A/N: Sorry for the delay everyone and I hope you enjoy this. Have a good one guys.
Chapter 4: Surface Hopping
Anna and Artyom go to the market with Artyom selling his Bizon SMG for exchange for ammo and AEK-971 assault rifle for they head back to Yuri's place.
"So you save the princess, that's nice. I'm on the left side of the town. Alice is with me, she would like to hear the epic quest of saving your boyfriend's ass," Yuri chuckled on the radio earpiece with Anna laughing at this.
"That is not funny," Artyom said.
"Is it because it's true, seeing you two soon," Yuri said cutting the radio.
They go through the urban area where the houses were well lit and people talking about the current events.
"Guys, over here," Alice waves her hand as the two Rangers approach the house. "Thank goodness you're okay Artyom," Alice goes in and gives him a hug.
"You were in my thoughts," Artyom said as they go inside with the big guy waiting from him.
"Good to see you back," Yuri said as he is listening to the radio."We should get ready to leave, I'll get some supplies and you keep the kid company. Tell her of your stories of great heroics," Yuri said as he goes off leaving the rangers behind with Alice.
"So Alice, how do you like the town?" Anna asked.
"It's okay, it was better than my home station which is pretty much dingy and closed off," Alice said.
"Yeah, I come from a smaller station in the northern area," Artyom said.
"Guess you both were corner rats," Anna teased.
"What about you, what station did you come from Anna?" Alice asked looking very curious.
"Well from Polis, my mother and father lived a happy life there along with me of course," Anna said.
"Sounds like you were well-to-do," Artyom said.
"It's not like that," Anna said. "I'm going to the bar to get a drink, you watch over her Artyom," Anna goes off with the lone ranger watching the young teenager.
Anna goes off with a Makarov pistol for safekeeping for she heads through the narrow tunnels to go through the marketplace hearing all kinds of chatter about the lockdown.
"Gee no one can get out of this dump," a guy said.
"None of the caravans can come and get us restocked," the other guy said as Anna goes into the bar to get some drinks.
"Sir, can you get me some green tea," Anna said as she is waiting for her drink dropping some bullets as payment.
A couple of drunks come her way as she guards herself. "Hey you think the boss is going to like this?" the thug asked.
"He needs a good whore for the boss. Hey lady I bet you fit the bill," the man slaps Anna's ass watching it jiggle under her pants. "Got some nice cushion back there," he commented on her softness as Anna punches him in the face.
"You pervert," Anna shouted as she draws her pistol pointing it at the thugs. "Go away or I'll blow your heads off," Anna warned as the thugs go off in a rush.
The thugs get out of the bar with Anna sighing as she finishes her drink. She goes out of the bar and look around the area to see the sights. She noticed there is a target gallery where people are shooting targets.
"Anyone who can get all the targets in less than a minute will win a cash prize of 50 bullets," the owner said as the last person failed to get all the targets putting the Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifle away.
"Let me take a crack at that," Anna said.
"Okay little missy, let see what you got," the owner said as the female ranger grabs the bolt action rifle.
"No problem," Anna said to take up her stance to see the rats coming out their holes.
She begins popping the ugly critters with the rifle with swift accuracy to empty the rifle. She quickly put in ammo into the weapon to see three remaining rats fleeing about.
"No you don't, you stupid rats," Anna finishes reloading and fires fast shots to take out the remaining rats.
"Well, our little miss sniper has gotten some free money," the owner said as Anna has a grin on her face.
"All too easy," she goes off to head back to Yuri's place to see the others waiting for her.
"Ready to go guys," Anna said as Yuri has his trusty RPD at his side with Alice wielding her modified Bastard carbine.
Artyom charges his AEK-971 assault rifle for them all head for the gates that lead to the surface. "Hope it's not too bad," he thought as they walk up to the gate to see the guards watching over it.
"We wish to exit to the surface," Yuri said.
"It's your death wish," the guard unlocks the gate for it slowly opens with them putting on their gas masks.
The large door opens for the travelers exit into an old train station with the guards closing it off. "We should thread carefully, who knows what the hell is in this station," Yuri said as they go through the passageway to see cracks revealing the bright moonlight through them.
"I bet the moon looks lovely tonight," Alice said as they see several rooms they need to check for supplies.
"Okay, we should check the rooms so nothing can get behind us," Yuri said as they go into the rooms with Alice going with Anna in one room, Artyom into the next room while Yuri goes into the last one.
Artyom slowly goes into the sections of rooms with holes on the side. "I hope nothing pops out of those holes," he thought aiming his rifle through the dim lights hearing the moaning of animals in the distance.
He moves into a larger room with a generator that once powered the train station. "This things seen better days," he thought for he looks at a weapon clutch on a dead body. He sees a semi auto MP-153 shotgun in the dead man's hands. "Sweet," Artyom grabs the weapon off the corpse as a group of lurkers speed out of the holes trying to bite Artyom's legs.
He fights back with swift barrages of bullets cutting into the small bodies of the mutants. He uses the AEK-971's insane rate of fire to tear through groupings of the mutants.
A Lurker is about to bite onto Artyom's legs but he kicks it away to then shoots a few rounds into its body killing it. He tosses a pyro grenade to set them aflame with the mutants going away from the fearsome heat.
