Chapter 3: Speech
Ilia – Day 1 – 13:52
Alex collapsed to the hard floor with a dull thud. I hid in one of the station archways and felt powerless as I watched this unfold. I considered opening fire, but with a simple revolver and only twelve rounds it would have been useless; they would have killed Alex straight away and then hunted me down.
"Check the perimeter," said the apparent leader of the squad. "He might have friends." I waited to see where the other two went before acting. One moved to the other platform whereas the other moved up the stairs on the far side of the station. I couldn't help Alex, I had to hide in case they came my way. Quietly, I darted back the way we came and hid behind the wall where the tunnel split in two to flank the station. I sat against the concrete and remained perfectly still in the darkness as I listened to the distance heavy footsteps of the Nazi soldiers. The two moved down the station and into the tunnels. Realising that they were about to come to my position, I quietly let myself spread out in a natural fashion to make it look as though I was dead. I slumped my head, closed my eyes and left my mouth open as I tried to keep my breathing to a minimum.
The footsteps approached me and shined a light over the area but stopped when they came to my body. One of them pushed my leg with their foot, so I put up no resistance and tried to let it move naturally. "Think this is his friend?" One of them asked.
"Probably," The other replied. "Sure he's dead?" As he said this, a moderately sized spider, about the size of my fist, crawled up my arm and moved onto my neck. The Nazis stayed silent as they watched it move up to my face and near my mouth. I felt the hairs on its legs brush against my skin, willing me to flinch and give my game away. I desperately wanted to get rid of it but knew that it would be a death sentence. The spider irritated my skin as it crawled slowly around my mouth and stopped with one of its large legs was on my eyelid.
"I'd say so," the other voice said. The spider moved onto my cheek as he continued. "Let's report back." The two hurried off back to their superior.
I waited for a couple of seconds before the spider launched a bite into my cheek. My eyes shot open and I tried to withhold the pained sound that I so desperately wanted to make as I quickly smacked the arachnid off my face. It hung on slightly but gave up when it realised that I was indeed alive. Breathing a sigh of relief, I collected my thoughts as the spider scuttled off into the darkness.
I tried to listen to the soldiers but I could only hear them mumbling when they eventually did speak to their leader. They picked Alex and his weapon up and headed back in the direction that they came from. As they left, I quietly rushed out and began to follow them at a safe distance. I couldn't actually see them in the darkness of the tunnels, but I could follow their flashlights. It was difficult to walk on the uneven ground since I couldn't turn my own light on. On multiple occasions, I accidentally kicked the tracks and bits of debris. When they made even the most minute sound, I hid and stayed perfectly still for a minute or so. As a result, the squad's lights slowly left my gaze. The tunnel slowly curved to the right which broke my line of sight with them but I continued to follow the tunnel as there were few other places that they were likely to go.
It was a long walk to their station. I wanted to turn back and not have to face the fascists, but I couldn't leave Alex with them. He was my friend and I needed to save him. I didn't even have a plan of how I was going to get into their station but I figured that I could take a leaf out of Alex's book and improvise based on what I saw.
Aside from a small green door that lit up by a dim red light above it, there wasn't much of interest on the way to Chekhovskaya.
The station's design was very similar to that of Tsvetnoy Bulvar, except that the huge steel hermetic doors seemed to remain closed for the most part. The right-hand door was closed and had nothing outside, indicating that they were never used and so were sealed shut. The other had a guard's outpost outside. Metal barricades flanked the tracks in the centre and four guards in heavy armour stood outside around a couple of campfires and bright oil lamps. I arrived at the station just as the squad of three carried Alex into the station and the guards closed the massive door. I caught a glimpse of the inside of the station; it looked incredibly depressing. The fascist military patrolled the platform and cut off multiple restricted areas. I didn't see a single happy face among the few civilians that I did see. A group of four prisoners, deemed 'freaks' or 'mutants' by the Nazis, were being herded off to some horrible fate.
The blast door closed and the sound of the metal slamming against the metal frame echoed through the tunnel. The guards outside relaxed a bit and sat down on chairs in twos near the fires as I watched them from the shadows.
