Metro: Retribution

by RF and AG

Chapter 23: Barn Burning

I initially led us a little closer to the factory, which was fairly obvious to pick out from the rest of the city. The smoke stacks were much larger than any other building, and even from ground level, you could see the tops of them. Eventually, I had to hand off the point to the gryphon who knew the place better than I did. He didn’t speak much but he did say that he used to live in Usaaly. Of course, that meant he must have known the streets like the back of his … claw.

This little factor would give us the edge over the Red Line. In fact, within the first few minutes of handing over the point, he managed to get us past a patrol easily, and not a single soldier had to die. That was more of a blessing than anything. If one went missing, then something was up. We would have had to take down an entire patrol, and with only one gun it would make it unbelievably tough to take them all out before something bad happened.

Sure, Shining had a gun now, in the form of my old Kalash, but he had yet to be trained in using it.

A soft beep echoed from my watch, causing us all to stop. Shit, I just remembered that this was the last of my filters and I had no new ones to change out. We needed to hole up in a building quickly, so I could get my filters recharged. I looked up from my watch for a few moments, checking the buildings that surrounded the darkened alley.

“Need building with closed basement,” I said in barely a whisper. Just loud enough for the other two to here, yet nothing loud enough to attract attention. This wasn’t my first … what was the saying from America? First rodeo? Sure, something like that.

“This way,” Shining said before using his magic to slowly open the back door of the house next to us. I wondered how much magic he had, since he had been carrying both the Kalash and all the ammo for the past half hour.

I slowly made my way through the house, carefully paying attention to any sound that I could hear. Luckily all I heard the was the creaking sound of the house settling. It wasn’t anything like the ruins back in The Dead City, but the sounds were still a little unsettling.  Eventually, after making sure there were no unwanted guests in the house, I made my way to what looked like, and was, the door that lead down to the basement.

Our sole gryphon soldier stayed near the door after we shut it, while I ushered Shining below. Thankfully, the moment the door was shut, I was able to pull my mask off and breath the relatively clean air. I only took a few deep breaths before pulling off my filter bag and handing it to Shining, as well as the filter that was currently in the gas mask.

He grumbled at first, setting down the Kalash and ammo before getting to work on the filters. He closed his eyes to concentrate on the filters, while I simply moved and picked up the Kalash. Once he was done charging those things, i figured that it would be handy to have a second gun around. Hopefully he wouldn’t fuck it up too badly and shoot me.

It was during this little down time, that I began to think of what needed to be done, and what was going to happen. Once we rescue the hostages, and get them away from the Red Line, I would need to create a diversion … that factory could be useful, and if my assumption was right, it might hold a rather explosive substance.

After that … well after that, I would have to wing most of it. While I wasn’t fond of the Princesses, I would not be held accountable for arming a race that would then be able to wipe a nation off the map. I would need to ensure that all the weapons are destroyed. That in itself would be tough, and more arduous than I would like to admit. Still … I’m not the kind of person to possibly incite a genocide.

“Alright, that should do it,” Shining said as he levitated the filters back to me. It was painfully clear just how easy it was for him, and that I had indeed been played back in the Castle. “We should keep moving since that’s done.”

“Not yet,” I said, holding up my hand to stop him. He simply looked at me with a curious gaze. “I will teach to shoot Kalash.”

At first he wanted to respond but he simply closed his mouth. It seemed that he realised the benefits of being able to actually use human weaponry. It would give me a little bit of a tactical advantage as well, since that would allow for more … offensive strategies.

So I began to show him how to use the Kalash, from loading the ammo to actually aiming it. Of course, I also gave him the very important warnings that all gun users should know. Never aim it at me. That would spell a death sentence for him.

We didn’t have the time to allow him to get used to actually firing it, but he said he was prepared to take the life of another if it came down to it. Of course I told him that it would be needed in situations that weren’t just life or death for us. One thing I had learned was that you needed to draw first or you would never get to draw. That was the way it was in the tunnels … sometimes it worked in your favour, and sometimes you would be left wondering what would have happened if you didn’t. That was not here nor there though.

