Chapter 6: Support
Alexandr – Day 1 – 17:01
Before beginning my tense move through Lubyanka, I thanked the Fedorov family profusely for their hospitality and instructions on how to get to Kuznetsky Most. I managed to stealthily swipe an old discarded leather overcoat from the floor. Despite its terrible condition with its numerous holes and severely flaking leather, it still made me look less suspicious as it covered up my bloodstained clothes as well as the rope burn on my wrists. To fit in with the few civilians in the area, I walked with purpose and looked absolutely no one in the eyes.
The slums that were the residences of the station were cramped and disgusting. They seemed to just house the soldiers and their families that worked there, but I couldn't fathom the poor conditions that their superiors left them in despite the fact that they were supposed to be working 'for the glory of the Red Line.' I was propositioned by several deathly poor women with nothing else to turn to; their efforts to look sexy for the men were thinly veiling resentment and sorrow at their situation. I felt terrible that I didn't have any bullets to give to the poor people just to help them through. It made me realise that we had a pretty decent life at my home of Novoslobodskaya.
The narrow slums opened into a more militarised portion of the station. Poorly equipped guards stood among endless boxes of supplies disorganised and stared me down with a mistrustful gaze as I passed them.
The escalators down to the transfer tunnel leading to Kuznetsky Most were before me. In my way was a guard post that dictated who could enter and leave the station. Four guards were present and had set up wooden barricades to block the area off with only a small gap for entry. A woman was at the entrance arguing with the guards. She looked oddly well-to-do despite the station she was in. She had neat and short red hair with a clean black leather jacket and blue jeans, she was certainly a strange sight in Lubyanka.
"How dare you fucking keep me in this shithole?!" She screamed at one of the guards. "I came through here not two hours ago and you're telling me that I can't fucking leave?!"
"You don't have the correct papers," he responded in frustration, clearly repeating himself. "I cannot let you through."
They continued as I approached and waited behind her, not having much of a plan for when it was my turn. "Bullshit! I was given these by your fucking Lieutenant. Ledov-shit or whatever." She waved a bunch of papers in his face too fast for him to read.
"Then you'll have to go back to him and get the correct papers. My hands are tied."
"I'll tie your balls to a demon if you're not careful! You know full fucking well that he won't admit to making a mistake like this. I'm supposed to be meeting a supplier so that we can make guns for your fucking army." She looked around in a strop and noticed me standing behind her. She grabbed my arm and aggressively pulled me up to her. "Let us fucking through. If we're not there now, you're not getting any more of the guns that you so desperately need!"
"Who's this guy?"
"My boss, you fucking morons!"
"Does he have the correct papers?"
"He has the same fucking papers as me, of course!"
"Can we see them?"
I started to get nervous, I had no idea what I had just been dragged into, but the woman continued the arguing. "What's the point? Just let us through!"
I thought that this was the only way I could hope to get through, so I tried to become her character. "Look," I began sternly, "We've got to get through now. We can get the correct papers later. Let us through or we'll tell Lieutenant Ledovskoy about your insolence and I'm sure he won't like that." I sincerely hoped that this Ledovskoy character was as ruthless and unfair as I imagined a Red Army Lieutenant to be.
The guard shuffled uncomfortably and was visibly dismayed by the thought. He turned and whispered to his colleagues before turning back to us. "Fuck it. I don't need this shit. Just go." He moved out of the way and sighed deeply. "Just don't mention it to anyone."
"About fucking time," the woman snapped as she barged through.
I scowled at the guard as I walked by and said, "Good decision," as menacingly as possible. I followed the woman down one of two open escalators, the other two being blocked off by multiple destroyed and deteriorating boxes.
Once we were out of earshot, the woman turned to me and said, "Sorry for getting you involved in that back there. You looked lost and I saw an opportunity to get through without any papers."
"No problem, I wouldn't have gotten through without you anyway. I thought you had papers of some kind from Ledovskoy?" She took the papers she was holding earlier and passed them to me while quietly chuckling. They were simply hastily scrawled documents that she'd clearly written herself in terrible handwriting. One of them literally said 'Galina is ok to enter.' "Fair enough," I responded as I handed her rubbish documents back. "So, was anything you said true?"
