Michail continued to move through the revolting sewers, thank God he wore a gas mask, he wasn't far from Nagornaya station either. All he had on his mind was just getting back to Tulskaya.
As he tread through he realised something, there wasn't any sort of being in these tunnels, not even a putrid rat. Only things he could hear were the dripping water and his heavy armoured footsteps moving along the wet repulsing ground.
What Sacha reported earlier was true.
Only one question - Why?
He arrived at a sewer entrance, the structure of it seemed to be rusting apart. Easy to open. Michail grabbed the bars of the entrance and ripped it off like it was nothing jumping straight into the main station.
"Hey, I forgot to mention something about Nagornaya station," radioed Sacha.
The mercenary rolled his eyes, with all the horrors he just went through everything just got worse for him. The only good thing he got out of those was his life, the only thing that's worth a damn in this world.
"What the hell is it?" He asked frustrated.
"Well, it's filled with toxic gas, without it you'd hallucinate to death. Same goes for the tunnel to Nagtinskaya but the station itself is fine."
This was instantly bad news, the mercenary just couldn't get a break, as he only had 3 filters left.
He sighed, "What else have you forgotten to tell me, Sacha?"
"Nothing else."
Michail sighed again, "Got it." He then turned off contact for now.
He analysed his dark surroundings lit up from mutated mushrooms along with his flashlight, looked to be by one of the two main tracks, completely blocked by a small hill of rubble. The walls and floor on the platform were built from cracked marble with the tunnels and tracks a depressing steel, multiple square columns on the platform looked to be the only things that kept the whole ceiling up, gas from the air vents plagued the whole place too with skeletons with hard hats and dried blood were scattered all over the place. Construction machines and equipment were placed on the tracks and walls.
The station looked to have been under repairs before the bombs dropped. Some of the survivors must've left, and those who stayed must've killed each other, starved to death or suffered from the toxic gas coming out from the entrances.
The area looked mostly open besides small hills of rubbish everywhere, he assumed it should be quick and easy to get to the next station with hardly any obstacles.
Out of the blue (or perhaps the dark) there was a sound of a ringing telephone on the platform, there hadn't been a working telephone in the Metro for decades. Michail moved his focus jumped towards it.
The phone continued to ring.
"What the hell?" he muttered. The mercenary picked up the peculiar phone, "Umm, hello? Anyone there?"
There was no response, just the sound of low harsh breathing.
"Who the hell is this?"
They shortly responded, but the next thing he heard were multiple whispers muttering an unknown dialect but at the same time he heard the sound of a thousand damned souls crying out to him.
Michail was speechless, not knowing how to reply.
He decided to end the peculiar conversation there, "I'm sorry you have the wrong number!" He dumped the phone hanging from the wall unable to make out what happened, before the bombs these calls would be considered 'prank' calls. But here in the metro such things would be considered possibly supernatural.
Michail always considered those who believed or seen paranormal activities as mad or misguided. But he suspected to believe that there was some truth to them.
He decided to forget about this experience and moved onto the open track, quickly moving straight towards nagtinskaya.
Michail already dodged a bullet, had he stayed longer God knows what horrors he'd experience.
The mercenary tread easily among the gloomy tunnel's rough ground. He had already forgotten about the peculiar phone call, thinking it as nothing. Michail had seemed to have moved through the tunnel for at least 20 minutes. Along the way he noticed something, the station was really clean, not a single living soul inhabiting the place, not even a plant.
Michail only bothered to beam his light straight ahead. There was no sign of a light at the end of the tunnel. He kept his guard down for now since it would take him quite a while to reach his destination, and he was already bored.
He radioed Sacha, "So... anything happening at Tulskaya?"
There was no response, just the sound of static on the other side.
At the same moment, his flashlight instantly extinguished, succumbing to the endless darkness. Perhaps the bulb burst? He thought to himself regretting buying the light from that trader. Michail took out his lighter, it was less bright but helped him see nonetheless.
A strange inexplicable feeling suddenly came over him, each second passing only made the feeling more intense. He heard another sound, the sound of a train. It was unusual, it wasn't like the modified trains you hear the major factions use. It sounded was more pre-war, and it was close.
Michail turned around, what he saw absolutely frightened him. A couple of headlights as bright as day dashed straight towards him - it was the train.
He stepped straight off the rails, and the train just about missed him. The vehicle was unearthly however, from what he could see it was nothing but a living physical silhouette. He could see through the ghostly windows, more silhouettes inhabited inside living their lives as did before the war, an inhabitant resembling a small child peeked through the window, glaring at him with their shadowy innocent eyes.
It quickly passed by, perhaps the one who journeyed beyond Tulskaya wasn't mad after all.
Or perhaps his filter ran out and was hallucinating from the toxins plaguing the tunnel. He quickly exchanged filters and moved on thinking it was nothing, though the mercenary feared he was going mad.
After several minutes walking through the tunnel and skipping past empty side rooms he finally arrived at Nagatinskaya without any more paranormal activities, his flashlight soon turned automatically on, thank God!
He seemed to have arrived in yet another blocked tunnel, though this time there was the back of a train cart sticking out, instantly resembled the living silhouette
The whole structure was similar to the one at Nagornaya and this time it was additionally lit up by some glowing mushrooms growing on piles of rubble and skeletons scattered all over, the inhabitants must've also suffered the toxic gas that died out long ago. Only the columns were more circular rather than squared, structured from shattered koegla marble. The walls were faced also with marble but with a rich palette of red and black colours and art representing historical moments, along with the name of the station, at least what was left of them.
It wasn't totally silent however, he could hear a couple roaches and spiders skittering about the whole place, hinting that the air was mostly clear. but there weren't signs of any nosalises or any other freaks. He breathed a sigh of relief taking his gas mask off.
Michail was a bald middle aged man with a small stubble underneath his Roman nose along with eyes as green as his armour. It was just one more station and he could finally rest after a long nightmarish day. But before he went further however, he decided to scavenge for anything salvageable.
The mercenary jumped onto the platform as before. What he hoped to find were some pre-war treasures that could get him a good handful of bullets, perhaps more.
Flash!
Once again he saw multiple living silhouettes, this time they weren't people living their lives on a train, these were people on the verge of their death. Could these have been ghosts? Was he witnessing these people's final moments? He can't have gone insane from the toxins, he knew that environment too well.
The shadows resembled people coughing, some dying, others trying to help their children live despite their inevitable deaths. It was indeed a horrifying sight. Michail shockingly cursed under his breath, he wanted to help these people but how could he prevent something already done?
The mercenary almost touched one of them, but a voice in his head restrained him from doing so.
Flash!
Everything disappeared, the silhouettes, the suffering, all gone in a flash. Michail immediately was put off from scavenging the skeletons, in fear of disturbing the dead.
This wasn't something he would just forget about like the train or the phone. This was something that would haunt him for the rest of his days.
Michail immediately jumped onto the next track and continued hurriedly on the path to Tulskaya station.