The Wristwatch
A metro 2033 fanfiction by Marcello Nicolini
The mutant she bear stoop up to intimidate the wardens.
Eyes on them, claws ready, the bear only wanted to protect cubs behind her. Those two had been playing with a rusty barrel and had been very noisy. Now they were frightened and whimpering. They knew Mother would have protected them, even so, the wardens were scary. A pack of six (they always roamed in pack) and they were surrounding Mother Bear. Their manes had spring colors, instead of the dull winter white. Fur was reddish or brownish in some places; some warden was even black. Jaws were upturned, like bulldog's, and ears were flat, sunk in the skull.
The bear roared, threatened and the pack went backwards.
Hidden behind a skeletal tree, Baby Dark One beheld the scene and thought. With his big eyes of a bioluminescent green, he scanned the hearth of the animals. Everything they felt, he perceived as a color: blue for the scared cubs, red for angered Mother Bear and red, almost blue, for the wardens. They were making up their minds: their hearts were blue with fear.
Instinctively, the Baby preferred Mother Bear than wardens. Maybe 'cause she was defending her cubs, maybe for that new notion he learnt, "empathy", or "seeing yourself as the other". Baby thought of himself like one of the cubs. He wanted to help the Mother. No one had to get hurt today, he decided.
Recalling all of his powers he disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing close to the wardens. He had been so quick they even didn't notice. With his long and skinny five-fingered hand touched the first warden sending a vision into his brain. He made it see the she Bear, but bigger and meaner and felt the warden color turn sharply from almost blue to distinct blue. He felt its fear spread to the rest of the pack, raised his hand and teleported himself to safety.
He felt tired: he had abused his powers, now he had to rest. When he became adult, like Uncle, perhaps he could have played more with his powers.
He beheld the scene: almost all the pack was blue now; their snarls became whines, their prowling uncertain.
There, standing, the she bear watched them until they turned their backs on her and disappeared, flailing long rat-like tails, among ruins.
When she saw the last tail gone, she calmed herself. Her hearth was green now. She was amicable. Cubs liked her and got back to play.
Baby Dark One wanted badly to be part of that family. But what is done is one, he said to him. He watched the bears move (Mother called her cubs) until they disappeared into the forest.
Mutated trees drank radioactive rain.
Baby gave a deep breath. His lungs absorbed poisonous air, transforming it in energy for his body cells. With closed eyes, he opened his mind. Using his powers, he scanned the adults position. They were on the road, a bit far away. He had been back, but he didn't feel like leaving the humans, even he knew he was supposed to stay with his own specie. Memories of time spent beneath the soil, into the humans tunnels, got him. He was disguised as one of their children and remembered one of the humans answered warmly to his hand-waving. He also remembered one of them calling him "monster"!
What to do with them?
He had learned a lot from Artyom; he had saved him and other good humans from the attack of the reds and now he wanted to give them some time to recover. With all his hearth he wanted Dark Ones and humans to live together. The world was big enough and they would benefit from each other. Artyom taught him mercy, friendship, loyalty. He wanted to help Artyom getting him out of the tunnels, getting him to live on the surface.
But the air we breathe is poison for them, he thought.
Thinking, for Dark Ones, was like speaking. Their minds were always linked, therefore Uncle heard those words and answered him: We will find a way.
Baby left hold of the tree and ran to him. He was quick, he could climb like a spider, he jumped and, sometimes, teleported himself before taking a breath. He was the only one, among his specie, to wear clothes. Dark Ones didn't need them: they had bodies born to adapt to nuclear seasons. Baby Dark One was curious and he like new habits of old humans. He had found a pair of trousers (too big for him) braces and a gilet. He would wear his little bag with a shoulder strap and he would fill it with stuff. He had found a peculiar object, man made, but broken. He didn't know how to fix it.
Now with Uncle, he took his hand. They felt love one for the other. Uncle was an adult, a dark, slender shape with long arms and sleek thin fingers. The others were a little bit farther, walking, towards a new destination. They walked among monuments and wreckage, avoiding wardens and Winged Ones, perceiving them even before being seen.
Baby, in a way, was adult's teacher. For a long time they were asleep, locked by men in a secret underground facility. When he had woken them up, they had been like kids. They didn't knew anything about the world. He taught them everything Artyom had taught him. He had told them about the Judgment War, about how Mankind destroyed itself and the planet.
It was beautiful to look at the sun, even if for a short time. Clouds were covering it, sprouting rain and hiding for a while.
How much would Mankind miss all this?
He followed Uncle towards the unknown. Down in the tunnels, he enjoyed dressing up as an human child. A trick he could do with his mind, meant not to frighten them. But now Dark Ones were already marching and they would not be back for a long time. Nostalgia was so big he wanted to see the world before the War. He concentrated.
Ruins morphed back into an imposing building, with golden domes, at the borders of a vast stone place full of people. And people laughed, ate… ice creams (another word Artyom had taught him) they carried children in their arms and walked with creatures he had never seen.
His father had tried to communicate with them through those visions and they had shot him. With their technology, they could harness the power of fire and shot it from their hands. Their… missiles? Yes, that was the word! Their missiles had destroyed his own family.
There are humans!, he told Uncle. Dark Ones knew it in an instant and changed course. They moved farther on the right, like an army of ants, to avoid contact.
Baby Dark One used his power to pinpoint them.
Three of them, he thought, and one is a child!
The adults were blue but the child was of an amicable green.
I want to go, he thought.