"What do you reckon they'll do with him?" One of them asked.
"Depends if he turns out to be a mutant or not." The other in their pair began. "Maybe he'll get lucky and just be sent to his death against the Reds, or maybe he'll be executed."
I didn't know what qualified as being a mutant in their eyes, but I desperately feared for Alex's life. From what the guard was saying, he'd either be forced into a war zone or simply be killed. Both prospects terrified me, I knew I didn't have much time to act.
From what I'd learned over my years in the Metro, there were always more ways into a station than simply following the tracks. I backtracked a small way to find the green door that I had found earlier; with any luck, it would provide another way into the station. The door was built into a recess in the tunnel wall, and on the wall next to the door was an emergency gas mask rack. The gas mask present was in good condition, it didn't seem damaged in any way, so I took it and hung it on my belt by the straps. Unfortunately, the filters that should have been present had already been taken, but I kept the gas mask in case I found one later. Gas masks had become expensive in the Metro as they were required to go up to the surface or even to some places in the tunnels, so it was nice to find one for free. Plus, stealing from the Nazis was an added bonus.
I tentatively lifted the latch on the door and pushed it open. The hinges squeaked loudly but I was fortunately far enough away from the outpost for the guards to either not notice or not care. The corridor inside was dimly lit by similar red lights to the outside. I couldn't see much, but I still didn't want to turn on my flashlight.
As suspected, the passage turned to towards the station and kept going. As I reached a door that seemed like it was in-line with the blast door in the main tunnel, I started to hear voices. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but they seemed to be guarding the door from its other side. As I was beginning to think that this was hopeless, I spotted a ventilation shaft near the ceiling of the room and to the left of the door. It was covered up by six thin strips of rusting metal that were welded to the outside of the shaft. The shaft entrance was just above head height so it was a bit awkward to see what I was doing, but I carefully tried to wrench the metal strips off. Without too much effort but a small amount of terrifying noise, the rusting welds sheared off. I quietly discarded them and began to pull myself into the shaft. The metal of the vent amplified any sounds I made so I had to take it as slowly as possible; difficult when pulling my entire weight up into a slippery metal shaft. Thankfully, some of the rust allowed me to get a better grip and I eventually levered myself up into the claustrophobic vent.
I made a mental note of the vague direction that I was to travel in, so that I didn't get too lost in the complicated system, and crawled forward towards the station. The vent was extremely dark, the only light coming from the few places where it split off and led to an opening, so I had to feel the sides to make sure I didn't miss any junctions. This made me run into multiple spider webs and once I put my hand straight onto a rat. It squealed and tried to bite me but it only connected with my sleeve and I managed to shoo it off before it could try again. I remained perfectly still for a while after that, listening to see if anyone else heard it but fortunately nothing came of it. Noises such as rat squeals and the sounds of other living beings were relatively commonplace, so no one paid much attention to them.
After a short while, I reached a junction in the vents. I could either continue straight on or go to the right which led to an opening about a dozen metres away. I followed the right route to see where it came out. I had very little concept of how far I'd travelled, so I thought I'd at least see which side of the blast door I was on. As I got closer to the completely open vent exit, I heard two more voices.
"He looked like a mutant to me, at least. His eyes were really far apart."
"Funny, I thought that they were too close together." I neared the exit but stayed back as the people walked by it.
"No way. How could you think that? There was a huge gap!" They continued to debate this as they walked past the opening and onwards. I tentatively moved forwards to look out of the vent. The area was surrounded by darkness, so I could lean my head out without much danger of being spotted. I was indeed on the correct side of the blast door but not particularly far away from it. How the Nazis left such a gaping hole in their security, I didn't know. Perhaps they didn't care as much since the adjacent station was allegedly empty.