Eventually we made our way up from the basement, my mask on and ready to absorb more of the tainted air. Our sole gryphon guard was looking a little impatient but I simply passed him over, more focused on keeping moving. He seemed to shrug off my lack of response as well, before taking the point and resuming our mission to find the civilians.

Without any hesitation, he lead us back down the path, and once more on our way to our objective. Which, like the previous part before having to get my filters changed, was lacking any sort of resistance. At times we would get a little too close to a patrol but they would then pass us over, or we would be able to sneak around them easily enough.

The travel was slow once again, and I had to go through another two filters before we actually made it within sight of the warehouse. Let me say this, the Red Line was rather intent on keeping all of those gryphons hostage. The front door was padlocked and there were at least four guards patrolling the front. That would make it extremely tough to actually get into without drawing attention to ourselves.

Of course, I wasn’t the native to this town, though we did have one with us. It seemed that as I was surveying the front door, our gryphon guard had started to pry up a manhole, or gryphon hole, or whatever. The weirdest part about that was I had seen no other manholes throughout our trek. There was no way that it was this convenient.

“The factory has utility tunnels in case of emergency,” our guard said. I think that was the first time I had heard him speak. For that matter I knew hardly anything about him; I didn’t even know his name, just the fact that he knew the town well.

“This works but I don’t think these soldiers would be stupid enough to leave an empty entrance like that,” Shining quipped.

“They won’t,” I said as I started to crawl down the manhole. “Be ready.”

I kept my mask on for good measure but I did slip my Night Vision on; it could only help. One thing I noticed about the tunnel was that it was rather clean despite it being underground. I had become so used to the rotting mess that was a Metro tunnel that seeing this was like seeing a unicorn … before landing in this world. Another thing I saw was that this tunnel wasn’t a simple walking tunnel, no it was used to move things much larger that that, there was even tracks. It didn’t reach the same size as a typical Metro tunnel but more like half the size. More than enough room for me to move, though.

I took point as the guard was the last to descend down from the ladder. Shining was behind me, his weapon raised as well, though only because I told him to. I also told him the ‘rules of engagement’ which was, “see target before firing.”

I would most likely see them before he would, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t the chance I would need his help. Though hopefully such a situation wouldn’t come up. He was still too fresh to trust, unlike all the others I travelled with.

It took us barely a few minutes before I heard some voices ahead. I hardly cared what they said, but I knew they were speaking Russian and that was all I needed to know that we had come to our location. I slowly raised my VSV’s scope up to my eye, peering down the scope. Though I instantly realised that the Night Vision would make it a little difficult to look down the scope, nothing I couldn’t normally handle but I chose to remove it. Not because of the difficulty, but because the three Russian guards were standing next to a fire.

“Open fire when I say mark,” I whispered to Shining. He whispered back a nervous ‘okay.’ That was the best I was probably going to get.

We crept a little closer before freezing; one of the Reds was looking down the tunnel. The way he was looking, he must have seen or heard something. He slowly reached his hand up to switch on his helmet-mounted light, it was now or never for Shining.

“Mark,” I whispered just loud enough for him before opening up on the soldiers, striking two quick body shots on the one reaching for his light.

The others didn’t get enough time to act before a small barrage from both Shining and I collided into them. I knew for a fact I caught one in the neck two times and the other in the upper left chest, while Shining’s shots went a little all over the place, striking the soldiers in as many places as a three second burst could.

They fell quietly, not a single word escaping them. I was actually amazed that Shining got a shot off, and that it was done so easily. I looked over to him, checking up the pony. He seemed fine but his eyes were a little distant, obviously overcome a little bit. The fact he wasn’t near puking was a good sign, and probably meant he took a life or two in the past. Still, in the near future I had to remember to keep watch on him.

Yeah, that’s right, I was almost positive that we would succeed. The Red Line was good but this mission was becoming simpler and simpler, and the soldiers were easy targets as long as we had surprise on our side. It was almost time, and if the other gryphon guard got back like he should have, then we would be able to clear this town out without having to leave it in gryphon hands completely.

