Metro 2034

“No medication. No pills, no vaccine. A few years ago at our line, the Preobraschenskaya, we had a similar disease”

“Why doesn’t hunter know of it?”

“There was no epidemic. The disease went away by itself. The virus can’t stand radiation.

Something happens to it, I think it stops dividing… Well you can stop the disease even with small doses.

We found it out. You don’t need anything else. The solution of the problem, so to speak is on the surface.”

Shivering she took his hand. “Really?”

“Really.” he put his hand in hers. “We don’t need to do anything else but get in contact with them and tell them.”

She let go of his hand. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? That’s just! How many people die up till now!”

“After just one day? None… I didn’t want you to stay with this killer. I wanted to tell you from the beginning, but I wanted to trade this secret for you.”

“You’ve traded me against the life’s of others!”

Hissed Sasha. “I am not worth… One of them!”

The musician raised one eyebrow. “I would trade mine.”

“You don’t get to decide that! Stand up! We need to go back. And that fast. As long as he didn’t already make it to the Tulskaya…” Sasha put her finger on her watch, whispered something and sighed.

“Just three more hours!”

“Why? We can use the telephone. I’ll let them call Hanza and explain everything. Then we don’t have to run to there ourselves. We wouldn’t make it anyway…”

“No!” Sasha shook her head. “No! They won’t believe it. They wouldn’t belive us. I have to go to him myself and tell him. To explain to him…”

“And what then?” Said Leonid envious. “Then you give in to him just out of fun?”

“That’s none of your business.” She answered. But she immediately knew who she could control this man who had fallen in love the easiest: “I don’t want anything from him. But without him I don’t have any chance to get through.”

“It seems my lies have been a good teacher.”

Answered Leonid with a slight smile. Then he sighed. “Ok, let’s go.”

They reached the Sportivnaya in half an hour: The guards had changed and Leonid had to explain again how a girl without a passport could’ve crossed the border to the red line.

Sasha looked nervous at her watch and Leonid at her, you could see that he was torn from one side to the other.

He was fighting with himself.

On the train platform, thin recruits put a few bundles of wares on an old, stinking railcar, drunk workers acted like they were stopping a leak and a few children in uniforms sang a children’s song. In five minutes they had stopped Leonid and her to see their passports a few times and the control at the tunnel to the Frunsenskaya took especially long.

Time was running out. Sasha didn’t even know if they could make it in the two hours that were left of their ultimatum anymore. Nobody could stop Hunter and it could be possible that he had already started with his operation.

The soldiers had finished loading the railcar, the railcar spit out smoke, started moving and came closer.

Leonid made a decision.

“I don’t want to let you go.” He said. “But I can’t stop you. I thought if I made sure that you came too late you wouldn’t need anything there anymore. But I’ve understood that I can’t get you that way. Being honest is the worst way to get a woman, but I don’t want to lie anymore. Choose yourself with whom you want to be.”

The musician ripped the border guard the wonder passport out of his hand and punched him surprisingly fast at the chin. Then he took Sasha’s hand and dragged her with him onto the railcar which was leaving at that moment. When he driver looked around he looked surprised into the barrel of a revolver.

Leonid was laughing loudly. “Dad would be proud of me now! How often did I have to hear that I’m just wasting my time and that I’ll never be something with my stupid flute! And finally when I act like a real man he isn’t here! What a tragedy!” Then he ordered the driver “Jump!” He even though they were going fast dropped to the ground and rolled behind in the darkness screaming. Leonid started to throw their cargo overboard, with every bundle that fell onto the tracks the motor roared louder. The old search light in front the railcar threw a secure and flickering light forward that maybe reached a few meters. Screaming like somebody was scraping on glass, rats were chased away by the wheels and a surprised tunnel guard jumped to the side at the last moment and in the distance they could hear the hysterical howling of the alert siren. The tunnel segments went by them faster and faster, Leonid brought the last bit of speed out of the machine.

They flew past the Frunsenskaya. The unknowing guards stormed away like the rats and only as the railcar had left the station far behind angrily the siren of the Sportivnaya howled alarm.

“Now it has started!” Screamed Leonid. “We got to make it to the ring line at the next side tunnel! There is a huge defense line where they’re going to try and stop us. We drive on along the line to the center!”

He knew about what they had to be afraid off: Out of the side tunnel that had lead her to the red line, the search light of a diesel powered railcar hit them. The tunnel was only a few feet away from them and it was too late to stop. Leonid pressed the rough pedal to the metal and Sasha closed her eyes… It was only left to hope that they hadn’t changed the tracks to theirs yet, if they would have a frontal collision with the other vehicle. A machine gun thundered and bullets flew only a few centimeters over their heads. The smell of something burning and the hot air surrounded them, the other motor roared and went silent again. The two vehicles had missed each other like out of a miracle.

As soon as the railcar had passed the tunnel the other railcar followed their trail. While they drove to the Park kultury, swinging from one side to the other, the diesel powered railcar drove into the other direction.

They still had a head start. To the next station it would be enough, but what then? The railcar got slower, the tunnel was going uphill. Leonid turned to Sasha. “The next station is Park kultury, it’s almost directly under the surface. The Frunsenskaya on the other hand is fifty meters below it. We got to get over that hill and then we’re going to pick up speed again!”

And it happened that way: When they had reached Park kultury they had gotten faster again.

The station was old and prideful, with a high ceiling but somehow lifeless, dark and only sparsely inhabited. Croaking a siren raised its husky voice. Behind defense lines made out of bricks you could see many heads. Assault rifles barked angry. But too late, they couldn’t do anything.

“Maybe we’ll even stay alive!” Leonid laughed.

“With a bit of luck…”

They saw how something that looked like a spark in the darkness at first, then it got brighter and closer. It was the search light of diesel powered railcar! The ray out light was like a spear it had raised in front of it, as if it wanted to ram it into the old railcar t. It ate the distance between them. Again machine guns were fired and bullets went past them howling.

“Not long now! There is the Kropotkinskaya!”

The Kropotkinskaya, divided into squares, full of tents, run down and unclean. Certain portraits on the wall which had been painted a long time ago and were already smeared. Flags and nothing but flags, so many that they formed a continuous red band like frozen blood in vein out of stone.

This time it was a grenade launcher that threw its cargo after them. A hail of marble splinters rained down onto the railcar and one of them hit Sasha’s leg without leaving a deep wound. They had dropped a barricade from the ceiling but the railcar just broke through it while it almost went off the rails.

The diesel powered railcar got closer and closer: Its motor was a lot more powerful and moved the