The vent was recessed slightly in the wall and sat next to the track of the left side of the station. The track itself was covered in wooden boxes of varying condition that housed miscellaneous supplies. The two soldiers I had heard were walking down the track, away from the door that I had just circumvented. Through the multiple entrances to the middle section of the station, some of which were closed off by thick metal bars and more supply boxes, I could see a huge crowd gathering under the only slightly lit part of the station. They were all looking towards the far end of the station but I couldn't quite see what. Whatever they'd gathered for clearly hadn't started, though, as the various fascists, most similarly dressed in black uniforms with 'Reich' written across the back, were idly talking to each other in small groups and generally passing the time.
I slowly and carefully lowered myself out of the vent. Making sure that soldiers weren't looking directly at me, I quietly walked across the tracks and hopped up to the platform. The only way that I was going to find out where they were taking Alex was for me to blend in. I eschewed my sneaking, holstered my revolver and confidently strolled up to the crowd just as they began to turn to a stage far at the front of the station. Four heavily armoured and armed guards stood menacingly in front of the wooden stage that was made up of two floors. The top floor was more of a balcony with wooden railings linking to a lectern adorned with the Fourth Reich's banner, the white three-pronged Swastika on a dark grey background; the same banners lined the walls of the central station. Below the balcony stage was the less impressive simple wooden platform on a small amount of metal scaffolding with nothing of note adorning it.
I spotted a gap in the crowd as everyone converged, and moved as far forward as possible without drawing attention, only making it a quarter of the way across the long station before the crowd got too thick for me to get through discreetly. Behind me were stairs that led down to another part of the station which even more people were coming out of and filling the space that I had just left.
A figure walked across the top stage. I was too far away and the lighting was directly above his headwear meaning that it was hard to make out many of his features, but he wore a large black trench coat with black clothing underneath and an officer's cap. Floodlights illuminated the stage as he approached the lectern. Without saying a word, he held his fist out in front of him and the crowd quickly put theirs' to their chests and punched them forwards towards him three times, each time shouting 'slava' at the tops of their voices. I didn't know what was going on, but I followed as best as I could while not shouting as my hand gestures alone were severely out of time with the rest anyway.
The man gripped the lectern and began his impassioned speech. "Soon, my friends. Soon we begin our attack on the mutant-loving Reds!" He pulled out a piece of stained old paper and showed it to the crowd, the writing too small and far away to be legible. "These are the orders from the Führer himself to attack at Lubyanka where they imprison many of our brave soldiers!" Once again, the crowd shouted 'slava' three times and did the same action as I followed their lead slightly better. "Bring out the scum!" He shouted as five young men and one woman were carted onto the stage by two soldiers, all with their mouths covered by electrical tape and their hands tied behind their backs which were then subsequently tied to each other in a line. The soldiers turned them to face the crowd and I immediately recognised the last one; Alexandr. He was in a bad way; severely bruised all over, his clothes were covered in blood, likely his own, and he had a huge black and bleeding eye. He was terrified as he stared down at the crowd that clearly wanted him dead. I tried to avoid him noticing me; if he spotted me and showed some recognition in my direction, I would have been found out and killed. With all of the commotion, I took the opportunity to move through the crowd a little more before I was stopped again when I was halfway to the stage. I noticed a staircase on the far left of this section of the station that led to Pushkinskaya station above.
"These freaks are to be sent at the Reds immediately to test their defences," the man continued. "We will begin our real attack later, where we will crush them, breaking the Red Line once and for all! Hail Reich!" He held his own fist out again as the crowd repeated their chant three times in the same way as before. I followed it a little better this time as I managed to squeeze my way forward a little bit more. I was only a few metres back from the stairs and about seven people from the stage. "You will all be given your duties. Make your Führer proud!" One last time, the crowd chanted and punched the air as I tried to follow their actions.
Alex and the other prisoners were taken up the stairs as people yelled abuse and spat at them. The overzealous leader left the stage to the right and disappeared into the bowels of the station. A nearby man turned to me and said, "Finally; a chance to show the Red filth what we're made of."
I had to try and fit in, so I had to think like a Nazi. "It will be glorious, friend!"
"We will crush them like we have everyone else who has stood in our way." He wrapped his arm around me, patted my shoulder and said, "One day the Metro will be free of genetic impurities. One step at a time. Want to go and see the freaks off?"