As we made our way to the entrance back up into what we hoped was the warehouse, I looked over the bodies of the soldiers. None of them lived. That was better than the alternative in this situation.

I approached the ladder, holding my VSV with my right hand, while grabbing the ladder with my left. To many, doing such a thing, one handed ladder climbing, would looked awkward and clumsy. Fortunately I had done such a thing many times before, so it was easy to keep my weapon trained on the top what was most likely a man-hole. The only reason I knew this lead into a warehouse was that I could see the ceiling of the building.

Each step up the ladder was carefully slow, ensuring that we weren’t sloppy in our movements. If there was someone in the warehouse, I couldn’t hear them easily, what with a surprisingly loud bunch of machinery rumbling consistently.

As I neared the top of the ladder, I heard the soft click of boot heels walking past, not even bothering to stop at the top of the ladder. We got lucky, but I didn’t waste my time dwelling on it. If we were going to succeed in our mission then we needed to move fast and right away.

I swiftly closed the gap between where I was and the top of the ladder. I swivelled myself in the hole, turning to follow the soldier who walked away, but all I caught was a glimpse of his back as he walked through the door of the small room that this manhole lead to. It made sense in retrospect since the ceiling did appear closer than I thought it should have.

Without moving my gaze from the doorway, I exited the manhole, allowing Shining and our guard to follow silently. I motioned for them to stick low and keep silent. If we were going to clear this warehouse then we needed to do it silently. A gunfight now would spell death for every single friendly in this building.

With cautious footsteps, we moved forward, Shining following in the rear to make sure that our six o’clock was protected. There were massive shelves that were stacked to the brim, making it nearly impossible to see to the other side of the shelves. It was a good thing for us, since that meant we could use them to maneuver, as well as not have to worry about guards above us since the shelves reached the ceiling.

 I knew in the forefront of my mind that we were going to encounter that same guard again, not matter what. In fact, as if hearing my thoughts, the even-paced footsteps slowly made their presence heard over the machines. A quick halt sign stopped my little group in their tracks, allowing me to keep myself low, all the while drawing my knife. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a little voice whispered that I should just knock him out, but I silenced that thought. To do that now, could end up costing us casualties … at least that was my rationalization for deciding to kill him.

In a blink of the eye, he rounded the corner and found a knife in his chest and a hand on his mouth covering up his gasp. He had just enough time to look down before a twist of the knife caused his weight to fall into me. Another Red Line soldier to never see me withdraw the knife.

I placed the body in a shadowed nook that would ensure he wouldn’t be found unless someone looked hard enough. I didn’t even look at my companions before signalling to move forward. The only glance I gave them was one to make sure that they were indeed following me.  

We rounded the corner of the shelf we had started behind. I expected to find more guards or at least one that would need a swift takedown, but instead I found nothing. It was clear all the way to the other side of the warehouse. I didn’t let myself think on that for any longer than I needed to, before taking the first right, and placing a quick shot into the head of a crouched Red Line soldier. He wasn’t even looking our way, instead inspecting the contents of a box he pulled from the shelf.

Either way he was now one less obstacle. No doubt I would get more than chewed out by someone for the lack of morals or whatever bull they would try and put on me. This was my job, and damned if I wasn’t good at it … even though some days I wish I didn’t need to be good at it.

I’m pretty sure Shining and the gryphon guard were a little surprised if not mortified at how simple and easy I took that Red Line soldier’s life. It was like other times where they actually hampered our way, no, he was of no consequence there.

At least he wasn’t at the moment.

We moved down to another hallway before heading down it. I didn’t even bother to hide the body, though I know I should have. It was sloppy of me but damned if there was any place to even hide a body among these rows in the warehouse. It especially didn’t help that the gryphons were overly obsessive with sorting their warehouse. I had never seen one this organized, nor do I think I would ever see one again. It looked much closer to the library where I first met Shining Armor … second time I met him.

