Chapter 8: Stalker

Alexandr – Day 1 – 17:32

I'd heard about the dangers that lurked on the surface, so I held my shotgun at the ready and scanned my surroundings for any threats. Nothing moved and the only sound was the howling wind all around me. Every building in the area had nearly completely collapsed. All that was left were the grey husks of each wall that encompassed a mound of rubble in their centres. I started to shiver from the bitter cold and so decided to get a move on.

I quickly moved around the first building to shelter myself from the wind slightly and already came across my first danger. A winged beast that I recognised, from descriptions by Hansa's stalkers, to be a demon was devouring another mutant's corpse in the middle of the road. I couldn't see enough past the huge creature to tell what the deceased mutant was but I'd heard enough stories about Demons to know that they were extremely dangerous to even the best-equipped stalkers, let alone a severely unprepared man with nothing but an improvised shotgun. Fortunately for me, it was completely distracted by its meal so I managed to move silently into a moderately sized side street. The buildings had collapsed into it and I had to be extremely quiet as I clambered over their ruins, but thankfully the demon didn't notice me. I hurried down the street and turned off down a much narrower road to head more in Kitay-Gorod's direction. I was worried about losing my way, so I had to be careful not to get lost in between the tall and decrepit buildings that all looked unnervingly similar.

I slowed my pace as I began to hear footsteps in the buildings around me. As I reached a more complete building, I looked behind me and noticed some creatures in the windows of the buildings behind me. The four to five large and slightly furry creatures were making no effort to be stealthy, they just watched me from afar as I moved down the street. I didn't like them watching me, even if they did appear to be benign. Their strange behaviour spoke to me as being similar to that of a pack of wild dogs or wolves. The way they watched their potential prey, they gathered together and silently planned. I had to show them that I was in charge and wasn't to be messed with, but I didn't want to hurt them since that would only make them angry.

I aimed my shotgun for one of their buildings but away from any of them directly. I spent a fair amount of time debating my decision; there would be no turning back if I went through with it. Being careful to aim the weapon a fair distance away from the creature so that the pellets didn't spread towards it and do actual damage, I pulled the right trigger of my shotgun. The explosion from the weapon's right barrel briefly deafened me as its bright flash lit up the buildings around me. The buckshot fired out of the barrel in the pack's direction; they were already abandoning their positions by the time the pellets peppered the distant wall, causing very little real damage.

Satisfied with the result, I continued down the street. To replace the shot I'd fired, I pushed the stiff locking lever down at the base of the barrels which released them and allowed me to open them on their creaking hinges. I held the left-hand shell in place with my thumb as I shook the empty shell out and replaced it with one from my weapon's bandolier. I snapped the barrels back into place and felt great as I moved down the street, though I made sure to constantly check my surroundings for any creatures that may have heard the shot.

I found a way back onto the main street that I'd begun on; I felt like I knew where I was going from there so I carefully moved towards it. Peering around a building to get a look at the road, I found that I was on the other side of the still feasting demon. I stepped back to get out of sight but tripped on an errant brick from one of the many destroyed buildings. I slipped over and my shotgun slipped out of my hands, clattering loudly to the ground as I hit the hard floor on my back. I couldn't see the demon past the building I'd fallen behind, but it let out a guttural roar and I could hear it begin to beat its wings loudly.

I picked myself up and sprinted back down the narrow street in the hopes that it wouldn't fit. I was partially right, it overconfidently flew straight into the street and caught one of its huge wings in one of the open windows of a building. It ripped out a large chunk of the wall which caused much of the structure above it to collapse in as it flew off course slightly and tried to regain its composure from its surprise collision. I took the opportunity to sprint to the end of the street and pass under the reasonably sized archway to turn to the larger street I was previously moving down. It having to land and run through the archway gave me some precious time. I still wasn't far enough away from it though, it flew up and started gaining on me again.

Quickly forming a plan in my head, I stopped, turned and aimed my shotgun at its approaching mass. It roared again as it reared its back legs to attack. My nerves made the barrel of the gun shake quite aggressively, but it didn't matter too much where my plan was concerned. Once it was within a few feet of me, I aimed for its head and firmly pulled both triggers. The sound and the light coming from the weapon was enormous and blood sprayed across both it and me as it screeched in pain. It diverted its course upwards and away from the surprise danger to just miss me with its claws as I ducked down out of its way.