It's dangerous, we can't allow you, answered the adults. Uncle held tight Baby's hand.
We have to learn both! Me and them!, Baby thought. The child won't be scared by me! He slipped off Uncle's grip and disappeared.
«Dad! Look!»
«Oh, My, Max! it's a kid!»
Maksim Akuto saw the kid, wrapped in an oversized yellow waterproof coat. He ran flailing his arms and jumping into puddles.
«Hey, kid!» Max called, «Here!»
The kid sopped ten paces or so from them, wary.
«Dad! He has no mask! Can I take it off mine too?»
«No he has no mask and he is stupid. You cannot take yours off, understood?»
«Listen to Dad, Blanka.»
But Blanka was happy for the kid's arrival and felt herself ridiculous with that gas mask and that filter resembling a soup can. She jumped and slipped away from her mother's hands.
«Hey little girl! Don't be naughty or you will use all your filter up» she told her off. Her father stretched out an hand and grabbed her wrist.
«Wait!» we must understand who is that kid. And you, why you not wearing the mask?»
The kid smiled and waved, making Blanka to laugh.
«You are weird!» Max said, looking at him. «From which station you come?»
«We come from the Reich» Blanka interjected, «but we ran away.»
«Shush honey.»
«But Mom!»
«We don't know him.»
«He is a kid» said Blanka. The kid smiled and, slowly, opened his bag.
«Hey, stop stop! What are you doing?» Max leveled his machinegun, but Blanka put herself between he and the kid.
«Put it down!» she said to her father. Mother was scared seeing her in front of the weapon.
«Blanka! Away from that thing!» she said. The kid shook her head.
«Not if Daddy won't put it down.»
«Okay, Daddy will put it down, but now move yourself from there.»
«Blanka, we don't know what he has got in that bag» Max said.
«Look! That's what he's got: a broken wristwatch.» Blanka pointed at the object in the kid's hands. The kid stroke the watch and then gave it to her. Their hands touched for a moment, the very moment in which Blanka saw the kid for who he really was. Now she knew what he wanted.
«He doesn't know what a watch is, Dad!» she said.
«What? What are you talking about?»
Blanka showed to her father the object.
«He asks you to repair it. Will you? Please! Please!»
«It's not possible. Not here. It's dangerous.»
But she shook her head.
«No it's not. It's not dangerous so please fix it!»
Max moved his sight on the ruins. Mutants could be everywhere: behind that church, in that truck wreckage…
The kid had a nice and curious face. Like most of kids, he could smile even in the middle of that devastation. That encouraged Max. as long as the children were curious there would be still hope for Mankind.
«Okay, but let's work on that stone. You are lucky, 'cause I've got all my tools here with me.»
«My dad is an engineer. Before the Reich we lived at the Armory: do you know that?»
The kid smiled but shook his head.
Aren't you scared by me?, asked he to Blanka. Now was her turn to smile and shook her head.
«You two!» Mother said, inviting them to approach the flat stone. They reached it jumping and found Maksim already there.
«Tanya, take the gun and watch our back» he said, giving to his wife the weapon. She nodded and took it with trembling hands. The man drew his toolbox and sat down. He put the broken watch in front of him and started to fix it.
He couldn't believe what he was doing! Why was he fixing that thing in the middle of nowhere? The surface was lethal: if wasn't the air to kill you, then mutants were. So, why?
His tools were tiny and specific. He had used them to build machineguns and other lethal weapons. It was the first time he used them for a watch.
Blanka and the kid got stuck down and watched him, their hands under their chin. Blanka laughed, clouding the mask visor. She looked at her new friend and laughed.
«There you are!» Maksim said after a while. He raised the wristwatch and turned a small ring-thing on it.
«It's fixed. Now look: this is the minutes clock hand and this one is the hour's. The quickest one is the seconds clock hand. A watch is important, because it measures time… you need time to know if it's day or night or even if your filter will be up in a matter of seconds… but you seem not to need one nor a mask…»
Max stretched his hand; the kid's fingers closed around the wristwatch. The man felt a shiver, something reflecting in his expression like a doubt, but only for an instant. But, somewhere in his head, he thought to hear "thank you" and he answered: «You welcome.»
The kid looked at his watch and enjoyed the clock hands spinning.
Time…, he thought, time is running by and future is already past.
«We have to go now» Maxim said. He got up and took the gun from his wife.
«So, will you come with us?»
The kid shook his head.
«Where will you go?» asked Tanya. The kid pointed backwards. They saw a tall and slender figure: a man.
The man walked slowly, among ruins, and the more he got close, the more they could see of him.
His eyes were oriental and he had a red bandana on his forehead. His grey hair were tied into a ponytail and he had a goatee with a braided point. He wore a leather jacket lined with some dirty fur.
He didn't carry mask nor weapon.
Max leveled and armed his gun.
«Stop!»
But the man waved and went on walking toward him.
«Stop or I shoot!» Max said. He felt someone pulling his sleeve and saw Blanka's eyes emerge from the fog of the mask.
«That one is Uncle, Daddy» she said. Maksim gulped and frowned.
«His family is there. Let him go!» Blanka said. But Maksim was blocked like a stone with that gun in his hands.
Blanka pulled her mother's sleeve.
«Mom! Tell Daddy!»
Even if she felt uncomfortable, she nodded and touched her husband's shoulder. Max shivered: he was like he had just come out of a dream. He looked the Baby Dark One and said:
«Sure… sure. Go to Uncle… go!»