I held my fist up for the group to stop, the sounds of boots were up ahead, near the end of the row we were sneaking in. The cautious footsteps that were being taken told me that there was a possibility that the soldier knew something was up. It wasn’t a casual walk, that much was guaranteed.

I readied my VSV again as I laid down on the ground, trying to make myself as small as possible and utilize the lack of lighting in this section. I quickly checked behind me to see that Shining and our guard were following suit, coming to the same realisation as me, but I had moved on from that train of thought. If he got to the next aisle then he would find the dead body of his comrade. So I came up with a plan.

I motioned to my companions to stay, then I got up and walked slowly towards the end of the aisle. At first I was going to greet him and then knock him out, but I realised that there was the chance he would know from the moment I talked. So I went with Plan B.

He turned the corner to see who was there, just as I drew my knife. He didn’t even have time to act as I plunged the knife into his throat, causing him to go slack as he struggled to hold back the blood that had started to seep into his uniform and fall to the floor. He almost fell as well, but I had kept him up before easing him to the floor. While it might have seemed courteous, it was only because of the need to stay silent.

There were a few gurgles from him, but that was it before he went limp as his life finally came to an end. It was a shame he died as slow as he did, but there was little I could do otherwise. A missed shot of opportunity would have him retaliate and blow our chances.

I looked forward to see that there was a ramp that led to a slightly higher level of the factory. It wasn’t anything special and the whole next level was slightly below neck height, but what caught my eye was that there was light from that level. Our section was dark yet that part wasn’t … it made me wonder, especially since there was a large stack of boxes blocking my view minus the light that managed to sneak around the boxes.

I motioned to Shining and our guard that we needed to move up, to which they nodded before carefully moving forward, up to the point where they were right behind me and almost touching me.

I did a double check of row that the guard had come from, and thankfully found nothing of issue. So I proceeded to move up, and get into cover behind the boxes, which while stacked rather high, were still not tall enough to stop me from peeking over. Shining and our guard moved to a separate box and looked around the sides of it to see what I was seeing.

There, in the middle of a wide, and clutter-free area was a huge mass of gryphons. I could say without a doubt that there were more gryphons in that one area that I had ever seen at one time. Yes, there was even more in there than when the politicians had gathered. They were clumped together rather tightly to the point where it was probably uncomfortable to sit or stand … or move. I looked around briefly to see that there were two soldiers up on catwalks on either side of the open area, then there were two soldiers standing at the far end of the group, near the massive doors to the entrance of the warehouse.

Eventually my gaze moved from the gryphon prisoners and their guards to the fact that there was nearly eight Red Line soldiers walking toward the group from a smaller room off to the right.

I easily picked out who was leading that group, there was no way I could not remember the face of the man who had loomed over me hardly over a week ago. And there he was again … scarred face and dull eye to top it off.

“I hope you are comfortable here. Your government refuses to cooperate and work with me to release you. It seems that they hardly care about you at all, especially with such an important bird among you,” Korbut said in near perfect English that was only marred by his heavy Russian accent.

“Fuck you!” one of the gryphons replied as she stood up in the crowded area. “Your lies mean nothing to us!”

Korbut’s mood soured greatly at the little lashing he got. I could see the smirk vanish from his face. He looked ready to retort something when he noticed that more than a few gryphons started to stand up alongside the one who had initially stood up. He whispered something into the ear of one of his guards.

When he was done whispering, he turned back to the gryphons. “You will learn humility the hard way, it seems. I wish I could stay but other, more important matters takes me away from your punishment. Farewell.”

With that, he and his retinue, minus one, left back the way they came. I saw the soldier he left behind cocking his gun but not aiming it yet. I figured that there was going to be blood if I didn’t hurry up and stop them. So I ducked back down and turned to Shining.

“Better do better this time. Take left side, do not hit gryphons,” I said before taking a deep breath to prepare myself. “On my mark.”

I waited for a single second. “Mark!”

