Darkness
I hope you've been enjoying the story so far, and if you've only just picked this up at this chapter you should probably go back and read it through to get an idea about what's going on, this is not following the 2033 storyline. I have had a lot going on at the moment and haven't been able to publish much recently but I have had a break to do this. Anyway I don't own the Metro Universe but I do won Spartak.
We walked through the tunnels we eventually arrived at Chekhovskaya, which was supposed to be an uninhabited station. But we couldn't have been more wrong.
"Chekhovskaya, well here we are, our third to last stop before mendeleyevskaya," Levii said sarcastically as he lowered his rifle and looked around the dark tunnel his flashlight illuminating the direct area which he was looking in.
"Well done you can actually read," I jeered at him as he illuminated the sign which indicated what station we were in. "But you're right we are almost at Mendeleyevskaya." Khan stopped as we spoke and turned out his flashlight, "What's up?" I asked Khan as I watched his eyes dart around the darkness.
"We are not alone," He replied mystically.
"What do you mean?" I asked him as I plunged myself into darkness and Levii did the same.
"I mean there is something here," He said again as I walked forward trying to get my bearings in the darkness, but it was impossible the area as my balance was constantly knocked off balance by the lack of orientation.
"What is out there?" I asked Khan pin pointing his last position I saw him in.
"Something of great suffering and evil," He then told me as I heard him walk past me followed by someone who had the same heavy footedness as Levii, I tried to follow the footsteps as close as I could but I did not wish to contact Levii who would have been directly in front of me.
"Spartak, you still there?" Levii's voice rang out through the tunnel behind me.
"Err… Levii?" I asked out in front of me, "Where are you?"
"Behind you I think," He replied confused.
"But I'm behind you," I said calmly as I raised my rifle and reached for my flashlight on my helmet.
"I'll tap you on your left shoulder," He told me as we continued to walk into the darkness. I felt the tap on my left shoulder from behind which made my worst fear come to life, I knew there were two people in front of me, one was Khan and the other wasn't Levii.
I kept my rifle held up with one hand and pressed the button to turn on my flashlight but as I did I saw a shadow jolt out of my view as I watched Khan walk forward with his head down in a prayer like state.
"What the fuck was that?" I exclaimed as I tried to follow where the shadow had gone too but I couldn't.
"You fool turn out that light!" Khan shouted as he pulled the light from my helmet and turned it off. He then went into some kind of trance wittering away to himself but I could hear them moving around, their toes dragging along the floor, their nails scratching with every pace and above all their breath, I could feel it moving the air around me.
"Khan, what the fuck are they?" I asked as I stood my ground against the creatures.
"They mean us no harm," Khan said to me calmly.
"No fucking harm then why are they stalking us in the dark?" Levii said as he continued to follow Khan and I through the darkness.
"If they meant us harm we would be dead by now, they are merely curious, but they do not wish for the light to be shone on their world," He told us I couldn't see a damn thing but I knew one of those creatures was stood directly next to me.
"Are they human?" I asked Khan as I looked in the direction of the creature knowing full well it was looking back at me, I could feel its breath on my skin. I could smell the most awful smell I had ever encountered, but it was familiar somehow.
"They were, once," Khan said calmly as we continued to walk through the tunnel.
'Great' I thought as I looked around in the darkness, I could feel my ears adjusting to the silence and I could now hear the creatures moving around. Their nails were scraping on the floor of the tunnel which was remarkably clear I couldn't feel any debris, these things must have some sense of society which none of the other stations in the metro seem to possess. "Why once?" I finally plucked up the courage to ask Khan.
"They were originally used as slaves by the cult but these ones had expended their use, they were old, the cult believes that only the young can be used in this world for they are naive and will not rebel but when you reach a certain age you must join the worm if you are worthy." He replied ominously, I could hear the shuffling pick up as the creatures heard Khan mention the cult.
"What just angered them?" Levii asked as I heard him start to point his gun around the tunnel the clinking just made it more obvious what he was doing.
"They simply despise the cult, they threw them out after hard service," Khan continued as we walked.
"Do they speak?" I asked Khan as we continued to move through the tunnel.
"Only to those they trust, they cannot see, years of punishment in the tunnels with the cult blinded them to the light and now they can only hear, they do not smell as radiation burned their nose dry, they only hear and touch, so don't be alarmed if you are grabbed they will not hurt you, just don't struggle."
I stopped walking for a brief second, "We mean you no harm," I said calmly into the darkness. I heard a hiss from next to my ear followed by a low growl. I took a step forward but as my foot hit the floor I heard a clicking noise from behind me, it got louder and louder until it turned into a low moan. After a second or two the room was flooded with a dark red glow, like we had opened the door way to hell.
I was almost blinded by this dim light even though it was barely a candle's light by comparison to what I had used previously in the tunnel. Stood next to me casting a shadow over me was a very large figure; I couldn't make out much of their features only that they were massive.