"That was close," Artyom said with his heart racing to put his new weapon on his back going back to the tunnel.
Yuri checks the other rooms to browse checking for enemies or supplies they can us to find some MGRs consist of 45 rounds laying on the table covered in dust.
"Good find," he thought to put them in his bag as he goes off to see a pair of Watchers eating a dead corpse. "Always picking the rotten dead meat," he thought.
He fires on the mutants filling them with bullets for they drop to the floor dead. Yuri checks the body to find anything helpful but nothing was found. "Well that was disappointing?" he thought to see no soul in sight.
Anna and Alice look around in their section with the young girl wielding her Bastard trying to look through the darkness
"Some money," Alice said finding some loose change with 5 MGRS.
"Good eyes," Anna said putting it in her backpack drawing out her SVD.
"Hey Anna, there are Lurkers all over the place. So watch out," Artyom said on the radio.
"Okay, thanks for the tips," Anna said as they just spotted the small mutant hovering over a corpse chewing on its rotting flesh. "Watch your step," she warned as Alice steps on broken glass for the animal turns to them roaring at the girls.
Alice pops a bullet into the creature's head with blood escaping the wound letting it fall down. Then more small critters appear out of the holes attacking them. Anna tosses some pyro grenades into the ground setting the little mutants on fire.
Anna pumps lead into the bodies putting them down. "All clear," Anna said as everyone gets back onto the hallways.
"Okay, time to head for the surface," Yuri said as they go up to the broken staircases for them to be in a building for the exit out to see they are in a large swamp.
"Hate these places," Artyom switches to his new shotgun loading it with shells for them to traverse the almost alien landscape.
Alice steps on something that sounds like a crunching sound to see a dead baby shrimp under her boot. "Gross," she said as she rubs it off the crumbling concrete.
"Hope we don't find the Alpha Shrimp. Those beasties can get real nasty," Anna said as they travel through the swamp to see buildings falling into the poisonous water.
"What a mess and we are supposed to rebuilt in the near future," Yuri said.
"We'll find a way," Artyom said with a hint of optimism.
"Artyom, you seem upbeat about the idea," Anna said.
"Guess the little Dark One rubbed off on me. Come on, let's go through this marsh," Artyom said as they traverse through a broken building still standing upright.
"You guys, wait here. I'll go to the top and scout the area," Anna grabs onto a pipe and climbs up the building.
"What a lovely view," Artyom said seeing Anna's beautifully round rear filling out her pants.
"You are lucky you're cute, Artyom," Anna said going up to the upper level to wield her SVD to look through her scope. "Oh no, troopers and they don't look friendly," Anna said.
"Nazis?" Yuri asked.
"Yes, about 12 of them. Heavily armed and dangerous," she said while the others taken position inside the building with Anna training her aim on the officer.
"There they are," Artyom points his AEK-971 rifle at the incoming enemy for they didn't notice them yet.
Anna puts a bullet through the skull of the Nazi trooper with the enemy taking cover behind rubble.
"Toss in grenades," the Nazi shouted as several grenades went into the building with the three getting behind a metal desk to hide from the series of flying fragments.
Anna fires several rounds to put them on the defensive with her putting two shots into each Nazis' head with them dropping onto the ground. One of the Nazi tries to climb up the building to get the jump on Anna with Yuri putting several rounds into a Nazi trooper.
Anna is taking out a troop with the Nazi getting behind her by getting her in a tight hold making her drop her Dragunov rifle. She elbows the Nazi in the stomach and shoves her pistol into his head blasting his brains across the ruined floor.
Finally they manage to kill the rest of the Nazi with them in the clear. "That was crazy, my heart was pounding," Alice said holding her little chest with her heart beating pretty fast.
"You'll get used to it," Artyom said offering comforting words.
"Well, we should grab the ammo and meds off of them to move forward," Yuri said for they begin grabbing what they can. Artyom noticed she got blood on her green ranger uniform.
"You okay Anna? Did you get hurt?" he asked looking worried hearing the struggle on the top building of the swamped building.
"Yeah, I got Nazi blood on me. No big deal," she said. "But it's pretty sweet that you worried anyway," she kisses him on the cheek for they move now.
"Okay we should be by the Mezhdunarodnaya station which is by the river which will lead us to Line 4 and into Line 3," Yuri said.
"Anyway; Alice why would your uncle set up in a very unusual place like the Metro Line 3?" Anna asked.
"Because of the tension of the coming war at the time, my uncle and others went to set up a new settlement to get far away from that. Also to escape the wraith of the Reds and Nazis since many people who joined my uncle were former citizens from those stations," Alice said.
"It's understandable for them to go like that, your uncle did a good thing taking them all in," Artyom said.
"Yeah, I hope he is okay," she said.
"I bet he is," Anna said trying to cheer the girl up with her giving back a warm smile.
"Yeah, I can't wait to see him," Alice said as they see the building that leads down to the station they are looking for.
"This is it," Yuri said as he moves the boards out of the way of the door. They enter inside to see escalators going down to the station area below.
"We are getting close to Line 4," Artyom said pointing his MP-153 shotgun to spot nothing hostile human or mutant.
"One step closer to getting to my uncle," Alice thought with determination within her heart for they go into the unknown regions of the Line 4 not knowing what dangers away them there.