Instantly I popped up from my hiding position and proceed to put two rounds into Korbut’s former bodyguard. By the time they impacted his body and sent him spinning to the ground, I pulled up one of the soldiers on the catwalk. Another two shots, first one missed but the second caught him in the neck. I simply turned to my right a little more to pop off three more shots into the guard who was standing in shock at what had just happened.

There were a few shouts of surprise from the two guards by the door before they got cut down under a rain of fire from Shining and I.

It was over within seconds, not a single one of the Red Line soldiers having a chance to fire their weapon, and giving the gryphons even less of a chance to react to what was happening. The few that actually managed to react had just started cowering. It was the perfect execution of tactics … and the fact Shining had actually taken down his targets with relative ease. I only heard him fire ten times for four soldiers, after all.

After the last soldier fell, the three of us hustled out of cover, our gryphon guard leading the group. I decided to hang back slightly, because I assumed that they would fear me just as much as they had feared the Red Line. Still, despite everything, there were some that were looking at me with what might have been thankfulness in their eyes. I wasn’t sure, really.

        Surprisingly enough, the guard, with a little bit of Scowly’s help, manage to keep every single gryphon in the room from bursting into screaming or whatever they were going to do. So good crowd control there. I didn’t bother to help, knowing that I would probably hinder them, being human and all. Instead I went about some of the bodies and scavenged enough rounds to refill my stocks, as well as pulling a very nice watch off one body. It wasn’t as good as mine, mind you, but by the looks of the differences in time, his might have been set properly.

        After my little bit of scavenging, I turned around to see the guard approaching me with the gryphon that had stood up against Korbut. Said gryphon had a strong resemblance to Galba, with the very eagle-like features and snow white head feathers. It was a little bit eerie at first until I was introduced.

“This here is Princess Gilda, and heir to the throne,” the guard said, almost making me whistle in disbelief. No wonder Galba had given us an escort. He needed a certain asset to be extracted from the town. It also gave a solid reason for his lack of rushing an offensive against the smaller number of Red Line soldiers.

“Artyom,” I said simply, offering a gloved hand, which she surprisingly gripped with a strong shake.

“Thanks for the rescue, though this is one shoddy group. A lame pony and a human saving me? My dad is a dumbass after all,” she said with a shake of her head. She then glanced over her soldier at the large group of gryphons that were huddled together and looking more than a little scarred. “We can’t stay here any longer.”

The guard looked like he was going to speak, but I clamped a hand over his mouth. “Take guns and ammo. Give to any capable gryphon, then follow sewer out. Shining and I will make distraction.”

“Are you sure you can do this?” Gilda looked at me as though she thought I was joking. I gave a small chuckle in response.

“Да,” I replied to them. “Я этого ублюдка уже убил разок. На этот раз у него не будет второго шанса.”

Gilda looked at me in confusion and a little bit of shock, before the guard spoke up. “That means yes in his language … not sure about the rest though.”

“You know how Kalash works?” I asked him simply, to which he nodded his head in confirmation. “Where is main factory?”

“Should be two blocks over east, can’t miss it. It’s the biggest thing in the entire town,” Gilda replied for the guard. I smiled and nodded my head in thanks.

I walked over to the door that Korbut had left through, leaving the two to discuss whatever they were going to discuss. I didn’t really need to ask if he knew how a gun worked, since I already knew that the gryphon knew how to wield a weapon, but it was good to confirm it. He had heard me teach it to Scowly after all.

What I did need to ask was that second question. That one was important. See, on one dead soldier I picked up a very nice square object, a very nice and explosive square object.

I found him inside the smaller room that Korbut had walked through, his ears constantly swivelling this way and that as he kept his Kalash raised in preparation for whatever could possibly come in. I didn’t sneak up on him, didn’t want to get shot after all, instead opting to make my presence known by making slightly louder footsteps than normal.

I crouched down beside him, looking ahead in tandem. It was one of those moments where I almost wish I smoked, only because Ulman had always said how relieving it was. There was probably a cigarette on one of the dead Red Line soldiers, but I didn’t feel like going to look just for a moment of possible relaxation.