I raised my AN but the figure grabbed the barrel and lowered the rifle for me, I tried to resist but the figure was too strong. I looked over to Khan who just had a look of distain for me but Levii was in the same situation as me although his creature had ripped the gun from his body.
"Kto prishel moye tsarstvo?" A deep bellowing voice echoed through the tunnel.
"Your kingdom?" Khan asked as he stood upright looking at the thing that now stood in front of the red light illuminating the tunnel.
"Da, moye tsarstvo?" The creature replied in a simplistic Russian voice.
"Who calls a tunnel their tsarstvo?" Khan asked again quizzing the large thing.
"Those who were wronged by the children, we lost soul, humanity and feelings," He said attempting to talk but it was like he had a speech impediment.
"Name yourself," Levii called out into the red light.
"My name…" He paused as the creature stepped forward which allowed me to finally see the creature's face, they looked human enough they stood on two legs had two arms and a head but from their the similarities ended, his left arm was merely a weedy twig stuck from the side of his body whereas the right arm was a colossal muscular club with veins protruding from the upper and deep scars on the lower with deep lacerations and pieces of chain link still embedded within. His torso was covered with a what was white tank top but it had been shredded and turned a different colour by various stains but the most striking feature was a large piece of rebar which was stuck through his body, the centre of his chest had been adorned with scars of religious significance like he had been tattooed with them. His legs were normal as they could be just adorned with an old boiler suit bottom. His face though was a picture of pure torture; he had almost no nose like it had been torn from his face which left him with a still bleeding hole in the front of his face. His mouth had been sewn shut with barbed wire but he had clearly split his bottom lip from the chin to create a hole to talk through, his jaw line looked as though he had been broken by a strike to it and had been patched up with a set of old industrial staples which had partially been absorbed into his body, his left ear was missing and his right looked as though it had been bitten by a dog or some other animal with powerful jaws. However his eyes they were the worst, the right was hanging out on a dried ocular nerve as if it had been removed but not completely, the eyelids had been sewn up with the same barbed wire as his mouth as you could see it stuck in his face, his left eye was completely black as if it had been dyed but I didn't think that to be true.
"I am Mendeleev!" he commanded into the tunnel.
The other creatures shuddered as he bellowed and made his way closer to us, "Your real name!" Khan demanded back.
"I have no real name!" The shouting match started, the creature looking blankly at Khan.
"Then what is your number?" Khan then shouted back.
The creature growled and then barked, "221834."
"The birthday of Dmitri Mendeleev," Khan nodded as he used his power of influence to diffuse the situation.
"Correct, I may be blind but I learn," He said calmly.
"Answer me this," I called over to the creature, "Who did this to you?"
"Your Emperor already told you that," he sighed, "It was the damned cult!" He barked choking on his breath as he did.
"Why?" Levii asked.
"We became old," A feminine voice whispered from behind Levii, causing him to jump and turn to face a creature that looked more human but they still had Barbed wire coiled around their face with strands of black hair still shooting from her scalp but there was wire laced through it with clumps of coagulated blood intertwined through her hair. He black eyes still pierced the soul of who she looked at.
"What?" I asked her causing her to shoot her gaze at me, which I could feel as though she had gripped my throat and my heart but she was at least ten feet away.
"I mean they enslave those who age too much for their ways but we had uses as slaves until we became too old for that too," She then coughed at me as I felt a genuine amount of sorrow for these creatures.
"That's horrific," I told her as I looked over to the man.
"That's the cult," The man sniggered.
"Why settle in Chekhovskaya?" Levii asked him as he became more settled around the creatures.
"It is said to be named after a famous doctor and that some told us that it could be the place where we would find our cure for acceptance," He told Levii calmly.
"Do you know how to get to mendeleyevskaya?" Khan completely changed the topic to get us back on track.
"It's the next stop, we've been getting some contacts from the Cult down that way," he told us as he turned to face the direction which the tracks led, "Why do you want to search for the cult?" he inquired.
"They have something that we want," Khan said calmly as he looked down the tunnel towards the next station.
"What is it?" The woman asked.
"A piece of information," I told them.
"Please indulge me," She said to me as I felt her brush up to me.
"Erm…" I stuttered as I felt her brush my hair.
"Interesting," She said as she whispered in an almost tongue like language to the man.
"So you're looking for the hive?" The man said to us.
"The what?" Khan asked the man.
"The home of the cult," He laughed.
"Where is it?" Khan shouted as he throttled the man pinning him to the floor.
Suddenly a loud screech obliterated the airspace around us and Khan flew across the room, the man just stood up and his chain was glowing white hot burning into the tissue which it was embedded in. I could smell the burning flesh which was causing me to heave.
"You may want to get a move on," the man said as he moved into the darkness along with the remainder of the creatures by which they just disappeared and the red light turned off, leaving us stood in pitch black once more.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I don't quite know when I'll be able to publish again as I have to start an essay on Zirconium-89 and Positron Emission Tomography funny considering the radiation in this story but I digress I hope you've enjoyed the story so far and please feel free to review and tell me what you thought and how I could improve. Anyway until next time…..PEACE!