Winter Schnee could have never feel so vulnerable at this very moment. Here, she saw how far humanity could fall when they tried to reach for their dreams in the sky. Man, was now fighting for scraps on the ground like rats in the tunnels. What made it worse was the fact that the only difference between living and choking to death was the glass between her face and the rest of the surface world.

The specialist and her companions were now walking within the remains of the decaying train station. Bodies, both fresh and old, were strewn about with broken gas masks on their silent faces or the frozen pools of blood besides their carcasses. She wondered what this city would have looked like before its miserable descent into emptiness.

Bourbon led the party as he stumbled upon the bodies. Then he dropped to a single knee and inspected dead man. "Check the bodies for anything valuable. They might have some extra ammunition and air filters with them." Then his hand pulled two belts of pistol ammo from the body along with two air filters. "Thank you, friend." Khan and Artyom followed Bourbon's example as they went through the bodies of the deceased.

When Winter found one of the bodies in front of her, she was surprised to see a frozen man holding on to his weapon. She picked the shotgun shells off of his belt as Bourbon came over to her.

"Kid, take the Shambler." He began. "He's not going to need it."

She took ahold of the dead man's weapon as she glanced over to him. "Isn't stealing from the dead looked down upon?" The specialist didn't like what she was doing here. Taking the valuables from the dead felt wrong at the first time she pulled it off his body.

"They're stalkers." Bourbon answered. "It's a way of life on the surface and it's the only way for them to make money back in their home stations. They would do the same if they found your body. Without doing this, life in the Metros would be much harder." The older person looked over his shoulder to find Khan and Artyom standing near the entrance of these great wooden doors. They peeked outside as Bourbon tapped him by the solder. "The least you can do is take it from them, any stalker would understand why you looted off their bodies."

"I don't know." Winter replied. "It feels wrong, even when I have the weapon."

"Then leave it, but here is something you also need to understand, Winter. We are now standing on the surface. Here, every single step could be your last." Then he walked over to the old man as he began talking. "Khan, where do you think we should go to?"

Khan turned his head away from the small creak in the giant doors before he glanced over to Bourbon. "We're going to pass through a Ranger's hideout and see if anyone is there. If not, we take our supplies from there and begin to pass by through the Black Station."

"The Black Station, isn't that place infested with Nazis. It would be a death trap if we go there." Bourbon mentioned. "I think we should pass by to the Armory."

The old man shook his head in disbelief. "We would have to go through the Reds and somehow get past through the frontlines." Despite of his gas mask covering his face, Winter could somehow feel his expression. "The Black Station would be a good place to go to since I recall something about some Polis Rangers raiding the Nazis."

"They're fighting with the Nazis?" Artyom asked. "I thought they were neutral."

Khan turned over to the young man. "In the Metro, they are neutral to some degree. However, the occasionally interfere with the Reds and the Reich if they don't follow certain guidelines when fighting each other. However, the surface is a different matter and that the stations of the underground and the Council have no power here. After all, the only rule on the surface is the strongest survives."

After Winter had departed from the body with her new weapon at hand, she began to rejoin the party as they slowly opened the great doors and found the former streets cracked in two. The underground sewage system was now a river full of chemicals and uncleansed water that split the street in two. Then there were the many destroyed and wrecked cars and trucks that lay abandoned ever since the bombs fell.

The specialist was in both awe and fear as this place was once a city, no more. She noticed small little rodent mutants flying up into the skies as they escaped the disturbance that was also known as the humans. The sun was at its highest as Khan tapped Bourbon by the shoulder and gestured him to follow.

When Khan lead the group to the left of the road, there was this bridge that was built upon the wrecks of the cars. Then he took a running leap and jumped over the small river and landed onto the other side. "Come, we can't stay here any longer." He began before an explanation followed. "We only have enough filters for about fifteen minutes. Just hope that we don't get spotted by other forms of mutants. Particularly the demons."

Then Winter heard Bourbon laugh with optimism. "Oh yes, the fucking bitches. Let's get going before they come around."

"Demons?" She asked. "Are they-"

"No, they're not literal demons. It's a nickname we gave them. They're mutants with wings, but don't let that get the better of you. Bullets are not enough to kill them and trust me, I know." Bourbon quickly followed the same steps as Khan when he jumped over the small river and landed on his feet on the other side of the jump. "Alright, who's next."

The young, but quiet man raised his hands. "I'll go." Then Artyom tried to repeat the same actions as Bourbon and Khan, but his jump was not enough. When he landed on the other side, only the upper part of his torso had landed on the hood as he tried to reach out for Bourbon's hand.

"Hang on, Artyom. Uncle Bourbon got you covered." When the older man tried to reach his hand out to him, the car Artyom held on to had slowly tipped into the river. "Fuck." He swore from his lips as he leaned over the edge to see the river.

Winter was quick to do the same as she looked down into the river and began to see Artyom drenched in the river water. However, he managed to get out of the water and get ahold of the path of snow that lead to her side.

"Damn it, Khan how are they going to get across?" He asked.

The old man joined him and began to assess the situation. "There is nothing we can do and we can't waste any time whatsoever." Then he looked to a building behind his back and noticed the connection to the building. There were various paths that lead to gate front. "Okay, Artyom, Winter, we'll meet up to the gated building and see where we will go from there. You two stay close to each other and if you meet a demon, find the nearest crevice you can find. They'll usually break away as soon as you do that."

Then a bestial cry had alerted the group of a new threat that came for them.

"Shit, demons. We got to run. Good luck to both of you!"

Winter looked at the sky and saw two winged beasts descend from the skies as Bourbon and Khan were quick to sprint away from the two.

When Artyom had finally arrived with Winter, he brought up his Bastard gun and fired upon one of the demons flying down towards him. Yet, he was caught off-guard when he saw Winter leap up from the ground as she pulled her sword off her belt. "Woah." He began as Artyom watched the specialist make contact with the demon face to face.

Thanks to the glyphs, the specialist accelerated forward as she took a hard grip on her sabre. The beast roared at her as its wings tightened together for a dive towards her. However, she had fought bigger beasts than this one. When they both were moments away from each other, she struck down the winged mutant with a single swing before she descended back down to the ground. Soon after, the body landed behind her.

When she saw Artyom standing across from her, she could see that he was beyond surprised. He was in pure awe of her presence as he let down his guard for once. "I think I'll be safe if I accompany you." He followed that up with a slight chuckle.

Yet, Winter saw a demon flying towards them with Artyom's back turned towards it. She felt the urge to run at this moment and decided not to take any chances with fate as Winter grabbed the young man's arm and sprinted towards the building across from the train station.

The demon slowed down and landed on the area where Winter and Artyom were moments ago; however, it cried out in anger as it stood its ground. Once the two had entered the lobby, Winter brought up her newly acquired Shambler as she began to load the shells inside of the weapon. She had seen Bourbon do something like this at one point, but that didn't matter as she waited for the demon to come after them.

As if the creature didn't want to go through the trouble, it began to leave the area and fly elsewhere. Then she lowered her weapon and checked her companion. "Artyom, are you okay?" He was breathing heavily, but he gave her a thumb up as reached over to her with a large hug.

"Winter, thank you for saving my life."

At this moment, she was taken aback by this awkward moment, but at the same time she appreciated rescuing the young man a second time. She returned with a hug before the two released their hold on each other and looked around. "You're welcome. We should get going, I have a feeling something off is in this building."

Then they heard a growling within the building.

"Artyom, we have company."