“Gryphons heading back through tunnel. Just us two,” I said eventually, breaking the silence and getting a piece of his attention. Just an ear flick, really, but it was enough to pass along the information.

“Just us against the entire village? Are you insane?!” he hissed back at me, not needing to keep his voice down that low, but yet he still did it.

“Insane? Maybe. Us against entire Red Line? No. Us against factory you mean,” I replied semi-cryptically. Scowly looked beyond confused at what I was saying, but I just gave a light chuckle and patted him on his shoulder. “Trust me.”

“Yeah, yeah … I trust you as far as I can throw you,” he muttered to me, and I just laughed a little bit more.

“Can’t you throw far? Magic and all?”

He stayed quiet at that response, his ear flattened against his head much to my contented grin that he couldn’t see. Led himself right into that one, without a doubt. I didn’t say another word as I stood up from my crouch and did one last check over my weapon before walking back into the main room. I was going to tell them to get moving but it seems that Gilda and the guard were very proactive. As I saw only a trio of gryphons armed with Kalashes heading to the back of the warehouse, not a single citizen left in the open area.

Everything was going as planned, at least until I knew that it would be messed up in some way shape or form. I walked back to Shining and tapped him on the shoulder before walking slowly past him, VSV at the ready. Initially I expected there to be a guard near the door that led out of the warehouse. Yet oddly enough there was not a soul in the adjacent rooms, or by the exit.

Even more suspicious was the lack of a guard outside when I creaked the door open.

That alone had me worried, yet I knew that if I changed my plan now, there was a chance something might go very wrong. It wasn’t a perfect plan, sure, but it would work and serve its purpose.

Shining and I crept along the darkened street of the town, headed east and in the direction of the large factory that was exactly how Gilda described it. The darkness of the night didn’t give me a good look at the exact details of the building, but from what I could see it was a massive rectangular place, with four smoke stacks coming out from the top, and what looked like silos or something surrounding its sides.

As we approached the building, I knew something was wrong, because we didn’t have to worry about a single patrol up until we got the the factory itself. There I saw the first Red Line soldier I had seen since the warehouse. A lone guard standing in front of a side door to the factory.

I didn’t want to tempt fate, and instead slowly directed Shining around the semi-concealed yard and towards another possible entrance. We were lucky that in the yard there was large metal boxes and containers, so we were able to utilize cover constantly. Not only that, but it was pitch black on our side while a light shined overhead of the guard. The two of us could have walked around the factory, it was that easy to sneak in the given concealment.

As we crept away from the guarded door, I caught the flicker of something interesting. So I flipped my night vision down and found us an entrance into the facility. There, embedded in the ground next to the facility was a steel grate that looked like an emergency exit of sorts for the factory. I looked over at Shining and indicated for him to stay in place while I checked it out.

So I crawled along the ground slowly, making sure to keep silent and in the dark as much as possible, all the while making my way to the grate. When I arrived, there was my blessing in disguise. I could see from my prone position that there was indeed a trench of sorts that lead into the facility. It reminded me heavily of the factories I had to go through in order to escape the Red Line, so there was a little bit of a righteous grin on my face. I was going to take the fight to them once more in a place that I could deal the most damage.

I did a wave to Shining, who by sheer luck happened to be looking at me, indicating for him to make his way over. While he slowly crept to me, I gently tugged at the grating but it wouldn’t budge, causing me to stifle a groan in frustration. I didn’t want to have to break out my knife to twist the screws out, but if I had to …

Thankfully I didn’t have to, as Shining’s magic flared up very quickly, much to a curse I made under my breath. Thankfully it was a split second before the screws fell out of their spots, allowing me to move the grating.

“Cheater,” I whispered to him as I lifted the grating before crawling into the trench.

“Call it an advantage,” he said back before slowly lowering himself in and using his magic to move the grate back into place.

We were in, and I was more than eager to put my knife to Korbut’s throat.