She laughed and said, "My name is Galina."
I raised an eyebrow at her and asked, "Is it really?"
She let out a small chuckle. "It's what I tell people, at least. You see, I've learned that you actually need to give very little real information if you kick up enough of a fuss."
I lightly laughed. "Noted. I'm Alex. What have you got going on in Kuznetsky?"
She thought for a moment. "I'd prefer not to say. I'm sorry, but I don't know you." I nodded along as we reached the bottom of the escalator and began to move down the decrepit but empty transfer tunnel. "What's up with you? No offence, but you look like shit."
"It's a long fucking story involving my best friend and Nazis, followed a ridiculous string of good luck."
"You and I clearly have very different definitions of good luck."
"When you've been arrested by the Reich and sentenced to death, your view on the world changes a little."
"Shit. Sounds like you've had a tough time." She thought to herself for a moment as she reached into her pockets. She stretched her arm out to me and held out two clips of five bullets each. "For your help. You look like you could use the money and I'm grateful for you going along with my scheme."
"I can't take that. I wouldn't have got through the border without you there."
"Just take them." She shoved the bullets into my coat's pocket. "You don't look like you have much and the Metro is cruel to people without money."
I didn't protest her stuffing the ten bullets in my pocket, instead saying, "Thanks. I appreciate it." I realised that she might know something about this station and that I should take the opportunity to fish for information. "You wouldn't happen to know a man called Andrew who lives here, would you?"
"I've heard of him. Lives in the engineering area I think. I hear he's a nice guy."
I thanked her as we reached the guards at the end of the tunnel. They simply nodded and welcomed us to the free station beyond. The station was much cleaner and better put together than Lubyanka. The shelters were larger and better constructed, people seemed happier and the floors were generally much cleaner. It was also a busy station with voices forming a continuous backing track to the many goings on of the people all around us.
"Those guards seemed alright. Why is leaving here such an issue?" I asked, confused at all of the fuss.
She spoke in slightly more hushed tones. "Those guys just assume that the first set of guards okayed us. The Reds keep a close eye on who leaves the station. It appears free, but it seriously is not. You'll want to leave discretely. Trust me." We moved slightly further into the station before she spotted the route to wherever she was going. "Right, this is where I leave you." She shook my hand as she continued. "Thanks for your help. I hope you get home safely."
"Thank you. You're far too kind for this world."
She gave me a mischievous grin. "You clearly don't know much about me."
We parted ways as I tried to find my way to the engineering area. I entered into the more residential area. The passageways were much wider than those in Lubyanka, although still not nearly as clean or well-maintained as my home station's. I glanced into a few open doors and saw a few families in large living rooms around their tables. They looked relatively happy but there was a definite tension in the station. I couldn't put my finger on why, but people seemed guarded and untrusting in some way. A group of Red Army officers barged past me as they glared and watched over the people in the station. The tension was palpable.
I saw a few quick blue flashes across the station that sounded like they were the result of distant welding. It called to me as the engineering district of the busy station. Trying to ignore the watchful eyes of the Reds, I headed for it and hoped that Andrew would be easy to spot despite his extremely secretive business.
Different people's belongings had been walled off by metal fences where they'd put their possessions in large wooden boxes. These came together to form a complicated pathway through the area that one could easily get lost in. Many busy people walked through me without breaking stride as they hurried to their clearly important destinations. Cranes moved supplies and sometimes entire rail carts overhead in the high-roofed station. Buildings constructed out of scrap metal and wood flanked the central station as they were built on tracks and extended to just outside the station dividers. I glanced across the many doorways but couldn't see anything that resembled anything particularly special. I didn't dare ask anyone if they knew this Andrew person, just in case they turned out to be with the Reds; I didn't fancy getting arrested again.
I managed to wander completely through the engineering part of the station and came across the huge blast door that led to a way up to the surface. I was about to turn back and keep looking when I heard the three door guards chatting quietly amongst themselves.