Seeing an opportunity to follow Alex, I replied, "Definitely, comrade."
My new acquaintance and I followed the group up the stairs along with a small crowd of people from the speech. The stairs led to the transfer tunnel to Pushkinskaya station. It was long, dim and full of people all going the same way as us.
"Hey, let's go this way," the man walking with me said as he indicated to an open doorway in the wall of the tunnel. "It's a shortcut, we'll get there faster." Not wanting to rock the boat, I simply nodded and followed his lead. We quickly dashed into the corridor and he closed the door behind us. It led to a small dull concrete room, dimly lit by a single orange-glowing bulb in the centre. It seemed to be used as a small storage room for both the resident's belongings and the local rats' shit, but it definitely didn't lead anywhere.
The man pushed my arms together behind my back and held them with one hand as he forced me into the wall with his other forearm on the back of my neck. The side of my face slammed into the hard concrete as a flash of pain surged through my body. The impact cut the spider bite on my cheek a little more and a small amount of my blood imprinted on the wall. He removed his arm from my neck but leant into me with his body as he took out his own revolver and pressed the barrel against my head. He moved his head uncomfortably close to mine and said, "Just who the fuck are you, 'comrade'? A Red spy?"
I found it hard to speak as my face was being pressed up against the wall, but I managed to eke out, "No! No I'm not!"
"If not, then who are you? You're clearly not one of us. You didn't even know how to salute our glorious Führer during the speech." I was silent for a moment, only then realising that I hadn't gotten away with that. "Yeah, I fucking noticed. Talk."
So many thoughts raced through my mind. I tried to think of any way to get out of this situation, but I came up completely blank. Eventually, I settled on telling a limited truth. "I'm looking for my friend. He came through here."
He turned me around to face him and pushed the gun against my forehead. "Do you think that the Gestapo would take kindly to this bullshit? Start telling the truth or we'll see how you fare in the concentration camp."
"It's the truth! I came from Tsvetnoy Bulvar!"
"How stupid do you think I am? That's an empty station." I could see him think for a moment as his eyes drifted away from me. "Unless…" He removed the weapon from my forehead but kept it trained on me as he entered deep thought. His eyes widened as he came to a revelation. "Unless you're from Hans-"
I didn't let him finish. I went for his revolver with both hands, moved it away from my face and pulled his finger off the trigger as I kicked him in the crotch with as much strength as I could muster. His face went bright red as he immediately doubled over and began to gasp for air, completely failing to let any sound escape his mouth. The force of the kick sapped him of any strength and I easily freed the revolver from his grasp. His hands moved down to cover his crotch as he keeled over and fell to the floor. He was at my mercy and I was pissed. I booted him hard in the stomach, causing him to roll in pain, gag and eventually throw up over himself. He looked up at me with fear in his eyes as he tried to scream but was completely unable to.
I lifted my boot up and held it over his face as I said, "Fucking fascists." I launched my foot into the centre of his face, sending into the concrete floor and quickly knocking him unconscious in a growing pool of his own blood and vomit.
His revolver was in good condition, better than mine at least, so I took both it and his holster before I left. I searched some of his pockets, having no problem stealing from a proud Nazi, and acquired nine military grade bullets for myself. Opening the room's door revealed a now mostly empty transfer tunnel, so I left and closed the door behind me, sincerely hoping that no one decided to have a look in there anytime soon. Realising that I was now much later than I had intended to be, I jogged towards the next station and tried to re-join the crowd.
I heard the blast doors begin to close before I made it to Pushkinskaya. "No, no, no," I muttered under my breath as I began to run to the crowd before me, not having a hint of a plan for when I got there. They were standing on one of the station's platforms, watching the door close as it echoed throughout the station and the transfer tunnel. Shit, too late.
I needed to find another way through but I didn't have a clue how to do so. The tunnel between the Reich and the Reds was one of maximum security, it wouldn't be nearly as easy as the entrance to Chekhovskaya.
