Artyom’s POV
“Remember, everything depends on you and you alone. Until we meet again, Goodbye Artyom.”
Khan’s words echoed in my head. Why would Khan put his faith in a twenty four year old man that had spent two days in the tunnels? I asked myself. Khan had informed me about some dangers that lurked in the tunnels.
Who is Khan? Well that is a story for another day. My name is Artyom.
I had spent a few years of my life above ground, before the nukes fell. I remembered nothing from those days. Now I lived and would live in the tunnels for the rest of my life. My hobbies include playing guitar, and collecting old postcards from before the blasts.
The Metro is now my home. The Metro was and is the world’s largest air-raid shelter ever built. It houses the last thousands of lives that survived the cataclysm above. It is the only known shelter to have been built.
Now here I am, on my way to the Armory from a cursed station. Why? Because my town is being threatened. My town, the station of Timiryazevskaya, has been attacked. A Ranger had come to try to alleviate the pressure. Rangers are the elite of the elite. One came to the station, his name was Hunter. He went to kill the threat, but didn’t come back the next morning. He asked me to do something if he did not return. He asked me to give his dog tag to Miller in Polis. I accepted his request.
I made my way through a pipe that lead to the Armory. Swatting away cobwebs every time I wanted to take a step forward. reaching the end of the pipe, my hand was cocooned. Taking my knife, I cut through the webs and threw off the remains. To my side, a skull was encouraging me. I regarded my fall. It couldn't be more than a few feet, so I put my knife away, swung my legs over the edge, and jumped.
I landed with a soft thud, the ground was soft here. Looking at my surroundings, I saw the usual. A few radioactive glowing mushrooms, Puddles of radiation, and of course nosalises feces. checking the room, an opening was present so I walked towards it, staying clear of the radiation puddles. Now outside the room, I relaxed. On the other side was a tunnel.
The Tunnels ran miles under Russia’s surface. The main network consisted of a ring. from this ring sprouted branches of tunnels. Lined with pipes, abnormal growths, dead bodies, and sometimes spare ammo. Like most tunnels in the metro, It had a railway track in its center for railcars. It was called the tunnels before, but now it is the Metro to us.
In the darkness, I could see a light coming from one end of the tunnel. Remembering it to be the Armory, I slowly made my way towards it. It was a ways away in the distance, so my flashlight was a necessity. Turning it on, I immediately regretted my decision. Not ten feet in front of me, were a number of nosalises, or mutants, take your pick.
Mutants hadn’t been a problem before; the dwellers of the Metro had guns. It was a balance. That was, until the Dark Ones started coming. They broke the minds and bodies of the men that fought them. Rendering them unfit for combat, or dead. More and more men died every day.
Nosalises were mutants that I saw daily. They had to have been the most common type of mutant in the world. Nosalises were derived from pigs, moles, and other shrews and desmans, or thats what i’ve heard. They were about the same size as a human. They came in some varieties, but I hadn’t seen any variations yet. They were big, mean, and territorial. So just imagine a giant bipedal mole, with sharp serrated teeth, walking or running towards you. Not my idea of a good time.
They looked asleep, or were asleep before I shined a bright light in their faces. Now getting up, the Nosalises saw me and called their brethren to them. Immediately, I hear the cries of the nosalises as they surrounded their prey. The pipes all around me shook as the Nosalises gained on my position. Outnumbered on the front line, running away seemed to be the best option. This didn’t work as behind me were more. The holes in the ground seemed to regurgitate Nosalises. I saw them coming out of the walls, and they would probably come out of the giant entrance in the ceiling as well.
I could not believe my eyes. My death stood before me. Even if I did fire into the two groups, my ammo would run out before half of them went down.
Is this how I am going to die? Eaten by giant rats? What about my station? What about the dark ones? Clearly the beasts swarming me wouldn’t answer. If only I had known that I would be killed by nosalises, I would’ve graciously given all my bullets to Khan.
I closed my eyes and relaxed. Tilting my head up, the light had already arrived. It got brighter and brighter until it literally crashed through the ceiling. I didn’t care. I was done, finished, ended. And now, the only thing left to do was wait. I thought of all the good I did while I was alive. Other than giving bullets to the poor and needy, there wasn’t much else. That is probably why you are going to have such an unfortunate end then. My conscience told me.
All around me, electricity being discharged, bodies hitting the ground, and the dying breaths of the Nosalises were the only sounds I could hear. Confusion was the emotion I felt as I opened my eyes.
Above me, floated an Anomaly. It was in essence, a glowing blue ball of electricity. Khan had warned me about these phenomena. It was one of the new ones, introduced after the world was atomized.
I stood stock still as the glowing sphere pulsated with energy. The nosalises didn’t know of the danger, but I did. The horde of nosalises didn’t stand a chance as they charged at the strange new object. The anomaly replied in kind, shocking any nosalises that dared to come to close. Once it was over, the anomaly slowly began floating away, away from the Armory.
"Wicked phenomenon, yes? But, you know, it’s not any more "evil" than, say… fire. It all depends on your point of view.” I could still hear Khan’s words of wisdom.