"The Blacksmith's pretty great, isn't he?" Began the youngest of the three. "Puts his life at risk just for some guy that came from the surface at death's door."
"Yeah. I don't know how he hasn't been caught yet. He's helped so many people."
I rushed up to them and excitedly asked, "The Blacksmith, is that Andrew?"
The youngest acted defensively and said, "What's it to you?"
"I'm not Red. I need his help. Please."
The three sized me up as I stood there pleading before the youngest spoke up again. "We're not willing to put him at risk for some random guy eavesdropping on our conversation."
"Look, if I was a red spy, wouldn't I have just arrested you lot for talking about him? Also, do I look like a fucking red spy?" I gestured to my awful clothes and multiple cuts and bruises before reaching into my pocket and pulling out one of the two bullet clips that Galina had given me. "I can pay you if you tell me where he is. I need to get out of this station safely."
They all looked at each other before the younger one tentatively said, "Right. Ok. I guess I can take you to him. If there's any funny business though, you're fucked. Understand?" I quickly nodded and thanked him as I held the bullets out towards him. He pushed my hand away and said, "Save it for Andrew. He's the one you'll be thanking." He led me back through the engineering area and to a nondescript wooden door. He knocked on the door three times before waiting for a few seconds and knocking two more times in quick succession. Several locks were undone on the other side and the door slid open to reveal a middle-aged hooded man. "This guy says he needs your help," said the guard. "Hope that's ok."
Andrew beckoned me in while saying, "Of course, that's fine. Come in." I thanked the guard and obliged. Andrew slammed the door shut behind me and locked it back up with four chain locks. The room I found myself in was nothing impressive. It had a small table in the corner with two chairs, a detailed map of the metro on the wall, a few small shelves, and a bookshelf on the far wall with a set of shelves below it containing an oil lamp, several bottles of alcohol and various food tins. On one wall, there was another sliding door with a large wooden panel hastily placed over it in an attempt to disguise it as part of the wall. It looked as though it could disguise the door well, but he didn't have quite enough time to place it properly.
"So, who are you and what do you need?" He quickly asked as he gestured for me to sit at the table.
I sat down as he did the same. "My name's Alexandr Stepanov. I recently managed to escape my death at the hands of the Reich and I'm looking for a way out of this station. I have bullets, I can pay."
"Where are you hoping to go?"
"Anywhere that's not here, really." He let out a small laugh before I continued. "But preferably somewhere Hansa controlled. I can get back to Novoslobodskaya from any Hansa station relatively easily."
He thought for a moment as he turned to look at his map of the Metro. It had rough scribbles all over it where smaller and lesser-known tunnels were marked as well as which factions owned which stations and particularly dangerous places. "I might be able to get you to Taganskaya." He turned back to me. "You can get to Kitay-Gorod from here and from there the tunnel to Taganskaya isn't too bad. The tunnel to Kitay-Gorod is very dangerous, but there's a nice side tunnel that few people know about. You can use that."
"That sounds brilliant, but how do I get there from here if the station is as Red-controlled as I hear?"
"I know a way past the guard posts that leads straight to this tunnel. You'll be fine." He stood up and moved to the 'hidden' door. He moved the board to one side and slid open the door. I couldn't see inside and he told me to stay put since someone was resting in there and he liked to keep his people's identities as secret from others as possible. I understood that, so I pushed my nosiness back and remained in my seat.
He returned moments later with a large metal box that he placed on the table. Opening it in such a way that I couldn't see what was inside, he routed through it for a second before pulling out a gas mask complete with a filter in good condition, a small water canteen with a karabiner clip, a small flashlight, and an imposing double-barrelled shotgun. It was clearly made in the Metro out of whatever they could find, but it was still decent quality, even going so far as to feature a carrying strap and a spring-loaded stock so that it could be extended to fit the user's preference. The two triggers that fired each barrel seemed in good condition as he tested them out while the weapon was unloaded. The wooden stock also had a leather bandolier affixed with six spare shotgun shells held in bullet loops. He put down two extra shells and loaded them into the shotgun barrels. "You seem like you've had it rough. I want you to take these."