I didn't look at the damage I'd done, I just swung the shotgun over my shoulder as I bolted for one of the ruined buildings and clambered over the rubble that comprised its insides. There were several large buildings that I moved ungracefully through as fast as I could. I heard the demon's roars as it circled and tried to find me again. I made it to the main street and sprinted down it just to get away from the scene of the loud shotgun blast that would have likely attracted other creatures as well as the demon that was hunting me down. I looked for any exit that wasn't in a potentially unsafe building but I didn't spot one. The demon swooped overhead leaving a trail of blood as it circled around and came back to try and attack me again.

I noticed a grate in the road not far ahead, one that looked incredibly similar to the one I'd come to the surface through. In a moment of desperation, I rushed to it. The demon bore down on me as I wrenched open the large and stiff grate. I didn't have enough time to jump in, so I pulled it up and put it in between me and the hulking and bloody monster, hoping against hope that it wouldn't notice until it couldn't do anything about it. It thrust its back legs towards me again as I hid as much of myself behind the large grate as possible. Its claws struck the metal grate with a so much force that I was knocked back onto the floor and the grate bent out of shape. The demon let out a higher pitched roar and flew away as it prepared another attack. I had no time to waste, I quickly picked myself up and moved down the ladder a little before I slammed the grate shut. The demon's muffled roars still came through, but I ignored them and hurried down the ladder.

I reloaded my shotgun before looking at anything else. It was hard to get the shells in the barrel from my shaking hands, but I eventually managed it after dropping both shells on the decaying floor two times. The large wheel-locked door that closed the small Metro entrance off was stiff, but I managed to get it open and was greeted by a small darkened corridor. I closed the door and took my gas mask off with serious relief as I caught my breath and wiped away the sweat that had somehow formed all over my face despite the bitter surface temperature.

Remembering that Andrew had given me a light, I retrieved it and turned it on to see two closed doors and a long passageway that led upwards. The door to my left led to a huge main train tunnel. I had very little idea which one but, as far as I knew, it could only be one of two: the tunnel between Kuznetsky Most and Kitay-Gorod or the tunnel between Revolyutsii and Kurskaya. I thought about which way down the tunnel I should head, but that was answered for me when I realised that the right side of it had completely caved in. I ventured a little into the tunnel and found that there was absolutely no way through, it was completely blocked by the tunnel's debris.

I moved back and opened the other door out of curiosity. The small room wasn't particularly interesting, the floor was broken in several places and one of the corner walls had given way and spread rubble across the floor next to it as well as breaking a few of the pipes that once ran across it. A single bulb hung from the centre of the room but I couldn't immediately find a switch for it. Curiously, in the corner of the room was a packed away bedroll. It had clearly been there for a while as a few cobwebs had grown around it. On seeing this, I realised that I hadn't had a proper rest since this ordeal had started. As soon as I had a moment to think, I felt completely drained. This seemed like a chance to get some semblance of sleep. Although not with the spiders around; I'd heard that they cannibalised any corpses that they found, and they would probably do the same to me if I slept in their lair. I knew that they were afraid of light, so if the bulb worked then I could get a half-decent sleep. I spent the better part of five minutes searching for the switch until I realised that it was right next to the door that I had come through. Feeling quite stupid, I flicked it on and watched with glee as the dozens of spiders bolted off into the cracks in the walls. I closed and locked both the door to the tunnel and the door to this room before I spread out the bedroll, deposited my small amount of equipment on the floor and laid down on the slightly uncomfortable surface.

I hadn't had much time to think since being captured by the Nazis; this was the first moment of proper peace I'd had. I started to idly light my bullet lighter a few times and chuckled to myself as I remembered Ilia's lack of interest with it. I missed Ilia, I really did. He got on my nerves at times but he was a good friend and always looked out for me. I couldn't imagine what had happened to him since I saw him at the Führer's speech but I was worried for him. I knew that he was good at taking care of himself, much better than I, but the Metro was a cruel place and I'd only survived this long because of the kindness of some strangers. I hoped that he didn't follow me. It would have been safest for him if he just went back home while he could, I didn't want to be the reason for his death. I consoled myself by assuming that he didn't follow, it would have been crazy to. Choosing to go to Lubyanka? A ridiculous idea. Even if their own child was there, no one would do that.