes were almost at the same height of Homers and he was standing right in front of him.

“Thanks.” Said the man and let the fat man go who closed the door with noticeable regret behind him. Then he turned to Homer. “Who are you?”

“Nikolayev, Nikolai Ivanovitsch.” Answered the old man confused.

“No more games! When you’re coming to me and claiming that you’re accompanying my most valued comrade who we’ve buried a year ago you have to have a good reason for it. Who are you?”

“Nobody. It’s not about me. He’s alive, believe me. You have to come with me, as fast as possible.”

“Now I am getting the feeling that it’s a trap. Or an idiotic game. Or just a mistake” Melnik (Miller from 2033) lit a self-made cigarette and blew smoke into Homer’s face.

“Good you know his name. But let’s say he was here with you so you should know his story. You should know that we have searched for him for a year, every day of it. That I’ve lost a few good men on the search. And god damned you should know how much he means to me. Maybe even that he was my right hand man.” A bitter smile hushed over his face.

“No, none of it. He never said anything.” Homer had lowered his head. “Please, just come to the Borovizkaya. We have no time…”

“I am not going anywhere. Not without a good reason.” Melnik’s hand reached under the table, moved around without getting up and after a few seconds Homer realized that he was sitting in wheelchair. “Let’s talk about it in peace first. I want to know why you appeared here.”

“My god!” Homer didn’t know what else he should tell that stubborn man anymore. “Believe me.

He’s alive. He is sitting in the ape cage at the Borovizkaya. At least I hope that he’s still…”

“I would like to believe you.” Melnik stopped, took a deep breath of the cigarette so that Homer could hear how the filter paper burnt crackling. “But there are no miracles. You’re just opening new wounds. Well ok. There is my own theory who’s behind this game. But to find that out we have people that are trained to find out just that.” He reached for the receiver of the telephone.

“Why is he afraid of people with dark skin?”

Said homer suddenly and more to himself. Not exactly knowing why.

Melnik froze. Then he carefully put the receiver back where it belonged. He inhaled the rest of his self-made cigarette, spat out the rest into the ashtray and said: “To the devil with it, then I’ll roll to the Borovizkaya.”

“I am not going there! Leave me! I rather stay…”

Sasha wasn’t joking nor playing. Nobody had hated her father more than the reds. They had taken his power, broke him and instead of taking his life they had out of mercy or because they thought he wasn’t worth it, damned him to years of pain and suffering. Her father had never forgiven the people who had betrayed him. Not those who had provoked the people to betray him, who had armed them with weapons and flyers. Even the red color could bring him to rage. And even though he had said that he was no longer after revenge at the end of his life, Sasha had felt that he had just wanted to find a reason for giving up.

“It’s the only way.” Said Leonid confused.

“But we wanted to the Kievskaya! You’ve lead me to a no-man’s-land!”

“Hanza has been at war with the red line for centuries; there I couldn’t tell the first person I saw that we’re going to the communists. I had to think of something.”

“Without lies you can’t do anything or what?”

“The gate is behind the Sportivnaya, I’ve always said that. The Sportivnaya is the last station of the red line, in front of the broken down metro bridge. I can’t change that fact”

“And how are we supposed to get there? I have no papers!” She didn’t let Leonid out of her sight for a second.

Leonid smiled. “Trust me. You just have to talk to people. Long live corruption!” Without listening to any other complains he took Sasha’s hand and dragged her behind him.

Even from a distance you could see the shining search lights of the second defensive line and the giant banters out of read fabric which were hanging from the ceiling. The air moved them so that Sasha almost believed to see two red waterfalls in front of her. Was that a sign…?

If it was right what she had heard about the line they would fill them with holes immediately when they got in range.

But Leonid stepped forward calmly and his self-confident smile on his lips. Like always. Around thirty meters in front of the border station the bright ray of the search light hit is chest. The musician put his instrument box on the ground and raised his arms. Sasha did the same thing.

Two guards enclosed who were sleepy and surprised. It didn’t seem like somebody had ever approached this part of the border.

This time Leonid went with the higher ranking guard to the side before he could even ask for Sasha’s documents.

He was whispering into his ear, strummed with the brass in his hand and the man returned in a better mood. The leader of the guard accompanied them past all posts in person, even put them on a waiting railcar and ordered the soldiers to drive them to the Frunsenskaya.

They activated the lever and gasping for air the railcar started to move. Sasha looked at the faces of the people. Her father had told her they that they were their enemies but they didn’t look special: Coats out of cotton, bleached caps with stars on it, fallen in bony cheeks… They didn’t have bright faces like the guards of Hanza, but instead in their eyes was a curiosity of young men. He inhabitants of the ring line didn’t know about anything that. Also: Those two had no idea what had happened at the Avtosavadskaya almost ten years ago. Were these Sasha’s enemies then? Could you even hate unknown people from your deepest regions of your heart?