"I'm sorry, but I can't pay for this much stuff as well as all of the information you've given me."
He put the dirty palm of his hand out towards me and shushed me as he closed the box up. "I don't expect payment for this, especially from someone who's had to tangle with both the Reich and the Reds in one day."
"At least let me give you something."
He took the box off the table and began to move it back into the other room. "Nonsense. I'm just happy to help." He closed the door and carefully put the wooden board in the way, very effectively disguising it. "Come on, we should get moving before they do a paper inspection."
I fastened the gas mask and water canteen to a couple of belt loops in my trousers beneath my overcoat, tucked the flashlight into a pocket, and put the shotgun's strap across me while slyly leaving him five bullets on the table. I knew that it wasn't much, but I had to give him something and he wasn't going to willingly let me pay him.
We left the building and moved briskly back through to the marketplace of the station. Stalls lined the sides of the pathway with people peddling all manner of things. Being the station dubbed 'Armoury', most of them were selling weapons, weapon attachments and ammunition. Other vendors sold food, drink and, curiously, postcards. I stopped Andrew because I realised that I hadn't eaten in a long time and I was incredibly hungry. From one vendor, my five remaining bullets bought me a small meal of the 'best' cuts of two rats with a small amount of almost tolerable pork.
We continued on and came to a large gathering of supply crates. He glanced around to check that no one was nearby before recruiting my help to push a large crate out of the way. I didn't feel particularly strong, but we managed to move it together and revealed a very narrow pathway.
"In there you'll find a door, it leads to both the surface and the tunnel you want. You'll take the first right once you're in, that leads to the tunnel; straight on leads to the surface. You really don't want that."
I absorbed the information and shook his hand. "I don't know how to thank you."
"Just go. We can't be here for long."
I obliged and quickly walked through the supply boxes, having to turn slightly to fit through the extremely narrow gap. He closed up the path as I came across the desired metal door. It was stiff and squeaked painfully loudly as I pushed it, but I got it open and darted into the dull concrete passageway before closing it behind me.
The corridor clearly hadn't been used in some time. Cobwebs covered the corners where the ceiling met the walls and the floor was littered with pieces of crumbling wall. The whole area was barely lit in an orange glow by the weak bulbs hanging from the ceiling, most of which weren't working anyway. The passage turned a few times before I came across the junction that Andrew had mentioned. I turned to the right and carefully moved down the narrow tunnel with my new shotgun at the ready.
When I was further down, I started to hear two voices.
"I can't believe we got stuck with this boring shit."
"Rather be here than at the main door."
"True, but I don't even get what we're doing here."
"Were you not paying attention in the briefing?" There was a brief pause followed by a deep sigh. "Our guys found that the Blacksmith uses this tunnel to help refugees escape and we're supposed to arrest them if they try it."
I panicked a bit and backed off. I definitely didn't want to go through them. I thought for a moment about what to do and considered going back the way I came and finding a different way out of the station.
"When's the other team getting here? Shouldn't they be here by now?"
"Yeah, they should be here soon."
Shit. I was going to be sandwiched between them and the relief team if I didn't act fast. I could no longer go back the way I came as I could easily run into them. I desperately didn't want to, but I headed back and moved down the passageway that led to the surface. I quickly moved through the twisting hallways, up a small ladder as well as some stairs that eventually led to a large iron wheel-locked door. In a panic, I turned the wheel as fast as I could, pushed the stiff door open and closed it behind me. I found another ladder before me that led straight to the surface, so I donned my gas mask and quickly climbed up, pushing the grate at the top out of the way and clambering the frozen surface.
The light briefly blinded me but, through covering my eyes with my hand, I slowly got used to it and found myself in the centre of a huge open road in between several massive decrepit buildings. The beautiful endless sky was covered in grey cloud, shrouding it in mystery. I could hear the wind howling through the ice and snow covered buildings. The road nearby had broken and sunk into the earth, exposing underground pipes and forming a small frozen lake. The cold wind was biting as it passed effortlessly through my old clothes but I ignored it and just stared at the solemn beauty of the surface. It was a freedom that I had never felt before, anything was possible.