Once the anomaly was out of range, I checked myself over.Turns out, my body was still in one piece. Breathing a sigh of relief, I checked my surroundings. Dead nosalises strewn the tunnel. Most of the bodies were close, but there were those that stayed back. Those that were cautious were still not spared as they were executed by the anomaly floating towards them.
I did not feel remorse for the nosalises killed. If you feel remorse for every being you kill in the metro, you wouldn’t last a week. You need to be strong, or else you perish.
I looked away from the bodies, and looked down the opposite side of the tunnel. There the lights of the Armory still shone bright. walking towards the lights, I was distracted by something behind me.
Glancing backwards, the anomaly was still there. Why hadn’t it left yet? From my previous experience not an hour ago, anomalies didn’t stay in one place for long. The anomaly started to move up and down? What was it doing? Trying to get my attention? I turned around and started walking towards it. It stopped bobbing, and retreated away coyly. What in the name of the Metro was it doing?
Looking back towards the Armory, The lights welcomed me. There was comfort there. There was nothing preventing me from going, yet my curiosity wanted to understand what was happening with this anomaly. In my moments of indecision, a voice in the back of my head began to speak. It was then I knew who was speaking to me, and why this anomaly was acting strange.
“Artyom, Artyom, Artyom, Artyom” A voice whispered. the sound echoing in my head.
It was a Dark One. I recognised the “voice.” Focusing, the voice came back.
“Follow, Follow, Follow, Follow” The voice asked.
I was torn. Continue with the mission, or do as the voice asked. This all sounded like a wild goose chase to me, and it might just end horribly. Turning my back on the anomaly, I started walking back to the Armory.
“Help us, Help us, Help us, Help us” the voice pleaded “Only the chosen one, one, one, one”
my curiosity won as I started to walk back towards the anomaly. It continued down the tunnel as well. What the hell have I gotten myself into? The Dark Ones needing help from a human? Lies, the Dark Ones attacked Timiryazevskaya. MY home station, injuring twenty soldiers! And what’s this about a Chosen one? I’m about to find out. I thought to myself.
After a bit of walking, the anomaly stopped beside a door within the tunnel, before it ascended into a hole in the ceiling. Well that’s reassuring, I thought to myself. Pulling out my pistol, It was level with the door. Walking over to it gun drawn, I peered inside. It was colder in that room than in the tunnel. Sure enough, it was open to the surface.
From what I had heard and learnt, there had been an apocalyptic war on the surface. It had devastated the Earth. It had also left deadly radiation everywhere, and biological weapons had changed the animals into mutants. Those same mutants now stalk the surface, looking for their next prey. Holes to the surface served as their gateways into the Metro.
The room’s ceiling was open to any mutant who wanted access to the tunnels. Putting my gas mask on, I took a step into the room. The door was cool to the touch; it was hanging on its bottom hinge. Walking past the door, I scoped out the rest of the room. Nothing, just dirt and rubble. That’s when the door close behind him with a creak.
Swearing to myself, I swung my gun around. Sure enough, behind the door was what I had expected from the start, a Dark One. This was the second time I had seen a Dark One. Its body mirrored that of a human, yet its facial features were distorted. From what I could ascertain, it had two eyes. That was it, no nose, no ears, no mouth, just its eyes. It looked like it was wearing a mask, a mask in the shape of the letter Y. The dark colour of its skin contrasted with the grey of the “mask.”
It didn’t move, it just stared at me. Little clicks could be heard around the room. Looking up, I could see that other Dark Ones had also appeared, standing on the edges of the surface. You idiot! You couldn’t have just walked to safety now could you? This was an obvious trap, a child could see that! Yet as the seconds came, nothing moved. Confused, I ever so slowly began lowering my weapon.
The Dark One by the door stepped forward. Every fiber of my being wanted to shoot this mutant on the face, yet something stopped me. It was Khan once again.
“Try to get a better understanding of things before you make your judgement.” Khan reminded me.
Then, the voices came.
“You have been chosen, chosen, chosen, chosen” The Dark One said. Its raspy voice popping back into my mind. I didn’t reply.
“You will help us find peace, peace, peace, peace” The Dark One said. Slowly raising its hands. I stepped back. The dark ones above also raised their hands.
“You are our last hope, hope, hope, hope” The Dark Ones all said in unison. the ground beneath me begin to quake. My vision got blurry, and my body started to shake.
“You will lead us to a new land, land, land, land” The Dark Ones said in chorus. The room begin to spin. The Dark Ones swirling around me, my mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening around me.
“You will be our voice, voice, voice, voice” The Dark Ones yelled. My ears were ringing, and I was blacking out. Above me, was a blue orb of light rapidly descending towards me.
“You are the will of the Dark Ones, Ones, Ones, Ones” The Original Dark One said to me. The orb was within reaching distance now, and I closed my eyes. Tremendous amounts of pain went through my body as the orb went through. A memory surfaced just before I lost consciousness. It was of a small boy. Next to the boy was the body of a nosalis, with a Dark One standing beside it.