Novokuznetskaya's Reckoning.
I thought I should expand on the first chapter of this story as it does end abruptly, this is the backstory to my character as you can probably tell, I have tried to keep true to the games only as I know that the books are very different but the stations and locations are all real, although in the games they are called different things. But anyway I hope you enjoy the chapter it was good to write it, I don't own the Metro Universe but I do own, Spartak and Svetlana.
Four years later…
It was only after I had almost forgotten the travesty that had forsaken my home station, that once again I was put back into the fires of the revolutionary Reds. Since Lubyanka station had been annexed by the Red Line it was placed under a new name, Armoury Station.
I was at home in Novokuznetshaya station, when the guards at the gate reported to my mother that in the surrounding tunnels there had been a lot of activity. My mother told the guards that it was nothing that the Order would not allow the attack on any station in the Metro, be it by human or by mutant they would help. My mother had been come the stations overseer, who was responsible for relaying the information collected in the station's upper levels of command and passing it down to the people of the station. The losses of people who were exploring the tunnels up in the sectors where there was reported movement were on the increase and so the station was alert.
The girl who was rescued from Lubyanka with me and my mother had become an adopted child under my mother, her name was Svetlana Volkov. As we grew up in Novokuznetskaya station we became closer we got into mischief as we never were ones for staying in the station. We would steal gas masks and make trips into the tunnels but we would never stray too far into the tunnels, as we knew better than most what dangers laid in those tunnels.
As we ventured into the tunnels one morning we found a flowing supply of water running down the side of one of the tunnels, we went over to investigate where it was coming from. When we took a closer look at the wall, we could see a crack running along the ceiling of the tunnel. The water that was flowing down into the tunnel was perfectly clear. As I approached I could feel the water emitting an intense heat like it was boiling me from the inside. Svetlana pulled me away from the spring but I wanted to go back, as although I could feel the water heating me up I could also feel how cool the water was. Svetlana had to pull me back to the station but when we arrived I was scooped up by a station guard and taken to the hospital as apparently I had received a high dose of radiation.
I was in the hospital for a number of days; they couldn't find any way that the radiation had affected me. I left the hospital with my mother who asked me where I had received such a high dosage, I told her there was a leak in one of the tunnels and it was flooding one of the tunnels. However a few hours later when my mother sent a team to inspect the tunnel, they never reported back. As the days drew onwards we could hear more and more water flowing through the tunnels. But every patrol that was sent in to take a look never returned.
It took about two months for the tunnel to become surrounded by water, the levels had risen to such a level that the farming could not work. My mother tried to contact the Order but no one would come to our aid. People became restless as they thought that my mother was forbidding aid form foreign stations; and so the people split into smaller splinter groups within the station. The gangsters started to wreak havoc within our station extorting what little people actually had. A man who seemed to be a figure head between all the small factions within our station was a man called Igor Lazarev, he was neither charismatic nor imposing, and in fact he was only esteemed by the local gangsters because of his willingness to put aside any wrong the people under him were doing and offering them asylum in his fight on my mother and her role.
As more and more water flooded our home in Novokuznetskaya, more people fled to our neighbouring station Tretyakovskaya, through a small subway link that the criminals opened. This safe heaven as it was being called caused more people to move away from my mother's guidance. Svetlana and I were ridiculed at school, to the point that my mother pulled us out of school. Our house came under constant attack from people demanding my mother relinquish her power.
The violence took two years to finally peak against my family when our home was broken into by Igor and a group of men, they all wore balaclavas but we knew who they were. They pulled us all from our beds and lined us up outside our house, one man had a revolver and he passed it to Igor who chambered a round a swiftly shot my mother in the head. I was helpless to react but as he relentlessly chambered a new round and aimed at Svetlana, she closed her eyes and waited for death her dark brown hair dropped away from her face as the barrel of the gun was connected to her skull. As Igor pulled the trigger I closed my eyes I was not going to watch another fall to him, but as I did I only heard a click. No bang. I opened my eyes again and saw my opportunity; they laughed as Igor chambered the next round and cocked the revolver. I threw my head back connecting with the crotch of my captor, knocking him to the floor; I scrambled up and tackled Igor to the floor. I grabbed his revolver and shot the man who was hold Svetlana hostage, he fell off the platform that overlooked the lower portions of the station. I help Svetlana to her feet and shot at the two other guards causing them to flee, I then put the gun to Igor's head but couldn't bring myself to shoot him so I just butted him with it knocking him unconscious.
As I turned to look at my mother, Svetlana had her body clutched in her arms, crying. Svetlana's clothes were drenched in my mother's blood and she couldn't let go of her no matter how hard I tried to persuade her. I finally reached around my mother's neck removing her scarf and necklace; I put on the scarf and put the necklace in my pocket. I then dragged Svetlana inside our house, I went to my room and rummaged around in my draws until I found the present my father had given me on the day I left Lubyanka. It was in my wardrobe it was still in the brown paper wrapping with the string around it, I pulled it out and unwrapped it, the present was always so heavy for its size. As I pulled the paper off the gift I could see the glimmering steel and the polished wood on the grip, it was beautiful and my father's words echoed through my head and I held it and aimed it. "Son this pistol has seen our family though a lot, one day it will be yours, your grandfather used this in Afghanistan, I used it in Chechnya and you will own it in the Metro." Those words finally made sense to me now, as I ejected the magazine, I could see it was fully loaded with the 9mm parabellum cartridges. They were not a rare commodity in the metro but the pistol was near enough one of a kind. I reloaded the Makarov and hid it under my jumper. I then collected Svetlana and told her we were leaving.
I knew a man who might help us, Simon. He was a mechanic in Novokuznetskaya and a good friend to my family.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and have enjoyed the story so far, well all two chapters of it but I do aim to continue this. Anyway please review and tell me what you thought be it good or bad, but if you didn't like it tell me how I could improve it please .